First Look: Valkyrie

Valkyrie Sigrun

Loading... is a level 9 monster that can be special summoned by targeting one face-up Spell/Trap you control, sending it to the graveyard, and if you do you can special summon her to the field; on summon Sigrun can special summon another Valkyrie from your hand or Graveyard. Sigrun is your primary play-starter when used in tandem with the skills Master of Rites II , Middle Age Mechs or Light Barrier which all provide you with a free spell on your side of the field that you may use as fodder for Sigruns effect and then follow-up by special summoning either Loading... or Loading... to generate field presence and follow-up plays. It is important to note that Sigrun's effect does not send the spell or trap to the graveyard as part of it’s cost, so it is possible for the opponent to deny your summoning of Sigrun by chaining Cosmic Cyclone to the activation of Sigruns effect.

Valkyrie Dritte

Loading... Is a level 4 monster that on summon, searches your deck for any Valkyrie card; alongside this, it gains an attack bonus of 200 for every card the opponent has banished. The next play starter alongside Loading... , Dritte on normal summon will allow you to search for Sigrun, and if special summoned by Sigrun will allow you to search for either Loading... to dig through the top two cards of your deck for normal spells or traps ad add one to your hand as well as battle floating, or Loading... if spot-removal is needed immediately or you already have Vierte. Whilst the 200att boost will very rarely if ever come into play, it does synergise with their removal spell and can allow you to sneak out more exact lethal opportunities on occasion.

Valkyrie Vierte

Loading... is a level 3 monster that allows you to excavate the top cards of your deck up to the number of other Valkyrie monsters you control, and if you excavate a normal spell or trap you can add one to your hand, but send the other cards to the graveyard; alongside this, when Vierte is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, she can special summon any Valkyrie monster from the deck. The next most important combo piece, Loading... is a fantastic card that allows you to search the top two cards of your deck for a normal spell or trap and it to your hand, an effect that synergises amazingly well with generic disruption such as Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , Loading... and Loading... as well as generic backrow removal such as Loading... , Loading... and Loading... . Furthermore, Vierte’s battle floating should not be under-estimated, allowing her to special summon a Loading... at the end of the damage step for monster destruction, Loading... for searching, Loading... to special summon a Valkyrie from the deck, or even Loading... to revive the destroyed Vierte and expand your board presence.

Valkyrie Sechste

Loading... is a level 1 monster that on special summon only allows you to special summon a Valkyrie monster from the deck except herself; furthermore, during your main phase you can send the top 2 cards of the opponents deck to the graveyard as a hard once per turn effect. Sechste is more widely used in Loading... builds for her synergy with its special summon effect to generate board presence, apply the Valkyrie monsters on summon effects, and facilitate powerful synchro plays. In the pure build however, she is an alternative play-starter when used alongside Loading... to special summon Loading... from the deck for normal spell or trap searching, Loading... to search for a Valkyrie card as a follow-up, or Loading... for spot-removal. Her milling effect is a double-edged sword as depending on the match-up sending the top 2 cards of the opponents deck to the graveyard will do significantly more harm than good (such as setting up Loading... plays, giving Invoked fusion fodder, or providing Witchcrafter with more spell resources) in specific match-ups it can help run down the opponents clock, diminish their resources and force drastic plays or run the risk of decking out.

Valkyrie Zweite

Loading... is a level 5 monster that on summon can target one monster the opponent controls and destroy it; after damage calculation if it has battle you can recover 1 continuous spell in your graveyard and add it to your hand. Valkyrie Zweite is used primarily for its destruction effect, it can be easily special summoned through the effect of Loading... , Loading... or Loading... and allows you to begin controlling the opponents board and simultaneously generate board presence. While it’s second effect is not used as much, it is relevant in Master of Rites II and Middle Age Mechs builds, allowing you re-use the spent Loading... or Loading... to facilitate the future summoning of a Loading... in the hand.

Valkyrie Erda

Loading... is a level 8 monster that reduces the attack of all monsters the opponent controls by 1000 when special summoned by the effect of a Valkyrie monster; furthermore, monsters the opponent controls that would be destroyed by battle or card effect are banished instead. Valkyrie Erda makes up for the low attack stat of the Valkyrie monsters by applying a continuous reduction to the attack of opponent’s monsters while it is on the field by 1000, allowing Loading... to swing over monsters with 3100 atk. Furthermore, the banishing effect allows you to safely run into opponents’ monsters without risking triggering floating effects such as Loading... or graveyard follow-ups from decks such as Shiranui using Loading... .

Valkyrie Brunhilde

Loading... in unaffected by opponent’s spell cards, gains 500 attack for each monster the opponent controls, and at the cost of 1000 defence can protect all your Valkyries from battle destruction for this turn. A tech card more than anything, the spell immunity is nice to prevent surprise Loading... Lethals, as well as being useful in the Dark Magician match-up due to it being unaffected by Loading... . However the attack increase Is easily played around and the spell protection is less relevant in the current meta, where traps are used much more frequently to disrupt opponents plays, which also renders the battle protection less relevant as traps such as Loading... , Loading... and Loading... are the most common forms of removal and disruption outside of battle, which Brunhilde does nothing to protect against.

Valkyrie Funfte

Loading... increases the attack of all Valkyrie monsters you control by 200 for each of your opponents banished card as well as being able to send a Valkyrie spell/trap from the deck to the graveyard if you control another Valkyrie monster. The attack increase provided by Funfte is much too slow to be relevant and whilst deck-thinning is nice there are no Valkyrie spell or traps with graveyard effects, meaning there is no reason why you would ever want to actively mill a Valkyrie spell or trap in the first place.

Valkyrie's Embrace

Loading... targets one attack position Valkyrie monster you control and 1 monster your opponent controls, changes the battle position of the Valkyrie monster, and banishes the opponent’s monster. Valkyrie's Embrace is the prime removal of the deck that is searchable by Loading... and as targeting banish spot removal is the decks primary removal option for big threats that the Valkyrie’s cannot swing over themselves, however, this card does come with several draw-backs and there are many ways to play around it: for the card’s effect to resolve, it is dependant upon your monsters battle position being switched, therefore if the opponent removes the Valkyrie monster you are targeting with Embrace the effect will not resolve. Alternatively, if the opponent uses an effect that causes your Valkyrie’s monsters battle position to switch (such as Loading... or Loading... the effect of Embrace will not resolve since Embrace will not be able to switch your monsters battle position and will instead just fizzle.

Apple of Enlightenment

Loading... banishes cards in your opponent’s graveyard up to the number of Valkyrie monsters you control, and if removed from the field (whether sent to the graveyard or banished) by an opponents card effect allows you to draw cards Equal to the number of Valkyries you control +1. A solid tech choice in a graveyard heavy meta, Apple of Enlightenment is fantastic against graveyard reliant decks such as Shiranui or Elementsaber Invoked, allowing you to remove resources from their graveyard and prevent follow-up plays. Furthermore, even if it is removed from the field by the opponent it still provides you with additional advantage, allowing you to draw as many as 4 cards if they hit it with removal.

IMPORTANT NOTE This secondary effect has one more added bonus which is arguably the most important feature of Apple of Enlightenment: It allows you to play severe mind games with your opponent; if they are aware that you control a set Apple, they are going to be much more reluctant to try and hit your backrow in case they hit the Apple, especially if you have a full board (a feat that is easy to achieve) or risk giving you massive card advantage which could instantly lose them the duel, as well as still having the hit the backrow they were actually trying to hit.

Loge's Flame

Loading... prevents monsters your opponent controls from attacking if they have less than 2000 attack, and if destroyed by card effect allows you to special summon a level 5 or higher Valkyrie from the deck. A card intended for stall and control builds, this card finds little relevance in the current meta as monsters with more than 2000 attack are common place, and the destruction effect is to specific to be of any relevance, especially when there are more efficient and consistent ways of summoning Valkyries from the deck that do not lock you into level 5 or higher.

Final Light

Loading... allows you to special summon Valkyries with different names from the graveyard by paying life points in multiples of 1000; however it also allows your opponent to summon monsters up to the number you summoned from their graveyard with 2000 or less attack. The epitome of a last resort card, Final Light can be used to fully recover your board and re-use Valkyries summon effects at the cost of a massive amount of life points as well as providing the opponent free board presence, making Final Light a late-game tech option to push for lethal. The downsides of Final Light can be mitigated by resurrecting only Loading... or Loading... and then using their effects to resurrect/summon further Valkyries, giving your opponent only 1 free summon of off Final Light whilst allowing you to continue building board presence and advantage and minimising the life point cost, however better options such as Loading... exist to facilitate this that do not cost life points or provide the opponent with free resources.