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This week we begin our review on cards that had
their positions changed by the September 2013
Forbidden/Limited List. This List in particular is a
milestone in many ways; not only is it the first
time that the TCG and OCG have had completely
different lists, and not only is this the first one
that’s only in effect for four months instead of
six, but the TCG List has a whopping total of
FIFTEEN new Forbidden cards! So, this week, all five
of our cards are newly Forbidden Cards.
And we start with what is without a doubt the most
poorly designed card of 2013: Spellbook of Judgment!
Quick-Play Spell Card
During the End Phase of the turn this card was
activated, add "Spellbook" Spell Cards from your
Deck to your hand, except "Spellbook of Judgment",
up to the number of Spell Cards activated after this
card's resolution, then, you can Special Summon from
your Deck 1 Spellcaster-Type monster whose Level is
less than or equal to the number of cards added to
your hand by this effect. You can only activate 1 "Spellbook
of Judgment" per turn.
This card is one of the few in the game (although
that number has been increasing a lot in recent
years) to go instantly from 3 to 0. And all you have
to do is read it to realize just how screwed up this
card is.
For every Spell Card activated after Spellbook of
Judgment (including the opponent’s), you add that
many Spellbooks to your hand during the End Phase,
except Judgment itself.
The Prophecy Deck is known for being able to use a
LOT of Spell Cards in one turn. It doesn’t help that
they have a Spellbook that can search other
Spellbooks and a Spellbook that can copy other
Spellbooks to search again.
You hear about +1’s and +2’s when you enter a
discussion about card advantage right? Well, this
card could pretty easily be between a +5 and a +8.
It’s more accurate to call it +Infinity, because it
was so easy to search half of your Deck with this
ONE CARD.
And that’s not even the end of it. You can also
Special Summon a Spellcaster who’s Level is equal to
or less than the number of cards you added to your
hand. So, to add insult to injury, you also get a
MONSTER to go with your massive hand advantage. In
the early days of the format, this was generally
Justice of Prophecy, which you would promptly banish
to put High Priestess and another Spellbook of
Judgment in hand, to start the process over again
next turn. As Dragon Rulers slowly began to dominate
the format, and Priestess fell out of favor, the
summoned monster eventually became Jowgen the
Spiritualist or Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, in order
to shut down the opponent while protecting them with
endless backrow.
It being a Quick-Play can be either a blessing or a
curse depending on how you look at it. On one hand,
you can set it safely and activate it to prevent the
opponent from activating a lot of Spells that turn.
On the other hand, it is not a valid target for
Spellbook of the Master (but frankly, two of these
in one turn would be more ridiculous than one
already is).
It’s almost as if the Konami R&D Department was
playing a game of “How Much Can We Make One Card
Do?” when they were making this one. To put into
perspective how blatantly overpowered this card is,
its release singlehandedly made Prophecy go from a
solid Tier 2 Control Deck to what is arguably the
second strongest Deck this game has ever seen
(beaten out only by its competitor, the Dragon
Rulers).
On a design perspective, it is the worst card of
2013, and arguably one of the worst of all time. It
surely will NOT be missed by a majority of the
playerbase.
Traditional: 5/5
Advanced: BANNED (But 5/5 when it was legal)
Art: 4/5 (It’s pretty cool looking, but it doesn’t
really look like a book)
Trivia: This thing was COMMON in Japan! A COMMON!!!!
Tomorrow: Prophecy wasn’t the only Deck that could
+5.
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