• Pojo Home Page
  
• Message Board
  
• Contact Staff
  

GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
The Amazing Quartet
October 24, 2008

It's Clobberin' Time!

It just gets my goat sometimes when people drop cards as being no longer competitive when something "better" comes out (yeah, I said GOAT). Well, today I am going to go over some of these cards, as well as a few that I feel deserve some recognition for their efforts. They are, Cyber Dragon, Rose, Warrior of Revenge, Malevolent Mech Goku-En and Creature Swap. At some point these cards were either good or hyped and them something inexplicable happened and they were dropped from both discussion and competitive decks. This article will go over why these cards are still good as well as why they might have been dropped from competitive decks. To the Batmobile Robin!

Not All Angel Dogs Go to Heaven...

So when Majestic Mech-Ohka came out in EOJ, I snagged as many as I could get my hands on. The cards was deadly, combolicious and in general a winner in my book. Alas it was not to be, and Ohka has seen little to now play since people originally experimented with it. Well, just like most famous painters, Ohka was not good until he was dead. The zombified version of Ohka, Goku-En is if anything, even better than the original and perfectly playable in a zombie deck.

What? Why would you play this card over Ryu Kokki or Lich Lord? They have better effects and don'r burn you when they die. Well teh answer is because of the fact that you can NORMAL SUMMON HIM. How many monsters have 2400 ATK on a normal summon and don't have a ridiculously bad effect (I am looking at you Chainsaw Insect...)? All you need is a Zombie on your field to survive. This is fairly easy to do considering that Pyramid Turtle and Zombie MAster all work to get Zombie so to the field. Oh, and don't forget Book of Life and Mezuki. He does get a little dangerous to play when it comes time for your opponent to go,a shtey can wipe out your other brain cravers and inflict 2400 damage to you. OUCH!

Well, I refuse to look at Goku-En's detrimental effect without looking at it from a good light. You can Special Summon him exactly trhe same ways as Rtu Kokki and can even be normal summoned. The fact that you want to Normal Summon him and not Specia Summon him is what makes him good. Well, Goku-En will inflict damage equal to it's ATK to any player who's field he leaves, meaning that you can swap him over to the opponent, then they will take the damage and you can keep their monster. You know what other famous Zombie works well with Creature Swap? Yeah that's right, Pyramid Turtle, so you can fit it right in with existing Strategies.

Imagine this scenario. Your opponent has Colossal Fighter on the field with 3500 ATK and nothing else, a common enough occurrence. You have 3 cards in hand. You Normal Summon Goku-En. You attack with Goku-En and then drop Honest (Goku-En is a LIGHT monster, go check) to get over it and inflict 2400. Colossal Fighter will then revive himself, which is bad. You will then take 5900 damage (Honest's Boost lasts until the end phase) from Goku-En's destructive effect during the end phase, or will you? You won't, because during Main Pahse 2, you drop Creature Swap, swapping your Mech for Colossal Fighter and you end your turn. They take 5900 damage and you win the game because of the 2400 damage you did from your attack.

I must admit, the above situation is rather situational, but you can seriously combine the cards into a cohesive deck. Lightsworn Monsters work wonders in a Zombie deck, getting key copies of Zombie Master, Goblin Zombie and Mezuki to the graveyard for their recursion or effects. Add to the fact that we now have a 1900 ATK LIGHT Zombie (Paladin of Cursed Dragon) and then you add Honest to the equation and you have a winning strategy.

That's One Honkin' Big Dragon!

Cyber Dragon used to be the best card in the game. Then it dies, just like that. It wasn't even given a memorial! But after it was dropped, they limited it to 1. WTF? if no one was playing it, then why would you do something to restrict it's play EVEN MORE?

The answer came in Crossroads of Chaos, as Black Rose Dragon allowed incredibly easy access to it via Krebons or another level 2 Tuner. That is just about the only reason you would run this card nowadays, except in a Lightsworn deck. There it is an extra beater Special Summon and can be used with Honest to break an attacking monster.

It also works as tribute fodder for pretty much any other deck. Monarchs still love this guy, and I suppose there are other strategies like Skill Drain dedicated decks that could use it pretty well. I have to say that there are a million and one uses for a level 5 2100 ATK LIGHT Machine monster, but there is no way that I could even begin to list all of the combos and strategies with this guy.

Of course the biggest will be the summon of Black Rose Dragon. This little thorn can clear the field upon summon, so you want to stop that Cyber Dragon at all costs, as besides Celestia, this is the easiest way to get out Black Rose. Even using a level 3 tuner and a level 4 is harder to do.

I am not saying you should go and splash Cyber Dragon in whatever you like as is what happened in days of old, but you should seriously consider the benefits that this guy can add to your deck before you disregard it as unplayable.

R For Revenge

Metagame has already done a good enough preview of this card to show you why it is good. A level 4 Warrior Tuner monster is going to mean trouble for pretty much any deck out there, as Lightsworn, Gladiators and Tele-DAD all get access to this card.

Samurai are where this guy shines though. They have a multitude of level 4 and level 3 monsters that you can pretty much drop at any time and not be too unhappy about it. Comboed with Enishi, this can get pretty ugly if you drop any of the big Synchros like Black Rose Dragon, Stardust Dragon or Thought Ruler Archfiend. Basically the Samurai deck can control the hand with Synchros (Stardust and TRA) and then control the field with Samurai to force your opponent to make bad plays, which Synchros and Samurai do best.

Basically her effect is pretty bad. I am not gonna lie about that point. Plus she has the worst ATK value in the game, 1600. She is unrecruitable and cannot get over pretty much any of the beaters that we now play. But the fact that she is a level 4 Tuner outshines all of this, as we now get access to easy Synchros like what Japan is now being able to use. With Reinforcement of the Army untouched by the banlist, she should see some play in any deck that runs those cards or that can support a level 4 Tuner monster.

Worst Trade EVER!

I have been a BIG fan of Creature Swap ever since it was first printed. No joke! I loved to swap my recruiter monsters for my opponent's big guy and proceed to beat face. But people in general hated the card. Why? technically it is a -1 in card advantage. I mean c'mon people! Only since the Zaloog/Cyber Dragon format has anybody truly cared about card advantage! As it is, Creatur Swap gets you some massive damage and field control, all pretty much from out of the blue.

 
I am going to go ahead and brag about how awesome the combo with Creature Swap and Malevolent Mech again in case you didn't get the point from my earlier paragraph. This card is honkin' good, and also gives the zombie deck some massive burn damage that can just about finish the game. In fact, the only 2 card burn combo that does that much damage and doesn't lose you field presence is, well, no 2 card combo. Basically you trade your Mech and Swap for a heavy hitting opponent's monster and 2400 damage. I would say that that trade is ok with me.

Now Creature Swap has otehr uses beyond Malevolent Mech. The classic Recruiter Swap combo is still as viable as ever, as cards like Mystic Tomato are seeing play agaon in Tele-DAD decks. But most importantly, it is it's use with Pyramid Turtle that has everyone going goo-goo ga-ga over it. i will use this situation as an example. An opposing field is Breaker the Magical Warrior (sans counter), Colossal Fighter and a Stardust Dragon. A pretty impressive field no? And all you have is a face-up Defense position Pyramid Turtle. You draw for your turn, netting you an in hand Turtle and Creature Swap. You summon the Turtle and switch the other to ATK position, then Creature Swap. You get Breaker and they get a Turtle. You ran the Turtles and Special Summon 2 copies of Ryu Kokki from your deck. Ryu Kokki rams into Colossal Fighter, killing it with it's effect and just like that you have 2 monsters and your opponent only has Stardust.

Granted, a move like the above will likely not win you the game, but what if you happen to topdeck another Swap? Then you can Trade Breaker for your opponen't Stardust and proceed to own face. In fact, the reason that Creature Swap is so viable nowadays is that you can trade your weak monsters for opposing Synchro monsters. Swap Doesn't Target and doesn't Destroy, so Stardust and Thought Ruler Archfiend are useless against it. It is particularly devastating against those 2 because of the fact that your opponent is probably banking on them staying safe until their next turn by virtue of their effects.

 
I definitely think that every deck can make use of Creature Swap, especially Tele-DAD and Zombie dcks, which are going to be the top decks to beat once CSOC comes out. So hold onto those common Swaps, you may need them sooner than you think....

And that is it forthis article, I will be back next week with a really cool deck idea, in fact it's so cool I won't even spoil it for you! As always, questions, comments and ideas can be sent to raptor1k@hotmail.com if you wanna get ahold of me. I try to get to all of my mail asap, but college and intercollegiate athletics being what they are, my time is limited, so do not be disappointed if I am a little late in getting back to you!

Thanx for reading!
GZ