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

Mask of Darkness

Common

FLIP: Select 1 Trap Card from your Graveyard and return it to your hand.

Type - Fiend/Effect
Card Number - DB1-EN150

Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.13
Advanced: 3.71

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


Date Reviewed - 03.09.0
7

 

Creator
OfThePoint
System
Friday:
Mask of Darkness

I guess that Mask going to 2 was supposed to balance Faith going to 0. I really doubt that, as I don't see anyone playing Mask but everyone would play Faith if it was still legal.

Mask can get back some very powerful cards, sure -- Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Ring of Destruction to name a few -- but your opponent will see them coming the second time around. Mirror Force and Torrential can be played around. I really only see this as being broken when Ring of Destruction is involved, as burn decks that use Mask can get away with trip Rings and end games very, very early. They could also bring back other chainables like Secret Barrel or Just Desserts or something.

I really only see Mask fitting into that specific type of deck; otherwise it's being de-limited from 1 to 2 because it wasn't a threat at 1 anyway.

3/5

Otaku

Stats                : Mask of Darkness is a small Level 2 Dark/Fiend.  Level 3 means no Fusions (at all), so now that Metamorphosis can work its way into a few decks, it still won’t affect Mask of Darkness.  Dark decks don’t have a lot going for them now, at least that actually reflect the Attribute.  Fiends have a few things, but I haven’t heard of them doing too well.  Once, these would have been killer, but now are so-so.

 

Mask of Darkness has a small 900 ATK and even smaller 400 DEF, so it won’t survive or take much of anything.

 

Effect(s)            : This is the counterpart to Magician of Faith: a Flip Effect that gets you a Trap from you graveyard.  Simple, but not as effective as Magician of Faith because a Trap must be Set a turn before it can be activated, and most Traps require the element of surprise to be effective.  You generally need some sort of “bait” to Set with it: say a Jar of Greed or the like.  Even then, one can never be certain when you’ll find someone willing to risk their Mystical Space Typhoon by Setting it or still running Dust Tornado (or has the cycle already gone back to people running it being the norm?).  Then there is Royal Decree: you might need the second Trap to put the opponent in an uncomfortable position: if they Chain Decree to negate one Trap, you’ll be able to safely Chain your other to get at least one through.  All in all, Traps are really hurting in this game.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : This card has a long history, having first appeared in Metal Raiders, the second English set.  When it first came out, it was kinda handy for those of us who owned a Mirror Force and ran a decent amount of other Traps, but that was a select few.  When Spell Ruler (Magic Ruler when it was first released) came out and all the players with money, luck, or knowledge of the old pack marking trick made sure they had three Mystical Space Typhoon in their deck, Traps became a lot less useful, and what little time Mask of Darkness had to be popular faded.  After all, what good was reviving a Mirror Force if it was just going to get destroyed without its effect next turn?  Some combo intensive decks would still use Mask of Darkness, but not much.  A “lock” combo was available to Mask of Darkness, via Traps like Time Seal and Drop Off Tsukuyomi allowed you to constantly re-Set Mask of Darkness.  Of course, the trick was you had to more or less get them topdecking before it was safe to execute, and oh yeah, there was this other Spirit Monster, Yata-Garusa that you just needed to summon and attack for damage with to do the same thing.

 

Then Yata got banned.  Still, we had some very strong decks that made the lock undesirable.  It could be done, but it was very hard to pull off.  Time Seal was useful, since Drop Off might accidentally help them.  Well, the Tsukuyomi/Mask of Darkness/Time Seal lock finally started seeing enough play to be a concern.  Konami knows that the more cards it bans, the more it annoys all us players.  Yes, even I don’t like having to ban cards.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary, and in my case it’s more a “why keep making card that make even more bans necessary?”

 

Victory Dragon made the lock actually quite useful.  While no one ever cleared up the US rules, in the OCG you can only forfeit on your own turn.  In other words, you have to “know” you’re going down next turn and that it is better to forfeit.  Otherwise, this becomes better than Yata-Garasu in a way: with Yata, you’d count your deck and hey, maybe you had a victory so it might be worth stalling to force a sudden death match or whatever the rules called for.  Here, you know once the lock starts; if you can’t break it they’d eventually whip out Victory Dragon and attack for a Match win!

 

Now Mask of Darkness is back at two per deck.  Why is that?  Victory Dragon is banned.  Most Trap cards are considered pointless to play at the moment.  There are prominent exceptions, but if a worthwhile alternative pops up, you can bet they’d be dropped.  I am honestly surprised the metagame hasn’t shifted to the mainstream decks running one or two Royal Decree in the main deck and then another one or two in the side for the oddball player with more other Traps than Call of the Haunted, Mirror Force, Ring of Destruction, or Torrential Tribute.  Even Sakuretsu Armor might be worth replacing if that common Shrink becomes a reality.

 

That’s not how it is, though, and if are running a larger Trap count (say 8 to 10) then you actually should be running these, or if you’re running a Trap as your deck focus, of course (like Crush Card Virus).

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5

Advanced        : 2/5

 

Summary

Thankfully, there aren’t enough broken Traps in most decks to warrant running one Mask of Darkness, let alone two in either format.  Sadly, the unbalance in the game means you can’t afford the turn wait of so many Traps, or the multiple turn wait for some less general use ones.

 

-Otaku


Dark Paladin
Friday

Mask of Darkness...a card we now have at two, perhaps due to the current ban of Magician of Faith? What does that mean? We can use Mirror Force three times in a duel now...possibly more if you like recycling your Masks...

Magician of Faith and Victory Dragon are both banned, so I guess Mask of Darkness isn't that big of a problem anymore. It didn't necessarily need to be restricted in the first place. Have fun, build a Trap Heavy deck and use your Masks...

I'd just like to point two things out in closing...

First, I look forward to using Mirror Force countless times in a duel via Book of Moon and recylcing my Masks

Secondly, I miss Magician of Faith :)

Ratings:

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5 Multiple Mirror Force!

Art: 3/5

You stay classy, Planet Earth :)

Ryoga
Mask of Darkness :
It's MoF, but less humanoid.

Mask technically has the same power level of MoF.
However, like her, its power is proportional to what it can fetch. Decks play fewer traps, and fetching them back removes their most powerful component - surprise. Also, there aren't many traps we'd want to fetch back as much as spell. However, if you find you want certain traps again and again, Mask is your, ehm, thing.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 3.5/5

Share and enjoy,
Ryoga

Tebezu
Mask of Darkness - DB1-EN150
3/5

Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Ring of Destruction, Crush Card Virus, etc.

The issue comes from having to set the s/t next turn to use it. But then again it is a plus and as such forces our opponent to play around the new set. It has potential.
Turkeyspit Mask of Darkness

One of those cards that should always have been run, but never was. Just like Magician of Faith, this little guy would let you reuse a powercard, only in this case, it would be a trap.

So how many times have you watched your opponent search your graveyard, note that Mirror Force and Torrential were both there, and then swarm the field fearlessly? Wouldn't it be great to return either back to your hand?

I think so...

Short and sweet: if you have room for this card (and since Magician of Faith is banned, we all have that extra slot) and you run the Trio o (Ring of Destruction, Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force, then it might be worthwhile to playtest this card. Afterall, we played Magician of Faith just to recycle Graceful Charity, Heavy Storm and Nobleman of Crossout...

The only thing better the scoring a +1 with Torrential Tribute is to do so, and then put it back into your hand the turn afterwards!

----------------------------

Traditional:

1/5 - they only play 5 traps, eventhough one of them is Imperial Order

Advanced:

4/5 - Ring of Destruction, Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute: 3 solid reasons to run this card. This card should see more play than it does.

Card Art:

2/5 - any card that reminds me of a Movie that starred Jim Carrey is a bad thing.

Lonely Wolf

Friday…FINALLY!!! Joy to the world!!  And to end this week off, we look at a card that actually wasn’t restricted, instead it’s been Semi-restricted.

 

Mask of Darkness

Effect Monster 

Dark/Fiend Level 2

Flip: Select 1 Trap from your Graveyard and return it to your hand.

 

So, why did this get restricted in the first place? Well, a particular deck involving Time Seal and Tsukuyomi comes to mind.  With Tsukuyomi gone, I guess UDE and Konami felt this deck deserved a break. 

 

Pretty easy to understand effect.  If it gets flipped, get a Trap card back.  A +1 or 1 for 1.  Of course, like most cards, this doesn’t belong in every deck.  This inparticular card belongs in one of three decks in my opinion.

 

1)      As you might of guessed, this card SCREAMS Crush Card Virus.  Flip Summon Mask, get back Crush Card, set it, and activate in the draw phase by tributing the same Mask of Darkness.  Easy.

 

2)      The next deck would be counter fairy.  A counter fairy deck can always use

another use of their prized solemn judgments or forced backs.  Though, Mask might be replaced by one of the new STON secret rares in a Counter Fairy deck but who knows.

 

3)      Finally, certain burn decks that run high on traps.  Flip mask, get back Gravity 

Bind, or Ceasefire, or Magic Cylinder, just to name a few.

 

Now much else to say about Mask of Darkness. Superb in some decks, not so hot in others.  If your deck runs high on traps, especially traps that you need to win if your deck has a theme, then go ahead and try out one or two of these guys.  If you run the typical Monarch deck with 4 or 5 traps, this may not be the card for you.  Simple as that.

 

Traditional: 2/5 (I don’t recall traps being at a high here)

Advanced: 5/5 (in a trap heavy deck)

Art: 2/5

 
BobDoily Mask of Darkness
Restricted for use in the VDragon lock deck. With VDragon, Time Seal, and Tsuky gone there is no reason for it to be restricted.

Traditional: 1.5/5 the tsuky lock is stupid, you have Yata it’s a one-card version of that combo ……
Advanced: 2/5
 

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