Stardust Dragon – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday (2008)

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Stardust Dragon long long LONG ago was the toast of the game, but that was before 2010.

I’m old enough to remember the days of DD Turbo and Dark Armed Dragon decks that could drop Goyo (original), Stardust, and DAD in one turn and it was curtains for whoever was opposite that board.

Easy Synchro to summon, generic materials. Good stats for an ace monster of the shows protagonist, carrying the mantle of 2500ATK. The negate and destroy ability was good enough to help protect monsters, but to summon back meant you had a consistent attacker combined with a form of negation your opponent had to spend cards to get rid of. Sure, Dark Hole and a D.D. Crow meant no more Stardust, but you had to have both those cards. If you didn’t, or didn’t have a negation way of stopping Stardust you were in trouble. This thing got under Skill Drain and we didn’t have as many Counter Trap negation cards as we do today that could help with Stardust. It was a beast, and still can be. Even if it gets negated, it using its negation is forcing your opponent to use another card, which can clear up some room for you to maneuver.

Still a good Synchro after all these years and countless other forms in both Main and Extra Deck. Best memory of Stardust was destroying it with Magical Dimension and waiting patiently as the opponent called the ref and was explained that optional effects couldn’t be negated by Stardust. Ended up losing, but it was still a great memory. That is one of Stardust Dragon’s only weaknesses: can’t negate optional destruction effects.

Advanced-3.5/5     Art-5/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

To the surprise of probably nobody following CotD the last few weeks, we now look at Yusei’s ace card in Stardust Dragon.

Stardust Dragon is a Level 8 WIND Dragon Synchro with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF. Fine stats for a Level 8 Synchro, but on the low side. Dragon is a good typing, but WIND is undersupported. The summoning requirements are any Tuner and any number of non-Tuners, meaning it’s generic and that’s great. The first effect is when your opponent activates a card or effect that would destroy a card(s) on the field, and in response you tribute this monster to negate the activation and destroy that card. More negation is good, even if it’s specific towards destruction. There’s still a bunch of cards still printed to this day that like to destroy other cards, so I’m sure this is live against many different Decks, even if it’s kinda situational. I mean, Lightning Storm is running around right now. The second effect is if you successfully negate a card with this, and as a result you can revive Stardust Dragon from the graveyard at the end of the turn… unless it was summoned off Starlight Road of course, that’s how rulings work. I appreciate you not losing the effort you put in for summoning this just for one negation. You can keep negating cards every turn, even though tributing it does leave you open for an attack. Stardust Dragon has aged fairly well, but it’s far from the best Synchro like it once was when they were a new summoning mechanic. It’s still a card worth considering.

Advanced Rating: 4/5

Art: 5/5 for the original art and 5/5 for the alternate art, but I’d give a slight edge to the original.

Alex
Searcy

Dark Magician, Elemental Hero Neos, and now Stardust Dragon?  It’s gotta be hard to keep up with these Throwback Thursday choices right now.  We last did this nearly 2 years ago (upon a handful of reviews over the last 12 years now) where Stardust came in at #4 on our list of best Synchro Monsters released.  Ironically, it was also voted #4 best card in 2008.

Stardust Dragon, like most cards, is more vulnerable to new things and changes in the game as it continues to evolve through the years, or even set to set.  One of the things that keeps Stardust a good card, and relevant, is that unlike many cards, it can adjust and still be a card used to counter so many of these changes and/or evolutions that come to the game.

The 2500 attack is a bit low for a Level 8 Synchro (coming from a man who says so on a Level 7 Dark Magician) but it helps balance out the rest of the power and defensive abilities of this card.  Being able to sacrifice yourself and resurrect in the same turn is a wonderful thing (assuming this effect wasn’t negated) and helps Stardust stand the test of time.

Rating:  4.25/5

Art:  5/5  I love this, as well as the original, but I think the original art looks a bit more majestic?  I enjoy the greens on the original art, but all the blue here does make the art flow a bit better.