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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Branch!
Common

When a Fusion Monster on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon from your Graveyard 1 of the Fusion Material Monsters that you used for the Fusion Summon of that Fusion Monster.

Type - Spell
Card Number - EEN-EN046

Card Ratings
Traditional: 1.06
Advanced: 2.56

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.


Date Reviewed - 12.21.05

 

ExMinion OfDarkness
Branch!

You can easily tell how useful this card is based on how often you see actual Fusion Summonings happen.

About in .001% of all competitive duels, if that much.

When people do Fusion summons, it's usually through Metamorphosis. I haven't seen Meta in any major tournament decks lately, and the big Fusion deck is a dying breed except for the Cyber-Stein build (which is ALSO not actual fusion summoning.) If you actually dedicate Polymerization/Power Bond + 2 cards to a fusion summon (unless it's your Power Bond, your Cyber Dragon, and your opponent's stolen Cyber Dragon), then you've got a lot of work to do as a Duelist.

Sorry for the short review again, but this is a fairly poor card.

1/5 all.
 
Leon Branch!

Today we review an interesting bit of additional support for fusion cards.
Branch! is another possible answer to the natural disadvantage fusion summoning creates, but is it really necessary? I thought the card sounded familiar to another card we already had so I did some digging. Sure enough I came up with this:

FET-EN045
Centrifugal Field
Field Spell
When a Fusion Monster is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, select 1 of the Fusion-Material Monsters written in the card text of that Fusion Monster from your Graveyard and Special Summon it to your side of the field.

I compared the two and found Branch! to still be a bit better though.
Centrifugal Field can only bring back a monster specifically written on the text of the fusion. So no King of the Swamp or other replacement. Branch!
can, though, since it only states one monster that was used as material in the fusion summon.

All and all the use of both cards competitively will be very minimal. Most decks using fusion summons are starting to move to alternate methods of fusion summoning: Mainly Fusion Gate and Miracle Fusion. These involve removing the monsters from play.

It may get some good use in a Hex-Sealed Fusion deck, but you may have an easier time curbing the disadvantage with Fusion Recovery.

4/5 - Hex-Sealed Fusion deck
1/5 - Pretty much anywhere else
 

Otaku

Well, things are finally settling down for ol’ Otaku.  I still am behind (most of my writing would have occurred this weekend, but I was very busy during this time), so it looks like they’ll be mostly “quickies” this week.

 

Branch! is a Continuous Spell card.  This is a mixed blessing, since it means it is reusable, but also very vulnerable to Spell/Trap removal.  The effect is interesting: when a Fusion Monster on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon (from your Graveyard) one of the Fusion Material Monsters used in its Summon.

 

Now, if you think Fusions are totally unplayable, you’re wrong.  If you think that they are playable, but have little hope of winning any major tournaments, you’re probably right.  Still, you can make a fun and reasonably competitive Fusion-based deck if you try.  Branch! makes a good pressure card for such a deck, especially when combined with Centrifugal Field, a Field Spell.  Yes, both cards have a hard time surviving, but they are definitely pressure cards in such a deck.  How so?  Centrifugal Field has a very similar effect to Branch!  Branch! requires you select a Monster used in the Fusion Summon.  It can get Fusion Substitutes back, unless like the Hex-Sealed Fusion series the Fusion might be counted as a Special Summon instead.  Centrifugal Field is limited to what is written on the Fusion Monster, and won’t trigger if the Monster is destroyed in battle, but it doesn’t require a proper Fusion Summon took place, or even that the Monster being Special Summoned was involved.

 

Together, the cards are pretty amazing, as it means that Fusions will keep coming back from the dead.  If I use Polymerization to fuse Cannon Soldier (thanks to Last Will it is actually very common for Fusion decks) with The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion, and then my Labyrinth Tank (not a brilliant Monster, but it is bigger than a Cyber Dragon) is nailed by a Smashing Ground, I can retrieve Cannon Soldier using Centrifugal Field and The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion using Branch!  This is legal since The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion still counts as a Fusion Summon if Polymerization is used.  Provided the Monsters survive, you can then use the effect of The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion to Special Summon another Labyrinth Tank.  I used this as an “easy” example; there are better Fusions you can do this with.

 

In other words, if your opponent ignores both of these, anytime they go to, say, Sakuretsu Armor your Fusion, you stand a good chance of getting it back.  Even if that exact Fusion is gone, you can minimize the loss by bringing back a decent Fusion piece or by fusing into something new.

 

Obviously, this is of little use to most decks, but in a dedicated Fusion deck a copy or two might be nice (especially if you aren’t using Fusion Gate).

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1.25/5

 

Advanced: 3.25/5-To reiterate, this is a score for Fusion deck use.

 

Limited: 1/5

 

Dark Paladin
As our meh week of Elemental Energy continues, we look at a card that's oddly suspicious (in terms of effect) to Centrifugal (sp?) Field.

Here, you get to special summon one monster that you used in the Fusion Summon when the Fusion monster is destroyed where with Centrifugal Field, you have to summon one of the monsters in the text of the Fusion Monster.

No real bonus or loss either way, and this may be the worst card this week.

Ratings:

1/5 although it may work in a very dedicated E-Hero deck or something

Art: 3/5

You stay classy, Planet Earth :)
 
WiCkEd Branch!

Particularly, I can see this in E-Hero decks that are budget raped. I can't see them in the normal deck, nor could I see them in a competitive deck anywhere. I'm rating in terms of competitive-ness and how well the cards fit into the every day deck. This fits into neither very well.

Budget EHero- 2/5
Average deck- 1/5
Traditional- 1/5
 

Bob Doily
Branch! Review

Alright so I’m back, just finished my last exam today. So here we are with Branch!. A Continuous Spell, so it better have a good effect to make it even worth maining a single copy. Naturally it doesn’t.

So the effect revolves around fusion monsters….. *shudders. So the card lets you get back a Fusion Material Monster that you used in a Fusion Summon, when the fusion monster dies. So right away this card is extremely situational, especially since it means that it won’t work with a Special Summoned monster.

Now here is a little list of fusion support that it doesn’t work with:
• Metamorphosis
• Magical Scientist (traditional)
• Cyber Stein
• Summoner of Illusions
• Miracle Fusion
• Fusion Gate
• Dragon’s Mirror
• VWXYZ pieces
• The (Light, Dark, Earth) Hex Sealed Fusions
Etc etc

Now, yes Miracle fusion and Dragon’s Mirror are proper fusion summons, the thing is that since you are removing the Fusion Material Monsters from play, you don’t have them in the grave to get back. So that means that even decks that really focus on fusions, especially E-heros *shudders don’t get any help from this card, and believe me they need it.

Furthermore, since Fusion Summons require you to essentially lose card advantage, and since this doesn’t work with Special Summons that means that not only is it situational but it makes you lose even more advantage by forcing you to play a certain way to get it’s effect. And the effect is only a +1 while the card itself is already a -1.

IMO, this is how the card SHOULD have been made:
EEN-EN046
Branch!
Continuous Spel
When a Fusion Monster on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon from your Graveyard 1 of the Fusion Material Monsters listed on the Fusion Monster. If the Fusion Material Monster was removed from play during the Special Summon of the Fusion Monster you may Special Summon it to your side of the field.

Rating:
Traditional: 0.25/5
Advanced: 0.33/5 (Can I give negatives?)
 

Dark Maltos
Branch

Branch is a card, in my opinion that has already been out classed before it’s release, by a virtually unknown card by the name of Centrifugal Field, a sweet little number from Flaming Eternity.

The effects are virtually the same, special summoning one of the designated fusion-material monsters from the grave that were required for a fusion monster which has been destroyed. The difference is that Centrifugal field only works if the fusion monster was destroyed by a card effect, where as Brach works if destroyed in battle as well.

So, as it stands Brach has the advantage. Unfortunately for Branch, Centrifugal field is a field card, Branch is just a continuous spell. This makes all the difference, as Centrifugal Field doesn’t take up precious s/t field space, and is an eligible target for Terraforming.

The effect itself is nothing special for either of the cards really, but in the right deck ( pretty much E-Heroes/ Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon / Cyber Stein Dragon decks) it can be quite effective, maintaining good field presence. Just imagine your opponent’s face when they have destroyed your Cyber end dragon, only for you to summon a Cyber Dragon and hit them for a decent 2100, or when they torrentialed your E-Hero fusion, only for the material monster to reappear for another fusion. Still, this is situational at best.

The reality is that most top tier decks wouldn’t be able to fit these cards in , even in dedicated fusion decks, as the Polymerization or Power bond take up the precious s/t slots in the decks, shame really.

Traditional : 1/ 5, Never going to happen….ever….seriously…

Advanced : 1/ 5 in a typical deck, but 2.5/5 in a fusion - themed deck. Still not as good as Centrifugal field though.

Art : 3/5. From this thing’s art, I was expecting something else…..
 

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