Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Watt King Cobra & Wattcancel

Hello readers. After eventually getting over my rage with black luster soldier, I can now continue with my card reviews. Watts have been given the short stick to be completely honest. Since their debut in The Shining Darkness back in May 2010, they were given support in every set until Storm of Ragnarok. But all of their support has been lackluster, bar a couple (Wattgiraffe and Wattdragonfly are decent). When they stopped recieving support in Extreme Victory, it was assumed to be the end of watts. All they need is a few more decent support cards, and then they are very good, maybe even competitive (Maybe a level 4 that can special summon a Watt from the graveyard perhaps?).

Now that Photon Shockwave is on the horizon, Konami gave Watt players a little something to keep them interested: Watt king cobra & Wattcancel

Lets start with the monster. Watt king cobra has 1000 attack and 500 defense. all Watt monsters have a low attack power, so no surprise there. Like a few of it's Watt buddies, it can attack directly. However, when it does damage by attacking directly, you can add a Watt monster from your deck to your hand.

This is actually very good. It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth using in Watts. If you get it's effect, it's a +1 and it forces your opponent to waste cards on it to stop you gaining the advantage. The best card to add to your hand is probably another Cobra, so you can +2 next turn. But this whole process is incredibly slow, which is the main problem with Watts in the first place.

However, Wattcancel is a way to slow down your opponent to your speed.

 Ojama yellow getting a Watt welcome

It's a counter trap card that lets you negate a normal or (Inherent) special summon and destroy it, provided you discard a watt monster.

This is also another very useful card to use. It's better than other archetype specific summon negation cards such as Vanquishing light and maybe even Saber hole, since you do not need to have the monster on the field, just in your hand. That's what makes it decent though since Watts are reliant on their normal summon so they will almost always have a hand with at least 1-2 Watts in it. Although, the card is a -1 (-1 from the card itself and a -1 from the discard cost, but a +1 from the monster it destroys), there are a few ways to recover from it. If you attack with Wattkingcobra and use it's effect, then you have now turned the Wattcancel into a slightly worse solemn warning. Also, if you use the spell card Recycling Batteries, you can retrieve the card that you discarded and another Watt monster. Running 2-3 Wattcancel alongside 2 Solemn Warning is some serious monster hate right there, and your watts can just keep poking for damage now that their field's open (Especially Wattgiraffe, since its effect stops your opponent from summoning Gorz).


So yeah, Photon Shockwave is jam packed with many interesting cards to give semi-old archetypes a helping hand, which Konami should always be doing to stale archetypes, but they don't (poor Toons :( ). But i can tell that Watts are still in need of one or two good cards before becoming a threat in the current meta. For my next review, I'm going to take a look at a banned card that's been revised.