Red-Eyes Black Dragon – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday (2002)

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Throwback Thursday and Joey makes an appearance with Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

Long-standing the third behind Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician, then drifting further as the years have gone by, REBD got an archetype around it and was able to have some relevance once more. Being a Level 7 Normal Monster is rough, and having lesser ATK than Summoned Skull straight off the cuff was even rougher (ask Dark Magician). Now with all the support within the “Red-Eyes” archetype, the original is a viable monster. With the addition of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon to the game, REBD found itself being thrown into any deck that could make Verte Anaconda and use Red-Eyes Fusion. With Chaos monsters and Allure still seeing so much play and a vast amount of effects needing discard fodder, REBD isn’t even as much of a dead draw anymore.

Within its own archetype it is a good card, outside of it, it is good fodder and serves its purpose to power REDD…until Red-Eyes Fusion, Verte, or Dragoon get hit by the ban list.

Advanced-2/5     Art-/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

In preparation for tomorrow’s card, we gotta give Joey some love and look at his ace monster on Throwback Thursday: Red-Eyes Black Dragon (finally got rid of the B. part).

Red-Eyes Black Dragon is a Level 7 DARK Dragon Normal Monster with 2400 ATK and 2000 DEF. It’s a ferocious dragon with a deadly attack, even though Summoned Skull has 2500 ATK and needs 1 less tribute and then you got Blue-Eyes White Dragon for 2 tributes and better stats. You aren’t using this for it’s 2400/2000 baseline though, especially back then you weren’t using it when there were better options. You use it for the support that Red-Eyes has. You got some powerful Fusions to use like Archfiend Black Skull Dragon, Meteor Black Comet Dragon, Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon to use off of Red-Eyes Fusion. You can revive this with cards like Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, Red-Eyes Wyvern, Red-Eyes Spirit, and Return of the Red-Eyes. It helps summon Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, as much of a retrain that card needs, as well as Red-Eyes Alternative Black Dragon (though Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon serves the same role). It’s what you likely dump with Red-Eyes Insight for the search. Overall the card has its use in its own Deck, and it still has the good qualities like being a Level 7 to use the slim but strong Rank 7 pool as well as having the DARK and Dragon traits. It’s a good card mainly due to it being the key part of its own archetype, even if there’s stronger vanillas to summon.

Advanced Rating: 3.5/5

Art: 5/5 for LOB/SDJ art, 3.5/5 for Shonen Jump Vol. 2 art, 3.75/5 for the same Shonen Jump art but with a black background instead of green, 4/5 for the Asia Championship 2001 art we never got in the TCG, and 4.75/5 for the Anniversary Pack art.

Alex
Searcy

Red Eyes Black Dragon, despite support, just doesn’t have what BEWD has.  It certainly doesn’t have what Dark Magician has, and suffers from the fact that all its best Monsters are either Nomi or alt versions of itself.  Darkness Dragon, Metal Darkness Dragon, things of that nature.  You can still, and very likely should, run DM or BEWD in whatever variation of those Decks you play.  But you can many builds of Red Eyes Decks, and you’re probably better off not using the original.  Even if you are using it in your build, it’s better as a combo/support card to bring out and/or fuel other Monsters in the Archetype.  I’m not trying to be overly critical, I love Dark Magician, after all.  Just my opinion on Red Eyes.

Rating:  2.25/5

Art:  It shows the LOB art here as I type this, so I’ll give that a 5/5 as it’s my favorite.

Bill

I am not a great Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG player, but I am definitely a collector.  The original “Red Eyes B. Dragon” card has been skyrocketing in value lately.  An LOB, 1st Edition, PSA 10 of Red Eyes Black Dragon just sold on eBay in October for nearly $10,000!  

And PSA 9’s have been selling for almost $3000.  Time to get yours graded if you have any old ones hiding in binders.  1st Editions and Unlimited versions of this old card are all in high demand!  

REBD is kind of the Venusaur of Pokemon Base Set.  BEWD is Charizard.  And Dark Magician is Blastoise.  Happy hunting & stay healthy!