Forum:Return of the Duelist opinions

Another booster pack made its full appearance, another opportunity to begin a review about it. To sum it up in a few words, I think this is one of the best, if not THE best, booster that I've seen from the ZEXAL era. Xyz monsters get major support in this pack: from recharging and recycling Xyzs with Overlay Regenerate and Xyz Soul to gaining materials of higher Levels, such as with Galaxy Queen's Light and Illusion Snatch. The Xyz themselves are nothing to scoff at:

• Number 33: OOPArts Super Weapon Masshu Maq-IMO, the best Xyz of the lot, it inflicts damage and gains ATK equal to the difference between the current ATK and original ATK of an opponent's monster. A possible game-ender, especially when combined with cards that reduce the ATK of the opponent's monster to 0. Examples include Minimum Guts, Black Rose Dragon, among others.
• OOPArts Crystal Alien-not sure about this one;it's easy enough to Summon, but I don't think it'll get that many chances to use its effect
• Magical Hierophant Hieron/Alchemic Magician-not exactly game-breaking, more of a personal preference, along with the other Spellcasters introduced in the set, which I will get to later.
• Geargiganto X-very nice addition for Machines, but is it just me or do the Machines have more than their fair share of support already?
• Giant God of the Silver Summit/Fairy King Alverd-it's been a while since I've seen so much support for an Attribute that's not DARK or LIGHT, so these are more than welcome, but personally I'd skip on Alverd.
• Super Dimensional Robo Galaxy Destroyer-this guys Xyz requirements is the highest among Xyzs so far, but its got the ATK to back it up+a killer effect...that is if you're not veiled or warned instead.
• Sword Breaker-useful against a one-Type archetype, just needs protection against opposing card effects.

And finally here's the latest Xyz that made the Cover Card:

• Heroic Champion Excalibur-this + Heroic Chance = that's a biiig sword. A nicely timed summon of this card when your opponent is vulnerable can easily snatch victory.

Now, onto the archetypes/series introduced/continued in the pack:

• ZW - Phoenix Bow-another card for the upgrade of the main monster of the main character...Moving on...
• OOPArts-a nice archetype, great for Summoning Xyzs of lower Ranks, up to 5. Strangely, I see no way that they can bring out their big guns without some outside help. Each OOPArt has its individual use, except for one black sheep. Honestly, why make a card that provides no support for its own kind? Maybe, they're planning to release a Level 7 or higher OOPArts monster in the future, who knows...
• Madolce-a very unusual, yet interesting archetype that thrives on having 0 monsters in the Graveyard. Normally, it would raise my eyebrows in bewilderment, mainly because today's game focuses on dumping monsters in the Grave, but then again, we have an archetype that works when you have no cards in the hand, and look how they turned out. Most of them activate their effects when Normal Summoned, so Ultimate Offering is a must. The best card is obviously Madolce Puddingcess. Sure, its ATK and DEF do not compensate the need for a Tribute, even with the boost from its effect, but its other effect deserves at least a moment's thought. Its low ATK and DEF can actually prove beneficial since it can be Summoned/searched much easier, examples include Sangan or Limit Reverse.
• Geargia-an archetype consisting of only 5 monsters (4 from this set and 1 from Generation Force), not counting its Xyz boss because the names aren't identical. It may be small in number, and with no Spell/Trap support, but these little guys can swarm the field like clockwork.
• Heroic-an archetype heavily oriented towards Beatdown, Heroic monsters rely on hitting your opponent hard and fast, while defending themselves with Heroic Challenger Sword Shield. Rather decent; their specific support as well as general support meant for Warriors can potentially make them a threatening bunch.
• EARTH cards-as I mentioned earlier, it's nice for the game to branch out in other areas, so these are most definitely welcomed. Sandcloud Knight is not as flexible as its original counterpart, but it serves its purpose. Block Golem, rather restricting on its conditions, but it does give a +1, so no complaints.Earth Spirit God Grand Soil-great effect (minus the Battle Phase skip) and easy to Summon thanks to the latest support.
• Lastly, the Magical series: Spellcasters are my personal fave, so I was quite joyous to see that they would get further support with the coming of this pack. While true that this series' reliability on the Book of Spells makes it really hard for them to be competitive, the fact that they can use their effects on other Spellcasters, not just the Magical ones, makes them pretty flexible.

Continuing the trend from last pack, we get a few more remakes of well-know cards:

• Three Thousand Needles-now this is just getting ridiculous. At least raise its DEF a little so it can actually use its effect.
• Goblin Marauding Force-not nearly the first remake of the original, rather ambivalent on this one. It doesn't have the worst effect among Goblins, and it has decent ATK, but still shares the same disadvantage.
• Illusion Snatch-a much much MUCH needed improvement on an old favorite
• Assault Troops of the Sea Emperor-yet another addition for the under-supported Types
• Soul Drain-with the number of monster effects that activate outside the field ever-increasing, this was inevitable

Honorable mentions:

• Re-Bound-the much needed counter to completely protect your Xyzs/Syncrhos
• Silver Sniper-this was made to counter the recent expansion of Spell/Trap destruction cards available to players.
• Attitude Reversal-not outstanding, but it made me LOL. Well, if he was going to act like a baby, he was bound to get a time-out.

And the Golden Raspberry Award goes to...*drum rolls*:

• Cold Shiver- truly a card with one of the MOST. UNNECESSARY. EFFECTS. EVER. It has half of the effect of Cold Wave, unfortunately it's the bad half. It prevents you from Setting or activating any Spells or Traps, whether its your turn or your opponent's. Because players need the help of a card to not do something. (he said sarcastically). If you see any of use for this card, please share by all means; I'm quite curious to see how it can be of any use. Normally, I'd try to see the full half of the glass regarding a card, but I just can't get myself to see any good coming from this one.

--PoirotH (talk • contribs) 05:32, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Soul Drain. Cool, great, now anti-meta deck are broken. --> Summoned Skull 2: Electric Boogaloo 18:46, April 11, 2012 (UTC)

Can you Set Silver Sniper without telling your opponent? 24.83.215.20 (talk) 19:45, April 11, 2012 (UTC)

Yes, you can. It works pretty much the same as Toy Magician. The only problem is you have to wait for your opponent to destroy it in order to activate its effect and if it gets removed from the Grave before it can SPecial Summon itself, you can't destroy a card.--PoirotH (talk • contribs) 03:06, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

And you forgot the best ones: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Three_Card Draw 3 cards very-very easily. My favourite is an old Batteryman deck. This will make it much stronger. and its a good draw-engine for DW. summon 3 Grapha, and draw 3 cards. Because DW is not so broken yet. http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lucky_Punch Insane. Totally useless. http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_Queen%27s_Light Makes rank 7 and higher monsters easier to summon. http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Photon_Kaiser With this card, summoning rank 8 xyz will be too easy. I like it.

You don't draw 3 cards from Three Card; that's from Lucky Punch. You destroy 3 cards if you have 3 monsters with the same name. 24.83.215.20 (talk) 20:35, April 11, 2012 (UTC)

Ah yes, I forgot about Three Card. Works very well with Inferno Reckless Summon. Lucky Punch seems like too much of a risk. And Photon Kaiser is a -1, including the copy it Summons with its effect, unless you change its Level or use Mausoleum of the Emperor. Besides, the amount of useful Rank 8 Xyzs in the game is rather limited. And I believe I mentioned Queen's Light at the beginning.--PoirotH (talk • contribs) 02:38, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Heroic Champion Excalibur looks great, would work well in bubbleman heros.
Illusion Snatch for monarchs.
Galaxy Queen's Light looks decent, could be great in the right deck. I've got a rank 10 deck waiting for it to come out on DN, it abuses Trap Monsters and the like.
Magicals look ok, other than that RotD looks crap.
121.222.170.239 (talk) 06:35, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

I like how they added the EARTH/Rock support. Rock having some kind of graveyard control. I can think of a Rank4-focused Rock Deck with this combining with Gogogo monsters :D 33royward (talk • contribs) 07:25, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Geargiganto X is only half as useful outside its archetype, but it'd sure make Gadgets happy. --Gadjiltron (talk • contribs) 10:19, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Just wanted to leave my comment saying that none of you realised that there is a spell that lets you add the exodia parts to the hand. just that. --Yes, im Pato (talk • contribs) 10:32, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

This whole set is awesome. Even without the TCG exlusives announced, I'll probably buy a box. Magical archtype might be really good. Madolce will probably be tier 1 at some point as well. Trak0don (talk • contribs) 13:05, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

I HIGHLY doubt Madolce will ever be above Tier 2 at best, they're just not that great. Magicals may be T1.5 or T1 if they get some amazing support, not Madolce though, all they do is get hand advantage they can't even use.
@Yes, im Pato If you're talking about Wanchan!?, I doubt it'll do much, probably make exodia a tad more annoying though. And if I'm not mistaken the final exodia piece has to be drawn normally.
It won't be very meta I would think because if they don't manage an OTK DarkWorld or Wind-Ups will discard their pieces.
121.222.170.239 (talk) 13:59, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

You are indeed mistaken. --Golden Key (talk • contribs) 14:03, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Really? I remember hearing somewhere that it did. Anyway the head has to be drawn a different way at the very least, and it can only add at max 3 pieces to the hand.

121.222.170.239 (talk) 14:08, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Time for my thoughts on the pack....

First off I love Magical Swordsman Trans, Neo the Magic Swordsman is my favourite Yugioh card so getting a new version of him is making me smile so much...though this also means I now need to run Magicals because of it.

As for the Magical Archetype this is without a doubt the meta deck for this pack. Followed closely by the new Earth Stun (which is the Geargias and the Earth monsters in this pack combined to make an expanded Rock Stun). Going back to Magicals I've seen at least a dozen combos with this so far, nothing as insane as the Hieratics I admit but they're all decent so far, Galaxy Queen's Light and Gagaga Magician FTW.

As for the Earth Stun the Geargias easy graveyard control make it easy to summon Grand Soil to the field. As well as use the Machinas for even more field control.

Heroics are a simple beatdown deck and that's all there is to them, with only Excalibur being useful.

Lucky Punch is one of the most interesting cards of the pack. While it's main effect is just decent it's leaving the field effect is where it really shines. You take 6000LP damage. Combine with Prime Material Dragon for great victory!

Silver Sniper is a great little addition and will work wonders in a Ninja deck, I run them myself and one of my biggest problems was people destroying my Super-Transformations before I could activate them. With Silver Sniper it'll make people a little more weary about destroying my back row.

Galaxy Queen's Light an amazing little card, and that's that.

Re-Bound Time to troll Grand Mole and Metaion...

Void Trap Hole There to get rid of annoying Laggias, could be very decent but whether it will still be as useful as Bottomless is doubtful.

Three Card Not that useful unless you're running inferno reckless summon, and even then I'd say it's too situational.http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Return_of_the_Duelist_opinions?action=edit#

Soul Drain The side deck card of this booster. Destroys Darkworlds dead.

Compulsory Escape Device A very nice card overall, most useful in Wind-Ups to refresh their searches.

Xyz Soul This card scares the hell out of me. Being able to give an average 800att to all monsters on your side of the field is a scary thing indeed and then being able to add the XYZ monster back to the extra deck is just overkill. I'll be running this in most of my XYZ decks from now on.

Finally the OOPArts, I can't say much at all about them because I've not really studied them. Though I get the feeling they'll end up like the Ice Barriers with the main monsters of the archetype being ignored while their XYZs are abused by everyone in other decks.--The FireFALL (talk • contribs) 20:04, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Lucky Punch doesn't damage you. That's a big misunderstanding. 24.83.215.20 (talk) 22:55, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

I am interested in the OOPArts. Overall, they seem legit, but some cards left alot to be desired. I am looking forward to trying these out. Especially Number 33 who I think is epic. The Madolce cards are just ridiculous. They are just desserts that like to play card games. One card that I think is quite broken is Unifolia, Holy Spirit of the Forest. I mean, it isn't the new Tour Guide but with the right cards, this thing could (possibly) change the face of dueling. I mean, in the end, this set seems epic. Billybennai (talk • contribs) 21:49, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

I think i spoiled myself too many times a month before its release. I keep following up to find any new update, but now, i only get to see 5~10 new cards.... Anyway, i find this set to be overall uninteresting, but i like some of the cards in these sets. Still, i'm not really interested in types of monsters from the archetype/series they released: Machine or Spellcasters.

Dang, OOPArts should have replaced OOPArts Colossal Head and OOPArts Mayan Machine with the others instead, or perhaps change their effects to be more useful. I don't even understand why Mayan Machine has this effect when both III and OOPArts don't have a Level 7+ monster. It would have awesome if OOPArts Crystal Alien had "cannot be destroyed by card effect" effect to be Continuous Effect instead, but then it would have become a new Wind-Up Zenmaines. they could still nerf that part, though.

I like the Heroic monsters. They're... different than most archetypes are. They're kinda like their user Gauche where it's all about fighting spirit. So, it's like non-stop fighting. With the right cards, they can be unstoppable. 24.83.215.20 (talk) 22:53, April 12, 2012 (UTC)