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!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 8!

Welcome back to the start of another week of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, where we're taking in that holiday spirit one Kuriboh-related card at a time.

The date is eight, so let's hope it's great!

Seems we've taken a break from the Winged Kuriboh family to be introduced to Junkuriboh!

General Observation:

After a couple curveballs, we're back to a pretty standard Kuriboh family Monster. Junkuriboh shares the common Kuriboh trait of its effect kicking in after its sent to the graveyard, however, in a bit of a unique twist, you can send it there using its effect either from your hand OR field. Said effect negates the activation of and destroys cards that have effects that specifically deal damage to you, regardless of whether it's a Spell, Trap, or Monster. Handy if you're facing an opponent whose strategy heavily relies on dealing effect damage or if you want to nip a card like Ectoplasmer in the bud early on in order to save your Monsters from being forcibly tributed.

Trivia Observation:

Junkuriboh was first printed in the TCG set Premium Gold: Infinite Gold. As you could probably guess by the name, Junkuriboh first appeared in the special bonus chapters of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's manga under the ownership of Yusei Fudo. Y'see, for years, Yusei was the ONLY Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist to NOT have his own Kuriboh Monster and it took until even the 5D's manga had already ended (said special chapters were printed afterwards) for him to finally join the Kuriboh club. (Junkuriboh even has Yusei's "criminal" face mark, he was so custom-made for him.)

Junkuriboh's manga effect differed a bit from what eventually saw print in the TCG. Originally, Junkuriboh could negate attacks as well as effect damage, however the caveat for said effect was that said attack or damage HAD to be enough to potentially bring your LP down to 0. Guess they had to make his effect in the game more generally and less situationally useful.

Personal Observation:

Wow, I COMPLETELY forgot that those special chapters existed. Guess I need to reread the 5D's manga.

Junkuriboh's all done, but come back tomorrow for another card on Day 9 of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 7!

Whoa, we've already done a whole week of these! Christmas'll be here before ya know it! I've got a lot more specials and movies to get in. Anyway, welcome to the seventh installment of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, a Chrismassy love letter to one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most adorable mascots.

Lucky 7! Can we roll a jackpot?

It's another Spell and our first card to not have ANY anime or manga appearances! It's Berserker Crush!

General Observation:

Berserker Crush is the perfect troll card, as it allows you to banish a Monster from your graveyard in order to give its stats to your face-up Winged Kuriboh. Your imposing Five-Headed Dragon quickly taken down by a card like Lightning Vortex or Dark Renewal without so much as a thought? Spring this card on your foe when he thinks he's in the clear to take down your Winged Kuriboh and watch his Monster bounce off of 5000 ATK/DEF with a serious life point loss. (Since it's a Quick-Play Spell, you can use it on either turn!) Also perfect for if your strongest Monster is already gone and you need something to turn the tide.

Trivia Observation:

Berserker Crush was originally printed in the 5D's era set Hidden Arsenal. Though this card has made no anime or manga appearances yet, there's actually still a connection to the GX manga: "Berserker Crush" is actually the name of the attack used by Winged Kuriboh LV9 in said manga and the effect of the real-life Spell even references LV9's manga-exclusive effect of gaining power through the banishing of Monsters.

Personal Observation:

Was actually reminded of this card's existence while researching LV9, so figured it'd be popping up pretty soon.

That concludes Week 1, but come back tomorrow for the beginning of a whole new week of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 6!

Welcome back to Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, where we're ringing in the holidays with trading cards. It's not your typical yuletide celebration, but we like it.

The door to Day 6 reveals...

...probably the most unexpected card yet! It's Sabatiel - The Philosopher's Stone!

General Observation:

Sabatiel is an interesting card, both because its only Kuriboh connection is that you need a "Winged Kuriboh"-related Monster in your graveyard in order to activate its first effect and because you won't receive its full benefits unless you have three copies of it in your deck. 

Normally, a single copy of Sabatiel allows you to pay half of your life points to add a Fusion support card (such as Polymerization or Fusion Recovery) to your hand, so very handy for Fusion-heavy decks like Elemental Heroes and Cyber Dragons. However, if there are THREE copies of it in your graveyard, you can banish all three to increase the ATK of one Monster on the field by the same amount as the total ATK of the Monster in play with the HIGHEST ATK until the end of the turn, so this could potentially be quite the game changer. 

You may think it risky to stack your grave with copies of Sabatiel due to the LP cost of each one, but you can easily save your points by sending them there in another fashion, such as the hand cost to activate cards like Tribute to the Doomed and Spell Reproduction.

Trivia Observation:

Sabatiel - The Philosopher's Stone was first printed in the TCG set Dragons of Legend. (A set that was most noteworthy for finally bringing a lot of formerly anime-exclusive cards to print including the Legendary Dragons of Atlantis and their related cards.) 

Sabatiel made its anime debut in Episodes 48 and 49 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as essentially a deus ex machina provided to Jaden Yuki by Professor Banner to use in his climactic battle against Duel Academy's power-hungry superintendent (yes really) Kagemaru. 

Unlike a lot of anime cards, Sabatiel's effect was essentially the same as what eventually saw print with the exception of it being a single magical card that could be used four times rather than requiring multiple copies in the grave and it multiplying the ATK of one Monster by the number of Monsters on your opponent's field rather than by a single value. (Resulting in the ridiculous 14500 ATK for Electrum above.)

Personal Observation:

This one definitely took me by surprise! Interested to see if there are any other cards in this box with smaller connections to Kuriboh that I've forgotten about.

Day 6 has come to an end, but come back tomorrow for the conclusion of the first week of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 5!

Welcome back to the fifth installment of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel, a catalogued December journey through the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG 2019 Advent Calendar rife with less-than-basic strategies and bonus trivia largely culled from the YGO Wiki.

Less than twenty doors to go!

We've got another curveball today! It's our first GX era Kuriboh, but one that was introduced a bit later in the manga. It's Winged Kuriboh LV9!

General Observation:

Unlike the previous effect Monsters we've seen in this Calendar, this guy can't just be normal summoned right away. You have to either tribute summon him by offering other Monsters or special summon him using either a general card with that ability or by using his very unique effect. Said effect allows him to be special summoned from your hand by activating it as part of a Spell/Trap/Effect chain composed of either your or your opponent's cards. (Said chain also has to encompass at least two cards before Winged Kuriboh LV9 comes in.) 

He's also unique among Kuribohs in that his ATK and DEF are question marks and their true values are decided by the number of Spell Cards in your opponent's graveyard. (He gains 500 ATK/DEF for every one.) However, as long as he's face up on the field, Spell Cards are banished rather than sent to the graveyard, so it's best to only bust him out after your opponent has activated quite a few Spells. Also keep in mind that only one copy of this card can exist on both sides of the field at the same time, so best not to count on special summoning multiple roided-up fuzzballs.

Trivia Observation:

Winged Kuriboh LV9 was originally printed as an included promo card with Volume 3 of the GX manga. His appearance in said manga was in Chapter 21, where Jaden Yuki uses him to turn the tables on Seika Kohinata's snake deck fronted by Evil Dragon Ananta. (Ananta the Snake Dragon in the manga.) 

Interestingly, his effect was completely different in the manga, being special summoned by banishing Monsters using a separate Spell Card, Alchemical Experiment. (His ATK and DEF values were also determined by the banished Monsters rather than the opponent's Spells.) The manga version was also destroyed at the end of the turn, creating obvious parallels with another member of the Winged Kuriboh lineage I'm sure we'll be seeing by the end of December.

Personal Observation:

Whoa, definitely wasn't expecting to see this guy first in the GX era cards. Makes me very interested in seeing who's next.

That's all I've got on LV9, but come back tomorrow for a different fuzzball or fuzzball-affiliate on Day 6 of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!

Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 4!

We're moving right along with Day 4 of the series affectionately dubbed Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel! You read, I open an Advent Calendar door, and I yammer on about fuzzballs for way too long. It's a magical process.

Today's door brings us back to the "Winged Kuriboh" side of the box. What could be floating just above his head?

It's one of the more recent additions to the Kuriboh family, Clear Kuriboh!

General Observation:

Clear Kuriboh is very much like its original counterpart in that you can discard it to avoid damage. However, Clear Kuriboh deals exclusively in Monster effect-inflicted damage, negating said effect upon being dropped. This guy also has an additional effect on top of that: if you're about to take a direct attack and he's resting in your grave, you can banish him to draw a card. If said card is a Monster, you can then special summon it and change the attack target to that card. Quite handy for tight spots. (Especially if you run something like a Blue-Eyes deck with scores of easily special summoned Monsters.)

Trivia Observation:

Clear Kuriboh was originally printed exclusively in the Dark Side of Dimensions Movie Pack and its Gold equivalent released around the time of the actual film in the West. Given that information, you'd probably assume he was part of the film as well. You'd be correct, as his effect-cancelling and monster summoning abilities were put to good use by Yugi during his and Kaiba's little duel against the Millenium Ring-corrupted Diva in the film's climax.

Personal Observation:

Ha! Honestly forgot about this guy. Should be fun to see what other members of the Kuriboh family my mind blanked on as we continue.

20 days to go, so be sure to report back here tomorrow for more of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!