Totally overhauling the original mega-tin design, the 2019 Gold Sarcophagus Tin resolved basically all the issues this kind of product had before. It also introduced three cards that have changed the game forever. But have they change the game for the better? Opinions vary. Here's one!
Two monsters, one spell. Two handtraps, one board breaker. That's all it took to make these some of the best cards of recent years. , , and have been staples throughout tens of thousands of decklists ever since their day of release. Revealed during the 2019 World Championship, these cards set the community ablaze, redefining power creep forever.
In my opinion? They're one of the biggest mistakes in card design ever.
Dimension Shifter
Originally thought to be the weaker of the three, it's arguably the strongest one in our current Tearlaments Ishizu format. has a really steep activation requirement. Asking you to send it to the graveyard as a cost isn't much, but doing so while having no other cards there really limits the amount of decks capable of utilizing it. Still, with such a steep cost, the effect lives up to it, acting as a for two turns. Lingering effects like this one are a huge card design mistake.
Widely used on different floodgates, making it so you cannot interact with this sort of backbreaking effect once it's resolved really causes games to be a lot more unfun. , , and more recently, are badly designed cards, period. Don't have an out at the exact moment the effect can be interacted with? Well, sucks to be you. And Shifter works exactly like these.
Lingering effects are a blight upon the game, and the strongest ones have already been banned
I don't need to tell you how strong banishing all cards for two turns is, especially if your own deck doesn't care about it. And it's no secret that the reason Floowandereeze and Spright can compete in this tier zero format is because of . Cheap wins is all this card achieves. Pretty much an auto-win button in certain matchups (like a bunch of floodgates), it can also be used going second, unlike most auto-win floodgates. There's simply little to no playing around it—if you have it, you have it. A truly skilless card, used in the truly skilless deck that is Floowandereeze.
Dark Ruler No More
The one that received the second most attention on release, asks a question: How far are you willing to go in order to play? This spell is useless going first, but going second? Hoo boy, you're in for a treat. There's a reason is a strong card, and a big part of that has to do with your opponent not being able to respond at all. While not as crippling, Dark Ruler No More being able to completely ignore your opponent's and is a very strong point.
Dark Ruler has come in and out of main and side decks ever since its release, always at the back of players' minds whenever a deck went a bit too far in the board building department. However, this comes with a downside—you cannot inflict damage. This is a pretty well-balanced aspect of the card, making it so you have to break their board, no matter what. Dark Ruler forcing you to be able to go off and combo makes it better in combo and midrange decks, but not as good in control decks (which wouldn't need the card anyway).
Control decks are surprisingly good at going second without blowouts
An unexpected side effect of the card is its interactions with and . Going second against an established board, these cards are stop-on-sight for the dominant player. The ability to blank the entire front row of monsters allows for even more blowout cards to slip through and completely swing the pace of the game in one's favor. Still, out of the three, this feels like the fairest.
Nibiru, the Primal Being
And now, we've got the elephant in the room. Big rocky boi. reads like a custom card would. Five summons cause this extraterrestrial beast to strike down your opponent's board, removing it all and replacing it with a large, useless token. Nibiru immediately shaped the format around it. Ever since its release, this giant space rock has checked the viability of all decks. Damn, that's a pretty cool HERO combo ending on and a setup … would be a shame if it were rock o'clock now. While the card phases in and out of viability (but is a staple most of the time), being able to play through, negate, or just ignore Nibiru is a necessity for any deck trying to be competitive.
This might be a wild claim, but Nibiru feels like a modern day . Your deck has to be built to play around it, or you're out of the format. Yes, it's a hell of a lot more balanced than the annoying level two earth insect, but it gatekeeps so many decks out of the game. Salamangreat, Orcust, and Thunder Dragon were all removed from the game, at least until came out. And more recent decks like Exosister or Virtual World got destroyed by Nibiru. The latter played two just to force the Nibiru out. A lot more widespread was as a fifth summon, and it became an almost mandatory play if a deck tried to be competitive.
The impact these promos have had on the game cannot be overstated. The game has been warping around them ever since their release, and it doesn't look like that will ever change. Am I saying they should be banned? Nah, not really. Yu-Gi-Oh! is an everchanging game that requires constant adapting from its players. Still, I just think it would be a little bit more fun without these cards—especially Shifter. Begone, Floowandereeze players!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
