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

Sangan
Rare

When this card is sent from the Field to the Graveyard, move 1 monster with an ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck to your hand. Your deck is then shuffled.

Type - Fiend / Effect
Card Number - MRD-069

Card Ratings
Traditional: 4.5
Advanced: 4.65

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


Date Reviewed - 02.28.05

 
ExMinion OfDarkness Sangan

Note to all who read my CotD's last week -- I apologize for any inaccurate ban information. I wrote those CotDs on the premise of the previous ban list that was posted in the forums, which turned out to be fake. Oddly enough, half of the things still hold true, but we don't get Dark Hole or Witch back like I was saying. My bad.

Welcome to the New Ban/Restrict List consequences week! This week we're going to be looking at cards that were recently banned, unbanned, made less limited, or made more limited with the new Advanced Format list that goes into effect on April 1st.

Today we're looking at Sangan's effect on the new metagame. Most players used monsters that searched out a 1500 or less ATK monster and put it on the field, so there will probably be many monsters in the current decks that Sangan can fetch.

In a Warrior deck, he can fetch almost anything Reinforcements of the Army would fetch -- Command Knight, Marauding Captain, X-Force, Don Zaloog, DD Warrior Lady (the player's only copy with the new list...)

In a Burn deck, he can fetch almost any monster -- Stealth Bird, Gyaku-Gire Panda, Solar Flare Dragon...

Basically, he's a welcome addition to almost any deck. Just be glad that Fiber's banned so that Sangan can't search that abomination.

If nothing else, I'm glad that we have one more card (outside of Jinzo, Emissaries, and some oddball fiends like Newdoria) to chain that Call of the Haunted to when it gets Heavy Stormed/MST'd.

Hand advantage is key in both formats, and this guy is +1 every time he isn't removed and dies.

5/5 all formats.
 
Coin Flip Sangan was in virtually every deck before the banlist came about and took him out of quite a few. Now he will go back in to just about every deck again. Well, maybe not EVERY deck, but at least 90% of them for a while.

Should YOU run him? Go ahead. If he works for you, use him. The current "cookie cutter" we have (aggro) won't care too much for him unless it's running a monster with under 1500 attack that isn't a warrior (where Reinforcement of the Army > Sangan), but control and stall/burn will like him, as will several other decks.

5/5 Traditional
0/5 Advanced
4/5 New Advanced
 
Tranorix Sangan

I won’t be so arrogant as to assume you really want to hear my thoughts on the updated ban list, especially since virtually every other staff member here has already submitted his. So I won’t waste your time. All you need to know is that I don’t like it.

Speaking of wasted time, let’s get to this week’s Cards of the Day. Most of them are cards that don’t need reviewing – they really don’t need reviewing. So I’ll be brief; brevity is the soul of wit.

Sangan is an absolutely amazing monster in Traditional Format. You should run it in virtually any deck (there are exceptions, but not many).

In Advanced Format, he is garbage, pure and utter garbage.

In the New Advanced Format, he’s amazing once again. He loses a bit of his effectiveness with a few of the bans, but really – he’s still incredible. Of course, since the new bans aren’t in effect yet, my numerical ratings (which I try to stress the unimportance of, by the way) will, until April 1st, reflect the current Advanced Format.

Traditional – CCCC: 5/5
Traditional – Fiend: 5/5
Advanced – CCWC: 1/5
Advanced – Fiend: 1/5
OVERALL RATING: 3/5
 

JAELOVE

Sangan

 

Rated For: Any Deck

 

In the Traditional Format, Sangan can search out Magical Scientist, D.D Warrior Lady, Yata-Garasu, Sinister Serpent.

 

Obviously, with their bans, Sangan is left to search out either D.D Warrior Lady (a sub-optimal search), Sinister Serpent, or probably Apprentice Magician/Magician of Faith. What this means is that Sangan has lost a lot of power. In other decks, of course, he’ll search out Lily, Exiled Force, Morphing Jar, Cyber Jar, or whatnot, but for the moment Sangan isn’t as good as he used to be.

 

Having said that, he’s still one of the best monsters to ever be printed. It is quite ludicrous, to be sure, but even having lost 3 of his most broken searches (Yata, Scientist, Witch), he’s STILL probably the best level 4 or under monster in the game. It was a mistake to unban this card because it promotes less theme unity and more cookie cutter stat searching, but we’ll all have to live with it so here goes.

 

Advantage F/H: Sangan had 1000 attack, will be wiped out quick. However, he’s an automatic 1 for 1, and that “1” portion means you can search out the best sub 1500 monster to bring out the next turn. And truthfully, if they use Torrential/Ring, or other monster destruction, it’s really 0 for 1, meaning you get a free card.

Traditional Format:                              9.5/10

Advanced Format:                               8.5/10

 

Best Draw for the Situation: Great in any phase of play.

Traditional Format:                              9.5/10

Advanced Format:                               9.5/10

 

Attributes/Effect: Sangan isn’t as game-breaking as he once was, but getting a free Sinister Serpent is always a good thing. 1000 attack is decent, and being a Fiend/Dark is wonderful.

Traditional Format:                              10/10

Advanced Format:                               9.5/10

 

Dependability: About as dependable an effect as there is. Of course the new environment will have 2 Crossout, but that’s about all that’ll ever negate it (and Dmoc, Balter (through Metamorphosis), Hades/Terrorking). Pretty solid chance to use it, I must say.

Traditional Format:                              9.5/10

Advanced Format:                               9.5/10

 

The Bottom Line: If Konami wants unthemed, generic cookie-cutter decks, this was a great addition. If they don’t, this was a mistake.

 

A BAD Score—

Traditional:                                          4.81/5

Advanced:                                           4.62/5

 

FORCE System Suggestions:

++        Contributes to Field Control, Resource Management

 

dawnyoshi Last week, the official Forbidden list for Yu-Gi-Oh was given an overhaul. Changes were made, the date of its enstatement was announced, and my Strike Ninja cried out in immense pain. But enough about that. This week is covering cards that were allowed to see more play once again, and today starts with an old favorite from Metal Raiders. Remember Sangan, everyone?

There's not a lot that won't be said about Sangan in this review, or hasn't been said in the past 32 months since the card's release. Sangan, whether it's destroyed, tributed, or sent to the graveyard in any way from the field, allows you to add any monster with an ATK of 1500 or less to your hand. Fiend decks are jumping for joy over this, weenie warriors love this, burner decks have easy access to their monsters, Fire Princess has a new servant...this little critter is just GOOD. Contrary to popular belief, this card is NOT a staple. Beatdown decks have little use for it, and big beater decks cannot make good use of Sangan either. Any deck relying on large ATK monsters probably won't use their deck space for this monster, as they may have better options (Morphing Jar, for example, which easily refreshes your hand). However, this card is still really, really, really, good. Most decks will gladly run this come April 1st...

Oh, and this thing's a beast in limited. Easy tutors are always good for limited, as it gives you something your opponent probably won't have in their deck: consistency.

Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 4/5
Limited: 5/5
 
Otaku

Effect: This, as all but the newest of you know, is why Sangan gets played.  When Sangan is sent to the Graveyard (while on the field), you get to search your deck for a Monster with an ATK of 1500 or less from your deck and add it to your hand.  This is incredible for a game like Yu-Gi-Oh that lacks substantial draw power… well, for those of us who have been heavily influenced by the Pokémon TCG and similarly styled games.  Very potent.

 

Stats: This card, as stated, is used for its effect.  Still, it has decent stats.  It is a Dark/Fiend.  Dark feeds Chaos, and Fiend feeds… erm… Fiend decks in general, Dark Necrofear specifically.  Being a Level 3 Monster is nice: can be dropped into play without any hassle and it can slip under Gravity bind/Level Limit-Area B.  Its ATK is just 1000.  This isn’t so great for attacking (though at least it goes under Messenger of Peace), but fortunately I’ll mention the one or two combos that make use of it.  600 DEF is pretty pointless, though at least (for Traditional) it allows it to be searched out via Witch of the Black Forest.  Can’t think of why you’d need to do that, but you could.

 

Uses and

Combinations: Okay, this card lets you get all those nice, tiny, effect Monsters.  What do I mean?  Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar come readily to mind.  Injection Fairy Lily isn’t too far behind.  The bulk of Burners easily qualifies, as do stallers and specialists like Gear Golem with their low ATKs and DEF so high.  Certainly not the least, you can use Sangan to grab any Exodia piece!  Okay, enough of that: the first rhyme was accidental, the rest are painfully intentional.  Other important things to note about using Sangan is that it is small enough to search out via Mystic Tomato, which puts you two steps (or less) away from any of the above cards with a tenth of a full 40 card deck.  Finally, if we ever get the Crush Card Virus (sorry, can’t remember the Japanese name and I almost ran out of time for this article searching for it), it will be more or less a perfect offering to trigger that cards effect.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 4.25/5-Not as useful a Witch of the Black Forest here, but still a “staple” for pretty much any serious deck.  Yata-Garusa gets tacked onto the list above here.  Plus you can use it to get Witch of the Black Forest.  The two together let you get nearly any Monster you need from your deck within a span of two turns.

 

Advanced: 4.5/5-It’s possible you’re running a deck without any legal targets for this, or with only “filler” that qualifies.  I guess that is possible.  For the most part though, this should be in pretty much every deck.  It effectively doubles your odds of getting out Cyber Jar, Morphing Jar, etc.

 

Limited: 5/5-Unless you lack something to search for, take this.  Search is incredibly important here.

 

Summary

This card is a Monster Staple as far as I am concerned: the decks that wouldn’t benefit from running it don’t seem too serious to me.  This card should not have been returned to us: it is far too potent.  Hopefully I can find time to do my own Ban List article, so I can more properly express my concern over the current list.

 


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