Extra Pack 2012 - A recap of the TCG exclusives

For the fifth year in a row, the OCG will get a (Extra) booster pack, filled with all 42 TCG World premiere cards (you know, the TCG exclusives) we got in the past year. This Extra pack spreads from Extreme Victory to Order of Chaos (and a few extra's).

I guess it’s time to look back at what specific World premiere cards we had in the past year. I’m not going to cover all 42 cards, but I’ll take a selection of what I think made (or should’ve made) an impact on the game, in order of release.

Extreme Victory

Reborn Tengu

The second TCG world premiere card that has been semi-limited months before it even hit Japanese shelves (just like Allure of Darkness in May 2008). We have to admit it, this card yells bad card design and was one of the reasons Pot of Avarice became limited in usage. Because, what’s worse than three Tengu’s? Six Tengu’s!

And with the weird (temporary) TCG rule that XYZ materials were considered leaving the field, this card's effect suddenly went apenuts!

Dodger Dragon

A lot of TCG world premiere cards have a thing in common… them being overhyped. This is the first one of those. This card allowed disaster dragons to “dodge” counter traps for one turn and it made a significant impact on the game (NOT, lol). The September ’11 Forbidden & limited list made sure this card became utterly unused, because Heavy Storm returned and MST became unlimited! As people switched over from counter traps to “trigger” traps, Dodger Dragon couldn’t dodge anymore.

Tour Guide from the Underworld

aka little girl, tour guide of the broken, too good from the underworld, Tour Slut,… no need to explain this card, as it’s been the most hyped TCG WP-card from the past year. Oh yeah… and it’s FROM the underworld, not OF the underworld. Please get it right for once. She’s so good she’s the third TCG world premiere card (after Tengu) to get some sort of limit.

But seriously... have you noticed the OCG name they're giving her?: "Death Guide Departing the Underworld Bound for the Living World". Jeezes, what a mouthful...

Gladiator Beast Essedarii

This was a welcomed card in Gladiator Beast Decks, though the only fault (according to the players) is the ability to tag out after a battle. GB-players use this card a lot and I’ve seen people use Rescue Rabbit to get 2 Anduril to tag into Essedarii.

"My guided tours brings all the boys to the yard..."

Generation Force

Sea Lancer

This card actually revived the frog style decks and renamed it “Frog Lancer”. Sea Lancer equips itself with as many banished monsters (frogs) as possible and prevents its destruction by detaching 1 of those equipped monsters (re-activating their effects). Preferred targets are Poison Draw Frog (draw 1 card) and Dupe Frog (search 1 frog). During Irish Nationals, one guy introduced this deck in the world and hogged all the attention (by getting into top-8).

Pain Painter

This is the card that failed to revive the Zombies, even though it was a nice try. This is a tuner that allows for easy synchro summoning of hard to achieve Zombie synchro monsters. This was something zombies needed ever since Plaguespreader Zombie got hit by the F&L list in March 2009.

Orient Dragon

This card is a good anti-synchro card. It would be a nice level 6 synchro that replaces Iron Chain Dragon. But it came out a little too late to make an actual impact on the game. Though if people were to switch over to synchro’s again in the new format, this might be a good replacement for Brionac.

Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon

This is one of the better rank 5 XYZ out there, without being broken. This has been a nice addition to the extra deck for a while now.

Probably the coolest card from the set.

Photon Shockwave

Photon Sabre Tiger

2000 attack for a lv. 3 monster, but under such restrictions that it’s not broken. Can be searched through SNM Hamster, is handy with skill drain, can search another Sabre Tiger, but is not always going to save your day if you topdeck it. This is what I call, a good, balanced card.

Wind-up Rabbit & Wind-up Shark

These are the two TCG world premiere Wind-up effect monsters. Shark can be special summoned and changes its own level; rabbit can basically hop over everything thrown at him. These two cards are great additions to every Wind-up Deck out there.

Evolzar Dolkka

This is Herald of Orange Light in XYZ form. It negates monster effects and destroys them. This card is the reason why Dino Rabbit is more popular over here than in OCG and it is one of the reasons why Dino Rabbit is the top deck of this format in TCG.

Wind-up Zenmaines

This card achieved a change in OCG-Konami’s point of view on TCG world premiere cards. Before Zenmaines every TCG world premiere card was collected and released once per year in an Extra Pack. But Zenmaines got released ahead of that time, in the OCG Gold Series of begin 2012. It’s not weird, as it is a very powerful card and it made the gold series sell really well in OCG.

"They renamed me Naval Mine.
Three guesses as to why?"

Order of Chaos

Inzektor Hopper

Inzektor players love this card. It triggers the effect of Centipede and Dragonfly. And unlike Ladybug, this is not a bad top deck, as its attack is 1700 (probably the only lv. 4 or lower beat stick the inzektors have). There is that tiny bit of the text that allows another Inzektor to attack directly, even if it’s the first turn. But I guess we’ll see the revised card text in the Extra Pack, huh (just like they revised the text on Darksoul).

White Dragon Ninja

Ninja support is cool. This backrow protector is a nice addition to ninja decks. The fact that she’s a dragon instead of a warrior, allows her to be special summoned by Ninjitsu Art of Super Transformation. But ninja’s need a little more support to be competitive.

Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon

This is a personal favorite and that’s not because of its ridiculous name (twist your tong, say its name 5 times out loud and fast). I like him because of the fact that he can be summoned when a monster you control is destroyed. This allows for field presence and is handy in control decks. This card was somewhat ignored in the Inzektor-heavy format, but is a card to think about in the September 2012 format.

Tour Bus from the Underworld

Overhyped TCG cards? This card definitely takes the cake. When announced, people thought that it could combo really well with Tour guide (it does) and its effect would be even more broken than Tour Guide (nope), which put its pre-order price at somewhere between 60 & 70$ (sucks to be you if you bought it at this price). Tour Bus is a card whose effect allows for graveyard control (either your own or your opponents). Price dropped fast, because this card is a bad top deck and not everybody likes graveyard control. Originally, it dropped to about 10$, but I notice the price has been going up again ever since the semi-limit of Tour Guide.

Come on! Say it with me!
Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon!
Interplanetarypurpledonkey dragon!
Interplanetthingy purple donkey!
...

Legendary Collection 3

The Seal of Orichalcos

Next to the 10 TCG world premiere cards per booster set, this time we got 2 extra WP-cards, Shadow of the Six Samurai – Shien (from the Six Sam Structure Deck) and this one. That’s the first time this happened ever.

About the seal: A few weeks after we get the infamous seal of Orichalcos, the OCG gets it as well. Nothing much to say about this card, as the (probably nerfed) effect is still unknown.

Reading its effect? The joke's on you...

So, that’s my review of Extra pack 5. The cards not mentioned are just average (not bad, yet not great either), or simply not worth mentioning.

Until next time, V out.

The Galactic Overload reverse review #2: The TCG Exclusives

Second on my reverse review list is the TCG exclusives. The following cards will be ours and ours alone until September 2013! Enjoy them!

Noble Knight Artorigus

Wow, just wow… Look at this card. Just look at it. The artwork is beautiful (for once, there’s an actual background!); the text is just drawing you in. Yes, this IS king Arthur, drawing Excalibur from the stone. Well done, Konami, well done.

Card effect? Oh, yeah… this card has none. Nobody’s going to use this card, really. But it’s beautiful and if you have one of those legendary collection binders, this card deserves a spot in those card spaces in the cover.

Ancient Dragon

ANOTHER level manipulating dragon. This card gains attack and a level each time it inflicts battle damage. If you like to make rank 5 XYZ, this is the card for you.

Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King and Hieratic Seal from the Ashes

For each great archetype that gets introduced in TCG, we get a few exclusive cards. In the case of the hieratics, we get a Gemini monsters & a trap card.

Difficult card to play, as it is a level 6 gemini with 0 attack. But it has potential, when combined with cards like Superalloy Beast Raptinus and (especially) Supervise. In these cases you can access its effect quite easily and gain from it.

But for it to work decently you need to get it to the grave first, and that's probably the most annoying part. But that other TCG exclusive Hieratic card helps.

Seal from the ashes allows you to: send a Hieratic monster from the deck to the grave; return a banished Hieratic to the grave; and special summon a Hieratic monster from the grave! This is handy when you get bothered by your opponents bottomless trap holes or Macro cosmos’s. YES, its “return to the graveyard” effect bypasses Macro Cosmos! That makes this one of the most interesting TCG exclusives.

Draconnection

Great card that fixes consistency issues in certain dragon decks. For example :

• In a Ninja dragon deck, you can put that dead White Dragon ninja back in your deck and get an Armed Dragon Lv. 7 out of it.
• In a hieratic build, you can send a dead Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King back to the deck, and get a Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit instead.
• In a Chaos Dragon deck, when you want to get that REDMD back from your graveyard; you can swap that Eclipse Wyvern in your hand for a Divine Dragon Apocralyph.
• If you’re a fan of Rescue rabbit, you want to keep that Alexandrite Dragon in your deck. With Draconnection, you can swap that Alexandrite dragon for a better dragon. Can you do that, Kabazauls?

Evoltile Elginero

Risky, but useful. A card with a great effect, but its 0 attack can make it a bad topdeck. In combination with Evo-Force, though, this card gives you plusses!

Lightray Grepher

Meet Lightray Grepher. YES, ANOTHER Warrior Dai Grepher.

I can make a number of jokes about this guy, like the number of his split personalities that keeps on increasing, or how his cardstory is getting f**ked up with Each new Grepher card out there.

But in this case, let’s keep it simple. Dark Grepher & Lightray Grepher are the two outcomes of The Paths of Destiny.

And on terms of effect… handy in Light attribute decks, like Lightsworns, Agents, or why not… a complete Lightray deck (perhaps a little too soon for that, though).

Tardy Orc

This is a joke, nothing more to it. The name, the art and the effect all clearly state that this is a joke. I bet the designers had a hell-of-a-time to create this one.

People hyped this card when it was announced on the product page as a secret rare. But as many (other) people figured, this card has a bad effect. It’s basically Giant Orc, recreated in the “Tour of the Underworld” theme. That doesn’t automatically mean that this card is as broken as Tour Guide, geez…

Well, sucks to be you, if you pull this as a secret rare in your box :-D (though I’m not laughing too hard, since I generally have this kind of luck :-S ).

Trials and Tribulations

In the past, only Dragon decks could recuperate from tributes, thanks to Super Rejuvenation. With this card, everyone can at least profit a little from tributing monsters.

For the rest, look! Here’s a decent article about this card, from the Konami blog.

XYZ Wrath

Another one of those XYZ support cards. It’s an altered version of Divine Wrath. This can help against Chaos Dragons, Six Sams or Monarch decks. But that’s about it, right now. Very limited use in the current meta.

 

That’s it for TCG exclusives. Next time, it’s trap time.