We're starting what's become an annual tradition of sorts around here, counting down the Top 10 cards of the previous year.  Personally, I thought this card made a bit more of an impact than where it ends up, but what do I know?
 
#10--Shooting Star Dragon
 
Shooting Star Dragon is the new trump card of Yusei, if you hadn't guessed, (and seen in Season 4 of 5Ds) and is Synchro Summoned with Stardust Dragon and one Synchro Tuner monster, which is actually more difficult that the original monster and two Tuners of yesterday, in my opinion.
 
Anyway, Shooting Star Dragon has 3300 attack (at Level 10 (and still Wind) to the 3500 of the Level 12 Red Nova Dragon) and 2500 defense. Now, what can't Shooting Star Dragon do? Well let's have a look...you can activate each of these effects once per turn...
 
1) Reveal the top 5 cards of your Deck, then shuffle your Deck. During this turn's Battle Phase, this card can attack once for each Tuner revealed in this way. Two would probably be average or a lot in five cards, but even one gives you an extra attack.
 
2) You can negate the activation of a Magic, Trap, or Effect of an effect monster that would destroy a card(s) on the Field, and destroy that card. That's fabulous, as at the very least, you force your opponent to waste something to play a second card to do the same thing.
 
3) Finally, like Red Nova Dragon, when your opponent declares an attack, you can remove Shooting Star Dragon from play to negate the attack. (Remember that they don't have to attack Shooting Star Dragon to activate this effect.) Then, you again can Special Summon this card during the End Phase.
 
Ratings:
 
Traditional: 3/5 Very difficult to pull of in Traditional.  
Advanced: 5/5 If you get it on the Field, you're very likely to win :) 
Art: 5/5

Starting off our ‘Top ten cards of 2010’ is card #10, Shooting Star Dragon.
 
Finally, an evolved form of Stardust that actually doesn’t suck! Shooting Star is made using Stardust and a Synchro Tuner, which will have to be Formula Synchron, as he’s the only one as of now. This card is actually not that hard at all to get out, and in decks which can abuse Formula Synchron (i.e. Dandy-plant, fishborg-treeborn), he makes for a really nifty boss monster. He has great stats and a good protection effect. His first effect is not too terribly great unless you run a deck chock full of tuners, as it leaves you with a chance that you may not get to attack, but his protection effect is nice, as you can negate your opponent’s Mirror Force and still get in your 3300 beater’s attack. His attack negation effect is also nice to prevent a Gorz token or a super Solidarity’d Gravekeeper from ruining your day. Pretty much the only way to get rid of him is to bounce him (hello Compulsory!), or perfect circle him with Juju Master or another of his kind (Phoenix Wing works well if you’re one of those old-skoolers who still play zombies…). All in all, a good card to open our list.
 
Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5
Art: Stardust roid rage

Shooting Star is one of the first of the Stardust boss monsters that’s actually seeing play, and it’s a beast to be reckoned with. This card has good stats, a little low for a 10 star, but he makes up for it by being easy to play and having great effects. This card definitely holds a position in both plant decks and in Monarchs. Monarchs have an easy time with this card because their Treeborn comes out every turn, and they can use Fishborg Blaster to make Formula Synchron. This, along with Monarchs’ favorite star level make getting Stardust out easy, then next turn, well, you get the idea. One downside to this card that I see is that this card doesn’t remove itself from play using its negation effect. This does allow for your opponent to double stun you to get rid of your boss monster. This could be a plus though, say you attacked into a Mirror Force, well, you get to keep going. It’s really good to see a Stardust boss monster that is seeing play. The best card, probably not. A good card? Definitely.

Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3.75/5

Shooting Star Dragon clocks in at #10 for our Top 10 Yu-Gi-Oh cards of 2010.  This gives me a chance to review it since I sadly missed it the first time around.  To begin with, it is a Synchro Monster, which means its fighting for space in the crowded Extra Deck (instead of the slightly less crowded main deck).  Since it has specific requirements to be Synchro Summoned, I’ll get them out of the way now: any one Tuner plus a Stardust Dragon.  I’ve been falling behind in this game lately, but has something changed to make Stardust Dragon not so good?  No?  Okay so this is a mixed blessing as Stardust Dragon is a card you:

a)      Are maxing out

b)      Will often special Summon

c)       Want to keep for its effect

d)      Tuner must be Level 2

For giving up a precious Stardust Dragon you’ll get this Level 10 (that explains “d”) Wind/Dragon, the same Attribute/Type mix as Stardust Dragon, but with 3300 ATK and 2500 DEF.  This is much sturdier than Stardust Dragon and will be very hard to kill in battle and actually should be able to dominate the field in many cases.  It has three effects and each one can be activated once per turn.  The first has you reveal the top five cards of your deck, then shuffle them back in.  For each Tuner you revealed, this card gets an attack.  Some important rulings on this effect are that you are not allowed to activate this effect if you have no Tuners in your deck.  Exactly how that is supposed to be known to your opponent, I don’t know: it is possible you yourself might forget how many you have left in your deck when you go to activate the effect.  Only if you use it when you have five cards in your deck and revealed no Tuners would it be obvious to both players.   The second restriction states that you also have to have at least five cards left in your deck in order to activate the effect.  As I feared when we first reviewed this card way back when it was still a Japanese-only card, if you reveal no Tuners, Shooting Star Dragon forfeits its default attack for the turn.  It also means you have to hit at least two Tuners for this effect to actually be a benefit.  It is nice to know that the maximum number attacks set by the effect are for each Battle Phase, so if something happens to give you a second Battle Phase, you get to enjoy any extra attacks you had over again!

The second effect is much less risky, and why you would be willing to trade a Stardust Dragon in to get Shooting Star Dragon: negate the activation of an effect that would destroy a card (or cards) in play, and destroy the card that is the source of the effect.  Basically Stardust Dragon’s effect without the required sacrifice, having it available once per turn means Stardust Dragon only has an edge in really specific scenarios, like when Skill Drain is on the field, or if your opponent baits out the effect with a single piece of destruction so that they can drop some mass removal.  Rulings pertaining to this effect are… nothing.  Guess it is considered straight forward.

The final effect on the card is that, when an opponent’s monster declares an attack, you may remove Shooting Star Dragon to negate that attack, then during your End Phase, Shooting Star Dragon Special Summons itself back to your side of the field so long as it was removed from play for this effect.  This one also has a few rulings, namely the effect is considered to target, the returning effect fizzles if you lack an open Monster Zone, if your opponent is controlling your Shooting Star Dragon and uses this effect, it will still Special Summon itself and return to your side of the field, if your opponent somehow prevents you from negating their monster’s attack with this effect Shooting Star Dragon still gets to return from being removed, and lastly if something negates Shooting Star Dragon’s attempt at Special Summoning itself the effect won’t trigger again as it merely triggers once during that one End Phase.

So we have a lot going on with this card, and I have to say it all looks pretty good, excluding giving up a Stardust Dragon.  I’d think everyone would at least consider squeezing a single copy into their Extra Deck, and decks focused on this card could lead to some nasty OTKs.

Ratings

Traditional: 3/5 

Advanced: 4/5

As we've done every year, we start each year off by ranking and reviewing the previous year's top ten cards. This is only for the new releases (not reprints), so don't be looking for Royal Tribute or anything.

#10 is Shooting Star Dragon, which you don't know yet because you love my reviews so much that you scroll down to them without even seeing the card being reviewed. This is actually its third time on the COtD, but you don't know that, either.

The card is meant for combo decks. Two in particular: Quickdraw and Frogs. With Quickdraw, you have all sorts of shenanigans, including but not limited to Lonefire and Dandylion on the field at the same time, and even Fluff + Spore + Hamster. Glow-Up Bulb also works if you already have Stardust, probably from Debris Dragon.

Frogs love to spam Treeborn Frog and Fishborg Blaster. This means tons of Formula Synchrons. They also love to summon Monarchs, which are level 6. Monarch + Formula = Stardust. That means two Formula Synchrons gets that Shooting Star, and for a deck like Frogs, two Formulas are easy to get.

Now, its effects:

-The first effect is useless and usually robs Shooting Star Dragon of its attack.
-The second is awesome.
-The third is awesome.

4.5/5
Art: It's all big hands and stuff, maybe.
Fun Fact: Fortune Lady Dark powers up every Lady, not just herself.
Tomorrow: #9. It's so mysterious even I don't know it.