#albaz storyline

[qedmirage]

Yugioh Rants: Blazing Cartesia, The Virtuous

I've been playing a lot of yugioh lately on master duel and in particular the "Bystial Runick" deck. It's all quite fun but I'd like to highlight the gameplay and story integration going on with one card in particular, not even the best in the deck but possibly my favorite:

This is Blazing Cartesia, The Virtuous and she's one of the best designed Yugioh cards I've seen.

So, first off, story background. Cartesia is a corrupted/brainwashed/evilified version of "Ecclesia", a girl featured across many cards in the Albaz/Branded storyline. Important for our discussion here is that Ecclesia is good friends with Dogmatika Fluerdelis / The Iris Swordsoul, and very close adventuring partners/love interest of "The Fallen of Albaz". Along the way they're opposed at first by the more villainous Dogmatikas, then later the Bystials and Despians as well. More under the break, this post is quite long.

Like a lot of modern Yugioh cards Cartesia has a paragraph on her so we'll take it piece by piece. First, her basic stats and name (yes that has a gameplay effect):

Blazing Cartesia, The Virtuous Light Attribute | Lvl 4 1500 ATK / 1500 DEF Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect

Cards in Yugioh are grouped into archetypes by strings in their names. Notable here is that Cartesia doesn't belong to any of the Albaz storyline archetypes specifically; she assists lots of the villain ones, but she's not technically a member. Being specifically a "LIGHT Spellcaster monster whose ATK equals its own DEF", she can be special summoned by the graveyard effect of Despian Luluwalilith, the corrupted form of Iris. The two still have a bond despite what's happened to them.

Finally, being a lvl 4 Tuner means she can be used to Synchro summon. With a level 6 monster (like all of the Bystials) she can be used to summon "The Bystial Dis Pater", that archetype's extra deck boss monster. With a level 8 monster however, she can be used to summon Despian Luluwalilith. You know who's level 8? All of the Fusion monsters Albaz forms. So already she combos very nicely with the hero and villain cards from the storyline. On to her effects.

If you control "Fallen of Albaz" or it is in your GY: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.

This one's fun. Cartesia does her best work on the field and this gets here there, but it does so based on where Albaz is. It works to show that she still has feelings towards Albaz even in her current state. Instead of her interacting with Aluber, The Bystial Aluber has a name-replacement effect that makes his name count as "Fallen of Albaz" under most situations; she has feelings for Albaz, but Aluber's tricked her and redirected her to work with him.

During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can Fusion Summon 1 Level 8 or higher Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as material.

Albaz's deck/playstyle revolves around fusion summoning and Cartesia facilitates that. Fusions have some inherent weaknesses, and Cartesia working the way she does helps mitigate them. The "Level 8 or higher" restriction just allows her to make all of Albaz's dragon forms. Special mention here to one specific target she can make, Granguignol the Dusk Dragon:

This card has a lot going on but worth noting is the clasped hands on the dragon's neck; concept art calls them "hands of the holy maidens", and indeed Ecclesia was one of the holy maidens of Dogmatika before the story started. As for effects, Gran-Guginol can send one of your cards from the extra deck to the GY, an effect very in-theme for the Dogmatikas!

Going back to Cartesia, she has one more effect and a restriction:

During the End Phase, if a Fusion Monster(s) was sent to your GY this turn: You can add this card from the GY to your hand.

You can only use each effect of "Blazing Cartesia, the Virtuous" once per turn.

The restriction is nothing too notable; it's a standard "Hard Once Per Turn" effect done to prevent silly infinites and the like (This isn't MtG!). The last effect is notable. Albaz's fusions often send themselves or other fusions into the GY, and doing so lets you recover Cartesia for follow-up plays.

As for her art, Cartesia's dress uses the diamond pattern seen on Aluber's various cards and a vareity of Despians. So you know she's evil now (her bust size has also increased mysteriously). All in all, she's an evil form of a well known and caring person. While she's working for the bad guys, she still has in her heart her love for her friends, and her effects reference that. Even without any flavor text she's one of the most flavorful cards I think I've seen. In passing, I'll note the parallels between these two cards (Branded Regained and Branded Bond), one of her evil form helping Bystial Druiswurm and one of her non-corrupted form helping Albion, one of Albaz's dragon forms.

#yugioh tcg #yugioh #yugioh master duel #cartesia #ecclesia #albaz storyline #I just really love this card #even if Quem is 'better' in the deck I play

[foundfamilyadoptionagency]

#Fallen of Albaz #yugioh #ygo #albaz #abyss storyline #image submitted #tags submitted #adoption poll #submitter said he is many dragons #that's good enough for me

[shinesparker198]

The Abyss Storyline be like.

#yugioh #yugioh tcg #albaz #aluber #ecclesia #abyss storyline

[alubertwink]

Branded lore is funny cuz it's just Albaz looking at this slick bloodthirsty twink who says shit like "let me hurt you" on one side and then on the other there's some clumsy girl with a HUGE hammer, stuffing her face with 3 different foods at once and he thinks "oh god I'm bi..."

#Abyss #abyss storyline #branded #branded storyline #albaz #fallen of albaz #aluber #ecclesia #ygo #ygo tcg #yugioh #yu gi oh

[joey-wheeler-official]

Which archetype is your favorite in terms of playstyle synergy with it's art design?

I think the Albaz lore did alot of cool stuff with conveying story via effect text, like Dogmatika representing an oppressive religious order via the use of extra deck hate, which, using extra deck monsters for costs kinda also hints at them using Albaz, or rather the source of Albaz, as the source of their powers. Likewise Despia being a fusion archetype immediately sets up the connection to Albaz even before the Branded Fusion half of the deck was revealed. Tri-Brigade using graveyard banishing to to summon can maybe represent guerilla warfare tactics, it is a bit of a stretch but I'd like to think it's there. Though my favorite one there is probably springans loading themselves into their bigger monsters and firing off by literally attaching themselves to the xyz monsters for effects.

#the albaz lore is literally peak yugioh storyline #none of the other ones are even remotely close to touching it

[furtiveseal]

Reading up on Albaz lore this is all SO FUNNY actually I love it

#seal talks #yugioh #yu gi oh #albaz #abyss storyline

[nsfw-muses-of-fantasy]

The urge to make a sideblog for yugioh monsters with lore

#like the albaz series #or the world legacy #even sangan's little storyline that starts with tour guide

[deusvervewrites]

Since I know you like yugioh, what are some of your favorite archetypes ignoring how competitively viable they are? Personally, I love Red-Eyes (basic I know) and Ursarctic.

Also, as this idea has tormented me, I need to share it with you: a yugioh video game where you play through the world and storylines of the world of monsters, possibly not even using Dueling as the main mechanic. Imagine if we could play through the World Chalice storyline!

Fabled has always been and always will be my absolute favorite archetype, but I also enjoy Crusadia, Generaider, Dryton, Mayakashi, Mythical Beasts, and Naturia. I'm also fond of Albaz for lore reasons in addition to making giant dragons out of my opponent's monsters.

Since it's still so new, it's hard to say what Diabellstar and the Sinful Spoils will be like, but I'm always a sucker for cool lore

#asks

[sanitymakesposts]

What do you think about Diabellstarr so far

I've got a few thoughts! I'll share them under a readmore. For reference to the uninitiated, Diabellstar the Black Witch is a Yu-Gi-Oh! card. It's powerful, new, expensive, and supposedly is going to kick off a new Yu-Gi-Oh! storyline, exclusively told through card art. (This has happened a few times before, though most recently, with the Albaz and Visas Starfrost storylines, they've taken about three years to complete.) It looks like this one is going to be following an outlaw on the hunt for treasure, and is the first girl MC that I've seen from a recent card storyline.

First, a quick overview of who Diabellstarr is, and what she does.

Diabellstar the Black Witch is a 2500/2000 7-star monster, with the effect below.

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by sending 1 card from your hand or field to the GY. You can only Special Summon "Diabellstar the Black Witch" once per turn this way. You can only use each of the following effects of "Diabellstar the Black Witch" once per turn. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Set 1 "Sinful Spoils" Spell/Trap directly from your Deck. During your opponent's turn, if this card is sent from its owner's hand or field to the GY: You can send 1 card from your hand or field to the GY, and if you do, Special Summon this card.

So, in a vacuum, without knowing what the 'Sinful Spoils' cards, are-- Not a bad monster. A free level 7 body, 100 ATK higher than Kashtira Fenrir, with an ability to come back to the board, and plus on summon. An important distinction about this effect, though, is the 'sending' from hand or field to the graveyard isn't cost. For her first effect, it's part of the summoning condition, meaning it can't be interrupted, and for her second effect, there's no semi-colon. This just means you won't be caught in a situation where you go negative to bring her out, only to get stopped. Not bad, but we really need to know what those 'Sinful Spoils' cards do, to make any value judgement. Let's take a look, shall we?

Sinful Spoils of Subversion - Snake-Eye is a normal spell card, with the following text.

Target 1 face-up monster on the field; place it face-up in its owner's Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. You can only activate 1 "Sinful Spoils of Subversion - Snake-Eye" per turn.

This card has only one effect, and it's... Interesting. At first blush, it's a unique form of removal that most cards can't deal with -- Being placed in the Spell & Trap Zone isn't traditional removal, and only unaffected or untargetable cards could hope to dodge it, but it feels like there's probably better targets than this. Still -- Maybe a one-of, or a side-board option to have to deal with tricky decks you can't out.

Lore-wise, this appears to be what Diabellstar is after, the gem that is able to control other monsters to fight Diabellstar, and the object she either wants, or wants to destroy.

WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils is a quick-play spell card, with the below effect. Add 1 "Diabellstar" monster from your Deck or GY to your hand. During your Main Phase: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 of your "Sinful Spoils" Spells/Traps that is banished or in your GY, except "WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils"; place it on the bottom of the Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of "WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils" once per turn.

So, off the bat -- We're not going to be able to activate this card the same turn we set it with Diabellstar's effect, which is a big hit. Especially with the effect that we can see -- It's just an add. Not bad by any means, but it means you're going to want to see this in the opening grip to kickstart your plays, and not set it off Diabellstar's effect. Still, a free Reinforcement of the Army for an archetype is nothing to shake a stick at, especially with the second effect -- Recursion and a free draw is a great effect for a spell card to have, especially when it pluses you with its first effect anyways.

Lore-wise, I love this card. It's Diabellstar's wanted poster! There's even a line in the Age of Overlord Set intro where the announcer talks about how she'd like to lay-low in your deck for a little bit, if that's okay. Super cute.

Sinful Spoils of Doom - Rcilea is a quick play spell card, with the following effect.

Target 1 Level 7 or higher Spellcaster monster you control; apply the following effects. ● While face-up, that monster is unaffected by other monsters' effects this turn, and is sent to the GY during the Standby Phase of the next turn. ● All monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK equal to the targeted monster's ATK, then if their ATK becomes 0 by this effect, destroy them. You can only activate 1 "Sinful Spoils of Doom - Rciela" per turn.

So, we're getting a card with two effects, with a once per turn activation. Keep in mind, cards that negate activations will allow this card to be played again, assuming you have another copy. The cost to target a level 7 or higher Spellcaster monster... Does in fact synergize with Dark Magician, yes, but it's obvious this is intended for use with Diabellstar. The first effect is... Okay? But has some inherent non-synergy with the fact that Diabellstar hitting the graveyard is actually okay, with her built-in-recursion effect, and there's nothing specific about her that makes her great, or worthwhile to keep around on the opponents turn. The second effect, however -- Not... Great, but not terrible. Because it's an attack-modifying effect, I believe it can trigger in the damage step, and if it's not set off of the effect of Diabellstar, (IE not known by your opponent), then it could be a semi-valuable series of pops for your opponents monsters. I could see this being a play.

Lore wise... I'm not sure what's going on here. It looks like Diabellstar has huge ass wings, and she's getting ready to fight a... Miasma of some sorts. Good for her. #girlwin.

Sinful Spoils of Betrayal - Silvera is a normal trap card with the following effect.

Send 1 "Diabellstar" monster from your hand or face-up field to the GY, then target 1 face-up card on the field; negate its effects. When your opponent activates a card or effect in response to your "Diabellstar" monster effect or your "Sinful Spoils" Spell/Trap Card or effect activation: You can banish this card from your GY; negate that opponent's effect. You can only use 1 "Sinful Spoils of Betrayal - Silvera" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

First things first - It's a trap card. Those are generally not great, even archetypal ones that plus you to infinity. Still, let's give it a look. The cost to send from face-up field... Sucks. It has non-synergy with the last card, and dies to a book of moon before you're ready to use the rest of the effect, but the fact it does send from hand means it synergizes with the WANTED at least. A targeted negate is pretty good, especially as an omni-negate. The second negate is even better -- Finding a way to cheat this into the graveyard, just to use the second negate, actually would be pretty good. This card, I'd argue, would border on playable if not for the strict hard-once-per-turn condition at the end.

Lore-wise, this kind of gives some light to what's going on in the previous card -- It looks like Diabellstar can use her effects to control that... Other dragon, to attack the blue dragon controlled by snake-eye. Cool!

Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye is a normal spell card, with the below effect.

Send 1 other face-up card you control to the GY; Special Summon 1 Level 1 FIRE monster from your hand or Deck. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 "Snake-Eye" or "Diabellstar" monster in your GY; add 1 Level 1 FIRE monster from your Deck to your hand, then place the targeted monster on the bottom of the Deck. You can only use 1 "Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

So, with the first effect -- The cost is a bit steep. Requiring a face-up card likely means it'll be a monster, turn one, and can't be activated under shifter. Remember, though -- Because Diabellstar can set any sinful spoils card from deck to field, this is a good candidate. Since it's a spell card, it can be activated this turn, and we're already going to have a Diabellstar face up on our field to send, so that cost isn't too much. Now, factoring in the effect... Special summoning any level 1 FIRE from hand or deck. Wow. That's pretty good -- Notable level 1 fires include Jet Synchron, which will give you repeatable access to tuners for synchro summoning, a few monsters to support the Infernoble Knight archetype, and Rescue Ace - Fire Hydrant, to start any R-ACE plays. Considering the Diabellstar -> Snake-Eye -> LVL1 Fire combo only costs a single discard, and can start your plays off without falling prey to Droll & Lock Bird... Pretty good! Now let's read that second effect. Pretty good recursion, balanced out by the hard once per turn clause at the bottom -- It just means unless this card gets removed from the grave, you're likely going to be able to get another Level 1 FIRE monster on your next turn, as well as resetting your Diabellstar for the following turn as well.

Lore-wise, it looks like this card shows Diabellstar... Seemingly winning! Using her cool ass dragon and powers to kill the snake eye dead, and hopefully gain its power? All and all, an interesting set of cards, from a lore perspective.

~

We've got one more aspect to cover though, and it's not very fun. WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils came out as a secret rare in AGOV, and Original Sinful Spoils - Snake Eye, came as an ultra rare in the same set. These look like the two best Sinful Spoils cards. The former is $80, the latter is $4, and Diabellstar is $20 (coming out in AGOV also as a secret rare), which means... A playset will easily get you into the $300 range. Ouch. This is a part of yugioh I'm not a huge fan of. While it's nice that the... Worse cards are all less than a dollar, and there is another printing of those three cards... They're all 25th century rares, which are much more expensive.

Which, obviously, sucks! The fact they're level-one-fire support, as mentioned before, can help synchro archetypes, rescue-ace, and infernoble knight, all three are very competitively viable! It also very much feels like we're gonna be seeing a sinful spoil level 1 fire monster in the future, and kidna guessing at what is gonna come up next is super neat. I'm also clearly a big fan of women, and I hope Konami pulls a dogmatika with her, and not an ice barrier :3

So, in conclusion -- I like Diabellstar! It interacts with the game in a very interesting way, it has some clear setup for a cool storyline in the future, and also has some neat gameplay loops. It feels balanced, it feels interesting... I just wish it was cheaper :)

#yugioh #yu-gi-oh! #tagging it as both cause idk which ill use in the future #i dont usually tag stuff but ill probably do so for big posts like these in the future. #if you like this #or wanna see more card analysis or anything... let me know! I had a surprising amount of fun with it #long post #ask #answer

[infinity-squared-comics]

@arcvmonth day 3: Duetto of duelist and spirit.

Albion is my favorite character in yugioh, and my favorite deck to play. I’ve always felt a strong connection to them. I really like the abyss storyline, Albaz is a fun deck to play, and I enjoy the variety of characters. I’ve always liked the story-based card series in yu-hi-oh, and the abyss series is definitely my favorite.

Friend :3

#arcvmonth2023 #arcvmonth #fallen of Albaz

[ben-talks-art]

Branded storyline is over...

It's cool that Albaz and Ecclesia got their happy ending and all but...

What happened with Iris!!?? Is she just a possessed or corrupted undead creature now or something??

She went from this

To this

And now this!?

I mean... She looks cool as hell, yeah... but is she safe? Is she sane? Is she even alive?

#yu gi oh #yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh! #trading card game #fallen of albaz

[hidekins]

Because I don't think I've ever actually posted any before, here's the decklist I ran for last weekend non meta tournament, Branded Dragonmaids:

There were other decks I wanted to try out but this is the only one that doesn't immediately die to a single Ash Blossom, and with strong things legal such as Swordsoul and Branded, Dragonmaid were the best thing to go with.

Decided to put Crossout in the main deck as less meta stuff tend to run more handtraps, and Nibiru came in handy for certain matchups, specially Live Twins. Shame I opened one game with three Nibiru, 1 Ash and 1 Tidying. Ideally I would be running more staples such as Evenly and TTT but I don't own them 😔

As you might've noticed, the Branded engine is incredibly minimal in the deck, for as much as I personally like Albaz and the Abyss storyline as a whole, I don't personally find their overall gameplay that appealing. Facing it so many times in MD didn't help either. Also, if you don't open with Hospitality, Dragonmaids are very dependant on a Normal Summon, and with no ways to special summon Albaz outside of Spheres, the stinky dragon boy is kept at two instead of 3.

The ideal hand is Branded Fusion, alongside Tidying. Kitchen, Parlor or Chamber helps in hand to bait out an Ash, then activate Branded Fusion, dumping Albaz and Chamber to summon Lubellion, discard Tidying to summon Mirrorjade by shuffling Lubellion and Albaz, and then banishing your discarded Tidying to special summon the Chamber your dumped with Branded Fusion, and then depending on the stuff you've got on hand either get Hospitality to Link climb into Spheres or get Changeover to summon Sheou is you opened with one of the big dragons.

If you have Chamber in hand you can summon Albion instead by dumping Nibiru and Albaz, banish itself and the Albaz in GY to summon Lubellion, discard Tidying to activate Lubellion and shuffle back the banished Albion and Albaz to get Mirrorjade. Normal summon Chamber, get Changeover and fusion summon Sheou with a big dragon in hand or Albion and Chamber.

Side deck, I've barely gotten any use of Pankratops so might change it to a third Dark Ruler because I really don't have much better to add right now.

#decklist #witching ygo

[dash-n-step]

I don't want anyone to ever say the storyline of homestuck si confusing, literally what the fuck is happening in yugioh with the Albaz

#dashingposts

[wanou-dorm]

I know absolutely nothing about yugioh, maybe one or two things. But now my brother have to endure me asking him "is TearElements good" and "is it expensive". I always liked yugioh but never found a deck that fits my taste... thats why i used to play cardfight vanguard lol sadly I didn't know anyone who played it so yeah, stopped spending money on it

Tearalament for what I’ve Here is Making a Huge Impact on the Meta and Usally Those Decks It can be Kinda Hard to Get what you want especially because Tearlaments is part of what I call The Overarching stories Archetypes basically It’s stuff like Duel Terminal , World Legacy and Current one that maybe Ending soon Albaz . Tearlaments is Part of the Visas Starfrost Storyline along Scareclaw and Khsharti -La so you would have to look out for any updates

as for How Tearlaments Plays the basics is that its a Fusion centric Mills Card to the Grave to use as Fusion material

here’s a Video Cause Goldennova can explain better than I can

#Yugioh #yugioh tcg #ygo #yu gi oh #tearalaments

[aeschylus101]

>Me, Clueless: I'm getting back into yugioh. I might buy one of every card in the Albaz storyline to collect them cause the story is cool. >Me after looking up cards: Oh....that's $100 just to get two of the cards in the storyline....

#zip zop personal post #yugioh

[foxmancer]

I just want Albaz and Ecclesia to be happy, man. I’m fully expecting the abyss storyline to be another “Bittersweet technically good ending but everyone’s dead” like seems to be the case for a lot of YGO lore