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Yugioh Reader Tips, Rants and Raves

From: ChronoMageZero@aol.com [mailto:ChronoMageZero@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:44 AM

Subject: Set Review Article - Ezekiel



Hey All!
This time I'm gonna be giving my two cents worth on the stes released so far as well as what I would hope to see in the future. For old and new players a like here are some of the high and lowlights of the sets. These are all personal opinions so if you disagree thats perfectly fine. Just don't flame my ass for it k? Enjoy.



LOB
A lot of the cards that would become staples arrived in the first set. Dark Hole, Raigeki, Monster Reborn, etc. It also maked the beginning of a great rivalry:- Dark Magician v Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
This set had A LOT of normal monsters where the strongest LV4s had around 1700 ATK.
A few useless Fusion and Effect monsters and trap cards as well as a heap of basic Equip and Field Magic Cards summed up this set. 2.9/5



MRD
This set consisted mostly of effect monsters and some of the highlights included Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest and Magician of Faith. There were also quite a few cards that had the ability to attack the opponents LP directly but were rarely used. Cannon Soldier was to become one of the archtypical Burners and Mirror Force and a host of Counter Traps such as Magic Jammer, Solemn Judgement etc defined this set. 3.6/5



MRL
Magic Ruler (renamed Spell Ruler after Magician's Force) marked the birth of the Ritual cards and contained some more staples that would appear in almost every deck since its release; Snatch Steal, MST, Delinquent Duo as well as the Elemental Searchers. Axe of Despair would be one of the most powerful Equips until United We Stand arguably and who can forget the underused Toons! Maybe if the Toons from the OCG were released they could become a more competitive deck type. 3.5/5



PSV
JINZO!!! And ironically a whole host of Trap cards. They negated specific cards like Continuous Traps and Field Magic Cards that were just not as useful as Magic Jammer or Seven Tools. Highlights included Premature Burial, CotH, and the Noblemen. 4/5



LON
Contained a lot of different cards including Mask-based, RFG Summons, FINAL and the Gemini Elf, the strongest no limits LV4 of the period. Kycoo acted as a counter to RFG decks that were beginning to emerge and Bazoo ran riot being un-errata'd. Dark Necrofear showed that Fiend Decks could get evern more powerful and that the Graveyard was where threats began, not were they ended. 3.8/5



LOD
I personally didn't like this set as the cards were very bendy and felt poorly made (in the packs I got anyway) It signified powerful Warrior, Fiend and Dragon support in the forms of Marauding Captain, Tyrant Dragon and Ha Des respectively. It also introduced the world to Spirit Monsters (especially Yata-Garasu) and Fusions that were actually worth playing (even if they would see most play later after the release of Metamorphosis in the next set.) Fiber Jar acted as a reset button for duels and caused as much fury as it did relief and Airknight gave Draw Power a new meaning. Type-specific cards such as Warrior Returning Alive and Stamping Destruction made theme decks more well theme-y. Water decks became more formidable with A Legendary Ocean and the Captain and Reinforcement of the Army were the building blocks for Warrior Toolbox.
3.9/5



PGD
Ah, this set was littered with corpses and their Keeper's ie super Zombie support and the Gravekeeper's as well as Necrovalley. Ring of Destruction became a standard in almost every deck and Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper became the forerunners in Control. Donny Z and Yata became the proud parents to the Yata-Lock and the bane of duelist everywhere. Showing the inportance of Draw Power. Zombies got unlimited support with Pyramid Turtle and Book of Life. Cards were able to be flipped down automatically such as Swarms of Scarabs and Locusts. Book of Moon was used when they couldn't and became one of the most combo-able (sp?) cards ever! 4.1/5



MFC
Magic became Spell and Spell Counters were invented. Breaker the Magical Warrior became uber-splashable and Dark Magician and to a lesser extent Buster Blader support was given in the form of the Skilled Magicians and Miracle Restoring. Unions were released and were quickly cast into oblivion. XYZ and Amazoness' were also released, but the stars of this set were definately Breaker and Dark Paladin. 3.9/5



DCR
Fiends-apoppin' in this set with Archfiends and Pandemonium. Ironically there was also quite a bit of Fairy support with Mudora, Zolga and the rest of the Earth Fairies (is it just me or would Demons and Angels have sounded a lot better and manlier than Fiends and Fairires, but I'll save that for my next article) etc. Vampire Lord became synonimous with recurision and the need to remove it fast. The Guardians were also released but were also discarded in favour of cards such as D. D. Warrior Lady and Exodia Necross. Butterfly Dagger - Elma became associated with one of the most broken combos in history (BD-E, Gearfried and Magical Marionette/Royal Magical Library.) SakAr was released and it marked the beginning of the current stagnent metagame (controversially)
3.8/5



IOC
CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS!!! Oh yeah and Ojama support, can't forget that. Black Luster Soldier-EotB and Chaos Emperor Dragon-EotE marked both the beginning and the end of originality in Duel Monsters. Chaos was the new hot deck and even cards that were useful and powerful in that set such as Strike Ninja, Gren Maju Da Eiza and Manticore of Darkness were initially glanced over due to the ferocity of the Chaos Monsters. Reviewers would now forever call Light and Dark Monsters "Chaos Food" even before you could see their real strengths and weaknesses. Other Highlights included Dark Magician of Chaos, Smashing Ground and Berserk Gorilla. Regarded as one of the best sets ever released. 4.5/5



AST
Fairies finally got their fifteen minutes of fame before other cards stole their spotlight. Zaborg the Thunder Monarch pull the gears in motion for Soul Control and Enemy Controller became most-wanted. Low-level cards such as Gigobyte started decent Weenie Rush along with cards such as LL-AB, Sword of the Soul-Eater and Opti-Camo Armor. Cards that were specific to Monsters also came out such as Burst Stream, Amplifier and Dark Magic Attack. The Light support was decent and End of Anubis was a Monster Necrovalley. 3.5/5



SOD
LV-based Monsters were released with Horus and Armed Dragons being among the best. Mobius the Frost Monarch proved he was more than just a pretty Ice Knight and can currently be found in almost every deck ever! A lot of this set harked back to days gone by with Nobleman-Eater Bug and Hade-Hane being "evolved" past Monsters. Not a bad set but other than the LV Monsters and Mobius there wasn't much else of interest. 3.6/5



RDS
One of the poorest (depending on your opinion) sets released. There was a lot of Harpie support but who plays Harpies outside casual? Dekoichi pulled into the station however and gave great draw power. Thestalos continued the great "family" of cards that the Monarchs were with discard and potential burn rather than removal. Beginning of Machine support with Heavy-Mech Platform and the Big Core/BES cards but other than Monster Reincarnation there wasn't much else to see. 2.9/5



FET
Flaming Eternity raised the booster set's quality like a Phoenix from the ashes (pun intended) with the release of the Sacred Phoenix of Nephtys. With a great effect, tutor in the Hand and almost unlimited recurison it was a mighty foe to vanquish. Granmarg the Rock Monarch ended the Monarchs for now (hopefully they will release more) with his multipurpose face-down removal. Beast support made it a competitive deck type and Rescue Cat made it a OTK Deck possibility. Fusion subs came in the Hexes as Fusions became more difficult to summon after the abuse of Metamorphosis. Lightning Vortex was the new Raigeki with a cost and Armed Samurai-Ben Kei made sweet love to Equip Cards. Frequently compared to IOC, it was a triumph! 4.3/5



TLM
Rock Monsters got decent support and with the release of the Rock structure in the near future have the hope of becoming more competitive. Brain Control gave more Control to decks and the Ancient Gears made quite an impact. Elemental Heroes are quite annoying and the new token "Character Cards" after YGO GX. At least the Dark Magician was a decent card with A LOT of support (I myself run a Dark Magician/Burner Deck that will be better when Spellcaster's Judgement comes out soon) but the E-Heroes have support but are not that great to begin with (note to self make E-Hero Deck in next article or so.) That was about it for TLM, not bad if you like Rocks but not great if you like anything else. 2.7/5 (3.7/5 for E-Hero enthusiasts)



CRV
Cyber Dragon Fever gripped the Duelist Kingdom and instead of becoming the GX Blue-Eyes it became a one of the most splashed cards ever! Machine support was great with the 'Roids and the Dragons. E-Heroes played a large part in this set (larger than they should) and Frog Decks were introduced. Apart from Cyber D, not much to say about it. 3.1/5 (4.1/5 for E-Hero enthusiasts)



EEN
The most recent set with one of the most original hooks. Dark World. These new discard to summons are great and when placed in the right deck could be formidable. Goldd and Sillva wil no doubtedly find their way into most decks as a counter to Hand Destruction, but in their own deck would reign supreme. EVEN MORE E-HERO SUPPORT!!! There was never this much consecutive support for the Blue-Eyes or DM. The Chemistry whizzs at UpperDeck also released monsters actually help you study with the Oxy and Hydro geddons and Water Dragon. Thats about it (along with Ojama Knight releases.) 3.1/5 (4.1/5 for E-Hero enthusiasts)



SOI
The Future
Demon Gods and Ancient Gears mark the release of this new booster when it comes. Along with Frog, Cyber Dragon and Insect support as well as new "Multiple cards in Graveyard to get effect" cards. Anti-E-Hero with Fusion deck burners! Hurray! Not bad, not bad. We'll have to see when it arrives. Predicted score 3.5/5



My Future Hopes
More Monarch with support for them.
More Spellcaster support (Magician's Valkyrie=Marauding Captain and a Spellcaster <1500ATK searcher.)
A little more of the lesser types support such as Dino, Thunder etc but don't go mad and release a Magician's Force equivalent!
Support for older "families" such as Archlords/fiends, Gravekeeper's and Toons!
RFG Summons such as a Dark Necrofear-esque Warrior/Spellcaster/Dragon.



Thats about it for now, hoped you liked my set reviews and you can always contact me about anything at
chronomagezero@aol.com



For my next few articles I will be ranting about changes in names for a Western audience as well as an E-Hero deck (grudgingly) and some more fantasy cards and CotDs!



Peace Out,
Ezekiel