Raccoon

狸

"Baby Raccoon Ponpoko" and "Baby Raccoon Tantan"

Translation

Tanuki

Other names

French

Raton Laveur

German

Waschbär

Italian

Procione

Korean

너구리
Neoguri (romanized)
Translation: Raccoon

Portuguese

Guaxinim

Spanish

Mapache

Sets

Appearances

Anime appearances

Manga appearances

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Lists

"Raccoon", known as "Tanuki" (狸) in Japanese, is an archetype used by Ponta in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime. With the exception of "Turtle Raccoon", all of its members are Level/Rank 2 EARTH Beast monsters.

They focus mainly on swarming the field to Xyz Summon "Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu", who will then swarm the field with Kagemusha Raccoon Tokens and protect itself.

Play style[]

Both Main Deck "Raccoon" monsters can Special Summon monsters from Deck, which helps Deck thinning. "Ponpoko" can Special Summon in face-down position, which can be useful when used in conjunction with cards such as "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter", "Nimble Momonga", "Hane-Hane" or "Tantan" itself, who are all best Summoned face-down. "Tantan" can be just as useful, when flipped, it can Summon "Nimble Momonga" as well for stall or swarm purposes; furthermore, it can be used to Summon the likes of "Wind-Up Kitten" (assuming no other monster will attack it) for the next turn and use its effect to return a monster from the opponent's field for both offensive and defensive purposes.

Because most of the monsters ran here are Level 2 and 500 or less ATK, "Junk Synchron" and "Debris Dragon" can be used just as well in order to Summon powerful Level 5, 6 and 8 Synchro Monsters such as "Ally of Justice Catastor", "Armades, Keeper of Boundaries", "Iron Chain Dragon", "Orient Dragon", "Stardust Dragon", "Scrap Dragon" the otherwise hard to Summon "Frozen Fitzgerald" and also "Junk Warrior". A One Turn Kill can be achieved with "Junk Warrior" and "Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu". This can be done in two ways:

First Summon "Sandayu" and then use its effect to Special Summon a Token (with as much ATK as possible) then summon "Junk Warrior" in order to boost its ATK to enormous levels. This method is best used when "Junk Warrior" would be weaker to the strongest monster available.
Summon "Junk Warrior" (while possessing a high ATK sum among all low Level monsters) then use "Sandayu" to create an exact copy of the high ATK value of "Junk Warrior". This form is best used when "Junk Warrior" is the stronger than any monster available.

Regardless of the method used, cards such as "Spiritual Forest", "Waboku", "Threatening Roar" and "Mirror Force" are recommended in order to protect weaker Beast monsters in order to make the best use out of Flip Effects. Furthermore "Closed Forest" and "United We Stand" can be a major support as due to the major swarm of weak monsters and also due to the effect of "Ryko". It is entirely possible to have a large amount of Beast monsters in the Graveyard, increasing the ATK of new monsters to tremendous levels making weak monsters into powerful beaters.

Weaknesses[]

As explained above, the "Raccoons" and most monsters run in the Deck (including general support) have low ATK and are likely to be destroyed fast (especially by Beatdown Decks). Unless cards such as "Kitten", "Ryko" or "Hane-Hane" are useful to remove problematic monsters. Cards like "Narrow Pass", "Summon Limit" and "Summon Breaker" can limit the potential of the Deck, while cards like "Skill Drain", "Royal Command", "King Tiger Wanghu", "Deck Devastation Virus", "Nanobreaker", "Skull Lair" and the "LV" "Armed Dragons" can single-handedly destroy the Deck, largely due to Flip Effects taking place into the field even if the monster is destroyed by battle, their low ATK and low Levels respectively.

"Final Attack Orders", "Savage Colosseum" and "All-Out Attacks" can also wreck havoc on "Raccoons", as any Summoned monster brought on by "Ponpoko" and "Tantan" will be unable to defend themselves; the latter two will also most likely force them to either be destroyed by battle or be forced to ram into a strong DEF monster ("Mystic Fairy Elfuria" can even be, in-part, used to keep them defenseless, since they will be unable to be used in an Xyz Summon). "Slifer The Sky Dragon" can also be threatening for "Raccoons", as it will destroy every Summoned "Baby Raccoon" monster, any Level 2 or below monster Summoned by the "Babys", and even "Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu" (The effect of "Slifer" will trigger upon the Summon of "Sandayu", and it will be destroyed unless the player controls another Beast monster). Also, "Gaia Power" can be surprisingly effective against this Decks because it lowers the DEF of the "Raccoons".