Today we look at an old favorite, Morphing Jar #2.  Yes, I have a lot of “old favorites” – I’ve been playing since the English Yugi and Kaiba Starter decks, after all.  I think this was called Chaos Pod in Japan.  That is a good name for it: many are befuddled by rulings/wording issues, and even if you understand it completely, what it does to the field is indeed quite chaotic.  The card sends all Monsters in play to their respective owner’s decks, counting how many are sent.  This matters because things like Token Monsters that can’t be sent to the deck so the effect just destroys them and that’s that: they won’t matter for the rest of what happens.  An important note is that if Morphing Jar#2 was destroyed in Battle (or the player chains an effect to destroy it before it resolves completely), it won’t be able to send itself back into its owner’s deck, nor be counted for that purpose.  The same goes for any other Monster that can be destroyed before the effect fully resolves.  For example, activating a Raigeki Break to destroy something if Morphing Jar #2 wasn’t flipped in Battle means the destroyed card won’t be counted.  Okay, now that we have that much cleared, time for more of the effect. XD As stated you count how many Monsters were successfully returned to the deck.  Now you pick up cards until you pick up as many Monsters as you sent back.  “Pick up” as the card text states, is not the same as “draw” for cards.  This is for effects like Solemn Wishes that trigger when cards are drawn.  Now, any actual Monster card drawn counts as a Monster.  If it is a Level 4 or lower Monster that can be Special Summoned, it is Special Summoned to the field in the Set position (facedown DEF mode).  If it is not a Level 4 or lower Monster, or it is Level 4 or lower Monster but cannot be Special Summoned, then it is discarded.  If it is a Spell or a Trap card, it is also discarded.  As stated, this occurs until you pick up as many Monsters as were sent to the deck by the effect Morphing Jar #2: Monsters that are discarded still count.  If you want a simplification, just realize that Morphing Jar #2 cannot actually deck out an opponent by its effect.  It can bring them down to zero cards if there are no Monsters in the deck other than the ones sent via Morphing Jar #2’s effect, but there is no way to win directly from the effect.  You can win the turn after if it did take them to zero cards in deck, but not directly the turn of the effect due to them running out of cards.  You cannot get rid of more Monsters than were sent in either, since you can’t interrupt the effect while it is taking place and any Monster that doesn’t actually physically return to the deck is not counted for the amount needed to be picked up for the effect to resolve.

 

Whew, that’s a lot.

 

As for the cards actual use, I could see running it again.  Just like you wouldn’t set Cyber Jar if you were winning with a field full of Monsters, it can be quite useful as an emergency technique should the opponent have clear field advantage in terms of Monsters.  Set Morphing Jar #2, it gets destroyed, and anything they had is at risk for loss or guaranteed loss if it isn’t Level 4 or less and capable of being Special Summoned by the effect of Morphing Jar #2.  Now, why would setting Monsters be better?  Well, if the opponent had all level 4 or less beatsticks that, at worst could be forced into a Set DEF position, they can’t attack anymore that turn without help.  Also, most beatsticks have a lower DEF score than ATK score, so on your turn you might be able to take out the worst one and either level out or gain control of the playing field.  If they have Monsters that can’t be Special Summoned or need Tribute to be Normal Summoned, then if you are fortunate those Monsters will be downgraded into something else.  If they have non-beatsticks, even low level ones, perhaps you can sabotage their set up by forcing them into something less useful.  Now, these are the low end for benefits.  The high end is as good as possibly clearing their field and having to discard every card from their deck so that on their next draw phase, they lose.  High unlikely though.  More likely is that they do have to discard a few Spells and Traps, and they don’t get as many good Monsters as they had before.

 

Oh, and remember, you can’t Flip Summon a Monster that was just Special Summoned.  So it’s not like your opponent can Flip Summon a Magician of Faith they just set or anything.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 2/5 – So very hard to get the effect off and there won’t be a whole lot of Monsters in play.  On the bright side there are so many Monsters that can’t be Set by Morphing Jar #2’s effect and the decks are so Spell heavy that if it goes off, it should really mill them.

 

Advanced: 3.5/5 – A very nasty card that might be worth running outside of Depletion decks now.  Why?  Well, for those of us who aren’t world champs, it’s nice to have that clutch card for when things go horribly wrong.  There is also nothing wrong with a little milling early on: it’s not like they get to cherry pick what Spell is sent to the discard.  So even if Magician of Faith is one of the Monsters set and they get a Spell in hand from the whole deal, its one less possible use of that Spell and still a thinner deck… which can be quite dangerous if the player running Morphing Jar #2 knows what s/he is doing.  Also, we see more Tribute Monsters now, increasing the likelihood of a good return.  Especially the Monarchs – Mobius is far less useful when revived from the Graveyard.

 

Limited: 3/5 – While it can be utterly devastating here, your opponent’s deck will mostly be low level Monsters that can be set via Morphing Jar #2.  So you’ll usually just block some attacks and force them to change out some Monsters.  Still useful, but no where near as devastating.

 

Summary

A handy trick for many decks, especially depletion, it might be time that this Jar replaced the void left by Cyber Jar.  At least as best as it can.