Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 was recently released for the Nintendo DS system, and packaged with it were three brand new promos for us to enjoy. Exploder Dragon and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander add new Yu-Gi-Oh! GX cards into the game, while Spell Striker gives an old monster style a new trick. Each card has its merits, and this week we will examine how each card works to better help you in making your decisions.

Fearless Warrior

Up first is Spell Striker, a level 1 Warrior-type monster with some useful tricks.

“You can Special Summon this card from your hand by removing from play 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard. This card can attack your opponent directly. Any Battle Damage this card’s controller takes from a battle involving this card becomes 0.”

Spell Striker is a normal summon monster that, like Cyber Dragon, has an alternate method by which you can special summon him. All you need to do is select one spell card in your graveyard and remove it from play. Not exactly a difficult task, and with Magician of Faith on the Forbidden list, that spell card wasn’t likely to come back anyway.

Thankfully, the remainder of Spell Striker’s effects are independent of the special summon effect, so you can take advantage of these any time you play him. Spell Striker can attack your opponent directly like Jinzo #7 and Submarineroid, but unlike those monsters, Spell Striker has one extra protection that keeps your life points safe when he is involved in battle. The Spell Striker himself will not be protected, so when a larger monster takes him down in battle, he won’t be sticking around.

You can boost up Spell Striker’s ATK like you would with any other direct attacker, but since Spell Striker will keep your life points safe, you’re free to try out some combinations that will take advantage of this protection. You could begin by equipping it with Mist Body, so you can have a direct attack monster with no fear of reprisal. Mix in an effect like Robbin’ Goblin and your opponent will have a real problem on his or her hands.

He Commands Disks?

Our next card is Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. He isn’t high on the power scale, but his effect can certainly benefit the Destiny Heroes.

“When this card is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, draw 2 cards.”

If you’re looking for another monster to discard with Destiny Draw, you’ve come to the right place. Any time you special summon Destiny Hero - Disk Commander from your graveyard, you will draw two cards from your deck. This isn’t an optional effect, so it won’t have to worry about any other effects getting in the way.

Whenever you successfully special summon Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, his effect begins a new chain. When the Disk Commander is special summoned midway through a chain’s resolution, he will wait until the chain finishes resolving and then start a new one with his effect. It’s kind of like how Sangan starts a new chain if it gets sent to the graveyard during the resolution of a chain.

Any time you can special summon a monster from your graveyard, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander would make a good choice, but some situations will work out even better than usual. Any time you can special summon this Destiny Hero from your graveyard and use it as a tribute, you stand to benefit. You can also use the effect of cards like Destiny Hero - Captain Tenacious and Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster to bring Disk Commander back into the fight and get those two extra cards.

The only thing you really need to worry about is special summoning Destiny Hero - Disk Commander face down. If you try to use a card like The Shallow Grave, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander’s effect will not activate. Fortunately there are plenty of alternatives to choose from.

Dragon Go Boom

Exploder Dragon was used by Zane Truesdale in season 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. It has remained faithful to what was seen on the show.

“When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, destroy the monster that destroyed it. While this card is attacking, any Battle Damage either player takes from a battle involving this card becomes 0.”

Exploder Dragon has a very short fuse. Any monster it battles will be destroyed if the Exploder Dragon is destroyed in battle. We’ve seen this before with monsters like Yomi Ship, but the Exploder Dragon has an extra advantage when it’s on the offense: any battle damage that Exploder Dragon would inflict to your opponent’s life points or that would be dealt to your own life points will become 0.

Exploder Dragon can be used to attack a much stronger monster without concern for harming your life points, but at the same time, you can’t expect it to deal any damage to your opponent when your Exploder Dragon is more powerful. If Exploder Dragon decides to pick on a weaker monster, it will certainly wipe the little guy out but it also won’t inflict any life point damage in the battle. Direct attacks are even worse because Exploder Dragon will not do any damage at all.

Monsters with the ability to negate the effects of monsters they destroy in battle will still be a problem for Exploder Dragon. If you try to use this guy to take down Dark Ruler Ha Des, things will end badly. Ha Des will negate the “explosive” effect of Exploder Dragon when it destroys the Exploder Dragon in battle. Fortunately, if Exploder Dragon is attacking, you still won’t take any battle damage to your life points because this effect is applied during the damage calculation.

Exploder Dragon’s effect will also fail if it doesn’t arrive in the graveyard when it’s destroyed in battle. Exploder Dragon’s effect has the condition that it must be destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard. If you don’t accomplish both, its effect won’t activate. This makes cards like Dimensional Fissure a great detriment.

Still, knowing you have one attacking monster that can take out pretty much any attack-position monster is a good thing. The Exploder Dragon and Exiled Force make for an interesting team.

Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@metagame.com