I didn’t plan on submitting a CotD today, but there seemed to be a blatant disagreement between me and the reviews I saw go up.  This means not only did I have to write this one, but I’ll have to hurry and get one for tomorrow done so it can go up on time… and direct you to this one.

 

Power Capsule suffers a bit because most cards in this game, simply put, were made wrong.  A lot of people think everything should work with anything, and from what I’ve seen that’s a lot of this TCG’s problem: since so many cards can work in any deck, the best of them usually end up collecting as a CC deck (or at least the core of it).  If you disagree completely with that, then I don’t know what to say other than I am going by what I have learned in my time playing, writing and more or less spending way too much time on TCGs.

 

So what is Victory Viper XX03 all about?  First, it’s based upon the ship of that name that stars in the Gradius video game series.  This is the second take on the card (Gradius and Gradius’ Option, together, being the first).  In the video games, Options are little glowing orange spheres that take a formation in relation to your ship and will fire shots off when you do, of the weapon you do.  You get them by powering up, which requires you kill enemies and collect items.  This version has the stats of Gradius (Level 4 Light/Machine 1200/0) which are pretty lame, but has an effect that lets it duplicate itself if it destroys a Monster in battle (representing the old Gradius’ Option card).  Additionally, you can boost your own attack (which can be vital if you have nothing external available to help out Victory Viper XX03), destroy a face up Spell or Trap (useful on occasion), or most important, create an Option Token, which (constantly) mimics the stats of Victory Viper XX03.  This could have been a great card with just a little more ATK to it (namely enough that attacking under Messenger of Peace would be worth it) or just one or two support cards to make it work.

 

Power Capsule what the game and Victory Viper XX03 needs.  The exact execution leaves just a little bit to be desired.  As stated, Victory Viper XX03 is just a bit too weak, though otherwise does a great job of bringing that games style and play to the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG.  Power Capsule mimics a power up in that game: it allows you to instantly activate one of the effects your ship can eventually produce after blowing up enough baddies.  The best use would probably be to kick out an Option Token, since that maintains numerical advantage and can likely give field control, though obviously there will be times when the other two effects warrant use.

 

Here’s the rub, though: we have Monster removal everywhere.  If you try to protect against that, we have Spell/Trap removal everywhere.  Finally, we have so many overpowered cards (many that people can’t even understand are overpowered), that while Power Capsule is actually pretty great Support for Victory Viper XX03, its just there’s too much competition for it to be taken seriously, I am afraid.

 

If Yu-Gi-Oh were a bit more balanced, I think Victory Viper XX03 decks would be fairly practical.  Power Capsule would have been great as a Quick-Play, so you could surprise an opponent with it, but as is, its still good theme specific support.  As is, it becomes an easy token Special Summon in a deck built around Victory Viper XX03.  Sadly, so many players don’t get that’s the right way to do things, and thus won’t appreciate the card because it’s not broken.  That is a shame: while I don’t expect high scores (at least with the way things are now) for good theme support like this, it’s the players who don’t get that this is exactly what the game needs to shift to that make me worry.

 

Power Capsule has no real “general use” since its theme specific, and even if you choose to use Victory Viper XX03 outside its own deck (it can generate field presence, tribute fodder, and is easily searched) Power Capsule won’t go with it.

 

Ratings (for a dedicated Victory Viper XX03 deck, which should run this card in triplicate)

 

Traditional: 1/5                  

 

Advanced: 3/5