Introduction

One of the greatest parts about Yugioh is that there are no set rotations, no "standard" formats or anything like that. This means within competitive play, you are able to use any of the 10,000 unique cards printed for the game in your deck, provided you own a physical copy. And this also sometimes means that old cards printed in the Paleolithic era would suddenly see resurgence in usage. Take for example, Grinder Golem, a card so seemingly situational and pointless that one could never have imagined it suddenly becoming one of the most powerful cards ever printed, with the introduction of Link Monsters, and especially, Akashic Magician. Or who could forget about when Mist Valley Apex Avian went from an impossible card to summon, into one of the most reliable forms of negation thanks to the summoning capabilities of Pendulum Summoning and Floowandereeze?

My point is, within the game, it is very possible to see unexpected old cards suddenly becoming relevant, for better or worse. This article will be about one of these cards, Smoke Grenade of the Thief, and how absolutely devastating it is quickly becoming for the game.

As a disclaimer, Smoke Grenade is currently banned in the TCG, but not in the OCG and Master Duel.

Smoke Grenade of the Thief 

Smoke Grenade of the Thief 
Equip Spell
● When this card is destroyed by a card effect while equipped to a monster: Look at your opponent's hand and discard 1 card from their hand.

What a very simple yet devastating effect.

The ability to peek at your opponent's hand would give you critical information on what cards you can potentially get away with ignoring, and craft your boards accordingly to suit that situation. And Smoke Grenade even allows you to drop one of these dangerous cards away, giving you a great deal of control over the game.

And in every card game, many would agree that hand size is one of the most important resources of any game, so surely this card was very important at its debut? Not really.

You see, when Smoke Grenade was released all the way back in Dark Beginning 2, there was nothing that could easily proc this effect. In fact, if you attached it to one monster on the field, why would the opponent bother to destroy it? And the only way you could destroy it yourself was to use Mystical Space Typhoon or a similar spell/trap removal, which at this rate... there were just better, more threatening cards to be using this on. This would be the general outlook towards this card for a very, very long time. Until some unexpected cards were printed.

Infernoble Knights and their King

Infernoble Knights are a sub-archtype spun from the Noble Knights, both archtypes centralizing on using Warriors with Equip Spells to grant additional effects. These cards were printed in Rise of the Duelist, a whopping 15 years after the debut of Smoke Grenade, and they would be the first to exploit the potential of Smoke Grenade.

To lead these new forces into battle, Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles would be printed as one of the bosses of the archetype.

Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles 
Level 9 FIRE Warrior Synchro Effect Monster
ATK 3000
DEF 200
1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters

• If an Equip Card becomes equipped to a monster on the field, even during the Damage Step: You can destroy 1 card on the field.
  
• During the End Phase: You can equip 1 Equip Spell from your hand or GY to this card, then you can equip 1 FIRE Warrior monster from your Deck to this card as an Equip Spell that gives it 500 ATK.
  
• You can only use each effect of "Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles" once per turn.

Emperor Charles can continuously equip cards from the GY every End Phase. Supposing you had a Smoke Grenade in your GY, during the end of your turn, you could equip that to Charles, then use its first effect to pop it right after. This would very easily trigger Smoke Grenade, and you can finally put one of your opponent's cards down! This card would be backed by its subordinate, Captain Roland, which could put Smoke Grenade in the GY, and serve as a quick attach for Charles. Right as soon as this interaction was noticed, many began to adopt Infernoble Knights for high level tournament plays.

Here are some combos for you to understand how it all came together, thanks to the efforts of the currently banned Linkross, Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon and Crystron Halqifibrax.

• Yu-Gi-Oh! Basic Competitive Infernoble Combos You Should Know (with Linkross) by Frozen Card Gaming
• Infernoble Knight Combo in Master Duel by Infernoble Knight GianfrancoH
• Infernoble Knight Combos by Yacine656

All these combos point to one thing: Charles would always end the turn with a Smoke Grenade in your face, along with multiple negations and disruptions. Smoke Grenade would grant the Infernoble Knights a layer of disruption never seen before within the game: the ability to discard counters directly. Players would have to either draw enough disruption to the point where one Smoke Grenade effect would not harm them, then weather the rest of the negation, or pray for the topdeck to wipe the opponent's board. Infernoble Knights would wreak havoc. If they went first, and you did not have the proper interruptions - they could even play through several handtraps - it was over.

This interaction would lead the TCG and OCG to finally ban Linkross, along with the TCG continuing their crusade to banning Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon, Crystron Halqifibrax, and most importantly, Smoke Grenade itself.

Smoke Grenade would lie dormant and unused after this particular era, as the metagame developed to the point where Infernoble Knights were nothing but a fancy combo that was outclassed by the more powerful archetypes roaming around. Until a new combo was discovered.

It's getting Smoky in everywhere 

Yugioh Master Duel was launched last year in 2022.
I like to think of it as the eventual bridge for TCG players to experience the worst parts of the OCG meta almagamated into one game, where they can cheerfully re-experience toxic gamestates like double True King of All Calamities, full power Drytrons, Adamancipators, the list goes on and on. But with a wider cardpool, more degenerate combos will be born.

Enter the newest and current way to throw shade, introducing the newest culprit, Power Tool Braver Dragon.

Power Tool Braver Dragon 
Level 9 EARTH Machine Synchro Effect Monster
ATK 2500
DEF 2300
1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters

• If this card is Special Summoned: You can equip up to 3 Equip Spells with different names from your Deck and/or GY to this card.
• During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can send 1 of your Equip Spells equipped to this card to the GY, then target 1 Effect Monster on the field; either change its battle position, or until the end of this turn, negate its effects.
• You can only use each effect of "Power Tool Braver Dragon" once per turn.

To be more precise, only the first effect of Power Tool Braver Dragon is relevant. On its summon, you would ideally equipSmoke Grenade and Rod of Silence - Kay'est to it. Rod of Silence - Kay'est would then destroy Smoke Grenade on equip, triggering it instantly. 

This combo was very simple, and gave any deck that could make a Level 9 Synchro direct access to a handloop combo. But this is not where it ends! After summoning this card, you would then summon Baronne de Fleur, ideally by sending Power Tool Braver Dragon into the GY.

During your opponent's Standby Phase, you would trigger Baronne de Fleur's revival effect, summoning Power Tool Braver Dragon. And on its summon, you would re-equip Smoke Grenade and Rod of Silence - Kay'est, which would send yet another card to the GY.

This extended combo now allows you to drop two cards, and that even includes the card your opponent drew for turn! This combo can now be used in any deck that can synchro summon rapidly, including but not limited to, Virtual World, Adamancipator, and even Synchrons!

For a more detailed visual guide on how this works, check out Dkayed's Handloop Combo here!

My Thoughts and Conclusion

Every now and then an old card from the past will rear its head to latch onto a new wave of support and prove exactly how broken it would be with the right support. Smoke Grenade is one of them now. In the past, Smoke Grenade was limited towards Infernoble Knight usage, but now that tapping into Smoke Grenade is within any deck's reach thanks to the easy access to Power Tool Braver Dragon, this card is beginning to prove worrisome in both the OCG and Master Duel. In fact, the next main set, The Duelist Nexus, already promises further support to the Infernobles, and that naturally means more appearances of Smoke Grenade.

Although it may be too late to say that the TCG was right in banning Smoke Grenade the moment they realized its potential, the newly updated OCG and Master Duel banlists do not reflect this worry at all. Handloop is inherently a very inconsistent ideal that is rarely realized, but as more cards get introduced with supportive effects, past cards with problematic effects will eventually surface for abusing. I believe Smoke Grenade is way too dangerous now.

What do you think? Should Smoke Grenade continue to be unbanned like the OCG and Master Duel, or should we agree with the TCG and ban it straight up? What do you think is their stance on this card?