The Binder: Queen of Thorns
Jason Grabher-Meyer
MetagameI sabotaged our preview weeks. There: I admitted it.
We went a little overboard with the guest writers and the three articles per person with our preview weeks for The Duelist Genesis. At one point we even talked about doing three weeks of previews just because there were so many terrific cards in that set: it was great! But when everything was said and done it left me a little empty-handed over here in the single card column, so this time I took the sneaky way out and set aside a few gems for later.
Today I want to look at one of those cards I palmed to the bottom of the proverbial deck. Queen of Thorns is seeing very little hype right now, but to me, she represents everything that’s awesome about Plants now that Crossroads of Chaos has hit the scene. Plants are no longer simple blunt objects to be special summoned and hurled at your opponent. If I wanted to play a straight swarm deck I’d run Zombies. With cards like Pollinosis, Botanical Girl, and the card we’re looking at today, Plants have started to grow into a surprisingly deep swarm-and-control mix, and I think Queen of Thorns has what it takes to become a tournament-level card. If you missed her at your Sneak Preview, check her out:
Queen of Thorns
Plant / Synchro
Light / Level 6
2200 ATK / 1800 DEF
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner Plant-Type monsters
Each player must pay 1000 Life Points to Normal or Special Summon a non-Plant-Type monster from their hand.
If this little lady’s effect reminds you of an old-school control favorite that never quite came into bloom, well, you’re on the right track to what I think could become a killer deck. But first, let’s talk about how you can get this sweetheart to the table.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Whenever we discuss a Synchro monster it’s important to begin at the actual Synchro summon itself. In this case our choice will be largely guided by the fact that Queen of Thorns demands a non-Tuner Plant-type in order to be summoned. That means she’ll probably see play exclusively in Plant decks. From there though, we need to look at the Tuners and specific Synchro materials we could be using.
Right off the bat, I immediately want to use Plant-type Tuners instead of non-Plants. The reason is simple synergy: special summoning outside of Synchro summons makes it easier to get out Synchros, and any Plant deck has lots of ways to special summon Plant-type monsters. If I’m going to be using a bunch of cards like Miracle Fertilizer and Gigaplant, I want them to work with my Tuners so that my options are always wide open. From there I can make one of three choices: Nettles, Copy Plant, or both.
Copy Plant copies the level of another Plant monster I control, and since Queen of Thorns is a level 6, that means I’d need to pair Copy Plant with a level-3 Plant monster for my Synchro summon. There are plenty of solid Plant monsters at both level 4 and level 3, so straight availability won’t be a problem. I can pair Copy Plant with Lonefire Blossom or Botanical Girl to bring out the Queen.
But there’s a problem: I’d really prefer to use Lonefire Blossom to special summon big monsters like Gigaplant or Tytannial, Princess of Camellias. Botanical Girl’s effect is really sweet, but unfortunately it’s optional, so if I use her as a Synchro material, her effect misses the timing. She’s more of a stall card for setting up bigger plays and slowing the pace of the duel. Neither of these monsters makes for optimal Synchro material because they play specific roles in the builds that use them. Taking them out of those roles and sending them to the graveyard means a counterproductive, conflicting strategy.
Our other option is far more promising. Nettles is a level-2 monster, so we can pair it with Botanical Lion, Gigantic Cephalotus, or even Lord Poison to match Queen of Thorns’s six stars. Nettles will also have the added bonus of pairing with Gigaplant to easily Synchro summon level-8 monsters like Stardust Dragon. Add a decent effect that combos with Botanical Girl and we’ve got a winning pick.
With three copies of Nettles I think we’re set. Lonefire Blossom, or even Sangan and Botanical Girl can search Nettles out from the deck, while Miracle Fertilizer, Gigaplant, and Lord Poison will let us reuse it or special summon monsters for Synchro material. There’s a cool synergy with the Fertilizer too: if you bring back Nettles with Miracle Fertilizer and Nettles is attacked, you can use its effect to shunt the destruction to another Plant. If you let Nettles get destroyed you’d lose your Fertilizer, but by redirecting the destruction to another Plant you’ll keep your spell on the field. Next turn, just activate Fertilizer’s effect to bring back whatever you gave up.
Reaping What You’ve Sewn
So what do you get for your trouble? Queen of Thorns brings extra damage to a deck that’s already aggressive. Even just 1000 or 2000 damage can make the difference between losing the game or stealing a win with Mark of the Rose. With three copies of a card that basically amounts to Snatch Steal, this deck is very good at hammering home damage when your opponent least expects it. Synchro summoning with a Plant Tuner and Plant Synchro material also makes it very easy to fulfill Mark’s activation cost.
Beyond the raw damage Queen of Thorns can cause, she may also deter your opponent from summoning altogether. Again, this is a huge benefit to you, because the fewer monsters your opponent plays the easier it will be to force through direct attacks. You’ll lose fewer monsters yourself too, which means more field presence and more ATK bonuses for Botanical Lion. More monsters also means that Pollinosis will be easier to activate. Plants love having monsters on the field, and keeping your opponent from summoning attackers helps you achieve that.
Queen of Thorns is a bit fragile at 2200 ATK, but remember: all the special summoning effects that made her easy to summon in the first place can also bring her back from the graveyard. That’s good news if she comes under fire from your opponent, but it also means that the Queen herself can be used as makeshift Synchro material. Why would you want to send the focal point of your Plant control deck to the graveyard? The answer lies in the upper right corner of the card: she’s a Light monster. Paired with Nettles for a level-8 Synchro summon, she lets you bring out Avenging Knight Parshath. The Parshath’s ability to hammer home big swings of damage is deadly when combined with the Queen’s burn effect and Mark of the Rose’s surprise attacks.
Oh, and yes: if you have two copies of Queen of Thorns on the field, their effects do stack. Yowch!
Speaking of Damage . . .
The card that really makes this a viable strategy is Chain Energy. This old-school burn card saw a little table time back when Dark Armed Return first ran wild, but it never really took off. The card was too easily destroyed by random effects like those of Mystical Space Typhoon or Heavy Storm, and the rise of Gladiators knocked it off the competitive radar. It was great against Dark Armed though, because that deck needed to play a lot of draw and search cards to put together its big combos. Now, many months later, a similar deck is dominating the top tables.
If a TeleDAD deck has to pay 1000 life points every time it plays a card from the hand, it’s going to be out of life points pretty fast. It’ll be a sitting duck for Mark of the Rose or even just a swarm of Plant monsters with a little removal backing it. And while such a deck can run Breaker the Magical Warrior, Snipe Hunter, Giant Trunade, and Heavy Storm to get Chain Energy off the field, it’s difficult to get them past three copies each of Solemn Judgment and Pollinosis. This might actually be the first deck capable of protecting Chain Energy once it’s on the field.
By defending Chain Energy from mass removal effects you’ll also defend Miracle Fertilizer, making it easier to keep on the field. Remember, as long as it sticks around it’ll get you another Plant monster every single turn. When the monsters you’re summoning with it have 2100, 2400, or 2800 ATK, there just won’t be much that can stop you.
With Chain Energy and Queen of Thorns on the field at the same time, life isn’t pleasant for your opponents. They’ll pay 1000 life points to play a spell or trap card from their hand, and a whopping 2000 to summon a monster. Sure, TeleDAD does a lot of its special summoning from the deck, but it still wants to use its one normal summon. At 2000 life points, Elemental Hero Stratos becomes a bitter pill to swallow. Your opponent simply won’t have the option of an early game Solemn Judgment: activating it will leave him or her unable to pay for the number of plays needed to beat you.
There’s a lot going on with this card, and it’s going to take a skilled duelist to put it to use. But there’s definitely a competitive deck here, and if anyone with the skills to build and pilot it gives it a real shot, we could see Queen of Thorns as the basis of a repeated Day 2 strategy. Plants are about a lot more than smacking big guys into life points. Crossroads of Chaos has given them strong, devious control cards, and whoever masters them first is going to be really successful.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Metagame
