Quick Article #5: The Plant Engine

Now, with the results from the latest tournament held by Good Games Canberra published, I had originally intended to compose a complete analysis of the Destiny Hero Plant strategy I piloted there, going undefeated until Top 4 where I lost to the eventual winner. However, with the decklist in question reading, for the most part, much the same as any Destiny Hero-based DARK Synchro deck (barring, of course, the Plant engine itself), I have decided against this for the simple reason of not wishing to repeat myself. Instead, I will be using this Quick Article to list and briefly outline the advantages of the specific seven card suite, for I have hitherto been unable to do so otherwise. 

Monsters: 4

1 Glow-Up Bulb

1 Spore

1 Lonefire Blossom

1 Dandylion

Spells: 3 

1 One for One

1 Foolish Burial

1 Card of Safe Return

Not only do the four Monsters listed above grant an additional level of combo potential to cards already employed in a Synchro-based strategy (Painful Choice and Graceful Charity spring to mind as the most obvious examples), they also offer the amazing opening to then include cards which are so close to being viable in such circumstances – those cards which, while they might clutch a game-winning combo here and there, are more often functionally dead, creating instead unplayable hands and subsequent defeats. Here, the three listed Spells most definitely fall into this category: One for One and Foolish Burial are options I myself would sincerely love to run in any Synchro deck splashing Magical Scientist, or that uses Plaguespreader Zombie, but there simply aren’t enough worthwhile targets to do so; similarly, not a single speed-centred deck exists that I wish Card of Safe Return wouldn’t be feasible in, drawing extra cards through those Dark Magician of Chaos and Destiny Hero – Disk Commander revivals, but such instances are simply too few and far between in the early game to warrant that commitment.

That said, however, these Spells find the extra consistency and usefulness necessary to take starring roles in a deck utilizing the Plant engine. Moreover, I can also foresee other, for the most part rarely used cards becoming strong contenders for inclusion: Hand Destruction is one that I have been thinking about for quite some time now, and some even lesser used cards, in the shape of Mirage of Nightmare and Fibre Jar, have also been presenting themselves to my consideration. For this reason, the Plant engine is immensely versatile, not only in the plays possible from its most basic incarnation (as evidenced by the past success of Plant Synchro in the Advanced Format), but also in the form of additional prospects it presents to deck architecture – something which is undoubtedly an interesting opportunity in the Traditional Format.