Crimson Blader

"Let me rip your arses"

Possibly one of the most broken synchro monsters released into the format yet!  Let's check its effect shall we and my thoughts on why it being so utterly broken:

"Crimson Blader「クリムゾン・ブレーダー」
FIRE/Warrior - Synchro - Effect/8/2800/2600
Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuner Monster
When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, during your opponent's next turn, your opponent cannot Normal Summon or Special Summon a Level 5 or higher monster." 
(Source from shriek.twoday.net)


Alright, let's start with the breakdown shall we?  Firstly, it is a generic synchro monster.  This means that it doesn't matter what tuner and non-tuner monster (s) you use to synchro summon this tyrant out, as long as you can do it.  It has a very decent ATK of 2800 which means that it can easily overpower most of the boss monsters in the current meta (e.g hyperion/grapha/fortress etc).  It also has a very strong defense, making it impenetrable by other synchro monsters such as stardust and the sort.  Now this is just the prelude, the real terrifying thing about this monster is its effect "your opponent cannot Normal Summon or Special Summon a Level 5 or higher monster".  Noticed the bold words?  Yes, you got it right, as long as this babe can ram your monster and send it to the graveyard, you can literary skip your next turn without setting a monster since all your monarchs, shi en, trishula, grapha, hyperion, kristya and the sort are totally locked down and setting a monster that will get destroyed anyway is just going to make this loop a recurring one.


Now that we know how lethal this card can be, there must be some countermeasures to it right?  Rest assure, there are a few steps that can be taken to block this jerk out of your face.  First of all, its effect being its weakness.  "sends it to the Graveyard", noticed this string of words?  Exactly, this means that as long as your monster doesn't get sent to the graveyard after being destroyed, its effect will not apply.  And we all love the Removed from Game zone don't we.  Dimension Fissure, Battle Fader and all those RFG cards can effectively lock down its summoning prohibiting effect but that doesn't mean you can ward off its beastly attack.  It only provides you more time to come up with a decent strategy to fight against it.  The second weakness of this monster is it must destroy a monster by battle.  So, spirit reapers and marshmallon can come in handy if you want to prolong your life a little since this monsters are invulnerable to battle destruction.  The third weakness is ye old summoning negating brothers ranging from the holes to the solemns.  If you have these set, then there's basically nothing to fear.  That being said, trunading at the wrong time spells instant death to some decks (plants and SS perhaps?).


So, that wraps up my analysis of this card.  This card is extremely powerful and is anytime better than those destruction effects since destruction is basically a +1 but preventing effects such as this are a +? until your opponent can get over the loop.  This means that it can generate more advantages than you can possibly imagine.  So, getting this card and putting it into your extra deck might not be such a bad idea after all eh, for all its worth.  Till next time, over and out!