Gusto Dragunity

Hidden Arsenal 7 will be, without question, the most demanded HA set since HA04. HA05 and HA06 have been rather lacking, but with Lavalal Chain and Daigusto Emeral I can't imagine people choosing to pass HA07 up. These two cards promise to be outright amazing, but their impact on Dragunity is marginal. Since this article is about Dragunity, I must be referencing another HA07 card...right? Yeah, you got me. Today I want to discuss the impact Gusto Griffin will have on the Dragunity strategy.

Gusto Griffin

Simply put: Griffin lets you special summon any Gusto monster from your deck when it's discarded. Yes, any. And yes, whenever it's discarded. Griffin won't miss timing if used as a cost for something like Lightning Vortex or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. More importantly, it will still activate if it's discarded for Dragon Ravine. With Griffin, Volcanic Shell and The Fabled Cerburrel are now mostly obsolete. Why? Because this guy is a much better alternative for two reasons: one, the cards it grabs as a result of its effect are much better (as opposed to Shell searching new copies or Curburrel summoning itself) and two, it can be searched via Dragunity Knight - Gae Dearg.

Dragunity Knight - Gae Dearg

With Gae Dearg you can effectively trigger Gusto Griffin's ability during any point of the duel. If it's in hand, you can dump it with Dragon Ravine. If it's in the deck, you can yard it with this Synchro. In both cases Griffin will summon a Gusto monster, though unfortunately its effect is limited to once per turn. Anyways, all of this is worthless if you're not summoning something worthwhile. Let's shift our focus to targets. What exactly can Griffin summon? We have an interesting choice of cards including tuners, but our best target by far is Windaar, Sage of Gusto.

Windaar, Sage of Gusto

Windaar has a weak 2000 ATK for a level six, but it is a free card after all. Griffin will allow us to summon it straight from the deck, and if it destroys a monster by battle we'll be able to summon Griffin right back to the field! Not too bad, but our reasons for using Windaar are better than that. It's a great out to Thunder King Rai-Oh, or at least a way to bait traps away from a Dux/Legionnaire play. 2000 ATK means that Dragunity can put a lot of damage on the board very quickly...at almost no cost. Dragunity Knight - Vajrayana w/Aklys and Windaar allow you to do up to 5800 damage in one turn using one card from your hand (Dragunity Dux). Oh, and you destroy an opponent's card with Aklys, so it's a +2 overall. Good stuff, and you can Xyz into Photon Strike Bounzer during the Main Phase 2. Speaking of which...

Photon Strike Bounzer

Dragunity decks using Griffin and Windaar can now summon a Photon Strike Bounzer (or any generic Rank 6) at the cost of 1 card. Here's the combo:

Have Phalanx in the Graveyard
1. Summon Dragunity Dux. Equip Dragunity Phalanx to it.

2. Summon Phalanx, and Special Summon Dragunity Knight - Gae Dearg.
3. Activate Gae Dearg's effect to send Gusto Griffin to the graveyard. Special Summon Windaar.
4. Overlay Windaar and Gae Dearg for any generic Rank 6 Xyz monster.

Not only is this play possible from the first turn of the duel, but it's completely repeatable at nearly any point in the game. Having just Dragon Ravine (or Terraforming) as well as Dragunity Phalanx (or Dux) means you can start your turn 1 with Bounzer on the field. This is possible in more than half of your openings, but doesn't need to be done turn 1. You're certainly welcome to play Stardust Dragon before that, which is usually the better play anyways. Cheap Bounzer, Force Focus, and Exa-Beetle access makes the Dragunity Extra Deck even stronger, while the Gusto engine also helps apply extra pressure to the opponent (a Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute used on a Windaar summon, is a trap not being played against Dux). Making plays before the normal summon is huge in a deck like Dragunity, and the Gusto Engine is a perfect fit. My one complaint is that Windaar can't be used to help summon Atum, but it does help that loop end with a strong field (REDMD, Stardust, Bounzer/Force Focus).

This is the future of the Dragunity deck. There's no doubt in my mind that Dragunity will become as associated with Strike Bounzer as it has with Stardust Dragon.