Review - Magic Jammer: Why it's Good.

This is the first in what I like to call my "Card of the Indeterminate Period of Time." I won't call it "Card of the Day" or "Card of the Week" because I have no idea how regularly I'll write these, and I may even do several at once.

Here we go:

Many players disparage good ol’ Magic Jammer because of its discard cost. I can’t count the number of times I’ve read, “Any card with a discard cost is t3h suxx0rz,” or, “Now that Sinister Serpent is banned, I won’t touch any card with a discard cost.”

Yet people fail to realize that Magic Jammer isn’t always a simple 1-for-2. In a recent duel, my opponent activated Lightning Vortex while I had three monsters on the field (no I wasn’t overextending, as I still had four cards in my hand). I Magic Jammed the Vortex. Now, most could consider this a 2-for-2, as my opponent played a card with a discard, and I negated it with a card with a discard. Basic math tells us that a 2-for-2 is a 1-for-1. Yet, I don’t believe it was a 2-for-2, but a 5-for-2. I saved three of my field monster resources and ruined two of my opponent’s hand resources.

Let’s look at two hypothetical modifications of my previous example. If my opponent had played Dark Hold instead of Lightning Vortex, I would still have made a 4-for-2 (i.e. a 2-for-1). If I had played Magic Drain instead of Magic Jammer, by discarding another card, my opponent could have turned it around and made a 4-for-3 against me.

The moral of this story: Don’t be afraid of discard costs, just know when and when not to activate them. It is possible to create solid advantages with Magic Jammer when negating mass-destruction effects.

Rating: 3.5/5