Today’s preview card may stir a few thoughts in everyone’s minds. “Gosh, golly, gee whiz, wasn’t that monster in the Yu-Gi-Oh! television show?”

Why, yes, actually. Today’s card preview was shown in Noah’s virtual world. In fact, he was a member of the Big 5: a group of (former) high-ranking employees for Kaiba Corporation that attempted to take control of the company with the help of Pegasus. They’ve done other things too, but that’s not really important for today’s card. I find it to be one of the most annoying characters from the show, but as a card, I don’t mind it as much. Ladies and gentlemen, duelists and fans, I present to you . . .

Nightmare Penguin

Attribute: WATER

Type: Aqua

Level: 4

ATK: 900

DEF: 1800

Effect: Increase the ATK of all of your WATER monsters by 200. When this monster is flipped, return 1 card on your opponent’s field to its owner’s hand.

(Please note: the effect text here is temporary, as translations have not been released to us yet. However, expect this to be the general effect, but with a better sounding description.)

Water monsters already have a massive amount of strength. A Legendary Ocean allows you to summon level 5 monsters, such as Giga Gagagigo and Terrorking Salmon, without tributes. Without the field spell card, their ATK values are already equal to or higher than Jinzo’s, the most commonly played level 6 monster in most tournament decks. Combined with A Legendary Ocean, these cards are even stronger than Summoned Skull! Nightmare Penguin adds to their ATK force while sporting an above-average DEF. When used with A Legendary Ocean, Nightmare Penguin’s DEF can match Berserk Gorilla’s ATK point for point, allowing you to survive assaults from this commonly played monster. Nightmare Penguin’s effect also bounces cards back to your opponent’s hand, which provides you with field advantage. This is great when combined with other forms of removal provided by the Water attribute, including Tribe-Infecting Virus and the newly released promotional card Abyss Soldier.

As a general note, Nightmare Penguin’s ATK increase only applies to your field. Your opponent will not receive any of its bonuses if he or she also controls Water monsters. Nightmare Penguin’s other effect isn’t technically a “flip effect,” either. It’s activated when the card is flipped face up, which is similar to many Spirit monster effects, like that Tsukuyomi character I hardly ever mention.

In a Sealed Pack event (such as the Sneak Preview weekend on November 20–21), this card is a small form of monster removal. Yu-Gi-Oh! sets rarely include cards with these sorts of effects. You can use Nightmare Penguin to your advantage, especially because high-level monsters are used more often in Sealed events. If your opponent were to attack this monster while it was face down and he or she had a high-level monster on the field, Nightmare Penguin could bounce that monster back to its owner’s hand. Your opponent will most likely have to tribute summon that monster once again, losing even more field advantage!

This monster’s DEF is also very useful in Sealed Pack events, where seeing monsters with 1900 or 2000 ATK summoned every turn is rare—unless your opponent made an under-the-table deal with Lady Luck and received about four to five rare cards per pack. Even then, irregular packs are not usually allowed in the tournament itself, so don’t worry about this too much. Anyway, Nightmare Penguin will most likely survive a low-level monster’s ATK during the Sealed event, allowing you to keep Nightmare Penguin around for your next turn when you can sacrifice it to summon a high-level monster.

This marks the end of Metagame’s first week of Yu-Gi-Oh! previews. You only have seven more days until the Sneak Preview Weekend begins. Be sure to attend one of these events, as it’s not only a good chance to score some powerful and rare cards before everyone else, but also because these events are a lot of fun. You won’t regret attending the Sneak Preview near you.

Would you like to know what’s in store for next week? I’m sure you would, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. I could always just tell you what they are, since I’m special and know about them. Though if I did that, I couldn’t take bribes for this information, and I’m always willing to talk for the right price. Any takers? Come on, people—

Toby Wachter is seen in the background, frowning at Mike’s actions.

—um . . . all right, I’ll stop. Seriously, though, be sure to check out Metagame every day next week for new Rise of Destiny previews. Then go to the Sneak Preview events next weekend. Then enjoy the new cards and show them off to those who didn’t go, so they’ll say “Aw, man . . . I should have gone to the Sneak Preview.”