6.25.04  Today’s article will be featuring 3 more of the “Level” cards from the newest Japanese set, Soul of the Duelist, and I‘ll also be taking a second look at a Trap card that I reviewed way back in my 5th article. All of the cards (except the Trap) will be released in the next English set following AST. The first 3 cards of today’s article are.. The Armored Dragons.

Being a Wind/Dragon, Armored Dragon LV3 can be a good card to include in Wind-based Decks, Dragon Decks, or “Level Up” Decks if you so desire. With stats of 1200/900, it can be searched by both the Witch and Sangan, making it easy to get into your Hand and out onto the Field. It’s not a powerful Monster, and it can be destroyed pretty easily, but it’s not a card that’ll be on the Field for long anyway.

Its Effect is pretty simple. If it’s face-up on the Field during your Standby Phase, you can place it in the Graveyard to Special Summon an Armored Dragon LV5 from your Hand or Deck. Not only that, but you could also use Level Up! (see my 50th article) with it to bring out LV5. The annoying thing about it, though, is that you can only Summon LV3 during one of your Main Phases, so unless you Special Summon it sometime during your opponent’s turn or at the beginning of yours somehow, it might be tough to keep it on the Field long enough to activate its Effect.

That’s why you may want to have a little protection ready when using LV3. Whether it be a Waboku, a Swords of Revealing Light, or even a Lord of Dragons. Anything to keep it on the Field until your Standby Phase will work, because if you can‘t, this card doesn‘t have much use whatsoever.

On its own, LV3 isn’t too good of a card at all, but when used with its Leveled Up versions, it can be a pretty beneficial card to use. Armored Dragon LV3 gets an overall rating of 5.7/10. And now for a look at LV5..

Armored Dragon LV5 is a pretty powerful Monster in a few ways. First of all, it’s a Wind/Dragon with strong stats of 2400/1700, making it viable for Wind-based, Dragon, Level Up, and Beatdown Decks. With its stats it unfortunately can’t be searched, but with LV3 and Level Up!, that usually won’t be too much of a problem, although LV5 can be Tribute Summoned as any other usual high-level Monster can, as well.

The first part of its Effect is a bit different from what we’re used to as to Monster destruction abilities, but in the right Decks it can be effective nonetheless. You may choose to discard a Monster card from your Hand to destroy one face-up Monster of your choosing on your opponent’s side of the Field with an ATK strength equal to or less than that of the discarded Monster’s. So say your opponent has a Berserk Gorilla on the Field and you have a Jinzo in hand with LV5 on the Field. If you discard your Jinzo and target your opponent’s Gorilla, it will be destroyed as Gorilla’s ATK is 400 less than that of Jinzo’s. If your opponent’s weakest face-up Monster has, oh, say, 1800 ATK, but you have nothing in Hand with 1800 ATK or more, you won’t be able to destroy anything of your opponent’s. Simple how it works, but it is a pretty weird Monster destruction Effect if you think about it.

The second part of its Effect can be greatly beneficial in a Level Up Deck, as otherwise it’ll be hard to bring out LV7. All LV5 has to do is destroy a Monster, which really won’t be all that hard with a strong ATK strength of 2400, (Ojama Trio can work well with it) and during that turn’s End Phase you can send LV5 off to the Graveyard to Special Summon a very powerful LV7 from your Hand or Deck. Makes it easy, and you could also simply use Level Up! with LV5 to bring out LV7, since Level Up! ignores Summoning requirements.

Overall, A-Dragon LV5 is a powerful Monster that’s necessary when you want to use A-Dragon LV7. Monster destruction Effects are always nice, and being able to Special Summon an even more powerful Monster by its Effect and other cards that can work well with it (as mentioned before) is another good bonus. Armored Dragon LV5 gets an overall rating of 7.3/10. We now take a look at the final Monster of this Level series of Monsters; Armored Dragon LV7.

For starters, LV7’s a Wind/Dragon with very powerful (and searchable-by-witch, which really doesn‘t matter all too much anyway since it can‘t be Normal Summoned) stats of 2800/1000, making it viable for the same types of Decks as LV3 and LV5 are. (Wind, Dragon, Level Up, and Beatdown)

The first part of its Effect isn’t too intriguing, but you can get around it in a couple of ways. It can’t be Normal Summoned, and it can only be Special Summoned by the Effect of A-Dragon LV5. Level Up! can be used with LV5 to bring out LV7, however, as Level Up! ignores the Summoning requirements. And like Horus Flame Dragon LV8, Armored Dragon LV7 cannot be Revived, even after it has been successfully Special Summoned by the Effect of LV5. And destroying a Monster with LV5 shouldn’t be too hard, anyway.

LV7 has an Effect very similar to that of LV5’s. The only difference is that with LV7’s Effect, all face-up Monsters on your opponent’s side of the Field with an ATK strength equal to or lesser than the discarded Monster’s ATK strength will be destroyed. Not too bad of an Effect. Unless in a Deck with a lot of high-ATK Monsters, the Effect could be hard to utilize to its greatest potential, but it’s still a pretty nice Effect that’ll often come in handy. You could even use it to set your own more powerful Monsters up for some Revival by discarding them through LV7’s Effect. Again, quite a weird Effect as in how it works, but what it results in can be very beneficial to you.

There’s not much else that can be said about LV7, but if you have any questions regarding it, then feel free to ask me. It’s a very powerful Monster with a what-could-be very powerful Effect; it’s just pretty tough to use a lot of the time. Armored Dragon LV7 gets an overall rating of 7.3/10, as well.

And for the final card review of today’s article I’ll be taking a second look at.. Reversal of Worlds.

Now, there’s been more than the usual amount of hype over this card lately, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen to re-review it. Another reason is because I don’t feel I covered even half-enough information on the card as I should have in my first review of it back in my 5th article. So let’s get on with it, then.

Reversal of Worlds is certainly an interesting and one-of-a-kind card. At the cost of 1000 LP and requirement of having 15 cards in your Graveyard, you get a very powerful Effect that switches each players’ Decks with their Graveyard. Wow. And for those curious, this card’s English name is Exchange of the Spirit, used in the show by Ishizu against Kaiba.

Now, you can get 15 cards into the Graveyard and RoW activated fairly easily, and especially quickly in an RoW FTW (first turn win) Deck. Thunder Dragons help, as does Executioner Makyura (see my Designators of Darkness article) and Royal Shrine (see my Sweet Pandemonium article). Painful Choice can help, except not when it’s Banned XD. In its place can be put Foolish Burial, and cards like Magical Merchant could be helpful, Toon Indexes with Toon Cannon Soldier (see my Toon articles), Cat of Ill Omen in some cases, Morphing Jars, Magic Shard Excavation (see my 51st article), etc. Not too hard to do, and even if you’re including RoW in a non-FTW Deck, it still usually won’t take too long to get 15 cards into your Graveyard and RoW in your Hand/on the Field and ready for activation.

See, all you need to do to win with the RoW FTW Decks is get 15 cards into the Graveyard (which isn’t as hard as it sounds with the cards that are out there to benefit this type of Deck) by turn one or two, and with help of Makyura or Royal Shrine, activate RoW and switch Decks with Graveyards. Simple as that, and when your opponent has nothing left to draw (after their Deck - being completely full - turns into their Graveyard and their (empty) Graveyard turns into their Deck), you win the Duel.

Its Effect is rivaled by that of no other card’s. And that much is evident simply by taking a look at the card. Reversal of Worlds is a very highly-anticipated card for English release, but unfortunately, as I said, there’s no telling when it might be released in the TCG.

Also, Penguin Knight's Effect will not be activated with the Effect of RoW.
RoW simply "swaps" or "switches" the Decks with the Graveyards, and it is not considered "sending." Therefore, Penguin Knight's Effect will not be activated by it. Executioner Makyura's, Gilfer Demon's, Cockroach Knight's, etc. Effects will not be activated from the RoW swap, either.

Other cards that help with Reversal of Worlds can be anything that helps you with removal from play/Graveyard. If you’re not running a FTW Deck and using RoW, that’s something you’re going to want. A Kycoo or two, some Soul Releases, Dark Core, and perhaps some D. D. Designators. Why? Because you’ll want to be activating Reversal of Worlds to get your own cards back from the Graveyard, but you’ll want to leave your opponent with as little as possible so they don‘t have so many options after RoW resolves..

The 1000 LP is hardly much of a cost for such an Effect. If you think it is in any manner, you could always use cards such as Mystik Wok to get the LP back/give yourself enough LP to feel safe in activating RoW.

Reversal of Worlds is Restricted to one per Deck. And rightfully so. If it weren’t, this card would be way too powerful. Reversal of Worlds gets an overall rating of 7.7/10. It takes skill to utilize, but in the hands of any determined Duelist, it is one extremely effective and powerful card. Use it wisely.

Now for a couple of Deck examples. The first Deck example is an Armored Dragon Wind-based Deck, and the second Deck example is a Reversal of Worlds FTW Deck. Both are in accordance to the Banned List. If you want one not in accordance to the Banned List, e-mail me. (And yeah, I’ll use English names of released cards)

1x Armored Dragon LV7

2x Armored Dragon LV5

3x Slate Warrior

2x Armored Dragon LV3

1x Chaosrider Gustaph

1x Silpheed

1x Lady Ninja Yae

1x Twin-Headed Behemoth

1x Nin-Ken Dog

1x Black Forest Witch

1x Sangan

1x Sinister Serpent

3x Mystical Space Typhoon

2x Level Up!

2x Mystik Wok

1x Pot of Greed

1x Graceful Charity

1x Monster Reborn

1x Premature Burial

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

1x Nobleman of Crossout

1x Snatch Steal

1x Foolish Burial

1x Book of Moon

1x The Forceful Sentry

1x Sixth Sense

1x Call of the Haunted

1x Ring of Destruction

1x Mirror Force

1x Magic Drain / Magic Cylinder / Ojama Trio

1x Waboku

3x Thunder Dragon

2x Executioner Makyura

2x Morphing Jar

1x Toon Cannon Soldier

3x Royal Shrine

3x Toon Index

3x Foolish Burial

3x Magic Shard Excavation

2x Book of Sun

2x Book of Moon

2x Dragged Down Into the Grave (Just 1 if you want to include a Cat of Ill Omen)

1x Pot of Greed

1x Graceful Charity

1x Card Destruction

1x Soul Release

1x Reload

1x Reversal of Worlds

3x Sixth Sense

2x Jar of Greed

2x Remains of YataGarasu

1x Reckless Greed

And that’ll do it for Article # 52 - Our Diabolikal Rapture. E-mail me with questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..