Tabletop Review: Kaijudo: Evo Fury: Tornado Generator Competitive Deck

Kaijudo is back with its first proper expansion! Coined “Evo Fury”, this new set brings sixty new cards to the game, as well as a brand spanking new competitive deck. That deck is what we’ll be talking about today. It’s called Tornado Generator.

Evo Fury brings with it a powerful new mechanic called “evolution”. An evolution occurs when an evolution creature is placed on top of a regular creature of the same type (Beast King, Armored Dragon, Skyforce Champion, etc.). This requires the base creature to be on the field, and therefore takes a degree of setup in order to summon the new monster. Plus, the monster that is evolved is gone for good. The rewards for this are twofold. Firstly, and evolution monster can attack on the turn it was summoned. Secondly (and more importantly), evolution creatures are wickedly powerful.

Let’s take a look at this deck’s exclusive card to give you an idea of the kind of power I’m talking about. That card is Ra-Vi the Stormbringer. At a cost of only six mana, this evolution creature comes equipped with the double breaker ability, untaps all of your creatures at the end of your turn, AND bestows the blocker ability to all of your creatures! On top of that, he has a whopping ELEVEN THOUSAND ATTACK POINTS. If you can get this card on the field, the game has been drastically tilted in your favor. It’s basically three cards in one with a huge attack to boot. However, if you don’t have a Skyforce Champion on the field, you can’t play him.

Tornado Generator is a light/water mix that aims to introduce the evolution mechanic. It has several cards that can be evolved, and even more cards that help you get to those combo pieces as quickly as possible.

For the water cards, it’s all about drawing cards and playing Cyber Lords. There are a grand total of twelve cards that help you draw from your deck, and most of them are creatures. Aqua Seneschal and Hydro Spy make their prerequisite appearances, while newcomers Forklift Tank Glu-urrgle and Cyber Trader add some new blood. Sixteen cards in the deck are Cyber Lords, which serves a few purposes. Firstly, there’s a card called “Finbarr, Council of Logos”. This four cost creature may only have two-thousand attack points, but bestows that same two thousand to each of your other Cyber Lords! This turns a deck of relative weenies into soldiers capable of holding their own in battle. Secondly, a new card by the name of Emperor Axon comes into play. This is one of those evolution creatures I’ve been talking about. For a cost of four, he offers six-thousand attack points and the double breaker ability. That makes him a finisher, and there are three of him in the deck! There are plenty of low cost cyber lords that can be evolved, and since you’ll be drawing extra cards, chances are good you’ll pick one up. Once again, the water civilization kicks some serious butt.

The light cards, by comparison, offer much more of a supportive role than the water ones. You have blockers at level two, three, and four. There are also a few vanilla cards to serve as fodder whether you need mana or warm bodies in the battlefield. There are some Helios Rings and Covering Fire offer ways to get your best fighters in to deal damage to your opponent’s shields. Obviously, you’re going to need some Skyforce Champions if you want to summon Ra-Vu. There are five of these. However, all of them are level five or six. That makes it hard to set up Ra-Vu in advance. On the bright side, each of these creatures is useful on the field. Starwing has five and a half thousand attack points, Twilight Commander allows you to untap one of your weaker creatures, and Starlight Strategist is a finisher in his own right thanks to six thousand attack and the double breaker ability. If the game starts to drag on, the light civilization can keep you in winning position.

While I like this deck, I can’t help but feel that the light cards aren’t as immediately useful as the water cards. While Skyforce Champions are cool to look at, they are expensive. The blue cards offer more bang for the buck. I would love to put some more copies of Finbarr in the deck, and I’d gladly sacrifice some of those vanillas to do it. More of those classic light blockers would be good as well. Argus, Vigilant Seer has no business in this deck. While useful in drawing cards, he’s not nearly as good at it as the blue cards. That’s another spot that could be used for a decent blocker or another Finbarr. I’d also suggest a copy or two of Emperor Neuron. This is a evolution creature that fits the Cyber Lord theme, can’t be blocked, and gives you a card whenever it attacks. That’s nuts, and well worth it.

With four out of the forty cards in the deck being evolution creatures, it might initially seem like it doesn’t do the best job of introducing the mechanic. However, the water cards disprove that theory. They show that a unified front with a proper theme and powerful combos can be devastating. The light cards offer a supportive role at this point, but are needed to make late game comebacks possible. Though you likely have more than a dozen copies of Hydro Spy at this point, this deck is worth a shot.