Author: Logan Brookman

The seventh card is Fire Cracker, a little imp who throws around fireworks, which is a thing people do for Christmas.  This monster has 1700 attack but it’s main way of dealing damage is through its effect.  It can either discard itself from the hand for 1000 damage, or deal 300 times the number of times you hit your opponent for effect damage in each turn it’s on the field.  This card should work great with Trickstars or other burn decks.  If you do the 1000 damage one you will sacrifice your next draw phase, but if it’s field effect works on your opponents turn as well.  I’d advise using it on the field if you can keep it alive.  Thank you to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for getting us this Advent Calendar.

The fifth card is the Ice Queen, a level 8 monster with 2900 attack and the effect to get a spell back from the graveyard if it is destroyed and you have three spellcasters there already.  It also can’t be special summoned from the grave.  The spell retrieval is probably the reason it can’t be reborn, though that doesn’t stop it from going back to the hand.  It also actually approaches the limit of attack power without costs being attached to effects.  Great if you focus on spellcasters and have ways of getting higher level monsters out to the field.  Thank you to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for letting us have this Advent Calendar.

The fourth card is another Ghostrick, Ghostrick Yeti.  This one has 2000 defense, and when it is flipped face up, it can make another Ghostrick monster immune to destruction for a turn.  It is great for defense before you get one of the field spells out, and when it is first set.  Even aside from its effect it has pretty good defense, and using it after you get a field spell out you can use it with Ghostrick-Go-Round to stop one of your opponents attackers and take 300 out of the attacks coming at you from the rest of them.  Even outside of a Ghostrick deck it can shield you well, stopping any monster from destroying it with an attack, and even blocking any destruction effects that would have to wait until it was attacked.  All in all a good defensive card, and thanks to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for letting us have this Advent Calendar.

The third card is a snowman, the Ghostrick Jackfrost.  This card is part of an archetype based on getting monsters face down and having attacks bypass them.  This one blocks a direct attack, turns the monster over, and summons itself.  Even outside its archetype it works as a decent defensive measure, blocking at least two attacks.  Sadly Link monsters are immune to most Ghostrick effects, being unable to go to defense mode.  A good card nonetheless and thank you to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for getting us this Advent Calendar.

The second card is a present with toys inside.  Box of friends is an effect monster with no attack or defense points, which upon destruction can summon 2 different normal monsters with one of their stats being 0.  They are destroyed at the end of the turn.  This can be used to set up a 2 monster XYZ summon for up to rank 6.  It actually has a XYZ monster paired with it called Princess Cologne who revives it and can replace normal monsters when they get destroyed.  There is also four pendulum monsters that might be able to be summoned by it, two Dracos, a Metalfoes and an Igknight monster.  You can also use it to get temporary shields up at either 3000 Def or 2500 Atk.  A good card, mainly for XYZ summoning, and thank you to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for getting us the Advent Calendar.

The first card of the set turns out to be a church tower bell.  A super rare Ceremonial Bell, a 3 star monster with decent defense that keeps both hands revealed.  Since they are already revealed the players will not be able to use effects of cards like Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, or the Danger! archetype.  There are also cards that allow you to guess what cards are in your opponents hand like Mind Crush, and ones that let you discard a card from their hand and activate other effects when those cards meet certain requirements like Thestalos the Mega Monarch.  It seems pretty good if you can keep it alive.  Thank you to Hill and Knowlton Strategies and Konami for sending us this set.