Photon Shockwave World Premieres pt.2

Photon Shockwave is so close I can almost taste it. My binder has been a little empty lately, but PHSW has some great chase cards that many people will want. Exclusives are usually must-haves for any binder (Hello Karood) and PHSW is full of goodies.

PHSW-EN085 Latinum, Exarch of Dark World
DARK Fiend
Level 6 1500/2400
If this card is discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect: If it was discarded from your hand to your Graveyard by an opponent's card effect, target 1 Fiend-Type monster on the field; Special Summon this card from the Graveyard, then that target (if any) gains 500 ATK.
At first glance, Latinum is a 3rd Goldd/Sillva for the deck. Instead of dropping Level 5 2300 attackers, you get a 2400..defender? With 2400 defense, Latinum will stop attacks from most synchro monsters level 2-7. Without the Gates Field Spell in play, Goldd and Sillva can get trampled by your opponent's Hyper Librarian or...Tethys? Not interested in that? Well let's compare his secondary effect to the older cards:
Goldd: Target 2 cards your opponent controls and destroy those 2 cards.
Sillva: Your opponent returns 2 cards to the bottom of their deck from the hand in any order.
Latinum: Target 1 Fiend on your side of the field and increase its attack power by 500.
In order to get the 500 bonus attack, you must already control a Fiend, Latinum cannot increase itself. The practical application of this would be if your opponent controlled a high attack monster like Gorz, Emissary of Darkness and you have a face-up Goldd on the field with no field spell. Your opponent may foolishly activate Duality before attacking(perhaps to get Heavy Storm to destroy your f/d). You can chain Dark Deal to their Duality and force yourself to discard Latinum. Latinum will target Goldd, make it 2800ATK and Latinum will summon with 2400DEF. If the field spell WAS on the field, Goldd would have 3100 attack and Latinum will have 2700 defense, enough to survive combat with a non-fiend monster. Of course, other popular cards like Krystia will stop Latinum from giving ANYONE any attack or summoning itself, so Latinum becomes a tad bit situational. Most of the top Dark World players frown upon running high numbers of Goldd, Sillva, and other similar fiends anyway.

PHSW-EN086 Evolzar Dolkka
FIRE Dragon Xyz
Rank 4 2300/1700
2 Level 4 Dinosaur-Type monsters
When an Effect Monster's effect activates: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation and destroy it.
The second Dinosaur Xyz monster, akin to Laggia. Laggia only has 1 activation, but will stop just about anything, ensuring that he always torches at least 1 of the opponent's cards. Dolkka has 2 activations in its lifetime. In some decks, especially if you did not win the dice-roll, Dolkka can stop a lot of important, early game strategies your opponent has. Darksoul, Sangan, Tech Genus, Honest, and most of the Dark World deck all fall to Dolkka and stopping important searchers, powerful hand-traps, and other effects are just as good as Laggia's 1-time use. If anyone tells you that one card is better than the other, they are mistaken, as both cards have their own uses. We talked about how good D Fissure Dino-bunnies are, and there is absolutely no reason not to run this card.

PHSW-EN087 Wind-Up Zenmaines
FIRE Machine Xyz
1500/2100
2 Level 3 monsters
If this face-up card on the field would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card instead. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this effect was used this turn: Target 1 card on the field; destroy it.
My response to this card will look very similar to my response to D-Boyz and that is: Why? However, unlike D-Boyz, our "Why?" is the exact opposite: Why is this card so good!? No. 17 Leviathan Dragon is a great card, for the cost of 2 monsters, it becomes a 2500 Attacker. On your next turn, if it survives, you can make it 3000. Thanks to PHSW, you have another choice. You can stack Tour Guides, Airorcas, Marauding Captains, and any level 3 monsters to make this thing. At first glance, it can defend against most common level 4 monsters. At second glance, your opponent will probably not attack it with anything but Stardust Dragon, making it defend against most other monsters in the game. At third glance, it can suicide itself into any monster on your opponent's side of the field. You lose lifepoints, but Zenmaines will not die, instead, you get to destroy a card (usually the monster you attacked) in your end phase. Unfortunately, Wind-ups can not make Rank 3 Xyz very reliably, so you shouldn't expect to pair this awesome effect with Wind-up Factory.

The question is, at what point do you NOT summon Zenmaines and overlay into Leviathan Dragon instead? One would be against anything using Cyber Dragon. Zenmaines makes great food for Chimeratech and instantly removes Zenmaines. Against Gravekeepers, Dark World, Agents, and even X-sabers, you may face Gozen Match. if you aren't using a water or fire deck, the chances are that your Xyz monster will die to Gozen, no matter if it is Zenmaines or Levi Dragon. Interestingly enough, the chances of encountering another Water monster, such as Brionac, is much higher. If your opponent flips Gozen and you are forced to play water monsters, there is a higher chance you can find one SOMEWHERE (such as using Monster Reborn on Brionac). This isn't something to bet on, but this situation is far from unreasonable.

PHSW-EN088 Xyz Territory
Field Spell
When an Xyz Monster battles another monster, that Xyz Monster gains 200 ATK & DEF × its Rank, during damage calculation only. If this face-up card on the field would be destroyed by a card effect, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from a monster you control instead.
Xyz Territory does 1 simple thing, it makes your Xyz monsters stronger than your opponents. Well, it does the same for them too, but Xyz decks are not popular yet. There are many Xyz decks available thanks to PHSW, and more along the way, so perhaps some people will like to play Xyz Territory. Territory will make just about any Xyz monster a threat to your Synchro monsters. The lowest attack you will see is probably Roach at a new 2700 attack power. Other popular cards will range from 2400-2900 and even beyond that. Popular defenders like Gachi Gachi get a defense boost to make them even more annoying than before. The card does deal some pain, but most Xyz decks don't have space for fun cards.

PHSW-EN089 Dark Smog
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: You can target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; discard 1 Fiend-Type monster and banish that target.
Spend a little time on the internet and you will hear a full spectrum of opinions about Dark Smog.
"Dark Smog is awesome because it hits almost every deck in the format."
"Dark Smog is awesome because you can use it on your opponent's turn and your own."
"Dark Smog is awesome because of how scared Ryko looks."
"Dark Smog is terrible because traps are too slow in this format."
"Dark Smog is terrible because it is mostly a -1."
"Dark Smog is terrible because that Ryko is about to get smashed."

While all of those are correct, it is no question that Dark Worlds needed new discard outlets. Smog does that and more, it gives you a discard outlet at little cost while remaining on the field. In order to use Smog, you must already have it on the field for 1 turn and your opponent has to have monsters in their graveyard. Your opponent will put a card in the grave eventually, but it is very common for Dark Worlds to not attack over the opponent's monsters without discarding already. A good example would be against an opponent's first turn Raioh. At 1900, no level 4 Dark World can attack over Raioh without Gates being face-up. When situations like this arrise, Dark Smog is dead until you A) Destroy their Raioh, B) Draw into a discard outlet, or C) Your opponent purposely sends a monster to the graveyard. In my opinion, Dark Smog is a very good card, but hindered by the rest of the cards in the deck. If your opponent refuses to play into your strategy, you will have to rely on topdecking into a spell or trap that WILL put the game in your favor. Unfortunately, most Dark World players refuse to use Duality in the deck, something that I don't necessarily agree with; having dead cards is what makes Dark Worlds inconsistent.

Once you DO make Smog live, it can do serious work. Grapha loves Smog because it is a trap card. Using Smog in the end phase will make Grapha destroy cards that your opponent just set. Using it during the battle phase will destroy your opponent's attackers. Using it after Card Trooper, Charge of the Light Brigade, or chained to Pot of Avarice and Junk Synchron will slow down the fastest decks in the game. Using Smog may also allow you to play more monsters in the deck than usual. The basic skeleton is 3 Grapha, 3 Snoww, 2-3 Broww, and the rest is really up to the player. Since you only really need 1 Smog to make all of your cards live, you can make some really original builds with Smog and Duality.

The next booster pack to be released is Hidden Arsenal 5 on December 6th. If you don't like some of the current decks, take a look Gishki and Gemknights. A lot of new cards are extremely fun to play and worth a test or two.