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Otaku |
Stats:
Scapegoat is a Quick-Play Spell/trap card. Simply
put, I don’t think there’s a better way it could be
implemented without adding a new, unintended dimension
to the card… or ruining it.
Effect(s):
This card creates four Sheep Tokens. These critters
are Level 1 Earth/Beasts with and ATK and DEF of…
zero. They are summoned in ATK or DEF mode
(surprisingly, that will actually matter), and cannot
be used for a Tribute Summon. Also, you must
have four open Monster Zone slots and cannot
Summon (including Special
and Flip Summon) a monster on the turn this card is
activated (either before or after). You may
Set a Monster, though.
Uses/Combinations:
I think the worst mistake people make is using this
solely as a Defensive card. It is a Token card with
defensive properties. Okay, for the five people that
are still reading this, I’ll explain what I just said,
as most people don’t see the difference. A lot of Yu-Gi-Oh
cards have an effect or effects that have multiple
uses. Take Mirror Force. It’s
primary use is defensive-it negates an attack, and can
only be triggered when it would do so. Its secondary
effect is mass monster removal. That effect is more
widespread than its negation effect, but that Monster
removal also serves to defend, so overall, I’d say
that it’s defensive first, removal second.
Ring of Destruction?
Primary effect is monster removal: you choose one, and
it dies. Secondary effect is burn. Since the burn
affects both players evenly, it definitely
doesn’t seem right to give it top billing. Finally,
it can be used defensively, by preventing a creature
from attacking. Usually the player ends up taking the
same net damage, but makes their opponent take it too
and removes a monster. So Ring of Destruction is
Monster Removal that is also a burn and a defensive
card. Whew. So let’s look at Scapegoat again. What
does its primary effect do? It summons 4 Sheep
tokens. Those tokens, by their nature will block
attacks. Since it is Quick-Play, it can be activated
at opportune times. Thus it’s primarily for tokens,
and those tokens main use is defense, as that is all
they are good for on their own. If it summoned the
same creatures, only with an ATK of 1000, it would be
a good beatdown
card-giving a quick 4000 damage, and who cares if they
smash into a trap and die? Given that you can’t
summon when you activate it, you usually want to
activate it on your opponent’s turn anyway.
There are two other reasons I focus on the Token
aspect first. One is that, while they have the
potential to protect much longer than a
Waboku (for example) under
the same conditions, they also have a lot of
weaknesses open to them. First, they can be removed
via *gasp* monster removal! More
problematic-as they eat up space and aren’t good for
attacking (baring certain combos) your opponent will
likely be building up more monsters to attack with.
Remember, if I leave them, you get one more monster on
the field until your dispose of them. That one
monster will probably be easier to deal with, at least
until I set up for something nasty using the other
defensive loop hole-tramplers.
Enraged Battle Ox, Spear Dragon,
Airknight, all giggle as they basically get to
ignore the Sheep Tokens. Worse yet is a fun main/side
deck option for monsters with multiple attacks-Big
Bang Shot or Fairy Meteor Crush. We had a person who,
maybe 6 months ago, was running a Light deck. As
Scapegoat had become popular, he added
Asura Priest. This
sometimes overlooked Spirit Monster was added to his
deck, along with Big Bang Shot (an often overlooked
card, especially with the relatively recent
over-played decks). This meant a chained Scapegoat
actually hurt the player, letting
Asura Priest hit for 8400 [(1700 + 400) x 4].
Since Asura Priest returns
to the hand anyway, your opponent had to chain an MST
to get the “remove from play” effect to kick in, since
Big Bang Shot wouldn’t trigger until Priest had
already returned to hand. So, why does this matter
now, with Chaos being all the rage? Let’s see, BLS-Envoy
of the Beginning with the ability to trample and
a 400 boost? Don’t want it to get removed from play?
How about adding that to a Dark Magician of Chaos,
since it’s removed from play if it dies anyway? Okay,
okay-let me get back to
Scapegoat.
I’ve
focused a lot on the negative reason that I don’t like
focusing on it for defense,
here are the positives of looking at it as a source of
Tokens. The classic United We
Stand/Scapegoat combo for a 3200 attacker out of the
blue. Even better, if your monster zone is
empty, chain it to your opponent’s end phase, then on
your turn summon Enraged Battle Ox and use the UWS on
him. Not a bad card for those decks-as long as its
not the turn Scapegoat is activated, the wee Beast
Tokens can be food for good ol’
Manticore of Darkness to
revive itself.
More
classical uses for the Tokens are fodder for Cannon
Soldier, Hysteric Fairy, or Amazon Archer. Some older
and more recent cards should also be on this list, but
if you aren’t running them, then why worry about
Scapegoat (in other words, this CotD is going way too
long, so I’ll just hope everyone else mentions them
for me).
Ratings
Casual:
4/5-This is a more “specific” deck rating-if you have
need of a lot of creatures to sack for something other
than a Normal Tribute Summon, then this is the card
for you (especially since it also adds a nice
defensive trick).
Tournament:
3.5/5- Still more or less deck specific. I keep
coming up with ideas for using this with/against Chaos
Monsters, but every time I do, I run into a timing
issue. For example, activate
CED’s effect, chain this… but then Scapegoat
should resolve first, and get nuked by CED. Same
thing if you chain to CED.
Limited:
3/5-Good card here in general, but not great-it’ll
only really help out if you top deck it, either early
or late game. And late game, if they already have a
lot of monsters on the field, it’s not going to buy a
lot of time. Most of the “tricks” you want to pull
off with it won’t be available to you. First turn of
the game it’s a beautiful think, though.
Summary
A
solid card… when people remember what it’s really for. |
|
JAELOVE |
Wednesday: Scapegoat
Rated
For: Any Deck
Today we review scapegoat, one of the
most versatile cards in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!
Advantage F/H:
Four 0
attack tokens won't necessarily change the outcome on
their own. Their power comes from the fact that they
protect lifepoints and allow you to gather cards to
defend yourself. In addition, the tokens can be used
for ritual summons, metamorphosis summons, and
tributes for cannon soldier/hysteric fairy etc. While
it may not provide clear-cut advantages, the fact you
can bait out a spell/trap remover and psych out your
opponent, coupled with its versatility and defense
nets a 7/10.
Best
Draw for the Situation:
This
card is basically always a good draw. It's a quickplay
spell, making it great in the opening game for baiting
out spell/trap removers and creating some defense.
It's great against heavy hitters such as Jinzo, who
negates traps, and Chaos monsters. It's also great in
the mid to end game, when life points are important.
In fact, this card is practically perfect in every
phase of play, except when you have more than one
monster, which brings it down only one point to a
solid 9/10.
Attributes/Effect:
No
other card combines chainability and field presence
into such a tidy package. Scapegoat is a unique card,
akin to waboku, because it does not directly affect
the game, but rather preserves you for another turn.
This card packs wicked combo ability, namely with
metamorphosis (to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict).
Every deck needs defense; this is one of the best
defensive walls and is versatile in
burners/metamorphosis decks to boot. It's also
chainable. Solid 9/10.
Dependability:
Scapegoat runs into some snags here. First, it's not
good at all versus trampling monsters such as
Airknight. Second, a smart opponent will not attack
any tokens, limiting your field and strangling your
field while gathering resources for the killing blow.
Basically, this means that you MUST have some sort of
removal besides Dark Hole (perhaps torrential tribute
and Tribe-Infecting Virus) to get rid of your OWN
tokens when you're ready to attack. Having said that,
it's a chainable trap guaranteed to save you for one
to two turns, only countered by Imperial Order. The
two drawbacks to dependability, however, lower it from
a perfect 10 to a solid
7.5/10.
The
Bottom Line:
Definitely try to fit one in; cut it out immediately
versus trample.
A BAD
Score: 32.5/40= 81/100
Cards
it combos with:
Metamorphosis, Cannon Soldier, Hysteric Fairy,
Creature Swap, Black Illusion Ritual/Relinquished. |
