[Post Contest Tune-Up] Benthic Flagship Viperfish

[Trebuchet MS]

[spoiler Card Text]2 Level 3 WATER monsters
When this card is Special Summoned, except by Xyz Summon: You can target 1 Level 3 WATER monster in your Graveyard; attach that target to this card as an Xyz Material. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 Level 4 or lower Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua-Type monster in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand, but you cannot activate effects of a monster with the same name as that monster for the rest of the turn.[/spoiler]

 

When I first saw that card image, I thought, "Damn, that's hella cool. Time to make a card out of that."

 

It first started as a parallel to the sucktastic Submersible Carrier Aero-Shark. Noticing it was a R3 WATER, I decided to imbue Nightmare Shark's attachment effect onto it so that it's immediately compatible with Bahamut Shark. But I messed around with it a little, and allowed Viperfish to attach a monster from the Graveyard.

 

The next step was to think of a good effect that uses its Xyz Material. Seeing how the viperfish is native to the depths, an idea crossed my mind involving retrieving cards from the Graveyard. Special Summoning them directly would be too potent, I thought, so I went for returning to the hand.

 

And then, despite my attempts to avoid accidentally making it combo-tastic, it became combo-tastic with Xyz Remora, when Voltex Curse pointed out how it could, with a little setup, result in a full field of monsters. So efforts had to be taken to rein it in. I have attached a clause that prevents one from activating the effects of that monster or its duplicates for the turn you retrieve it, to prevent immediate abuse. You still get to SS Xyz Remora, but because you can't activate its effects, you don't get your Fish back.

 

CnC would be appreciated.

[Darj]

Well, as I pointed out in the vote review, a Lion Emperor or Vucan the Divine clause would fix this card's issue, and now that you added it the card should be better.

Although it is still a +1 after Bahamut Shark that turns into Armored Ray Lancer, which feels like a slippery slope. For instance, Mermails can make Rank4s through Abysspike, Dragoons and/or Aqua Spirit, albeit rarely, but they could attach a Genex Undine or Linde to this and recycle an important WATER.

Gishkis can potentially use it as well through Gishki Beast and recycling a Shadow or Vision; but to be fair, they would have to jump through a couple of hoops to properly use this because they don't run Level 3 WATERs that could be attached to it.

 

And of course there are Shark/fish decks, which perhaps are the only ones that can properly abuse this by recycling Doublefin.