All righty, this was originally supposed to be Blue Eyes White Dragon, but we looked at that just a few months ago, so we end up on Polymerization.  It's hard to do a nostalgia review on it, cause it doesn't have much lore on the show, at least the original one.  Yugi used it ALL the time in Battle City for the less than desirable Chimera.  He also seemed to think Gaia the Dragon Champion was a staple before that.  Kaiba used it a handful of times for Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon...Joey didn't even carry a copy.  Fusion wasn't a very popular thing in the original Yugioh.  On G/X it WAS, however, the staple card of Jaden.  Too bad too, cause I find G/X to be the worst (by far) of the original three.  (I find 5d's the best actually, edging out Yugioh, because I find Yusei to be far more intelligent, interesting, and just an overall better character than Yami Yugi.)  As for the actual game, the big thing that hurts Polymerization, is that Fusion was never that reliable a mechanic.  Nor was it that popular, and it's a big investment, at least to start (beginning of game play) as you'd give up at least two Monsters, plus the card Polymerization itself, for ONE Monster.  Outside of Thousand Eye Restrict, (I do feel negligent if I didn't mention Last Warrior From Another Planet) there never really was a game changing or breaking Fusion originally.  Plus, even in the beginning (Labyrinth of Nightmare I believe) I'd argue you'd use Fusion Gate over this.  Then Cyber Stein came along, and that was hardly an "actual" Fusion method.  Plus we have Instant Fusion, Overload Fusion, Future Fusion, and Super Polymerization, just to list other options.  I guess my point is I'm having a hard time finding nostalgia value here, as I did (do) for the rest of the week, and yes, part of that is to the dislike of Jaden and G/X I have.
 
Art:  The original Yugioh art sucks, but the cool, different (I believe first released in the Joey starter Deck) is cool.
 
Nostalgia Corner:  I don't remember the G/X episode (and I'm too lazy to check, I knew my original references for the week off hand) but where Bastion duels Jaden and "cripples" his Deck by playing Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell nuking his Polymerization...and still lost =/

“From my hand I activate POLYMERIZATION!!” How many times have we heard Yugi say those words? He won many a game with this card and if he lost hand advantage or did not have enough cards to play Polymerization, he would just play Pot of Greed. We do not have the luxury of filling up our hands every time we play Polymerization like Yugi does, but Polymerization does have its benefits.
 
Probably the best use for Polymerization in today’s game is in a HERO deck, while you may also see this card in a Cyber deck. The issue with Polymerization is that it takes three cards to make one monster. Normally that is not a good thing, but it works well with Miracle Fusion as your monsters go to the graveyard turning Miracle Fusion into a big monster.
 
Polymerization is also the easiest fusion card in the game to get to your hand. Fusion Sage, King of the Swamp, and in a HERO deck, Elemental HERO Woodsman can all search for Polymerization. Unfortunately for Polymerization, Super Polymerization is a touch better in that while you are still using three cards to summon a monster, you also get to get rid of one of your opponent’s monsters and it can be used on your opponent’s turn, and your opponent can not respond to its activation. Did I say a touch better? OK you got me, it is way better.
 
While there are more powerful cards that you can use for fusion summons, Polymerization still stands as one of the more consistent cards that you can use for decks that look for this consistency.
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5
All time great cards: 4/5

Oh Polymerization, how I heart you. You fuse two or more monsters from your hand to special summon one fusion monster from the extra deck. But throughout the years, fusions monsters have fallen out of favor, or there were better ways to get out fusion monsters. Future Fusion, Dragon's Mirror, Fusion Gate, Miracle Fusion, and Super Polymerization made you almost obsolete. Certain monsters such as King of the Swamp, E-HERO Woodsman and Fusion Sage helped get you to our hands. But other monsters, such as the Hex Sealed monsters, (The Light, The Dark, The Earth) pushed you aside. But still, you've managed to stay in our hearts, even though the only fusion monster played these days is Five Headed Dragon. You're a classic, never gone out of style and beloved by everyone, no matter what score you get in our reviews.
 
Traditional: 1
Advanced: 2
Nostalgia Factor: 5
Tomorrow: Everyone does indeed love, Magical Trevor

Hello everyone and welcome back to our very special review week. Today we have a very, very classic card. It is sad to say that this card has fallen away from any sort of focus outside of maybe one deck.

Polymerization
Normal Spell
“Send Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on a Fusion Monster Card from your hand or your side of the field to the Graveyard, and Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck.”

This classic card, though it has many fond memories from the anime, as fallen from many circles of many decks because of it is nowhere near as usable as it was when it was first released.  Also, what really hindered this card severely was the release of Future Fusion.

This card is only really seen in Classic E-HERO decks and with good reason. Reason why I say that is because E-HERO decks have fusions every which way with several different monsters and it is essentially 3 for 1 card: 2 Fusion Material Monsters and 1 Polymerization for 1 Fusion Monster.

Some other decks that might be able use this card would probably be Worm and Dragon decks. Again, Future Fusion works better for all of these.

Pros: It has many targets and can bring out a beefy monster.
Cons: Situational and Reduces Card Advantage

Advanced: 1/5 (sad to say)
Traditional: 1/5

In a continuation of John Rocha's review yesterday:
REBD is an interesting inclusion for Hieratics, Hyozanryu is the Level 7 Normal Dragon record-holder for highest-DEF and Seiyaryu has the most ATK, and both are Light. Their stats don't matter so much, but I suppose it helps if you Monster Reborn or *shudders* Tribute Summon them. REBD has Dark if you want to summon BLS, though. However, the only Rank 7 Hieratics really use is Gaia Dragon...
Also, sadly, Dark Magician Girl will never get an errata to boost her playability as changes like that only happen if there was a mistake (a rare exception being Mirror Gate). We can only hope for more playable DM support in the future.
 
Speaking of the Dark Magician...
For this review, I will talk mostly about the concept of the Extra Deck in general rather than Polymerization itself.
With the dawn of Synchro and Xyz, one must really question: Why bother with Fusions? You need at least two monsters (granted they don't have to be on the field, but it still promotes bad hand management) AND this Spell Card to bring it out. Making matters worse, all the decks that have a large reliant on Fusions (Machines, Dragons, HEROes, Gem-Knights, primarily) already have their own archetype-unique Fusion cards to use. Dark, Light, and Earth Decks can use Hex-Sealed Fusion; the fact it's not a proper Fusion Summon should rarely ever matter.
 
There is more bad news for the original Fusion card:
Fusion Gate acts as an infinite Polymerization and can actually open the door for FTK possibilities. If you intend to Fusion Summon a lot, you might as well use Gate, and if Fusion is a very small weapon in your deck, Polymerization suffers in reliability. In many decks such as Dragons, Future Fusion can be used, but usually it's the milling of monsters out of the deck that's the more appealing factor rather than the actual Fusion Summon. Super Polymerization is a funny one; you need to discard just to Fusion Summon, can only use materials on the field, and you will rarely steal more than one card from your opponent. Super Poly is preferred when you use many Fusions that have "generic" materials and the original Poly is better for "listed" materials.
 
Polymerization can be searched with Fusion Sage and Synchro Fusionist (who is the fiendish-looking monster on the orange Polymerization). Fusion Sage isn't worth running. With Synchro Fusionist's effect, you might as well take Miracle Synchro Fusion.
 
There are a few redeeming factors for the original Poly, however. Wroughtweiler can be used for HEROes, but Fusion Recovery almost totally outclasses it, especially considering those two cards cannot be comboed with Fusion Gate. E-HERO Woodsman very easily recycles Polymerization again and again, making it a huge plus. Monster Eye resuses Polymerization as much as you want for 1000 LP each and really isn't something that is to be bothered with. King of the Swamp, ohohohoho, boosts Polymerization's playability by a HUGE amount. The King can either be used either to search for Polymerization or provide invaluable substitution for Fusion Material (but it can only do it for "listed" Materials when the name is actually written right on the Fusion Monster). Three Kings is mandatory for every Polymerization in your deck. This flexibility is what Polymerization can boast over any other kind of Fusion card.
 
Despite that, there are still many reasons NOT to use Polymerization. MOST HERO Decks use Super Polymerization because they have many "generic material" Fusions that allow them "any Attribute," allowing them to easily steal the opponent's monster(s). Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes Decks have more convenient ways to summon Fusions. One example is the Dark Magician Deck; its strongest Fusion, Dark Paladin, can NOT be used with Future Fusion or Hex-Sealed Fusion, and therefore the normal Polymerization is the most effective method of playing it. Also, if Fusions are INCREDIBLY important to summon yet the fact that Future Fusion cannot combo with King of the Swamp will hinder it (such as with the new Pyro + Machine Fusions out there), that is another use. You either need to structure your build around Polymerization or use it when the "cheating" options won't suffice. There isn't much Polymerization has to offer, but I concede that is has its (admittedly gimmicky) niches.

Ruling Clarification: Thunder King Rai-Oh can't negate most Fusion Summons.
Ruling Clarification 2: Facedown monsters can be Fusion Material. Giving up Fusion Materials is not a cost and does not target. If I play Polymerization and you destroy it with Solemn Warning or Judgment, I don't need to tell you any of my intended Fusion Materials or the Fusion Monster I wanted to summon. I don't think that should be the case, but that's what it's supposed to be.
Trad: 1/5 (Cyber-Stein. Metamorphosis. Magical Scientist. I don't even see any need to summon a Fusion Monster the correct way...)
Adv: 2.8/5 (Fusion is much more effective in a Double Duel because you can use your partner's monsters, but that's a whole different style of play)
Awesomeness Factor: 3.5/5 I like how Yu-Gi-Oh is the third option provided when you Google search "Polymerization" and the first two entries are about "real-life" polymerization, which is when molecules combine together to form bigger molecules. Mostly thanks to Yu-Gi-Oh, I tend to use the word "fusion" as a mix of anything, rather than specifically as a science-y term. The "let's combine our souls together into a single entity" thing has really gone out of whack, though. About four years ago they invented Synchro Summoning and now the even more powerful Xyz Summoning; it's really overhauled the game. It's made the whole thing wacky and whenever Konami makes a new Extra Deck monster, they could very bloody hell go "eeny-meeny-miney-moe" on Fusion/Synchro/Xyz and it wouldn't do much to change the concept of the monster. One thing I do like, however, is that there exists a monster that requires a Tribute of a Fusion Monster, Ritual Monster, Synchro Monster, and Xyz Monster...and then you practically win the game. I admit that Polymerization's first artwork (with the orange monsters) is definitely less cool-looking than the second one (with the purple Barox and green Blackland Fire Dragon flying into the card). That's silly, because I can swear the first one is Fusing REBD and Summoned Skull, but Barox can never be Fused with Blackland Fire Dragon. It took a while for the second one to be released in English because it had a controversial hexagram in it and they had to redraw it. Ironically enough, the original Japanese anime always used the first artwork, but when they turned it to English, up until GX, it got changed to an censored version of the second Polymerization! America is a funny country.
 
Philosophy Corner: I like the way Exodia is positioned when you put the hands directly next to the head, as we showed yesterday. It makes him look like he's shrugging. "Did I just obliterate you? I dunno, whaddya think?"
 
Double Philosophy: I was sorta surprised when I was reading my own Dark Magician Girl review to see that Pojo put a photo of the original picture. I mean...kids are gonna read this, but eh, whatcha gonna do. I don't really approve of the English department changing her picture, because it takes away the essence of the original character. America is a funny country.
 
Triple Philosophy: Pojo initially ordered us to review BEWD for today, but I convinced him to change it since we talked about BEWD literally fifty days ago.
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