With the exception of one card, the card pool at Gencon Indy will be exactly the same at Nationals. So unless this new card is amazing and theme-stamped, the same dispersion of Blackwing, Lightsworn, Synchro Cat, and a handful of Gladiator Beast builds should dominate the metagame.
The new card is Tragoedia. It is expected to be released in late July. Let’s take a look:
(1) You can Special Summon this card from your hand when you take Battle Damage .
(2) This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each card in your hand.
(3) Once per turn, you can send 1 monster from your hand to the Graveyard to take control of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls with the same Level as the sent monster.
(4) Once per turn, you can select 1 monster in your Graveyard; this card’s Level becomes the same as that monster’s, until the End Phase.
Tragoedia packs a complex array of effects into it’s Ten Star frame. First of all, the card is not likely to impact the Metagame very much because it is splashable in many different builds. The lack of a true theme-stamp to it means any player can throw a Tragoedia or two into a deck and see it run relatively well. Obviously, this strategy is not ideal, but the option is open.
Before looking at the effects, it’s important to note Tragoedia is a DARK monster that does not pack a standard attack score. This means it’s not susceptible to Crush Card Virus, not searchable by Sangan, and Allurable. Let’s break down the list of effects and then assess it’s worth in the big decks of the format.
1: Tragoedia follows the mechanic of Gorz Emissary of Darkness. I call this mechanic “Surprise! You got lucksacked!” The mechanic of special summoning during the battle phase is undoubtedly one of the most frustrating in the game. It basically means a skilled player can concoct an elaborate game-winning sequence of plays and simply be stymied by the fact the opponent has a card that drops during the battle phase.
Monsters that drop during the battle phase are pretty much a terrible idea. Monster removal and battle damage exist for a reason. To create an incentive for players to leave a clear field seems counter-productive, especially when combined with the fact having a card like Gorz in hand is purely a luck-based matter.
Here with Tragoedia not being limited in any form, we have an additional three monster slots that can be devoted to blocking one turn kills or monstrous pushes by the opponent. While many may argue this is necessary due to the nasty format (all of the big decks can end the game in one turn rather easily), I don’t think two wrongs (in this case wrong design) make a right.
Keep in mind that this effect triggers through battle damage, not battle damage on a clear field. This has important ramifications to be discussed later.
2: Tragoedia, through both its effects and the calculation of its ATK score, benefits from players who conserve many cards in hand. This naturally lends itself well to a few themes in particular. It will be the center piece of a tier one deck I am creating for SJC Indy.
For standard decks, it fits well with both Gadgets and Blackwings. The Gadget fit is obvious; the effects of Green Gadget, Yellow Gadget, and Red Gadget all lead to additional cards in hand which further boosts Tragoedia’s power. In addition, the Gadget archetype often has problems dumping excess cards in hand and getting over big monsters on the field. Tragoedia should change that.
Since Blackwings are a tier one deck at the moment, I will save the ramifications of Tragoedia for Blackwings for a different article.
3. This effect is a permanent Brain Control. I will assume it only works for face-up monsters since there is no way to check a face-down monster.
Obviously if this effect triggers it is rather amazing. There are a few ways to make sure this effect works reliably. The first is to pack your deck with multiple copies of Level 4 and Level 3 monsters, since those are normally the type that will be causing you damage in the first place. Since most decks naturally feature these levels, it’s not too difficult.
However, the synergy Tragoedia has with Blackwing’s is incredible. Blackwing’s can end up tutoring level 4’s, 3’s, and 2’s through Black Whirlwind. More on this later.
It’s doubtful that a duelist will be able to use this effect frequently. However, the threat is there and packs an incredible punch once resolved.
4. This effect is ostensibly designed to make Tragoedia very friendly with other Tuner monsters. The effect is rather underwhelming and shouldn’t affect too many duels. However, again it helps Tragoedia synergize well with Gadget synchro builds and Blackwings. Through Gale and Blizzard, you can basically make anything your heart desires.
Final Words:
When players look at new cards, they think in terms of “how will this help my build.” We can separate the competitive environment into five slices of pie. There are Blackwings, Lightsworn, Gladiator Beasts, Cat Synchro, and Dark variants.
Tragoedia will be difficult to fit into Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts. Neither deck needs shoring up in the areas Tragoedia provides, and both are tight on room as is because of all the slots devoted to theme-specific cards.
Tragoedia should have at least a discernible impact on the remaining three builds. Cat Synchro and Dark variants are always looking for new DARK monsters to include to unlock Dark Armed Dragon. Since one of the main drawbacks to the Dark Drain and other variants is getting taken out in one turn, Tragoedia might be able to shore up the defenses.
I don’t expect multiple copies to show up in these builds though.
This leaves one top tier deck: Blackwings and then decks that are built to take advantage of the Tragoedia mechanic. Two future posts will address this.
Related posts:
I have to disagree with a few things here,
One “lucksuck”, Yu-Gi-Oh has added several different game aspects that cause cards to be activated from weird places.
Hand and Graveyard especially, this actually makes the opponent have to take into account what are in those areas, which makes dropping tragoedia not lucksack but if you didn’t get the right read on your opponent you’ll get punished more often.
Tragoedia works wonders against LS, nabbing useful monsters on a consistent basis; Depriving them of their effects and giving you some solid plays in quite a few different builds.
Tragoedia is a solid side deck option against mirror matches and LS. After that, its your call on the matter. Its kinda nifty to be able to steal opponents synchros with some of the higher lvl monsters in the game as well.
this was a great article imo,i loved how u said it was great in bw which was my thoughts on it as well
Riveting.
Kyle, I disagree with you and agree with Jae. It may not truly be a lucksack, but it is bad for the game, which was his main point. It’s ridiculous to think that a game mechanic as neutral as ATTACKING has now become risky. It’s just not the way the game should be played imo.
The “two wrongs do not make a right” is spot on… many people are overlooking the bigger ramifications of Tragoedia, outside of this format.
And I do agree with Kyle that it’s great vs LS… especially in a Dark deck that runs Gardna, it’s very easy to deck them out.
Hmmmm yeah Kyle I have to definitely be more careful what I say. I have to distinguish between stuff like Phantom Dragon, which is fine with the “weird places” rule because it works like Crow.
But Tragoedia and Gorz are just ridiculous mechanics IMO. They create incentives for committing less to the field and work as special summons with huge attack scores, meaning you can put 5k+ on the board next turn through one of them alone.
I know it was a super long time ago, but remember when BEWD was 2 tribute for 3000 attack. How in the world does a monster like Gorz then come out that puts 4000 attack on the field for free with not even a normal summon cost.
Once again, you hit the nail on the head for me Jae. Although we’ve had our differences (Volcanic Rocket comes to mind), you are a very skilled player and a talented theorist and writer.
Tragoedia is such an elaborate card it’s pretty hard to write articles like this on it. Tragoedia has so many different uses, it’s insane. The combos it has in Blackwings, Gadgets and even Lightsworn are uncountable.
I remember the days of the Pojo Banlist Forum where people asked if Tragoedia was bannable. Us 3-0ers of course laughed and said no, but the more I think about it, it seems like it could be pretty busted.
It’s sad that the “downside” to Tragoedia can be helpful (600 ATK for each card in your hand).
Great article, keep up the good work.
Card also has great synergy with Reckless Greed. you have 4 cards in hand, take battle damage, drop Tragoedia as a 1800. opponent then swing sover with a bigger creature and you can play reckless to draw 2 cards boosting it to 3000. opponet’s monster dies, they take battle damage.
anytime you can turn reckless into card advantage it is good ygos
For all you whiners complaining about Gorz and Trag, I suggest you think about what exactly has been done to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! There have been cards with a much worse impact on the game than these 2 since the creation of the banlist. It started with one card at a time. Cyber Dragon, then Cyber-Stein. Then Dark Armed Dragon was released, and suddenly you could drop 1 card and force a 5 for 1 trade. The game changed forever at that point. No longer could you play for advantage “the old way.” The days of slowly gaining advantage through battle and superior use of your card effects is gone.
Now you have to play cards that can’t be susceptible to these massive negative trades. And the problems only got worse as time went on. Judgment Dragon, Gladiator Beasts + Cold Wave. Synchro Monsters! Who effectively make tuners into their own ridiculous toolbox, pulling out massive attack monsters with different stats to suit whatever your opponent has.
We’re not playing the same game we were back at Indy when the best players + Robert Morgan gathered together for the final USA vs CAN team battle.
In my opinion neither Gorz or Trag are even good. Gorz only beats Cat Synchro, and Trag is amazing in Gadgets and crap elsewhere.
Good read, keep going!
I really enjoy this card, I think it’ll make for some interesting gameplay changes in the future. I can’t wait to see how it all works out in the events leading up to the new ban list.
Tragoedia (correct me if I’m wrong) doesn’t seem to have impacted the Japanese meta that severely, especially given the amount of time it’s been out over there in comparison, but then again, how much stock can one set on a meta that is ostensibly less competitive (and thus less valid for competitive discussion). At this point I’m very curious about what deck you’re working on Jae that can use it, as I agree that we won’t see much of an impact from it.
Jae, you make good points, and I agree that it seems very limited in terms of which decks can fully utilise it.
I think that this card is the begininning of this game returning to a state where conservative play matters.
Another poster stated earlier that attacking is now too dangerous. This is a GOOD thing imo as attacking nowadays, save for Gorz, attacking and playing recklessly isn’t punished ENOUGH. In the old days, card advantaged mattered alot more than it does now. This meant tat you had to conserve or play less cards to the board. Nowadays playing less cards to the field means you get OTKd a good amount of the time. Because of Tragoedia – not the fact that he gets so big, but the fact that you can wait in peace without getting sacked – a skillful player with a hand full of cards is dangerous at all times now. The fact that Jae is making a deck centered around this guy only proves this point…
It’ll take more than just this one card obv., but the days of bad decks, bad plays, bad players, and reckless play winning are going to an end soon enough.
Also, I think that keeping the field empty JUST to drop this or Gorz is a misuse of he card. In my opinion, you play as you normally would, then when they explode you explode back.
quote
[Tragoedia (correct me if I’m wrong) doesn’t seem to have impacted the Japanese meta that severely]
pretty sure that last format branioc and tragoedia were both huge meta cards.
trag coming out makes me miss one of my favorite cards, metamorphosis. not that it _should_ come back but with trag released it for sure never will.
Fair enough Phil. Thanks for your posts (I enjoy your posts on DGZ as well).
I disagree with the idea that card advantage is not as important as it was in the old days. I think reports of CA’s demise are always exaggerated and the main principle that affects CA is the presence of a class of cards I haven’t named yet. The class features: DSF, Chaos Emperor Dragon, and Ring of Destruction (basically on demand burn damage that doesn’t lose card advantage). The presence of any card in that class can affect CA but I don’t think the important of it has been skewed negatively (or positively) at all.
It’s kind of zen, but card advantage is always as important as card advantage was or is. I’ll try to explain my opinion more later (feel free to disagree).
As opposed to its perceived demise in the view of most players, imo card advantage has adapted throughout the last couple formats. Instead of being a game of card presence as it once was, ygo has truly become a game of tempo control and either creating a lock with your power cards (for example, stardust lock during teledad format or several gladiator beast locks right now) or forcing your opponent to commit to their powerful cards and being able to respond with your own (hopefully backed up by protection via massive s/t disruption or solemn). However, this skill-based process which had been really evident during teledad has been disrupted by the presence of dark strike fighter, which rewards the player who commits first by enabling them to end the game right there via burn. Cat Synch had been a very successful deck thus far because it is very good at both forcing the opponent into making their power plays both through its constant advantage engine and its general disruption which are provided by flip effects, synchs, and airbellum hits (and obviously its easy access to dsf and the associated shananigans). Cat is then adapt at responding with a more powerful play of its own, basically without the opponent interfering due to its access to cold wave, heavy, trunade, my body, solemn, mst, etc. Although i have been away all summer and have not played any ygo, it seems that throughout a tournament, the ability to be consistently successful in generating advantage, forcing the opponent to commit, and access to dsf and its associated otks are responsible for cat’s winning of euros, canadian nats, and us nats.
looking forward to your unlocking secret character “Tragedy Wings”
[...] 1 by “Phil” in Thoughts on Tragoedia I think that this card is the beginning of this game returning to a state where conservative play [...]
[...] 2 by “Living Legend” in Thoughts on Tragoedia Tragoedia may not truly be a lucksack card but it is bad for the game. It’s ridiculous to think [...]
Card is subpar at best, a one off could be utilized in many of the top decks of the current format but i believe that dedicating three isn’t smart. I’ve been playing around with Jhub’s SalvoDAD variant maining three Tragoedia alongside reckless greed, threatening roar, etc, and i’ve come to the conclusion that there are better cards to be used in its place. I feel like i’m maining a subpar card in the form of reckless to bring tragoedia to its greatest potential (easy access, i’ve seen the card hit 4800 but it didn’t mean anything when i couldn’t capitilize)
I haven’t gotten around to using Tragoedia in Blackwing though, I think it won’t achieve that much, it seems like it will end up being nothing more than a win-more card.
With the era of OTKs presumably coming to a close come the next ban list (hahaha…), I feel that Trag and Gorz will end up dominating the meta in a way similar to how TER did in its time.
I know my reply is a little late, but there are 2 key points I particularly felt like addressing.
First off, I see tragoedia as a necessary evil but a evil none the less. I agree full heartedly that the “if you attack, you lose because I just got off this huge beatstick” concept is a bit of a pain, but tragoedia seems to me as a balance between gorz, who requires you to basically pass with open field OR for your opponent to have just wasted resources to get you to a clear field state (thus making gorz luck saccy and a play that punishes good as well as bad players) to a card that can counter the rediculous cold wave+double dsf etc for game. Tragoedia not only allows for a player who has a decent back row and monster (say 1. blackwings: shura+icarus and black whirlwind, 2. ryko and beckoning light (not really sure what to pick for ls) 3. hoplo +book of moon and chariot, 4. dekoichi and mirror force for dark decks) to have some sort of defense against the cold wave play, but it also allows for some very unusual plays on your turn. You can summon a weaker monster intentionally to ram it into a stronger 1 (ie ramming say secutor into shura) just to get tragoedia and turn around the same state. This example illustrates that tragoedia is not only not a one trick pony, but it also gives various decks a way out of very bad situations. In addition, it does not force obviously bad plays of passing with empty field (gorz)
Secondly: maybe its just me, but I see GB’s consistently winning on card advantage. gyzarus is a +3 (-1 to get it out, +2 for destroying, and +2 for the tag out as well as any other card advantage that comes out of that, ie equeste) and from the lists I have seen, they usually have at least 2-3 slots that is open for teching. It is also partially why there are so many variants: sync, fissure glads, kitty glads. Reason for this comment is that tragoedia may not be NEEDED in glads, but it definately can be fitted in as one (if not more) of the tech slots. furthermore, it shores up the weakness of glads needing to survive the battle. Esp against LS and BW, the constant threat of honest/kalut is best mitigated either through book of moon, chariot, or some sort of direct removal. Tragoedia gives gb’s a way to try to recover from a failed attack, some of which is due to bad plays, others are do to no other options. Also, it makes a very typical GB play of say: chariot, laquari, and bottomless/book of moon not completely wasted against cold waved backed cat sync: the direct attack means you can get out tragoedia and hopefully have something else in had to follow up.
In my opinion, Tragoedia as a significant threat or an evil is worrying a bit too much due to its summoning effect. The problem with Tragoedia is that to escape getting utterly slaughtered the player needs to have a large number of cards in their hand, unlike Gorz.
While Tragoedia DOES have a better summoning condition than Gorz, you have to remember that its ATK and DEF are effectively a toned down Osiris. The most this card’s ATK will ever reach in a deck that doesn’t specialize in maximized hands is 3000. That’s assuming you play zero to one cards per turn or draw at an unfathomable speed. In reality however, it’s somewhat difficult to see somebody hold over 4 cards in their hand at any given time, putting Tragoedia in a position where it will not be able to do anything significant with force. The highest attack this card will likely see in your standard situation is 2400. No higher. Which means that just about everything can slaughter it in today’s game. This also means that unless your deck is specialized to build a bigger hand at all times Tragoedia normally won’t see the chance to use its last two effects.
Its third effect is quite disturbing when it comes to control capabilities, true. However, it’s highly situational, and against a more powerful deck and a more skilled player, unless your hand and field conditions are infinitely better than your opponent’s, the control wouldn’t matter. At most, you’d be seeing faster Synchros and some extra forces on your side of the field, which you wouldn’t need as much help for in the first place if you’re using Synchro Cat or Black Feathers, or even your standard dark control. Against said decks, Tragoedia quickly falls to the large resources of Darks, the ridiculously haxed out anime-plot-armor-brought-to-life powers of Black Feathers(just like their anime owner), or the large Synchro capabilities of Synchro Cat. People would adapt to it extremely quickly.
Tragoedia’s last effect is also situational, as summoning the synchro monsters you want with Tragoedia requires you have the right tuner and the right monster in the graveyard, which once again, won’t always happen.
As for Black Feathers. Given their strength, it really makes no heavy impact. A large number of OCG BF decks don’t even HAVE Tragoedia in their line-up.
At most, what Tragoedia does is give you a way to less your blows, or in a mid-to-late game situation, be lucky enough to counter your opponent’s blows on occasion. Is it as powerful as Gorz? Not by a long shot. Is it powerful enough to save your butt and give you an opening? Yes. Is it as ridiculously annoying as Gorz? No. Can it truly thrive to a point where it needs to be banned? I don’t believe so. Tragoedia’s design means that if you choose to increase its power you run the risk of a much more severe blow later on should you lose it, and if you don’t it’s unlikely that it’ll be strong enough to overwhelm your opponent.
Its effect may make attacking seem dangerous, but plenty of other cards have done that in the past in other ways with their ability to destroy monsters that attack or by searching out cards that’ll end up biting you in the ass on your opponent’s turn. The truth is that there’s always been a risk associated with attacking, and there’s always been the chance that all your elaborate plays turn to dust with one counterattack. The side using Tragoedia will have to consider when and where they’ll unleash Tragoedia, whether to create a more versatile play or to go for Tragoedia’s power. As for the side NOT using Tragoedia, it’s just one more risk they’ll have to take into account, and only if the opponent has 6 cards in his hand while they don’t have any Gales or Synchros. The battle-damage=summon mechanic itself isn’t completely horrible, nor is it necessarily a bad idea. Cards like Gorz using it are a bad idea, but cards like Tragoedia are too underwhelming and far too difficult to use, and shouldn’t really matter.
I agree 100% with living legend. You don’t fix a problem with the game (the lack of punishing over-extensions) by introducing another problem to the game. (The mechanic utilized by Gorz/Tragoedia) Now you may ask, “Why is this mechanic a problem exactly?” and that’s good because I definitely owe a valid argument to support my claim. If your goal for the game is to have it as skill-based as possible, which I as well as many others clearly do, then you simply don’t introduce cards to the game that are essentially immune to most plays you can make (since it activates from the hand) while at the same time rely on chance to create such a situation in the first place. There is no skill involved in being forced to account for a card when considering any positional displacement where that card has none to very damn few ways to deal with it in the first place AND the existence of said situation is dependent entirely on chance.
Now you may ask, “What then can we do about the problem mentioned at the beginning of the post?” Such a problem I believe is caused directly by both poor card creation and poor card limitation. For example, Torrential Tribute. Do I even need say more? Increasing this card to 3 per deck is one simple step towards solving the problem of inability to punish bad plays, in this case monster over-extension. You don’t need to introduce new mechanics to the game such as that used by Gorz and Tragoedia to help solve a problem that can be better treated by simply un-restricting a card that probably should have never been restricted in the first place. Simply look at the cards we’ve already got rather than, or I should say before, creating new, potential problemous cards in their own right, to solve a problem that doesn’t need new cards to solve.
I fully support Living Legend on this one. This card is powerful, yet it does not require a set up to effectively use, as its only requirement is that its controller takes battle damage. As inflicting damage (primarily through battle) is how this game is won, tragoedia takes a basic part of ygo and makes it risky. This would not be a problem if it was easily read as its counterpart gorz can be due to its necessitated set up, but, as tragoedia does not require a set up, it truly can turn the tide of the game with both its powerful effects and potentially large body. Although it provides a remedy for the rampant otks of this format both in its actually usage and the psychological effects of its presence on players, it also adds another element of unpredictability and, for lack of a better term, sackiness to this game. Because it does not require a significant set up, it is difficult to anticipate and honestly requires minimal skill. As Jae said, two wrongs, being the release of tragoedia and the frequent otks present in the current format, do not make a right. Hopefully, konami will take note.
For people who argue that tragoedia is sacky, I would like to mention that many otk decks are fundamentally sacky. You are basically sacking into your OTK hand and not depending as much on skill. Is LS not sacky? you depend on good mills, which you can increase the probability of good mills, but still sacky. Unlike gorz, which is REALLY sacky, this is much less so simply because it does not require what should fundamentally be a foolish game state: its either you passed open field (which is stupid unless you have gorz), or your opponent did a whole lot to rid your field completely of cards (be it JD, dad, gyzarus, heavy storm, lightning vortex etc), and you go: o you did all that? now I will drop this HUGE beatstick, get another token, and basically make it so you wasted your efforts.
Also, it is a card that creates options, both through intentional set up and through unexpected counters. It rewards conservative plays and lets players commit less to the field not because they are HOPING to get it off, but in the case that they need another option. By the reasoning of tragoedia is sacky because it activates in hand, then dd crow and the like are also saccy.
As to the second point that it makes attacking dangerous: I dont really see the justification to this point. Simply because mirror force does something similar, as does sakuretsu, all the trap monster cards, dimensional prison, honest, and kalut. These cards ALL make attacking dangerous, some more so than others. This leads me to my point that in the above examples, they all make attacking dangerous. the traps either get a monster out or destroys yours. The 2 monsters I mentioned are just…. wayyy too powerful, and sometimes requires wasting a book of moon or the like to force an attack through.
Finally, tragoedia’s effects maybe be powerful, but it is NOT something you want to topdeck. Top decking this card, esp without a hand, is like top decking a 0-0 vanilla that will most likely help your opponent more than you. This serves 2 benefits: one, much less sacky than gorz (O I top gorz, end> you attack, I gorz you) and even if you do get it out, you get a zero zero beatstick that is basically a blank wall, stalling 1 attack. Gorz is a huge wall with either a token or a similar reflective burn. 2. it again rewards conservative gameplay: since you dont want to be top decking this card, and it also becomes more beneficial the more cards you have in your hand.
I hope i can streamline my thought process for you all in this post. There is no such thing as an otk deck this format. All the top decks, although gbs to a lesser extent, have the capacity to otk (mainly due to dsf). However, none of the slices of this format’s ygo pie is created with their win condition being otking. Cat is made to grind advantage through flips, syncs, and airbellum pokes. BW creates advantage through whirlwind, blizzard, favorable trades with icarus and other traps, syncs, and battle effects (kalut, gale, shura). GB creates advantage and control locks through battle which is assisted by a combination of stun and negation cards. LS creates advantage through its mills, its tremendous battle control effects (honest and necro gardna), and with huge swings through judgment dragon and celestia. As a side note, saying ls depends on its mills is ignorant. LS depends on its draws and the capacity to mill; if it is able to do so, it should have good mills because that is the way the deck is constructed.
My qualms with tragoedia stem more from having to play against it than playing it. Obviously, tragoedia is better in the hands of a good player, any card that isn’t (see pot of greed assuming every player both good and bad is running a tier 1 deck of sorts), should be instantly banned. However, the fact that it requires no proper set up (cards in hand is a terrible argument as your opponent should be maintaining cards in hand regardless), and thus it is luck as to whether the opponent has it or not. Thus, good players will have equal difficulty in combating tragoedia as bad players as they cannot read it. Gorz, although i also believe this card is detrimental to the game as well, is not as bad because at least the opponent has a chance of reading it as you probably did not commit to your backrow. Also, gorz can be dead if your opponent draws it after they have committed to the field, which is pretty likely given the fact that it is restricted. Tragoedia does not have that downside, as it will never be dead, barring playing against a burn or ftk deck, and if it is, you will obviously be winning. Furthermore, you cannot rationally compare an unpredictable card like tragoedia to a trap card. Trap cards are easily read and predicted (as they are on the field and in most cases require set up to be used effectively), and can be countered with s/t removal, book in some cases, and solemn and other negation cards. Likewise, other battle influencing cards such as honest and kalut can be read by your opponent’s play and can be played around (book of moon, war chariot, etc). Crow is different as it a 1-1 at best and can be easily played around or baited out. Tragoedia cannot be played around barring burn, you MUST attack your opponent to win the game and if you cannot deal with the subsequent and unreadable tragoedia then you lose. Making something like poking with dekoichi for 1400 after a flip a potentially losing play. Finally, a card being useful in a topdecking situation is not reason to run it, and likewise a card being a bad topdeck is not a reason to not run it. This immediately disqualifies your last example. Most good players rarely get into a top deck situation. Finally, i would like to address a common misconception of posters I see everywhere. People say that tragoedia is a remedy to overextention leading to an otk. Let’s go back to teledad format, as this format sucks as cards like cold wave often enable otks. If I have a solemn set to my opponents 1 face down after our stratos’s crashed, would playing my entire hand be an overextention? Obviously the answer is no. This is why most good players during teledad format looked down upon ppl who bitched about always getting otked. Generally it is your fault (it should be, but as this format is terrible, this thinking is inapplicable). You should have set a second backrow or forced your opponent’s backrow to ward off otks. I don’t like playing a game where i have answers to all my opponents cards which leads to an insurmountable momentum swing or winning the game being thwarted by a random tragoedia (which can change the momentum in the exact opposite direction). This is how the game should be, where otk’s weren’t dark strike based or easily thwarted by a random tragoedia (or gorz, to a lesser extent as generally your opponent will not have committed to their backrow and it will be easy to read unless they got lucky and topdecked it late game). The thought of playing against decks with 1 gorz and 3 tragoedia is sickening to me and counterproductive the intrinsic process of attacking. Thus, as already mentioned, two wrongs do not make a right.
Seems like I have a few clarifications:
1. I did not mean that current decks ARE built around OTKing, but the capacity to OTK for many decks is fundamentally based on the fact that they need to draw into a very specific card combination, or I call it, sacking into that card combo. Therefore, the OTK hand is sacky.
2. the same counters you mentioned for kalut and honest also fit for trag in this case: Book of moon on their monster means they dont get battle damage, and no trag. chariot counters any of trag’s effects if they activate it, and GB’s inherently usually run things to counter big beatsticks.
3. gorz is more detrimental for the reasons I mentioned above, +1 more. Gorz has an inherent printed attack of 2600 (or so, if not excuse my shoddy memory). The “advantage” of trag is its variable attack power, which in the same time is its disadvantage. If your hand count, esp after drawing, is below 3, then it is more or less useless unless you plan to either brain control or sync.
4. The point of facing decks with 1 gorz and 3 trag I wont argue. These cards in multiples are nothing if not a pain.
5. My last example of top decking was not so much as a reason to or to not run, but a reference at how sacky it is. As a topdeck, it is horrible. Therefore, esp if you are running this card in multiples, you have to play planning on if you draw it rather than play depending on top deck… which again leads to the point of rewarding being good and conservative, rather than some foolish overextension.
6. Overextending in your example definately does not apply. When I say overextending, I am talking about lots of powerful monsters with very little backrow support or lots of very unchainable traps (ie bottomless).
7. Cards in hand is not a terrible argument, esp in this format but in others as well. Primarily it is noobs who play out their whole hand with very little reason, and then attempt to draw an out. I would much rather be rewarded for conservative play rather than punished thanks to a: cold wave, summoner+summoner=double dsf game?
8. I would also like to mention that it makes players pay more attention to hand size. If I clear your field with 2 cards in hand, baring 1 of them being gorz, I am pretty sure I can attack with impunity. Conversely, if I see 4 cards in hand, I might highly consider holding back one of my destructions just incase trag does show up. Outside of this OTK format where an overextension in any other format could easily mean OTK in this one, trag also has the benefit of making players not go for the huge push. I dont see those huge pushes needing skill. I see those huge pushes as problems of which tragoedia is an attempt at a balanced fix.
9. Yes tragoedia will never be dead (baring it being a top deck which we both have covered). I see this as a benefit as players dont have to go out of their way to play a terrible card just to stop OTK decks. However, in a format with less OTK’s, trag definately needs to be limited in some way. Though multiple trags are alot less useful…..
Chaos ruined the game…simple as that. Everything since has either been toned down Chaos or some hybrid of it. The sad part is that because it was Chaos that ruined the game its been rulings that have killed it. Its unfortunate but so blatenly true.
Hopefully we’ll get some rulings that are at the least consistant across the board and make since to the way the game is played. Until then Trag is no different than DAD, JD, or any other monster that has minimal requirements to summon it but has devastating effects.
Well said.
On Trago in Blackwings, I think it could go either way. On the one hand, Black Whirlwind means you’re never going to be in shortage of monsters for Trago ATK food. It also adds a toolbox mechanism to Tragoedia’s Brain Control effect; Black Whirlwind gives you easy access to level 2, 3, 4, and if you’re running Elphin, even level 5, to pitch to be able to take pretty much anything your opponent throws at you. On the other hand, all but one of those monsters you’re searching are pretty much headed straight to the field, and the other to the Graveyard (Kalut). Pitching them for the Brain Control effect, likewise, means that’s one less monster at your disposal when you’re going for your OTK push.
I definitely like Tragoedia more than Gorz, and it’s definitely more viable than Gorz in Blackwings since you don’t need an empty field.
I hope the next list slows down the game to a point that Trag-Gadgets would be viable.
… I think it works fairly well as a first turn move for Koa’ki Meiru’s. At least it does for me.
:)^~^(:(:
This card was made to bring a WTF factor to this game. I have seen a very interesting built on a dark world trag synch which has surprisingly beaten every single rescue cat in my local cards shops. The toolbox method with black wing leads to even a faster otk method.
Thanks for the info, I’ll keep checking back for more articles, bookmarked!