As promised by Jason last week, Metagame.com is here to bring you sneak peeks of all of the popular cards that you will be able to find in Tournament Pack 8, the latest reward for players who are sick of seeing Tournament Pack 7 at their local sanctioned events. Today’s card is a super rare reprint, but you may be a little shocked at what it actually is. Don’t let me describe it to you, though. Take a look for yourself.
Wow. Veteran duelists, please tell me that caused a stroll down the memory lane in your mind. For new players, the card you’re looking at is Harpie’s Feather Duster, one of the most powerful cards to ever be released in this game. You could assume that it’s very powerful simply because it’s on the Forbidden list for the Advanced format, and this card’s effect proves why. If you are running any kind of deck that relies on attacking as a win condition, this card is a true staple!
While Advanced format fans will not be able to use this super-rare spell card, duelists who play in the Traditional format will love to see this reprint. Harpie’s Feather Duster is one of the hardest cards to obtain at the moment. This old promo card was released with two other promos in Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel for the GameBoy Advance back in April 2003. This card (or any of the promos from that game, for that matter) has not been reprinted since then. Three years later, we finally find Harpie’s Feather Duster again . . . though you may notice that it looks a little different.
What you are looking at is the original artwork of Harpie’s Feather Duster when it was released as a promo in Japan ages ago, back in 1999. The original artwork has finally made its way to North American shores, and collectors everywhere are bound to want this card. They (and sometimes competitive players) usually love to see alternate art cards in general, and the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has a little history with alternate art cards, too.
The most popular trademark cards tend to be reprinted with different artwork as a way of encouraging casual fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise to check out the Trading Card Game. One of these first examples was seen in Shonen Jump magazine with its very first issue. Those who purchased the first packaged issue of the manga magazine received a copy of Blue Eyes White Dragon, with unique and sleeker art. If you go even farther back to the first release of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, the original appearance of the Dark Duel Stories video game for the GameBoy Color contained a copy of Dark Magician, Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Exodia the Forbidden One. While these cards didn’t have alternate art, they did have an alternate rarity that made them look different. They were also very limited, due to their release in the first shipment of Dark Duel Stories. All copies that were shipped after that contained three entirely different promo cards.
One of my personal favorite examples of alternate art came with a printing error of Magician’s Force, when the original artwork for Dark Paladin was printed with the artwork that would eventually be used for the Dark Paladin in the Duelist Guide released shortly after the debut of Magician’s Force. Oops!
Of course, they fixed this error and released the original (and very sleek) Dark Paladin artwork in the unlimited edition of Magician’s Force. Upper Deck Entertainment also offered a deal for those who wanted their first edition copies of Dark Paladin to be the original intended artwork. They began a promotion that allowed owners of the error-art Dark Paladin to send in their old card for a brand new first edition Dark Paladin with the artwork found in the unlimited edition copies. Both of these first edition prints of Dark Paladin are extremely rare today, and you would be lucky to even see one, let alone own one. While I may have preferred the corrected first edition artwork, it doesn’t mean the alternate artwork that was later used on the Dark Paladin promo for the Duelist Guide was bad. That artwork was great, too. In fact, any artwork for Dark Paladin would be great, simply because Dark Paladin is one of the coolest monsters ever to be released.
If you are a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX fan and want to see some current examples of alternate artwork, the special edition packaging of the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! starter deck contains an alternate artwork ultra-rare copy of Elemental Hero Sparkman. Alternate artwork is used on occasion as an extra incentive for players and collectors, and this is still the case even today.
Harpie’s Feather Duster will be a real treat for players who want to enjoy the Traditional format again. It can be very difficult to find an original copy of this powerful spell card, so Tournament Pack 8 will give players and collectors another chance at obtaining one. As a super rare in a tournament pack, this Harpie’s Feather Duster will also be a collector’s item all on its own!
As always, be sure to check out Jason’s sneak peek at the new ultra rare card from TP8 yesterday if you haven’t done so already. Also, be sure to check back every day this week as Metagame.com reveals some of the great rare cards you can find in this new incentive to local tournament players everywhere. There are still a few extra surprises in store, so don’t miss it!