God says “No.”

 

Today we look at my favorite card in the entire game: Solemn Judgment.  If you can’t tell in my CotD pic, that’s me holding my three copies I’ve had since early Magic Ruler (yes, I know it’s from Metal Raiders – I wasn’t made of money, and only pulled one naturally so it did take a little time to accumulate them).  For more an in depth look at how to use the card (and an “interesting” comment by EMoD), just read the 07/04/05 CotD.

 

Why am I not going to cover that here?  Because this is a re-review, and its more practical I give you new material on how the card affects the game now.  Sadly, even though this is my favorite card, I find I can rarely work a copy into my decks like I used to (and for a long, long time I always main-decked three).  It isn’t that Solemn Judgment is less useful; quite the contrary, it’s now more versatile than ever.  The problem is the list of staples/near staples/power cards/whatever you call those cards nearly every sane, successful deck runs, has been growing.  More over, at least for now we have some cards that aren’t even semi-Limited that have graduated to that status (hello Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reaper, and Smashing Ground).

 

The one upside is that Return from the Different Dimension, now that Remove From Play is such a commonly seen mechanic, is quite, quite potent and has taught people that half your LP is usually a bargain if you have any actual skill in the game (or rather, have learned how to play such cards and have a decent level of skill).  So now people know that hey, if I am about to be put into a hopeless scenario or take over 2000 or more points of damage… negating something for 4000 LP is a good deal.  And of course, we all know that once you hit 2000 LP or less, it’s almost always a bargain.  Negate a Mobius the Frost Monarch, and you basically paid one card and half your LP to destroy an opponent’s Monster, negate their Normal Summon for the turn, and discard a Mobius from their hand.  That’s an incredible bargain when its at 1000 LP or less (and let’s not forget possibly protecting two Spell/Traps that will win you the game by next turn).

 

Definitely add at least one copy to your side deck, and honestly I don’t think that’s enough: two means a 1 in 20 chance of drawing into it from a full deck (which isn’t realistic, opening hands and all).  Three might be overkill.  Main decked, if at all possible, please add one.  The game is getting pretty crazy right now.  Sadly, it’s not the good kind of diversity based craziness (where most things are honestly viable), but rather we have a great “crutch” engine that supports many questionable cards.  Still, things need to be countered and Solemn Judgment does it.  And with style.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 3/5 – It’s great it can negate the variety of cards played here, but deck space is really at a premium.

 

Advanced        : 3.5/5 – If you can make room for even a single copy in the main deck, do it.  Definitely side at least one.