Ascending Soul …

Ok. One of the CREEPIEST pictures in the history of Yu-Gi-oh. The card itself? – Interesting enough. But not that good. Ritual Monsters are hard enough to wield, without wasting a whole bunch of resources as it is. The only thing that got people even CONSIDERING them again are the Ritual Fiends. But when they’re used with their effect to Ritual Summon, they don’t even remain the graveyard. U might wind up using OTHER monsters for Ritual Summons aside from the fiends, but u certainly don’t want to be … and u certainly aren’t going to be wasting space in your deck with THIS card in anticipation of it.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1.5/5

- FREEZA

Ascending Soul:

Rituals need more support if they are going to make it, which probably won't ever happen anyway after the release of Synchro monsters. The Djinns were a step in the right direction. This card is not. First of all, why release a new concept such as the Djinns, and then put out ritual support that goes against what the djinns are there to do in the first place. You WANT djinns to stay in the graveyard so you can rfg them for their effects, so using one for a ritual summon, and then putting it back into your hand makes no sense. True, you could run a ritual deck without the djinns, but then you would be taking a step backwards in deck evolution in my opinion. Why add one more card to the already costly act of ritual summoning? It will always turn out to be an even trade, you won't be gaining advantage with this card. If you are one of the brave people out there pioneering a Ritual deck, skip Ascending Soul over, there are better alternatives.

Traditional: 1.0
Advanced: 1.5

We start the week off with some Ritual Support. Ritual decks have been getting a nice boost lately, but aren’t quite “there” yet. Ascending Soul seeks to lessen the burden of providing for Ritual Summons. Too bad it conflicts with the best support Ritual monsters have.

To go into further detail, Ascending Soul is a Continuous Spell. The good news is that means it is intended to be used repeatedly. The bad news is that means it is vulnerable to S/T removal. Second, while it is meant to be used multiple times, slowly building advantage, it states that its effect is “Once per turn”. That hurts. On the bright side, you can select and add to your hand 1 monster in your Graveyard that was used as Tribute for the Ritual Summon. If you used Ritual Raven or another single Monster that paid the entire cost, all you’re out is your Ritual Spell and some cards from hand. The thing is this doesn’t look like it works to well with the Djinn monsters or Advanced Ritual Art, the best support Ritual decks have.

So slow, vulnerable, and conflicting. I can’t say I like this card. Plus Ritual Raven, which is featured in the artwork as a blatant hint towards the combo is really, really ugly.

Ratings

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1.5/5
Artwork: 1/5

Ascending Soul

Today we review another Ritual support card. This is like the old Samsara card, but instead of going back to the deck, you can bring back some of your Ritual food. This doesn't actually work very well sometimes, because you'll be using the Djinn cards who will remove themselves from play.

Also, this card only works once you've summoned the Ritual. Once you've gotten your Ritual monster out, you won't need one of its sacrifices back. You want to focus your deck around getting the Ritual out, and this doesn't make the deck any more consistent.

1.5/5, stick with cards that will make the deck work better
Art: Siamese chickens
Fun Fact: Those are Ritual Ravens, from TAEV.
Tomorrow: Yes. There's even MORE Ritual support.