From: GUYOBRAINS@aol.com [mailto:GUYOBRAINS@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 6:43 PM

Subject: The New "God" Cards - Dustin H.

Greetings and salutations! I'm back, and this time I'm going to take a look at the "God" cards from Shadow of Infinity.

Just recently, I heard someone's opinion of the new "God" cards from Shadow of Infinity. Supposedly, these cards are really good. I somewhat disagree. You see, they're good...but only in a deck dedicated to them.

Let's take a look at them, shall we?

SOI-E-001

Uria, Lord of Searing Flames

Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending 3 face-up Trap Cards from your side of the field to the Graveyard. Increase the ATK of this card by 1000 points for each Continuous Trap Card in your Graveyard. Once per turn, you can destroy 1 Set Spell or Trap Card on your opponent's side of the field. Spell and Trap Cards cannot be activated in response to this effect's activation.

First off is "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames". This one is, in my opinion, the most playable of the three. There aren't many playable Continuous Traps in the game right now, (at least not as far as I know) but Uria's effect makes him worth the effort. The ATK boost will be important, but it's not the reason to play him. What is is the S/T destruction.

Think about it. You can destroy one of your opponent's Spell or Traps per turn. Not only that, this effect can't be chained to whatsoever. That means the opponent can't chain the card you're destroying. It also means they can chain anything to make some final use of it (like say "Emergency Provisions"). And it means they can't chain, say, "Divine Wrath" or "Solemn Judgment" to stop it. Truly awesome.

SOI-EN002

Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
Light/Thunder/10/4000/4000
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending 3 face-up Continuous Spell Cards from your side of the field to the Graveyard. When this card destroys your opponent's monster as a result of battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points. While this card is in face-up Defense Position on your side of the field, your opponent cannot select another monster as an attack target.

The second most playable of the three. The summoning requirements are a little more specific: three Continuous Spell cards to bring him out. That's a little easier to do than three Traps (you could even summon Hamon on the first turn) but at least with Uria, you could use those 'equip traps' but with Hamon it requires Continuous Spells. At least Hamon always has awesome stats, whereas Uria depends on Continuous Traps in the graveyard to be strong.

The burn effect is okay. At least you'll always be doing 1000 points of damage when you destroy a monster with this guy. And his defense-position effect isn't too bad either. Still, he's not as good as Uria.

SOI-EN003

Raviel, Lord of Phantasms
Dark/Fiend/10/4000/4000
Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing 3 Fiend-Type monsters on your side of the field. Each time your opponent Special Summons a monster(s), Special Summon a "Phantasm Token" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 1/ATK 1000/DEF 1000) on your side of the field. This Token cannot declare an attack. Once per turn, by Tributing 1 monster on your side of the field, increase the ATK of this card by the original ATK of the Tributed monster until the End Phase of that turn.

When I first saw this card, I thought "Well, at least Fiend players will be happy." Then, I realized even they won't think this card good. Let's compare this card to another Fiend that's far better: Dark Necrofear.

Raviel requires you sacrifice three Fiends from the field to summon. Necrofear lets you remove them in your graveyard from play.

Raviel lets you summon a useless little token when the opponent Special summons. This token's only real purpose is to give Raviel another 1000 ATK for the rest of the turn, or maybe help summon another Raviel. Necrofear let's you take over the opponent's monster when it's destroyed.

The only area Raviel is better than Necrofear is in ATK and DEF. Raviel has 4000/4000 while Necrofear only has 2200/2800. Still, Necrofear is a much better choice.

Now, the question of whether you should play them.

Uria deserves at least a chance. The S/T destruction is amazing. You can't deny that.

Hamon might earn a spot in a deck using a lot of Continuous Spells. Still...

Raviel...heh, yeah right. Even in a Fiend deck...don't.

Of course, I can't tell you what to do. These are just my opinions. If you think you can make these cards work well, just give 'em a shot.

Well, those are my thoughts on the new "God" cards from Shadow of Infinity. Whether you agree or don't, that's your opinion.

Feel free to share any comments, questions, and the like. You can e-mail me at GUYOBRAINS@aol.com.