Thursday

Short and sweet today folks...Saber Hole is good support and only works in the X Saber Deck, obviously. You control an X Saber monster, you can negate the Summon of a monster and destroy it. If you play the Sabers, play one, or even two of these if you have room.

Ratings:

4/5 for the Deck
1/5 elsewhere, obviously

Art: 3.5/5

Here we have one of the better X-Saber cards and an exclusive, which is always nice. It is a Normal Spell which is always good, and it destroys face-up cards ont he field equal to the number of X-Saber monsters you control. 0_0

Whoever designed this card loved the archetype! It will destroy spell cards, trap cards and monster cards, which is EXCELLENT. However, it does come with it's price. You MUST destroyed that number of cards, so in a pinch you might have to kill some of your own X-Saber monsters or even spells or traps in order to hit a specific target.

Again, as with Hyunlei earlier this week, there is always the threat of Starlight Road. This card is actually easier to manage than you might think, as the X-Saber monsters can swarm better than almost any deck out there so you can destroy stuff before you plop on the field.

This card should be used in place of or alongside Smashing Ground in the X-Saber deck, as it can easily clear out problem cards like Royal Oppression that can severely hamper the entire deck.

Traditional-1/5
Advanced-4/5

Saber Hole …

Again – simplicity at its best. One of the best support cards for a deck type u could ask for. U have an X-saber monster on the field? – Negate the summon of a monster and destroy it. No LP cost. No discard. It doesn’t specify flip, normal, or special summon. Just negate it and destroy it. And it’s a counter trap. The fastest thing in the game. So nothing short of Dark Bribe or Solemn Judgment can stop it. If I played X-sabers – I’d play 3 of these. Easy.

Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 5/5

- FREEZA

Wow, this card is one amazing card for X-Sabers. Meet the X-Saber equivalent of Forced Back. This card destroys any monster summoned, so long as you control an X-Saber monster. Its practically a Trap Hole for X-Sabers, just it works on any monster. Its a counter trap making it a spell speed 3, requiring the opponent to use a counter trap of their own to stop it. At first glance its pretty awesome, but when you consider other cards that would normally stop something like this, you go "wow". Because Saber Hole is a spell speed 3, it gets past cards like Stardust Dragon and My Body as a Shield, both very popular cards. Its funny because you can even negate the summon of a Stardust Dragon and destroy it. You can also stop monsters like Dark Armed Dragon, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos and Judgment Dragon from ever hitting the field. With Solemn at 1, Gladiator Beasts don't really have many Spell Speed 3 cards to use, outside of Dark Bribe really, and most Gladiator Beast decks don't run Dark Bribe, just the 1 Solemn Judgment, making Saber Hole one of Gladiator Beasts worst nightmares. Given this, Saber Hole is a must, with 2 Bottomless Trap Holes in any X-Saber deck.

Traditional: 5/5
Advanced: 5/5

Saber Hole:

This is a great card for X-Saber decks, and one of the reasons (along with Emmersblade) that they are actually seeing what little play that they are. A strong opening for them is to summon Emmersblade and set this card along with Solemn or Starlight. I like it because it helps add an element of control to a deck that used to pretty much be a one-trick pony (the Gottoms loop). This game desperately needs more simple and effective cards like this for all archetypes (except for Koa'ki Meiru, screw them). Sorry so short, but as I said, this card is simple, not much to delve into here, if you play X-Sabers, run a set of these.

Traditional: 2.0 (how many people do you see running trap hole or the like in this format?)
Advanced: 3.5

Today's card is Saber Hole, one of the deadliest X-Saber weapons. Its effect is short and sweet: Just for controlling an X-Saber monster, crush any big card your opponent tries to summon. If they make a big Synchro, Saber Hole it. If they summon Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon, Saber Hole it. Brionac, Goyo, Stardust, you already got Saber Holed.

The best part about this card is that it's a Counter Trap that completely negates the monster's summoning. If your opponent summon DAD, JD or Brionac, their summons are stopped before they even get a chance to activate their effects! If you're losing, this will stop a critical summon. If you're winning, this will secure the win for you, especially when you effectively crush two monsters and the Synchro they needed to beat you.

This is a card all X-Saber decks will want to draw as much as possible because no matter when you draw it, it's going to help you.

5/5
Art: Looks a little weird.
Fun Fact: This is like Horn of Heaven, but you don't need to sacrifice.
Tomorrow: A guy you secretly wish you looked like.

4/8 Saber Hole

Saber Hole is an amazing card. It's the kind of card that gives me hope as a YGO player, knowing that the people in charge of YGO are capable of designing theme-specific, perfectly balanced cards.

The card is on theme but it functions as a sort of curious hybrid between Solemn Judgment and Bottomless Trap Hole. It's almost as good as SJ in a certain sense and certainly better than Bottomless Trap Hole. Most SJ triggers at premier events are used on Heavy Storm or a big boss-like monster.

Balancing this is the fact you need to actually run a close to mono X-Saber deck to capitalize on Saber Hole's powers. This card is a great incentive for players to build a tier 1.5ish X-Saber deck. Protecting the Saber Hole becomes a viable strategy.

Note: I rate cards based on the theme they're intended for.

Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 5/5