Dark Magician of Chaos: Dark Magician of Chaos is back in style, and duelists are getting a lot more mileage out of it than one might expect. Treeborn Frog makes tributes in general far easier to run, but it’s been a particular boon to two-tribute monsters.

Now for the obvious facts. Treeborn Frog makes Dark Magician of Chaos easier to play. That’s good, because Dark Magician of Chaos is larger than the average high-level monster that sees use (Monarchs, Sorcerer, and Cyber Dragon, for instance), and it can net you a spell from your graveyard. Since spells represent the largest percentage of high-powered cards in the game, that’s good, to say the least.

But you knew that. So, what might you have not known? Well, being a level 8 monster, Dark Magician of Chaos gives a duelist access to some cool Metamorphosis options that they’ve never really had before. The act of summoning Dark Magician of Chaos costs one card total—you lose two monsters to tributing, but in return you get one card back from the graveyard. Using Metamorphosis costs an additional card, as you lose the spell itself. Your monster tributed is replaced with another, so there’s a balanced equation there.

Currently, that’s an overall loss of two cards: one of your tributed monsters and Metamorphosis. However, if at that point the monster you bring out with Metamorphosis is Cyber Twin Dragon, it can instantly make up for that loss. By claiming two monsters in battle, the scales are balanced mathematically. Realistically they’re actually tipped in your favor. You do, after all have a huge Dragon to do your bidding. Dark Magician of Chaos’s effect can even bounce a spent Metamorphosis back to your hand to aid in pulling off the combo, so it’s sort of a natural play to make.

Dark Magician of Chaos is big, versatile, and opens up a range of options that is unparalleled. It offers graveyard recursion, a beatstick-sized body, and access to Cyber Twin Dragon when needed. Expect it to continue seeing play in the coming months.

Enemy Controller: Enemy Controller has been a popular pick recently for many reasons. It can destroy Spirit Reaper, it can steal an opponent’s monster, and it can turn a Sheep token or Magician of Faith into a one-way ticket directly to the opponent’s life points. Interrupting attacks and making high ATK monsters far more vulnerable than they would otherwise be, it’s been a favorite for many duelists over the past few months.

And now, it can turn the game’s most annoying wall ever, Treeborn Frog, into a sitting duck.

If the opponent ever brings back Frog as a defensive barrier, Enemy Controller makes it into a liability. With an ATK value of just 100, the Frog is a terribly easy mark for bigger monsters. In addition, because Controller is a quick-play spell, you can declare an attack and then use it, in order to catch an opponent off guard. It’s a demoralizing move that’s more significant for its cerebral aspects than its tactical value, but the way I see it, an edge is an edge, and options are always a good thing to have.

There isn’t a lot to Enemy Controller within this context. It’s a high-utility card, and it’s great for turning Treeborn Frog into attack position. It’s also awesome to turn Monarchs into defense position, a valuable ability given the influx of Monarchs that we’ve seen today.

In fact, as well as countering Treeborn Frog, Controller also works alongside it very nicely. Treeborn is the ultimate in tribute fodder, and Enemy Controller is no exception to the list of cards that can abuse it.

Sand Moth: This was a surprise! Sand Moth saw a shocking amount of play at top tables today, and it’s due in part to the rise in popularity of Zaborg. However, many other cards were affected by it.

The most important one was Old Vindictive Magician. Unlike Zaborg, which can waste the Sand Moth in battle if given the chance, the momentum one looks to generate with Old Vindictive Magician is shattered by Moth. If you’re relying on the old man for defense, you can be easily screwed out of what would otherwise be an excellent plan. If you hit a face down Moth with the Magician’s effect, Sand Moth comes into play ready for battle and can attack on that turn. You’ll lose at least the Magician, and if the opponent had an alternate attacker, you could be looking at a direct swing for 2000 life points.

On your turn, Sand Moth can neutralize the Vindictive’s ability to opponent up holes on the opponent’s side of the field, in fact presenting an increased level of interference instead of a decereased level. Your concern at that point becomes the issue of not getting run over on the following turn, which is a far cry from the offensive intentions you probably went into the turn with originally.

It does a nice job of teching aspects of Dark World decks as well. Dark World Lightning or the effect of Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World will trigger the Moth’s effect when it’s set, cutting two of the deck’s major mechanics off at the knees.

Mystic Swordsman LV2? Go ahead, little fella, swing that sword. That’s right, you’re Mystic Freakin’ Swordsman, you’ve got this kind of situation in the bag. Right?

 . . . Right?

Not any more, it doesn’t! If the Swordsman’s effect destroys Sand Moth, it jumps right back onto the field to get itself a little bit of vengeance. And it’s ticked off about the entire affair too. For anyone who’s gotten sick of Mystic Swordsman LV2, this is the card you want to be running.

Dark Hole? Go ahead, activate it with impunity and know that you’ll have a 2000 ATK thug left over. The same goes for Torrential Tribute. You can even hit Sand Moth with your own Zaborg’s effect in order to juice its ATK value. There are a lot of ways to take advantage of this card, and as time goes on, we’re bound to see many more emerge.

Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis popped up everywhere. Treeborn Frog and Sheep tokens can become Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Mobius, Thestalos, and Granmarg can be transmuted into Ryu Senshi, along with Chaos Sorcerer. Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and Cyber Dragon can be stuffed into a Dark Balter Suit quite convincingly. I didn’t even know Zaborg was the only Monarch with five level stars instead of six, but it is, and that’s led to a lot of Dark Balters hitting the tables today.

It’s been almost eerie to see Thousand-Eyes Restrict on the field so often. Granted, Sakuretsu Armor and Smashing Ground keep it from sticking around, but it still fills me with nostalgia, terror, and rage. In that order.

There’s a lot of tech running around here, and I might end up writing another of these articles tomorrow. Until then, these are at the top of the heap in a wide variety of decks!