Subject: The One Strong Fusion Monster, and other tricks TheProphet has a very excellent point in his tip "Things concerning yu-gi-oh" regarding how much rituals and fusions suck because they lose card advantage and board control. He missed one fusion monster that is an exception. Twin-headed Thunder Dragon. Most fusions are a 3-for-1 deal: two fusion-material and polymerization/fusion gate for one fusion monster. If the fusion-material are on the field, you lose board control. If they're in your hand, you lose card advantage. ThTD is a 2-for-1. ONE Thunder Dragon and Polymerization/Fusion Gate. Why? Thunder Dragon's effect (assuming you have three in your deck) lets you draw two if you discard one (it can be discarded just to activate its effect). Therefore, you only need to draw one Thunder Dragon and one Polymerization/Fusion Gate to summon Twin-headed Thunder Dragon. This is a better trade than the average 7/8+ Star monster. Let's look at a few: Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi: 2-for-1 in 3 turns, or (2+)-for-1 in (3-) turns if you use revival or some other method... for a card that only stays on the field for one turn. 3-for-1 in 3 turns with Spiritual Energy Settle Machine for 1 turn, and an extra card every turn. 3-for-1 in 4 turns with Dimensionhole. Tributing monsters gives up board control, and using magic cards gives up card advantage. Tyrant Dragon: 2-for-1 in 3 turns, or (2+)-for-1 in (3-) turns if you use revival or some other method. 4-for-2 if you're using Lord of D. Lord of D. is VERY bad for card advantage, although it might help your board control. Suijin: 2-for-1 in 3 turns. 2-for-1 in 2 turns with ALO. (One tribute, one magic card) More playable with ALO, but it's still 1 tribute. Black Skull Dragon: 3-for-1 in 1 turn (the fusion-material can be in your hand). This crushes your card advantage. Compare that to ThTd: Twin-headed Thunder Dragon: 2-for-1 in 1 turn. And a special summon. And you thin your deck by 2 cards. I don't know about you, but that sounds better to me. Lemme put this simply for you: TWIN-HEADED THUNDER DRAGON IS THE SINGLE FASTEST 2600+ ATK MONSTER IN THE GAME Got it? .. honestly, I have NO idea why people don't play this card. YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SUMMON THE THUNDER DRAGONS, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUSE THEM FROM YOUR HAND! The Other Tricks: 1. Goat Tokens from Scapegoat ***CAN*** be tributed to summon Toons (ANYONE WHO'S EVER SAID TOONS SUCK CAN JUST EAT MY DUST RIGHT NOW). This is because Toons are special summons (I verified using scapegoat with Edo, so don't worry about Upperdeck jumping down your throat). I haven't tried this out yet, but if you can make a blue-eyes toon dragon survive one turn, it can attack directly the next turn for direct-damaging goodness (Robbin' Goblin, anyone?) 2. Cyber-Stein makes Fusions highly playable (in Japan). In case you didn't know, Cyber-Stein is a DARK/Machine/Effect/2/700/500 with the following effect: "At the cost of 5000 of your own Life Points, you can Special Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Fusion Deck in face-up Attack Position." Let's analyze some fusions using this beauty: Last Warrior from Another Planet: 1-for-1 in 1 turn for 5000 LP. Black Skull Dragon: 1-for-1 in 1 turn for 5000 LP. Twin-headed Thunder Dragon: 1-for-1 in 1 turn for 5000 LP. Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon: 1-for-1 in 1 turn for 5000 LP. (BEUD is 4500 ATK, just so you know) Apart from the LP cost, all of these are better than the 2-tribute monsters we surveyed earlier. It's up to you to figure out exactly how much that LP cost is going to damage your chances of winning the duel. Here's a hint: It won't. Why? Last Turn and Megamorph. (The combo of Cyber-Stein + Raigeki/Dark Hole + Megamorph is the reason Megamorph was restricted to 1 for a short time in Japan; I have no idea why it and Limiter Removal were unrestricted earlier) Using Cyber-Stein's effect on the first turn gets you 3000 LP. After using, for example, Mirror Wall for 1 turn, you're all set to use Last Turn ALREADY! Or you could just use Megamorph. Heh. You could also use Delinquent Duo and Confiscation to pay off the final 2000 LP... Too bad Cyber-Stein isn't released in English.. :P This was just to prove a point (namely, that fusions work, even if Rituals don't). Questions, Comments, Rants: qc@fengyuan.com -Pegasus (P.S. In case you were wondering, Cyber-Stein is in the Kaiba Structure Deck, although Kaiba never uses it in the anime) (P.P.S. Did you notice how I put "2600+" instead of "2500+" so Bazoo would be excluded? :P)