Lightning round time! We’re gonna knock out various cards and engines that don’t really go with anything in particular. Starting off!

The Diva engine is very small, generally no more than 4 cards in total and sometimes as low as 2. Deep Sea Diva is an explosive Tuner, potentially grabbing you a second copy of herself for a multi-Synchro play. If you don’t have the non-Tuner access to make that work, she can also grab a Spined Gillman to go into any level 5 Synchro Monster. Very occasionally you will see Mermaid Archer in the Gillman slot, but frankly both cards are bad. They see play only because in Edison there are literally 4 Sea Serpent monsters who are level 3 or lower[footnote]Not shown here is some level 2 vanilla monster. I’m sure someone at some point will need on-demand Armory Arm access badly enough to play it, but honestly I’m stretching by even including Mermaid Archer.[/footnote] so you have to play something if you want Diva to be able to do something without prior setup. Which, some decks don’t bother with that, relying on the rest of their cards to support her without running the risk of actually drawing Gillman instead of a real card. A few years later, the Mermail/Atlantean deck would give Diva plenty of actually good low level Sea Serpents to dance with, resulting in her being limited for 7 years. As for now, she’s a promising talent tearing up local clubs, just waiting for her big break.

Two limited powerhouses that both summon from your hand when you take damage. Gorz is a true powerhouse, one of the strongest cards in the format. His own statline is pretty high, and the token he summons is guaranteed to be as strong as at least one of your opponent’s monsters. Gorz can swing games in an instant, and the mere threat of him gives players pause when attacking a seemingly defenseless opponent. Tragoedia is less impactful, but easier to summon, not requiring your field to be empty. Trag’s also a mouthfull of effects. Most of the time, he’ll simply be a big beefy boy, but every so often you’ll have the right setup to steal an opponent’s monster, and/or manipulate Trag’s level for the exact Synchro you need.

Sangan’s a longtime staple, existing since 2002[footnote]1999 in Japan[/footnote] and being widely played for basically that entire stretch.[footnote]There is a brief stretch in 04/05 where Sangan is banned, but since then it’s been limited.[/footnote] Sangan is perhaps not at peak power in Edison format, due to the ubiquity of Caius, which loves to prey on DARK monsters that were hoping to hit the Graveyard. It’s still very flexible and sees inclusion often. Most Tuners have low ATK, so Sangan can facilitate many decks’ power plays.

Chaos Sorcerer is another longtime staple, spending lots of time at various spots on the banlist since its introduction in 2004. In Edison Sorc is limited, and functions as a less explosive version of fellow limited powerhouse Dark Armed Dragon. Sorc is a card that demands a quick answer, as it can take over games if given enough turns to banish. Given how common the DARK engine and Ryko are, Chaos Sorc finds itself in all sorts of decks.

Our final card tonight is a super fun little thing. There aren’t any level 5 or lower Fusion Monsters that really demand an instant summon, especially not when they die at the end of turn. But, getting a special summon of up to 5 levels of non-Tuner body is a pretty strong play. You can even get fancy with it; for instance, Arcanite Magician is a level 7 Synchro Monster that’s really good, but requires Spellcaster non-Tuners, which not every deck can run. But, lots decks can run level 2 tuners such as Plaguespreader Zombie or Deep Sea Diva, and there’s a level 5 Spellcaster-type Fusion called Musician King, so presto, you’ve got your Magician baby. Occasionally Instant Fusion will even see play for non-Synchro purposes, such as getting a Dragon out to be banished for the summon of Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

Next time, we’ll be covering Trap cards. Watch where you step!