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.

New decklist uploaded (Machina Gadgets) and New card text implemented

2 things that matter to me today:

Number one is this:

Number two is the new implementation of a change in the card text:

See the changes here

To save you time, the article states that:

• 'Remove from play' becomes 'Banish'
• 'Removed from the field' becomes 'Leaves the field'
• and 'when this card attacks a defence position monster, if the attacking monster's atk is higher than the defending monsters defence, inflict the difference as battle damage to your opponent' becomes 'When this card attacks a defence position monster, this card deals piercing damage'
• 'Selected as an attack target' becomes 'Targeted for an attack'
• All hero monsters now become HERO, and cards like Elemental HERO stratos can search for any card with 'HERO' (In upper case only), to make the new vision HERO and masked HERO sub-archetype less confusing when they arrive.

I personally welcome the change. And there will be many more to come over the next few days. Expect these changes to come into effect as early as the next structure deck (Which comes out in July)

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Gurensaurus and Gachigachi Gantetsu

I apologise for not making a blog entry for the last few days. I've had some project involving other blogs on my mind at the moment and now that thats over, i am free to write on this one (My main one, of course. YUGIOH FTW!). As a big sorry note, i've decided to review 2 cards instead of 1.

And these are the other two Exceed (Now officially called XYZ in the TCG, yet pronouned Exceez) from the starter deck, Gurensaurus and Gachigachi Gantetsu.

Lets start with Gurensaurus.



This rank 3 fire type requires 2 level 3 monsters and boasts a meh 2000 attack and 1900 defence. 2 level 3 monsters was easier to accomplish when Rescue cat was legal, but there are other ways to get 2 level 3s (Like Tour guide to the underworld).

When this card destroys a monster in battle and sends it to the graveyard, you can remove one exceed monster on this card to deal 1000 attack to your opponent.

Like most FIRE types, its got a burn effect. Burn effects are not very good. I would have preferred that 1000 damage to be 1000 more attack on the monster itself instead, but thats a little too strong for a rank 3.

Unfortunately there is not much to say about this card. Even though the XYZ monsters are not out yet, there are already better options, like Leviath Dragon (which i will review in the future) which has the same summoning requirements. It would have been a bit better if it could remove the monsters and deal burn damage without having to destroy a monster in battle. There are many times where 1000 damage can end a game or make their face down Solemn warning useless, so its not terrible.

With that out of the way, we can move on to the second, and much better card from the starter deck, Gachigachi Gantetsu (it will probably get a name change, or maybe not)


This rank 2 requires 2 level 2 monsters to summon it. Its got 500 attack and 1800 defence, which is fitting since its a rock type. Its got a decent effect that can keep itself on the field and benefit your other monsters too.

If this face-up card would be destroyed (either by battle or effect), you can remove one of this card's exceed materials instead. Also, all of your monsters gain attack and defence equal to the number of exceed materials on this card x 200.

So upon summon (In defence mode, obviously), its got a solid 2200 defence, which is not bad at all. Also, your monsters gain 400 attack so your level 4 beatstick can go up to around 2200-2300 attack. And with its ability to stop itself being destroyed, its got a nice immunity from bigger monsters and annoying spell cards like Dark hole or Black rose dragon.

However, due to its bad attack power, there is no real offensive benefit to this card. You would only go into this card when you are forced into a corner and need to hold off for a turn or two until you draw an out. While it is easy to summon (Deep sea diva comes to mind), you would rather have summoned something else to take on your opponent rather than let him set up. Fortunately, with its ability to stick around a while, it gives you a nice tribute fodder for a monarch.

So that's it for the XYZ monsters from the starter deck. In my personal opinion, the only one that MIGHT see play is Number 39: Utopia due to its attack negation and ease of summoning, but over time there will be better rank 4 monsters.

5 x Bonds beyond time movie pack opening

Got everything i wanted, and then some.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Aspiring Emperor Hope/ Number 39: Utopia

Hello once again readers. After looking on the wiki (If you don't use it, why not?) and it seems like the next yu-gi-oh related item to be released by Konami is the 2011 starter deck. This deck is no ordinary starter deck, it marks the beginning of a new era in duel monsters: Exceed monsters. This starter deck comes with 3 Exceed monsters and a bunch of the new protagonist's monsters (Which are not very good).

The starter deck comes with Yuma's ace monster, Aspiring Emperor Hope or as it's called in the TCG, Number 39: Utopia (Which i will call it from now on)

Exceed monsters look so badass

This Exceed monster is a Rank 4 (I'm going to have to get used to saying rank) and to exceed summon it, you must overlay 2 level 4 monsters on your field. It's got the standard 2500 attack and 2000 defence like all of the previous protagonist's ace monsters had. It's a light attribute, so it works with Honest and other light support. It's effect is pretty good:

When a monster on the field declares an attack, you can remove 1 exceed material from this card (Which you have 2 upon summon) to negate the attack. When this card is attacked while it has no exceed materials on it, destroy it.

So its got a good effect and a bad one. With a possible 2 attack negations, that can be the difference between surviving a swarm and losing to it. However, i would never recommend using both negations unless its necessary since you can just get attacked by a weak monster and it destroys itself (Meklord's don't mind that though). This negation effect is comparable to something like Necro guardna and that card's limited on the banlist. While it might not be as versatile as guardna, its still good.

The best part of exceed monsters is how easy it is to bring them out. They don't ask for a specific monster, just its level. There are so many level 4 monsters that can bring out more level 4s and bring this card out:

• Gravekeeper's spy: It lets you special summon any gravekeeper from your deck with less than 1500 attack, so just grab another spy and exceed summon on your turn.
• Batteryman AAA: While this card sucks in general, it is a level 4 that lets you special summon another AAA from your hand or graveyard, so thats all good.
• Summoner monk: Ditch a spell and grab any level 4 from your deck then exceed summon, without having to wait a turn like spy.

But the best way to get a bunch of rank 4 exceed monsters on the field at once is with the Gadget + Ultimate offering combo. All you have to do is activate ultimate offering, summon a gadget and add a new one to your hand. There you can just pay 500 life points and summon the gadget you just added to your hand and then you can get another gadget from your deck. Repeat this process and you will now have 5 gadgets on the field for the cost of 2000 life points from ultimate offering. You can just overlay 2 of them and exceed summon Utopia and since you have 3 left on the field, you can exceed summon another utopia. Now that you have freed up 2 monster slots on your field, you can just summon 2 more gadgets and exceed another utopia. Overall it cost you 3000 life points, but now you have 3 Utopias on the field and a gadget. With those utopias you can negate up to 6 attacks!

Because of that malicious combo, you can expect Ultimate offering to be limited or even banned come september.

So thats it. Exceeds are going to hit this game with its versatile summoning conditions and hopefully, their effects will rival that of the first synchro monsters.

I shall be picking up a few starter decks for myself, and i suggest that you do too.

A Malefic deck

Hello people. I had the luxury of watching the latest yu-gi-oh movie on saturday. It was actually quite good. It had a lot of action and it was cool seeing the 3 main protagonists talking to eachother. Yugi still managed to get a couple of friendship speeches so it was all good. Paradox was a badass with his overly broken Malefic Monsters, which he contructed using the most powerful monsters over the 3 different seasons: Duel monsters, GX and 5Ds. All three characters got the limelight so no person was left with the short stick. I will be getting the DVD once it comes out in July.

Anyway, its got me wanting the cards that paradox uses, and i bought some of the movie packs, which i will make a video opening once it delivers :)

So yeah, decklist time.

Deck - 41 (It was hard to get it down to 41. Suggest what i should take out)

EDIT: Made some changes! It's now geartownified!

Monsters - 15
3x Malefic Cyber End Dragon (Free 4000 attack piercing beater)
3x Malefic Stardust Dragon (Protects your field spells)
3x Ancient gear Gadjiltron dragon (two is good, but i run three trade in)
1x Malefic Truth dragon
2x Meklord Emperor Granel (Things die a lot)

3x Machina Fortress

Spells - 20

3x Geartown

3x Trade in
3x Malefic World
1x Limiter Removal
1x Dark Hole
2x Terraforming
2x Mystical space typhoon
1x Giant Trunade
1x Book of moon
2x Forbidden Lance
1x Forbidden Chalice

Traps - 6
2x Seven tools of the bandit
1x Trap stun
1x Solemn Judgment
2x Solemn warning

Extra Deck - 10
3x Stardust dragon
3x Cyber end dragon
1x Chimeratech fortress dragon

Keep in mind that this is just a first attempt. I'm not going to be bold and say "This is the best _____ deck ever made" like i do with my other decklists.

I keep making changes and editing this post. If it changes too much, then i will make a new post with it updated.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: T.G. Hyper Librarian

Blogger is so stupid sometimes. I made a card review a couple of days ago about Meklord Astro Mekanikle. for some reason, its disappeared. And its not a decent enough card to make me want to review it again. (I apologize to anyone who has been waiting since wednesday for a new blog entry).
So i'll skip it and move along to the 3rd and most anticipated Nationals Prize Card, T.G. Hyper Librarian

Draw power at his fingertips.

This level 5 synchro monster has got a very nice 2400 attack and 1800 defence. That's really good on a level 5, since with that 2400 attack, it can go toe-to-toe with a monarch if it really needs to, but so can Magical Android so its not a huge deal. The 1800 defence means it's a decent defence if it so happens to be switched into defence. For some weird reason, it's a DARK attribute. That makes it chaos fodder but apart from that i would have preferred LIGHT so it would work with Honest. However, it does not require any specific non-tuners or tuners. You can just summon it with Junk synchron or Alien Ammonite or Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki and Kagemusha of the Six Samurai. There are so many ways to make a level 5 its not funny. But like all synchro monsters, big or small in level, it needs an effect to make the -1 (Using 2 monsters) upon summon worth it. This one does not disappoint:

While this card is face up, when a synchro monster is synchro summoned to the field, you must draw a card each time.

Wow. It's got one of those effects where you would read it the first time and think "That's not great", but 10 seconds later, you suddenly realise how many decks can abuse the hell out of this card. With synchro spamming being a big win condition in multiple decks, this card says "Please spam your extra deck and i'll reward you for it".

Not only does it reward you for doing it, you also draw whenever your opponent synchro summons. That means that if you spam the field with this card, your opponent will have to take down your front line to get to your life points and to do that, they will have to synchro summon. They can't get to you very easily if you have a 8 card hand on the beginning of every turn.

So what cards can you use with this card? Those are the synchro monsters that let you bring out more synchro monsters quicker, such as the Karakuri Synchros (They bring out a karakuri from your deck upon summon). Obviously, you can use the T.G. Archetype, which specialises in synchro summoning quickly, to get large amount's of draw. Another great card to use with Hyper Librarian is Formula synchron which will probably be the most abused combo out there. When Formula synchron is synchro summoned while Hyper Librarian is on your field, you can draw 2 cards then if you need to, you can synchro summon into black rose dragon on your opponent's turn for more advantage. Then you will have a light and dark in the graveyard for Chaos Sorcerer. With Hyper librarian, there are just too many decks that can take advantage of it's draw power.

Fortunately, most of the yu-gi-oh community is anticipating this card will be banned in september, giving it only a couple of months to reign terror in our game. However, i personally feel with Exceeds debuting around the same time, the synchro mechanic will slowly fizzle away. People may disagree with me on that, but no more tuners are going to be made either, so it just seems to me that this card joined the party a little past due. Therefore, i think Konami will put this card to 1, but im not 100% certain on that since you only need 1 Librarian on the field to gain advantage. It's a bit like heavy storm in the sense that when it's around, it completely reshapes the game and you have to play with that certain card in mind at all times. If you know your opponent has this card avaliable to him/her, you will have to synchro summon when it's not on the field, and play defensively when it is. There is no other synchro monster that does that.