Horus the Black Flame Dragon (2024)

"Horus the Black Flame Dragon" (ホルスの黒 (こく) 炎 (えん) 竜 (りゅう) Horusu no Kokuenryū) is an archetype of 3 FIRE Dragon "LV" monsters first introduced in Soul of the Duelist. A sub-archetype of the "LV" and "Horus" archetypes, they are one of two groups of Dragon "LV" monsters, the other being the "Armed Dragon" archetype.

They are similiar in appearance to "The Winged Dragon of Ra", both being based on the Egyptian deities. The focus of this archetype is that each individual monster would not turn against the controller once it is on the field. They do so via effects such as not switching sides, being unaffected by Spell Cards and negating the activation of any Spell Card.

"Dark Horus" was later introduced as a Dark counterpart to "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8". The Metaphys Monster "Metaphys Horus" was introduced as a Wyrm Synchro Monster counterpart of "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6".

This archetype is used by Daigo Sorano in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime.

Strategy[]

The major draw of this "LV" family is the capability of "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8", which can shut down the activation of any Spell Card as long as it's face-up on the field. The dreaded Horus Lockdown involves a combo of "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" and "Royal Decree", which shuts down the effects of Spells and Traps. The best part of this combo is that the player controlling "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" is still able to use the effects of Spells, while their opponents cannot. A new variation of the lock down is to use "Tyrant's Temper" and then add in cards like "Skill Drain", "Gravity Bind", and "Royal Decree", meaning it can negate monster effects as well. Due to this, Decks that do not focus around low Level monsters are limited against the new lockdown. Another option, if one is not willing to invest in the given Trap Cards, is to include "Destiny HERO - Plasma", which can easily be Special Summoned by Tributing three "Sheep Tokens".

Another version of this lockdown can also be achieved by merging the deck with the Vylon archetype (specifically the Vylon Omega Lock), which can also negating Monster Effects. This combination can offer better effectiveness compared to the previous version with "Destiny HERO - Plasma" due to "Vylon Omega" can negate monster effects from anywhere (unlike Plasma, which can only negate in-field effects), and Horus can also covering Omega's weaknesses from Spell/Trap destruction (due to the latter's dependency on Equip Cards). However, due to so many elements involved in this type of deck (largely due to requirements for "Vylon Element" combo), this deck type always suffers from consistency issues. However, once this lockdown has successfully hits the field, it is unlikely that the opponent will survive for long, or even break the lock without specific counters. If "Steelswarm Roach" also present (with Xyz Materials), it will only make it worse for the opponent, due to its ability to negate any attempts of Special Summoning Level 5 or higher monster that may endanger Horus or Omega.

Hieratic archetype featuring "Hieratic Dragon King of Atum" can also immensely accelerates this deck, due to its ability to drag "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" straight from the Deck (albeit with 0 ATK and DEF), which allows you to immediately use "Level Up!" to Summon "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" quickly. "Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo", combined with "Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation" are also excellent alternatives.

Facts