With Shonen Jump Championship Orlando coming up, a lot of buzz is circling around what kind of impact the cards from Shadow of Infinity will have on the tournament. After all, players can run any card from the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG set in their decks. Of course, when I say that, I’m pretty much saying, “Players can run Treeborn Frog.”
Treeborn Frog is a powerful card. However, is it worth fearing when it appears in threes in a deck? Is it worth throwing into every deck? My answer to these questions is the same answer that Solemn Judgment gives to players who ask whether or not Heavy Storm is going to resolve against your field full of spells and traps. No, Treeborn Frog is not worth fearing, and it’s definitely not worth running in every deck. While I normally try to keep this column focused on cards that are considered “rogue,” I’m going to make an exception for Treeborn Frog. It’s certainly going to be a mainstream card, but similar to how Pot of Avarice has inspired some bizarre and disagreeable choices in deck construction, Treeborn Frog is going to cause just as many problems in the deckbuilding phase of a duelist’s preparation for a big tournament.
What the Frog Is
Treeborn Frog gets compared to Sinister Serpent on many levels. Both are level 1 monsters. Both have the Water attribute. Both have ATK values that are completely abysmal, though to Sinister Serpent’s credit, it can at least trade with a face-up attack position Magician of Faith. Granted, that scenario will almost never occur without the opponent simply playing Book of Moon to flip their Spellcaster face down, but at least Sinister Serpent can actually attack for some kind of damage. On the other hand, Treeborn Frog sits at a low 100 ATK and 100 DEF. Both of these monsters’ effects trigger during their owner’s standby phase.
However, Treeborn Frog works most effectively when it’s the only one in your graveyard, as seeing a second and third Frog in your graveyard that you can’t special summon tells us that you drew multiple dead cards during your duel. Treeborn Frog’s activation is also hindered by spells and traps on your field, so you can’t pull off any “Torrential Tribute, summon the Frog, wipe the field, special summon the Frog again,” shenanigans. This means it’s also hindered by your non-chainable traps, such as Sakuretsu Armor.
However, these downsides were needed in order to make Treeborn Frog a balanced and good card. While Sinister Serpent is added to your hand as a way of allowing its user to abuse cards with discard costs, Treeborn Frog special summons itself from the graveyard to your field. This little difference greatly separates how Treeborn Frog or Sinister Serpent would be played, so it’s actually better to look at these two cards as very different, despite their similarities. While Sinister Serpent is one of the most ridiculous cards in the game for control decks, Treeborn Frog is a great card for control decks and aggressive decks alike.
Some players may be wondering how exactly Treeborn Frog is a good card for aggro decks. After all, a 100 ATK monster that requires a mid- to late game to be effective sounds very slow. However, Treeborn Frog makes summoning high-level monsters a breeze. Duelists know that aggro usually means the sight of Gravekeepers and Don Zaloogs, but aggro decks that run multiple Monarchs? With Treeborn Frog, Monarch monsters (like Mobius the Frost Monarch) are effectively level 4 monsters with really great abilities, as Treeborn Frog can act as a continuous and instantaneous tribute for your high-level monsters every turn. I’m not just talking about how Treeborn Frog makes three tribute monsters competitive in a tournament deck that isn’t named Soul Control, either. Treeborn Frog actually makes aggressive decks running around six to eight tribute monsters into a major threat!
Treeborn Frog’s effectiveness in a control deck is also pretty clear. In terms of looking at this card through the lens of card advantage, Treeborn Frog acts as a free monster that control players can use effectively for the tribute summoning of their threats. Treeborn Frog can also act as an advantage-engine for decks looking to abuse the finer aspects of the Water attribute. This includes Mobius the Frost Monarch and Spiritual Water Art – Aoi, which is probably one of the most destructive forms of disruption, due to its ability to be chained to a variety of effects. Dark World Control or Combo decks may find a spot for Treeborn Frog as well, simply because it provides some relief to the theme’s weakness of running a large number of tribute monsters.
Control-switching cards, like Creature Swap and Enemy Controller, are stellar with Treeborn Frog. Giving your opponent Treeborn Frog in exchange for one of his or her monsters is an amazing trade, since you will most likely special summon your Frog once again during your next standby phase. Your opponent will be left with nothing, while you’ll be left with a new monster. When combined with Treeborn Frog, Enemy Controller becomes awesome. You have the ability to special summon Treeborn Frog during your standby phase, tribute it in order to play Enemy Controller’s second effect, steal one of your opponent’s monsters until the end of the turn, and then you can special summon Treeborn Frog again during that same standby phase. Enemy Controller is also one of the best counters to any tech your opponents may be using in their side decks, such as Chain Disappearance.
What the Frog Isn’t
The random inclusion of Treeborn Frog in many decks is something I have begun to fear, as I’ve looked around at local tournaments. It appears that the little Water monster is being added to a variety of decks where it doesn’t belong, simply because of its similarities to Sinister Serpent. I’d like to remind everyone again that this is not a replacement for Sinister Serpent. Treeborn Frog might hold some outward similarities, but both are used in completely different ways. Decks such as Warrior Toolbox or Flip-Flip Control will not find one random Treeborn Frog useful, because it will most likely be a worse version of Spirit Reaper. Why not just run another copy of Spirit Reaper instead? At least you’ll have an extra effect attached to your defensive wall. Older builds of Soul Control will also need to work Treeborn Frog into their decks with either more tribute monsters, or a consistent method of getting Treeborn Frog into the graveyard.
Final Thoughts
What am I trying to say today? Treeborn Frog is not a staple card, unlike Sinister Serpent. While it is a very powerful monster, Treeborn Frog is by no means an auto-inclusion in every deck that can be used right now. Decks that exist at the moment will have to make some necessary changes in order to utilize Treeborn Frog effectively, and some of those deck types are best served by staying the same.
However, the Frog is still a great card that’s actually inspired a few new tournament-worthy deck types. The Frog Monarch deck packs a serious punch once the user is special summoning Treeborn Frog during every standby phase. Water decks can profit from Treeborn Frog, as it’s great tribute-fodder for high-level monsters and for Spiritual Water Art – Aoi. You can definitely expect to see this card all over the place at Orlando, and it will probably show up in large numbers at Los Angeles as well.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this or previous articles of mine, feel free to email me at Mrosenberg at Metagame dot Com. I will try my best to get back to all emails.