With the number of decks out today that can make Rank 7 monsters, Number 74: Master of Blades is a welcome addition to the extra deck. It is very frustrating to be able to summon level 7 monsters like made and only have two good Xyz monsters to choose from. OK, that is kind of a joke but if you have ever played Elemental Dragons you know what I mean. The 2700 attack is pretty good and will help it stay on the field longer. Then there is the awesome effect to protect it from any affect that targets it, destroys that card, and then can destroy another card on the field. The kicker is; who is going to activate a card that targets Master of Blades knowing its effects?

What Master of Blades does is dissuade your opponent from activating cards that target and make your opponent’s Dracossack and Big-Eye useless. You can still get your Master’s destruction effect by targeting it yourself with something like Compulsory, effectively turning your Compulsory into an MST or Smashing Ground. If your opponent plays a lot of cards that target like Compulsory or Dimensional Prism, then Number 74: Master of Blades would be a better choice than Dracossack and Big-Eye if your opponent has a strong back field.

If you are playing decks that like to summon Rank 7 monsters like Harpies, Prophecy, and Elemental Dragon’s, then Number 74: Master of Blades needs to be in your Extra Deck as it certainly makes the grade.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4/5

Well, it's about time. After seeing Number 11: Big Eye jumping massively in price not long after its release in GAOV and then seeing Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack hitting top dollar in LTGY, finding reasonably cheap, decent 2-material Rank 7 Xyz Monsters has been quite a pain.

Until now.

Number Hunters is set for release in a little more than 2 weeks from now and, with it, comes with today's Card of the Day, Number 74: Master of Blades.

This EARTH Psychic-Type has a solid 2700 ATK with a respectable 2300 DEF. However, what makes this card so noteworthy is not because of the fact that we actually have a budget 2-material Rank 7 Xyz Monster but also the fact that it is also one of the best Rank 7 Xyz Monsters we have. In fact, you can also make a argument that it can be the best 2-material Rank 7 Xyz Monster in the game!

Here is the effect coming from this Psychic Ninja:
"During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that targets this face-up card: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then you can destroy 1 card on the field."

Pretty short but quite lethal. He is basically the Rank 7 version of Thought Ruler Archfield, one of my most favorite cards in the game, but even better in so many ways. First of all, all you need to do is to target this card with anything. It doesn't matter if it was your card or your opponent, which gives you an untold amount of flexibility, which I will go into more detail later. By doing this, you can detach an Xyz Material to negate and destroy the card and, in addition, blow something else up as well.

This card owns Number 11 pretty badly if it were to use the effect on it and then you take something else out with it if you want to. Keep in mind that the extra card destruction is optional so you don't have to fear your opponent going into just Number 11 with no other cards on the field and force you to blow up your own Number 74 if you were to defend your monster. Also, it makes a fool out of one of the more splashable cards in the game: Compulsory Evacuation Device. Normally, an Xyz Monster would get removed very easily by Compulsory but, with Number 74, all Compulsory will do is get owned and blow something else up in the process.

Even better, it can even negate Effect Veiler itself, which is just ironic in many ways. To think that one of the safest-to-use hand traps would get defeated by the very type of monster you normally bring in Effect Veiler for.

In the case of Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack, unfortunately for it, even it can't beat Number 74. First of all, Dracossack has 2600 ATK so it can't beat Number 74 in battle. Also, if it were to use its effect by itself, it would get stopped while blowing something else up for a quick -1. If Dracossack were to use its Token summoning effect and then drop a Mecha Phantom Beast Token to target Number 74, Number 74 can negate that effect, destroy Dracossack (which will be safe due to its destruction prevention effect since you will still have 1 Token left), and then blow up the 2nd Mecha Phantom Beast Token, leaving Dracossack basically unprotected and ready to be ran over. In other words, neither Number 11 or Dracossack, as powerful as both may be, is not the right weapons necessary to deal with Number 74 since Number 74 owns any cards that target it.

Prophecy can banish Number 74 with Spellbook of Fate, the ultimate problem solver since Fate doesn't target. It can also beat it by summoning High Priestess of Prophecy and then give it a Spellbook of Power boost to run it over. Dragon Rulers, however, will have a far more difficult time. First of all, only Blaster has enough ATK to defeat Number 74 in battle. Secondly, as mentioned sooner, neither Number 11 or Dracossack can defeat it by themselves or with its effect. Lastly, the majority of the cards that normally deal with threats like Number 74, Number 74 can beat outright. Even Breakthrough Skill and Blaster's destruction effect can't stop it.

Now, as to what I said earlier, this card has untold potential and the best duelists out there will keep these tactics in mind and use them if they ever have to. What do I mean by that? Well....keep in mind that I did say that you can use this effect offensively earlier in the review. Allow me to explain

For example, let's say your opponent has a card on the field that you can't defeat with the hand you have right now like a face-up Dimensional Fissure while you are playing Mermails. However, you also have a card in your hand that targets but you doubt you will need it in the long run. Use that card and target Number 74 and then use Number 74's effect to negate your own card and then blow up that Dimensional Fissure. Is it a desperate move? Perhaps but it can make the difference between a victory and a defeat, esp. with a card like Dimensional Fissure being a powerful side deck card for a discarding-reliant deck like Mermails. It's stuff like this that truly maximize the potential of a card and can get rid of threats in almost any way.

Truth be told, this card has a huge ceiling in potential and power. I hasn't even covered nowhere near the amount of cards commonly seen in competitive play that Number 74 laughs at and, to add insult to injury, it doesn't have an "Once per turn" limitation so unless your opponent don't mind throwing away cards just to get Number 74 off the field, it is going to stick around for quite some time. It's a shame Dragon Rulers get to enjoy this card as well but you can bet on it I will get my 2 copies, if not 3, once this is released. Not only it is scary good but it is also the cheapest Rank 7 Xyz we will have access to, which only makes it that much more sweeter. This cards owns decks that target constantly and there is a ton of them out there.

If Number 74 is not the chase card of this set, something is terribly wrong with this game's player base. I'm confident when I say that.

Traditional Format: 3/5 (Strangely enough, it's not that bad there. There is quite a few commonly played cards that target so, if your deck relies around Level 7 monsters, I don't see the harm of teching one of these. Of course, it is player preference.)
Advanced Format: 5/5 (I don't think this card has gotten the proper respect yet. After doing this review, I definitely want this even more than Dracossack for my Mecha Phantom Beast deck, which is scary when you think about it. This card adds an untold amount of power to the Rank 7 toolbox which is already scary enough when you consider that it has Number 11 and Dracossack alongside it. After all, if you can't beat Number 74, join Number 74.)

Number 74: Master of Blades
EARTH/Psychic/Xyz/Effect/Rank7/2700/2300
2 Level 7 monsters
During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that targets this face-up card: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then you can destroy 1 card on the field.

Next we have another card from Number Hunters, Number 74: Master of Blades, even though it's a Psychic and not a Warrior. Still Number 74: Master of Blades has the 4th highest attack for a Rank 7 and 2700 ATK is very good and 2300 DEF is bad either. Number 74: Master of Blades effect is also quite good, a protection effect that can do more, granted it has to target Number 74: Master of Blades when its face up, but it is a quick effect and it still is protection and it destroys the card in question. But that's not all, if you have destroyed that card, you can destroy another, so you have the chance to destroy two cards with 1 material, which is good value. Of course it is unlikely that this card will be replacing Number 11: Big Eye or Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack in people's extra decks, but it might be one to consider if you have room.

Overall a solid Rank 7 and might be 1 to consider if you have space.
Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 3/5

I am going to establish upfront that this guy is going to be one of the top three Rank 7 Xyzs, the other two being Number 11: Big Eye and Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack. Out of these three, Dracossack is perhaps the most powerful, as it can summon tokens that can both protect it and destroy stuff. Big Eye and Master are about equal. Big Eye, I would say, is the more offensive one, sacrificing an attack for a turn to have an effect more ridiculous than Change of Heart. Master of Blades, to me, feels more defensive, as it has ATK that just edges out over Big Eye and Dracossack and its effect will make anyone think twice about targeting him with an effect.

Any Deck that can easily do a Rank 7 Xyz is able to access Master, and as I implied last week in my reviews of Redox and Tempest, a Deck that focuses on all four of the Dragon Lords should already be running both Big Eye and Dracossack in triplicate. Master of Blades has the highest ATK of all Rank 7 Xyzs (not counting the two with 2800 since they require a specific Type or Attribute for their Material). His effect also directly counters those of Big Eye's and Dracossack's (not to mention Blaster, the Dragon Lord of Infernos'), meaning he gives any Deck utilizing Rank 7 Xyz (examples include Harpie, Karakuri, Mermail Abyss, and sometimes Spellcasters) a fighting chance against the Dragon Lords' Rank 7 spam. Of course, Master of Blades himself is Rank 7, meaning more often than not, it'll be Dragon Lords' answer against other Dragon Lord Decks. Finally, Master is the strongest monster that can be summoned by the effect of Heraldic Beast Unicorn, which can summon any Psychic Xyz from the Graveyard. However, full-on Psychic Decks don't usually focus on the Xyz mechanic, especially Rank 7.

One of Master's weaknesses (although a weakness general to most monsters) is higher-ATK monsters that can easily be summoned, two examples being Blaster or Gagaga Cowboy. A common weakness I find amongst the Rank 7 Xyzs is their suspectibility to Torrential Tribute.

Trad: 1.5/5 (Rank is just shy of Magical Scientist's range and he has overall limited use)
Adv: 4/5
Aesthetics: 3.5/5 His outfit and the way he seems to throw his magic daggers reminds me of Aladdin (who kind of acts like an Arabian ninja). I would not normally characterize Aladdin with a high ATK or being a Psychic, although the target evasion and "revenge sabotage" suits him. Number 74 has not yet appeared in the anime or manga; he may be incorporated as one of the twenty-four unknown Numbers Kite Tenjo had already taken. In any case, I have mixed opinions of having a Number shown to us as a real card before in this story. For some, it's a nice preview, but others may think it's a spoiler. It'll go different ways for different people. Anyway, I have no idea how they picked 74. What is really interesting is that I think Japan gave the United States leeway to invent this card. Maybe it's because the story "Aladdin" was first translated into English from Arabic in 1706. Maybe it's because 7 represents luck. In Japanese, 4 is pronounced "shi" and death is "shini" (in Asia, 4 usually sounds like the word for death, so it's an unlucky number). It could be a representation of how Aladdin is fortunate but goes through a lot of trouble to keep it, but then again, that's most stories. One curious note is that if you use a number system such as A = 1, B = 2, etc., then JESUS and LUCIFER both add up to 74. Other religious meanings include the amount of sons in the Census of men of Israel in the Bible's Ezra 2:40 and the amount of Simhasandhipathis established by Swami Ramanuja of India. The most accurate explanation is probably because 7 can be called "nana" and 4 is "shi." (name) is pronounced "na" and is pronounced "nashi," so "nanashi" can be taken to mean "no/without" name, which is fitting for a ninja. I also feel 1974 was an interesting historical year, but that's just me personally.

Philosophy Corner: If I am missing a review one day, you can almost certainly be guaranteed it will be back up the next day. If you see one of my reviews for one day, you can guarantee I will have all the reviews for all past days that week. As for my Lion Heart article yesterday, it's up there if you missed it. Shout out to my little sister who hates Yu-Gi-Oh and religion but promised to read this article because she's interested in the number 4. (Three out of the five Numbers reviewed this week contain a 4, so you can use the death logic on all of them.) After she reads this, she will come right up to me and tell me how boring it was to read this. I love you too <3
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Today we are looking at: Number 74: Master of Blades
“2 Level 7 monsters
During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that targets this face-up card: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then you can destroy 1 card on the field.”

So we have another cool rank 7 monster, and I really kind of like it. The effect is pretty straightforward. If your opponent attempts to target him you not only negate the targeting effect, but you also get to destroy one card on the field. Now of course you get a caveat with the wording, you HAVE to resolve the first part prior to destroying a card. Even with that momentary setback I can see him being played at least as a one of, and as a cheaper rank 7 for budget decks.

Advanced: 4/5
Traditional: 2/5