6.16.04  Alrighty, everyone, I’m back today with my 51st article. ( Yeah, article title’s will be HIM-themed for a while. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry about it ;-) ) In today’s article, I’ll be taking a look at 2 cards that help you with M/T destruction, as well as one other card. Let’s begin the article with a look at Ice Emperor - Mobius.

First we have the Thunder Emperor (Zaborg, a.k.a. Zaborg the Thunder Monarch), now we have the Ice Emperor (likely to be called Mobius the Ice Monarch in English).. Interesting. I’m personally hoping this is some sort of trend that they’ll keep going with. They’re very similar cards. Same stats, and similar Effects, only Zaborg rids of Monsters while Mobius rids of M/T Cards.

The Ice Emperor can certainly be a very effective card for quite a few types of Decks. It can obviously fit well into Water/Aqua-based Decks, some Beatdown Decks, and any Deck that you’d like a little extra M/T removal in. Monsters like this make me wish there was an Ice sub-type.. But oh, well, can’t have everything I suppose. It’d be a good card for Side Decks, and a good card to consider using as a high-level Monster in any Deck you might be having a hard time deciding on which high-level to use. It’s a good post-ban card, as well, with the disappearance of Harpy Feather Sweep.

Mobius has a good ATK strength, matching that of Jinzo’s at 2400, so it’ll be able to attack and destroy a majority of Monsters your opponent may have against you. It also has a search-able-by-Witch DEF strength of 1000, so that’s always a plus, as you could get it into your Hand pretty quickly. Mobius can really shine in Water Decks what with all the support for them out there. A simple Legendary Ocean makes it a 2600-ATK Monster with a very nice Effect. But I have a feeling that’s one of the reasons for the other main difference (besides their Types) between it and Zaborg. Zaborg’s Level 5, but if Mobius were to be Level 5, then it would be very much abused in Water Decks. With Legendary Ocean in play you’d have a Level 4, no-drawbacks 2600-ATK Monster. The only thing is, though, that it wouldn't get its Effect as it needs to be Tribute Summoned to use it. So it doesn't really make too much of a difference, but I'm just trying to make some sort of point there.

Now, Mobius’ Effect is actually optional.. When it’s successfully Tribute Summoned (doesn’t work if it’s Summoned any other way), you can choose to destroy up to 2 M/T cards on the Field. The cards can be on your own or your opponent’s side of the Field. You can destroy one, two, or none; however many you feel necessary at the time of its Summoning. This is a very beneficial Effect, and even more so due to the fact of how optional it is.

Overall, Mobius can be a very good card, as well as a very fun card to play, and it’s also got some pretty nice art. I give Ice Emperor - Mobius an overall rating of 7.8/10.

The next card of today’s article is Magic Shard Excavation.

Magic Shard Excavation.. A bit of an updated Magic Regeneration (Spell Reproduction in the TCG), so to speak. Certainly more effective, considering Magic Regeneration requires you to discard 2 Magic Cards whereas Magic Shard Excavation requires you to just discard 2 cards of your choice, so having the Snake (Serpent) will always come in handy with it.

The Effect may not seem too great at first, especially since it could end up putting you at a card disadvantage since you’d be losing 3 cards to get one back for a total loss of 2 cards. But with the Snake it wouldn’t be so bad, and especially not if you regenerate a Drawing card such as Pot of Greed or Angel’s Gift (Graceful Charity). Could be good for getting back Monster destruction cards, Revival cards, Continuous Magic Cards, etc. Whatever you may need depending on whatever situation you may be in. Just make sure you have a plentiful-enough Hand to be using it at that time.

Magic Shard Excavation can be a good card for Malik-based Character Decks, any Decks with a lot of Magic Cards, and of course Reversal of Worlds Decks being what it can be most beneficial in. (See my 5th article for Reversal of Worlds) Get 3 cards into the Graveyard to bring one back, hopefully something that could aide you in getting even more cards into the Graveyard or your Hand. Many situations in RoW Decks in which MSE can be very effective for you. It’s a card you’ll certainly want to run at least one of if you use an RoW Deck.

Unfortunately I don’t have too much else to say about this card. If you have any questions about it or anything, feel free to e-mail me and ask me about it. I give Magic Shard Excavation an overall rating of 6/10.

And for the final card of today’s article, we take a look at Unholy Calamity.

Unholy Calamity.. A nice Trap version of Heavy Storm, eh? UC here can be good for Malik-themed Character Decks, as well as any Deck that would like a little extra M/T destruction. It could of course be a nice inclusion to any Ban-updated Deck, as well, without the use of Harpy Feather Sweep, if you deem it necessary.

Unholy Calamity’s got an interesting activation requirement for its Effect. You have to activate this card when an opponent’s Monster declares an attack on you or one of your Monsters. So when they do so, and you go to flip up your Trap card, they’ll likely be expecting some Monster destruction card such as Mirror Force or Destruction Ring, or something like Magical Cylinders or something of the like. But you go ahead and flip this card up and all the M/T cards on the Field will be rid of, just like what Heavy Storm does. This could be a beneficial Effect in quite a few situations, so long as you don’t have any other important M/T cards set on the Field yourself. It’s a fun, unexpected and effective way to rid of your opponent’s Magic/Traps.

So what else is there to say about Unholy Calamity..? Well, not much, really. Its Effect and how it works is pretty self-explanatory and very understandable. In case you’re wondering, though, no, this card will not be put on the Banned/Restricted List.

I give Unholy Calamity an overall rating of 7/10. Getting rid of those cynical M/T cards of your opponent’s is always a plus. The drawback of its activation requirement and the fact that it could end up destroying a few of your own M/T cards isn’t that big of one, especially if you‘ve got some chainable M/T cards of your own set such as Sixth Sense, Waboku, or Ring of Destruction. (Nothing like getting rid of an opponent’s Monster, all their M/T cards and doing some damage all with the activation of one card which brings about the activation of another resulting in all that. - Sorry if that made no sense; I‘m sure you‘ll get what I mean, though.) It’s a pretty good card overall, but not exactly great or anything.

Sorry, folks, but there’s no Deck example today. (Don’t have enough time, which is also why my reviews were a bit short today) But stay tuned for my next article because it’ll be featuring some more of the new Level Monsters from the Soul of the Duelist set. And that’ll do it for Article # 51 - Gone With the Sin. You can e-mail me with any questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..