Sword Ryzeal – #CRBR-EN001
If you have a “Ryzeal” monster in your field or GY, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If Summoned this way, you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Rank 4 Xyz Monsters. You can only Special Summon “Sword Ryzeal” once per turn this way. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 LIGHT Pyro monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Sword Ryzeal” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: January 6th, 2025
Rating: 3.93
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,
Sword Ryzeal starts our look at the other most popular archetype coming late in 2024 that will likely dominate 2025 alongside Mallis: Ryzeal.
All the Ryzeal monsters in the archetype are Level 4’s with that are either Pyro or Thunder Types and FIRE or LIGHT Attributes, making half the Main Deck monsters in the archetype (the ones you’d use at least) searchable with Bonfire. They are a more updated version of Tellarknight to be frank. All of the Main Deck monsters have a Special Summon ability, and Sword Ryzeal’s ability is if you have a Ryzeal monster already on the field or in the grave. Once you Special Summon a Ryzeal though, you get locked into Rank 4 Xyz Monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn…new year, same meaningless restrictions (though I’m glad they’re in place, don’t want them having access to Synchro and Link). Once Special or Normal Summoned, Sword Ryzeal is your RoTA, netting you a LIGHT Pyro from the Deck to your hand. Ext or Ice Ryzeal are your only targets, as others are FIRE Thunder monsters. Ice Ryzeal will cost you a card on field or in hand to Special Summon it, while Ext Ryzeal will cost an Xyz Monster from the Extra Deck (more on that tomorrow as we review him). You don’t have to Special Summon the Ryzeal monsters though, and whichever you want to use the Normal Summon on can get you different things.
Using your Normal Summon on Sword Ryzeal to fetch another Ryzeal to then use their Special Summon basically ends all the same: Xyz Summoning the archetypes Rank 4. Outside the archetype there isn’t anything useful to search with Sword Ryzeal other than another Ryzeal. If you run Node Ryzeal or Palm Ryzeal, note that they don’t have a Normal Summon effect, so those are not ones you want to use your Normal Summon on (and Palm Ryzeal can’t be Normal Summoned anyways and are likely not playing it).
The goal is to spam the field to get as many materials on their archetype Xyz that we will review at the end of the week or their other Xyz that we may review next week if we continue the look at the archetype. For those of us who thought we were done with Tellarknight when the ban list took care of them, we were wrong. The deck can include a ton of hand traps or engine pieces without it hurting their strategy and it is consistent. It won’t be going anywhere much like Maliss without the ban list doing something.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
2025 is going to start with Crossover Breakers as some of the stragglers from 2024, and Ryzeal will be the first of the three archetypes we cover, being the best one from the set, so we’ll start the week with one of the starters of the Deck: Sword Ryzeal.
Sword Ryzeal is a Level 4 FIRE Thunder with 1500 ATK and 200 DEF. 200 DEF seems like a staple on FIRE monsters, but the ATK is nothing to write home about. Thunder is weird on a FIRE monster, but we take it. If you have a Ryzeal monster on field or in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from the hand, but if summoned that way, you can only summon Rank 4 monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn. A simple extension effect to keep Ryzeal plays going by getting another Level 4 on the field, and locking you to Rank 4s isn’t that big a deal when the entire archetype is made to summon Rank 4 monsters, only really losing out on Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS. You can only Special Summon this once a turn that way, cause of course. Upon Normal or Special Summon, you can search for any LIGHT Pyro monster from your Deck to your hand, likely getting you to either Ext Ryzeal or Ice Ryzeal to keep plays going and you making Rank 4 monsters. HOPT on the search as well. Sword Ryzeal is super simple, along with the entire design of the Ryzeal archetype, but it’s of course a good card. Searcher for more of your play enablers and extenders along with it being a potential extender itself makes it a 3-of for Ryzeal.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 3.5/5 Just as boring as the effect designs is the artwork for this archetype.
Mighty
Vee
With the countdown over, we’re starting 2025 with a bang as we cover the Crossover Breakers set; what better way to begin than with the Ryzeal archetype? Sword Ryzeal is first up, a level 4 FIRE Thunder monster. Ext Ryzeal and Ice Ryzeal can search it (get ready to be very acquainted with those two), as well as Ryzeal Duo Drive and later Seventh Tachyon once it arrives to the TCG. FIRE Thunder is a rather odd typing, but it’s perfectly fine since only Ryzeal cares about that, plus what really matters is being level 4 anyway. Despite its name, Sword’s mediocre attack stat of 1500 and atrocious 200 defense mean that it probably won’t help very much on the battlefield.
They say that if you know one Main Deck Ryzeal, you know them all, and that’s exactly what makes them so efficient– every Main Deck Ryzeal monster has the ability to Special Summon itself through some method at the cost of locking you into Rank 4 monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn and (usually) do some extender effect. Sword Ryzeal is no different, with its first hard once per turn effect letting you Special Summon it from your hand as long as a Ryzeal monster is on your field or in your Graveyard. It’s not as free as Ice or Ext, but still fairly easy to fulfill. Fortunately, Normal Summoning Sword isn’t that bad of an idea thanks to its other hard once per turn effect, triggering if it’s Normal or Special Summoned to search any LIGHT Pyro monster. You could search a Helios monster or Impcantation Candoll if you’re crazy, but let’s be realistic, you’ll be searching Ice or Ext since they’re extremely powerful starters and extenders that make the deck as strong as it is. If you’ve fought with or against Ryzeal, the Rank 4 lock is largely meaningless since your endboard is almost entirely carried in-house. Sword isn’t the best starter since it’ll usually consume your Normal Summon if it’s your only option, but it’s still easily the 3rd best Ryzeal, so play 3 copies just to get to Ice and Ext.
+Accesses your main playmakers in Ice and Ext Ryzeal
+Decent starter in a jam
-Needs to be Normal Summoned if you brick
Advanced: 3.75/5
Art: 4/5 The Ryzeals are neat overall, they remind me of mid-2000s Gundam copycats for kids.
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