Monday

All right friends, this is my Return of the Duelist week, and these are cards we didn't cover in our earlier countdown, so enjoy! Opening the week is one of the more interesting cards in the Set, a Trap known as Lucky Punch. This is a Short Print Common, and not something you probably will see anyone use...ever. Any card (regardless of other text on said card) that says "Draw three cards" is worth looking at. It's a Continuous Trap, which is as vulnerable as ever, but hardly the biggest downfall of this card. You can use this effect only when an opponent's Monster declares an attack, and only once per turn. Also note the card reads "you CAN" so you don't have to use the effect. (I'm not sure why you would play it and not use it, because nothing negative happens in not getting the result of the Draw.) This is a coin card, by tossing a coin three times, and yielding three heads as the results, you Draw three cards. Not exactly worthy of a Deck spot, but can certainly be used in some random Decks I think. (More on that in a moment.) The huge and obvious downside, is that when this card is destroyed, you lose 6000 Lifepoints. This is screaming for abuse via Barrel Behind the Door (remember that Trap from LoD?) This card in a couple or even three could be the focal point of a very unconventional Burn Deck. This might be an all right card in say Fire Princess Burn, where you constantly recover Lifepoints, so the 6000 loss might not kill you. An Agent Fairy Deck might tech one, but outside of fun, this isn't the most competitive card. BARREL BEHIND THE DOOR, DO IT!

Ratings:

Fire Princess Gain/Burn, Agent Fairy: 2.75/5
Burn via Barrel Behind the Door: 5/5
Elsewhere: 1.75/5

Average: 1.5 Traditional, 2.5/5 Advanced

Art: 4/5 Have we not seen this before, Threatening Roar?

We are going to be looking at one of the new cards from Return of the Duelist called Lucky Punch. Lucky Punch gives you the amazing, game winning ability to draw three cards. Unfortunately it also takes 3 coin tosses of all heads to get the effect. If I have calculated correctly, that is a 1 in 8 shot of getting the effect off and only when your opponent attacks. In the mean time, it has to remain on the field and is vulnerable to destruction. That destruction will cost you 6000 life points and quite possibility the game.

In the right deck, Lucky Punch may be of benefit, but it would have to be protected or benefit from the life point change. Playing cards like Imperial Custom and White Dragon Ninja can protect Lucky Punch, but that seams to be a lot of trouble for a card with only 12.5% chance of working. You could even use it with Emergency Provisions so you can avoid the life point costs, but then you are using 2 cards to possibly draw 3 and hope you can get that combo.

You could also play Lucky Punch with Upstart Goblin to put you in a 7000 point hole so you can play Self Destruct Button. We are probably grasping at straws at this point as Lucky Punch is probably never going to see the light of day.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5

This week starts off with a short print common from Return of the Duelist, Lucky Punch. A continuous trap card, it's best used if you really, really are feeling lucky. Once per turn, when your opponent declares an attack, you flip a coin 3 times. If the result is 3 heads, draw 3 cards. If the result is 3 tails, destroy this card. If this face up card is destroyed, you lose 6000 life points. First off I feel I have to say this, Ouch. A continuous trap that can either have you draw 3 cards (yay), nothing by getting a mix of heads and tails (meh), or go down in a flaming blaze of glory when you lose 6000 life points (Again, ouch). If you really want to use this card, I suggest cards like Imperial Custom and Second Coin Toss to make sure thing go more in your favor and Lucky Punch doesn't get destroyed. Card Guard and Emergency Provisions can help out as well. Of course your opponent has to declare an attack first for Lucky Punch's effect to happen, and in this 3 Space, 1 Storm format, I hope you like losing 6000 life points, also, cards like Prime Material Dragon can't stop you from taking the 6000 damage, because you're not taking actual damage, you're losing life points, big difference. Use at your own risk.

Traditional: 1
Advanced: 2
Tomorrow: The Prophecy is foretold.....

Hello and welcome to a new week of CotD reviews!
Lucky Punch
Continuous Trap (Spell Speed 2)
“Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can toss a coin 3 times. If the result is 3 heads, draw 3 cards, but if the result is 3 tails, destroy this card. If this face-up card on the field is destroyed: You lose 6000 Life Points.”
Right off the bat this card just screams “High Risk, High Reward.”

Let me tell you that this card is more of a risk than anything else. You can use cards like “Second Coin Toss” to allow you to reflip the coin, but that still might not be enough. A chained “Mystical Space Typhoon” can be a very dangerous thing. So I would strongly recommend using other cards like “Imperial Custom” or “White Dragon Ninja” to prevent your card to be destroyed.
Pros: Possible draw
Cons: More than likely to be destroyed than anything else.
Advanced: 1/5
Traditional: 1/5

Monday:

Lucky Punch
Continuous Trap
"Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can toss a coin 3 times. If the result is 3 heads, draw 3 cards, but if the result is 3 tails, destroy this card. If this face-up card on the field is destroyed: You lose 6000 Life Points."

This is a luck card, plain and simple and has one of the worst drawbacks imaginable. With the game running rampant with S/T removal, there's no way to protect this card indefinitely, so when it eventually gets destroyed, you're guaranteed to lose the duel that turn or the next. Not only that, but luck-based cards never get played competitively due to the lack of certainty on the success of the effect activating. The effects are alright, but certainly not worth the cost of trying to use this card. Expect to find tons of these in the local game store sort bin. Also, while I dearly love the game, this is one card I feel would be more useful as a coaster than as an actual game card.

Traditional: 1*
Advanced: 1*

* = Because we're not allowed to rate cards '0'.