Wednesday

Legal Disclaimer: I spend little to no time actually reviewing Dark Magician, so unless you're interested in some facts and story telling, kindly move on =)

Ahh...Dark Magician. What is there to say about a card with as much lore and fame as THE Dark Magician. I am a man of Spellcasters as most anyone knows, and Dark Magician holds a special place in my heart. It's ironic for one, that he claims to be the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, since he is neither. We have many different pictures of our magical friend out in the Yugioh world. Dark Magician, even in the time of Legend of Blue Eyes in the beginning, was never all that tournament caliber of a card. 2500 attack on two tributes isn't good, however you try to rationalize or justify how cool a card is. Now, allow too for the possibility that as good as Dark Magician may or may not be, you can actually make a very solid Dark Magician Deck. There is so much support out for the card alone, it's almost sickening. Furthermore, there are some really solid and awesome Spellcaster support cards too. Dark Magician can easily be brought to the Field via Skilled Dark Magician, Dark Magic Curtain, or Magical Dimension, for starters. He has personal cards too for support like Dark Magic Attack likely being the best. There are still some Dark Magician/Spellcaster support cards we don't have in English yet, but nothing too game breaking. I wouldn't say that a Dark Magician Deck would be Tier 1, but as something I've tried to say for years, this is one of those Decks that is all kinds of fun to play. Winning is important too, but sometimes its fun to play a Dark Magician Deck, or something else you know you won't win with. I doubt you will ever see anyone win an SJC, or anything like that with this Deck, or this Monster, but the novelty and nostalgia involved here counts for something I think.

Ratings:

Dark Magician is beyond rating. No one out there is going to play him anyway.

Art: This picture happens to be my second favorite, I like the one of him and the ancient Egyptian table the best...4.5/5

Today’s card is not exactly top tier card and not one that you will see being played very often. It really needs its own deck to be of any use. A Dark Magician/Spellcaster Deck can be a lot of fun to play and comes with a lot of support cards. First, let me point out that the reason this card was reprinted for the Shonen Jump magazine is because number one it is a classic card for the 10th anniversary, and two, it is a cool alternate art card.
 
So let’s have some fun with Dark Magician. The first really cool trick is to summon Breaker the Magical Warrior, use its token to destroy a spell or trap, and then attack to draw out any monster removal or destruction cards. Then play Magician’s Circle to summon Dark Magician Girl from your deck to attack over your opponent’s monster. Main Phase #2 play Sage’s Stone to special summon Dark Magician from your hand or deck. Cool trick #2: Use Summoner’s Art to get Dark Magician in your hand and then use Ancient Rules to summon it. Or better yet, attack with our spent Breaker and activate Magical Dimension to special summon Dark Magician and blow up your opponent’s monster. If you want to be super cool, play Knight’s Title with a Dark Magic Knight in your deck.
 
The support cards for Dark Magician are many. We have Birthright, Swing of Memories, Dark Magic Curtain, Dark Magic Attack, Skilled Dark Magician, and Thousand Knives just to name a few. It is a dark with 2500 attack so you can use Eradicator Epidemic Virus. It is also a normal monster so you have tons of normal monster support cards. And the list goes on.  The problem is that it is a normal monster that take two tributes. All big no-no’s for our game so this card becomes dependant on support cards.
 
So if you like to build decks, a Dark Magician Deck should be on your list. Enjoy.
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5

It's the middle of the road here on Shonen Jump Promo week and we're looking at the star of Yugi's deck, in his Final Fantasy IV look, but still waiting for Arkana's red version, The Dark Magician. Dark Magician is a...well, if you don't his stats by now, you really don't deserve to know. Being a normal spellcaster might make you think of not playing DM, but I've seen decks that were built around him and they are pretty good. Dark Magician has almost the most support for a single card. Dark Magical Curtain, Thousand Knives and Sage's Stone are just for him, with other cards like the  Summoner's Art/Ancient Rules combo, Skilled Dark Magician, Magic Formula and Magical Dimension. This classic card has and deseves its own deck and is worth playing, at least for fun. While Dark Magician itself may not do much, its support in various ways are what helps it win. 
 
Traditional: 1
Advanced: 3 
Tomorrow: That's not how you spell Mechanical.

Wednesday:

Dark Magician
Lv. 7/DARK/Spellcaster/2500A/2100D
(Normal monster - no special effects)

Yugi Moto/Yami's favorite monster, the one who started it all, is getting yet another look today. While he was a monster that wasn't special back in the day, many support cards have come out over the years to support him, allowing for a theme deck that works alright.

The issue with DM is that his stats are merely okay for a monster of his level. Dark Magic Attack and Thousand Knives help him to control the field, Dark Magic Curtain and Skilled Dark Magician can help you get him out, then use traps like Dark Illusion to defend him, but he can still be overrun by stronger monsters.

Perhaps with a bit more support cards, Dark Magician would make for a more competatie deck type. as it is, there's worse cards to build a deck around, but DM decks make only mildly competaive decks simply because almost every card in the deck centers around him, that leaves little felxavility and relies on good consecutive card draws.

On it's own, DM isn't something that players would want to include in their decks.

Traditional: 2
Advanced: 3