Classic COTD Reviews – Legacy of Darkness (2003)

Card Name

Pojo Avg.

My Rating

Notes

Yata-Garasu

4.8

4.25

Very good card, but IMO slightly overrated back then.

Extremely powerful effect, but you need to already be winning in field advantage, making it a winmore card.  Not the best draw if you need something defensive.

For this to work, the opponent needs to have no monsters, though this is doable with the several removal cards out there.

Injection Fairy Lily

4.3

4.25

Gets over anything in battle.  3400 direct damage can be a win condition and can force the opponent to play very carefully.

Can be a +1 if it destroys a monster in battle, and at least is a 1-for-1 if the opponent uses removal on it.

I was about to rate it 4.5 but lowered it to 4.25 because the one downside is that if the opponent is setting monsters, this card practically can’t attack into them.  

Dark Ruler Ha Des

3.7

3.5

Good balanced card.  Strong effect and beats virtually all meta monsters in battle.  Though can’t be Special Summoned.

Since you have to tribute, I guess you would use some floater monsters like flip effects.

Spear Dragon

3.7

3.5

Finally a decent Dragon monster.

I think this card has a niche in burn decks or aggro decks that want to get the opponent’s life points low and make a play.  

But most decks would be better off with Gemini Elf, Bazoo or any beater with consistent attacking power.

You could splash 1 of these in your main or side deck if you want a little extra damage in some situations.  

Creature Swap

3.9

3.75

Very good, but it can’t just be splashed in any deck.  It needs to have cards which synergize it, otherwise if you give up a valuable creature, it’s a -1.

You’d need recruiters like Tomato/Rat, Scapegoat and/or Asura Priest.  I would want at least 5 good targets to use 1 Swap; and 7-8 to use 2.

Freed the Matchless General

3.8

2

The search effect is good, but having to wait until your next turn is way too slow and this could be dead by then.  

Tribute monsters need to have an effect on the turn they’re summoned, unless you want to give up a tribute for nothing.

The spell negation effect really only affects 2 cards (Snatch, Change), but this is vulnerable to lots of other removal.

(How it could’ve been better: Instead of the Draw Phase effect, have an effect of “Once per turn, you can discard 1 Warrior-type monster to add 1 Warrior-type monster from your deck to your hand”.)

Marauding Captain

3.7

1.5

I don’t think this was used competitively at the time, but average players overrated it.

1200 ATK means it dies in battle to many monsters.  It has no way of generating card advantage, but it can easily be a -1 if it dies in battle.

Its effect of directing enemy attacks onto this card doesn’t matter since this is easy to destroy in battle.

I give this a 1.5 instead of a 1 because sometimes being able to push out 1200 damage from a free extra summon is nice, but this applies in win-more situations where you’re already likely to win.

Ryu Senshi

2.6

1.5

Good effect, but no viable way of summoning it.

Metamorphosis comes out next set, and in that event, I’d change the rating of this card to a 4 out of 5.  

I rate Fusions a bit more leniently (provided there’s a viable way to summon it) because they don’t take up main deck space so you never have to worry about them being a dead draw.  

Exiled Force

4.25

4.25

Easy no questions asked removal, that works on ANY monster.  It’s searchable by Witch, Sangan and ROTA.

Helps you push for more damage if you’re ahead in boardstate, but also comes in clutch if the enemy has a big threatening monster like Jinzo in play.

Or if you want you clear a set monster so your other monster can attack directly, it helps you be aggressive too.

Yes, it’s only a 1-for-1 card and it uses up the summon, but the versatility is a plus to me.

Reinforcement of the Army

4

4

100% cost-less.  Searches your deck.  Thins your deck by 1 card so you can draw into your power cards faster.  This is auto-include for any deck with enough targets.

There were very few good Warrior monsters on release, but you could still run 1 copy with 3-4 warriors.

Don Zaloog comes out next set and DD Warrior Lady 2 sets later, so this card goes up to 4.5

Last Turn

2

1

Jowgen was released, but other cards for this deck type like Cat of Ill Omen and Wall of Revealing Light weren’t released yet.

Bottomless Trap Hole

3.3

3.5

Great against LV4 beaters.  Does nothing against Lily, Yata, Witch, Sangan, Tomato, etc.

Main 0-1.  Side deck 0-2 against LV4 beater heavy decks.

Magic Reflector

2.5

2

I guess in theory it’s okay for some kind of stall/burn deck.  I haven’t seen it much though.

And it being reliant on very specific cards to work, and having no inherent value of its own will keep this rating on the low side.

A Legendary Ocean

3.3

1.25

I like that it gives a new playstyle to WATER decks by letting LV5 monsters be summoned for free, but there are issues.

If you draw this without the LV5 monsters, it does nothing.

If you draw the LV5 monsters without this, it bricks.

There are almost no decent LV5 WATER monsters.  Legendary Fisherman only, and its stats aren’t great for LV5.

The Warrior Returning Alive

3.7

2.5

This card is less powerful than its effect seems.  This is good late-game and decent mid-game.  But it’s a dead-draw early game and not a card you want in your opening hand. 

I would up the rating of this card to a 3 once a few more good Warrior monsters are released

Thunder Nyan Nyan

2

2.75

It’s a beater.  You’d have to use it alone, but it can still win in battle or trade against Gemini Elf.  Not good, but not bad.

The Secret of the Bandit

~3

1

It’s a 1-for-1 at best (against a random card) and a -1 at worst if the opponent has a way to stop your attack

Second Coin Toss

2

1

Situational.  -1.   No good coin cards exist.

Royal Oppression

2

2

I agree.  Would later be a great card, but right now it only counters 3 commonly used cards (Call, Reborn, Premature) and it would also stop you from using them.

Tyrant Dragon

3.25

1.5

I think the tribute after Special Summoning can be justifiable if you can attack twice with 2900.  But my issues with this card:

It’s a two-tribute, so it’s a dead-draw unless you can discard and revive it.

It requires a Dragon deck, and there are very few good Dragon monsters in the game at the moment.

And what single-target trap cards would this realistically stop?  Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute don’t target.  

Disappear

2.2

2.5

Would become good many years later when graveyard effects see more play.

Right now it counters 5 cards (MoF, Reborn, Premature, Call, Sinister) but it does absolutely nothing to the other 35 cards in the opponent’s deck.

Bad Reaction to Simochi

2.5

1

This relies on the opponent using specific cards.

Not even side deck worthy because life gain cards were neither commonly used, nor good enough to warrant using side deck space to counter it.

Fiber Jar

4.3

4.5

Yikes.  I’m not sure to what extent it’s OP vs. just being really game-warping and unfun to play against.

Double Snare

1.7

1

Only counters 1 card, and is a 1-for-1 at best.  And worst case scenario (which is 95% of the time) it does nothing.

Asura Priest

3.5

3

One of the better Spirit Monsters, but right now there are lots of 1800+ ATK beaters this card can’t get over, but at least this can return to the hand before they can destroy it in battle.   Possibly side against recruiter decks?

Fengsheng Mirror

1.7

1

Spirit decks are not viable, and Yata is the only one people use.  Cards that only counter 1 card and do nothing else are horrible.

Spirit’s Invitation

2.25

1.5

Good card for that deck, but it’s just not a good deck.

Also paying life points, for a deck type that already has a wide open field and will be taking direct attacks is a problem. 

Great Long Nose

1.8

1

Horrendous.  It returns to your hand and you need to keep tributing and minusing every time you summon it.

A Feint Plan

2

1

-1 that doesn’t do anything.

Literally just use Waboku instead of this because it protects your face-up monsters too and your life points from direct attacks.

Maybe this card would be somewhat viable if it were a quick play spell with the effect of “Your Set monsters cannot be attacked or destroyed by card effects this turn”.

Ominous Fortunetelling

2.5

1.25

This will take several turns to get value out of, and tempo is just really important in card games.

It’s too slow to be aggressive, but also doesn’t generate any card advantage so it can’t be used in control.

Smoke Grenade of the Thief

1.75

3

This is good with Gearfied the Iron Knight, which has 2x ROTA to search it out and Blast With Chain to synergize with it.But for any other deck, it’s a 1 out of 5.

Convulsion of Nature

1.5

1

This would’ve been a fun bonus effect for a card that already has a good effect.  

Gradius’ Option

1.4

1

Soul Demolition

1.25

1

Just use the card Soul Release instead!

It can banish 5 cards instantly
You don’t need a specific monster type on the field.

You can activate it on your turn.

No life point cost.

The opponent can’t banish your cards.

The A. Forces

2

1.25

Is awful and unplayable if you only have 1 monster, which is a commonly occurring situation.

You need 2, or realistically, 3+ monsters on the field to properly benefit from this.  Which makes this sort of a win-more card because having 3 monsters on the field is overcommitting and makes you vulnerable to mass removal.

Super Rejuvenation

2.75

2

Really good effect and would later become strong.  There are just very few cards which reliably tribute or discard Dragons at this point.

Fatal Abacus 

2

1

Slow.  Requires you to destroy the opponent’s monsters, which burn decks don’t consistently do.  It also affects you.  It’s horrendous, even in burn.

Life Absorbing Machine 

2

1

This card is bad for so many reasons.  It’s mega-stituational, only affects a handful of cards.  It’s a trap card so you have to wait a turn, and then you have to wait another turn to get healed.  In this time, the opponent can remove it before you get healed.  And it only heals you for half.

Lesser Fiend

1.7

3.25

Okay, I’ll be a contrarian and say this card was a little bit underrated at the time.  It counters Witch/Sangan/Tomato/Sinister while losing to Jinzo/Bazoo.

But I’d argue the former examples are more important matchups than the latter 3.

It’s conditions to being a +1 is a little bit narrower than Airknight Parshath, but it also doesn’t get destroyed by 1900 beaters.

Serpentine Princess

1

2

Its effect is pointless, but at 1400/2000, it is the best statted defense wall card.  Gets over Gravity Bind.   And the opponent may need to use removal on it if they don’t have Bazoo or Jinzo.  Not good, but less of a -1 than most of the cards in this set.

Airknight Parshath

~3.5

3.5

Agree with the rating here.  Bazoo counters this.  Gemini Elf and Spear Dragon trade.  But it’s a +1 against half of monsters (Kycoo, Tomato, Witch/Sangan, Sinister, flip effects).  

It’s an amazing target for Premature, Call and Reborn.

With this card you want 3x MST and maybe a Dust Tornado to destroy the opponent’s trap cards as they set them, or to protect it from Snatch Steal.

Gravekeeper’s Spy (in the next set) kind of counters this card, which is something to keep in mind if you play retro formats, but people underrated Spy back then.

Twin-Headed Behemoth

2.8

3

Best use case is attacking directly and forcing the opponent to use a trap card on it, or take the damage.

It weakness is that even if it survives an attack from a LV4 beater once, it can just be destroyed in battle again, so you’ll need a monster to tribute for it.

Hence it’s a viable, but niche card for decks with at least a few tribute monsters.