Misfortune is an interesting burn card.  I am now glad I disagreed with yesterday’s CotD (Power Capsule) that I felt the need to write about it. Thus since that CotD will go up late, I figured I should do today’s so I can include a quick word on checking out what I have to say on Power Capsule now that my CotD for it should be up.

 

Anyway, back to Misfortune.  This is a variable burn card.  It inflicts damage equal to half the original ATK of the face-up Monster you select on your opponent’s side of the field.  The cost?  Your monsters cannot attack this turn.  Also, it can be disrupted by something happening to the face-up Monster being referenced, in which case you don’t do any damage but still can’t attack.  The good news, look at the wording: your Monsters can’t attack that turn.  What does that mean?  Well, you still have a Battle Phase, which means a Monster immune to your own Spells (hello Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 5) can still attack (and interestingly enough, the card apparently can select a Monster like Horus LV5 since it’s not actually doing anything to it).  Also, Misfortune is a natural for a burn deck which probably won’t bother attacking anyway.  Of course, the actual amount of burn damage one will get based on what your opponent runs will vary, probably a good 800 to upwards of 1200, based on most decks.  In your classic Lava Golem deck, you should be burning for a good 1500.  I can even see including the appropriate cards to then get Lava Golem back just to sack it with something like Catapult Turtle or Ectoplasmer.  Indeed, there are many opportunities, some better than others, to mess with the opponent via control shifting cards and Misfortune.  Creature Swap combined with Susa Soldier, perhaps?  Ultimately, though, I think most burn and Horus decks should be main decking this, and especially Lava Golem.  Now, the real question is, since this Spell appears to place an effect on your Monsters that keeps them from attacking (hence the ruling on Horus LV5), then I believe it would be legal to play multiple copies of it in a turn (unlike, say, Soul Exchange which specifically “spends” your Battle Phase).  For that matter, this is a nice side deck card for many, especially if the opponent appears to be running a Cyber Stein or Chimeratech Over Dragon based deck: the former would likely yield 2000 burn damage to someone who just spent 5000 LP, and the latter I believe would use the attack determined when it is summoned and thus if you did survive, be game ending then and there.  Of course, I could be wrong on what constitutes “original ATK” here.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1/5 – Monsters die so quickly here, I just think it’d be a dead draw to often as a result.

 

Advanced: 3.25/5 – That’s a general score factoring its value in side decks as well as specific main decks, which means it’s pretty solid.