Hey everyone!  It's The McShake Alchemist here with one of my most cliche`articles yet!  This is going to be a new series that I'll do over the next couple of weeks (or less depending on how much snow my area gets, 9 inches and counting currently).  To basically break it down for everyone I'm going to take a set from 2010 and take, what in my opinion, are the playable cards from the set (not counting tech decks like k. meiru and stuff) and talk about each of them, why I think they're playable, etc. and at the end, I'll have a top 5 list of cards from that set at the time, and in retrospect.  At the end of my series I'll have my top 10 list of 2010 and explain my card choices.  So, let's get things started with Absolute Powerforce

Playable cards from Absolute Powerforce:

1. Battle Fader

2. Gravekeeper's Descendant

3. Consecrated Light

4. Drill Warrior

5. XX - Saber Hyunlei

6. Gravekeeper's Stele

7. Saber Hole

8. XX - Saber Emmersblade

9. Super Nimble Mega Hamster

(these are just in the order that they appear in the booster set, not an order of usefulness etc.)

1. Battle Fader

     This is a card that I like playing with a lot, but overall I wish that they hadn't printed.  I feel that it really helps the game, but, I'm personally a combo player and a very control oriented player, and I've always felt that reactions from the hand that affected board positions weren't really....how do I say this.....Yu-Gi-Oh?  I guess that's the best and most vague way to put it.  I'm just an old school player that doesn't like accounting for more than an effect veiler or d.d. crow in the hand.  From a design standpoint I can understand why it was created.  There are a lot of cards that needed answers that battle fader was a great answer to (Judgment Dragon, Gladiator Beasts, etc.).  I feel that at the time, this card was fantastic and was one of the things that Monarchs really needed to be a force to be reckoned with again, in hindsight, I feel that it was a bit overused after it came out, but now is a bit underused because many view it as a -1 card advantage wise.

2. Gravekeeper's Descendant

     Has anyone else noticed how few cards there are in the Gravekeeper's deck that are actually from Pharaonic Guardian?  I find it somewhat funny, but at the same time like seeing that decks can evolve with the times.  When this guy came out he was a replacement for Gravekeeper's guard as a 1-of to round out the card advantage engine with Gravekeeper's Spy.  This guy was obviously better due to the fact that not only was he a +1 coming out the gates, but he was also a +1 by popping the spy that had been attacked and hitting one of the opponent's cards.  In retrospect, I feel that I prefer the guard over the descendant in decks that I build that just play the engine because I don't mind drawing guard, where as drawing descendant is something me and my friends cal "piss poor".

3. Consecrated Light

     This is probably the best side deck card to come out in awhile.  I love Consecrated light and how much he can affect basic gameplay when he hits the table.  I've won games because of this guy, and, at the same time, I've lost games because of this guy.  When he came out most people either loved him or hated him.  Some said "This is awesome!  Now we have answers to DaD and Blackwings!" and others said "They'll just book it, summon DaD, and kill it."  In hindsight, I feel that this guy is good enough for a two of in non-dark deck side decks, and the reason that most dark side decks have fissures.

4. Drill Warrior

     Man, oh man, this guy.  This guy was the king for awhile there.  Let me play out a drill lock turn for you.  

Draw phase: Draw

Standby phase: Get back drill warrior, activate effect to get back Dandylion.

Main Phase:  Half drill warrior's attack

Battle Phase: Attack Directly

MP2: Discard Dandy to remove drill warrior, get two tokens for a wall, (maybe set a s/t)

End Phase: go

One of the most annoying cards ever, and enough rulings with it to give a judge a headache.  Keep in mind this guy wasn't special summoned with drill synchron, you would discard dandylion to special summon Quickdraw Synchron in order to get a drill warrior without even normal summoning.  It was kinda nuts.  On a side note, did you know that when Drill Warrior is special summoned by it's own effect you cannot Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute or things of the like?  It misses the timing because immediately after Drill Warrior comes into play the monster recursion effect goes on the chain, and bottomless/torrential really don't do a lot about getting monsters back from the graveyard.  I think the ruling is really screwy, but, it does stand.  In retrospect, Drill warrior has fallen on the wayside due to the fact that most of the cads in the deck also go in plant synchro, but, with solemn warning out there are a lot of times that quickdraw synchron attempting to synchro summon is just a -1 or worse, so, this deck has pretty much turned into Plant Synch.

5. XX- Saber Hyunlei

     The level 6 synchro of the Saber deck.  I really don't know how much there is to say here.  He is one of the only synchros that is borderline guaranteed to generate card advantage when he hits the board.  He has solid attack compared to his star level.  He also clears the way so you can keep comboing, what more do you want from a synchro?  At the time that ABPF came out Sabers were finally getting some lovin because they finally got Emmersblade and Hyunlei and Saber Hole, but it wouldn't be for a few months that Darksoul would come out and rip the deck in half.  In retrospect these cards are even better than they were at the time.  Maybe they just ate Drill Warrior's glory.....

6. Gravekeeper's Stele

     All the things that Gravekeeper's needs!  Recursion, unaffected by necrovalley, a way to cheat Royal Tribute, and a +1.  I love it!  At the time that this card came out Gravekeeper's were still a tier 2.5 deck that hung in the casual area of most game stores.  In restrospect.......damn GKs rule.

7. Saber Hole

     This is my teammates least favorite card in the game.  I kid you not.  It's not even because it is that broken, he just gets shafted by the same person every week playing Sabers and he only gets shafted by very luckily placed Saber Holes.  I know it sounds like something easy to play around but he even has the side deck and main deck that should be able to answer it but it just seems when playing in tournament play he can't get to the answers.  At the time that this card came out it was pretty nasty, obviously, but, it's sortof in the same boat as Hyunlei, sabers didn't have Darksoul yet so the deck wasn't completely busted in half.....yet.

8. XX-Saber Emmersblade

      Cards like this make me want to quit the game.  Not because they're actually good, Emmersblade is just in the club with Dark Armed Dragon and Pot of Duality.  What club?  $100+ club?  That too, but, the one I'm talking about is the "We were normal rares in japan but Konami wanted to sell more packs so they printed us as Secrets" club.  I'm really not that bitter about cards being in high demand, just stuff like that where other countries have easier access to the same cards, I feel that it gives them an advantage when it comes time for Worlds, and that is part of the reason that there has never been an American World Champion (I believe that we've taken second twice though, in our own defense).  Getting back to Emmersblade, though, he is amazing.  Simply put, there is always the Darksoul v. Emmersblade debate, and I'll get to that in a later article, but, Darksoul wasn't out yet, so, this was /the/ tutor for Sabers at the time.  He was fantastic at his job too.  Nothing like your opponent attacking your emmersblade with Cyber Dragon and having another monster, you get Fulhelmnight, negate the next attack, and next turn sync like crazy and pull it out of your ass.  I feel that this guy is one of the problem cards in the format that gives Sabers such a huge edge, but, I also feel without the deck being able to play a bunch of tutors the deck would somewhat lack consistency and become a tier 1.5 deck at best.  That's just my playtesting experience and rambling though.

9. Super Nimble Mega Hamster

     At the time this guy came out all he ever did was search for Ryko.  In retrospect he can get darksoul.  Overrated as shit.  Do I still play him?  Sure, as a 1-of at best in my decree plants, but not in regular plants.  There is no reason whatsoever for this guy to be the $8-$10 that he has sat pretty at for almost a year.  On a side note, I refuse to say this guy's full name out loud.  If you see someone call this dude "Adjective Gerbil", chances are, that's me.

     Now that I've listed the candidates for the two top 5 lists, I'll put them down here and hope that I don't get flamed to harshly for my opnions.

Top 5 cards at the time of ABPF release

5. Gravekeeper's Descendant

4. XX - Saber Hyunlei

3. Drill Warrior

2. XX - Saber Emmersblade

1. Battle Fader

Top 5 cards in retrospect (as of 1/2011)

5. Super Nimble Mega Hamster

4. XX-Saber Hyunlei

3. Gravekeeper's Descendant

2. Consecrated Light

1. XX-Saber Emmersblade 

     They were both pretty hard lists for me to come up with, even if there were only 5 (I really wanted Hamster on the first one somehow and 'fader on the second).  I feel that they are based on how big they are in competitive tournament play, and not necessarily big based on how often they're played, just on how useful their deck is in comparison to the meta right now.  I must admit that I'm somewhat partial to gravekeeper's at the moment though.  That may have persuaded me a bit.

Thanks a lot for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the article!  Feel free to contact me with questions or deck fixes or if you jus wanna talk some yugioh, here are my contacts

youtube: Themcshakealchemist

facebook: facebook.com/shakezilluh

email: andro_sphinx@yahoo.com

Also!  Just a small reminder, my girlfriend is still doing custom playmats!  They're all hand drawn and on my facebook is the one that she did for me, feel free to contact her or her facebook or deviant art with any questions or requests that you may have for her!

her Deviantart ID: xxxtearlessxxx.deviantart.com

Thanks again! 

The McShake Alchemist