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Trading Card Game Tips from fans

 
From: maurice delamar [mailto:mxdelamar@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 7:17 AM

Subject: Some Cool Cards Coming From Shadow Of Infinity--Maurice D.

Hello again, fellow Pojo and Yu-Gi-Oh fans! I would like to share with you some cards from the upcoming English release of Shadow Of Infinity, that might perk some interest out of some of you, if not many. We all know that the "Sacred Beasts" are in this set, and everyone will be trying to get all the good cards. ...But what about all of those common and Rare cards that will be left behind? Well, I am here to mention some of those exact kinds of cards that actually aren't as half-bad as they are cracked up to be. Anyway, here they are, with translations courtesy of the spoilers from the Pojo Forum's "Official Shadow Of Infinity Thread," and more importantly, redbaronii for his/her own translations on his/her site.

Hero Kids

Earth/Warrior/Level 2/300 ATK/600 DEF

When this card is successfully Special Summoned, you may Special Summon any number of "Hero Kids" from your Deck to the field.

Think of Hero Kids as a Warrior version of Nimble Momonga, except it comes to the field in any face-up battle position as you please. Because it is a Warrior, it should be considered in a Warrior deck, as some sort of insurance. Just because you run a Warrior deck, doesn't mean you will be unbeatable once you get out all of your Command Knights and D.D. Assailants. If you get in a bind, and you Special Summon this guy, you will have some monsters for you to stall with. Plus, it makes great Tribute bait for all the popular Tribute monsters like Mobius and Cyber Dragon.

Antique Gear Cannon

Earth/Machine/Level 2/500 ATK/500 DEF

Sacrifice this card to do 500 points of Direct Damage to your opponents Life Points. During this turn's Battle Phase, neither player cannot actitvate Trap Cards.

This is one card I await with eager anticipation. Forget its puny stats; let's take a look at what it offers. Not only does it inflict 500 points worth of Direct Damage to your opponent, during your Battle Phase, he or she can't use any Traps he/she had set down. That means no Sakuretsu Armors, no Magic Cylinders, and anything else that can only be activated during the Battle Phase. Combo this with Cold Wave (Of which I had a tip about earlier; why don't you check it out?), and it's even nastier! For the rest of your turn, there is almost nothing that will stop you from getting to your opponent's Life Points. There is a Spell Card in the same set that lets you summon this card from your hand, too. Finally, it goes well with both Gigantes and Bazoo the Soul Eater, because you can always use Return from the Different Dimension to reuse its effect again!

Instantaneous Bomber

Wind/Machine/Level 3/1000 ATK/1000 DEF

When this card is attacked by your opponent's monster while in face-down Defense Position, damage calculation would be ignored, and this card would be treated as an Equip Card, and equipped onto the attacking monster. During your opponent's next Standby Phase, destroy the equipped monster.

If you remember Blast Sphere from all the Yu-Gi-Oh games, this is its little brother. It works just like BS, but it doesn't have the burn effect. Nevertheless, you still will be able to destroy the monster that it is equipped on, if you can find a way to prevent it from being destroyed via Heavy Storm and other S/T removal. Nothing a Cold Wave can't solve! It's also great food for Sylpheed.

Successor of Demon Sealing

Light/Warrior/Level 4/1700 ATK/800 DEF

When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, Reverse Summoned, or Special Summoned, for each "Successor of Demon Sealing" in your Graveyard, declare one Attribute. When this card attacks monsters with the declared Attribute, they are destroyed without applying damage calculation.

I think this is Konami's attempt to help people with original decks deal with all the cookie cutter decks running amok ever since October's ban list. In essence, the Successor lets you declare up to two Atrributes, and destroy any monsters with the declared Attribute. I can see this as an answer to Warrior decks, post-ban Chaos decks with Chaos Sorcerer, "flip-flop control" (By the way, what in the friggin Hades is that? All I know is it has something to do with Flip monsters and Tsukuyomi...), and Dark World. The Successor is also a great addition to Chaos, since it offers a chance to destroy some of the most commonly played cards in the metagame. By decaring the right Attributes, you can pretty much screw a deck over. Call Light and Earth against a Warrior deck, and you've got it made. D.D. Assailant? You won't have to see her ugly face for a while. Maurading Captain? Good as toast. D.D. Warrior Lady? Successor makes her his female dog. I don't think I need to go any further.

Conquerer of Heaven--Shien

Fire/Pyro/Level 4/1500 ATK/1000 DEF

This card is not effected by the effects of Trap Cards

Shien is basically a Fire version of Elemental Hero Wildheart. It's actually decent, and can help a Fire deck, what with its immunity to Trap Cards. This and Molten Destruction equals trouble for your opponent. Like Wildheart, Shien can be searched by Sangan, and can also be searched through UFO Turtle and The Thing in the Crater.

Chainsaw Insect

Earth/Insect/Level 4/2400 ATK/0 DEF

When this card battles, at the end of the Damage Step, your opponent draws one card.

The first time I saw this guy when Shadow of Infinity spoilers were shown in the Japanese Cards forums, I was like, "WTF?" Looks like the Big K has done it again; providing us with another crazy high-ATK Level 4 with an equally horrendous drawback. When Chainsaw Insect battles, your opponent draws a card at the end of the Damage Step. This alone will keep most duelists from even giving it a go. On the other hand, you can make some nasty card combos with this. With Protector of the Sancturary, the card-drawing effect is nullified, and you'll just have a Level 4 2400 ATK behemoth. Skill Drain obviously has made a new friend. Other cards that combo well with CI include Trap Dustshoot, Heavy Slump, Appropriate, and Greed.

Giant Anteater-Eating Ant

Earth/Insect/Level 5/2000 ATK/500 DEF

This card cannot be Normal Summoned. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending two Spell/Trap Cards on your field to the Graveyard. Instead of attacking with this card, you can destroy a Spell/Trap Card on your opponent's side of the field.

This Insect is similar to one of the Sacred Beasts, Uria, in how it is summoned. You have to send two of your Spell/Trap Cards on your field to the Graveyard, and it has Uria's S/T removing effect, but your opponent can chain something else upon the activation of the effect. It's like a permanent Mobius with only 2000 ATK, which is actually more than enough ATK, really. It's still a good offensive wall, which is what it does best. I am definitely going to give this bug a test run once I get my hands on it.

Devildozer

Earth/Insect/Level 8/2800 ATK/2600 DEF

This card cannot be Normal Summoned. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by removing two Insect monsters from your Graveyard from play. When this card does Battle Damage to your opponent, send the top card of your opponent's deck to the Graveyard.

This is the Insect equivalent of Dark Necrophia/Dark Necrofear, which focuses on deck destruction. Like its female Fiend predecessor and many with summoning effects similar to hers, Devildozer is a Special Summon, so you can still Normal Summon afterwards. Its 2800 ATK is also stellar. The best part of all is: it's only a Rare! With this and three Needle Worms, your opponent's deck will be all but gone!

Yomigaeru

Water/Aqua/Level 1/100 ATK/100 DEF

When this card is in your Graveyard during your Standby Phase, and you do not have Spell/Trap Cards on your side of the field, you can Special Summon this card to your field. This effect cannot be activated if a "Yomigaeru" is face-up on your field.

Possibly the best common in the whole set. This little guy is literally begging to be abused. You can discard it through the effects of cards like Lightning Vortex or Raigeki Break, then it can return to your field during your Standby Phase. This is also perfect for Spiritual Water Art--Aoi and Familiar Possessed--Eria.

Sandmoth

Earth/Rock/Level 4/1000 ATK/2000 DEF

When this card is destroyed in face-down Defense Position other than as a result of battle, and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon this card to the field with its original ATK and DEF switched.

Possibly my most anticipated Shadow of Infinity card. Why? It's another great addition to a Rock deck, and its effect helps the theme. This monster is the answer to Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute, Exiled Force, and anything else that can destroy face-down monsters...except Nobleman of Crossout. If anyone summons Exiled Force and destroys a face-down Sandmoth, they'll end up seeing a 2000 ATK beatstick. This also makes your opponent pay for using Mystic Swordsman and his ilk. Let them run your Sandmoth over, then summon it back and laugh. You can also abuse its effect, using your own Dark Hole to clear the field, and attacking directly with your 2000 ATK Sandmoth. I find its effect to be awesome, and I'm glad Konami though of it.

Magnet Circle Lv 2

Normal Spell Card

Special Summon a Machine Sub-Type monster from your hand with Level 2 or lower.

This is the Spell card that I was refering to with Antique Gear Cannon earlier. It also lets you bring out almost any Level 2 or lower Machine monster, as long as you can Special Summon it. This is perfect for Cyber-Stein!

Antique Gear Drill

Normal Spell Card

This card can only be activated when there is a monster with "Antique Gear" in their name, and you discard a card from your hand. Choose a Spell Card from your deck, and set it onto your field. That Spell card cannot be activated during this turn.

If you use any of the Ancient Gear monsters, you definitely need to give this card a spin! This literally lets you reuse any Spell Card of your choice. This is an excellent way of being able to reuse Quick Play Spell Cards like Mystical Space Typhoon.

Cyclone Boomerang

Equip Spell Card

This card can only be equipped on "Elemental Hero Wildheart." Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by 500 points. If the equipped monster is destroyed by the effects of other cards, and sent to the Graveyard, destroy all Spell/Trap Cards on the field. Do damage to your opponent equal to the number of the destroyed Spell/Trap Cards times 100.

This is an Equip Card for possibly my second favorite Elemental Hero, Wildheart. Wildheart becomes a 2000 ATK monster who gives Traps like Torrential Tribute and Sakuretsu Armor the bird, and if he is destroyed by the effects of other cards, all the Spell/Trap cards will be destroyed through a Heavy Storm effect. This effect, however, does burn damage to your opponent. With all the monster removal out there, this Equip might not be as bad, after all. Go ahead and use Smashing Ground a Cyclone Boomerang-toting Wildheart...if you dare!

Seal of Heritance

Equip Spell Card

This card can only be activated if you have three monsters with the same name in your Graveyard. Choose one of the monsters and Special Summon it onto the field, and equip this card onto it. When this card is destroyed, destroy the equipped monster.

This is a Premature Burial without the Life Point payment, and a strict activation requirement. This is a cool card to try out if you are using Cyber Dragon, since you could bring them back on the field en masse through Proto Cyber Dragon's effect. Like Premature Burial, you can Giant Trunade it back to your hand without destroying the equipped monster, so feel free to try that, too. It's also good for giving any of your monsters one more chance to use their effects!

Karma Cut

Normal Trap Card

Discard one card from your hand. Remove a face-up monster on your opponent's side of the field from the game. If there are monsters in the Graveyard with the same name as the removed monster, remove all of them from the game.

This is the Trap version of the Magician's Force Spell Card, Dark Core, but with a nice little bonus of removing extra copies of the removed monsters in your opponent's Graveyard from play. This is great against Mystic Tomato and the other elemental searcher monsters of its kind, as well as Cyber Dragons and Maurading Captain. It's a good Trap because it can also just plan remove any face-up monster from play.

Generation Change

Normal Trap Card

Destroy one face-up monster on your side of the field. Add a card with the same name as the destroyed card from your deck to your hand.

Generation Change lets you search for another copy of the monster you destroy through its effect. This actually combos well with two cards from Invasion of Chaos: Pinch Hopper and The Thing In the Crater. Not only will you be able to get another copy of those cards from your deck, you can Special Summon an Insect or Pyro monster, too! It's also great for monster that have effects activated after being sent to the Graveyard in any way, such as Skull-Mark Ladybug!

Goblin's Perfunctionary Actions

Counter Trap

Pay 500 Life Points. Negate the activation of a Spell Card, and return it to your opponent's hand. That card cannot be activated again during this turn.

For only 500 Life Points, you can negate a Spell Card, then throw it right back to your opponent's hand. What's more, he/she can't use it again for the remainder of the turn. You can follow up during your next turn with D.D. Designator, and nail that exact Spell Card, sending it out of play.

Malfunction

Counter Trap

Pay 500 Life Points. Negate the activation of a Trap Card, and set it back onto the field again.

This is even better than the above card, because it can negate a Trap Card and reset it back onto your opponent's side of the field again. Better yet, you won't have to worry about that card until the next turn. 500 Life Points is a small price to pay to render an opponent's Royal Decree or Sakuretsu Armor useless, until you can find a way to destroy it next turn.

That pretty much wraps up the common and Rare cards from SOI that actually sound good enough to playtest. I am sure as heck going to give all these cards a spin. If you have any comments about this CCG Card Tip/Thought, e-mail me at mxdelamar@yahoo.com. Until next time!


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