Super-Athena: A look into the future

We finally got to see the last 6 Gold cards for gold series 4. Out of the 6, the one that struck me as the most understated was 'Darklord Zerato'. Darklord Zerato's appearance won't mean much to most players, but to me it suggests one thing: The Darklord's mainstream release. I'm thinking that the 3 prize cards will turn-up as commons in gold series 4 or they'll be included in the collector's tins in august-september time.

I started looking into the darklords and have been experimenting with the cards on duel net today. I was very impressed by 'Darklord Superbia'.

When this card is special summoned from the graveyard, you can special summon 1 Fairy-type monster from your Graveyard, except 'Darklord Superbia.'

Using this card means finding appropriate revival cards to utilise it's effect. I've seen builds that use dark creator. From the title of this article, you may have caught on that my build plays 'Athena.' The reason? Athena in combination with this card opens up a powerful OTK.

Super-Athena OTK

2 Archlord Kristya
3 Athena
3 Darklord Superbia
3 Darklord Asmodeus
3 Hecatrice
1 Honest
1 Marshmallon
2 Aurora Paragon
3 Armageddon Knight
1 Sangan
1 Skelengel
3 Herald of Orange Light

3 Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen
3 Trade-In
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Giant Trunade
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Foolish Burial
3 Gold Sarcophagus

For me the build is very reminiscent of fish OTK. The big difference is the smaller focus on synchro summons.

The main OTK is:

1. Clear opposing front and back rows (using dark hole and giant trunade)
2. Activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, Special summon Athena
3. Normal Summon any smaller fairy, opponent takes 600 damage
4. Tribute fairy, special summon superbia in grave (opponent takes 600 damage)
5. Activate superbia's effect, summon any fairy with more than 700 attack (inflict 600 more damage)
6. Attack for game (600 + 600 + 600 + 2600 + 2900 + 700 = 8000)

Ideally on superbia's effect, you want to summon archlord kristya (or mini kristya: aurora paragon) to stop your opponent from summoning gorz/tragodia/fader.

If you can't clear your opponents front row you can extend the above combo, with copies of Athena in grave. All you have to do is summon the extra athena with superbia's effect, and you can start the combo all over again, doing even more damage with accumulating Athena effects. Hopefully you'll be able to attack over any opposing monsters.

Because Superbia's optional trigger effect is a 'When [something happens]...' it can't miss the timing. So there's your obligatory technical Yu-Gi-Oh jargon.

This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck or Graveyard. Once per turn, you can send 1 Fairy-Type monster from your Deck to the Graveyard. When this card you control is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon 1 "Asmo Token" (Fairy-Type/DARK/Level 5/ATK 1800/DEF 1300) and 1 "Deus Token" (Fairy-Type/DARK/Level 3/ATK 1200/DEF 1200). An  "Asmo Token" cannot be destroyed by card effects. A  "Deus Token" cannot be destroyed by battle.


The main purpose of asmodeus is to quick dump combo pieces into the graveyard. He's also a 3000 attack wall, forcing your opponent to waste resources to try and get rid of it. Unfortunately, if you have to play dark hole to clear your opponents front-row, he actually slows down the OTK (you have to waste a normal summon tributing tokens to summon athena). I'm failing to find a way around this, so I will perhaps have to find a replacement for asmodeus altogether. To keep asmodeus in, I need an inexpensive way to get asmodeus off the field without destroying him (maybe birdman? needs testing...)



Other than this one flaw, I'm really looking forward to playing this deck. It's actually very consistent in assembling combo pieces in the graveyard.