Royal Prison, is very similar to that one other
card out there people really enjoy playing...Royal
Oppression? Yea, that one...Royal Oppression is a
Continuous Trap (as is Royal Prison) and with
Oppression, you have the option of negating a
Special Summon for the cost of 800 Lifepoints, and
the effect of said Trap can be used by either
player. Although at last check Royal Oppression was
Banned. Royal Prison does things a little more
straight forward than Royal Oppression
however...Monsters simply cannot be Special Summoned
(and there is NO cost here) however to complete this
sentence...Monsters cannot be Special Summoned, from
the Graveyard. So they are still able to be via
other Monsters, card effects, etc etc...I'm thinking
you want to use this in a Deck where you do lots of
Special Summoning in other ways...like Six Samurai,
Wind-Up, Blackwing, and the like.
Ratings:
Traditional: 2.95/5
Advanced: 3.95/5
Any of the Decks above mentioned, and possibly quick
Decks that Special Summon often and not from the
Graveyard: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 NOT a Royal Prison, nor Royal
Prisoners...
John Rocha
Royal Prison would be a much more useful card if
it were not for the Plant engine being obliterated.
Still, there are many decks that cringe with this
card in play. Dark World, Infernity, Synchron,
Zombie, Dragons, Frog Monarch, and Wind-Up decks are
just a few of the decks that are hurt by Royal
Prison.
The question is: Is Royal Prison the best choice for
a side deck card and what are our other options?
There is an old card that tends to keep coming out
of retirement by the name of Macro Cosmos. It has
the uncanny ability to shut down any deck that
relies on cards being sent to the graveyard. Not
only does it snare the above decks, but it also hits
decks like Inzektor’s that uses monsters being
treated as spell cards. It also stops costs like
D.D. Crow, Maxx “C”, and Effect Veiler. If you are
taking notice, that is pretty much the entire Meta
outside of Dino/Rabbit.
The next question is: Does it hurt your deck? If you
are playing a deck that relies on the graveyard but
not to special summon from the graveyard like Chaos,
Banish/Psychic, and T.G decks, then you do not want
to side in Macro Cosmos or Dimension Prison, so
Royal Prison would be a better choice. However,
decks that do not care about the graveyard like
Dino/Rabbit, D.D. Banish, and stun decks flourish
with Macro Cosmos and Dimension Prison.
I do not like cards that have to stay on the field
to get their effect as they are susceptible to MST
and require you to have several spell/trap cards on
the field making them susceptible to Heavy Storm.
Therefore, my rating is going to be lower than maybe
expected. A well played D.D. Crow can often times be
more effective in stopping your opponent’s game
plan, especially against Wind-Up’s that go first and
can empty your hand on turn one.
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5
Argouru
Thursday:
Royal Prison
Continuous Trap
"Monsters cannot be Special Summoned from the
Graveyard."
They might as well as called this "I Hate
Stardust Dragon/Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World/Treeborn
Frog/Totem Dragon" for what it does. While there's
not a lot of cards that special summon themselves
from the Graveyard, this card shuts all of them
down. Just imagine the look on the opponent's face
when they send Stardust Dragon to the Graveyard to
protect them from Dark Hole and you then activate
this. Bye, bye, Dragon... Don't come back... Ever.
While it's a slightly limited card effect, it's a
bit like Wolverine of the X-Men. "The best there is
at what he does."
Traditional: 3
Advanced: 3.5
Philosophical
Psycho
I've seen this card
before. I've never seen it used, but I've seen it
when browsing on DN when searching for Dimensional
Prison.
Another card in the "Royal" series (a continuity of
the kingdom of Imperial Order, Royal Oppression,
Royal Decree, a whole bunch of other cards...), this
card functions as a replacement of sorts for
Oppression. Now, why would you consider using this
over splashing in a Necrovalley? Well, Inzektors,
for example, don't have to rely heavily on revival
but need to pull Hornet out of the Grave over and
over. Prison can help Inzektors shut down rival
Wind-Ups from exploding by preventing Rat from
drafting the Hunter again and again. Another
growingly common Deck that would want to steer clear
of the Royal Prison would be the new Dragons
(although these guys sometimes work on revival from
the Banished, so maybe you can work around this and
splash in Royal Prison regardless, though this
doesn't mix well with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal
Dragon). It can also help keep Dark World in check,
but granted, it's suspectible to being Grapha'd
anyway and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror would be a much
more effective counter.
Another examples are Six Samurai and Blackwings.
They don't require as much revival as other Decks,
but instead are more inclined to restore straight
from the Hand (Shinai), Banish (Enishi, Vayu),
recycle (Gateway). Moreover, 6Sam and BW may
encounter difficulty blocking against Wind-Up Rat,
so Royal Prison helps supplement that; otherwise, RP
willl serve as MST bait so you can just fall back
on, say, Solemn Warning instead.
Similarly, a Trap Monster Deck doesn't focus much on
actual monster revival. This card helps block
possible enemy swarms and is all the while under the
aegis of Imperial Custom, which shields any
Continuous Trap from destruction.
This card looks more delicious now that Call of the
Haunted is unlimited; however, Spore and Bulb took
in too much poison. Also, MST is at 3 with Heavy
Storm still rampant, although it is uncommon for a
Deck to run all three of its Typhoons (and I would
still rather have this be a Continuous than a
Counter Trap).
Traditional: 1.5/5 (Yes it stops Premature Burial,
but those builds intend to OTK anyway. Also, this
card can't do anything to protect against Harpie's
Feather Duster or CED.)
Advanced: 3.5/5 (The fact is, in the current meta,
we have seen a lot more revival power than ever
before in Duel Monsters, so you have plenty of
opportunities to Chain this. Just make sure you use
it in the right deck and that it doesn't backfire
horribly.)
Aesthetics: 4/5 So THAT'S where the Goblin of Greed
went off to (bottom-right corner)!
