Monday, 29 July 2019

Reviewing Yu-Gi-Oh Monsters #4 - Labyrinth of Nightmare

It's been a while since I did this, but here's a continuation of my "Reviewing Yu-Gi-Oh monster cards" series that I haven't really done since April. I think a mistake I did in the past is trying to cram two sets into a single review piece, making it extra-long as I just drone on and on and on. It's the same thing my M:TG monster reviews suffer, and I end up feeling super burnt-out after doing so. The original version of this article has been sitting in my drafts since May, so... yeah, I ended up separating it with the "Legacy of Darkness" review and just sit down and finish it. I also decided to not yak on too much about how this card did something in the anime or whatever, because I realized that it made my Digimon reviews pretty clunky to read. So... yeah, review time!

Click here for the previous part.
Click here for the next part.

SwordsmanofLandstar-LCJW-EN-C-1E
And let's start off with Swordsman of Landstar. What the fuck is this thing? Like, it's an Earth-type Warrior monster, and it's clearly not very strong, but neither the card's tribe or element or even the flavour text really tell us what this thing is supposed to be. It's apparently a "fairy warrior", but between its bizarre proportions, its huge Mickey Mouse gloves, its chunky sword and that bizarre face, he looks more like an extra from Anpanman than an actual monster. And Swordsman of Landstar actually shows up a whole lot in the anime, too, as one of Jonuichi's standard early game monster, essentially an equivalent to the Celtic Guardian. Except, y'know, instead of looking like Link's edgy cousin, the Swordsman of Landstar looks like... well, like that. I do like that this thing exists. I like that in the same universe that Summoned Skull and Hellpoemer exists, this wacky cartoonish blob-man warrior exists.

HumanoidSlime-LON-EN-SP-UEWormDrake-DB1-EN-C-UE
One of my favourite pair of monsters in this set are these two. Humanoid Slime is honestly not a new or unique trope, because the ide of a blob of metallic goo or water or liquid metal becoming an amorphous human figure has been around since forever, but I really do like the artwork and the design of just how weirdly blobby his hands are. Love the faceless face, too. This is one that I remember from the anime, being used by one of Malik's henchmen.

The Worm Drake is such a weird monster, though. It's a weird snake like creature with a lot of greebles and spikes that many early Yu-Gi-Oh monsters have (think the Labyrinth Ghoul) but instead of a regular chompy snake mouth or a Dune worm like maw or even a Xenomorph's mouth-within-a-mouth deal, the Worm Drake's head is... how do you even describe that? The mouth opens up like a wrench, with a central stalk-like tongue nestled within his fanged jaws. Oh, and said tongue has a very human eyeball on the end of it. How does the Worm Drake eat? Why does it have weird red eyelike orbs down its body, and a very human eye on its 'tongue'? What a weird-ass monster!

HumanoidWormDrake-DB1-EN-C-UE
We don't actually get any lore for these fusion monsters, and it's a shame. But apparently combine the Worm Drake and the Humanoid Slime and you get... an M:TG Sliver, made out of liquid goop! I do like just how weird the face ends up being, very dagger-like and beak-like. It's perhaps a bit of a somewhat predictable fusion, and you could argue that maybe the Humanoid Slime could assume this form on its own, but hey, the Humanoid Worm-Drake is a pretty cool design all around!

RevivalJam-LCJW-EN-C-1E
The Revival Jam is a hilarious name. "Jam" is just such a hilarious name to give to a slime or goop monster, because it implies that you take this poor, ghost-faced buddy and slather it all over your bread. As its name implies, the Revival Jam just keeps reviving itself over and over again -- an effect that's way more powerful in the manga/anime and vastly nerfed for the actual card. Boo! I did find it hilarious that it was the Revival Jam that ended up causing our protagonist, Yugi, to finally break out one of the three Egyptian Gods to destroy. Such is the power of the jam!

JamBreedingMachine-LCJW-EN-C-1EJamDefender-LCJW-EN-C-1E
We've got a pair of spell cards specific for the Revival Jam to help it out. Both of these cards were also a lot more powerful in the manga/anime, mostly because none of them required any sacrifice from the controlling player. The Jam Breeding Machine just makes little mini jam jellies to help out, while Jam Defender allows you to redirect attacks towards the Revival Jam, which, in turn, would revive itself at the end of turn. Apparently the Revival Jam isn't always a blob head all the time, and when protecting its buddies it can go full on Piccolo to protect that gross fish-man!

I do like the sheer amount of slimes and jams in this set.

ShiningAbyss-DB1-EN-C-UEBazootheSoulEater-BP03-EN-C-1E
I do love that Shining Abyss here is a fairy. Or an "Angel", according to the original translation. We have a lot of Fairies in this expansion, and I'm putting a lot of them under the break because they're your typical fairy/angel sort and they're kind of boring, but Shining Abyss is... what is he? He commands both dark and light, which is pretty neat. He looks more akin to monsters like Relinquished or Dark Eyes Illusionist, with those zombie arms and that non-face and the bizarre, robotic body... but he's got angelic wings, heroic looking colours and is of the Light type. I do like it, though -- who says angels have to be humanoid all the time?


GrandTikiElder-CP04-EN-C-UEMelchidtheFourFaceBeast-RP02-EN-C-UE
Another theme in this set is spooky masks, because there's a pair of characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh anime that has a mask-themed deck. It's a shame that the actual cards don't interact with each other in any way, though. I saved a lot of the actual Mask cards after the break since they're items, but Grand Tiki Elder and Melchid the Four-Face Beast make it here because they're pretty neat. I just kind of like the simple design of the Grand Tiki Elder as this weird, cartoon ghost like figure with a very simple, undetailed body, but all of his cursed mask ornaments are pretty detailed.

Melchid, meanwhile, is four masks stitched into a fiendish monster... and he's basically a Quintesson from the old Transformers cartoons, so instead of a spooky set of demonic masks, every time I look at this card I wonder if it's going to rotate through a series of alternate personalities while gesticulating wildly in a kangaroo court.

NuviatheWicked-DB1-EN-C-UETheMaskedBeast-DPBC-EN-R-1E
Nuvia the Wicked is a weird ass monster and one of the more powerful 'mask' monsters from that one fight arc in the anime/manga, and her design is... interesting? She's got like two faces, and I'm not sure which is real. Is the purple, porcelain-like face the true one, with the locks of purple hair being attached to it? Or are the two eyes and the creepy mouth on the main green part of the reature's body the true face? Hell, before we even discuss about faces, what the fuck is up with that giant worm-like body terminating in a giant clump with arms and creepy mask-faces? Between the golden rims and how that upper face is, Nuvia the Wicked actually does a remarkable job in looking like an Egyptian-based creature without being Anubis-man Warrior #75 or Mummy #182. In fact, she's pretty fucking weird. Not my favourite thing on this page, but she's neat.

We've discussed ritual monsters before, and the seeming 'boss' of the Mask monsters is The Masked Beast here. His original name? "Masked Demon Beast: Masked Hellraiser", which is a lot cooler than the frankly pretty mundane name of Masked Beast. So it's clear which specific horror movie the writer had in mind when he designed this horrifying abomination! I don't really even know how to describe this thing. It's got masks all over its crotch, a mask opening up on his kneecaps to vomit out his legs, his face and pectorals are held together with smaller masks... he truly does look like a horrifying demon of masks, which is clearly what they were going for. Hellraiser is remarkably adapted faithfully into the anime, which gives us a better look at how that lower body is proportioned, and... yeah, it's a pretty creepy demon man.

DarkNecrofear-DPRP-EN-C-1EDarkNecrofear-JP-Manga-DM-NC
And now we have Dark Necrofear, which I remembered as one of the more spooky monsters in my original readthrough of the manga. And... yeah, the writer really was watching a whole lot of Hellraiser and other sorts of horror movies, huh? Dark Necrofear is a bald humanoid woman carrying that creepy ass baby doll with a cracked head, and between the seemingly cyborg-like exposed parts of her innards and some stitches, I'm not quite sure if Dark Necrofear herself is also a stitched-together puppet of sorts. She honestly just looks so spooky and gothic from her appearance, and even the anime staff censored that spooky ass baby doll away. And... yeah, I can see why. I'm not sure what is it about baby dolls (particularly shattered-skull baby dolls) but they just look so goddamned unsettling. Dark Necrofear's a pretty badass card, although I'm not going to write up a couple of paragraphs just to describe her powers. I do really like her as a pretty unconventional 'boss' monster for the Fiend/Demon tribe, at least for now.

DestinyBoard-DPRP-EN-C-1ESpiritMessageI-DPRP-EN-C-1ESpiritMessageN-DPRP-EN-C-1ESpiritMessageA-DPRP-EN-C-1ESpiritMessageL-DPRP-EN-C-1EDestinyBoard-JP-Manga-DM-NC
Here we go with the Destiny Board (Ouija Board in the original Japanese) and the Spirit Messages! They originally spell out DEATH in the Japanese version, but is changed to the less spoopy FINAL in the international versions. In the anime and manga, these are part of Dark Necrofear's attack. It's basically an alternate-win condition -- each turn, a letter is added to the Spirit Message list, and when the full word of DEATH or FINAL is spelled out, the player wins the game. It's a neat little gimmick for sure, but in practice, thanks to how it works out in the official TCG, it's way too impractical to spell out your opponent's doom due to needing to have all five cards in hand, play them one at a time, have them take up your spell slots, and also pray your opponents don't have spell/trap removal. Pretty cool concept though!

Click after the break for the rest of the cards!


ThePortraitsSecret-DB1-EN-C-UEHeadlessKnight-DB1-EN-C-UE
This expansion also adapts a bunch of Bakura's monsters, and Bakura's a dude that's all about creepy horror movie tropes, and I do like how a bunch of them are essentially just things from a Haunted House. It's just kind of a shame that they are all generic non-effect monsters, so they never get any love outside of the arc they show up in. I mostly remember them because during a D&D session, my GM used artwork from these specific Yu-Gi-Oh cards as encounters.

The Portrait's Secret is just a typical ghost living in a painting, whereas the Headless Knight is a combination of the legend of Dullahan and a haunted suit of armour. Pretty neat stuff!

TheGrossGhostofFledDreams-DB1-EN-C-UEEarthboundSpirit-DB1-EN-C-UE
The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams has such a long-ass name, and I always found "gross ghost" to be such a hilarious description! Her original name in Japanese was basically just "Nightmare Ghost", so I'm not sure why this lady gets such a long localized name. She's basically every trope related to nightmares and sleep paralysis and all that jazz rolled into one. Some really creepy artwork too with just how emancipated and frazzled this banshee looks.

Earthbound Spirit is honestly a bit more boring, and seems to be more of a visual pun than anything. Instead of being earthbound as in "the ghost can't move on to the afterlife because of unfinished business", this Earthbound Spirit seems to be actually melded onto the earth itself. I suppose it could drag you down to the bowels of the earth and that's spooky and all, but it's not quite the amount of horror that the freaking Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams has.

TheEarlofDemise-DB1-EN-C-UEFile:Supply-LON-NA-C-UE.png
The last of Bakura's haunted house ghosts is The Earl of Demise, which is honestly pretty dang mundane other than his title of 'earl'.

The original Japanese name for "Supply" basically translates to "Materials Supplier", ddenoting a soldier whose job is to, well, supply resources. But the English translation just makes him out to be called "Supply", which is just so freaking weird. Mind you, maybe they realized that the card is kind of boring, so they decided to just give a weirdly-syntaxed name.

GeminiElf-YSYR-EN-C-1ETheEmperorsHoliday-TU08-EN-C-UE
Let's talk censorship, a topic that's actually pretty timely because at around the time of writing, Hearthstone has just replaced a bunch of 'sexy' art with more PG-13 artwork to presumably adhere with censorship rules for games of all ages or international rules or whatnot. It's the curse of trying to appeal to a wide audience, I guess. So Gemini Elf over there, who would otherwise be a very generic and unremarkable duo of elf sisters, end up being somewhat remembered for having their art edited to featue clothing that cover up their cleavage. Okay, pretty standard stuff. Boobs are evil according to censorship rules.

But then apparently Yu-Gi-Oh's localization squad really want to cover their bases, so The Emperor's Holiday, which originally featured the Emperor as bare-chested, ends up getting a singlet shirt relatively well-photoshopped onto him. So boobs are not okay, and neither are dad-bod beer guts? But freaking Dark Necrofear is a card that won't traumatize kids?

MaskofWeakness-YS15-EU-C-1EMaskofDispel-DB1-EN-C-UEMaskofRestrict-OP02-EN-SR-UE
I did say that this set has a lot of Masks, which is a reference to a duo of baddies in the anime/manga that used a Mask deck. They're all neat torture/tribal mask designs, although Mask of Dispel does look like the murderer from Scream. Nothing too much for me to say, although I really do like just how wacky these masks look. Shame, I kinda wished that there was some tribal synergy or some specific card sub-type going on, but these are just a bunch of cards that are only related by their name.

File:MaskoftheAccursed-LON-EN-SR-UE.pngMaskofBrutality-BP03-EN-C-1ECurseoftheMaskedBeast-DPBC-EN-C-1E
These two are easily my favourite, though. Mask of the Accursed could've been a generic Voodoo mask with needles and whatnot all over its face, but the expression on it and the asymmetrical eyes just looks so irritated. Meanwhile, the Mask of Brutality looks way, way too goofy with those chibi demon claws for eyes. Curse of the Masked Beast is Masked Beast's ritual spell.

GadgetSoldier-LON-EN-C-UEEmpressMantis-LON-NA-C-UE
Gadget Soldier is just a robot dude carrying a big-ass missile launcher. Somehow he has abs, as well as a gigantic gear that goes around his shoulders. I like him. He just looks so ridiculous, this abs-gear robot man. I like him. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be the same set of Gadget robots as the Gadget dudes that Yugi uses in the final arcs of the anime. Judging by the ridiculous giant gears, I'd say yes.

She could've been just another generic giant praying mantis, but Empress Mantis has got style. We don't see her full body, but in additino to the metal sickles that she has replaced her normal mantis scythes with, she's also got these adorable cotton puff balls that she has placed around her blades and her neck to form this wacky hidden Mickey setup. Oh, and she also apparently has a peacock-esque tail of sorts. She might be a monstrous, murderous insect queen, but she can damn well dress in any way she wants to.

Dreamsprite-LON-NA-C-UEFile:FlameDancer-LON-NA-C-1E.jpg
Dreamsprite looks like a generic fairy with butterfly wings and elven ears and a non-standard skin tone, but she's apparently a plant. These effect monsters don't really have any lore behind them, so I'm just left to assume that Dreamsprite is like, a plant that takes the form of a fairy woman? I dunno.

The Flame Dancer falls into the somewhat ambiguous category of "Pyro", so he's not quite a "fiend" or "fairy" or whatever. I'm not sure what he's meant to be, some kind of jar genie imp thing that manipulates fire? He's pretty cool, whatever the hell he's meant to be. The flavour text mentions 'rope', but I'm not sure I see any in his card art.

Boneheimer-LON-NA-C-UEFile:BioMage-LON-NA-C-UE.png
The Boneheimer has a pretty badass name for what's otherwise a pretty standard fantasy fare -- a skeletal animal. Of course, a skeletal seahorse is kind of out of the ordinary even in fantasy setting, but the combination of the name, the pretty cool artr and the sheer absurdity of an undead seahorse makes this little bugger pretty cool in my book.

Okay, Bio-Mage is pretty cool. I'm not quite sure what's going on in that artwork... are those wings made of liquid metal or some sort of vague sci-fi technobabble? Are those silver rods extending down her (his?) chest downwards with purple orbs some sort of modification? What about those wire-like things extending behind him? She (He?) is a cyborg fairy, apparently, "created as a result of the latest advances in biotechnology", but we never really get any follow-up to this otherwise unremarkable card, which is a shame. We could've had some sort of wacky magic cyborgs or something!

ZombyratheDark-BP02-EN-C-1EMaryokutai-DB2-EN-C-UE
Zombyra the Dark is an interesting little card! See, before Yu-Gi-Oh evolved into all about promoting a card game, the manga centered on the protagonist playing different sorts of deadly gambles and games in mini-arcs while figuring out the mystery of this weird side personality with magic powers that takes over his body whenever he plays these games. One of the sub-arcs deals with a super-fan of the fictional American superhero Zombyra (or Zombire depending on the translation), a pastiche of Spawn. And when the card game took off, apparently they decided to take some characters from the old pre-TCG manga and adapt them into monsters. And thus you have Zombyra the Dark.

Maryokutai, meanwhile, is... he's a weird fellow. He's a floating skull with a glowing cranium with all sorts of weird-ass energy flowing aroud him, but instead of being a Fiend or a Zombie, he's an "Aqua" monster. And his original Japanese name basically translates to "Spell Absorption Sphere". So what is he? Is he a sentient magical creature? Something like a Demilich in D&D? A weapon that happens to look like a skull? Either way, he's creepy looking.

File:TheLastWarriorfromAnotherPlanet-LON-EU-UR-1E.jpg
Somehow, when you fuse the Spawn-ripoff superhero of the night and... and whatever the fuck Maryokutai is meant to be, you get this dude. The Last Warrior from Another Planet, which, in addition to apparently being the last survivor of an alien race, is also part cyborg, has a massive cyborg-wire arm, and gigantic metal shoulderpads. Y'know what? Considering the glory days of 90's comics, this is actually pretty appropriate as part of a set that includes a Spawn ripoff.

TornadoBird-DB2-EN-C-UESpherousLady-LON-EN-C-UE
I'm not really feeling Tornado Bird. He's jut a bird with a bunch of gross eyeballs that have grown out of his neck and wings. Pretty lazy, and honestly, a pretty gross creature.

The Spherous Lady, meanwhile, is not spherous at all. In fact, she's a freaking snake-person, with the lower body and the head of a snake, but the torso and arms of a human. She's like the common depiction of Medusa! Except... her type is a "Rock", and the flavour text calls her a "Vampire", despite all other vampires in Yu-Gi-Oh being considered a Zombie. So she's a rock snake-woman that moonlights as a vampire. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh and your sometimes pretty damn random tribe assigning.

AquaSpirit-DB2-EN-C-UESpiritofFlames-SDOK-EN-C-1E
So we now have a quartet that form what we call in Magic: the Gathering as a 'cycle', the Attribute Spirits. They're... kind of underwhelming, design-wise and play-wise. They have a similar effect of the player only being able to summon them by banishing a monster of the same element from your graveyard, and then they have some weird extra effect. Okay?

Nothing too much to say for these two. Aqua Spirit is a pretty generic water fairy lady, and the Spirit of Flames is a giant fiery musclebound demon man. Kinda wished they had some consistency in their naming. They originally had names -- the Aqua Spirit was "Aqueria" and the Spirit of Flames was "Ifrit", but for whatever reason the translation team dropped those parts.

GarudatheWindSpirit-SDDL-EN-C-1ETheRockSpirit-DB2-EN-C-UE
In fact, only Garuda the Wind Spirit keeps his original name and title from the Japanese version, and he's easily my favourite out of the four. Look at just how ridiculous this muscle-bodied bird man with the head of a bird looks, just statically moving diagonally in the artwork! I like him. The Rock Spirit (or "Titan the Rock Spirit" in Japanese) is pretty mundane, just some dude with a stone skin. He's kinda cool, but not particularly interesting.

SpiritoftheBreeze-DB1-EN-C-UESoulofPurityandLight-SDLS-EN-C-1EHystericFairy-DB1-EN-C-UE
Let's go through a bunch of Fairies now. This set has a fair bit, including a couple we've covered before. Despite her name, the Spirit of the Breeze has nothing in common with the four attribute spirits. She's got a cute artwork, but that's about it.

The Soul of Purity and Light manages to look both soothing and creepy at the same time, this angelic, transparent figure that's hugging that seemingly unaware dude. If the name of the monster had been something like "Haunting Voice" or "Unknown Passenger" or "That Which Whispers Into Your Ears", it'd take a far, far more sinister tone.

Hysteric Fairy always made me laugh whenever I see his card art. Look at him! He just looks like that anime trope of the super-studious no-nonsense stick-up-his-ass prefect character, like Bleach's Uryu or Academia' Iida, but he's also a freaking angel with transparent angel wings. Yu-Gi-Oh is ridiculous sometimes.

DancingFairy-DB1-EN-C-UEFile:FairyGuardian-LON-NA-C-UE.png
Dancing Fairy is cute. They're a bunch of widdle baby fairies in a flower. They're adorable. It's neat that after all of the angel-like ladies, we get a couple that's just straight-up cute little fairies.

Fairy Guardian reminds me of Piccolomon (a.k.a. Pixiemon) from Digimon. Just an adorable little midget fairy with huge wings, and carrying a big-ass weapon like that scythe. Look at her. I bet she can give you one hell of a cut across your jugular with that scythe. She's cool. I like her.

TheForgivingMaiden-DB1-EN-C-UEFile:DarklordMarie-DB1-EN-C-UE.pngStJoan-DB1-EN-C-UE
There are a lot of "just a human" cards in this set, huh? The Forgiving Maiden is supposedly a Fairy/Angel, but she just looks like... well, just some lady dressed in medieval fancy garb. Marie the Fallen One is far more interesting with her wings and her stone like skin, even if fallen angels are admittedly a dime a dozen in this card game. She ends up getting renamed into "Darkord Marie" in later prints, completely ignoring that whether you specify that it's a Fallen One or a Dark Lord, she's still a goddam fallen angel either way. Ah, censorship.

The weird maybe-angel nun and the fallen angel fuse together into Saint Joan, presumably based on Joan of Arc, but despite actually having a quasi-religious reference, remains untouched while "the Fallen One" gets censored. Also, I'm not sure I want to discuss the implications of St. Joan being half-fallen-angel. Pretty uninspiring trio of cards for me.

AmazonessArcher-LEDU-EN-C-1EFile:TheUnfriendlyAmazon-LON-NA-C-UE.png
So the "Amazoness" archetype first shows up here, with the Amazoness Archer, althogh as a standalone lady with a bow and arrow, she's clearly not as impressive as the more defined archetype of jungle warrior-ladies we'll see in subsequent sets. Just... just remember that we first saw an Amazoness card in this set, all right?

The Unfriendly Amazon, meanwhile, actually has absolutely nothing to do with the Amazoness archetype, is actually thanks to an odd mis-translation. Her original Japanese name translates roughly to "Ally-Killing Lady Knight", which reflects her card effect... but while I get the "unfriendly" part, I'm not sure why they decided to associate her with the Amazons. Just one of the many mysteries of early Yu-Gi-Oh translations, I suppose.

CrimsonSentry-LON-EN-C-UEFirePrincess-LCYW-EN-UR-1EFile:LadyAssailantofFlames-LON-NA-C-1E.pngFile:FireSorcerer-LON-NA-C-1E.jpg
Ehhh not much to say here. Crimson Sentry, Fire Princess and the Lady Assailant of Flames are just a bunch of people? One being a "Warrior" and the latter two being "Pyro" types? I guess they kind of wanted more Pyro-type monsters in the game? These are kinda bland. I guess they wanted more humanoid looking monsters or something?Fire Sorcerer at least has more personality than the other fire people. Between her multi-coloured eyes and that expression that just screams that she's so done with this bullshit, she has way more personality that masks the fact that she's basically another generic spellcaster.

CureMermaid-DB1-EN-C-UEFile:LadyPanther-LON-NA-C-1E.jpg
Hey, I have Cure Mermaid in my old Yu-Gi-Oh collection! Not much to say here, she's yet another mermaid and we've seen a couple more interesting ones already. Unlike the other censorship ones, this is one where the photoshop of her cleavage is a bit more obvious. Lady Panther is just a Tabaxxi from D&D (or Khajiit from Elder Scrolls). Pretty neat! Not the first or last Beast-Warrior we're going to see in this franchise, but I do like her weird giant... spear-staff-thing.

Gilasaurus-SR04-EN-C-1EAmphibianBeast-DB1-EN-C-UE
Presumably borrowing his name from the Gila Monster, a pretty cool real-life lizard, the Gilasaurus is just... it's just a generic Dromaeosaur, not too much different from something like Uraby other than its pose.

The Amphibian Beast is another crazy fish-man monster, but I feel like we've actually seen a whole lot of variation on this trope in the early Yu-Gi-Oh sets without any of them being particularly exciting takes on the formula. Yu-Gi-Oh isn't the only trading card game to do this, mind you -- Magic: The Gathering has a lot of random merfolk in its early sets that really didn't look interesting either.

KycootheGhostDestroyer-BP02-EN-C-1EJowgentheSpiritualist-AP03-EN-C-UESummonerofIllusions-FUEN-EN-SR-1E
We've got a trio of dudes doing spellcaster-y things. They're oriental and stuff, and they have effects, but I really don't have a whole ton to say about them. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer has got a creepy Prince Zuko scar-face thing going on, and those creatures behind the Summoner of Illusions are neat, but these are just a bunch of pretty boring monk dudes.

File:FlyingFish-LON-EU-C-1E.jpgLightningConger-LON-NA-C-UE
A pair of fishies, which I will assume may or may not be used by Mako Tsunami in the anime. I really don't remember a lot of Mako Tsunami's cards. The Flying Fish is surprisingly mundane, although I love the gross fish-face the artist gave him. The Lightning Conger is an interesting critter -- real-life Conger Eels have nothing to do with electric eels, but this is clearly some sort of lightning-generating mutant. A little tweaks and the Lightning Conger could actually be one of those "slap an element to an animal and call it a day" Pokemon.

Overall, though, not the most interesting creatures to come out of Yu-Gi-Oh. It is admittedly nice to see a couple of these wacky fantasy setting bargain bin creatures every now and then before every single card in Yu-Gi-Oh is tied to some archetype or other.


MagicCylinder-SDMY-EN-C-1EJarofGreed-YS14-EN-C-1E
Oh, yeah, this is a trap card Yugi uses a lot. The actual official card is much more mundane, but in the anime it essentially allows Dark Magician to summon these Magic Cylinders to redirect attacks in ways that are pretty inconsistent from use to use.

JAR OF GREED! It's expression isn't quite as memetic as the Pot of Greed, and its name isn't quite as funny because "jar" doesn't have the double meaning that "pot" has, but the expression on this jar is certainly a greedy one, and one that's more about gathering money and wealth as opposed to the Pot's more hedonistic expression. I like this one. I like that the designers loved Pot of Greed so much that they start making variations of him.

SkullLair-DB2-EN-C-UEGraverobbersRetribution-DB2-EN-C-UECyclonLaser-DB2-EN-C-UEBlindDestruction-LCJW-EN-C-1E
I really don't have much to say about spell and trap cards in general, but I really do love the juxtaposition of some of them. On one hand, you have Skull Lair and Graverobber's Retribution, pretty standard thematic cards with Yu-Gi-Oh's stated "Egyptian ruins and cursed artifacts" theme. Pretty neat stuff, and I was always more than slightly perturbed with the Graverobber's Retribution card.

And then you have cards like fucking Cyclon Laser and Blind Destruction, which features fucking sci-fi tanks straight out of Mobile Suit Gundam or Gurren Lagann, and it's just... it's just hilarious, y'know? Sometimes you summon the dread spirits of the ancient pharaohs, and sometimes you just have a god damn Cyclon Laser from the year 2399.

TornadoWall-SDRE-EN-C-1ETorrentialTribute-YS18-EN-C-1EFairyBox-LCJW-EN-C-1EFile:DestructionPunch-LON-NA-R-UE.png
I think I own Tornado Wall and Torrential Tribute. Both of the artworks looks very, very familiar. Also, holy shit, Fairy Box has a bunch of Digletts in it! Hahaha! That's hilarious! It's probably not intentional, though, because Diglett themselves are based on popular whack-a-mole games.

Also hilarious is Destruction Punch, which is just a green kangaroo beating the FUCK out of some poor sap. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh.

CollectedPower-LCJW-EN-C-1ERiryokuField-BPW2-NA-C-1EDragonicAttack-LON-NA-C-UE-ReprintFile:MiracleDig-LON-NA-C-UE.png
Between Collected Power, Riryoku Field and Dragonic Attack, someone in this set's production team was really, really watching Shonen anime. Collected Power and Riryoku Field are so Dragon Ball Z that it hurts, whereas Dragonic Attack could honestly have came from Fist of the North Star or any other manga that features a male protagonist punching really really hard with some aura around him. Hell, pick any shonen manga and I guarantee you that this trope will be in full effect.

I'm not complaining, if nothing else, these shameless homages of Shonen battle manga tropes really end up giving these cards the charm that something like "Miracle Dig" doesn't.

Spiritualism-LCYW-EN-C-1EDarkSpiritoftheSilent-RP02-EN-C-UEVengefulBogSpirit-LCJW-EN-C-1EFile:EkibyoDrakmord-LON-NA-C-1E.png
Spiritualism and Dark Spirit of the Silent seem to kind of utilize similar goopy, melty skeleton ghosts, and I wonder if they are both based on the same panel in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga or something. I vaguely remember evil Bakura using these sort of cards.

"Ekibyo Drakmord" is such a fucking bizarre name. The original Japanese name was Ekibyo Virus Black Dust, with "Ekibyo" being the Japanese word for "Plague". So, yeah, the goblins in that picture are being tormented by a plague that takes the form of a black dust. Okay, that makes so much sense. I'm not sure what "Drakmord" is supposed to be, and as a kid I remembered being confused if that was supposed to be the name of the weird screaming goblin.

InfiniteCards-RP02-EN-R-UECardofSafeReturn-RP02-EN-C-UEChosenOne-DB1-EN-C-UEReturnoftheDoomed-DB1-EN-C-UE
More spell cards. I really always find it weird when Yu-Gi-Oh cards also show off the cards themselves in the card art. Like, I suppose there isn't any in-universe reason for this not to be the case, but it's still kind of weird.

LightningBlade-RP02-EN-C-UEBaitDoll-BP01-EN-C-1EScrollofBewitchment-DB1-EN-C-UEDealofPhantom-LON-EN-C-UE
More items! They have cool artwork! I like Bait Doll, mostly because of the weird style of the bamboo sickle.

FusionGate-FUEN-EN-SR-1EDeFusion-LCKC-EN-ScR-1ESpiritElimination-LON-EN-C-UERoyalCommand-AP06-EN-C-UE
More spell and trap cards! I really have nothing much to say about them. They probably have fun effects for the time, particularly the ones that dick around with Fusion mechanics, but because this is Yu-Gi-Oh, wait two or three expansions and they're probably completely irrelevant.

UnitedWeStand-YS18-EN-C-1EMagePower-OP01-EN-C-UEOfferingstotheDoomed-SDPL-EN-C-1ETheDarkDoor-LCYW-EN-R-1E
Even more spell cards! I really have nothing much to say. They have cool artwork, but they're just there, y'know? A weird demonic ritual, a bunch of offerings, the like. Standard fantasy fare, and they help to show that in the fantasy world of the Yu-Gi-Oh card game (and not the Yu-Gi-Oh world where it's people playing cards) there are standard fantasy things going on, but eh? 

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