Alliance Insight is just over two weeks away from hitting store shelves. Ahead of this release, on May 2nd, Konami has revealed new support for the Trading Card Game (TCG) exclusive archetype, Mitsurugi.
A Quick Premise
Released back in the Supreme Darkness expansion just a few months ago (January), the Mitsurugi archetype is centered around a roster of Dark Reptile monsters.
The archetype makes use of a ritual summoning as a main feature, so there are already a lot of moving parts to the engine.
Combined with a theme reminiscent of Japanese folklore, the Mitsurugi archetype uses modern Yu-Gi-Oh! design philosophies to take advantage of the deck and the “tribute” keyword to easily access and cycle parts of their engine.
What’s Coming Up?
With Konami’s announcement, Mitsurugi is getting three new additions to their monster roster in the form of: Mitsurugi no Mikoto, Aramasa, Mitsurugi no Miko, Wousu, and Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi.
Starting with Mitsurugi no Mikoto, Aramasa, we have another Level 4 effect monster that can function as the archetype’s much-needed monster search since it can activate its effect in various ways.
Ideally, Aramasa would be used as an extender, though, due to the Mitsurugi monsters having few capabilities of special summoning themselves outside of the archetype’s ritual-based focus. That normal summon slot is a pretty valuable commodity in this engine.
Speaking of which, Mitsurugi no Miko, Wousu just does that in a way reminiscent of a Kaiju or a Super Polymerization, depending on how you view things. In fact, Wousu can pull double-duty as a combo starter because its special summoning condition requires the controlling player to “tribute” a reptile card from the hand.
All of the Mitsurugi monsters have an effect that activates upon being tributed, so any intrepid deck builder could run Wousu at 1 copy, as there are ways to search it out, to help get the ball rolling and act as the vanguard for cutting through an already established board.
It also helps that Wousu is already a level 8 monster in their own right, so if a player already has a ritual spell in hand, they can easily use Wousu as fodder for one of the Mitsurugi ritual monsters.
Keep in mind that Wousu’s self-summoning ability does lock you to Mitsurugi’s auspices of reptile monsters, so anyone running Mitsurugi with a non-reptile engine (such as Ryzeal) may find this extremely unappealing.
Wth that, we move on to the last of the revealed Mitsurugi monster cards in the form of Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi.
As far as boards to end on, Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi isn’t exactly the best. That said, it does come with possibly one of the strongest abilities the archetype sorely lacks: a way to special-summon a monster from the deck.
Of course, this ability is heavily restricted to a “once per duel” clause, but given that Mitsurugi’s biggest weakness at the moment is getting bodies onto the field, and this one can summon any of the Mitsurgugi monsters at that, this is as balanced as it’s going to get.
In terms of lines of play, Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi is the same as Aramasa. It can function as a starter if need be, but it would be more optimally played as an extender, as its special summon capabilities force a “tribute” afterward for some added effects that are this archetype’s gimmick.
Mitsurugi Back Row
Rounding out the newest additions are the backrow spells consisting of Mitsurugi Mirror, Mitsurugi Magatama, Mitsurugi Sacred Boundary, and Mitsurugi Tempest.
For Mirror and Magatama, they emulate the adage of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Both of these cards function as more copies of the archetype’s ritual spell card, albeit with their own flavor added in.
Mirror allows the controlling player to summon Mitsurugi monsters from the graveyard. Magatama, on the other hand, is a quick-play spell and is basically a disguised Raigeki Break. Both these cards pale in comparison to the original -Mitsurugi Ritual- but we have to admit that the added consistency is nice.
As for Sacred Boundary, it’s a little bit of a hard sell. Even against casual decks, a player would have to be wary against most modern staple hand traps. Unless you already have a Mitsurugi Ritual in hand, Sacred Boundary would more than likely be last on the totem pole for priority.
Of course, there’s some argument for the card as you can try to play under Nibiru, the Primal Being, bring out Sacred Boundary, and hope that the enemy can’t just blow this up with any form of backrow hate.
A lot of modern Yu-Gi-Oh! decks make use of the powerful monster abilities from the extra deck, so having this kind of blanket protection shuts down most effects. Sacred Boundary also has a pretty nice non-targeting removal, but there are some pretty tough caveats to justify running a copy, even at 1.
Finally, we have Mitsurugi Tempest, Mitsurugi’s second normal trap card. In terms of getting this card to activate, it’s already insane.
Setting up the graveyard with the required Mitsurugi ritual spell and then tributing all 3 main ritual monster cards would take a lot of hoops to jump through. That’s not even counting the trap cards the opponent may have waiting in the wings.
All things considered, Tempest probably has the best effect any player would love to have. Straight up banishing 8 from the opponent’s side of their board would easily crush any deck going second.
Getting Tempest to occur naturally may take a miracle, but some players might be able to sneak it under the radar with some crafty plays using That Grass Looks Greener and Transaction Rollback. That would be another kind of miracle that needs to happen, however.
So far, Armada and Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi are the most generic-friendly cards to play in any competitive deck that houses a second (non-reptile) engine. With the hits to leading competitive archetypes like Ryzeal, players are looking to Mitsurugi to fill in the holes in their deck lists.