Oct 28, 2010
We’ve seen many new and exciting families of monsters that made their debut in recent booster sets. Hidden Arsenal 2 introduced Duelists to Naturia, which can work together with existing cards to lock down opponents. Scrap monsters made a big splash in Duelist Revolutionand have already seen tournament success, making it to the Top 16 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship series events across the globe! Scraps and Naturia get all new cards inStarstrike Blast, but we’ll also see a brand new set of cards make their first appearance. It’s time to meet the Karakuri!
The Karakuri are all EARTH Machine-Type monsters that must attack the opponent each turn if they’re in Attack Position. Also, when they’re in Attack Position and they’re attacked by the opponent, they automatically switch to Defense Position, so you won’t lose any Life Points when your opponent Summons a stronger monster!
Karakuri Bushi mdl 6318 “Muzanichiha” is a Level 4 monster with 1800 ATK, but whenever another Karakuri monster is destroyed he gains another 400 ATK. This ATK gain is permanent, so if 2 Karakuri are destroyed Muzanichiha goes up to 2600 ATK, and if 3 are destroyed its ATK increases to a whopping 3000! The stronger Muzanichiha gets the less you have to worry about which monster(s) you must attack during your turn.
The Karakuri monsters also like to play around with your opponent’s cards! Karakuri Strategist mdl 248 “Nishipachi” can change the battle position of any monster on the field when it’s Normal or Special Summoned, so you can turn any of your Karakuri to Defense Position if you don’t want them to attack this turn, or you could switch your opponent’s monster’s positions to make them easier to destroy. This works well against Decks like Blackwings and Infernities, as both have several monsters with very low ATK or DEF that make them easier to take down. Nishipachi’s also a Level 3 Tuner, which will help you to Synchro Summon Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei”!
Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei” is the Deck’s most powerful monster, a Level 7 Synchro with 2600 ATK. When it’s Synchro Summoned, you can Special Summon any Karakuri monster you want from your Deck! On top of that, once per turn you can change the battle position of any monster on the field. Finally, Burei doesn’t have to attack whenever possible (or switch to Defence Position when attacked), but with 2600 ATK you’ll want to take down your opponent’s monsters whenever you can!
Another Tuner that will greatly help out your strategies is the world premiere Karakuri Barrel mdl 96 “Shinkuro”. Like all Karakuri it must attack when it can, and is switched to Defense Position when it’s attacked, but once per turn it can’t be destroyed by battle, so you’ll be able to keep it on the field long enough to Synchro Summon Burei or any other Synchro Monster.
There are many other Karakuri monsters in Starstrike Blast too. Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 “Nisamu” can Special Summon another Level 4 or lower Karakuri from your Deck when it’s destroyed in battle, and Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 “Inashichi” lets you add another “Karakuri” card from your Deck to your hand, even Karakuri Spell and Trap Cards! Finally,Karakuri Ninja mdl 339 “Sazank” can send a face-up monster from the field to the Graveyard whenever it’s flipped face-up, and can attack your opponent directly on the same turn!
