Dragon Lord

Overview

While working on my Rescue Agents archetype for HAT format, instead of letting me sleep or even thinking about that archetype which I was already designing, my brain decided to think about the Dragon Lord series and how even though Arkbrave Dragon is an awesome card and a core part of the deck’s strategy, it would have been nice to get a more direct retrain of Darkbrave Dragon in the style of Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand. So I started making notes for it and retrains of other cards related to the Dragon Lords. The end result is 8 in-series retrains of existing Dragon Lord cards, or cards that have some link to them or that I use in my own Dragon Lord deck.

Incendiary Dragon Lord Darkblaze

If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can inflict 1200 damage to your opponent. If this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the GY: This card gains ATK/DEF equal to that destroyed monster’s Level/Rank x 100, and if it does, inflict damage to your opponent equal to double that amount.

For a Divine Dragon Lord Felgrand-styled retrain of Darkblaze Dragon, I decided I wanted to give it an effect on being summoned from the Graveyard and an in-battle effect. I liked the idea of using another monster’s level to determine how much damage it deals to the opponent, so I started with Darkblaze using the highest level monster on the field on being summoned and the levels of monsters it destroys, but eventually I simplified the on-Summon effect to just deal 1200 damage, which also references how the original doubled its ATK on being summoned from the Graveyard. For the in-battle effect, I wanted to keep it dealing damage based on its victims’ levels, but I also wanted it to have an ATK gain effect like Felgrand, so I went with Darkblaze gaining 100 ATK for its victims’ levels, and then dealing double that as damage to the opponent. That way, Felgrand is the more immediate threat when it’s brought out, but if unchecked, Darkblaze can build up enough ATK to surpass Felgrand.

Incendiary Dragon Lord Darkblaze’s art is Darkblaze Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from Darkblaze Dragon’s artwork.

The Creator of the Dragon Lords

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 Dragon monster from your hand, field, or GY. You can only Special Summon “The Creator of the Dragon Lords” once per turn this way. During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your GY, except “The Creator of the Dragon Lords”. You can only use this effect of “The Creator of the Dragon Lords” once per turn.

While the original The Creator was a good card in the Rise of the Dragon Lords structure deck for retrieving your destroyed dragons, for modern use in a Dragon Lords deck it has a number of things working against it, like the fact that it’s a Thunder monster or that you can’t summon it from the Graveyard. When creating its retrain, I decided to make it a Dragon monster and to take some cues from Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon for making it more flexible to summon. As a trade-off for its more flexible summoning method, I opted to restrict its effects to Level 7 and 8 Dragon monsters. That way, there’s pros and cons for whether you run Red-Eyes or The Creator, with one being more flexible for summoning Dragons while the other is more flexible to summon and benefits from other Dragon Lords support because of its lower Level.

The Creator of the Dragon Lords’ art is The Creator’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from The Creator’s artwork.

Hatchling of the Dragon Lords

If you Special Summon a Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your GY; You can equip this card from your hand or GY to it. The equipped monster gains ATK equal to its Level x 100. If this card is sent to the GY while equipped to a monster: You can add 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use 1 effect of “Hatchling of the Dragon Lords” per turn, and only once that turn.

Hunter Dragon has always resembled Felgrand Dragon and Darkblaze Dragon, so I figured it deserved an in-series retrain. For its design I started off looking at Red-Eyes Baby Dragon for a suitable effect that could support the Dragon Lords, but adjusted the first effect to merely fetch a Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster rather than summon one, as that might be too broad and too strong, and to equip itself to one summoned from the Graveyard rather than by its own effect. When I added The Divine Stone of the Dragon Lords, it felt like they were playing around a bit too much in the same space and that Hatchling had too much going on, so I opted to cut the first effect and let the equip effect activate from the hand as well as the Graveyard, which got it to a place where I’m happy with it and, funnily enough, almost the same as a different Red-Eyes support monster, Black Metal Dragon.

Hatchling of the Dragon Lords’ art is Hunter Dragon’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from Hunter Dragon’s artwork.

Herald of the Dragon Lords

Once per turn: You can discard 1 card, then activate 1 of these effects; ● Send 1 Dragon monster from your Deck to the GY. ● Add 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your GY to your hand. ● Equip 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your GY to a monster you control, except “Herald of the Dragon Lords”.

For Herald of the Dragon Lords, I wanted to increase her usefulness compared to her basis and make her effects feel somewhat like Dragon Ravine, but restrict her benefits to Level 7 and 8 Dragons. So I kept her retrieval effect and added Dragon Ravine’s effect of sending Dragons to the Graveyard. While testing and seeing all of the equip card synergy in the series, I decided to add a third effect to equip Dragons in the Graveyard to other monsters, giving more opportunities to trigger Arkbrave Dragon’s effects or to summon Martial Dragon Lord Leyvaten.

Herald of the Dragon Lords’ art is Herald of Creation’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from Herald of Creation’s artwork.

Martial Dragon Lord Leyvaten

You can Special Summon this card from your hand or GY by banishing 1 monster you control equipped with a Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster. If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can target 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster in your GY, except “Martial Dragon Lord Leyvaten”; Equip it to this card. Gains ATK equal to a quarter of the original ATK of the monster equipped to it by this effect. If this card you control is destroyed by your opponent’s card: You can target 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster that was equipped to this card on the field; Special Summon it.

The Dragunity archetype is another set of cards that have always borne a resemblance to Felgrand Dragon and Darkblaze Dragon, and of the Dragunity cards, Dragunity Arma Leyvaten is the one that synergised the best with the Dragon Lords series, combo-ing with Arkbrave Dragon to continuously resurrect from the Graveyard. It is probably the most straightforward retrain of the lot, with it’s effects mostly just swapping out “Dragunity” for “Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster”. That said, that simple change does make it easier to summon unassisted in a pure Dragon Lords deck, given all the other Dragons being equipped to smaller monsters. The one notable change I did make was to let it gain ATK from its equipped monster, since it wouldn’t otherwise gain any other benefits like Dragunity Arma Leyvaten would from equipping Dragunity Tuner monsters, outside of equipping it with Hatchling.

Martial Dragon Lord Leyvaten’s art is Dragunity Arma Leyvaten’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from Dragunity Arma Leyvaten’s artwork.

The Divine Stone of the Dragon Lords

If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster from your Deck to your hand. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster that is equipped to a monster you control or is in your GY; add it to your hand. You can only use 1 effect of “The Ancient Stone of the Dragon Lords” per turn, and only once that turn.

For my own Dragon Lords deck, it also includes Blue-Eyes White Dragon and some of its support like The White Stone of the Ancients, which provides some access to Level 8 and 9 Synchro monsters. I figured I might as well provide the Dragon Lords with in-series access to Synchro summoning as well. I felt The White Stone of Ancients’ first effect would be a bit strong if applied to just Level 7 and 8 Dragons and not just Blue-Eyes monsters, so I swapped out that effect for that of The White Stone of Legend (fetching a Blue-Eyes when it goes to the Graveyard) and applied them to Level 7 and 8 Dragons instead. I also adjusted the return to hand effect to also work on equipped Dragons to enable plays like returning an equipped Arkbrave Dragon to the hand to discard for Herald or Dragon Ravine rather than waiting for the monster it’s equipped to to be destroyed.

The Divine Stone of the Dragon Lords’ art is The White Stone of Ancients’ artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from The White Stone of Ancients’ artwork.

The Skeletal Stone of the Dragon Lords

This card can be treated as a Zombie monster when used for a Synchro Summon. If a monster(s) is Special Summoned from either GY (Quick Effect): You can send this card from your hand to the GY, then target 1 of those Special Summoned monsters; negate its effects until the end of this turn. If you Special Summon a Level 7 or 8 monster (Dragon or Zombie) from your GY (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from your GY, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use 1 “The Skeletal Stone of the Dragon Lords” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

When I was building the test deck for my custom Dragon Lords cards, I saw that Skeletal Dragon Felgrand was sitting off to the side unused, and I felt kind of bad about leaving it out. Seeing as it doesn’t have any in-series support to enable it to work with the rest of the Dragon Lords cards (I’ve personally been using Scapeghost as the Zombie Tuner monster to Synchro summon it with), I decided to give it a friend. As it is functionally Skeletal Dragon Felgrand’s egg, I decided to give it a discard version of Skeletal Dragon Felgrand’s monster effect negation effect to tie the two together. To enable Synchro plays, I opted to let it summon itself from the graveyard when a Dragon or Zombie is summoned from the graveyard, as a sort of hybrid of Hatchling and cards like Plaguespreader Zombie or Jet Synchron. And so that it benefits from Dragon support generally but can be used to Synchro summon Skeletal Dragon Felgrand, I let it treat itself as a Zombie for Synchro summons. That way, it still benefits from Dragon support in most situations.

The Skeletal Stone of the Dragon Lords’ art is The White Stone of Legend’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from The White Stone of Legend’s artwork.

Totem of the Divine Dragon Lords

Discard 1 Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster; draw 2 cards. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Equip Card equipped to a Level 7 or 8 Dragon monster you control; destroy it. You can only activate 1 effect of “Totem of the Divine Dragon Lords” per turn, and only once that turn.

One thing that’s annoyed me about playing a Dragon Lords deck is that whenever I have Arkbrave Dragon in my hand, I can’t use it to pay the cost for Trade-In. Felgrand? Leyvaten? Blue-Eyes? Sure. Arkbrave? Nope, it’s not Level 8. I could run Sacred Sword of Seven Stars instead, but then I wouldn’t be able to use my Level 8 Dragons with it, and it would banish the monster used for it’s cost. So I opted to fix this issue and create an in-series draw 2 card. I also wanted to give it a Graveyard effect that was generally useful for the series the same as how Return of the Dragon Lords has a Graveyard effect, and I figured that being able to destroy equipped Dragons would be handy for triggering Arkbrave Dragon’s effect sooner than later.

Totem of the Divine Dragon Lords’ art is Trade-In’s artwork horizontally reflected. I need to update it to be more distinct from Trade-In’s artwork.

Details

Development: April 2024

Format: Advanced Format

Made With: GIMP, www.cardmaker.net

Based on: Dragons and other cards synergystic with or resembling Felgrand Dragon

Copyright

Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi and the property of Studio Dice / Konami. All copyright goes to them. My Dragon Lords custom cards are fan cards I designed based on the Dragon Lords / Felgrand themes introduced in Rise of the Dragon Lords, and on Dragons and other cards that are synergystic with or resemble Felgrand Dragon, including:

• Darkblaze Dragon
• The Creator
• Hunter Dragon
• Herald of the Dragon Lords
• Dragunity Arma Leyvaten
• The White Stone of Ancients
• The White Stone of Legend
• Trade-In

All card artworks used in my custom cards’ artoworks were sourced from yugipedia.com and edited in Paint.NET, and as such I do not own them. Their rules text follows the Problem-Solving Card Text format used for English-language cards, using the most recent cards as examples. The finished card images were created using www.cardmaker.net.