Going back to my first poll, I saw that Magicians were now in the lead after 4,200+ votes, with over 1,000 votes themselves, so I decided that today’s article will be featuring a couple Magicians (Spellcasters) and cards that work well with them. We begin with a look at the Chaos Sorcerer.

Chaos Sorcerer
Dark/Magician - Level 6 - 2300/2000
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned.
Remove 1 Light-type Monster and 1 Dark-type Monster in your Graveyard from the Game to Special Summon this card.
You may remove 1 face-up Monster on the Field from the Game. If you choose to do so, this card cannot attack during this turn.

Chaos Sorcerer was a Common from the Japanese 306 set. Coming in English in Invasion of Chaos.

Chaos Sorcerer, although it may first seem like it, isn’t considered to be a “Chaos Monster.” It has some similarities, but fact is, it’s nowhere near as powerful, although it is a pretty good card.

Right away you can see that Chaos Sorcerer has the same Summoning requirements as Chaos Soldier and Chaos Emperor Dragon, in that it cannot be Normal Summoned, and in order to Special Summon it, you need to remove a Light and a Dark-type Monster in your Graveyard from the Game. It has the same Revival requirements, as well, in that it cannot be Revived unless it had been successfully Special Summoned by its requirements prior to hitting the Graveyard.

It has pretty good stats, at 2300/2000, but it’s another Monster card that cannot be Searched. It’s a Dark/Magician, so that gives it a little more options as to what Decks it can fit into. Dark-based, Magician-based, etc. It’s a nice replacement card that many people use in Tournaments when the Chaos Monsters are banned from play.

2300 ATK is nice, but its Effect can also come in handy in many situations, and it’s another similarity that it has to Chaos Soldier. Although, Chaos Soldier has the ability to remove any Monster on the Field, face-up or face-down, whilst Chaos Sorcerer can only remove face-up Monsters. Not too much of a drawback for such an Effect, though. It’ll certainly be helpful in many situations.

Overall, Chaos Sorcerer’s a pretty good and fun Monster card to use, and it‘s probably a little bit underrated, as well. I’d give Chaos Sorcerer an overall rating of 7.3 / 10. Up next we take a look at Thousand Knives.

Thousand Knives
Normal Magic
Effect: Activate this card when you have a face-up {Dark Magician} on the Field. Destroy one Monster on your opponent’s side of the Field.

I decided to review this card even though it’s been released because it has yet to be reviewed here on Pojo, and it fits in well with this article.

Thousand Knives’ use is obviously with Dark Magician in DM Decks. It’s simply a Normal Magic that allows you to destroy any one of your opponent’s Monsters on the Field, and it can only be activated if and when you have a Dark Magician face-up on the Field.

Its Effect could obviously prove useful in many situations, giving you easier options for attack, etc. Monster-Destruction Effects are always a good thing to have in Decks, and Thousand Knives is a great card for that in most Magician Decks.

Not too much else to say about Thousand Knives, really. I’d give it an overall rating of 5.8 / 10, and 7.3 / 10 for Magician Decks. For the third card of today’s article, we have the White Magician - Pikeru.

White Magician - Pikeru
Light/Magician - Level 2 - 1200/0
Effect: During each of your own Standby Phases, gain LP equal to the number of Monsters you control times 400.

White Magician - Pikeru was released in the Japanese 308 set as a Common. It will be released in English in the set after IOC.

White Magician - Pikeru is another nice little Magician that I believe to be a bit underrated. (As I believe all cards involving LP gain are a little underrated, as LP-gain’s one of my favorite tactics to utilize in Decks, but yeah, that‘s just me) It’s a Light/Magician-type, so it can fit nicely into Light-based Decks, Magician-based Decks, LP-gain-utilizing Decks, and even some Chaos Decks. It can dodge things like Gravity Bind, as well.

Being only Level 2, it has an ok ATK strength at 1200, and 0 DEF, so watch out for Trample if you ever put Pikeru in DEF position. 1200 ATK won’t usually do much for you, but for Pikeru, 1200 ATK’s just enough to get done what needs to be done, whether you may need a bit of protection, such as Waboku, or not. Being able to be Searched by the Witch, Critter, and Shining Angel is pretty nice, as well.

Its Effect allows you to gain 400 LP times the number of Monsters that you control on your Side of the Field during each of your own Standby Phases. May not seem like much, but that Effect could really come in handy in many situations. It can especially work well with Scapegoat. With Scapegoat, you could be gaining up to 2000 LP during each of your Standby Phases. And even with just one or two other Monsters, the Effect is still pretty helpful, and could easily put you back into any Duel where you might be in trouble, or put you way further ahead in the Duel than you were already. Even a mere 400-800 gain per turn could prove to be very helpful and useful.

Overall, I consider White Magician - Pikeru to be a very useful and effective card. I’d give it an overall rating of 7.4 / 10. Moving on, we have the Curtain of Black Magic.

Curtain of Black Magic
Normal Magic
Effect: If you have already Summoned or Special Summoned any Monsters during this turn, this card cannot be activated. After you play this card, you cannot Summon or Special Summon any other Monsters during this turn. Pay half of your LP. Special Summon one {Dark Magician} from your Deck to the Field.

Curtain of Black Magic was also released in the Japanese Premium Pack 4 Promo pack. There’s no telling when it might be released in English, either.

Curtain of Black Magic is certainly an interesting Magic card, meant only for use with Dark Magician. The first part of its Effect states that if you have already Summoned or Special Summoned any Monsters during that turn, you may not activate your CoBM. That’s a bit of a drawback, really, as is the second part of its Effect in that you cannot Normal or Special Summon any more Monsters after using the CoBM with your Dark Magician. It gives your Dark Magician no extra support, and that could be something that you’ll regret after using CoBM.

Paying half of your LP is a bit hefty, as well. It’ll get your DM(s) out fast, but at the cost of ½ your LP, it’s up to you as to whether or not you’d like to run a CoBM or two in your Magician Decks. And you should hope your CoBM doesn’t get negated, because, well, then you just wasted ½ your LP on nothing =/. (Since it’s an activation cost)

Bringing out a DM like that can be helpful, though, of course, and it’ll certainly get a lot of power out on the Field for you. There are just those few drawbacks with this card that make it not so good.

I’d give the Curtain of Black Magic an overall rating of 4 / 10, and 6.7 / 10 for Dark Magician-based Decks. For the last featured card of today’s article, we have the Magician’s Valkyrie.

Magician’s Valkyrie
Light/Magician - Level 4 - 1600/1800
Effect: If this card is face-up on the Field, your opponent cannot designate any of your other Magician-type Monsters as targets of an attack.

Magician’s Valkyrie was released in Japanese as a Promo card from the Limited Edition 5 Yugi Pack. There’s no telling when its English release might be.

Magician’s Valkyrie is certainly a Magician that would come in handy in Magician Decks. For starters, with un-searchable stats of 1600/1800, it’s a pretty stabilized Monster card in terms of ATK and DEF strengths. You’d be fine setting it, or Summoning it into ATK mode. 1600 ATK isn’t too much, but it can get things done when need be.

Magician’s Valkyrie acts like a Troop Commander (Marauding Captain) when on the Field with your other Magician-type Monsters. Your opponent would only be able to choose your Magician’s Valkyrie as the target of an attack, and not any of your other Magicians. If they don’t have a Monster strong enough to take care of the Valkyrie, then that’s tough luck for them. They won’t be able to attack at all, unless they wanted to “suicide” one of their own Monsters into your Valkyrie, because when you have any other Magicians on the Field with it, they’ll have no other options for attacking.

It also works like Troop Commander in that if you get 2 Valkyries onto the Field at the same time, your opponent won’t be able to attack you whatsoever, as each Valkyrie will be protecting the other by its Effect. Pretty useful, and that’s what makes the Magician’s Valkyrie a great card for Magician-based Decks.

Overall, the Valkyrie is a pretty good Monster card. I’d give the Magician’s Valkyrie an overall rating of 6.5 / 10, and 8 / 10 in Magician Decks.

Now here’s a Magician Deck example using at least 1 of each of the featured cards in today’s article. Remember, I’m using mostly Japanese names here, but by looking at past Deck examples, you should be able to know what’s what if you don’t know what any are.

Monsters: 17

2x Dark Magician
1x Chaos Sorcerer
2x Magician’s Valkyrie
2x Skilled Dark Magician
1x Magic Warrior – Breaker
1x White Magician - Pikeru
1x Magician of Faith
1x Toon Masked Sorcerer
1x Old Vindictive Magician
1x Goddess with the Third Eye
1x Cyber Pod
1x Black Forest Witch
1x Critter
1x Killer Snake

Magic Cards: 19

3x Cyclone
3x Toon Index
1x Thousand Knives
1x Curtain of Black Magic
1x Polymerization
1x Thunderbolt
1x Dark Hole
1x Pot of Greed
1x Angel’s Gift
1x Mirage of Nightmares
1x Harpy Feather Sweep
1x Heavy Storm
1x Raise Dead
1x Early Burial
1x Change of Heart

Trap Cards: 5

1x Imperial Order
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Tidal Wave
1x Mirror Force
1x Waboku

Fusion Deck: 1

1x Dark Paladin

Total: 41 + 1 Fusion

Things like Magical Scientist, Apprentice Magician, Nobleman of Crossout, Painful Choice, Destruction Ring, Snatch Steal, etc. would be included in the Side Deck.

And that’ll do it for Article # 36 – Solitary Sorcerers. You can e-mail me with any questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..
~DM7~