Review: Abyss Rising (ABYR)

We still don't know all of the card, but I've wanted to review this however.

Technical Review

Cover Card: Number C32: Shark Drake Vice
OCG Release Date: 21/07/2012
This set introduces the Mermail and the Heraldry Beast Archetype and some supports to the Abyss Archetype (basically the same of Mermail)

Personal Review

I like this set, it doesn't want me to play none of the archetype in here, really, but they are powerful, maybe I'll try Heraldry Beast thanks to High Medallion Art.
Let's see some cards separately:

Planet Pathfinder: is a terraforming on legs (or better on wheels). It does eat-up your normal summon and it tributes itself to use his effect. If it was something like when this card is Summoned (it's fine even if it is only normal summoned) you can add a Field Spell card from your Deck. Like this it would even lose the timing, so it won't be that powerful, but surely better. I think only decks that can use this are Malefics and Geartown-relying decks. Another tip is, as you can see on Tannhauser Gate art, this card is there along with solar wind jammer, so you could really play them together so that when you don't need the terraforming effect, you could go into XYZs.

Solar Wind Jammer: really good card for first turn synchros, as it doesn't need you opponent to have a monster. The second effect isn't that good since you'll probably use him on the same turn you summon him AND an effect like that renders XYZing unstable, since you need to wait till it reaches the level you wan and then summon the monster and XYZ. With his low stats it won't probably survive a turn, however. If it hadn't that there can only be 1 "Solar Wind Jammer" face-up on the field restriction you could have used it with machine duplication or inferno reckless summon. Well, at least it locks-up opponent's Solar Wind Jammer, but as said that won't resist a turn on the field.

Snowman Creator: ice counter generator FTW. It's good, because what Ice Counter deck needs is some other supports (hopefully spell and traps) and a fast Ice Counter generator. We got the latter, but we still need the formers. The art is beautiful, tho'.

Knight of the Distant Seas: yeah, we got another warrior monster that sends monster of his same attribute to the graveyard, but till now he's bad. Changing position? Only possible in Karakuris and Clown Control. If it hadn't the once per turn limitation it would be abusable at least. The thing that totally kills this is that he won't trigger atlanteans, since the send part is an effect and not a cost. Genex Undine is stille better, because it triggers atlanteans and adds a synchro engine.

Tannhauser Gate: has potentials, since it can help with odd and even ranks. In Evols, westlo+a level 6 summoned via westlo and this summons Dyson Sphere (I'll talk about that). It needs you to be careful, though, because you could easily misplay joking around with levels.

High Medallion Arts: this is the first card of its genre, a double reborn that requires that you XYZ with them. They never made something like this with Synchros, pretty strange. However this is great.

Bubble Bringer: AWESOME card. Sadly it stops only direct attacks but think with Astral Barrier. No rulings actually, so we don't know if it works, but its second effect is what we really want. Send this to the grave, summon two no effect level 3 or lower WATER monsters from the grave and ready to XYZ. However, for some strange reason it looks like everyone forgot Black Ray Lancer, really don't know why. Bubble Bringer, go into BRL (I love how it looks like BRD, lol)

Different Dimension Trench: last card I want to talk about before going to the XYZs. I like this one, the art is beutiful and the effect isn't bad, just activate it before a Dark Hole to remove one of your monster to get him safe or use it on a monster in hand or grave before a Heavy Storm to summon him. Remember that that is a non-inherent summon, so not negable via a lot of cards and, like fusion gate, you'd need to Warn this card at the moment of its activation.

Number 9: Canopy Star: *_* love this one. Virtually indestructible by battle. Has 2800 ATK and 3000 DEF, so that book of moon won't totally kill him. His effect is AWESOME too, can negate attack without any cost, but you need only to respect a condition, having at least an XYZ material under him. If it is attacked while it has no materials, you can attach two random monster from the grave. I said random, so even dandylion and tour bus to trigger their effect when needed. It has an effec that lets him attack directly, awesome when you are against Chaos Dragons. As said in the Level Eater post, you can Summon a level 10 (let's say metal reflect slime), SS level eater lowering slime to 9, and then use galaxy queen's light. Good card is Good.

Number 8: Heraldry King Genome Heriter: it was good, but it lost a lot of his potential. Let's start saying that a card that relies on opponent's card isn't that good, but this one was, stealing ATK and effect of another monster while copying his name is really good. Then they changed his effect, making possible only to target XYZ monsters. Since he needs to target XYZ monster, having 2400 ATK is bad, since all of the XYZ it would be good copying have an ATK higher than this, making really easy to kill this card. So you'd need to summon this after the opponent has summoned a big and good monster. Not considering that you need 2 heraldry beast monster to summon him. Yeah, not that good, though, I like the art.

Mermail - Gaioabyss: I hate this card, dunno why. It isn't easy to summon, his stopping-attack effect affects only level 5 or higher monster, but if someone still summonst level 5 or higher monster, he's going to XYZ with them. On the other side, the other effect is good, being activable during either player's turn he can negate pretty much the cards from every deck.

Number C32: Shark Drake Vice: I'd preferred a universal one, let's say a Chaos Monster that can Chaos XYZ Change over any Rank 3 monster, but I think that wouldn't be a Chaos Monster but one like Gaia Dragon or Ptolemys. However, I don't like this card. The art is good, but he's though to summon. Utopia Ray's power was that you could steal an opponent's utopia and Change into Utopia Ray, but no one summons Shark Drage. This card's effect isn't that strong, but still useful. However, I won't play this. Though, this card helped stating a thing with Chaos Numbers: they all needs 1000 lp or lower to activate their effect.

Well. I didn't want to review the archetypes cause I want to review them alone, but I'm not sure I'll do that. Stay Tuned, I'll post something else tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, I'm trying to mantain the rhythm of one per day, but that couldn't be possible, of course.