Whee!  More Transformers Morphtronic cards!  Morphtronic Celfon is a Level 1 Earth/Machine.  Level 1 makes sense: cell phones are tiny.  Obviously, they are machines.  It’s the Earth part that confuses me.  I see a cell phone, I think “Air”.  Earth/Machines are fairly well supported, at least.  Morphtronic Celfon has a teeny, tiny 100 ATK and DEF points.  Only a few monsters in the game can’t run over it, and pretty much anything that sees play can.  The good news is that you can go crazy with Machine Duplication to get three of these out on your field pretty easily.  So why would you want to?

 

The saying “strength in numbers” applies here, and in more ways than one.  Even if they are all weak Monsters, it’s nice to have multiple copies of something in play (especially since then you won’t have to draw into them).  Obviously if this card is totally useless, you shouldn’t run it anyway (easily avoiding drawing into it).  So now we come to the second application of that cliché: this card’s effect, or rather both of its effects.  While in Attack position, once per turn you may roll a die: “reveal” that many cards from the top of your deck and Special Summon one Level 4 or less Morphtronic Monster.  No English released Morphtronic Monster has a level higher than four, so that isn’t as limiting as it sounds.  There are some higher level support cards for this theme, but they aren’t named “Morphtronic”.  Revealed cards not chosen are simply shuffled back into your deck.  While in Defense position, you still roll a die, but this time you merely get to see those cards and return them to the top of the deck in the same order.  In an actual Morphtronic themed deck, this little one is simply speed, if you can keep it alive.  I know many players don’t like dice roll based cards.  I understand why: you don’t get a concrete result from it.  That being said, Yu-Gi-Oh has a lot of ludicrously overpowered cards that might have been balanced with a dice roll, or at least a little less broken.  What’s more, those cards that are so obscene tend to hide those that are still far too powerful for the sake of the game, so that basically we trade one messed up metagame for the next.  So as you can tell by the mini-rant, I am totally fine with dice-roll based cards.  After all, this is a Trading Card Game.  If you don’t like luck in your game, you don’t play a TCG: everyone I’ve ever played has had a deck you draw random (or at least semi-random) cards from.  I am sure there are a few exceptions, but for most games, the goal is to show your skill by how you control the luck aspect.

 

So what does that mean with a card like this?  Combos!  A Defense Position Morphtronic Celfon will always see at least the top card of your deck, so take advantage of it by making it a guaranteed draw for the low, low price of 500 LP and some removal bait with Archfiend’s Oath.  Although you could theoretically throw these two into any deck, realistically you won’t because it’s too much of an investment unless you can fully capitalize upon it.  It is still something for Morphtronic decks to consider.  Morphtronic Celfon also combos well with its self: get an idea of whether or not an Attack Position copy will hit another Morphtronic Monster by using a Defense Position copy’s effect.  The obvious downside is that you may not roll high enough to know for sure.  That is the nature of such cards, though, and a well built deck won’t worry too much.  Look at the obvious: if you roll a one on a Defense Position copy of Morphtronic Celfon, you instantly know if your Attack Position copy has zero chance of failing, and of course, can pull of that Archfiend’s Oath combo.

 

What about protecting it?  Honestly, I don’t know if you should.  There are countless effects in this game that need a Monster as part of the cost, including some of the other Morphtronic Monsters.  Chances are you can count on one of them using a spent Celfon as fodder.  If you do want to protect it, you’ll probably want to avoid things like Messenger of Peace, Gravity Bind, and Level Limit – Area B: this card is too small to be reliably protected.  On the other hand, Swords of Revealing Light, Nightmare Steel Cage, and similar cards would keep it alive.  I’d probably look towards the Morphtronic support cards we have first, though.  Morphtronic Magnen can create an “attack lock” like Marauding Captain.  Morphtronic Radion boosts the ATK or DEF of other Morphtronic Monsters.  An upcoming Field Spell for Morphtronic Monsters can boost their ATK, and when it’s destroyed while in play you get to Summon a Morphtronic Monster form your Graveyard.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1/5 – Not unless there’s a OTK for the Morphtronic Monsters.

 

Advanced: 3/5 – It’s another solid entry for the Morphtronic Monsters, and a boon to actual Morphtronic decks.

 

Art: 3.5/5 – The eyes give it more of a Mega Man vibe than a Transformers look.  It also reminds me of Dialbolic (j. Tel-Tel Boy), which is a plus in my book.  Wow, three ways for me to get my geek on.

 

Summary

 

Morphtronic Celfon is only meant for Morphtronic decks, and that should be no surprise.  Used as intended, you should be able to structure the deck so that rarely will a dice roll for this character not help you, but instead quickly fill your field with Morphtronic Monsters to let the combos begin.  Protect it for repeated use or just sac it to pay for another effect, either way it should speed the deck up.

 

-Otaku