Blackwing

The Blackwing archetype, known as Black Feather archetype in the Japanese version, is a series of monsters which mostly consist of DARK Winged Beast-Type (except "Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights" which is a LIGHT monster) monsters making their debut in "Crimson Crisis". In the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime, they are used by Crow Hogan. Most of these monsters are somewhat humanoid and have either a tengu or bird-like appearance. Also, most of Blackwing monsters feature black in their design, usually on their wing feathering. Most are named after types of wind and air currents, except for the manga version, who are named after weapons instead. They are currently a meta Deck with swarming and speed capabilities. When Crimson Crisis was released, this Archetype was very unsupported - only 5 cards of Blackwing were released: "Gale the Whirlwind", "Sirocco the Dawn", "Bora the Spear", "Armor Master" and "Raptor Wing Strike". Later on, with the release of Raging Battle and Ancient Prophecy the set grew into a highly swarming and powerful Deck. The speed it gives with its swarming, along with its additional Synchro Summoning capabilities landed this Deck a place on the Shonen Jump Circuit. New Blackwing monsters and support are released in The Shining Darkness and Starstrike Blast, giving them alternative strategies. The cards relate to various types of birds and several types of winds.

Playing Style
The Blackwing's effects are focused around Swarming. Because of that, they have an aggressive playing style. Also, because of their Swarming capabilities, they are good for using Synchro Summon (Note that their trump cards are Synchro Monsters). Their support cards rely on their swarm abilities such as "Delta Crow - Anti Reverse" which can be activated from the hand when you control exactly 3 Blackwing Monsters. Some of them take an advantage from Blackwing's swarming abilities and support it such as "Black Whirlwind". Some of them rely on your opponent such as "Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North" which needs a monster in the Graveyard to Special Summon. With the overwhelming amount of near forced synergy and powerful support cards, Blackwings are one of the easiest archetype to play. This along with its overall power and relatively low cost nature makes Blackwings one of the most powerful archetypes in the current metagame.

The primary draw power used in Blackwings is represented by "Allure of Darkness", "Pot of Duality", and "Cards for Black Feathers". Because of this myriad of choices and ability to run many of them simultaneously, it is not surprising that Blackwings are known for impressive consistency

Also, because most of the Blackwing monsters are DARK Winged Beast monsters, along with "Allure of Darkness" for drawing power, you can use "Icarus Attack" for card destruction. Alongside that, many Blackwing Decks also run "Dark Armed Dragon" for its ability to be Special Summoned by having DARK monsters in the graveyard.

Blackwings are one of the few top tier Decks that don't require their combo pieces to go off to win. Their toolbox allows them to shift their playstyle from being aggressive to passive. The Deck has numerous mind games forcing players to make less than sub-optimal plays to play against it. By setting a card in the backrow with a Blackwing monster, the mind game and the illusion of the "Icarus Attack" being present is given off. Players will have to slow down their playing style, forcing any aggressive Decks to be crippled and unable to commence their plays recklessly.

Normal Blackwing
Blackwings are a powerful archetype, able to quickly swarm the field, Synchro Summon, and do devastating damage in the first turn alone. Their specialty is their Special Summons, allowing you to summon multiple monsters in a single turn, then use effects such as "Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn's" or "Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow's" to build off one another and quickly wreak massive destruction.

Monsters

 * Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
 * Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame
 * Blackwing - Bora the Spear
 * Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
 * Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
 * Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North
 * Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor
 * Spirit Reaper
 * Dark Armed Dragon

Spells

 * Black Whirlwind
 * Cards for Black Feathers
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Pot of Duality
 * Upstart Goblin

Traps

 * Icarus Attack
 * Seven Tools of the Bandit
 * Delta Crow - Anti Reverse
 * Royal Oppression

Extra Deck

 * Vortex the Whirlwind
 * Blackwing Armor Master
 * Blackwing Armed Wing
 * Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant

Vayu Turbo
This Deck is based on getting "Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor" into the Graveyard and sending high-Level "Blackwing" monsters into the Graveyard, then Special Summoning (Vayu only Special Summons Blackwing Synchros). Because Vayu's effect Special Summons Synchro Monsters instead of Synchro Summoning them, the requirements on the cards do not apply, and as per Vayu's effect, their effects are negated. The strategy then devolves into spamming high-ATK Synchro Monsters followed by swarming the field with other "Blackwing" monsters. Recycling "Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor" with "Burial from a Different Dimension" to perform another Special Summon is a recommended tactic. This also allows you to return Necro Gardna and anything else you might remove with "Dark Armed Dragon" or "Allure of Darkness" to your Graveyard. To go along with "Burial from a Different Dimension", you can add "Return from the Different Dimension" to summon the same cards to your side of the field and attempt a OTK. Cards that send other cards from your Deck to your Graveyard, such as "Card Trooper" (or, to a lesser extent, "Veil of Darkness"), are suggested. Another possible strategy is to Special Summon Vayu through "Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame's" ability, negating Vayu's Tuning restriction, and Synchro Summon "Ally of Justice Catastor". Alternatively, you can use "Double Summon" to Summon Vayu and a Level 4-6 Blackwing, then use "Forbidden Chalice" to negate Vayu's effect and Synchro Summon.

"Crush Card Virus" (in Traditional Format) might be a viable tool for ditching "Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor" to the Graveyard while destroying the opponent's monsters. "Deck Devastation Virus" and/or "Eradicator Epidemic Virus" work for ditching a high-Level Blackwing monster to the Graveyard and destroying low-ATK monsters. This strategy works very will with this type of Deck, since you will be able to rapidly swarm the field with high-ATK DARK-Attribute Monsters, since the key cards of this Deck (Vayu, high Level Blackwings) make perfect targets for the Viruses. When they are in the Graveyard, you can summon even more monsters while leaving your opponent with nothing. Furthermore, you will be looking at your opponent's hand, allowing you to predict their actions. Another way to use the Viruses is to set them and wait until the Virus, or the possible target, is targeted by one of your opponent's effects that might affect you negatively and counter it by using the monster as a Tribute to activate the Virus.

Another great card for this Deck is "Skill Drain" which can negate the effect of Vayu while it is on the field (so it can be used as a Synchro Material monster on the field) while still allowing it to Special Summon Synchro Monsters by removing it from the Graveyard ("Skill Drain" does not negate effects in the Graveyard). As an added bonus, the effect-negating drawback on the Synchro Monster will be meaningless, since "Skill Drain" does the same to each other monster.

Monsters

 * Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
 * Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
 * Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor
 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Dark Grepher/Armageddon Knight
 * Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells

 * Allure of Darkness
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Cards for Black Feathers
 * Foolish Burial
 * Gold Sarcophagus
 * Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps

 * Deck Devastation Virus
 * Eradicator Epidemic Virus
 * Icarus Attack
 * Return from the Different Dimension
 * Royal Oppression
 * Skill Drain

Blackwing Twilight
This is variety of Blackwing Deck that relies on the Lightsworn engine to help bring out cards like Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon.

Synchro Summoning
Several of the Blackwings, as well as their support cards, make Synchro Summoning fairly easy.
 * "Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind": Can be Special Summoned from your hand if you control another "Blackwing" monster besides another "Gale".
 * "Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North": Upon being Normal Summoned, can Special Summon from your Graveyard a Level 4 or lower "Blackwing" monster.
 * "Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor": Can Special Summon "Blackwing" Synchro Monsters by utilizing "Blackwing" monster as materials from the Graveyard instead of the field. Keep in mind that the effects of these Synchro Monsters will be negated as long as they are face-up on the field (Book of Moon is one of the cards that can remedy this problem) and this form of Summoning disallows them from being Special Summoned from the Graveyard or Remove from Play.
 * "Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame": Although not a "Blackwing" Tuner Monster, this monster can Special Summon from your Deck a "Blackwing" monster with 1500 or less ATK after it has destroyed an opponent's monster during Damage Step. Because the searched monster's effect is negated, Vayu will be able to Synchro Summon while on the field if summoned in this way (which is normally unable to).
 * "Black Whirlwind": The trump card of any Blackwing Deck. When a "Blackwing" monster is Normal Summoned, you can add a "Blackwing" monster from your Deck to your hand if its ATK is weaker than the summoned monster.

Because of their potential to create Level 6 and 7 Synchro Monsters with such ease, Blackwing Armed Wing, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, and Goyo Guardian are among the top choices for Level 6, while Blackwing Armor Master and Black Rose Dragon are among the top choices for Level 7. "Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier" is a great choice to create OTK opportunities as it can clear the opponent's backfield while tossing Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honors to the Graveyard so they can Special Summon Synchro Monsters from the Extra Deck. "Black Rose Dragon" is a good choice to clear the field, if the field becomes crowded, to evade a Trap Card(s) that could ruin your strategy, or create card advantage.

Level 8 Synchro Monsters like "Red Dragon Archfiend" are somewhat harder to Synchro Summon than Level 6 or 7 Synchro Monsters. The most common way to perform a Level 8 Synchro Summon is to Normal Summon "Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn" and then Special Summon "Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind". Even if you do not have "Gale" in your hand, it can easily be searched out with "Black Whirlwind" after Normal Summoning "Sirocco". Among the top choices for the Synchro Summon is "Stardust Dragon", as it can offer protection from effects that destroy cards and "Colossal Fighter", as it can consistently revive itself after it has fallen in battle.

Due to the requirements of its Synchro Summon, "Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant" (released in Stardust Overdrive) has been widely dismissed by many Blackwing duelists. However, it can be easily summoned by removing Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor and Blackwing Armor Master from one's graveyard, making it viable in the Extra Deck.

Weaknesses
Blackwings have some problems maintaining Hand and Field Advantage due to the overwhelming speed with which Blackwings are summoned, a player can (and often will) find his/her hand depleting quickly, thus lacking resources in case his/her plans goes wrong (such as in the case the opponent counters a massive Swarming with a mass-destruction card like "Torrential Tribute" or "Dark Hole". Blackwings can also fall to "Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror" as it will negate many of their powerful effects such as Gale's effect to halve ATK and DEF. Blackwing's swarming can be stopped by cards such as Summon Limit. Also, an anti-dark card, "Consecrated Light" is frequently a problem, and is best dispatched with cards like "Icarus Attack", although siding in "Skill Drain" prevents this to some extent. Most Blackwing Support cards require a Blackwing monster to be on the field ("Icarus Attack" being the most important). A well played "Trap Stun" or "Seven Tools of the Bandit" can shut down these traps and place the opponent at a disadvantage.

Blackwings require the initial Normal Summon to the field to start field presence negating that summon or immediately destroying that monster with a "Trap Hole" or similar card will prevent swarming for that turn.

Siding in "Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn" is also surprisingly effective against Blackwings, since "Sirocco" can use the opponent's Blackwings for his effect