Subject: Older Decks And Where They Are Now - Mike

I was a little bored today, so I started looking through the old Card of 
the Days and decided to do this little "essay." It is on older decks, and 
where they are now (if you couldn't gather that from the title).

For a little introduction, I'm going way back to the Starter Decks, LOB, 
and Metal Raiders. Both Pharoah's Servant and Magic Ruler are a little bit 
late to make the cut. After I explain the strategy of the deck, the reasons 
for playing it, etc. I will try (to the best of my knowledge) to tell you 
what deck (or card) took its place.

First on the list, from way back, is a very powerful deck. It is the well 
known Lord of D. deck. This deck focuses on the Lord of D. and Flute of 
Summoning Dragon. It tries to get out two powerful dragon cards, usually 
Blue Eyes White Dragon and Tri-Horned Dragon, onto the field in one awesome 
turn. In todays environment, the early version is killed. It was played 
because it was the most powerful deck, not to mention the fastest. Now, the 
dragons, BEWD and Tri-Horned Dragon, have not yet been surpassed. A new 
card that may enter the ranks of this deck is D.N.A. Surgery. This allows 
your Lord of D. to protect your La Jinns, 7 Coloured Fish, etc. from Change 
of Heart, Tribute to the Doomed, etc. It gains speed now that we have Cyber 
Jar, Morphing Jar, etc. to help. It still sees a little tourney play, but 
is pretty much left in the cold.

Next is another Starter Deck deck, the Dark Magician deck. This one didn't 
see too much play to begin with, as it is kind of a bad card. Kind of. 
Well, 2 tributes for 2500 ATK, hmmmmm. We've all heard this arguement 
before. Anyway, a lot of people played it for about a month, since it was 
the strongest card (in terms of ATK and DEF) in the Yugi Starter Deck. 
Plus, it was a Dark Spellcaster. Everybody remembers the old F/S Beatdown, 
right? Similar cards, like Summoned Skull and La Jinn (still widely played 
today), entered the deck with it. But come on. This isn't truely a Dark 
Magician deck. The deck must include Dark Magician Girl, Magical Box of 
Death, etc. You could take Yugi's deck and change things like the crappy 
Beaver Warrior to La Jinns, or something that follows the theme, and have 
an awesome deck. Dark Magician isn't a bad card, we just don't have the 
right support yet. Expect to see this one hit the tournaments when the 
proper support comes.

Ohhhh...my fingers hurt. Anywayz, onto the worst card of all!

The Gate Guardian. 'Nuff said about this card. I don't have to or want to 
go into detail about it. Look at the Card of the Day for August 2, 2002. 
The reviewers tell you how bad it is. Oops! Spoiled it for ya. Oh well. 
This card could be a good card, if we didn't have awesome equips like Axe 
of Despair. Why play this when a BEWD equipped with an Axe of Despair beats 
it? I hope that Upperdeck makes some support for this card. Maybe if it was 
Machine, you could use Limiter Removal with it . . .

Well, I'm sorry but that's it. My throat is killing me and I think I'm goin 
out. So I'll write again soon!

Mike
E-Mail: <mailto:frieza_00@hotmail.com>frieza_00@hotmail.com

P.S. Don't send me hatemail, don't add me to Messenger, I don't have ICQ so 
don't try! Thanx!