Blackwing Disappointment

by DanceJonDance Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:42 am

DanceJonDance: Posts : 1160
Speed Credits : 3876
Location : California
Reputation : 32

Post n°1

Blackwing Disappointment

Post by DanceJonDance Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:42 am

If you're a fan of the trading card game outside of KCVDS then you will know the top three decks being used in every major tournament, and local tournaments are Blackwings, Lightsworns, and Zombies.

For a while now Lightsworns have been the better decks in most tournaments, being followed by zombies, and then Blackwings. Blackwings are still very strong, but they don't seem to be getting too much support anymore. The reason Blackwings were so strong when they first started out was the fact that Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind single handedly won duels.
Spoiler:
With Gale gone, blackwings have to rely on Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor to make up for the crazy special summoning power Gale had, Vayu is just a little bit slower.
Spoiler:
As a Blackwing user for a while now I've been pretty disappointed with some of the stuff Konami has done to this archtype and making it pale in comparison to Lightsworns. The most obvious thing is the limiting of Gale. I've said it many times before, Gale is hands down the best tuner in the game and being able to run three and special summon them at will was pretty much gg. I can understand why it would be limited, but what I can't understand is if a monster like Gale is limited why aren't cards like Honest and Judgment Dragon limited.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
This would obviously be a huge blow to lightsworns, as limiting Gale was a huge blow to Blackwings, but Konami decided to leave Lightsworns untouched and it's the main reason for why they are the top deck in the TCG right now.

Once Gale was limited Blackwings were probably not going to be as good as they were before, but the Blackwing trump card would surely continue to win duels. You're probably thinking Blackwing Armor Master, but in fact that's not the Blackwing Trump card, at least not anymore. The blackwing trump card used to be Dark Strike Fighter which is now forbidden.
Spoiler:
Blackwings and Dark Strike Fighter were a match made in yugioh heaven. Blackwings would swarm like crazy (especially with vayu and gale in the OCG) and Dark Strike Fighter would OTK Lightsworns, Zombies, Glad Beasts.. pretty much anything that stood in their way, but with DSF forbidden.. well Blackwings dropped another step down.

Another thing that Konami has screwed up on is Blackwing - Elphin the Raven.
Spoiler:
This by far has to be the worst blackwing in the game. It's level six, and you can normal summon it if you have another blackwing on the field. When it's normal summoned you can change the battle position of one of your opponent's monsters. This card is not bad really, but you will notice no serious blackwing user runs any elphins, and with good reason. The problem I have with Elphin the Raven is not its effect, if a card sucks then you just simply don't use it and you move on. The problem with Elphin is its rarity. This card has three rarities: Ultra Rare(Raging Battle), Ultimate Rare(Raging Battle), and Secret Rare (Crow Collector's Tin). Cards like Gale are only rare, and gale is in my opinion the best blackwing, but she didn't get holofoil status. I think Blizzard the far north would be a better choice than Elphin the Raven. Hell even Kalut the Moon Shadow makes a better addition to a blackwing deck than Elphin, and can you imagine a shiny kalut or gale? *__* and why make elphin a tin card? It's already a foil, and certainly not hard to get so why not make something a little more useful a foil to shine up our blackwing decks T_T

I could live with all of the above, as I have been. The blackwing disappointment doesn't come from what I wrote above, but from what's coming up..
Spoiler:
When I heard of the new pack called The Shining Darkness which featured 'Crow's new trump card' the Black Feather Dragon, and more Blackwing support I nearly cried tears of joy. No not really >_> but anyway I figured Blackwings were finally going to get some overpowered stuff like Judgment Dragon is for Lightsworns or Brionac is for Zombies.
Spoiler:

To no surprise though Konami added the crappiest blackwing cards to the so called blackwing set. For starters the cover card Black Feather Dragon is not exactly a blackwing so it won't work with blackwing support cards such as raptor wing strike, etc.
Spoiler:
Not that it really matters because no serious blackwing user uses such cards. So blackfeather dragon is not a blackwing, and you can only hope that it has some kind of overpowered effect like Stardust Dragon, or Blackrose Dragon, but no. Its effect is as follows:

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters.
When you would receive damage from a card effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card instead. This card loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter on it. Once per turn, you can remove all Black Feather Counters from this card to have 1 face-up monster your opponent controls lose 700 ATK for each counter removed, and inflict the same amount of damage to your opponent.

All i have to say is: WTF!
This is obviously a burn monster. Blackwings are nowhere near a burn archtype with dark strike fighter gone, and this monster will only burn your opponent if your opponent is using burn cards. I guess it's a good card to keep around in case you duel someone with a burn deck, but how useful will this effect be against burn? Not very useful. A burn deck focuses on stalling with weaker monsters, so if you remove a counter or whatever from BFD you won't be burning your opponent too much. Will this card work with vayu? No. Will this card be used as a beater? with 2800 ATK you're better off synchro summoning Red Dragon Archfiend. Does this card suck? YES

There aren't even any worthwhile cards in the set (at least from what is known at this moment) to even mention. All the blackwing support cards are common, and they are pretty useless. Only card that seems slightly useful is Blackwing - Breeze the Gentle Wind.
Spoiler:
A level three tuner with the following effect:
If this card is added from the Deck to your hand by a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster's effect, you can Special Summon this card. This card cannot be used to Synchro Summon a Synchro Monster except a "Blackwing" monster.
This card is like a cheap replica of gale, and it will only work gale style if you get it with black whirlwind. However, you can only synchro summon for a blackwing monster which does NOT include black feather dragon -_-

There is only one rare card in the set as of right now called Blackwing - Gust the Adverse Wind
Spoiler:
with this effect:
If you control no cards, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. While you control this card, when a "Blackwing" monster you control battles an opponent's monster, the opponent's monster loses 300 ATK until the end of the Damage Step.
This card is actually not that bad, but I just wouldn't be able to find it any place in my blackwing deck. Its defense is mediocre so it makes its cyber dragon-like effect kind of useless. It will guard your blackwing monsters from stronger monsters so your opponent will be looking to take it out first so I guess it can buy some time, but blackwings are fast so time should be the least of your worries if you're running a good blackwing deck.

Finally the last card I was really looking forward to is Blackwing's Treasure.
Spoiler:

In the anime this card is like the Destiny Draw of Blackwings. You discard 1 blackwing to draw two cards. If in fact that was its effect this card would speed blackwing decks to godly status. However Konami changed its effect to
Activate by removing from play 1 "Blackwing" monster in your hand. Draw 2 cards. During the turn you activated this card, you cannot Special Summon any monsters. You can only activate 1 "Blackwing Treasure" per turn.

This was the last thing I had my hopes on, but this is obviously a horrible attempt at allure of darkness and is pretty much worthless. I'm pretty much disappointed in everything Konami's been doing to keep Blackwings down, and Lightsworns up. I guess it's not all bad though, as long as Konami doesn't touch Black Whirlwind in the ban list I probably won't be selling my blackwing deck any time soon. But it's definitely not getting any better, and other decks are going on godly status (brionac -_-)

So are there any things Konami has done to piss you off lately? Let me know with a reply x]