Yu-Gi-Oh!'s first set of 2022 was something of a collaboration between Konami and the players, who were quizzed on which archetypes they'd like to have more support. The result of this little experiment is The Grand Creators: a 60-card Booster Set that debuts two brand-new archetypes and gives some fan-favourites much-needed support.
It might not be the next core booster – Battle of Chaos is only a few days away now, though – The Grand Creators will be a big hit for fans of some of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most-loved monsters. Here is everything you need to know about the archetypes you can find in The Grand Creators.
Exorsister
The first of two archetypes being introduced to Yu-Gi-Oh! in The Grand Creators are the Exorsisters. Their strategy is heavy on graveyard hate by punishing your opponent whenever they try and use their graveyard to get an advantage.
The archetype is driven by the powerful Exorsister Xyz Monsters, like Exosisister Mikalis, who can't be destroyed in battle by monsters that were Special Summoned from the graveyard, or completely shut off summoning from the graveyard altogether with Exosister Kaspitell.
Exorsister support cards also have a running theme of using your life points as a resource. For instance, the trap card Exorisister Vadis can let you pay 800LP to special summon two Exorsister monsters in your deck (although you also shuffle them back into the deck at the end of the turn).
P.U.N.K.
Joining Exorisister as the new archetype in The Grand Creators is P.U.N.K. This archetype is built around Psychic Tuners and using their abilities to pay 600LP for various effects. For example, Gagaku-P.U.N.K. Wa Gon pulls P.U.N.K. spells out of your deck and lets you draw cards when your opponent tries to target a P.U.N.K.
Even though there are multiple Tuners, there is only one Synchro Monster, Ukiyoe-P.U.N.K. Amazing Dragon. It is one heck of a monster, though, as it can bounce cards your opponent controls equal to the number of Level 3 Psychic Tuners you control every single turn. It even lets you Special Summon a P.U.N.K. in your graveyard at the same time.
An interesting thing about the P.U.N.K. archetype is that it's based on four styles of Japanese art, with each of the subgroups contributing their own playstyles:
- Ukiyo-E P.U.N.K. cards are the ones who care about your Extra Deck the most, thanks to the Synchro Amazing Dragon and Fusion Rising Carp.
- Gagaku P.U.N.K. cards play with your P.U.N.K. spells more than they do creatures, like Wa Gon finding spells, while Wild Picking and Crash Beat both give you extra effects if they're destroyed while it's in a Spell and Trap Zone.
- Joruri P.U.N.K. focuses on trap spells. Madame Spider lets you put traps into your hand, while Dangerous Gabu and Nashiwari Surprise are the only trap cards in the whole archetype.
- Noh P.U.N.K. is all about tribute summoning, with all of them either requiring tributes to summon (Foxy Tune, Dia Note, and Ogre Dance), or otherwise having effects that trigger when they're sent to the graveyard.
Adventurer Tokens/Brave Tokens
Although this is also debuting in The Grand Creators, it isn't really an archetype, as it lacks the full support and unifying names of the likes of P.U.N.K. and Exorsister. Instead, it's a group of cards that synergise well and share the same theme… which sounds like an archetype. But they are different.
The Adventure Token series is based on classic fantasy RPGs, and has you create an 'Adventurer Token' (some cards also call them Brave Tokens, depending on where you look) before building your party around it. For instance, Magicore Warrior of the Relics is your big, hefty DPS class, and can only attack if you control an Adventurer Token. Meanwhile, Water Enchantress of the Temple can be Special Summoned from your hand if you control an Adventurer Token and take the role of the party's mage.
Most cards in this series reference the Adventurer Token in some way. Like how Zaralaam the Dark Palace is a field spell that deals damage to your opponent based on the ATK of a monster they controlled that was destroyed by the Adventurer, or Forest of Lost Flowers that draws a card whenever your Adventurer destroys a monster.
It isn't quite as unified a theme as an official archetype (and the cards introduced here tend to float between being usable for it and the other archetypes) but it is a quirky and different gameplay style to what we normally see in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Maybe it'll evolve into a full archetype in future sets?
Noble Arms
Noble Arms is the first of three archetypes that existed before The Grand Creators, but is a main focal point in the set and receives lots of new support.
Based on Arthurian legend, Noble Arms focuses on powerful Equip spells to go with the related Noble Knights archetype's monsters. For example, Noble Arms – Clarent (not in The Grand Creators) can equip to any Warrior monster, but can equip specifically to a Noble Knight if it's sent to the graveyard.
The Grand Creators only introduces one new Noble Arm – Dunnell, the Noble Arms of Light – but it does add a lot of support for Equip spells in general. Armory Call pulls an Equip Spell from your deck to your hand, and then lets you equip it directly onto a monster on the field, and Hidden Armory as you send a card from the top of your deck to the graveyard to put an Equip into your hand from either the main deck or graveyard.
There is crossover with the Adventurer cards as well. Some cards like Fateful Adventure care about Equipped monsters (and prevent them from being destroyed), while also finding cards in your deck that care about that Adventurer Token. Even the new Noble Arms card itself, Dunnell, the Noble Arms of Light, mentions Adventurer Tokens as something it can equip to if it gets sent to the graveyard.
Virtual World
Virtual World Hime – Nyannyan is the only Virtual World card to be found in The Grand Creators, and it's a reprint, so it feels a bit out of place. Regardless, you might open this and be more interested in the archetype.
Virtual World cards tend to be about self-mill (sending cards from your deck to the graveyard) to fuel Special Summoning from your hand. As such, they're kind of like the opposite of the Exorsisters in that they give you encourage you to play things out of your graveyard and rewards you for putting things in there. To counterbalance this, though, there is also a heavy banishing theme for Virtual World cards, meaning you have to be careful about when you play your pieces.
Nyannyan can leave your graveyard and become a Psychic Tuner (giving it some synergy with the P.U.N.K. archetype as well). When if it gets banished, Nyannyan and shuffle one other banished card back into your deck.
Inzektor
The main archetype of this set, the one decided upon by the community and features the 'created' bit of The Grand Creators, are the Inzektors. This is an incredibly popular archetype, and The Grand Creators has tons of cards new and old that will go nicely with it.
Like Noble Arms, Inzektor is all about Equip spells. Unlike Noble Arms, though, you're generally quipping Inzektor monsters with other Inzektors. Cards like Inzektor Hornet, Hopper, and Ladbybug are Effect Monsters that equip Inzektors from your hand or graveyard for various benefits.
The bigger monsters in The Grand Creators include Inzektor Picofalena, a Link Monster that can equip Insect monsters to other Insects (not specifically Inzektor, but it does include them) to give them +500 ATK/DEF. There are two Xyz Monster reprints with Inzektor Exa-Stag and Inzektor Exa-Beetle, both of which can steal creatures from your opponent's graveyard and equip them. There's even an Inzektor Equip spell in Inzektor Sword – Zektkaliber.
The most interesting new Inzektor card, though, is Zektrike Kou-ou. This spell for the Inzektor archetype was specifically chosen in the Create-a-Card Project. Through a series of polls, Konami worked with the Yu-Gi-Oh! community to narrow down the card's design, such as whether it would be a monster or spell, and even exactly which product it would be included in (with The Grand Creators being the end result).
Zektrike Kou-ou is an Inzektor spell that allows you to send an Inzektor from your hand or on the field to the graveyard to pick pull either an Inzektor monster or Inzektor Equip spell out of your deck and equip it to a monster you control.
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