Today’s article - my 54th LItF article and 72nd article in total - marks my one year anniversary here writing at Pojo’s. Exactly one year ago today (at the time this article is first posted) I came to Pojo’s with my first article introducing the Chaos Monsters, whom we are all now too familiar with. I’d just like to say thanks once again to all those who have read and continue to read my articles here. I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy typing them up for all to see. But anyways, on with the article..

This article will feature three more cards of the TCG’s future and current OCG. We begin with a look at Fire Emperor - Testaros, followed by Time Machine.

Testaros.. Another new one for the Emperor (Monarch) clan - Zaborg, Mobius, and now Testaros. I hope they keep this trend of Emperors going, because they’re getting pretty interesting. Maybe they’ll end up doing an Emperor of each of the Sub-Types.. Who knows; only time will tell.

Testaros is certainly a fun and interesting Monster Card. Being a Fire/Pyro, it gives new support to Fire users, and it can be a good card for Control and Beatdown Decks, as well. (And “Emperor Decks” if you’d like to try out using a Deck with each of the 3 of them.) It has powerful, searchable-by-Witch stats for a Monster that requires only one Tribute/Sacrifice to Summon, at 2400/1000. 2400 ATK can stand its own against a majority of Monsters, and the searchable DEF strength gives it a bit of a speed factor in any Deck it‘s included in.

Its Effect can be very helpful and fun to use. When and only when it’s successfully Tribute Summoned, your opponent will have to randomly discard one card from their Hand. And better yet, if that card is a Monster Card, they’ll be losing some LP. (Probably an average of 400.) The math’s pretty simple to figure out, so that should need no explanation. Get rid of a Level 4 Monster, do 400 damage, etc. It may not seem like much, but hey, it’s some free damage right along with forcing your opponent to decrease their Hand size. Not too shabby of an Effect, if I do say so myself. But this is a card that’ll probably be underrated by many people, simply because its Effect doesn’t do a whole lot of damage. But any damage for such an Effect is good enough for me.

I consider Testaros to be an overall pretty versatile Monster Card, what with having powerful stats, a nice Effect, and being a Fire/Pyro-type. It’s good to see some more types get some more beneficial cards to work with.

The only real main downside to Testaros is that it can’t use its Effect when Special Summoned. And the Effect isn’t optional, but if your opponent has no cards to discard, then Testaros’ Effect will be rendered useless. So if possible, try to save Tribute Summoning it until your opponent has at least one card in Hand. I give Fire Emperor - Testaros an overall rating of 7.3/10.

Time Machine.. One of the lesser-known Revival Cards out there, and it’s rarely ever used. But that’s not to say that it’s a bad card. It’s actually quite fun to use, as I use it in my own God of World Creation Revival Deck. You may recall this being used by Bandit Keith (if I’m not mistaken) in his Duel against Joey early on in the show.

Time Machine’s pretty intriguing.. You just activate it when a Monster is destroyed in Battle (you can use it with your own Monsters or with an opponent’s Monster) and goes to the Graveyard, and Time Machine will return that Monster to the Field in the same mode in which it was destroyed. If the Monster was destroyed in face-down DEF mode, that’s how it will return. If it was in face-up ATK mode, that’s how it will return, etc.

Now, note that Time Machine’s Effect does not count as a Summon. This means that it can work with Monsters that “can’t be Special Summoned from the Graveyard.” (Such as God of World Creation - unless of course there‘s a specific ruling about Time Machine that I‘ve yet to realize. If there is some ruling that prevents you from doing that, I will post about it in a new News Article. Last time I checked with someone about that, I was told that you could do so.) It’s not too likely those Monsters will be destroyed via Battle, but if they are, Time Machine can bring them back, so it can be a versatile card to include in any Deck that includes any of those types of Monster Cards.

Time Machine can also be a good card to include in Trample Decks. You can bring back a Monster of your opponent’s to Trample right over it again for some mass damage. There’s quite a few instances in which Time Machine can come in handy in quite a few different types of Decks. It’s a card that I would recommend play-testing, but it’s just not always going to work as well as it’s capable of working.

I give Time Machine an overall rating of 7/10. Out of all of the Revival Magic Cards, it’s got to be the most underrated, underused, and overlooked one out there.

Now to end today’s article, here’s a Fire Deck example, using the 2 featured cards of today’s article. If there are any cards here you don’t know about, let me know. I’ll have translations for a couple of them at the end of the Deck list.

Monsters: 16

1x Fire Emperor - Testaros
1x Horus Flame Dragon LV6
3x Solar Flare Dragon

2x UFO Turtle

2x Command Knight

1x Reversed Flame Spirit
1x Horus Flame Dragon LV4
1x Super Hot-Blooded Batter
1x Rigorous Reaper
1x Black Forest Witch
1x Sangan
1x Sinister Serpent

Magic Cards: 17

3x Cyclone (MST)
1x Pot of Greed
1x Graceful Charity
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reborn
1x Premature Burial

1x Death Reversal
1x Snatch Steal
1x Foolish Burial
1x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Book of Moon
1x Mystery Wok
1x The Forceful Sentry
1x Riryoku

Trap Cards: 7

1x Sixth Sense
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Ring of Destruction
1x Time Machine
1x Magical Cylinders
1x Waboku
1x Ojama Trio

Total: 40

Side Deck: 15

1x Lava Golem
1x Twin-Headed Beast
1x Horus Flame Dragon LV4
1x Burning Inpachi
1x Super Hot-Blooded Batter
1x Command Knight
1x Maniac Zombie
1x Inferno / Dark Manticore
1x Spirit of Fire - Efreet
1x Crater Diver
1x Level Up!
1x United We Stand
1x Foolish Burial
1x Mirror Force
1x Holy Life Barrier

Reversed Flame Spirit

Fire/Pyro - Level 3 - 100/200

Effect: This card can attack your opponent’s LP directly, even if they have Monsters on the Field. When this card successfully completes a direct attack on your opponent, this card’s ATK strength is increased by 1000 points.

Rigorous Reaper - See my 29th article.

Super Hot-Blooded Batter

Fire/Warrior - Level 3 - 500/1000

Effect: If there are Fire Main-type Monsters on the Field besides this one, increase this card’s ATK strength by 1000 for each one. You may place one Fire-type Monster other than this one in the Graveyard to do 500 damage to the opponent.

And that’ll do it for my one year anniversary article; Article # 54 - Souls On Fire. You can e-mail me with questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com .