The Volcanic archetype is one of the small handful of Pyro archetypes available inYu-Gi-Oh!It is also a big fan-favorite, being used by Axel Brodie in the GX anime in one of its most popular arcs. The deck is built around dealing burn damage while destroying cards on your opponent’s field.
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Due to its popularity, the Volcanic archetype has seen plenty of support released for it over the years, making the once relatively weak archetype into a threatening one. There are plenty of cards within the archetype of varying power levels, but these Volcanic cards are the best that the archetype has available to it.
10Blaze Accelerator
While there are plenty of other cards that are treated as Blaze Accelerator, the original is still a key part of the archetype. It’s a way to destroy any monster your opponent controls at the cost of sending a Pyro with 500 or less attack from the hand to the graveyard. This lets you use more than just Volcanic monsters to get this effect.
It does lock you out of declaring attacks if you use the effect, which is what hinders it. However, the effect is not once per turn. So if you have a handful of monsters you want to get in the graveyard, you can turn that into a board wipe.
9Fire Ejection
Many of the Volcanic monsters want to be sent to the graveyard. Fire Ejection acts as a Foolish Burial for the archetype, letting you put any Pyro monster into the graveyard with a bonus effect if you sent a Volcanic monster.
The effects aren’t that spectacular, and you’ll more often bechoosing to deal burn damagerather than giving your opponent a token. However, Fire Ejection’s strength comes from being able to send a card directly from your deck to the graveyard. Foolish Burial is a banned card for a reason, so an in-archetype version of it is fantastic.
8Volcanic Rocket
Volcanic Rocket has a very simple effect - on its summon you can add a Blaze Accelerator card from either your deck or graveyard to the hand. Since the entire archetype revolves around Blaze Accelerator cards, having a way to recur them from the graveyard or search them directly from your deck is phenomenal.
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Volcanic decks don’t often need to use their normal summon, so Volcanic Rocket is more often than not the card being used for it since it helps to kickstart your combos. It lets you search out any Blaze Accelerator, allowing you to get whichever one you need at any given time.
7Volcanic Emperor
Volcanic Emperor isvery easy to summon boss monster, only needing to send a Blaze Accelerator card or banish three Pyro monsters to do so. You also get to set any Volcanic trap card directly from the deck, which Volcanics have no shortage of powerful options.
Once it hits the battlefield, it turns any special summon your opponent does into burn damage. With how much summoning goes on, they are limited to just 15 before another would take away all their life points. Since Volcanic decks are also doing burn damage in other ways, this number becomes even smaller with the right hands.
6Volcanic Rimfire
Another entry in Volcanic cards that want to be set to the graveyard, Volcanic Rimfire is another excellent addition to the archetype. You can banish it right away to send a different Volcanic monster to start a chain reaction from there or replace a Blaze Accelerator on the field for one in the deck or your hand.
Volcanic Rimfire is versatile, letting you use it to eitherpower up your Blaze Acceleratoror set up your graveyard with Volcanics. It’s a very solid card that is very easy to trigger in Volcanic decks, allowing you to easily use its effects to your advantage.
5Volcanic Scattershot
Volcanic Scattershot is the monster you want to be sending to the graveyard with Blaze Accelerator cards. This lets you dump the rest of your Volcanic Scattershots into the graveyard which in turn causes your opponent to be burned for 500 damage. Not only that, but itdestroys all of the monsters your opponent controlsas well.
Volcanic Scattershot acts as both a burn spell and board wipe, making it a must-run in any Volcanic deck. Though you only ever want one in your hand, drawing extra doesn’t matter since you may still send them from there to gain its board wipe effect.
4Volcanic Shell
Volcanic Shell is a way to always keep your hand reloaded with monsters to use for all of your Blaze Accelerator cards. In the graveyard, for the low cost of 500 life points you can add another copy of Volcanic Shell directly from your deck. Even though this may seem specific, setting up the graveyard is something Volcanics has no problem with doing.
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Volcanic Shell is not only a good way to get discard fodder, but it’s also an excellent source of deck thinning. Taking out the Volcanic Shells directly from your deck ensures you are more likely to draw into your impactful draws to close out the game.
3Blaze Accelerator Reload
Blaze Accelerator Reload is a simple card but a very powerful one. It can trade a Volcanic card in your hand for a card draw by sending it to the graveyard, or banish itself from the graveyard to send a Volcanic from the deck to the graveyard.
Both of these effects are incredibly strong, giving Volcanic decks consistency that other decks can only dream of. Card draw is one of the best effects in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Blaze Accelerator Reload not only draws cards, but also triggers the effects of your Volcanic monsters that activate when they’re sent to the graveyard.
2Volcanic Trooper
Volcanic Trooper is the main searcherfor the archetype, being able to add any Volcanic card on its summon. It can also create tokens that can in turn be destroyed by you to deal burn damage with a Blaze Accelerator card or by battle.
Searchers add a ton of consistency to archetypes, as they can get you whatever card you need to adjust your hand however you need. Volcanic Trooper lets you get any Volcanic card you need in your hand so you’re able to start taking advantage of their effects.
1Volcanic Blaze Accelerator
Volcanic Blaze Accelerator is the easiest card to get out of your deck, being able to be searched out with cards that search for either a Volcanic or Blaze Accelerator card. It also lets you special summon Volcanic monsters for no cost as well as directly sending level one Pyro monsters from the deck to the graveyard to destroy monsters your opponent controls.
Volcanic Blaze Accelerator does everything the archetype wants to be doing - dumping cards into the graveyard and destroying monsters on the field. It does require you to send a Blaze Accelerator to the graveyard to activate it, but you don’t even need it in play as you can send it directly from the deck.
