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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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| Bill and Tom's Binder: Second Coin Toss |
| Mike Rosenberg |
| January 30, 2005 |
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Ryan: Hey, Bill and Tom. Are you guys up for a few duels?
Bill: Not really, Ryan. Besides, I thought you just played poker, not Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Ryan: Of course not, Bill! I incorporated my love for gambling into Yu-Gi-Oh! as well. There’s nothing like having an entire match ride on the flip of a coin.
Tom: Isn’t that a little inconsistent?
Ryan: It may be a bit inconsistent, but there are ways to turn the odds to your favor, like card counting in Blackjack. In fact, speaking of gambling, I’ll bet you fifty bucks that Mike will cover the aspect of coin flips or any cards relating to them in his next article!
Bill and Tom: You’re on!
*later that day*
Mike: Um, Ryan? Didn’t I tell you last night I was going to analyze the advantages of Second Coin Toss?
Ryan: You certainly did, Mike, but Bill and Tom don’t know that. *winks*
Welcome back, readers, to this week’s edition of “Bill and Tom’s Binder.” This week, we’re covering an eighteen-month-old, dust-collecting rare from Legacy of Darkness called Second Coin Toss. I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves one of two questions at this point.
What the heck is Second Coin Toss?
What the heck is good about Second Coin Toss?
To answer the first question a little more thoroughly, Second Coin Toss allows you to negate a coin flip effect in order to redo that coin flip. If you failed on your coin flip call for Time Wizard’s trigger effect, you can negate that flip and try again. If you flipped two or more tails using Blowback Dragon’s effect, you can negate that series of flips and flip all three coins again. As for the answer to the second question, you’ll get an answer to that through this article, as well as an explanation of how well this balances powerful effects relying on coin flips into your favor. Go ahead! Put your tournament life on the line, and leave your victory or defeat to the flip of a coin.
The Basic Rundown
The text on Second Coin Toss is pretty easy to understand. It basically says, “If you do not like the result of your coin flip, negate it and redo the coin flip.” That sounds simple enough, but here are a few examples of how this continuous spell is used.
Your opponent got the best of you and was able to swarm the field with a D. D. Warrior Lady, Don Zaloog, and Breaker the Magical Warrior. Your turn rolls around, and you activate your Second Coin Toss and summon Time Wizard. You trigger Time Wizard and call heads for your coin flip, but the result was tails. Normally, you would be wallowing in the agony of defeat after Time Wizard warps all of your monsters off of the field, but you trigger Second Coin Toss to negate that bad result. You flip again, call heads, and the result is heads! Your little Time Wizard just turned three of your opponent’s monsters into dust, and you just gained the upper hand once again.
 Okay, you can’t always get the coin flip result you want with Second Coin Toss, and there is a chance that Lady Luck with smack you across the face and give you two missed calls with cards like Time Wizard or Blowback Dragon. However, Second Coin Toss changes the odds of whether or not you’ll get a good result out of those risky coin-flip cards. Normally, your odds of calling a coin flip correct would be 50 percent for either heads or tails. Second Coin Toss increases the odds of calling a coin flip correctly to 75 percent. The odds of flipping correctly—for example, calling heads with Blowback Dragon—for both your normal coin flip and your second coin flip is 25 percent, while the odds of flipping heads on your first or your second coin flip is 50 percent of the different combinations of coin flips. Your chances of flipping tails twice in a row is 25 percent, leaving you with successful coin flip effects in an average of three out of four attempts.
The Not so Basic Breakdown
The bottom line to Second Coin toss is that it increases the odds of successfully using coin flip effects in an average of three out of four times, unlike without this card, where the odds of successfully using coin flip effects are only an average of two out of four times. Some of you may be thinking “So what? You can get one more use out of those coin flip effects. Is that really worth it?”
I can tell you right now that it’s definitely worth it. It’s hard to rely on an effect that can backfire on you half the time. This card makes sure that the effects backfire on you much less. If you look at Second Coin Toss in the long run (for example, at a Regional event), the effects begin to add up. On average, let’s say you’ll use a coin flip effect four times during every duel, and you had a total of twelve duels spread out among five matches that day. That’s 48 times that a coin flip effect was triggered. Without Second Coin Toss, your effects would be successful an average of 24 times. If you were using Second Coin Toss, your effects will be successful an average of 36 times. That Second Coin Toss card gave you the benefits of a coin flip effect twelve times more than without the use of this spell, and that was just if you used a coin flip effect four times every duel! If you were running a complete lineup of coin flip effect cards, such as Time Wizard, Blowback Dragon, Sasuke Samurai #4, and Fairy Box, you’ll use coin flip effects in a duel anywhere from eight to ten times or more. You’ll need Second Coin Toss if you want to use the insanely powerful effects of these cards.
Combos and Counters
 Second Coin Toss is easily one of the most valuable spells to offensive coin flip monsters and traps. For example, Sasuke Samurai #4, which is normally a risky form of monster removal, acts as a tiny yet fierce wall against the opponent’s attacks. If an opponent risked attacking the little samurai, the chances of having his or her monster survive to the damage step would be 25 percent. Second Coin Toss also allows an effective and reliable dependence on Fairy Box, an equally underrated card that acts as both stall and monster removal. Combined with Second Coin Toss and Sasuke Samurai #4, your opponent only has a twelve-and-a-half percent chance of actually destroying your samurai through battle. Even if one piece of the combo is destroyed, you will still have the other two remaining cards to protect you, and your opponent’s odds of successfully attacking are still only at 25 percent.
Second Coin Toss can also act as a form of protection from your own monster’s effects. Jirai Gumo has enough ATK to stand up against both Berserk Gorilla and Zombyra the Dark, but its costly effect keeps most duelists from considering it for a deck. Using today’s featured card, the odds of your life points taking a blow from Jirai Gumo’s effect is only 25 percent. This gives a deck focused on coin flip effects a single offensive force, which is something many theme decks may lack.
If you’re unfortunate enough to go up against a coin flip effect deck, then you have access to some helpful trap cards in order to take down these random monsters. Divine Wrath, also useful against many of today’s popular tournament monsters, is a great choice for your main deck. This negates and destroys Blowback Dragon, Barrel Dragon, Time Wizard, and Sasuke Samurai #4, keeping you safe from their effects. If you wish to take care of the continuous spell that’s giving your opponent an edge on his or her coin flip effects, try having multiple versions of spell and trap removal ready, such as Dust Tornado and Mobius the Frost Monarch. Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell is a great side deck choice, especially since any coin flip heavy deck will be packing three of these.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a way to take more control over the devastating power of cards like Time Wizard and Sasuke Samurai #4, then Second Coin Toss is a great card to base a deck around. This card obviously cannot be splashed in any deck, but decks focused on coin flip effects will benefit from this spell. Since there are many options that rely on coin flips to be effective, Second Coin Toss will almost never be a dead card.
Give the deck a try. You’ll quickly realize that coin flip abuse has the potential to win a tournament just as easily as a warrior deck at this current point in time . . . just be aware that luck will still be a factor. Even the best duelist when using this deck may fail if his or her luck is just plain awful for the day. However, with a little luck, trading consistency for power may work out in the long run.
Next week, I’ll be covering one of the newer binder-favorites, Archfiend of Gilfer, as well as explaining the complex concepts of the optional trigger effect. It’s a real brain killer!
Got any questions, requests for a card to be covered, or praising of Tsukuyomi, everyone’s favorite Spirit monster? Drop me an email at mrosenberg@metagame.com. |
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