Subject: Various Tips by Alt Nu + Yarius

Now, we've seen tips all over the place. Many of them are reitterated 90 
billion times, many of them have no place in any really competitive deck, 
many of them require too many cards to pull, and many of them are great 
tips that could change the tide of a duel in a snap. What we're trying to 
do here is to compile a list of tips that would be useful to most duelists. 
And realize that many of these tips are specific so no ranting on the 
generality of them.

Magical Hats + Ultimate Offering + Any Tribute Monster:

This is a pretty straightforward combo which could really screw with an 
opponent's attack strategy. Basically, if you have one monster on the 
field, play Magical Hats, get two magic/trap cards and set them which 
re-sets the battle phase. Once they decide to attack, you can now activate 
Ultimate Offering and tribute the two new "monster" cards for the trib mons 
in your hand.

And for even more nastiness, if the face down mon just happens to be a Mask 
of Darkness or Magician of Faith, you can pull the standard recursion combo 
with those as well.


Mystical Space Typhooon + an opponent's attacking Relinquished

Need I say more?

But if I do, then you could see that your oppenent attacking with a 0 atk 
monster is freakin' hilarious. This could also be used with any equipped 
mon and is particularly screws over Maha and my good 'ole friend, Sacrifice 
(Relinquished).


**Swords of Revealing Light + Weather Report

This combo might sound like the stupidest use of swords in the world, but 
turn 1 or turn 2 use of this is just nasty. Play swords, and set your 
Weather Report. Next turn activate the effect, Raigeki or Dark Hole if 
possible (or just clear your opponent's field somehow), summon a Hayabusa 
with an Axe, and thats game.  I know it sounds very unlikely to ever 
happen, but I have nearly been screwed by it before, but lucky me, I 
drew  Mirror Force first on my opening draw.

This can also be used in conjunction with Giant Trunade to force your 
oppenents Sword back to their hand and then set your Weather Report, but 
thats a given.


Call of the Haunted + Jinzo in the graveyard

Now, a lot of people, if not everyone, knows that a Jinzo that is brought 
out by Call of the Haunted negates Call of the Haunted's second effect, so 
if its removed, Jinzo isn't destroyed.  However, this could cancel out any 
non-counter trap including the dreaded Mirror Force. Basically, all you 
have to do is chain Call of the Haunted with their trap and Jinzo pops up 
before their trap goes off which negates it.  And for an added bonus, if 
they try to trap you during your battle phase, and you use this to negate 
the trap, Jinzo is allowed to attack that battle phase.


Mirror Wall + Robbin' Goblin

This isn't so much of a special combo as it is a complete and udder 
surprise to your oppenent. Everyone expects a Mirror Force or a Mirror Wall 
alone, but no one expects the Mirror Wall w/ a Robbin' Goblin. My hand 
disruption deck has kill so many using this combo. They're practically 
destroying their own hand.


Graverobber + Tribute to the Doomed (or any general or magic discard cost)

Once again, everyone knows the true use of this card, which is to stop the 
MoF in her tracks, however you could use this with Tribute to the Doom if 
you don't feel like discarding one of your cards or can't, or if you're 
expecting a Raigeki or similar damaging magic card and you have a Jammer 
ready.  And the best part is that since the magic card is not being 
activated, you don't pay the 2000 life cost.


Acid Trap Hole + any flip effect monster

Unlike the normal trap hole, this one does not have to be used as soon as 
the monster is set/summoned, and this can be used on your own monsters, 
like MoF or Cyber Jar.  This can completely turn a duel in your favor. If 
you already have this set and you set a monster with an ASAP flip effect, 
you can activate it on the spot, like a MoF and Raigeki. Fun!


And now, and in no particular order, on to the Underrated Card section:

1. Gearfried the Iron Knight:

The major two rants about this card is that it can't be equipped with an 
axe and such, and it can't be witched out. Now, our major problem with the 
second rant is that, if you're witching out an 1800 attack monster, you're 
screwed anyway....plain and simple.  The first rant is understandable, but 
in our experience, equip cards are only useful in quick strike Maha Vailo 
decks (with the exception of Premature Burial, Meteor Crush [I refuse to 
say "Fairy" in front of that], and Snatch Steal).  And honestly, if you try 
to Snatch Steal a Gearfried, you deserve to lose.

2. Reverse Trap:

This goes with the Mirror Wall + Robbin' Goblin combo, but is also quite 
useful on its own. With the world obsessed with pump up decks, this will so 
screw your opponent up and if Robbin' Goblin is up, will rock them even 
more. Side deck material like WHUT!

3. Relinquished:

Now, you can take this as underrated or not. In my experience with my 
Relinquished control deck, everyone was very "oooooh, ahhhhhh", but 
everyone thought I was crazy for playing it.  Relinquished can be very 
deadly if played right. You just need to know its weaknesses and build your 
deck around protecting its weak parts.

4. Invader of the Throne:

This card has gotten a lot of respect as of late, but its still rather 
underrated.  If you look back to your recent duels, how many of them 
started off with attacks?  A first turn Invader can turn the tide for the 
rest of the duel...or maybe I've just had good luck with it.

5. Acid Trap Hole:

There isn't really anything underrated about it, I just wanted to state 
that a lot of people don't realize that you don't have to chain this with 
the actual setting of a monster.

6. The Fiend Megacyber:

This basically comes up from all the Summoned Skull @$$ kissing thats been 
going on since the beginning of time.  True 2200 < 2500, but 1/2 tribute < 
1 tribute.  And for those of you who are still avid SS fans, you can always 
Special Summon Fiend Megacyber and use it as the fodder for the SS and then 
reborn the Megacyber.....I pulled this off a few times, and I left my 
opponent gaucking.


Questions? Comments? Rant? Whatever, we can handle it all. Send'em to 
alternatenu@hotmail.com