The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga will never live up to its original anime counterpart. For one thing, Jaden didn’t get the same level of character development in the manga as he did in the anime. Plus the manga was missing awesome characters such as Yubel. Yet there were a few things about the manga that I thought were pretty good. For one thing, the manga featured some pretty cool cards, such as the Masked Heroes that Jaden used in the second half of the story. The archetype that was most central to the GX manga’s plot was an archetype known as the Legendary Planets, also referred to as the Planet Series in the early chapters of the manga. The Legendary Planets are a diverse group of high-level monsters that take their names from the planets of our solar system, each one being used as the ace card by a certain character in the GX manga.
At the time when volumes of the GX manga were still being released, only half of Legendary Planet monsters had been made into real cards. All of that is about to change very soon though, as the remaining members of this archetype are being released as part of a special collectors’ pack set being released in Japan tomorrow. In theory, a variation of that same booster set will be coming out in the U.S. sometime in August. So, I decided to go ahead and do a post on each member of this archetype. We’ll start our little planetary tour with the monster that represents the very center of our solar system.
The Supremacy Sun: I know, I know. The sun isn’t a planet, but tell that to the guy who wrote the manga and came up with this archetype. Planet or not though, The Supremacy Sun is a fairly impressive monster. It has a pretty cool design, and 3000 ATK and DEF is nothing to sneeze at. The drawback to the Sun though is that it can only be special summoned using its effect, which means you’ll have to tribute summon it first. Of course that’s an easy enough feat to accomplish. Two of the more classic options for tribute summoning this card are the monster, Double Coston and the Spell card, Fires of Doomsday. One could also just Pendulum Summon a couple of monsters to use as sacrifices.
The true power of The Supremacy Sun lies in its ability to revive itself from the Graveyard the following turn after being destroyed, all for the low cost of discarding a single card. The important thing to remember here is that the Sun doesn’t just resurrect itself when destroyed by an opponent’s card effect. It can revive itself when destroyed by its owner’s card effect as well. There are a few ways to use this little effect offensively. One option is to use a card like Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute to nuke every monster on the field and then revive the Sun on the following turn for a more direct attack. There’s also the option of using the Sun with the Trap card, Hate Buster to inflict a major amount of damage.
The Tripper Mercury: This card ended up being the most powerful card used by Jesse Anderson’s counterpart from the manga. It’s kind of a weird choice for that character, though perhaps not as weird as how he used an Insect deck instead of a Crystal Beast deck like is anime counterpart. When summoned with two tributes, The Tripper Mercury can force all of the opponent’s monsters into Attack Position, but the card’s real power comes from being summoned with three tributes. If three monsters are sacrificed to summon Mercury, it reduces the ATK of the opponent’s monsters by an amount equal to their original ATK. In other words, Mercury pretty much reduces the ATK or all enemy monsters to zero, or to the minimum amount of ATK points they’re getting from any Equip spells or other ATK boosting effects the opponent might be using.
Add this power to The Tripper Mercury’s ability to make two attacks each turn, and you’ve got a potentially formidable monster. As far as getting out the three tributes needed to summon Mercury, Pendulum Summoning would probably be the best option. Other suitable options would be to use a Six Samurai deck or a deck of monsters with a similar ability to swarm the field. In other words, just about any strategy that’s normally used to summon a God Card could potentially be used for Mercury. One of the drawbacks to Mercury is that it only has 2000 ATK and DEF, so it’d probably be wise to use an Equip spell or some other method to boost Mercury’s ATK to inflict as much damage as possible.
The Splendid Venus: This next card is one of the only truly specialized members of the Legendary Planets. The primary effect of The Splendid Venus is that reduces the ATK and DEF of all non-Fairy-Type monsters on the field by 500. Venus has another little effect worth mentioning, but I’ll get into that in a moment. So obviously, Venus can only truly be used in a Fairy deck of some kind. The most common and popular deck choices for Venus are Agent and Counter Fairy decks.
There is one other deck type out there that could be a potentially good fit for The Splendid Venus, a Cyber Angel deck. The old Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters used by Alexis Rhodes from GX are finally being made into real cards that are being released in the same collectors’ pack that I mentioned at the start of this post, and with an alternate version of Alexis showing up in ARC-V, there’s a chance that the Cyber Angels will continue to see new support. The reason that Venus would likely work well in a Cyber Angel deck is because her secondary effect prevents the activation of its user’s Spell and Trap Cards from being negated. With Venus on the field, the opponent can’t negate the activation of Machine Angel Ritual. Not only that, Venus is compatible with the Ritual Sanctuary Field Spell used by the Cyber Angels, a Field Spell that can revive Fairy monsters while recycling Machine Angel Ritual at the same time.
Elemental HERO Terra Firma: Aside from being another specialized card, this next monster is the only member of the Legendary Planets that’s a Fusion Monster and also the member of another archetype. In the GX manga, Elemental HERO Terra Firma took the place of Elemental HERO Neos as Jaden’s ace card. While I actually like Elemental HERO Neos better, Terra Firma has still become one of my favorite Elemental Heroes as well as one of my favorite members of the Legendary Planets. For one thing, Terra Firma just has a pretty cool design. What’s even better about this card though is that it combos excellently with another one of my favorite Elemental Heroes from the GX manga.
Obviously, the only deck that Elemental HERO Terra Firma can be used in is an Elemental HERO deck. By sacrificing another Elemental HERO monster, Terra Firma gains that Hero’s ATK until the end of the turn. The best monster to use this effect with is Elemental HERO Absolute Zero. When Absolute Zero leaves the field, it destroys all of the opponent’s monsters. And since Absolute Zero has the same effect as Terra Firma, this combo would basically clear the field while doubling Terra Firma’s ATK to 5000. What’s even better is that since Absolute Zero can be Fusion Summoned by combining any HERO monster with any Water monster, one could use Miracle Fusion to summon Absolute Zero with the same materials used to summon Terra Firma (or Parallel World Fusion if Miracle Fusion was already used to summon Terra Firma). This combo can be used for some potential OTK strategies, but that I’ll probably save for another post.
The Blazing Mars: Mars is known by many as the planet of fire in Japan (which is a little bit ironic when one considers that fire is the major weakness of the DC Comics superhero, Martian Manhunter). So it’s not at all surprising that The Blazing Mars would be a Fire attribute Pyro-Type monster. Mars can be special summoned from the hand or Graveyard by banishing three monsters in the Graveyard at the cost of not being able to special summon any other monsters for the rest of the turn. The primary feature of The Blazing Mars though is that it can sacrifice all other monsters that one controls to inflict 500 points of damage for each one. The maximum amount of damage that can be inflicted with this effect is 2,000 points, but 2,000 points of burn damage isn’t bad when combined with Mars’ stats.
The best deck choice where The Blazing Mars is concerned would likely be a Fire deck of some kind. One potential choice would be a Volcanic deck, which would also be a rather appropriate choice since the character of Axel Brodie, who used Volcanic monsters in the GX anime, was the one who used The Blazing Mars in the GX manga. Plus a key part of the strategy with most Volcanic decks is to discard monsters to inflict burn damage with the Blaze Accelerator card, which would load the Graveyard with monsters that can be banished to summon Mars. As for using the Burn effect of The Blazing Mars, the best option would probably be to just use Token monster. One strategy that could work would be to activate the iconic Spell card, Scapegoat right after the opponent attacks, and then summon Mars on the following turn and sacrifice all four Tokens for major burn damage.
The Grand Jupiter: This next card can be considered as a nemesis or rival to Elemental HERO Terra Firma. They’re both Warrior-Type monsters with almost identical stats. The reason for these similarities is because The Grand Jupiter was used by Aster Phoenix in the GX manga, hence why the card has similar design elements to the Destiny Heroes used by Aster in the GX anime. Jupiter’s appearance in the GX manga was very brief, but its effects were greatly expanded upon when it was made into a real card. By discarding two cards, Jupiter can equip itself with an opponent’s monster and gains the combined ATK of all the monsters equipped to it. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Jupiter’s effect includes the option of summoning one of the monsters equipped to it to its user’s side of the field.
In short, The Grand Jupiter is basically an improved version of Meklord Emperor Granel that works on more than just Synchro Monsters. The high discard cost for activating Jupiter’s effect is kind of a major drawback, but in certain strategies that drawback can be used to one’s advantage. For instance, Jupiter’s effect can be used to load the Graveyard with monsters to use Miracle Fusion or other similar Fusion Spells, or to simply banish in order to summon monsters like Dark Necrofear. Turning back to the earlier subject of Aster Phoenix, Jupiter can be used in a Destiny HERO deck to dump some of their key monsters like Destiny HERO – Malicious in the Graveyard, making it possible to use their effects later on. Plus, since Jupiter is also a Dark Warrior monster like the Destiny Heroes, it can use a lot of the same Dark Warrior support cards that are typically used in a Destiny HERO deck.
The Big Saturn: We now come to another one of my favorite members of the Legendary Planet archetype. The Big Saturn is one of my favorites from this archetype for various reasons, one of which is the simple fact that it’s a Machine-Type monster. Robots have always been something of a first love of mine for some reason, probably because I saw Star Wars for the first time at a very young age. Anyway, one of the major drawbacks to Saturn is that it can only be special summoned from the Graveyard. Of course Saturn is easy enough to dump in the Graveyard for later revival with cards like Foolish Burial and Trade-In. In a Machina deck, Saturn can be discarded to summon the deck’s ace card, Machine Fortress. As for tribute summoning Saturn, one option would be to use some of the same methods used for tribute summoning The Supremacy Sun. The Spell card, Star Blast can also be used to lower Saturn’s level enough to make it possible to summon it with one tribute or less, depending on how much life points one is willing to spend for Star Blast’s activation costs.
The main feature of The Big Saturn that by discarding one card and paying 1,000 life points, Saturn get’s a 1,000 point ATK boost for the rest of the turn. In short, Saturn is pretty much designed for simple beatdown strategies. The other major feature of this card is that when it’s destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by the effect of an opponent’s card, it deals its total ATK points as damage to both players. In some circumstances, this can lead to the duel ending in a draw. It could also lead to the opponent shooting him or herself in the face with their own card effect, or to the opponent’s victory. In the end, it ultimately depends on how many life points each player has when Saturn’s failsafe effect is triggered. It might be a good idea to use a few life point boosting cards like Rainbow Life in any deck that uses Saturn to prevent draws or misfires.
The Despair Uranus: This next card has become something of a new favorite of mine among the Legendary Planets, partly because of its cool design and partly because its effects were greatly expanded upon when it was made into a real card. The primary effect of The Despair Uranus is that it gains 300 extra ATK for each of its user’s Continuous Spell and Trap cards. Now if this were the only thing Uranus did, it would simply be another card that could be put in a Crystal Beast deck. But the real world version of Uranus can do so much more than its original manga version. I mean it’s possible to use Uranus in a Crystal Beast deck, but it wouldn’t really be using this card’s power to its fullest. When Uranus is tribute summoned while its user doesn’t have any Spell or Trap cards on the field, its user can take a Continuous Spell or Trap from their deck (whichever type the opponent chooses) and set it on their field. In addition to that, Uranus prevents all face-up Spell and Trap Cards in its user’s Spell and Trap Zones from being destroyed while it’s on the field.
In short, The Despair Uranus works best in just about any deck that uses a lot of Continuous Spell and Trap Cards, except for Skill Drain decks. One deck that could possibly be a good fit for Uranus is a Monarch deck. The Monarchs have gained a lot of good Continuous Spells and Traps in recent years, including a variation of Skill Drain that only cancels the effects of non-Tribute Summoned monsters called The Monarchs Erupt. Of course it might be a bit hard getting out the tributes needed for summoning Uranus in a Monarch deck, but the extra Spell and Trap protection is worth it. Another potentially good deck option for Uranus is an old Destiny Board deck. Uranus would essentially protect the Destiny Board and Spirit Message cards from being destroyed while each card gave it an ATK boost until the final message is played. Of course in a Destiny Board deck, one would need to find a way to protect Uranus from destruction that wouldn’t clog up any of the Spell and Trap Zones, but it’s still a good deck option to consider for this card.
The Tyrant Neptune: Our next member of the Legendary Planets has always been a favorite of mine because it’s the most versatile member of the archetype. The Tyrant Neptune can be almost anything its user wants it or needs it to be. Neptune can only be summoned through tribute summoning, but it gains the total ATK of the monsters sacrificed to summon it. It’s also possible to summon Neptune with just one tribute, but that would be kind of a waste of this card’s effect except in certain situations that I’ll get into later. The true beauty of The Tyrant Neptune though is that it can take on the name and effects of one of the effect monsters (if any) sacrificed to summon it. So it’s possible to take a monster with weak stats but a very powerful effect, and give that effect to a much stronger monster. For example, one could take a monster like Jinzo #7, which has only 700 ATK but can attack the opponent directly, then sacrifice it along with a much stronger monster like say a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and end up with a form of The Tyrant Neptune that has 3700 ATK and can make direct attacks.
Because The Tyrant Neptune is so versatile, there are a lot of different decks that it can be splashed into. Two potentially good options would be to use a Water or Reptile deck, since Neptune can use the same support cards. As far as options for tributes go, one good tactic would be to use a card like Ritual Foregone or Instant Fusion to summon a Ritual or Fusion Monster as a quick sacrifice, since that monster would only be destroyed at the end of the turn. And on that note, we come to the one instance where summoning Neptune with only one tribute would not be a waste. In any case where a monster that’s been special summoned would only be destroyed because of the drawback to the card that summoned it, that monster can simply be sacrificed and used to turn Neptune into a clone of that monster. Another good tribute option for Neptune would be to use an Xyz Material that has used up all of its Xyz Materials. Neptune wouldn’t be able to use that Xyz Monster’s effects, but it could still make use of its ATK and DEF.
The Suppression Pluto: We now come to the card that represents the final planet in our solar system. And yes, I still consider Pluto to be a planet, despite what all those damn astronomers say. As a Sailor Moon fan, I cannot and will not accept Pluto’s reclassification as a “dwarf planet”. Anyway, the effects of The Suppression Pluto are rather unique, as it can either take control of a monster or destroy an opponent’s Spell or Trap Card and reset it on the field of Pluto’s user, thus stealing control of the card. In order to use either of these effects though, one has to accurately name a card in the opponent’s hand. Of course there are plenty of ways to accurately tell what card an opponent might have in his or her hand, such as the classic Trap, Eye of Truth. Another option would be to use the Spell, Dark Designator to force the opponent to add a monster to their hand.
Probably the best card to use with The Suppression Pluto is a newly released Spell Card from the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! movie called Gate of the Magical Contract. Gate of the Magical Contract lets its user add a level seven or higher Dark monster to the hand in exchange for giving the opponent a Spell Card. In other words, this card can search Pluto from the deck and give the opponent a card that can be named for Pluto’s effect, basically killing two birds with one stone. A good choice for Spells to hand over to the opponent with Gate of the Magical Contract are Spells that they just can’t use, like a Rank-Up-Magic card or a card that’s totally incompatible with any of their monsters. Similar results can also be obtained using Spells like Exchange and Present Exchange. Of course the best tools for activating Pluto’s effect might just be simple observation and deduction. Sometimes an opponent will add a card to their hand and not use it right away, and since some deck strategies can be fairly predictable, it can be easy can be easy to guess what cards the opponent might be holding.
That pretty much covers all of the monsters in this archetype. One thing I will add is that it’s pretty much impossible to use all of the Legendary Planets in one deck. It might be possible to use two or even four of them together in one deck. Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and the Sun could probably work okay together in the same deck since they’re all Dark monsters and can be summoned using similar methods. Beyond that though, it seems that the Legendary Planets are best used separately. All in all though, I think that the Legendary Planets are some of the best cards to come out of the GX manga. The other best cards from that manga would be the Masked Heroes and Omni Heroes, but I’ll save those cards for another post.
