Disappointed that the haunting season has come to a close? Worry not my spooky Duelist, for Structure Deck: Zombie Horde unleashes another swam of Zombies upon us! With many old favorites making their revamped ghoulish return, expect to see past friends zombified for a new era! To herald this glorious occasion is a new king of the Zombie World, enter Doomking Balerdroch!

The new Structure Deck: Zombie Horde is all about taking advantage of Zombie World and no one does it better than Doomking Balerdroch. During the Standby Phase if Doomking Balerdroch is in your Graveyard and there is a face-up Field Spell, it can Special Summon itself. This effect can work during either player’s Standby Phase and if either player has a Field Spell in play, so Doomking Balerdroch will just keep coming back. At Level 8 with 2800 ATK and 2000 DEF, it has solid stats and is pretty tough to deal with. You’ll have to wait a turn before you can switch it to Attack Position, but it can disrupt your opponent substantially with its other effects.

Once per Chain, when a Zombie other than Doomking Balerdroch activates its effect, you can choose to negate that effect or banish a monster from the field or Graveyard! While you can trigger these with your own Zombie effects, the optimal way to use them is in response to your opponent’s effects. Zombie World will ensure that all of your opponent’s monsters are Zombies, turning both effects of Doomking Balerdroch online. On top of that, you also get the natural disruption that Zombie World provides but we’ll get into that later.

You only get to use each of these two effects per turn, so you have two chances to interrupt your opponent. Negating an effect is a very easy way to stop your opponent from getting their game plane online, cutting off key cards like Armageddon Knight or Trickstar Candina. Then if your opponent still manages to push through, you can then banish a card on the field or in their Graveyard. If they Summon a monster strong enough to threaten Balerdroch you can simply remove it, or if you want to disrupt their Graveyard you can banish a key combo piece like Destiny HERO – Malicious or that pesky Sky Striker Ace – Raye.

To get all the bonuses that Doomking Balerdroch offers, you absolutely need to have Zombie World in play. While you can always find it via Terraforming or Metaverse, Structure Deck: Zombie Horde provides you with an even better option: Necroworld Banshee. This monster has a Quick Effect that lets you banish it from your field or Graveyard to activate a Zombie World directly from your hand or Deck! It can easily be sent down with all of the Zombie Graveyard enablers like Gozuki and Uni-Zombie, so once it is in your Graveyard you can spring Zombie World onto the field to disrupt your opponent, even mid-play!

Zombie World has massive implications right now against popular strategies by shutting off key cards like Isolde, Two Tales of Noble Knights as well as Summon Sorceresss and many other powerhouses. Your opponent can’t Summon Extra Deck monsters that require materials with a specific Type, and if their strategy relies on Tribute Summons like True Draco does, they also can’t Summon any of their monsters until they get rid of Zombie World! The icing on the cake is that Necroworld Banshee has an additional effect that protects Zombie World from being destroyed and targeted by card effects while she is face-up. In the worst-case scenario where your opponent manages to remove Zombie World with a non-targeting effect, you can always banish Necroworld Banshee from the field to get another copy into play!

While you can send Doomking Balerdroch to the Graveyard so it can revive itself, Glow-Up Bloom can do you one better. If it’s sent to the Graveyard, you can banish it to add a Level 5 or higher Zombie from your Deck to your hand. More importantly, if Zombie World is face-up, you can Special Summon that Level 5 or higher Zombie from your Deck instead! Glow-Up Bloom prevents you from Summoning non-Zombies for the rest of the turn, but immediately getting Doomking Balerdroch on the field in Attack Position lets you start disrupting your opponent from the get-go without worrying about its low DEF. Glow-Up Bulb is also a Tuner, so you also have access to Synchro options with it as well.

Structure Deck: Zombie Horde is available today in Official Tournament Stores, and out everywhere else tomorrow!