So instead of booster packs, I assume these are the kinds of products we’ll get for Speed Duels for now on. Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G here to tell you about the first Speed Duel product in about a year and a half, the Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box. This is a follow-up to the Battle City Box and we now start to see the GX era themes enter the Speed Dueling world. Like last time, we get 8 static Decks alongside an extra 20-ish cards and 24 of the cards in this set do come in Secret Rare where you get 8 each box. This time none of them are guaranteed, so you don’t know what’s in the pack until it’s opened unlike when we had the Egyptian Gods guaranteed in the Battle City Box. This is a fairly big update for Speed Duel again, so there’s a lot to cover overall.
The Secret Rares
First, lets cover the Secret Rares in this set and see which Decks got what Secret Rares. Jaden of course was most likely to get most of the Secret Rares, if not at least tied, so for him you can get Secret Rare versions of Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, Winged Kuriboh, and/or Polymerization (which is a card that does appear in multiple Decks at least). Aster Phoenix also has some Destiny HERO cards in Secret Rare with Destiny HERO – Plasma and Destiny HERO – Dasher. Chazz gets Secret Rares of Ojama King and Armed Dragon LV7 for his Deck. Crowler has his Ancient Gear Golem and Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem appear in Secret Rare alongside Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive that appears in his Deck coming in Secret Rare. Alexis Rhodes gets her Cyber Blader ace in Secret Rare alongisde the D.D. Warrior Lady that appears in her Deck. Jesse Anderson gets some Crystal Beast cards in Secret Rare with Rainbow Dragon and Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus. Axel Brodie’s Volcanic strategy also got some Secret Rare love with Volcanic Doomfire and Volcanic Rocket. We also got all the extra Secret Rares that don’t appear in the regular Decks like Don Zaloog, Apprentice Magician, Hydrogeddon, Sphere Kuriboh, Book of Moon, and Floodgate Trap Hole.
20 New Skills
Just like last time in the Battle City Box, we also have 20 brand new Skill cards to help certain strategies get a boost in the Speed Dueling format. Overall there are 2 Skills for each of the 8 Duelists that got Decks in this product alongside a Skill Card each for Bastion, Syrus, Hassleberry, and Dark Jesse/Yubel. Here Goes Something! helps give an Elemental HERO monster an 800 ATK boost when its attacking an opponent’s monster while being the only monster you control, plus the ability to attack all the opponent’s monsters once each, but in exchange you can’t Special Summon for the rest of the turn. Powerful Group of Guys triggers when a Destiny HERO monster is the only monster you control while the opponent has more monsters than you, letting you summon any Destiny HERO from Deck with a lower Level than the monster you control in exchange for you only being able to summon Destiny HERO monsters that turn. Land of the Ojamas acts as a Skill Card replacement for the Ojama Country Field Spell. Ancient Fusion lets you discard a card to Fusion Summon an Ancient Gear by using monsters from your field as material, but you can also use your hand or Deck if one of the materials is Ancient Gear Golem, also your opponent takes no damage for the rest of the turn and any damage that Fusion Monster deals is halved. Cyber Blade Fusion lets you discard a card to Fusion Summon a Cyber Blader with a 400 ATK boost by sending Etoile Cyber or Blade Skater from your field to the grave for one of the Fusion Materials and sends the other from the hand, field, or Deck to the graveyard. Crystal Transcendence only lets you summon Crystal monster and Dragons while you have the Skill face-up, but it lets you send up to 3 cards from your hand to the graveyard to choose that many number of Crystal Beast monsters with different names from the Deck and put them in the Spell/Trap Zone as Continuous Spells. Forbidden Cyber Style Technique triggers when your LP are 1500 or less and you control no monsters, making your LP 50 to summon 3 Machine Cyber monsters from your Deck, who all become Cyber Dragon and gain that monster’s stats, but they can’t be tributed, you can only Summon/Set via Fusion Summoning for the rest of the turn, only Fusion Monsters can attack, and the summoned monsters are destroyed during the End Phase. Blaze Accelerator Deployment can change the name of Blaze Accelerator you control to Tri-Blaze Accelerator. The Right HERO for the Job lets you shuffle an Elemental HERO you control into the Deck to summon a Level 4 or lower Elemental HERO with a different name from your Deck. Looking into the Future lets you look at the top 3 cards of your Deck and put them back in any order, but you can’t use Spell Cards the turn you use this Skill. Armed and Ready! lets you send a LV monster you control to the graveyard to summon a LV monster mentioned in the sent monster’s text from the hand, Deck, or graveyard as if it was summoned by the effect of the LV monster. Middle Aged Mechs is a Skill Card replacement for Ancient Gear Castle. Machine Angel Ascension can either let you discard a Spell to let you add a Cyber Angel Ritual Monster or a Machine Angel Ritual Spell from your Deck to your hand or it can let you shuffle a Cyber Angel Ritual Monster or a Machine Angel Ritual Spell from your graveyard into the Deck. Rainbow Crystal Collection lets you place a Crystallization Counter on a Crystal Beast monster that would be destroyed instead, treating monsters with the counters as Continous Spells in the Spell/Trap Zone instead of monsters, the counter is removed if the monster would be Special Summoned, and monsters with the counters can be used as Fusion Material for an Ultimate Crystal monster. Cyberdark Style once per turn lets you choose 3 Cyberdark monsters from your Deck to have the opponent randomly add one to your hand while shuffling the other two alongside a card in your hand into the Deck, and can be used once each when your LP is 3000 or less, 2000 or less, and 1000 or less. Volcanic Cannon lets you send a Tri-Blaze Accelerator you control to the graveyard to summon a Volcanic Doomfire from the Deck, ignoring the summoning conditions, but your opponent takes no Effect Damage the turn you use this Skill. Energizing Elements lets you declare the FIRE, WATER, EARTH, or WIND Attributes to have each monster of that Attribute gain 500 ATK and lose 400 DEF, but any damage they deal is halved and this Skill is flipped over when you don’t control a monster of the declared Attribute. Room for Growth lets you increase the ATK of a Level 3 or lower monster you control by 300 times its Level for the turn. I’ve Got Dino DNA! lets you gain 200 LP during each of your Draw Phases, lets you reveal a Dinosaur monster you draw for you your normal Draw Phase to put it on the bottom of the Deck and let you draw again, and can let you make a Dinosaur monster you control gain 200 ATK for the turn. Finally, Consumed By Darkness is a Skill Card replacement for Advanced Dark.
Jaden Yuki Deck
Now we finally get into the Decks for the 8 characters, starting with our main character of GX, Jaden Yuki. Of course you can expect Elemental HERO monsters, with this Deck having the four vanillas (Avian, Burstinatrix, Clayman, and Sparkman) alongside some of the other early Elemental HERO monsters like Bladedge, Necroshade, Bubbleman, and Wildheart. You also got support cards for Elemental HEROs like Wroughtweiler, Skyscraper, R – Righteous Justice, and Hero Signal. You also got Goddess with the Third Eye, Polymerization, Fusion Sage, and Fusion Recovery for Fusion support. There’s also Reinforcement of the Army for generic Warrior support and a few generic-ish cards like Negate Attack and A Hero Emerges. Finally, you can’t have a Jaden Deck without Fusions, so you get a full Extra Deck of 6 with a copy each of Flame Wingman, Thunder Giant, Rampart Blaster, Steam Healer, Darkbright, and Plasma Vice to round the Deck out.
Aster Phoenix Deck
From one kind of HERO to another, we get to Aster Phoenix’s Deck of Destiny HEROs. Of course this Deck is full of Destiny HERO monsters with Plasma, Doom Lord, Diamond Dude, Blade Master, Dasher, Fear Monger, Dogma, 2 copies of Malicious, and Dark Angel for your Main Deck monsters alongside Destiny HERO support cards like Dark City, D – Spirit, Over Destiny, Destiny Signal, D – Chain, and D – Counter. There’s also a Polymerization for your Fusions, Reinforcement of the Army and Fusion Sword Murasame Blade for Warrior support, and a copy of Night Beam for backrow removal. You also get a small Extra Deck with a copy of Destiny End Dragoon and Destiny HERO – Dangerous.
Chazz Princeton Deck
We go from HEROs to the mix of three archetypes used by Chazz Princeton in the anime. Of course you get Ojamas in here with Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green, Ojama Black, Ojama Red, Ojama Blue, Ojama Delta Hurricane!!, Ojamagic, Ojamatch, Ojama King, and Ojama Knight all in here for the Main and Extra Deck stuff. You get Armed Dragons LV3, LV5, and LV7 in here. There’s also some of the VWXYZ cards in this Deck with V-Tiger Jet, W-Wing Catapult, and VW-Tiger Catapult. Finally there’s some extra cards to support the three archetypes or act as generic support like Chiron the Mage, Tri-Wight, The Grave of Enkindling, Super Rush Recklessly, Spikeshield with Chain, and Wall of Disruption to wrap this Deck up.
Dr. Vellian Crowler Deck
Now we get to Crowler and his Ancient Gear monsters. Your main Ancient Gear lineup in this Deck includes Ancient Gear Golem, Ancient Gear Beast, Ancient Gear Soldier, Ancient Gear, Ancient Gear Engineer, Ancient Gear Knight, and Ancient Gear Gadget for your Main Deck Monsters alongside some Spells and Traps like Ancient Gear Castle and Geartown. You also have a few generic Machines like Mechanicalchaser, The Trojan Horse, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive alongside a copy of Giant Rat to get your EARTH monsters from the Deck. You have a decent lineup of Spells and Traps with Earthquake, Double Cyclone, Card Advance, Metalmorph, Statue of the Wicked, Damage Condenser, and Miniaturize. Also, you got a copy of Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, oddly in a Deck lacking a copy of Polymerization, so you might need the Skill if the Secret Rares don’t have an extra copy.
Alexis Rhodes Deck
Now we get to Alexis’s Deck of Cyber Bladers and Cyber Angels. Of course you get some of her main monsters like Blade Skater, Etoile Cyber, Cyber Tutu, Cyber Gymnast, Cyber Prima, Cyber Angel Benten, Cyber Angel Idaten, and Cyber Angel Izana in here alongisde some other monsters to boost the Deck like Senju of the Thousand Hands, Sonic Bird, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Warrior Lady of the Wasteland. You also got Machine Angel Ritual to summon your Cyber Angels at least, and other Spells and Traps like The Warrior Returning Alive, Ritual Weapon, Berserk Scales, Cosmic Cyclone, Hallowed Life Barrier, Doble Passe, and Jar of Avarice. Also, of course, there’s a Cyber Blader to go with one of her two new Skills.
Jesse Anderson Deck
Now we’re back to more proper archetypes with the Crystal Beasts used by Jesse in GX. Of course you get Rainbow Dragon and the 7 Crystal Beasts themselves: Amethyst Cat, Amber Mammoth, Ruby Carbuncle, Emerald Tortoise, Topaz Tiger, Cobalt Eagle, and Sapphire Pegasus. There’s also a Crystal Seer for an extra monster if you need. You also got a bunch of Spells and Traps to support Crystal Beasts like Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins, Rare Value, Crystal Blessing, Crystal Promise, Crystal Release, Crystal Tree, Crystal Raigeki, Rainbow Gravity, and Crystal Conclave. There’s also a copy of Rainbow Life and Gravelstorm in here. Plus, you do have an Extra Deck with a Rainbow Overdragon in it.
Zane Truesdale Deck
Now we get into the Cyber Style with Zane Truesdale. Of course you get some of the traditional Cyber stuff like Cyber Dragon, Proto-Cyber Dragon, Cyber Phoenix, and Cyber Valley. You also got the Cyberdark monsters with Horn, Edge, and Keel of cousre alongside Cyberdark Claw. There’s other Level 3 Dragons for your Cyberdarks like Hunter Dragon and Exploder Dragon at least as well. Spells and Traps include mainly Fusion support and Cyber/Cyberdark support like Polymerization, Future Fusion, Overload Fusion, Cyberdark Impact!, Cyber Shadow Gardna, and Cyber Network alongside more generic cards like Different Dimension Capsule, Trap Jammer, Straight Flush, and Memory Loss. You also get a small Extra Deck with Cyber End Dragon, Chimeratech Overdragon, and Cyberdark Dragon.
Axel Brodie Deck
We reached the final Deck with Axel Brodie and his Volcanic archetype. Of course you got some of your main Volcanics like Doomfire, 2 Shells, Blaster, Hammerer, and Rocket alongside other generic FIRE monsters like Blazing Inpachi, Charcoal Inpachi, UFO Turtle, Spirit of Flames, Raging Flame Sprite, and Royal Firestorm Guards. You also get Blaze Accelerator and Tri-Blaze Accelerator to make use of your Volcanics and summon Doomfire as well, plus a copy of Wild Fire for Volcanic support. You also have other FIRE support like Salamandra and Firewall plus generic Spells and Traps like Twister, Michizure, and Covering Fire.
The Extra Cards
Finally, we get to the extra cards in the box set that aren’t in any of the 8 Decks. Some of these, however, do seem meant for the Decks provided in the box like Rainbow Dark Dragon, VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon, Crystal Beacon, Ojama Country, and Advanced Dark. There’s also cards in here meant to support the other GX characters who didn’t get a full Deck with cards like Big Koala, Des Kangaroo, Gyroid, Hydrogeddon, Black Brachios, and Master of Oz. Finally, there’s the more generic and random cards like the TCG debut of Hourglass of Life, Mokey Mokey, Don Zaloog, Apprentice Magician, Toon Ancient Gear Golem, Sphere Kuriboh, Book of Moon, Fusion Weapon, Mokey Mokey Smackdown, Rising Energy, Justi-Break, and Floodgate Trap Hole.
In Conclusion
Overall, it’s at least nice to see Konami continue with Speed Duels. The 8 Decks in here are supported well by the Skill Cards each strategy got to help make them function properly. The extra cards in here plus some of the cards in the Decks are either good Speed Duel additions, or some good reprints for the format in general. The format still needs to be supported more as well, but at least we got the Midterm Paradox product coming soon to continue the GX era of Speed Duels. Looking at the product as a whole, a few reprints are nice like Destiny HERO – Dasher and Cosmic Cyclone for the main game, and the Secret Rares are nice for past formats, current use, and to print some iconic anime cards in a higher rarity, and those are the main selling point for non-Speed Duel players, especially those that love Goat Format. It’s a nice continuation for Speed Duels and I look forward to what the future has for the format.
