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YamiBakuraFan's Little Shop of Horrors
"Keith's Machine Battalion"
Bandit Keith's cards from Limited Pack 2!
March 03, 2006

Welcome back to YamiBakuraFan’s Little Shop of Horrors! Today I’ll be looking at cards from the ancient Limited Edition 2 Bandit Keith packs, as well as another of Bandit Keith’s cards, Time Machine that was released in the Duel Monsters III Strategy Guide as a promo. Keith Howard remained a constant villain throughout the Duelist Kingdom saga of the early episodes of the Yu-Gi-Oh! original manga and anime series. As many know Keith was an American, and was portrayed with many American clichés such as his Biker apparel, bad attitude, and the fact he curses like a sailor.

Keith was also a world class duelist who was the first to introduce us to the Machine deck-type that has evolved quite well in the CCG. Many of Keith’s machine cards have become obsolete on today’s standards, but they are still fun and have awesome art and design. Let’s look into some of these classic cards today.


WJ-08
Bladed Pendulum Torture Machine
Dark/Machine/Level 6/1750/2000

Released in Limited Edition 2: Keith Version, and as you can see, is not a very reliable card. In the early anime and manga rules, cards like Pendulum Machine can be summoned without having the sacrifice a monster, even if they are level 5 or higher. Like Pendulum Machine, many of Keith’s weaker machines were level 5 because of this rule and the transition from anime/manga to CCG didn’t bode well.

Overall this card is in no way playable in any kind of competitive deck, but it can be used in a fun Keith Howard deck (which was mostly the intention for its initial creation anyway). This doesn’t mean it’s completely unsupported though. Cards like Devil’s Sanctuary and Cross Soul (Soul Exchange) make summoning Pendulum Machine less costly, and a well placed Limiter Removal can boost it up to a fairly good 3500 attack points for a turn. The main problem is that 1750 is very weak for a sacrifice monster no matter the pros. This card is stuck as a Bandit Keith Howard deck only.

TM-1 LAUNCHER SPIDER
Fire/Machine/Level 7/2200/2500

This card was also released in the LE2 Keith pack, and it’s also a high level normal machine monster. Launcher Spider was a very good card in the early anime/manga, but here in the CCG it’s the exact opposite. Double Sacrifice monsters were never that good, and in this format they are all but unplayable. Launcher Spider does have an advantage of being a FIRE main-type monster because it can feed off of some of the Fire support cards like The Thing in the Crater for a quick special summon or Fire Man (Flame Ruler) to ease its summoning requirements even more.

Launcher is another card you will only see in a Keith Howard deck, and this card is even more questionable than Pendulum Machine is because it’s twice as costly and just as ineffective. You have a 4400 with Limiter Removal, but it’s just far too hard to summon in the first place to want to waste a card like Limiter on it.




SPHERE BOMB
Dark/Machine/4/1400/1400
When this Monster is attacked while face-down by an opponent's
Monster, it becomes an Equipment card on the attacking Monster
(do not calculate damage). During your opponent's next Standby
Phase, destroy this card and the Equipped Monster. At that time,
do damage to your opponent equal to the Equipped Monster's attack
strength.

Here we go! Now this is an interesting card indeed. Sphere Bomb is one of Keith’s better cards from the anime and manga. One thing, it actually has an effect, and not a bad one at that. When Sphere Bomb is attacked while in face-down defense position it is immediately changed into an equip card and is equipped onto the attack monster. This skips damage calculations, so you don’t have to worry about cards with the Trample ability inflicting the difference to your life points when it’s attacked.

After Sphere Bomb is equipped onto the opponents monster, during their next standby phase their monster is destroyed and they receive damage equal to its attack! This makes Blast Sphere a kind of delayed, more concentrated Destruction Ring (Ring of Destruction). So out of this card you get free monster removal and some quick instant damage to boot, not too shabby if I do say so myself. The weakness this card has is that it can still be destroyed through common enemies of any cards that required themselves to be face-down at least a turn.

Apostle of Obliteration (Nobleman of Crossout), Shield Crush, Mystic Swordsman lv.2, all cards that nail Sphere before it can get its effect off in the first place. Not to mention it has to stay an equip. for at least a turn and there are plenty of magic and trap removal cards going around that could nuke it while in the M/T zone. Any skilled players could use this (forced removal) to gain quick advantage, but even if your opponent decides not to use removal of Sphere your going to maintain advantage while inflicting a varying amount of life points in the process. Imagine if your opponents Goblin Strike Team (Goblin Attack Force) or Cyber Dragon runs into this card, that’s quite a bit of pain your dealing. Use this card in a burn deck, machine deck, or Keith character deck.

G3-B2
TIME MACHINE
Normal Trap
When 1 Monster is sent to the Cemetery as a result of Battle, you
may return that Monster to the Field in the same mode. (It is
not counted as a Summon.)

The last card of the day is not a card from the Keith pack, but is instead a promo card from the Duel Monsters III strategy guide. I have included this card because it’s another famous card of Bandit Keith’s deck (and was later used by Jounouchi in Yu-Gi-Oh! R) and because cards like Launcher Spider and Pendulum Machine are more lackluster than my usual cards of choice for reviews.

Time Machine comes across as a very strange version of cemetery recursion. It activates in almost the same manner as a newer cards called The Gravehole of Revival (The Grave of Enkindling) except it works a lot better because there are less restrictions to the summon. About the summoning, there really is none. This card doesn’t treat what would normally be a special summon as a summoning at all, which is strange. This means that cards like Bottomless Pit Trap (Bottomless Trap Hole) and Tidal Wave (Torrential Tribute) cannot chain to the activation of Time Machine.

Time Machine isn’t a bad form of recursion either. It gets your monster back in the same state it was before, no cost involved! You may also use this cards effect on your opponents monster if you wanted, although I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a plan that will inflict more damage to the opponents life points through repeatedly attacking or trampling a weaker monster. I would tech. this card in a deck with lots of revival or a deck that revolves around a weaker core monster and needs that monster on the field to work i.e. Mind on Air, etc.

The deck of the day is…a machine burn deck!
This deck will play with some of the style of Keith’s deck, but will be more burn oriented. I will use and abuse Sphere Bomb and other cards like Reflect Bounder and Cannon Soldier to optimize the deck for a quick Machine based damage infliction engine.

Hot, Burning Chrome

Sphere Bomb
Sphere Bomb
Sphere Bomb
Reflect Bounder
Reflect Bounder
Cannon Soldier
Cannon Soldier
Antique Gear Cannon
Antique Gear Cannon
Gear Golem the Moving Fortress
Tsukuyomi – Moon Diviner
Heavy Mecha Support Platform
Saint Magician (Magician of Faith)
Saint Magician (Magician of Faith)
Critter (Sangan)
Magic Warrior Breaker (Breaker the Magical Warrior)
Twilight Zone Warrior Lady (D.D. Warrior Lady)

Wave Motion Cannon
Wave Motion Cannon
Wave Motion Cannon
Limiter Removal
Angel’s Gift (Graceful Charity)
Cyclone (Mystical Space Typhoon)
Tempest (Heavy Storm)
Early Burial (Premature Burial)
Theft (Snatch Steal)
Book of Moon
Scapegoat
Earth Crusher (Smashing Ground)
Earth Crusher (Smashing Ground)
Earth Crusher (Smashing Ground)
Apostle of Obliteration (Nobleman of Crossout)

Magic Cylinder
Holy Barrier – Mirror Force
Tidal Wave (Torrential Tribute)
Cry of the Living Dead (Call of the Haunted)
Secret Barrel
Reactive Armor (Sakuretsu Armor)
Reactive Armor (Sakuretsu Armor)
Reactive Armor (Sakuretsu Armor)

That’s all for today’s article. If you have any feedback on my articles or have any questions feel free to E-mail me at YamiBakuraFan@comcast.net or you can contact me through my account on the Pojo Message Boards via. Private Message. The Pojo Message boards are a great way to meet friends and build up on your Yu-Gi-Oh! Knowledge! I highly advise anyone that would like to express their opinions on the game, post up their own killer decks, or just have a good time to join up A.S.A.P.!

See you all next time.

-YamiBakuraFan