Prologue
Dragunity is an archetype that debuted in the Duel Terminal back in 2011. It's consists of Winged Beasts and Dragon Tuner monsters that specialize in Synchro Summoning. For years, Dragunity was a fan favorite archetype that lacked the proper tools to excel at top level play. However, with the release of Ghosts from the Past, Dragunity received a couple of new cards that give them a big boost in consistency. In this article, we'll review all of Dragunity's new cards in Ghosts from the Past and see what they do for the archetype.
Note: These cards will be reviewed from their position in Pure Dragunity. Their relationship and interactions with other decks such as Dragon Link will not be mentioned.
Introduction into Modern Dragunity
Dragunity is a deck that has changed drastically over the years. In the modern meta, Dragunity is a combo deck that rallies powerful dragons to assemble strong boards. The goal of the deck is to use Dragon Ravine and Gae Dearg to assemble all your essentials for your combo. Afterwards, Barcha is used to summon back all the Dragunity Phalanx and Couse you've accumulated in your GY. The board is then cemented with the assistance of Guardragon and Amorphage monsters which offer utility and lockdown effects. This makes Dragunity a dangerous opponent if their play goes uncontested.
New Cards
Dragunity Arma Gram
Dragunity Arma Gram is a Level 10 monster that can be summoned from the hand or GY by banishing 2 Dragon or Winged Beast monsters from your GY. It has an effect that can target a face-up monster and negate its effects once per turn. This effect also cuts the monster's ATK by 1000 for each Equip Card you control. Monsters that Gram destroys by battle can also be equipped to it.
Gram's main selling point is that it's a re-usable monster with a built-in board breaking effect. It's also searchable with Dragunity Glow and synergizes very well with Glow's 2nd effect. This makes Gram strong in longer grind games but lackluster in shorter ones.
Gram is a monster that looks decent on paper but doesn't fit the modern Dragunity playstyle. Because the modern playstyle is combo, Gram offers very little other than being an extender. As an extender, Gram is also inferior to cards like Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms which is far more flexible. For now, Gram seems better utilized in Armed Dragon decks over Dragunity ones.
Dragunity Legatus
Dragunity Legatus is a Level 4 that can be special summoned from your hand if you control Dragon Ravine or a Dragunity monster. If a Dragunity monster is in your S/T zone, it can also target and destroy 1 S/T on the field.
Legatus is everything you would want in a Dragunity extender. It has an easy summoning condition, and offers free S/T removal. Previously, one of the archetype's major weaknesses is their reliance on their normal summon. While the normal summon is still crucial, Legatus gives you options to bait disruptions before your normal summon or to create counterplay to your opponent's disruption. Another weakness is the lack of options to deal with meta backrow. Cards like There Can Be Only One is a popular meta backrow that stops many combo decks in it's tracks. With Legatus, in combination with Dragunity Divine Lance offers you a way to clear it along with other popular traps so your following plays can go uncontested.
Overall, Legatus is a great extender that does a good job at covering some of the archetype's weaknesses. It's also searchable by Dragon Ravine and is a welcomes addition to the Dragunity archetype.
Dragunity Remus
Dragunity Remus is a Level 2 monster that is one of the most hyped cards out of Ghosts from the Past. It's effect lets you discard it to search for Dragon Ravine from your deck. If you control a Dragunity monster, you can also summon it from the GY. Using this effect locks you into only summoning Dragons from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn.
Remus is a card that many people refer to as fan-made support. It increases the consistency of the archetype by upping the number of ways you can see Ravine. This is obviously good as Ravine is one of the best cards in the archetype. Remus's 2nd effect is also nothing to laugh at. Being able to summon itself back from the GY makes it a pseudo-extender with a very easy condition. This makes it harder for your opponent to stop your opening play as you can very easily put 2 monsters on the board.
Remus is arguably the best new card that came out of Ghosts From the Past. It does amazing things for the Dragunity archetype and also has applications in decks outside of Pure Dragunity that play a Dragunity engine. With this being said, Remus is a definite 3-Of in any Dragunity deck.
Dragunity Draft
Dragunity Draft is a Continuous Spell with 2 effects. It's 1st effect lets you target 1 Level 4 or lower Dragunity monster in your GY and add it back to your hand. It's 2nd effect gives your Level 5 or higher Dragunity monsters immunity from your opponent's card effects when they attack.
Both of Draft's effects, although decent, don't really fit the modern playstyle of the Dragunity deck. The problem here is as a combo deck, Dragunity wants to act on their 1st turn. This makes cards like Draft redundant as it doesn't provide anything to your turn 1 board. Draft is better for longer games where the recovery effect can be used to set up for following turns. If Draft was released in 2011, it might've seen some play. Unfortunately for modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, Draft is too slow and probably disregarded.
Dragunity Whirlwind
Dragunity Whirlwind is a Quick-Play Spell that is similar to Urgent Schedule. While only your opponent controls a monster, it lets you summon 1 Dragunity Tuner and 1 Dragunity Winged Beast from your deck, negating their effects. If your opponent controls a monster summoned from the Extra Deck, you can also Synchro summon a Dragon Synchro immediately after this effect resolves. Activating Whirlwind will also lock you into summoning Dragons from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn.
Whirlwind is a card that offers quick development when going 2nd. This makes Whirlwind a decent Side Deck option when you know you're going second. If Whirlwind goes uncontested, it leads into Gae Dearg which can help fix your hand and lead into further play. If it gets negated, then it did its job and baited out a disruption.
The main issue with Whirlwind is deciding whether or not it's worth playing. With limited Side Deck slots, players must decide whether they want to dedicate slots to Whirlwind or other cards. While Whirlwind is a decent option, it's debatable whether it's worth taking slots away from other impactful cards like Dark Ruler no More and Lightning Storm.
Dragunity Glow
Dragunity Glow is one of the most hyped Dragunity cards coming out of Ghosts from the Past. It's a Normal Spell which adds 1 Level 5 or higher Dragunity monster from your deck or GY to hand. It can also banish itself from the GY to target a monster equipped to a Dragunity monster and special summon it in defense position.
Glow is great because it gives Dragunity 2 things that they've been wanting for a long time. It's a way to search Mystletainn but can also search Leyvaten and Gram if you want to. It also lets you re-use Gae Dearg or any other monster you'd have equipped on a Dragunity. In some situations, you can even search for Gram, use it to beat over an opponent's monster and then summon it. It can also be searched by Dragunity Knight - Romulus.
Glow is strong because it's a combo enabler that also makes it easier to summon Atum. The card increases the archetype's ceiling and also opens some lines for more creative ideas going forward.
Dragunity Oubliette
Dragunity Oubliette is a Counter Trap that negates the activation of a S/T and banishes it while you control a Dragunity Synchro. If the Synchro is Level 10, it also buffs the ATK of a Dragunity monster you control by 100 for each face-up banished card.
Oubliette is simple, it's a S/T negate in a deck where your boss monsters are mostly monster effect negates. This makes Oubliette strong against board breaking tools such as Lightning Storm and Evenly Matched. The main problem with Oubliette is that since it only negates activation, it's effectively a less flexible Solemn Judgment. While Solemn has a much steeper cost, it can also negate summons that do not start a chain and lacks a specific activation condition. Oubliette's ATK-boosting effect also doesn't come up very often as you won't often have too many face-up banished cards. This means that in order to utilize this effect, you'll usually be relying on what your opponent is playing which makes a bonus effect with such a specific condition rather underhwelming.
Overall, Oubliette is fine but doesn't seem like a card that is worth playing. In most situations you would prefer Solemn over it and you'll almost never search for it with Romulus. While it is an anti-backrow option, it seems like there are more generic choices that do more than Oubliette does.
Dragunity Knight - Areadbhair
Dragunity Knight - Areadbhair is the new Level 10 Synchro boss monster of the Dragunity archetype with 3 effects. It can negate the activation of an opponent's monster effect and banish it by banishing a Dragunity monster from your GY. It can also banish any monster that it destroys in battle. And lastly, if Areadbhair is Synchro summoned and destroyed by an opponent's card, it can destroy all S/Ts your opponent controls.
The release of Areadbhair finally gives Dragunity a solid Level 10 Synchro to end on during their 1st turn. It's effect to negate and banish is also good as its applicable against monsters immune to destruction like Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Being able to banish monsters it destroys by battle is also a nice perk that is very useful against some meta decks like Eldlich and Dragon Link. And lastly, having a Harpie's Feather Duster built-in when it dies is a nice bonus that is very good in control matchups and can catch your opponent off guard.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, the quality of the support received in Ghosts from the Past was very high. While there are misses here and there, the playable cards are all very good and increase the deck's consistency, floor, and ceiling. While these additions may not push Dragunity to a top tier deck, they definitely make the deck more competitively viable going forward. Almost a decade after it's initial release, Dragunity makes a comeback really making it a Ghost from the Past.
If want to learn more about modern Dragunity, feel free to check out the video below for a Deck Profile and a short Combo Guide.
