Tiger’s Top 10 Cards to Combat FIBER JAR One of the toughest situations in Yu-Gi-Oh right now is when your opponent has a face- down Fiber Jar on the field. It’s especially tough when you don’t have any monsters already on the field. But you’ve got to figure out a way to destroy the Fiber Jar if at all possible. Here are the potential outcomes when your opponent sets Fiber Jar, listed from what you want the MOST to what you want the LEAST: A) You destroy Fiber Jar without flipping it. WOOHOO! B) You successfully attack Fiber Jar without normal summoning so you can set a monster after you reset your deck. Good, but not great. C) You successfully attack Fiber Jar after you normal summon a monster so all you can do after the reset is set magic and traps. Not great, but do it if you have to. D) You do not successfully attack or destroy Fiber Jar and your opponent flips it to begin his or her turn. Then, they WHOMP on your open field. This is to be avoided if at all possible. The only thing you gain from this scenario is a one-card hand advantage. So – what cards do you what in your hand when your opponent sets Fiber Jar? Here’s the Top 10: 10) SOUL RELEASE – If you can’t destroy or flip the Fiber Jar, at least you can remove five of their good cards from play so they can’t use them again in the duel. Plus, if you have a stall deck, you could be more likely to deck them out. 9) SPEAR DRAGON – If you have to normal summon a monster to attack Fiber Jar, Spear Dragon is the best one because of his built in Fairy Meteor Crush and high ATK. Go ahead and use any equip cards you have, seeing as how they are about to be shuffled into your deck anyway. Do as much damage as possible when you attack the Fiber Jar. If you don’t have Spear Dragon, go ahead and attack the Fiber Jar with a regular monster and don’t worry about not doing battle damage – it’s ALMOST ALWAYS better for you to attack the Fiber Jar than for your opponent to flip it himself – unless you run no traps at all in your deck (you’d have nothing to set after the effect, so you might as well take the card advantage (6 to 5) instead) 8) SERPENTINE PRINCESS – Huh? Didn’t the card reviewers on Pojo just SLAM that card the other day? Well here’s why Serpentine Princess can be used very effectively in the right deck: a) It’s 2000 DEF, so it’s a good card for a defense deck anyway; b) it’s an effect monster, so if you’re playing Ceasefire it does 500 damage to your opponent; and c) If your opponent Fiber Jars, you can special summon a level three or lower monster to the field from your deck! If you’re playing Serpentine, you’re probably playing lots of 2000 DEF monsters anyway, so make sure you’ve got at least one Giant Soldier of Stone in there (he’s 3 stars). Then, you’ve got some protection when your opponent Fiber Jars instead of a clear field! I play a burn deck that I call the Grenade Deck (it’s called REVOLUTION!! THE NO RAIGEKI DECK in the 6-20-03 Killer Decks on Pojo). I use 2000 DEF monsters, Messenger of Peace, and Gravity Bind to stall; I then let my opponent fill up this field with monsters than can’t attack or get through the 2000 DEF, and then I hit them with Just Desserts and Ceasefire. Fiber Jar is a big problem for that sort of deck because it makes you have to set up your defenses all over again – but Serpentine Princess is a HUGE HELP. I play three in the Grenade Deck. 7) GARUDA THE WIND SPIRIT (or equivalent monsters) – Any monster that can be easily special summoned is good, good, good to have against Fiber Jar. You remove a wind monster from play to special summon Garuda, then attack Fiber Jar, and after the reset, you can use your normal summon to get a monster down to defend your life points before your opponent’s turn. There’s a Garuda-type monster for every monster attribute (fire, water, earth, etc.), so if you’re playing a themed deck, you’ve probably got something like him. 6) MONSTER REBORN/PREMATURE BURIAL – Refer to #7 for the reasoning behind attacking Fiber Jar with a special summoned monster. Use Monster Reborn or Premature to get anything from the graveyard, then attack and flip the Fiber Jar, then you can get a monster down after the reset with your normal summon. 5) TRIBUTE TO THE DOOMED – Here’s the most reliable monster removal card around – it gets any monster you choose, no matter what the battle position is. And for that reliability, you pay the cost of discarding one card. That cost is why it’s only number 5 on this list. BUT – Tribute to the Doomed is one of several great cards to combo with Forced Requisition (Graceful Charity, Magic Jammer, etc) now that Yata is out and wreaking havoc. So Tribute to the Doomed that Fiber Jar, and worry no more. 4) NOBLEMAN OF CROSSOUT – Well, it’s going to send your opponent’s Fiber Jar packing, but it’s also going to get rid of YOUR Fiber Jar as well. At least the duel will go faster, right? 3) DARK HOLE – Bye-Bye to all monsters, including Fiber Jar. And that leaves an open field for you to attack! 2) RAIGEKI – Ok, raise your hand if you expected Raigeki to be number one. It’s really close – Raigeki is a great card for just about any situation! Except of course, if you’re playing the Grenade Deck. Then, using Raigeki just reduces your Just Desserts power. Now, since everyone knows the extremely one-sided power of Raigeki, I’m going to move on to number one, which is… 1) CHANGE OF HEART – All we’ve been talking about is how to avoid getting whomped on as a result of your OPPONENT’S Fiber Jar. Now, we get to talk about how to WHOMP on your opponent BY USING Fiber Jar! When you can flip Fiber Jar in your own main phase one before you normal summon a monster, you have a guaranteed wide open field to attack. Sure, you give up a one card advatange – and you replenish the opponent’s hand, so it’s not that great if you’re playing Yata-Garasu. But if you Change of Heart your opponent’s Fiber Jar, you can really do some damage and prevent them from getting the effect! This list does make the assumption that you know or at least have a pretty good idea that the card your opponent put face-down is Fiber Jar. But if you’re playing against a beatdown, there’s only a few other cards it could be. Maybe a Witch or Sangan, perhaps a Cyber Jar. You’ll see an occasional Magician of Faith. But many times, you’ll know when someone has Fiber Jar because they’ll have searched for it with Witch or Sangan. Or if you’re playing Yata, you’ve been using Forceful Sentry or Confiscation to keep tabs on their hand. So, there’s the big list! Honorable mention goes to # 11 Fairy Meteor Crush (see # 9 Spear Dragon’s comments for reasoning). It didn’t make the list because I just don’t think Fairy Meteor is a card anyone can use much now since there’s so many monsters that have it built in. Questions, comments, criticisms, ideas? Email me at SamTiger54@yahoo.com peace- Tiger P.S. – if anyone reads the Grenade Deck tourney report, I messed up on the Tornado Wall ruling – you’ll see what I mean. It only protects battle damage, not effect damage. Thanks to the folks that caught me on that earlier.