Set 4: Ascension of Dragons - SPOILER SERIES!

Spoiler season is upon us once again, so I will be working hard to bring you coverage on every card in set 4. That's right; I'm going to provide a review on absolutely every single card in Ascension of Dragons. It will be a lot of work, but I'm prepared for it. Are you ready to take on this arduous journey with me? I sure hope so, because I look forward to bringing you these previews and reading your comments.

Without further delay, on to the next wave of previews!


Cyclo-Winder

This is not one of the cards that a lot of people enjoy seeing. It has low battle points for a 3 cost Spirit and you will need to place four cores to make it usable. 5000 battle points is a relatively high number in the early game. It puts you up in the ranks of Red and Green, and I like the idea of having an early game Spirit in Purple that is able to hold its own against Green and Red. Actually, hold on a second, I think we already have one of those; his name is Death-Haides and he is superior to this card in all aspects except cost reduction. The cost reduction is a huge factor in the playability of this card. Without it, it would be neglected by every competitive player. That's not to say that it still won't be, but If this card required less cores to be placed at level two, then it would certainly be playable. However, it really isn't worth playing when you can rely on Death-Haides.


Duckle

I want to take a second to talk about the art on this Spirit before examining its abilities. The card is called Duckle, so it's obviously going to have a duck on the card; I'm fine with that. The body of this duck is made of leaves, but the head is feathered and feet are rubber-like. I wonder what possessed the artist to alter a normal duck by simply giving him a leaf body. Why not make his whole body out of leaves? That would make sense to me. If that wasn't enough to throw you off, Duckle also has tusks. There sure are some weird creatures living in the Battle Spirits forest.

The cost reduction on this card is awesome. You will definitely be able to reduce this card to a cost of 0. The effect this Spirit sports makes me wonder if Red effects are starting to spill over into Green, as this effect is quite similar to many of Red's when attacking abilities. Regardless, this ability is extremely good and will help Green pressure in the early game. You will have to place three cores on him to push him to level two, but I don't think that's a big deal. He is going to have some competition with Caprihorn and Stagscissor for an early game spot in Green decks though. That doesn't mean that they can't all work together, right? Give this guy a shot in your Green Beatdown deck and see how the works for you.


Forest Aura

Michael Elliott really wants us to attempt a Winged Beast / Plant deck. Set three gave us tons of support for the deck, but it was still lacking the low cost Spirits it needed to work. This card doesn't seem to help the archetype at all, but it will give it a bonus for when it works. Until that happens, Duckle will have to sit in the pile of soon-to-be-good cards. It should be obvious why I deem this to be a card worth using. We've all been in situations where Storm Draw's three-thousand battle point boost has trumped us. Imagine a card that allowed your opponent to trump you using that battle point boost with every Spirit on their field. That's what Forest Aura amounts to.


The MysteriousFox Cubic

It seems that good art and exceptional effects go together, or at least that's the case with this card. The ability to play anything from your discard pile for free is nice. The MysteriousFox Cubic (Cubic) allows you to play a 5 or 7 cost Purple Spirit from your discard for free; this is somewhat limiting, but I understand why they placed a threshold on it. Negating the when summoned effect of a Spirit sounds bad. However, you can spin it in a positive way by disrupting the activation of effects that you wouldn't want to go off in the first place. The EvilTactician Hellmia has a when summoned effect that forces you to discard a card. We all like its secondary ability to draw cards, but most people wouldn't play her because of the discard condition. You no longer have to worry about that when combined when Cubic. The possibilities for using this card will grow and grow as sets are released. There are few combos with it currently, but I'm sure you can find a use for it in a Purple/Red deck.


The Purple DragonRider Violet

Calling this card good would be a gross understatement; it is far beyond the realm of good. The card itself will reduce down to a cost of 2. With such a high reduction cost, and not knowing the text of the card, I would only assume that its battle points are on the lower end; they most definitely are not! This card rivals many 8 cost Spirits in terms of battle points. For a measly six cores, you can bump this guy up to 9000 battle points; this allows him to rival many of its late game competitors.

We've established that this guy is strong, so it would only be natural if he had an ability that activated when he destroyed someone, right? Apparently not, this guy actually has an effect that activates when he attacks. You’re obviously going to be using him as offense, so you might as well get something out of it. Drawing a card each time you attack is a just reward. If drawing an extra card every turn wasn't enough, this guy will also give the drawing ability to every Spirit with Emperor Dragon or Vanity Deity characteristics. Volc-Baboon is the only Spirit I can think of that can take advantage of this. A Purple and Red deck sure is looking promising, eh?

Yuya promised us a card to make the Dual Core Dragons playable and he delivered. You must sacrifice a 6 cost or higher Spirit when you summon a dual core dragon. The Purple DragonRider Violet (DragonRider) allows you to negate the tribute keyword found on the dual core dragons. This card was essentially created to help you get around the tribute keyword. I, for one, am appreciative that Bandai is attempting to make the dual core dragons playable. Having two cores on a Spirit is nice, but the real reason I want to play them is because of their magnificent art! So, look forward to playing against several dual core dragon decks next set with a DragonRider backing them up.


The Seven dragon's Throne
This preview was obtained from BattleSpirits.US

From my perspective, this card is Bandai's attempt to get us to create a Red deck that focuses on high cost Spirits. All of the Spirits with Ancient Dragon characteristic are 6 cost or higher. The Nexus itself has a base cost of 5. It all sounds rather expensive. I can see it working if Red had core generation, but it doesn't. I like the idea of destroying Spirits whenever I summon them; you are basically given the opportunity to destroy any Spirit on your opponents’ side when you play a Spirit; that's the crux of a tempo deck. Maybe we will see this card in play sometime in the future. I would love to see it work as a fun deck or even on the competitive scene.


Conclusion

Six spoilers set up and six spoilers knocked down. There were a lot of game changing effects, plenty support for existing decks and several new decks stemming from the effects of these cards. But enough from me, now let’s hear what you have to say. Do you think Red Purple decks are as viable as I do?

Lets take this to the forums!

I hope everyone is getting the most they can out of spoiler season. Check back at Eye Of The Vortex daily for more reviews and spoiler previews from Set 4: Ascension of Dragons. Good luck to all my readers in all your future deck building ventures!

---

---