8.03.04  Well, it’s certainly been a while since my last article, and I apologize to anyone who might have been anticipating a new one from me for a while now, but I’ve just been very busy lately, and I found some free time to get this here article done. We’ll begin with a little note, followed by some news, then it’s on to the card reviews and Deck example to finish it up. (The picture and Deck example will be edited into this article within a few days. Please be patient.. Thanks.)

Note: If you receive any e-mails from me with any attachments (or any e-mails that are downright weird/don‘t make any sense), it’s not really me who sent it. It’s one of those e-mail copier things that sends out false e-mails. So if you get an e-mail from me with an attachment (without me actually saying I‘ll be sending you an e-mail with an attachment), just delete it.

News: Rise of Destiny (RDS) was recently released, and it includes 60 different cards, again with 11 Ultimate Rare versions of the Super and Ultra Rares of the set. It includes 4 Ultra Rares (God of World Creation, Mystic Swordsman LV6, Silent Swordsman LV3, Perfect Machine King), 7 Super Rares (Fire Emperor - Testaros, Giant Battleship - Big Core, Triangle X Spark, Death Reversal, Mystical Guillotine, Judgment of the Sky, Pikeru’s Magical Movement), 14 Rares, and 35 Commons. Here’s a link to pictures of the cards, followed by translations of the Super and Ultra Rares.

http://140.116.253.220/linpf/3001/ocg/win/31-RDS/31-RDS.htm

God of World Creation

Light/Thunder - Level 8 - 2300/3000

Effect: Discard one card from your Hand. Choose one Monster Card in your Graveyard and Special Summon it to the Field. This Effect can be used only once per turn. This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard.

RDS-JP005

Mystic Swordsman LV6

Earth/Warrior - Level 6 - 2300/1700

Effect: You can only Normal Summon this Monster by setting it face-down. When this card battles with an opponent’s Monster in face-down DEF mode, destroy that Monster without calculating any damage done. You may choose to return any Monster destroyed by this Effect to the top of its owner’s Deck.

RDS-JP008

Silent Swordsman LV3

Light/Warrior - Level 3 - 1000/1000

Effect: Negate the Effects of opponent’s Magic Cards that target this card. During your next Standby Phase after this Monster has been Normal/Special/Flip Summoned, you may Sacrifice this card to Special Summon a {Silent Swordsman LV5} from your Hand or Deck to the Field.

RDS-JP009

Perfect Machine King

Earth/Machine - Level 8 - 2700/1500

Effect: Increase this Monster’s ATK strength by 500 for each other Machine Monster on the Field. (Not including this card.)

RDS-JP012

Fire Emperor - Testaros

Fire/Pyro - Level 6 - 2400/1000

Effect: When this card is successfully Tribute Summoned, randomly discard one card from your opponent’s Hand. If that card is a Monster card, do damage to your opponent equal to its Level times 100.

RDS-JP021

Giant Battleship - Big Core

Dark/Machine - Level 6 - 2300/1100

Effect: When this card is successfully Tribute Summoned, put 3 Counters on this card. Remove one Counter from this card after each time it battles with an opponent’s Monster. When this card Battles with no Counters remaining, destroy this card at the end of the Damage Step. This card cannot be destroyed in Battle.

RDS-JP030

Triangle X Spark

Normal Magic

Effect: Until the End Phase of the activated Turn, the ATK strength of {Harpy Lady Triplets} is increased to 2700, your opponent cannot activate any Trap Cards on their side of the Field, and the Effects of all Trap Cards on your opponent’s side of the Field are negated.

RDS-JP039

Death Reversal

Normal Magic

Effect: Discard one card from your Hand. Choose one Monster Card in your Graveyard and add it to your Hand.

RDS-JP045

Mystical Guillotine

Normal Trap

Effect: Activate this card when an opponent’s Monster switches from face-up ATK mode to face-up DEF mode. Destroy all Monsters on your opponent’s side of the Field in DEF mode.

RDS-JP049

Judgment of the Sky

Counter Trap

Effect: Discard one card from your Hand. Negate the activation of an Effect of an Effect Monster and destroy that Monster.

RDS-JP050

Pikeru’s Magical Movement

Normal Trap

Effect: Until the End Phase of the activated Turn, all damage done by Card Effects to this card’s owner becomes 0.

RDS-JP057

Also, the Japanese Premium Pack 7 does indeed include the same cards that the English Movie Promo/Exclusive Pack does.

http://140.116.253.220/linpf/3001/ocg/jj/jj.htm

And now for the reviews.. We’ll begin with a look at the God of World Creation.

GoWC’s certainly an interestingly new and powerful Monster Card. At Level 8, it has pretty strong stats at 2300/3000. Not too much ATK power for a Level 8, but its DEF is quite good, and it’s a Monster you may even want to keep in DEF mode at times so opponent‘s stronger Monsters can‘t get around it. And it gives more support to Thunder-types, as well. Finally have a really nice high-level Thunder Monster to use. It’ll certainly be included in my own Thunder Deck that I’ve had for a while now.

Its Effect can be very powerful. At the cost of one single discard (Serpent to the rescue yet again), you can Revive a Monster from your Graveyard to the Field. A Monster Reborn Effect within a powerful Monster for the simple cost of a discard. Not too shabby. I don’t believe there’s any explanation or example needed there, as it’d be obvious in any situation what you should Revive by its Effect. Extremely useful, if I do say so myself.

The Effect can be used only once per Turn, but that’s not really a drawback at all. You can use it turn after turn after turn, returning Monster after Monster after Monster. As long as GoWC’s on the Field, you’ll likely be in control as far as Monsters go. If in DEF mode, you’ll likely be able to keep GoWC on the Field for quite a while. Probably easier/longer than you’d be able to keep it on the Field in ATK mode unless you have some protection for it, since there are a few often-used Monsters that could get rid of it by way of attack.

The only real drawback with this card is that it can’t be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. So once it’s in there, it won’t be coming back out. (Unless by way of something like Death Reversal or the banned Fiber Pod.)

GoWC can quite easily get out onto the Field, by way of either the usual Sacrifices or Kaiser Seahorse. With how powerful it is/can be made to be, I could see GoWC having a chance of being Restricted or at least Semi-Restricted, so if it gets Restricted in any way I would not be surprised. A powerful Monster with a Monster Reborn/P-Burial-like recursion Effect is pretty darn powerful, and I don’t know if its slight drawback will be enough to keep it off the Restricted List completely.

Overall, I see GoWC as what can be an incredibly powerful Monster Card that’s extremely fun to use in a few types of Decks. Light, Thunder, Beatdown, etc. I give the God of World Creation an overall rating of 8/10 for its versatility.

Next we take a look at Death Reversal.

Death Reversal.. Another card that could easily find its way onto the Restricted List. Death Reversal’s yet another Recursion-type card that’s right up there in effectiveness with all of the other Revival cards, just in a different manner in how it‘s used and what it can be used with.

Death Reversal’s Effect is simple. You simply discard a card (Serpent yet again, anyone?) from your Hand to bring a Monster from your Graveyard back into your Hand for some more usage. This can be great for Chaos Decks especially, because if your Chaos Monsters ever hit the Graveyard, you usually won’t be getting them back, but with Death Reversal it’ll be nothing to worry about if one of your Chaos Monsters (or any other Monster with Summoning requirements such as those of the Chaos Monsters) hits the Graveyard.

Death Reversal can come in handy in almost any situation in a Duel, so long as you have some decent Monsters in your Graveyard. The only drawback about Death Reversal is that you can’t use it with your opponent’s Monsters, but that’s not really too much of a drawback. It’d probably be too powerful if it could be, and it’s powerful-enough as it is. Bring back an extra Monster to rush your opponent with, bring back a Monster you need for Fusion, bring back a Flip Effect Monster to reuse its Effect, etc.

For such a good Revival card at such a minimal cost, Death Reversal is an extremely good card that can be used in practically every Deck. It could be hinting that Monster Reborn might find its way onto the Banned List one of these days, but that’s yet to be seen. We’ll just have to wait and find out, although it is quite doubtful. If anything Death Reversal will likely be Restricted.

I consider Death Reversal to be an overall very versatile card that’s even more fun to use than the other Revival cards. Death Reversal gets an overall rating of 8.5/10. Not to mention it’s got a pretty awesome picture, as well.

For the final featured card of today’s article, we take a look at The Tricky.

The Tricky is another interesting one-of-a-kind Monster Card. It’s a Wind/Spellcaster, making it viable for both of those types of Decks, and it can be a fun high-level Monster to use in a small variety of other Deck types, as well. At Level 5 it requires only one Monster to be Sacrificed to Summon, if not using its Effect, and it has a searchable DEF strength of 1200, as well as a mediocre ATK strength of 2000.

The Tricky’s capable of doing some pretty quick damage to your opponent, and if you get this Monster in your Hand as a Top Deck (with at least one other card in Hand, of course) or in your starting Hand, it won’t be so bad as to have a different high-level Monster. Because with this guy, all you need to do is discard one single card from your Hand to Special Summon The Tricky to the Field. Again a card where the Serpent comes in handy with.

The Tricky also has a card of its own to work with. In the LE6 pack you also get the card; Tricky’s Magic 4, which is a Quick-Play Magic Card with the Effect of: “This card can only be activated when one of your {The Tricky} goes to the Graveyard. For each of the Monsters on opponent's side of the Field, Special Summon the same number of {Tricky Tokens} (Wind/Spellcaster - Level 5 - 2000/1200) in DEF mode to your side of the Field. The token(s) cannot attack.” So just use this along with the Tricky and you could have a force on your side of the Field to be reckoned with. The only drawback to it is the Tokens won’t be able to attack, but still, you’ll have up to 5 2000/1200 Monsters on your side of the Field that can be used as Tributes, stall tactics, to power up other cards, etc.

Overall, I’d consider The Tricky to be a pretty fun card to use that can be pretty effective in the right types of Decks for anyone that really knows how to use it. It’s just not too powerful, but with the speed that it provides, it’s a pretty good card. I give The Tricky an overall rating of 7.5/10.

And that’ll do it for Article # 53 - The 9th Circle of Fear. You may e-mail me with questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com .