This week we will be going over non-archetype techs in the current metagame. The game has become very archetype driven, so it’s very nice when a generic card (especially one from the early years of the game) rises to become a relevant tech choice, and there’s quite a few in the current metagame.

Today’s card is Mind Crush, which was released all the way back in Soul of the Duelist. The card is simple: declare a card name and look at your opponent’s hand; if they have it, discard all copies of it, and if not, discard a random card from your hand.

It should be easy to see why this card is so popular right now. The top two Decks are Nekroz and Qliphort, both of which do a heavy amount of searching. This card can shut down whatever play they were about to make when used at the right time, while also giving you valuable knowledge on what’s in your opponent’s hand.

Other Decks in the meta besides these two also search; you can use Mind Crush to eliminate a Yosenju monster that has returned to the hand, or to rip a Shaddoll Fusion out of the opponent’s hand. Even against Burning Abyss you can use it to snipe a Tour Guide that they searched.

This card is an absolute blowout against any Deck that relies heavily on searching, so the current metagame favors it a lot.

Rating: 4/5

Welcome to Tech week.  Cards that aren't necessarily in everyone's Main Deck, and not the most current of cards, but still useful and worthy of a Tech spot in your Deck.  We open the week with Mind Crush.  Mind Crush is a wonderful Trap, not even for what it can do, but because it's an intelligent card.  If one uses this intelligently, it's a one-for-one that is going to work in your favor.  Every time,  period...and it's that simple.  If you're not playing intelligently, short of the dumb luck of a guess, it's simply a -2 for you.  Yugioh needs more cards like this.  It's a very simple effect if you know what you're doing...call a card name, if it's in your opponent's Hand, it goes to the Graveyard.  If not, you lose a card from your Hand at random.  Mind Crush isn't the force it use to be (for those of you who've played long enough to remember just how powerful it was) but disruption is fun, intelligent disruption is even more fun.  Try it and see if it works for you.
 
Rating:  3.75/5
Art:  4/5

Mind Crush
 
Right here we have what is an extremely useful hand disruption Trap, and one that is taking up 2-3 slots in many Side Decks currently, and for good reason.
Most Decks have an incredible ability to be able to add a card from either their Deck or their Graveyard to their Hand, and generally it can be done extremely easily.
 
Nekroz are one of the most proficient Decks at being able to add cards to their hand as Manju, Senju, Clausolas, Brionac, Unicore, Preparation of Rites, Herald of the Arc Light and all of the Nekroz Ritual Spell cards are able to add a card from “Somewhere” to their hand.
Hitting a monster allows you to prevent the Summon or effect of that monster and while discarding a Ritual Spell card may not prevent them from being able to Ritual Summon during the turn, if you get rid of a Nekroz Kaleidoscope you can at least for a turn hopefully prevent the Summon of a Djinned Clausolas.
It certainly is not as effective as Vanity’s Emptiness is against them, but it clearly can slow them down.
 
Qliphorts revolve around Qliphort Scout and Qliphort Saqlifice as well as Summoner’s Art to get Scout as quickly as possible.
And while 3 Mystical Space Typhoon and 2-3 Side Decked Fairy Wind can be enough to limit their searchers, being able to hit cards in your opponent’s hand means that you can actually save your MST’s/ Fairy Wind/ Twister for use against Skill Drain and Vanity’s Emptiness specifically, both being cards that Qliphorts like to sit on while being essentially unaffected themselves.
Also, for some Decks, Mind Crush may be the only real out they have to Apoqliphort Towers.
With Mind Crush, you can also happily MST your opponents Saqlifice with the knowledge that you can prevent the searched Qliphort card being used against you.
 
Satellarknights make heavy use of Satellarknight Deneb to keep their Summoning flowing continuously each turn and without minus. While Satellarknights will most likely then use Call of the Haunted to recover Deneb, you have more options with which to prevent that.
And at the very least you make them use an additional play that they would have otherwise have preferred to hold until a more suitable time.
 
Shaddolls while seeing a decline in play are always annoying since each time you destroy or send a Fusion monster to their Graveyard, they get to recover a Shaddoll Fusion card, turning all your work into nothing, this allows you to remove that card from their hand before they can use it again against you, and this lessens their ability to recover.
 
Burning Abyss gain cards through Scarm and Dante, removing a Tour Guide or Fire Lake or even a Burning Abyss monster gained by either of those cards means that you can prevent following plays or at least force them to apply at an inconvenient time, giving you more of an opportunity to be able to deal with them.
 
Monarchs of course not only have Swap Frog, but also now have Tenacity of the Monarchs to add “Monarch” Spell/ Trap cards to their hand with, Mind Crush can work to further slow down the Deck and can also be used to remove additional annoyances such as Battle Fader, Gorz and Ghostrick Jackfrost.
 
Yosenju also have the majority of monsters that return to their hand during their End Phase, so if they have not been able to OTK you it is quite possible that your Mind Crush can hit multiple monsters of the same name.
 
Masked Heros have Reinforcement of the Army, E-Call, Shadow Mist and Mask Charge to add cards to their hand with, and Hero’s do run a very small amount of monsters, so removing them from hand can be a very effective way in which to prevent them from actually being able to Summon any of the Masked Hero Fusion monsters.
 
And since Hidden Armory has made a rather unsurprising increase in play due to the unbanning of Snatch Steal, you can use this to prevent your opponent using an added Snatch Steal against you at an in opportune time.
 
 
There really is not a situation in which Mind Crush is not useful and it can even be combined with Compulsory Evacuation Device as a way to remove some threats.
 
The only drawback to using Mind Crush is the fact that you must have at least 1 card in hand in order to be able to activate it… And of course you can declare ANY card that is TCG legal, including Banned cards, so if it benefits you to call it wrong, you can always declare Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End!!!
On the very rare occasion, this can actually come in handy.
 
 
Rating: 4.25. Very useful card, as you can see from the Decks that I have stated above, Mind Crush is able to hurt each and every one of them, making it extremely valuable since you can expect to face all of them in major play.
If you can fit 3 into your Side Deck it can pay off heavily.
 

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Mind Crush has been a card that has been lurking within Side Decks throughout several formats. While its popularity wanes and rises with changing strategies, its ability to be offensive and defensive keeps it relevant.
 
Simple card to use, declare a name and your opponent has to discard all copies of that card name from their hand. If you are wrong, you randomly discard 1 card from your hand. With so many searching effects in the format, this card at unlimited should be in every Side Deck. Set it and wait for your opponent to activate a searching card and go after that card, or go after a card you are certain they have in their hand that they hadn't searched.
 
Burning Abyss and Shaddoll decks can use three copies of this card without any negative drawbacks as all their monsters benefit from going to the graveyard in addition to other effects of theirs. Decks that need cards in the grave like Destiny Heros and DARK-based decks also benefit from the negative side of Mind Crush.
 
Have at least one copy in the Side Deck, no matter what deck you are running.
 
Advanced-4/5
Art-3.5/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Today we look at Mind Crush. A normal Trap card with a very simple, yet strategy breaking effect. You declare a card name, if it is in their hand, they must discard all copies of it, otherwise you must discard 1 card from your hand. Mind Crush can be described in one word, sneaky. You set this card, and wait for your opponent to add a card from their deck to their hand, using cards like Reinforcements of the Army, E-Hero Stratos, or one of so many means they use to get cards from their deck to their hand. Then you strike with Mind Crush and send the card they just got and any other copies to the graveyard. You can nail key cards like Honest and make sure they can't use it against you. Mind Crush can disrupt your opponent's strategy, but you need patience to play properly. Also it may get destroyed before you can use it, and you can chain it and make a wild call and hope you get lucky, if you are willing to risk discarding one of your cards if you are wrong. Mind Crush is worth a spot in your side deck.
 
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3