The [Flower Cardian] is an archetype of DARK Warrior-type monsters released into the TCG in the [Dragons of Legend: Unleashed], known to be used by Chojiro Tokumatsu in the Arc-V series. The library of cards are based on [Hanafuda] cards and combines it with some monsters duelists may be familiar with (including [Heavy Trunade] and [Poison Draw Frog]) - although the goal of the original game’s goal of accumulating the most points differs from the game of Yu-Gi-Oh!, both games rely on having the right combination of cards to make your big plays. They vary in Levels, ranging from Level 1 to Level 12, and there are two monsters for each Level, bringing an array of effects that can Special Summon more monsters if played in sequence. But their most interesting trump cards happen to be the two Tuners provided - they treat all the monsters on the field as Level 2’s to Synchro Summon into their big boss monsters at the cost of having the right amount of monsters instead of having the right Level requirement. Let’s lay the cards out flat as we take a look at the “Flower Cardian” deck.
CARDIAN
As stated before, the “Flower Cardian” deck is a Synchro-focused deck, with the Tuners disregarding the Levels of the monsters on field in favor of having the right amount of monsters on field. Their greatest strength comes from their incredible draw power and their swarming capabilities, almost always letting you open up with their larger boss monsters on your opening turn. Unfortunately, their strengths are also the source of the deck’s greatest weaknesses: out of all of their available monsters, only one is capable of being Normal Summoned, and the plays can sometimes end up being decided by the luck of the draw. Thankfully, the boss monsters this deck provides are quite formidable - including their leader who sits at 5000 attack points and a monster that burns your opponent for each of their Draw Phases! For the sake of clarity, the main deck monsters, the Spells/Traps, and all of their Synchro monsters will all have their own portion in the article devoted to them.
When they were officially released into the TCG, the original design of the archetype was to provide a set of monsters with the same level, one to Special Summon itself onto the field and one to Special Summon by Tribute - the only one in the deck that can Normal Summon itself is [Flower Cardian Pine] - a Level 1 DARK Warrior-type monster with a measly 100 attack and defense; its counterpart, [Flower Cardian Pine with Crane], is also Level 1, but it Special Summons itself onto the field by Tributing a 1 Level 1 “Flower Cardian” monster on the field and buffs up. This deck has some serious swarming capabilities - the 2000 attack point monsters share the effect:
" If this card is Special Summoned: Draw 1 card, and if you do, show it, then you can Special Summon it if it is a “Flower Cardian” monster. Otherwise, send it to the GY. "
Essentially, you can swarm the field if you draw just right, pulling a “Flower Cardian” monster whenever you meet the requirement for the effect to activate, but if you don’t have a clue as to what you’ll pull into next, then anything that’s not a “Flower Cardian” monster drawn are immediately sent to the GY. However, there a few monsters that don’t share a Level with others; regardless of the fact, the oddballs play an important role in the build, as they bring some interesting strategies to the table, with the important factor being that they can Special Summon themselves out by Tributing any Level “Flower Cardian” - [Flower Cardian Peony with Butterfly] lets you take a peek at your opponent’s deck and rearrange them in any order on either the top or the bottom of the deck, as well as act as the deck’s new primary Tuner; [Flower Cardian Maple with Deer] and [Flower Cardian Clover with Boar] remove Spells/Traps and monsters, respectively; [Flower Cardian Cherry Blossom with Curtain] acts as an in-theme [Honest], bumping up their biggest monster from 5000 attack to 6000!
Notice the Levels shared between the monsters - keep them in mind when you make your plays!
Ordered from the lowest Level to the highest Level - they might have no counterpart, but they can improve your fighting capabilities!
Of course, the deck’s consistency would be utter garbage if it wasn’t for the Spell cards that supported the deck, providing you with ample material for some insanely explosive plays. [Flower Gathering] was the first card released to support the deck’s field swarming - it Special Summons 4 “Flower Cardian” monsters with 100 attack straight from the deck in attack position at the cost of disabling their effects as soon as they touch the field - your targets are always Flower Cardians Pine, [Willow], [Zebra Grass], and [Paulownia], which allows you to Special Summon their 2000 attack counterparts no problem. In the [Invasion: Vengeance] and [Raging Tempest] booster sets, they managed to nab some strong searching support - [Flower Stacking] searches the deck for any “Flower Cardian” monsters and rearranges them on the top of the deck, essentially setting up combos, while also providing a means of recovering a monster in the GY by banishing itself on the turn after it was sent; [Super Koi Koi] can Special Summon the top 3 cards on your deck if they’re “Flower Cardian” in name, or else it banishes them face-down and you pay 1000 LP for each card banished by this card’s effect; [Recardination], their last Spell card, is the tied as this deck’s most strongest component, letting you return any “Flower Cardian” in the GY back to your hand while also letting you Special Summon any “Flower Cardian” monster, ignoring the Summoning Conditions! Their last card in the Spell/Trap department is [Fraud Freeze], a Continuous Trap that immediately bounces back a monster to your opponent’s hand, but with some limitations holding it back from being seriously considered - it only bounces back all monsters your opponent controls if they Special Summon a monster from their hand (outside of the Damage Step), and it destroys itself if you don’t control any “Flower Cardian” Synchro monster. An excellent selection of Spells and Traps for sure, which makes it all the more harder to consider your ratios.
Without further ado, we’ll finally take a look at the strongest monsters in the “Flower Cardian” arsenal, the Synchro bosses, Flower Cardians [Boardefly], [Lightshower], and [Lightflare]. In order, they sit at 2000/2000, 3000/3000, and 5000/0 that allow all “Flower Cardian” monsters to deal piercing battle damage (Boardefly), protects all Cardians on the field from card effects while burning your opponent 1500 LP for each card they add on the Draw Phase at the cost of drawing on your turn (Lightshower), and shuts down an effect once per turn, while Special Summoning a new “Flower Cardian” Synchro Monster after it leaves the field by any means (Lightflare), respectively. In terms of effects, Lightshower and Lightflare would want to see the most play, but Boardefly’s the easiest to summon out, as it requires:
" 1 Tuner + 2 Non-Tuners "
Because the Cardian Tuners counts every monster (including itself) as Level 2, and Boardefly’s a Level 6 Synchro, you would need 2 other Cardians to Synchro Summon; likewise, you would need a Cardian Tuner to Synchro Summon with 3 more monsters for Lightshower (Level 8) and 4 for Lightflare (Level 10). There’s only one missing from the set - [Flower Cardian Moonflower] - that helps with draw power while acting as a Synchro Tuner, essentially opening up possibilities of running Synchro monsters that require the Synchro Tuner. (with the right set-up, of course) With the deck’s capabilities, it really isn’t that difficult to summon these “Flower Cardian” warriors even with the intimidating requirements stated on each card.
Boardefly - Moonflower - Lightshower - Lightflare
I only covered this deck on the most base level - talking about combos and tech you can add into the deck would take up a lot more space (nearly 2-3 more paragraphs, give or take) - but the in-theme support makes this a very formidable budget deck, as they can take the luck factor into their hand and rearrange their cards like the [Sylvan] archetype was known for. Despite the limitation of mass Extra Deck Summoning the new Link Format provides, the deck can fair rather well despite the new boot to its proverbial wheels; having Lightshower or Lightflare makes for an intense field pressure, with former forcing your opponents to focus all attention on removing it or deal with 1500 Life Points burned with each of their Draw Phases. (not exactly the hardest thing to handle, but when the “Flower Cardian” deck can spit this thing out on Turn 1, it’s hard to respond) A very affordable deck to play, if you’re looking for a deck with great potential and want to watch combos go on and on, I’d strongly recommend the deck to anyone interested.
Trivia note: “Flower Cardian Boardefly” was originally called “Flower Cardian Inoshikacho” in the OCG, named after the [combination of cards that have seen some influence in animes such as Dragonball Z and Naruto] and the three monsters that comprise it: “Flower Cardian Clover with Boar ,” “Flower Cardian Maple with De er,” and “Flower Cardian Peony with Butter fly .”