I:P Masquerena – #MGED-EN035
2 non-Link Monsters
During your opponent’s Main Phase, you can (Quick Effect): Immediately after this effect resolves, Link Summon 1 Link Monster using materials you control, including this card. You can only use this effect of “I:P Masquerena” once per turn. A Link Monster that used this card as material cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects.
Date Reviewed: July 20th, 2023
Rating: 4.37
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Throwback Thursday is highlighting one of the most played and well-known Link 2 monsters likely to ever be released (even years from now): I:P Masquerena
DARK Cyberse Link 2 that can’t use other Link Monsters as material, Masquerena hit the scene and sped off into top-tier monster status. Quick-Effect during your opponent’s turn to Link Summon using herself and other monsters you control was a great disruptive effect that responded to their plays to save your monsters as well as stop their turn. The most common play I saw was her and another monster making Unicorn, which would then pop a card back to the Deck at the cost of a discard. But you could go even bigger with Masquerena, going for a Link 4 or 5 if you had the right requirements. In addition to be responsive on your opponent’s turn, using Masquerena as Link Material imbued the new Link Monster with destruction protection from your opponent’s card effects. Having a Borreload Dragon on the field that was packing 3000ATK and had destruction protection severely limited how to counter it. Players would make their generic or archetype-specific Link 1’s to get advantage, then go into Masquerena and pass with at least another monster on the field. She is like any monster that likes to summon during your opponent’s turn.
I:P Masquerena’s hype was high and she delivered. She fell out of popularity for a hot second when Halqifibrax was legal, but she never truly disappeared from player’s Extra Decks. Now with Halq banned she remains the top choice for Link 2 monsters, especially if you are playing any higher Link Monsters in your Extra Deck.
Advanced-4/5 Art-4.5/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Sometimes the timing of these reviews end up being super interesting since this card just got a new counterpart revealed a few days ago as of this post going up, but to go with the card from Monday, Throwback Thursday this week goes to I:P Masquerena.
Masquerena is a Link-2 DARK Cyberse with 800 ATK and arrows pointing Bottom Left and Bottom Right. The ATK leaves a bit to be desired, but everything else is great. Materials are any 2 non-Link Monsters, so extremely easy to summon. In return, you get a monster that during the opponent’s Main Phase as a Quick Effect, you can Link Summon any Link Monster using monsters you control, including this card, as material. It’s a great way to get Knightmare Unicorn out on the opponent’s turn for removal or to bypass restrictions that prevent you from summoning the monsters you want on your turn. The new S:P Little Night is going to be a great target for this as well for 2 removal effects that don’t have much of a real cost to them. The Link Summon effect of this is a hard once per turn, but there is a 2nd effect where a Link Monster that used this as material cannot be destroyed by the opponent’s card effects, so offering some protection to whatever you use this to climb into. Masquerena was a great card on release, and I imagine it’ll continue to be a great card as long as there are good Link Monsters to use on the opponent’s turn. Probably one of the better aging Link Monsters in the game.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 4/5 for the original art and 10/5 for the alternate art, Konami has knocked it out of the park with their more recent alternate artworks.
Mighty
Vee
Today’s Throwback Thursday card isn’t particularly relevant to this week’s theme, but if you’ve been keeping up with OCG reveals, it is quite topical. I:P Masquerena is a relatively recent card, a Link 2 DARK Cyberse Link monster that takes any two non-Link monsters, so it’s incredibly easy to make in most decks as long as they don’t lock you in some way. Down left and down right arrows are standard for a Link 2 like this, though having only 800 attack is rather below average, not that most Link 2 monsters are meant to attack anyway.
I:P Masquerena’s first effect is a hard once per turn Quick Effect that can be used only during your opponent’s Main Phase, letting you perform a Link Summon using itself and any monsters you control. This is I:P’s more powerful and influential effect, and has an incredible variety of versatile functions. For one, you can use I:P to turn Link monsters with summon triggers into disruptions; Knightmare Unicorn is the ever-popular choice due to its shuffle effect, though with the Age of the Overlord set, there’ll be a stronger monster to consider. I:P activating during your opponent’s turn also allows you to bypass locks in common Cyberse decks and make Link monsters you normally would be unable to make. Mathmech decks are able to make I:P under its Cyberse lock and make Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess on the opponent’s turn, as the Cyberse lock would have already faded away. While it takes a lot of investment, Underworld Goddess of the Closed World is also a powerful choice as it can use an opponent’s monster as a Link material, bypassing many common protections. I:P’s second effect isn’t as versatile, but has still seen its usage; a Link monster summoned with I:P as Link material gains protection from destruction by card effects. This effect was most popular during Spright format as a Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax made with I:P is very difficult to defeat, as it becomes immune to targeting, destruction, and essentially invincible by battle as well. While I don’t see I:P getting banned any time soon, it’s certainly an incredibly powerful staple and is one of the first considerations as Extra Deck filler if you have extra slots.
Advanced: 4.5/5
Art: 4.25/5 (original) I’m ashamed that I never noticed I:P is both an IP address joke and a reference to her 😛 expression.
4.5/5 (alternate) If she’s Catwoman, does that make Chiyomaru Batman? Holy smokes!
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