Stygian Dirge
 
Been watching Vendetta, my Satellarknight playing friend, side this card in and it is quite potent stuff.  Inspired me to try it out myself and I really like it.  Of course, with a resource-rich meta, not every player will find room for it.  But it can wreck stuff.
 
Most players are focused on the ranks they want to summon.  Burning Abyss runs lots of rank-3's (and some rank-5's for their Astral spell).  Satellars run mostly rank-4 monsters.  Nobody thinks to run a lower rank monster to get through Dirge.  Then again it might be more economical to not assume the worst case rogue scenario.  In any event, it will shut a lot of **** down.  This especially hurts if the opponent relies on their XYZ options like Castel to clear spells.
 
The downside is draw probability.  If you draw this too late, it won't do much for you.  Like Keynes said, "in the long run, we're all dead".  But isn't that the case for EVERY side deck card?
 
On the upside, its a floodgate that only affects your opponent and not you.  Have fun floodgating away without consqeuence.  Solid side deck material!
 
Ratings
 
Power -- 5
Versatility -- 1
Dependability -- 2
Advantage -- 4
Speed – 4
 
Traditional – 1
Advanced – 3.5

Stygian Dirge - I see this card as the poor mans Vanity's Emptiness. This card often shows up in the beginning of a format and catches players off guard when they need to make key XYZ plays. The issue is the longer this card is in the format people will begin to make counter extra deck plays for it. It is only trully good as a one time shock factor.

Traditional 1/5
Advanced 3/5

Stygian Dige, a Continuous Trap, is interesting enough.  The Level of all Monsters your opponent controls is reduced by 1.  That may not seem very significant, but if your opponent's Extra Deck is specifically geared for XYZ Monsters of specific Ranks, it could very quickly become significant.  Honestly, the Continuous aspect hurts, but it's not enough to kill this card.  It's a hard one to say stick in the Side-Deck because it may only work for you one time.  The opponent can change their Extra Deck to work around it...or just destroy it.  I like the premise (honestly I'd like it more if it were reduced by say 2 or even more) but it's not bad.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  1.25/5
Advanced:  2.25/5 
Art:  4.5/5

Stygian Dirge
 
I remember the very first time that I had this card used against me, I was playing Plant “Something” and my opponent was playing X-Sabers.
I felt quite happy when I Summoned my Debris Dragon, Summoned my Dandylion and only had to face just the 1 backrow card. I asked “Anything”… Response, “Oh, nothing much, except for just this”…
Uhm, urh, ahhh!!!
 
That is an indication as to how far my jaw dropped as my visions of field clearing, and then marching home towards victory quickly “Poofed.”
Needless to say, I lost… Just in case you hadn’t of guessed there!
 
Sygian Dirge is an extremely powerful card, even more especially because currently the focus of cards in the Extra Deck has switched from Synchro’s to Xyz’s.
 
With Synchro’s it was possible even if with great difficulty to work around Stygian Dirge, however when playing Xyz’s, a Decks focus is generally on a specific Rank, such as 3 or 4 most commonly. And of course this can just as easily disrupt Synchro Decks as well.
 
While this certainly isn’t played in every Side Deck, it is most certainly one of only a small bunch of cards that is considered worthy of being in there… Space as always invariably being an issue as to whether something does or doesn’t finally fit in, as well of course exactly what Deck you are playing.
 
Stygian Dirge is a very powerful card to use against your opponent as it has no detrimental effect to you at all, and this is what makes it so good.
 
Since it’s level altering effect can essentially destroy your opponents use of the Extra Deck, and of course your’s if used against you, having a card handy to deal with such a problem card as this is always a good idea.
 
And that this is so good at the moment goes to show how truly dependant on the Extra Deck the Game is currently.
Also in some instances this card could be considered to be a “Poor mans” alternative to Vanity’s Emptiness.
 
Traditional: 2. Being a Continuous card does let it down greatly, and for the most part it’s not going to see play, BUT it can be extremely effective, but ONLY if you can protect it!
 
Advanced: 3.75. Brutal against many Decks, but then again normally only Side Deck material. And it is useless against some Decks, such as Shaddoll’s for example. Plus it only effects Levels, not Ranks or effects in any way. It is a good accompaniment card to fit in the Extra Deck if you cannot run both of the Imprisoning Mirror’s however.

Side Deck week at Pojo.com and CoTD, starting this week off with Stygian Dirge. A Continuous Trap card that reduces the level of all face-up monsters your opponent control by 1, this card is perfect to use against players that are Xyz heavy around a certain Rank.
 
The most popular Ranks to Xyz Summon are 4 and 3. That being said, if you play this card against any player, you will be able to reduce their options as long as this card is on the field. 4's become 3's and eliminate the possibility of Rank 4's, and if 3's are the goal of the opponent their options are reduced along with the level of the level 3's. Synchros can also be affected by this card. A possible Goyo Guardian turns into a Catastor, or an attempted Stardust Dragon changes into a level 7 Synchro target.
 
Most players Xyz, so this cards reach is far, but it doesn't completely stop the opponent from advancing their plays. Rank 3's are popular and can be more problematic than Rank 4's. Xyz Encore may be a better choice than this card as it cannot be negated.
 
Traditional-1/5
Advanced-2/5
Art-2/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby