Thunder Dragon – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday (2004)

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Thunder Dragon is no longer discard fodder.

Long-standing discard material for Chaos decks, this monster, thought of as only that, has use now. A mainstay in its own archetype now, Thunder Dragon is key to its Fusion monsters, and has tremendous support backing it up now. As a regular monster it is terrible, and yes, it is still a versatile discard monster for Chaos-based decks or decks that thrive on discarding cards to activate effects, but now it has a purpose, a place it belongs. Thunder Dragon Colossus needs it as a fusion material, and its discard effect greenlights Colossus for summoning. Thunder Dragon Titan’s 1-card pop ability is activated when a Thunder monster activates in the hand (like Thunder Dragon does). Worth noting, Thunder Dragon isn’t once per turn, so when cycling back copies of Thunder Dragon with Thunder Dragon Fusion, you can search them back out again in the same turn.

Advanced-3/5     Art-3.5/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

WarlockBlitz

Ah Thunder Dragon. Deck thin in old Exodia, Chaos fodder, Cost material, the list goes on. As a Level 5 Light Thunder-type monster with 1600 Atk and 1500 Def, it could be searched by WotBF and then used for the above reasons. Other than that, all the stats are terrible and have been for a long time. Now, it has an archetype to thrive in. Triggers multiple effects in Thunder Dragon Decks, has better Fusion options, and can still make Chaos variants viable. Run all 3 and hope you don’t draw 2 of them. 

Score: 3.5/5     Art: 4/5 So it’s not hard to put lightning in a picture. 

Crunch$G

I mean, we are looking at the Thunder Dragon archetype, so you had to see Thunder Dragon coming for Throwback Thursday, right?

Thunder Dragon is a Level 5 LIGHT Thunder with 1600 ATK and 1500 DEF. ATK and DEF are both poor on a tribute monster, LIGHT and Thunder are good. You can discard Thunder Dragon to add up to 2 Thunder Dragons (not archetypal cards, just Thunder Dragon) from your deck to your hand. Drawing two of these in your opening hand does suck, you would want to get as much value out of this as possible. If you have Thunder Dragon Titan on the field, you can use this to discard it to search a Thunder Dragon and Titan will destroy a card on the field, then you can use that searched Thunder Dragon to search the third Thunder Dragon and Titan will destroy another card. If you aren’t using this with Titan, then you are likely gonna just straight up search for the other two copies of Thunder Dragon, which in turn can let you summon Colossus since you used the effect of a Thunder monster in your hand as long as you control another Thunder monster. Yeah, Thunder Dragon is a must for the deck it is named after now, offers a good amount to the archetype.

Advanced Rating: 4/5

Art: 3.75/5 I feel like this card could potentially get a cool alternate art.

Alex
Searcy

I wondered doing CotD for earlier this week if Thunder Dragon would take Throwback Thursday or if we’d just keep looking at new cards.  This card has been reviewed twice, links below:

• August 11, 2016
• November 22, 2004

Once just a couple years ago, and once back in 2004, and I wasn’t in on either of those, which is rare, especially for a Throwback Thursday.  It’s neat to see, too, the differences amongst what the reviewer’s thought after such a difference in time.  Thunder Dragon is obviously a great boon to its own Deck, and can do more for other cards than itself or just thin the Deck.  It is still used on occasion for the Deck thinning though too, for which I fault nobody.  Not much else to say from me on such an old, legendary card.

Rating:  3.5/5     Art:  4/5