Royal Firestorm Guards – #SR14-EN018
If this card is Normal Summoned: Target 4 Pyro monsters in your GY; shuffle all 4 into the Deck, then draw 2 cards.
Date Reviewed: June 20th, 2024
Rating: 2.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Royal Firestorm Guards is a great Throwback Thursday choice for Ashened Week the Sequel on CoTD.
This card was HUGE when first released back in Gladiators Assault. This legitimized Volcanics as an actual archetype because of the consistency it offered Pyro monsters. An almost full-powered Pot of Avarice in the form of a Pyro monster, that was also a strong Level 4 attacker for the archetype. Sure, you had to Normal Summon it to trigger, but that effect was going off unless you were hit with a Counter Trap because priority existed back then. Cycle back four Pyro monster to draw two reloaded your Deck with your Shell and Scattershots, enabling any dead copies in your hand to be viable now. At the very least you were drawing two cards and had a strong monster on the field.
Now there are far more Pyro monsters than Volcanics in the game and they are currently making the game a living hell to the point that people are demanding an emergency banlist. In terms of Ashened, this is great for cycling back any of your archetype’s monsters and getting a +2, especially if you were to cycle back four to the Extra Deck, thus eliminating the shot of redrawing them. Not far-fetched an idea with link climbing in general and the fusions within the archetype. I’d argue that it may be too slow, however, I feel like at the very least someone could test with RFG and see how it fairs.
It may be too slow now, not entirely sure, but Royal Firestorm Guard will always have a potential spot in Pyro-based strategies because it gives you a good bit of advantage. Still a good card after all these years.
Advanced- 3/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week brings us to an old Pyro monster you could use for recovery in your Deck: Royal Firestorm Guards.
RFG is a Level 4 FIRE Pyro with 1700 ATK and 1200 DEF. Solid stats, and FIRE/Pyro are basically attached to the hip most of the time. The only effect this card has triggers on Normal Summon, letting you shuffle 4 Pyro monsters from the graveyard back into the Deck for a draw 2. An old Volcanic staple for recovering your Volcanic Shells and Volcanic Scattershots to use as more ammo in the Deck, but now the Deck has its own recovery that, while not as efficient as gettinng as many monsters back at a time as RFG, is honestly more useful and accessible for the Deck. Ashened could have maybe used this, but they got their own recovery with Shaman as we saw previously. If this card triggered on Special Summon, it might be insane, but instead we are locked to Normal Summoning it, and the only reliable way to get to it is Bonfire. I can ensure you Snake-Eyes doesn’t need this at all, Volcanics moved past this card, and Ashened has their own version. Maybe in the future we can see it, as it’s not bad on paper, just no current Pyro Deck even needs it.
Advanced Rating: 2.5/5
Art: 3/5 I remember it’s from Gladiator’s Assault, but it could have been cooler for its lore if it was one of the fan designed cards since most of those were in that set.
Mighty
Vee
Yugioh has experimented with Pot of Avarice-like cards throughout the years (in fact, just go back to Shaman of the Ashened City!), and Royal Firestorm Guards was not the first and certainly wasn’t the last. It’s a level 4 FIRE Pyro monster, which makes it searchable with Infernal Flame Banshee and Bonfire, though ironically it’s not perfect synergy with Ashened due to being FIRE instead of DARK. With an unremarkable 1700 attack and 1200 defense, it won’t be winning any combat rewards any time soon either.
Guards has a single non-once per turn effect that triggers on Normal Summon, letting you shuffle 4 Pyro monsters from your Graveyard back into your deck to draw 2 cards. Before the community lost its collective mind over Snake-Eye, Guards saw a bit of hype when the Volcanic support from last year was revealed; after all, Pot of Avarice was one of the most broken cards of all time, right? And it’s not even once per turn! But, as I explained in our coverage of Shaman, Avarice-like effects, while strong, have not aged very well for the modern game. To fully profit from the effect on your first turn, your natural combo will need to end with at least 4 Pyro monsters in the Graveyard; otherwise, Guards is a dead card. Many people mistakenly believe, like with Avarice, that this is commonplace in modern decks, but as combos become more and more streamlined on average, this is harder to pull off than you would think. Ashened specifically definitely struggles, while Snake-Eye only just barely pulls it off with its standard combo lines. Only triggering on Normal Summon also hurts a lot, since you’ll pretty much be forced to combo before your Normal Summon to even use it. That leaves Guards’ most useful function to be a recycler past turn 2, which isn’t bad per se, but it is bad when it’s the only effect that Guards brings with it– at least Shaman can Special Summon itself as a body. In casual Pyro deck builds, it can recycle and give some cheap advantage, though a meta-oriented deck should skimp on it.
+Avarice-like effects can still be strong in grindy games
-Consumes your Normal Summon
-Shuffling 4 Pyro monsters is MANDATORY
-Unlikely to be live on turn 1
Advanced: 2/5
Art: 2.5/5 Why is it “Guards” (plural) if there’s only one guy?
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