"Amazoness" (アマゾネス Amazonesu) is an archetype of female EARTH monsters that were introduced in Labyrinth of Nightmare, with further support in Magician's Force, Duelist Revolution, Legendary Duelists and Circuit Break. Four of its members are Beast-Type, with the rest being Warrior-Type.
Mai Valentine, Tania, and the Tyler sisters (Gloria and Grace) have used "Amazoness" cards in the anime. These monsters are based on the Amazons from Greek mythology.
The Japanese name Amazonesu derives from the Greek Ᾰ̓μαζόνες Amazónes "Amazons", the plural form of Ᾰ̓μαζών Amazṓn "Amazon". It is construed as "Amazon" + "-ess" (feminine suffix) in TCG languages, except in German in which it is as "Amazon" + "-isch" ("-ish").
Playing style[]
The "Amazoness" monsters have average ATK and effects and are designed either to weaken the opponent's monsters or strengthen themselves. Newer support relies on swarming and battle phase summoning. Key cards include "Amazoness Village", "Amazoness Paladin", "Amazoness Tiger", and "Amazoness Queen".
With the additions to the "Amazoness" archetype in Duelist Revolution, they have more support for field-flooding and field control. Using "Amazoness Village", "Amazoness Willpower", and "Queen's Pawn" allows them to swarm the field much faster and more easily. "Amazoness Queen", "Amazoness Heirloom", and "Amazoness Scouts" can help keep your "Amazoness" on the field while you increase their ATK with "Amazoness Village" and "Amazoness Fighting Spirit".
While their ATK is often weak for their Level, cards such as "Amazoness Tiger" and "Amazoness Paladin" increase in strength relative to the number of other "Amazoness" on the field. "Amazoness Trainee" increases in strength for every monster she destroys. "Amazoness Queen" protects all "Amazoness" monsters from destruction in battle, while "Amazoness Sage" can destroy one Spell or Trap Card at the end of each attack; with these two cards alone, a player can defend his or her monsters, while slowly dismantling an opponent's back row.
The "Amazoness" Fusion Monsters normally act as the boss monsters of the archetype, with "Amazoness Empress" preventing destruction by battle or card effect and giving "Amazoness" monsters ability to inflict piercing damage, while "Amazoness Pet Liger" grants ATK reduction abilities to "Amazoness" monsters. "Amazoness Princess" acts as a searcher for the archetype, allowing quick access to the archetypes Spells and Traps upon its summon and allows for the summon of "Amazoness" monsters upon attacking. "Amazoness Baby Tiger" allows for easy swarming, allowing it to be summoned from the hand or Graveyard upon the summon of another "Amazoness" monster. Both "Princess" and "Baby Tiger" also count as "Amazoness Queen" and "Amazoness Tiger", respectively, while on the field or Graveyard, allowing the Fusion Monsters to be summoned easier. "Amazoness Call" acts as the Deck's main searcher, allowing for the searching of any "Amazoness" card in the deck. It also allows one "Amazoness" monster to attack every opposing monster if it is banished from the Graveyard. "Amazoness Onslaught" allows for the removal of opponents monsters via banishing, as well as swarming via a Special Summon once per Battle Phase and another upon its destruction.
With the release of further support in 2022, "Amazoness" focuses more on swarming tactics via Fusion Summoning. "Amazoness Spiritualist" is the archetype's main "Polymerization" searcher, being also able to easily special summon itself by returning an other "Amazoness" card from the field to the hand. "Amazoness Golden Whip Master" and "Amazoness Silver Sword Master" are the archetype's Pendulum monsters which recover themselves from the GY when an "Amazoness" monster is summoned to the field and additionally destroy/recover Spells/Traps upon attacking, as well as boosting the "Amazoness" monsters attack points depending on their levels. "Amazoness War Chief" easily Special Summons itself from the hand and can Set any "Amazoness" Spell/Trap from the Deck, allowing more plays and more field presence. "Amazoness Augusta" and "Amazoness Pet Liger King" are this archetype's new Fusion Monsters that grant protection from being targeted or destroyed and help swarm the field by summoning "Amazoness" monsters from the Deck or Graveyard, respectively. Finally, "Amazoness Secret Arts" is the brand new archetypical Fusion Summoning Spell that can also be banished from the Graveyard to Fusion Summon using a monster from the Extra Deck.
Censorship[]
- When the "Amazoness" cards are played in the English dubbed anime, they are re-drawn to be less revealing in appearance. While in TCG until recently, most of them weren't censored, unlike similar female monsters such as "Harpies".
Strengths[]
Common build strategies for this archetype include:
- Solidarity Build: Run multiple copies of "Solidarity" to give each of your Amazoness an 800 ATK boost. This build requires eliminating all non-Warrior cards from your deck, including "Amazoness Tiger".
- Burden Build: Use "Burden of the Mighty" to weaken an opponent's monsters, making them more susceptible to attacks by your medium-strength Amazoness monsters. However, this strategy is somewhat obsolete due to the current dominance of Xyz Monsters. But you can supplement this strategy with cards like "Gozen Match" and "Rivalry of Warlords" to hinder them from Xyz Summoning.
- Synchro Build: Warrior Tuners such as "T.G. Striker" and "X-Saber Pashuul" can be employed to summon numerous Synchro Monsters. "Rose, Warrior of Revenge" is also one of the most recommended Tuners, since she's a Level 4 Tuner that can be used in conjunction with most Level 4 Amazoness to Synchro Summon "Colossal Fighter" (for beating down most monsters) and "Crimson Blader" (for locking down opponent's high-Level Summons). All Amazoness monsters are also EARTH Attribute, means that they can also be used for Synchro Summoning Naturia Synchro Monsters, such as "Naturia Beast", "Naturia Barkion", and "Naturia Landoise" for Spell, Trap, and Effect Monster negation respectively (provided that they also use an EARTH Tuner). Since most Synchro-based decks requires flexibility, cards like "Solidarity" and "Rivalry of Warlords" are not recommended in this build.
- Xyz Build: Most Amazoness monsters are Level 4, and is perfect for setting up Xyz Summons. Using "Goblindbergh", "Photon Thrasher", "Kagetokage" and "Heroic Challenger - Double Lance" can speeding up the process of Xyz Summoning Rank 4 monsters. Notable choices are "Number 39: Utopia", "Heroic Champion - Excalibur", "Maestroke the Symphony Djinn", and "Evilswarm Ouroboros".
- Anti-Meta: Most Amazoness monsters do not rely on external sources like Graveyard manipulation, Deck searching, Special Summoning and so on, means that they can also be used as Anti-Meta strategy utilizing Anti-Meta cards like "Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer", "Imperial Iron Wall", "Macro Cosmos", "Vanity's Emptiness", "Thunder King Rai-Oh" or even more obscure choices like "Grave of the Super Ancient Organism" or "Summon Limit". "Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders" can also give this deck more resiliency, while also opening access into Rank 7 Xyz Summon.
- Link Build: In a similar fashion to SPYRALs Amazoness gained a huge boost in power thanks to their compatibility with the new Link Summon mechanic. Getting "Amazoness Princess", "Amazoness Spy" and "Amazoness Baby Tiger" is a very easy task and they can now be used for a quick powerhouse field. Princess and Spy can make either "Meliae of the Trees" or "Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights"; which can each bring out a tuner for "Crystron Halqifibrax" and eventually bring out "Naturia Beast" with "X-Saber Airbellum" and tiger for a potent opening board. The build then functions as a slight hybrid with the above synchro build. From there "Amazoness Willpower" and "Amazoness Onslaught" can keep bringing Princess and Tiger back to the field to constantly bring out more link monsters; giving the deck good longevity in a duel.
Recommended cards[]
- Amazoness Archer
- Amazoness Baby Tiger
- Amazoness Chain Master
- Amazoness Paladin
- Amazoness Princess
- Amazoness Queen
- Amazoness Sage
- Amazoness Scouts
- Amazoness Spiritualist
- Amazoness Spy
- Amazoness Swords Woman
- Amazoness Tiger
- Amazoness Trainee
- Amazoness War Chief
- Blue Mountain Butterspy
- Giant Rat
- Heroic Challenger - Assault Halberd
- Kagetokage
- King of the Swamp
- Red Sparrow Summoner
- Summoner Monk
- The Earth - Hex-Sealed Fusion
- The Unfriendly Amazon
- Warrior Lady of the Wasteland
Official Decks[]
Weaknesses[]
Massive field control comes at a cost. Most of Amazoness decks will always have trouble when fighting Decks with a strong focus of nullifying Spell and Trap Cards (Since many of their Spell/Traps are key points for their survivability, especially "Amazoness Village"). Amazoness decks also having a hard time to breakthrough Spells and Traps that can stop their attacks, like "Messenger of Peace", "Level Limit - Area B", and "Gravity Bind". Cards such as "Dust Tornado", "Mystical Space Typhoon", "Seven Tools of the Bandit", and Xyz Monsters can counter such plays.
Amazoness decks are also weak against decks that can either: outspeed them completely, like Mermails and Six Samurais, or decks that have more control and advantage-grinding quality, such as Prophecy, Gadgets, or even Dark World decks.
"Skill Drain" can be problematic to any Amazoness decks, due to most of their monsters either having Continuous Effects or effects that can only be useful while battling.
Over-reliance towards "Amazoness Village" makes this deck hard to maintain. Without it, this deck usually suffers from not having enough resources to maintain field presence, which Amazoness Village can provide. To remedy this problem, a player can either add more external support such as "Marauding Captain" and "Warrior Lady of the Wasteland", add more draw power via "Pot of Duality", "Reckless Greed", and/or "Shard of Greed", or add protection via "Safe Zone", "Forbidden Lance", and/or "Fiendish Chain". "Pot of Desires" is not recommended however as the deck has too many key cards that could be removed for good such as tuners for "Crystron Halqifibrax" or "Amazoness Baby Tiger".
Amazoness are almost totally dependant on "Amazoness Princess" and "Amazoness Call" to keep their plays going. Having these negated by an "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" or "Solemn Strike" can kill the deck instantly. Having "Amazoness Baby Tiger" banished or otherwise made unusable can also prove very problematic as it is a central card in any build of the deck. Banishing can prove fatal in general so cards like "Dimensional Fissure" can be game enders. Similarly, "Necrovalley" will prevent many of their plays functioning; although "Amazoness Onslaught" can help the deck win against a Gravekeeper deck.
Amazoness is a deck very reliant on its normal summons so having it negated via "Solemn Warning" or "Forced Back" can be disastrous as you may lose both a Princess search and a Baby Tiger. Similarly, it is also very reliant on the extra deck to make its powerful boards so having special summons stopped can slow down the deck massively. "Amazoness Onslaught" and/or "Amazoness Queen" can help to either get rid of problematic monsters such as Vanity's Fiend or outright win against a slower, stall deck.
References[]
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