Duelist Alliance has taken the world by storm, but contrary to expectations, the hottest card hasn’t been a Shaddoll, or a Stellarknight, or a Yang Zing! It’s Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, part of the exclusive world premiere “Burning Abyss” theme, based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy! 

Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss is a Rank 3 Xyz Monster that you can Summon with any 2 Level 3 monsters. In the Burning Abyss theme, you can use the Level 3 “Malebranche” monsters to Summon him, but any Level 3 monsters will do, making Dante useful in a wide variety of Decks, including summertime standouts Geargia and Madolche. Most Duelists prefer to use the ever popular Tour Guide from the Underworld, using her ability to Summon Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss and negate its self-destruction effect.

Dante himself shares many of the same abilities as Card Trooper, one of the strongest monsters ever created. Card Trooper’s abilities to send cards to the Graveyard, draw cards, and become hugely powerful defined an entire era of Dueling, and Dante is poised to do the same. You can detach an Xyz Material from Dante to send up to 3 cards from your Deck to the Graveyard and give Dante an extra 500 ATK for each until the end of your turn. That can pump him all the way up to 2500 ATK, enough to handle just about every commonly played monster. But that’s not all—Dante can also block attacks from all of those monsters with his 2500 DEF, and you don’t even have to choose whether to attack or defend with him because you can do both.

If Dante attacks, he changes to Defense Position at the end of the Battle Phase, and with a natural 2500 DEF, the chances of your opponent overcoming his Defense Points are very slim. But if they do, Dante’s final effect kicks in and adds a different “Burning Abyss” card back to your hand. It may seem at first that this is only useful if you’re playing a dedicated Burning Abyss Deck, but all you really need to make use of it is a second copy of Dante. The only appropriate card you can’t fetch back with Dante is the specific copy of Dante that was sent to the Graveyard, but if you have a second Dante, you can get that back instead. With enough Level 3 monsters available, you can create a constant loop of Dantes!

Finally, Dante has been a big hit not just because of what he does, but what he is. Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss is the only Rank 3 LIGHT Warrior-Type Xyz Monster in existence, making it the only monster that you can target with Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force if you want to Summon Constellar Pleiades from your Extra Deck. Pleiades also has 2500 ATK, and can bounce any card on the field back to the hand once during each player’s turn. And with Astral Force and Dante, your Pleiades will have up to 3 Xyz Materials to work with instead of the normal 2. It’s been a very successful tournament strategy as of late, especially in full Burning Abyss Decks!

If you missed Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss when Duelist Alliance launched, don’t worry because you’ll have another chance to pick him up in Duelist Alliance Deluxe Edition, available now!