Crystal Beast

The Crystal Beasts, known in Japan as the Gem/Jewel Beasts are a series of Monster Cards that become Continuous Spell Cards after they are destroyed while monsters. Although weak in terms of actual strength, their aforementioned effects allow them to have great staying power. In addition, they are supplemented by many support cards which utilizes them in their Continuous Spell Card form. This archetype also contains the card "Rainbow Dragon", the ace card of the Crystal Beasts. It can be summoned quite easily as it can be only be played when there are the seven different Crystal Beasts on the field or in the graveyard. The card can also be summoned with the effect of Rainbow Gravity. This archetype also contains one of the most powerful OTK setups with Crystal Abundance, making them robust even against overpowering opponents.

The Crystal Beasts made their first appearance in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, used by Jesse Anderson. In the English dub, each one of the Crystal Beast monsters, except "Ruby Carbuncle", imitates the voice of a real life movie celebrity.


 * See also Advanced Crystal Beasts.

Play Style
Crystal Beast Decks tend to have a wide variety of searching options for putting Crystal Beast cards on the field, either summoned as monsters or placed in the Spell & Trap Card zone, and they have a couple of extra drawing options to speed up the use of the Deck. Because of these effects working together, Crystal Beast users can wind up many cards ahead of their opponent, and the various searching options facilitate the summoning of Rainbow Dragon far quicker than would otherwise be possible. The Archetype also supports come-from-behind wins quite easily due to the double whammy of Crystal Abundance, which wipes out everything on the field and then swarms the field with monsters from the Graveyard, and the Field Spell Card of the set, Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins, gains a new effect for every Continuous Spell Card Crystal Beast you control. The archetype is also somewhat resistant to opponents who use Spell and Trap destruction effects, as a couple of cards can quickly put the Crystal Beasts in Spell form back onto the back row from the Graveyard, and the Field Spell Card resists being destroyed itself.

Weaknesses
The back row of a Crystal Beast user can get clogged easily and generally must be left open for Crystal Beast Spell Card-form cards, so an effective Deck can't use any Continuous Spells or Continuous Traps. The archetype also relies upon the opponent destroying the Crystal Beasts in order to most quickly get them into the back row, so a clever opponent might simply summon a strong monster and avoid attacking the Crystal Beasts, instead using direct-attack or Burn-Damage tactics. Crystal Abundance, the trump card of the set, can also be easily stopped with a well-timed Counter Trap. Also, with the sole exception of Rainbow Dragon, most Crystal Beasts have sub-par ATK when compared to tributers, fusions and Synchro Summons, making it quite painful until Rainbow Dragon can be summoned. Also, watch out for monsters such as "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8", because you won't be able to use "Crystal Abundance", "Crystal Beacon", or any other major spell cards. A way to overcome this would be to add a "Gravi-Crush Dragon" to the Deck for back-up support.

Monsters

 * Ancient Fairy Dragon
 * Anteatereatingant
 * Bad End Queen Dragon
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
 * Dweller in the Depths
 * Earthbound Immortals
 * Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
 * Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest
 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
 * Magna-Slash Dragon/Gravi-Crush Dragon
 * Manticore of Darkness
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Rescue Cat
 * Summoner Monk

Spells

 * Celestial Transformation
 * Mage Power

Traps

 * Beast Soul Swap
 * Gem Flash Energy
 * Thunder Crash
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Treacherous Trap Hole
 * Needle Ceiling
 * Wild Nature's Release

Crystal Abundance OTK
The OTK is more competitive friendly. It utilizes Crystal Abundance's effect to work, so a few copies of the card is essential to have in the Deck, as well as a way to search it out (Different Dimension Capsule or Gold Sarcophagus work nicely). There must be four Crystal Beasts in the Spell & Trap Zone, plus an open slot to activate Crystal Abundance. Wait until you have five Crystal Beasts on the field or in your Graveyard with ATK of 1600 or more to activate the card. Upon activating Crystal Abundance, if your opponent had at least five cards on his/her field, all five of your monsters can be Special Summoned. Crystal Abundance leaves your opponent open to a direct attack. Another way to achieve this outcome is by the use of the Destiny Heroes. With the combination of the various normal spells and Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude, it can make a speedy Deck.

The three Crystal Beasts you will most likely use in this build would be Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth, and Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger since they are the strongest and will make for an easy win. Another way to make Crystal Abundance effect to work quickly is with Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle and Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus together

Spells

 * Destiny Draw
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Smashing Ground

Aggressive Crystal Beasts
This Deck is a very weak build that relies on either depleting your opponent's life points quickly, or destroying your opponent's cards fast. If you plan to burn through your opponent's life points, Seismic Crasher and Gem Flash Energy are good cards to include. If card destruction is your goal, then you should use cards like Magna-Slash Dragon, Gravi-Crush Dragon and Crystal Raigeki. Also, Dweller in the Depths and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder are general beatsticks for delivering the final strike, and Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins is a strong defensive card that doesn't take up a Spell and Trap Card Zone slot, so they are good assets. For both of the above strategies, it is absolutely essential to keep the number of Crystal Beasts in your Spell and Trap Card Zone high. Some common cards are Kuraz the Light Monarch, Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, Crystal Blessing, Crystal Tree and Crystal Counter. There is another build of Aggressive Crystal Beasts known as Crystal Monarch. Working similarly to Apprentice Monarch, and using the Crystal Abundance engine, it's possible to beat your opponent down with the crystal beasts and then activate Abundance to clear the field, summon the Crystal Beasts and then either before you attack or after, you can summon a Monarch for an added threat. As of now, Crystal Monarch is the only stable aggressive build. '''

Beast Type OTK
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With this type of Crystal Beast Deck you'll need the usual, except for Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle who is not a Beast-Type like the other Crystal Beasts. The main combo is to swarm the field with Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and Special Summon Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle to get your field filled with beasts. With your field filled with Crystal Beasts you can then use the key card The Big March of Animals to give your beasts 200 ATK power boost for each beast on your side of the field. This will give the power to OTK your opponent.

Synchro-Crystal Beasts
Basically, there are 2 types of Crystal Beasts Synchro. The first is the one that uses psychic tuners like Krebons and Psychic Commander, and Emergency Teleport to speed it up; the universal engine. Then with the release of X-Saber Airbellum in the Starter Deck 2009, you can add a mini Synchro Cat engine to it, by adding Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat. Because Emergency Teleport is limited, most Crystal Beast decks run 2 Summoner Monk and 2-3 Rose, Warrior of Revenge to speed it up.

Crystal Sworm
The focus of this deck is similar to Rainbow Dark Dragon Turbo. Fill your deck up with 3 Rainbow Dragon, and a some Lightsworns monsters, as well as Magical Merchant and multiple copies of Monster Reincarnation and possibly Heavy Storm. Use Magical Merchant to send Crystal beasts from your deck to the Graveyard. Then use Monster Reincarnation to get Rainbow Dragon to your hand. If you have it in your hand use Heavy Storm to clear your opponent of spells. Then attack with Rainbow Dragon. It's up to you about it's effect. The Lightsworns and Card Trooper can be used to send cards from your deck to the grave to help you get cards into your grave if you can't seem to draw Magical Merchant.

Cobalt Smackdown
The focus of this strategy is to utilize the powers of Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle. To start, you need to have Cobalt Eagle on the field and then send out Sapphire Pegasus or vice versa. Use Cobalt Eagle's effect to send Sapphire back to the top of your deck. Every turn, use this technique and you'll be able to bring out all seven of the Crystal Beasts into your spell and trap card zone. You will then be able to summon Rainbow Dragon.

Crystal Lock
This deck uses Gravi-Crush Dragon, Magna-Slash Dragon, and Patrician of Darkness to form a small lockdown. Can be combined with Rainbow Dragon and Synchro-Crystal Beasts.

Recommended General Cards

 * ¨Rainbow Neos

Monsters

 * Rainbow Dragon
 * Elemental Hero Neos
 * Gravi-Crush Dragon
 * Magna-Slash Dragon
 * Patrician of Darkness

Spells

 * Lightning Vortex

Recycling Gems
This deck uses certain cards to quickly get all 7 Crystal Beasts on the field or in the Graveyard in order to summon Rainbow Dragon quicker. You can put more copies in of the Crystal Beasts if you want.

Monsters

 * Rainbow Dragon
 * Rescue Cat
 * Manticore of Darkness
 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
 * Giant Rat

Spells

 * Magical Mallet
 * Nobleman of Crossout
 * Giant Trunade
 * Double Summon
 * Thunder Crash

Traps

 * Sakuretsu Armor
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Rainbow Gravity
 * Dust Tornado