Yugioh isn't just a kids game

Card #4 - Structure decks are worth getting?

2011-04-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

I remember back in the day when the grass grew green, I bought a Joey Wheeler starter deck.

It really sucked.

I got to admit though, that Red-Eyes Black Dragon was reppin near legendary.

So.Cool.
Tooooo bad red-eyes is probably next to the worst card in the game, and it most likely always will be.
But knowing such a thing Konami decided to release a newer, better version of Red-Eyes, one that no one could ever call a bad card, and that card is

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

And today I am going to do a review on this card.

First of all lets just get the obvious out of the way. This card gets a 10/10 for looking awesome. When I was a kid I loved the shiny cards with a lot of stars, no matter how good it was. Well this card is shiny...has a lot of stars....and it just so happens, IT IS THE BEST DRAGON IN THE GAME

Yeah, if you even challenge that thought then you might be right, because that is my opinion.

haha

SO- onto the actual uses of this card.

A card with this many levels has one obvious weakness, that it needs tributes to summon it. Well... It is a good thing this guy can special summon himself if needed. It is really nice that you don't need to either, you can tribute for him, but they just decided to add the effect that you can remove any one dragon from the field to summon it.

So let me get this straight...

You can summon a level 4 dragon. Instantly remove it, summon this guy. Then once per turn can special another dragon from your hand or graveyard. lets say you have a blue eyes white dragon in your hand.

Summon level 4, remove, red eyes, red eyes effect, blue eyes.
BAM

Instantly have a 2800 and a 3000 attack monster for the price of 1 dragon being removed.

That does kind of terminate your hand, but if you special the last dragon from the grave, then you only used two cards from the hand to get those two cards out.

ALSO

Red Eyes can use its effect once per turn, meaning you can special summon EVERY TURN

now that is just ridiculous.

So, those are the obvious uses for this card, but what are some not-so-obvious uses you might ask?

well here are a few.

The most basic card needed for ALL dragon decks is Future Fusion, this is just an absolute must for any dragon user.

Why? Well because of this guy...

...Any five dragons?
With future fusion you can send any 5 dragons from the deck to the graveyard, INSTANTLY, then go on with your move. Not going to lie, 5 headed dragon in itself is amazing, but the fact that future fusion gives it to you is just a bonus. The real use of this card comes from the instant graveyard bull rush.

use future fusion on turn one-

deck count:

40-6 (first hand)

34-5 (future fusion)

29.

your deck instantly goes down to 29 cards, giving you more chances to draw what you need, and your hand only goes down one, meaning you still have 5 cards to play!

Anyone know Foolish Burial? the card that is limited to one because it is so good.

Well...Future fusion is a one card use that is equivalent to 5 foolish burials (in a dragon deck) AND it gives you a 5 headed-dragon if it isn't destroyed.

...

Absolutely a must.

But what five cards can you put in the graveyard?

Well that can vary from deck to deck, but I believe sending Red-Eyes Wyvern is a good move.

put one or two of these, and at least one Red Eyes Darkness Metal in your graveyard, and BAM! If there is any point in the duel where you can't normal summon, or don't want to, you can special a Darkness Metal in the end phase of that turn! It is especially handy in a dragon deck, because sometimes you can draw a bunch of level 7 and up monsters, and not be able to summon anything, which is where Wyvern comes in handy.

As a side note, I just want to say that I don't believe Wyvern is an absolute must in dragon decks, but it sure is good.

Speaking of those high level monsters that might get stuck in your hand, what do you do with them if you can't get a darkness metal out?

Well cards like Trade in can help.

With this card in your deck, having Blue-Eyes White Dragons doesn't seem as bad. Even if you draw them and can't summon them, you can discard them for 2 more cards, and with Darkness Metals Effect you can just summon Blue Eyes with no cost afterwards, and that is just amazing!

And in case someone that is interested in Yugioh and doesn't know what a Blue Eyes White Dragon is...

Although I have never met one...Here is its legacy...

IT IS SO LEGENDARY THAT SOMEONE MADE A STATUE OF IT~~~

That's when you know a card is cool. The stats don't matter on this card though, it might as well have the effect that the player can summon Exodia when it is summoned, because it is that awesome.

Zero Bias in this blog.

Anyways- There are a lot of uses for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and I will display them next week when I begin my next theme, which will be

-drum roll-

Structure Deck Dragons!

In light of the new structure deck, Dragunity Legion, that has some really good cards, and only costs $10.

Although, that might seem like a lot for 40 pieces of paper, haha.

So yeah, I give Red-Eyes Darkness Metal
A 10/10.

I doubt there will be any cards for a dragon theme that are better than this guy; I mean honestly this card makes dragon decks possible, and that alone gives it a +10 in my book.

Ps, for anyone interested in Dragunity Legions Deck List, I have decided to tack it onto the end of this post.

SDDL-EN001 Dragunity Arma Leyvaten
SDDL-EN002 Dragunity Arma Mystletainn
SDDL-EN003 Dragunity Aklys
SDDL-EN004 Dragunity Dux
SDDL-EN005 Dragunity Legionnaire
SDDL-EN006 Dragunity Tribus
SDDL-EN007 Dragunity Darkspear
SDDL-EN008 Dragunity Militum
SDDL-EN009 Dragunity Primus Pilus
SDDL-EN010 Dragunity Brandistock
SDDL-EN011 Dragunity Javelin
SDDL-EN012 Mist Valley Falcon
SDDL-EN013 Hunter Owl
SDDL-EN014 Garuda the Wind Spirit
SDDL-EN015 Flying Kamakiri #1
SDDL-EN016 Spear Dragon
SDDL-EN017 Twin-Headed Behemoth
SDDL-EN018 Armed Dragon LV3
SDDL-EN019 Armed Dragon LV5
SDDL-EN020 Masked Dragon x2
SDDL-EN021 Dragon Ravine
SDDL-EN022 Dragon Mastery
SDDL-EN023 United We Stand
SDDL-EN024 Mage Power
SDDL-EN025 Dragon's Gunfire
SDDL-EN026 Stamping Destruction
SDDL-EN027 Creature Swap
SDDL-EN028 Monster Reincarnation
SDDL-EN029 Foolish Burial
SDDL-EN030 Card Destruction
SDDL-EN031 Windstorm of Etaqua
SDDL-EN032 Relieve Monster
SDDL-EN033 Legacy of Yata-Garasu
SDDL-EN034 Final Attack Orders
SDDL-EN035 Mirror Force
SDDL-EN036 Dragon's Rage
SDDL-EN037 Bottomless Trap Hole
SDDL-EN038 Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi
SDDL-EN039 Icarus Attack

It only goes up to 39 because of the two Mask Dragons.

I'm looking forward to next week, thank you for reading this, seea!
:D

Blog Reborn - Card #3

2011-04-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back from a 3 week adventure, and I have decided to return with a bang!

I'm going to give the last of the hand control cards a review, in this post, and then give another card a review immediately after. 2 reviews, 1 day... pretty good ratio.

(Lets ignore the 21 days no posts time period I just had, haha)

So what is the last card in the hand control genre?

---VOLCANIC SHELL---

What? You think this card sucks? Well then you suck...
...truth stings

ANYWAYS

This card is very good in many situations, and here is why:
If you need a turn where you need to discard multiple cards, lets say for Brionac, the ultimate hand destroyer, then just discard one of these babies. What you need to discard again!?- just pay 500 life points and thin your deck some. You can grab another,discard that one, pay 500 life points and get another.
Costs 1000 life points, yes, but you thin your deck 2 cards, get three free discards, and for such a small price.

A lot of main stream players use Upstart Goblin

And it thins your deck by one card for 1000 life points. It remains balanced though, because with upstart you could draw anything (good or bad) and instead of putting yourself closer to death, you just take your opponent farther away, which might seem like the same thing, but it really won't seem that way when your opponent attacks for 7000 and you used two volcanic shells.
XD
To be honest, I want to cut this review short because of how over due the last hand control card is, and so I have decided to just move onto my next review IMMEDIATELY!
There are a lot of strategies with this card, so I guess just find them yourself or send me a message or comment if you have an idea for something.
:)
I give this card a 7/10 for hidden potential.
NEW CARD REVIEW IN UNDER AN HOUR!
GOGOGO!

Hold up

2011-03-29T19:12:00.001-07:00

Due to spring term related problems, I had to put my blog on a hold. I know I just started, so it isn't like I have a super amount of faithful followers, but be sure to see some exciting card reviews and strategies within the next 2 weeks!

Card review # 2

2011-03-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Note: I originally wanted this post to be about this one card with hand control, but your deck needs so much dedication to it that it turned into a string of card combos, so I'm sorry if this just seems ever long, but I promise you will learn some cool strats from it!

My first card replaced one card in your hand with 2, thinning the deck and creating some hand power, but there is a card that is trickier to pull off, but even better once its effect is used.

and that card is

OJAMAGIC!

What's with the creeper under the table?

Who cares, he makes the composition of the art quite interesting if you ask me.

Anyways- This card has much more potential than Thunder Dragon, and here is why.

When this card is discarded get three Ojamas (Monster cards that are relatively useless) from your deck to your hand. Well, right there you just traded off that +1 card-to-hand effect from Thunder Dragon for a +2 cards-to-hand effect. The downside of this effect however is that it can't discard itself, it relies on something else to discard it, but if you make your deck based around cards that discard, this guy is a not-so-obvious keeper.

Also- if you set it you can try to bluff your opponent into thinking you have a trap. Once they exert themselves to get rid of it, you will get a +3 to your hand for their troubles. Now that might seem situational, but a lot of people try to clear back row (Back Row is a term used for describing the are where magic and trap cards go) before attacking, so I myself would actually do it.

Just be sure to have a back up plan to actually defend yourself!

Maybe put cards like Threatening Roar in your deck, which can stop all attacks, even if your opponent destroys it!

Since it is a trap you can activate its effect in response to your opponents destruction, wasting their efforts and stopping them for a turn. Beware though, if you use a lot of these in your deck and Ojamagic, and your opponent knows that, they won't be scared to attack, even if you do have a back row.

In that case I would side deck cards like D Prison, just to juke your opponent a bit. First duel play with threatenings, then they won't be scared, then replace your threatenings with D Prisons, you will have their mind for a loop-

: P

That is a fun trick to pull on people, and gets rid of D Prisons only weakness, they have to attack to use it.

Anyways, as you can see, because these last few cards have nothing to do with Ojamagic, there are many things to consider when using a card as specific as Ojamagic. Ways around its weaknesses and strategies to utilize its strength, just be aware of that if you are going to use it.

Now there is one last issue that must be addressed before showing the strengths of this card...

When you use its effect you MUST get 1 of each of the 3 Ojama monsters.

Unfortunately, if you draw one prior to using this cards effect, you can't use the effect!

That is why I recommend having your deck have 2 of each Ojama if you are going to do this, so that you can use Ojamagic more often.

If you happen to draw 2 of the same Ojamas in the same hand, that would be unfortunate, but you can use your discard cards to get them to the graveyard, then use cards like Pot of Avarice to get them back in your deck.

Be cautious though, putting Ojamas back in your deck to draw might be a bad idea unless you have multiple Ojamagics left, and I only recommend putting 2 in your deck in the first place.

Now, how could this be good enough to base a deck off of?

I wouldn't doubt it if people completely stomped my idea and said that using Ojamagic is just ridiculous and unheard of, but I got a few strats to keep up with the times.

First of all you want to get your hands on a Brionac. That card is a heavy hitter when you have a lot of hand power. His abilities will shine.

Now, to get Brionac you need tuners, because it is a synchro. But what is an efficient Tuner to use?

Maybe BlackWing Blizzard.

Use shuras in your deck, then when they are in the grave use blizzard to instantly get out a level 6!
(Brionac)

and vice versa, when you get Shura out and it successfully defeats a monster, you can grab blizzard from your deck and synchro for 6. Blizzard can't be special summoned? Well Shura negates Blizzards effect, which is actually a great thing.

Get blizzard, pull Shura from the graveyard.

Get Shura, takes a won battle, but you get blizzard from the deck.

Now that is actually incredibly balanced!

Brionac is an expensive card though, for a good reason, so I will try to show other strategies that don't involve using this.

First of all I would definitely throw in The Creator, that guy would do good in a deck like this.

With this guy you can revive a monster from your graveyard everyturn, AND for such a small cost once you got those bad Ojamas in your hand.

But how are you gonna just summon a monster that requires two tributes?

Maybe use a fella like this-

His tributing effect isn't as needed, but if you put this guy in your graveyard with a discard, then draw the creator, you got a good combo waitin. When The Creator is drawn you can show it to your opponent to special summon it. Then discard a card, ohh say OJAMAGIC to special summon Dasher from the graveyard.

Here is a good tip for using DHD (Dasher) for something like this--

The official ruling of DHD says:

You can use "Destiny Hero - Dasher's" effect to Special Summon 1 monster you draw only once while it is in the Graveyard. If "Destiny Hero - Dasher" is returned to your hand or Deck and then sent back to the Graveyard you could activate its effect again.

Meaning, if you revive it with The Creator, then it is put back into your graveyard, you can use its effect to special summon a monster you draw on a separate turn!

I'm not sure DHD reactivates from just leaving the graveyard though...the rulings only address when it is returned to the hand or deck, not the field. :/

WHY RULINGS!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS!!!

And just for those specific moments you have Brionac and The Creator on the field, you can use The Creators effect to revive Dasher, then use Brionacs effect to discard an Ojama, to put Dasher back in your hand, then discard Dasher to put one of your opponents card to their hand!

Those are some cool moves.

To ensure getting Dasher in the graveyard faster, you might want to use Foolish Burial

Also, you might want to use DandyLion in this type of deck.

If you use Foolish Burial you can get this to the graveyard (if you don't want Dasher) and summon 2 tokens.

This option would be best for when you already have creator in your hand, because DandyLion summons two tokens to the field that can be tributed to summon The Creator!
Unfortunately, you can't sacrifice the tokens the turn you do this, which is its biggest flaw, but they could be used as a defense with a threatening roar to almost ensure the creator in the turn ahead.
Unless they Dark Hole you...

T_T

The Creator can then utilize the effects of the Ojama cards in your deck and discard something to bring DandyLion back in defense, for a good defense. that will take 3 hits to take down!
(Dandy Lion and the two tokens)

But how can the creator even be a threat? It has a high defense, but it needs to be in attack when summoned (with sacrifices) to use its effect when first summoned.

THE ANSWER IS HERE!

But why would you want an Ojama on the field?

I mean look atem...

....ewwwwwww

0 attack and 1000 defense, with no effect?!?!?!

What is this shinanigans...

BUT FEAR NOT, THERE IS A HERO AMONG THE OJAMAS!

OJAMA KNIGHT!

I wouldn't advise using fusions in many decks, other than Elemental Heroes (Which are all fusions, haha)

But this guy is an exception!
While he is on the field Ojama Country gains its ability to switch all monsters attack and defenses on the field.

This means you got a 2500 atk monster that cancels two of your opponents monster slots (which is better than you would think) and when the creator is on the field, you got a 3000 attack Juggernaut that becomes quite the beast.

The draw back of Ojama Knight is that you need to get rid of that hand power Ojamagic gave you, (to fuse the 2 needed ojamas, and use a polymerization) so it isn't really worth it.

UNLESS YOU USE THIS!

Worthless? I think not, use this to summon Ojama Knight, maybe even sacrifice it for Dasher, and regardless get the Knight to the graveyard. From that turn on you can discard an Ojama to bring him back, and have a 2500 constant for many turns, which is hard to beat every turn for your opponent. Get two of the Ojama Knights, and your opponent can only use 1 monster slot, which means they can't even synchro summon!

Shut them down, gain hand control, man- looking pretty good.

For Ojama Countries protection you might want to use malefic Stardust Dragon

This card might be hard to get though, so maybe a simple field Barrier will do.

Except Field Barrier very useless unless you have Ojama Country
Maybe discard it?
uhh, if you are going to do that, then just get some Thunder Dragons up in her, I mean lets get real here.

...

Waita minute

WOW this post is just TOO long, but you really have to dedicate yourself if you want to use Ojamagic. Honestly, it has SO much potential, I think I will have another card review showing a lot more uses, but this review is just too long already, so I will cut it short.

I give Ojamagic a 8/10 for hidden potential. Although it appears to be pretty confined for an Ojama themed deck, utilizing the effects of the several random cards to bring out Ojamagic full potential is necessary to see how truly amazing it really is.

The first card review!!! WOOHOO!!

2011-03-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

I was a bit indecisive on which card I should do first, seeing how there are over 4500 cards out nowadays and endless amounts of possibilities. BUT- after maybe 30 seconds of debating

I have chosen...

THUNDER DRAGON!!!

This card is not a very commonly used card, and one from when the game first started, but I love it to no end.

well.. maybe I don't love it THAT much, but I definitely see a lot of potential in this guy.

Now, unless you are using a battery man deck, which isn't really a competitive deck, this guy will probably not fit, but you never know, there are just SO many uses for this card.

First of all, the most obvious combo for this card lies with its connection to hand destruction

If you have 1 thunder dragon and a hand destruction, you got some good cookin- discard thunder dragon to get two from your deck, then use hand destruction to discard the thunder dragons, and draw two cards! If this is on the first turn then you just thinned your deck right off the bat, making it more likely to get the cards you need, while maintaining the same amount of cards in our hand!

here is a deck count from that combo. Assuming your deck is 40 cards, which is just an obvious choice for most decks, (Except for maybe lightsworns).

Deck count from combo! -

40-6 (first hand) = 34

34-2 (thunder dragons) = 32

32-2 (hand desctruction) = 30

Hand count from combo!

6-1 (thunder dragon) = 5

5+2 (thunder dragons) = 7

7-3 (hand destruction, then 2 discards) = 4

4+2 (from hand destruction) = 6

So what is the end result? You can thin your deck down to 30 cards and put thunders in the graveyard AND keep your hand at 6 for the first turn. That's pretty good if you ask me.

Why do you need thunders in the graveyard you might ask. Well, for batteryman decks you would need them for this guy -

BAM, instantly get those thunders in and remove those useless thunder dragons! (useless once they are in the graveyard)

This also raises even more cause for someone to put hand destruction in their batteryman deck, seeing how they can discard 2 batterymen, then draw 2- potentially getting an industrial strength to their hand.

I would be weary about using hand destruction casually though- rememeber it actually has a -1 effect on your hand if you don't use thunder dragon, because you are using hand destruction itself, meaning you are taking 3 cards out of your hand to get 2. Which is no good T_T

Now...the serious weakness of thunder dragon...

I KNOW!

with such an epic looking card, you might think it doesn't have a single weakness, oh but it does.

Even if you can get its effect off...that doesn't necessarily mean you just want 2 thunder dragons in your hand. That can just flat out suck sometimes, havin a level 5 with 1600 atk...that is an absolute joke, haha.

BUT FEAR NOT! there are ways around this weakness!

Have cards in your deck that discard a lot. DON'T GO OVER BOARD! but have enough so that you can usually have one if you get stuck in one of these thunder dragon super glue situations, and you get stuck with nothin.

Here are a few examples of cards you might want to add, to balance out the weakness of this card-

Even without Thunder Dragons, Lightning vortex can come in handy.

This card is awesome with Thunder Dragons! Playing someone with a themed deck can deffinitely take out their main monsters with the multiple removal.

and here is a bit of a fun last option, although definitely not one I would use, haha.

Use this and Battle mania ---

and prepare yourself for some funny moments with friends, haha.

For tournament play, I would probably steer away from using batterymen in general, so maybe this whole Thunder Dragon fascination I have might go to waste, but I have definitely utilized many of these combos in fun decks that I have used against friends.

Ps, All of the cards I have shown stick with the electricity theme for people who enjoy having every card revolve around their theme.
:)

I give Thunder Dragon a 6/10 for the deck thinning and hand power.

My next card will be one that I believe has the best deck thinning and hand power in the game...although I am not to sure about how stable it is, unless the player is really careful about making their deck based around it, haha.