|
Miguel |
Today's card is an oldie, but is it still a
goodie? Call of the Haunted is a normal trap card
that's been around for a long time. Call has seen
it's rise in use and been tossed to the side at
times, simply because there are other cards that
special summon from the grave faster than Call can.
I remember when this card was Jinzo's tag partner
for a while. Overall, Call is still a useful card in
this day and age of aggressive dueling, the Solemn
brigade negating everything, and a 3 MST 1 Storm
format. It's chainable, so you can reuse that Sangan
sitting in the grave, or even Jinzo. I like it, even
thought it's in and out of my deck builds. Even
though it's unlimited, one is enough.
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 4
Tomorrow: Surf's up!
|
Philosophical
Psycho |
I was mostly responsible for picking the cards for
this and the next two weeks. If you have a few
years' worth of dueling experience, you should be
able to remember the legacy of Call of the Haunted.
Despite how infamously vulnerable Continuous cards
are to Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm. CotH
offered the revival of a potentially powerful
monster, such as Black Luster Soldier; the slowness
of being a Trap Card was somewhat compensated with
the normal benefits of being a Trap (Spell Speed 2).
The vulnerability to Trap destruction could even be
compensated by reviving a Jinzo or Sangan
(especially with Giant Trunade).
Sangan, Jinzo, and CotH have all seen decreased
usage, the latter two having gone from staple status
to now relatively splashable (like Airknight
Parshath, Vampire Lord, Cyber Dragon, Mobius the
Frost Monarch, and D.D. Warrior Lady before them).
But why? You'd think with the dawn of Synchros and
Xyzs that a splashable form of swarming would be
appreciated. The unlimiting of MST certainly is a
factor, but MST has arguably grown even more useful
over the years; it is more likely CotH was Unlimited
to compete against MST than MST being unlimited to
compete against CotH.
It actually turns out very few meta decks need to
put great importance on extra revival power,
especially one that's as slow as a Trap form and can
be easily blasted away by Inzektor Hornet. I mean,
Dragons have so much revival power by themselves,
they can pull off an OTK long before they would need
the help of CotH. A Rabbit Deck's key monsters are
the Evolzar Xyzs, and they're not very useful when
summoned with CotH; just run extra copies in the
Extra Deck, or, even more terrifyingly, Pot of
Avarice (even then, the key monster of the Deck,
Rescue Rabbit, banishes itself, which means Levair
the Sea Dragon is the main tool of recursion).
Fairies have Archlord Kristya and Grapha just
revives himself.
If there is one top Deck that could use the help of
CotH, it might be Inzektors, which, if you think
about it, don't really have a main form of revival.
CotH, as slow as it may be, DOES offer the swarming
potential to fuel their infamous explosions. Every
new Inzektor on the opponent's field means another
-1 for you, another +1 for them, and another Xyz
Material monster (Inzektors get PAID to take away
YOUR card advantage, it's so perverse, as if someone
stole the bestseller book you were writing and you
can't do anything about it). Other than Inzektors,
CotH is a good, generic splashable card in any deck
that would appreciate a little more revival and can
spare the room. And once you use up the monster for
an Advance Summon, Synchro, or Xyz, you can use
Magic Planter on the expired CotH for a good two
draws.
CotH got Semi'd last format as a test-run to see if
it would be too abused, and it turned out it really
wasn't all that revolutionary a change, so it got
bumped up to unlimited just to clear space on the
list, as rarely decks will use all three and those
that do won't abuse it so hard. CotH hasn't gotten
worse, but it's just compared to the top decks of
the past, the top decks of the future are just
so...self-sufficent.
Niche Decks: Inzektors
Traditional: 1.5/5 (Premature Burial is greatly
abused and the effect is too unspectacular for the
slowness of a Trap, though it is a useful draw after
a Chaos Emperor Apocalypse and can work with Makyura
the Destructor)
Advanced: 3.5/5
Aesthetics: 4.7/5 When you first saw this card, you
may have thought a graveyard picture with spooky
smoke for a children's card game may have been a
little morose and that it was a good call to remove
the crucifixes from the original Japanese art. What
I feel, however, after being such a popular card
over the past ten years, it really grows on you as a
picture that we now take for granted, making CotH
one of the most iconic purple-coloured Yu-Gi-Oh
cards out there. That's why I wanted to relook CotH
despite it being covered a little over a year ago:
it's journey from Limited to Unlimited because of
how much it has dropped in applicability has been an
unprecendented one.
Philosophy Corner: None for the rest of this week.
abc_at_123.com@hotmail.com
|
