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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Mask of Darkness
Common

FLIP: Select 1 Trap Card from your Graveyard and return it to your hand.

Type - Fiend/Effect
Card Number - DB1-EN150

Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.72
Advanced: 2.91

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.


Date Reviewed - 03.22.06

 

ExMinion OfDarkness
Mask of Darkness

Magician of Faith for Traps. Heart of the Japanese Victory Dragon lock/win the Match all at once deck. And future restricted card barring any ATD changes.

Basically, the Japanese deck just referenced is the whole reason we're talking about this now; it involved using Tsukuyomi + this (getting back Time Seal every turn, similar to the Yata Lock) + getting out Victory Dragon to attack to win the entire match in one shot. Apparently it was good enough to warrant banning/restricting every single piece, as was done with Goat Control before our current format began.

With the possible return of Mirror Force (barring the ATD changes), Mask of Darkness has another reason to be played; MF is deadly enough the first time. However, the opponent would know it's coming next time and prepare adequately. (But then again, any smart player would play cautiously with Mirror Force even existing in the format.)

Not much more to say. Combos well with Tsukuyomi, can get back power cards but not as strong as Magician of Faith, that's about it.

1/5 Traditional
2.75/5 Advanced
 

Coin Flip
I'm surprised this one didn't catch on.

The utility of Traps this format is undeniable, and the widespread use of Tsukuyomi has been a major influence on games. This card recycles Torrential Tribute and the card people are playing Widespread Ruin to run 5 of, Sakuretsu Armor. If you manage a Solemn Judgment + Tsukuyomi + Mask loop, it gets better and better.

This card is just solid tech.

General: 3.6/5
Masks of Tsuku: 4.3/5
 

Dark Paladin
Today we look at Mask of Darkness, a very old monster with a very simple effect, and its a card I've never really understood why people don't appreciate more.

First, it's a Fiend, so Dark Necrofear can feed off of it, but the effect...just like Magician of Faith except instead of getting a Magic Card from your Graveyard, you get a Trap Card.

Why is it more important to get back a Pot of Avarice or Swords of Revealing Light as opposed to Magic Cylinder or Bottomless Trap Hole.
I don't really see any reason as to why Mask of Darkness couldn't become the same level tech as Magician of Faith.

Ponder that for a while.

Ratings:

3/5 all around

Art: 2.5/5

You stay classy, Planet Earth :)
 

Ryoga
Mask of Darkness:
Why is this restricted?

A nice card as it is a small, flip effect monster that replaces itself. Self-replacing monsters are always good. The thing is, why don't you see people running this? Wouldn't a fourth Sako be good?

The reason no one outside of combo decks run this is that traps are slow and should be a surprise. If your opponent sees you take back a Sako, and on your next turn you set a S/T, it doesn't take a genius to guess what that card might be, and it's likely that trap will never be used.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 3/5

Share and enjoy,
Ryoga
 

Dark Maltos

 

Mask of Darkness

Why this was restricted and Faith semi limited is beyond me, but im sure there are many crazy OTK’s with Traps that im unaware of .

Still, its not a bad effect, but its not great, as with traps, the whole point is to catch them off guard. Ahhh well…

Traditional : 3/5 For all those OTK’s….
Advanced ; 2/5 Since the effect doesn’t suck.
Art 2/5 A mask…..that’s Evil apparently….
MPS 1/5 Hmmm…..
 

Otaku

Stats                : Mask of Darkness is a small Level 2 Dark/Fiend.  Dark means it can be Chaos food, though this card isn’t common to Chaos decks and it’s usually too important to remove from its own.  Still, it’s always a good option.  Likewise it is a Fiend, so if you really wanted to, you could use it for Dark Necrofear, but the same concerns arise as using it for Chaos.

 

Mask of Darkness has a small 900 ATK and even smaller 400 DEF, so it won’t survive or take out much, but it is bigger than Magician of Faith.  Still, this card is played for its effect.

 

Effect(s)            : This is the counterpart to Magician of Faith: a Flip Effect that gets you a Trap from you graveyard.  Simple, but not as effective as Magician of Faith because a Trap must be Set a turn before it can be activated, and are generally rely on being a surprise to be effective.  You generally need another good Trap/Quick-Play Spell to Set with the revived one if you hope to get any significant use out of it.  Well, other than S/T removal bait.  Especially now that most people run Dust Tornado: it was a little bit rare to set an Mystical Space Typhoon since one didn’t want it to get nailed by Harpie’s Feather Duster or Heavy Storm back in the day, but since you have no choice with Dust Tornado, people have gotten quite good at chaining it in your End Phase to destroy any S/Ts you just set.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : This card has a long history, having first appeared in Metal Raiders, the second English set.  When it first came out, it was kinda handy for those of us who owned a Mirror Force and ran a decent amount of other Traps, but that was a select few.  When Spell Ruler (Magic Ruler when it was first released) came out and all the players with money, luck, or knowledge of the old pack marking trick made sure they had three Mystical Space Typhoon in their deck, Traps became a lot less useful, and what little time Mask of Darkness had to be popular faded.  After all, what good was reviving a Mirror Force if it was just going to get destroyed without its effect next turn?  Some combo intensive decks would still use Mask of Darkness, but not much.  A “lock” combo was available to Mask of Darkness, via Traps like Time Seal and Drop Off Tsukuyomi allowed you to constantly re-Set Mask of Darkness.  Of course, the trick was you had to more or less get them topdecking before it was safe to execute, and oh yeah, there was this other Spirit Monster, Yata-Garusa that you just needed to summon and attack for damage with to do the same thing.

 

Then Yata got banned.  Still, we had some very strong decks that made the lock undesirable.  It could be done, but it was very hard to pull off.  Time Seal was useful, since Drop Off might accidentally help them.  Well, the Tsukuyomi/Mask of Darkness/Time Seal lock finally started seeing enough play to be a concern.  Konami knows that the more cards it bans, the more it annoys all us players.  Yes, even I don’t like having to ban cards.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary.

 

Now Mask of Darkness is at one per deck.  Why is that?  Because a true lock is a bad thing.  With the old list, you could leave someone sitting there with no cards in hand, no Monsters or S/Ts in play, just waiting for you to take out their LP in a few turns via direct attacks from Tsukuyomi.  Not as bad as waiting for Yata-Garusa to finish you off, but still, not fun.  Additionally, there are tutors for all the pieces of the combo.  They aren’t always the greatest of search cards, like A Cat of Ill Omen, but if the Trap I need is in the bottom half of my deck, it was worth it.  Basically, now that the combo requires you use Drop Off (which, due to assorted effects means you still have hope of breaking the lock) and has all the bits restricted, it will take some real skill to get going.  Or at least that is the hope.  Oh, and in Japan there is a trick to let you win the entire match in a single duel using this lock and a card we lack.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5 – Don’t run it here.  We have a better lock.

 

Advanced        : 2/5 – That’s a general score. It is okay in most decks, since getting a Mirror Force back is getting a Mirror Force back, even if the “surprise” factor is less.  In lock decks, it is vital.  In such a deck it is required, an automatic five out of five.

 

Limited            : 3/5 – As long as you manage to pull a worthwhile Trap with it, it’s good.

 

Summary

If you’re going for a lock, you need it.  Most other decks get by just fine without it.

 


Tebezu
masked of Darkness. Personally I do not like magician of faith in the current format. Even in the next format I do not like magician of faith. I do not like mask of darkness. You see, I am usually lucky when it comes to drawing. But cards like magician of faith are no longer broken with the banning of pot, duo, meta. restriction Masked of darkness is not broken. The concept of running these cards with 10 search able trap/spells is good. But I never draw them with a trap/magic card anymore.

I personally believe these cards are good, but comparing the logic of top decking this over a berserk gorilla for example, it basically loses its spot.

flip flop cards have nothing to create massive advantage anymore

mirror force, good luck pulling it with mask.

This card gets a 2/5

good, but honestly, I like big monsters and with nothing to generate massive advantage off of, where is the logic.

2x Nobleman
Mystic Swordsman Lv. 2
average attack monster having 1500 attack.

Top deck this in a bad situation.
 

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