Thunder Dragon (archetype)
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"Thunder Dragon" (サンダー・ドラゴン Sandā Doragon) is an archetype of LIGHT and DARK Thunder monsters. The archetype originates from the monster "Thunder Dragon", which was introduced in the Vol.7 Booster Pack in 2000 and only had one related monster: "Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon". The "series" was massively expanded in 2018's Soul Fusion, giving "Thunder Dragon" a set of Main Deck and Extra Deck monsters and supporting Spell and Trap Cards.
Design[edit]
The general design and effect of each "Thunder Dragon" monster is derived from the original "Thunder Dragon": all of them are depicted as electric dragons with a color scheme incorporating green, yellow, black and/or gray. "Thunder Dragon Titan" resembles a three-headed "Thunder Dragon", similar to the design of "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon". "Thunder Dragondark" is a directly retrained counterpart of the original "Thunder Dragon", with the same Type, Level, original ATK and DEF, but the opposite Attribute; it also has a similar effect that can search a copy of itself.
Playing style[edit]
"Thunder Dragon" revolves around Thunder monsters with discard, floating, and banish-activated effects, in order to set up resource recursion and summon conditions for boss monsters.
The archetype has 5 (relatively low-Level) Main Deck monsters with Levels under 6, who serve as combo pieces to bring out the archetype's boss monsters. Almost all of them have two effects: an Ignition Effect activated by discarding them, and a Trigger Effect that can be activated when they are banished or sent from the field to the Graveyard. These effects provide search power and field setup, and also sets up the GY with monsters for the archetype's other effects.
| Thunder Dragon | Attribute | Discard Effect | Banish/Floating Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunder Dragon | LIGHT  |
Search up to 2 "Thunder Dragon". | - |
| Dragondark | DARK  |
(Quick Effect) Search 1 "Thunder Dragondark". | Search 1 different "Thunder Dragon" card. |
| Dragonhawk | LIGHT |
Special Summon 1 different "Thunder Dragon" monster from GY or banished. | Shuffle any number of cards from hand to Deck, then draw the same number of cards. |
| Dragonmatrix | LIGHT |
(Quick Effect) 1 friendly Thunder monster gains 500 ATK. | Search 1 "Dragonmatrix". |
| Dragonroar | DARK |
Add 1 different "Thunder Dragon" card from GY or banished to hand. | Special Summon 1 "Thunder Dragon" monster from Deck (in Defense), and return it to hand in the End Phase. |
| Except "Thunder Dragon", all the above effects are only 1 effect once per turn. | |||
Of these monsters, "Thunder Dragonmatrix" is the only one under Level 4, making it the only one that can be Normal Summoned without Tributes.
"Thunder Dragon" boss monsters consist of both Main Deck Special Summon-only monsters ("Dragonduo" and "Dragonlord") and Extra Deck Fusion Monsters ("Colossus" and "Titan"). The former are summoned from the hand by banishing friendly cards in the hand/GY, while the latter are summoned with Fusion Summoning or pseudo-Contact Fusion.
| Main Deck Thunder Dragon | Attribute | Summoning Condition | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragonduo | DARK |
Banish 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your GY. | |
| Dragonlord | LIGHT |
Banish 1 Level 8 or lower Thunder monster from your hand or face-up field, during the turn a Thunder monster's effect was activated in the hand. | |
| Fusion Thunder Dragon | Attribute | Fusion Summoning Materials | Alternative Summoning Condition |
| Colossus | DARK |
"Thunder Dragon" + 1 Thunder monster | Tribute 1 Thunder Effect non-Fusion Monster, during the turn a Thunder monster's effect was activated in the hand. |
| Titan | LIGHT |
3 "Thunder Dragon" monsters | Banish 1 Thunder monster from your hand and 1 Thunder Fusion Monster you control, except "Thunder Dragon Titan". |
On the field, the Main Deck bosses provide protection ("Thunder Dragonlord") or card resource cycling ("Thunder Dragonduo"), while the Fusion bosses provide removal/interruption ("Thunder Dragon Titan") or floodgating ("Thunder Dragon Colossus"). Each has one effect that banishes cards from the player's GY, possibly even in the opponent's turn, providing more triggers for "Thunder Dragon" banish effects.
"Thunder Dragon Fusion", the archetype's Fusion Spell, works with the archetype's discard and banish effects by Fusion Summoning through shuffling materials from the field, GY, or banished cards into the Deck. It can also banish itself from the GY (except on the turn it was sent there) to search out 1 Thunder monster, providing additional follow-up.
Because almost all "Thunder Dragon" non-boss monsters require setup/external combos to be summoned, their Trigger Effects are more easily triggered by banishing them. This can be achieved with:
- Banish from Deck: "Gold Sarcophagus", "Aloof Lupine"
- Banish from hand: "Allure of Darkness", Summon procedure of "Thunder Dragonlord", alternate Summon procedure of "Thunder Dragon Titan"
- The alternate summon procedure of "Titan" can be established by using "Instant Fusion" or "Ready Fusion" to summon "Kaminari Attack"
- Banish from GY: Summon procedure of "Thunder Dragonduo", Chaos series monsters, "Bystial" monsters
Generally, the Deck aims to turbo out one or more of its boss monsters, primarily (in formats where it's available) the high-power and easy-to-summon "Thunder Dragon Colossus", and back them up with other generic field presence and searchable follow-up. The Deck's main searchers are the banish/floating effects of "Thunder Dragondark" and "Thunder Dragonroar", while its main source of swarming are the effects of "Dragonroar" and "Thunder Dragonhawk".
Recommended cards[edit]
Weaknesses[edit]
- As the deck is reliant on banishing, it is weak to anti-banishing floodgates. (e.g. "Imperial Iron Wall", "Artifact Lancea", "Soul Drain")
- As the deck is reliant on Summoning, it is weak to anti-summoning floodgates. (e.g. "Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo")
