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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Skilled Dark Magician
Rare

Each time you or your opponent activates 1 Spell Card, put 1 Spell Counter on this card (max 3). You can Special Summon 1 Dark Magician from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard in face-up Attack or Defense Position by offering this monster with 3 Spell Counters as a Tribute during your Main Phase.

Type - Spellcaster / Effect
Card Number - DR1-EN120

Card Ratings
Traditional: 3.175
Advanced: 3.875

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 07.20.05

Lord Tranorix	Skilled Dark Magician What’s there to say about Skilled Dark Magician? He has a respectable 1900 ATK and a respectable 1700 DEF. He’s DARK and a Spellcaster. He has a Dark Magician friendly effect, but he can also hold his own as a beatstick in regular Chaos. Pretty rentsy. Every time a Spell is activated, you put a Spell Counter on Skilled Dark Magician. When he has three, sacrifice it to get a Dark Magician from your hand, deck or Graveyard (as with most other cards like this, it’s best to avoid summoning one from your hand, because of card advantage). So if you summon this and use three Spells, you get to sacrifice SDM and get a Dark Magician. If you summon it and don’t do anything, and your opponent uses three Spells and SDM is miraculously still alive by your next turn, you can sacrifice it and get a Dark Magician. And as we all know, Dark Magician is a great asset to any Dark Magician Deck. Logically, then, so is a 1900 ATK Level 4 monster who summons him faster. Traditional – CCCC: 3/5 Traditional – Dark Magician: 4.5/5 Advanced – CCWC: 3/5 Advanced – Dark Magician: 4.5/5 OVERALL RATING: 3.8/5
Coin Flip	Skilled Dark Magician is 1900. Awesome. Spellcaster. Meh right now. DARK. Earns it status in "chaos" decks. 1700 DEF is better than any other 1900 out there right now. For Dark Magician, it's unlikely to see his effect hit that often. Usually he will be destroyed on your opponent's turn after hitting three spell counters. Not really "zounds" status, although his purpose in a Dark Magician deck as a tutor is doubled as a beatstick, making him a valuable choice. General: 2.2/5 Traditional 2.8/5 Advanced Dark Magician: 4/5 Traditional 4.5/5 Advanced
Snapper	Skilled Dark Magician Today’s card (Skilled Dark Magician) is the most useful Dark Magician oriented card you’ll see reviewed this week hands down. SDM is on the same page as all currently available STABLE beatsticks; 1900 ATK is more than enough for most monsters that will cross your Dueling path, especially considering the standard CC Level 4 or lower monster is stuck at 1700 ATK. And as a Spellcaster it gets no props, other than being able to pimp Dark Magician. Every time someone activates a Spell Card, SDM gets a Spell Counter. Once it’s got 3 Spell Counters, SDM can be Tributed to Special Summon a Dark Magician form your hand, Deck, or Graveyard. The effect is, as may be apparent, the third card whose sole purpose is to Special Summon a Dark Magician form somewhere. Of the three, SDM is by far the most useful, mainly due to the ease there is in obtaining Spell Counters. An example of how easy it is to use SDM’s effect is demonstrated by the following example, which abides by the rule that most Tournament-goers complain about: the “Trinity” always pops up in the opening hand. So let’s pretend you’re fortunate enough to get SDM and the “Trinity” amongst your first 5 cards. Just summon SDM, use the tres, and you’re ready to summon a Dark Magician whenever you want. And if for some reason the laws of nature stop applying to opening hands and you can’t get 3 ready to use Spells on your first turn, your opponent can pitch in. Surely they will have the “Trinity” ready in wait, at which point you’ll be ready to summon Dark Magcian on your next turn. All poor scenarios considered, SDM is an excellent choice for any Deck focused on Dark Magician. As such, Dark Magician shall receive the most perfectest rating available, for a Dark Magcian Deck anyway (which means it’s like a 3 for any ole Deck). Advanced (DM Deck): 5/5. Beatstick + Special Summon enabling effect = Yeah! Traditional (DM Deck): 5/5. See Advanced. Overall (DM Deck): 5/5. Art: 4.5/5. If I were willing to collect foils, this would be at the top of the list. The outfit looks off though; similar to something from Gundam Wing.
Dark Paladin	As this week moves along, we come to probably the best English released Dark Magician support card. Skilled Dark Magician is a great card, even outside of the Dark Magician deck. Let's go over a few pluses. He's easy to obtain (MFC Super Rare, DR1 Rare) He's Dark He's got 1900 attack He's got 1700 defense *He can special summon Dark Magician Recapping what I just stated, being a Dark 1900 4 star monster is good in today's Chaos swampped enviornment. If you're having a hard time obtaining some other Dark monsters, go ahead and give Skilled Dark Magician a try. 1900 attack is good and 1700 defense is strong enough to withstand most commonly played 4 star monsters. The only shady thing is the effect relies on Spell Counters and one of those could be Raigeki or Lightning Vortex. Ratings: Traditional: 2.5/5 Ignoring the effect, it's still a Dark 1900 Level 4 Traditional Dark Magician: 4.5/5 Run it here, of course. Advanced: 3.0/5 see traditional Advanced Dark Magician: Mighty Damn fine/5 erm... 5/5 Art: 4.0/5 Very nice, I prefer the Super Foil
ExMinion OfDarkness	Skilled Dark Magician The one decent beatstick in the Magician-based world. If you're going to run Dark Magician at all, you have to run 3 of this. The 1900 is good, and the 1700 DEF will actually stand up to a good bit in the current environment. The problem is that you need 3 counters -- usually you won't play 3 spells on your own in the same turn (unless they include the words Pot, Charity, and Duo)...and if your opponent plays any spells they will probably result in your Skilled DM getting killed or rendering it useless for it to attack (Scapegoats, anyone?) The other problem is if he gets 2 counters, and your opponent then uses a spell to take control of him...they can just sacrifice it for a DM out of their deck that doesn't exist, stopping you from getting your DM. He IS a step in the right direction, however. 5/5 in DM decks, 2/5 elsewhere (since he's honestly not a horrible beatstick.)