[Cirrus]

December 18, 2012

Phantom Beast Plane Drago-SAC

Rank 7 - WIND - Machine/Xyz/Effect
2600 ATK/2200 DEF

 Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special 
Summon 2 "Phantom Beast Plane Tokens" (Machine-Type/WIND/Level 
3/ATK 0/DEF 0). This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card 
effects while you control a Token. Once per turn: You can Tribute 1 
"Phantom Beast Plane" monster to target 1 card on the field; destroy
it, but this card cannot attack this turn.

Phantom Beast Plane Hum-Strut

Level 3 - WIND - Machine/Effect
1100 ATK/1600 DEF

When this card is flipped face-up: Special Summon 2 "Phantom Beast 
Plane Tokens" (WIND/Machine-Type/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0). This card's
Level is increased by the total Levels of all "Phantom Beast Plane 
Tokens" you control. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card
 effects while you control a Token. You can Tribute 1 Token to target 1 
"Phantom Beast Plane" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that
target. You can only use this effect of "Phantom Beast Plane Hum-Strut"
once per turn.

Phantom Beast Plane Ray-Stealth

Level 3 - WIND - Machine/Effect
100 ATK/2100 DEF

When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: Special Summon 
1 "Phantom Beast Plane Token" (WIND/Machine-Type/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF
0). This card's Level is increased by the total Levels of all "Phantom Beast
Plane Tokens" you control. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or 
card effects while you control a Token. Once per turn: You can Tribute 
1 Token to target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy that target.

Phantom Beast Plane Mega-Raptor

Level 4 - WIND - Machine/Effect
1900 ATK/1000 DEF

When a Token is Special Summoned to your side of the field: Special 
Summon 1 "Phantom Beast Plane Token" (WIND/Machine-Type/Level 
3/ATK 0/DEF 0). You can only use this effect of "Phantom Beast Plane
Mega-Raptor" once per turn. This card's Level is increased by the 
total Levels of all "Phantom Beast Plane Tokens" you control. This 
card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects while you control 
a Token. Once per turn: You can Tribute 1 Token; add 1 "Phantom 
Beast Plane" monster from your Deck to your hand.

Phantom Beast Plane Tether-Wolf

Level 4 - WIND - Machine/Effect
1700 ATK/1200 DEF

When this card is Normal Summoned: Special Summon 1 "Phantom Beast 
Plane Token" (WIND/Machine-Type/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0). This card's 
Level is increased by the total Levels of all "Phantom Beast Plane Tokens"
you control. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects 
while you control a Token. During the Damage Step, if this card is battling
an opponent's monster: You can Tribute 1 Token; this card gains 800 ATK
until the End Phase.

Phantom Beast Plane Black-Falcon

Level 4 - WIND - Machine/Effect
1200 ATK/1700 DEF

When this card declares an attack: Special Summon 1 "Phantom Beast 
Plane Token" (WIND/Machine-Type/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0). This card's 
Level is increased by the total Levels of all "Phantom Beast Plane 
Tokens" you control. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card 
effects while you control a Token. During either player's turn: You can 
Tribute 1 Token you control to target 1 monster your opponent controls; 
change that target to face-up Defense Position.

Scramble

Quick-Play Spell

If your opponent controls more monsters than you do (excluding 
Tokens): Tribute any number of "Phantom Beast Plane Tokens"; Special 
Summon "Phantom Beast Plane" monsters from your Deck up to the 
number of Tokens Tributed, but shuffle them into the Deck during the End 
Phase. You can only activate 1 "Scramble" per turn.

Aerial Charge

Continuous Trap

Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 "Phantom Beast Plane Token" 
(Machine-Type/WIND/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0). During each player's End 
Phase, destroy this card unless you Tribute 1 "Phantom Beast Plane" 
monster.

Barrel Roll

Counter Trap

 When a Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect is activated: 
Tribute all "Phantom Beast Plane Tokens"; negate the activation, 
and if you do, destroy it.

First time I'm doing a review for an entire archetype. Okay, so: this is the WIND archetype that we've all been waiting for. The Phantom Beast Plane tokens are super cool, and the mechanic by which this archetype makes Xyz monsters and doesn't die ever is also super cool. This deck is probably the only deck that can claim to be able to, without focusing on doing so, make Superdimensional Robot Galaxy Destroyer... Not bad!

So it can make big Xyz plays. So what, you might ask? Well, Number 11: Big Eye and Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max come to mind, as well as the less often seen Constellar Ptolemys Messier 7 and the new, hard-to-summon Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon.

The tokens are open to being used for other effects as well: for example, this deck can play Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi! Not that this is better than Compulsory a lot of the time, but it is a pretty cool card nevertheless. Yes, you have now seen me promote Miyabi twice, but that's because I really like its art and - okay I'm going to stop now.

Token Sundae might be interesting. Scramble is very good, Aerial Charge is definitely highly playable, and Barrel Roll has the potential to be very good (archetype-specific Kami no Senkoku? Konami pls). Iron Call? Gear Gigant X? Limiter Removal? Only time will tell. I'll revisit this with a deck later.

Individual snap judgments:

Hum-Strut is wonderful. Ray-Stealth is decent if only because of its S/T destruction ability. Mega-Raptor is also wonderful and does nice things with Aerial Charge. Tether-Wolf is playable but interesting ... it can beat over stuff and is definitely good but it's not particularly renewable or hugely play-making. Black-Falcon is alright and can be useful as a pseudo-combat trick on either player's turn, though with different purposes. Drago-SAC, being the boss monster of the archetype, is great at making tokens but has only a somewhat above-average effect (not being able to battle kind of sucks ... but the targeted destruction is very good).