endiment

Generic Extra Deck Monsters

Make no mistake, the main appeal of Voltage Of The Metal is in its powerful generic Xyz monsters. There are four main Xyz monsters in here that will be important for future Xyz decks. Wind-Up Zenmaines is a fully generic Rank 3 monster with a continuous effect that protects it from destruction by detaching 1 Xyz material, and then during the End Phase it can pop a card for free if this effect was activated. Zenmaines is a solid defensive Turn 1 play for many decks that can put out Rank 3s easily.

Diamond Dire Wolf is a fully generic Rank 4 that has a Scrap Dragon-like effect, as long as the card under your control that you target is a Beast, Beast-Warrior or Winged Beast. Since Diamond Dire Wolf itself is a Beast, it can pop itself to take out a problem card from the opponent, which is how it’s most often used. However, in strategies that run those monster types, such as Lunalights or Fire Fists, Diamond Dire Wolf is exceptionally versatile.

Number 50: Blackship of Corn is a very powerful generic Rank 4 removal option that allows you to send monsters to the Graveyard without destroying them. This is an exceptionally strong out to monsters that can be hard to cleanly remove like Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda, Crystron Sulfefnir and others. Expect to see this card proliferate heavily in decks that can run it.

Lastly is Leviair the Sea Dragon, a generic Rank 3 that can Special Summon one of your banished Level 4 or lower monsters. This allows any deck that can access Rank 3s to recycle monsters that are otherwise inaccessible - expect it to be a popular pick in decks like Magnets and Evil Eye.

Wind-Ups

Once a Tier 0 deck in the TCG, Wind-Ups arrive with their entire summoning engine intact. While it lacks the uninteractive soft FTK potential from Wind-Up Hunter that made it such a powerhouse in 2012, Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity and Wind-Up Zenmaines are still powerful monsters. The deck will struggle to go on the offensive, however, and Wind-Up Rabbit isn’t as good of a defensive option as it once was either. Ultimately Wind-Up is likely to be an engine used to churn out generic Xyz monsters, but at the moment it’s lacking a clear win condition.

Geargia

While most of the Geargia monsters have been around in Duel Links for years, the strategy receives new life with the arrival of its boss monster Gear Gigant X. Gear Gigant X turns Geargia into a powerful grind strategy that can constantly build card advantage. Like other Xyz archetypes though, Geargia is let down by its low offensive stats and lack of OTK power. In a fast format like the one we’re in, Geargia will likely struggle to stay afloat. It also receives competition from other slow decks like Control Shiranui. If the format slows down, however, Geargia could become relevant.

Heraldic Beasts

Heraldic Beasts are another archetype that focuses on their grind game, however they have the most offensively oriented bosses of this box. The archetype has great access to its Rank 4 boss monsters via Charged-Up Heraldry, Heraldic Beast Leo and Heraldic Beast Eale. The boss monsters themselves mostly have okay-ish effects - Number 69: Heraldry Crest and Number 8: Heraldic King Genom-Heritage both have neat effects that punish your opponent for Xyz summoning, while Number 18: Heraldry Patriarch is a weird floodgate that prevents your opponent from controlling 2 monsters with the same name. These effects are fairly niche, but the boss monsters have better-than-average stats for Rank 4s and the deck has some strong follow-up plays via Advanced Heraldry Art and Heraldry Reborn, both of which are searchable via their field spell Augmented Heraldry. Heraldic Beasts are probably the strongest deck in the box right out of the gate, but even then are not really up to speed with the current format.

Overall

A single trip through this box is almost a no-brainer thanks to the inclusion of four excellent Extra Deck staples in a Mini-box. Whether to go all-in on the box’s archetypes, however, is a different story. Each archetype in this box has some strong points and very little support was left out, but the current format is very explosive with multiple high-power combo decks running around, and it’s unlikely that these slower Xyz decks will be able to compete with them. Wait for the format to change before making a full investment.

Acier

After being leaked so long ago, the new box is upon us! And sadly, with every archetype in this box I find myself asking the same question over and over again – “So what do you actually do?”

Wind-Ups:

Infamous in the TCG for the “Wind-Up Hand Loop”, in Duel Links we’ll be relying on Wind-Up Magician and Wind-Up Shark to turbo out our 2 rank 3 Xyz’s, Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity for additional extension and Wind-Up Zenmaines as the deck’s boss monster and removal. Whilst Wind-Up Factory sounds good in theory (with many initially comparing it to the amazing Black Whirlwind) in actuality first impressions lead to it being far more inferior due to only having 3 monster zones, making it incredibly difficult for Wind-Ups to extend enough to justify running more than 2 copies. Ultimately, Wind-Ups will live and die by the 3 monster card zone limit; despite Zenmaines having great synergy with Needle Ceiling, and being a fantastic boss monster for its time, there are far too many ways to deal with it now (one of which is offered in this very box in Number 50: Blackship of Corn) making Wind-Ups feel like a simple nostalgia grab stuck in 2013, with no potential to impact the meta in any tangible way and begging the question – “beyond Zenmaines turbo, what does this deck actually do?”.

Geargia:

Once a powerful deck in the TCG and Duel Links as a Ties of the Brethren control deck, the new Geargia support aims to return it to relevancy with Gear Gigant X and Geargiagear Gigant XG as their new boss monsters, using the new trap card Geargiagear to assist in turbo-ing them out. Gear Gigant X is a generic Machine Rank 4 that allows you to search any Machine monster from your Deck or Graveyard, and the effect negation of Gigant XG is certainly powerful, however the deck faces many problems: 1) There are no good search targets for Gear Gigant X currently 2) Gigant XG is too difficult to summon, and he sits at a measly 2500 attack Ultimately, just like with Wind-ups, I ask the question “what does this deck actually do?” It struggles to turbo out its boss monster, if Xyz-based it forgoes the prior control strategy involving Geargianchor and Geargiattacker, so what does this deck actually do? Nothing, the answer is nothing.

Heraldic Beasts:

Infamous in the TCG for being one of the worst archetypes ever printed, this is one of the only times an archetype has ever been printed into Duel Links with every main-deck card in its archetype arriving all at once, including all of its modern support. Cards of note here are Charged-Up Heraldry, a card searchable by the field spell Augmented Heraldry which allows you to turbo out any Psychic or Machine Xyz whilst simultaneously setting up the Graveyard and possibly searching from Heraldic Beast Leo. The problem here being that the only good generic Xyz we have of these types is Gear Gigant X, who himself has limited search targets; the only other Xyz’s of relevance here are the new Heraldic Xyz’s, but these Xyz’s exist solely as a counter strategy to other Xyz decks, with the only exception being Number 18: Heraldry Patriarch who may see some minor Side Deck play as a counter to mirror matches. Ultimately, this deck has no good Machine or Psychic Xyz targets to turbo out, and as it exists as an anime Xyz counter-deck, once again I ask the question – “What does this deck do?”

Generic Xyz:

This box features some genuinely good and noteworthy Xyz Monsters that may be worth it at a later date, specifically Number 50: Blackship of Corn, Diamond Dire Wolf, Leviair the Sea Dragon and Gear Gigant X which all fit into a generic Xyz toolbox of Onomat - and possibly expanding the plays of some current meta decks (Leviair for Crystrons and Blackship of Corn for Aromages being 2 examples of such).

Conclusion

Ultimately, the answer to the question “so what do you actually do” seems to sadly be “nothing at all” with the only archetype even close to giving an answer being Wind-ups in Zenmaines turbo, an answer that might have been acceptable in 2013 TCG, but Duel Links is so far beyond that it is simply unacceptable – Ultimately a “one and done” box for whatever generics you feel are worth picking up.

Nowras

Heraldics

Good Xyz Counter deck (but lets be real thats trash). Can become a “cancerous” deck in the future. Now it’s just a Cydra counter that does near nothing vs other decks due to the lack of good Psychic / Machine Rank 4s.

Wind-Ups

Used to be a cancer deck in the TCG due to Wind-Up Hunter. This time the deck was released without Hunter and thus its power is limited. Wind-Up Shark and Wind-Up Magician combo well together but without a good Xyz rank 3-5 Toolbox they won’t see play. Good Rank 3s have been definitely released in this box, but Rank 4s and 5s are still lackluster.

Geargia

Good boss monster but no good search target, and lacks good generic Xyz monsters. Overall it lacks a clear win-con and the only potential support it could receive would be better generic Xyz and a good search target for Gear Gigant X. My Recommendation: don’t invest in it, just get the boss monster if you want.

Evil Eye & Zenmaines

With a standard Evil Eye deck that just includes 1 copy of Catoblepas, Familiar of the Evil Eye turns into a whole new deck. Opening double Basilius, Familliar of the Evil Eye becomes no longer a brick. Turn 1 Wind-Up Zenmaines protects your board for one more turn, and during the process of summoning Zenmaines, you are also setting up for a full combo the next turn. There is a 3-card combo that results in a board of Medusa, Watcher of the Evil Eye with Evil Eye of Selene, Evil Eye Defeat, and Zenmaines. This board has a very high chance of occurring if you do the combo throughout two turns. Turn 1 Zenmaines pass, and Turn 2 completing the board and summoning another Zenmaines if it died.

Leviair The Sea Dragon

Special Summons a card that you probably banished for activating Medusa, Watcher of the Evil Eye’s effect. This includes another Medusa or an opponent’s monster. Crystrons also benefit from it as a recovery play.

Number 50: Blackship of Corn

Good with Aromages as Aroma Garden increases the range of its effect (Megalith Phaleg does too).

Diamond Dire Wolf

A generally good Xyz monster similar to Vulcan the Divine.

Conclusion

Just get the generics and pass on the archetypes.

robielias

I was really hyped for this box. I wished for Mermail and I got… Well

Wind-Ups

Probably a bait. The deck could be good because Wind-Up Magician + Wind-Up Shark is a good engine and the Xyz Monsters are good, but not good enough to make them Top Tier (as for every Xyz deck so far…but maybe not?)

Heraldic Beasts

I think it was never good in TCG either so… We should probably skip on these

Geargia

I probably don’t see the true potential of them. Don’t know if it is splashable somewhere. I could still change my mind but at the moment Geargia has the same problem of other Xyz deck: strong Xyz Monsters.

Other

Number 50: Blackship of Corn is a really good card for Megalith. Bypassing protection from destruction is very important for Megalith and Megalith Phaleg boosts up its ATK and its range of monsters that can be targeted by its effect. Watch out for Megalith.

There are so many other good cards in this box that are good generic Xyz support!

Gnurrgard

Another iteration of Konami bringing old Xyz archetypes in hopes that TCG veterans buy it because they have fond memories for them.

The truth is: Every good deck in this game has support from the last 4 years of the TCG, this box has 1 such card: Charged-Up Heraldry.

Heraldic Beasts

Charged-Up Heraldry turns any monster into a Psychic or Machine Xyz while letting you plus off of Heraldic Beast Leo. This card alone makes Heraldic a flexible archetype, but I fear we don’t have the Xyz monsters for it yet (I sense a theme with Onomat). Looking at the Psychic / Machine Xyz we can get in the future, there actually aren’t a lot of good ones, so the future potential of this card might be debatable even though its nuts on paper.

Advanced Heraldry Art is a nice lategame bomb you could play 1 of.

The field spell Augmented Heraldry would provide you with extra copies of Charged-Up, but locks you into Psychic, which are only the Heraldic Xyz at the moment.

About the Heraldic Xyz: They don’t do much, as they’re anime villain bosses that are supposed to counter Xyz, which don’t exist in the Meta.

Verdict: Charged-Up Heraldry is a nuts card, but similar to Onomat, this is a rank 4 engine with no good payoff.

Geargia

Geargia was good in the TCG. That’s the only positive thing I can say. It was good in a Meta where setting Geargiarmor + Geargiagear was a good play.

One positive is that Geargiauger is a 1 card Gear Gigant X, which can search for any Machine. Maybe there is some cool target for it.

Wind-Ups

Go to and try to make a Wind-up combo with 3 zones.

The Wind-Up Magician + Wind-Up Shark combo has a lot of plussing potential, but I haven’t seen a combo with them yet on 3 zones

Staples

I can see Gear Gigant X, Diamond Dire Wolf and MAYBE Number 50: Blackship of Corn or Wind-Up Zenmaines pop up as utility cards in the future. My honest suggestion is to try and snag some SR deals here and wait for the next main box

This box has Wind-Up Rabbit. We’re 1 step closer to Chain Beat