The first time I saw Toy Magician, it was love at first sight. Debuting a while back as a Japanese promo card, this little fellow remains totally unique. Packing two different effects (one of which you won’t find anywhere else), it’s a blast to play, and after the Sneak Previews this weekend I won’t have to fly to Japan to run it. Check it out!
Toy Magician
Level 4
1600 / 1500
You can Set this card face-down in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Spell Card. If this face-down card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone is destroyed by an opponent’s card effect and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon it during the End Phase. When this card is Flip Summoned, destroy Spell or Trap Cards on the field equal to the number of "Toy Magicians" on the field.
There’s no disputing the fact that Toy Magician is in a league of its own. It’s the only monster you can play directly to your spell and trap zone, and the reactions it gets from opponents are priceless. I was ecstatic when this card’s TCG debut was revealed.
But I had to wonder—was this an example of "right card, wrong time?" With the theme-heavy metagames we’re accustomed to, does Toy Magician really have a spot in competitive decks? I didn’t have any immediate answers, but after mulling it over I realized that this card does have potential in the current format. The key to its success rests in one simple fact . . .
Toy Magician Has Two Very Different Effects
If you’re looking for a way to tactically tie together Toy Magician’s two effects, don’t bother. If you set Toy Magician using its bluff ability, it’ll hit the field face up, meaning that you won’t get to flip summon it to destroy a spell or trap card. At the same time, if you set it to your monster zone so you can flip summon it later, you’re obviously foregoing the bluff opportunity.
It’s easy to look at the situation and wonder why anyone would make a card that doesn’t even combo with itself, but in reality, that’s the brilliance of Toy Magician. If both of its effects depended on you bluffing with it at just the right time, it would be a one-trick pony with very limited use. Since you can play it in two different ways, it’s a lot more versatile. If your opponent is playing lots of spell and trap removal, you can use the bluff effect to surprise the opponent and make him or her waste a play. If not, you still have a potent effect that works like a delayed Breaker the Magical Warrior. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an opponent who never, ever sets spell or trap cards.
The Ultimate Bluff
Since Toy Magician’s effects are so different, we should examine each of them individually. Let’s start with the first one.
Bluffing Toy Magician as a spell or trap card will generally serve one of three purposes, and they all operate on the same basis: tricking your opponent into wasting plays. Setting Toy Magician costs you nothing in the long run, because you won’t lose anything when your opponent destroys it. Your opponents, on the other hand, can easily waste cards or make plays that end up being poor.
My favorite way to use Toy Magician is to set it alongside another card in the back row. Normally committing two cards at once is risky, because if your opponent can play Heavy Storm you’ll lose two cards to your opponent’s one. It’s a big blow in the long term, and it also leaves you open to attacks in the short term. Inviting your opponent to play Heavy Storm is usually just asking for trouble.
But if one of those cards is Toy Magician, it’s a different story. Your opponent will likely scramble to play Heavy Storm when you look vulnerable, and in that case you’ll only lose one card—the one that’s actually a spell or trap. Toy Magician will be destroyed too, but since it’s going to come back at the end of the turn, that won’t matter. Your opponent only succeeded in actually getting rid of one card with his Heavy, and while you’re still vulnerable to an attack for that turn, you’ve tricked your opponent into playing one of his or her most powerful cards without gaining a long-term advantage. If the second card you set was chainable (or a second copy of Toy Magician), you can waste your opponent’s Heavy Storm completely.
Dust Tornado continues to gain popularity for both main and side decks in the current format, and like Heavy Storm, you can draw it out with a well-bluffed Toy Magician. Dust Tornado is being played largely to destroy Solemn Judgment, and since you naturally wouldn’t flip Solemn until you’re ready to try for a big play, it’s easy for your opponent to read a face-down Magician as the Solemn he or she wants to eliminate—the longer that card sits on the field, the more it may look like Solemn to a wary opponent. So the longer your Toy Magician stays face down, the more likely it will become a Tornado target. Again, in that case your opponent will get a short-term opportunity, but at the cost of a long-term loss in card presence.
Finally, there are a number of monsters played to destroy cards in the back row that fall quite handily to Toy Magician. If your opponent attacks with a Gladiator Beast and tags out to Gladiator Beast Bestiari, Toy Magician will be destroyed and then special summoned at the end of the turn. Unless your opponent already had something like Bottomless Trap Hole set, the Magician will survive, and you’ll be able to attack Bestiari with it on the turn that follows. The same trick works against Lightsworn, as both Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter are often used to blindly destroy a set card in the opponent’s back row. Both monsters are then vulnerable to a counter attack from the Magician on the following turn. It’s actually a very potent card in two of the format’s top four matchups.
What do you do when you aren’t in one of those matchups, or you just don’t think the bluff is the way to go? Well . . .
He Blows Stuff Up, Too!
It’s times like those when you’ll be glad that Toy Magician has a second effect, and it’s a very good one. Players are running more and more spell and trap removal these days for one major reason: everybody’s playing Solemn Judgment, and destroying it before it can mess up your game-winning moves will often clinch victory. Using Dust Tornado or Mystical Space Typhoon to preempt Solemn Judgment is a great play that we’ve seen from Championship-level duelists like Lazaro Bellido, but with a little planning (or a little luck) you can do the same thing with Toy Magician.
The important part? Blowing away Solemn Judgment with Toy Magician doesn’t cost you a card in the process—you’re still left with a 1600 ATK monster on the field to follow up with.
There are plenty of other targets, too. Royal Oppression continues to gain footing as we see new strategies emerge that can really use it, while Bottomless Trap Hole remains a common sight at most tournaments. At worst, flip summoning Toy Magician and targeting Bottomless will result in a card-for-card trade that leaves you free to normal or special summon for the rest of the turn. At best though, it represents a hit to your opponent’s card presence when it targets something other than the Bottomless that your opponent may want to flip, trapping your opponent between the loss of the Bottomless or a loss in battle.
So Where Do You Play It?
Good question! My immediate thought was Monarchs—a deck that can set Toy Magician as insurance, then use it as free tribute bait if the opponent plays something like Dark Armed Dragon or Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. But Toy Magician is both a Spellcaster and a Light monster, which opens up more opportunities.
Spellcasters are the one place where Toy Magician’s ability to destroy multiple cards with its second effect may actually be feasible, because the deck has so many ways to special summon it. Magician’s Circle is an easy way to search Toy Magician from your deck, while Magical Exemplar can bring back a copy from your graveyard for free. A Spellcaster deck built around high-utility spells that plans to accrue lots of spell counters will often pack Book of Moon too, making it easier to flip summon Toy Magician.
As a Light monster, the Magician can be played with Honest. 1600 ATK is no joke, but the Magician’s a prime target for monsters like Gladiator Beast Darius, Gladiator Beast Laquari, and Dark Grepher. Honest lets Toy Magician overcome those monsters and many more, so it could be a good choice for any deck packing a lot of Lights. One of the biggest up-and-coming Light decks right now is the Elemental Hero build Little City, which loves drawing out opposing spell and trap removal.
Toy Magician is one of the coolest cards ever made, but it’s also a bit more competitive than it may look. It’s not a format-shattering powerhouse, but that just makes it even more of a shock when you play it. If you manage to nab a couple at the Sneak Preview for The Duelist Genesis, go ahead and give it a shot—at the very least, you’re going to have a lot of fun making moves that you never thought would be possible.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer