Computer screens are a treasure trove of easter eggs, in-jokes, and character information in anime. A screen in the background could have anything from 80’s song lyrics to the Declaration of Independence written on it, or even the birthday or blood type of an important character. In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, a computer monitor once helpfully suggested that Yusei’s ultimate monster was called Cosmic Blazar Dragon… but as you may know, there was no such thing. Yusei’s ultimate monster was Shooting Quasar Dragon, a monster that has existed in real life for more than 5 years. So what was Cosmic Blazar Dragon?

Z-one is very likely the most benevolent and well-meaning Yu-Gi-Oh! villain since Pegasus in the very first season of the original series. All he wanted was to prevent the robot apocalypse that destroyed humanity in the future. Unfortunately, all of his plans involved either eliminating Maximillion Pegasus before Duel Monsters could become popular or destroying Neo Domino City in the present day. Not exactly the stuff heroes are made of.

And yet, Z-one had originally dedicated himself to becoming as much like Yusei as humanly, and later mechanically, possible, right down to using the same cards. His research on Yusei was absolute, but it only applied to the timeline that he lived in. By interfering in the past numerous times, he had already changed history enough to cause Cosmic Blazar Dragon to not exist in our timeline, and thus, Shooting Quasar Dragon was born in its stead. Duelists have wondered for years what Cosmic Blazar Dragon did, and now in Duelist Saga, that question will finally be answered!

On the surface, Cosmic Blazar Dragon and Shooting Quasar Dragon are very similar. The have the exact same Level, ATK, DEF, and Synchro Materials and even share an ability to negate any card or effect. That’s where the similarities end, however. Cosmic Blazar Dragon is a lot closer to Stardust Dragon than Shooting Quasar Dragon is, requiring you to banish it until the End Phase to activate any of its effects. Unlike Shooting Quasar Dragon, Cosmic Blazar Dragon also has an ability to negate any Summon, and a third that ends the Battle Phase if need-be. In a way, it’s almost like a mirror image of Shooting Quasar Dragon. Blazar negates Summons and ends Battle Phases, while Quasar can Summon Shooting Star Dragon and attack multiple times per turn.

If you’ve built a Deck that can Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon, you’re already set up to Summon Cosmic Blazar Dragon as well. Quasar is fantastic for finishing off Duels quickly, but not as good at holding down the fort long-term, so you’d probably want to play both. Cosmic Blazar Dragon also comes with a unique advantage you might not have thought about: its attacks aren’t connected to its Synchro Materials. Sure, both cards require you to Synchro Summon them, but a card effect that counts as a Synchro Summon is good enough.

That means that King’s Synchro can be used to Summon these monsters without having to Synchro Summon 3 separate times before finally bringing out your ace monster. The catch is, because it’s not actually a Synchro Summon, you aren’t using any Synchro Materials, meaning Shooting Quasar Dragon can make zero attacks every Battle Phase. That’s not an issue for Cosmic Blazar Dragon, so keep it in mind if you’re playing a more mid-game focused Synchro strategy using King’s Synchro to bypass the requirements on certain monsters.

Duelist Saga has new cards spanning all five eras of Yu-Gi-Oh!, 42 in all, and you can get your hands on them starting this Friday!