Full Force Virus

As with the virus cards released before it, Full Force Virus is defined by the number of targets available to it. Crush Card Virus was the king because you could run a deck full of monsters with 1000 ATK or less. No problem. Then came Deck Devastation Virus, and that began the debate that has lasted since the card’s release in 2004. Is it worth running? How often will I have both this and a 2000 ATK or 2500 ATK monster that I am willing to sacrifice? What opponent decks am I most likely to crush (pun intended)? Well the answers more often than not resulted in both Deck Devastation Virus and Eradicator Epidemic Virus being shunned when it came time to trim the deck count. They still saw play from time to time in certain decks, but only in the side deck. Archetypes like Darklord, Dark World, and Red-Eyes found them useful, but usually only outside of tournament play. There just weren’t enough targets for consistent use, and they are terrible late game.

Enter Full Force Virus. The main difference between this trap and the previous two is the sacrifice that must be made. Sacrificing a monster with a legitimate ATK is a hard thing to do, even today. It usually requires effort and resources, because there isn’t a glut of level 4 dark monsters out there with 2000 ATK. But 2000 DEF can be had quite easily and sometimes for no real cost at all. Most people immediately think of Gravekeepers, and there’s a reason. Not only was Necrovalley recently given an errata that actually made it more powerful, and not less, but a large majority of the dark Gravekeepers have 2000 DEF or more when Necrovalley is on the field (Commandant is an earth type. Lame). This includes the all-important Recruiter. No one is really sure to what extent link monsters will shake up the game, but mark my words now: Gravekeepers will be big players, and Full Force Virus will be one of the main reasons.

Besides Gravekeepers, this trap should find playing time in the previously mentioned archetypes. Darklord and Red-Eyes will consider this bad boy, and it’s already seeing extremely successful tech play in Dark Magician decks. And there’s a reason. A vast number of monsters in this game have less than 1500 DEF. It’s almost a legacy of the game’s history, which is why Witch of the Black Forest back in the day could search almost anything in the deck (who else is excited she’s back in the OCG, even in errata form?) Unlike Deck Devastation Virus, Full Force Virus has great potential to hit many cards and sometimes even whole hands. This includes every single Zoodiac monster except Ramram, most of the Mermails, 3 of the 5 Metalfoes, and a majority of the Infernoids, which may or may not be good, but hitting the hand is still hitting the hand. In summary, I love this card, and I feel it has much greater potential than its predecessors.

Advanced: 3/5

Future Potential: 4/5

Next week, we will be reviewing cards that have been talked about the most since we first got the announcement about Link Monsters and the rule changes. It should be fun.

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Another virus card makes an appearance on CoTD.
 
Full Force Virus is the newest of the “Virus” Trap cards. Same requirement of a DARK monster, but this time it has to have 2000DEF. Then, the next three turns your opponent loses any monster with 1500DEF.
 
There are many monsters within the meta that can fulfill the requirement of the DARK monster. If you get this trap off, this will wipe out your opponents monsters. The stronger the monster, typically the lesser the DEF to balance out. Even boss monsters like DAD have low DEF. While this won't wipe out boss monsters that have both high ATK and DEF, but it will help a lot against decks like Metalfoes, Windwitch, and Zoodiacs. The downside though is that several decks love to fill their graves with monsters like Shaddoll, Burning Abyss, and Infernoids.
 
This one may be the toughest “Virus” to spread considering it involves DEF. If used against the right deck it will cripple them. It is a side deck card for sure. 
 
Advanced-3.5/5
Art-4/5
 
Until Next Time