In a game where Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted can undo the hard work of giving a problematic monster the deep six, “remove from play” mechanics truly reign supreme. While in the past, potentially powerful cards like Dark Core went ignored, players are now deeply concerned with both dishing out—and protecting themselves from—complete removal.

Two cards that surprised many duelists today both deal with this key theme. Check out the mix of an old under-appreciated card and a hot new one, and the impact that both have had on today’s event.

Chaos Sorcerer: The Sorcerer is essentially a smaller Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Its summoning requirements are the same and its stats are a little lower, but it retains the Soldier’s ability to remove a monster of the opponent’s from play once per turn. The other difference? Chaos Sorcerer doesn’t have a double-attack option, and when it uses its removal effect, it forfeits its ability to attack for the turn. Still, a single piece of removal each turn is deadly.

The reason? Well, free removal can translate into card advantage pretty quickly, but more importantly than that, this environment is choked with Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lockdown decks. A lot of setup goes into each Thousand-Eyes Restrict that hits the field, and a simple summoning of Chaos Sorcerer can undo all that work with remarkable speed.

Its ability to clear troublesome monsters isn’t just limited to Thousand-Eyes, either. D. D. Warrior Lady, D. D. Assailant, and Slate Warrior can all prevent battle-oriented decks from attacking. Sorcerer removes those common roadblocks and though it itself can not immediately follow up, the fact that it’s a special summon obviously opens the door for attacks from other monsters, even if you began the turn with a weak or empty field!

It also fits extremely easily into existing decks, both Chaos and Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lock. The Sorcerer itself is a Dark monster, so it can feed other copies of itself or Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning when it hits the graveyard. On top of that, it’s a level 6 monster, so it allows you to use Metamorphosis to bring out a number of big beaters with useful effects—for instance, Dark Balter the Terrible is a great first option.

With all the double attacking and massive ATK and DEF, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning fans often forget that arguably the most dangerous part of the Soldier is that it doesn’t consume your normal summon for the turn. It seems as if duelists have begun to remember that fact, and the result is that Chaos Sorcerer has been seeing a great deal of play!

D. D. Survivor: With all the removal floating around in the current environment, D. D. Survivor was a strong metagame choice. Though it’s a gamble, it’s thrived on the Chaos Sorcerer-heavy environment and has baffled duelists running D. D. Assailant-heavy decks. This card was specifically designed to disrupt D. D. Assailant, and with its 1800 ATK, it makes a perfect multi-purpose beatstick.

While many have playtested decks built specifically around D. D. Survivor, no one was finding particular success with one yet. However, the Survivor was easily splashed into Chaos variants today, and if Chaos Sorcerer gets a bigger following, it could very well gain even more utility. Like the Sorcerer, its Dark attribute is highly valuable. It renders Survivor compatible with current decks, and its high ATK may indicate a slide towards the 1900 ATK average that old-timers like myself were once so used to seeing.

Neither of these cards is particularly complicated. Their uses are relatively simple, but their effectiveness cannot be denied. That said, these are skill cards, and they’re not easy to use. Careful timing is required for both, or else a player could easily find him- or herself facing down D. D. Survivor or a Sorcerer-fed Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Restraint and careful judgment is the key, so reading an opponent and keeping track of what cards they have already played (as well as how many cards are left between the hand and deck) is incredibly important. One false move with either of these cards can backfire, but despite that, both will likely see increased play over the coming weeks.

Give them a try, and know you’re playing on the cutting edge!