Heya~ Arcknight here! I was reviewing some of the new themes that came out recently and I came across one of the most interesting themes I still couldn't figure: that is "Valmonica". I figure that I need to tackle this archetype and I always wonder, what kind of support will it get that can maximize its potential?
Join me in this journey while we cope all together on what "Valmonica" could get potentially in the future sets!
Archetype Overview:
"Valmonica" is a theme that debuted in Deck Build Pack: Valiant Smashers in OCG alongside "Memento" and "Centurion". Among the three, "Memento" and "Valmonica" had little to no representation in most local and international OCG tournament results I have seen. Here are some of the reasons as to why it happened:
1. Inconsistency in getting Resonance Counters.
2. Reliance on outside generic monsters.
3. Requires specific cards to combo and the set-up is fragile to disruption.
4. Too much effort to pull-off the combo but little return.
5. No one card combo and/or one card that searches any "Valmonica" card.
What's next for "Valmonica"?
Here are some card ideas that they should get to make the theme even better.
*Note: These are just card concepts that I personally feel they deserve to achieve a competitive level state.
1. A "Valmonica" card searcher
"Valmonica" has 10 ways to land on Demone and Angelo: (3) Demone and (3) Angelo themselves, the field spell + Terraforming. Since their field spell can already search any "Valmonica" monster, it would be nice to have a monster that can search any "Valmonica" card on summon. This ensures that the field spell can land on both Demone and Angelo face-up and a monster ready to be used as a link material.
Make it a pendulum monster too so that you can generate card advantage every turn. It would be cool if it has an in built in effect to gain/inflict LP to yourself. Add a hard xenophobic restriction for balancing purposes. (Cope) I could really see the monster shown in "Valmonica Scelta" becoming a real monster soon. (Another cope)
2. A card that can instantly help you gain or inflict LP
After you set-up Demone and Angelo, your next problem is how you can consistently gain LP or inflict damage to your LP. While you have Spells and Traps that do that, you have very few cards that can search them and they can only help you generate 1 Resonance counter per card at most.
The "Valmonica" link monsters require 3 Resonance counters that exist to summon them and the field spell triggers its monster control effect only after the third counter has been placed.
Perhaps a continuous Spell that can directly activate the "Valmonica" field spell would be nice and it should have a way to gain LP/inflict damage to your LP everytime a player summons. In that case, you can punish opponents who swarms and you can even use the controlled monster via the field spell for your own link summons!
3. A monster that can instantly summon itself straight from Deck or Extra Deck!
Yes, that's right! Think of it as a familar possessed monster but the requirements is controlling both Angelo and Demone. You can also add a search effect on this monster to tie things up. In this way, there is one solid reason why keeping both Demone and Angelo necessary aside from their counter generating effect.
Overall Summary:
We all witnessed how 1 or 2 cards can change the fate of a theme. Two popular examples are "Purrely" and "Rescue Ace". Both themes showed potential at first glance but failed to show results due to the theme being incomplete to being unplayable. Both themes received an excellent support that made them two of the top contenders of OCG and TCG and even received hits in the recently banned list.
"Valmonica" is certainly a possible candidate in the future for sure. I strongly feel that while "Valmonica" will have something very solid that would make people regret not getting them while they can.
This could be wishful thinking for now but one thing is for sure: Deck build pack themes always have something nice on their sleeves: either cards that can help them GAIN success which eventually will INFLICT enough damage to win the match. Thanks for reading 'til the end!
~Arcknight
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