DBS Decks from "Malicious Machinations"

The booster set "Malicious Machinations" introduced a number of new, unique strategies to the world of Dragon Ball Super. Today, I'd like to list a few of my favorites, along with what makes them unique.

1. Super Baby 2!

The new Super Baby cards are a mix of Yellow and Red cards, and use "Brainwashed" Z-Fighters as fuel. You've got Bulma, Goten, Trunks, and Gohan all acting as fuel for the parasitic Baby, who takes Vegeta through several stages of power. The theme also features several attacks that reduce your opponent's cards attack - and if a card's attack goes to 0, it's discarded!

2. Android 21

From the hit-game FighterZ, Android 21 makes her premiere in DBS. Her Blue/Green deck functions much like the game, creating clones on the opponent's field, then bringing out different hero's (marked by "Supreme Technique") and villains (labeled "Maleficent Technique") that destroy the clones for beneficial effects. 

3. Dr. Uiro and Dr. Kochin

From the movie, "World's Strongest," Dr. Uiro (or Wheelo as he's more popularly known) makes his entrance to DBS. His theme features an extremely unique strategy; if you place 17 cards underneath "Dr. Uiro's Lab," you win the game, right then and there. To make this possible, you summon a number of Dr. Uiro and Kochin's creations, the Bio-Warrios, as well as Dr. Uiro himself blocking opponent's attacks and robbing cards from both players to place underneath his lab! 

4. Dr. Lychee 

Dr. Lychee's an interesting guy; he's featured in video game cutscenes, but never actually in a series. He famously nullified ki abilites with his Destron Gas and summoned numerous Ghost Warriors - famous movie villains and enemies from Z, all of whom have made the trip over to the card game with Dr. Lychee. Finally, his computer, overflowing with his hatred fro the Saiyans, became its own entity - Hatchyack. Hatchyack is tough enough to hang with Super Saiyans, so you can throw out an army of Ghost Warriors while you wait to bring out Hatchyack. 

5. Bulma and the Battle of Gods

Bulma gets her own leader, and it brings a new focus on Earhtlings, giving them all a boost. But, even better, it lets you relive the Battle of Gods film! Gather Saiyans, perform the ritual to turn Goku into a Super Saiyan God, and unleash him on Beerus! Cards like Birthday Party, Birth of a Super Saiyan God, and Videl herself help us to gather the Saiyans we need to help Goku reach Beerus' level. And if you need something in the meantime, Vegeta, filled with fury, will fight for Bulma. This Red/Yellow deck is sure to be a blast. 

IRL Casual: Igknight Exodia

I got the last few cards I needed for a deck in the mail today, and I'm excited to share it! One caution: it is meant for play in a hypothetical Master Rule 3 environment. This means that the deck doesn't work in any actual competitive setting where the pendulum summoning rule change that came with links applies; this one's strictly for the kitchen table.

That said, it's a deck that feels great when it goes off properly, and has a very simple gameplan. It makes for a great basic pendulum deck for beginners, and has lots of room for customization. Behold, Igknight Exodia!:

I hope my choice of Exodia hasn't thrown you off. Ever since Exodia, the Legendary Defender came out, I've been wanting to put it to use. However, the burden off assembling 5 monsters to tribute before you normal summon was a heavy one, and I'd rather resort to mass pendulum summoning tribute fodder instead of building a deck that attempts to slowly gather the necessary cards. Igknights are perfect for supporting Exodia; they can fill the Extra Deck at the drop of a hat, thanks to their pendulum effects. After a few searches, you'll have all the monsters you need when the time is right.

Of course, if you're going to bother summoning Exodia, you've got to do it right! While we could settle for summoning an Exodia with massive ATK, with the right deck, we can take things a step further and use his effect to win the duel in one battle! When Exodia, the Legendary Defender destroys a DARK Fiend-type monster in battle, he'll unleash all of his power and win the duel on the spot. The rub is that the monster has to be your opponent's, and not just during that turn - it has to be owned by your opponent. This means we can't just give a monster to our opponent for us to win, but it'll have to be the opponent's own monster, from the very beginning of the duel.

Luckily, there's a relatively painless way for us to transform the opponent's monsters into the kind of lowlifes Exodia likes to beat up. While your Igknights nobly defend you from the front lines, returning to protect you turn after turn, you'll be digging for two cards.

The first one is the field spell, Lair of Darkness. While Lair of Darkness is active, all monsters on the field become DARK attribute. That takes care of one half of Exodia's requirements; and with the help of DNA Surgery, your opponent's DARK monsters will become Fiends! Once you've assembled Lair of Darkness, a set DNA Surgery, and a copy of Exodia in your hand, you'll pendulum summon so that your field is full of tributes, summon Exodia, and activate Lair of Darkness. If your opponent has even one face-up monster, launch into an attack, use DNA Surgery at the last moment to turn it into a Fiend, and automatically win the duel!

As I said, it's a simple strategy. I'll explain a few card choices after showing you the list:

Igknight Exodia
Monsters: 30
3 Exodia, the Legendary Defender
3 Igknight Gallant
3 Igknight Cavalier
3 Igknight Templar
3 Igknight Crusader
3 Igknight Squire
3 Igknight Paladin
3 Igknight Margrave
3 Igknight Veteran
3 Ahrima the Wicked Warden

Spells: 7
3 Lair of Darkness
3 Igknight Reload
1 White Elephant's Gift

Traps: 3
3 DNA Surgery

This deck is loaded to the brim with Igknight monsters to increase your chances off going off and blowing through a bunch of them as early as possible; that way, they'll be out of your main deck and in your Extra Deck. From there, it'll be easier to draw into your key combo pieces with the Igknights out of the way and providing a steady stream of defenders.

Ahrima, the Wicked Warden helps us get to Lair of Darkness more quickly, and also reduces the size of our deck int the process. Igknight Reload helps us fix our hand while also thinning our deck by one more card. White Elephant's Gift is an easy way to transform extra Igknights into more cards drawn, getting you even closer to Exodia, DNA Surgery, or the Lair. This deck is pretty straightforward, although your choice of Extra Deck monsters can help you go on the offense if you don't feel like waiting for Exodia. The deck could also benefit from some back row destruction; as it is, you're hoping to squeeze in one attack, and hoping your opponent doesn't negate your summon or have an effect to stop the attack. This deck is the definition of glass cannon, in that regard. Maybe throw in some Red Reboot's, or Twin Twisters.

But really, what's the point of dueling if every once in a while you can't just sacrifice all of your monsters, cry out, "Exodia!" and attack for game?

Serialized No Longer: ROTD's New Gaia Monsters

Yu-Gi-Oh! has found itself in an interesting space in regards to mainline booster set releases following the end of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. It's uncertain if Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS will include cards for release in main booster sets, or if the cards from the series will largely be relegated to the upcoming Rush Duels product line in the OCG. While the jury is out on whether Rise of the Duelist (the first OCG Booster Pack following Eternity Code, the last VRAINS-era booster pack) will include any cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, it would seem from what has been previewed so far that the pack will focus exclusively on past archetypes and game-original themes. This is supported by the cover monster being a game-original monster - one indicative of a new theme that I'm excited to talk about today.

Gaia the Fierce Knight has been with players since the beginning of the game, premiering in Legend of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and its OCG equivalent. It has maintained a degree of thematic relevance throughout the history of the game with Extra Deck focused retrains with every new summoning mechanic, and periodic retrains, such as Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight.

There was even a stint where "Gaia" monsters took on a new thematic identity, joining forces with Kuriboh's to support Black Luster Soldier ritual monsters. This was a fun bit of lore, taken from Yugi's duel against Mai in the Duelist Kingdom quarter-finals, where Yugi summoned Black Luster Soldier for the first time, by unleashing the powers of chaos on Gaia the Fierce Knight himself. These chaos-themed, ritual-supporting Gaia's and company were released in Dimension of Chaos, Breakers of Shadow, and Raging Tempest. They focused on searching when tributes, and giving additional effects to "Black Luster Soldier" monsters. Today's theme, however, has little synergy with  the bulk of these cards, although they provide three tools that I believe could be worth including in a post-ROTD "Gaia" deck.  

Envoy of Chaos is a Honest-esque hand-trap that functions to help "Gaia the Fierce Knight" and "Black Luster Soldier" monsters. During battle, it changes the opponent's monsters's ATK to the original ATK of whatever "Gaia" or "Black Luster Soldier" monster you are using to battle, then increases your monster's ATK by 1500. This ensures that you'll win every battle by 1500! This is handy for getting the ball rolling with our new boss monster, Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion (more on him later!).

Gateway to Chaos has seen limited high-level play thanks to the spell Set Rotation. With the prevalence of field spells in many modern decks, Set Rotation frequently saw play as an extra copy of Terraforming that had a fringe benefit: by giving your opponent a copy of Gateway to Chaos, they were locked out of playing their own field spells. This is because Gateway can only be activated when there is a valid target in your deck for it to search. Given that few, if any, decks played "Gaia" or "Black Luster Soldier" ritual monsters, this meant that Gateway would remain facedown on the opponent's field, locking them out of any field spells, thanks to Set Rotation's effect. 

This strategy has fallen out of favor since the limitation of Set Rotation. Including a potentially-useless field spell in the hopes of drawing a lone copy of Set Rotation was not appealing. In a dedicated "Gaia the Fierce Knight" deck, however, Gateway to Chaos is an easy way to search out key parts of your strategy. By including the only-allowed copy of Set Rotation in our deck list, we're also able to lock down an opponent if the chance presents itself. 

Finally, Beginning of Heaven and Earth is the trap search card for that also loads the GY for Chaos Summons. It functions as a more limited Painful Choice, limited to "Gaia" and "Black Luster Soldier" monsters. Our sample deck list will include a few copies of Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and this trap will help to load our GY with LIGHT attribute monsters in our DARK-heavy deck. It also helps us get to the lynchpin of the new "Gaia" strategy, Gaia the Magical Knight. 

With these options in hand to support the new kids on the block, let's take a look at the new cards introduced by Rise of the Duelist. We'll start with the crux of the strategy: Gaia the Magical Knight, Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon, Spiral Fusion, and Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion. 

It's clear that Gaia, the Magical Knight and Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon are meant to work in tandem to summon Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion in an economic, quick way. Anytime you summon Magical Gaia, he'll summon Cursed Dragon from your hand or GY, and Cursed Dragon will fetch you Spiral Fusion. Conveniently enough, you know have the required materials for Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion on the field, meaning you can go right into the fusion. The first time around, you'll probably summon Cursed Dragon from your hand, meaning you're losing two cards in return for a Magical Champion with 5200 ATK that can punch through two monsters, gain 2600 ATK for each one he does, and gives you up to 4 interruptions on your opponent's turn through destroying their monsters. 

And make no mistake, Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion's quick effect is extremely good; it's the crux of the new Gaia strategy, preventing your opponent from forming an unbeatable board while you punch them really, really hard. This strategy is supported by new "Spiral" trap cards: Spiral Discharge and Spiral Reborn.

Spiral Reborn is a simple resurrection trap for Level 7 and higher Dragons - meaning Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion. If you do choose to bring him back, he becomes immune to targeting and destruction by card effects. This is a nice benefit, meaning your opponent will have to fight their way through him (or use a non-targeting removal option). This protection gives Gaia time to build his ATK up again, and prevents your opponent from taking the easy way out when staring down a Magical Dragon Champion with over 5000 ATK. Unfortunately, being a reactive trap card prevents this from really advancing the Gaia strategy. That said, the fact that it's searchable by Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon makes it a decent inclusion in our strategy. 

Our second "Spiral" trap card is Spiral Discharge. Discharge helps take care of Gaia the Magical Dragon Champions' inability to destroy spell/trap cards by letting you destroy one every time Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion is involved in battle - including when your opponent attacks. This is a nice deterrent and while it would've been nice if Gaia had the ability to take care of spell/traps on his own, overall this is a nice addition to the strategy.

Oh, and it prevents your opponent from attacking other monsters in case you're trying to build up a field or continue benefitting from a monster like Bombarding Catapult Turtle. 

That's right! Thanks to Yugi's duel against Panik, Catapult Turtle is now intrinsically tied to Gaia the Fierce Knight. And while this Catapult Turtle probably won't be launching Gaia into any flotation rings, it sure does a lot to increase the consistency of the Gaia strategy.

Bombarding Catapult Turtle is Level 4, which is great news - no slow, clunky tribute summoning for this turtle. His effect lets you tribute a monster to summon a Gaia or one of your Cursed Dragons from your hand or Deck. The Turtle doesn't specify that you have to tribute another monster, which makes him an excellent summon; drop him, and summon your Magical Knight or your Cursed Dragon, depending on what you have in your hand. 

Bombarding Catapult Turtle's effect is even better when considered in conjunction with the new Field Spell, Charging Gaia.* Charging Gaia has two main effects: one prevents your opponent from thwarting Magical Gaia's attacks during the battle phase by locking your opponent out of activating any cards or effects during the Battle Phase. 

*Because we don't care about Gateway to Chaos' second effect, once we've activated it and search a Gaia monster, we can then destroy it by activating a copy of Charging Gaia, and not have lost anything of value.

The second effect increases your consistency by allowing you to reveal a Gaia, the Fierce Knight or a Level 5 Dragon and fetching the other piece of the puzzle from your Deck. This ensures that your Gaia, the Magical Knight will never be dead, as you can just reveal it and add Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon from your Deck to your hand. It also ensures that you won't be left with Cursed Dragon, unable to make a play by making your Cursed Dragon search your Magical Knight. 

There's one more new Gaia that acts as a sort of insurance plan for our whole strategy. Let's say you've activated Charging Gaia, but you've already got your Cursed Dragon and Magical Knight. Then you'll grab this guy: 

Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight! He has a nifty effect to switch a monster to defense, letting you beat over it with his 2600 ATK, but we're really here for his search effect. To summon Soldier Gaia, you tribute a Dragon-type Fusion monster - i.e. a Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion whose ATK we've used up. On summon, Soldier Gaia lets you add any Level 7 or higher Warrior from your Deck to your hand. If the armor Soldier Gaia is wearing wasn't clue enough, we'll be grabbing this guy, 99% of the time: 

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning isn't as ubiquitous as it used to be, but it still packs a punch, especially as a follow-up to Soldier Gaia. One fusion summon of Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion will load your GY for the summon of Black Luster Soldier, thanks to the attributes of Magical Knight and Cursed Dragon (LIGHT and DARK), and a single activation of Beginning of Heaven and Earth could do the same. 

Better yet, Soldier Gaia breaks rank with the other Gaia's with his Level - 8. This makes him a perfect compliment for a Rank 8 Xyz summon. Ran out of gas in your Magical Dragon Champion? Tribute him to summon Soldier Gaia, search Black Luster Soldier, summon him, banish an opponent's monster, then if the situation calls for it, overlay for an Xyz! This summon will also, coincidentally, leave your GY with a LIGHT and DARK monster to fuel another copy of Black Luster Soldier later. 

Before we look at a deck list, there's a final set of monsters to consider. In the Millennium Pack, Curse of Dragon, and Gaia the Dragon Champion received their first direct retrains, and their first support spell card. 

Curse of Dragonfire is a simple but nice addition to the Gaia strategy, allowing you to fusion summon without a spell card, and being searchable off of Charging Gaia. At the time of the Millennium Pack this was to facilitate summoning Sky Galloping Gaia the Dragon Champion. Sky Galloping Gaia is also usable in our strategy thanks to its generic summoning requirements of a Gaia and Dragon-type monster. It lets you add Spiral Spear Strike from your GY or Deck to hand, and has a battle effect to change an opponent's monster to defense mode, so that you can profit off of the ability of Spiral Spear Strike. Spiral Spear Strike (searchable by Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon) allows Gaia the Dragon Champion (and our two fusions who take on his name) to inflict piercing battle damage; and when this happens, you can draw 2 then discard 1 card. This sort of hand filtering is helpful for loading the GY for Black Luster Soldier. 

Finally, to round out our deck, we can add more LIGHT by including Charging Gaia the Fierce Knight. His effect likely won't come up very often, but we're looking primarily for his attribute and name. By including more Gaia monsters, we can use Charging Gaia more often, and he can be one half of a Dragon Champion. 

Lord Gaia the Fierce Knight fills a similar role, and has a simple summoning condition. He makes for a decent beatstick, and can block any opponent's monster with less than 3000 ATK from beating over him. So, in a worst case scenario we might be able to turtle with him for a bit. Otherwise he can fill out the deck, be used as fusion material, trigger Charging Gaia, and help us apply pressure to the opponent - just make sure to summon him before your big fusion plays, otherwise he'll be stuck in your hand!

Now, for a sample deck list. This deck is strictly for casual play; it doesn't have enough depth to play through multiple levels of interruption like most top tier decks. To upgrade this deck for more competitive play, I'd remove all 3 Envoy of Chaos and 3 of the Gaia's or Beginning of Heaven and Earth's to make space for 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and 3 Called by the Grave. Twin Twisters (or Lightning Storm, for the wealthy among us) might also be helpful in clearing your opponent's traps before fusion summoning. If more space is needed, the Spiral trap cards are honestly not the best. But I enjoy thematic unity, so here's a casual deck list for playing around with Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion:

Monsters: 21

2 Gaia the Magical Knight

2 Lord Gaia the Fierce Knight

3 Charging Gaia the Fierce Knight

2 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

3 Cursed Dragon - Curse of Dragon

1 Curse of Dragonfire

3 Envoy of Chaos 

2 Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight

3 Bombarding Catapult Turtle

Spells: 12

1 Terraforming

1 Set Rotation

1 Spiral Spear Strike

3 Spiral Fusion

3 Charging Gaia

3 Gateway to Chaos

Traps: 7

3 Beginning of Heaven and Earth

1 Spiral Discharge

3 Spiral Reborn

Extra Deck

2 Gaia the Magical Dragon Champion

1 Sky Galloping Gaia the Dragon Champion

13 of your favorite Rank 8 and Link monsters

Arc V Episode 2 Review

And with that, it seems the main plot has been set into motion!
This episode did a great job following up on the previous one, while also setting up what looks to be the main plot. Yuya wins his duel against Strong Ishijima, and with it, a healthy dose of fame. It turns out that he doesn't remember how to Pendulum summon, making things awkward in front of the press, and his potential new fan club. Yuya duels Yuzu in an exhibition duel, trying to recreate the circumstances under which he pendulum summoned, only to be knocked flat on his back when he fails to pendulum summon again.
The main point of this episode is two-fold: Yuya is trying to rediscover pendulum summoning, and the You Show Duel School is trying to sign on a slew of new students, thanks to Yuya's highly publicized victory. The episode also deals with the resolution of his duel against Strong, which is handled neatly and quickly after an effective recap. Actually, between the new developments with "pendulum cards"and the You Show Duel School hijinks, I nearly forgot that Yuya defeated Strong in this episode -- it was packed!
Despite that, the duel in the second half of the series was very boring. It lasted a total of 4 turns, one of which was Yuya attempting -- and failing -- too pendulum summon, with nothing else to do. The plot demanded a flat duel that has "Failure" written all over it, but it still doesn't make it very entertaining to watch.
It also appears that whoever's in charge of Leo Duel School will be our arc villain, hiring somebody to steal Yuya's pendulum cards at the end of the episode. It'll be nice to have a villain face off with Yuya, although Yuzu pretending to be a villain was quite enjoyable, and made sense, given their backgrounds as performers-in-training. A solid episode, that continues to portray realistic actions and consequences. Here's to hoping Yuya doesn't get caught in the all-too-common fame trap!

Rating:
8/10

- Little action/stale duel in latter half
- Not feeling too attached to You Show Duel School
+ Logical results of discovering new cards and summoning methods explored
+ Yuya's friends matter
+ Dueling female!
+ A legitimate villain appears
+ Feels like two episodes in one!

Arc V Episode 1 Review

Arc V, the latest iteration of the Yu-Gi-Oh! is off to a promising start!
In the first episode, we're introduced to Yuya, the yu-tagonist, along with his female friend, her father, and stoic best friend. In addition, we meet one (or both?) of his parents, leading into serious character development for Yuya.
The basic idea is that Yuya is at a Duel Academy-like school to become a performer, in a future where new advances in duel technology have created "solid vision." These solid holograms have revolutionized dueling, and, as the series progresses, may have even greater repercussions (making the scenery come to life? Please, if the only time Yuya rides his hippo is during a duel, I'm a monkey's uncle). In this episode, he faces Strong Ishijima, the man who ostensibly scared his father into retirement. They duel to the roar of crowds, and while Yuya puts up a decent fight, all hope seems lost, until his pendulum necklace, a gift from his father, glows and his cards change. As the episode ends, Yuya performs the first pendulum summon of the Yu-Gi-Oh! era, surprising the crowd, his opponent, and even himself.
There is a lot to like here, and it's only the first episode! I have some high hopes for Arc V, though that doesn't mean there weren't a few hiccups either.
First off, we have Yuya's parents. I'm not sure if Yoko is supposed to be Yuya's mother or not -- but I'll assume she is. Her husband(?) Yusho had a huge influence in this episode, from the opponent, to Yuya's life philosophy, to the shiny new summoning method. It's thanks to his dad that Yuya is such an upbeat kid, but it's also thanks to his dad running out before a championship duel that Yuya has been coping by making fun of himself for the past three years. From the cold-open duel, it looks like Yuya has been clownish for some time, and his friends don't like it. Based off of his duel with Ishijima, and Yoko's statement that he's reinventing himself, it may be that Yuya has already moved past this self-deprecating phase, and will be more serious and confident in future duels.
Yuya himself is a likable protagonist. He reacts understandably towards his father's disappearance, and is clearly an intelligent duelist. I look forward to seeing how much of his personality will be serious and how goofy he'll be in the future. It looks like we have a duelist closer to Yugi than Yuma here, and that's cause for relief.
Yuya's friends, Yuzu and Gongenzaka, also make their debut in this episode. Gongenzaka appears to be the typical straight man to Yuya's clown, and is generally serious. In my opinion he's a little too gruff towards Yuma in this episode: why would you suggest fighting head-on when your monster is clearly outclassed by your opponent's? Give him a break! However, this is likely just his personality, and won't be a problem if they develop that aspect of his character, rather than just turning him into the obligatory "friend who opposes you" for this episode. Yuzu herself is also fairly generic in her first appearance. Thus far, she seems to be the hot-tempered (ironic, seeing how her father always goes on about his hot blood) female who hits the hero for perceived stupidity. In some ways, Yuzu seems to be similar to Naruto's Sakura Haruno.
While I wonder why more hasn't been said to clarify the situation with Yuya's father, I'm willing to wait for more information. After all, this is just the first episode, and it was jam-packed. We had an entertaining duel, some important backstory, and the introduction of several characters and new, core concepts for the series, such as Action Duels and Solid Vision. Ishijima is a good first opponent for Yuya, being connected to his father, and having a strong, professional aura about him, to combat Yuya's light hearted attitude. In spite of this important bearing on Yuya's backstory, I doubt we'll see more of Ishijima after his defeat, however. I was impressed by the maturity of Yuya's friends when Nico Smiley came to recruit him, and was pleased to see that they are being portrayed as legitimately caring about his emotional health, not just dueling glory.
My favorite part of this episode was Yusho's simple pendulum-based advice to his son: when life pushes, you can push back harder. When you want to cry, laugh, and use that energy to push back.

Rating:
8/10

- Generic Yuzu and Gongenzaka
- Who is Yoko?
- So... Yuya's dad ran out of his life and a duel? Wait, what?
+ Interesting setting
+ Good protagonist
+ Characters act in a believable way
+ Promising character development

The Catapult Turtle Conundrum

Recently, a major errata was made to the OCG Catapult Turtle. It's effect has been changed to activate once per turn now. Most speculation points towards the Pendulum Summon mechanic being to blame, and this being an effort to curb OTK's based off of it in the future, but that's only speculation, given our limited knowledge of Pendulum Summoning. 

I'd like to step aside from Catapult Turtle for a second, and discuss a recent trend in the OCG. The rules were recently changed so that the player going first does not draw, to balance out the inherent advantage that comes with going first. The rules for field spell cards was also changed, so that both players can have a field spell active. These are interesting changes that go against over a decade of history -- very similar to the change in Catapult Turtle's effect. It's unknown at this time whether of not the TCG will make similar changes, so our discussion will remain in terms of the OCG. 

The point of interest about all these changes is that, for the most part, card design is much more interested in balance nowadays. Compare cards like Pot of Greed to Pot of Duality, or Pot of Acarice and Pot of Dichotomy. As a general rule, restrictions and conditions are placed on newer cards, as opposed to the unfettered cards that ran rampant back in the early days of the game. 

If the OCG is willing to add a restriction to an older card to prevent it from being misused, then it stands to reason that the same could be done to other cards -- specifically, cards on the Limited and Forbidden List (known as Limit Regulation in the OCG). Many of these "broken" cards are only there because they lack a "once-per-turn" clause, or a restriction like "except this card." Potentially, every single card could be balanced in time, and the F & L List would only be something needed until the cards on it are balanced for next format. 

Realistically, this won't happen. But that begs the question: why not? It doesn't seem very fair (or ethical) to only go back and change one card, when there are dozens that could benefit from such treatment. In the end, it could result in a healthier game, with a larger card pool. 

In the end, my opinion is this; it's all or nothing. If one card (that's been out for many years) is going to be changed, then all of the "unbalanced" cards should receive the same treatment. It seems silly to me to only change one card. If that's the case, I'd honestly prefer it was forbidden (or Semi-Limited, Limited, whatever the case is). 

The Ravishing Reptilianne Vaskii!

Tired of this?

(Disclaimer: This post was drafted when Dragon Rulers were a tournament warping strategy. With the recent resurgence of Rank 7 Mermails however, I felt this would have some relevance. Aside from that, a card as ridiculously powerful as Dracossack will find a way to break the game again someday.)

Well, today's your lucky day! There's a special somebody out there who's got the solution to your problems. Let me introduce you to...

Reptilianne Vaskii is a complicated woman. She'll only grace you with her presence if you can offer her two gifts -- monsters with 0 attack. After that, she'll destroy a face-up monster once per turn in gratitude. Since Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack summons two tokens with 0 attack when it's summoned, your opponent fulfills Vaskii's summoning condition for you! This means that when you summon Vaskii, your opponent will lose both Mecha Phantom Beast tokens, and then lose Dracossack to Vaskii's once-per-turn destruction effect. After that, you're free to make an attack with Vaskii's sizable 2600 attack points. 

If that sounds as good to you as it does to me, you'll want to throw a Vaskii in your side-deck immediately! But there are better ways to utilize her than as a "throw it in my deck and hope I draw it at the exact moment I need it" card. It's important that you can get to her when you need her, since your opponent can make her un-summonable by simply tributing one of their tokens for Dracossack's effect, and Dracossacks aren't as common as they were a year ago. I have two strategies that make sure Vaskii's always there when you need her. Here's number one.

This strategy is slower, but has the most payoff. Offering to the Snake Deity lets you destroy one of your reptiles, and two of your opponent's cards. Reptilliane Gardna activates when it's destroyed, making it a perfect partner for Offering. It lets you pull out a Reptilliane from your deck, meaning you can grab Vaskii. By taking a page from the Blackwing and Harpie playbook, you're able to give up two cards in order to destroy two of your opponent's, and search out a solution to Dracossack. 

Sometimes, you just don't have that much room. 

...that's where one of my all-time favorite cards comes in! 

King of the Feral Imps has a strong attack score, and a better effect. Our favorite Rank 4 royalty will let you grab any Reptile -- no stipulations on level or attack, or anything -- straight from your deck and add it to your hand. While we could go on for days about that implication in strategies like Worms and Aliens, it's King's uncanny ability to convince Vaskii to come out and play that we're here for. Conveniently, you can call in the King with any two Level 4 monsters, meaning that a King/Vaskii engine could be splashed into any deck that can consistently make Rank 4's. Because King's effect is a  main phase search, you'll never come out with less cards after making him. In decks like Gadgets, King of the Feral Imps can search out other key players, like Kagetokage. Kagetokage also provides another target for Offering, making a small engine like Gardna and Offering more consistent.
If you choose to play Reptilliane Gardna to search out Vaskii, you can use King to search out Gardna's for Offering to the Snake Diety, after you've already got Vaskii. 

Bottom line? Reptilliane Vaskii can be a one-card solution to Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack. It has a narrow function, but makes up for it by having two different ways to search it, and by being extremely effective. As long as Mermails continue to dominate, you should keep Vaskii in mind every time you build a side-deck.