Since the most recent Forbidden & Limited List changes, Blue-Eyes White Dragon has been a dominating force in the competitive scene. It even took down the World Championship this year, and Duelists just can’t help but love piloting the original engine of destruction. While Red-Eyes may get more direct support from Invasion: Vengeance, Blue-Eyes Duelists will be getting a new generic Level 9 Synchro Monster that lets them maximize the usefulness of cards they already play and make precision strikes on problem cards at any point in the Duel!

Vermillion Dragon Mech is a Level 9 Synchro Monster with 2700 ATK. At Level 9 it’s perfect for the Blue-Eyes strategy which has an abundance of Level 8 Dragons and Level 1 Tuners. Blue-Eyes is very good at accelerating Level 8 Dragons into play to so they can combo off with huge Xyz and Synchro Summons, and Vermillion Dragon Mech plays a key removal role for the strategy beyond what Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon allows. Once per turn, by simply banishing a Tuner from your hand, field, or Graveyard, you can destroy any card on the field! That creates a one-two punch where you can blast something with Alternative, then Synchro Summon and blast something else with Vermillion Dragon Mech.

It’s going to be better banishing Tuners from your Graveyard rather than anywhere else because it’s basically free, and you already have at least one Tuner in the Graveyard once you’ve Synchro Summoned Vermillion Dragon Mech. Blue-Eyes is also very good at putting Tuners into the Graveyard thanks to stuff like Cards of Consonance and Dragon Shrine, so you should consistently have free fuel throughout the Duel to make sure your mighty Vermillion Dragon Mech can keep destroying your opponent’s cards. Even the second effect of Sage with Eyes of Blue helps you put it into the Graveyard, so running out of Tuners isn’t really an issue.

In terms of resilience, Vermillion Dragon Mech does not have a way to protect itself, but it does have a second effect that lets you add back a banished Tuner if it’s destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. Even if they manage to take down Vermillion Dragon Mech, you can add back whatever Tuner you had banished to recoup a bit of your loss. Sage with Eyes of Blue is especially high impact Tuner to add back because once it hits the table it’ll find you another Tuner, gassing you back up. This second effect of Vermillion Dragon Mech further synergizes with Blue-Eyes because it already has Tuners that are likely to be banished such as The White Stone of Ancients, so even if something crazy happens you’re practically guaranteed to have a banished Tuner to add back once Vermillion Dragon Mech hits the Graveyard.

Blue-Eyes isn’t the only strategy that can utilize Vermillion Dragon Mech since it’sa generic Level 9 Synchro with no specific requirements, but it is the strategy that makes the most Level 9 Synchro Summons. Vermillion Dragon Mech is solid removal that is free to use the vast majority of the time, and if you have a way to protect it alongside an engine to help fuel Tuners to the Graveyard, it is definitely the type of card that will run away with the Duel. Even if you can’t manage to do all of that, it’ll still destroy something at least once and grab back whatever Tuner you initially used!

Check it out at your local Invasion: Vengeance Sneak Peek, happening October 29th and/or 30th!