Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls – #LTGY-EN039
If this card is in your hand or Graveyard: You can banish a total of 2 WATER and/or Dragon-Type monsters from your hand and/or Graveyard, except this card; Special Summon this card. During your opponent’s End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Return it to the hand. You can discard this card and 1 WATER monster to the Graveyard; send 1 monster from your Deck to the Graveyard. If this card is banished: You can add 1 WATER Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use 1 “Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls” effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Date Reviewed: February 17th, 2022
Rating: 4.32
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,
Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls is our Throwback Thursday choice and one of the banned Dragon Rulers.
Once part of a tremendously powerful strategy that involved all of the rulers being banned, Tidal remains banned unlike Tempest, who is Limited. If legal, Tidal would flourish in WATER-based decks like Mermail, Atlantean, Ice Barrier, and Icejade. Two monsters that are WATER or Dragon-Type banished from the grave or hand to Special Summon is easily attainable in Icejade, and the deck functions to work with banishing so this won’t be an issue. While you won’t get their effects off Tidal banishing them, it will keep monsters clear of your grave if you want to use Cradle to search a new Icejade. Pops back to the hand at your opponent’s End Phase if Special Summoned but you can always get rid of it by then through Extra Deck means. Foolish Burial that is a -1 if you discard Tidal and another monster. This effect will set up your grave for stuff like Tinola to summon something on her summon or when a WATER monster is destroyed while she’s in the grave. Also, using Atlantean monsters balances out the -1.
In terms of the Icejade archetype we’ve been covering: Acti can put Tidal in the grave to draw a card and give you easy access to Tidal the same turn, Kingfisher can detach itself from Tidal and kill a monster your opponent controls with 2000 or lower ATK, and Tremora can Special Summon Tidal from the hand.
Tidal was great before and quite splashable, like all Dragon Rulers. There’s a reason why all but Tempest are banned still, and Tempest is only Limited: they are still very good and will likely stay that way.
Advanced-4/5 Art-4/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week brings us to one of the three remaining Dragon Rulers on the Forbidden Section of the F/L List: Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls.
Tidal is a Level 7 WATER Dragon with 2600 ATK and 2200 DEF. Pretty big monster overall, WATER is great and we got that nice Dragon typing. If this card is in your hand or graveyard, you can banish 2 WATER and/or Dragon monsters from your hand and/or graveyard to Special Summon this. So already a big monster that recurs itself by using other resources, most likely the ones in grave. All the Dragon Rulers do this, only they vary with the Attribute, and it’s always going to be a good effect. You probably benefit more from banishing the Dragons than you do the WATER monsters, but another option to get this out at least. During the opponent’s End Phase, if this was Special Summoned, you return it to the hand, which likely won’t come up since you either used it to make another monster or OTKed already since this is a big monster. You can discard this card and a WATER monster to send any monster from Deck to grave, which note in Atlanteans that this will trigger the one you discard, but won’t trigger any Atlantean you send from Deck to grave. With that said, it’s still graveyard setup, even if WATER strategies don’t really have an issue with that already, but this is more generic and can dump any monster to potentially bring up some niche combos. Last effect triggers upon this being banished, letting you search a WATER Dragon from Deck to hand. Some of the best options I see include Stream, Dragon Ruler of Droplets since it can summon Tidal (but I never really see Tidal going to more than 1 so I don’t know if this will ever be that relevant again), Mythic Water Dragon to go with any EARTH monsters you might be playing, and Guardragon Justicia just to have a Tuner since it’s the only WATER Dragon Tuner. You only get 1 effect a turn and only once that turn, which is more than fair to make sure this doesn’t get too insane with 3 good effects in a single turn. Now, can Tidal come back? Honestly, don’t see why not. Best Deck to use this in is likely Mermail/Atlantean and they’ve gotten almost every piece of support they could over the years and still haven’t broken past the rogue-at-best status in the meta, and I don’t know if Tidal changes that. Maybe it’ll be powerful in other WATER Decks, but that hasn’t stopped Tempest from coming back from breaking future WIND strategies. Either way, Tidal still remains a great card like the other Dragon Rulers.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 The Dragon Rulers always had that imposing look to them like they’re the masters of the varying Attributes they associate with.
Alex
Searcy
Dragon Rulers makes me remember a time when…well, I suppose when Dragon Rulers ruled the game. Seriously though, Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls is up for Throwback Thursday. Level 7, Water, 2600/2100 atk/def which is fine, Dragon is obviously well supported, but not something we see paired with Water a lot. This card currently is Banned so let’s see if we think that’s still warranted. It Special Summons itself quite easily, as the Rulers do, where as if it is in your Hand or Grave, you can remove 2 Dragon and/or Water Monsters from play (again from Hand or Grave) other than this card. It’s a lot of words but it’s a nice way to get this guy on the Field without having to give up two on Field resources to do so. It does cycle back to your Hand during your opponent’s End Phase when Special Summoned (and not just via its own Effect). Which seems not great but since it can cycle back to the Hand, it lets you bring it out via Effect again, so it’s actually more helpful than it seems. Discarding this and another Water Monster lets you add any Monster from your Deck to your Hand. Given how versatile and hybrid these Decks can be, especially given the Water Attribute here, that’s one of the best parts of the card, in my opinion. You also get to add a Water Monster from your Deck to your Hand when this card is removed from play, which is all but likely to happen eventually. That Effect is optional, but it also doesn’t limit itself in that Effect, so that’s an added bonus. It’s still Banned, but it might not need to be as things continue to change and hopefully loosen up. We’ll have to wait and see.
Rating: 4.25/5
Art: 4.5/5 Great Dragon, and I can only assume nothing good can come from that waterfall
Mighty
Vee
Speaking of WATER support that loves discarding, Throwback Thursday brings us Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls, part of the infamous Dragon Ruler archetype. Tidal is a level 7 WATER dragon monster, which means it can reap the benefits of the wide array of generic WATER and dragon support, resulting in the Dragon Rulers getting neutered in a banlist long ago; Tidal, along with 2 of the other Dragon Rulers, remain banned to this day. 2600 attack and 2000 defense are fine for a level 7 monster.
Like the other Dragon Rulers, Tidal’s surprisingly loaded for a 2013 card, boasting quite a few effects. All effects of Tidal are hard once per turn and only one per turn, though that didn’t stop the Dragon Rulers from shredding the meta during their time. By banishing 2 WATER and/or dragon monsters from your hand or graveyard, you can special summon Tidal from your hand or graveyard, giving you a level 7 body for whatever you see fit, though you’ll have to return it to your hand during your opponent’s end phase as a mandatory effect if it was special summoned. By discarding Tidal and any other WATER monster, you can send any monster from your deck to the graveyard; while this effect will thankfully mostly be locked to WATER decks, a Foolish Burial is still really powerful. Finally, if Tidal is banished (probably through the effect of another Dragon Ruler), you can search any WATER dragon monster, which will probably be itself or its mini version, Stream, Dragon Ruler of Droplets. From stories elders have told me, back in the day Dragon Rulers were absurdly strong since they could easily turbo beatsticks and make rank 7 XYZ monsters on the fly while also generating advantage with Super Rejuvenation. Of all the Dragon Rulers, I think Tidal will be the last one to be unbanned if it’s ever unbanned at all, considering it would still be an incredibly powerful card in WATER decks, and dragon decks are always waiting to pounce onto the meta.
Advanced: 4.5/5
Art: 3.5/5 Guy’s got skinny arms and looks a little generic, but the rest is pretty cool.
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