I like Shadow Spell for some reason. It
has nothing to do with its game play value
(which is rather low), but rather that it is an
excellent representative of Yu-Gi-Oh “camp”.
First, its name has the obligatory “dark and
ominous but not too dark and ominous”
feel because of the “Shadow” part. Next,
it has the “Are you sure this was translated
right?” perquisite meet by being named “Spell”
when it’s a Trap. At least in this case, that
might be due to petty legality issues rather
than the normal insanity that seems to go into
some translations. I believe this card did
appear a few times in the animé and/or manga,
and before they were forced to designate Yu-Gi-Oh’s
Magic cards as Spell cards. I also enjoy the
art: simple, yet effective.
That’s correct: I can waste a paragraph
discussing that because the actual card is
pretty simple, and simply pretty weak. Oh, I
think the basic concept is sound, but the game
so unbalanced that cards like this (and most of
last week's picks) has little hope. Wait for
your opponent to attack, then stop their attack
with this and get them stuck in a now weakened
ATK position. 700 ATK points is quite a bit,
making higher levels monsters weak enough that
lower level beatsticks can easily mow them down,
beatsticks weak enough that supporting effect
Monsters can likely take them down and
supporting effect Monsters are left so weak that
it’s practically a direct attack when you kill
them in battle. Then this card blows itself up
after they are destroyed so it isn’t eating up
an S/T zone.
Of course, one would rather blow the Monster up
with Sakurestu Armor or even use a
Quick-Play spell like Shrink (then they
can crash into your Monster in their weakened
state and save you an attack). At least this
fixed a problem of a past version of this style
of Trap: Spellbinding Circle would sit
meaninglessly on the field after the Monster it
was equipped to was removed from play other than
by being destroyed (used as Tribute, bounced,
etc). Also, since Shadow Spell decreases
the targeted Monster’s ATK, then it should be
perfectly legal to use in the Damage Step.
Now, before I give the scores, let me add
something: this card is better than Mask of
the Accursed, Ekibyo Drakmord, and
Flint.
Flint
is the only one to actually do something during
your turn, but it has that nasty tendency to
backfire (and it doesn’t do that much).
Nightmare Wheel can at least be used to stop
an attack.
“But that’s on the next turn!”
Okay, but they are all vulnerable in the above
list, so I suppose Mask of the Accursed
would get its 500 burn damage… oh well. Some
jobs, like this, are best left to Traps:
surprise is part of the benefits package. So
I’ve said these last few things just to point
out that while my score seems low, it’d be far
lower for some of the recent cards.
Ratings
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced:
1.5/5
