Hello everyone, Renren here back with another article! Today we'll look at Set Rotation and how it slots well into Kashtira. Of course, the card is generic enough and other decks may be able to use its talents as well. Without further ado, let's switch up the stage!
Field Spell Toolbox
So what does Set Rotation do and why is it so good? I'm glad you asked! This powerhouse of a Quick-Play spell gives you a lot on its own. It has a unique effect where it sets 2 Field Spells with different names from your Deck to the field, one on each side. Not only that, neither player can Set or activate another Field Spell if either remains Set on the field.
Historically, the card has been used alongside Primitive Planet Reichphobia which can get you to Scareclaw Kashtira and offer some spot removal on the side. However, giving either Planet to the opponent is rather risky and thus fell out of favor. Modern usage of Set Rotation doesn't suffer from this issue as much. Recently, an innovative list on the Ken/Gen package also utilized Secret Village of the Spellcasters by ending on Number 11: Big Eye due to it being a Spellcaster. We won't go over this, but it is also an option to consider.
Similar to Terraforming, it's an additional copy of Pressured Planet Wraitsoth, arguably your strongest 1-card starter in the deck. This effectively grants you 5 copies of Wraitsoth, boosting consistency by a good amount. Not only that, it's a lot better than Terra due to not playing into Droll & Lock Bird, and shutting off certain cards. Because you're setting a Field to their side of the field, powerful counters to the strategy such as Evenly Matched and Infinite Impermanence are suddenly off the table!
Preventing Impermanence is a huge selling point to Set Rotation. This is because it insulates your Kashtira Unicorn from being negated on your first turn, and come to their turn it can't be used as a board breaker to shut down Kashtira Fenrir or Kashtira Shangri-Ira. Since they control a card on the field, Evenly can't be used to wipe you out.
Changing your opponent's Field Spell also gives you a nice advantage in certain matchups, which provides the card with some added utility going second. For example against Runick, Runick Fountain is an absurd card that can walk away with the game if uncontested. Removing the card often proves difficult due to Munin the Runick Wings and Hugin the Runick Wings standing in your way. Set Rotation can ignore both their protection and negation effects, cleanly removing Fountain from the field, denying all of their draws and the ability to use Runick Quick-Play spells from their hand on your turn.
Against Snake-Eyes Fire King, removing Fire King Island at the right time leads to a huge swing of momentum in your favor, but this is easier said than done, due to Fire King Sanctuary and their boatload of interaction. Set Rotation flips the script and easily disposes of FKI, which activates its mandatory trigger effect in a new chain and destroys all of their monsters. Sometimes, you set the card and use it as a form of disruption, but that play doesn't happen too often.
If you tech your deck with 1 or 2 specialized Field Spells, you have 3 copies of a powerful bomb card thanks to both Terraforming and Set Rotation, respectively. This gives both cards way more utility than just a way to get to Wraitsoth, which may not always be the best choice. While you can get away with just 1 bonus Field, running the second one can solve the problem of having to give Pressured Planet to your opponent, or make Rotation dead should you already open the 1-of Field.
With all of that out of the way, let's take a look at some of the promising Field Spells you can use with Set Rotation, aside from Pressured Planet Wraitsoth of course.
The Valley of Victory
Diabellstar Snake-Eye Fire King continues its reign as the deck to beat this upcoming format. The power level, resilience, recovery, and resource generation of the deck are nearly unmatched. Dimension Shifter gives decks like Kashtira a decent chance to steal the game if it resolves.
Necrovalley can operate similarly by locking them out of their mass GY revivals and recursion, especially if you get to it going first. Their cards in the GY also cannot be banished, stopping the likes of WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils giving an additional draw and recycle, or Original Sinful Spoils - Snake-Eye's second effect. While it won't be an automatic win button like Shifter due to outs such as Knightmare Phoenix or S:P Little Knight, it's still a great option and it can lead to victory if well-protected. Other decks that also rely on the GY such as Branded or Tearlaments are massively crippled under Necrovalley. Fenrir and Unicorn are a lot more threatening when backed up by it.
Aside from cutting you off a few options such as bringing back Kashtiras from the GY under Kashtira Birth or recurring with the second effect of Kashtiratheosis, you can smoothly play under the floodgate. This is because Birth can still revived from banishment, which can be fueled by Kashtira Riseheart. Scareclaw Kashtira can be brought out via Theosis from the Deck as normal.
Going second the card acts as a surprisingly good pseudo-breaker in conjunction with other tools to help it out. For example, if it manages to stick it completely prevents Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames from eating one of your monsters and reviving herself from the GY. It also blanks Sacred Fire King Garunix and Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale. Stopping the Link-3 is quite imperative for Kashtira, as keeping your monsters is important in picking apart the board. Necrovalley stifling their crackback is extremely relevant for most decks, especially if something like S:P Little Knight to remove it was already expended in dealing with something else.
While most floodgates are slowly but surely being addressed on the Forbidden and Limited List, Necrovalley has managed to evade getting hit. There will also be games where you don't see Dimension Shifter, but you find Valley via Terraforming, Set Rotation, or Pot of Prosperity, which is sometimes enough.
Types Matter
Zombie World is the other Field Spell of choice and is surprisingly a good option for this upcoming format, supplementing Necrovalley in the matchups where it falls flat. What it does is incredibly simple: It turns all monsters on the Field and in the GYs into Zombies. Neither player can also Tribute summon a non-Zombie monster. The biggest application of that has to be for the Floowandereeze matchup, which Kashtira often struggles to deal with.
Because non-Zombie monsters cannot be Tribute Summoned, Floowandereeze is utterly stopped in their tracks and cannot bring out their big boss monsters like Floowandereeze & Empen and Raiza the Mega Monarch. They also cannot use Floowandereeze and the Unexplored Winds to remove Zombie World as it would still be considered Tribute Summoning a non-Zombie monster. ZW is certainly a lot stronger going first, but it can still prove to be useful when you go second.
Immediately dropping a Zombie World on the field blanks both Floowandereeze and the Magnificent Map and Floowandereeze and the Dreaming Town, as they cannot Tribute Summon. They do get their resources back, but you are mostly undisturbed aside from the Empen being a nuisance. It's a lot less powerful if you have to get it off Pot of Prosperity, Terraforming, or Set Rotation, but it will still force the Trap card which means your Kashtira monster won't be flipped face-down. Zombie World can buy you a lot of time in either scenario and can even force a pre-emptive Harpie's Feather Storm due to it requiring WIND Winged-Beast monsters.
Tenpai Dragon is the newest competitive archetype released in Legacy of Destruction and it is slated to be one of the most oppressive and dominant strategies out there. ZW might just be one of the few ways to help deal with the menace. Similar to Snake-Eye and Necrovalley, this Field Spell will not entirely auto-win the matchup on its own, but it does give you really good odds to win if you can protect it.
Sangen Summoning provides some obscene protection to FIRE Dragon monsters, making them unaffected by your opponent's activated effects during their Main Phase 1, nearly ensuring their OTKs. Because Zombie World is a continuous effect, it bypasses this protection and nullifies it, making the main deck Tenpai monsters interactable with various forms of effects. Because the Sangen Synchros such as Sangenpai Bident Dragion and Sangenpai Transcendent Dragion require Dragon monsters to make, they are also out of the picture. Summoning's ATK doubling effect does not apply if it gets destroyed in the Battle Phase.
Chundra cannot Special Summon itself from the hand under ZW, cutting off one way of extending. Fadra is unable to revive a FIRE Dragon from the GY and strips them of their battle protection immunity. Lastly, while not too relevant, Paidra no longer prevents damage either.
Of course, due to the deck's nature of running breakers, getting Zombie World to stick may be a lot harder than usual. Still, it acts as a great way to help against the near-unstoppable OTK deck. If all else fails, Rotation locking their Field Spell by giving them Zombie World and not activating your Wraitsoth can also potentially be useful. It's worth noting that Tenpai themselves can play Set Rotation and use Way Where There's a Will to act similarly to Pot of Prosperity.
Conclusion
All in all, there's a lot to love with the Set Rotation package for Kashtira. It gives you additional consistency, protection against certain cards, and potential blowout floodgates against archetypes you may struggle against! I hope you give it a shot. Until next time folks, Renren's out!
