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. 

Post San Diego: Gishki Deck-Out

Gishki decks are famous for two things: efficient, powerful ritual summons, and a clever strategy that strips your deck of every single card in it. Not familiar with that second one? Let's talk about the Gishki Deck-Out Deck piloted by Allen C. Pennington into the Top 32 of YCS San Diego!

Gishki Deck-Out

The Gishki Deck-Out Deck uses cards like Hand Destruction, One Day of Peace, and Card Destruction to cycle through their entire deck in one turn. From there, they summon Evigishki Mind Augus, and use its effect to recycle five cards from their graveyard - probably Hand Destruction, One Day of Peace, and most importantly, a second copy of Evigishki Mind Augus - and proceed to draw their entire deck again, and then summon another Mind Augus, tributing the previous one, and repeating the whole cycle. You may ask, "what's the point in that?!" The point is that many of these cards have both players draw cards. The Gishki player will be recycling cards, but their opponent will be helpless! Or, that's what they want you to think.



Don't Fall for the Bait!




The Gishki Deck-Out relies on Evigishki Mind Augus. If you can banish one of the copies with Bottomless Trap Hole, or Dimension Slice, then you've effectively won. The Gishki players knows that, so they'll try to bait out your Bottomless Trap Holes by summoning Evigishki Soul Ogre. Don't fall for their trick! The real threat is Mind Augus. Similarly, if you can get both copies of Mind Augus into the graveyard, through something like Mind Crush, or a well-timed Raigeki Break, you can slow them down, and, if you're lucky, stop them in your tracks.

Placing A Veil Over the Situation



While not every player is running cards like Mind Crush, Raigeki Break, or Dimension Slice, it's a sure-fire guarantee that you're running at least one copy of the popular Effect Veiler. If you run two or more, you should be golden! It's best to hold onto your copy of Effect Veiler until you draw into another one, thanks to your opponent's cards. You'll want to go after the Mind Augus, again. Negate the first one, and then the second. Hopefully, you'll have a chance to strike back before your time runs out!

Speaking Of Time...
The Gishki Deck-Out, when it works, can take a long time to perform it's combo. A really, really long time. So long, in fact, that the entire allotment of time for the round can run out during their first turn. If that happens, and they win, they'll win the entire match, due to official procedures for when the first duel of a match runs out of time. Because of that, it's often better to simply surrender when they start their combo and you don't have any ways out.

A Rip in the Space-Time Continuum



Despite having vastly different goals and playstyles, the Mermail and Gishki deck have two things in common: one, they're both composed of water monsters. That's pretty much irrelevant, but the second point isn't: they both fall to Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure. Mind Augus can't recycle from the Removed from Play zone, and they can't even summon another to recycle the first. Other key cards in the deck, like Hand Destruction, also fall victim to the different dimension.

It's Good to be the King

 



Thunder King Rai-Oh can slow down the Gishki deck if you manage to get it out. It won't stop cards that only perform additional draws, but it'll stop searching cards, and the Gishki are full of those. If you can stop their search effects, the chance of them being able to use their combo on the first turn are reduced. Then it's up to you to strike hard and fast on your turn!

Shocking, Isn't It?
Another card that can lock the Gishki deck out of the game is Number 16: Shock Master. If you declare spell cards, their entire deck falls apart, and there's virtually nothing they can do. This makes decks  that can throw down a bunch of level 4s a good match for the Gishki deck, provided they don't go off on the very first turn of the game.

The Gishki Deck-Out deck can be difficult to deal with once it starts its combos rolling. But by adjusting your play style and using your cards properly, you stand a good chance of beating it. The more people who know about this deck, the weaker it becomes - strategies like this are like glass cannons, relying on surprise, lack of knowledge about their strategy, and weak side-decks to win. This articles addressed each of those points, so now it's up to you!

Workloads

Here's the truth: I try to do too much here. I try to provide quality content, on a regular basis, and my schedule is just too full to fulfill my obligations. So here's what we're gonna do: I'll be posting Yu-Gi-Oh! related content on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Each article will end with what the next article will be about. This new schedule will allow me to maintain consistent quality, while also maintaining consistent posting. Mr. Tewart, if you ever happen to read this... I can maintain a work schedule! Providing daily content just isn't a top priority right now. Now, if I were working for the strategy site...

Would You Look at That! Inari Fire and Summoner Monk

I'll make it clear now - I love the adorable Charmer monsters, and all the cards related to them. Inari Fire is a case of retroactive additions to this menagerie, as the fox monster originally portrayed in the art of Blazing Hita and Familiar Possessed - Hita was just an enraged, juiced up Fox Fire. I could be wrong, but that's the assumption I've always held. If not, that's great, because that means we have at least five other monsters, who'll hopefully all have the same competitive potential as Inari Fire. Today, I'd like to look at a specific place where I think Inari Fire bumps up the amount of awesome sauce.
No, not Flamvells. While that's where the majority of the talk is, and while playing Inari Fire along with Flamvell Magician and Scrap Dragon is cool, I have a different deck in mind. That deck is Volcanic Alice! Alice decks typically function around a Summoner Monk engine, based on grinding out advantage through monsters like Sacred Crane or Volcanic Rocket. The Alice deck actually originated with a Volcanic engine along with Summoner Monk, and it's that retro build that I think Inari Fire works best in. The basic play sequence would go like this:
Use Summoner Monk's effect to special summon Volcanic Rocket (+1), discarding a spell card (-1) [0].
Volcanic Rocket's effect activates, fetching a Blaze Accelerator (+1) [+1].
Special summon Inari Fire from your hand (0) and proceed to either make a 2-material Rank 4 Xyz (-1) [0] or a 3-material, such as Number 16: Shock Master [-1].
Taking a -1 to go into Shock Master is completely acceptable, as Shock Master often functions as a win condition in and of itself. Even better, you can make monsters like Infernal Flame Vixen with your two pyro-type monsters if the situation calls for it, while leaving Summoner Monk on field to fetch more monsters. I think that a Volcanic Alice deck could be built in a few different ways now, with the added strength and consistency of Inari Fire. It could main-deck Royal Firestorm Guards, Pyrorex the Elemental Lord (just be sure to use graveyard manipulation!), and other fire monster all stars. Heck, that Flamvell Magician could probably make an appearance, because Scrap Dragon with Inari Fire is a really good play. Best of all, it's possible with only a Summoner Monk, Inari Fire and a spell card, in hand. I don't have a decklist, but that's only because Inari Fire and Summoner Monk are a really versatile pair. Anything running enough spells can throw in Summoner Monk and Inari Fire, whether it's a Alice deck, or a Fire deck. There's a multitude of ways you could build a deck just around those two, so go forth and build!

Card of the Day (4/1/13)

Today's Card of the Day is Heroic Gift. This card is widely reviled, and today I'd like to demonstrate why that's a poor approach to take. When I looked at this card, I had a difficult time seeing the point of it as well. But with a little more effort, and truly considering each part of its effect, I was able to see some points that make it a distant side deck choice for a few rare decks.

I'm going to be doing something a bit odd - rather than discuss its benefits and downsides, I'm going to act if I was arguing for this card's use, then explain why it's not quite ready for competition.
First and foremost, this isn't a card you would main-deck. You would use this card as a side-deck against a very select few decks: mainly, anything using Hope for Escape.
Hope for Escape relies on having low life points in order to increase the amount of cards you can draw. Heroic Gift is a perfect counter to this, increasing your own draw while making any subsequent Hope for Escape plays useless. Moreover, you can chain this card to Hope for Escape, rendering their potential draws nonexistent.
Sadly, when playing against the type of decks that typically use Hope for Escape - Final Countdown, Self-Destruct Button and Exodia being the main ones - raising their life points back to 8000 from 2000 is extremely counterproductive. Your effort should be to kill them as quickly as possible, rather than exert more card advantage. If you're in the 2000 range, you're one strong attack away from victory. The only deck I could ever, EVER condone this card in would be in a deck that can easily OTK, or as a counter-side for those same three decks using Hope for Escape. Why use Heroic Gift as a counter-side? Your opponent will typically try to reduce their life points in any way possible once they know you're using Hope for Escape, and life points are irrelevant when you're using a special win-condition. This would be especially relevant for Self-Destruct Button decks, which need your opponent to have high life points.
So, odds are you'll never see Heroic Gift in play. Ever.
But if you do? It'll probably do some cool stuff and mess with your opponent.

What's Hoppening?!

Hey, readers!

Today we'll look at a gimmick deck I built in honor of Easter. Rather than use a bunch of cards that are unrelated but thematically interesting, I decided to focus on Rabbits and Bunnies, and build a deck that borrows some of the top strategies that are out there right now. This deck is also affordable, with only a few difficult to find cards. But we all know the real reason we're here is to see a Rabbit deck that doesn't use Rescue Rabbit!
...Well, a deck that doesn't use Rescue Rabbit as its only Easter-friendly card. Let's check out the decklist!

The Easter Bunny's Henchmen
(AKA, There's the Easter Bunny! And Another One... and Another One...)

2x Rescue Rabbit
2x Tour Guide from the Underworld
3x Dark Rabbit
3x Wind-Up Rabbit
3x Creepy Coney
3x Gene-Warped Warwolf
1x Night Assailant

3x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Mystical Typhoon
2x Pot of Duality
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Book of Moon

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Mirror Force
2x Torrential Tribute
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Starlight Road

First off, there's several popular strategies in this deck. First and foremost, we have the Rescue Rabbit/Tour Guide coupling. This strategy is the very core of Dino-Rabbit, and the main reason for its success. While we won't be making Evolzars here, the ability to trade one card for two is powerful in any strategy. I actually wanted to run Bunilla here (because I'm irrevocably in love with Slacker Magician), but realized I had nine normal monsters after adding in Gene-Warped Warwolf. There's probably another (equally as gimmicky*) variant of this deck that uses normal monster support and isn't afraid of running nine normal monsters. But here, we want to streamline as best we can.
From the Fire Fist playbook, we have Fire Formation - Tenki searching out Gene-Warped Warwolf. We've also taken a Wind-Up trick and repurposed Tenki for also searching out Wind-Up Rabbit. But that's not really stealing, since Wind-Up Rabbit was on our side all along.
Right?
Creepy Coney helps facilitate Rank 3 summons, and lets you deal healthy bits of random burn damage here or there. There's nothing like flipping a Creepy Coney face-up and burning your opponent to death because of that Bunilla they left alive last turn. Aside from that, the rest of the cards in the deck are commonly used cards you could find anywhere.
The best part about this deck? You can change all of the ratios around. You can swap out the Dark Rabbits and use Bunillas to gain access to Slacker Magician, throw in some Inaba White Rabbits for more Rank 3's, or even try using Mecha Bunnies and Blade Rabbits for Rank 2's! It's a gimmick deck no doubt, but it's fun to play with. It's almost like Dino-Rabbit, but without the incredible power of the Evolzars. And with Dark Rabbit instead of Sabersaurus. And Creepy Coney instead of Snowman Eater.
Yeah, actually, just run Dino-Rabbit if you're looking for victory after a Rescue Rabbit play. But if you're looking for a gimmick deck, there's few more gimmicky than this one!

*Rabbit Exodia Draw was a deck I considered attempting. I considered Gift of the White Elephant's, along with Common Charity's as the main draw engine, maybe even with Rabidragon and Trade-In. The main defense would be Bunilla + any level 1 monster to Xyz summon Slacker Magician, along with your classic Exodia stalling cards. In the end, I went with this strategy because I felt that building a deck around an Egyptian God the day after Easter was a bit sacrilegious.
Just kidding, I just like this build a bit more right now. Look for Rabbit Exodia in the future!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Check out my main blog (theprincebycanon) for my post about Easter! In celebration, I'm going to post a bunny/egg themed deck tomorrow.

Power and Utility

This article is a necessity because of how often I use these two terms when reviewing a card. Of course, you may already know these two traits by other names, but this article's about the idea behind them, not the semantics. Hopefully, this will make it clear what my (personal) interpretation of these two things is, and thus enable you to have a more enjoyable read when reading my articles.

•  First off, we have "power." A powerful card is capable of creating huge swings in momentum and card presence. For instance, Ojama Delta Hurricane!! is a very powerful card. Delinquent Duo is another example of a powerful card. Book of Moon is NOT a powerful card, as it does little on its own to shift card presence. Power works best when combined with Utility, such as Torrential Tribute.
• The other trait is Utility. Utility is intrinsically tied with Consistency, which also ties into Power. All these traits are co-dependent of each other. Utility is based off of when a card can be activated, the various uses the card or its effect can be used for, and how easy it is to activate. Raigeki Break is a good example of Utility, as it can be activated at any time and destroy any card. Since it is a trap, the first criteria takes a blow in that you can't activate it immediately, though it scores better than a spell version would, since it can be activated on your opponent's turn and yours after that initial set. However, the discard cost impacts the third criteria: how easy it is to activate. Regardless, it is only a single card you need to discard, so it still has high Utility. Looking back to our earlier example of Power, Ojama Delta Hurricane!!, you can see that it requires you to have 3 different monsters face up, all of whom have only 1000 defense, no attack, and have no effects. Thus, Ojama Delta Hurricane!! has low Utility. Book of Moon, while having low power, has incredibly high Utility. It can flip down any monster - yours, or your opponents - is a quick-play spell, and has no costs or activation requirements.

This isn't terribly complex, but I wanted to make it abundantly clear for all my readers. These concepts are hopefully not new to you, as they're something all duelists should keep in mind.

Excuses, Words, and Reluctancies.

The number one reason I failed to continue posting here is that I was unable to keep up with the stringent schedule I'd given myself, while still adhering to a level of quality I expect in my work. For that, I apologize. The second reason is that for quite a time, I had ceased blogging entirely. This blog is secondary to my main blog, The Prince by Canon. However, I want to keep posting here. As I will be leaving to serve a mission around January next year, I'm not sure what will happen to Yu-Gi-Oh! in my life. It's certainly a fun hobby. I'd like to keep writing about it, and increasing my knowledge about the game and its cards. Starting this week, I'll work on creating a different, easier to follow schedule. A tentative one is as follows:

Monday: Card of the Week!
Tuesday: Yu-Gi-Oh! News Reactions
Wednesday: Would You Look at That! (Uncommon combos, card interactions, and deck types)
Thursday: Just for Fun! Character/Theme Decks OR Current Trends To Examine
Friday: Trying My Hardest (Home Brewed Decks Geared Towards Local Level Competition, and Higher!)
Saturday: Deck Profile(s)
Sunday: My Day Off~

I'd like to start on this next week, and give myself some time.

Abyss Rising Set Review (Part 5)

Welcome back to the Abyss Rising Set Review! Today we'll cover most of the remaining Xyz monsters. I'm excited for this batch, so let's jump (dive) right in!
Note: Customary links will be up later.

One-Eyed Skill Gainer

The question you have to ask yourself when you're building your Extra Deck is: can my deck conceivably summon this card? Then, are there other cards I would summon before it? These questions don't take space into account, but with so many interesting Rank 4's, One-Eyed Skill Gainer has a lot to prove. Unfortunately, he has too much in common to be interesting. For (Rank 4) Light-attribute Warrior-types with high attack, we already have Heroic Champion - Excalibur, and Number 39: Utopia. For 3 Material Rank 4 monsters, we have guys like Number 16: Shock Master, who's agreed to be pretty good. So the question is, what does One-Eye do? Well, he has a high defense - but so does Gagagigo the Risen, who we'll go over tomorrow. What sets him apart is his mimicry effect. Most of the time, there are better things to summon at Rank 4. But... if you're running one of those decks that has loads of space in the Extra Deck and only makes Rank 4's then you should give One-Eye a spot. It's not as if there are loads of other, better options in your other 14 spots for just Rank 4's. Besides, he's got a cool effect! It's just situational. In all, his utility is dependent on the opponent, meaning it's low, and his power is... meh. It depends what you copy.


Gagaga Cowboy

Gagaga Cowboy is cool. He can beat the face of stronger monsters - like Maestroke - and can randomly steal games with his defense position effect. He's another Earth-attribute Warrior-type, of which the Gagaga theme now has three. His base attack is 1500, which is made up for with his effect, but is still worrisome. His defense is staunch. Going back to the Gagaga theme, there are several cards from it that can improve Gagaga Cowboy - namely Gagaga Bolt, one of the most incredible pieces of spot removal the game has provided. Cowboy is incredibly splashable, meaning he's sure to be seen in a number of strategies. Despite a relatively 'low' amount of damage for his defense position effect - 800 - it can still be enough to randomly win games, especially after a long game of traded blows and Solemn cards. Most duelists view lifepoints as inconsequential nowadays, and this card can punish duelists with the mindset of "you only need one life point to win." Expect to see him lots more. Him and his stylish space-man six shooters.


Heroic Champion - Gandiva

Gandiva has all the standard Heroic typing - Warrior, Earth, it's all fairly standard now. It's attack is fairly low, given it's rank, while its defense is in a similar state. Despite this, Gandiva still has a killer effecty. Gandiva is an alternative to Steelswarm Roach in Warrior-type strategies. At least, that's what your average duelist will see, not bothering to read more into it. Upon closer examination, you'll see that it's a compliment to Roach. Actually, with both on your side of the field, your opponent can do virtually nothing until a) they destroy your monsters or b) your monsters exhaust their materials. And if you were able to get off their effects once, or even twice? You're in a really good place. Gandiva is the bane of the existence of Wind-Ups, Geargia... really, most top decks are afraid of this guy. I expect to see him doing big things in Warrior strategies, and I'm quite frankly appalled at how little talk he's getting.




Heroic Champion - Kusanagi

Kusanagi is a 3 Material Rank 4. That automatically puts him in dangerous territory, as a 3 material monster requires a serious commitment. He has a strong defense, and his attack is good - not the absolute best, but it's good. It's better than Shock Master, the posterchild for 4 Material monsters'.  Speaking of whom, Kusanagi has an extremely similar effect: he'll only shut down traps (remember utility) but while he's out, you can be pretty sure that your opponent won't be activating them. You can rest assured that while Kusanagi stands, your opponent won't be activating any trap cards. In pure beat-down centered strategies like the Heroics, Kusanagi is amazing. Well, even more amazing than he is in any other strategy with an ample amount of Warrior-type monsters. I'm actually excited about the Heroics - they've got sweet Xyz, with kickin' effects. This one might just be the cream of the crop. The ability to keep your opponent from activating their traps - or, at the best, if they happen to have two pieces of removal - lose 2 cards to your 1 - is incredible. And don't discount the attack boost. Never discount the attack boost. Kusanagi goes up to a pretty 3000 with it.


Number 9: Dyson Sphere

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Number 9: Dyson Sphere is the TCG's first Rank 9 monster. That makes it significant alone, without factoring the collectible-ness of a Number card, and the fact that it has a great effect. First off: Light-attribute Machine-type. Cool. Honest-able, and you can Limiter Removal it. Can you imagine if you got off his attack directly effect, then flipped Limiter Removal? Absolutely brutal. That'd be a good 3/4 of your opponent's life points right there. Being quite frank, you're rarely going to use that effect, but it's awesome that it's there. What Number 9 does is completely own the field. If your opponent can bring to bear a monster strong enough to attack it, you can stop the attack by removing a material (like Number 39). If you run out of materials, you can activate its effect and refill it! A little naunce to that effect is that it lets you pick any 2 monsters from your Graveyard to attach to it - that lets you pick monsters such as Tour Bus from the Underworld, who's effects activate when they're sent to the Graveyard. That's pretty cool. Since it's extremely difficult to attack over Number 9, that means that you'll get the chance to use his second effect. It's cool how the two effects support each other so well, and all this with a monstrous defense of 3000.


Number 8: Heraldic King Genom-Heritage

Oh, look! Another Heraldic! Sweet! Number 8 has a strong attack, and what seems to be the new standard defense of 1800. He's a Light-attribute Psychic-type. Light is cool, but not necessarily in Heraldics, whereas Psychic Xyz are supported by a certain Heraldic monster. Number 8 has this cool little identity-theft going on, which is very similar to One-Eyed Skill Gainer's. He gets the name, attack, and effect of the Xyz monster he selects, while the opposing monster's attack is brought down to zero, and its effects are negated. The ramifications of this are clear - you can push through a ton of battle damage, while getting rid of a problematic monster. At best, you'll even get a great effect out of it. And the best part? Number 8's effect doesn't require it to detach an Xyz material. That means you can use it as many times as you want. Of course, some of the effects you steal may require Xyz materials, but that's okay. And even if you run out of materials, that won't stop Number 8's effect from activating, unlike some Xyz monsters. Number 8 is a power-house among anti-Xyz monsters, and a worthy boss monster for the Heraldics.

Mermail Abyssgaios

Not all Mermail/Atlantean decks are going to be summoning Abyssgaios, but those that do are sure to be flashy and full of win. Most of the time, Abyssgaios will be summoned through combos involving Lemuria, The Forgotten City. We're going to be talking about that later, so let's focus on Abyssgaios himself right now. He requires Water-attribute materials, which makes sense. He has a mighty 2800 attack, and a puny 1600 defense. He has the interesting effect of locking down all monsters above Level 4 from attacking. Of course, that won't stop Xyz monsters. Besides that, he has another controlling effect that will stop all monsters on your opponent's side of the field with an attack lower than Abyssgaios. King of the deep, indeed. This can come in handy fairly often, but doesn't immediately make this card a choice over Number 11: Big Eye. It'll be one of those cards where you summon it if it helps you out in your current predicament - or, if you need to trigger off some Water-attribute effects.


Empress of Prophecy

Empress is a cool boss monster, but I'm not sure if there's a particular build suited for her just yet. Which is sad, because as I said, she's pretty darn cool. She requires Level 5 Spellcasters, which aren't exactly in abundance. There IS the Emperor of Prophecy we've already reviewed though, and it's looking like he'll be a staple in any deck wanting to bust out Empress, along with Hermit of Prophecy. If you do get out Empress, you'll have to be careful - with only 2000 attack, she may not be sticking around for long. Luckily, her effect will help to ease that problem, by boosting her attack up. It doesn't specify materials attached to Empress either, so every single Xyz monster you have will boost her up, assuming they have materials. Her effect is awesome, considering the amount of Spellbook cards you'll want to run in a typical Prophecy deck. You'll be destroying anything from 1 to 5 cards, and it gets around Starlight Road! There are combos you can perform with some of the new Spellbook cards we review later on, and they pack quite a wallop as well.


Madolche Queen Tiaramisu

Up until now, Madolche decks were usually forced to run cards like Guardian Eatos and Madolche Puddingcess as their 'boss' monsters, or win conditions. Now, they have Tiaramisu. An Earth-attribute Fairy-type (a weird combination) Tiaramisu requires Madolche materials to summon herself. She's Rank 4, with a slightly-below average attack, while her defense is above par. Under Madolche Chateau, her attack increases to an astonishing 2700. Tiaramisu solves the issue of ever having Madolche in your Graveyard, while potentially increasing the amount of cards in your hand, while disrupting your opponent's field. If you succesfully resolve Tiaramisu's effect, you'll have gotten rid of 2 of your opponent's cards, while losing none of your own. If you resolved it with something like Chateau on the field, then your opponent lost two cards, and you gained two more. Swings like that win games, more often than not. Tiaramisu is a powerful leader for the Madolche archetype, and Madolche decks will now more often than not forego Puddingcess in favor of Tiaramisu.


Snowdust Giant

And now we close out today's review with another one of my favorites from this set! Snowdust Giant lacks a bit of strength, but makes up for it by... being a part of a really fun archetype! Snowdust Giant solves one of the issues of Ice Counter strategies by providing a way to dump mass amounts of Ice Counters to the field quickly. In addition, he'll weaken all non-Water-attribute monsters, evening the playing field for him to stomp on them. Snowdust Giant is a strong monster for a casual theme. He proples the theme's goals forward, while providing a strong body on the field. I'd just like to say that I'm extremely excited to review the other Ice Counter cards. Personally, I'll definitely be trying to build this deck. It's a perfect example of a casual deck in Yu-Gi-Oh!