RCG |
Zoodiac Ratpier
We fittingly start reviewing the Zoodiac monsters
the week after we learn about the huge change to
Yu-Gi-Oh that is going to slow down the game by
eliminating unchecked extra deck summons – Link
Summoning. Zoodiacs are the culmination of power
creep, the end game. They are dominating the OCG in
a way no other deck has dominated, in that they win
on turn 1 when played correctly, and mirror matches
are often solely determined by who gets to go first
in duel 1. Resources are refreshed without effort
and no bad cards need to be played. I applaud the
courage of Konami to make this massive change that
will be setting back the clock. Now obviously, the
apparent pace change of the game could be nothing if
the Link monsters that come out are as combo heavy
as Zoodiacs currently are, but I think the intent is
clear. It’s time to slow things down and work for
your plays again.
Zoodiac Ratpier is the pure essence of this
soon-to-die format. It’s the last herald, the signal
of what was quickly becoming an epidemic that needed
a cure. Ratpier is the engine of Zoodiacs, and it
starts by doing something that Konami had not
allowed for quite some time, and that was allowing
her special summoning effect to be unlimited. It’s
what makes Zoodiacs truly outrageous. The Yu-Gi-Oh
card pool is the broadest it’s ever been, and yet
Konami took that last step in power creep by
allowing a monster to special summon other monsters
from the deck as many times as you can manage
without any cost or restriction! I feel like there’s
a possibility they created the Zoodiacs after Link
Summoning was planned as a last hurrah for the
current method of playing the game. Sort of an
“enjoy it”/middle finger to the trading card game
world. My theory about this is justified by the
impossible summoning requirements of most of the
Zoodiac XYZ monsters if you couldn’t use a Zoodiac
monster as an alternative method to summon them.
But I digress. While Link Summoning is casting a
huge shadow over the OCG, the TCG won’t have it for
a while, so Zoodiacs in various hybrids are going to
dominate the scene for months. And Ratpier will be
run in triplicate in every version. It’s absurd what
this card can do, especially when it’s so easily
searchable. In fact, with cards like M-X-Saber
Invoker, Zoodiac Barrage, and Zoodiac Broadbull,
it’s very hard not to get Ratpier immediately. And
that’s the point. Zoodiacs were created to run
seamlessly, and that’s what makes it impossible to
compete with. The theme in its very essence
overcomes the limit of only 3 copies of a card per
deck that makes you work for key cards. And even
when you run out the engine and summon all your rats
during the turn, the deck can then easily bring out
Daigusto Emeral to put them back and start all over!
This deck (and this monster in particular) is
cancer, and I welcomed the news of Link Summoning
with open arms. It’s a new day, or it will be soon.
In the meantime, if you want to be competitive right
now, you’re gonna have to run the Zoodiac engine.
And Ratpier is the star. If Link Summoning doesn’t
slow her down, the restricted list will.
Advanced: 5/5
Future Potential: 2/5
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