We’re still roughly three months away from the western release of the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (TCG) expansion set, Duelist’s Advance. Konami is revealing more of the sets roster - particularly more support for the Primite and Regensis archetypes.
New Primite Support
The Primite archetype has been making a name for itself at all levels of the TCG. This is one of the easiest modular engines to include in your deck list if you’re running any form of normal monsters.
Primite Fusion
Fusion Summon 1 Dragon Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by shuffling its materials from your field, GY, and/or banishment into the Deck, including a Normal Monster. You can banish this card from your GY; add 1 Level 5 or higher “Primite” monster from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Primite Fusion” once per turn.
Adding more options to this relatively new and small archetype is Primite Fusion. This in-house fusion spell can use materials from the banishment zone and graveyard to summon a dragon fusion monster from the extra deck.
Unfortunately, this fusion spell does send the resources back into the deck as a sort of reverse Foolish Burial.
While not the end of the world, this is not exactly an ideal price as modern Yu-Gi-Oh! sees the graveyard -and sometimes the banishment zone as well- as extensions to the hand.
That said, if Primite Fusion is in the graveyard, it can be banished so that the controlling player can add a level 5 or higher Primite monster from deck or graveyard to hand.
This is an extremely useful effect should the match extend beyond the opening salvos.
While the only current target of this effect is Primite Imperial Dragon- a level 6 monster-it does let us know that Konami may be planning to create more main deck Primite monster cards.
Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius
Level 8 EARTH Dragon Fusion Effect Monster ATK/ 1600 DEF/ 0 1 “Primite” monster + 1+ Normal Monsters Gains 1000 ATK for each Normal Monster used for its Fusion Summon. Negate the activated effects of monsters your opponent controls, whose Level/Rank/Link Rating is less than or equal to the number of Normal Monsters in your field and GY. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Normal Monster from your Deck in Defense Position.
Rounding out the new Primite support, we have two targets for Primite Fusion; Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius and First of the Dragonlords.
Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius's attack power may not be impressive as it scales with the number of normal monsters used in its fusion summoning. However, the ability to lock any activated effects of opposing monsters is capable of completely locking down an opponent's board development. This will be a kill-on-sight threat.
Should the opponent get rid of this fusion monster, Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius can float into a normal monster by summoning the appropriate target from the deck.
For a Primite deck, this is ideal if you have Primite Drillbeam already on standby but cannot find a way to get a normal monster on the field for its activation condition.
First of the Dragonlords
Level 11 DARK Dragon Fusion Effect Monster ATK/ 3700 DEF/ 3000 3 Normal Monsters Must be Fusion Summoned. You can only control 1 “First of the Dragonlords”. Cannot be destroyed by battle, and is unaffected by other monsters' effects. Once, while face-up on the field, when a Spell/Trap Card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can destroy all Spells and Traps on the field. You can only use this effect of “First of the Dragonlords” once per turn.
Lastly, we have First of the Dragonlords. This fusion monster has “Towers” written all over it. A beefy body that can resist most normal extra staples in the battle phase and has wholesale immunity from monster effects.
First of the Dragonlords does come with a susceptibility to back row hate. As recompense, should an opponent manage to deal with your monster using backrow, you can blow the entire back row up with it. Alternatively, you can also trigger this effect to demand responses from your opponent.
Despite its package, interested players may still find it difficult to slot First of the Dragonlords in their deck. This is due to its demanding summoning cost of three (3) normal monster cards as fusion materials. Card slots are tight enough as it is in a normal competitive deck.
Even players combining the Blue-Eyes White Dragon archetype with Primite would only slot two vanilla monsters at most in their deck.
It would take some very good theory crafting -or some unorthodox card that time has managed to forget- to get someone to run First of the Dragonlords in a competitive deck list.
More Regenesis Support
Shoring up the Regenesis line-up, we’ve been given a look at Regenesis Pentateuch and Regenesis Commandments. They don't look meta-defining, but they're interesting enough to warrant attention.
Regenesis Pentateuch
Normal Spell Card If you control a monster with 2500 original ATK or DEF: Target 1 card your opponent controls, or you can target 2 if you control “Regenesis Lord”; banish that card(s). If this card is in your GY, except the turn it was sent there: You can banish it; Special Summon 1 monster with 2500 ATK or DEF from your hand. You can only use each effect of “Regenesis Pentateuch” once per turn.
Regenesis Pentateuch allows you to banish a card the opponent controls on the field if you control a monster with 2,500 attacks or defenses.
Ultimately, any deck that can reliably fulfill this condition may be interested in Regenesis Pentateuch. You can an additional banish if you have a Regenesis Lord in play, but between banishing something and extending into another 2500 atk or def monster the next turn, you get a lot of reward for fulfilling the condition.
This is a pretty good combo extender all things considered, but it may not be enticing enough as the Regenesis archetype currently lacks some in-house end-board staples to go into.
Regenesis Commandments
Normal Trap Card Apply these effects to all cards your opponent controls in the same column as your “Regenesis” monsters. - Face-up cards: Negate their effects. - Face-down monsters: Cannot change their battle positions. - Face-down Spells/Traps: Cannot be activated until the end of the next turn. You can only activate 1 “Regenesis Commandments” per turn.
Regenesis Commandments is a little more intriguing. Assuming the controlling player can get this card in hand to set-up, and can flood the field with a lot of Regenesis monsters in the first place, Regenesis Pentateuch can negate a good chunk of the opponent’s arsenal.
Unfortunately, Regenesis Commandments has the same issues as Regenesis Pentateuch, maybe a little more since it is a Trap card.
Lacking some good end-board staples in the Regenesis archetype, the Regenesis archetype doesn't give enough support to warrant this payoff. The archetype doesn't appear capable of keeping up with the turn 1 explosiveness seen by its meta-defining competition. There's also the issue that Commandments in itself isn't perfect.
Hand traps like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, for example, can fly under Commandment’s radar. But if it’s any consolation, Commandments has the distinct feature of negating any face-up card effects.
Assuming that the controlling player is able to go through the effort of establishing a board -doubly-so if they’re going second- then Regenesis Commandments could make the opponent’s life a lot more difficult.
The recent Regensis support isn’t raising any red flags for immediate concern. At best, they may be interesting tech choices to put in the side deck.