Crystal Beast
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"Crystal Beast", known as "Gem Beast" (
There are seven main Crystal Beasts, each representing a different gemstone and animal. Their boss monster, "Rainbow Dragon", requires 7 different "Crystal Beast" monsters in order to be Summoned. In addition to the 7 main "Crystal Beasts", there is an eighth "Crystal Beast", "Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon", which is based on "Rainbow Dragon" rather than any specific gemstone.
All "Crystal Beasts" share an effect to become a Continuous Spell Card when destroyed in a Monster Zone. Many of their support cards revolve around this effect.
Contents
Design
The "Crystal Beasts", whose original name is "Gem Beasts", as their name says, are all animals which have each a different kind of gem in their bodies. Their different gems' colors form the seven colors of the rainbow, reflecting the name and design of their ace, "Rainbow Dragon". Their nomenclature is "Crystal Beast (gem) (animal)", and their attack names are "[gem] [body part/attack]".
The Advanced Crystal Beasts have almost the same attack names as their standard counterparts, but with the addition of "Dark" between the gem and the attack/body part.
Members
Color | Crystal Beast | Origin | Attack name | Unique effect | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gem | Animal | English | Japanese | |||
Red | Ruby Carbuncle | Ruby | Carbuncle | Ruby Sonic | ルビー・フラッシュ Ruby Flash |
Special Summon as many "Crystal Beast" monsters from its controller's Spell & Trap Zone as possible when it is Special Summoned. |
Orange | Amber Mammoth | Amber | Mammoth | Amber Stomp | アンバー・スタンプ Amber Stomp |
Redirects an attack targeting another "Crystal Beast" monster on its controller's side of the field to itself. |
Yellow | Topaz Tiger | Topaz | Tiger | Topaz Incisor Shred | トーパズ・バイト Topaz Bite |
Gains 400 ATK when attacking an opponent's monster during the Damage Step. |
Green | Emerald Tortoise | Emerald | Tortoise | Emerald Cutter | エメラルド・カッター Emerald Cutter |
Changes one of its controller's monsters that attacked this turn to Defense Position once per turn. |
Blue | Cobalt Eagle | Cobalt | Eagle | Cobalt Wing | コバルト・ウィング Cobalt Wing |
Returns a "Crystal Beast" card on its controller's side of the field to the top of their Deck once per turn. |
Indigo | Sapphire Pegasus | Sapphire | Pegasus | Sapphire Tornado | サファイア・トルネード Sapphire Tornado |
Places a "Crystal Beast" monster from its controller's hand, Deck, or Graveyard face-up in their Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell Card when it is Summoned. |
Violet | Amethyst Cat | Amethyst | Cat | Amethyst Power Pounce | アメジスト・ネール Amethyst Nail |
Attacks the opponent directly, but the battle damage it inflicts when using this effect is halved. |
Rainbow | Rainbow Dragon[a] | N/A | Rainbow | N/A | N/A | Special Summons itself from the hand when a "Crystal Beast" monster battles, also it can be banished while treated as a Continuous Spell to Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Crystal Beast" monster from the Deck with its effects negated and add 1 "Ultimate Crystal" monster from the Deck to the hand. |
- ↑ Card game original support based on "Rainbow Dragon"; not one of the original 7 "Crystal Beast" monsters.
Playing style
"Crystal Beast" Decks revolve around placing "Crystal Beast" monsters in the Spell & Trap Zone as Continuous Spell Cards to enable a variety of effects. Many of their powerful Spell and Trap support cards rely on having many "Crystal Beast" cards in the Spell & Trap Zone, such as "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins", and "Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle" can Summon them to fill the field.
The archetype has many cards to help put their monsters in the Spell & Trap Zone, most notably "Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus" and "Crystal Bond" each placing a "Crystal Beast" monster from the Deck in the Spell & Trap Zone, and "Golden Rule" placing 2 such cards while Special Summoning a monster. Notably, "Crystal Bond" can search "Sapphire Pegasus", and subsequently Normal Summoning it will fulfill the conditions for "Crystal Beacon", which can Special Summon "Ruby Carbuncle" from the Deck, triggering its effect and resulting in 4 monsters on the field. Likewise, "Golden Rule" can Special Summon a "Ruby Carbuncle" from the hand or GY. While most "Crystal Beast" monsters have no effects in the Spell & Trap Zone, "Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon" can Special Summon a monster from Deck by banishing itself while it's a Continuous Spell, making it an ideal card to place in the Spell & Trap Zone with these cards as it helps facilitate a Rank 4 Xyz Summon if placed by "Sapphire Pegasus".
Usually, the Deck's primary goal is to gather enough "Crystal Beast" monsters to Summon a powerful "Ultimate Crystal" monster. Once 7 "Crystal Beast" monsters with different names have been gathered, a player can Special Summon "Rainbow Dragon", Tribute it to Special Summon "Rainbow Overdragon", then banish "Rainbow Dragon" and the 7 "Crystal Beasts" to Special Summon "Ultimate Crystal Rainbow Dragon Overdrive" with 11,000 ATK. "Overdrive's" effect to clear the entire field as a Quick Effect and Special Summon a horde of "Crystal Beast" monsters also makes it a powerful boardbreaker, disruptor and OTK enabler. "Ultimate Crystal Magic" can also advance this goal by quickly Fusion Summoning "Overdragon".
In addition to their primary goal in Summoning "Ultimate Crystal" monsters, the Deck also has many powerful disruption effects. "Crystal Miracle" can negate any card effect, while "Crystal Conclave" can return a card from each side of the field to the hand, disurpting the opponent's plays while letting the player reuse the on-Summon effect of "Sapphire Pegasus". "Crystal Abundance" can also act as a surprise blowout card by clearing the field and swarming the field for an OTK.
The archetype's swarming capabilities can also help facilitate powerful Xyz Summons and Link Summons. Since "Sapphire Pegasus" and "Cobalt Eagle" are WIND monsters, they can be used to Xyz Summon "Lightning Chidori". Furthermore, the archetype primarily consisting of Beast and Winged Beast monsters leads to synergies with "Tri-Brigade" cards, with "Tri-Brigade Shuraig the Ominous Omen" searching a Beast or Winged Beast when it is sent to the GY. Finally, the lack of once-per-turn clauses on "Sapphire Pegasus" and "Ruby Carbuncle" make them prime targets for the effect of "Worldsea Dragon Zealantis".
The primary drawback to the archetype is its reliance on having 7 different "Crystal Beast" names in order to Summon an "Ultimate Crystal" monster, since besides the aforementioned "Sapphire Pegasus", "Ruby Carbuncle" and "Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon", many of the other members of the archetype have mediocre, outdated effects, with only "Cobalt Eagle" having a niche use at best due to its ability to recycle a "Sapphire Pegasus". As a result, these Decks are often forced to play suboptimal "Crystal Beasts" in order to work efficiently, even if only at 1 copy each. Thankfully, the myriad of options to place them directly in the Spell & Trap Zone from the Deck can prevent them from becoming dead draws. Alternatively, an "Advanced Crystal Beast" variant can substitute the original "Amber Mammoth", "Amethyst Cat", "Topaz Tiger" and "Emerald Tortoise" with the "Advanced Crystal Beast" versions of "Sapphire Pegasus", "Ruby Carbuncle", and "Cobalt Eagle" to achieve the requisite 7 names at the cost of the three's reliance on "Advanced Dark" to stay on the field as monsters.
Since the interactions with Monster Cards as Continuous Spells are not always obvious to recognize, here are some helpful tips regarding the issue:
- "Crystal Beast" support cards such as "Crystal Beacon" only require "Crystal Beast" cards in the Spell & Trap Zone, not Continuous Spells specifically, so they can be used even if they're treated as Equip Cards from an effect like "Destiny HERO - Plasma" or even as Continuous Trap Cards by the effect of "Psychic Megacyber".
- If a card such as "Macro Cosmos" is preventing cards from reaching the Graveyard, this will NOT prevent "Crystal Beasts" from using their effects to place themselves in the Spell & Trap Zone, as they would never hit the Graveyard in the first place.
- While "Dimensional Fissure" is active, "Crystal Beasts" in the Spell & Trap Zones that are removed from the field by cards like "Rare Value" or "Mystical Space Typhoon" will be sent to the Graveyard, not banished.
Techs
- Since "Rainbow Bridge of Salvation" can search any Field Spell Card, the following cards have some synergy with the Deck:
- "Duel Academy" has a few utility effects. Many "Crystal Beast" monsters are Beast, enabling its first effect to destroy a card after one of the archetype's disruptive Traps resolves, and "Ruby Carbuncle" is Fairy, enabling its third effect to give monsters a permanent ATK boost.
- "Dragon Ravine" can send "Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon" to the GY to help fulfill the Summoning condition for "Ultimate Crystal" monsters.
- "Mound of the Bound Creator" can help protect "Ultimate Crystal" monsters.
- "Pressured Planet Wraitsoth" can search "Kashtira Fenrir", which in addition to being generically useful due to its banish effect, searches "Kashtira Riseheart" to enable the Xyz Summon of "Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack", whose Tokens can be used to Link Summon "Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss" to send "Ruby Carbuncle" to the GY for use with "Golden Rule". ("Riseheart" must be Normal Summoned in this case, since its Special Summon effect will prevent the player from Link Summoning.)
- "Vaylantz World - Shinra Bansho" can act as an additional Special Summon of a "Crystal Beast" monster in the Spell & Trap Zone.
- "Noble Knight's Shield-Bearer" is able to search either version of "Sapphire Pegasus" and is itself searchable by "Reinforcement of the Army"" and "Heritage of the Chalice". It can also search "Dynatherium as an extra level 4 WIND monster, or "Hop Ear Squadron", which can Synchro Summon "Vulcan the Divine" during the opponents turn as a disruptive play. "Heritage of the Chalice" can also search "Infernoble Arms - Hauteclere" which can quickly OTK the opponent if equipped to any of the deck's boss monsters or "Rainbow Neos".
- "Nemeses" monsters Special Summon themselves by returning banished monsters to the Deck, which offers a great way to recycle "Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon" while offering extra bodies to perform Extra Deck Summons with. "Nemeses Corridor" in particular is another Level 4 WIND monster for "Lightning Chidori".
Recommended cards
Weaknesses
- The management of maintaining vacant Zones in the Spell/Trap Card Zones can be irksome sometimes for this kind of Deck due to the balance between "Crystal Beasts" in said Zone for certain support cards as well as regular Spell/Traps to help this Deck further, a possible annoyance that can be hustled via cards like "Xing Zhen Hu", "Xing Zhen Hu Replica" and "Seismic Shockwave".
- Cards like "Banisher of the Light", "Dimensional Fissure", "Masked HERO Dark Law" and "Macro Cosmos" can prevent "Rainbow Dragon" from being Summoned by preventing "Crystal Beasts" from entering the GY.
Trivia
- In the English dub, each of the "Crystal Beast" monsters, except "Ruby Carbuncle", imitate the voice of a real-life movie celebrity.
- "Amber Mammoth" - Arnold Schwarzenegger
- "Amethyst Cat" - Eartha Kitt
- "Cobalt Eagle" - Don Adams
- "Emerald Tortoise" - Woody Allen
- "Sapphire Pegasus" - Christopher Lloyd
- "Topaz Tiger" - Sean Connery