Used the anime by one of The Big 5, perhaps the most lesser of all of Yugioh's villians, with thier user Crump, being pretty much the only one among the five to have any sort of backstory or personality beyond
It was perhaps this, or the simple fact that he was also one of the few members of his organization with a coherent archetype, that Penguin's were one of the few decks of the Big 5 to ever truly be adapted into the IRL TCG with full Legacy Support. And considering I'm done talking about Unplayable Bullshit, I think some Mediocre Bullshit would be good for my brain. Also I always liked the fuzzy little freaks.
Puny Penguin, outside of being hilariously adorable, is a Lv1 Aqua type monster, which after it has been flipped face-up, allows you to summon a Penguin monster from your graveyard when it has been destroyed by battle in face-down defense position. Which is, s-s-slow to say the least. It does introduce Penguin's first among it's central gimmicks, that they are mostly cards that get effects after being flipped face-up or are flip effect monsters in and of themselves. The deck does have some means of getting it's monsters face-down and face-up rather easily, but the deck usually has better things it wants to be doing with those flip effects outside of mediocre revival effects. 2/5 Stars. Run by preferance
Penguin Soldier is a Lv2 Aqua Flip monster with the ability to when flipped up, return 2 cards to your opponents hand. You don't really get more classic than this, probably one of the most iconic old Flip monsters, albiet one that didn't see quite as much success as it's brothers in Man-Eating and Grenkappaing. Still the deck's as reliant on this as anything else, so make sure you run 3. 4/5 Stars
In perhaps on of the bigger oddities in the Penguin Archetype, Penguin Torpedo is a Lv3 550 Attack point direct attacker, with the ability to take control of any Lv6 or Lower monster after it inflicts battle damage for a turn, it cannot use it's effects nor can it attack. You can still use it for Link Plays, which you likely should as Penquin Torpedo blows himself up after inflicting battle damage.
I really can't for the life of me tell if this is good or not, it's got maybe a couple thousand restrictions, and requires use of your battle phase, but it does give you a steal that will get you a Link-2 or 3 most of the time if you use it correctly. Still, it's a real weird card, do you what you want with it. 3/5 Stars.
Another Lv3 and one of thier more modern support pieces, Penguin Cleric is another Aqua monster with 2 effects. First off when a Penguin monster is sent from your monster zone to the graveyard by an opponents card, you can discard this card to summon it in face-down defense mode, but only once per turn. Alongside that, once per turn, he can increase the attack points of a Penguin monster by 600 and you gain 600 life points.
Penguin Cleric, is alright, another major, for "preference" card in the deck. It's defensive effect is nice, but not every Penguin monster particularly wants to be summoned in face-down defense positions, and it's battle increase effect is...cute. Again 3/5 stars, run by preference
Glacial Beast Polar Penguin is a Lv3 Aqua/Tuner that allows you to bounce a monster when it's destroyed by battle or is special summoned
Probably one of the best cards in the deck, unironically. It's Special Summon bounce effect is pretty easy to pull off considering a certain Lv5 the deck runs, but its most important aspect, being a Lv3 Tuner, allowing for all sorts of easy access to the decks Synchro Monster. Just, make sure not to run 3, it's not exactly a great Normal Summon. Not bad for a random card used by a minor character from Arc-V unrelated to the original archetype. 4/5 Stars.
Penguin Knight another Lv3 Aqua monster, this time with the ability to, when sent from the deck to the graveyard, he UNITES THE DECK AND GRAVEYARD and shuffle your GY into your deck. It does...something...against Tear Ishizu :\. 1.5/5 Stars for comedy factor.
Penguin Ninja was a Lv3 Flip monster with the ability to target up to 2 Spell/Traps your opponent controls, while also allowing you to once per turn, while he's face up, set a "Penguin" monster you control face-down. It's pretty alright all things considered, probably one of the better targets for the big synchro monster outside of Soldier. Still Soldier's usually better in most situations, so maybe 1 or 2 is good per scenario. Once again, run by preference, althought I'd say it's worth a spot in most Penguin builds 3.5/5 Stars
Now were getting to the really good cards, Nopenguin is a Lv3 monster, during either players turn, when a Penguin monster activates thier effect, special summons himself from your graveyard. You can only use this effect once per turn. Alongside that, if a card would be returned to the hand by a Penguin monsters effect, you may instead remove it from play.
Note how he does not remove himself from play after being resummoned. Nopenguin is one of your central playmakers and what a large amount of thier support is centered around. A fun thing is that you can use Penguin Solider or Ninja's effect, then summon Nope and the targets would be banished. Aren't chains fun. 5/5 Stars. Epic.
Guard Penguin is a Lv4 that lets you special summon himself when a take battle damage, then gives you back the life points you lost when you took burn damage. It's a worse Battlin' Boxer Viel. Don't run it. 1/5 Stars
The origial ostensible boss monster of the Penguin Archetype, Nightmare Penguin is a Lv4 Water monster with the ability to boost all Water Monsters by a grand total of 200ATK, and when he's flipped face-up he lets you bounce exactly one monster. He's fine, I guess. He's a decent target one a certain other Penguin and competes with Flying Penguin as the best possible target for making Bahamut Shark. Run by preference 2.5/5 stars.
Speaking of Flying Penguin. Flying Penguin and Bolt Penguin are the two Normal Monsters in this deck, being a Lv4 Water/Aqua type and a Lv3 Water/Thunder monster. In general neither are really that great, but Flying Penquin's an alright Unexpected Dai target. Flying Penguin's a 2/5 Stars and Bolt Penguin's a mere 1/5 Stars.
Fluffal Penguin is a Fluffal monster. Don't run it in Penguin's
The Great Empeoror Penguin is a Lv5 Aqua monster that allows you to tribute it to summon any 2 "Penguin" monsters from your deck. Note, not two of the same monster (as I had thought for the longest time), just any to monsters. 5/5 Stars. No question.
Penguin Squire is a Lv5 Water/Tuner monster, that cannot be used for the Synchro Summon except for the summon of a water monster. When you set a monster, you can special summon it from hand, then you may decrease it's level by up to 2. Afterwords, you may set a monster you control, face-up but it's effects are negated unless it's a "Penguin" monster.
Considered the decks premiere tuner, even beating out Polar Penguin and being one of the few penguin's you really want to draw in your opening hand. 4/5 Stars
Penguin Brave is the decks boss monster and a rather easy summon off of either Penguin Squire of The Great Emperor Penguin as a Lv6 synchro monster, Not only does he protect your face-down defense position Penguin monsters, he also on Synchro Summon lets you summon a Penguin monster (presumably Penguin Soldier) from your deck in face down defense position, and allows you to flip a face down water monster to face up
This is probably one of the best cards in the deck, getting you into instant access to any of your Penguin flip monsters and giving you interaction on your opponents turn, both of which things the deck desperatly needs 4/5 Stars
On to the spells, which is good because there's only two of them
Royal Penguin's Garden is the archetypal Rota of the deck, allowing you to search out any Penguin monster from your deck, and allowing ou to once per turn, decrease the level of a Penguin monster in your hand by one, pretty much allowing you to use this to instantly get out Great Emperor.
Royal Penguin's Garden is just a solid card. 4/5 Stars
Yes. Penguin Sword
Epic
The final card among the Penguin archetype, an equip spell of all things equipping to a Penguin monster and giving them 800 ATK and when it does battle damage to our opponent, allows you to return a card they control to their hand, and if a card is banished by a Penguin card effect or returned to the hand, it negates that cards effects
Not exactly a grand finale, eh
I wouldn't call it the woooorst excatly, but it is kinda sub par, it's effect belongs more on a Extra Deck Boss monster than an unsearchable equip spell that you can't really afford to play 2/5 Stars
Overall Penguins a strange beast, althought most of them aren't even Winged-Beasts, a strange control deck with more bad playmakers, caused likely by the fact that the vast majority of card weren't intended to work together, than a Riverpool Salad But the deck convient access to various consistency boosters like Royal Penguin's Garden, Penguin Squire and most importantly Great Emperor Penguin makes them all playable in one way or another, still I'd hesitate to call Penguin's good. Still, I've got attached to these fury bouncing fuckers and thier weird, weird support history. So fuck it, let's give Penguins a 3/5 Stars. Keep you feathers flipping boy