Stats                : Chain Energy is a Continuous Spell card.  As it places an effect on the field that hits both players equally, this is probably for the best: as a Trap it might have surprise value, but ultimately would suffer from being vulnerable to much negation.  If it placed an effect on the field similar to Final Destiny, then you’d have no way to rid yourself of it.  I suppose it could have made an interesting Monster, but again, the possible benefits would be out weighted by the card becoming more cumbersome to get into play.

 

Abilities           : Chain Energy essentially adds a 500 Life Point “Cost to play” to each card.  This means that it won’t keep both players from playing any cards at all, but it will make them watch how many.  To clarify, when I say play I mean either activating from the hand or Setting the card.  Cards summoned via the effect of Cyber Jar, for example, would not trigger a cost, and that is straight from the official FAQ.  Also note that the cards stack.  When you have two or more out, the game will grind to a near halt.  Very potent ability.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : This card can be added to any deck that has room, and have a potential to help.  Note that it boils down to luck for it to help: getting it out when you need to play less cards than your opponent, and the difference proves lethal to said opponent.  As stated, that’s practically a coin flip if both players are on more or less even footing.  As such, the card works best in Stall/Burn decks.

 

Basic use of the card (in my experience) is to try and get two copies out at once.  Set one, then play the second one, then activate the first.  Unless you opponent managed to chain at the right time or has everything they need for the rest of the game in play, they suffer a minimum of 1000 LP of damage.  Usually, once you set up as described, it will be a good 3000 LP burn.

 

Now, there are ways to handle this card affecting you.  First, try playing stuff that has effects that would allow you to get cards into play other than from your hand.  Another good choice would be bounce cards.  Bounce your Chain Energy to hand so you can safely play more cards, and then replay the Chain Energy.  Giant Trunade seems especially suited for this.  Although it leaves you low on space, if you can set a Giant Trunade along with the Chain Energy, a 2-4 card combo ends up eating a good chunk of your opponent’s Life Points.  Bouncing your opponent’s cards, of course, will lead them to have to sacrifice LP to maintain any sort of advantage (other than a false “hand” advantage; what good are cards in hand when they can’t be played).

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 2.5/5-The abundance of Spell/Trap removal makes using this card very difficult.  You also have to worry about hand disruption, so making sure two come out at once is difficult.

 

Advanced        : 3.75/5-This is one of my favorite Burn cards in the game.  It’s not quite as effective as some others, as it really needs to be out in multiples for a huge difference.

 

Limited            : 4/5-Even as a single, it seems useful here.  It’s doubtful that most of your opponents can get rid of it (unless Starter decks were used along with a few packs).  As such, you just need some decent big monsters, and then you can slap this down so that they can’t just try and hide behind sets to stall for their own power cards.

 

Summary

One of the most dread burn cards in the game… at least if you know what it can do.  After all, most others are one and done or trigger only to a restricted class.  This just keeps zapping them anytime they play anything.