Card of the Week #28
Soul Charge
For those that are wondering, Phoenix Wright is on vacation, so I'm taking over these articles for him for a little while.
Seemingly Konami's replacement for Monster Reborn, Soul Charge is one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s newer Spells, which has quickly risen in popularity and is used in nearly every deck seen in the current format. Soul Charge has a rather nasty effect, allowing a player to sacrifice life points at intervals of 1000 in order to revive a monster in the Graveyard for every thousand life points sacrificed. As a result, many decks can use this to quickly recover from cards such as Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute, though they won't be able to enter the Battle Phase on the turn they use it. However, seeing as most decks these days run Evilswarm Exciton Knight, not many people really see that as a problem.
This card is useable in almost any deck, with its more common hosts being Elemental HEROs and Fire Kings.
Elemental HEROs had suffered rather greatly at the lost of everyone's favourite Spell, Monster Reborn, which had previously allowed them to fetch their cards from the Graveyard for fast Xyz Summons to hammer down at the opponent. With the addition of Soul Charge, HEROs now find themselves to once again be in a very advantageous position, with the ability to snatch back Elemental HERO Shadow Mist, and activate his effect to grab a Mask Change from the deck. Soul Charge also allows them to make use of it by reviving multiple HEROs, and Xyz Summoning cards such as Evilswarm Exciton Knight, and Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, which are usually able to survive a turn alone out on the Field.
Fire Kings love Soul Charge because it's basically a replacement for Rekindling, which had gotten hit by a previous banlist. (Nice going Konami. .-.) Soul Charge allows for multiple Fire Kings to come back to the Field and Xyz Summon some of the Fire King's nastier Xyz Monsters, such as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist: Tiger King. It easily sets up the deck to attack the next turn. Another advantage that Soul Charge gives to Fire Kings is that, unlike Rekindling, Soul Charge doesn't banish the monsters it grabs back at the End Phase. It just lets them sit on the Field. This is great for Fire Kings, as they can grab back a Barong and a Yaksha, and then sit on them until the opponent takes a swing, which will then activate their effects.
In other decks, Soul Charge still has use, as it can set up one's Field with a sturdy defensive wall of monsters, or can just regain a card that you need for you to use. This card is great at allowing one to slap down a quick Xyz Monster, and helps Synchro decks (Scraps especially), pull out some of their better Synchro Monsters for future use. Decks honestly don't suffer very much at the lack of one or two Battle Phases, so this card is pretty fantastic for the current format. There are multiple other combinations for Soul Charge out there, and there are probably a few that haven't been discovered yet. In short, there aren't very many disadvantages of putting this card in any deck, and very few decks will have better cards to use.
Soul Charge
For those that are wondering, Phoenix Wright is on vacation, so I'm taking over these articles for him for a little while.
Seemingly Konami's replacement for Monster Reborn, Soul Charge is one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s newer Spells, which has quickly risen in popularity and is used in nearly every deck seen in the current format. Soul Charge has a rather nasty effect, allowing a player to sacrifice life points at intervals of 1000 in order to revive a monster in the Graveyard for every thousand life points sacrificed. As a result, many decks can use this to quickly recover from cards such as Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute, though they won't be able to enter the Battle Phase on the turn they use it. However, seeing as most decks these days run Evilswarm Exciton Knight, not many people really see that as a problem.
This card is useable in almost any deck, with its more common hosts being Elemental HEROs and Fire Kings.
Elemental HEROs had suffered rather greatly at the lost of everyone's favourite Spell, Monster Reborn, which had previously allowed them to fetch their cards from the Graveyard for fast Xyz Summons to hammer down at the opponent. With the addition of Soul Charge, HEROs now find themselves to once again be in a very advantageous position, with the ability to snatch back Elemental HERO Shadow Mist, and activate his effect to grab a Mask Change from the deck. Soul Charge also allows them to make use of it by reviving multiple HEROs, and Xyz Summoning cards such as Evilswarm Exciton Knight, and Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, which are usually able to survive a turn alone out on the Field.
Fire Kings love Soul Charge because it's basically a replacement for Rekindling, which had gotten hit by a previous banlist. (Nice going Konami. .-.) Soul Charge allows for multiple Fire Kings to come back to the Field and Xyz Summon some of the Fire King's nastier Xyz Monsters, such as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist: Tiger King. It easily sets up the deck to attack the next turn. Another advantage that Soul Charge gives to Fire Kings is that, unlike Rekindling, Soul Charge doesn't banish the monsters it grabs back at the End Phase. It just lets them sit on the Field. This is great for Fire Kings, as they can grab back a Barong and a Yaksha, and then sit on them until the opponent takes a swing, which will then activate their effects.
In other decks, Soul Charge still has use, as it can set up one's Field with a sturdy defensive wall of monsters, or can just regain a card that you need for you to use. This card is great at allowing one to slap down a quick Xyz Monster, and helps Synchro decks (Scraps especially), pull out some of their better Synchro Monsters for future use. Decks honestly don't suffer very much at the lack of one or two Battle Phases, so this card is pretty fantastic for the current format. There are multiple other combinations for Soul Charge out there, and there are probably a few that haven't been discovered yet. In short, there aren't very many disadvantages of putting this card in any deck, and very few decks will have better cards to use.
