Showing posts with label Six. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Six. Show all posts

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Six Samurai win YCS Indy (Indianapolis)!


I apologize for not making any blog posts for the last week. I've been settling into Uni and it's been a stressful beginning to a presumably stressful year.

But yeah. Six Samurai has won YCS Indy!

The pilot bested the force that is Wind-Ups, a more powerful force that has shown it's skill in the previous YCSs (Toronto and Guatemala). Sams has been considered a tier 2 deck for a while now but against certain decks (Especially Rogue decks), they can be very good. It's clear that the best Six Samurai players make sure their decks can access any of the 3 Naturia Synchros when they need them, which allows them to shut down the most important card type at that current time. Of course, Wind-Ups can access Shock Master for essentially 0 cost, but the card overall does not hurt Sams nearly as much as in the mirror match or against Burn/Countdown.

EDIT: Decklist found!

Monsters: 15

2 Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki

1 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai

2 Maxx "c"
3 kagemusha of the Six Samurai
1 Six Samurai - Irou
1 Six Samurai - Zanji
1 Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi
3 Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan

1 Elder of the Six Samurai


Spells 13

3 Six Samurai United

1 Gateway of the Six
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Asceticism of the Six Samurai
2 Shien's smoke signal
1 Reinforcements of the Army



Traps 12

2 Solemn Warning

2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Double Edged Sword Technique

2 Musakani Magatama

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck 13(?)
1 Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
1 Ally of Justice - Catastor
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Mist Wurm
1 Ally of Justice Decisive Armor (Didn't summon it once)
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Number 16: Shock Master

Check out the Deck Profile below to see the side deck (Starts at 4:12)

Sunday, 8 January 2012

Swagbucks and Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon Card Review

Hello Readers. Time for another card review. A certain German retailer managed to acquire a week early sneak peek kit of order of chaos and opened it, revealing us most of the exclusives that needed to be revealed. Some are okay, and there's a couple yet to be shown. Support for Wind-ups, Inzectors and Evols are given in the form of exclusives, so there's a lot going on in this set to be excited about.

However before i review the card, I would like to take the time to talk about a website called SwagBucks. You may or may not have heard of it but I link to it on my video descriptions and have placed it on the right of my blog posts in the 'Useful Links' section.

Essentially it's a point system where you use their search engine and complete other things on their website to get Swag Bucks. These bucks can be exchanged in their store for loads of cool stuff. It took me a while to get enough points, but I managed to get enough to get an amazon gift card. The reason why I'm telling you this is because all bucks i get will go directly towards buying Yu-Gi-Oh! products online to open on my Channel.

Click the link below to refer me and start getting free stuff. For every point you collect, your referral (Me) gets a point too. This means more points for me, meaning more cards, meaning more content for you to watch! All while you're collecting points yourself!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/408948_106624009458482_100003326505491_35367_887259630_n.jpg
Now onto the card review!

Today's card is Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon.

What a name. That has got to be the craziest name ever imagined. Not even Super Nimble Mega-Hamster can compare to it. While the name is silly, it packs a nice simple effect too.

If a monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the graveyard: you can special summon this card from your hand     

That's it. It's not long, it's not situational and it's fun. At 2200 attack it can come onto the field and stop further attacks or start taking control of the field right there. It forces your opponent to think twice before attacking a face down with a weak monster. It also has the attack to get over some of the best beat sticks in the game: Thunder King Rai-Oh and Cyber Dragon.

And let's not ignore the fact that it can be summoned when a monster is destroyed by a card effect too. It's a great way to recover from a torrential or a dark hole or anything else your opponent likes to use to destroy your stuff.  It works great in scraps since you destroy a lot of your cards, meaning you don't need to rely on your opponent to summon this card.

Well apart from that there's not much else great to say. It really does it's job very well. There's no card quite like it. Now lets discuss the bad things, in the form of nice bullet points:
  • Since it special summons from the hand, you cannot summon more than one at a time. Just like Tragoedia and the Meklords. However i believe you can special summon multiple copies during the main phase, like T.G. Warwolf and Dopplewarrior. However i need confirmation on that so I might be wrong.
  • You cannot summon it when your opponent's monster is destroyed on their side. That would be so awesome if you could attack over their monster and summon this and attack directly for 2200.
  • It relies on you taking a -1 before summoning this. If you have total field control and you would rather negate their dark holes or Effect Veiler their Black Rose Dragon's nuke effect, then it's just going to sit in your hand. However, the card's summoning condition is an IF and not a WHEN, meaning it can be chain link 2 or higher. If you don't understand that, that means that if you get your Sangan destroyed, it does not miss the timing, and you summon this card, then search (Sangan's effect is mandatory). I hope that makes sense to you.
Well. How popular is this card going to be? Only time will tell. It's a completely hit or miss card at this point in time.

I would just like to thank Konami for making this card a Common though. Such a useful card was sure to be at least an Ultra rare, but they finally gave the playerbase something that doesn't make them look greedy.

TheTCGLover Out!

Monday, 4 April 2011

Deck Thinning: How it works and why it's so darn important.

Today i would like to write a lengthy review about one of the most important aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Every deck uses it, and decks use it to win. Use it right, and you can manipulate your deck to toolbox any situation, without compromising on advantage.

The power of Deck Thinning is one of the tools avaliable to any duelist who wishes to use it in their deck. Firstly, what is it?

To thin your deck is essentially to make the deck card count smaller. To weave through the arsenal of cards in your deck to the one that you want is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield. In many decks, there are ways to thin your deck, but all decks have access to draw cards. Draw cards have been put under control by Konami's banlist in the recent years. Pot of Greed did so much for such a simple effect. If you drew it early in the game, you could really outspeed your opponent and set up much quicker. Konami released Pot of Duality in The Duelist Revolution (Which i did a review on ages ago) which is the definition of consistency as we know it today. It is one of the ways that competitive duelists (competitive as in spends lots of money on a game with the intention of winning and making a profit) dig through their deck to the card they want. While that might thin the deck by 1 card, it does not thin it enough. Some decks need to thin their deck to get access to a single card.

The most common method of doing that is Milling. Milling is the process of sending many cards from your deck to the graveyard so the cards sent can be used. Debris plants (which is not so potent anymore) uses Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter to destroy a card on the field and mill 3 cards in the hopes that they mill anything that can be special summoned with Debris Dragon. It thins their deck immensely and the player does not have to worry about drawing the monster that they would rather have milled to the graveyard.

Lightsworn is the king of deck thinning. It uses cards like Necro Guardna and Glow-Up Bulb which are milled to the graveyard so that they can be used and not drawn into. There are other ways of thinning the deck other than milling. Upstart Goblin lets you draw a card and your opponent gains 1000 life points. Some see the 1000 life as too much of a benefit to the opponent, but others see it as a way to get to the cards you want quicker. It does not matter if you have 11000 life points and your opponent has now assembled multiple beaters on the field, ready to wipe you out right there. But with draw cards, your deck needs to be as small as possible. Many competitive players, such as myself, refuse to play a deck over 40 cards. with every extra card in your deck, the chances of drawing an out to the current situation is slimmer and slimmer. Cards like Upstart Goblin and Pot of Duality are completely useless if your deck has over 40 cards. If you're playing a 41 card deck, the card you just drew with Upstart Goblin could have been in your hand already if you were playing a 40 card deck (theoretically).

Another way to thin your deck is through controlled milling (a term i just made up). That is, sending the cards to the graveyard that you want there, rather than just sending anything that you might of wanted to draw instead (monster reborn, dark hole etc.). A deck that uses this well is Frog monarchs. They use Swap frog to send treeborn frog and fishborg blaster to the graveyard from the deck. Treeborn frog special summons itself every standby phase and fishborg is a tuner which can be summoned by discarding a card while you have a water monster on the field. This allows you to synchro both into Formula synchron and draw a card, and you have not even wasted your normal summon yet! But controlled milling (or dumping) is generally more costly on resources. Foolish burial can be used in any deck, but is a -1 depending on what you send to the graveyard. Konami know how placing "send ____ from your deck to the graveyard" on a card is a powerful tool to thin your deck, and don't make many cards that can do that.

The best decks can fetch nearly any card from their deck and place it on the field immediately. Search cards like Reinforcement of the Army, Charge of the Light Brigade, Gateway to the Six, Dragon Ravine all let you fetch the monsters from the deck that you need, allowing for increased consistency and deck thinning at the same time. If you don't run a deck that uses search cards, you can use recruiters like shining angel and mystic tomato if you really wanted to. There is no reason why you shouldnt be trying to thin your deck during a duel.

Now, back to card reviews!

Saturday, 26 February 2011

New Video: Six Samurais, which card is the real problem?

Hey guys. I made a quick video with my conversation with a guy last night at the tourney i went to. He played Six samurai and got first.



So yeah. He discussed how Kageki is a much bigger threat than Gateway. I personally am undecisive on which, but im veering into Gateway still being the problem. Konami seems to think so.

Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, on its own, is a powerful card and while i compare it to cards like marauding captain, it is actually much better. Sure, it can only special summon a six samurai from your hand, but with Reinforcement of the army and 3 Shien smoke signals, the deck is just so incredibly consistent. When facing a deck that is tier one, you just hope to god that they get a terrible hand and draw into nothing so you can win in a few turns. The new six samurai however, do not have terrible opening hands, ever. Use Shien's smoke signal to search for kageki, summon it and get Kagemusha. then synchro summon Legendary six samurai Shi en. The fact that Kagemusha and Kageki are searchable by almost every spell card in the deck makes this combo too damn good.

On the other side, there's Gateway to the six, which Konami thinks is the problem. While Shien's smoke signal is a good search card, it cannot search Kizan unlike Gateway. With multiple gateway, you can search a six samurai after every summon, allowing you to summon multiple Shi ens in one turn. Can kageki summon more than one Shi en? No, it cant. After watching a few six samurai mirror matches, i came across one mirror match where one of the decks was in line with the new banlist, and the other was not. The guy that was running 3 gateways went 2-0 solely on the consistency that it had with those 3 gateways.

Right now, im undecided. They are both problems to your opponent in their own way and I doubt either one will get banned.

Monday, 21 February 2011

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!

Monday, 14 February 2011

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan

Happy Valentines Day people! And what a better way to celebrate a day like today with a card review about samurais.

I was debating on either Enishi or Kizan, but i came to the conclusion that only a few people actually run Enishi, so thats pointless.

Here we have, The Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan!


This warrior type has 1800 attack and 500 defence. thats quite decent for a level 4 monster, but it gets better.

If you control another six samurai monster, other than a Kizan, you can special summon it from your hand. and while you control 2 or more other Six-Samurai monsters, this card gains 300 ATK and DEF.

So with 2 other six samurai on your field, thats a 2100 beater that you just special summoned. That is extremely impressive. With Gateway of the six, thats 2 more counters (which if you normal summoned a Six Samurai before, thats a total of 4 counters, which means a free search)

With 3 Kizans and 3 Grandmaster of the six samurai, you can just keep special summoning out the wazoo every turn (Incase you didn't notice, Kizan is Grandmaster when he was younger, just like Enishi is a younger Enishi - Shien's chancellor).

You can also use Kizan to synchro with Shien's squire (A level 1 tuner also released in Storm of Ragnarok) to make Legendary Six Samurai - Shi en.

Lets just put it this way. If you want to play six samurais and you want to be considored any good at this game, then you must max out on Kizan.

Which brings me to the price. Now that STOR has been officially released, Kizan's price has sharply risen from $30 (around £20) to $50 (around 30-35). Thats no surprise that it's worth this much.

So how do you beat it?
  • Thunder King Rai-Oh: Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan is an inherent summon (Like Cyber Dragon)
  • Solemn warning and Solemn Judgment: stops the summoning and they don't get any counters
  • Black Horn of heaven: Same as Thunder King Rai-Oh but in trap form.
  • Puppet plant: If they have not already swarmed the field and wiped you out, you can use puppet plant during your turn to take their kizan. But if i were you, i would use your puppet plant on Shi en to stop them negating your spells and traps with it.
  • Negate their normal summon: Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan needs another Six Samurai on the field to special summon itself. Take out their normal summon and their Kizan/Grandmaster in their hand is a dead card.


Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido"

Its time for tuesday's review! (if i will actually do a review every tuesday from now on, i dont know) And recently i've been building Karakuri's and putting in all the new cards from Storm of Ragnarok. In this set, they got a card that can special summon when it destroys monsters in battle, a 4 star tuner and a better Reinforcement of the army.

We also got introduced to Burei's Dad. presenting to you today, and i hope i wont have to write this name out ever again:

Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido"!


This level 8 Machine synchro monster has 2 cool effects, and is similar to Burei. When this card is synchro summoned, you can special summon one Karakuri monster from your deck. And once a turn, when a karakuri monster switches position on your side of the field, you can draw a card.

Wow. That's amazing. it has the same special summoning effect like its son (or younger brother, IDK), which allows you to push for game or synchro some more. And with the release of Karakuri Muso mdl 818 "Haipa", you can summon Bureido, special summon haipa and dish out a total of 4900 damage. Add a Limiter removal into the mix, and thats more than your opponent can handle.

And i have not even started with the second effect. Since karakuris change positions, you will almost certain get to draw an extra card every turn.

Good cards to use for its second effect:
- Strategist: Special summon this card with Bureido and switch its position with its effect, bureido kicks in and lets you draw a card.
- Burei: His second effect lets you switch a monsters battle position on the field, switch one of your karakuris and draw a card.
- Haipa: After its attacked, it gets switched into its weaker defence position. but with bureido, you draw.
- Karakuri Cash Cache: It lets you search for a monster, then switches the selected monster's position. you can draw there too since the position change is the last part of the card's effect.

and all of the non-synchro karakuris get switched into defence position when they are attacked, so you will always get a draw on your opponent's turn.

But how do you get this card out? its a level 8 and it requires a tuner and one or more machine type non-tuners. With Storm of Ragnarok, We now have Kuikku and Saizan. With Saizan in the graveyard, you can summon kuikku, destroy an opponent's monster with it, special Saizan in defence mode, and synchro for Bureido in your main phase two.

Or if you dont want to do that, you can always just special summon a cyber dragon, summon a strategist and theres your 8.

Karakuri's, like scraps, have really come into their own with an intricate set of combos and with all this new support, they can go toe to toe with the Six Samurai next format.

Monday, 7 February 2011

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En


For my next review, i've once again looked at what i pulled/traded for at the sneak i went to, and decided to review it. I kept pulling the Six samurai commons, including a few Smoke Signals. But i dont plan on making a deck on them, so i gave them away. As i said in my Vylon Delta review, i entered twice and got 10 packs, and one of my last packs had this:
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi en

Allow me to break your deck...

Now before i even begin reviewing this card, i want to stress the space in between Shi and En in its name. Its there for reason and its still pronounced Shee-en regardless of the space.

Ok. This Level 5 DARK synchro monster has 2500 attack and 1400 defence. Which is a beefy offensive point for a monster of its level. It requires a Warrior-Type tuner and 1 or more Six Samurai non-tuners. That is probably the most specific summoning requirement i've ever seen on a synchro monster, next to something like Chaos Goddess (1 light tuner and 2 dark non tuners i believe). But the new six samurai can get Shi en out with ease.

It has two powerful effects: Once a turn, you can negate a spell/trap card and destroy it. Also, if it were to be destroyed, you can destroy another six samurai you control instead.

That is incredible. It has been created to be one of the most annoying monsters in existance. for your opponent to remove a monster, they will have to waste tonnes of resources. Konami really did not give this card a weakness unlike most cards. Your opponent will really be in trouble when this card hits the field.

The best way to get this card out is with Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki and Kagemusha of the Six Samurai. Normal summon Kageki and special summon Kagemusha with its effect and you now have all the materials needed to summon Shi en.

So why is this card called Shi en and not Shien? Well, to my knowledge, if you have 6 bushido counters on gateway of the six, then you can remove them to special summon one "shien" effect monster from your graveyard. Since this card is Shi en and not Shien, you cannot special summon it with Gateway's effect.

So how do you get past a card like this? Well, this card negates destruction by battle or effect, so thats not an option. Like many cards, caius the shadow monarch can take it out and dish 1000 damage since Shi en is a Dark attribute. If you have Solemn warning, you can use that when Shi en is summoned since it cannot negate counter traps. Or you can waste your hand and take it out with a smashing ground (after using another spell/trap that they have negated).

One card i do suggest using against Shi en is Goyo Guardian. If you can get their Shi en to your side of the field, then you can start using it against them and negating their spells and traps.

But when two Shi en hit the field, there is little you can do. We will have to wait and see how well Six samurai do in the coming weeks.

Like Vylon Delta, i pulled this card and i was being offered numbers around the 30 mark for it. I dont see this card going down in price so i wouldn't suggest selling it right now until people get desperate and start offering 40+ for it.

Thursday, 3 February 2011

My realisation on the new Legendary Six Samurai.

Since november, we had been introduced into the Legendary Six Samurai. Everyone including your grandma know that they're going to be huge. But after scanning through the new cards, for the 4-5th time since they were released. My fears were beginning to decrease.

I'm not saying they suck. But like many archetypes that are released, they rely on a single card to break them. All konami has to do is limit that one card, and that's the end of their reign.

In this case, the broken card is Gateway of the Six.

I have been comparing the new six samurai to when blackwings were released. With whirlwind at 3 and Gale at 3, the deck could swarm the field quickly and keep a fairly sized hand. The same applies to the new six samurai. With Gateway, you can swarm the field, gain counters, and increase your hand. But just like blackwings, When whirlwind was limited and gale was limited, it severely hurt the deck.

The problem with the new six samurai is that if you open up with no Gateway of the six, you can use Grandmaster and Kizan and Enishi to swarm the field, but you will deplete your hand to 0 instantly and all it takes is a dark hole or a sided warrior elimination to take you out. Because of that, i think the deck is too reliant on gateway and cant fend for itself without it.

Another example is Infernities back in may last year. Their Infernity launcher was outright broken, and it was released as a super rare, so it was accesible by anyone with a few dollars. Its ability to swarm with infernity archfiend allowed you to keep synchroing to free up monster slots (Mist wurm was really easy to make with the deck and opened up the field to OTK).

So in conclusion: The deck is consistent. It can produce mass plusses and OTK fairly quickly. But if your starting 6 card hand does not have a Gateway, then you are stuck for what you can do. If you decide to summon a few things then draw Gateway, then it will be a dead draw.

Oh and also, i keep forgetting to mention their synchro monster, shi en. Its too F****** broken and stops your opponent from doing anything. Just make sure to side some Caius to take it down for good.

Monday, 10 January 2011

Storm of Ragnarok: Cards to look out for

Yes, i know. the release date for the next set is still a month away. but like starstrike blast, it has a plethora of interesting core cards that i would like to discuss. Storm of ragnarok (STOR) introduces new archetypes and support cards which are brand new and some which debuted in the anime.
  • The Aesirs: These 3 gods have come straight from nordic mythology and STOR gives each different Aesir a bunch of monsters to synchro into it. Thor has the nordic beasts, Loki has the nordic alfar and Odin has the nordic ascendants. As well as that, there are many support cards that have devastating effects while you control any Aesir. But one of the best parts about the aesirs is that when they are destroyed, by removing the appropriate tuner (remove the one you used to synchro it), it special summons itself at the end phase and something happens. Thor lets you deal 800 damage, Loki lets you get a trap card back to your hand from the graveyard and Odin lets you draw a card. But thats not all. Each aesir has their own effects that can shut down your opponent.
  • The Legendary Six Samurai: STOR introduces the Legendary Six Samurai sub-type. It is a bunch of new monsters and support cards which in the OCG, have pushed Six samurai to tier 1 (alongside blackwings and a couple of other decks). They get a new swarming monster alongside Grandmaster of the six samurai called Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan. As well as other cards, combined with the original six samurai cards (especially Gateway of the six which can create disgusting loops), this is the deck to look out for next format.
  • More Karakuri support: Since Karakuri debuted in the newest set, Starstrike blast, Karakuri have consistent OTK abilities and an overpowered Synchro monster which you can bring 3 out very easily. But with the new support in STOR, they have just got better. STOR introduces new monsters and more support. A notable support card is Borrowed Karakuri house, which lets you add a karakuri from your deck to your hand, at the cost of switching the battle position of one of your karakuri monsters.

As well as that, there are interesting cards in particular i would look out for:

  • Apple of Frigg, a normal trap card: When you take Battle Damage while you control no monsters, you can activate this card. Gain Life Points equal to the Battle Damage you took. Then, Special Summon 1 "Wicked Spirit Token" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 1/ATK ?/DEF ?). Its ATK and DEF are equal to the Life Points you gained from this card's effect.
  • Tyrant's insults, a normal trap card: Tribute 2 face-up monsters you control. Neither player can activate the effects of Effect Monsters that activate on the field or in the hand.
  • Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant, a confirmed exclusive for the TCG: You can substitute this card for any 1 "Nordic" Tuner Monster for a Synchro Summon. If this card is used as a Synchro Material Monster, all other Synchro Material Monsters must be "Nordic" monsters. Once per turn, you can send 1 "Nordic" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard to change this card's Level to the Level of the monster you sent to the Graveyard, until the End Phase.

So there you have it. The three cards listed above is only the tip of the iceberg as far as hidden gems are concerned. If you want to see the set list, click here.