Friday

Closing Ban List week is Thunder King Rai-Oh. We have here, a little gem of a monster, Level 4 who is a Light attributed and Thunder type with a delicious 1900 attack and an 800 defense. Now, for the first effect, our Thunder friend prevents either player from adding a card to their Hand outside of their respective Draw Phase, or simply Drawing...everything else is out. Secondly, you can send this face up card (nice, so attack or defense, as long as face up) to negate the Special Summon of an opponent's monster and destroy it. Obviously, this guy is pretty splashable, but he shines pretty well in Lightsworn and even Counter-Fairy by simpling fitting the Light attribute. You should be pretty familiar with this guy all ready, and I'm thinking he could replace a copy of Solemn Warning you lost perhaps?

Ratings:

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4/5

Art: 5/5 Great picture, I feel sorry he seems to have points or even pegs almost as opposed to real arms or legs, but I get the feeling he can levitate, hover, or fly...

Thunder King Rai-Oh has found its way into a great many top tier deck types. Even those deck types that are not ideal for Thunder King play this card. First, it has 1900 attack making it a pretty strong monster on its own. Second, it is a light monster making it a good card in a Chaos or Light deck, or with play with Honest. Third, it can tribute itself to negate any special summon that does not start a chain, like Xyz, Synchro, and inherent special summons.

The fourth and finale reason Thunder King Rai-Oh is being limited, is that it stops anyone from searching for a card and adding it to the hand. It is this reason that Konami probably limited it to two as it disrupts most of the strategies of the new deck types in play today and the ones that are getting upgrades. Merlantean, Madalche, Wind-Up, Spellbook, and Fire Fist decks all get upgrades and will benefit from the King being at two per deck.

Limiting Thunder King even helps older decks like Six-Samurai and Elemental HERO’s see more play. You also may have noticed that Six-Samurai got a third Shien’s Smoke Signal back, so I would expect to see more Samurai decks come out of hiding this format. There is also a nice little hand or burn loop that they can perform when the new Hidden Arsenal #7 set is released.

Thunder King Rai-Oh is one of the best level four monsters in the game and we have four great reasons to prove it.

Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 4/5

Welcome to the last card of our ban week section. Today we will be looking at a very unusual hit that was done this previous list. It is probably one of the most powerful level 4 monsters to have been introduced into the game. Let's take a look at Thunder King Rai-oh!

Thunder King Rai-Oh
LIGHT/ Thunder/ Level 4

Neither player can add cards from their Deck to their hand except by drawing them. During either player's turn, when your opponent would Special Summon a monster: You can send this face-up card to the Graveyard; negate the Special Summon, and if you do, destroy it.

1900/800

Oh Thunder King.... I have to say, Thunder King is one of the most dangerous monsters in the current game as it simply stops any of the commonly played decks in their tracks from a simple normal summon. What do decks do today? They mainly toolbox out of the deck with searchers (Mermails, Fire-Fist, Prophecy, Gadgets, Wind-Ups, Six Sam, etc etc etc...) or they utilize synchros and xyz monsters (Hey, all the same decks as I just listed!). Thunder King is the perfect counter to stop any of those strategies, thus he is one of the best anti-meta cards we have ever received. Furthermore, he is supported by his large body at 1900 attack points, which most decks can't run over on the first turn.

So, with all of that, we can see that is definitely a powerful card; but was it hit-worthy? Expanding on that, who ran 3 except for some Hero variants and Chaos Stun; with the later not being used as much as other decks? Most decks that ran T-King only used 2, so a semi-limit just seems redundant and unneeded.

Perhaps we can see this hit as being a sign for what the semi-limited section could be: a testing ground. Cards that could stay at 3, but have the potential to rise to 1. Or Perhaps Konami really doesn't want players to run 3 of T-King in their deck.... who knows? What I can say is that Thunder King is an incredibly powerful stun card that can threaten many decks thanks to his ability to counter just about any meta-threat that is currently played. If you aren't as affected by Thunder King as other decks are.... then I highly recommend running the 2 that you can.

Advanced: 4.5

One of the most powerful stun cards that we have ever received that can shut down many decks. It stops searches and many summons from the extra deck; all while having a very strong attack stat for a level 4.

Traditional: 3.75

It's light, counters many search cards that the OTK decks can use, and stops many of the cards that are used in such plays. It's very good here.

Alright!!! I’m back from a long break and ready to give you my thoughts on some Yugi cards! Today we have one of my favorite cards and one of the best floaters in the game.

Thunder king Rai-oh

Attribute- Light
Types- Thunder/ Effect
Neither player can add cards from their Deck to their hand except by drawing them. During either player's turn, when your opponent would Special Summon a monster: You can send this face-up card to the Graveyard; negate the Special Summon, and if you do, destroy it.
ATK/1900 DEF/800

This card is a very good card that can be splashed in many decks. It is a good 1900 attack monster that can prevent players from searching cards from their deck to their hand. That alone makes this card playable. It can stop or slow down so many decks with this effect. The best part about this card is that you can also negate inherent special summons by just sending Thunder King to the grave. This means it can stop monsters summons like Black Luster Soldier-EotB, Synchro, and Xyz summons. These effects are both good and this monster has a nice 1900 attack body. So realistically there are no downsides to this monster, other than its defense points.

This card can also be splashed in many decks. It is especially good in anti-meta decks with large amounts of traps, like Macro Rabbit and Malefics. Throwing this monster down first turn with a few trap cards can be a devastating opening and can be hard to overcome. Thunder King Rai-oh can also be a great side deck card if you can’t find room in your main deck for him.

This card should definitely be considered when making decks. It will be very helpful in the future for stopping or slowing many decks down. It will probably always be a relevant card in this game. Some decks that this card can hurt are Mermails, Prophecy, and Wind-ups. Overall this card is a very good card that is probably going to see a large amount of play this format.

Advanced: 4.5/5
-I really don’t see many downsides to this card. It has two nice effects with a large body for a level 4 monster. In reality should it be on the ban list? Not really but it is a good move for Konami. It will probably help make sure prophecy and fire fist decks become popular.

Traditional: 3/5
-This card may be a bit slow for this format but it can still negate monster summons and it is a light monster. I think there are better cards to play in this format than this monster but it is still decent here.

Art: 3/5
-This card’s art is alright. I don’t think it’s amazing but it is still decent.