Today we’re going to look at one of the more desirable cards to see your local Sneak Preview event. Card 054 from The Lost Millennium is an interesting trap card that seems promising for creative duelists in Constructed, but exceptionally powerful in Sealed Pack formats!

 

Today’s subject is a normal trap that, when activated, allows you to show one monster in your hand to your opponent. You then roll a six-sided die. If a one comes up, you discard the monster. If not, though, the level of the selected monster becomes equal to the die roll until the end of the turn!

 

Let’s talk about the traditional six-sided die for a moment. Assuming the die is perfectly balanced, there’s about a 16.7 percent chance of any one face coming up. That means there’s a one in six chance your monster will be discarded, a one in three chance of the monster becoming level 5 or 6, and a fifty-fifty chance of it becoming level 2, 3, or 4. Those are important numbers to remember.

 

Depending on what kind of monster you play it on, 054 accomplishes one of three different goals. If used with a monster of level 7 or higher and the roll is anything but a one, you’re automatically saving yourself at least one tribute. However, you aren’t saving cards. Instead of losing one monster you’re losing one trap, and a card’s a card. You’re maintaining a healthy economy of board presence, though, and if you regard monsters as resources due to their limited and turn-structured availability, you’re saving yourself a turn’s worth of resources. Of course, if you make that level 7 or higher monster into a level 4 or lower monster, you’re gaining card advantage when compared to summoning it normally!

 

If you use 054 on a level 5 or 6 monster, it’s not quite as ideal. Your favorable rolls are 2, 3, and 4, and as mentioned, rolling them doesn’t nab you true card advantage but monster-based resource advantage instead. You’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of seeing a good roll, a one in three chance of losing 054, and a one in six chance of losing two cards. It’s an overall risk, but it’s a pretty safe one.

 

As for monsters of level 4 or lower, 054 can help them do some interesting things, such as slide under your own Gravity Bind. It’s conditional, but it’s interesting and worthy of note. Heck, it can even function as Gravity Bind tech, allowing you to attack under your opponent’s Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B.

 

There are some cool things that are generally true about using this card. First, card advantage and resource advantage aside, it gives you a certain surprise factor. You can drop tributes with an empty monster field and most players won’t see that coming. Second, you can use it to play with Metamorphosis and a full structure deck. There are some worthwhile fusion monsters at levels other than 6, and being able to manipulate the level of a monster of your choice provides some interesting options. On top of that, you can always drop larger monsters at a reduced cost with 054, wait a turn, and then turn around and use those monsters with Metamorphosis to grab the impressive fusion monsters you crave.

 

Where could 054 see play? It’s a unique card, that’s for sure, and it seems tempting to splash it into a Gravity-Bind based deck and aim to have some fun with lucky rolls involving monsters that wouldn’t normally be in the deck. For example, the concept of a tiny Invader of Darkness bum-rushing an opponent under cover of Gravity Bind is sweet like delicious candy. However, this card really needs to have a deck built around it. I could see a strategy involving multiple copies of 054, A Hero Emerges, Reasoning, Monster Gate, and maybe even Dramatic Rescue to create a monster-packed update on Scapegoat Exploitation decks.

 

That’s it for this preview, but keep reading Metagame.com this week for more exciting new cards from The Lost Millennium!