Labyrinth of Not David Bowie (YGO)

First, if you get the reference in the title, you just earned 10 Awesome Points. So Labyrinth of Nightmare was released in early 2003 and was once again, a solid pack. It still had some duds (all booster packs do) but it followed in Pharaoh's Servant's footsteps of being a pack worth buying. In this pack, fans of Fiend monsters and of the different "Mask" cards from the TV show were made very happy. Destiny Board was also introduced in the pack as a Magic/Trap Card version of Exodia. You win automatically if you play these five cards together.

Awesome:

• Gemini Elf

• The first 1900 ATK monster that doesn't require a sacrifice or have a debilitating effect!
• Magic Cylinder
• Yeah, that Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Megamorph (9000 ATK) just killed your opponent instead of you!
• United We Stand
• Awesome power boost to really any monster, up to an additional 4000 ATK. That makes Watapon a worthy foe.
• Torrential Tribute
• Does your opponent just have a huge swarm of monsters you can't destroy? Did they just summon another monster for the killing blow? Well now you can just nuke the field with this lovely Trap Hole on steroids!
• Mask of the Accursed
• Stop your opponent's powerful monsters and deal effect damage to them!

Meh:

• Jam Breeding Machine
• Always insures that you'll have one monster when your opponent attacks
• Can only set any other monster which could cause problems
• Zombyra the Dark
• Good Stats, 2100 ATK Level 4
• Can't attack directly and loses 200 ATK each time it kills a monster meaning you get about 2-3 attacks with him
• The Last Warrior from Another Planet
• Decent Stats and prevents your opponent from Summoning anything to deal with it
• Costs you ALL of your current monsters and you can't summon anything new either...

Stupid:

• Revival Jam
• It's stats are decent for a monster with that kind of ability BUT it costs 1000 LP to bring him back during YOUR next Standby Phase.
• Seems a bit costly for having to wait. If it were 1000 LP to bring him immediately back like in the TV show, then that would be reasonable.
• The Unfriendly Amazon
• Requires you to sacrifice a monster each turn to keep it in play and only has 2000 ATK. LAME!
• Infinite Cards
• Who needs unlimited hand size? Only people with a Muka Muka Deck or Slifer Deck. No one else.

What are some of your favorite cards from this set? Do you agree or disagree with what I've already said? Tell your friends!

Tournament and Duelist Leagues (YGO)

     Alongside normal Booster Packs and Video Game Promo Cards, there were special packs sold only at tournaments as well as if you participated in any of the Duelist Leagues (like the one I went to at Toys R Us) They had special Promo Cards. Today we're gonna take a look at 2002's packs and cards.
     Tournament Pack 1 had unique cards but really only 4 are worth using; Mechanicalchaser, Goddess with the Third Eye, Versago the Destroyer, and Beastking of the Swamp. The first was just a good solid Level 4 1850 ATK monster and the other three help you get Fusion Monsters out since they can replace Material Monsters. Tournament Pack 2 Really doesn't have anything of note except maybe Mystical Sheep #1, Morphing Jar and maybe Dragon Seeker if you run an Anti-Dragon Deck. These packs were very underwhelming being full of very low ATK and DEF monsters for their levels/Ritual/Fusion and very specific Magic and Trap Cards.
     Finally, the Duelist League Promos. There were two sets of two in 2002 and both sets had good cards. DL1 featured Buster Blader and Thousand-Eyes Restrict and DL2 was The Masked Beast and Dark Necrofear which were more awesome because they weren't out yet!
Not much to cover between DL and TP for 2002 but maybe later years would prove to be better.

Things start getting good (YGO)

At the tail end of 2002 Pharaoh's Servant was released. This pack was, in my opinion, the first great pack to be released. It wasn't perfect, but no pack ever is, but it was the closest we got up to this point. The majority of these cards were introduced starting with the Duke Devlin episodes through Battle City.

Awesome:

• Jinzo
• Level 6, 2400 ATK, Searchable with Witch of the Black Forest, Negates Trap Cards.
• I remember back when every deck had a copy of Jinzo.
• Why did they change his name from "Android Psycho Shocker?" What the heck does "Jinzo" mean?
• Dust Tornado
• Destroy an opponent's M/T card before they end their turn!
• Call of the Haunted
• Let's you bring back any monster (if summoning conditions are met) whenever! Even to block attacks from your opponent!
• Harpie's Brother (now called "Sky Scout")
• Awesome artwork to go with a level 4 1800 ATK monster.
• The Fiend Megacyber
• Level 6 with 2200 ATK may seem a little meh but with his ability letting you Special Summon if you're being outnumbered can come in real handy.
• Gearfried the Iron Knight
• My favorite card.
• Solid 1800 ATK 1600 DEF Level 4 monster. Unfortunately you can't equip him with anything.

Meh:

• Mirror Wall
• Cool effect but EXTREMELY costly at 2000LP/Standby Phase.
• Parasite Paracide
• Interesting effect, can be used great in an Insect Shutdown Strategy but requires that he not be destroyed before you can flip him up.
• Legendary Fisherman
• Cool looking card and very iconic in Battle City but Level 5, 1850 ATK and if Umi is up it can't get boosts or anything from Magic Cards...Sad Day.
• Red-Moon Baby (now called "Vampire Baby")
• Really cool effect but terrible ATK making it really hard to actually use said effect.
• Imperial Order
• Extremely powerful, allowing the negation of pretty much anything but at an extreme cost of HALF your LP.

Stupid:

• The Eye of Truth
• You can see your opponent's hand (which isn't all that great really) and they gain 1000LP each turn for each Magic Card in their hand? Only works with Bad Reaction to Simochi.
• Appropriate
• Too circumstantial requiring your opponent to draw outside the Draw Phase. Not worth it.
• Magical Hats
• Can possibly save your monster and guaranteed to lose 2 Non-Monster cards.
• Respect Play
• Pointless in my opinion since you each see each other's hands during their turn...

OK, I only scratched the surface on this pack so let me know in the comments some of your favorite and worst cards from the pack. Link is above to see the full pack list.

Promo Cards 2002 (YGO)

So throughout the year (2002) several Promo cards were released either with Video Games or Collector's Tins.
     The video games released were "Dark Duel Stories" (which really does not follow the actual card game at all), "Forbidden Memories" (also does not follow the normal rules), and "Eternal Duelist Soul" (which did actually follow the rules). DDS and FM were still plenty of fun albeit FM was insanely difficult to really do anything in the story after 2 duels. EDS of course though was more fun because you got to practice your skills and decks against different characters in the show. Each game came with 3 Promo cards that ranged from awesome to meh. And DDS was unique because there were two sets of three that you could get. You could get either Dark Magician, BEWD, and Exodia or 3 unique cards: Seiyaryu, Acid Trap Hole, and Salamandra. I'm gonna focus on the second set for this page.

     Then we have the Collector's Tins which were great! This first round of tins featured 6 iconic cards with each being tied to one of three characters; Yugi, Kaiba and Joey. Yugi is with Dark Magician or Summoned Skull, Kaiba comes with either BEWD or Lord of D. and Joey has Red-Eyes B. Dragon or B. Skull Dragon (why can't they say "Black"? Are they racist or something?). In each tin were also 5 booster packs. 2 LBEWD, 2 Metal Raiders, and 1 Magic Ruler. So you got in total 46 cards for I believe $19.99. That's a good deal! And to boot, you had the actual tins that you could use to store all these cards plus all your old cards and any new cards you get.

The Awesome, Meh, and Stupid are going to be very short since I'm only going to rank the Video Game Promos.

Awesome:

• Seiyaryu (DDS)
• Powerful Dragon with acceptable Level 7 status to add to your collection.
• Metalmorph (FM)
• Solid way to boost ATK with a trap. Sadly, it's 1/2 ATK bonus is only when you attack.

Meh:

• Salamandra (DDS)
• Solid card but limited to FIRE Monsters.
• Graceful and Skull Dice (EDS)
• First off, each card says "Dice" in its name and yet there's only one so it should be Graceful Die and Skull Die but anyways...
• They're good for small bonuses or subtractions (depending on which you use) but they're a game of chance and the show version was just so much cooler albeit overpowered.
• Harpie's Pet Dragon (FM)
• Not the best stats for a Level 7 Dragon but if you run a Harpy Deck then it'll be boosted pretty fast.
• Exchange (EDS)
• If you know your opponent has a nice card and you have sucky ones, why not swap cards?
• Pretty situational in my opinion.
• Acid Trap Hole (DDS)
• Decent overall requirements for destroying the monster.
• Not usually worried about face-down monsters as much as face-up which makes it lesser than Trap Hole or Bottomless Trap Hole.

Stupid:

• Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon (FM)
• Points for actually using the word "Black"!!!!
• Red-Eyes with Metalmorph has the potential to get more ATK when it attacks a monster.
• Why get rid of Metalmorph's ability with REBMD? If that would be overkill, maybe not half but 1/4 of their attack or something.
• Ridiculous Summoning conditions.
  
  

Magic or Spell? (YGO)

September 16, 2002 we card game lovers were introduced to another sub par pack of cards. This pack was initially entitled "Magic Ruler" but then was changed to "Spell Ruler" the same time "Magic Cards" were changed to "Spell Cards" supposedly to help differentiate the game from Magic the Gathering. The pack introduced the populace to Ritual Monsters while leaving out one of the most iconic Ritual Monsters, Magician of Black Chaos. Go figure.

Overall the pack was full of mediocre cards at best. It did introduce us to Toon Monsters which would not be in major use until some better low level Toons (Toon Gemini Elf and Toon Goblin Attack Force) were released.


Awesome:

• Relinquished
• Easy to summon Ritual Monster with a decent effect as well.
• Snatch Steal
• Yes, your opponent gains 1000 LP each Standby Phase but after banning Change of Heart, we needed another "brain wash" card.
• Mystical Space Typhoon
• Goodbye that one M/T card that is stopping you from winning!

Meh:

• Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon
• Good Stats, Special Summon, and can attack directly if your opponent doesn't have Toons.
• Requires Toon World, 2 Tributes, can't attack the turn it's summoned and 500 LP to attack.
• Crab Turtle
• Pretty good stats for level 8.
• Requires Ritual Magic Card.

Stupid:

• Wall Shadow
• Ridiculous Summoning conditions, no Shadow Ghoul effect, same DEF as Labyrinth Wall which is easier to summon.
• House of Adhesive Tape and Eatgaboon
• Destroys monsters with such low stats. There are better cards to get rid of those same monsters.
• Darkness Approaches
• How does face-down ATK position work?

What cards are your top picks from this pack? Favorite memories? Comment below.

The Raiders of Metal! (YGO)

     Metal Raiders was released June 26, 2002 and was a very welcome addition to the game. Where the majority of Monsters were Normal Monsters in Legend of Blue-Eyes, a very healthy amount of Effect Monsters were brought in including the ever so famous Gate Guardian.

There were several iconic cards included in the pack besides Gate Guardian including Mirror Force, B. Skull Dragon, and Summoned Skull.

Awesome:

• Mirror Force
• One of the BEST cards to help turn the tide of battle.
• Barrel Dragon
• Solid Stats with the possibility of destroying a monster through its effect.
• Heavy Storm
• Great way to destroy your opponent's Magic and Trap Cards
• Balanced due to you losing your M/T cards
• Witch of the Black Forest
• Search your powerful Monsters that have little DEF like Summoned Skull no matter how it was sent from the field to the Graveyard.

Meh:

• Gate Guardian
• High stats but requires a tribute of 3 monsters that all require 2 tributes of their own. Not quite worth it although its pieces are not that bad on their own (apart from Kazejin).
• Shadow Ghoul
• I like the concept and many cards with similar concepts would be released later but it was seriously weakened by its need to be Tribute Summoned for only 1600 base ATK.
• Swamp and Lava Battleguards
• Once again, a good concept weakened by Level 5 low base ATK cards. Wish they'd try the concept again with another set of cards.
• Muka Muka
• Love the concept but due to the low base ATK it's a little hard to make it work for long periods of time.

Stupid:

• Yado Karu
• Not that great of stats and its effect isn't really worth it.
• Ocubeam
• Level 5 with terrible stats. No thanks!
• Blast Juggler
• Two problems
• Must survive until your next Standby Phase with low stats
• Can only destroy monsters with <1000 ATK (LAME!!!!)
• Larvae Moth
• Low stats and can only be summoned after X amount of turns with Petit Moth in Cocoon of Evolution. Not gonna happen.

This pack was definitely a very welcome addition with its Effect Monsters and better Fusion Monsters and just good cards overall but like any pack, it has its duds.

Time to Give Us a Jump Start (YGO)

     March 29, 2002 was the beginning of the end for children's allowances everywhere. To make it easy for everyone to just buy one thing and play, the Starter Deck: Yugi (SDY) and Starter Deck: Kaiba (SDK) were released. I remember my brother and I were ever so excited. He bought SDY and I SDK in order to prove which of us was cooler.

     

     The two starter decks were also how kids actually got a copy of the rules for which we were grateful. If they hadn't I probably would've just played with 2000 Life Points (LP) and whatever the rules were on the show at the time; the likes were nowhere near the actual rules.

     Each deck also came with its own strategy. For the most part, SDK was just about smashing your opponent with brute force while SDY had a bit more "strategy" involved. I put strategy in quotation marks because this early on in the game there wasn't too much strategy to be had. Of course, each deck even came with its character's signature card: Blue-Eyes White Dragon in SDK and Dark Magician in SDY.

Awesome:

• Blue-Eyes White Dragon (SDK)
• See my previous post
• One of my favorite artworks for BEWD
• La Jinn (SDK)
• Level 4 monster with 1800 ATK = Greatly welcomed!
• Lord of D. and Flute of Summoning Dragon (SDK)
• Not so great with just this deck but were very good since then in Dragon decks.
• Dark Hole (Both)
• Great way to clean up the field although can be a small sacrifice for you
• Dark Magician (SDY)
• See the previous post
• My favorite (and most iconic) artwork for Dark Magician
• Summoned Skull (SDY)
• Level 6 with 2500 ATK almost puts the Dark Magician to shame if not for DEF
• Soul Exchange (SDY)
• A pretty powerful card allowing you to sacrifice your opponent's powerful BEWD so you can summon your Dark Magician (or really any other monster)

Meh:

• Judge Man (SDK)
• Level 6 with 2200 ATK was decent at the time but Summoned Skull was still a better choice
• Mysterious Puppeteer (SDK)
• Great effect, especially if used with Ultimate Offering, but it's low ATK and DEF don't help it survive very well
• Neo the Magic Swordsman (SDY)
• Can compete with Battle Ox but not with SDK's La Jinn without the help of Magic Cards.

Stupid:

• Unknown Warrior of Fiend (SDK)
• Why is there an "of" in his name?
• Only 1000 ATK and no effect do not make him a real viable option, even at this early point in the game's history.
• Ancient Telescope (SDK)
• Why do I care about seeing the cards on top of my opponent's deck if I can't do anything to them?
• Last Will (SDY)
• The fact that it's not a Quick-Play and therefore has to be played during one of your Main Phases does not make this a very viable option since that means either you killed your own monster or somehow your opponent used a trap card to destroy it.
• Remove Trap (Both)
• This early on it's not that useful since there are so few Continuous Trap (CT) Cards.
• Makes less sense in SDY because SDK only has one CT.

Legend of the Blue Peeps Whitey Dragon (YGO) Discussion

So the purpose of this separate blog is for me to put down my views on different packs of different card games. At the moment I'll be specializing in Yu-Gi-Oh! (YGO) with a little bit of input on Magic the Gathering (MTG). Please remember that everything I state in this blog is my opinion and I am in no way affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or Konami/Upper Deck or any other game company.

The way these will go is I'll do a brief intro to the pack, do lists of cards that are awesome, meh and just downright stupid and then I'll even pick some of the names that got good (and bad) translations.

So today's post is going to focus on the FIRST Booster Pack released in North America on March 8, 2002: "Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon."

This pack introduced everyone to the card game although the majority of people I know started with the Starter Decks that we'll talk about in a post or two. It did a decent job of showing us the different kinds of monster, magic (now spell), and trap cards. It had several of the most iconic cards from the show including (but not limited to) Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, Flame Swordsman, Celtic Guardian, Red-Eyes B. Dragon (don't understand why they couldn't spell out "Black") and of course the 5 pieces of Exodia.

So now for the "Awesome," "Meh," and "Stupid" cards! Please note that I don't go through every card in the pack. I'm just going to do some of the best qualifiers for each category.

Awesome:

• Blue-Eyes White Dragon (BEWD)
• Good ATK and DEF for a Level 8 Monster.
• Dark Magician
• Same reasons as BEWD
• Exodia
• Instant Win if you get all 5 pieces.
• Really good but balanced due to the 5 pieces thing.
• Raigeki
• Destroys all of your opponent's monsters with no downside.
• Unfortunately it's pretty much been banned in tournament play since release.
• Swords of Revealing Light
• Lets you catch a breath for 3 turns allowing for major comebacks.
• A must in almost every deck.
• Trap Hole
• Opponent summon a strong monster but you got no defenders? BAM! No they don't.

Meh:

• The Field Magic Cards
• Good balanced boosts, but not every deck has room for one or calls for one.
• Why is there no Field for Fairy's?
• Gaia the Dragon Champion
• Good Stats but the two material monsters aren't necessarily worth having in your deck.
• No effect to make it special.
• Fissure
• Let's us destroy a pesky monster on the opponent's field.
• If they have more than one monster, you probably want to destroy the stronger of the two...
• Red-Eyes B. Dragon
• Decent ATK and DEF but wish it was a Level 6.

Stupid:

• The Majority of Fusion Monsters
• Fusing for an ATK < 2000 is bold but < 1800 is just downright stupid.
• The Majority of Normal Monsters
• Really underwhelming when the majority of monsters in the pack have an ATK < 1800 and range in level from 1-5.
• Reaper of the Cards
• A Level 5 monster with low stats
• Uneven numbers for stats: ATK = 1380/DEF = 1930. WHY? Why not just round to the nearest 50 like the majority of other cards?

Best Translations:

• LAME: The One Who Sips Pure Blood becomes Drooling Lizard (What a downgrade...)
• Why?: Blue Ninja becomes Armed Ninja (I do think Armed Ninja sounds cooler though.)
• Unsure: Magnets #1 and Magnets #2 become M-Warrior 1 and M-Warrior 2 (I like the Warrior addition but think they should have explained what the "M" was for...)
• Good: Card-Hunting Death God becomes Reaper of the Card
• Great: Louise becomes Beaver Warrior (I'm confused on the Japanese version...)

Overview:

     Good first booster pack but nothing was really worthwhile until the Starter Decks.

*Please note the title of this post is a reference to "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series" (YGO:TAS).
**All links and pictures come from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki: yugioh.wikia.com