Last month, the 808-blog posted that the TCG would receive a new set of 60 cards. These 60 cards would be 10 foil reprints of previous rares/commons and 50 new cards, including 25 XYZ monsters (of which 6 chaos Xyz). While everybody was rejoicing of this great news, I was one of the few calling it bullshit.
The stats didn't add up
Why, you ask? I’m a statistics person and thus I’m keeping a list of all OCG promo cards that need a print in the TCG. While the "50 new cards" part is quite possible (there are more than 50 ocg promo cards that need a tcg print, fyi); the 25 new xyz, including 6 chaos xyz was statistically not possible at the time of the announcement. The extra part of new Heroic Challenger cards was just as hilarious, since at that point in time, all Heroic Challenger cards were printed. But yeah, the 808-blog is infamous of giving us info on products before Konami confirms it (remember the Zexal tin and the Star Pack? Yeah, they got that info first too). So I had my doubts about it being BS.
So I started thinking. In the past year, the OCG did get a ridiculous amount of new promo cards, compared to all previous years. I guess it was all a build-up towards this kind of release? I was skeptically accepting the post as “truth”, but kept my Big-Eyes out on OCG-news.
"I spy with my little eye..."
And then came the (at least for me) stress releasing post on shriek, at the beginning of this month:
Number Hunters Vs Collector’s pack Zexal Edition
Take a look a the following two links:
The first one is the product page of Number Hunters (more on that further on). The other one is a Shriek post that says that upcoming August, the OCG gets a similar set to Number Hunters, but this will have 50 cards (instead of 60), containing new ones and reprints. Suddenly my stats did add up (rejoice!).
The surprising thing here is that we get Number Hunters in July, while the OCG gets the set in August. Did you know that it is the first time we get this kind of set BEFORE the OCG?
"Wow, that's a shocker!"
So what is going to be in there?
A while ago, the product page of Number Hunters came online (see the first link previously mentioned), providing both OCG and TCG a glimpse of what’s going to be in the Number Hunters (and thus also the Collector’s pack). The glimpse turned out to be half of the whole set. This is what we got on info:
- The set will be released on July 12th (or 11th in Europe). The boosters will be similar to Hidden Arsenal boosters (4 super rares and 1 secret rare).
- We now know 21 of the promised 25 new XYZ monsters, including all 6 chaos XYZ.
- We know 14 other new cards (that’s a total of 35 of the 50 new cards), including new Chronomaly cards, new Gimmick Puppet cards and (indeed) new Heroic Challenger cards.
- The fun part is: A lot of the new monsters didn't appear in the anime yet at the time of announcement, providing us with a sneak peek of what was to come in the anime (that's cool).
- Two OCG promo cards (of the 10) are already confirmed to be printed in this set: Nr 15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Grinder and Coach King Giantrainer (does that mean Wolfberk finally gets a TCG print as well?). More likely is the Chronomaly and Gimmick Puppet cards from the last OCG Premium Pack.
Gimmick Puppet? They might as well have named them "Creepy Puppet".
Any good cards in there?
Of the revealed cards, some were quite vaguely printed, making it unable to get the effect (wonder what effect Queen of the Night will have). But of those whose effect was clear enough to get, these are good:
- Number 74: Master of Blades: This requires 2 Lv. 7 monsters (everybody loves Lv 7 monsters lately). It has 2700 attack and when targeted by a card effect, you can detach 1 to negate and destroy the card effect. Also, it’s a psychic XYZ!
- Mechquipped Engineer: This Light Fairy requires 2 Lv. 3 monsters and has the ability to place 1 of your attack monsters into defense, during either player’s turn (!). It also makes the target invulnerable to destruction. It’s a good defense and helps decks like Karakuri and Morphtronic.
- Comic Hero King Arthur: Never thought they would print this one, considering the Noble Knight archetype, but hey… here’s another King Arthur XYZ (lol). This one, however, is splashable in any warrior deck. If this card would be destroyed by battle (including suicide attacks), you can detach 1 XYZ material instead. While doing so, this card gains 500 attack (permanently) and the opponent takes 500 damage. Considering this card has a base attack of 2400, this makes him a nice addition to the extra deck.
- CXyz Comic Hero Legend Arthur: If you would use rank-up magic on a warrior to make this, it might be worth your while. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by battle (3000 attack makes it nice). And if you upgraded King Arthur, you can banish the monster this card destroys by battle and inflict burn damage equal to the destroyed monster’s original attack (wow).
- Skypalace Gangaridai: Forget Gustav Max, here’s the new rank 10 XYZ: Gagiga …Gangreen… Gangaridai! Detach 1 xyz material to destroy 1 card your opponent controls (card, not monster). And if the destruction is a success, you can burn your opponent for 1000 lifepoints. The effect can only be applied once per turn (they learned their lesson, huh) and this card cannot attack when its effect is used, but it can be upgraded via Rank-up Magic and can then still attack (you know, the Gaia Dragon syndrome).
- CXYZ Skypalace Babylon: The upgrade of Gangaridai. It has 3800 attack, has a great burn effect if it destroys an opponent’s monster and if you upgraded Gangaridai instead of Gustav Max, you can detach 1 XYZ material to attack once more (did I mention the 3800 attack and the burn effect when it destroys another monster?). So this is Konami’s way of saying “Please try out the rank-up magic cards. It now comes with a free burn OTK”.
- Box of friends: This trap lets you summon 2 monsters with 0 attack or defense from your deck. This ain't the full effect yet (I bet), but if this is it, I see this card being very useful in certain decks (like Zombies).
Buy Number Hunters. It now comes with burn OTK cards!
And the reprints?
Well, the 10 foil reprints are unknown at this point, but they shouldn't be too amazing (the reprints are anime cards and the Zexal anime cards suck by default). And if you think about it, the foil reprints should be mostly reprints of Heroic Challenger and Chronomaly cards.
"Come on, you all wanted a foil version of Heroic Gift, right?"
Afterword
Ever since the Duel Terminal and Hidden Arsenal series ended, we were kind of wondering what Konami would do as a follow-up. Guess this is the answer, huh.
Will we see more releases like this one? Only time will tell.
Until next time, V out.
Note: Big Eye and Shock Master are not in this set. They're only in this post for the function of comic relief.
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