Summoner of Illusions

Before I get to the meat of this post, I just want to post a little about my status. Its my blog, you have to hear about my problems.  Firstly, I am in the process of breaking off from my family. I have told them I am moving out and now I have to find a job and a flat and stuff. Secondly YugiohNetwork has gone down (Cue wailing widows), which is a big pain in the neck for me. I had to figure out a different way to play. I have always used YVD for duels betweens friends because its the nicest duelling interface by far, but when I have tried to use it with strangers before it has been one monumental pain. If anyone is able to give me advice on the best way to do that I would appreciate it I guess. Instead I have moved over to Kaibacorb VDS which has a better lobby and seemingly decent competition on it. The duelling system is very flashy but its not very user friendly, decent enough though. Very worryingly however, to get it to work you have to use Hamachi with strangers, which is basically an open Ethernet cable to the world. This sucks but right now its my only option.

So, onto my Yugioh strategy ideas. Todays post is about this rather attractive gentleman.

Name: Summoner of Illusions
Stats: [Spellcaster/Effect] LV3 ATK/800 DEF/900
Type: Light
Description: FLIP: Tribute 1 other monster to Special Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Fusion Deck. The Fusion Monster is destroyed at the end of the turn this effect is activated.

His stats are basically meaningless, they open a few combos, but the real purpose of this guy is his effect, and its one of those ones that makes you sit up and pay attention. Anything that contains the words "Special Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Fusion Deck" is probably worth a look. Cyber-Stein contained basically the same words and we all know how that ended. This sort of effect can not exist healthily in the game without extremely hefty restrictions; Cyber-Stein has a cost of 5000 life for this effect which is gigantic, more than half of the starting life points and the biggest life point payment cost ever if I am not mistaken. This was not a big enough restriction and he is now duly banned. However Summoner of Illusions has been sitting at 3 happily for many many years, so we can deduce his restrictions are more damning than having to pay 5000 life points. Lets discuss why.

First off, its a flip effect monster, this is a big black cross against it right from the off. Flip effect monsters are slow, really slow. They have to survive a not insignificant amount of peril before they can activate their effects. Nobleman of Crossout, Caius the Shadow Monarch, Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Scrap Dragon, the list goes on. But yet flip effects are still a big part of the competitive metagame; Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter is a card we all love to hate. Its simple and powerful effect of destroying 1 card on the field is useful in almost every situation, while combining with a bonus effect of milling 3 that can, with luck, be game-breaking. Consider how amazingly good Ryko would be as a spell, and you will understand my point in relation to Summoner of Illusions.

 However this is not the only problem for Summoner of Illusions, its effect comes with a cost, you must tribute 1 other monster to activate it. I underline this because its huge, this makes this card only activatable as part of a combo, you need other cards along with this card to make it anything more than an 800/900 piece of meat. This is absolutely fatal to its Utility, which is a terrible thing. Topdecking this card when you are low on options is terrible, it will rarely be a live card in those sorts of situations. Cyber-Stein had similar issues, it was also unusable a lot, since you often have less than 5000 life points, however, if you did have 5000 or more, at least it could activate by itself without any help. Tributing 1 other monster is a difficult condition to fulfil, but yet, it is not impossible. Things like Dandylion, or Treeborn Frog have been filling the field up with monsters entirely for the purpose of tributing for a long time, so although you can not say this card has Utility this is not the final nail in its coffin.

There have always been many good looking targets for Summoner of Illusions, just like for Cyber Stein. You could go for an OTK with Cyber Twin Dragon or instead go for pure power with something like Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. However, with the final line of its text: "The Fusion Monster is destroyed at the end of the turn this effect is activated."  all of them have been put to shame. Any Yugioh player knows that Flip Effects activate as often in your opponents turn as they do in your own turn, so if Summoner is attacked, your gorgeous Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon will die before it can get in even one attack. Summoner of Illusions could only be used to any good effect during your turn, and that just couldnt happen consistently, however hard you tried. Summoner of Illusions had to be shelved, left to become dusty and forgotten. Until now.

In Starstrike blast a new target for Summoner of Illusions was released, a monster than truly unlocks that potential lying dormant on that shelf. Lets have a look.

Name: Gaia Drake, The Universal Force

Stats: [Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect] LV 10 ATK/ 3500 DEF/ 2800
Type: EARTH
Description: "Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth" + 1 non-Effect Synchro Monster
This card cannot be targeted by, or destroyed by, the effects of Effect Monsters. 

This card solves one of the big problems Summoner of Illusions had, probably the biggest of all its problems. This monster sticks about for ever if you summon it with him. This whole area is a real rulings melee, there is every possibility that this could be ruled differently in the future, but as far as I understand, this works this way. Besides, this is not the first monster that combos with the Summoner like this; Fiend Skull Dragon has been around for a while with its effect of Negating Flip-Effect monsters, but this effect simply doesnt have any other purpose in the competitive metagame than surviving. Flip effects have never been a big enough issue to consider a negation strategy. Its a decent effect, but on a monster with 2000 attack, its just not enough for the effort of summoning him. A simple Cyber Dragon is all that was needed to waste all that work. Gaia Drake though, is a whole different kettle of fish.

Once he hits the field, he is nothing short of brutal. For most competitve decks there are simply no monster based outs to him at all, none. 3500 attack is bigger than anything short of a highly powered up collosal fighter, which is unlikely to say the least. His effect protects him from almost ever monster effect I can think of (Damn you Cyber Eltanin) so once he is summoned, 60-70% of most decks, the part focused on summoning and protecting monsters, is entirely useless. I am looking at the YCS Atlanta winning gravekeeper deck right now, it has 3 cards that can potentially stop a succesfully summoned Gaia Drake on the field, just 3 cards, Mirror Force, Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute. This all adds up to make the summon of Gaia Drake enough to win a game. Summoner of Illusions has become a real win condition.

So how best to use Summoner of Illusions and Gaia Drake? We have already discussed that it is a tricky and inconsistent card. However when its so powerful, it cant be ignored. It is possible to make a deck entirely devoted to ensuring this combo goes off, and I have in fact, and will give it to you at the bottom of this post. This however seems to me, personally, to be gimmicky, fun but not really competitive. Instead we should notice that a Summoner of Illusions engine really does not take up much deck space at all. 1 Summoner of Illusions in your main deck and 1 Gaia Drake in your extra deck is all you need to make this play possible. All top tier decks have enough flexibility in them to include this sort of engine if they wanted. Of course it is not suitable for all top decks, because most can not guarantee that they will have tribute fodder for his effect. Summoner of Illusions is suitable for slower paced, conservative decks, that wish to force their opponent to play slowly, and not attack recklessly. The decks also need to be able to maintain a solid field presence to ensure he is live as often as possible. To me the 3 decks that stand out to me for use of Summoner of Illusions are Frog Monarchs, Plant Synchro/Quickdraw and Zombies (My personal deck of choice) though I am sure there are many more. I think any players of these decks owe it to themselves to give this fun and powerful little card a go.

N.B. This deck is a footnote, because it is not the main thrust of the post. However if you are a real Summoner of Illusions fan like me and really cant wait to start beating some face with Gaia Drake, I am here for you. This deck isnt going to win any major championships, but I definately think it can take wins off the top decks.

Illusion Confusion!

  

Monsters: 21

3 Summoner of Illusions
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 A-D Changer
2 X-Saber Pashuul
1 Morphing Jar
1 Glow-Up Bulb
1 Sangan
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 

Spells: 9

3 Book of Moon
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Mind Control
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
 

Traps: 10

3 Reinforce Truth
2 Zero Gravity
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
 

Extra: 15

3 Gaia Drake, the Universal Force
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Armory Arm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Formula Synchron
1 Magical Android
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Scrap Archfiend
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian

Obviously this deck could probably use explanation, but you will have to figure it out for yourselves this time. Have fun and good night.