Two new Punk cards have been confirmed to appear in the upcoming Quarter Century Trinity Box. Scheduled to release December 21st in the OCG, these pieces of Punk support look pretty powerful and should allow for some interesting extensions to the Punk engine.
Punk Rising Scale
Card Text(ygoorganization.com): You can only use the (1)st, (2)nd, and (3)rd effect of this card’s name each once per turn.
(1) You can banish 1 other “P.U.N.K.” card from your hand or GY; Special Summon this card from your hand.
(2) If this card is Special Summoned: You can pay 600 LP; take 1 “P.U.N.K.” monster from your Deck or GY, except a Level 8 monster, and either add it to your hand or Special Summon it.
(3) When a monster your opponent controls with 2500 or more ATK activates its effect (Quick Effect): You can change it to face-down Defense Position.
No. Punk Rising Scale does everything you need to enable some crazy extension plays. You do need to have other Punk cards to banish to Rising Scale’s first effect in order to get it out efficiently, which encourages the use of the card in pure Punk builds.
Once Rising Scale is in play, its second effect allows for a ton of different extensions. Grabbing any non-level eight Punk monster and putting it directly into play from your deck is an absurdly powerful effect. The level eight restriction is present so Rising Scale is unable to find copies of itself. You can also add Punk cards to hand if you need to activate abilities from there or pay for the costs of other effects.
While this is already enough to make Punk Rising Scale more than viable, the card’s final effect puts it over the top. While the Book of Moon effect is restrictive, a lot of larger payoffs in Yu-Gi-Oh easily eclipse 2500 attack points. This effect both allows Rising Scale to play through some effect negation from your opponent’s board and can act as effect negation on its own if you decide to end on it. The first application of this effect seems to be a stronger one.
Punk Jam Fever
Card Text:Materials: 2 Level 8 monsters
Once per turn, you can Xyz Summon “P.U.N.K. JAM FEVER!” by using 1 “P.U.N.K.” Fusion or Synchro Monster you control as material. You can only use the (1)st and (2)nd effect of this card’s name each once per turn.
(1) You can pay 600 LP and detach 1 material from this card; draw 1 card.
(2) When another monster’s effect is activated and you have a Level 3 Psychic monster in your GY (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that monster.
This bizarre XYZ monster has a lot more going on than it first seems. While the card is a reasonable level eight XYZ monster, you can also send a Punk Synchro or Fusion monster as material to special summon this card.
Notably, Punk Jam Fever has two interesting effects, but if you use a Punk Synchro or Fusion for the card, you can only use one of these. Each of these effects requires you to detach a material, and you’ll only have one if you use the Punk method. Summoning this by using two level eight monsters is more difficult, but it also rewards you with the option to use two of Punk Jam Fever’s effects. Notably, Punk Rising Scale is a level eight monster, which could allow for traditional XYZ summons of Punk Jam Fever in its own archetype.
Both effects that Punk Jam Fever has to offer are interesting. The first draws a card for the Punk archetype’s signature 600 LP price. This could allow for further extensions depending on what you draw, or could find a valuable spell or trap card to either push forward with your plan or upset your opponent’s.
The second effect requires a level three Psychic monster in your grave to activate, but this should be easy for the Punk archetype. As long as you have this, you can negate the effect activation of a monster. This is a standard, but powerful payoff across archetypes that can help make a more difficult board for your opponent to navigate.
Ultimately, both new Punk cards look promising, but Punk Rising Scale appears to be a notch above Punk Jam Fever. Rising Scale can enable a ton of different combo lines, and getting it into play is not difficult in a Punk-themed deck.