Cyberdark Impact, Preview Review

The spoiler list, provided courtesy of Baron of the awesome DMComet, for the upcoming "Cyberdark Impact" has shown that booster sets are not getting better. In fact, Cyberdark Impact may be the worst booster set released to date (including the awful Ancient Sanctuary with its copious "support" for level 3 and lower Normal Monsters). Indeed, it appears that Konami has lost track of its own card pool, as very little in Cyberdark Impact compares to or exceeds cards that we have had available for a long time. This article is a Preview Review, covering Cyberdark Impact in its entirety before its release.

Many of the cards in Cyberdark Impact are based upon interesting ideas. However, Konami has become so gun-shy of creating another Chaos Emperor Dragon, Black Luster Soldier (Envoy), or Yata-Garasu that they castrate cards before they have a chance to merit a Ban. I actually blame the institution of Bans for the overall weak quality of cards we have been getting recently (but that would merit another article!). In this article, I will discuss the each card found within Cyberdark Impact boosters, pointing out the redeemable ones as well as proposing ways Konami could have made the other cards in the set useful (if only they'd hire me into the R&D staff).
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1) Cyberdark Machines: The four namesakes of the set, Cyberdark Horn, Edge, Keel, and Dragon, are an interesting idea that suffers from monotony of stats and excessive limits on compatible cards. It is physically impossible to find room for these in a Dragon Deck that runs multiple level 3 dragons. I can envision some simple stat tweaks that would have made these cards playable, but since they have been released in Japan already, it is a lost cause. These monsters won't have any impact on the game.

[Tweak] CD Edge: LV3/Dark/Machine/0/0/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 4 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it may attack your opponent directly. If it attacks in this manner, its ATK is halved.

[Tweak] CD Keel: LV5/Dark/Machine/500/500/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 6 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, if it destroys a monster in Battle, deal 500 damage to your opponent.

[Tweak] CD Horn: LV7/Dark/Machine/1000/1000/Once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one level 8 or lower monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it gains Piercing.

[Tweak] CD Dragon: LV12/Dark/Machine (Fusion)/2000/2000/[CD Horn] + [CD Edge] + [CD Keel]/ A Fusion Summon of this card must use the named component monsters. When this card is successfully Fusion Summoned, once per turn, if this card does not have a Monster Card equipped to it, you may choose one monster from either graveyard and equip it to this card. Increase this card's ATK by the equipped monster's ATK. When this card is destroyed in Battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead. While this card is equipped with a Monster Card, it may attack all of your opponent's monsters once. If it attacks in this manner, it may not attack directly in the same turn.
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2) Cyber Ogres: The three Cyber Ogre cards are some of the scant things that interest me in this set. They can do some interesting tricks with stat boosting, discarding, and special summoning that could prove to be the basis of a decent deck. The big bruiser, Cyber Ogre #2 is particularly of interest to me, as it includes a built-in Metalmorph, which is one of my all-time favorite stat-boosters.
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3) Allure Queen: When I first heard about her, I was really excited, because I thought I'd finally be getting a non-Ritual version of my old pal Relinquished. Unfortunately, Allure Queen fails in every aspect when compared to the old Ritual. First, LV3 can only suck up a level 3 or lower monster. How many of those do you ever see that aren't face-down?? Essentially, her effect will never happen unless you apply Creature Swap or something to force your opponent to control a face-up weenie. To make the Allure Queen series even worse, LV 5 & 7 can't use their effects at all unless Leveled Up from LV3. Finally, all three Allure Queens suffer from the utter lameness of not getting a stat boost from their equipped monster and not being able to equip face-downs. Horrible, horrible stuff. I'll stick with Relinquished, thanks.
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4) Dark Lucius: Another good idea that suffers from the fact that we already have a better, easier to use card that does the same thing: Dark Ruler Hades. Lucius LV 4 & 6 are irrelevant, as their stats are too horrible to mention. What good is negating the effect of a monster you destroy if you're too weak to destroy any? These guys do strike fear into the hearts of Flip Effect monsters, as Flips are almost universally weak in stats. But I don't foresee a Lucius LV8 hitting the field without a lot of luck and wasted Level Up!! cards. I'll stick with Hades and share the effect negating joy with all of my other Fiends.
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5) Stray Devil & Violent Ogre: These guys are fairly obsolete Burn. Stray Devil would combo with Bad Reaction to Simochi and Fire Princess in a LP Gain/Burn deck. Violent Ogre missed the party and has been kicked out by the recently unrestricted Reflect Bounder.
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6) Big Monsters with Small Effects: These monsters seem to be another take on the Monarchs, providing a bonus effect for Tribute Summoning a big monster. Some of them can't be Special Summoned, so level really becomes an issue.

Flame Ogre: Oooh. I make two Tributes and draw one card. For a LV7/2400 ATK... NO. If he was level 6, I'd say he was great, but as it is he's useless.

Vanity Devil: This is quite good. One Tribute for 2400 ATK and preventing ALL Special Summons.

Vanity Ruler: Once again, Goodness gets screwed. This is much worse than its Evil counterpart. Two Tributes won't happen. It has worse stats than Dark Magician and none of the accessability. Kaiser Seahorse would help, but I've tested 2-Trib decks with the Seahorse, and they are very unreliable. Sure, Vanity Ruler only prevents your opponent from Special Summoning, but it does an even better job of preventing YOU from Summoning IT!

Earth Mother Iris: Standard stats for a usable Tribute Monster, and can be Special Summoned. The effect is lame, as chains don't usually go three links. You could specifically build a deck with lots of chaining action going on, but excessive chaining only wastes cards. I suppose stuff like this card is why Konami unrestricted Emergency Provisions again (that and the Ban of Mirage of Nightmare).

Lightning Punisher: 2 Tributes with subpar stats and an effect that will seldom trigger. At least he can be Special Summoned...

Storm Shooter: Horrible stats for a level 7 monster! And the effects should have been combined into one. As it is, it's unusable.
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7) Barrier Statues: Each of these cards prevents one Attribute of monster from being Special Summoned. This would be pretty good tech... except that their stats are 1000/1000! Pathetic! It would have been better if they were 0/2000, as they could at least survive a battle. As they are, none of them are worthwhile.
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8) The Chain Gang: Iris and Punisher could fit into this category too, but they are primarily affected by their levels as far as playability is concerned. These monsters are all low-level (except Combo Master), so their effects and stats are the pillars on which they stand.

Blast Devil: His stats are okay for a level 3. He works well in any Stall-type deck, alongside Gravity Bind/Level Limit Area B or Messenger of Peace. Unfortunately, the amount of damage his effect deals is way too low. If it was 1000, I'd consider him in Burn.

Beastman Ares: It's cool that the stat boost is permanent, but with such low starting stats, he'll need to see three Chains before becoming viable.

Combo Fighter/Master: Both are fairly solid, statwise. The fact that they only need to see one chain per turn makes them fairly reliable. They will probably get to attack twice during the few turns they live.
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9) More Aliens: I'm quite pleased to see Konami continuing to release cards for an archtype in subsequent sets. I'm STILL waiting to see some new Gravekeepers! Both of these Aliens have interesting effects. Attacking directly is fun, but I don't see Vader fitting into a regular Alien Deck with lots of level 4's. Direct attackers generally only work when there are stall cards involved. Mars is very spiffy, but would have been better as a 0/2000. The Alien Cell spell provides another easy way to generate those important counters.
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10) The Rest of the Crap: These monsters are, in general, not worth looking at.

Cyber Esper: WHY did it have to say "Attack Mode?" Those two words ruined an otherwise balanced card.

Snipestalker: If it involves a coin flip or die roll, I hate it.

Queen's Bodyguards: Allure Queen is crap. This card is crap by association.

Charging Rhino: This card would be useful in a weenie/beast deck. Unfortunately, with Konami screwing up Stall cards and limiting Gravity Bind and Level Limit Area B to one each, the decktype is basically ruined. Poor Rhino showed up too late to the party.
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11) Bent Staples: Konami seems to be bent upon recreating great cards, which are now Banned, in not-so-great forms. Several old favorites have been recreated in Cyberdark Impact. How many are still playable?

Flash of Sealed Magic: Yay, it's Retarded Raigeki! It only works if your opponent is overextending big-time or if you like to abuse Ojama Trio.

Miracle Reborn: Yay, it's Moronic Monster Reborn! Since you have to use it on Chain Link 4 or later, it's basically NEVER going to happen. Most chains that long end with a Counter Trap, and since this card is conveniently a Quickplay Spell, it can't be activated after a Counter Trap.

Gust of Wind: Yay, it's Spastic Space Typhoon! There is no point in this card being a Quickplay instead of a Counter, and once again it is hurt by this fact. Just use Dust Tornado and MST.

Straight Flush: Yay, it's Feeble Feather Duster! It can be useful, as people will often unload their hand onto the field in preparation for a Morphing Jar. I don't know if the ruling states whether the Field Spell zone has to be filled as well (which would be very bad). It could be temporarily useful. Of course, once your opponent knows you're using it, they will NEVER fill their S/T zones!

Accumulated Happiness: Yay, it's Gimp of Greed! As with Miracle Reborn, the activation situation will NEVER happen. Stick with Pot of Avarice.

Vanity Call: Okay, nothing sarcastic this time. This card is like Solemn Judgement, except is destroys EVERYTHING in the chain. This would be good to use in a chain that has a Monster Effect in link 1. Also, since it is a Counter Trap, it will likely see occasional activation.
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12) Alternative Summoning: I'm all in favor of cards that provide alternative ways to summon Fusions and Rituals. Limit Lift and Instant Fusion are both interesting cards, but they REALLY suffer from not being able to attack with the monster. If the stipulation was "you cannot attack DIRECTLY with the monster," they would have been great. I've been pondering how to improve Rituals for some time and came up with the following:

[Original Card] Ultimate Ritual (j. Blood Ritual): Permanent Spell. Once per turn, by paying 500 LP per level star, you may Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster from your hand or deck. The monster summoned in this way is sent to the Graveyard at the end of the turn unless you Tribute monsters from you Field or Hand whose levels equal or exceed the summoned monster's.
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13) The Chain Game: The newly introduced chain mechanic would have been much more useful if Konami hadn't overreacted and made the effects weak or the chain number too high. As it is, if a Chain Card has a remote chance of being activated, the effect is irrelevant.

Chain Strike: 400 damage/chain link? No thanks, I'll use Secret Barrel.

Chain Healing: 500 LP? And I have to put this turd back in my deck so I can draw it again? NO.

Chain Blast: 500 damage? And I have to put this turd back in my deck so I can draw it again? NO.
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14) Other Spells: There are a few Spells in this set that defy categorization (at least with each other).

Counter Cleaner: Aside from removing pesky grease stains (remember when Hungry Burger jumped all over your stovetop?), Counter Cleaner can make Breaker sad and ruin any plans for Alien invasion. A possible side-deck card. Also a Staple in Kitchen Decks (featuring Hungry Burger and the Bistro Butcher!).

Linear Cannon: A one-off version of Catapult Turtle that does full damage instead of half? If this was Permanent, it would be great. As it is, stick with the Turtle.

Level Down!?: Hooray for continuing to support a mechanic! This is pretty spiffy, but still won't touch Horus LV8. This card is to LV as De-Fusion is to Fusions.

Receding Circuit: This would be great if not for the upkeep payment. I suppose Macrocosmos decks might find a use for it, but the LP payments are a pain in the butt. I suppose being able to "turn it off" by not paying could actually be good in some cases.

Position Change: Great. Now that monster position is an official gameplay mechanic, I'm going to have to refrain from readjusting my field as monsters die. Curse you, Konami!
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15) Other Traps: There are a few Traps in this set that defy categorization (at least with each other).

Tripwire: It's a 3-for-2. Normally, I don't worry about tiny advantage losses like that (I love Raigeki Break). Unfortunately, this card depends on your opponent placing cards in a specific way and doesn't let you select the targets.

Justibreak: I think this is one of the stars of the set. It may be designed as E-Hero (*gag* *spit*) support, but it works with ALL Normal Monsters. I can see this card spurring a resurgence of use for 1900 ATK level 4 Normal Monsters and Summoned Skull. It may even find its way into Archfiend decks that use Archfiend Soldier and Summoned Skull instead of all Effect Archfiends.

Reverse Dimension: A counter to the annoyance of the D.D. Monsters and Macrocosmos decks. Potential side-deck material.

Troy Bomb: A counter to the annoyance of people constantly stealing your monsters. I don't know the ruling on if this works when the monster is stolen but is no longer a monster (as with Relinquished and Allure Queen). Since Snatch and Change of Heart are both Banned now, this card only really works against Brain Control. Oh well...

Cyber Shadow Gardna: I hate the fact that "Gardna" is being used as a word on some cards. It is GIBBERISH! It doesn't even mean anything in Japanese (like Raigeki). Gardna is the stupidity equivalent of Trunade! GAH!!! Regardless of its stupid name, this card is fairly good. I love Trap Monsters. This one isn't quite up to par with things like Metal Reflect Slime or Stronghold, but still can serve as a defense. Unfortunately, since it can only be used during the opponent's turn and returns to its Set position, it can't serve as Tribute fodder. It's basically the Trap Monster equivalent of a Spirit Monster.

Ascending Black Horn: This is a great Counter Trap that is actually an improvement over its original. I presume the name in English will be Dark Horn of Heaven. It ditches the Tribute cost of the original in exchange for only negating Special Summons. That's okay, as there is always Trap Hole for messing up Normal Summons. The fact that it's a Counter Trap is great, as it can prevent the destroyed monster from being revived, since the monster destroyed by this card will never have been Special Summoned "correctly" before hitting the Graveyard.
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In conclusion, this is a set filled with delusions of mediocrity. The good cards are few and far between, swimming in a flood of garbage. Though there are a few shining stars, it could just be that they only look like stars among their horrid peers. This is only the second set (the first being Ancient Sanctuary) of which I voluntarily will NOT be buying a booster box (I also didn't buy boxes of LOB or MRD, as they were in such short supply on release). Congrats to Konami for working hard to destroy interest in this game!

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Review - Cyber Dragon: The Ultimate Beatstick.

We all know the drill. Character Cards based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime suck. Blue-Eyes is pathetic, Dark Magician is a fool, Red-Eyes languishes in the gutter. Yet somehow, Konami created a Character Card that is actually good. For a while it slipped under duelists' noses, but not for long. Now it is one of the most expensive Super Rares in the history of the game, right up there with Raigeki.

So, what is it that makes Cyber Dragon so great? It's a Tribute Monster with a measly 2100 ATK. Its only effect has to do with making it easier to summon. Sounds pretty boring at first glance. However, the simplicity of Cyber Dragon is what makes it so great. Its level is negligible, as it will only ever be Special Summoned through its effect. This makes Cyber Dragon essentially a level 4 monster that doesn't use up your Normal Summon for the turn. A level 4 monster with 2100 ATK is very impressive. Few monsters can match or exceed that, and they all have detrimental effects whilst Cyber Dragon has none. Zombyra the Dark, Berserk Gorilla, Terrorking Archfiend, and all the 1900 Vanilla monsters have been rendered obsolete by Cyber Dragon. Only Chainsaw Insect, Goblin Attack Force, Indomitable Fighter Lei-Lei, Elite Goblin Attack Force, and Giant Orc can handle a Cyber Dragon, but in most cases will accomplish only that before being killed by something as tiny as a Spirit Reaper. And that only takes into account Cyber Dragon's stats. The fact that it's a Special Summon is even more interesting as it allows for a large field presence to come into play in a single turn. A Cyber Dragon alongside another monster can deal tons of damage in one turn and activate annoying secondary effects; or a Cyber Dragon could even be Special Summoned and then Tributed for an even more powerful monster.

Cyber Dragon is the current leader in Field Advantage. Its effect, which was presumably meant to be detrimental, actually allows for quite a bit of versatility. It's no wonder the clamoring of tournament players has driven the price of Cyber Dragon up to $40.

Rating: 4.3/5

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Review - Pot of Greed: The Only Perfect Card in the Game?

Pot of Greed has been lauded as a Deck Staple since it was released in the very first booster set. People would stick it in their decks without question. Soon, a reason was given for sticking Pot of Greed in every deck: Hand Advantage. I have written extensively about my views of “Hand Advantage” elsewhere, so I won’t repeat myself here. However, Pot of Greed only provides a +1 advantage no matter what. The other Staples of the early game provided much more advantage than that in the form of Field Advantage, which is generally more useful than Hand Advantage. Pot of Greed is always a 2-for-1, while other True Staples are variable, ranging from 1-for-1 up to 5-for-1. Of course, I speak of Raigeki, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm, and Harpie’s Feather Duster. Pot of Greed merely provides you with one extra card, whereas these others take away your opponent’s cards. I know I prefer wrecking a lot of my opponent’s stuff to getting a tiny bit more stuff of my own.

Pot of Greed isn’t entirely useless, though. It is great in Exodia Decks because they are entirely focused on drawing and drawing and drawing, and nothing else. If Pot of Greed wasn’t restricted or banned, Exodia would be insanely powerful. Pot of Greed is also notable for the fact that it is the best topdeck in the game. At any other time, Pot of Greed has a fairly weak effect that has been hyped far too much for its own good. I think we saw in the last ban cycle that decks can work out just fine without the Pot. It may provide a bit of lubrication in draw ratios, but in reality it’s like a single drop of oil upon an Ancient Gear Golem.

Rating: 3/5

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Article - Where Does the True Advantage Lie?

Recently there has been a lot of focus on “card advantage” in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Much of this discussion is spent lauding praises on effects that draw cards, no matter how minimal the advantage, simply because “hand advantage” has become something of a Holy Grail in the game.

Yet this obsession doesn’t sit right with me. Players have always fawned over Pot of Greed, and proclaimed it to be the Only Perfect Card in the game, yet the meek +1 advantage provided by it seems rather pitiful (of course, had the Pot never been restricted, three in one turn would provide admirable advantage). Now that the Pot has finally been banned (in my opinion not because of power, but because everyone and his dog’s mother played it, and the executives in charge of the game wanted to see some deck diversity), praise is being heaped upon miserable little draw monsters, such as Des Lacooda, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and Poison Draw Frog (and I’ve heard blatherings that the only good card in the upcoming Enemy of Justice set is Cyber Phoenix).

In my interpretation of the game, monsters are supposed to provide a solid field advantage. Big beaters like Berserk Gorilla, and indestructibles like Spirit Reaper both contribute a lasting advantage, whereas the draw monsters are so pathetically weak that an inordinate amount of Spell/Trap protection is required to get any lasting presence from them. Furthermore, only one of these monsters is capable of creating more than a +1 advantage without assistance: Des Lacooda. Dekoichi requires the restricted Tsukuyomi, and Poison Draw Frog would require one to waste precious graveyard recursion. So I ask, is one random card from the top of the deck worth the cost of a Normal Summon, and a Monster resource? To me, the answer seems obvious: No (maybe in Exodia).

Some people have written that life gain is a horrible strategy, as it is not a win condition. Yet, card drawing isn’t a win condition in itself, either, except in an Exodia Deck, where every draw could win the game. Indeed, perhaps the most idiotic statement I have read in a YGO article is, “Whoever has the most cards in their hand is winning. Life Points don’t matter.” Certainly, drawing can move one closer to any deck’s win condition, but by that token, life gain can act in a similar manner, as it places a thicker barrier between the opponent and the most common win condition: zero life points. Furthermore, Life Points DO matter, as a great amount of LP allows a player to use powerful cards with a Life Point Cost. Who will argue that Premature Burial is not a good card? How about Confiscation, or Delinquent Duo? Imperial Order? Even the classic Seven Tools of the Bandit can work wonders when used correctly.

The problem is the perception that “More is Always Better.” This is probably something subconsciously ingrained into American children by our dysfunctional capitalist machine. In some cases, yes more is always better (like with money or life points). These items are relatively small individually and are generally only useful in large amounts. But cards are not a liquid commodity like money or LP, they are a variable commodity, like stocks. Cards do different things, and having a lot of them at once can be good if you have the right ones at the right time (similar to having a diversified investment portfolio). However, you’re just as likely to draw something that doesn’t help at the moment (i.e. I really need Mystical Space Typhoon; drat, I drew a Smashing Ground). When you draw, the potential benefit is random. You could end up with some nice Berkshire Hathaway stock, or something horrible like Enron. “Card Advantage” is something of an illusion.

So, if drawing is not the key to advantage, if numbers aren’t the key to advantage, what is? Quality over quantity: the saying has been around for ages, yet Duelists still fall for the idea that sheer quantity is better. The true advantage lies not in drawing, but in tutoring. What card is the best tutor in the game? What card was banned so early? Witch of the Black Forest. I am not proclaiming the Witch to be Perfect, as so many have done with the Pot, as no card is perfect. However, for sheer utility, for nabbing the best monster for any given situation, Witch of the Black Forest is the supreme advantage. Which would you rather have in your hand: a Thunder Dragon, which will net you two useless 1600 ATK Tribute Monsters, or a Witch, which will net you almost any monster in your deck? Quality over quantity!

Just because Witch of the Black Forest is banned, it doesn’t mean we are left without excellent tutors that completely whip the remaining puny draw cards. Sangan, Witch’s hairy little brother, can do almost as much as his big sister, especially in this age of Control Decks filled with medium-sized monsters. With Warrior Toolbox as one of the current Cookie-Cutters, Reinforcement of the Army is proving itself to be a power rivaling the Witch. Reinforcement of the Army lacks universality due to its limitation to Warriors, but makes up for that by being a speedy spell and being limited by level rather than ATK/DEF. Finally, the Search-Summon monsters are proving themselves to be solid deck foundations and providers of field presence and top-notch tutoring. With all of this monster tutoring and deck thinning, a few weak +1 draw cards seem inadequate and unnecessary. We still get to draw once per turn!

The only real lack of tutoring seems to be in the area of spells. For traps we have A Cat of Ill Omen, for Field Spells we have An Owl of Luck and Terraforming, for Equips we have Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. The only tutoring we have for other kinds of spells are the slow and unreliable Different Dimension Capsule, and the decktype-centered Ancient Gear Drill. Getting the exact card you need is great, but waiting two turns and possibly losing that card for the remainder of the duel are quite counter to all of the good points possessed by other forms of tutoring. If only Konami would give us a balanced Spell Tutor. Perhaps something like: “Discard one Spell card from your hand to the graveyard and pay 1000 Life Points: add one Spell card from your deck to your hand.” The cost would be fairly high, and would result in a loss of numerical advantage, but the quality advantage would more than make up for that.

In conclusion, having the one right card is more important than having many wrong cards in any given situation in a duel. Tutoring is the supreme advantage, not drawing. In addition, monster specific tutoring is abundant and becomes still more powerful when it includes a Special Summon of the tutored monster. Therefore, I will end with this controversial statement: Elegant Egotist is better than Pot of Greed.

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Article - My Take on Bans and Restrictions

Whenever a new Banned/Restricted List is announced by Konami, Duelists everywhere inevitably will have something to say about it. Usually they have complaints. I am no different from these other Duelists in having something to say about the Banned/Restricted List and I am also no different in having complaints about The List. However, I have formulated my own Banned/Restricted List that I believe would solve a great many of the problems with the game and allow several decktypes to emerge on each tier of playability.

I first started to question the quality of The List around the time Torrential Tribute was released. It was absurd to have a list that restricted Raigeki, Dark Hole, Mirror Force, and Cyber Jar but left Torrential Tribute untouched. Duelists could conceivable run seven pieces of mass monster removal in a single deck! It was absurd. So I restricted myself to one Torrential Tribute. It wasn’t official, it wasn’t required, and it put me at a disadvantage to those cutthroat players who were more willing to take advantage of the situation. But it was the right thing to do.

Soon after that, I realized that even running one of each of those still left five forms of mass monster removal in a single deck, which was ridiculous. So I restricted myself again, limiting myself to one mass monster removal spell, one mass monster removal trap, and one mass monster removal effect monster. It opened up a lot of space in my deck, and when playing against other decks with a similar construction allowed for a fun, yet balanced metagame.

Then Konami implemented the Bans. This was a dark day for me, as one of the things I most appreciated about Duel Monsters over Magic (aside from game mechanics) was the fact that no card was banned. Konami thought banning certain cards outright was necessary to rebalance the metagame, squelch cookie-cutter decks, and increase originality (as well as to sell new booster packs, because, let’s face it: if Konami is releasing crap like Elemental Heroes when we already have cards like Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning and Mirror Force, who’s going to be interested in the new sets?). Konami perceived the problem to be too many broken cards.

Konami was correct in that perception. There were too many broken cards. But to me the answer was not to ban them outright, but to limit the number of them allowed in any given deck as well as to break overpowered combos. Broken cards are a fundamental part of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, and they make the game fun and allow for big swings in momentum throughout the course of a duel. My solution: Either-Or Restrictions. Either-Or Restrictions could also be called Group Restrictions or Cluster Restrictions, as they take a group of broken cards, cluster them together, and allow Duelists to pick one or two out of each group for their deck at the cost of not using any others from the same group. It’s a simple solution and it would break the power of cookie-cutters by putting most overly-splashable, broken cards into the same cluster. It’s a similar concept to how I restricted myself with the mass monster removal cards.

My ideas about which cards belong in which clusters are constantly evolving along with the game, so the following Restricted List model isn’t set in stone, but I think it would be a good first step. I propose to do away with the Traditional/Advanced Dual Formats entirely, replacing them with this universal list, for Japan, North America, and Europe. The only possible problem I perceive with Either-Or restrictions is an increase in difficulty regarding Deck-Checks at tournament registrations. However, Deck-Checks are already riddled with problems, so I don’t think my solution would make them much worse.

Without further ado, I present my
Ideal, Visionary Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Restriction List:
(Note the explanations below each Group Restriction, and * by restrictions on my list that differ from the official list, followed by reasons.)

Either-Or Limited (you may use one copy of one card in each group in your deck):
Group 1: Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning, Chaos Emperor Dragon-Envoy of the End, Magical Scientist, Sinister Serpent, Victory Dragon (j), Yata-Garasu.

Why?: With the exception of Victory Dragon, these are the most broken monsters ever released. Dealing with one of them in a deck would be possible, but this gang of Good Ol’ Boys needs to be broken-up.

Group 2: Breaker the Magical Warrior, Exiled Force, Mobius the Frost Monarch, Ring of Destruction, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Tsukuyomi.

Why?: These are some of the most annoying, most easily splashable cards in the game. The group needs to be separated. Note that Mobius is now limited. His effect is on par with, and perhaps scarier than Jinzo’s. Leaving him unrestricted is a mistake.

Group 3: Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, The Forceful Sentry.

Why?: Hand disruption is a solid strategy, but these are too easily splashable and are too dangerous together.

Group 4: Calamity of the Wicked(j), Harpie’s Feather Duster, Heavy Storm.

Why?: One form of mass spell/trap removal is enough. It may be argued that nobody would use Heavy Storm if they could use HFD. I believe there are plenty of strategies that would involve destroying one’s own spells/traps, such as: Statue of the Wicked/Dark Coffin/Pyramid of Light, clearing out a Royal Decree/Level Limit/Gravity Bind that has outlived its usefulness, etc.

Group 5: Graceful Charity, Pot of Greed, Sixth Sense (j).

Why?: Powerful drawing should be limited.

Group 6: Cathedral of Nobles (j), Makyura the Destructor, Mirage of Nightmare, Painful Choice.

Why?: These are some annoying combo cards that should be kept separate.

Either-Or Semi-Limited (you may use one copy of up to two cards in each group in your deck):

Group 1: Dark Hole, Mirror Force, Raigeki, Torrential Tribute.

Why?: Two forms of mass monster removal are enough. The return of Imperial Order also keeps powerful spells in check.

Group 2: Cyber Jar, Fiber Jar, Morphing Jar.

Why?: Two forms of mass advantage generation and randomness are enough.

Group 3: Brain Control, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal.

Why?: Two forms of low-cost monster theft are enough. Note, Brain Control is now limited. Soul Exchange and Mind Control dodged this bullet because they have well-balancing negative effects.

Group 4: Fissure, Hammer Shot, Sakuretsu Armor, Smashing Ground, Widespread Ruin.

Why?: There is too much costless monster removal in the game. It needs to be kept in check. Note that all of these cards are now limited.

Limited (you may use one copy of each of the following cards in your deck):

Book of Moon

Butterfly Dagger-Elma

Call of the Haunted

Card Destruction

*Catapult Turtle (to hinder Scientist OTK)

Ceasefire

*Chaos Sorcerer (He may be the weakest Chaos monster, but he’s still a Chaos monster.)

*Cyber Dragon (It is the biggest ‘non-tribute’ monster without a balancing effect. It makes other monsters useless for field presence. Proto Cyber Dragon fills its shoes in Cyber Laser/Barrier themed decks.)

D.D. Assailant

D.D. Warrior Lady

Dandelion (j)

*Dark Balter the Terrible (Restriction prevents Metamorphosis abuse.)

Dark Magician of Chaos

Deck Destruction Virus (j)

*Deck Devastation Virus (this should stay at one)

Drop-Off

*Dust Tornado (It is ridiculous to restrict MST but not this. Free, easy removal.)

Exchange of the Spirit

Exodia the Forbidden One

*Fiend Skull Dragon (Restriction prevents Metamorphosis abuse.)

Imperial Order

Injection Fairy Lily

Jinzo

Last Turn

Last Will

Left Arm of the Forbidden One

Left Leg of the Forbidden One

Lightning Vortex

Mage Power

Magic Cylinder

*Magician of Faith (this should stay at one)

Marshmallon (j)

Mask of Darkness

Monster Reborn

Mystical Space Typhoon

*Nobleman of Crossout (this should stay at one)

Pot of Avarice

Premature Burial

Protector of the Sanctuary

*Reinforcement of the Army (All other forms of tutoring of this caliber are limited (Witch & Sangan)).

Right Arm of the Forbidden One

Right Leg of the Forbidden One

*Royal Decree (Imperial Order and Jinzo are limited. This should be too.

*Ryu-Senshi (Restriction prevents Metamorphosis abuse.)

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

Sangan

Scapegoat

*Spirit Reaper (Marshmallon is limited, this should be too. Indestructible monsters are too powerful to be unrestricted.)

Swords of Revealing Light

Thousand-Eyes Restrict

Time Seal

Twin-Headed Behemoth

United We Stand

Witch of the Black Forest

Semi-Limited (you may use up to two copies of each of the following cards in your deck):

*Abyss Soldier (With Sinister Serpent available, this is too good to be unrestricted.)

Apprentice Magician

Creature Swap

Emergency Provisions

*Enemy Controller (Blocks attacks, steals resources, and should be kept in check.)

Gravity Bind

*Level Limit - Area B (Limiting this to one puts the final nails into the coffins of too many decktypes.)

*Limiter Removal (Machines need a little boost. Plus, it is easily worked around by a prepared opponent.)

Manticore of Darkness

*Morphing Jar #2 (Too annoying to be unrestricted.)

*Night Assailant (The Night Assailant Loop is too cool to kill. Just keep it from being too silly.)

*Reckless Greed (This card only becomes unbalanced when used in threes.)

Reflect Bounder

Off the List (these formerly-restricted cards are now unrestricted):

*Excavation of Magical Stones (j) (Hefty discard cost = balanced card.)

*Good Goblin Housekeeping (This thing is only good if used in threes. Leave the poor goblin alone!)

*Metamorphosis (The Morph Deck is a cool idea, and by limiting certain fusion monsters, I believe it can be kept under control. Limiting Scapegoat, TER, and Tsukuyomi does enough to hinder Goat Control without limiting Metamorphosis as well.)

*Treeborn Frog (This thing’s own effect prevents the abuse of multiples. Restriction is unnecessary.)

*Upstart Goblin (If people are that desperate for card-drawing, let them run this. It’s a worse version of Jar of Greed anyway, and that’s never been restricted. At least Jar of Greed can chain to destruction for a +1.)

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Review - Robbin' Goblin: The King of Hand Control.

Robbin’ Goblin is a hand control card that I have used since its release. Yet I never see it receive the respect it deserves as a card that can wipe an opponent’s hand clean. Robbin’ Goblin is mocked because it’s a trap (“Too slow! Jinzo!”), and permanent (“MST/Dust Tornado fodder!”). I don’t believe traps are particularly slow. If waiting until your opponent’s next draw phase is too difficult for you, you are too impatient. Jinzo is a threat to traps, true, but he’s wide open to all kinds of spell- and monster-based removal (some permanent, like the D.D. Folks), as his controller won’t be able to protect him with traps. And as soon as Jinzo’s taking a dirt nap, the Goblin can go right back to robbin’.

For some odd reason, Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper (and for a while after it’s release, White Magical Hat) have received all kinds of praise for their ability to nibble away at the opponent’s hand while doing what monsters were made to do: LP damage. Yet all of these monsters have relatively horrible stats. Wouldn’t it be nice if Mobius the Frost Monarch also had a hand nibbling effect? If only there was a card that could give it to him!

Even when Robbin’ Goblin is unable to perform its intended task of pilfering the opponent’s hand, it can serve other purposes as well. It makes an excellent bluff, perhaps scaring an opponent out of attacking until he can draw some removal. Even when it’s destroyed by a Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado while face-up, it contributes a 1-for-1, and a very important one, as the opponent has used a valuable removal card that won’t become a problem later in the duel. If a Robbin’ Goblin can stick around for a couple of turns in an Aggro Deck, the advantage it can generate is astonishing. An army of buff Don Zaloog clones, each with their own effects in tow, can strip an opponent’s options to nothing, cause early topdecking, and win games. Let’s see the one-shot wonders, Delinquent Duo and Confiscation, do that!

Rating: 4/5

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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

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Introduction

Well, here I am. I never thought I’d be writing a blog. However, a friend of mine convinced me that my ideas about Duel Monsters are worth sharing. Since I disdain the middle-school mentality of most bulletin boards, I decided to go out on my own (as usual) and post some articles on a blog.

I’ve been playing Duel Monsters since it debuted in America. Like everyone then, I nearly fainted when I pulled a BEWD out of one of the four booster packs I allowed myself (believing that I could enjoy the game without sinking a lot of money into it). Little did I know that a Japanese card game would become such a long-lasting fascination, or that my pack pulls weren’t actually all that great.

Some may question my credibility, as I don’t play in tournaments. The closest local tournament is 30 miles away and held on Sundays. When I was in college, I had homework, and now that I’m part of the working world, I just don’t have time to compulsively participate, as is required to really get anywhere in the tournament scene. Plus, I REALLY hate the Kaiba-esque attitudes adopted by so many tournament players and the ridiculous overpopulation of identical decks which are basically the Restricted List put into sleeves and stacked together. I hold myself apart from that, observing all aspects of the game, from cookie-cutter tournaments to casual duels with God Cards. I am a Duel Monsters Scholar. I study the game for the love of it, not for the glory, and my intention with my articles is to share ideas, examine cards, and hopefully improve the state of the game just a little bit.

My interest in Duel Monsters began when I was at home during Spring Break one year. I was channel surfing and came across the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. I was shocked: here we had characters playing a game that closely resembled Magic: the Gathering, only without the casting costs. Now, I have had a long love/hate relationship with Magic. I was introduced to that game when Fallen Empires was the latest set. I found the basic concept to be really interesting: duels between people who have constructed different decks from a common pool of cards. However, I took great umbrage with some of the rules of Magic. Casting costs in particular made my blood boil. The inability to summon a single goblin due to being “mana screwed” was something that happened to me far too often. I even went so far as to construct my Magic deck with no cards possessing a casting cost greater than 2, but it still didn’t help. I saw Duel Monsters as a natural progression from Magic; moving from slow, convoluted, and aggravating to fast, simple, and fun. (No offence to the Magic fans out there, but that’s the way I see it.) After seeing the anime for the first time, I immediately hopped onto Google to see if Duel Monsters really existed. I discovered that it had been around in Japan since 1996 and was to be released in America by the end of the month. Joyfully, I read the online rules at Upperdeck’s site and was thoroughly impressed.

My interest in the game has lead me to amass a large collection of cards (in most cases three copies of everything playable) so I can assemble any given deck at any given time. I read almost every article posted on Pojo, Metagame, Edo, and DM Comet. I have gained a great understanding of the game from my research and practice. Hopefully I will be able to add to the pool of knowledge present in these great websites.

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