I do not like Nobleman of Crossout.  Not because it is bad, but because it is too good.  Setting a Monster is supposed to be a reliable, defensive action.  Nobleman of Crossout severely this concept.  It’s not just that it destroys the facedown Monster, but it removes it from play.  The “remove from game” concept was far better than Konami realized, owing perhaps to underestimating the use of revival cards, and Monsters like Chaos Sorcerer, Doom Dozer, and Soul of Purity and Light that remove cards from the Graveyard as part of the cost of Summoning them.

 

Isn’t that good then?  Aren’t those kinds of cards too powerful?  Well, Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial are too good, but only because they aren’t themed: I have no issues with Book of Life, for example.  I have no problems with any current “Remove X from your Graveyard to Special Summon this Monster” cards.  As far as I am concerned, all of them are balanced (if Chaos Sorcerer is too good, it’s more due to the excess of good Light/Dark Monsters).

 

How can it be safe to have any facedown kill cards then?  Well, most others have a cost.  At worst, Nobleman of Crossout hits something you have and you lose it as well from your deck… so while your opponent lost a copy from in-play, at its most “valuable”, you lost your copy (or copies) from your deck, giving valuable thinning.  And if all your copies are out of the deck, then there is no drawback.  Far too often, not only does Nobleman of Crossout provide the advantage of clearing the opponent’s field and stripping other Monsters useful for making a comeback from their deck.  For that matter, I am not too thrilled with costless Spell based Monster removal.  Monsters are the hardest cards to get into play and make use of; Spells are the easiest since most Spells need only “flash” into existence on the field at the moment they are activated.  Its one of those one for ones that isn’t: even though the card count will be the same, the effort to utilize the cards is different.  Obviously, there are exceptions if the Monster has a built in Special Summoning effect or something, but are there any Spells that say you can’t use another Spell that turn (unless it affects Spell use in general, like Cold Wave)?

 

So yes, Nobleman of Crossout is far too potent.  We have several cards capable of handling facedown Monsters.  The most popular at the moment is probably Mystic Swordsman LV2.  It’s a small Warrior, making it easy to summon… and fairly balanced. With it you can kill an opponent’s set with no worries… well, no worries unless the effect triggers when sent to the Graveyard outside of Battle.  So that means Sangan, who should be banned, and then a few Monsters that don’t see much play anyway and aren’t apt to cause a lot of fuss.  If that’s not good enough, there are more options.  Given that you’re normally worried about Set Monsters when you are already winning, we have the classic Dark Ruler Ha Des.  Not only will he negate the effects of Monsters he destroys in Battle, but if you run him with any other Fiends, they get the same benefit, and his ATK is 50 points higher than almost all Tribute Monsters I know of that are regularly played.  Blade Knight might only negate when it is the only Monster in play, but it’s a good topdeck and if used early game, it probably is the only Monster you have in play.  You could also run a Copy of Ceasefire.  It won’t help against non-Flip effects (on its own), but with your standard Snatch Steal, Smashing Ground, etc. it can do quite a bit.  Maybe even experiment and see if Wicked Breaker Flamberge – Baou or Raigeki Break are worth the discard (probably not, without Nobleman of Crossout, there’s a chance).

 

Won’t Flip Flop Control be too good then?  Maybe, but maybe that just means a few cards in it needed restricting or even banning as well: if a deck is so good that it requires a broken card to balance it out… maybe something is breaking that deck?  Unlike far too many Yu-Gi-Oh players, I have no problem with banning as many cards that need it.  I accept that it’s a never ending process, of course: not like the card pool doesn’t keep growing, and as such so will the amount of broken cards.  Note: by “broken” I mean cards that are very unbalanced that undermine the intended way for the game to be played: it’s possible for Konami to release cards far less broken than what are on the Banned List… and still effectively eliminate all Traps from the list of “reasonable” risks.  I mean, look at a lot of what is already on there.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 3/5 – It’s not a good topdeck, and it’s not like your average cookie-cutter deck lacks other means of removal: Raigeki, Dark Hole, Change of Heart, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning spring readily to mind.

 

Advanced        : 3.65/5 – Before you have a heart attack, let me explain a few things: this score is for the overall metagame, and I believe we are supposed to score in increments of 0.5.  Adjust it according to what you run and who you play: heavy FFC and you’re playing a very aggressive deck you’d be a fool not to main two.  If everyone else is playing aggressively you should just have one in your main deck and maybe one in the side as well.

 

Limited            : 4/5 – Save a copy for the death blow, since that’s its best use: getting that last Set Monster that might ruin your hard fought plans.  Still a bad topdeck.

 

Summary

My scoring is less favorable than most of my fellow CotD staffers, I feel it accurate.  Nobleman of Crossout is nice when you’re pressing for advantage, but pretty lame when you’re on the defensive.  Last time it was at two, players adjusted their style and the second copy wasn’t needed in the main deck.  This time, we can still adjust our style, or perhaps ignore the second: Nobleman of Crossout a Spirit Reaper, you rid yourself of one difficult problem, but it won’t get rid of a second or third Spirit Reaper: we have enough cards worth setting to bait out Nobleman of Crossout that it may not hit anything especially vital.  Last format, when we really wanted Sangan or another searcher’s effect, we just Summoned it face up.  Otherwise when we didn’t really need an elemental searcher or even a spare beatstick, you could set it Nobleman of Crossout didn’t matter.  Just having two as a possibility may be far more useful than actually running two.