Future Visions: The Atlantean Archetype

Hello once again readers. In the midst of my busy schedule I decided to do the forth segment of our world famous Future Visions. Instead of looking at the booster sets of the future, I decided to delve into what might possibly be, our next tier 1 deck. As a fan of the TCG, it's in my best interest to constantly keep up to date with new cards, regardless of where they come from (Booster set, structure decks, starter decks etc). From the latest structure deck in the OCG comes the new Atlantean archetype.

Incase you did not know, just like Geargia, they already have 1 monster in the TCG already, Atlantean Pikeman. Unfortunately it's a vanilla beater which doesn't really do much for any deck so it's not really worth worrying about.

Now lets take a look at the monsters we know of so far.

Atlantean Marksman

When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type "Atlantean" monster, except "Atlantean Marksman", from your Deck. When this card is sent to the Graveyard for the activation of a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

To start off, this card allows you to special summon an Atlantean monster when it deals battle damage, which is nice for a quick rank 3 xyz. However, it's second effect means you can summon a Leviathan dragon and detach this card for it's effect. This means it's second effect kicks in and you can destroy one of your opponent's set cards. Even easier yet, you can send it to the graveyard for Genex Undine's effect, which triggers it's effect too! The possibilities for some amazing advantage are available to you if you know where to look.

Atlantean Armed Soldier

While this card is face-up on the field, once per turn during your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon a Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monster in addition to your Normal Summon or Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) When this card is sent to the Graveyard for the activation of a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

This card also allows for a quick rank 2 with another armed soldier. Once again, Leviathan dragon and Undine shenanigans apply, but this time, you can hit a face-up card, which is much more helpful.

Atlantean Assaultman

If you control another face-up Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua-Type monster, this card gains 800 ATK.

A simple yet powerful effect. It's not actually debuting in the structure deck, but Return of the Duelist. With Deep Sea Diva it can be summoned straight from the deck and is now at a wonderful 2200 attack, allowing it to get over Thunder king and other big beaters. On it's own, it's not too good, so maybe run only 1 to reduce the chances of drawing it when you don't have a Diva or a Armed soldier to use it with.

Now for the one spell card in the structure deck with "Atlantean" in it's name, so It's worth a look.

Atlantean Roar

Target up to 3 Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon those targets. You cannot Special Summon other monsters the turn you activate this effect.

So this card allows you to summon 3 monsters. That's pretty stupid. Even better yet, it's a quick play meaning you can just chain it to your opponent's MST, meaning you get 3 monsters for essentially no cost. You can summon Lost Blue Breaker with this card then tribute it to destroy a backrow on your opponent's field. If you summon 3 Assaultman and you can attack directly, then you can deal 6600 damage. If you summon 1 Assaultman and 2 Marksman, then you can deal 5000 damage from them alone. Then you summon 2 more Sea serpents (Provided you activated Atlantean Roar the turn before) and finish the job!

But sometimes, little Fish things with weapons won't cut it. The archetype needs a boss, and the Structure deck has quite a one at that!

Introducing...

ATLANTEAN DRAGON POSEIDRA

You can Tribute 3 Level 3 or lower WATER monsters you control; Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. When this card is Special Summoned by this effect: Return all Spell/Trap Cards on the field to the hand, and if 3 or more cards are returned by this effect, face-up monsters your opponent currently controls lose 300 ATK for each card returned.

So using Atlantean Roar, you get the 3 Water monsters needed to summon this beast. When it hits the field, you can Giant Trunade all spells and traps and then you Masked Hero Acid their monster's attack. With it's 2800 attack, it will most likely be the strongest monster on the field after you use it's effect. However with that being said, There's much reason to run more than 1 since the little guys can be quite powerful on their own and 3 level 3s are hard to get onto the field (outside of the spell card). Think of it as a secondary win condition, with your xyz monsters being the main beaters in your deck. I think Konami knew this though, since their secondary effects cannot be activated in the structure deck. We will have to wait and see what the second card on the structure deck list is.

Until next time, TheTCGLover out!