"Magical Musket" (
Design
Appearance
The archetype is based on the German opera "Der Freischütz", written by Carl Maria von Weber and premiered in 1821. According to German folklore, the term "Freischütz" refers to a marksman who made a contract with the devil to obtain seven magic bullets with supernatural accuracy. The first six bullets are subservient to the wielder's control, while the seventh will be in the devil's grip completely.
All members of this archetype are based on seven characters from the opera, in addition to sporting names and physical appearances to notable figures of American Western history and lore. Visually, all of them share three design aspects: a demonic-styled weapon, a clawed blue arm holding the weapon, and one or more large, red wings with blue eyes near the joint.
Naming in the TCG
In the Italian version, the inclusion of female monsters such as "Magical Musketeer Calamity" and "Magical Musketeer Starfire" seems to be implicit, as their names contain "Magica Moschet" instead.
Members
| Musketeer | Folklore | Musket | Firearm | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calamity | Calamity Jane | Desperado | Rocket launcher | Ännchen, Agathe's relative |
| Caspar | N/A | Fiendish Deal | Pistol/Handgun | Caspar, assistant forester |
| Doc | Doc Holliday | Steady Hands | Sniper rifle | Cuno, a hereditary forester |
| Kidbrave | Billy the Kid | Cross-Domination | Revolver | Max, assistant forester |
| Max | N/A | Crooked Crown | Rifle | Max, assistant forester |
| Starfire | Belle Starr | Dancing Needle | Derringer | Agathe, Cuno's daughter |
| Wild | "Wild Bill" Hickok | Last Stand | MANPADS/CIWS | The Holy Hermit |
| Zakiel | N/A | Fiendish Deal Crooked Crown |
Pistol/Handgun | Samiel, the Black Huntsman |
Playing style
This archetype revolves around using their monsters to accumulate their Spells/Traps in order to disrupt almost any moves their opponents may be attempting. All of their monsters can activate their effects when a Spell/Trap is activated in the same column as theirs (including opponent's). In addition, they also allows player to activate "Magical Musket" Spell/Traps from their hand, essentially turning them into hand traps, making their moves harder to predict and protect against.
Their monsters all have different effects, ranging from searching ("Caspar"), recycling ("Wild" and "Doc"), advantage generators ("Kidbrave" and "Zakiel"), and even swarming ("Starfire" and "Calamity"). Therefore, it is important to get those monsters onto the field as fast as possible. Since they're all LIGHT Fiends, they can utilize "Ties of the Brethren" as their main card to swarm the field, most of the time to bring out "Caspar", "Doc", and "Kidbrave" for maximum benefits. Cards like "Double Summon" can also be used to emphasize this further.
Since their monsters can activate their effects from activation of any Spell/Traps, cards like "Upstart Goblin", "One Day of Peace" and the Toon engine (consisting of "Toon Table of Contents" and "Toon World") can also be used. Outside of "Starfire", they don't rely on too much Special Summoning, so they can use cards like "Pot of Duality" to increase their consistency without noticeable drawback.
- Magical Musket Mastermind Zakiel
- Magical Musketeer Calamity
- Magical Musketeer Caspar
- Magical Musketeer Doc
- Magical Musketeer Starfire
- Magical Musketeer Kidbrave
- Magical Musketeer Wild
- Ariane the Labrynth Servant
- Condemned Maiden
- Denko Sekka
- Doomdog Octhros
- Honest
- Shining Angel
- Tour Guide From the Underworld
- Raviel, Lord of Phantasms
- Stygian Street Patrol
- Zalamander Catalyzer
Weakness
While powerful and consistent with their plethora of monster effects to generate advantage, it is also their greatest weakness. All "Magical Musket" Spells/Traps can only be activated while the player controls a "Magical Musket" monster, limiting their utility. Furthermore, they almost have no means of Special Summoning outside of their own theme (that doesn't rely on monster presence on the field), so any Summon negation cards such as "Forced Back", "Solemn Warning", "Chaos Trap Hole", and "Horn of Heaven" can help slow them down. Because of this Normal Summon dependence, this deck's particularly vulnerable when going second.
Hand traps are also effective against this deck, particularly "Effect Veiler", "Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit", "Herald of Orange Light", or "PSY-Framegear Gamma", since they can negate "Magical Musket" monster effects while also being out of reach from negation effect of "Cross-Domination". Mass-removal cards that can avoid "Last Stand" or "Fiendish Deal" are also effective to clear their entire field in one fell swoop, preventing them from activating more "Magical Musket" cards for the rest of that turn.
Trivia
- This archetype can be considered as an antithesis to "The Weather" archetype, in many ways:
- "The Weather" focuses on using their monsters for their Spell/Trap effects, while this archetype uses their Spell/Traps to fuel their monsters, instead.
- "The Weather" has 4 Spells and 2 Traps, while this archetype has 2 Spells and 4 Traps.
- "The Weather" monsters are all Fairy, while this archetype is all Fiend monsters.
- "The Weather Painter Rainbow" is an Extra Deck monster, while "Magical Musket Mastermind Zakiel" is a Main Deck monster.
- "The Weather Painter Aurora" protects "The Weather" Spells/Traps, while "Magical Musket - Fiendish Deal" protects this archetype's monsters.
- Both debuts in Deck Build Pack: Spirit Warriors, and both are column-based archetypes.
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