OK, I know I had not write an article for a while. Well, traveling always kill up my schedule, since I have not been able to update the site much for a whole week (due to my crazy plans right after I arrived at Hong Kong).

Well...maybe summer vacation also makes me slow down my pace...

Anyway, after Cybernetic Revolution was release, I really have no special subject from the set I would really like to write about. I could always talk about Cyber Dragon or how to dump your hand in 3 turns, but those are just...boring.

So now, why a Spellcaster article (really, articleS) all on sudden? Well, there're two Spellcaster in CRV, both of them I love. One is Kuran, which I love the art, and the other would be Cybernetic Magician, which leads me to write this article.

So, since I said in the index page that I would write 3 articles, I would talk about them here:

First: High Level Spellcaster (this one)
Second: Low level Spellcaster (next...)
Third: Even lower level Spellcaster

Being a great magician needs a long training, they talk about it in the original anime/manga about Mahado and Black Magician Girl (forgot what her name is...). Magic can leds to anything, and really, the idea of "magic" was the base of this game (this game is originally called "Magic and Wizard").

I would not talk about how magic and spellcaster are alike in this game, most of the newer spellcaster have something to do with controlling what the world of magic can do. However, I would talk about how great/bad the magicians are...

All Magician start with the second card design in the game: Black Magician.

I would not go into details on the effect/stats of the cards...but just comments on its usability for a Spellcaster deck in general. I would not go into the Black Magician family in much details, however, since Spikes had an article on it and all of its support card. This is the first time I do this type of analysis article...so if it's bad, oh well...

Black Magician
Pros:
- Many support cards
Cons:
- Normal Monster
- Really, attack power seems to be lower than average for 2 tribute

OK, from Black Magician, it would led to its apprentice, Black Magician Girl. Well, although this card, really, does not even suit to be in a general Spellcaster deck (suit way better in a BM/BMG deck).

Black Magician Girl
Pros:
- Well, it is still one of those cards that people collect for the art...
Cons:
- Low attack strength
- Suit better in its own deck

Now, before going into other Spellcasters, I have to finish the "Spellcaster Trio" of Yugi. Well, although there're two version of [Black Magician of Chaos] (both had been used by Yugi, the ritual version was used during the original manga. However, the new version from 307 was shown to be in the "Yugi deck" used by some other duelist in GX).

I would not talk about the old version, old cards in this game, other than the staples, are really crappy in today's environment (well, not all of the old cards sucks, some cards like [Will] are great cards that were never staples).

Black Magician of Chaos (307 version)
Pros:
- High attack, but not "Nomi" monster (not the highest, however, it's [Cosmo Queen])
- Abusable Magic-recursion effect (well, it's limit to one for a reason)
- Remove monsters destroy
Cons:
- Easy to be remove - it don't send to Graveyard killing it

Now, exiting from the Yugi's trio, there are total of 33 high level Spellcaster monsters in the game. However, it would take me forever to talk about all 33 of them, I choose only 6 of them (plus the four I had talked about, it's 10...), however...

First one is from now, the highest magician of all, with the highest attack as a Spellcaster (until July when [Silent Magician LV8 ] would be release).

Black Magic Hierophant
Pros:
- Highest attack of all Spellcaster
- Negation-Evasion effect of Traps
Cons:
- Hard to summon, really, with its main combo ([Critch] + [Magical Scientist]) gone, this card is almost impossible to be play with the numbers of removal people run in their deck

Now, we would have to jump into the Chaos world. There're actually four Spellcaster with the word "Chaos" in it (maybe more, I think I miscount). Consider that magician can do anything, combining Dark with Light should not be a big problem.

Chaos Magician
Pros:
- High attack for a 1 tribute monster
Cons:
- It's effect is useless in most situations. It don't protect other monster, which make this card more like a Normal Spellcaster monster.

Chaos Sorceror
Pros:
- Easy to summon - you know it from the brokeness of other Chaos family
- Monster removal effect
Cons:
- Attack strength JUST not enough
- Limitation of its effect

We would then look at two REAL magicians, they actually love magic so much that themselves use magic to work themselves...

Magical Marionette
Pros:
- Attack strength can be increase
- Support from Magic Counters
- Monster removal effect
Cons:
- Initial attack strength is low

THE Tricky
Pros:
- It's easily special summonable
- Metamorphosis...
Cons:
- Low initial attack strength

At last, the card that inspired me to love Spellcaster once again

Cybernetic Magician
Pros:
- High attack strength
- Abusable effect
Cons:
- Ehh...maybe the effect need hand...

We're done with looking at the high levels. I would like to comment more, but I am just...lazy as you know. Next time, we would look at the level 4 Spellcasters. Until then...have fun looking at your Spellcasters and play with them, it's fun...

- Baron, 6/5/05