The Beginning of the End

[ENMaker]

 

Activate only if there are 7 or more DARK monsters in your Graveyard. Remove from play 5 DARK monsters from your Graveyard to draw 3 cards.

 

So this is my super-secret Raidraptor tech that I just started using because it's ridiculous. You have 18+ RRs in the main deck, all of whom are searchable and recyclable should needs be, but they're largely dead in the grave and so it'll easily load up fast. Especially if you can open double Strix, which is not uncommon, you've got at least 4 in the grave turn 1 if both of them get Castel'd/Ignister'd/whatever that keeps themselves out.

 

In addition, it says draw 3 cards. 3 fucking cards. And no restriction on what you can do after. It's banishing resources you've already used and have no need or use for in exchange for 3 cards, which is likely the non-searchable portion of the deck at that point, so your Twin Twisters/Raigeki/Soul Shave Forces. Like, seriously. It's basically "If you've played the deck properly, draw 3 cards". There's not even a hard opt or anything but running multiples isn't something I've tried anyway because it does not seem wise.

 

Obviously as well BA/PK could just as Shaddolls could in theory use this but there's obviously a lot more grave based interaction there. With Raidraptors as long as you're not banishing all your Force Strixes or something it doesn't matter a fuck in most cases. I'm overselling it in all likelihood but nyeh. You draw 3 cards essentially for free and can do whatever you like with them. Discuss my over-enthusiastic hyping.

 

It's also the only card whose art on DN didn't change. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Blake]

Dead early.

 

And that's it. It's a really bad draw early on, and in a deck like Ruri, that can end you. PK banish themselves, and BA have Barbar.

 

You can run monk in Ruri to alleviate the issue somewhat, but it's still only good in the mid-late to late game.

[ENMaker]

Dead early.

 

And that's it. It's a really bad draw early on, and in a deck like Ruri, that can end you. PK banish themselves, and BA have Barbar.

 

You can run monk in Ruri to alleviate the issue somewhat, but it's still only good in the mid-late to late game.

 

You're running 1 copy. You're running 2-3 Soul Shave which is dead early because it's amazing mid-to late game, which is exactly what this is. It's not going to kill you to have 1 dead card in your opening hand when you only need 1/2 to make Strix.

[Blake]

You're running 1 copy. You're running 2-3 Soul Shave which is dead early because it's amazing mid-to late game, which is exactly what this is. It's not going to kill you to have 1 dead card in your opening hand when you only need 1/2 to make Strix.

Soul Shave is dead T1. It's not dead "early", it's dead in initial plays, and CAN be live going second.

 

It's going to kill you when you need to be banishing (Mimicry) and have a good opening hand. It's not entirely consistent with the playstyle, and would unlikely be live before your 4th/5th turn. At which point, a single -1 in a deck like Ruri can get you killed.

 

There is genuinely no point to running a card like this at 1, because it's so inconsistent that it hurts. It's why you run Pot of Cupidity at 3 whenever you run it, because cards of that ilk are cards you want to find.

 

If you can waste a tech on this, you can run extra backrow/Spells/tech a Ruri like Necro instead.

 

Twin Twister can discard it, as can Monk, but being able to use it as fodder =/= being optimal. Especially when the former should, optimally, be discarding a Fuzzy or mimicry.

[玄魔の王]

Diamond Dude's bae, and part of the reason Dimension Fusion cannot come back.

[ENMaker]

Soul Shave is dead T1. It's not dead "early", it's dead in initial plays, and CAN be live going second.

 

It's going to kill you when you need to be banishing (Mimicry) and have a good opening hand. It's not entirely consistent with the playstyle, and would unlikely be live before your 4th/5th turn. At which point, a single -1 in a deck like Ruri can get you killed.

 

There is genuinely no point to running a card like this at 1, because it's so inconsistent that it hurts. It's why you run Pot of Cupidity at 3 whenever you run it, because cards of that ilk are cards you want to find.

 

If you can waste a tech on this, you can run extra backrow/Spells/tech a Ruri like Necro instead.

 

Twin Twister can discard it, as can Monk, but being able to use it as fodder =/= being optimal. Especially when the former should, optimally, be discarding a Fuzzy or mimicry.

 

I can't conceive of a situation where you'd have Soul Shave live going second unless you opened like triple Vanishing and Dire Wolf'd your own Strix.

 

I mean, just because a card has the capacity to be dead but will more often than not be live doesn't mean it can't work. I don't see it as being at odds with the playstyle, rather that it compliments it. Having the ability to search all the archetypal cards and then this pseudo-searching 3 of the other components isn't conflicting.

 

You can't really compare this to Cupidity, this has actual activation conditions whereas unless your deck is dead Pot is always live. This, as you have said, is not something you want to be opening with, and using 1 minimises the chances of doing so. Like, it doesn't hurt you at all to run.

 

Tribute makes Strix on its own, anything + Fuzzy is Strix, anything + Pain is Strix, Vanishing + anything is Strix, you can run Swallow's Nest/RR Call if you really want to give even more ways of doing it. Using something like this, that'll either give you a +2 or not even come into play because you've already won, doesn't affect the plays you can make at all. 

 

Being dead in early hands doesn't make it bad in itself, in a deck which can consistently access everything it has some merit. It's not especially inconsistent in terms of being live, only in that you obviously won't draw into it as much, but running multiples would increase the chances of it being a dead draw, so really... I understand what you're saying, but it's live about as much as Soul Shave and you'd have to be horribly unlucky to open complete death at this point.

[Arimetal]

Diamond Dude's bae, and part of the reason Dimension Fusion cannot come back.

Banish 5 isn't a cost though... so it's most likely the same result as in hand.

[IQuitDolphin]

Banish 5 isn't a cost though... so it's most likely the same result as in hand.

 

It's not in PSCT, so banishing 5 is a cost as it's an "action....to...result"

 

----

 

As for the actual option of running this in Raidraptor, Enguin brings up good points, while Black argues for consistency purposes. Personally, both sides aren't wrong, but if this card can win you games more than you'll lose off dead drawing it / not running any other card, then I think Enguin is right. If not, then Black is right.

 

.....I got nothing, sorry :/

[evilfusion]

You're thinking about this in WAY too extreme terms.

 

It's inconsistent super early because it doesn't help you early setup. It does amazing things when it works, but you need SEVEN Darks in the Grave to use it, and 5 of them are getting banished. Mimicry already banishes itself for its search effect. So even with Strix, this card is probably dead for your first 2-4 turns.

 

Soul Shave is live the moment an RR Xyz is sent to the Graveyard. That can happen easily if you go second - if your opponent uses removal in some form when you Summon Strix, to prevent you from getting the search. Shave is much easier to set up than Beginning of the End.

 

But your thinking is too extreme. Just because a card is dead early doesn't mean it's useless. It just means it's not a MUST RUN card. Shave also has a lot more potential for plays, since it turns a dead Strix into any Rank 6, including Infinity, Revolution, etc. Those cards can almost win the Duel on the spot in certain situations. Beginning is not so easily live, and it's not something that immediately shifts things into your favor the way Soul Shave does. If you draw Beginning without the 7 Darks in the Grave, it's useless. If you draw Shave...uh, you either have an RR in the Grave, or you're about to soon, because the entire Deck revolves around dropping them onto the Field in a flash.

[玄魔の王]

Banish 5 isn't a cost though... so it's most likely the same result as in hand.

Except it is.

[Blake]

I can't conceive of a situation where you'd have Soul Shave live going second unless you opened like triple Vanishing and Dire Wolf'd your own Strix.

 

I mean, just because a card has the capacity to be dead but will more often than not be live doesn't mean it can't work. I don't see it as being at odds with the playstyle, rather that it compliments it. Having the ability to search all the archetypal cards and then this pseudo-searching 3 of the other components isn't conflicting.

 

You can't really compare this to Cupidity, this has actual activation conditions whereas unless your deck is dead Pot is always live. This, as you have said, is not something you want to be opening with, and using 1 minimises the chances of doing so. Like, it doesn't hurt you at all to run.

 

Tribute makes Strix on its own, anything + Fuzzy is Strix, anything + Pain is Strix, Vanishing + anything is Strix, you can run Swallow's Nest/RR Call if you really want to give even more ways of doing it. Using something like this, that'll either give you a +2 or not even come into play because you've already won, doesn't affect the plays you can make at all. 

 

Being dead in early hands doesn't make it bad in itself, in a deck which can consistently access everything it has some merit. It's not especially inconsistent in terms of being live, only in that you obviously won't draw into it as much, but running multiples would increase the chances of it being a dead draw, so really... I understand what you're saying, but it's live about as much as Soul Shave and you'd have to be horribly unlucky to open complete death at this point.

Aside from the fact that the opp can potentially answer you, you can sometimes do it on your own. It's not common, but it can be live as soon as your first turn, if going second.

 

This is YGO. YGO is fast. A tech that is dead weight early and good once you get reasonably late is not a good card, especially in a deck like Ruris. Yes, you try to grind it out, but that doesn't mean you get to that point. It's like Raid Force, in that it's theoretically pretty okay, but you'll never realistically resolve it, due to the nature of the game. 

 

You're trying to compare it to a card that is, 9/10, live by your second turn. It is not hard to have a Force Strix in grave, and not every deck can use spinning/etc. to answer every copy of Strix you sheet out, which is, hopefully, 2. If you sheet out only 1, you more than likely lose, anyway, unless you also had Icarus Attack and timed it correctly.

 

RR is still a deck with mediocre opening hands, at times, even with Pain, Vanishing, and Fuzzy existing to alleviate this. It is still realistic that you open one of those hands (1 Strix is mediocre, as well, just not unplayably mediocre), so you want to minimize that chance. Additionally, you don't survive without backrow, because, unlike other decks of similar power, you DON'T have access to searchable power plays. You have searchable and consistent plays, but not power plays, outside of having the nuts/Soul Shave Force.

 

You want early draw to find Soul Shave, not lategame draw to restock advantage that you shouldn't have trouble maintaining, anyway. I'd rather run Upstarts for consistency.

 

Not to mention that this is asynergetic with Nest and Sharp, both of which are very important as you get into the late game, if you make it that far. I'd rather keep my ruris in grave for recycling/summoning purposes than anything.

 

And the Cupidity point was about draw power in general. Duality (slight exception, can be run at 2), Upstart, Chicken Game, Cards from the Sky, and more. You want to run multiple copies of it (if any) for it to be good and realistic, even if you only plan to resolve one, and this doesn't meet this.

 

Yes, Jeff Jones teched it in Really Exciting Dark Rank Up Magic way back when, but it never caught on. Same with Dolls, which is why a card like The Dark Creator wasn't especially well received, outside of the OCG. It's too slow, and YGO is not a game that supports that. The Dark Creator has other issues, but he's also live sooner, and has the ability to sheet out damage, so I feel it's a fair enough comparison, especially for a deck that rapidly filled the grave with DARK.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Just dropping in a bit.

 

the main location where this is used back then is BA (when they don't have something better to run), and the 60 card control builds that mixes BA and dolls.

 

that's it afaik.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Some day this will be funking busted.

 

Some day.

[ENMaker]

Aside from the fact that the opp can potentially answer you, you can sometimes do it on your own. It's not common, but it can be live as soon as your first turn, if going second.

 

This is YGO. YGO is fast. A tech that is dead weight early and good once you get reasonably late is not a good card, especially in a deck like Ruris. Yes, you try to grind it out, but that doesn't mean you get to that point. It's like Raid Force, in that it's theoretically pretty okay, but you'll never realistically resolve it, due to the nature of the game. 

 

You're trying to compare it to a card that is, 9/10, live by your second turn. It is not hard to have a Force Strix in grave, and not every deck can use spinning/etc. to answer every copy of Strix you s*** out, which is, hopefully, 2. If you s*** out only 1, you more than likely lose, anyway, unless you also had Icarus Attack and timed it correctly.

 

RR is still a deck with mediocre opening hands, at times, even with Pain, Vanishing, and Fuzzy existing to alleviate this. It is still realistic that you open one of those hands (1 Strix is mediocre, as well, just not unplayably mediocre), so you want to minimize that chance. Additionally, you don't survive without backrow, because, unlike other decks of similar power, you DON'T have access to searchable power plays. You have searchable and consistent plays, but not power plays, outside of having the nuts/Soul Shave Force.

 

You want early draw to find Soul Shave, not lategame draw to restock advantage that you shouldn't have trouble maintaining, anyway. I'd rather run Upstarts for consistency.

 

Not to mention that this is asynergetic with Nest and Sharp, both of which are very important as you get into the late game, if you make it that far. I'd rather keep my ruris in grave for recycling/summoning purposes than anything.

 

And the Cupidity point was about draw power in general. Duality (slight exception, can be run at 2), Upstart, Chicken Game, Cards from the Sky, and more. You want to run multiple copies of it (if any) for it to be good and realistic, even if you only plan to resolve one, and this doesn't meet this.

 

Yes, Jeff Jones teched it in Really Exciting Dark Rank Up Magic way back when, but it never caught on. Same with Dolls, which is why a card like The Dark Creator wasn't especially well received, outside of the OCG. It's too slow, and YGO is not a game that supports that. The Dark Creator has other issues, but he's also live sooner, and has the ability to s*** out damage, so I feel it's a fair enough comparison, especially for a deck that rapidly filled the grave with DARK.

 

Well I mean if your opponent Notices/Warnings the Strix you can't Soul Shave anyway and there's not really much else that'd hit it to the grave, but this is a complete tangent.

 

The point I was making with Soul Shave is that in most cases where it's live this is too, because double Strix is 6 in the grave right away and then you've Twin Twister/any other summon as well. Shave's advantage is obviously that in single Strix plays or whatever it doesn't care and is live regardless. The idea of using this is still in early stages but thus far it's been fine and not caused me to brick or anything, haven't even had to use it a few times it's been live because I've already won but I think that's something I hadn't really considered.

 

By the point you've got the requirements met you do tend to have either amassed enough advantage that it's irrelevant and/or you've already won the game. That has been the case in the couple of games where I had this so far which I ought to have anticipated really. 

 

It's asynergetic with 2 cards yes, but it requires 7 in the grave but banishes 5 so you will at the very least be leaving 2, and leaving the 2 you want to revive/recycle is simple enough in exchange for the draws. In general I'm more talking to myself than replying to this but that's from having more time using it.

 

It genuinely does work because there are simply so many summons and so many searches and with Singing/Fuzzy/Pain/Vanishing you can throw 3 Strix on the field easily in 2 turns, usually double the first turn, but then you've won by that stage anyway so this is generally overkill. I don't know how I feel about it now, it's like Nirvana High Paladin-ish in terms of excess where you use it, in my experiences. Which is a bit disappointing.

[Blake]

Well I mean if your opponent Notices/Warnings the Strix you can't Soul Shave anyway and there's not really much else that'd hit it to the grave, but this is a complete tangent.

 

The point I was making with Soul Shave is that in most cases where it's live this is too, because double Strix is 6 in the grave right away and then you've Twin Twister/any other summon as well. Shave's advantage is obviously that in single Strix plays or whatever it doesn't care and is live regardless. The idea of using this is still in early stages but thus far it's been fine and not caused me to brick or anything, haven't even had to use it a few times it's been live because I've already won but I think that's something I hadn't really considered.

 

By the point you've got the requirements met you do tend to have either amassed enough advantage that it's irrelevant and/or you've already won the game. That has been the case in the couple of games where I had this so far which I ought to have anticipated really. 

 

It's asynergetic with 2 cards yes, but you don't have to use it. It requires 7 in the grave but banishes 5 so you will at the very least be leaving 2, and leaving the 2 you want to revive/recycle is simple enough in exchange for the draws. In general I'm more talking to myself than replying to this but that's from having more time using it.

 

It genuinely does work because there are simply so many summons and so many searches and with Singing/Fuzzy/Pain/Vanishing you can throw 3 Strix on the field easily in 2 turns, usually double the first turn, but then you've won by that stage anyway so this is generally overkill. I don't know how I feel about it now, it's like Nirvana High Paladin-ish in terms of excess where you use it, in my experiences. Which is a bit disappointing.

i more meant TTHN/the rando TT that pops up/etc. Not to mention Icarus Attack/Swallow' Slash, though those are dependent on how greedy/dumb the Opponent is.

 

No, it's not. You keep saying that, but you can have Soul Shave live no later than your third turn, usually your second turn. This takes a lot longer to be live, and that little bit of time is all the difference in the world. Saying that double Strix is 6 just doesn't work, because you likely have to use Mimicry in order to get ahead, whether it be before or after Strix. The former makes it still work, but the latter does not, and that's more realistic outside of Tribute. 

 

As for the too far ahead, like I said, this deck has no shortage of maintaining advantage if it gets rolling, and this only serves to do that while being somewhat asynergetic/encouraging you to draw into things you'd rather search. Then it's just overkill, really.

 

The problem with banish 5 out of 7 is that... You don't really want to banish anything. The only one that's pretty much useless once it hits the grave is Fuzzy, as it gets worse as the game goes on, but even Singing and Pain are considerable for lategame, considering that they cost nothing to cheat a monster onto the board. Vanishing, Tribute, Necro, and Last Strix (if playing the UltiRuri build) are all things you want to have on hand as options, and banishing any of them without having another can really funk you up, especially the 1-ofs.

 

I do like the idea of this showing up somewhere, don't get me wrong. I just really don't think that we have yet found a deck for it. Waiting until your 3rd/4th turn in order to truly make value off of this is too late, and it harms the toolbox game somewhat if you do, which means it all adds up to overkill with some asynergy. It's great for style points, and surely something will be able to fuel it consistently Darksworns when, but that time isn't now.

[Dragulas]

Some day this will be f***ing busted.

 

Some day.

The day konami decides to print something like diamond dude but without the luck factor