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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Scapegoat
Super Rare

When this card is activated, you cannot summon any monster in the same turn (including Flip Summon and Special Summon). Place 4 "Sheep Tokens" (Beast-Type/EARTH/1 Star/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position on your side of the field. The tokens cannot be used as a Tribute for a Tribute Summon.

Type - Quick-Play Spell
Card Number
- SDJ-041

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being 
the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating

Date Reviewed - 8.4.04

Previously Reviewed:  04.02.03

ExMinion OfDarkness Wednesday:
Scapegoat

This thing saw so much play at Worlds it isn't even funny. We all know about the chainability and stall, but here's some things to be considered:

At Worlds, NO ONE used more than one Trample-effect monster in their Deck (and that was an Airknight). Having said that, Scapegoat will save you against all but the most crude of old LOD-based Beatdowns (which the rest of your Deck should beat anyway.)

Additionally, with Creature Swap seeing so much use, the ability to swap a Goat to your token (in Attack mode, nonetheless!) to your opponent is like a free direct shot on them with their own monster.

With only one field-clearer magic (Raigeki being banned), this suddenly becomes a slight favorite over Waboku in the eyes of many. Just hope someone doesn't Torrential your goats.

4/5 
Tranorix Wednesday: Scapegoat

Scapegoat, a Super Rare from the Joey Starter, is a fantastic card. I won't deny that it's one of my personal favorites, and there are many valid reasons for this.

First of all, it's a Quickplay Magic card. You can activate it at any point (except the Damage Step) from your hand during your own turn, and if you set it, you can also activate it during your opponent's turn. There's nothing more fun to watch than the look on your opponent's face when he attacks with Jinzo and you spring four little Sheep Tokens on him. It's priceless.

Now, think about it: Scapegoat = field advantage. You're giving up one card to get FOUR. Granted, they don't do much; but if your opponent doesn't have removal, he'll waste quite a bit of time getting rid of your Tokens. One of my favorite things to do is let my opponent Raigeki whatever monsters I have, then activate Scapegoat. It's frustrating.

These Sheep Tokens are great for stalling, obviously (excellent defense against Black Luster Soldier); but their best use is in Burn decks. You can use Metamorphosis on one to bring out Thousand Eyes Restrict and stall even longer. You can launch them with Cannon Soldier (very fun) for a lot of potential damage. You can use them with Pikeru to gain up to 2000 Life Points per Standby Phase.

With each new set there come only more uses for Scapegoat, a card which I feel could fit into nearly every deck. If you want to mix things up at your local tournament, I seriously recommend throwing in a Scapegoat or two. Just be wary of those Spear Dragons.

Typical tournament deck: 4/5
Burn deck: 5/5
OVERALL RATING: 4.5/5 
Otaku

Stats: Scapegoat is a Quick-Play Spell/trap card.  Simply put, I don’t think there’s a better way it could be implemented without adding a new, unintended dimension to the card… or ruining it.

Effect(s): This card creates four Sheep Tokens.  These critters are Level 1 Earth/Beasts with and ATK and DEF of… zero.  They are summoned in ATK or DEF mode (surprisingly, that will actually matter), and cannot be used for a Tribute Summon.  Also, you must have four open Monster Zone slots and cannot Summon (including Special and Flip Summon) a monster on the turn this card is activated (either before or after).  You may Set a Monster, though.

Uses/Combinations: I think the worst mistake people make is using this solely as a Defensive card.  It is a Token card with defensive properties.  Okay, for the five people that are still reading this, I’ll explain what I just said, as most people don’t see the difference.  A lot of Yu-Gi-Oh cards have an effect or effects that have multiple uses.  Take Mirror Force.  It’s primary use is defensive-it negates an attack, and can only be triggered when it would do so.  Its secondary effect is mass monster removal.  That effect is more widespread than its negation effect, but that Monster removal also serves to defend, so overall, I’d say that it’s defensive first, removal second.  Ring of Destruction?  Primary effect is monster removal: you choose one, and it dies.  Secondary effect is burn.  Since the burn affects both players evenly, it definitely doesn’t seem right to give it top billing.  Finally, it can be used defensively, by preventing a creature from attacking.  Usually the player ends up taking the same net damage, but makes their opponent take it too and removes a monster.  So Ring of Destruction is Monster Removal that is also a burn and a defensive card.  Whew.  So let’s look at Scapegoat again.  What does its primary effect do?  It summons 4 Sheep tokens.  Those tokens, by their nature will block attacks.  Since it is Quick-Play, it can be activated at opportune times.  Thus it’s primarily for tokens, and those tokens main use is defense, as that is all they are good for on their own.  If it summoned the same creatures, only with an ATK of 1000, it would be a good beatdown card-giving a quick 4000 damage, and who cares if they smash into a trap and die?  Given that you can’t summon when you activate it, you usually want to activate it on your opponent’s turn anyway.

There are two other reasons I focus on the Token aspect first.  One is that, while they have the potential to protect much longer than a Waboku (for example) under the same conditions, they also have a lot of weaknesses open to them.  First, they can be removed via *gasp* monster removal!  More problematic-as they eat up space and aren’t good for attacking (baring certain combos) your opponent will likely be building up more monsters to attack with.  Remember, if I leave them, you get one more monster on the field until your dispose of them.  That one monster will probably be easier to deal with, at least until I set up for something nasty using the other defensive loop hole-tramplers.  Enraged Battle Ox, Spear Dragon, Airknight, all giggle as they basically get to ignore the Sheep Tokens.  Worse yet is a fun main/side deck option for monsters with multiple attacks-Big Bang Shot or Fairy Meteor Crush.  We had a person who, maybe 6 months ago, was running a Light deck.  As Scapegoat had become popular, he added Asura Priest.  This sometimes overlooked Spirit Monster was added to his deck, along with Big Bang Shot (an often overlooked card, especially with the relatively recent over-played decks).  This meant a chained Scapegoat actually hurt the player, letting Asura Priest hit for 8400 [(1700 + 400) x 4]. Since Asura Priest returns to the hand anyway, your opponent had to chain an MST to get the “remove from play” effect to kick in, since Big Bang Shot wouldn’t trigger until Priest had already returned to hand.  So, why does this matter now, with Chaos being all the rage?  Let’s see, BLS-Envoy of the Beginning with the ability to trample and a 400 boost?  Don’t want it to get removed from play?  How about adding that to a Dark Magician of Chaos, since it’s removed from play if it dies anyway?  Okay, okay-let me get back to Scapegoat.

I’ve focused a lot on the negative reason that I don’t like focusing on it for defense, here are the positives of looking at it as a source of Tokens.  The classic United We Stand/Scapegoat combo for a 3200 attacker out of the blue.  Even better, if your monster zone is empty, chain it to your opponent’s end phase, then on your turn summon Enraged Battle Ox and use the UWS on him.  Not a bad card for those decks-as long as its not the turn Scapegoat is activated, the wee Beast Tokens can be food for good olManticore of Darkness to revive itself.

More classical uses for the Tokens are fodder for Cannon Soldier, Hysteric Fairy, or Amazon Archer.  Some older and more recent cards should also be on this list, but if you aren’t running them, then why worry about Scapegoat (in other words, this CotD is going way too long, so I’ll just hope everyone else mentions them for me).

Ratings

Casual: 4/5-This is a more “specific” deck rating-if you have need of a lot of creatures to sack for something other than a Normal Tribute Summon, then this is the card for you (especially since it also adds a nice defensive trick).

Tournament: 3.5/5- Still more or less deck specific.  I keep coming up with ideas for using this with/against Chaos Monsters, but every time I do, I run into a timing issue.  For example, activate CED’s effect, chain this… but then Scapegoat should resolve first, and get nuked by CED.  Same thing if you chain to CED.

Limited: 3/5-Good card here in general, but not great-it’ll only really help out if you top deck it, either early or late game.  And late game, if they already have a lot of monsters on the field, it’s not going to buy a lot of time.  Most of the “tricks” you want to pull off with it won’t be available to you.  First turn of the game it’s a beautiful think, though.

Summary

A solid card… when people remember what it’s really for.

JAELOVE

Wednesday: Scapegoat

Rated For: Any Deck

Today we review scapegoat, one of the most versatile cards in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Advantage F/H: Four 0 attack tokens won't necessarily change the outcome on their own. Their power comes from the fact that they protect lifepoints and allow you to gather cards to defend yourself. In addition, the tokens can be used for ritual summons, metamorphosis summons, and tributes for cannon soldier/hysteric fairy etc. While it may not provide clear-cut advantages, the fact you can bait out a spell/trap remover and psych out your opponent, coupled with its versatility and defense nets a 7/10.

Best Draw for the Situation: This card is basically always a good draw. It's a quickplay spell, making it great in the opening game for baiting out spell/trap removers and creating some defense. It's great against heavy hitters such as Jinzo, who negates traps, and Chaos monsters. It's also great in the mid to end game, when life points are important. In fact, this card is practically perfect in every phase of play, except when you have more than one monster, which brings it down only one point to a solid 9/10.

Attributes/Effect: No other card combines chainability and field presence into such a tidy package. Scapegoat is a unique card, akin to waboku, because it does not directly affect the game, but rather preserves you for another turn. This card packs wicked combo ability, namely with metamorphosis (to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict). Every deck needs defense; this is one of the best defensive walls and is versatile in burners/metamorphosis decks to boot. It's also chainable. Solid 9/10.

Dependability: Scapegoat runs into some snags here. First, it's not good at all versus trampling monsters such as Airknight. Second, a smart opponent will not attack any tokens, limiting your field and strangling your field while gathering resources for the killing blow. Basically, this means that you MUST have some sort of removal besides Dark Hole (perhaps torrential tribute and Tribe-Infecting Virus) to get rid of your OWN tokens when you're ready to attack. Having said that, it's a chainable trap guaranteed to save you for one to two turns, only countered by Imperial Order. The two drawbacks to dependability, however, lower it from a perfect 10 to a solid 7.5/10.

The Bottom Line: Definitely try to fit one in; cut it out immediately versus trample.

A BAD Score: 32.5/40=            81/100

Cards it combos with: Metamorphosis, Cannon Soldier, Hysteric Fairy, Creature Swap, Black Illusion Ritual/Relinquished.

MerrilHess Magician of Faith

Ok, her effect is game breaking. Too bad it's a flip.

Pros:
Gets back needed Magics like Pot, Graceful, and Duo. Using those again is great. -4 out of your opponent's hand or +2 with pot and the deck thinning of Graceful is wrong to a new level. Don't forget all the rest too. She's totally searchable and is Chaos food. What's not to love?

Cons:
It's a flip effect, so Nobleman of Crossout is gonna pwn this like cell phones in mall basements. She also has weak stats, too. You might also not have a Magic in the grave at the time of her effect's resolution.

Overall, I give Magician of Faith a 9.3/10, as her effect can change a duel if you get the right card back. 

 

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