Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday (2014)

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is our Throwback Thursday choice and a suitable one for a Pendulum-themed week.

While only a scale of 4, it is a great choice to be used in a Pendulum strategy. Damage reduction as a Pendulum card helps mitigate damage your smaller Pendulum Monsters may take. 1-for-1 during your End Phase searches out your 1500ATK or lower Pendulum Monsters to get you to where you wanna go. You’ll need a scale of 8 to Pendulum Summon this monster, but doubling the damage it inflicts on your opponent can add up over turns. If it had an effect like: “If this card makes a direct attack, double its ATK, but no other monster can attack for the turn, also destroy this card at the end of the Battle Phase” or something like that. The best way of using Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is to use it as a scale and benefit from the damage reduction and especially the search. There are well over 50 choices from several archetypes that are within OEPD’s search radius, so this card is a tech for many of those decks. Abyss Actor, Odd-Eyes (obviously), Performapal, and Majespecter to name a few.

For a card released at the beginning of Pendulums, as well as almost 6 years ago, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is still a great card to run at least one of in almost any Pendulum strategy.

Advanced-4/5     Art-3.5/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

The final ace we look at for Legendary Duelists month of course is Yuya’s ace, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in the Pendulum Zone is a Scale 4 with the first effect to reduce any battle damage you’d take from a battle involving a Pendulum Monster you control to become 0, which is pretty alright to have to prevent LP from becoming 0. You’re likely putting this in the Pendulum Zone for the second effect rather than the first effect and it’s Scale of 4, because during your End Phase you can destroy Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to search any Pendulum Monster with 1500 or less ATK. A very good searcher, especially at the start of the Pendulum Era. Over time, we got Pendulum Decks being consistent enough to not need Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, but it’s still a mainstay in the Odd-Eyes Deck. Each Pendulum Effect of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a hard once per turn, which is really only necessary on the second effect.

As a monster, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a Level 7 DARK Dragon with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF. Good stats, type, and attribute. Its only effect lets you double any battle damage the opponent would take from battles involving it and an opponent’s monster, which is a fine effect to go for game ASAP. It isn’t anything special. Overall, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon has good qualities to stand the test of time well, even if it isn’t as a staple Pendulum Monster.

Advanced Rating: 4/5

Art: 4.25/5 for the original art, 3.75/5 for the Legendary Dragon Decks art and the Duel Power art.

Solember
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Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon

If I were to create an analogy for primary protagonists’ ace cards, I would tell you to imagine the Harlem Globetrotters. They have that fluidity and grace. They skillfully pass the ball around and trick their opponents. Every point scored is a performance and a testament of their teamwork and synergy. In this analogy, cards like Dark Magician, Elemental HERO Neos, Utopia and Starlight Dragon are… the ball. The ball doesn’t contribute, but it is required to make the magic happen.

Protagonist ace cards have a history of becoming mediocre over time while receiving support cards that keep them relevant. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon took a bit of a detour around this by adding several different variations that don’t utilize him. Sure, there are cards for the Odd-Eyes archetype, but Odd-Eyes Dragon doesn’t have enough direct support to be good (yet), and his effect doesn’t earn him a place in many decks.

His Pendulum effect activating during the End Phase is slow, though clearing up the zone is useful in a lot of decks. His Monster effect could be useful when trying for an OTK or even dealing a noticeable chunk of damage to the opponent. Aside from that, there is not much to this card.

I enjoy all three artwork variations of this card. The design of the Monster is very solid in general.

Versatility – 1
– It fits in a lot of decks, but it doesn’t contribute much.

Rogue Plays – 4
– There are some good OTKs made possible by his Monster Effect, and his searchability makes these strategies more viable.

Art – 5
– Looks better than it tastes.

Balance – 5
– Nothing about this card ever needed balancing.

Uniqueness – 2
– It might be odd, but Nothing about this card feels one of a kind. It does have a unique pairing.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon gets a 3/5. Play it if you enjoy the archetype, and let’s hope it gets a support set in the future.