Vol. 2 Constructed

Here I am again, showing off another terrible small old OCG format from its early days, and hoo boy this one is a doozy. It reminds me of Booster 1's constructed environment, but somehow its problems are even worse. Welcome to Vol. 2 constructed!

This format is defined by two factors- The fact that the one big high-level card they chose for this set was Curse of Dragon, at 2000 ATK, and the fact that they also decided to print not one, but two, 2000 DEF meatwalls this set. If we lived in a world where matching the DEF of your opponent's monster destroyed it, this format might have been somewhat bearable, but sadly we do not live in that world. And to further intensify the pain, we have zip, zilch, nada in terms of monster removal. Without further ado, let's look over what we have going on here.

The Spells. There's a lot of spells this set, and they're all more or less usable this time! Ironically, the heavy hitters we have, Swords of Revealing Light and Monster Reborn, are fairly mediocre in this format. Swords is good, don't get me wrong, but it's temporary, while a 2000 DEF blocker does the same thing most of the time and is more or less forever. It's mostly useful for once you have an attacker on the field and need to buff it up. Monster Reborn lets you retrieve a badly needed monster from the graveyard in the generally uncommon instance when one hits the grave, which is nice, but not quite as good as the card has potential to be in normal formats. In the common slot of this set is De-Spell, which hey, is spell removal! And between the equips and Swords, it has a lot of good targets that might just save your bacon. Then there are the 5 of those basic 300 stat boost equip spells: One for Fiends, Insects, Machines, Dinosaurs, and Plants. We'll get into which ones are good or not when we talk about the monsters, but I'll say this now: They are literally all we have to get a monster past that 2000 DEF barrier, so they're crucial. Finally, the raw damage and LP gain cards, Final Flame and Goblin's Secret Remedy, respectively. They're as bad as ever, but in this format, with so few monsters usable at all, they're possible side deck pieces at the worst. Final Flame is that sweet, sweet reach spell, and Goblin's can help prevent opponents from killing you if you're at less than 1800 LP.

The Traps. There are no traps.

The Monsters. Our cast of monsters is as anemic as ever! At the Ultra Rare slot, our high-level, big-bungus monster this time is... Curse of Dragon. It has 2000 ATK, and even less DEF. It can't beat over the set's blockers. It doesn't even have access to an equip spell. Needless to say, you run 3, because it's basically a blocker that can blow up your opponent's attackers before they can power up. The other automatic 3-ofs consist of the 2000 defenders, Mystical Elf and Spirit of the Harp. They just couldn't pace themselves with the big booties, could they? One was bad enough during Starter Box format, but two is... Yeah, you get the picture. Anyways, who can possibly contest these terrible foes? Exactly two creatures: Uraby, a Dinosaur at 1500 ATK, and Terra, a Fiend at 1200 ATK. The former takes two Raise Body Heats in order to beat over a 2000 defender, and Terra will take literally every Dark Energy in your deck, but not decking out will be worth it... If you can do it in time, that is. Remember how we're still on Junior Journey rules here? We can only cast one of the equips per turn. No holding back a Urably and all your Raise Body Heats in your hand until the time is right. You have to equip one at a time and pray that your opponent doesn't get out a Curse of Dragon to blow up your baby in its cradle... Or place the equips face down one a time over the turns and pray that no De-Spell is in your future. And if your opponent does out your equipped attacker? That's it. Game over. You are going to deck-out. Once both players have blown all 2 of thier chances at punching through, the player who went first wins the duel. (Original OCG rules were forward-thinking in that you do not draw going first). Anyways, we still have to fill our decklist, so in goes Komootoko and One-EYed Shield Dragon, who have 1400 and 1300 DEF, respectively, meaning they can block an un-boosted Terra, at least. Komootoko is especially spicy because you can equip it with its equip spell... Not that the format needed another chance at getting a high DEF meatwall, but there you go.

So there you have it. Being the most coin-tossy format yet, and more likely to go to deck-out than ever, I think we may just have crowned the new worst Series 1 OCG format out there. It has a vibe similar to but distinct from Booster 1's environment; Booster 1 was actually shockingly consistent with being able to out its high DEF meatwall (considering that high DEF number was, uhh, 1000), while in this format, you basically have to sit there, slowly accumulate your 3-or-4-card combo, put it out, have it get ruined by De-Spell, and pray they're out of De-Spells before you get your second 3-or-4-card combo off. So what else can I say? Every time I try out one of these early OCG formats, I'm shocked at how bad it can get, but I keep getting surprised by what the creators of Yugioh have up thier sleeves. I'd say it can't get worse than this, but I know better. Booster 2 will somehow be even more miserable.

I can't wait.