Magician’s Rod

It’s good to be one of only a couple monsters in an entire deck that you can normal summon. Monsters like Manju and Sage with Eyes of Blue are few and far between, and Magician’s Rod is one of those bad boys. For Dark Magician decks, most players don’t even bother with Robe, sticking strictly with Rod and Choco and maybe a teched Summoner Monk or Magical Something every now and then. The rest of the lineup consists of the biggies: DM, MoDI, Mahad, Apprentice Illusion Magician, etc. And when there’s lack of options to normal summon, the value in hand always goes up.

Well Rod is no exception. He is utterly crucial to the theme. Even with the upcoming release of Dark Magic Inheritance, there is no comparison to Rod’s importance. And while the reason is obvious, if you dive deeper you realize it’s because he constructs a pyramid of efficiency. Getting him early allows you to not only plus, but it lets you control your deck in a lot of ways since you can keep adding him to the hand and searching again. Dark Magician decks are unique in that multiple copies of any of the same card within the theme are near useless while having one of each makes it nearly invincible. One Circle? Yes please. Two? Yikes. And his graveyard effect is severely underrated, as he often makes great use of monsters you don’t need at the moment, like Choco, Mahad, and even Dark Magician himself. Many times you’d rather have Dark Magician back in the grave to successfully use the effects of Eternal Soul and MoDI and thus set off Circle.

Rod is destined for greatness. Since Dark Magician is one of the game’s two elder mascots, he will get new support time and time again. And there will never be an excuse to not include Rod in a Dark Magician deck of any kind. Honestly, it’s a shame that Magician’s Robe isn’t better than it is. Otherwise, the theme as it currently stands could have really been something.

Advanced: 4.5/5

Future Potential: 5/5

Searchers are essential for decks and this one is for Dark Magicians.  This card requires less banishing than Inheritance, though it does require a Normal Summon.  It's kind of plain and the deck revolves around just searching for a 2500 beat stick and trigger semi-broken effects when its out but whatever.  
 
Returning this to hand via tributing a monster is somewhat situational, but if you consider a scenario where your monster will be destroyed by an opponent's Spell/Trap anyway, it helps to get this card back in your hand every few turns regardless.
 
3/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Magician's Rod is another card designated for the Dark Magician archetype. Searcher for a DM spell/trap upon Normal Summon is good. Dark Magicial Circle and Magican Navigation are the top choices, followed by Dark Magic Attack. Good ATK for a Level 3 and despite it's LIGHT attribute, it is a good support card for the mostly DARK archetype. The ability to recycle itself to your hand is great, and the cost of a Spellcaster isn't too great, considering the many ways you can Special Summon them (Soul Charge, Magician Navigation, Dark Magical Circle, etc.). Magician's Rod is a facilitation card. Get the resource that will spur a big play for that situation. It is a great first turn card. 
 
Advanced-3/5
Art-3.5/5
 
Until Next Time

Magician's Rod is a Level 3 Dark Spellcaster-type monster with 1600 Atk and 100 Def. 1600 Atk is actually pretty good for a Level 3 monster, while the Def is pathetic but appropriate for a searcher. The search effect triggers on Magician's Rod Normal Summon once per turn. You can then add any Spell or Trap that lists Dark Magician in the text from the deck to the hand. Pretty standard, but it took years for Dark Magician to get access to something standard. 
 
As a bonus, Magician's Rod lets you play during the opponent's turn. While it is in the grave and not during the damage step, you can tribute a Spellcaster after you activate any Spell or Trap to get Magician's Rod from the grave to the hand. This is also once per turn, but there are no restrictions on the Spells or Traps you can activate to put Magician's Rod back in your hand. Plus, a few other cards require the same condition of activating a Spell or Trap effect during the opponent's turn. You can just wait for the End Phase, or disrupt and add the rod to the hand for a search next turn. Dark Magician deck may be the sleeper rogue that people start picking up, and Magician's Rod will help. 
 
Score: 3.5/5 Special Summon Search would have been appreciated. 
Art: 3/5 
 
-WarlockBlitz