Effect: Needed to summon a [Ruler Of Heaven Shinato].
You must sacrifice 8 levels or more worth of Monsters from
the Field and/or your hand.
Shinato’s quite a powerful Monster. Has the highest ATK
strength for any Ritual Monster.
The main thing people get confused with Shinato, is
that they seem to think it has a Trample Effect. I put
emphasis in the translation on the word “Attack”, because
it’s the base ATK strength of the destroyed Monster which
equals the damage that will be done. That’s not exactly a
Trample Effect, and certainly not near as effective. It is
pretty good, though, and it’s certainly better than
destroying an opponent’s Monster having done no damage.
To make it even clearer, say your Shinato were to
attack a face down Don Zaloog. Zaloog’s destroyed from
Shinato’s attack. Zaloog’s owner takes 1400 damage,
because from Shinato’s Effect, damage is done equal to
Zaloog’s base ATK strength.
Shinato’s a good boost for the Light and Angel types,
if you have a deck based around either of the 2 types.
Shinato’s powerful, yes, but in my opinion, although it
has 600 more ATK strength, it still can’t stand up to Dark
Master-Zork, which is what I’ll be taking a look at below.
I give Shinato a 6.5/10 alone, and an 8.3/10 for Ritual
decks.
DARK MASTER - ZORK
Ritual Monster
Dark/Demon, Level 8 - 2700/1500
Summoned by a [Pact With The Dark Master]. You must
sacrifice 8
levels or more worth of cards from the Field and/or your
hand.
Once during your turn, you may roll 1 six-sided die. If
the roll
is a 1 or 2, destroy all of your opponent's Monsters on
the
Field. If the roll is 3, 4 or 5, destroy 1 of your
opponent's
Monsters on the Field. If the roll is a 6, destroy all of
your
Monsters on the Field.
PACT WITH THE DARK MASTER
Ritual Magic
Needed to summon a [Dark Master - Zork]. You must
sacrifice 8 or
more levels worth of cards from the Field and/or your
hand.
Oh, my. You want a powerful Ritual Monster, there you go.
You thought The Masked Beast was good for a Ritual
Monster? Thought Shinato was even better? Well, let's take
a look at this huge slice of evil.
This card will be released in Dark Crisis (Set after
MGF), in the same set that Shinato will be released in.
People will be debating which Ritual Monster is
the better one, but in the end, I can confidently say that
Dark Master-Zork is the better Ritual Monster, and the
best Ritual Monster in the Japanese game today. Why this
guy rarely sees play baffles me. I run a Dark Master-Zork
deck myself. Zork is an extremely effective and powerful
Monster. In about 30 duels with my Zork deck, I have only
rolled a 6 once. I guess luck has just been on my side.
As you can see, if you roll anything from a 1-5, you're
going to be very pleased with what happens. (A free
Raigeki/Tribute to the Doomed without the discard or any
other stipulations) The only drawback to this card is if
you roll a 6. But really, there is hardly much chance at
all of that happening. And note, its Effect is optional.
You don't have to roll if you do not wish to.
Some classify Dark Master-Zork as being “broken“. Why?
Well, it's because of its 1 out of 3 chance ratio of
destroying every Monster on the opponent's field, and 1
out of 2 chance ratio of destroying 1 opponent's Monster,
as well as a total 5/6 ratio of doing at least some harm
to the opponent in one way or another.
3 turns of this card being on the Field could end the duel
if your opponent can't find a way to stop it. Even at full
LP, 2700 ATK x 3 = 8100 damage. Ouch.
Can this card get any better? Oh yes, it can. Look at its
DEF strength. It's searchable by the Witch. Now that is a
big advantage Zork has over other powerful Ritual
Monsters. Also note that Zork is a Demon, so it could also
work well in Demon (Fiend) decks.
Also, with this card's release comes a new Ritual Magic
card; Decadent Contract. The Contract is just like any
other Ritual Magic card, but Contract can be used with any
Dark main-type Ritual Monster.
I give Dark Master-Zork a 7.3/10 alone, and a 9/10 in
Ritual decks.
Now for an example of what a Ritual deck using these 2
Monsters might look like. (It’d be quite hard to utilize
as it’s best to just base a Ritual deck around one of the
two)
Monsters: 16
1x Dark Master-Zork
1x Ruler of Heaven-Shinato
1x Jinzo
2x Manju God (Released in the JPN 307 set. Coming in
the set after Dark Crisis. It‘s a Level 4 Monster that
allows you to search your deck for either a Ritual Monster
or a Ritual Magic card)
1x Don Zaloog
1x Dimensional Warrior Girl
1x Berserk Gorilla (Check Beastly Behemoths Article)
1x Enraged Minotaur (Check Beastly Behemoths Article)
1x Magic Warrior-Breaker
1x Exclusitivity Virus
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Yata-Garasu
1x Black Forest Witch
1x Sangan
1x Sinister Serpent
Magic: 18
1x Pact With The Dark Master
1x Ark of Miracles
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
1x Harpy Feather Duster
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reborn
1x Premature Burial
1x Mirage of Nightmare
1x Pot of Greed
1x Graceful Charity
1x Change of Heart
1x Snatch Steal
1x Forceful Sentry
1x Delinquent Duo
Traps: 6
1x Imperial Order
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Mirror Force
1x Ring of Destruction
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Waboku
Total: 40
Here’s a picture of my Zork and my Dark Master’s
Contract, followed by a link to a picture of Shinato and
the Ark of Miracles.
http://store5.yimg.com/I/my1stop2shop_1755_147233208
http://store5.yimg.com/I/my1stop2shop_1755_148113288
And that’ll do it for today’s article. As always, if
you have any questions or comments, I can be reached at
dm7fgd32@hotmail.com
Until Next Time..
~DM7~
