Field Control through QP Spell Cards
Andrew J. Mueller
URjustSOL
The game of Yu-Gi-Oh! has progressed through many styles of game play in the last few years. Some people refer to these styles as deck-types, themes or the meta-environment. You might recognize terms such as Beatdown, Hand-control or Chaos as major themes played in the past or present. One of the major styles active in today's meta is Field Control.
Field Control, to be brief, is the ability to remove monsters on your opponent's side of the field while keeping (or bringing out more) monsters on your side. This can be accomplished through Traps, Swarming (in any form), Monster effects or Spell cards. I've already discussed swarming and other control factors in other articles, so in this article I'll be focusing ONLY on QP spell cards.
Hopefully, everyone knows what QP Spell cards are. They are the Spell cards that have the little lightning bolt on it. These can be played from your hand at any time during your turn except perhaps the Damage Step of the Battle Phase (that all depends on the nature of the card). You can also set them and they take on the properties of traps and can be activated during your opponent's turn.
Today, I'm going to look at 4 QP Spell cards that have an enormous effect on control of the field.
LON-051
Offerings to the Doomed
QuickPlay Spell
Destroys 1 face-up monster. Skip your next Draw Phase.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of Offerings to the Doomed. However, since Yata-Garasu is a non-factor in Advanced Format tournaments (at this time), the danger of losing the game from missing a draw is slim to none. Taking that into consideration, I might be tempted to run an Offerings to the Doomed or two in a deck that needs more monster removal than Smashing Ground, Fissure or Hammer Shot can provide. If your opponent brings out a Black Luster Soldier "“ Envoy of the Beginning and you're at 2000 with a Jinzo and a DD Warrior Lady on the field, you'd GLADLY give up your next draw phase to destroy it.
I would only use Offerings to the Doomed if I was lucky enough to have more than one at the same time (the effect does not stack), or if I really, really needed to kill something on the other side of the field. The real power of Offerings of the Doomed over cards like Dark Core, Tribute to the Doomed, Smashing Ground, Fissure, Nobleman of Crossout or Hammer Shot is that it's a QuickPlay Spell and can be set and used on your opponent's turn. Everyone has to evaluate their deck's weaknesses and their play style to see if this card works for you. Perhaps the worst of the four reviewed in this article.
SDJ-041
Scapegoat
QuickPlay Spell
When this card is activated, you cannot summon any monster in the same turn (including Flip Summon and Special Summon). Place 4 "Sheep Tokens" (Beast-Type/EARTH/1 Star/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position on your side of the field. The tokens cannot be used as a Tribute for a Tribute Summon.
Scapegoat is a fantastic card in certain situations. It is almost never, ever, played out of the hand because:
1. You cannot summon the same turn.
2. The Goat Tokens are susceptible to certain forms of removal like Torrential Tribute or Tribe Infecting Virus.
The most prudent use of Scapegoat is to set it and activate it on your opponent's turn. This can accomplish the following:
1. Force them to waste S/T removal on it. You activate Scapegoat in a chain to get the effect anyway.
2. You can activate Scapegoat after they declare an attack. This will prevent them from activating effects like Tribe Infecting Virus until after the Battle Phase.
These defense position Goat Tokens can provide you a couple of turns of defense against your opponent while you attempt to regroup your resources to counter-attack. In a more aggressive deck, these Sheep Tokens can be used in combination with Creature Swap, Metamorphosis, Monster Gate or with Enemy Controller. Beware of Trample monsters like Airknight Parshath, Enraged Battle-Ox or Mad Sword Beast that can do damage against defense position monsters.
PGD-035
Book of Moon
QuickPlay Spell
Flip 1 face-up monster on the field into face-down Defense Position.
Book of Moon is a fantastic, all-around and versatile card. As a defensive card, you can flip an attacking monster into face-down defense position and stop the attack. It can flip your own monster down when attacked to take advantage of a higher defense. It can even save you the game if you happen to run a high attack monster into a Magical Cylinder. Don't want to take the LP damage? Simply flip your attacking monster face down with Book of Moon and you'll force Magical Cylinder to resolve without effect.
You can also use Book of Moon to re-use FLIP: effects or to remove the troublesome effects of Jinzo or King Tiger Wanghu from the field. Book of Moon will allow you to keep Fusion Monsters Special Summoned by Magical Scientist. Flipping them down removes the special restrictions Magical Scientist puts on the Fusion Monsters it summons.
As an aggressive card, you can Book of Moon monsters like Dark Ruler Ha Des or Dark Balter the Terrible, then attack and remove them with DD Warrior Lady which would normally be negated if destroyed by such monsters. In this case, you'll take battle damage, but because the attacked monsters were in DEF position, DDWL is not destroyed and not negated. Using Book of Moon to flip ANY card face down will allow you to remove it from play with Nobleman of Crossout. If you're running cards like Sasuke Samurai or any of the Mystic Swordsman Warriors, your opponent's face down monsters are destroyed by effect without damage calculations. Imagine taking out your opponent's Black Luster Soldier "“ Envoy of the Beginning (3000/2500) with your Mystic Swordsman LV2 (900/0)!
The downside to Book of Moon: You can turn powerhouses like The Masked Beast or Chaos Emperor Dragon face down, but if you can't get rid of them, they'll be back next turn. Also, Book of Moon won't destroy cards like Berserk Gorilla or Spirit Reaper like Enemy Controller does.
AST-037
Enemy Controller
QuickPlay Spell
Select and activate 1 of the following effects:
- Change the Battle Position of 1 face-up monster on your opponent's side of the field.
- Offer 1 monster on your side of the field as a Tribute. Select 1 face-up monster on your opponent's side of the field. Take control of the selected card until the End Phase of the turn this card is activated.
Here's another versatile card. This card from Ancient Sanctuary offers you 2 effects to choose from. Unlike Book of Moon, Enemy Controller is set perhaps half the time, and played from the hand the other half. That's because Enemy Controller is a much more aggressive card than Book of Moon. We'll explore each effect in turn.
The first effect is the most defensive. If used against an attacking Berserk Gorilla or a Spirit Reaper, those monsters will be destroyed after Enemy Controller resolves. Any other powerhouse that attacks can be turned to defense position, thus stopping the attack.
You can also use Enemy Controller's first effect offensively. My favorite use is to turn my opponent's Goat Tokens to attack position generating maximum damage. Turning a high attack monster with low defense to DEF position to run it over with a generally smaller monster is always good. If you're using Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, he destroys face-up defense position monsters by effect, skipping damage calculations.
The second effect can be useful if your opponent summons a monster and you want to take it to:
- Prevent an attack that would destroy your monster and do Life Point damage.
- Take control of a monster with an effect you don't want activated, i.e. Black Luster Soldier's double attack or Raging Flame Sprite
As you can see, these four QuickPlay Spell cards are quite different. They offer a variety of ways to control the field and are not as interchangeable as some people believe. You have to plan your deck accordingly and make card selection based on your deck strategy and card synergy to get the greatest benefit out of these Spell cards.
Enjoy!
Original Article: http://synecdoche.net:32001/yugioh/docs/QP_Spell.html