Summoner of Illusions Prediction Princess Pt.3

Summoner of Illusions (SoI) is a Level 3 LIGHT Spellcaster Flip Monster whose effect is "FLIP: Tribute 1 other monster, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, but destroy it during the End Phase of this turn." This effect is not optional and will be a mandatory activation on a new Chain after SoI is flipped face-up. SoI is an interesting Flip Monster to play in Prediction Princess due to the multitude of monsters it can access. While it can be better or worse than Prediction Princess Flip Monster staples like Deus X-Krawler, Pot of The Forbidden, Whirlwind Weasel, Guard Dog, and the new Enneacraft - Astay.PIXIEA depending on what you Summon, I am going to go through every single immediately beneficial Fusion Monster that you can Summon off of SoI.

There are 4 conditions that need to be met for a monster to be on this list: (1) The Fusion Monster MUST BE ABLE to be Special Summoned via SoI. (2) The Fusion Monster must provide some kind of immediately beneficial effect, whether it is interruption, protection, or being able to avoid destruction during the End Phase to provide you some benefit next turn. (3) Monsters whose only useful effects are ones that activate in the GY, that trigger when the Fusion Monster leaves the field, or that modulate ATK/DEF or deal burn damage do not count. (4) I am avoiding monsters that require a greater degree of archetypal investment to make use of their effect (Ex: Playing cards that spread Predator Counters for Starving Venom Predapower Fusion Dragon 's effect or playing Ashened cards for Veidos the Dragon of Endless Darkness's effect).   

THIS IS PART 3 OF MY SUMMONER OF ILLUSIONS PREDICTION PRINCESS GUIDE CLICK HERE TO SEE PART 1

CLICK HERE TO SEE PART 2

THE HONORABLE MENTIONS I wasn't planning on making an Honorable Mentions, but there were some monsters that I wanted to talk about that didn't make the list. These monsters are good Summons off of SoI in theory, but they either suck, conflict with the Deck, fall short of the other options, or can still be decent or just okay options under certain situations (or if you want to have some more fun, but not insane options).

Gem-Knight Master Diamond Dispersion can, during the Main Phase, Quick Effect send itself from field to GY to Special Summon up to 3 non-Rock Gem- monsters with different names from Deck/Extra Deck, ignoring their Summoning Conditions, but you also cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn except for Fusion Monsters. I know that I mentioned that one of the conditions for a Fusion Monster to be on the list of Summonables off of SoI is that they need to not require a greater degree of archetypal investment. But, if I just need to play 1 additional card in the Main Deck or a few monsters in the Extra Deck, I really do not mind. Your best options are Gem-Knight Lady Rose Diamond, Gem-Knight Amethyst, Gem-Knight Aquamarine, and Gem-Knight Hollowcore IMO. However, Lady Rose Diamond doesn’t do crap on your opponent’s turn other than prevent your Gem-Knights from being destroyed the first time they would be while the others only do something if you could Quick Effect I:P Masquerena Link them off, which you can’t because of the Fusion-lock. As cool as Master Diamond Dispersion is, he doesn’t facilitate crap outside of an actual Gem-Knight Deck.

Dinowrestler Chimera T Wrextle prevents your opponent from targeting other monsters you control for attacks, and if it is destroyed by card effect, it has a mandatory effect that activates which destroys all your opponent’s Attack Position monsters. Cyberse Clock Dragon provided targeting protection in addition to making your other monsters be unable to be attacked. T Wrextle doesn’t so its on-field effect is mediocre at best since preventing your opponent from targeting other monsters you control for attacks is pretty redundant in Prediction Princess given how big most of your monsters are. And while its on-destruction effect is nice, it can’t even be considered as interruption as it is more like an End Phase Mirror Force I guess? Even Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon’s End Phase destruction effect is better, and T Wrextle ain’t no Mirrorjade.

Albion the Sanctifire Dragon can, during your opponent’s turn, Quick Effect target 2 monsters in any GY(s) and Special Summon both, 1 to each field. Aside from the obvious issue of your board having no space to Summon another monster to, what are you even Summoning with Albion? Mereologic Aggregator to time a Quick Effect Link Summon with I:P to target and negate a face-up card on field? Pretty nice. Diviner of the Herald who sends Elder Entity N'tss from Extra Deck to GY on Summon to then target and pop a card on field? It’s not like every Prediction Princess Deck plays Diviner or N’tss. While there are other potentials, we return to the issue of there usually not being any space on board to Summon a monster with Albion. I mean, you can play Albion, but you are going to have to plan all of your plays around it, which I’d rather not and actually play something more worthwhile.

Brave-Eyes Pendulum Dragon negates the activated effects of monsters with 0 Attack. Not only does this card overlap with Deus-X, or rather, it gets overlapped by Deus-X, it’s not like every Deck is made of 0 ATK monsters for this card to work against. I mean, this card can screw up Yubel or D/D maybe, but again, Deus-X already does what this card does to every monster your opponent controls, not just the 0 ATK ones.

Destiny HERO - Dystopia if its current ATK is different than its original ATK, can Quick Effect target and destroy a card on field, and if you do, its ATK returns to its original ATK. Dystopia is a fine card other than for its effect being a little too specific to always pull off. HERO doesn’t even play this card anymore in favor of Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer and Elemental HERO Shining Neos Wingman which are much better cards with much easier conditions for their pop effects. We can also play DPE over this instead.

The Dark Magicians can draw a card if a Spell/Trap Card or effect is activated, then, if the card you drew was a Spell/Trap, you can set it, and then if it was a Trap or Quick-Play Spell, it can be activated this turn. This card blows. Do you want me to pull a Solemn Judgment out of my pocket or something? Because this card’s effect is all up to luck. Sure, you can draw Infinite Impermanence and set it or a handtrap, but this is Prediction Princess, half your Deck is not made-up of non-engine. This card either hits or whiffs. Heck, I’d rather just play Gimmick Puppet and use Puppet Shark. Love that card.

Magnum the Reliever can, when another card or effect is activated, Quick Effect banish a Polymerization Spell or Fusion Spell from GY and target a card on field to destroy it. Here’s the deal with Magnum: you are not likely to have a Fusion or Polymerization Spell in GY. You definitely could, but the best Prediction Princess variants aren’t playing any unless you somehow draw Instant Fusion which is currently limited. Still a decent card though.

D/D/D Oracle King d'Arc turns any effect that inflicts damage to you into LP gained for you. Unless every Deck in the room is playing burn, or you are somehow paired against the only person in the room who is playing burn, d’Arc does nothing. And that “nothing” is pretty much like 98% of the time.

The Last Warrior from Another Planet has a mandatory effect that activates when it is Special Summoned which destroys all other monsters you control. And while it is on field, neither player can Summon monsters. Do you hate yourself? Do you want to get rid of that whole Prediction Princess board that you spent making the previous turn? Do you want to lose to Raigeki? Dark Hole? Infinite Impermanence? Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit? Ultimate Slayer? Okay, so Last Warrior isn’t THAT bad, but most of the time, Summoning it will just lose you the game. If your opponent deals with Deus-X and you still have SoI face-down and like a World Legacy Pawns face-down, you can activate Pawns to flip-up SoI to Special Summon Last Warrior, destroying the rest of your board. Last Warrior is like your panic button. Unless your opponent can deal with it within the same turn and then proceed to OTK you or build a board you can't deal with, that's it. However, if that is not the case, Last Warrior will be destroyed during the End Phase and then you can banish a second Underworld Ritual of Prediction from your GY during your Standby Phase, Summon another Prediction Princess Bibliomuse from Deck face-down and then you already have the Prediction Princess Tarotrei and another Underworld Ritual in your hand that you searched during your opponent’s turn with Bibliomuse’s Flip Effect. You can rebuild your board and then OTK your opponent, but that depends if your opponent can get rid of Last Warrior.

Ojama King can choose up to 3 of your opponent’s unused MMZs when it becomes face-up on field and prevent them from being able to be used. Ojama Knight can do the same but to up to 2 of your opponent’s unused MMZs. Unless blocking 2 to 3 of your opponent’s Main Monster Zones actually does something to your opponent, Ojama King and Ojama Knight don’t do anything. Unlike Kashtira Shangri-Ira, these Ojamas don’t have any way of protecting themselves, and they don’t have other Kashtira cards backing them up either.

Munin the Runick Wings when your opponent activates a card or effect that targets a Runick card(s) or a Set card(s) you control, can Quick Effect banish itself from field to negate the activation and destroy that card. Dear god, I wish this card was good. If you Summon this card off of SoI, you can’t use its effect since all of your Flip Monsters are now face-up. If you Summon it off of a Runick Quick-Play Spell, you aren’t just going to wait to give your opponent a chance to target one of your Set cards, you are going to try to flip them up as soon as you can. I haven’t even mentioned that Enneacraft - Astay.PIXIEA is leagues better than this card and is going to be a staple in Prediction Princess.

Fiend Skull Dragon negates the effects of Flip Monsters while it's on field and it also negates activated Trap effects that target it on field and destroys those cards. Look into my eyes and tell me that you want to Summon a monster who negates the effects of Flip Monsters when you are playing a Deck of Flip Monsters.

Ace★Spades Speculation is not a particularly good card. It gains different effects based on its battle position. In Attack, it gains ATK equal to the highest original ATK among your opponent's monsters. In Defense, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. Speculation doesn’t actually do anything besides being able to survive destruction during the End Phase from being Special Summoned via SoI’s effect, and then go onto your turn to just be a large beater. Does not do anything else. Can’t even Summon it back from the GY by its own effect since it was not properly Summoned. I just think that it is a cool card you can potentially play for fun.

Dinomorphia Rexterm prevents monsters your opponent controls with ATK greater than or equal to your LP from activating their effects. Also, it can Quick Effect pay half your LP to change the ATK of all monsters your opponent currently controls to become equal to half your LP. First of all, Deus-X already negates the activated effects of monsters on your opponent’s side of the field, so Rexterm is redundant as it prevents the activations of said monster effects. Also, Rexterm is going to be pumping your opponent’s monsters to 4000 ATK most of the time without any Dinomorphia Traps in GY preventing damage. You are turning your opponent’s monsters into 4000 ATK beaters with no other real benefit unless you aren’t playing Deus-X, don’t Summon it, or something happened to it.

Ancient Gear Howitzer is unaffected by other card’s effects and if it is destroyed by battle and sent to the GY, it can Special Summon an Ancient Gear monster from your Deck ignoring its Summoning Conditions. So while Howitzer could survive being destroyed during the End Phase via SoI’s destruction clause, the way you want to be playing this card is to Special Summon Howitzer in Attack Position, do a Lollipo☆Yummy impression, look at your opponent real cutesy, and ask them extremely nicely, “Pwease attack my ancient geaw howitzew so dat i can speciaw summon ancient geaw dwagon fwom my deck fow a speww/twap negate♡” Yeah, so just ask your opponent real nicely to Summon anything with 1000+ ATK to run over Howitzer so that you can Summon Ancient Gear Dragon from Deck. Ancient Gear Dragon can Quick Effect send a Machine from hand or face-up field or an Ancient Gear Golem from Deck to GY to negate an activated Spell/Trap Card or effect. It’s Howitzer, what did you expect?

Dark Magician the Dragon Knight prevents your opponent from targeting or destroying Spell/Traps you control with card effects. Issue is: What Spell/Trap Cards? Your set Infinite Impermanence? A set Called by the Grave? Maybe your set Runick Quick-Play Spells if you don’t have Runick Fountain on field, but you are usually not having any Spell/Traps that matter on field in Prediction Princess. Maybe in certain variants, but it still is a huge waste of SoI just to Summon Dark Magician the Dragon Knight.

Primite Dragon Nether Berzelius negates the activated effects of monsters your opponent controls whose Level/Ranks/Link Ratings are less than or equal to the Number of Normal Monsters in your field and GY. Again, this is another monster that is overlapped by Deus-X’s effect. While it’s a nice effect, it is really only usable in like 2.5 Prediction Princess variants that are good: Runick Prediction Princess with Draconnet and a Level 2 Normal Tuner, Blue-Eyes Prediction Princess, and World Chalice Prediction Princess. Deus-X is just better in general, but I will cut some slack for Berzelius since it is a pretty cool card.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Summoner of Illusions is not the second best Flip Monster to play in Prediction Princess. It's not the third best, nor is it the fourth best. Maybe it's like the sixth or seventh best Flip Monster in the Deck if you don't count Prediction Princess Bibliomuse, but the reason for that is that SoI, while it can definitely Summon cards with a whole lot of stopping power like Naturia Exterio, is pretty gimmicky more than anything else. It doesn't solve the Deck's weakness against handtraps or boardbreakers, and it really is not your first choice of Flip Monster if you are looking for a card that just ends the game as soon as your opponent has no way around it like, Deus-X, PIXIEA, Whirlwind Weasel, Guard Dog, or even Pot of the Forbidden if you use it to look at your opponent's hand and shuffle their starter back into the Deck. If I had to make an analogy, it is like nước mắm in spaghetti sauce. You can just season your spaghetti sauce with salt to taste, but I like nước mắm for its added richness and umami in addition to its saltiness. So I add it to my sauce whenever I make spaghetti despite possibly angering traditionalist Italians. I don't have to add nước mắm to the spaghetti sauce, but I like it because it makes it more fun and interesting to eat. Prediction Princess is the spaghetti sauce and Summoner of Illusions is the nước mắm. You don't have to add Summoner of Illusions to Prediction Princess, but it can make the Deck a little more fun and interesting to play around with, especially with all of the Fusion Monster options that I listed.