Rating (Versatility) | |
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B | |
Strengthened decks | |
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Status | |
Aug 27 2018 |
The archetype everyone was either excited for or afraid of is here, Mermails have been officially announced, but do they have what it takes to be a viable deck in the current meta?
While a lot of cards are certainly still missing, Mermails can utilize Atlantean Marksman and Atlantean Heavy Infantry to get rid of both face-down and face-up cards and, by opening the entire Box, you will get two copies of each, which is great.
Marksman and Heavy Infantry and comparable to Recon, Scout Fur Hire and Donpa, Marksman Fur Hire as their effects are similar, but they are not identical:
Atlanteans | Fur Hires |
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What is the difference? If the opponent, for example, chains a face-down card to the effect of Recon, Scout Fur Hire, the card is destroyed, but, if Atlantean Marksman is the one targeting that set card and the card is chained, the card is not destroyed.
The “Abyss-” Spell/Trap Cards are very underwhelming and a Mermail Deck would probably rather run something like Hey, Trunade! or Treacherous Trap Hole instead, despite the fact that Mermail Abyssmegalo can add them from the Deck to the hand when he is Special Summoned by its own effect.
From what I can see, the deck will likely struggle with consistency due to the fact that the main Boss Monster of the deck, Mermail Abyssmegalo requires you to discard two other WATER monsters from your hand to be Special Summoned, which is honestly how you’re going to get him on the field.
In this section I’ll name a few cards that could fix the main issues this deck has.
Mermail Abysslinde and Abyss-sphere can Special Summon monsters from the deck, they can both generally be set on Turn 1, where the deck seems to lack options, and the latter can also be searched.
Mermail Abyssteus is a secondary Boss Monster that is much easier to get on the field compared to Abyssmegalo and that is also able to search a Level 4 or lower “Mermail” monster from the Deck when he is Special Summoned by its own effect.
The deck is already playable, but it will be difficult for it to face more well-rounded and complete meta decks with its current issues; as always, it’s up to the player to decide whether or not they want to invest in a Box, but, unless you can afford it, I would avoid Gaia Genesis.
The second main archetype featured in the box is also lacking a lot of cards, namely all of the defensive monsters; one of the most important cards, U.A. Midfielder is an UR, which means that, in order to play a “U.A.” Deck, you will have to reset this Main Box twice.
This deck can be quite bricky even with the help of Cyber Style; just like Mermails, Ultra Athletes are playable, but they will certainly have trouble with consistency.
U.A. Stadium is an incredibly powerful card that, especially when combined with Midfielder, but the chance of starting with both in your hand is not exactly high.
U.A. Penalty Box will probably not be enough to make the deck relevant, but, paired with U.A. Mighty Slugger, it can be pretty powerful.
U.A. Perfect Ace would make a Feast of the Wild LV5 U.A. Deck very good; he is similar to Wiz, Sage Fur Hire, but his effect does not state that you need to discard a card of his own archetype.
U.A. Goalkeeper and U.A. Blockbacker have very good protection effects that can prevent destruction by card effect and negate the effects and change the battle position of a monster that was Special Summoned respectively.
U.A. Signing Deal allows you to Special Summon from the Deck and U.A. Powered Jersey is an incredibly powerful card when paired with U.A. Mighty Slugger or U.A. Dreadnought Dunker.
Unless KONAMI decides to reprint some of these cards, the “U.A.” archetype will be extremely expensive, especially considering the remaining monsters will likely have higher rarity than the Level 5 or higher ones we’ve got so far: another reason not to invest in this Main Box, if you have a limited amount of Gems.
You easily just get two copies of Mermail Abyssmegalo and still have a decent deck, but, in this case, three copies of a UR are pretty much needed.
It’s true that the archetype features a lot of cards, but that shouldn’t be a reason to just randomly release a bunch that can barely be played together.
Koa'ki Meiru Ice’s alternative maintenance condition can be fulfilled by revealing a Continuous Spell in your hand, so you could just ignore Iron Core and run some of the Fire Fist cards just to abuse his destruction effect;
Koa'ki Meiru Urnight can Special Summon any other Level 4 or lower Koa’ki Meiru monster from the deck by revealing an Iron Core in your hand;
Koa'ki Meiru Maximus is a decent Boss Monster, but he is difficult to get on the field and even more difficult to maintain;
Iron Core Armor is a decent Equip Spell and Koa'ki Meiru Shield is essentially a Mirror Force with a very specific requirement.
Aside from the first card I mentioned, none of these can be used effectively in other decks.
KONAMI decided to release two Rock-Type monsters together with Sandman that are honestly not particularly great, making the SR difficult to run, but, if Koa'ki Meiru Wall, Koa'ki Meiru Guardian and Koa'ki Meiru Overload are ever released, it will be worth it to come back to this Box;
Koa'ki Meiru Drago is a great card that would completely shut down Masked HEROes and give trouble to Silent Spellbook;
Diamond Core of Koa'ki Meiru would make a Koa’ki Meiru deck worth running as it essentially gives you access to all of the Monster Cards and also to Iron Core.
There is nearly no point in investing in this Box for Koa’ki Meiru support so far, they could be fun to play around with, but I don’t see them being particularly competitive.
Gemini Spark is an incredibly versatile Quick-Play Spell and it might be the only reason why Gemini monsters will see some play after this Box has been released. We still need to see how good an updated Gemini Deck with Heavy Knight of the Flame, Evocator Chevalier and possibly Dark Valkyria would be, but so far I can say that building it will be very expensive, so that alone may dether some players from trying it out.
We really need to look at the overall value of this Box: we have a pretty good Battle Trap, some form of backrow removal, a few incomplete archetypes that may become relevant, a bunch of random support HERO cards, some of which are only available at one copy (Clayman), and some more support for older archetypes. Is this really worth investing?
KONAMI has been trying to push this archetype in Duel Links for a long time, but it really currently needs is Skill they can work well with rather than more support.
It’s really difficult to find something that would fit their “playstyle” or strategies in general, so maybe the developers have been going in the wrong way.
I would advise any new player to stay away from this Box until we know exactly how these cards perform in the current meta and what the “current meta” will be from August 29.
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