Tabletop Review: Kaijudo: Clash of the Duel Masters Skycrusher’s Might Competitive Deck

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Clash of the Duel Masters has arrived! This newest set of Kaijudo cards is all about the war between different civilizations, and comes equipped with the first batch of multi-civilization cards. These cards offer powerful effects for cheap costs, but require two different types of mana to be charged in your mana zone. They also go into your mana zone tapped, so there is some downside to using them. It’s not enough to throw them out altogether, but it will force you to avoid making a deck of nothing but multi-civ cards.

With this new set comes a coup of new battle decks. These decks feature nothing but new cards, and put emphasis on multi-civ cards to boot. First up, we’re going to take a look at Skycrusher’s Assault, a fire/darkness combo that focuses on tricky offense.

General Skycrusher is the exclusive card for this deck, and it’s easy to see why. A level seven fire creature with eight-thousand attack, he’s definitely imposing. Add in the typical double breaker ability, and he’s strong dude no doubt. However, he comes equipped with a couple of nifty bonus effects that make him even more devastating. First up is Skycrusher’s Saber, which allows you to destroy an enemy creature with three-thousand or fewer attack points. That’s basically a free Rock Bite, which is nice. You can use it to take out a cheap blocker, a combo piece, or even one of the new Quartz cards that power up multi-civ creatures. His other ability is Skycrusher’s Command. This gives all of your creatures “Powerful Attack +3000”, making even your wimpiest dudes a match for your opponent’s creatures. This is great for getting past blockers or for taking out creatures that your opponent thought was safe. He’s also an armored dragon, which makes him great for dragon decks.

250px-General_Skycrusher_(7CLA)The fire portion of this deck features a collection of monsters and spells designed to get past your opponent’s defenses. Some cards, like Redscale Dragon, do this this with the fast attack ability. You also have the Jump Jets card, which can give a creature fast attack for the cost of only one mana. This can turn a bad draw into a useful play. There are also some cards that do well against blockers. Blade-Rush Wyvern destroys a blocker when he comes into play, which can open the gate for a strong push. Chaotic Skyterror gets extra attack when battling a defender as well. Drill Storm is an interesting card. It serves as a Rock Bite, taking out a weak enemy creature. However, it also takes out all enemy creatures that have a thousand power or less. Combined with some of the darkness cards, that’s a useful ability. There are three Toolbots in the deck though. They’re vanilla level two monsters that just don’t fit this deck. They’re good for mana charging only. I’d recommend ditching them for some drakons.

Speaking of darkness cards, they offer more of a support role in this deck. Skeleton Soldier gives you a cheap blocker, Cave Gulper draws a cards when it dies, and Dreadhusk is a wimpy card that makes a great mana throwaway. Of more interest is Toxic Fog and Soul Schism. Toxic Fog lowers each of your opponent’s monsters attack by one-thousand. This can open them up to be taken down by one of your monsters, or make them vulnerable to a removal spell like Drill Storm. Soul Schism targets one monster for a loss of four-thousand attack. Finally, there’s Gregoria’s Fortress. This card essentially gives all of your creatures the slayer ability while it’s out. You can use this to turn your weak creatures into suicide bombers,which is awesome. If your opponent doesn’t have an answer for this guy, they’re in trouble. I’d take out the Dreadhusks in a heartbeat and throw in some extra blockers or at least some extra copies of Toxic Fog.

250px-Galzak_of_Shadow_Pass_(7CLA)We’re not done yet. Now we can get to the multi-civ cards! Lizard-Skin Puppet is a low level creature that has to attack each turn, but has the slayer ability to back it up. That’s nifty. You’ve got a play set of Haunted Mechs, who’re vanilla, but offer five-thousand attack for only four mana. They serve as decent tanks. Oozing Lavasaur combines the powerful attack ability with a forced discard upon death, which is a nice combination of classic darkness and fire abilities. Chasmblaze Quartz give all other fire a power boost, as well as all other darkness creatures. Multi-civ guys get both boosts. Too bad there’s only one of these in the deck. Soul Vortex is interesting as well. It is yet another Rock Bite, but it also grabs a low level creature back from your discard pile. Galzak of Shadow Pass is an awesome card. It’s both a Shadow Champion and an Armored Dragon, so it is bait for evolution cards. Also, it has a nifty ability call “vampiric bite”. This allows it to drain an enemy of three-thousand attack and boost its own power but the same amount! You can use this to drain one enemy while you take down another, and open that first enemy up for an attack from another one of your creatures. You can also use it to bring a powerful opponent down to size . I love this card.

Skycrusher’s might has plenty of room for improvement. There are at least five vanilla cards that offer nothing to the deck, and a number of spells/creatures that help the deck be more cohesive. Nonetheless, it serves a great starting point for those looking to make their own fire/darkness deck.


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