Yu-Gi-Oh: 10 Most Powerful Blackwing Cards
The anime Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s left the Yu-Gi-Oh card game forever changed. First and foremost it introduced Synchro Monsters, the dreaded “white cards” that helped to speed the game up.
But it also was responsible for the introduction of a number of archetypes which each had their own effect not only on the competitive duelists of the world, but even casual players.
One of the earliest times that became clear was with Blackwings, a deck which was easily assembled and had all the worst parts of the game for that time period. Lots of special summoning, a bunch of monsters with powerful effects, and easy access to a wide variety of synchro monsters. It was an archetype which was a threat for years after its creation, and this list is devoted to some of the most powerful cards in the deck.
10. ICARUS ATTACK
This belongs on the list out of sheer respect for what it did for Blackwing players for years. By tributing one Winged Beast-type monster, Icarus Attack destroyed two other cards on the field. This additional destruction was perfect off-themed support for the deck, and gave it one more thing it could do in its arsenal in addition to all the things it was already good at. Though it’s not a “Blackwing” card, it was a staple in every Blackwing deck from 2009 to 2014, and its time on the banlist was almost entirely because of its place in this deck.
9. BLACKWING - NOTHUNG THE STARLIGHT
Nothung was one of the Blackwing monsters released during the Arc-V era. Several of the monsters released then weren’t very good, but Nothung…? It seems like it was made for the deck. On summon it grants Blackwing players an additional Normal Summon, meaning it synergizes with the only Blackwing support card that matters in Black Whirlwind. But it also has a pretty nifty (or annoying, depending on perspective) effect that burns the opponent for 800 damage and weakens a monster on the field for 800 attack and defense. This effect is non-targeting, so it hits pretty much everything, making Nothung capable of running over anything with less than 3200 ATK.
8. ASSAULT BLACKWING - RAIKIRI THE RAIN SHOWER
Once upon a time, Blackwings had Icarus Attack to handle spot removal, alongside Brionac and Dark Armed Dragon, both easily summoned cards for the deck back in the day. But eventually, all of these cards were made irrelevant, with the exception of Brionac which was just banned for a long time.
Enter Raikiri, a card which can destroy cards on the field equal to the number of other Blackwings on the field. Considering Blackwing swarming is the deck’s primary special ability, it’s surprising Konami printed this given they generally try not to support Blackwings too heavily given how often OCG liked to use them.
7. BLACKWING - GOFU THE VAGUE SHADOW
This card came at a time where Blackwings were in desperate need of support to remain even remotely competitive with other powerful decks. It seemed decent at the time - it special summoned itself to an empty field, and could synchro into level 8s and 7s fairly easily, without burning up the all-important Normal Summon for the deck. But then Konami introduced Link Summoning, and decided that tokens could be used to Link Summon. Gofu could choose to summon two tokens, meaning this card was essentially free Link monsters. This makes it one of the only Blackwing cards that’s ever been hit because of what other decks did with it.
6. BLACKWING - AUSTER THE SOUTH WIND
Another one of the more recent support cards for Blackwings, Auster is sneaky good. It synergizes with all of the recent support released. Simoon banishes a Blackwing to activate its effect? Auster special summons that monster back. Full Armor Master can destroy any monster with a wedge counter? Auster gives wedge counters to all enemy monsters when banished from graveyard. Best of all? Even if the player controls neither of those cards, it makes Allure of Darkness essentially a free draw, as it brings back whatever was banished.
5. BLACKWING - GALE THE WHIRLWIND
This card feels like the first time players should’ve realized Konami wasn’t messing around with archetype support for decks. When it was first released, there wasn’t anything fair about it. It could special summon itself if the player-controlled another Blackwing, the easiest summoning condition imaginable. It was a tuner, meaning despite its low ATK it could get off the field before it was ever in danger of being attacked. And lastly? It could halve an opposing monster’s attack and defense... permanently. No wonder it was the first monster in the deck to get sent to 1.
4. BLACKWING - FULL ARMOR MASTER
If there’s one thing Blackwings always needed, it was a proper boss monster. They had Black Feather Dragon which was a bad joke played on Blackwing players by the anime, and Blackwing Armor Master which got power-crept by the metagame. But Full Armor Master is the kind of card that can’t really be power-crept because it does so much.
It brings back the Wedge Counters from the original Armor Master, but can take any one opposing monster with a counter and take it permanently, or blow up all monsters that have a counter. That’s without mentioning it can’t be affected by card effects, so the only way to get it off the field is attacking over it.
3. BLACKWING - KALUT THE MOON SHADOW
Kalut is one of the earliest hand traps in the game. It’s a simple enough effect - during battle, discard Kalut and one Blackwing monster gains 1400 ATK. The card was always amazing, because few monsters are capable of winning a battle by more than 1500 ATK to begin with, especially not if the player used Gale at some point. But what makes it even better is thanks to how the battle phase operates; by the time Kalut can be activated, the opponent can’t even activate their traps anymore. It’s not really a surprise that at one point Konami limited this card to a single copy.
2. BLACKWING - SIMOON THE POISON WIND
This much-needed card game to Blackwing players at the time they needed it the most. Though Black Whirlwind is an insanely good card, even with a full playset of it the card’s biggest problem is that there’s no guarantee the player draws into it. And without it, Blackwings aren’t nearly fast enough to keep up with the meta. Enter Simoon, a card that places Black Whirlwind on the field for little more than 1000 life points and a banished monster, two costs that are basically irrelevant. It even summons itself for free after doing so for a free search.
1. BLACK WHIRLWIND
However anyone feels about the other Blackwing cards, there’s no disputing this is the best card of them all. Each time a player Normal Summons a Blackwing monster they can add another to their hand with less ATK than the one they summoned. This is from the era of poorly designed cards, as it generates more advantage with each copy played, and the only limit to the number of searches is the number of Normal Summons. It forces players to deal with it immediately or watch as its user builds up hand advantage for free until they do, solving the only major problem of the deck.
Source: cbr
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