Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 16!

Season's greetings and welcome to another festive edition of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, a little fun we've been having going through the 2019 Yu-Gi-Oh Advent Calender in a slightly interesting way.

Thus begins the last full week before Christmas!

A bright light blasts out the sixteenth door! It's Kuriphoton!

General Observation:

Kuriphoton has a damage-nullifying effect, but for a price. You have to discard it and also give up 2000 life points. However, after paying that cost, you take absolutely no damage for the rest of the turn. It's best pulled out when you still have a relatively high number of points (or a lot of effects to restore them) and you're about to take a big hit from an opponent's Monster or damaging effect. On top of that, you can discard another Photon Monster from your hand to bring Kuriphoton back there from your graveyard once per turn, meaning you could potentially use it more than once. (Especially if you have a combo to constantly restore your LP to help mitigate the cost.)

Trivia Observation:

Kuriphoton was originally exclusively printed in the Zexal Collection Tin before later appearing in Legendary Duelists: White Dragon Abyss. Its anime debut was in Episode 69 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal where it was used during the three-on-one duel where Yuma Tsukumo, Kite Tenjo, and Shark took on Dr. Faker. As it's a Photon card, it was used by Kite, whose hair this Kuriboh's spike is modeled after, much like with Yuma and Kurivolt. Its effect also differed in the anime, where instead of giving up 2000 LP, you had to give up half. (Meaning you could theoretically use it more times in a row by just continuing to halve your points.)

Personal Observation:

Another I forgot existed! Kuribohs exist in all flavors.

Kuriphoton's dashing away at lightspeed, but come back tomorrow for another Kuriboh contender on Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 10!

It's time again for another link in the chain known only as Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, a little series celebrating both Christmas AND easily-underestimated Monsters.

Only two weeks of boxes to go!

It's our most colorful fellow yet -- it's Rainbow Kuriboh!

General Observation:

Rainbow Kuriboh outdoes the usual family norm by having TWO useful safety net effects. For starters, you can halt an opponent's Monster from attacking by equipping Rainbow Kuriboh to it from your hand when it declares battle and keep it from attacking so long as RK is equipped to it. If that wasn't enough, if your foe finds a way to shed the little gumdrop, sending it to your graveyard and then declares a direct attack, you can special summon him back to take the attack for you. (Though he's banished after using his second effect.) You can only use both effects once per turn, though, so don't think about using three RKs in a single turn to completely petrify your opponent's field.

Trivia Observation:

Rainbow Kuriboh was first printed in the TCG set Legacy of the Valiant. He was the second Kuriboh Monster owned by Yuma Tsukumo in both the Zexal anime and manga (originally held by Yuma's father Kazuma) and made his animated debut in Episode 118. (His one and only manga appearance was in chapter 38.)

Personal Observation:

This is more or less who I expected to follow up Kurivolt. He may be our most useful card yet!

RK's cleared up, but come back tomorrow for another of his Kuriboh cousins to get the spotlight on Day 11 of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 9!

Wow, we're almost ten days in. Everything is just flying by. Anywho, salutations and welcome to another installment of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, where we're making our way through 2019's Yu-Gi-Oh Advent Calendar and spouting all the gibberish we can find on each card.

The day is 9. Will it be fine?

We've jumped from 5D's to Zexal with our sparky little bud, Kurivolt.

General Observation:

Kurivolt is interesting simply because it kinda has a built-in "Multiply" effect. When it's in play, you can detach material from any Xyz Monster in play (yours OR your opponent's) to special summon up to two more copies of Kurivolt from your deck. You can't use Kurivolt as Synchro material, but you're free game to use any of your little spark plugs as fodder for tributes, tribute summons, OR Xyz summons, so go nuts depending on your strategy. Kurivolt's perfect both for building up a Monster supply on your field and for disarming your opponent's Xyz Monsters' potentially dangerous effects. (Do keep in mind that you need three copies of Kurivolt to use it to its utmost potential.)

Trivia Observation:

Kurivolt was originally printed in the TCG set Order of Chaos. It appeared in the Zexal anime as part of Yuma Tsukumo's deck starting with Episode 18. (You may know Yuma as being the partner of the namesake of this stupid little blog series, Astral.) Like Junkuriboh sharing Yusei's stamp, Kurivolt shares Yuma's little hair spike. The anime version's effect also differed from the OCG/TCG in that there was no limitation on Syncho summoning and its main effect summoned Kurivolt Tokens rather than full-on Kurivolt.

Personal Observation:

Figured this one would be coming along eventually, though the order of these keeps throwing me off. They've definitely kept it interesting.

Kurivolt's out of juice, but come back tomorrow for another fresh dose of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!