We have a fun card to review for you today. Number 16: Shock Master has the awesome ability to stop any type of card from being activated or getting its effect if it is a monster. Imagine if you can get three of these monsters out in one turn! You would have a virtual lock down on your opponent. Can you say “Good Game”! Even if you can only get one Shock Master out on a turn, you can still use its effect on the type of card your opponent depends most on. At 2300 attack, it is not very strong; however you can still protect it with spells, traps, or even Honest as it is a light monster providing you did not call those types of cards. Yes, it affects your cards as well.
 
The fastest way to get 3 Shock Masters to the field, is to use Gadgets. Play Ultimate Offering and summon all 9 of your Gadgets, Xyzing 3 Shock Masters along the way. You can also try using Chain Summoning on your first turn with one of your Gadgets and a chainable card like MST to summon 3 Gadgets and then special summon Shock Master. If you have Ultimate Offering in hand, call Spell cards to protect it for use on your next turn.
 
This single monster could make Gadgets top tier again. Finding one may be tough however as you can only get one if you had an Alpha subscription for Shonen Jump digital. Keep in mind that Gadgets are not the only decks that can summon Number 16: Shock Master easily. Photon decks are another deck type with tons of support and can special summon level 4 monsters like crazy. Three level 4 monsters may seam like a lot, but the pay off can be game breaking.
 
Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 5/5

Breaking through our review wall is Number 16: Shock Master. A Rank 4, LIGHT, Fairy/Xyz monster, needing 3 level four monsters. It has 2300 ATK and 1600 DEF, thus making it nothing to sneeze at.  Shock Master's effect is: Once per turn, you can detach one Xyz material from this monster to declare a card type (Monster, Spell or Trap); Spells or Traps cannot be activated, or monsters cannot activate their effects, until the end of your opponent's next turn. This is a very handy little effect. The down side is that this also applies to you as well, so choose wisely. Shock Master's ability to shut down one of the three things that your opponent needs to win is very helpful. Overall, SM can really interfere with you opponent's strategies. If you're looking to figure out how to get him out, because he needs 3 monsters to Xyz summon, read up on yesterday's COTD on illuminknight. 
 
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3

Tuesday:

Number 16: Shock Master
Rk. 4/LIGHT/Fairy/2300A/1600D
"3 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to declare a card type (Monster, Spell, or Trap); that type of card (if Spell or Trap) cannot be activated, or (if Monster) cannot activate its effects, until the end of your opponent's next turn."

Now we're talking. While it takes 3 Materials to get him out, Shock Master is worth the effort as he can shut down any type of card during this and the opponent's next turn. Do note that effects CAN still be chained to his effect, so he only locks out card effects AFTER his effect resolves on the chain. Also, Continuous Spells and Traps that were already active cannot be prevented from being used by SM's effect. Still, he's got a great effect and can really turn the game in your favor if you can get him into play. 3 Lv. 4 Materials can be tricky to pull off, but this guy is worth the effort. His Defense could be higher, but that and his needing 3 Materials to Summon are the only real downsides to using him.

Traditional: 4.25
Advanced: 4

For July 17th, we are looking at Number 16. Like yesterday's card, Shock Master requires three Level 4 monsters. Not every deck can do this, but those that swarm fast and hard are known to make powerful Xyzs, like Gadget Decks. If 1/5 is a score of 0%, I gave Illumiknight a 5% approval rating, so how does Shock Master compare?
 
In the decks that CAN summon Shock Master easily (such as the aforementioned Gadgets), the robotic angel can prove to be worth its summon. On the turn you summon it, and for the next two turns (assuming Shock Master survives, which is likely despite the average ATK given the resources needed to bring it out), you can completely shut down your choice of your opponent's monsters, Traps, or Spells. It's just like one of those Virus cards!
 
Assuming a deck that has summoned Shock Master can swarm effectively, you can build a whole army of powerful monsters and use SM to protect them all from an untimely opponent's card. If your opponent's backrow is scaring you, call Trap. If the opponent has a facedown monster or if you're scared of a sudden strong monster, disable monster effects. Otherwise, calling Spell is good and handy. Shock Master's potential is also further amplified when combined with other lockdown-like cards,  like Book of Moon or Trap Stun.
 
One important thing to note is that Shock Master will also disable your own cards, so make sure you play all your effects and use SM's last. Also, if you decide to block Traps with SM, you won't be able to defend yourself using your own Traps for a turn.
 
Trad: 3/5 (although good for disruption, it does use a lot of resources and can't refund itself easily)
Adv: 3.65/5 (powerful as it may be, a simple Solemn Warning, or even worse, Bottomless Trap Hole, will be very disastrous)
Aesthetics: 3/5 I can't tell if the very tip of its head is actually a face, or if the orange things are its eyes and that the nose...or maybe something else. Ironically, this monster greatly reminds me of the Fal'cie (fal-see) antagonists of Final Fantasy XIII. Fal'cie are robotic-looking mortal gods that designate certain mortals to carry out tasks for them; people designated this way are called l'cie (luh-see). That is how I make the greatest sense of Shock Master being a Fairy...or rather, an Angel (it seems to me that eight years ago, Fairy monsters resembled actual fairies, but when Yu-Gi-Oh first came out and now recently, Fairies started to resemble angels, as how the Type is originally called in Japanese, and fairy-like monsters are starting to be classified more as Spellcasters). I dunno why the English department keeps shortening all the Number's names, but the Japanese name was extended to include "Ruler of Colour." In Japanese, one is pronounced i and six is pronounced ro, and color is 色 (iro, if you read it in kana). If you read it in kanji, it's pronounced し ょ く (shoku), which sounds a lot like "Shock." Clearly, the meaning got lost in translation.  

Philosophy Corner:

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.
I live in a caravan.
I open the door
And I fall through the floor.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.

abc_at_123.com@hotmail.com