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 (Or combination of both). 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 sturdy 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.

Monsters

 * Seismic Crasher
 * Summoner Monk
 * Gravi-Crush Dragon
 * Magna-Slash Dragon
 * Dweller in the Depths
 * Anteatereatingant
 * Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings
 * Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
 * Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest
 * Time Wizard
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch
 * Sea Koala
 * Magna-Slash Dragon
 * Jester Lord
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Spells

 * Mage Power
 * Terraforming
 * Emergency Provisions
 * United We Stand
 * After the Struggle

Traps

 * Treacherous Trap Hole
 * Needle Ceiling
 * Slip Summon
 * Magical Hats (select Crystal Release)
 * Two-Pronged Attack
 * Trap Stun
 * Super Rush Recklessly
 * Scrubbed Raid

Hamon Beatdown
One of the more agressive crystal beast decks. 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, Lord of Striking Thunder. Once you figure out the way you wish to build this deck, you can OTK regularly. 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. In addition to Crystal Blessing another good recommendation is Crystal Counter for those situations when you draw too many Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder while not having enough crystal beasts in your back row to summon them.

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 or Crystal Beast Emerald Turtle who are not Beast-Type like the other Crystal Beasts (aside from  Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle). 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 and win the duel in no time.

Synchro-Crystal Beasts
Basically, there are 3 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. Another option is Jutte Fighter or Torapart with Reinforce Truth which can help you to get out synchro monsters faster.

You can also use Flamvell Firedog to easily search for Flamvell Magician. You can also use Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings with Krebons to synchro for a 8 star Synchro Monster; and if you have any crystal beast in your spell/trap zone, you can bring back Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings on the next turn.You can mainly abuse the powers of rescue cat in synchro summoning for this deck. Mainly use level 2 and 3 tuner monsters and level 5-7 synchro monsters.

The introduction of Key Mouse in The Shining Darkness expansion adds another beast type tuner monster along side X-Saber Airbellum and can allow for the Synchro summon of lower level Synchro monsters such as Armory Arm and Ally of Justice Catastor. Searching for Key Mouse with Rescue Cat also makes it easier to find, and Key Mouse's ability can find either X-Saber Airbellum or Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat. The Duelist Revolution introduces Lock Cat, allowing for easy summoning of 4 star Synchro monsters in conjunction with Key Mouse.

Monsters

 * Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus
 * Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger
 * Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth
 * Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat
 * Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
 * Krebons
 * Psychic Commander
 * X-Saber Airbellum
 * Rescue Cat
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Summoner Monk

Spells

 * Emergency Teleport
 * Synchro Blast Wave
 * Smashing Ground

Traps

 * Compulsory Evacuation Device
 * Starlight Road

Synchro-Crystal Beasts featuring Equip Spells
A well timed Power Tool Dragon can be a crucial Synchro target for crystal beast decks utilizing Mage Power and possibly United We Stand. With most crystal beast decks already utilizing Crystal Release it is very hard to not ever find 3 equip spells with Power Tool Dragon. A maximum sized Power Tool Dragon with just one Mage Power will equal a whopping 5300 attack. However, for this style of deck Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder is not a good recommendation as it's special summon cost will be very counter productive towards effectively using Mage Power. Flamvell Uruquizas can also be very effective with multiple Mage Powers and United We Stands for a quick victory.

Synchro-Crystal Beasts featuring Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
If you have an active Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins with 4 or more crystal beast spells, you can draw 1 card per turn, however that 'once per turn' will no longer apply if the Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins is removed from the field. Simply discard 1 card to activate Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier's ability, then replay the Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins and activate it's forth ability to draw another card, and repeat as many times as you like. This loop is useful with Exodia the Forbidden One. For maximum results just recycle all powerful monsters to the graveyard, save a crystal abundance (assuming you have four crystal beasts as continous spells). Also until you have a mage power. Use crystal abundance then special summon your beasts ( works well if opponent has a minimum of 4 cards) mainly sapphire pegasus for an automatic three crystal spells and a 2000 atk boost to a monster. Attack and enjoy your victory.

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
 * White Night Dragon

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
 * Rainbow Dragon
 * Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus

Spells

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

Traps

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

Scrap Crystals
This deck is based upon Synchro Summoning and mass destruction with Scrap monsters as tuners. These are used to add Crystal Beasts to the back row quickly so you can mass Special Summon with Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle.

This deck was constructed after the September 2010 ban list.

Monsters

 * Beast King Barbaros
 * Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Scrap Beast
 * Scrap Chimera
 * Scrap Goblin

Spells

 * Monster Reincarnation
 * Pot of Avarice
 * Scrapyard

Traps

 * Rainbow Gravity (Only if using Rainbow Dragon)

Extra Deck

 * Lightning Tricorn
 * Scrap Archfiend
 * Scrap Dragon
 * Thunder Unicorn
 * Voltic Bicorn