Castel vs Utopia the Lightning

[Tinkerer]

I want to preface this by saying that this is purely for the sake of discussion.  I just want to see people's opinions.

 

In terms of potency, which one do you think is more useful generally and which is more useful in the current meta.  We've had a long time to deal with Castel, and if you'd played online, UtL was an ever-accessible boss out before being ported to TCG.  Either way, both monsters play the role of an instant out to problems and I was wondering which one seemed more potent overall to people (now that we've experienced them and also in the case of a vacuum).

 

[spoiler=Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer]WIND R****
Winged-Beast/Xyz/Effect
2 Level 4 monsters
You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; change it to face-down Defense Position. You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card, then target 1 other face-up card on the field; shuffle it into the Deck. You can only use 1 "Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
2000/1500

 

 

[spoiler=Number S39: Utopia the Lightning]LIGHT R*****
Warrior/Xyz/Effect
3 Level 5 LIGHT monsters
You can also Xyz Summon this card by using a Rank 4 "Utopia" monster you control as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card.) Cannot be used as an Xyz Material for an Xyz Summon. If this card battles, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. Once per Chain, during damage calculation in either player's turn, if this card battles an opponent's monster while this card has a "Utopia" Xyz Monster as Xyz Material: You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; this card's ATK becomes 5000 during that damage calculation only.
2500/2000

 

[VCR_CAT]

In my opinion, UTL is more far more well designed. Castel is a fantastic card, but I can only compare them on design standpoints because they accomplish entirely different roles. UTL is made for beating over things that have protection and fat stats, while Castel is made for spot removal on things that may or may not float. It's not that one is really more useful than the other, because they both have different jobs and do them dang well.

 

To note, I find UTL to be more well-designed because of the dependency on Utopia. It means you have to run an extra card in the Extra Deck to run this, and this does create a dilemma where some players will still make room for it, while others will genuinely decide against it because they want to run something else. As well, the additional summon makes it more telegraphed, which gives the opponent more opportunity to prepare and play against it. That said, what you get for these added downsides is still really potent, and it's a generic out to most Big Boss monsters that is sorely needed for a lot of decks.

[vla1ne]

castel is incredibly potent, but UTL has the armades effect and a 5k face, that alone makes it far more powerful, as far as utility though castel requires only itself to be used, while UTL requires at least one other card taking up space. UTL is more effective in general, but castel takes up less room, and aside from targeting immunity, has one of the best removal effects out there.

[The Nyx Avatar]

While Castel has proven useful, as any face-up card is prone to removal (even cards in Pendulum Zones), there are cards with target protection, the removal of 1 card may not be enough, and it is only utilized once at best. Utopia the Lightning however, can attack without interruption, can use it's effect up to twice (if you were really ambitious), and can end games.

[Zauls]

You'd always put Castel in your ED before UtL because space is tight and Castel is more versatile, requires less space and responds to a wider variety of threats. Outing Dark Destroyer is never a bad thing though, so UtL does have its advantages over Castel.

[Blake]

You'd always put Castel in your ED before UtL because space is tight and Castel is more versatile, requires less space and responds to a wider variety of threats. Outing Dark Destroyer is never a bad thing though, so UtL does have its advantages over Castel.

Adding on to this, another issue with UTL is that materials get stuck on it.

 

This means it can shut down a lot of combo plays of your OWN when you need to make it, and slow you down.

 

It's not that UTL is bad, at all, but Castel is all around removal that doesn't slow you.

[VCR_CAT]

Adding on to this, another issue with UTL is that materials get stuck on it.

 

This means it can shut down a lot of combo plays of your OWN when you need to make it, and slow you down.

 

It's not that UTL is bad, at all, but Castel is all around removal that doesn't slow you.

 

Well like I said, they offer different forms of removal. Castel may be better for spot removal on something that floats, but UTL can actually take down a lot of cards that a given deck would be otherwise completely incapable of dealing with.

[Blake]

Well like I said, they offer different forms of removal. Castel may be better for spot removal on something that floats, but UTL can actually take down a lot of cards that a given deck would be otherwise completely incapable of dealing with.

"adding on to this"

 

as in, you'll always run castel first, as he said 

[VCR_CAT]

"adding on to this"

 

as in, you'll always run castel first, as he said 

 

Right. Castel's easier to run since it doesn't require you to run an extra Xyz. Like I explained, UTL's Utopia requirement means that a lot of decks will actually legitimately not want to run UTL for either space reasons, or because R4 just isn't their thing. And I do appreciate that aspect; just that Castel is better in ~most~ situations, so if you have an Instant Fusion teched and don't want to run 3 ED cards for one play, Castel is still a solid go-to.

[Snatch Steal]

Castel is good against Marshmallon, Spirit Reaper, etc, while Utopia the Lightning is good against Kozmo, Monarch, and in some cases Burning Abyss.

 

To say the least, UtL is probably better in general, since it does a ton of damage to opponent with things that can be destroyed by battle and hurts non-target cards. Castel helps with indestructible cards, but most of the meta can be destroyed by battle, since Mist Body kind of stuff isn't very prominent.

 

They're both kind of a waste of space after their effects, but UtL is more worthwhile.

 

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