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.

Interestingly enough, if you take the first letter of each crystal (excluding Emerald) you can spell CARATS (Cobalt, Amber, Ruby, Amethyst, Topaz, Sapphire), which is a measure of the mass of gemstones.


 * 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. "Crystal Abundance" deck types will have even more trouble, considering they don't rely on powerful monsters such as Rainbow Dragon or "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder". 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
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch
 * Earthbound Immortals
 * Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
 * Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest
 * Manticore of Darkness
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Rescue Cat
 * Seismic Crasher
 * Summoner Monk
 * Gravi-Crush Dragon
 * Magna-Slash Dragon
 * Dweller in the Depths
 * Anteatereatingant
 * Gigantes
 * Malefic Stardust Dragon
 * Malefic Truth Dragon
 * Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings
 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder

Spells

 * Mage Power
 * Terraforming
 * Emergency Provisions
 * United We Stand
 * After the Struggle
 * Crystal Beacon ???¿¿

Traps

 * Torrential Tribute
 * Treacherous Trap Hole
 * Needle Ceiling
 * Slip Summon
 * Magical Hats(select Crystal Release)
 * Two-Pronged Attack

Hamon Beatdown
Most likely the fastest and most aggressive crystal beast deck possible. Generally this deck does not contain a rainbow dragon simply due to the fact that the games do not tend to last long enough for him to hit the field. This deck uses Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, and Crystal Tree to fill the back row with crystal beasts, then tributing them for Hamon. Once you figure out the way you wish to build this deck, you can OTK regularly. And with the release of Absolute Powerforce, you can use Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings to add more swarm capabilities to the deck along with hand destruction if you cannot pull off the abundance OTK.

Monsters

 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
 * Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus

Spells

 * Crystal Tree
 * Rare Value
 * Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins
 * Crystal Beacon
 * Crystal Blessing
 * Crystal Release

Traps

 * Needle Ceiling
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Magical Hats

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. It's possible to combine this with Synchros for example a Stardust Dragon, to eliminate threats to activating Crystal Abundance.

Monsters

 * Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus
 * Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth
 * Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger
 * Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle (optional)

Spells

 * Crystal Abundance
 * Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins
 * Crystal Tree
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Smashing Ground

Beast Type OTK
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 1 Summoner Monk and 2-3 Rose, Warrior of Revenge to speed it up

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

Light Spectrum
This deck is based upon getting Rainbow Dragon with ease with the help of Lightsworn monsters, Charge of the Light Brigade and Solar Recharges. The milling helps to accumulate the seven Crystal Beasts in the Graveyard, making for the easy summoning of Rainbow Dragon. It will require 3 Rainbow Gravitys and 3 Monster Reincarnations. The choice of your Lightsworn monsters are completely up to you.

This deck may be ineffective due to the March 2010 banlist because Charge of the Light Brigade was limited to one.

Monsters

 * Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
 * Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Spells

 * Charge of the Light Brigade
 * Solar Recharge
 * Monster Reincarnation

Traps

 * Rainbow Gravity
 * Crystal Counter (Only if using Crystal Abundance)

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

Traps

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