Elementsabers In-Depth Part 2: Hail the Almighty Elemental Lords

Oh Mighty Elemental Lords, we quiver with fear in your presence! But what makes them so powerful? Well guess what, we are going to go through that today and just show you the power these mighty monsters posses.

Following through the Elementsabers we met last post, we were made aware that they were designed in order to allow the Elemental Lords to be summoned much easier since they have effect to change their attributes at will while in the graveyard. This is important because every single Elemental Lord requires exactly 5 monsters to be the same attribute as they are to allow you to special summon them to the field from your hand, as they are not allowed to be normal summoned or set. Now, in order to save you yet again from consistent repetition, I will also tell you the remainder common effects they all have right here. They all boast the same Attack and Defence being 2800 and 2200 respectively, they all share an effect that is if they ever leave the field, by being sent back to the main deck, hand, graveyard or banished zone, you must skip your next battle phase, and finally, their main effect that makes them the boss monsters they are, is strictly a hard once per turn, meaning you can't summon more than one same Elemental Lord expecting to get a chain effect in the same turn. Anyway, without further ado, let us get right into it!

Grandsoil the Elemental Lord - Earth Attribute

Kicking us off this post we are having a look at the champ who got released from the ban list back in May 2018 after receiving a change to his text. Grandsoil is a walking Monster Reborn where once you special summon him, you are able to special summon (revive) 1 monster from either player's graveyard. A great combo extender, or removing a potential threat in an enemies grave, he serves his purpose of being an Elemental Lord. Being an earth attributed Lord as well, he requires 5 earth monsters in the graveyard, so if you are running an earth heavy deck, you should definitely have this guy in your radar! Unfortunately, it would have been amazing if he didn't have the hard once per turn on him, which actually used to be the case. It was the reason why he got banned because you could just summon him, revive a creature, use him as a material for a summon, then revive him again or special summon a second copy of him from your hand and BANG, you are creating such an advantageous board. Despite this though, with his current iteration, he still has a place with the Elementsabers and you can easily run 1 copy of him without an issue. The fact he can revive someone, you can probably use this effect for targets like Aina or Makani for any possible extended play or search, or maybe even Molehu and Lapauila for disruption control.

Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord - Water Attribute

Looking for a strong board going first? Want to already cause your opponent a disadvantage before they even get to play? Do you like Delinquent Duo but sad it is banned and want to play it somehow? Then look no further as I introduce you to the water Elemental Lord, Moulinglacia. Absolute beast, well sea serpent, especially as a first turn boss monster to get onto the field, because you get to rip 2 random cards from your opponents hand when he is special summoned. Only requires exactly 5 water monsters, he is actually seen in other decks apart form Elementsabers. If you have versed a Mermail or any Mermail-variant deck then you probably have felt his wrath as they can also turbo him out quite easily too. This is not to say he is exclusive only to first turn plays as well. Getting him in later turns could potentially ruin any hands if your opponents are trying to build for recovery plays, hell if you are able to or have a Call of the Haunted type of card, then when your opponent draws a card, boom activate the revive, special summon Moulinglacia (assuming he is in your graveyard) and just rip another 2 random cards. In fact, there is a way to rip basically all the cards from your opponents hand by running him, Topologic Gumblar Dragon and Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, in an Elementsaber deck and just cause absolute chaos with the right opening hand. So much can be done with him, I definitely run 1 copy as I tend to try to open with him most times than not.

Phosphorage the Elemental Lord - Light Attribute

Now we get into some juicy stuff, as we bring out this bad-ass monster that can help you pull off an OTK (one-turn kill), yes you heard me, Elementsabers can OTK, on turn 2. Phosphorage is your Raigeki, and being able to destroy all of your opponents monsters as soon as he is summoned, is such a good feeling to see them burn, while building your army for the win. So many times I would go second, open with a great hand and just win without any worries at all. Getting 5 light into the grave by turn 2 is very easy, in fact you can end up with many Esabers in your grave to allow further attributes for increase attack with Palace of the Elemental Lords and this is where the OTK happens. If you happen to lose him somehow, you can bring him back in turn 4, and just keep the destruction going on, and on, and on! Due to this fact, I definitely run 1 just to be able to pull of this play, and I would recommend giving him a chance.

Pyrorex the Elemental Lord - Fire Attribute

If you feel that Phosphorage's destruction wasn't enough, then wait till you get a look at this flaming dinosaur! Once you have 5 fire monsters in your graveyard, and you are able to special summon him, you get to target 1 monster your opponent controls, destroy it, and if you do, both you and your opponent take damage equal to half the original attack of the destroyed monster. Sounds a lot like Ring of Destruction and you aren't wrong, it is what this card is based off. So yeah there is that backlash, but being able to deal damage to your opponent by blowing up a high attack target can turn the game around for you, especially if you have dealt significant damage previous turns and have the lifepoints to survive, or to just get rid of that one pesky card and then go for the kill. This can work well in replacement of Phosphorage for this exact reason especially if there is only one monster on your opponents side of the field. However, due to the fact it does deal damage to your self, and only destroys one, I tend to place him in the side deck. He can come in handy, but only in certain situations.

Umbramirage the Elemental Lord - Dark Attribute

The youngest Elemental Lord to join the block in his release with Cybernetic Horizon back in July 2018 for the TCG, he continues to follow the trend of the Elemental Lords being based off cards, this time following Sangan, that pesky little three-eyed creature. Requiring 5 dark monsters, Umbramirage's allows you search when he is summoned for any monster that has an attack of 1500 or less. This is good for a few reasons. One, almost all the Elementsabers fit this criteria except for Lapauila Mana, Molehu, and Malo, so you can search for anyone else and keep the combo train going since Elementsabers require other Esabers in order to activate their effects. Two, if you are running hand traps, which you will be if you take this competitively, you are able to search for them if you didn't open with them. Three, well if you run any other engine, such as the Invoked engine, or even something like Armageddon Knight into Destiny Hero - Malicious combo, well you can search for them too. There are some plays here but I still feel his hasn't WOWed me just yet. I keep him in my side deck, but I feel that he just is outclassed only due to the fact that other Elemental Lords provide more upfront strength. Maybe he might replace Moulinglacia as a potential first turn play if you feel that hand traps are more reliable than ripping 2 cards. That is a good thought to have and something I have considered, just require more practice.

Windrose the Elemental Lord - Wind Attribute

Ah Windrose, oh how much fun I have had with you when I summon you to the field. Just like every other Elemental Lords, Windrose is based off Harpie's Feather Duster which does exactly the same thing Phosphorage does, except to spell and trap cards instead of monsters. If you want another Elemental Lord to potentially start in the main deck, well you have one. Being a wind attribute, you know the deal. 5 wind monsters in the grave, but not a problem again with the Elementsabers but he can fair in other decks that can use this mighty effect. Great against decks that are backrow heavy such as Altergeist, Paleozoic, True-Draco, and even my best friends frustratingly annoying deck, Dark Magician. Considering also that a lot of other backrow removal cards can be pretty costly, such as Twin Twister requiring you to discard 1 card, same cost with Knightmare Phoenix, he is able to get rid of 5, 6 including the field spell, with the only cost being you summon him! Now you wont have to worry about any scary traps they might have! The only downside is that there are a lot of decks that don't use or rely on backrow cards, so Windrose can potentially be not as effective. Having this in mind, I most definitely keep him in my side deck, but have been teetering finding a place in the main deck, especially if I know I will be versing my mate over the weekend.

So why not just put all of them in your main deck if they are so powerful? I have one word for that, and that is BRICK. It is quite dangerous running too many high level boss monsters in this deck. Right off the bat you will have 2 Elementsaber Lapauila Mana, I do run another 2 boss monsters - Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Dark Armed Dragon, so putting in another 6 more monsters can be very frustrating, especially if you open with 4 or 5 of these guys. Secondly, it can be hard to summon more than one per turn, because of the Elementsabers effect only being once per turn to change, you would need at least 10 to do so, and that doesn't usually happen for a few turns. This is why I keep 2 in my main deck, maybe three and dropping Dark Armed Dragon, and the rest in my side deck, because they can all rotate together depending on who I am versing. Thanks to Makani, you are able to search for them very easily so keeping a low number doesn't mean you can't make the plays, in fact that is how it is done to get a turn 1 Elemental Lord or the OTK with Phosphorage.

On another note, I am sure you have noticed that we have an Elemental Lord for 6 of the 7 attributes of the game, only one not accounted for is Divine. As far as I am aware and the release of this post, there is no Divine Elemental Lord. However, I do have an idea that will make an astounding Lord, and you all will read it hear first. Back before May 2018, there was a popular engine that ran Ancient Fairy Dragon, a Syncrho monster that allowed you to pop one field spell off the field, gain lifepoints, then activate another from your deck. This worked well for Elementsaber because you could run this engine and then get your much needed Palace of the Elemental Lords. Unfortunately, this was also abused with other decks, and thus resulted with the ban of Ancient Fairy Dragon, which really hurt the Elementsaber deck. Well, if we follow the trend of the Elemental Lords being based off other cards, Ancient Fairy Dragon would be an amazing inspiration for the Divine Lord. Not only will this be a great addition to the team, it wouldn't be abused by other decks since there aren't a lot of Divine monsters to begin with, Elementsabers can use this boss monster since they can become Divine in the graveyard, are able to search due to Makani and it would be a great buff for the deck, much needed support to boost its strength and viability. Like I said, you have read it here first, but I would love to know what you think would make for an amazing Divine Elemental Lord, so please leave a comment down below!.

Well that about does it for the Elemental Lords, there ferocity and power unmatched, except for limited or banned cards. Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to tune in for the next exciting post to continue this In-Depth series, where we take a look at all the possible support and tech cards that you could run with the Elementsaber deck in the post -

Elementsabers In-Depth Part 3 - Even Esabers Need a Little Support!

Until Next Time!

~ George Wakim