Hello, it's DarkMarth again with another article. My last articles didn't get too much response, so I think I should invite you to feel free to email me about anything relating to Yu-gi-oh. I love answering questions, ideas, and rants, so please email me. Well, now it's on to the article.
I find that there are many cards that the majority of Yu-gi-oh players find to be a bad card, when they really don't know how well it can be used. Soul Exchange is one of those cards. Not many people use this card, probably because of its negative effect, but I have found many uses for it that let you get around the aftereffect.
One use for Soul Exchange is the obvious one: tribute your opponent's monsters to get out your powerful ones. This is fairly straightforward. Most people don't like this because of the negative effect, which forces you to skip your Battle Phase. This can sometimes not have much of an effect on you. For instance, say that you played a Toon deck, and you had no monsters out on the field with Toon World and Toon Summoned Skull in your hand. Use Soul Exchange with the Toon Summoned Skull, tributing one of your opponent's monsters to play the Toon Skull. The negative effect ends up not mattering at all, considering you can't attack with toons the first turn that they're played anyway. This is one of the good uses of Soul Exchange.
Another way to use this card is through Catapult Turtle and Cannon Soldier. If you are playing defensive burner, you can use Soul Exchange with the Turtle or the Cannon to do damage to your opponent's LP. Skipping your Battle Phase does not affect you much, considering it wouldn't benefit you to attack if you were playing defensively. Finally, Soul Exchange can be used with Share the Pain to do some serious monster removal. This, technically, works, because you are still "tributing" a monster, as the card says, but you are tributing one of your opponent's monsters instead. By the text that is on the two cards, this should work, unless Upperdeck releases a ruling stating the opposite. But, anyway, back to the tip. If your opponent has two high defense monsters out on the field, such as 2 Labyrinth Walls, and you have two high attack monsters that can't get past the walls, this is one of the greatest ways aside from Raigeki to get rid of them. The negative effect slows the assault down, but only slightly, because next turn your opponent can't lay down any monster powerful enough to beat your monsters. Unless they use Soul Exchange, that is. :) Well, that's it for the uses of Soul Exchange. P
lease email me at Icewalker89@aol.com if you have any questions at all, or would like to comment on this article. Have a good day, and happy dueling! -DarkMarth