What's Wrong with Yugioh Today

The game we play today is not the game that it once was. I'm 20 and I've been playing this game since it was released in English in the early 2000's (I think it was 2002-03) so roughly 13 years. This was well before Xyz's, Synchro's and Pendulums were a thing. There were no monsters that could special summon themselves from the hand until Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight was created (at least that I am aware of). There were no things like hand traps except for Kuriboh (again, that I'm aware of). If we wanted to summon a Boss Monster, we either had to Fusion for it, Ritual for it or Tribute for it. The Boss Monsters of the game I grew up with were the Egyptian God Cards: Obelisk the Tormentor, the Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon. And they don't even scratch the Bosses of today. You summon a God these days and your opponent is just like "Ok, I'll Quasar, or I'll Tiaramisu, or I'll Triverr". Their Boss Monsters are going to be able to easily deal with the God Cards because that is how crazy the game has gotten. It has gotten to the point where you should be able to deal with a powerful monster in one turn. In the old days, dealing with a powerful monster would've taken 3, 4 maybe even 5 turns of setup before you could destroy it.

And Fusion Summoning is a joke now. Originally, you needed specific monsters. If you wanted Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, you needed three Blue-Eyes White Dragons. If you wanted Dark Paladin, you needed Dark Magician and Buster Blader. GX came along and sort of changed it. With GX, you needed an Elemental Hero and a specific attribute monster. Yes, some Fusion Monsters like Elemental Hero Flame Wingman needed specific specific monsters, but overall a Hero and an attribute was all you needed. Fusions sort of took a back seat through 5D's and Zexal, but have come back a bit with Arc V with the Performpal's, but it is "fuse anything you want and then summon any monster you like". But it wasn't broken enough for Konami. "How about we take away Polymerization and allow them to Fusion Summon by either Banishing the materials, or shuffling them back into the deck?". Konami, you just broke your own rules! Chapter 2, Page 16 of the Official Rulebook states: They are Summoned by using the specific monsters listed on the card combined with a Summoning Card like 'Polymerization'. But even that wasn't broken enough. Konami had to make the Masked Heroes, which shouldn't even be Fusion Monsters because they require only one monster. That's it. Just one monster, nothing else other than a Summoning card, which is the only thing Konami did right when they made them. To my mind, Masked Heroes should be the usual Effect Monsters.

And they couldn't leave Ritual Summoning alone either. The Nekroz archetype is a perfect example of Ritual Summoning gone completely wrong. Back in my day, you needed the tributes to equal the level of the Ritual Monster, but when Konami created Nekroz, they were just like "Nah, it's cool. Tribute one level 4 monster and summon as many level whatever Ritual Monsters you like (as long as they're Nekroz)". And the new BLS and Gaia support is even worse when it comes to Ritual Summoning because you don't even need the specific Ritual Spell card!

And who tributes these days? Tribute Summoning has more or less been eradicated from the game, unless you're tributing your opponent's monsters for something like Sphere Mode! I love Sphere Mode. I've thrown it in my Egyptian God Deck (which works. It can handle some of the Meta and beat it), but it is ridiculous that no one Tribute Summons anymore.

When the game was originally created, it was fun. It was social, it was skillful. These days though it is basically, if you end your turn you lose. So here's a challenge for all you Meta players out there, and Anti-Meta as well: Build a non-Meta deck and test your skill against each other. And by non-Meta I mean cards that were never Meta. So that means you can't use Fire Formations, or Six Samurai's, or Watt's or anything else that was formerly Meta/Anti-Meta. Do it, and you will see how fun the game actually is without trying to continually FTK or Stun your opponent. Play the game that I grew up with, because that is Yugioh in its purest form.

If you want, I am more than happy to duel you, but I am at Uni now so I'm not going to be on as often, but by all means, if you're on and I'm on ask to duel. If I'm not currently in a Duel or I'm going to be leaving soon, I'll duel. For those who don't know, my username is Big Dub on DN (I don't use DevPro because my laptop won't support it and I can't afford to buy a new one, Down the track though maybe I will be on there).

July 2015 Banlist

Ok, so the Banlist has finally been released. There are about 100 cards on the list, so obviously I'm not going to go through them all, but I am going to talk about some of the additions and removals from the list. The new Banlist also does not affect the previous "10 Cards that Should be Banned/Limited" or "10 Cards that Could Come off the Banlist" posts.

New Forbidden Cards

Djinn Releaser of Rituals

Card Type- Monster

Level- 4

Previous Status- Legal

It's not often you see a card go from legal to Forbidden in one hit, but this is the first of two on this list. In this case it is its second effect that has gotten it Banned.

-"If a player Ritual Summons using this card, the other player cannot Special Summon while that Ritual Summoned monster is face-up on the field."-

Now, which deck do you think heavily abused this effect? Think of a deck that relies entirely on Ritual Summoning. Bingo. Nekroz. I think Nekroz players died a bit when they saw that. To them, I say this: Oh, you practically lost your auto-win condition? Let me play you the world's saddest song on the world's tiniest violin. Looks like you'll actually have to play the game now.

What Nekroz players would do is they would activate either Kaleidoscope or Mirror and then banish this card from their graveyard as the tribute (as both those ritual spell cards require only one tribute) they would then Ritual Summon as many Nekroz monsters as they could. Nekroz, by the way, are the Pendulums of Ritual Summoning as both Kaleidoscope and Mirror allow the player to just summon as much as they can. Those Ritual monsters all then count as being summoned by using Djinn as the tribute and so as long as they remain on the field, the opponent basically cannot play the game.

Fun fact, Nekroz are relatives of Ice Barriers, Giski's, Mist Valley's, Allies of Justice and Fabled's hence similar names and effects.

Lavalval Chain

Card Type- Xyz Monster

Rank- 4

Previous Status- Legal

Now, when I was looking at legal cards to write my "10 Cards that Should be Banned/Limited" post, Lavalval Chain did not cross my mind. Basically, Chain has been banned by the abuse caused by the Clownblade engine. The engine is called Clownblade because of the two monsters it uses: Performage Tricklown and Heroic Challenger- Thousand Blades. What they player would do is they would Xyz (with Tricklown as material) into Lavalval Chain. They would then detach Tricklown and use the effect of Chain to dump Thousand Blades. They would then get the effect of both Tricklown and Thousand Blades to Special Summon them both at the cost of a mere 1000 Life Points. At that point, they then had access to any Rank 4 Xyz monster they wanted and they could pull this off up to 5 times per turn, Life Points permitting and so it just became too fast and too difficult to deal with, so Chain now becoming Forbidden, Clownblade will stop being a thing, or it will at least be slower to use.

New Limited Cards

Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz

Card Type- Monster

Level- 3

Previous Status- Legal

I'd have hit Trish before hitting Shurit. I have a problem with the Nekroz deck as a whole, but I don't have an issue with Shurit, other than it bringing Trish or Brionac to the hand. I don't see this causing too much of a problem for Nekroz players as most were running 1 copy anyway. Losing Djinn is what will hurt the deck more.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Card Type- Synchro Monster

Level- 9

Previous Status- Forbidden

Now, this probably came off the list due to two reasons. 1) No one plays Ice Barriers, and 2) Trishula of Nekroz, which has the same effect, is legal. I think common sense kind of came into play at Konami and they realised that if they had Trishula of Nekroz legal, then they needed Dragon of the Ice Barrier legal as well. and who knows? Maybe with Trish legal, even at 1, Ice Barriers may become more viable now. It will probably a good thing for the Archetype and Ice Barriers might see some more play. 

New Semi-Limited Cards

Atlantean Dragoons

Card Type- Monster

Level- 4

Previous Status- Limited

Again, I can't see this causing much of an issue. Most of the Meta is already able to deal with one, so 2 shouldn't create too much of an issue for the Meta decks like Nekroz, Qliphort's, etc...

Atlanteans and Mermails aren't really Meta anymore, but having Dragoons at 2 will probably make them a bit more competitive against the top tier Meta. Just have to wait and see.

Dragon Ravine

Card Type- Field Spell

Previous Status- Limited

Dragunity's aren't an issue anymore. No one really plays plays them. They're the Ice Barriers of Dragon-types. What Dragon Ravine is largely used for now is its dumping effect. Could see Dragon Rulers come back, though that deck is pretty much nothing without Blaster. Blue-Eyes decks will probably use this the most I would guess to either Synchro Azure-Eyes or to get out Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (which is one of my personal favourite monsters of all time).

Dragon Ravine is not going to enter the Meta again, unless Dragunity's make a comeback but it's going to sit at the non-Meta, fun level. It's not going to break the game like it did when it was Banned because Dragunity's just don't see any play.

New Legal Cards

Dark Strike Fighter

Card Type- Synchro Monster

Level- 7

Previous Status- Limited

Alright, this is the only card that I want to talk about from this section. Sure, there's Exchange of the Spirit and Sinister Serpent but I already covered those in the April Banlist discussion. Dark Strike Fighter is the only one that really left-of-field. To me anyway, maybe you expected it, I didn't.

The reason Dark Strike Fighter was Limited (and I think it was Forbidden before that) is because of the FTK/OTK strategy with it. Generally anything that results in an FTK or OTK, unless it's really creative or an instant win condition, gets hit so I don't know why Konami decided that having three copies of Dark Strike Fighter was a good idea because it's just going to be FTK/OTK for days now. Yeah, it hasn't seen much play even when it was Limited and that may have played apart in it being removed from the list, but I'd expect it to go back on there in October

10 Cards that Could come off the Banlist, Part 1 (10-6)

So I mentioned in my 10 Cards that Should be Banned/Limited but Probably won't be (Part 1 of 2. 10-6) post that I do a list of 10 cards that I feel could come off the Banlist. Now, obviously, not all these cards are going to be ones that could come off right now. Some will require things to either happen to them or there might to be cards that come into the game that make these cards necessary to be legalised. Remember that Exchange of the Spirit and Crush Card Virus were Banned for a very long time, then Doom Virus Dragon was released and both Crush Card and Spirit got re-errated and came off the Banlist at 1. I've tried to be fair to why the card was Banned originally. Most cards (but not all cards) get banned because they're either broken or heavily abused. In rare cases, like Stratos, Konami just likes to, not piss off everyone, but just essentially kill a deck for the fun of it.

10. Pot of Greed

This card's effect was very simple: Draw 2 cards. Very simple. There are two reasons it was banned. Reason 1: It's highly abusable. In the game today, there are so many cards that can recycle spells like crazy, and that is ultimately what led to Pot of Greed being put on the Banlist. Reason 2: There's no negative side effect(s). Cards these days that allow you to draw, usually have some sort of downside, whether it be a cost or loss of Battle Phase or you can't Special Summon that turn, doesn't really matter, the point is that there is some kind of side effect that impacts badly on the user. Yeah, there's One Day of Peace where neither player damage until the end of the opponent's turn (this includes effect damage), but even that has a negative impact. You might be powering up Tragodia, or Ascension Sky Dragon, on either side of the field. Letting your opponent draw a card has a negative impact in and of itself because they might draw the card they really need to just finish you off. Point is, Pot of Greed has no negative impacts (unless you count that they might deck out faster).

Now, why it could come off the Banlist is like this. Even if it is Limited, it will not be abused as much. When players want to recycle spells, there's a lot more useful and dangerous spells that exist now that didn't exist when Pot of Greed was legal. If you're playing Hieratics, and you want to recycle a spell, are you going to take Hieratic Seal of Convocation or Pot of Greed? You're going to take Convocation. Raigeki over Greed, Signing Deal over Greed. There are just so many cards that players would pick over Pot of Greed now (excepting Exodia decks). I feel it could come back at 1, it would make a lot of people, including myself, happy and if they're worried about it being abused, how hard is it to just re-errata it or give it a cost or something? Not that difficult at all.

9. Witch of the Black Forest

This card has been Banned for a very long time. A decade (10 years) in fact, so well before Xyz's Synchro's and Pendulum's were even thought of. I know there's the argument that you could abuse its effect to make easy Rank 4's and 5's and even some Rank 6's. It can open up some pretty nasty Synchro combos. There's also a Solar Flare Dragon lock you can make with this card so your opponent loses 1500 Life Points and the end of each of your turns and they can't be targeted for attacks. And, if you want to go out there, go outside the box, it makes playing Exodia Necross a little bit easier.

That being said, we have Tour Guide at 1 and similar searchers to Tour Guide also at 1. Witch only allows you to add to the hand, not summon to the field, so it is a little bit slower so I feel it could be placed at Limited status. Also, like I said in my Banned Cards Part , Beelze is at 3. An almost indestructible monster is at 3, but we can't even have one copy of a card that allows to add a monster with 1500 DEF or less from your deck to your hand. Even with its combo's, having Witch Banned makes no sense to me.

8. Elemental HERO Stratos

I tried very hard to stay away from this card. I had a set of rules when I started this list that would make a card eligible. One of those rules was that it couldn't be considered by a wide portion of the Yugioh community to be a ban worthy. Another rule was that I could break any rule when I felt it necessary. In my opinion, as someone who doesn't play Heroes (although I do have a pretty strong deck that runs Dark Law), Stratos is not ban worthy. I could understand if you could bring out a Hero AND destroy backrow, but you can't. You have to choose between the two effects. It's not like Ryko where you mill 3 cards and you can choose to destroy something as well. You have to choose between the two. Probably needs to be placed at 1.

7. Imperial Order

Imperial Order is/was the Royal Decree of Spell cards. It's a trap card so you couldn't run both of them together. The reason why Imperial Order was Banned is because people broke it. They found ways to bypass the card's cost (700 Life Points during of the user's Standby Phase or destroy the card). They would either activate it at the start of their opponent's turn and then let the card destroy itself. Alternatively, they'd use a card called Solomon's Lawbook to skip their Standby Phase and therefore not have to pay 700 Life Points while keeping Imperial Order on the field (Since the Standby Phase never began).

The reason why I think Imperial Order could come off the list is because of this. We have Royal Decree (which is an excellent Side Deck card in my opinion). We can activate Royal Decree in response to their Imperial Order, which negates its effects meaning players can use their spells. Also, Imperial Order only stops spells from activating on the field, not those that activate in the Graveyard, so you can use Galaxy Cyclone (a card I've mentioned in a previous post) to destroy this card (as long as Cyclone is in your Graveyard first). Lastly, if you do find yourself locked out of traps and spells, there's a useful monster you should be Side decking called Breaker, the Magical Warrior and it has the ability to destroy any Spell or Trap card on the field. So there's three very simple counters to Imperial Order and I'm sure there are many more. Imperial Order should be at 1 (so should Royal Decree, but you generally only need one anyway).

Lastly....

6. Super Polymerization

Now, I know why Super Poly is Banned. Everyone knows why it was Banned (because of E. Heroes) so I'm going to skip going over why it was Banned. If you don't know, have a look at it. It's not that hard to figure out.

The reason I feel it could come off the list is that we are now in the age of Shaddolls, the age of Masked Heroes, the age of Nekroz... we need this card. And you don't even have to use it in an E. Hero deck anymore. You can use it in a Shaddoll deck to make Construct (TCG) or Winda. You can use it in Masked Heroes to make Absolute Zero and then Mask Change into Acid to basically nuke the field. You could use it against Nekroz. We need the card Konami. 1 is fine. There are counters to it as well, but you have to know that it's coming because it's a Spell Speed 4. (SS 4's aren't official. They're a player named thing and they are cards that cannot be chained to by anything). We just need the card, it's as simple as that.

Best first turn I've ever seen

Alright, I won't normally do this unless it falls into, what I call the "rare" or "extraordinary" category. What I'm about to show you falls into that category and it's too good to not share.

This has to be the best opening I've ever seen, possibly that anyone has ever seen outside the meta game.

Dual Dragon Master Knight, with a First of the Dragons in toe. I did go first, but even if I went second it would not have made a difference, unless I drew into Dragon Capture Jar and even then it would've made very little difference. And who runs DCJ anyway unless they know they are playing against Dragons? There was nothing I could really do to stop them.

That is the dream opening hand if you're running fusions and that's why I love playing Yugioh. These crazy, rare openings is what I feel the game is about. Not the Meta game. If you want to run Nekroz or Burning Abyss, that's fine, but I just think that, as a general rule, there's skill and then there's Meta. Then there's anit-Meta if we assume if it exists. Yes, some Meta decks can require skill. Dragon Rulers when they were Meta required skill. It wasn't a deck like Nekroz that just anyone could turn up at a tournament and win, it actually required a deep understanding of the rules of the game and the combos the deck could pull off. If you weren't a skilled player, you couldn't make the Dragon Ruler deck work for you and you would lose the duel simply because you didn't understand how to play it.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you guys because it was a rarity. Just goes to show that you don't need to be a Meta player to be a good player. I doubt much of the Meta could've handled that.

Decks that Take Absolutely No Skill

There’s a common argument, usually from those who lose (and I am guilty of using this argument) that “your deck has no skill”. Now, sometimes you can put that down to people not liking to lose. I don’t mind losing, but there are decks I hate losing to, and there are some decks where the argument is actually valid.

5. Nekroz

Now, when I first saw this deck in action, my first thought was “ok, that takes some skill’. Then I played against it a few more times and started noticing a pattern and when you start noticing a pattern in a deck, that deck takes no skill. The only skill with Nekroz is reading the cards. That is it, beyond that there is no skill involved. To me, a skilled duelist leads their deck to victory, not have their deck lead them to victory which is what Nekroz does. It stops your opponent from playing.

“Aquamirror Trish. Banish, banish and banish. Right now, Aquamirror into Brionac. Now Aquamirror into…” and it just repeats. There is no skill in that. None at all and I will never be convinced otherwise. I like Rituals, but the Nekroz deck… anyone can play that and win.

4. Satellarknight

You know that feeling you get when you see someone beating up a disabled person, or a child or just anyone who can’t defend themselves in general? That’s how I feel when I lose to Satellarknights. To me, Satellarknight is a coward’s deck. Is there at least one more coward’s deck on this list? You bet there is. “I don’t like your backrow, so I’m going to Trivver, bounce it all back to your hand and then attack”. No. Suck it up and actually play the game. Backrow is part of the game. It’s why traps are a thing. Don’t be a scared little kid. Actually man up (it’s an expression, not being sexist), attack and deal with it like everyone else does. If you get Mirror Forced, then you get Mirror Forced. If you get D Prisoned, you get D Prisoned. Deal with it, get a real deck and get yourself some respect from your opponents.

3. Junk Synchron/Quasar Dragon

This deck is like Nekroz. It seems skillful the first time you play it, but after the second or third time against it, you start to notice gone through half their deck to get out Quasar. “Oh cool. You’ve got a 4000 point beater on the field on your first turn. What am I meant to do? Anything I try to use you’re just going to negate and any monster I summon, you’ll just run over”. Summoning Quasar on your first turn is like summoning Obelisk on your first turn, thing is, doing that with Obelisk actually takes some skill whereas Quasar just needs you to be able to read and summon correctly the Synchro Materials. And there’s a pattern as well.

2. Exodia

I have a question for you Exodia players? When you win, do you feel like you’ve actually accomplished something? Or do you feel like you sat at the table for 5 minutes (2 minutes if you went first and sifted through your deck until you had the 5 pieces in your hand? I have absolutely no respect for you as a duelist. Exodia, is not a real deck. It’s real in that exists, but it’s not actual deck that both players enjoy because most Exodia decks are the five pieces of Exodia and then all the draw power in the game. I played an Exodia player once and activated my Royal Decree and he immediately started saying that I had no skill (keep in mind that Decree basically rendered half his deck useless). I’m sorry, but you run Exodia and you want to lecture me about having no skill? Anyone can sit there and draw cards. Man up and play a real deck. The only thing preventing this deck from being #1 is that there are some Exodia builds that are unique and actually use some skill and I don’t mind losing to them because of that.

Honourable Mentions go to:

Qli’s, Igknight’s or any Pendulum Deck- Swarming the field turn after turn after turn? That is not skill.

Trapix’s- “I’ll add Bottomless, add Trap Hole, add any ‘hole’ trap card…” that’s not skill. That’s preventing your opponent from summoning and therefore playing the game.

Burning Abyss- Easy Xyz’s and Synchro’s and you Special Summon over and over again. That is rage-inducing, no skill used levels.

Lightsworn­- Thank God that Painful Choice is Banned otherwise this deck would take even less skill than it already does to dump four Lightsworn’s in the Grave for Judgment Dragon. And let me tell you, that’s not much skill.

And finally, we reach the least skilled deck of them all:

1. Burn

Quick survey. Put your hand up if you’ve lost to a Burn deck. My hand is up. Now, keep your hand up if you didn’t mind losing to said Burn deck. My hand is down now and I can guarantee that most of you, if not all of you, put your hands down. Burn is the ultimate coward’s deck. I have no respect for Burn players. If any players are going to be called “scum”, it is not Exodia players. Burn players are much worse than Exodia players. Their deck is almost entirely spells or traps. Occasionally they might have a Marshmallon or two. Now, I’ll throw in the occasional Burn card, which is fine. Burn cards are fine if you legitimately have no other way of reaching your opponent’s Life Points or you will lose if you don’t. That’s why they’re a thing, but a whole deck? The absolute worst card ever created is Bad Reaction to Simochi. If you play that against me online, you will cop a textful of abuse. If you play Simochi against me in real life, you will cop a mouthful of abuse. I hate that card and it just makes me have no respect for you as a duelist and almost no respect as a person. As far as I am concerned, Burn players have absolutely no skill and I think that you have more than 5 burn cards, maximum, in your deck you should not be allowed to compete. It is one of the most hated decks ever created.

So, which decks do you consider to have no skill. Leave a comment or message me on DN (Username: Big Dub)

Mystical Space Typhoon vs. Galaxy Cyclone

So, in my "10 Cards you Should Include in Your Deck" post, the 10th card was Mystical Space Typhoon, but there's an argument for a card that eclipses it. It's called Galaxy Cyclone.

We all know what MST does, but Galaxy Cyclone has a double usage. It does almost the same as MST and then, on a different turn, you can banish it from your graveyard and then destroy a face up spell or trap card on the field.

Both cards have advantages and disadvantages.

The main advantage of MST is that it's a quick-play spell, making it faster than Cyclone (which is a normal spell). MST will also destroy (and possibly "negate" if the card is a continuous spell or trap card) if the targeted card is activated in response. It's a lot faster than Cyclone. But MST can only be used once (assuming you don't recycle it) which can sometimes put you in a worse position.

Cyclone, while slower than MST, has the advantage of being able to be activated from the graveyard meaning that it can get you out of a situation twice. This makes it easier to destroy things like Necrovalley. Other than it being slower, it has the disadvantage that it can only destroy a facedown card if activated from the hand. If the targeted card is activated in response, Cyclone resolves meaninglessly.

So which is better? I sit in the middle and say they're both as good as each other, but try them out and see for yourself.

Egyptian God Card Rulings

So, the Gods aren’t as popular as I predicted them to be, but they have seen a bit more play (on Dueling Network at least). It amazes me how many people don’t know the basic God card rulings. Beginners and experienced players alike, consistently get them wrong, so I’m going to try and clear them up.

Universal Rulings (applies to Slifer, Obelisk and Ra)

-          “This card’s Normal Summon cannot be negated”. This is pretty straight forward and it’s usually beginners who get this wrong, and if you are a beginner and you get a God card used against you I feel sorry for you, because you will have no idea what to do against it. Most decks still run Solemn Warning. It is a pretty good card but it won’t negate the Normal Summon of Obelisk, Slifer or Ra because their Normal Summons cannot be negated. It will however negate their Special Summon if they are summoned from the Graveyard (or Deck or Banished pile).

-          “When Normal Summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated”. This is a common mistake made by players and is actually a misprint on the cards themselves. It is an understandable mistake to make though. You read that and you think “This is awesome. Summon this boss monster and I lock down my opponent”. Sorry, that’s not how it works. What the sentence should say is this: When Normal Summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the summon. That makes it a lot clearer on what it actually means. It means that if I summon Slifer, Obelisk or Ra, my opponent can’t activate a Torrential Tribute or a Bottomless Trap Hole or any card or effect that would normally activate when a monster is summoned. There is kind of an exception to this though. If I summon Slifer the Sky Dragon while my opponent also controls a Slifer the Sky Dragon, my Slifer will lose 2000 ATK. This is because Slifer’s effect activates upon each successful summon. Since the Normal Summon of my Slifer the Sky Dragon cannot be negated and my opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response, Slifer is successfully summoned and therefore my opponent’s Slifer the Sky Dragon will have its effect activated. Once the God has been successfully summoned, cards and effects can be activated normally.

-          “During the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned, send it to the Graveyard”. So this really only applies to Obelisk and Slifer because Ra can’t be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. It’s amazing how many players get this wrong and it’s usually because they have Mound of the Bound Creator active at the time and they think that stops the monster from being destroyed. It doesn’t. This is because the God isn’t destroyed, it is simply sent to the Graveyard. Players think that being sent to the Graveyard is the same as being destroyed. It isn’t the same, they are two different functions. Think of it this way. Normal spells and traps are sent to the Graveyard once their effects resolve, but they are not considered to have been destroyed. You can, however, protect the Gods from this effect. You can Special Summon Obelisk by the effect of The Shallow Grave (which will set it on the field) and you can use Book of Moon on Slifer after you Special Summon it. In both cases, Obelisk and Slifer will avoid being sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase, even if they are flipped face up or Flip Summoned on a later turn. The Gods must be face up on the field to be sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase.
EDIT: This protection does not completely work. After experimenting with it, there does not seem to be a loophole in the Rulings. Obelisk and Slifer will send themselves to the Graveyard on the turn they are flipped summoned or flipped up by an attack. So there are two ways I see of preventing this. 1) Use Skill Drain, but this is danagerous as if Skill Drain is destroyed, Slifer and Obelisk will be sent to the Graveyard at the end of that turn. It also kind of defeats the purpose of Summoning Slifer. 2) Continually reset the card. This is tedious, but does work. The problem is that you would have to continually recycle your Book of Moon (which will not work on Obelisk as it targets) or any other effect that flips monsters facedown. I'll keep working on it, but for now, if you're going to Special Summon them, keep them facedown until you can push for game OR Xyz Summon with them.I'll let you know if I find a way to permanently break this effect.

The Winged Dragon of Ra- Sphere Mode Rulings

-          “Requires 3 Tributes from either side of the field to Normal Summon to that side of the field (cannot be Normal Set)”. This is a condition, not an effect so it cannot be Effect Veilered or Skill Drained. Also, even it was an effect, it does not target so you can use it to tribute your opponent’s difficult to destroy monsters.

-          “then shift control to this card's owner during the End Phase of the next turn”.  This is also a condition but it can only be activated if this card is still on the field. Your opponent can tribute this card for a Tribute Summon. If this card is sent to the Graveyard (or destroyed by a card effect) it is not returned to you during the End Phase.

-          “Cannot attack. Your opponent cannot target this card for attacks or by card effects”. This is an effect can be Effect Veilered or Skill Drained. If summoned to your opponent’s field, they can tribute it for a Tribute/Synchro/Xyz Summon. This card can be destroyed by non-Targeting effects, such as Raigeki.

-          “You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 "The Winged Dragon of Ra" from your hand or Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions, and if you do, its ATK and DEF become 4000”. This is not an effect but is actually a Summoning Condition for The Winged Dragon of Ra and therefore cannot be negated with Effect Veiler or Skill Drain. Be sure that your opponent does not have the God Cards in their deck or hand before summoning this card to their side of the field as they can tribute this card to summon their own 4000 ATK/DEF Ra before you regain control of Sphere Mode. Additionally, if you Normal Summon this card to your side of the field, you can tribute it immediately to summon your Ra with 4000 ATK/DEF.
EDIT: It's not a Summoning Condition, but I have not seen it successfully negated. Skill Drain could, but it would have to activated before Sphere Mode's effect is activated as Skill Drain won't negate effects that activate off the field. Effect Veiler won't negate it either as Sphere Mode has already left the field so there will be nothing to target.

The Winged Dragon of Ra Rulings.

-          “Cannot be Special Summoned”. This is a condition and only The Winged Dragon of Ra- Sphere Mode can bypass this condition (though more cards may be released that may be able to bypass this condition).

-          “Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set)”. This is a condition and cannot be negated through Effect Veiler or Skill Drain.

-          “When this card is Normal Summoned: You can pay Life Points so that you only have 100 left; this card gains ATK and DEF equal to the amount of Life Points paid”. This is an effect and can be negated by Effect Veiler or Skill Drain. If the effect is successfully negated, then this card’s ATK/DEF become 0. Also the effect is optional in two ways. You do not need to pay any Life Points if you don’t wish too (though, why wouldn’t you? It’s a bit point less having a 0 ATK monster on the field). You also do not need to pay all your Life Points bar 100 of them. You can pay any amount you want, be it 100 Life Points or 10 000 Life Points, as long as you have at least 100 Life Points left. If you activate this effect, you must activate it immediately after you summon this card. This effect starts a Chain and is always Chain Link 1.

-          “You can pay 1000 Life Points, then target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target”.  This is an effect and can be negated by Effect Veiler or Skill Drain. The effect is optional. The effect starts a Chain and is always Chain Link 1. Paying 1000 Life Points is a cost. If you do not have 1000 Life Points, you cannot activate this effect.

Obelisk the Tormentor Rulings

-          “Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set)”. This is a condition and cannot be negated with Effect Veiler or Skill Drain.

-          “Cannot be targeted by Spells, Traps, or card effects”. This is an effect and can be negated by Skill Drain (not by Effect Veiler because Effect Veiler targets). This card be affected by cards and effects that don’t target and it can be destroyed by cards and effects that don’t target, such as Raigeki, Dark Hole, Mirror Force, etc…

-          “You can Tribute 2 monsters; destroy all monsters your opponent controls. This card cannot declare an attack the turn this effect is activated”. This is an effect and can be negated. Tributing two monsters is a cost to activate this effect and Obelisk can tribute himself as part of the cost. This effect does not target. This effect starts a Chain and is always Chain Link 1.

Slifer the Sky Dragon Rulings

-          “Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set)”. This is a condition and cannot be negated by Effect Veiler or Skill Drain.

-          “This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in your hand”. This is an effect and can be negated. If it is successfully negated, Slifer’s ATK and DEF become 0. Normally, the ATK and DEF values change according to the number of cards in the controller’s hand. However, if these values are changed by the effect of another monster (including the effect of your opponent’s Slifer the Sky Dragon), an Equip Spell card or a Field Spell, then Slifer’s ATK and DEF will stay at this new value even if the number of cards in the controller’s hand changes (this can be a useful tactic to use against Slifer the Sky Dragon). This effect is activated immediately and does not start a chain (so Effect Veiler cannot negate this effect). If Slifer is attacked while it is facedown, its DEF is treated as 0 (flipping Slifer facedown is useful way to reset this effect if it has been altered by a monster effect or an Equip Spell card, as when it returns to a face up position, it will no longer be affected by those effects).

-          “When a monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your opponent's side of the field in face-up Attack Position: That monster(s) loses 2000 ATK, then if its ATK has been reduced to 0 as a result, destroy it”. This is an effect and can be negated by Effect Veiler or Skill Drain. This effect starts a Chain but is not always Chain Link 1. For example, if you control two copies of Slifer the Sky Dragon, one Slifer will have its effect activated at Chain Link 1 and the other Slifer’s effect will activate at Chain Link 2. This effect does not target. If the summoned monster had 0 ATK to begin with, it will not be destroyed by Slifer’s effect because it is impossible for the ATK reduction to occur. Slifer must already be on the field for this effect to activate. If it summoned simultaneously with your opponent’s monsters, Slifer’s effect will not activate because it was not already on the field when your opponent’s monster(s) were summoned. This effect can be activated multiple times per turn. If your opponent Pendulum Summons, each of their Pendulum Summoned Monsters will have their ATK reduced by 2000 points and destroyed if they have 0 ATK as a result. The monsters must be Normal or Special Summoned for Slifer’s effect to activate. If the monster is Flip Summoned, Slifer’s effect will not activate.

I hope that clears up the rulings for a lot of you. There are more situation specific rulings, but I’ve tried to keep it general rulings here. A Google search should turn up situational rulings if you need them.

10 Cards that Should be Banned/Limited but Probably won't be (Part 2: 5-1)

So continuing on from Part 1 these are cards, starting from number 5, that should be banned or limited but won’t be. Just a quick rehash of those already listed in case you haven’t read Part 1 yet, cards 10-6 were: 10. Snipe Hunter, 9. Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, 8. Nekroz of Trishula, 7. Secret Village of the Spellcasters, and 6. Necrovalley. Go back and read Part 1 if you haven’t already because those cards will make a lot more sense with my reasons as to why. And now, I continue the list…

5. Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn

Ok, back when Lightsworn’s were a top-tier deck, there weren’t any Lightsworn Synchro monsters (that I’m aware of) and then Michael was released and suddenly Lightsworn’s became really difficult to beat until Masked Heroes/Nekroz came along and pretty much wrecked the deck. The reason Michael did that was because of his effects. At the cost of 1000 Life Points he can banish any card on the field (as long as it can be targeted). He was essentially a more targeted Judgment Dragon that only affected your opponent. You could banish backrow with it, Banish field spells, banish Pendulums, banish your opponent’s beaters, just anything you liked really (or didn’t like). One was bad enough, but then some people (being the smartasses that they are) found a way to make the card break itself. They did it by running three copies of Michael to just really abuse Michael’s second effect. When he’s destroyed you can target any number of other Lightsworn monsters in the graveyard and shuffle them into the deck and gain 300 life points for each one. What Konami didn’t realise when they created the card was that this meant you could target another Michael that was already in the graveyard. So players were just sending Michael back the Extra Deck and the Synchro Materials back to their decks, and because Lightsworn’s by that point are very consistent, they could bring Michael back in 1-2 turns and start the process all over again. See what I mean by broken? And we all know that cards have been banned for much less than that.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I feel Michael needs to be banned. Even though Lightsworn’s aren’t really played anymore, there’s always going to be a small group of players who will play Lightsworn’s and break Michael, so it probably needs to Banned or at least Limited to stop that heavy abuse of Michael’s second effect. Probably won’t be because massive numbers of people stopped playing Lightsworn when Nekroz and Masked Heroes came out.

4. Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World

This card is insanely powerful. It’s a 2700 point beater, it has a destructive effect when discarded and it even has a stealing ability. On top of that, it is ridiculously easy to summon. All you have to do is return one “Dark World” monster to your hand and you can special summon Grapha from the graveyard, it’s usually discarded so you get to pop a card as well. And, surprise surprise, it’s at 3.

This card won’t be banned because it’s a staple of the deck, and staples don’t tend to get banned, but it could be limited in the future. So if you’re a Dark World player, you probably don’t have much to worry about this time around.

3. Battle Fader/Swift Scarecrow/Scrap-Iron Scarecrow

I could have made these cards 3, 2 and 1 very easily, but they all do essentially the same thing. I know that these cards are saviours for some players, but they need something done to them for one simple reason: Exodia players. Or “The scum of the Yugioh world” as I’ve seen them referred too. Calling them scum is a bit over the top, but their point was that Exodia decks take absolutely no skill. The entire deck is just draw power plus the five pieces of Exodia. That’s it. But they needed something to defend themselves with in case their opponent broke their drawing chain, so they would rock up at tourneys running 3 copies of Battle Fader, Swift Scarecrow and Scrap-Iron Scarecrow and just tear through the tournament and win basically. Some tournaments even went so far as to ban Exodia decks from participating.

Neither of the cards will be banned. It’ll make a lot of players sad, a lot of players quit and Konami won’t make as much money. But they could probably all go down to 2 and it wouldn’t hurt them too much. And we all need hand traps to defend ourselves these days. It’s just how it is.

2. Scrap Dragon

Ok, you all remember Gimmick Puppets right? The monsters that just don’t seem to die? Well Scrap Dragon is like that and then some. Once per turn, you target one card you control and one card your opponent controls and you destroy them both. The card the Scrap Dragon player will destroy on their field is something that’s going to give them an advantage in some way. They can then destroy anything of yours. When it’s destroyed, it is super easy to bring back or just summon a new one. Just really easy and difficult to deal with and, of course, it’s at 3.

Probably not going to be hit because very few players use Scrap Dragon but it was popular a little while ago, but it doesn’t get played often enough anymore to be hit.

And finally…

1. Creature Swap

This spell card is just plain nasty. “Oh, you have a 6000 ATK Beelze? Ok, well I’ll summon Thousand-Eyes Idol (or some other really weak monster) which has 0 ATK. Creature Swap. You can take my Idol and I’ll take your Beelze. GG”. Now, if it was just for the turn, I’d feel better about it, but it is permanent. You control that monster until it leaves the field (or until the game ends). And keep in mind that you can play three of these. So you can give your opponent three of your weakest monsters, take three of their beaters and basically push really hard for game unless they have a Mirror Force or something. It’s just too good to even be legal, let alone be at three. As someone who plays a lot of high powered monsters, I hate this card. Absolutely hate it. It’s a card I refuse to use on principle because I hate having it dropped on me. I just feel like Duels should be won through skill, not by just beating down your opponent with their own monsters, and I will be ranting on Decks that use skill to win and Decks that require no skill to win in a later post.

Creature Swap… I don’t know why they haven’t Banned it yet. They’ve Banned pretty much everything else that lets you take your opponent's monsters and use them. Change of Heart? Banned. Brain Control? Banned. Snatch Steal? Banned. But Creature Swap? “Nah man, it’s cool. Have three copies of it and control your opponents  monsters forever”. Yeah, thanks for that Konami. Really appreciate it. While I’m the topic, I have no idea how Number 11: Big Eye got off the Banned List either. Probably won’t be banned because it just seems to be untouchable for some reason.