Okay, show of hands now...who honestly didn't see
this coming? Dark Magician closes out this
special week. What is there to say about a
card with as much lore and fame as THE Dark
Magician. I am a man of Spellcasters as most anyone
knows, and Dark Magician holds a special place in my
heart. It's ironic for one, that he claims to be the
ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense,
since he is neither. We have many different pictures
of our magical friend out in the Yugioh world. Dark
Magician, even in the time of Legend of Blue Eyes in
the beginning, was never all that tournament caliber
of a card. 2500 attack on two tributes isn't good,
however you try to rationalize or justify how cool a
card is. Now, allow too for the possibility that as
good as Dark Magician may or may not be, you can
actually make a very solid Dark Magician Deck. There
is so much support out for the card alone, it's
almost sickening. Furthermore, there are some really
solid and awesome Spellcaster support cards too.
Dark Magician can easily be brought to the Field via
Skilled Dark Magician, Dark Magic Curtain, or
Magical Dimension, for starters. He has personal
cards too for support like Dark Magic Attack likely
being the best. There are still some Dark
Magician/Spellcaster support cards we don't have in
English yet, but nothing too game breaking. I
wouldn't say that a Dark Magician Deck would be Tier
1, but as something I've tried to say for years,
this is one of those Decks that is all kinds of fun
to play. Winning is important too, but sometimes its
fun to play a Dark Magician Deck, or something else
you know you won't win with. I doubt you will ever
see anyone win an SJC, or anything like that with
this Deck, or this Monster, but the novelty and
nostalgia involved here counts for something I
think. Dark Magicain, my hat's off to you =)
Art: 5/5 Like yesterday, my favorite is
totally of him no the Egyptian Tablet, but I enjoy
all the pictures I've seen, even the anime one of
the purple Dark Magicain, but I'm not a huge fan of
Arkana's red one.
Nostalgia Corner:
"Now, Dark Magician, show him some REAL magic, with
a direct attack on his Lifepoints!" Yami Yugi
from The Master of Magicains Part 2
Miguel
Our last card on retro week is Yugi's favorite
ace card, Magical Trevor himself, The Dark Magician.
Well, there isn't much you don't already know about
him....his stats, level and the fact he's a
DARK/Normal monster as well as a Spellcaster. All
greatly supported. But what makes DM i bit more
playable is his wide array of tools at his disposal,
as well as his small army of followers, such as
Skilled Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl. He
also has different forms, like hitting the mark with
Time Wizard gets you Dark Sage, or fusing with
Buster Blader forms Dark Paladin. But what's a
magician without magic. Thousand Knives gets rid of
a monster your opponent controls, and Dark Magic
Attack wipes out your opponent's spells and traps.
Of course those cards need DM on the field. What's
that? Need to get DM on the field? For the meager
price of half your life points, you can special
summon a DM from your deck. Have a Dark Magician
Girl on your side of the field? Use Sage's Stone to
get a Dark Magician from your hand or deck. Magical
Dimension is good as well as the Summoner's
Art/Ancient Rules combo. I could go on, but I will
leave the rest to my fellow reviewers. Dark Magician
is great in only one deck, his own.
Traditional: 2
Advanced: 5 *In a Dark Magician deck*
Angelic Nightmare
Dark Magic Attack!
Today we are reviewing Yugi’s
favorite monster, Dark Magician!
Dark/ Spellcaster/ Normal
Monster/ Level 7/ 2500 ATK/ 2100 DEF
This lovable guy has been here
since the very beginning and hasn’t left. It is
unfortunate that there is viable deck that can
really bust this guy out efficiently and
competitively. There is plenty of support for
spellcaster decks, but there isn’t one great build.
One of the best support cards this card has going
for it would have to be “Magical Dimension” or
“Skilled Dark Magician”.
As great as this card is for
nostalgic memories of years passed he unfortunately
should remain there. :’(
Pros: Special Summonable via
Dark Magician and Ancient Rules
Cons: Two tribute monster with
no effect.
Advanced: 1/5
Traditional: 1/5
Philosophical
Psycho
Oooh, snap, I totally forgot to mention something
important in the Aesthetics section of
Polymerization yesterday. It should be up there now.
Behold: Mahad no Burakku Mujishan! Whew we haven't
reviewed this many Normal Monsters
since...well...Pojo's very first year reviewing
cards!
Well, if you remember from my allusions last Monday,
a Deck based around an effectless 2500 ATK monster
is iffy at best. Not only that, but Mahad's support
isn't especially broken, either.
Being the main monster of the first main character
(assuming the Pharoah is the main character, Yugi
Muto once alluded his favourite was Maha Vailo),
Mahad has a relationship with many obscure monsters
through Fusion (Flame Swordsman, Buster Blader). It
is through these Fusions that the Duck Magician Deck
obtains most of its strength. As always, King of the
Swamp should be used in a Black Magician Deck,
because Buster Blader and especially Flame Swordsman
are out of place when you use the "real" monsters.
Dark Flare Knight is a strange card, having even
less ATK than Mahad! I suppose it's worth including
DFK in the Extra Deck though. You probably won't use
Mirage Knight...ever...but I'm reading it over and I
feel as if it could make some evil combo with
Imperial Iron Wall. Dark Paladin, unarguably the
best Dark Magician card, happens to be an
exceptionally powerful monster and is what makes
Mahad worth using. After using Mahad for Fusions or
other things, you can use Dark Factory of Mass
Production to easily recycle him. There are other
possible support cards, but they require a large
amount of Normal Monsters.
Besides Fusion, there are other ways to have fun
with Mahad's body. For instance, once I played
against an effective deck that utilised Knight's
Title and Dark Magician Knight. Dark Eradicator
Warlock is not especially good, but has the
potential to possibly fling some good damage.
Thousand Knives is only average at best, but the
Spell Card Dark Magic Attack has a much greater
potential for destruction. Dark Magician's special
Equip Card Magic Formula is rather lame, but no
where near as lame as old Dark Sage.
Finally, being the Normal Monster that he is, he
receives some privileges. Summoner's Art and Ancient
Rules summons him quickly while Silent Doom and
Swing of Memories recycles him for a fast Fusion,
Synchro, or Xyz. Champion's Vigilance is a
free Solemn Judgment when you control Dark Magician
(but in all truthfulness Vigilance can be used with
REBD and BEWD too...I can't believe I forgot to
mention that when reviewing). Delta Attacker will
deal 7500 damage, assuming you can get triple Mahad
on the field. Miracle Restoring can be used to
revive him, but Call of the Haunted is better, the
same way Dark Magic Curtain is rather outclassed by
Sage's Stone. The most effective way to summon Mahad,
however, would have to be through Skilled Dark
Magician.
Dark Magician is not the worst archetype out there.
After all, I mentioned before that I have a Dark
Magician Deck that is to be more funny than
successful, but it still wins often, so that should
be saying something...
Trad: 1.25/5 (if you can think up a way that makes
Dedication Through Light and Darkness an effective
card, it'd be an interesting effort)
Adv: 3.04/5 (average at best, some brownie points
for potential)
Awesomeness Factor: 4.7/5 So Mahad is an Egyptian
magician (who seems to have very strong links to
British wizards) that was a consort of the Pharaoh
Crazy-Hair whom later became reincarnated as a
Japanese boy. Best of all, the Dark Magician's best
student is a German-looking girl. Makes perfect
sense. And apparently Mahad is a Metamorphmagus like
Nymphadora Tonks because he seems to be able to
change his hair from purple to brown to blond to
gray to snow-white, not to mention his skin tone (or
maybe "Dark Magician" is only the title given to the
best magician in a given country!). Not to mention,
he is not "the ultimate wizard in terms of attack
and defence." Silent Magician LV8 has 3500 ATK and
three other Spellcasters have 3000 DEF (Dark Sage
has 3200). Loki, Lord of the Aesir has the highest
total ATK and DEF, with 6300. What I don't
understand most of all is, compared to Dark Magician
Girl's skimpy outfit, how does he take all that
purple armour off when he needs to go relieve
himself or something? He magic's it off? And doesn't
it get hot under there or does he have a magical air
conditioning system also? Continuing the antics, the
original Dark Magician art, the one with purple
armour with "hand on hat and legs tucked in"...I
dunno, he looks like he's dancing some funky disco
or something. The red-purple one with the green wand
(standing straight) is the most well-known one
besides the purple one. The tablet artwork is the
most dynamic-looking one, however, featuring the
same red-purple scheme on his wand. The latest
"Final Fantasy" (the muscular one with black armour) one
drawn by Kazuki Takahashi and looks like Cecil is
the one I'd like to call the "Dark Physician." And
finally, there's always the iconic red Japanese-only
"Arcana."
Philosophy Corner: Fourteen days ago, in the city of
Aurora, a single man robbed twelve people of their
lives when they just wanted to enjoy a summer
morning with a superhero movie. This was an American
record of casualties for a single instance of gun
violence. I did not know any of those people
personally, and frankly if you are reading this
right now I will be surprised if you did know them.
"Well, it's only twelve people." Not to mention
fifty-eight injuries with countless levels of
heartbreak and physical/emotional trauma with such a
sudden, massive loss of life. It is logical to be
sad, mad, even, for such senselessness. Violence is
but of senselessness. But, like wars of life before
it, live and let live: Let life live. Time machines
are not real and neither is resurrection. It is not
a crime to mourn, it is not a crime to pray, it is
not a crime to remember. But it is a serious crime
to forget to move on. If you realise that, you are a
blessed person. July 2012 was a very bad time in my
life, but hey, it's August today, and I still have
the right to life. After all, at the end of The
Fray's very first music video "How to Save a Life,"
the people aren't smiling for no reason ;)
Double Philosophy: The worst part about dying is not
getting the chance to say good-bye.
Triple Philosophy: All humans, regardless of race or
beliefs, are still kept alive by the same color
blood.
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