Subject: Of Set Loss, Sugar, and Dubbers ~ KuroKarasu
WARNING: Another long article by me! So, if you want
sugar, please get some of my French candies. I'm selling them for my school, so
blame
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, then Harpy Lady Decks would run rampant. You do NOT want to see an army of winged ladies with toxic claws mad at you.
~
Last time I wrote an article, people automatically assumed that I had
bought boxes and boxes of MFC to make the perfect Amazoness deck. The truth
is, I only have like 4 MFC cards, all of which are from friends. I have
been using Amazonesses for a LONG while, though, even before MFC came out.
How? The answer is very simple: My deck is a hybrid.
For those of you that don't know, a "hybrid" deck is a deck that uses both
English and Japanese cards. Therefore, no, I HAVEN'T won any tournaments
using Amazonesses, as Upper Deck doesn't allow Jap cards to be used. Yet, I
have been told that in Jap tournaments, English cards may be used as long
as opaque-backed preservers are used. This brings me to my point: There are
many things in the Jap card game that are NOT in the English version. No,
I'm not referring to the new sets and cards that haven't been released.
Rather, I'm reffering to other matters, although the releases are certainly
an important factor.
Since I most likely have your attention about the releases, that's where
I'll start. Besides the newer sets (which have yet to be dubbed), there are
a few older sets that have their cards scattered about in the English game.
I am mostly referring to Booster Chronicle. The cards from BC were the ones
used in TP1 and TP2 (TP3 has cards borrowed from other sets as well as BC).
So no, those cards did NOT come out of the blue, already-dubbed and very
rare. BC was a REGULAR set in
not-exceptionally-useful effectless creatures. Don't expect it to come over
here as a regular set; I think Upper Deck has made up its mind not to
release it to be so, as the BC cards have appeared in Starter Decks
(Penguin Soldier and Graceful Charity), and English Labyrinth of Nightmare
with Gemini Elf as a Secret Rare.
Rarities in the English game got 90% butchered when compared to those in
the Jap. In the Japanese packs, you only get 5 cards and are NOT guaranteed
a Rare. Even then, a Secret Rare is NOT the best you can get, as there are
two rarity levels higher: Parallel Rare and Ultimate Rare. These two
rarities are nonexistant in the English game. I can't give you a good
description of an Ultimate Rare, as I don't own one. Sometimes, they are
exceptions to the rule that all Jap cards are entirely new; there are
Ultimate Rare versions of BEWD, Dark Magician, and REBD, among others.
Other times, they come from the set itself. From what I have heard, the
cards are actually embossed (or beveled, I don't know which). There are, as
far as I know, no Ultimate Rare promo cards, so don't expect to get one
without paying a hefty amount of cash.
Parallel Rares DO leave a very slight trace in the English game. The foil
on English promos has a similar foil to Parallel Rares, with holographic,
"graph paper" lines. In a nutshell, Parallel Rares are the Ultra Rares of
the set with a prismatic coating. This is not imprinted on the card foil;
rather, it's on the entire card. Some promos DO have Parallel Rare
counterparts so, if you're interested, you might find one rather cheaply.
Secret Rares in Japan have the promo foil mentioned above. They use it on
their promos, as well, meaning that some are considered SCR. As far as I
know, there's not a rarity in Japan that possesses the American SCR foil.
The SCRs here are usually pulled from other sets or are promos, with some
exceptions. SCRs in Japan are unique to the set, and reprints usually
change the rarities of things.
Yatagarasu was one such thing. When it got reprinted from Mythological Age,
its rarity was changed from being a regular common to a "Normal Rare" in
Duelist Legacy 5. Nomal Rares are extremely hard-to-find commons, and there
is no way of telling that they are different from any other common. These
usually end up being short-print commons, super short-print commons, Rares,
or, if they're THAT good, even Secret Rares. Yes, Lily and Yata were, at
one time, foil-less. I personally think Upper Deck overdid it by making
them SCR; now unlucky people like me have no chance to get them.
All other rarities are the same, except for the fact that they're MUCH more
rare in Jap packs. The 5-card-per-pack thing is reflected in the WorldWide
Edition Game (the Dunames Dark Witches LOVE me there), where there are
special packs that are NOT in the card game...Or so people who don't know
the Japanese cards think. The BEUD and Dark Magician Packs actually exist.
They're two of a promotional group of boosters called "Premium Packs".
There are also Limited Packs, and I don't exactly know the difference. What
I DO know is that every card in the pack is either Ultra Rare or Super
Rare, with the chance of having a Parallel. It is not the rare cards that
make these packs interesting, though; instead, the fact that they all have
a different theme is what sparks my interest. Some of these packs contain
very sought-after cards, like Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (used in the
one-turn-kill with Frankendevil(Cyber Stein)). For this reason, they're not
the cheapest things in the world, but if you want a cheap Tri-Horn Dragon,
feel free to get the Super Rare version.
The Japanese also get different Promos than we do. Their video games have
6-10 cards, whereas American games only have half as many. They also have
Valuable Books, which contain cards like Legend Devil, Masked Beast Death
Guardius and its Mask of Last Will, Metal Reflect Slime...The list goes on.
There are also promos in V-Jump and Weekly Jump magazines, two of which are
Harpy Lady SB (Cyber Harpie) and Amazoness Chain-Wielder (Amazoness Chain
Master). (If anyone knows when those two are coming out in English, please
let me know. It'll be greatly appreciated, and might even be posted on my
sitey.)
Remember when the Joey and Pegasus Starter Decks came out? The Japanese
have those, too, with some differences. Yes, some MAJOR differences, like
COMMON Jinzo and Raigeki. If cards like those were made easier to get (as
in, NOT like tourney packs or anything) everyone would be happier. Not
everybody can go around and pull exceedingly rare cards from every pack
they get. Structure decks, the Japanese character-based decks, usually had
better cards than the U.S. starter decks in general. It makes no sense to
me why UD didn't release them in the U.S. when everybody was anticipating
Toon Gemini Elf and the other decent cards we never got.
There is something that has, evidently, been totally unknown to the Card of
the Day people: Some Jap cards were literally CHANGED in the English
version. I don't mean mistranslations, like on Skull Lair, I mean like
changes so drastic that it affects the use of the card (OK, Skull Lair was
a bad example). Amazoness Fighter (Martial Artist) used to have 1500 ATK,
meaning that she could actually do damage to a Mystic Tomato and could
stall against the Zaruug it brought out. Windstorm of Etaqua (Ithaqua's
Gale) used to be a Trap, making it a useful, chainable attack-killer; most
Beatdown creatures have low DEF, so switching them is effective. You can
still use Gale for making the beatsticks next-to-useless on your turn, but
not much else anymore. So sad!
Also, if anybody cares, Magic Cards are still MAGIC Cards in Japan. The
"Spell" change was because of something involving Wizards of the Coast, the
company that makes Magic: The Gathering cards. Do the math. Actually, don't
bother taking out a pencil and paper, as there are really no numbers
involved. I don't know the exact details, but the problems lie in a bunch
of copyright junk. Don't like it? Too bad, we can't change copyright laws.
This isn't in Japan because M:TG either doesn't exist there or is written
differently (they have three styles of writing, there). In other words, get
Jap cards if you don't like the change. Of course, it could also just be a
bad attempt on Upper Deck's part to "sanitize" the game, though I think
they blew it with uneditted Amazonesses and missing the edit on Harpy Lady.
Then there are the many pointless spelling changes ( what's with the "ie"
on the dubbed Harpy Lady cards?), name changes, and art edits, but those
are too obvious, so I won't go into them. The list would be pointlessly
lengthy; the very subtypes of the cards were changed. Perhaps I will, one
day, make a table explaining every single dub change...You wish. No way
ANYONE can do that; there are too many. Yes, far too many.
Mail me at ZenSuicune@aol.com if you wish, but no IMs until I know you,
please. One more thing: Please, please, PLEASE no chatspeak. It vexes the
daylights out of me. Also, all flames will be shredded by my army of
Amazonesses and Harpies (including my Dunamis-Valkyria).
~Kuro.
Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I will be writing again! Whenever something
comes up that catches me, I'll usually go on and on about it.