All righty, Ban List season is upon us, and while there's no official word yet, we're taking another stroll down memory lane with some OLD cards.  Opening the week is Chaos Emperor Dragon--Envoy of the End.  How many games have you won (or lost) with this badass Dragon?  Special Summon CED, set your Witch, nuke the field, pull Yata...anybody out there remember the Trinity Format?  That makes me feel old.  In my opinion, CED is one of six cards that should just stay Banned--forever.  (The others being BLS, Pot of Greed, Monster Reborn, Fiber Jar, and Yata Garasu).  As this card is legal in and ONLY in Traditional, you play it here, or you lose.  Sure, you can play many a OTK/FTK in Traditional you can't play in Advanced, but even so.  I have one in my trade binder, and I hope he forever remains there.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  About the only way to stop him is a FTK/OTK so good luck.  Godly/5 which we'll say is merely 5/5
Advanced:   Banned/5
Art:  5/5

OK, so this is fun week. For the next three days, we are going to be looking at some of the most broken and hated cards in the game. Hated, because if your opponent played one of these cards on you, it was game changing. First up is Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End. Like it’s significant other, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, Chaos Emperor Dragon is not as feared as it once was because of cards like Effect Veiler, Thunder King, Solemn Warning, Fiendish Chain, growing number of effect negating Xyz monsters in the game, and the fast effect timing rule that allows cards like Bottomless Trap Hole to stop the dragon before it can activate it’s effect.
 
Still, summoning a 3000 attack monster with relative ease is amazing in itself. But what happens when it gets its effect off? If you opponent has hand and field advantage and you are a breath away from total annihilation (like my flair for dramatics?), for a measly 1000 life points, you can level the playing field and force a top decking situation. Taking a look back in time, the big game changing lock was to get Sangan on the field, summon Emperor Dragon, use its effect, search for Yata Garasu, and then summon and attack with Yata to prevent your opponent from drawing.
 
Without Yata Garasu, Chaos Emperor Dragon loses much of its effectiveness; however, it still works great with cards that have effects that activate when sent to the Graveyard or work while in the graveyard. Cards like Lightpulsar Dragon, Reborn Tengu, Night Assailant, Eclipse Wyvern, Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Necro Gardna, Glow-Up Bulb, Spore, Plaguespreader Zombie, and the list goes on. As you can see, Chaos Emperor Dragon would make as already powerful Dragon deck in the advanced format even stronger as it can be searched with Eclipse wyvern.
 
Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End is one of the reasons why most of the cards we review get a lower rating in the advanced format as most decks cannot compete with Chaos decks. We won’t even go into some of the other broken decks that win in one or two turns.
 
Advanced: 5/5
Traditional: 5/5 if it was not banned.

With the upcoming change to the Forbidden/Limited list in a few weeks, we are taking a rare look at a few of the powerful forbidden cards on this short review week, and we're starting this party with a bang, Chaos Emperor Dragon. I remember when this card was legal, and a huge pain in the rear. Getting out CED was as easy as playing Painful Choice on your first turn, or removing a LIGHT and DARK from your graveyard. Being a 3000 ATK monster that was simple to bring out wasn't enough, by paying a meager 1000 LP, you could send all cards on the field and in both you and your opponent's hand to the graveyard, and your opponent is taking 300 damage for each card sent to the graveyard by this effect. forcing the both of you to live off of the top cards of your deck for a little while. But by then, you would most likely have won the game due to CED's major burn effect. This card is a 10 on the ridiculous scale and games were usually won if not with this effect, a turn or two after. This card is on that list for good reason. And may it never see the light of day again. We have Black Luster Soldier, that's enough.
 
Traditional: 5
Advanced: 5 *If it were legal to play here*
Tomorrow: The review will be ajar.

Mmm, I forgot to say last Friday on the Dark Magician, there has been a lot of good Spellcaster cards coming out lately, which is a fantastic plus.

As we're a month away from September 1 and because Pojo the Webmaster is going to be off on personal business on Thursday and Friday, we're going to spend this week explaining why three of some of the most powerful cards in the game are never leaving the Forbidden List, ever...probably. (Well, since Black Luster Soldier made a surprise return, I don't know what to think.)
 
The Emissary of Demise is the single most destructive card in the game. Even Kaiba agreed it was worthy enough to match his ego but at least had the decency to have it banned in the anime too.

Assuming you have at least one each of a Light and Dark Monster on the field and you're not playing against Gravekeepers, for the low, low cost of 1000, you can throw away every card on the field and in both hands and deal a very large amount of LP damage. If you're feeling up for it, 3000 points is not bad to be attacking with either. I hope I don't need to explain how big of an advantage this can provide for you.

It's not exactly difficult to summon CED, but the cornucopia of draw power makes it easier than it should be. Painful Choice and Graceful Charity can summon CED on the very first turn. Dark Dragon bestows CED some fantastic support. Eclipse Wyvern can either help put CED in your hand or be used to put it on the field (and if you DO banish Wyvern to summon CED, it means you'll probably get Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon in your hand, then you could possibly banish CED to summon REDMD and follow that up with Dimension Fusion to revive Wyvern, CED, and the other Dark Monster you used for CED). Since your CED is going to bite the dust anyway, you can chain your Ring of Destruction to your own Dragon to add a bonus 3000 damage to the fire (if this doesn't outright destroy your opponent, at least it will make it almost impossible for them to crawl back). If you are a kind person and don't want CED to destroy itself with its own effect, either Interdimensional Matter Transporter or Forbidden Shroud will shield it from effect destruction, but unless you think driving a 3000 ATK death machine against an low-LP opponent with a totally naked hand and field will do nothing less than give you A VERY BRUTAL WIN, then it isn't worth trying.
 
There are a lot of things that will counter CED: Ring of Destruction, Necrovalley, Solemn Warning, Fiendish Chain, Effect Veiler, Barrel Behind the Door, etc. However, all cards have their counters, and nothing can blow the tar out world better than the explosive destructive potential of Kaosu Enpera Duragon.

Trad: 5/5 (if you have at least two each of a Light and Dark Monster, there's no way you shouldn't use one unless your game plan is completely unfit for it, and if you DON'T have two each of a Light and Dark Monster, you should do so anyway just for the sake of including CED)

Adv: Would actually probably be more effective compared to Traditional because lack of FTK's help

Aesthetics: 5/5 Firstly, coolness points off looks alone. It's funny because for some reason, I always feel as if Black Luster Soldier and Chaos Emperor Dragon were partners in crime. I mean, obviously they're not, Warrior and Dragon, Light and Dark, BEGINNING AND END. Maybe I felt that way because they're just so similar and are often used side-by-side, sorta like how Seviper can breed with Zangoose, or Skitty and Wailord... Um...anyway, CED most resembles Apep/Apophis, the Egyptian God of evil and chaos. He was a 48-feet (17.6 metre) stone snake-dragon thing that tried to eat the sun every day and Ra had to stab him to stop him (CED sure looks like one skeletal dragon, doesn't it). Eventually Set was accepted as the god of evil and Apep was forgotten. Another member for the "Failed Villians" club.
 
Philosophy Corner: "Removing a Light and a Dark from the Graveyard was usually the second to last thing to happen before a Duel ended. . . . A player who had no cards could draw this and win a game against a player who had ten." -Michael Lucas, former CotD reviewer

Riddle: What is everything doing at the same time? Answer on Wednesday.