Box Review: Empire of Scarlet
This is the 13th Mini Box and was be released on August 7, 2018. Every Mini Box from now on will contain 100 packs and every Main Box will contain 180 packs “in order to balance the difficulty of building decks”.
These are the sale prices:
- 4 + 1 SR - $2.99
- 10 + 1 SR - $5.99
- 12 + 1 SR - $7.99
- 18 + 1 SR - $14.99
- 24 + 1 UR - $19.99
- 36 + 1 SR + 1 UR - $29.99
- 48 + 2 SR + 1 UR - $39.99
Ultra Rare Cards
Super Rare Cards
Rare Cards
Normal Cards
We’ll add more opinions as they arrive!
“What are your thoughts on the new Vampire support?”
superforms says:
The only good archetype in the box. Vampires have really nice turn 1 set-ups with Gozuki (or Samurai Skull) sending Vampire Retainer to search Vampire Takeover, then grab Vampire Kingdom and re-summon whatever you dumped for Retainer’s special summon.
Vampire Grace is easy to get out (and searchable off Vampire Familiar) and can abuse Kingdom’s destruction effect every turn.
The deck unfortunately has no built-in disruption (outside of things like Chain Destruction, which would be very good if Kingdom is up), so standard defense like Paleozoic Canadia and Enemy Controller will likely be used.
Beatdown is nice to get Vampire Scarlet Scourge over Wiz, Sage Fur Hire with Kingdom on the field, but Cyber Style + Cosmic Cyclones can also be used to deal with Amazoness and provide extra tribute fodder for the larger Vampires. Easily a High Potential deck.
Yehhey says:
I do like this archtype and I think it has some potential to compete at a tier 3 level despite a lot of its good support from the TCG not being in this set. I mean if Batterymen can be tier’d this can be too right? Search power is king in yugioh, and this deck can access any “Vampire” card in the deck with a simple Gozuki/Samurai Skull to send either Vampire Familiar or Vampire Retainer depending on if you want a Vampire monster or a Vampire spell/trap. I think the successful builds with utilize the field spell as much as possible because its the decks only form of viable removal since its bosses are so weak. Chain Destruction and Simultaneous Loss can trigger Vampire Kingdom on your opponents turn.
Negative1 says:
Nobody asked for this and it will likely not change much. They have some interesting combos when you have Vampire Familiar/Vampire Retainer and a Vampire’s Desire since you can desire whichever you don’t have into the grave to special summon the one in hand for a search and bring the grave one back for a second search. Overall the strategy seems too slow to compete in the current meta.
“What are your thoughts on Inzektors?”
superforms says:
I don’t think Inzektors will be good at all. There’s very few ways to trigger important effects (like Inzektor Centipede’s search), relying instead on slower unsearchable cards like Parallel Twister and Double Cyclone. This deck just feels like a worse Noble Knights.
Yehhey says:
I don’t get how this deck is supposed to work without Inzektor Hornet. Possibly constantly spammed 2400 attack Insects with Inzektor Centipede and Inzektor Giga-Mantis, but there’s little special summon power in this deck besides Mantis which I don’t think will be enough. People have been discussing its synergy with Cocoon of Ultra Evolution which could make a nice YouTube deck but it certainly won’t be competitive.
Negative1 says:
Bugs are gross!
“What are your thoughts on the new Naturia support?”
superforms says:
Naturia Horneedle is decent against Fur Hires but otherwise this deck remains terrible.
Yehhey says:
Not enough. Naturia Horneedle is nice but for its effect to be active it requires another monster on the field making it difficult to setup if you go first. Naturia Pumpkin is of no help because it requires your opponent to have a monster which they won’t if you go first.
Negative1 says:
Naturias are like Fur Hires but weaker in every way.
“What are your thoughts on the new Monarch support?”
superforms says:
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch is nice but has poor synergy with Soul Exchange, although it works really well to get rid of large threats like Wiz, Sage Fur Hire (after tributing a Treeborn Frog or Proto-Cyber Dragon from Cyber Style) that would otherwise be resistant to Soul Exchange.
Mithra the Thunder Vassal is the real star of the Monarch support and will be used in many other decks, since she’s a completely free special summon and clogs your opponent’s board.
Yehhey says:
Mithra the Thunder Vassal and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch are welcome additions but came too late in this Fur dominated format to do much of anything. Tribute summoning Zaborg is incredibly slow these days, but at least with Escalation of the Monarchs you can snipe off a Fur Hire monster when it’s normal summoned before its effect is used. Mithra is an easy special summon that requires no cost and gives your opponent a token which can clog up a monster card zone on their field.
Negative1 says:
This is the only thing in the whole set that really caught my attention. Monarchs won’t be good because of this but Mithra the Thunder Vassal is very promising as it makes tribute centric strategies more viable as well as putting a token on your opponent’s board inhibiting Fur Hires from making strong boards.
“Are there any other cards that you expect to have a significant influence on the current meta?”
superforms says:
Mithra the Thunder Vassal: Really nice card. Great at slowing down Fur Hires board spam, works well with Batteryman Charger in Batterymen decks or as generic tribute fodder for decks like Hazy Beatdown.
Flash of the Forbidden Spell: Potential Raigeki against Fur Hires, forcing a Wiz, Sage Fur Hire negation at worst. Devastating to other swarm decks like Amazoness, but completely useless against Spellbooks. Tough to predict how much this card will see play since we’ve moved away from the side-deck format.
Berserk Scales: Free +1000 ATK quick-play spell, could be abused by decks that can easily recycle monsters like Gladiator Beasts. Especially nasty if used on an Amazoness Swords Woman.
Yehhey says:
When we needed a meta change the most Konami did not deliver, but Wall of Illusion is a nice card to mess around with for casual play.
Negative1 says:
Mithra the Thunder Vassal is the only card I could see making a difference in the current meta. Everything else seems too slow.
“Are there any other cards with significant future potential?”
superforms says:
Wall of Illusion: Pretty bad right now because Amazoness and Fur Hires don’t mind monsters going back to the hand, but maybe good once Synchro monsters hit the scene.
Yehhey says:
Vampires if we get their good stuff. Look out for Vampire Domination, Vampire Sorcerer, and Vampire Awakening.
Negative1 says:
Inzektors may get better if Konami releases more support, but who knows when or if that will happen.
Tell us your own thoughts on the box in the comments below!