Forum:Deck Guide/Crystal Beasts

by Gadjiltron

Intro
In the third season of GX, we were introduced to a rather interesting character, Jesse Anderson, and his unique Crystal Beasts archetype. In addition to these monsters having voice acting of their own, their special attributes made them highly notable, even before the arrival of Rainbow Dragon. By Force of the Breaker, players now get to wield the Crystal Beasts' unique abilities, too!

Mechanics
There's a common thing for Crystal Beasts - when they would be destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, they could enter the S/T Zone instead. When placed there, they are treated as Continuous Spells. (This process shall be known through the guide as "crystallization") Though they do nothing in there, this is crucial to some of their strategies, as the many card effects associated with them benefit off this. This also circumvents effects that say "destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard" to trigger.

Note that there are several ways your opponent can circumvent your Crystal Beasts getting into the S/T Zones. For one, they need to be face-up and have their effects free to activate when destroyed before they get said option. This means your opponent can shoot them with effects or negate their effects to disable such. Don't worry if they do get attacked while face-down - they will be flipped up for Damage Calculation, so after the attack they still get an opportunity to crystallize. Also, if they were to be both destroyed and removed from play at the same time, they cannot enter the S/T Zone (Fortunately they still have this option if Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure is active.)

For those who seek to put a Crystal Beast Deck together, a good amount of these cards can be obtained easily in Duelist Pack 7: Jesse Anderson. However, OCG pack contents differ from the TCG ones. Bear this in mind.

Analysis

 * Speed: Crystal Beasts have many, many ways to seek out their key components, either by recruiting the monsters themselves or placing said monsters into the S/T Zone directly. This form of speed is what got them into the meta back in their day.
 * Power: Sadly, most of the Crystal Beast Deck lacks brute force. However their abilities allow for them to benefit off getting destroyed, so that does not matter much.
 * Consistency: The Deck has proved itself to be fairly consistent by making it to tournaments time and again, due to repeated means of assembling their combos quickly.
 * Risk: The fact that you quickly clog your backrow leaves you with few opportunities to play Traps that can save yourself. Care must be taken when playing with the Deck.
 * Meta Ranking: There was a time when Crystal Beasts could hold their own in the meta. Now with DAD, Lightsworns, and Gladiator Beasts in the picture, they can't quite make it.

The Basics
Let's look into the base components of the deck - the monsters:


 * Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle - At 300/300, it can't do much, but its effect is very potent. When Special Summoned, all Crystal Beasts in the S/T Zone can be Special Summoned to the field if possible. This swarm of monsters allows for a game-ending rush, which is what the Deck is known for.
 * Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth - Decent stats of 1700/1600, and if another Crystal Beast monster is attacked it can change the target to itself. The second largest beater of the original 7, and thus is a must to have in the deck.
 * Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger - 1600/1000 is fair enough for a LV4, but its ATK rises to 2000 when it attacks a monster. This makes it a prime choice as it can take out many monsters using its powerup ability, but take note that the effect does not work when it gets attacked instead.
 * Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise - 600 ATK cannot take much down, but 2000 DEF can hold many monsters off. Its effect can switch a monster that has attacked this turn to Defense Position, which is good when you're going to suffer damages otherwise, but overall lack of offensive ability leaves this underplayed.
 * Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus - 1800/1200 is standard issue LV4 stats, but what makes this card shine is its effect - on Summon (any kind), he can crystallize a Crystal Beast from anywhere - hand, Deck, or Graveyard. This ability to speed things up and generate advantage makes it a central card for the deck.
 * Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle - Weak stats of 1400/800 and a questionable effect of topdecking a Crystal Beast card on the field leaves it an underlooked card. Perhaps useable with Pegasus to create a loop of constant crystallization, but generally considered a weak Crystal Beast.
 * Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat - Weaker stats of 1200/600, but it can attack directly for half damage. It is generally good for slipping under most locks due to its Level, but it also makes a valid target for Rescue Cat.
 * Rainbow Dragon - The key card of a pure Crystal Beast build, Rainbow Dragon can be dropped from the hand as long as all 7 Beasts are either on the field or in the Graveyard. And with 4000 ATK, it's not fooling around. Its effects cannot be used on the turn it's Summoned. The first eats all Crystal Beast monsters you control for a 1000 ATK boost per Beast, which is good for overkill or quickly overpowering something much bigger than it already is. The second removes all Crystal Beasts in the Grave to reset the field, a questionable effect which sees little use. Be careful if you're not done with the opponent once the Dragon is Summoned, as it has 0 DEF.

With that done, let's look at the S/T support:


 * Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins - A solid Field for the deck, and its effects accumulate! With one crystallized Beast, it is immune to destruction effects. Two, and once a turn you can halve Battle Damage taken. Three, and you can negate an S/T activation at the cost of a Crystal Beast monster on the field. Four, and you get an extra draw during the Main Phase each turn. Five, and you can Special Summon a crystallized Beast so as to free up a S/T slot. With the various utility provided in a single card, it is a must-have.
 * Crystal Abundance - The OTK engine for the Deck. It costs 4 crystallized Beasts, but in exchange it clears out the entire board, and you get to Special Summon a Crystal Beast for each of your opponent's cards wiped off. The resulting swarm clears the way for game-finishing damage, but take note that it is a dead draw early on. Be careful of any Counter Traps or anything that can negate its activation, since you will not be likely to have a way to counter this, and will be stuck with an (almost) empty field afterwards.
 * Crystal Beacon - Requires 2 crystallized Beasts, but Special Summons one from your Deck. This is very good with Pegasus in filling up the S/T slots, or you can pull a Carbuncle for a quick swarm.
 * Crystal Blessing - Regenerates 2 Crystal Beasts into the S/T Zone, and is good for recovering after getting hit by some S/T destruction, or fueling up for other more costly effects. Max these out, you will need it.
 * Crystal Counter - At the cost of wiping your S/T Zone, you get to fill it to the brim with Crystal Beasts from the Graveyard. After which all Crystal Beasts cards you control are wiped off the field. The rules dictate that this card remains in the S/T Zone until it is done resolving, meaning a total of 4 Crystals of your choice will fill the zone. This makes for a good follow-up with Abundance, and can help you pick out the last cards you need to bring out Rainbow Dragon following the incoming OTK.
 * Crystal Pair - When a Crystal Beast monster is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can activate this card, crystallizing another Beast from the Deck, and preventing further Battle Damage this turn. It's a bit counter-intuitive to let a Crystal Beast hit the Grave through battle though...
 * Crystal Promise - This simple Spell Special Summons a crystallized Beast. Good when used with Pegasus for further crystallization, and can be used with Carbuncle for a sudden swarm.
 * Crystal Raigeki - At the cost of a crystallized Beast, this destroys a card of the opponent's. Good removal, but handle with care - don't unnecessarily empty out your crystals.
 * Crystal Release - An awesome equip card for the Crystal Beasts. The equipped monster gains 800 ATK, which is enough to get some of the weaker beasts to hold their own. And that's not all - when sent from the field to the Graveyard, it furthers the strategy by crystallizing another Crystal Beast from the Deck!
 * Crystal Tree - An odd Continuous Spell which gains counters each time a Crystal Beast gets Crystallized. It can send itself to the Graveyard to crystallize a number of Beasts from your Deck equal to the number of counters on it. Best if you play this at no more than 1 copy, and best used to its full potential once it hits 2 counters, no more.
 * Last Resort - Seeks out a Rainbow Ruins from your Deck and activates it when your opponent attacks. If you play over a field in the process your opponent gets a free draw. Good for a bit of surprise element, but Terraforming is usually preferred.
 * Rainbow Gravity - Once you have fulfilled the conditions for Rainbow Dragon, this card lets you summon it from your Deck or Graveyard. If you want to, Rainbow Dark Dragon can also be summoned by this effect. Quite a good card for Rainbow builds, when you just lost the Dragon to a discard or need an emergency beater late into the game.
 * Rainbow Path - When the opponent attacks, you can send a crystallized Crystal Beast to the Graveyard to negate it, and then search out Rainbow Dragon or Rainbow Dark to your hand. Not quite worth the cost unless you're almost set for the arrival of the Dragon.
 * Rare Value - A debated card. While you wind up losing a crystallized Crystal Beast, you draw 2 cards. Some say the tradeoff is not worth it, others welcome the draw power. I say, give this card a shot.

Pure Prisms
This build is a pure Crystal Beast build, using all 7 Crystal Beasts and Rainbow Dragon. The aim here is to quickly gather the 7 beasts either on the field or in the Graveyard using whatever support the theme has. Then, the Dragon can be dropped either as a surprise attack, or as a follow up to Crystal Abundance for sheer overkill.

Some unique features of the Deck include:


 * Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle and Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise, which the other builds ignore for Deck space
 * Rainbow Gravity to get the Dragon out faster
 * Rainbow Dragon, of course.

An example of this Deck is as follows:

Great Abundance
A more flexible build as it uses other resources to aid the usage Crystal Abundance rather than fully dedicating to Rainbow Dragon. It does not use the full Crystal Beast set so as to free up Deck space for other resources that can speed up the placement of the crystals in the S/T Zone, so that the finishing Abundance can be pulled off with ease once drawn.

This build tends to feature the following which the Rainbow Build does not use:


 * Rescue Cat, to fetch out 2 Amethyst Cats. After which these two would self-destruct and crystallize. However, this card has been banned since September 2010.
 * Summoner Monk can easily summon a Sapphire Pegasus for a free crystallization, or a Rescue Cat to get 2 Amethyst Cats as stated above.
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch helps crystallize Beasts on the field while letting the player draw cards.
 * Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude can bypass the activation costs and requirements for most of the Normal Spell supports.
 * Card Trooper serves as a way to thin the Deck, beat face, and dump Crystal Beasts into the Graveyard for later recovery.

An example of the Deck is as follows:

Crystal Tuning
With the ability of Crystal Beasts to swarm the field, another variation has been derived: Crystal Synchro. Using many methods to pull Crystal Beasts out to the field, the Deck can then summon a few Tuners for a quick tuning to beat face. Popular strategies include Special Summoning Ruby Carbuncle to flood the field with Synchro material, or using Rescue Cat to fetch Tuners for a fast Synchro.

Some unique cards this variation features:


 * X-Saber Airbellum is used in conjunction with Rescue Cat to quickly fetch a Tuner and Amethyst Cat to immediately Synchro Summon.
 * Rose, Warrior of Revenge, Soldier of Mist Valley and Flamvell Magical are all LV4 Tuners with no drawbacks.
 * Krebons combined with Emergency Teleport make an instant LV2 Tuner for other Synchro Summoning.
 * Spell Striker is a good free Special Summon, particularly with a large amount of Spells the Deck uses.

An example of the Deck is as follows:

Other Tips
Some other cards can be considered when constructing the Deck:


 * Magical Merchant - It can mill through Crystal Beasts to prepare for the arrival of Rainbow Dragon, while fetching a Spell or Trap card that will be abundant in this Deck. Take care that the Dragon itself doesn't get milled.
 * Magna-Slash Dragon and Gravi-Crush Dragon - Both eat crystals for their effects. One kills S/Ts, another kills monsters. Both are also 1-Tribute monsters. Considering the weakness of many Crystal Beasts, these can be a problem to bring out, but they are capable of providing additional muscle to the Deck.
 * Dweller in the Depths - Powers up for each crystal you have. Can reach a maximum of 3000 ATK and attacks under most locking cards.
 * Gem Flash Energy - Burns 300 points per Continuous Spell on the field. Just be careful that it will inevitably clog up that last S/T slot.
 * Monster Reincarnation - Toss out loose copies of Spells, get that dead Dragon back to your hand for another round. Alternatively, you can send unneeded Crystal Beasts to the Graveyard for use with Crystal Blessing to quickly fill up the S/T zone.
 * Anteatereatingant - Summon by sacrificing off 2 crystals, and it can support in raw power or reuseable S/T removal.
 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder - It can be summoned by sacrificing 3 crystals. It is said to be arguably better than Rainbow Dragon due to its burn and protection effects, along with its solid 4000 DEF.
 * Bad End Queen Dragon - You can Special Summon this card just by having 3 Continuous Spells, which your crystals can count for. She provides some great support by putting pressure on the opponent's hand while replenishing yours. Also, if she ever gets taken out, you can revive her at the cost of a crystal.

Be aware of the following cards which could cause trouble, though:


 * Macro Cosmos - This prevents access of the Graveyard since anything sent there is removed from play. This is particularly problematic as Crystal Beasts have no method of dealing with removal from play. An active Macro Cosmos will stop any effect that requires sending the Crystals from the S/T Zone to the Graveyard since these are part of costs.
 * Malevolent Catastrophe - With Heavy Storm banned as of September 2010, this card is the next best alternative to cleaning out S/Ts. This will include all your Crystal Beasts in the S/T Zone.
 * Spell Shattering Arrow - This card is unlikely to show up in most Decks, but it will nevertheless cause trouble by destroying all Crystals you have set up and dealing a lot of Burn Damage to you.