Nix

I’m not trying to be mean or rude or smack talk a box because I want something new to come out and shake up the meta but this is not that box.

This is a box held together by one single good card and that’s Coral Dragon. Even then it’s at best a one-of maybe in Extra Decks because there are better Level 6 Synchros like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

Megalith is the closest thing to being playable in this BOX and even then they’re interrupted by literally any backrow and their strongest monster is only 2500.

This box suffers from so much that I can run on all day how upsetting it is but the fact that they’re giving us Anti Raigeki when we don’t even have access to that card outside of cheese Creator decks shows how they just threw together filler cards in the R and N rarities. I want to talk about the positives of the Megalith archetype but honestly it’s so lackluster that there is no point in even trying to dive into this box. I’m not going to waste people’s time with a long ass breakdown of this box but just take a look for yourself and you’ll see what I’m saying. At best this box will have cheesy replays of Dkayed wiping boards with megalith cheese and that’s all you’ll get. But vs actual competitive decks nothing in this box stands a chance. 2/10 review and that’s solely because of Coral Dragon.

Gnurrgard

Coral Dragon

Let’s get it out of the way, this is the money card of the box. Coral Dragon is a great generic Lvl 6 Synchro that is also a tuner. You can remove any card from the field by discarding 1 card and then proceed to Synchro Summon, triggering the other effect of Coral to draw 1 card.

The best uses that come to mind are

• a) Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn + Quillbolt Hedgehog, discard another Hedgehog to pop 1, then resurrect the Hedgehog to Synchro into a Level 8 and Draw 1 card

• b) Use What Grows in the Graveyard in combination with Debris Dragon / Angel Trumpeter to have a 1-card Coral Dragon.

• c) Just use it as a Generic Lvl 6 in any deck. While Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier is the better removal card, this is a Tuner and can draw you a card

Mathmech

An archetype heavily limited due to many of their cards mentioning the Extra Monster Zone or Xyz, Mathmechs at this point only provide you with spammable Lvl 4’s and some nice utility cards. Since they restrict you into Cyberse Synchros, we can only make Geomathmech Magma, which is a servicable monster at least. The utility cards are an archetypal Monster Reborn, a trap that can destroy any card and a big ATK boost.

While these tools all sound promising, the fact that we can’t make use of the Synchro toolbox due to being locked into Cyberse and the Spell/Traps only being searchable if your opponent kills your boss monster means we probably have to wait until at least Zexal world

Megalith

The most promising archtype of this box suffers from the inherent problems that Rituals have. While their main play of summoning Megalith Bethor on your opponents’ turn to destroy basically their whole field is nothing to scoff at, the deck doesn’t do much else, has low ATK points on most monsters and will struggle with Shiranui Sunsaga, Invoked Cocytus and Witchcrafter Madame Verre. Not to mention that tech space is tiny, since Rituals force you into a high number of engine cards.

amaya

This mini-box, unfortunately, is the definition of underwhelming. I’ll take some time to look at some of the cards/archetypes that caught my eye.

Coral Dragon is quite obviously the best singular card in this box, being a generic Synchro Tuner that is basically a worse Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, allowing you to pop a card on the field by discarding 1 card. If used for a Synchro material, you can also Draw 1 card, which is handy I guess. This card is meant for a Synchro climb deck to go into Stardust Chronicle Spark Dragon (which I will discuss later), but these kinds of decks are inherently not very good, as you have limited Extra Deck space and the deck will inherently be slowed down or outright stopped by common disruptions such as Floodgate Trap Hole.

Stardust Chronicle Spark Dragon is a deck you’d have to build your entire deck around, but the benefits are not really worth it. It’s a Lv10 with Blue-Eyes White Dragon stats that can only be made using a Tuner Synchro and a non-Tuner Synchro, which will lead into this thing, which (as a Quick Effect) can banish a Synchro to make it immune to all card effects until the end of the turn. At best, you can make it immune for 5 turns, which is a pretty long time, but being 3000 ATK means that a handful of Top Tier decks can handily beat over or suicide into it pretty easily, and the ones that don’t run outs to the card in the form of Herald of the Abyss, which can bypass its protection. If it’s destroyed, however, it can float into any of your banished Dragon Synchros, so if you used a Dragon Synchro to summon it, you can banish it with this card’s effect to re-summon it, which is nice, but the problem with this card is that it requires an entire deck built around it, and those decks are easily stopped by cards like Floodgate Trap Hole as stated previously.

Flamvell Firedog was a decent card in the TCG, as it can summon any FIRE monster with 200 or less DEF from your Deck other than itself, and has 1900 ATK. I wasn’t playing Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively during the times this card was relevant, but it was used in Fire Kings to pull their monsters out of the deck more easily, and could be theretically be used in Shiranui to pull any monster out of the Deck after destroying something by battle. However, the lack of a Main Phase 2 severely hampers any kind of utility this card can have in the future, as you can’t go into Main Phase 2 to use the newly summoned monster for anything outside of using it to beat over another monster.

Dragunity Knight - Luin had potential to make Dragunities a lot better, as it’s basically a Dragunity Knight - Vajrayana that when sent to the GY, it will equip to a Dragunity on the field and give that monster 1000 ATK. The problem now is that you can’t use it to make a 4300 ATK Ascalon, because Luin is a Tuner. While being a Tuner can be a good thing, the fact that it’s a Tuner actually prevents it from summoning Ascalon in the standard Dragunity combo, so unless we find some other use for it, it will be written off for the time being.

Finally, Megaliths are a cool Ritual Deck/engine, as they can use their in hand or on field effects to Ritual Summon from the hand. The problem with them, however, is that you are likely using up tons of advantage to make any one of them, and their low stats hamper their ability to be a pure deck as they cannot easily out many of the popular boss monsters of the format, such as Shiranui Sunsaga and Witchcrafter Madame Verre.

All and all, while the box certainly has interesting cards in it, they won’t really be that good competitively.

Acier

Coral Dragon

Coral Dragon is a generic Lvl 6 Synchro Tuner that allows you to discard a card to pop a card, and if it is sent to the GY you can Draw 1 card; whilst it’s removal effect is effectively just a worse Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier the Draw 1 card when it is sent to the GY either by removal or being used as Synchro Material is nice and is intended to allow you to Synchro Climb - The issues here however are a lack of Extra Deck space and a lack of monster zones severely hamper the potential combos that can be performed with this card, and in many situations other generic Level 6’s like Brionac and HTS Psyhemuth are just significantly better cards, it’s all well and good that Coral Dragon has some unique versatility, but there are not really any decks that can take advantage of it - a one-of if you don’t have Brionac, but don’t bother if you do.

Mathmech

A Cyberse archetype that, due to being Cyberse is heavily neutered due to many of their cards requiring mechanics we simply do not have in Duel Links - Mathmech Addition and Mathmech Subtraction are spammable lvl 4’s to help make their boss monster in Geomathmech Magma, a decent boss monster that can pop 2 cards in the Damage Step (assuming it can swing over a monster with its 2500 ATK, and assuming it isn’t interrupted first) and is a generic Level 8 Synchro, but this Synchro archetype is missing one critical component that might tie things together… A Tuner, and due to the cyberse restrictions placed upon the archetype a generic synchro toolbox is out of the question… I can’t even say Magma is a good generic Synchro because it competes with Scrap Dragon for the Lvl 8 slot, which is in almost every situation just better due to it’s higher stats and not being reliant upon actually swinging to get its pop effect off.

Megalith

Megalith are a Rock EARTH Ritual archetype that do not have any inherit Ritual Spell cards, rather they use their own effects to Ritual Summon each other from either the field or the hand - the boss monster in Megalith Bethor does often times have the ability to nuke the entirety of the opponents board and it can be ritual summoned as a Quick Effect by the effect of Megalith Och, which if done on the opponents’ turn before that have had a chance to set-up can genuinely be absolutely devastating - the problem is its pathetic stats, the existence of Shiranui Sunsaga, Invoked Cocytus and Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin, the fact that the resource cost to even get to this point is massive, the fact that the deck is inconsistent, the fact that its core is quite large leaving little room for tech cards, and the fact that this combo is easily interruptible if you are going second making this a heavy go first deck… Then hope the opponent can do nothing for about 3 Turns while you slowly beat them down and hope to recover enough resources to Ritual Summon again. There are 2 possible redeeming factors to this entire archetype that might save it:

1. Senju of the Thousand Hands - Since all the monsters in the archetype also serves as the “Ritual Spells” in a sense (especially Bethor and Megalith Phaleg) Senju in the deck is effectively Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, and with Level Augmentation can search Beloth to Ritual Summon any of their Ritual Monsters and meet their Level requirements much more easily

2. Block Dragon - the archetype is Rock-type which means Block Dragon may be abusable.

Final Thoughts

This box is looking like a contender for the worst box we have ever had in Duel Links history, and I wish that were hyperbole but it simply isn’t, there is nothing here that looks meta shaking or even decent to good in the slightest (with the exception of Coral Dragon), but you never know, we could always be proven wrong.

Gregulator

The obvious draw of Chronicles of Glory is none other than Coral Dragon. Coral Dragon joins the Level 6 Synchro Toolbox as one of the most powerful monsters we have received so far. At first glance, one may believe it is a weaker version of Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Coral Dragon differentiates itself through two key factors. First, Coral Dragon is a Tuner monster. This key distinction is important because Coral Dragon can potentially force backrow or interruptions such as Fiendish Chain, Witchcrafter Madame Verre, Blackbird Close, and other effects. Assuming Coral Dragon stays on the field, it can later be used as a Synchro Material to make an additional monster, further extending plays. Second, Coral Dragon can be used to gain card advantage, as when it is used as a Synchro Material, Coral Dragon can draw the player 1 card.

Overall, Coral Dragon is a strong card. It’s ability to bait interruptions or pop cards and be used for furthering plays makes it a staple in a collection of Synchro monsters. While its home is not obvious as of now, decks that can make Coral Dragon and have the ability to extend by special summoning additional bodies for synchro ladder plays will love to play this card.

endiment

Coral Dragon

This is the main draw of the box. Coral Dragon is an extremely versatile, generic Level 6 Synchro monster which has a nice effect to Discard 1 card to Target and Destroy 1 card. While this effect may seem inferior to Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Coral Dragon sets itself apart as a Tuner monster, meaning you can use it as both spot removal and a combo extender. This also gives it a great level of resilience against effect negations like Witchcrafter Madame Verre or Fiendish Chain, as it can simply be extended into something like Vermillion Dragon Mech or Scrap Dragon. On top of that, if Coral Dragon is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can draw a card! Decks that use generic Level 6 Synchro monsters, such as Level 6 Toolbox and Lightsworn Synchron, have found a powerful new tool to play with in their arsenal.

Megalith

Megalith is an archetype of EARTH Rock-type Ritual monsters that have neat Monster effects that obviate the need for Ritual Spell cards, which significantly improves their card economy. Couple this with their powerful search effects in Megalith Ophiel and Megalith Hagith, and they can Ritual Summon without taking any minuses. That said, unfortunately the archetype has significant issues. Its main form of removal is targeting destruction through Megalith Bethor (which can potentially be triggered during the opponent’s turn via Megalith Och), but its lack of strong offensive presence other than this single nuke means the deck lacks any real way to get over large boss monsters that have protection, such as Shiranui Sunsaga, Witchcrafter Madame Verre, Invoked Cocytus or Lunalight Sabre Dancer. The deck is also incredibly sensitive to disruption when going 2nd, as none of their monsters have any form of protection, and losing a key combo piece on field can end their turn. While the Archetype has some amount of splashability thanks to its ability to perform fully generic Ritual Summons and its synergy with good EARTH and Rock support, the overall sensitivity to disruption and lack of a clear win condition will likely relegate Megalith to a KOG-worthy deck at best.

Mathmech

Mathmechs are a new Cyberse archetype that focus on monsters that Special Summon themselves from the hand while modifying each others’ ATK on field. The archetype is intended to perform a variety of Extra Deck summons, but their only archetypal Tuner monster is currently absent (due to mentioning Xyz Monsters). On top of that, their Main Deck monsters Mathmech Addition and Mathmech Subtraction both lock you into Cyberse-type Extra Deck Summons, which cuts down your Extra Deck pool to basically nothing as of now. This restriction almost completely nullifies their utility as easy to summon Level 4 monsters. It’s unlikely these cards will be able to have any impact until a significant number of Cyberse-type Extra Deck monsters are released.

Unfortunately, that’s about all there is to discuss with this box. There are a few more cool cards like Dual Assembwurm and Dragunity Knight - Luin, but ultimately this is likely to be a very low impact box until these archetypes receive new support either through Xyz Summoning or the release of new cards. From a competitive standpoint, this box is sadly looking like a skip.