Draining Shield AST-054

Trap

Negate the attack of 1 of your opponent's monsters and increase your Life Points by an amount equal to the attacking monster's ATK.

Today we look at Magic Cylinder's unrestricted brother. The pros and cons for this are fairly the same. There is one key difference between the two. This card, unlike Magic Cylinder, affects your own life points.

This card will negate the attack and YOU gain life points equal to the monster current ATK. A solid trap in a fairy deck that revolves around maintaining higher life points than the opponents. The agents, specifically Saturn and Mars would benefit from this card greatly. The greater your life points are than the opponent's, the greater the damage Saturn will inflict when tributed and the greater the increase Mars will receive towards its ATK/DEF. This is also useful in a deck that uses a lot of cards with payment cost. Archfiend's for example have small life point costs that add up as the turns come and go. This will help keep your life points high enough until you get a Pandemonium on the field.

And the best thing about this card is the fact that its not restricted. You can have three. Sure, the opponent won't get affected by it other than having his/her attack stopped but that's ok. Your gaining life points with each failed attempt your opponent makes.

This card shares some of the same drawbacks as Magic Cyclinder but it won't be as hindered because of the second effect.

The first effect of negating attacks, makes it fall victim to the monsters like Tyrant Dragon, Ryu Senshi, Pitch Black Warwolf and Mirage Dragon.
It'll either get negated or it won't be able to get activiated. Like Magic Cylinder it can only be activiated when a opponent's monster declares and attacks. If the opponent has any spells that gets S/T off the field then this card is good as dead unless you have something else protecting it.

This card only stops one attack but thankfully its not restricted. So if your opponent has a lot of monsters on the field, you can stop a good portion , gain life points and probably break even (in terms of life points anyway) if not come out ahead. Monsters that attack twice will still get their second attack.

Since the attack was negated, Giant Orcs, Spear dragons and Goblin Strike Teams will stay in attack poistion, ready for another shot at your life points the next turn.

Its second effect of increasing your life points isn't as vulnerable as Magic Cylinder. The only real threat to the second part is a card the reverses life point increases like Bad Reaction to Simochi. Course that is probably most feared card for any deck that uses a lot of life point gaining tactics.

Overall, the card's pretty good. Any deck could benefit from it and a few specific ones can really take advantage of it. Its not limited and its definitely more economical than Magical Cylinder. So, if you care about the attack getting negated, then this is the card for you.

Artwork's not to too bad either. Freed defending from an attack of Giga Gagagigo. Tsk, tsk, had such high hopes for Gagagigo. Oh well. Perhaps the next young evildoer will keep his redemption when he earns it.

 

[Animefirst]

I disagree on the "greatness" of this card and magic cylinder. While they are effective in some decks, thats where it stops for one simple reason: they don't get rid of the monster. So when your opponent attacks with Goblin Attack Force and you use Draining Shield, sure you'll getting some LP, but the monster is still their and still in attack position. Personally, I'd use Sakerutsu Armor or Raigeki Break over this card.

 

[Archfiendgeneral]

In all honesty, I prefer Sakuretsu Armor as well but I have to limit how much personal opinion I use in CotD opening review. Its just like I said in the Magic Cylinder review. It depends on what you consider more important. The destruction of the monster or the negation of the attack?

Keep in mind that Sakuretsu and Raigeki Break don't negate the attack, so a monster equipped with Heavy Mech support will still continue with the attack since Heavy Mech will be destroyed instead and the attack would resolve as normal.

 

[Bigred Blues]

There are draw backs to every card. It is easy to say that this card is Binder or even shoe box fodder. There are cards that sakuretsu Armor will not effect, because they cannot be destoryed or have a Heavy Mech Support Platform equiped. Sakuretsu Armor isnt the answer to everything, but I would rather run Sakuretsu Armor than Draining Shield.

 

[Spike Kaiba]

I actually make good use of this card, especially in my Jap/Eng mixed Toon Deck, I probably end each duel with near if not atleast 125%-150% of my starting 8000LP using this card ((along with Sebek's Blessing for the direct Toon attacks)), successfully stopping say a 3000atker with this card is 3000LP, followed by said attack by say Blue Eyes Toon Dragon is then 6000LP in two turns, more then enough to cover the costs for attacks etc, I definently make a lot of use of this card in such decks.

Its downfall being is it only really fits to decks that require gaining LP due to costs of attacks/cards, but like Bigred said, Sakuretsu is probably the better all round...but still depends on the deck type.