Don’t despair! Today’s Cyberdark Impact preview card triumphs over all of those and more, and would you believe it’s a rare! Allow me to present:

Vanity’s Fiend!

It’s a Dark monster (a Fiend), and it’s level 6, with a 2400 ATK and a 1200 DEF. You cannot special summon it, and it has an effect that you’ll want to sit up and take notice of—while it’s face up on the field, neither player can special summon any monsters. At all. As simple as that. The same single tribute that you’ve been using to get out a Monarch can now plunk down a monster with comparable ATK that shuts down the tribute fodder Monarchs usually depend on.

While you’ll need to play aggressively or use Nobleman of Crossout to deprive your opponent of his or her flip effect tributes, many cards that usually provide proactive means of Monarch summoning are stopped dead by Vanity’s Fiend. Treeborn Frog? It’ll be staying in that graveyard for a while. Cyber Dragon? It’s a 2100 ATK vanilla tribute monster when the Fiend is on the field. The opponent can’t even depend on recruiter monsters like Tomato or Giant Rat to maintain field presence in order to pull off a tribute summon. Basically, every trick Monarch Control uses to get an easy tribute (short of Brain Control or Soul Exchange) is wrecked by this tricky newcomer.

Of course, most of those cards have a life beyond providing tributes for Monarchs. Recruiters and Cyber Dragon provide comeback potential and form the basis of the average aggressive beatdown deck. Vanity’s Fiend keeps that kind of opponent from gaining their potential benefits. When the opponent is on the offensive, Vanity’s Fiend slows him or her down. When the opponent is on the defensive, it slows down his or her recovery so that you can keep slashing away while he or she tries to reestablish field presence.

Cyber-Stein decks hate it even more. Not only will Vanity’s Fiend flat-out prevent Cyber-Stein’s effect from working, it even erodes the deck’s defensive infrastructure. Many dedicated Cyber-Stein builds pack Mystic Tomato and Last Will to search out Stein at an opportune time—as long as Vanity’s Fiend is on the field, that time will never come. It makes Stein next to impossible to dig for (although there’s always Sangan) and not very useful when it finally is drawn. If you’re up against a committed OTK deck, Vanity’s Fiend shuts down favorites like Nimble Momonga. The Great Wall of Squirrel (now with up to 3000 extra life points!) just crumbles away.

Have I said enough nice things about this card yet? It techs key cards in aggro beatdown, Monarch control, and Cyber-Stein OTK. Its effect is a gem in three of the current format’s expected matchups. All of that is good, but I can keep going! Stand back!

The fact that it’s a Dark monster grants it immediate synergy with other strong cards, some of which you’re probably already playing. Strike Ninja can remove it from the graveyard in order to pay for Ninja’s dodge effect. If the opponent happens to have Trap Hole or Bottomless Trap Hole to stop Vanity’s Fiend at the point of summoning, or Sakuretsu Armor to intercept its attack, you can always tribute it to activate Deck Devastation Virus on the chain. Know what happens when you do that? You stand a good chance of removing the last category of easy tribute fodder that your opponent might be packing—low-ATK flip-effect monsters like Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Magical Merchant. Ha!

Since it’s also a Fiend-type, Vanity’s Fiend gets even better. Look how nicely it plays with Dark Ruler Ha Des! It will assume Ha Des’ negation effect, allowing it to attack into monsters like D. D. Warrior Lady and Old Vindictive Magician with impunity. With impunity! When it hits the graveyard and its ban on special summoning is over, it can be removed to bring Dark Necrofear to the field. (If I might digress for one tiny moment, I’d just like to say, “Please do not bring Dark Necrofear to the field until you have absolutely studied the rulings on it.” Thank you.) While it’s no use with cards like Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, it can still maintain some degree of value once it hits the graveyard.

Setting aside the tech strategy and finer technical points for a moment, what really makes this monster great is its potential to create dead draws for the opponent. In an aggressive era like today’s, the utility of each card you draw is incredibly important—if both duelists opt to play aggressively and make frequent card exchanges, then a simplified duel is created. It takes only one false step to mark the difference between victory and defeat in that kind of contest. We’ve all been in that position—stuck topdecking trap after trap while the opponent sits there smugly with Jinzo or Royal Decree on the field. Not only is it a tactically difficult situation, it’s just plain demoralizing when you can’t get your hands on a potential “out.” Spell Canceller can create the same situation—dead draw after dead draw—but this is the first time we’ve seen a monster that does the same thing to special summons. Sure, Jinzo can negate six or seven traps, but take a look at the average Top 8 deck from a Shonen Jump and count the special summon monsters. You’ll start to get an idea of just how damaging Vanity’s Fiend can be.

An average spread for a topnotch deck might feature three Cyber Dragon cards, Treeborn Frog, two recruiters, Call of the Haunted, and Premature Burial: eight cards total. Add to that the possibility of a splashed Cyber-Stein, Scapegoat, or Last Will, and you’ve got a very reliable interchangeable card group that you’ll see in practically every deck that you play against. Looking at Tristian Patillo’s deck from Shonen Jump Championship Austin, we see that Vanity’s Fiend would scotch eight of his main-decked cards and many more from his side. Ryan Spicer, the runner-up in Austin and two-time Shonen Jump Top 8’er, would fare even worse—he’s got nine special summon cards in his main deck. If we roll back to SJC Boston, we’ll see eleven special summon cards in Bobby Chambers’ deck, and a whopping twelve in John Jensen’s! We’re talking about alienating the opponent from almost double the number of cards Jinzo does. That’s crazy! Hey, if you can get (and keep) both of those guys out on the field, you’ll rob the average opponent of almost half of his or her entire deck.

Expect this to be one of the must-get cards at your local Sneak Preview. If it isn’t, go ahead and use that to your advantage by picking up as many as possible. This card has a serious chance of defining the direction competitive dueling takes over the next three months, and beyond. You’d better get your playset before everybody else realizes they should have one too.