Unchained Soul Lord of Yama – #DUNE-EN049
If this card is Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Unchained” monster from your Deck or GY to your hand. If a card(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect, while this card is in your GY: You can banish this card; Special Summon 1 Fiend monster from your hand or GY, then you can destroy 1 card you control. You can only use each effect of “Unchained Soul Lord of Yama” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: December 20, 2023
Rating: 4.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Finally a card I mentioned on my Top 10 list: Unchained Soul Lord of Yama.
A smaller Link Monster for the Unchained archetype, Yama requires only two Fiend monsters to Link Summon, making him able to be splashed into other Fiend-based strategies. While they likely aren’t getting the RoTA for Unchained monsters upon the Special Summon of Yama, they are likely to benefit when you banish Yama from the graveyard to Special Summon a Fiend from the hand or grave. You have to destroy a card you control when this happens, but there are so many cards that now benefit from this kind of effect that it isn’t a hindrance to you.
Within the Unchained archetype, Yama adds consistency with his search and for when he’s in the grave. Unchained like to destroy their own cards to trigger abilities, and Yama being able to add another Special Summon ability to their arsenal is great, and can start the process over again by destroying something on your side of the field after that Special Summon. Yama can also be used as material for your Link 3 Unchained Soul of Anguish which will put Yama in the grave for its grave effect, while giving you a Link 3 that will immediately attempt to use an opponent’s monster and itself for a Link 4: Unchained Abomination.
Easy to summon within multiple archetypes other than this (Dark World, Labyrinth come to mind), Tour Guide is still played and may be better than ever because of Link Summoning, searches an Unchained monster that will likely destroy Yama to Special Summon itself and has a grave effect that can trigger via your own strategy or your opponent attempting to gain advantage, Yama is just a good monster.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 3.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
At number 8, we get a Link-2 that helped resurrect its archetype to the point where it has become an actual contender in the TCG to where the Deck is taking a hit January 2024, from Duelist Nexus we got Unchained Soul Lord of Yama.
Yama is a Link-2 DARK Fiend with 2000 ATK and arrows pointing Bottom Left and Bottom Right, which are overall pretty good stats for a Link-2 and the great Type/Attribute combo. Materials are any 2 Fiend monsters, so a Tour Guide alone should help bring it out with her effect. Upon being Special Summoned, you can add any Unchained monster from your Deck or graveyard to your hand. A great search effect to get to some monsters to help start up Unchained combos like Unchained Twins – Aruha or the newly limited Unchained Soul of Sharvara, so a searcher for the latter is more useful than ever. The second effect triggers if a card(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect, letting you banish this card from the graveyard to summon any Fiend from your hand or graveyard, then you can destroy a card you control. Another great effect to trigger off your Unchained cards destroying your own stuff to revive something like Unchained Soul of Rage or Unchained Soul of Anguish to Link with the opponent’s monsters, then if you got another Unchained card you’re wiling to destroy, you can do that to float into an Unchained monster of your choice. Hard once per turn on each effect of course, but two great effects for Unchained. It’s a searcher for any monster in the archetype and it revives your other monsters, mainly the Unchained Soul monsters that can let you Link Summon with the opponent’s monsters. Like I said before, Normal Summon a Tour Guide an float into Fiendish Rhino Warrior or any Unchained Level 3 to Link Summon this and you’re off to the races. I’d say it’s a 2-3 of in Unchained before and after the January F/L List.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 Sick
My #8: Unchained Soul Lord of Yama
Mighty
Vee
Number 8 in our countdown reflects a rare division between the TCG and OCG regions; Unchained Soul Lord of Yama is a Link 2 DARK Fiend Link monster, debuting in Duelist Nexus as part of Unchained’s breakout wave. In the OCG, Unchained never saw significant success, but in the TCG, Unchained quickly rose to the top of pie charts, rivaling and even sometimes exceeding Kashtira in representation.
Yama’s effects are simple, but effective in Unchained’s strategy; it’s a ROTA that can also extend, bolstering Unchained’s ability to play through Hand Traps. Being a relatively generic Link 2 also helps, since you can use Tour Guide of the Underworld as a 1-card starter and even incorporate Unchained into Labrynth as a (short-lived) engine. Of course, if it was Yama alone, Unchained wouldn’t be all that, as their other support cards are also big playmakers. There’s not much else to add that wasn’t said in our original review of Yama, but it’s always a pleasant surprise when a deck’s meta potential is realized in the TCG after being counted out due to OCG performance.
+Pivotal combo piece for Unchained decks and their associated hybrids
+Helps extend past Hand Traps
-Slightly vulnerable to Hand Traps itself
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 4/5 Just like almost every other Unchained card, he feels like he’s about to destroy something.
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