Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Black Return

Hello once again readers. The next product to be released for us Tcg folk is the Duelist pack crow. This set has a large collection of Crow's blackwings as well as his synchro monsters and some of their support cards (As well as some cards he randomly used in episodes). Blackwings took a tough hit by the banlist at the beginning of march, so i wouldn't be surprised to see this set not sell as well as konami might think.

There are a few new cards in this set which have not been released anywhere else. One of them being Black Return.

This trap card has quite a good effect, which it's artwork portrays quite nicely.

Activate when only 1 blackwing monster is special summoned. Select one monster your opponent controls. Gain life points equal to that monster's attack points and return it to your opponent's hand.

So when you special summon a blackwing, you bounce a card and gain life points. Thats really good and there are many ways to benefit from both effects.

The first one is to bounce a synchro monster. As shown in the artwork, Bora the spear has been special summoned, and Naturia Barkion is being bounced back to the hand. While this would not actually happen (Barkion's effect would negate this card), its showing the perfect kind of monster to bounce. Incase you don't know, when you bounce a synchro monster, it is forced back to the extra deck since it cannot exist in your hand. So all of their hard work to bring out that synchro monster has been for nothing. It can also get past pesky cards like Stardust dragon which can't do anything to stop this card since nothing is being destroyed.

Apart from synchros, you can bounce cards that need to be tribute summoned, or cards that remove themselves from play when they are removed from the field (Like Plaguespreader Zombie or Genex Ally Birdman).

Its life gain effect is good too. If you hit a synchro monster like you should be, then you will be gaining at least 2000 life points, which can really help you pay for your Solemn warnings, seven tools and your Solemn Judgement.

This cards activation requirement is very easy to meet in blackwings (Which is one reason why they are so good). The artwork shows that Bora is a good candidate to get this card's effect from. You can use other blackwings such as Blizzard the far north, Gale the whirlwind and Vayu the emblem of honor (To summon a blackwing synchro monster).

I honestly feel like this is a really good support card that can really benefit blackwings. Its a nice little addition to an already overloaded archetype, but is actually decent.

Before i finish this, i would like to mention that you can also use this as a side against blackwings. This card can be activated when a blackwing is special summoned, let it be yours or theirs.

So yeah thats it. Its looks to be a really good card. Its going to be a Super rare (That will make the artwork look even better) like it was in the OCG set.

The 2011 March ban list: Semi-Limited discussion

Hey. To show some actual continuity on this blog, the next set of cards on the banlist to discuss are the newly semi limited ones. They are:

Archlord Kristya

Card Trooper

Debris Dragon

Spirit reaper

Megamorph

Overload fusion

Royal Tribute

Icarus attack

Solemn warning

Archlord Kristya has been at 3 since its release, but thats not to say its a powerful card. With a high attack power, a rather easy summoning condition with added hand advantage, an increasingly useful continuous effect while on the field AND the ability to recycle itself back to the top of your deck, its got something for everyone. It limited its playability with it only being usable in a fairy deck, or a deck that splashes many fairies (Which does not really exist, except for maybe Perfect Herald decks). But to me, many players that played fairy decks played Kristya at 2 anyway, so semi limiting it really does not hurt it whatsoever.

Card trooper is the big one for me personally. As I've reviewed before, it has a built in milling ability that pumps its attack into a beatstick and replaces its self if it gets destroyed. Its a brilliant card and now that its at two, it can be used to replace the lost Dandylion in Plant synchro decks. There was no need to put it at 1 when you cannot perform the Card trooper OTK with 2 of them anyway. Expect to see this card become a semi-staple in this upcoming format with it being able to get under bottomless and +1 you if it runs into a mirror force.

Debris Dragon has been brought down to 2 from unlimited. It is abused too much in plant decks with dandylion. But has putting it to 2 really made a difference? The only difference i can see is consistency issues, but thats about it.

Spirit reaper has been at 1 for a long time. I do not know the exact banlist that it was limited though. Its a powerful card that provides a nice wall to protect you if a combo went wrong or you need to stall for something like Final countdown. In my opinion, i had enough trouble dealing with one, but maybe two is a little too annoying for my taste.

Megamorph , Like spirit reaper, has been limited for quite a while. Nobody plays equip spells anymore, and this card is not very special. Sure, it doubles your monster's attack power when you're losing, but people do not build their decks to win when they're losing.

Overload fusion is usually combined with Future fusion to make a mean OTK. you use future fusion to send Cyber Dragon (which is at 3 now) along with many machine types from your deck to the graveyard for Chimeratech Overdragon. Then you use Overload fusion to remove all the machine types from your graveyard to summon that Overdragon. You now have a huge beatstick that tends to mean OTK. With Overload fusion at 1 and Future fusion at 1 too, the deck was incredibly inconsistent. But with this card at 2, the deck might shine again.

Royal Tribute at 2 is not really a big deal. Gravekeepers players can still get this card into their hand with Pot of Duality or Gold Sarcophagus. Putting it to 1 or banning it entirely would have been much better.

Icarus attack is Konami's attempt to damage blackwings alongside limiting Blackwing - Kalut the moon shadow. While blackwings get top 32 in the tournaments in america/europe, they are a tier one deck in the OCG, which explains why blackwings have been hit hard this banlist. It is also an amazing card which can blow up any 2 cards you choose, so it was always a gorgeous 2-for-2 card.

Lastly, Solemn Warning is a powerful card which in my observation of decklists and duels, were played at 2. That's not to say that they were never played in 3s, but hitting it to 2 is not that painful. The idea of paying up to 6000 life points seems absurd, but it was used at 3 for consistency because once you drew it, you had the opportunity to stop a deadly play right in its tracks.

Next up, the UNLIMITED LIST!

The 2011 March ban list: Limited discussion

It's time to discuss the next part of the banlist; the limited list.

Limited:
Honest
Dandylion
Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
Book of Moon
Gateway of the Six

Honest has been limited from 2. It seems that with honest at 1 and Kalut the moon shadow at 1 too, konami is trying to aim for a format that emphasizes attack points. With Honest, one could attack with a ryko, knowing that it could get over any monster. While light is not the most supported attribute, it is an amazing support card that could be reused with Monster reborn and Beckoning light. But now that honest is a one man band, if you draw it, you better use it when you need to.

Dandylion was semi-limited back in march 2010. A professional duelist called Jeff Jones saw the synergy that Dandylion had with Debris dragon and Quickdraw Synchron as well as Drill warrior. With that, and a few other powerful cards, he created a tournament winning deck called Quickdraw dandywarrior. One year later, and that deck is dead, but Plant synchro took its place, which abuses dandylion to a much further extent (Mat Collins won YCS Milan with Plant synchro in November). With Debris dragon being so abusable with Dandylion, with the main combo is to summon Black rose dragon and get two tokens, it was limited to one. Konami tried to compromise this change by Semi-limiting Card trooper, which i will talk about when i write the Semi-Limited discussion

Blackwing - Kalut the moon shadow is in the same boat as Honest. It provided any blackwing monster with the attack power it needed to get over any monster. Your opponent uses his resources to summon a big monster with a beefy attack power. But with Kalut at 3, there was no need to worry about being attacked. It could be combined with shura the blue flame to ensure that you always get it's effect to special summon.

Book of moon was the big limit of the banlist. It has been at 3 this format and some people considored it a staple at 3. With its unmatched versatility (Stop attacks, flip a tuner face down to stop a synchro summon, flip your monster down to get past bottomless, flip your ryko face down when its attacked to get its effect again ETC), It is one of the best -1 cards in the game. I feel that the game is better with Book of moon at 1. However, there is now a bigger emphasis on trap stun and royal decree now that most of the backrow cards will be traps. You could run Enemy controller to replace book of moon, but it just does not compare in terms on versatility. Make sure you're running your backrow hate next format!

Lastly there is Gateway of the six. The Legendary Six Samurai have been in the OCG for almost a whole format, so the Six samurai have had enough time to prove their position as a tier one deck. But the reason why it is such a good deck is because of the broken combos when combined with Gateway of the six. With 2 Gateways on the field, you could summon one six samurai and have enough counters to search for a monster. Repeat this and you suddenly have a field full of monsters. That is why Gateway is fine at 1. The deck is still functional and Shi en is still as powerful of a card. I'm glad i traded my Gateway when it was still $30.

So thats my quick take for the Limited list. I'll post my semi-limited verdict soon!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Vortex the Whirlwind

Hey. With 2 weeks left until the Sneak, im getting excited. Some people say that the set sucks, but i think its got a lot of really fun cards to play around with.

The Sneak Peek card, that is, the card you will get by attending the sneak, is Vorted the Whirlwind.

Blackwing - Vortex the Whirlwind...

Vortex the Whirlwind is a Synchro monster with a decent effect. At first glance, i was comparing the card to the failure that was Archfiend Empress, which nobody plays. But after the second glance, i noticed some useful cards that can work with this card.

It requires a Tuner and a Winged beast non-tuner and is a respectable level 5. The Winged beast non-tuner requirement hurts its playability very much. But there are 3 archetypes that can use this card: Mist valley, Harpies and Blackwings. The first two being Archetypes that are not played at all. So blackwings will be the only place where this card will see play.

When this card is destroyed in battle, you can special summon one level 4 or lower winged beast type from your deck. Its a bit lacking there, but it will do. It would have been better if it was any destruction (by battle or effect) then it would be much better.

Anyway, are there any easy ways to get this card out?

Well, in Blackwings (sorry if i keep saying that), you can Attack an opponent's monster with Blackwing - Shura the Blue flame and use its effect to special summon a Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor. Then you can synchro the two cards for Vortex and use Vayu's effect for later.

Right now, there are few Winged beast non tuners that are being splashed into decks at the moment. But when that time comes, expect this card teched in extra decks.

Oh also, this card can go toe-to-toe with Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and get its effect. Something to think about next format if you want to play blackwings.

Starstrike Blast Sneak Peek: Cards to look out for

Right. A new post which isn't a review. I thought that i would show a collection of new cards which you might want to look out for at the sneak peek. here is my top 6:

6 - Tuning
A card which yusei used a few times in the anime. you add a card with "synchron" in its name from your deck to your hand, then send 1 card from your deck to the graveyard.
With about 10 monsters with Synchron in its name, you have a good pool of cards to search to deal with any situation. Notable cards to search are Quickdraw synchron, junk synchron and Synchron Explorer. The second effect means that you might be lucky enough to mill a dandylion and load your field with 2 non-tuners so your synchron can come in and synchro summon right away. In my opinion, with quickdraw being a very strong deck already, this card will break them.

5 - Large Heat Wave
A cold wave for monsters. Its absolutely broken and should have never been made. until your next draw phase, you and your opponent cannot normal summon or special summon (but you can flip summon) effect monsters. Nobody plays vanillas anymore (except for a certain few cards) so this card hurts any deck right now. The most broken part of this card is that it ends on your next draw phase. That means that if you manage a way to skip your next draw phase, the effect continues for another 2 turns! So with reckless greed, you can stop your opponent from summoning monsters face up for 3 turns.
Trust me, its broken.

4 - Red Nova Dragon
Being printed in a tin, this card is a powerhouse that jack uses with a "burning soul". its summoning requirements are somewhat a pain, but if you can get it out, you can run over anything. It can protect itself from any effect by removing itself and that means one attack is negated too. It comes back in the end phase after that effect. It gains 500 attack for each tuner in your graveyard, which means with 3 tuners needed to summon it, it usually comes onto the field with a whopping 5000 attack points. With decks like flamvell, you can use rekindling to summon Flamvell baby, Flamvell Archer, Flamvell Magician and a Flamvell Firedog/Grunika from your graveyard and synchro it all into Red nova dragon. And it only costs you one card.

3 - Psi-Blocker
Recently announced on the konami strategy website, this TCG exclusive has a great effect which definitely see play once this set is released. Once per turn, you can declare a card name and its effects are negated and cannot be activated until your opponents next turn. this means you can declare your opponent's face down cards, and if you're lucky to have declared one of them, you can attack without fear. This card can also hit cards that activate in the hand, like Battle Fader and Gorz, the emmisary of darkness. Be sure to look out for anyone who pulls one of these at the sneak!

2 - Glow up bulb
This card laughs at spores playability. If this card is in your graveyard, once per duel, you can send the top card from your deck to the graveyard to special summon this card from the graveyard. I believe that this card rivals the playability of plaguespreader, and it doesn't mess up your next draw if the play you were going to make does not turn out the way you wanted. Want an example of an epic play? Special summon cyber dragon, special summon this card, special summon dandylion tokens if it gets milled, then synchro into stardust dragon or goyo guardian. This card can also help with the summoning of formula synchron which is also debuting in this set. It needs a level 1 tuner and a level 1 non tuner so this card helps its summoning perfectly.

But what's the number one card to look out for this set? Well im undecisive between swift-attacking scarecrow and other cards. I'll let you decide...

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr

Blackwings have been updated with The Shining Darkness booster set, and even though they did not make much of an impact on blackwing players, one card has proven to be of some use. And that card is Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr.

Not a black feather in sight...

This card is thought of by some players as a 2nd Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind. Which is one of, if not, the most important blackwing monster in the archetype. Because of its amazing ability to cut the attack of your opponents monsters in half permanently, it was a staple in Blackwing Decks and used in many other decks too. But soon after its release, it was made limited on the ban list and severely damaged the swarm power of the deck.

Breeze's effect might not be able to cut your opponents attack points, but it can help swarm the field and synchro just as fast. When its added from your deck to your hand by means of a spell, trap or monster effect, you can special summon it. Also, it can only be used for a synchro summon of a Blackwing synchro monster.

Its first effect is easy to pull off. With 1100 attack points and the amazing support card Black Whirlwind, it is searchable by normal summoning any blackwing monster with 1200 or more attack. That means you can summon Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame, Blackwing - Bora the Spear, Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind etc. and get free Breeze the Zephyr.

Its second makes it a balanced card. With only 3 Blackwing synchro monsters currently avaliable (Black Winged Dragon does not count as a Blackwing monster), you are limited as to what combos you can do. The easiest would be to summon Shura or Bora, search out Breeze the Zephyr through Black Whirlwind, and then synchro summon Blackwing - Armor Master. Or you can summon Gale or Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow, and synchro summon into Blackwing - Armed wing.

But a big problem with this card is when you draw it. Its effect does not activate when you normally draw it, and it has too low attack power to do sufficient damage.

So there we have it. I would give this card a 3/5. Its a nice way to replace the missing gales, but it just seems like its lacking the same awesome factor that its older brother had.