Yu-Gi-Oh! is an ever-evolving game, but Konami has made it a common practice to provide new support or remake older cards with modern variations to give older archetypes a way to keep up with more recent products.
This doesn’t happen for every archetype, and many end up being left in the dust for years with no sign of new support on the horizon. However, with the upcoming OCG set Duelist Pack: Duelists of Explosion, one of the longest droughts has finally ended as new Volcanic support is finally set to release after roughly 10 years.
Cards from the Volcanic strategy have been printed in some products in that period, but no core support has really been added since Secrets of Eternity dropped Blaze Accelerator Reload in early 2015. Outside of a few niche appearances with reprints in other sets or Fire Attribute Structure Decks, this is the moment Axel Brodie fans have been waiting for.
It also plays into one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! community’s biggest memes, with Twitter user Payne964 finally free from their prison of posting about not getting Volcanic support every day since March 2019. The streak ended at 1,505 days with a massive celebration across YGO Twitter.
Yu-Gi-Oh! gets new Volcanic and Fire support in upcoming Duelists of Explosion set
Duelists of Explosion is the next Duelist Pack product releasing first in the OCG on May 27, with a TCG release likely slated for later this year.
As the name, and Volcanic mention, suggests this will be a smaller set themed around Fire Attribute duelists from the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime such as Axel and Theodore Hamilton. That second name also means we should expect more Salamangreat cards to pair with Volcanic and Battlin’ Boxer support we have already seen.
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The Volcanic support itself, which is what most of the community is focusing on, looks fairly strong too. It enables plenty of ways to get more Volcanic cards into the Graveyard, more Burn fuel to lower your opponent’s Life Points, and a strong second version of Blaze Accelerator to facilitate it all.
Volcanic Emporer is like a retrained version of Volcanic Doomfire that will always be able to come back from the Graveyard, is a 3,100 Attack body, and allows you to set a Volcanic Trap card when summoned. Additionally, you can use it to burn your opponent for 500 damage per banished Pyro monster when it hits the field, and each time your opponent Special Summons a monster.
Volcanic Trooper is a searcher for any Volcanic card in your deck upon summon while Volcanic Rimfire does something similar when it is sent to the Graveyard or banished. There is also a new Token called a Bomb Token that some of these cards can summon to your opponent’s field, taking up a spot to disrupt their board, giving you a target for certain effects, and dealing 500 damage to them once it is destroyed.
Volcanic Blaze Accelerator is the big focus here, as the Spell gives you an extra Special Summon for a Volcanic monster in your hand and gets your Volcanic Shells into the GY. An easy way to facilitate all of your other Volcanic cards is by putting fuel into the GY early.
Fire Ejection is a Spell that can get another Bomb Token out on the field or deal extra Burn damage, though it isn’t likely to be used very much. Meanwhile, Volcanic Inferno is a new Continuous Trap that lets you use the following two effects once per turn, which are both very good for what this deck aims to do.
- You can only use the 1st and 2nd effect of this card’s name each once per turn.
- When your opponent activates a monster effect on the field: You can banish 1 Pyro monster from your GY; inflict 500 damage to your opponent, then, if you banished a “Volcanic” monster, you can negate that activated effect.
- During your opponent’s End Phase: You can target up to 2 of your “Volcanic” monsters that are banished and/or in your GY; place them on the bottom of the Deck in any order.
Talk about an easy way to refill your Volcanic Shells with bonus effects too. And there might still be one Volcanic card hiding for a reveal closer to the set’s release too.
You can read all of the OCG translations, along with see the Volcanic reprints included in Duelists of Explosion on YGOrganization.
