Article # 45 - Character Cards; Kaiba

For today’s article (real original title, eh?), we’ll be taking a look at some of Kaiba’s cards, from the Anime/Manga, his LE5 promo pack, and from his first Structure Deck. We begin with a look at Blood Vors. (Vorse Raider)

Blood Vors

Dark/Beast-Warrior - Level 4 - 1900/1200

- Normal Monster -

Blood Vors was included in the Kaiba Structure Deck volume 1 and 2, as an Ultra Rare promo from the Kaiba edition of the DM4 game, and as an Ultra Rare promo in the Limited Edition 5 Kaiba pack. There’s no telling when its English release might be.

*There are 2 different card-arts for this card in Japanese*

Well, Blood Vors is a pretty highly-anticipated Monster for release in the TCG. Why I don’t know exactly, as it’s a simple Effect-less attacking Monster, but I guess a lot of people like pure Beatdown Decks and Kaiba quite a bit.

It’s a Normal Monster with stats of 1900/1200, so it’ll certainly be able to hold its own against anything your opponent may have up against you. 1900 ATK is always capable of getting the job done in doing some mass damage to your opponent, but it’s really nothing special at all. With 1200 DEF, it can be searched by the Witch, so that’s always an upside to any card.

Blood Vors is a Dark/Beast-Warrior, so it can fit well into Dark-based, Beast-based, and Beastdown Decks, as well as Kaiba-based Character Decks. It’s a solid Monster with a good ATK strength, but that’s about all it has going for it. I’d give Blood Vors an overall rating of 6.3/10.

Moving on, we take a look at Silent Dead.

Silent Dead

Normal Magic Card

Effect: Special Summon one Normal Monster from your Graveyard into face-up DEF mode. While that card is on the Field, it cannot attack.

Silent Dead was a Promo card from the Limited Edition 5 Kaiba pack. There’s no telling when it might be released in English.

Well, Silent Dead is certainly a pretty interesting card that can work well with a nice variety of Normal Monsters that you might see in Decks. It allows you to Special Summon a Normal Monster from your Graveyard, but it must be in face-up DEF mode, and the revived Monster cannot attack.

One of the main things this card can be good for is for simply reviving a Monster for the sole purpose of Sacrificing it for a high-level Monster from your Hand. Because usually there won’t be any good Normal Monsters in your Deck that you’d want to revive for some DEF strength, unless you have something like a Millennium Shield in your Deck.

One of the obvious Kaiba cards that this can work with is Blood Vors. But again, that’s not usually a card you’ll want to have in DEF position since it could be easily destroyed. Still, though, you can always switch it to ATK position; you just won’t be able to attack with whatever you Revive.

Silent Dead is an interesting new Revival card, but it’s not one I’d recommend using but in Kaiba-based Character Decks or in Decks with a vast amount of Normal Monsters, but you don‘t see too many of those nowadays. I’d give Silent Dead an overall rating of 5.7/10.

For the third card of today’s article, we take a look at Shrink.

Shrink

Normal Magic Card

Effect: Choose one face-up Monster on the Field. That Monster’s base ATK strength is halved until the End Phase of the activated turn.

Shrink was an Ultra Rare from the Kaiba Structure Deck Volume 2. There’s no telling when its English release will be.

Shrink’s certainly another pretty interesting card. It’s a Normal Magic Card that allows you halve the ATK strength of one face-up Monster on the Field. One card that this could definitely help you out with in using is Hell Poemer, but it could also work well for you whenever your opponent has some strong Monsters out on the Field.

Halving an ATK strength may not seem like much, but in a lot of situations it could prove to be very useful to you. You could turn an opponent’s Jinzo from 2400 ATK to just 1200 ATK, making it extremely easy for you to be able to destroy it. You can halve the ATK strength of one of your own Monsters on the Field if you wanted to, as well. (As I mentioned it working with Hell Poemer before)

Shrink’s pretty similar to Force (Riryoku), but if one were to choose between one or the other, I myself would probably go with Force. But to each their own. Both are interesting and what-could-be pretty beneficial cards to use in your Deck.

Shrink’s not exactly a great card, but it’s fun to use and can be pretty effective in quite a few situations. I give Shrink an overall rating of 6/10.

For the fourth card of today’s article, we have Clone Duplication.

Clone Duplication

Normal Trap Card

Effect: Activate this card when your opponent Normal or Flip Summons a Monster. Special Summon one {Clone Token} on your side of the Field with the same Type, Sub-Type, Level, and ATK/DEF strengths as the Summoned Monster. If that Monster is destroyed, destroy the {Clone Token}.

Clone Duplication was also from the Limited Edition 5 Kaiba pack. No telling when its English release might be, either.

Now Clone Duplication is a very interesting card. Nothing else like it in the game, and this could be made to be pretty effective, as well. You can activate this card when your opponent successfully Normal Summons or Flip Summons a Monster. It allows you to completely “copy/clone” the Summoned Monster and have it on your side of the Field. The only thing it won’t copy is the Summoned Monster’s Effect, if it has one.

Say your opponent Normal Summons a Kycoo to the Field. Activate Clone Duplication, and you’ll have a Level 4 Dark/Spellcaster Monster with stats of 1800/700 of your own on your side of the Field. It won’t share Kycoo’s Effect, but it’s good and effective protection against anything your opponent might Summon of Flip Summon. Only Monster you wouldn’t be able to Clone would be Jinzo, as is obvious since Clone Duplication’s a Trap Card.

Another example could be if your opponent Summons a powerful Monster that has a drawback Effect such as Goblin Attack Force. They Summon GAF, you activate Clone Duplication. You get a Level 4 Earth/Warrior Monster with stats of 2300/0 and no drawback of having to turn to DEF mode after attacking. Pretty nice.

Once your opponent’s Monster that you Clone is destroyed, your Clone Token is destroyed along with it. Not so much of a drawback at all, really. You can use your Clone to attack other opponent’s Monsters, or even the one you cloned to easily get rid of it since they’d both have the same ATK strength. You can use the Clone Token to Sacrifice for a high-level Monster, as well, if you so desire, so it can be effective in quite a few ways.

Clone Duplication could be a very fun card to try out in a variety of Decks. So if it at all interests you, I’d recommend trying it out in whatever Deck you may have. I would give Clone Duplication an overall rating of 7/10.

For the fifth and final card of today’s article, we take a look at one of the most highly-anticipated cards for English release to date.. Devil Franken, a.k.a. Cyber Stein.

Devil Franken (Cyber Stein)

Dark/Machine - Level 2 - 700/500

Effect: Pay 5000 LP to Special Summon a Monster from your Fusion Deck in face-up Attack mode.

Devil Franken was released in the Kaiba Structure Deck volume 1 and as a Super Rare in the Booster Chronicle set. There’s no telling when its English release might be.

Devil Franken.. Quite an interesting Monster indeed. It’s a Dark/Machine-type, so it can fit into either of those types of Decks, and it of course goes into the Deck based around itself; Devil Franken Decks, as well as Kaiba Character Decks. With its stats, it can be searched by the Witch, Sangan, and Tomato, so it can be pretty easy to get into your Hand and out onto the Field. Most people know and use this guy for one specific combo.. So let’s get right into it.

Devil Franken + Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon + Megamorph = Game.. But does it really? Many people base their Deck around this combo, and so many did when Franken was first released that it was being abused so much the cards were banned from many-a-tournament play. (as there wasn’t so much to stop it back then) But they no longer are, nor should they be. The combo is to simply get Devil Franken and Megamorph into your Hand as quickly as possible to Summon Franken, Special Summon BEUD by paying 5000 LP, (thus usually drastically lowering your LP to being less than your opponent’s) then activating Megamorph and attack for the win with BEUD. But the thing is, there’s just so many cards that can easily prevent this combo, and if it doesn’t work, whoever used it can prepare to lose the Duel shortly thereafter a majority of the time. It’s a hefty cost to pay for something you can’t be sure will be beneficial to you. Destruction Ring could result in a tie, Cylinders would lose you the Duel, any Monsters on your opponent’s side of the Field could stop you, Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, or even Waboku could be devastating to you, etc. Even a mere Scapegoat set by your opponent could stop you in your tracks when using Franken.

5000 LP is far too much of a cost for me, and I would not recommend using Franken. But that’s just me, and you could feel differently about it. I’d much prefer using Holy Beast Selket or even Metamorphosis if I wanted to use Fusion Monsters, as I actually frequently do. (I find Selket to be the easiest, most fun, and most effective overall, myself, but that‘s just personal preference) However, Franken certainly can be used effectively by any who might choose to use it. It’s not a good card to use in late-game unless your opponent’s wide open, but if you can get it out early and use it to your best advantage, it’ll work well for you. It just won’t be as effective as it can be until Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon is released in English, but by the time Franken is released (unknown), BEUD could already be released. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with that.

I myself believe that Devil Franken has a little too much hype built around it by players of the TCG. It’s really not too great of a card, and except for a short time period after its first release, it really won’t be used much by anyone. (OCG as evidence) It’s a fun card to use, and it will run rampant in the tourney-scene for a while, but it won’t be causing nearly as much damage as it did back when it was first released in Japanese.

Overall, I myself consider Devil Franken to be more of a fun card of sorts than it is an actually “great“ card or anything like that. I would give it an overall rating of 6.5/10.

(Top 3 pictures are the original-art Blood Vors, the new-art Blood Vors, and Silent Dead. Bottom 3 pictures are Shrink, Clone Duplication, and Devil Franken)

 

Now, to end today’s article, here’s a Kaiba Character Deck example using these 5 cards, in accordance to the Banned List.

Monsters: 17

1x Blue Eyes White Dragon

1x Vampire Lord

2x Blood Vors

1x Devil Franken

1x Spear Dragon

1x X-Head Cannon

1x Y-Dragon Head

1x Z-Metal Caterpillar

1x Kaiser Seahorse

1x Enraged Minotaur

1x Sapphire Dragon

1x Lord of Dragons

1x Spirit Reaper

1x Black Forest Witch

1x Critter

1x Killer Snake

Magic Cards: 15

3x Cyclone

1x Silent Dead

1x Shrink

1x Pot of Greed

1x Angel’s Gift

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

1x Monster Reborn

1x Premature Burial

1x Snatch Steal

1x Nobleman of Crossout

1x Mystery Wok

1x Megamorph

Trap Cards: 8

2x Clone Duplication

1x Sixth Sense

1x Deck Destruction Virus of Death

1x Ring of Destruction

1x Curse of Darkness

1x Magic Drain

1x Drain Shield

Fusion Deck: 6

2x Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon

1x XYZ-Dragon Cannon

1x XY-Dragon Cannon

1x YZ-Caterpillar Dragon

1x XZ-Caterpillar Cannon

Total: 40 + 6 Fusion

And that’ll do it for Article # 45 - Character Cards; Kaiba. You can e-mail me with any questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

And for a little sneak peek at what I’ll be reviewing in my next article, one of the cards featured will be Devil’s Sanctuary. (Which is also a card for Kaiba Decks, but I’ve planned to review it in my next article instead. I would include 2 of them in the Deck example I gave here, as well as another DDVD, and perhaps you‘ll see why when my next article gets put up) Stay tuned to find out all about it. Until next time..

~DM7~