Upstart Goblin

Initially shunned for allowing your opponent to gain life points, people in recent years have been taking a second look at Upstart Goblin. Before, the game wasn't so much about speed as it was about control. But now in order to have that control, you need to draw into your more powerful cards before your opponent. In an era where a lot of the powerful spells are gone, Upstart Goblin takes the helm in Advanced Format. Even in Traditional Format, I swear by 3 Upstarts as it helps me draw into cards like Painful Choice and the like.

Any deck that uses exactly 40 cards and wants to be even thinner should run Upstart Goblin. It makes it similar to having a 37-card deck. Not exactly like a 37-card deck (let's say it gets milled or discarded), but usually like one. You can inflict that 1000-3000 damage when you get a good setup going but the most important thing is getting card advantage over your opponent.

No doubt there is a need for a fast pace in YGO, and where things have slowed down a bit, Upstart works to help speed it up. While Upstart is not needed in the majority of decks, it can help speed up the majority of decks if that's the route you want to go. The beauty of this card is that it can work in nearly every archetype, except the 10% of decks that are burn or aggro. Time may change this card's usefulness, but as it stands now, it's really really useful.

Traditional: 4.5 (Excellent)
Advanced: 4.5 (Excellent)

Upstart Goblin
Normal Spell
Draw 1 card, then your opponent gains 1000 Life Points.
 
Next up, we have shockingly a draw card that hasn’t been banned yet, Upstart Goblin. There isn’t too much to say about Upstart Goblin, you get a card but your opponent gains 1000 life points. Chances are though that 1000 life points won’t make too much of a difference so for many it will be worth it.
 
Overall if you need quick draw power, then currently this is probably your best option.
 
Traditional: 3/5
Advanced:  4/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
A rather easy CoTD to review on this Tuesday: Upstart Goblin. Not much to say here. This Normal Spell allows you to draw one card while your opponent gains 1000 Life Points. You can combo this card in many fun ways: Asleep at The Switch, Bad Reaction, etc., but likely you will be using it for deck thinning. Any deck can use Upstart Goblin, the only question is if they want to give their opponent 1000 Life Points so they can draw one more card? Decks that would run this are Exodia Decks mainly, but also decks that need extra draw power in addition to their own. I've seen Dark Worlds running Upstart Goblin, and I could see an Angel-theme deck running it. You likely won't see any of the top theme decks running Upstart though.
 
Traditional-1/5- Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Painful Choice are better
Advanced-3/5- Can be decent, but most decks are covered with draw power
Art-3/5
 
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby

Upstart Goblin has become a staple at 3 in a large number of decks. And it makes perfect sense why it has. Drawing Upstart is essentially the same as drawing the next card in your deck. With 3 Upstart's your deck becomes essentially a 37 card deck statistically.

Why is a 37 card deck better than a 40 card deck? Because you can draw your best cards more consistently. You no longer have the possibility of the drawing the three worst cards in your deck. Of course, there are some decks that don't want to draw specific cards in their deck (think Gadgets), so they might not always want a smaller deck.

Also Upstart isn't totally without its disadvantages. It does give your opponent 1000 life points. Usually, this doesn't matter. Life points are typically unimportant compared to card advantage and field presence. Still, some decks would rather be slightly less consistent and in exchange keep their opponent's life points at 8000 (for example, if they can OTK for 8000 damage, but not 9000).

Basically, if you don't have a good reason for not playing Upstart Goblin, then you should play it.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Great)