If you don’t know what Maxx “C” is, then go click that link. Do it now. Don’t wait. Just do it. I’ll wait.
Ready to go now? I hope you read that and was like “cracker-jacks-on-a-stick, that’s amazing!” The card is great as a draw engine for a deck that lacks it while also discouraging massive spams of monsters by your opponent (Six Sams I’m looking at you). It’s also nearly impossible to stop, very much like Effect Veiler, and if you haven’t figured out how good that card is either then you’re not playing this game right. But unlike Effect Veiler, Maxx “C” is almost never an inherent -1. The only thing that Maxx “C” can’t do is chain to inherent summons like Cyber Dragon, Machina Fortress, and Judgment Dragon. But, Maxx “C” is chainable to many effects that are all over the meta right now. Let’s take a look at what I mean.
Legendary Six Samurai
Disclaimer: I don’t remember the new sam’s names. Deal with it.
Yea, you knew this was coming. Sam spam is nearly upon us, but few cards deter that as well as Maxx “C”, certainly none that are usable when your opponent goes first. For each plus in advantage that a Sam player gets off gateway, you can get at least 1 draw from Maxx “C”. Think about it. A Legendary Six Sam (L6S from now on) start with L6S “Marauding Captain” a Gateway of the Six and Six Samurai United (or 2 Gateway of the Six if you’re unlucky) and the L6S tuner often ends with the L6S player with 10/11 cards in their possession with 4/5 monsters and about 5 special summons. But if you drop Maxx “C” in response to the effect of “Marauding Captain” then you get a free draw when the tuner is summoned and you’ve already made a one for one trade in advantage. Then the L6S player has to decide whether to search/summon grandmaster or not, but most likely will just synchro into Shi En and leave their field a lot less intimidating and manageable AND you got 2 draws of their summons. You’ll now have 7 cards to look at on your first turn ready to dismantle the much less powerful opening.
Now Maxx “C” isn’t the Godsend “OMG KONAMI MADE AN ANTI-L6S CARD!!!!1,” but it is a great card to push the matchup a little more in your favor. Luckily for all you L6S haters out there, it’s quite unlikely that Maxx “C” will be able to fit into the main deck of L6S. They run best with only about 14 Six Sam monsters and lots of speed cards.
Debris-Dandy
This is a matchup that Maxx “C” was invented to wreck. Plants are the masters of special summoning loads of little things that end up with a huge field and easy synchro summons. Their call-sign play of Cold Wave into Debris Dragon reviving a Dandylion for a Black Rose Dragon nuke and then Fluff tokens is absurdly hard to come back from and near impossible to stop. But if you happen to chain Maxx “C” to Debris Dragon’s effect then you’ll get a draw off the Dandylion revival, another off the Black Rose Dragon summon, and a third off the tokens that come. You just effectively played a Graceful Charity except you forgot to discard. Even if you lost 3 or so cards off the field nuke, you’re probably still in good shape and can really get ready to dish out the damage. If all you had done is played Effect Veiler, than your opponent would have a debris dragon just sitting there, but then they could always just Foolish Burial Dandylion so that they could still synchro summon. Still a good play, and maybe if your field was valuable enough then even the best play. For everyone else trying to keep few cards on the field for the Debris Dragon play, Maxx “C” will net back all your resources for nearly nothing. Maxx “C” can also be chained to the revival effects of Spore and Glow-Up Bulb for an easy single draw and then another one off the eventual synchro summon. Maxx “C” also laughs at Formula Synchron plays since all that extra synchro summoning is just translating to more draws for you as well. I could keep going, but I think you got it.
Ironically, Debris Plants is one of the easiest decks to tech Maxx “C” into. Plants have a ton of monster space and could easily fit 1 or 2 of these critters in. Just like Effect Veiler, Maxx “C” can fuel and be reused by Pot of Avarice.
X(X)-Sabers
This is another amazing matchup for Maxx “C”. XX – Saber Boggart Knight, X – Saber Fulhelmknight, and even X – Saber Faultroll all provide really easy moments to drop Maxx “C” and get advantage even when the Saber player feels safe behind a Cold Wave or Trap Stun. A wonderful thing about this matchup is that, like the L6S matchup, Maxx “C” can deter a Saber player from dropping that Faultroll and herp-derping into an unbeatable field. They might hold off until next turn when you won’t gain the advantage, which gives you another turn to turn the tides of the game and hopefully win.
X – Sabers may try to tech a copy of Maxx “C” into their decks. They’ve been on and off teching Effect Veiler for a large part of the format, so I can see some trying to put Maxx “C” into its place. It is earth, so you could even make Naturia Beast off X – Saber Fulhelmknight and this bugger. Hey, it could happen.
Blackwings
After a run of decks that makes Maxx “C” look like Pot of Duality, there are a few matchups where Maxx “C” looks like an Upstart Goblin. Blackwings run all kinds of cards like Pot of Duality, Cards for Black Feathers, and Royal Oppression that restrict their own special summons, so they aren’t going to spam the board very often to where Maxx “C” is useful. But you can still get you bang for your buck if you have patience. Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North is the easy target here since like Debris Dragon, you can chain to its revival effect to draw and then again on the inevitable synchro summon. Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame is also a good target. Chaining Maxx “C” to Shura’s attack will likely make the Blackwing player chose to not search out the free Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor, which resolves future problems for you. Speaking of Vayu, you can get your card for card when you chain to vayu’s effect. So Maxx “C” doesn’t shine here, but is still useable.
Like X – Sabers, Blackwings are an archetype that works best when all or nearly all of the monsters fall into that archetype. Maxx “C” could see play as tech, but Blackwings are so good at disrupting special summons anyway, it may not be needed as badly as in other matchups. Maxx “C” also has no synergy at all with the deck. I can’t even make a Naturia Beast joke like with Sabers.
Gravekeepers
GKs and Maxx “C” are like oil and water. Maxx “C” is more than likely just going to get wrecked by Royal Tribute before you can even pitch it. At least you can chain it to Royal Tribute and maybe deter a Malefic Stardust Dragon for a turn. Other than that, a manually flipped Gravekeeper’s Spy is probably the only opportunity you’ll get to use Maxx “C”, and it’ll only be a card for card. Sorry Maxx “C”, but you **** vs the Egyptian monks hiding in the valley.
And of course, GKs are probably the worst deck to try and use Maxx “C”. Royal Tribute is just too key and C will just be a goner. The deck relies on having Steele able to pick up any monster in the grave and Maxx “C” is just going to look pretty….and that’s about it.
Frog Monarchs
Enough with these bad decks for Maxx “C”, it’s time to go back to a deck that cringes at the mention of the name. Formula Synchron brough Frogs back up from a ban-list wrecked pile of cards to a tier busting threat nearly overnight. Luckily, Formula Synchron is Maxx “C”’s best friend. If you drop Maxx “C” on treeborn frog’s revival then you not only get your card back, but it severely deters a Fishborg Blaster or Enemy Controller play and can even prevent you opponent from special summoning Swap Frog to try and win with looping Raiza the Storm Monarch. That pretty much limits them a single tribute or Soul Exchange play. Yes it does matter. A huge strength of the Formula Monarch deck is in its versatility to draw through Formula Synchron and then chose between a synchro summon or a monarch tribute to answer any situation. When you knock that off to one or two plays, it puts you in a better situation to counter it. Obviously, you can’t just drop it when ever, but instead when it is a vital turn when you opponent needs all of their tricks to win the game. It is also a nice answer to a Glow-Up Bulb play. It’s better than Effect Veiler at least, just sayin’.
Did I mention that no other deck can use this card better? Drop this on a big play by your opponent and then drop Battle Fader or Gorz and then rack in the cards for free. Again, it’s Pot of Avarice fuel as well. I mean the deck runs near 30 monsters; don’t you think you can fit one in?
Others
LS rather dislikes this card. All those end phase wulfs turn into free draws on top of the Lumina revivals. Plaguespreader Zombie and Glow-up Bulb also become a liability as well. LS could even run it with so many monsters and space. But unlike Veiler, Maxx “C” isn’t a beckoning light target.
Glads don’t really like Maxx “C” played against them, especially if they are trying for a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus play. But unlike other decks, Glads have Gladiator Beast War Chariot to knock off a Maxx “C” attempt. Glads could try and run it since they would love the draw power that they missed out from in Pot of Duality.
Fish OTK is somewhat bothered by Maxx “C”. If you chain it to the beginning of the big combo, you might throw off the fish player into thinking you might have a surprise answer to their combo. Or it could simply help you dig for that Effect Veiler. But if they OTK you, the cards don’t really help. A turbo deck can’t really use it in the main though.
Conclusion
Maxx “C” is more than just hype. The card has legitimate power to make a pretty good impact in the meta. And maybe, just maybe, it will give combo decks one more thing to worry about so that they don’t just explode every turn.
That’s all for now, hope you enjoyed it. Leave some love.
- BarkwhipSmash
