Well, well, everyone, been a while (again), huh? Today I return with a new Look Into the Future article; my first one in over two months. Starting now, I’m going to try to get 1-2 new articles up here every other week or so, unless I state otherwise. And to anyone who has been anticipating a new article of mine, I apologize for the wait. So anyways, let’s get to it, then. We begin with a look at Lightning Vortex.

Lightning Vortex was just released as a Super/Ultimate Rare in the newest Japanese set; Flaming Eternity. It will be released in English in the next set released.

Well, Raigeki and Dark Hole are banned, but now we have Lightning Vortex; the new Raigeki/Dark Hole. It hasn’t been Restricted/Limited yet, so it’s pretty abuse-able, but most say you can expect it to be sooner or later. I personally expect it to be Restricted to one-per-Deck when it comes time to update the Banned/Restricted List.

Lightning Vortex is obviously a pretty powerful card. At the simple cost of a single discard (Serpent to the rescue yet again), all of your opponent’s face-up Monsters are destroyed. It’s not quite as devastating as Raigeki or Dark Hole could be, but it’s certainly effective, and it gets the job done. Easily get rid of any opponent’s Monster(s) that might be pestering you and perhaps leave them open for direct attack.

Lightning Vortex has the same advantages and disadvantages as Raigeki and Dark Hole, but it has a couple of additional disadvantages when compared to the other two in that it only rids of face-up Monsters, and that it requires a discard. However, it has an advantage over Dark Hole in that it doesn’t destroy any of your own Monsters when you use it. So all-in-all, it’s a pretty balanced card. The only thing is that it has two more disadvantages than Raigeki has, and one more than Dark Hole has, so that’s why it’s not as effective overall as the two banned cards are, as I said before. Close, but not quite.

Lightning Vortex is a card that you can expect to see in nearly every, if not every Deck you go up against. With the losses of the afore-mentioned banned cards, Lightning Vortex is likely to be seen by many as the “new staple.” If for some reason you don’t want to include it in your Main Deck, it’s a great card to have in your Side Deck, as well. I give Lightning Vortex an overall rating of 8/10.

Next we take a look at Deck Destruction Virus of Magic.

Deck Destruction Virus of Magic was also a Super/Ultimate Rare in Flaming Eternity. It will be released in English in the next set with Lightning Vortex.

Deck Destruction Virus of Magic.. The new version of Deck Destruction Virus of Death, which is now Restricted to one-per-Deck. (See my Deck-Drainers article, # 23, for my DDVD review.) This one is a bit harder to use, though, considering you need to sacrifice/tribute a Dark-type Monster with 2000 ATK or more, while with DDVD you must sacrifice a Dark-type Monster with 1000 ATK or less.

There are plenty of Monsters to use with DDVM, however. Vampire Lord, Blowback Dragon, Zombyra, Giant Orc, and Terrorking Archfiend, to name a few. But besides the ATK strength of the Monster required to Sacrifice for DDVM, and the Monsters that it destroys, it is completely similar to Deck Destruction Virus of Death.

When activated, you get to see your opponent’s Hand, and any face-down Monsters they may have. If there are any Monsters in their Hand or on their Field with 1500 ATK strength or less, they’re destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. And for three turns following the activation of Deck Destruction Virus of Magic, you get to see each card your opponent Draws, and if they draw any Monster(s) with 1500 ATK strength or less, they’re destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, as well. This also affects cards drawn by Card Effects such as Pot of Greed. And like DDVD, if a Fiber Jar gets flipped before DDVM’s full three turns are up, it will still carry on for the full three turns, with you getting to see what your opponent draws from Fiber Jar, and any Monsters with 1500- ATK are destroyed.

This can easily rid of many of your opponent’s Monsters, putting them at a major disadvantage. Cards that can help you out with Deck Destruction Virus of Magic are cards that can remove cards in the Graveyard from play, so you (usually) won’t have to worry about them whatsoever. I’m talking about cards like Kycoo and Soul Release, of course.

Just to make some more things clear, like with DDVD, Monsters to watch out for when using DDVM are Vampire Lord, and Fear and Despair from Darkness. Monsters that your opponent may Revive from the Graveyard while DDVM is active will not be affected by DDVM, and if a Jinzo comes out into play after DDVM has been activated, it will have no effect on it, as DDVM is a Normal Trap, and it doesn’t stay on the Field.

Deck Destruction Virus of Magic is a pretty nice card overall; just one that can sometimes be hard to utilize compared to DDVD (which is why I doubt DDVM will be Restricted as DDVD was). It’s good for Dark/Beatdown-based Decks, and Hand/Deck Destruction Decks. I give Deck Destruction Virus of Magic an overall rating of 7.5/10.

For the third and final card of today’s article, we take a look at Sealing Swords of Darkness.

Sealing Swords of Darkness was released in Flaming Eternity as a Rare, as well.

Lots of “new versions” of cards being released here.. And here we have a new version of Sealing Swords of Light (Swords of Revealing Light) in Sealing Swords of Darkness. It works similarly to Swords of Revealing Light. When it’s activated, your opponent’s face-up Monsters must turn to face-down Defense Mode, where they must remain until Sealing Swords of Darkness is no longer in play. Any Monsters your opponent brings into play while SSoD is in play must be in face-down Defense Mode, as well. The only thing is, SSoD lasts one turn less than SoRL does, as it‘s destroyed during your own second Standby Phase after activation.

Sealing Swords of Darkness can come in handy in many situations. It can make it easy to dispose of pesky Monsters such as Jinzo, other high-ATK Monsters, set up Monsters for removal via Nobleman of Crossout, set up Monsters for Trample, etc. Not only that, but it also of course stops your opponent from being able to attack you for as long as it’s in play, just like SoRL does. SSoD can be a very fun and effective card to use, although it‘s always susceptible to the various forms of Spell/Trap removal.

You could compare Sealing Swords of Darkness to Book of Moon if you‘d be interested in running one of the two, if not both. So let’s take a look at the main qualities of each card here..

- Continuous Spell.

- Affects all opponent’s Monsters, including those brought into play after activation and while SSoD is still active.

- Can last for two turns.

- Susceptible to Spell/Trap removal.

- Quick-Play Spell.

- Can work with your own Monsters or affect opponent’s Monsters.

- Chain-able.

So you can either pick by pure personal preference, try them both out and see which one you like using better, or just use them both (or neither, of course). Both are very good cards to include in your Side Decks, however. If you use one in your Main Deck, it’d be wise to Side Deck the other one. If you use neither of them, they could both be good additions to have in your Side Deck.

Sealing Swords of Darkness is a good card overall. Nobody is too sure right now whether or not it will end up Restricted/Limited like Swords of Revealing Light is, but we’ll see. My bet is that it will end up on the List; I’m just not too sure where (either to one or two per Deck) just yet. SSoD can be a fun and effective card to Main Deck, and it’s also great for the Side Deck. For that reason I give Sealing Swords of Darkness a rating of 7.7/10.

Hmm.. I haven’t posted a Deck example in quite some time.. So here’s a Dark-based Deck example using the three featured cards of today’s article.

1x Blowback Dragon

1x Vampire Lord

3x Giant Orc

2x Zombyra the Dark

2x Stealth Bird

2x Night Assailant

1x Magical Warrior - Breaker

1x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1x Magical Scientist

1x Cyber Jar

1x Sinister Serpent

2x Sealing Swords of Darkness

2x Nobleman of Crossout

1x Pot of Greed

1x Lightning Vortex

1x Painful Choice

1x Change of Heart

1x Snatch Steal

1x Premature Burial

1x The Shallow Grave

1x Death Reversal

1x Heavy Storm

1x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x The Forceful Sentry

1x Book of Moon

2x Deck Destruction Virus of Magic

1x Sixth Sense

1x Call of the Haunted

1x Deck Destruction Virus of Death

1x Dead Spirit - Zoma

1x Ring of Destruction

1x Waboku

3x Thousand Eyes Restrict

3x Dark Balter the Terrible

That will do it for Article # 57 - This Endless Dark. You can e-mail me with questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..

... And The Path Goes On ...