From: David Smith [mailto:dsmith0821@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 3:48 PM

Subject: Rebuttle: The New "God" Cards - Avian

Hello fellow Yu-Gi-Oh players! Harpy_Hunter (now Avian) has returned after a long period of absence to bring to you an article regarding my thoughts on the new "god" cards.

I recently read on Pojo many thoughts regarding the new "god" cards: Hamon, Uria, and Raviel. Many players of Yu-Gi-Oh often believe that these cards are far too unplayable and wouldn't last a chance in today's format... While that may be true in some instances, they can be made playable and could do pretty decently in today's format. How so? Well let's start off by reviewing, Uria!

SOI-EN001 Uria, Lord of Searing Flames
Fire/Pyro/10/0/0
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending 3 face-up Trap Cards from your side of the field to the Graveyard. Increase the ATK of this card by 1000 points for each Continuous Trap Card in your Graveyard. Once per turn, you can destroy 1 Set Spell or Trap Card on your opponent's side of the field. Spell and Trap Cards cannot be activated in response to this effect's activation.

This card screams Beatdown or Gravity Bind all over it! Imagine, Skill Drain + Final Attack Orders + Light of Intervention! That combo alone gets rid of most of today's commonly seen cards. Use behemoth like monsters such as Giant Orc, Goblin Elite, GAF, Cyber Dragon, and the like! Pummelling your opponent into submission! They can't defend against you. Your attack strengths are too high to take them on head to head, and you don't want to leave your lifepoints wide open. Just when the opponent thinks things can't get any worse, you finally clear your field of those three wretched traps and drop down Uria! Blast away their stupid S/T that they were counting on, plus you gain points for your Continuous Traps in the Graveyard. There are plenty more playable Continuous Traps out there such as: Solemn Wishes, Mask of Restrict, Ordeal of Traveller, & Gravity Bind. Who would expect a Uria to drop on the field from a "Fire Princess" Deck!? You remember Fire Princess right??? She made Solemn Wishes and Gravity Bind popular. After the opponent has received 3rd degree burns from travelling in the sun too long, they can't imagine a worse fate... There goes Uria however! Onto the next card:

SOI-EN002 Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
Light/Thunder/10/4000/4000
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending 3 face-up Continuous Spell Cards from your side of the field to the Graveyard. When this card destroys your opponent's monster as a result of battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points. While this card is in face-up Defense Position on your side of the field, your opponent cannot select another monster as an attack target.

Yowzer! Meet Pikachu! I mean... Hamon! (wrong game, haha) Can you imagine using this with Level Limit Area - B & Messenger of Peace?? Both are great stalling cards and LLA-B is found mostly in Water Decks & use MoP to stall until the rain storm comes. I believe this one is the easiest to play because there are so many Continuous Spells out there and you can use it turn one if you have 3x CS and Hamon itself. You have Nightmare Steelcage, LLA-B, MoP, Gravekeeper's Servant, Swords of Concealing Light, and the list goes on. Who in their right mind would attack with 3x GK Servants on the field??? Not to mention if you combine it with Needle Worms, Morphing Jar, Pot of Avarice (to return the Worms & Jar). That's a whole lot of cards lost! And with Hamon added to the mix as well as Tsukuyomi (or BoM), you can guard your Worms or Jars from being destroyed will Tsukuyomi (or BoM) flips them down to be reused. Combine that and if they do decide to attack, they had better be running a Reversal of the Worlds deck. Even then though, if you're using Soul Release as well or Banisher of the Light, then they are sunk. Finally, let's look @ my favorite card: Raviel!

SOI-EN003 Raviel, Lord of Phantasms
Dark/Fiend/10/4000/4000
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing 3 Fiend-Type monsters on your side of the field. Each time your opponent Special Summons a monster(s), Special Summon a "Phantasm Token" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 1/ATK 1000/DEF 1000) on your side of the field. This Token cannot declare an attack. Once per turn, by Tributing 1 monster on your side of the field, increase the ATK of this card by the original ATK of the Tributed monster until the End Phase of that turn.

Now... Many a-Fiend duelist will be thinking, or will have thought, about using this card or not using this card. I for one would at least give it a chance. Think about how simple it is to bring out. 3 Fiends?? Uhhhh HELLO! GIANT GERM! Set a Germ, or ram a germ. if you ram it, last will it for one more fiend. if you set it and it gets destroyed in battle then CoTH, Prema, or just summon a new fiend (Dark Jeroid anyone???) When you sacrifice the three, bring forth Raviel!!!! LORD OF PHANTASMS! Then use those three fiends you sacrificed for Dark Necrofear. Return from a D.D. for more fiends, and tribute one (preferably Dark Jeroid, after you use it's ATK substraction ability) for more attack points and you've practically got it made. Of course there is still the monster removal out there, but if you use that said topic over and over then you can say that for EVERY DECK! Raviel works great with Fiends, but even better in a deck all on his own. You can even use Raviel for Necrofood, and then R.f.a.D.D. him. Raviel IS highly situational though.

Many people do not see all of these combo's that lie in their faces the entire time. Maybe it's because of the current format and certain people keep shoving CC propaganda down their throats, but if you stopped and looked at your cards for a second you'd see all these cool combos laying right in front of you, waiting to be used. I know that I'd want to use all three not in the same deck, but to each their own. 

"Take a Risk. Take a chance. Make a change. And break away."

Have any questions? Comments? Compliments?? Feel free to send them to dsmith0821@yahoo.com. Please include in your subject line something along the lines of: "Your Recent CCG Tip on Pojo", or I'll trash it. ^_^

Thank you all for reading!
HAPPY DUELING DUELIST!