Number 41: Bagooksa the Terribly Tired Tapir – #VASM-EN044
2 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, detach 1 material from this card. If you cannot, destroy it. This Attack Position card cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. Your opponent cannot target this Attack Position card with card effects. While this card is in face-up Defense Position, change all face-up monsters on the field to Defense Position, also negate the activated effects of monsters that were in Defense Position when that effect was activated.
Date Reviewed: January 9th, 2025
Rating: 4.08
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Number 41: Bagooksa the Terribly Tired Tapir is a drunken friend from time’s past and is the Throwback Thursday choice this week.
A Rank 4 that will see lots of play in Ryzeal alongside other staple Rank 4’s, Bagooksa used to be such a popular Xyz option for players. A momentary defensive option, Bagooksa couldn’t be targeted while in Attack Position with card effects, and while in Defense Position it turned all face-up monsters to Defense Position and then negated their effects. You had two turns to figure something out, as you had to detach a material during your Standby Phase or Bagooksa would bite the dust. Two turns to figure things out is usually enough in the game, especially when you turned everything to defense on the field and are negating their effect(s). At 2100ATK you weren’t likely to attack with Bagooksa, but it was still an option, and it couldn’t be targeted by something while in Attack Position, so spot removal while in Attack Position wasn’t possible against Bagooksa.
Still lurking around the meta, Bagooksa can be played wherever a few Level 4’s exist within an archetype, and in Ryzeal that is where he will reside. A fail-safe option for the player if they have no way to combo off or need to recover off getting board-wiped. While the archetype has great recovery power through Cross and Sword, you may need this guy to hold things down for two turns. Your opponent won’t be able to get past him unless they commit to summoning two monsters, losing out on effects, and then Link Summoning. Most players aren’t going to do that and will either wall up themselves and wait it out unless they are closing in on a game win. TLDR: Bagooksa is a great ally to Ryzeal and all Level 4 monsters even in 2025.
Advanced- 4/5
Art- 4/5- Should’ve gotten the OCG art.
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week was going to be perfect for an old generic Rank 4, so this week is one of the better Rank 4s in the game that’s legal: Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir.
Bagooska is a Rank 4 EARTH Fiend Xyz with 2100 ATK and 2000 DEF. Nice stats for a Rank 4, EARTH is solid, and Fiend is good. Materials being any 2 Level 4 monsters means it’s generic to summon for anything running Level 4 monsters. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, you must detach a material from this card or it’ll be destroyed, so it puts itself on a timer while on thte field, which is fair considering it’s basically a floodgate. Your opponent cannot target this Attack Position card with card effects, so it gets card effects when in Attack Position, but it’s always summoned in Defense Position since while it’s there, all face-up monsters on the field are changed to face-up Defense Position and you negate the activated effects of Defense Position monsters on the field. It’s great to summon when you have no other plays to make, just sitting on this and hoping it doesn’t get negated or removed so the opponent is then stuck struggling in making their plays, then when you get back to your turn and you can make a play, you just swap to Attack Position to do so. It’s a strong Rank 4 that you can always fall back on when you can’t make big plays or they get stopped, sitting on this and hoping it lasts the turn. Play it in anything you can potentially summon a Rank 4 in.
Advanced Rating: 4.25/5
Art: 4/5 Still funny how the TCG made him give up hihs alcohol for pillows.
Mighty
Vee
Arguably THE most hated Rank 4 monster at the moment unless your name is Jesse Kotton, Throwback Thursday brings us Ryzeal’s most controversial staple, Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir. This Rank 4 EARTH Fiend monster takes any 2 level 4 monsters, so pretty much any deck that can field 2 level 4s (which is oddly common) can make it. Statwise, Bagooska isn’t too impressive, with only 2100 attack and 2000 defense, but if we’re being realistic, we’re only ever seeing that defense stat…
Bagooska has a soft once per turn maintenance cost, requiring you to detach a material during your Standby Phase, destroying itself if you can’t. This means Bagooska will generally last 3 turns, so you should probably try to win before then. Bagooska has two different Continuous Effects depending on its battle position; in attack, Bagooska can’t be targeted or destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. It’s decent protection, but meaningless on a monster with middling stats. No, the real reason you play Bagooska is its defense position effect, which changes all other monsters to defense position as well and negates their activated effects. It’s worded a little awkwardly, but in essence, it means neither you nor your opponent can activate monster effects or attack, slowing the game to a crawl unless Link monsters come into play since they can’t be changed to defense, and thus can’t be negated by Bagooska. Salamangreat would commonly abuse Bagooska since their Link monsters were unaffected by it, and it would come up in various decks over the years like Vaalmonica and Labrynth. Incidentally, Bagooska isn’t too great in Ryzeal since it’ll turn off your own monsters, but if you’re positive it’ll win the matchup (such as, ironically, another Ryzeal deck), you can make it alongside Duo Drive or the boss monster and rely on Ryzeal Cross for disruption. In the OCG, they decided Bagooska wasn’t too big of a deal compared to the Abyss Dweller, which was Forbidden instead much to the joy of people who play Graveyard-heavy decks (myself included!). With Ryzeal falling off there, I don’t expect it to be on the radar again, but here in the TCG its days may be numbered…41!
+Obnoxious floodgate can completely ruin many non-Link decks
+Very generic requirements
-Easily backfires on decks that don’t run Link monsters or heavy backrow
-Will eventually destroy itself if you can’t advance the game state
Advanced: 4/5
Art: 4/5 (OCG) 4.25/5 (TCG) The pillow makes a big difference! One of the few cases of censorship being for the better.
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