Kashtira
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 "Kashtira Unicorn", "Kashtira Riseheart" (behind "Unicorn"), and "Tearlaments Reinoheart" (inside the canister) in the artwork of "Kashtira Preparations" | |||||||||||||
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"Kashtira", known as "Kshatrira" (クシャトリラ Kushatorira) in the OCG, is an archetype of primarily Level/Rank 7 Psychic monsters introduced in Darkwing Blast.
Lore
Etymology
"Kshatrira" appears to be a portmanteau of Kshatriya and ira (Latin for "anger"). The 3 Main Deck members introduced in "Darkwing Blast" are named after mythological creatures. Their names combine to form "UFO" (Unicorn, Fenrir, and Ogre).
Design
All members (and their structures, as depicted in "Kashtira Birth" and "Pressured Planet Wraitsoth") were depicted in a futuristic Japanese dystopian style. All "Kashtira" monsters have a primarily red and black color scheme, with purple accents on the Main Deck monsters. All "Kashtira" monsters are depicted as bio-mechanical beings with several parts of their body either grafted or replaced with cybernetic parts.
The exceptions to these designs are "Kashtira Riseheart", who appears to wear a Japanese-style armor and has a similar "galactic arm" as "Visas Starfrost", and "Kashtira Shangri-Ira", which is essentially "Pressured Planet Wraitsoth" (the home world of "Kashtira" monsters) summoned as a monster itself.
Their own art, as well as related Spells and Traps, depict them as alien invaders onto "Primitive Planet Reichphobia" and later "Primeval Planet Perlereino", taking resources and abducting their inhabitants away in canisters (manifested in gameplay as banishing face-down).
Playing style
"Kashtira" is an archetype focused around primarily Level 7 Psychic monsters and banishing cards face-down. Most members of the archetype, excluding "Kashtira Riseheart", are Level 7 monsters able to Special Summon themselves if the player controls no monsters or by some other condition, such as with "Scareclaw Kashtira" and "Tearlaments Kashtira", are able to search cards while on the field, and can banish their opponent's cards (from various different locations) if they attack or if the opponent activates a monster effect.
The "U.F.O" Level 7 "Kashtira" monsters ("Kashtira Unicorn", "Kashtira Fenrir", and "Kashtira Ogre") are the key playmakers of the deck. Each of the "U.F.O" trio can be Special Summoned if you have no monsters on your field; each has an effect to search a "Kashtira" monster, spell, or trap card; and each has an effect to banish an opponent's card face-down from various places whenever they attack, or when any of the opponent's monsters activate their effects.
| Monster | Search | Banish | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unicorn | "Kashtira" Spell card | 1 card from the opponent's Extra Deck. | Can search either "Kashtiratheosis" to summon another "Kashtira" monster for more search effects, or "Kashtira Birth" to utilize other "Kashtira" monsters in your hand or that are banished. Its banish effect is useful for eliminating potentially dangerous cards from the opponent's Extra Deck. |
| Fenrir | "Kashtira" Monster card | 1 face-up card on the opponent's Field. | Can search "Kashtira Riseheart", which can be immediately Special Summoned by its own effect and activate its Level change effect. Its banish effect can be used as a form of removal when going second or as an interruption during the opponent's turn. |
| Ogre | "Kashtira" Trap card | 1 of up to 5 card(s) excavated from the opponent's top Deck. | Can search either "Kashtira Preparations" to set up grind game, or "Kashtira Big Bang" as a removal option. Its banish effect allows the player to foresee any card that the opponent might draw in the next turn (provided that the opponent doesn't use any effect that has them shuffling their deck before their Draw Phase) and eliminate the one that might counter your game plans. |
This banish play style is further emphasized through their original boss monster "Kashtira Shangri-Ira", a Rank 7 Xyz Monster with 0 ATK that can Special Summon more "Kashtira" monsters to the field for each Standby Phase and lockdown unused Main Monster Zones as well as Spell & Trap Zones each time an opponent's card in their possession is banished face-down.
In Photon Hypernova, the deck's swarming capability is enhanced with the introduction of "Kashtira Riseheart", a Level 4 FIRE Warrior monster that can special summon itself if you have a "Kashtira" monster on your field at a cost of locking you into Xyz summon that turn. "Riseheart" can banish a "Kashtira" card from your Deck to banish the top 3 cards of the opponent's Deck, face-down, and become Level 7 itself for use in Xyz Summons and set up the banish zone in the progress.
In addition, two "hybrid" extenders based on a "captured" members of the Broken World storyline were introduced; "Scareclaw Kashtira" and "Tearlaments Kashtira". Both has an effect to special summon themselves by banishing one "Kashtira" card or a card from their respective archetypes from player's hand or GY, and has a unique effect in reference to their "original" forms and were thus compatible with their original archetypes, allowing "Kashtira" Decks to be played in combination with "Scareclaw" and "Tearlaments" using these cards as a "bridge" to link them together.
| Monster | Based on | Unique effects | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scareclaw Kashtira | Scareclaw Tri-Heart |
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Versatile extender that can either "unbrick" your hand in case you opened with multiple "U.F.O Kashtiras" or set them up for special summon in the banish zone using either "Kashtira Birth" or "Kashtira Preparations". Its unique battle-related effects allows it to attack after being summoned with "Kashtiratheosis", as well as providing non-target effect negate whenever it or other "Kashtira" monster attacks, thus countering any battle-related monster effects or targeting protection in the process. |
| Tearlaments Kashtira | Tearlaments Kitkallos | Aside from its summoning condition, its milling effect has little to no synergy with "Kashtira" game plans, as "Kashtira" decks can search, dump, and banish their cards with good consistency without using random mill. This effect is, however, more useful in "Tearlaments" Deck, of which it can be used as a bridge for both theme's playstyle. |
The main offensive boss monster of "Kashtira" is "Kashtira Arise-Heart", a 3000 ATK monster able to be quickly Xyz Summoned once per turn using any 1 "Kashtira" monster on the field the same turn that "Shangri-Ira" used its effect and able to force any cards send to the GY to be banished instead, as well as granting itself more materials to use 3 materials and banish any card on the field, face-down.
"Kashtira" Spell/Trap cards focus on summoning/recovering additional "Kashtira" monsters, and either banishing opponents' cards if the opponent activates a card of the same type, or activating an effect when they're banished themselves. When properly set up, "Kashtira" Spell/Trap provides an excellent resource recovery capabilities as well as a bonus interruption.
| Kashtira | Type | Effects | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pressured Planet Wraitsoth | Field Spell |
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Non-archetypical Field Spell and the main searcher of the theme. Provides additional utility and removal option while on the field. |
| Birth | Continuous Spell |
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Main "Kashtira" monster recovery tool and a generic support for Level 7 monsters, with an additional anti-GY bonus effect. |
| Theosis | Normal Spell |
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Extender that is easily searchable through "Kashtira Unicorn" for consistency boost and more swarming capabilities. The banish effect is useful for recovering other "Kashtira" cards (especially Spell/Trap) in your Banishment, of which it can do so multiple times by attaching it to "Kashtira Arise-Heart". |
| Akstra | Quick-Play Spell |
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Highly situational card that requires using "Visas Starfrost" as a largely unusable garnet, and thus not useful for "Kashtira" game plans. |
| Overlap |
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Situational ATK booster that is only usable within the theme by banishing "Kashtira Riseheart". While not often used, it is primarily utilized for its negation effect that can be triggered by banishing it with "Riseheart" or the "Hybrid Kashtira", or attach/detach with "Arise-Heart". | |
| Preparations | Continuous Trap |
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Secondary resource recovery tool, being capable of summoning "Arise-Heart" or "Shangri-Ira" in your Banishment back to the field, as well as punishing the opponent from using Trap Cards. |
| Big Bang | Normal Trap |
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An "Evenly Matched"-like mass removal. Though it is usually played as a garnet to be banished with the effect of "Kashtira Riseheart" to summon the material from "Shangri-Ira". |
While "Kashtira" decks were usually played as a lockdown deck to prevent the opponent from summoning any monsters and/or using any Spell/Trap cards, the ability to quickly summon various Level 7 monsters — usually without Normal Summon — also allows the deck to either form the core of the "7-Axis" strategy to exploit various generic Rank 7 monsters, or to further utilize various Tuner monster hand traps such as "Effect Veiler" or the Yo-kai Girl series to summon Level 8 or 10 Synchro Monsters. This is especially apparent after the ban of "Kashtira Arise-Heart" and "Number 89: Diablosis the Mind Hacker" in the TCG in late 2023 (due to these monsters were primarily used to facilitate lockdown), which resulted in the Deck being repurposed as a blind going second control/midrange strategy, of which it also managed to found competitive success like the "zone lock" variant.
Externally, due to the aforementioned non-reliance on Normal Summon, "Kashtira" decks also synergize well with the Adventurer series, as "Kashtira" monsters can easily trigger the basic search effects of "Fateful Adventure". In addition, the two key interruptions of the series, "Wandering Gryphon Rider" and "Illegal Knight" are Level 7 monsters that can be either Special Summoned first by their own effects (which can be chained together to summon both at once) as a generic starter, as an additional extender/interruption while "Adventurer Token" is on the field, or as extra materials summoned through the effect of "Kashtira Birth".
Recommended cards
Weakness
- "Kashtira" deck relies heavily on banishing cards to make their plays. Because of this, anti-banish floodgate such as "Imperial Iron Wall" and "Chaos Hunter" can disable most of the main plays. "Chaos Hunter" in particular is especially dangerous in a Mirror Match due to its floodgate effect are one-sided and can also be easily summoned by the opponent's "Kashtira" cards.
- As the "Kashtira" deck can special summon multiple times per turn "Nibiru, the Primal Being" is a great threat to the deck, as it can remove all of the "Kashtira" monsters on the field, since none of them has protection against "Nibiru"'s effect. Conversely, cards that prevent special summoning, such as "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo" can also shut down any "Kashtira" game plans.
- In a dedicated zone lock strategy, any non-destruction removal effect or cards that can force the opponent's monster face-down, such as that of "Book of Moon" or "Compulsory Evacuation Device" can easily take care of "Kashtira Shangri-Ira". Similarly, "Kaiju" and similar monsters can also remove "Shangri-Ira" from the field and bypass its protection effect.
- In the "pure" version of the deck, "Kashtira" monsters requires either having no monsters on your field (in the case of the three main Level 7 monsters) or already having "Kashtira" monster on the field (in the case of "Kashtira Riseheart"), cards that can be summoned onto the opponent's field before they could summon any "Kashtira" monsters, such as "Mushroom Man 2", can prevent them from summoning anything unless player already have "Kashtira Birth" on the hand.
- In addition, if you opened your hand with the multiple "U.F.O Kashtira", this would often results into them being a dead card in your hand if you don't have "Kashtira Birth" or "Kashtira Preparations" on the field.
- Since the deck consists of monsters of multiple Attributes, "Gozen Match" can also shut down a "Kashtira" deck from summoning more monsters.
