BOOSTER 2: Gather The Attributes - A Beginning's Epilogue
ADVERTISED CARDS: Sword of Dark Destruction, Rogue Doll, Mabarrel
So come gather here, o seekers of truth. Let us see the strength that arises.
(There will be a tl;dr as usual. Note that this is both a card and meta analysis, so feel free to read in more detail below. Skip to Conclusion to read the summary and tl;dr.)
As has become standard at this point, Booster 2 released with 40 potential cards within the Carddass. If you remember the previous article on Booster 1, you know that the Carddass released 3 cards along with the Rule Card. As with B1, B2's Rule Cards continued with explaining the rules of the game.
Of the 40 cards in this Booster Pack, 14 of them have never been released in the TCG.
"Abyss Flower", "Akihiron", "Bat", "Bone Mouse", "Boo Koo", "Fairywitch", "Mabarrel", "Megirus Light", "One Who Hunts Souls", "Stone Ghost", "White Dolphin", "Wood Clown", "Zarigun".
5 cards (4 of which are already listed above) have never been reprinted in Japanese: "Abyss Flower", "Bat", "Bone Mouse", "Obese Marmot of Nefariousness", "White Dolphin", "Zarigun"
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And "Boo Koo" has received a Korean printing.
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| I couldn't find the Korean version to display. |
VALUABLE MONSTERS
LOW BEATERS
One of the first things to note about the monster is that the majority of them aren't very notable. It's quite noticeable at this point just how outmatched the mass majority of them were. Even monsters like "Oscillo Hero" （「オシロ・ヒーロー」Oshiro Hīrō）, with its 1250 Attack Power surpassing the 1200 lineup, and "Shining Friendship" （「フレンドシップ」Furendoshippu "Friendship"）, with its matching Attack Power and higher availability allowing it to supplant "Trial of Nightmare," were usable if the newly listed monsters weren't in your ownership.
We instead have stronger Commons to supplant the 1200s completely.
"Bean Soldier" （「ビーン・ソルジャー」Bīn Sorujā）saw interest immediately due to its stats. With its 1400 Attack Power, it matched the earlier DM1 National Tournament attendance card "Kanan the Swordmistress" and the Starter Box pre-order promotional card "Celtic Guardian." Its Common rarity meant it was more easily attainable for those who wanted it. Just a little stronger, "Giant Flea" （「吸血ノミ」Kyūketsu Nomi "Bloodsucking Flea"）matched the Attack Power of the Low Beater King in "Uraby." With higher Defense Power, it could be used to wall the previous Tier 3 1200 beaters in a pinch, whereas the 800 Defense Power of "Uraby" meant it was easily felled if tried.
But even with these stronger Low-Level Beaters, one arose to overshadow them all.
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"Rogue Doll" （「ホーリー・ドール」Hōrī Dōru "Holy Doll"）became the premier beater of this period. At 1600 Attack Power, she surpassed all other rivals amongst the Low Beaters in raw strength. The new Rare "Queen of the Beaters" would cement her place as a staple monster for the next few months of competitive play. But you may ask, "Wouldn't she be harder to get if she was only available in Carddass machines?" It's a good question. One that will be answered another time.
With these additions, the Beater Tier has drastically changed from Vol.2:
Tier 1: Rogue Doll
Tier 2: Giant Flea, Uraby, Bean Soldier, Celtic Guardian, Kanan the Swordmistress
Tier 3: Shining Friendship, Trial of Nightmare, Oscillo Hero, Wow Warrior
The former 1200 Attack line has fallen off, with only "Aqua Madoor" and "Tyhone" remaining more for their defensiveness/availability than their offensive pressure. Even with Equip Magic like "Legendary Sword"/"Raise Body Heat", it would be a waste to use them as 1500 Attack Power wasn't enough for mutual destruction with the "Beater Queen". The new Tier 2/3 monsters would be powerful enough to destroy "Rogue Doll" with the boost though.
MID-BEATERS
Joining "Rogue Doll" in the remaining Rares are four new monsters that aren't 4-star or lower. They belong with "Curse of Dragon" in the 5- or 6-star range that require one Sacrifice to bring onto the field.
"Ansatsu" （「アサシン」Asashin "Assassin"）
"Akihiron" （「カクタス」Kakutasu "Cactus"）
"Mabarrel" （「マキャノン」Makyanon "Devil Cannon"）
These three all have 1700 Attack Power, giving them just a little more punch than fellow Rare "Rogue Doll." Though they are weaker than "Curse of Dragon," they do have one advantage: they're all from different Tribes. "Ansatsu" is a Warrior, "Akihiron" is of the Water Tribe, and "Mabarrel" is a Demon. They're capable of performing the same role as "Dark Magician" does for "Blue-Eyes White Dragon": dodging "Dragon Capture Jar." But one is statistically better than the rest.
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"Giant Mech-Soldier" （「機械の巨兵」Kikai no Kyohei）is the first Level 6 monster released in the OCG. With the way its stats are presented, you can see that it was designed to have a solid degree of utility with its 1750 Attack Power beating over most other monsters, as well as its 1900 Defense Power allowing it to wall others. It also has an advantage over the others in that its Attack Power allows it to breach the 2000 threshold and destroy the great walls of the era when equipped with "Machine Conversion Factory," something the other three can't do with their respective Equip Spells.
So it seemed as if Booster 2 had succeeded at revitalizing the game. New monsters such as "Bean Soldier" and "Giant Flea" filled the gaps left by the monsters in Vol.2's Missing Tier 2 while "Rogue Doll" would take her place as the Low-Level Beater Queen. New Mid-Level Beaters would also fill the gap left by the introduction of the Expert Rules and give more Side Deck flexibility for dealing with the Standard strategy's "Dragon Capture Jar" problem.
We could end it here, but we have 10 more Magic to cover. We probably have some reprints again as well as some new, useful cards like Booster 1. What's changed in the Magic?
SPELLS
ATTRIBUTE BOOSTERS
Up to this point in the game's history, Attributes have been ignored in a mechanical sense. They've been more for thematic flavoring rather than affecting the course of a Duel. This changes now, and it significantly alters the way things have been up to this point.
Beforehand, Attack and Defense Boosts were oriented to Tribe. The previously released Equip Magic gave 300 Attack/Defense Power to the correct Tribal monster. We in English call this kind of card a Type Booster. Booster 2 introduces Attribute Boosters in the form of Equip Magic. Instead of relying on one of 15 Tribes, you can now use these to equip to 1 of 6 Attributes which can encompass different Tribes. This increases the number of potential targets in comparison.
This is "Gust Fan" （「突風の扇」Toppū no Ōgi）. We'll be translating the effect to understand what these new Attribute Boosters do.
ORIGINAL:
TRANSLATION: WIND monster's Attack Power increases by 400! Decrease its Defense Power by 200!
As you can see, this gives you an extra 100 Attack Power compared to the Equip Magic Type Boosters but costing you 200 Defense Power in the process. A couple of months ago, this could have been considered a potential trade off: increased ability to pressure at the cost of defensive utility. But with how V2 and B2 have placed more value in specialized roles for monsters and weakening the value of stat utility, this isn't a serious sacrifice now. It functionally means that you gained 400 Attack Power with most monsters.
"Gust Fan" is in a weak position when it comes to use. Most Wind Monsters are way too weak to be able to impact Duels. The strongest one in the Main Deck is "Tyhone," but its big strength was its Defense Power being able to block most low-level monsters. B2 has weakened its position in that regard, and using "Gust Fan" to reach a 1600/1200 statline when "Rogue Doll" does this by itself isn't economical. You can also use the new "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #2" （「ワイバーン」Waibān "Wyvern"）as well for a 1600/800 statline, but it runs into the same problem as "Tyhone" without the defensive utility. This applies to the rest of the 1200 Attack Power monster lineup.
Alternatively, "Tyhone" combines with "Wings of Wicked Flame" to become the firebird "Mavelus" above. With 1300 Attack Power, it successfully defeats "Rogue Doll" with its 1700/700 staline instead of using 2 cards to destroy 1. But to do this, you're using four cards ("Tyhone" + "Wings of Wicked Flame" + "Polymerization" + "Gust Fan") which almost guarantees you're using up most of your resources only to get knocked down by "Raigeki" or "Dark Hole". Furthermore, we now have 2 monsters that have 1300 Attack Power in the Main Deck, one of which is accessible. Why use all of this when you can get to the 1700 statline with only 2 cards instead of 4?
"Burning Spear" （「灼熱の槍」Shakunetsu no Yari）is in a weaker position.
Compared to the Wind Attribute, the Flame Attribute's Deck selection is even sparser. None of them breach 1000 Attack Power with "Flame Manipulator" falling short at 900. But other than the 700 Attack Power "Fire Eye", the others would see some play more for their status as Fusion Material. "Wings of Wicked Flame" has already been mentioned to be the other pair for the WIND "Mavelus", so we'll focus on the other two instead.
"Monster Egg" (600/900) + "Hinotama Soul" (600/500) = "Charubin the Fire Knight" (1100/800)
"Flame Manipulator" (900/1000) + "Masaki the Legendary Swordsman" (1100/1100) = "Flame Swordsman" (1800/1600)
But what about "Flame Swordsman"? "Flame Manipulator" (1300/800) actually gets decent offensive capability when equipped while the Fusion gets stronger, so this should be a victory for the card, right?
Thus, "Burning Spear", while giving the Flame Tribe a boost, becomes an example of a support card that falls short of its intended goal: the regular monsters are too weak to be useful on their own, and the two main Fusions either are weak itself (Charubin) or prefer an earlier Tribal Equip (Swordsman). Improving stats isn't automatically a viable upgrade, something we will be discussing more of later in Series 1.
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And right away, we see that WATER is in a superior position compared to the last two Attributes. "Akihiron" is a great example of a monster we can use to compare the previous Tribal support in "Power of Kaishin" and the new "Steel Shell". Before, the 2000/1700 statline granted by "Power of Kaishin", while strong, would have had the issue of still being stopped by any of the 2k walls as "Curse of Dragon" is. In contrast, the 2100/1200 statline granted by "Steel Shell" means that the walls can no longer stop you. This is great in an era where the powerful monster removal cards are still hard to get.
"Wow Warrior"（「
Before we continue, let's take a look at another chart:
Back in V1,
I showed you the chart for the different Tribes released in that pack.
Now, we take it a step further: this shows the total amount of Normal
Monsters each Attribute has by the release of B2. It's clear that KONAMI
has been favoring specifically EARTH and DARK for releases, with over
2/3rds of the Normal Monsters coming from either one.
Now let's see if "Sword of Dark Destruction" （「闇の破神剣」Yami no Hashinken "Dark God-Slaying Sword"）can push things further as the chart suggests.
Instead, we'll look at the higher level beaters. "Mabarrel" (2100/1200) gains the same benefit from the Dark Sword as "Akihiron" does from "Steel Shell". So let's look at "Curse of Dragon" now. The 2400 Attack Power is amazing; this definitely breaks the stalemate from the previous Format as well as being 100 greater than the 2300 of "Gaia the Fierce Knight". Add "Dark Magician" (2900/1900) to the mix, and you have a DARK Equip strategy in the Official Rules. But in the Expert Rules?
The 1300 Defense Power that "Sword of Dark Destruction" lowers the premier Mid-Beater to is way too low with the upgraded available monsters. It doesn't matter so much in the Official Rules where there are now enough monsters to attack and defeat it if forced into Defense Position by "Dragon Capture Jar", but Low Beaters are inherently lower in stats. Lowering the Defense Power through the Dark Sword will allow Low Beaters other than "Rogue Doll" to win the confrontation, so "Mountain" can be considered preferable still. The 200 gain to 1700 Defense Power can still repel a regular "Rogue Doll" without too much trouble while the 2200 Attack Power can still clear Walls. As you can see, this is another example of an Attribute Booster not being preferable to a Tribal one in the Expert Rules.
A disappointment for the amount of available monsters.
Let's move on to "Elf's Light"（「エルフの光」Erufu no Hikari）designed for Light Monsters. With the same amount of monsters as WATER, one would think this Attribute has similar results. It instead punches above its weight class.
As has been mentioned in this post, B2 released both "Shining Friendship" and "Rogue Doll" as new LIGHTs introduced with this release. Friendship (1700/900) has the 100 Attack Power advantage over "Rogue Doll" when equipped while the Queen Beater's are inverted from the LIGHT walls in "Mystical Elf" and "Spirit of the Harp" (2000/800). But what gives LIGHT its greater weight is the incomparable "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Though it may seem pointless to increase its Attack Power to 3400, this increase will allow it to defeat another Blue-Eyes. This allows "Elf's Light" to be effective in the Expert Rules.
There are unfortunately two issues that allow "Sword of Dark Destruction" to take over from "Elf's Light" in the original ruleset.
First, Blue-Eyes is the only viable LIGHT in the Official Rules. One could use "Rogue Doll" with the boost to 2000. However, the minimum Attack Power cap rose from 1400 to 1700 thanks to the Mid-Beaters. "Curse of Dragon" and 2k Walls are also still available despite the Attribute Booster Equips allowing the 1700 statline to clear them. That makes "Rogue Doll" a suboptimal choice one would pick if they had no other options.
Second, the Defense Power Down has a bit of a consequence: Blue-Eyes loses to an unboosted "Dark Magician" when in Defense Position. Because Blue-Eyes/"Curse of Dragon" are both Dragons, "Dragon Capture Jar" remains a strong Side Deck option in both Official and Expert Rules. Before now, Blue-Eyes could simply sit on the field as a paperweight Wall to prevent attacks even with its offensive power neutralized. In the Expert Rules, 2300 Defense Power is still spectacular and thus not a major loss. It's Dark Magician's 2500 Attack Power and easy placement on the field in the Official Rules that makes "Elf's Light" a double-edged sword even if there were other viable LIGHTs.
"Invigoration"（「覚醒」Kakusei "Awakening"）is the last and most important of the Attribute Power Ups, with it being the first EARTH support in the entire OCG. EARTH is the most numerous of the total monster count; 59 of the 157 Normal Monsters available as of B2 are of the EARTH Attribute. And we've historically seen EARTH monsters being the backbone of Decks since the very start. They continue to have the most representation of powerful monsters available.
From previous entries, we're familiar with the strong EARTH Monsters that have been available. The former Beater King "Uraby", the rare Kanan, and "Celtic Guardian" retain viability. Along with "Giant Flea" and "Bean Soldier", they have within the 2nd Tier as they reach 1800/1900 Attack Power with "Invigoration". The new Mid-Beaters in "Giant Mech-Soldier" and "Ansatsu" have the same advantages as their new brethren when equipped. Even "Gaia the Fierce Knight", which would only see play if the other two weren't available in the previous Format, regained some life in specifically EARTH Equip Beat (2700/1900). You could play LIGHT or EQUIP Earth Beat, or combine them into the modernly named "HEAVEN AND EARTH" Equip Beat strategy.
The Official Rules would see all Low Beaters be thrown out of Decks if everything were available (Low Beaters would fill up space where a Mid or High Beater wasn't owned). The EARTH Mid-Beaters and Gaia would be viable monsters in an EARTH Equip High Beat Deck. And though "Ansatsu" and Gaia shared the Warrior Tribe affiliation and Gaia didn't really need "Invigoration" to perform its roles when Equipped, the Assassin's 300 Attack Power gain to 2000 wouldn't allow it to beat over the 2000 Defense Power walls that remain viable in Decks. "Dark Magician" and "Curse of Dragon" were stronger monsters despite "Curse of Dragon" being really vulnerable to "Dragon Capture Jar", so DARK Equip High Beat might've been preferable. But, like in the Expert Rules, you could play both for a "HELL ON EARTH" Equip Beat strategy.
OTHERS
Continuing on, we have 4 more Magic Card to cover before analysis is complete. All four are important, but in different ways. They aren't necessarily competitive cards.
"Soul of the Pure" （「天使の生き血」Tenshi no Ikichi "Angel's Lifeblood"）and "Ookazi" （「昼夜の大火事」Chūya no Ōkaji "The Large Fire of Day and Night"）continue the process of adding stronger Life Gain and Damage cards by reaching 800 points. Nothing special here... simply having more powerful cards that do this role. But this expansion remains important for the future.
"Dark-Piercing Light"（「闇をかき消す光」Yami wo Kakikesu Hikari "Darkness-Dispelling Light"）is a new Magic that turns all Face-Down monsters Face-Up. This is a budget "Swords of Revealing Light" in the sense that it performs half of the effect. That can still be useful in figuring out which monsters are actual Walls or just bluffs. This would see play for this reason as well as its lesser rarity allowing easier access.
And finally "The Inexperienced Spy" （「未熟な密偵」Mijuku na Mittei）rounds out the list of new Magic Cards. It allows you to see （見る Miru）a card in your opponent's hand. This is the first card to allow this in the OCG, but it wasn't very effective. It only allows you to see one card. Most cards can be played from hand, so this doesn't really help you too much outside of knowing that one card. Its more important for introducing the concept of being able to see cards in the opponent's hand.
CONCLUSION
Booster 2 patched up the holes in the monster lineup that earlier release patterns created. The gap between the 1200 and 1500 statlines was filled by new, more available monsters, including introducing a new peak Beater in the 1600 Attack Power "Rogue Doll". New Mid-Level Beaters joined "Curse of Dragon" to give more 1 Tribute Monsters to play with. The Equip style that was so popular got upgraded with the new Attribute Booster Equip Magic, orienting Decks towards either LIGHT/EARTH for the Expert Rules or DARK/EARTH for the Official Rules.
However, Booster 2 would be the end of this period. It would only be the newest release by a whopping 2 days. And the next Volume would upend everything Duelists thought they knew about the game.
TL;DR
- Booster 2 released a lot of new monsters, many of them filling the gap left by the rare monsters only available through special means. The 1200 statline is mostly phased out with the new minimum Attack Power being 1250.
- Notable additions are "Bean Soldier", "Giant Flea", and the new Beater Queen "Rogue Doll" with the newest max Attack Power of 1600
- New Mid-Beaters, monsters that require sending a single monster to the Graveyard to Summon them like "Curse of Dragon", are added to give easier and more accessible options at Rare rarity. "Giant Mech-Soldier" has better stats than the rest at 1750/1900, so it could be used either as a Main Deck or Side Deck substitute for "Curse of Dragon".
- Entirely new Equips based on supporting Monster Attributes appeared, allowing for greater synergy between certain monsters. The best Attributes for this are LIGHT/EARTH for the Expert Rules and DARK/EARTH for the Official Rules.
- Like with Tribal Equips, the best ones were effective because they had an advantage of stats: WIND and FIRE required too many resources for Fusion to use their strongest monsters (and "Flame Swordsman" still preferred "Legendary Sword") while WATER repeats "Power of Kaishin" by not having strong enough monsters.
- LIGHT has the best Low and High Beater in the game with "Rogue Doll" and Blue-Eyes respectively for the Expert Rules, but DARK has "Dark Magician", "Curse of Dragon" and "Mabarrel" for DARK in the Official Rules.
- EARTH is the most numerous in terms of targets, with a grand total of 9. You could just play the Attribute Equip Beats separately, or combine them into the Expert Rules "HEAVEN AND EARTH" or the Official Rules "HELL ON EARTH" Equip Beat Decks.
- "Soul of the Pure" and "Ookazi" increase the amount you heal or the damage dealt to the opponent's Life Points, "Dark-Piercing Light" is a budget Swords in allowing you to unveil all of your opponent's Set monsters, and "The Inexperienced Spy" is the first card to allow you to see a card in your opponent's hand.
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