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

D. D. Designator
Super Rare

Declare 1 card name. Look at your opponent's han, and if he/she has the declared card in his/her hand, remove that 1 card from play. If he/she doesn't have the declared card in his/her hand, remove 1 random card in your hand from play.

Type - Spell
Card Number - IOC-039

Card Ratings
Traditional: 3.26
Advanced: 3.7

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

Date Reviewed - 07.25.05

Lord Tranorix	D.D. Designator We open up the week with a re-review of D.D. Designator, a card that’s never really seen much play but could probably stand to. It’s a Normal Spell whose effect can either help you or hurt you. When you activate DDD, you call out a card name. If your opponent has that card in his hand it’s removed from play. If not, you randomly remove a card in your own hand from play (which means you MUST have at least one other card in hand if you activate DDD). The most obvious use for DDD would be to get rid of Sinister Serpent, since both you’ll usually know when your opponent has it in his hand, AND it’s more useful to remove Serpent from play than many other cards. This can also work after your opponent gets something from Sangan, or even with Reinforcement of the Army; and nowadays, you can use it to get rid of a Tsukuyomi or Asura Priest that you know is hiding. There are other, rarer situations in which you might know what your opponent has in his hand (such as in decks based on that concept – Mind on Air, Respect Play, etc.), but the most likely to occur don’t really merit maindecking this. DDD is, however, a nice choice for Side Decks. Few things will screw up Exodia more than having one of the pieces removed from play, and other decks revolving around one or two key cards would also be grievously injured by a card like Designator. In a deck which allows you to see your opponent’s hand, along with cards like Mind Crush, DDD can also be a rentsy option. Traditional – CCCC: 3/5 (Witch AND Sangan here) Traditional – Hand Control: 4/5 Advanced – CCWC: 2.5/5 Advanced – Hand Control: 4/5 OVERALL RATING: 3.4/5
ExMinion OfDarkness	D. D. Designator This card's been seeing more play in high-level tournaments recently (read: it was played at Nationals and everyone's gonna netdeck. I love netdecking...) D. D. Designator is a 1 for 1+ trade if you know at least one card in your opponent's hand. You lose one card to remove one of their cards in hand, plus you get to know the rest of their hand. There are a few cards everyone plays that will give away a piece of their hand: Sangan -- kill an opponent's Sangan, then call whatever they search. Sinister Serpent -- once it sees play, you KNOW your opponent has it so it's a safe call. Magician of Faith -- if you kill one on their turn, you can call the spell they reclaimed. There are also other times you'll know when an opponent has a specific card... If your opponent draws, checks their graveyard, ends turn, and they don't have both a Light and Dark monster, you have good odds at removing their BLS-Envoy out of their hand. If your opponent mistakenly tips their hand, that can always work. Plus, there are other cards you can play yourself to get insight on an opponent's strategy: Trap Dustshoot -- early game, this is a 1 for 1 restricted to returning a monster, and you can follow up with DDD on the next turn. *D. D. Designator -- yes, it combos with itself. If you happen to have 2 (although most people only play 1), you can nuke one good card and one even better card. Overall, it's a great card that you should try in that one "tech" spot in your deck. 2.5/5 Traditional (sorry, but we have 3 prenegs here) 4/5 Advanced
Coin Flip	D. D. Designator is great anti-meta. Another card I've considered reviewing more than once (the only one this week, though). You can remove their Pot they get back with Magician that you attacked, their Sinister Serpent, their Night Assailant, their Exodia piece, whatever. And catch a glimpse at their hand. If your opponent is an idiot, he'll check his graveyard the moment he draws a "chaos" monster or recursion of some sort, which can lead you to some interesting hijinx. The downside to this is what happens when you call, say, Sparks, and they actually have 1 Sparks in their hand but are all like "chain Dust Tornado/Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and get the Sparks out of my hand". Then you lose D. D. Designator, a random card from your hand, and they get the effect of their card. That's hefty advantage loss I pulled off one time that someone actually used D. D. Designator on me, called Pot of Greed, and then looked shell-shocked when I chained Dust Tornado to hit their Messenger of Peace and set my own Pot of Greed. They got a glimpse at my hand, but at a totally hefty cost. I lost one card and my privacy, they lost THREE and their protection. Of course, against really bad players, this won't happen. This is really a card that is judged on how good your opponent is. It's terrible if your opponent is seasoned enough to play the right amount of tech to counteract this. Losing three cards to their one or two (that they still get the effect of) is on par with losing the game. =\ It's a great card. Just be careful with what you call and when you call it. If you play against JAELOVE, for example, with his sexy tactics of triple Dust Tornado and Phoenix Wing Wind Blasts, you're going to experience a tingly sensation I have dubbed "zomg PoG-GC(ss+dmoc)-DD-TD-PB(dmoc[dd])-DD-CD-DDV 2-0 ggnore". I am thinking about abbreviating it to something that does not require two punctuation marks of inhalation to say. Really damn good as tech or in the sideboard. General: Traditional: 3.3/5 Advanced: 3.8/5 Sideboard (yes i know the official term is sidedeck): Traditional: 4/5 Advanced: 4.5/5
Snapper	D. D. Designator Welcome to a monstrous week or re-reviews! That's right; all week long you'll be saying, "Tell me something I don't know," upon reading our reviews. But since we can't, you'll just need to live with it and/or hum quietly to yourself. Today's card is D. D. Designator, a Spell that foils the opponent's attempts at Deck thinning, or whatever you want to call it. Upon the activation of DDD, you get the once in a lifetime opportunity to declare a card name. Once you have done so, you then get to examine the opponent's hand and see how long their Fortune and Life lines are, which then determines what happens next. If your opponent has the declared card in their hand, it is removed from play. If they don't, you get to randomly remove a card in your hand from play. Now obviously you wouldn't want to use DDD if you had no idea what was in the opponent's hand. But considering the current "40 Staples", this shouldn't be incredibly difficult. With the Sangan, Sinister Serpent, Reinforcement of the Armies, Tsukuyomis, Magician of Faiths, and the occasional Cyber Jar that your opponent is inevitably using, you should frequently know at least one card in the opponent's hand. And in the rare occasion that your opponent is only using half of the "40 Staples", those good old X-ray specs that have parted with their comic books can make DDD just as useful as it would be if the opponent would just follow the current mindset. Overall, DDD is an excellent counter to the numerous and popular cards that make your opponent an open book. Should it be put into your Main Deck? No. Should it be put into your Side Deck? Maybe; it all depends on how much CC exists in your neck of the woods. Advanced: 3.5/5. It may be in your hand for a few turns, but DDD will prove useful before the end. Traditional: 3.5/5. Tsukuyomi, RotA, and MoF aren't used as much (presumably), but are instead replaced by Witch, Yata, Confiscation, and the FS, so it evens out. Overall: 3.5/5. Art: 3.5/5. It's Name That Monster Time! I see DDWL, pointing her non-trademarked lightsaber at something.
Dark Paladin	D.D. Designator Declare one card name. Look at your opponents hand. If the card is in your opponent's hand, remove that card from play. If not, remove one card from your hand from play. Not exact wording, you get the idea This is one of those cards that does have some potential, and I believe is better LATE game assuming you are paying attention to everything and all cards played by your opponent--which all serious players should be and guessing the card shouldn't be all that hard. This card also works as an excellent pair with cards such as Exchange, Mind Haxorv, and other cards that allow you to see the opponent's hand BEFORE you play this card. This card is slightly stronger in Traditional, in my opinion, just because there aren't any banned cards so you could get rid of cards there that you couldn't in the Advanced format. I prefer Mind Crush over this, even though it's trap. If you'd like to remove an Envoy, just wait to here "I remove..." and spring Mind Crush. This card is good however, but more of a side-deck card unless you KNOW every card in the opponents deck and have the order of them memorized. Ratings: Traditional: 3.5/5 As stated, being able to remove Yata, CED, HFD, or whatnot IS good, but if you're wrong, YOU lose a card. Hand management IS everything, especially in Traditional. Traditional Side-Deck: 4.0/5 Advanced: 4.0/5 Advanced Side-Deck: 4.5/5 Art: 3.5/5 It is a neat picture. You stay classy, Planet Earth :)
Otaku	As we are dealing with a normal Spell, I’ll forgo my normal categories and get straight to the point: why should you run this card? The effect isn’t bad; name a card you think is in your opponent’s hand: if there is at least one copy there, remove one copy from said hand. If it isn’t, randomly remove a card from your hand from play. Like I said, not bad, but that is a pretty powerful downside. You have to have a card in hand, so emptying your hand isn’t an option. Well, maybe if you activate D.D. Designator then Serial Spell, it might work, but I wouldn’t hold your breath while we wait for a ruling. Given how Card Destruction combos with Serial Spell, I really doubt they’d work together, but I felt I should bring it up at least. The good news is that if you have multiple copies of D.D. Designator ready, you can guarantee at least one will work. Then there is the closeness of most successful deck lists: again, good odds you guess right. Still, is that enough to bother running it? No. Good thing there has been a shift in the metagame. With the return of Sangan, you see it again in almost all decks. Thus, when it goes off, usually on your turn when you kill it, you’ll know what card your opponent has in hand that they wanted so badly they used Sangan to get it. Then we have the return of Magician of Faith to a place of prominence. Again, she is apt to trigger on your turn. So that’s one turn to get rid of whatever spell they revived. Sinister Serpent is still a common deck sight, but there is another annoying Monster that keeps returning to the hand that is much more important to eliminate: Tsukuyomi. Since it is a Spirit Monster, unless you luck out and kill it, it will constantly go back into the opponent’s hand, where normally is safe. So not only will you remove that puppy from play (where it is at least two cards away from getting back into the opponent’s hand: Miracle Dig and Monster Reincarnation) but you’ll get to see the opponent’s hand as well. Ratings Traditional : 3.5/5-Tsukuyomi isn’t a common site here. However, Yata Garusa is, plus you have access to cards like Forceful Sentry and Confiscation to let you sneak a peak at the opponent’s hand, in addition to their own discarding effect. Advanced : 3.75/5-Fantastic effect, but you must often rely on the opponent’s actions to get it off. Limited : 3.25/5-Well, you’ll know the card pool, so wait until you have something pretty useless in hand then name whatever you know they could have drafted and if they did get it, you just got rid of it. If not… at least you got to see their hand. Summary Once viewed as too risky, except in dedicated Control decks, this is now a nice card for most decks to at least side. Just be careful since Dust Tornado, Raigeki Break, and similar cards can mess up your plans (you name the card at activation), but this is handled mostly by using your head when you play it.