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

Dealer's Choice Day
 

Today, each card reveiwer chooses a card that is one of their favorites and provides their insight on why the believe this is one of the strongest cards available.

 



Date Reviewed - 02.11.05

 
ExMinion OfDarkness Reviewer's Choice for the Side Deck:
Ceasefire

Going along with the Burn theme, I decided that my choice for this week would be Ceasefire. This card was more versatile than I thought, as I saw it not only negate Fibers but end games on multiple occasions. (In duels for keeps, a friend of mine lost $40 in cards because of this thing.)

Ceasefire does 3 things -- it flips up all monsters that are face-down (getting rid of the element of suprise...and with how much I like to destroy an opponent's suprise by exposing their deck list to the public, I'm suprised I wasn't running this already), it negates flips (Fiber is evil, and a blown Fiber is usually a game-winner for the person who negated it), and it burns 500 per effect monster.

This thing belongs in all sideboards that can fit it for multiple reasons:

*It's basically performing a task almost as good as Nobleman of Crossout, with a much less restrictive activation requirement

*Burn damage can win Duels in close games -- in Advanced Format, this can easily do 2,000 damage (when's the last time you saw a NON-effect monster in tournament gameplay?)

*It's good in just about any phase of the game (early game to help feel out an opponent who did nothing but set on their first turn, mid-game to negate a possible tide-changing flip, and late-game to try and end it)

After this review's done, I'm going to go get my side deck and put a Ceasefire in it.

3/5 Traditional, 4.75/5 Advanced. Traditional's use is a bit less because it's slower than Nobleman and Traditional is fast-paced, and usually the only major Burn cards played in a non-Burn deck are Ring of Destruction and Chaos Emperor Dragon, but it's just too good in Advanced.
 
Coin Flip Reviewer's choice today means I can review all of those cards I wanted to review for the sidedeck but couldn't choose because they had been reviewed in the past year.

Let's take... D.D. Designator.

Well, this is the ultimate anti-serpent and anti-exodia. They play Painful? Make it especially painful... for them. It doesn't do much for you unless you've already seen their hand, but it is ESPECIALLY effective at nuking pesky graveyard-activated cards like Sinister or Night Assailant, and at laughing in the face of danger (well, actually, laughing in the face of Exodia). And if your opponent is a moron, they will inadvertently show you their hand by tilting it too low, giving you more advantage.

Yeah, my review is really short. If you have it, sidedeck it. If you don't, shut up and go away. :P

Okay, I'll do another. Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell.

Here we have another nifty card for anti-specialty. It's pointless against a Pot of Greed, but especially useful against, say, Wave Motion Cannon. Or... NECROVALLEY. Or... REASONING. Or... FINAL COUNTDOWN. Discard a spell, they lose every copy they have and end up losing the theme of their deck in what will ultimately prove to be the most brutal defeat ever.

Yeah, I shouldn't need to tell you to sidedeck this. It's SO fun to wipe out a Necrovalley in Gravekeeper's, or A Legendary Ocean in Water when they so desperately need it, and it's lackluster removal when you need it.
 
Tranorix

Skull-Mark Ladybug

 

You know what I just realized?  We’ve never reviewed Skull-Mark Ladybug, really a fantastic monster.  It’s Level 4, which is surprising because it only has 500 ATK; it does, however, have a decent 1500 DEF, enough to hold out against those annoying 1400 ATK monsters. 

 

The effect doesn’t seem great, but there’s one thing about it that really makes it incredible: It doesn’t matter where Ladybug comes from; as long as it hits the Graveyard, you will get the effect.  If this is destroyed in Battle, you will gain 1000 Life Points.  If you discard this for Tribe-Infecting Virus’s effect, you will gain 1000 Life Points.  If you pick three of these with Painful Choice, you are essentially guaranteed to gain at least 2000 Life Points, 3000 if your opponent doesn’t give you one. 

 

I’ll admit, 1000 isn’t spectacular.  But it’s something.  It can help you, and it has helped me; and there’s nothing wrong with using these as discard fodder for Magic Jammers or Raigeki Breaks.  Negate a Spell and gain 1000!  Destroy that monster and gain 1000!  What’s not to love about that?  Skull-Mark Ladybug is the ultimate discard monster, and I’d almost go so far as to put it above Night Assailant, at least in Burners.  It’s great in Traditional, too, with those Delinquent Duos running around.  Give this a chance: it’s very rentsy.  

 

Traditional – CCCC: 3/5

Traditional – Burn: 4/5

Advanced – CCWC: 3.5/5

Advanced – Burn: 4.5/5

OVERALL RATING: 3.8/5   

 

Snapper Since the Reviewer’s Choice was so popular a few months ago we’re doing another one, but with a slight alteration. This Reviewer’s Choice must be a Side Deck card. So I’ve decided to review Magic Drain, a Trap that isn’t good enough to Main Deck in Advanced but is one of the better Spell negating cards.

Magic Drain can only be activated when your opponent activates a Spell Card.
Once activated Magic Drain can negate the Spell Card. What makes Magic Drain unique is that it gives the opponent a chance to stop the effect of Magic Drain by discarding a Spell Card from their hand. If Imperial Order taught us anything it’s that Spell Negation is a powerful weapon. True, there aren’t nearly as many game-breaking Spells in Advanced as there are in Traditional, but Spells are still a crucial part of every Deck. Because of this the opponent will have a tough time deciding if they want to allow Magic Drain to fulfill its purpose. If they do have a Spell in their hand they may not want to throw it away without ever getting to activate it. But if they thought a Spell was useful enough to activate in the first place they may want to save it.

Some may argue that Magic Jammer is a better from of Spell Negation particularly because it will always negate the Spell. While this is true, Magic Jammer requires a discard, and if I had to choose who should discard something I’d pick my opponent. All things considered, Magic Drain is a great card in Advanced. While it isn’t something I would recommend for the Main Deck, running one or two in your Side Deck wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Advanced: 4/5. Can’t go wrong with Spell Negation.
Traditional: 2/5. Imperial Order is infinitely better.
Overall: 3/5.
Art: 2/5. Creepy…
 
sHecKii
Ahhh the sidedeck "tech" for the burner week...
 
It's not the "tech" card that no one knows about but I think it's a VERY good card in this deck.  Divine Wrath will kill that Mobius the Frost Monarch.  Divine Wrath will kill that Swarm of Locust.  Divine Wrath will kill that Exiled Force.  Also (not too sure) but if they ever creature swaped the lava golemn and/or stealth bird, you can divine wrath their effect and kill it.  Divine Wrath does NOT stop Jinzo but it stops all the other creatures on their field. 
 
The problem with burner is the hand advantage and sometimes even field advantage.  Divine Wrath will most likely pull off a 2for1 instead of a 3-4for1 that burner-counter decks wanted to do. 
 
What's the problem with this card?  Well you need Sinister Serpent and actually can't afford to set him (so your opponent Nobleman of Crossouts it =\).  You are trying to pull off a loop so you can maintain field advantage and hopefully burn your opponent for the win. 
 
Well, have fun with this card and have fun builing a burner deck.  I hope the cards I picked this week gave some light about burner decks.
 
Ratings
Constructed: 4.5/5
Limited: 3/5
 
f00b Burner Sideboard TecH – Creature Swap!

I last reviewed this card just over a year ago…it’s about time to revisit.

Believe it or not, creature control is key to beating burn (and as you’ll see by his card choice, sheckii would agree w/ me ;P). Because burns use so few creatures, every one of them counts. Take the fact they use such heavy hitters as Stealth Bird and Solar Flare Dragon, toss in some tricky flip effects like Fiber Jar and yesterday’s bombshell, Morphing Jar, add in the fact that they give you the monstrous Lava Golem, which will burn you to death if you don’t get rid of it, and you’ve got a recipe for your demise if you can’t control their monsters.

Basically, your Nobleman of Crossouts will only go so far with removing their face-downs, but what about getting rid of those Lava Golems? What if you want to take their monsters instead of getting rid of them? What if you simply need to turn an Ojama Token into a monster that can be used to tribute for Mobius, Airknight, Jinzo, or even the Dark Magician of Chaos to get back that Heavy Storm?

Creature Swap is so combo crazy its ridiculous. The most realistic situation when it comes into use against burn is when you swap a newly summoned Lava Golem over to them in exchange for their Stealth Bird. 2000 damage per turn against burn, with them having virtually no means of attacking back? This certainly spells GG (unless of course they tech certain goodies like Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce the Golem, fizzle the Creature Swap, and get rid of the next two creatures you summon, but this is what makes burn matchups so much fun =D).

Just think of it this way – against burn, Creature Swap provides a means of protecting your own life points by removing their threat from their control, but also giving you a means of non-aggressive offense (aka your own burn, not attacking) to beat them with.

As always, be careful not to run into their Scapegoat tokens, not to be fooled into taking something like their Sinister Serpent, etc, but most of all, go crazy with this card; it’s the nuts against burn. Oh, and combine it with Divine Wrath for the plentiful reasons I’m sure sheckii will have given in this review ^_~.

~Ratings~ (in relation to sideboarding…)

Traditional – 4/5 You should have access to both between the main and sideboards.
Advanced – 4/5 This card is multifunctional, it owns burn, but also any heavy creature-based decks and is only hindered by the prevalence of Scapegoats running around in the format.
 
Otaku
For my second “Dealer’s Choice” (my first one was Solemn Judgment; it went up late, but it’s there), I go with another favorite card of mine: Just Desserts.  It’s not my favorite Trap, nor is it my favorite Burn card.  For that matter, it’s not even my favorite Trap/Burn card.  Still, its one of my favorite overall cards; I just have a weakness for Trap cards I guess. XD Anyway, I have a long history with this card: back in the starter deck only days of the game, I gained an advantage over other local Beatdown decks by adding a little burn.  Not a lot, just something to catch them off guard for a surprise kill, usually when they were about to turn the game around by actually having *gasp* more than one beatstick in play at once!  Good times, good times.

 

Name: Just Desserts

Type: Normal Trap

Text: Inflict 500 points of Direct Damage to your opponent’s Life Points for each Monster your opponent has on the field.

 

Effect               : When you activate this card, you get to inflict damage to your opponent’s Life Points equal to the amount of Monsters they have on their side of the field.  This means a single card can get upwards of 2500 damage, or do zero.  Usually, if you know what you are doing, you can get a solid 1000 out of it.  This is a solid effect in my opinion.

 

Stats                : Just Desserts is a Trap card.  Since your opponent will usually be Summoning Monsters on their turn, it’s almost always worth waiting a turn to get another 500 points of damage.  As such, only a Quick-Play Spell would come close to the versatility.  Watch out for Trap negation.  Thankfully most efficient Trap negation comes from Jinzo (one-per deck Tribute Monster) or Royal Decree (very pricey Trap card).

 

Uses and

Combinations  : Stall/Burn loves this card.  Well, you’d think it would.  I don’t see it that much, but it’s a great card if you know how to use it.  It is a great counter to Scapegoat: they probably bought themselves only two turns without any successful attacks going through… but you just hit them for 2000 in burn damage, what you’d expect to accumulate over those turns had they used other defenses.  As mentioned when it was covered Monday, this goes great with Ojama Trio.  Two cards for 1500 burn, cutting your opponent down to two usable Monster Zones, and the potential of another 900 points of burn. As I discovered the other day, it’s even better if they have to “early game” monsters out already (like searchers meant to die).  Another useful card to combine it with is Morphing Jar #2: they hit, hopefully have to toss a few good Spells of Traps, and then set as many Monsters as they had (barring them drawing Tributes or the like).  So… they loose momentum, and still have a field full of monsters to feed your burn damage.

 

Given that, other than burn, Swarm (via Warrior Chaos) seems to rule duel in Advanced, it’s a simple, sweet burn card that is unrestricted.  In your normal Stall/Burn deck, your opponent is going to be more or less locked down by things like Messenger of Peace and Level Limit-Area B, so they should have quite a few Monsters.  Given that it is a Trap, you actually have some options to get it out quickly: Painful Choice plus Mask of Darkness, or A Cat of Ill Omen.  Such cards are actually quite useful to a Trap oriented Burner.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       :1.5/5-Given all the field clearing cards, it seems doubtful you’ll get any real damage out of Just Desserts in this format.

 

Advanced        : 3.75/5-Here, with most mass removal gone, you can easily lull your opponent into a false sense of security by allowing them to amass three to five Monsters, then stopping them in their tracks with Level Limit-Area B and company… at which point its just you waiting to draw those fat 1500-2500 damage burn bombs.

 

Limited            : 4/5-Burn damage is great here: its unexpected most of the time.  Being Monster based is okay; just make sure you’re hitting them for the kill if you let them fill up their Monster Zones on purpose.

 

Summary

Just Desserts: an oldie but a goodie.  It’s just so deliciously ironic when you defeat your opponent by turning their own formidable attack force against them.  Probably the only Trap that does this better is Ceasefire.

 

It’s nice that this fits into Burn week; as some have noticed and commented, we’ve had some seemingly random cards in previous theme weeks.  For example, the second Harpie week ended with Coldwave.  In that particular case, it was a fan request, and we had room for it then.  Not every theme will fill an even amount of weeks, and as you remember from the rather dreary third week of Gravekeepers, we probably shouldn’t try.

 

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