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Despair From the Dark
Rated For: Zombie Decks
Semi-zombie week continues with Despair From the
Dark, a card that was far more effective in the
pre-ban days of Delinquent Duo and Chaos Emperor
Dragon. In today's slower paced environment, it'll
take a skillful duelist indeed to have any sort of
success with this bloated card.
The
problem with Despair from the Dark is manifold, but
mainly exhibits itself in the fact that you'll a)
never get its effect off and b) have a difficult
time summoning the guy anyways. See, I want you to
begin thinking about cards in terms of the relative
advantages they provide. There are certain break
points in attack that become significant.
The
first is from 1400-1500. Cards like Don Zaloog and
Cannon Soldier suffer somewhat because they can be
rammed into by Shining Angels and Mystic Tomatos. So
any card with 1500 + i.e DDWL, Tribe, Breaker, will
have a solid advantage.
The
next "breakpoint" is 1700. This attack score means
the card can handle all the spent 1600's, of which
there is Tribe, Breaker, DDWL, Assailants, Enraged
Battle Ox, and Strike Ninja. The breakpoint after
that is 2000, which is only achieved by Zombyra,
Giant Orc, Goblin Attack Force, and Berserk Gorilla
(among playable monsters). This basically lets it
rule the roost for 4 star monsters.
The
next two break points are quite easy to understand.
They involve the rather long line between 2400 to
3000. See, if you break 2400, in any way shape or
form, there's no relative difference between,
literally, 2450 to 2950, mainly because the only
things worth killing at this level are Mobius,
Jinzo, Ha Des, and a few others. So the breakpoint
of field advantage after that is 3000, which only
the mighty BLS achieves.
This long-winded explanation basically means one
thing; a non-effect 2800 attack two-tribute monster
is nearly unplayable and made worthless by the lack
of good 2600-2950 attack monsters. The effect
doesn't work with anything any more, except maybe a
lucky Don Zaloog, Spirit Reaper, or Card Destruction
(good luck).
So
the real key to getting this bad boy out is through
Zombie search, funded by Pyramid Turtle, leading
into Double Coston. Then, you can normal summon the
bad boy for one tribute cost. There are several
problems to this approach. The problems are named
Dark Magician of Chaos and Invader of Darkness. In
fact, Swift Gaia, Fusilier Dragon, and such would
also be better alternatives to Despair From the
Dark.
Tribute summoning a Coston for this card is like
tribute summoning for a Beast of Talwar over a
Jinzo; it shouldn't ever happen. I'll show you why.
Advantage F/H:
Sure, when he gets on the field, he's great. But
even if you could simply bring him out via the
Coston method, chew on this. Despair would cost the
Pyramid Turtle to bring himself out. Vampire Lord
and Ryu Kokki would simply be brought out from the
deck, being searchable for free. So let's do some
simple math. The value of tribute summoning for
Despair- the value of special summoning Vampire Lord
should equal zero, or a positive number.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. Dump Despair.
Traditional Format
Score: 4/10
Advanced Format
Score: 4/10
Best Draw for the Situation:
Is
a two tribute monster ever a good draw? See, Vampire
Lord and Ryu Kokki's drawback (being a tribute
monster) are mitigated by the fact Pyramid Turtle
searches them out for free. Despair, on the other
hand, will always require at least one resource cost
as a tribute, perhaps more. By all accounts and
purposes, that's bad.
Traditional Format
Score: 1.5/10
Advanced Format
Score: 1.5/10
Attributes/Effect:
Being a Zombie is good because he can be dumped and
Book of Lifed. He also has an effect (at least), and
is the strongest non-nomi Zombie in the game.
Traditional Format
Score: 5/10
Advanced Format
Score: 5/10
Dependability:
You're not going to get him out with his effect very
often any more. Your best bet is to go with better
zombies.
Traditional Format
Score: 1.5/10
Advanced Format
Score: 1.5/10
The Bottom Line:
Some people may ask why I'm so harsh on so many
cards. It's because I want to help you all become
the best duelists possible. Being a good duelist
means being able to discern between playable,
underrated cards and rightfully underrated garbage.
A BAD Score-------
Traditional Format
Score 1.5/5
Advanced Format
Score: 1.5/5
FORCE System Suggestions:
++ Contributes to Field Control,
Counter-Disruption
-- Weakens heavily On-Field Presence and
Resource Replenishment.
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