Dark/Fiend/4/1800/400
When this card does Battle Damage to your opponent, you may discard a card from your hand.
No Published Rulings
Good lord, I've never been so happy to be a fiend player since the archfiends came out. Today we look at another set of Dark Lords known as Dark Realm fiends, specifically the Berserk King.
Now at first I'm sure many of you will think this card isn't special. Afterall, who in their right mind would want to lose hand advantage?
That's the beauty of Dark Realm Fiends. Except for this one, the Knight (a normal monster) and the Scout, they ALL have an effect that actiavtes when you or the opponent tosses them from your hand. Their effects are better when the opponent forces you to toss them but are good nonetheless when you discard them yourself. The advance guard special summons itself (LV4 1600/1300). The Hunter allows to draw a card (or two if due to the opponent), and both gods (LV5 2300/1400) speical summon themselves when tossed (a nasty extra effect if the opponent causes it). The effect is mandatory is there is no issue of timing.
At the very least in most cases your increasing field presence and with decent size tributes to boot. This kind of special summoning high level monsters is usually contributed to zombie decks.
Now you can see the beauty (or lackthereof if you seen the artwork) of the Berserk King. Each time he does damage you can drop a advance guard, the Miltary God or the War God onto the field, or the Hunter to draw another card from your deck.
He has decent attack strength but a deplorable defense.
Ok, the hard part is actually letting this effect go off. He doesn't have a damage through defense effect and if your opponent plays defense then you'll hardly have the chance for this effect to go off.
As such you'll need to use cards Final Attack Orders to make sure the opponent's monsters will be in attack mode. This of course means you can't defend yourself put that's a small price to pay. Except for the scout, all the Dark Realms fiends have decent attack strength and if your special summoning the Gods fiends, this won't be a problem at all. And you want to keep the Gods and the Berserk King in ATK mode.
At 1800, this card can be overcomed by brute strength or by the aid of opponents's own power- ups. One way to deal with is Rush Recklessly. Even more painful would be to combine that with Staunch Defender. Defender by itself can prevent the Berserk King destruction.
Another card that at first would have seem a bit pricey is Rising Energy. In a Dark Realm fiend deck however, discarding Dark Realm fiends can only help you. Heck, I'll use Tribute to The Doomed again just for kicks. Back to Rising Energy, this card makes you discard a card and the monster you select gains 1500 ATK points until the end of the turn. You can also activate during the damage step. Now I'm not sure what happens in what order during damage step. Here Timing may still be issue. Outside of the damage step however, you can get a monster on the field from Rising Energy and then possibly another one from a successful attack/counterattack if your opponent runs his monster into it.
A good effect if the attack is successful but of course the opponent will be carrying traps and what not to stop your monster if not destroy it. That where a card named Thunder of Dark Realm EEN-EN038 comes in. It lets you destroy a face down card and then afterward you discard a card from your hand. Heh, a chance to get rid of trap AND special summon a monster because of it? Its down right nasty. Or you could also use Swords of Concealing Light to then take out any monsters that may be a problem with Thunder of Dark Realm.
The best decktype that takes advantage of willingly tossing out cards from your hand is obviously the Dark Realm fiends. Special summoning monsters and drawing more cards is definitely a plus. Use plenty of cards that have the "cost" of making you discard a card from your hand. There are more than enough to be creative about it. Here's a fun one. Cost Down. Discard a War God to bring the Military God's LV down to 3. Since the War God was discarded because of Cost Down, it gets special summoned and now you can also normal summon the Military God. Two 2300 hitters from a card that normally makes you lose two cards from your hand (including itself) just to bring out another monster. Yes, Dark Realm fiends pretty much turn such Cost cards into freebies. They laugh at the notion of "discard 1 card from your hand." Cost? what cost? This is a reward as far as Dark Realm fiends are concerned.
One last thing. BEWARE of End of Anubis, Jowgen and Goblin of Greed. You'll be doing a lot of special summoning from the graveyard and these card stops Dark Realm fiends cold. Goblin of Greed will stop your discarding tactics period. You see them, take them out as soon as possible. Also be wary of Special Hurricane. That take out all speical summon monsters as well.
In seal format, I think not. You know the saying, the more the merrier? With Dark Realm fiends more is a necessity. Your best Dark Realm fiends are super rare and ultra rare with the berserk king itself being a rare. Odds of pulling a one of each is impossible as it is. Mulitples? Don't make me laugh. Still the berserk king is decent. It has the higest attack strength for LV4 in this set. The only other LV4 monster that meets its basic strength is Kinght of the Dark Realm which is another Dark Realm monster. 3/5
In the traditional format, normally using a lot of discarding cost cards is down right suicidal but that's the not case with Dark Realm fiends. Even so, they have modest attack strength compare to heavy hitters favored in this format and their effects will be only really effective if the opponent forces you to toss them (specially the Dark Realm Gods). And large monster presence doesn't last long with the mass removal goin' around. 3/5
In advance format, Lord almighty I think these guys border on being broken. Discard cards become reward cards. Your monster presence can jump up at the drop of a hat, or card to be more precise. There are key cards that'll stop them of course but I'm having a hard time seeing what really does throw wench into this decktype. The Berserk king itself is only effective when it does battle damage. 3.5/5
When this card does Battle Damage to your opponent, you may discard a card from your hand.
No Published Rulings
Good lord, I've never been so happy to be a fiend player since the archfiends came out. Today we look at another set of Dark Lords known as Dark Realm fiends, specifically the Berserk King.
Now at first I'm sure many of you will think this card isn't special. Afterall, who in their right mind would want to lose hand advantage?
That's the beauty of Dark Realm Fiends. Except for this one, the Knight (a normal monster) and the Scout, they ALL have an effect that actiavtes when you or the opponent tosses them from your hand. Their effects are better when the opponent forces you to toss them but are good nonetheless when you discard them yourself. The advance guard special summons itself (LV4 1600/1300). The Hunter allows to draw a card (or two if due to the opponent), and both gods (LV5 2300/1400) speical summon themselves when tossed (a nasty extra effect if the opponent causes it). The effect is mandatory is there is no issue of timing.
At the very least in most cases your increasing field presence and with decent size tributes to boot. This kind of special summoning high level monsters is usually contributed to zombie decks.
Now you can see the beauty (or lackthereof if you seen the artwork) of the Berserk King. Each time he does damage you can drop a advance guard, the Miltary God or the War God onto the field, or the Hunter to draw another card from your deck.
He has decent attack strength but a deplorable defense.
Ok, the hard part is actually letting this effect go off. He doesn't have a damage through defense effect and if your opponent plays defense then you'll hardly have the chance for this effect to go off.
As such you'll need to use cards Final Attack Orders to make sure the opponent's monsters will be in attack mode. This of course means you can't defend yourself put that's a small price to pay. Except for the scout, all the Dark Realms fiends have decent attack strength and if your special summoning the Gods fiends, this won't be a problem at all. And you want to keep the Gods and the Berserk King in ATK mode.
At 1800, this card can be overcomed by brute strength or by the aid of opponents's own power- ups. One way to deal with is Rush Recklessly. Even more painful would be to combine that with Staunch Defender. Defender by itself can prevent the Berserk King destruction.
Another card that at first would have seem a bit pricey is Rising Energy. In a Dark Realm fiend deck however, discarding Dark Realm fiends can only help you. Heck, I'll use Tribute to The Doomed again just for kicks. Back to Rising Energy, this card makes you discard a card and the monster you select gains 1500 ATK points until the end of the turn. You can also activate during the damage step. Now I'm not sure what happens in what order during damage step. Here Timing may still be issue. Outside of the damage step however, you can get a monster on the field from Rising Energy and then possibly another one from a successful attack/counterattack if your opponent runs his monster into it.
A good effect if the attack is successful but of course the opponent will be carrying traps and what not to stop your monster if not destroy it. That where a card named Thunder of Dark Realm EEN-EN038 comes in. It lets you destroy a face down card and then afterward you discard a card from your hand. Heh, a chance to get rid of trap AND special summon a monster because of it? Its down right nasty. Or you could also use Swords of Concealing Light to then take out any monsters that may be a problem with Thunder of Dark Realm.
The best decktype that takes advantage of willingly tossing out cards from your hand is obviously the Dark Realm fiends. Special summoning monsters and drawing more cards is definitely a plus. Use plenty of cards that have the "cost" of making you discard a card from your hand. There are more than enough to be creative about it. Here's a fun one. Cost Down. Discard a War God to bring the Military God's LV down to 3. Since the War God was discarded because of Cost Down, it gets special summoned and now you can also normal summon the Military God. Two 2300 hitters from a card that normally makes you lose two cards from your hand (including itself) just to bring out another monster. Yes, Dark Realm fiends pretty much turn such Cost cards into freebies. They laugh at the notion of "discard 1 card from your hand." Cost? what cost? This is a reward as far as Dark Realm fiends are concerned.
One last thing. BEWARE of End of Anubis, Jowgen and Goblin of Greed. You'll be doing a lot of special summoning from the graveyard and these card stops Dark Realm fiends cold. Goblin of Greed will stop your discarding tactics period. You see them, take them out as soon as possible. Also be wary of Special Hurricane. That take out all speical summon monsters as well.
In seal format, I think not. You know the saying, the more the merrier? With Dark Realm fiends more is a necessity. Your best Dark Realm fiends are super rare and ultra rare with the berserk king itself being a rare. Odds of pulling a one of each is impossible as it is. Mulitples? Don't make me laugh. Still the berserk king is decent. It has the higest attack strength for LV4 in this set. The only other LV4 monster that meets its basic strength is Kinght of the Dark Realm which is another Dark Realm monster. 3/5
In the traditional format, normally using a lot of discarding cost cards is down right suicidal but that's the not case with Dark Realm fiends. Even so, they have modest attack strength compare to heavy hitters favored in this format and their effects will be only really effective if the opponent forces you to toss them (specially the Dark Realm Gods). And large monster presence doesn't last long with the mass removal goin' around. 3/5
In advance format, Lord almighty I think these guys border on being broken. Discard cards become reward cards. Your monster presence can jump up at the drop of a hat, or card to be more precise. There are key cards that'll stop them of course but I'm having a hard time seeing what really does throw wench into this decktype. The Berserk king itself is only effective when it does battle damage. 3.5/5
