Spellbound – #DABL-EN000
All face-up monsters your opponent currently controls cannot be Tributed, or used as material for a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summon, until the end of this turn.
Date Reviewed: January 10th, 2023
Rating: 3.83
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Spellbound is a card that belongs in the Side Deck.
A Quick-Play version of Dimensional Barrier with the added benefit of face-up monsters being locked out of being used for Tributes and Link Summons, in addition to preventing Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summons for the whole turn. Dimensional Barrier (a great card) needed an updated form, a better form. Quick-Play prevents monsters that use effects that tribute monsters now are in the cross-hairs of this card, in addition to decks that can Special Summon through the Extra Deck during your turn. Monsters that aren’t face-up are immune to this, however, how many times to do see face-down monsters unless you are dominating the game and have your opponent on defense?
It’s not to say that this card is all-powerful. This lockdown pertains only to monsters your opponent currently controls. If you are using it on your opponent’s turn, you may have to wait until they set up the field, which means more effects, which means more advantage. You also don’t get the added benefit of effect negation for a certain type from the Extra Deck like Dimensional Barrier provided. In that sense, this card isn’t as good as Dimensional Barrier.
Dimensional Barrier or Spellbound? Not sure there’s a definitive answer. Spellbound is faster, more flexible, covers more from the Extra Deck, and stops Tributes. Dimensional Barrier stops one Type from the Extra Deck, but also negates that Type on the field. Both belong in the Side Deck, especially now. Use as many as you want, but be sure you have copies of both to swap into the Side Deck as the meta evolves.
Advanced-4/5 Art-3/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Next up we got a Quick-Play Spell that’s garnered a lot of comparisons to Dimensional Barrier, and it’s a TCG exclusive as well: Spellbound.
Spellbound is a Quick-Play Spell that upon activation prevents all face-up monsters the opponent currently controls from being tributed or used as Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Material until the end of the turn. It’s nice to make an opponent’s full board of monsters be stuck on the board, not being able to be used for better monsters. The main issue, of course, is that it doesn’t affect what could potentially be summoned after activation, so the opponent can still get material for their summons if they wanted. It also doesn’t affect the hand or especially the graveyard, which Tearlaments are currently thriving off of using right now. There is no hard once per turn, at least, so you can use a 2nd if you hot shotted the first too early or, more preferably, if the opponent had more monsters to try and make plays with. Spellbound is a solid card, honestly. If you time it right, it can really halt the opponent’s plays, but the issue does come with timing, which might not be too hard. It was released at a bad time, since the best archetype right now isn’t using the field for summons at all. It 100% can find a time and place to see a good amount of play, it’s just match-up reliant and mostly best against Tribute Summon archetypes, Link Spam, and Decks using multiple mechanics as you can always rely on Dimensional Barrier to guarantee you don’t see a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon if an archetype specifically relies on that.
Advanced Rating: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5 We got the Prophecy Destroyer symptom here of another card artwork not looking like a Yu-Gi-Oh card at all.
Alex
Searcy
Spellbound is one of those cards that can be as popular as the game wants it to be. A nifty Side-Deck and Tech choice, it’s a simple enough card. Via Quickplay (which is always the best) when activated, your opponent can’t Tribute any of their Monsters, or be used for Material for Extra Deck Summons. That’s pretty sick. It’s still loose, while the Effect, even only for the Turn, and even including the ‘End’ part in the Text, there are ways around things here. Only your opponent’s Face-up Monsters are hit by this, so that would also exclude anything else they may play later in the Turn. It CXAN be powerful for a lockdown, at least of sorts, even just for that brief period. But it needs to be played at the proper time to be the most effective.
Rating: 4/5 (factoring in Main/Side/Tech)
Art: 4.5/5 This is cool too
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