Gamble cards are often inconsistent and terrible by design, and as such, don't see much play. Gimmicky meme decks tend to be home to a majority of the dice and coin flip cards.
However, some of them managed to crawl their way in serious play one way or another! How about we take a look at them in this article? Let's dive right in!
Feel free to check out the Fiend Comedian writeup as well, if you're interested in more gamble related articles.
Hunting the Snipes
Starting off strong in our dice crusade, we have Snipe Hunter! Ever since its release in the controversial set Cyberdark Impact, Snipe has seen constant meta play for several years in a row. Its blend of traits lends well to most decks as a powerful generic removal card.
Thanks to its DARK attribute and ATK value, it's accessible through the floaters/recruiters at the time. Sangan can get it whenever the situation presents itself, while Mystic Tomato was no slouch either.
That's all well and good, but what did Snipe Hunter actually do? The answer is two-fold! Snipe is able to target and destroy cards on the field without a once per turn restriction, at the cost of a discard. You then have to roll a six-sided die, and if the result is neither a 1 nor a 6, the card is destroyed. While this means you have the chance to fail, the odds are in your favor.
The discard also synergized with DARK decks at the time. This is because you were able to pitch DARKs that you wanted in the GY for even more plays.
And so, Snipe flourished for many years, going through multiple decks such as Gadgets, Perfect Circle, DAD Return, TeleDAD, etc. Even all the way to Dragon Ruler format! Turns out that being able to out problematic cards while pitching the Rulers is nice. As a bonus, it even worked with Super Rejuvenation!
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that thanks to Snipe Hunter's effect to destroy being uncertain (dice and having a chance to fail), cards like My Body as a Shield, Prime Material Dragon, and Stardust Dragon could not stop it.
While it no longer sees any play, this shooter has earned its retirement.
The Shining Wall
Roulette Barrel is a forgotten relic of the DM era, only ever known by brief stints with its comically censored artwork in the TCG. It never saw any play historically, so what's the deal?
Recent developments have caused this card to shine in Goat Format! It might not look like much, but it has just the right amount of traits to make in an effective defensive option. Firstly, it's a LIGHT that can be summoned off Shining Angel!
It's a hard wall that can fend off the dangerous Blade Knight and other warrior aggro strategies! That 100 DEF over Skilled White Magician pays dividends. This makes it a perfect fit in the main deck, especially on Angel Chaos and Chaos Recruiter. Roulette's high stats and potentially dangerous effect force the opponent to respond to it, or else it's going to sit there and eventually start popping.
Speaking of which, every turn it can destroy 1 monster depending on the results of dice rolls, although it is not guaranteed. However, since Roulette Barrel tends to stick on the field, you constantly have a shot at proccing it.
Due to this, the opponent often has to dedicate a card just to clear it! Roulette is more than able to fend off the Battle Phase, then eat a removal effect. With that in mind, it's already done more than it needs to. Assuming it didn't get hit with Nobleman of Crossout, that's also a LIGHT monster in your GY to fuel your Chaos plays.
A recent big 153 player 3v3 Goat Tournament from a few months ago featured this card! It got first place and was in Dingosig's Chaos Return deck!
All in all, whether in the main or side, this dice card is great in Goat.
Sacky Situations
The most infamous gamble card of all time, Sixth Sense is both feared and respected among the community.
Originally released as an OCG Promo Card in 2003, it took us an entire decade just to have this card in the TCG. Unfortunately, it came during a pretty harsh time.
During the Dragon Ruler era, Sixth Sense found itself as a horrifyingly powerful 1-of. The ability to draw 5/6 cards or mill whatever the result of the dice roll was nuts. The advantage that the card brought was extremely sacky and pushed decks to be even crazier than they are. Massive draw power or GY setup? Sounds good either way!
Like all gamble cards, this trap was not without its flaws. Luckily, the odds of not getting too much out of Sixth Sense is fairly slim, and a majority of results are in the player's favor. It didn't take long for this card to leave the game as we know it, only lasting 3 or so months before it got nuked in the January 2014 list.
Still, for what it's worth Sixth Sense will most likely stay banned forever. It has also not received a second printing whatsoever in either region, so there's that.
Pandora's Box
Number 85: Crazy Box is a strange anomaly in its own right, released sometime within the ZEXAL Era. Still, it has an obscene number of consistent tournament placings for three years straight.
It initially started seeing play in 2013 and lasted all the way through the tail end of 2015. Why is that?
Funnily enough, it's not for its effect. If and when your opponent ever decided to use Skill Drain, you would be able to utilize the full potential of Crazy Box. Turning 2 level 4s into a 3k beatstick while neither player had any effects made it a semi-effective win condition in its own right should you be able to protect it.
While this does mean this card didn't often hit the field, the Extra Decks at the time were loose enough to where you could afford running the box. Actually summoning the card became a lot more common during the time of Qliphort when Drain was a lot more prominent.
Well, what about its actual effect? If you wanted to meme and if you were feeling lucky, it could possibly clutch out with a non-targeting negate of any card on the field (including itself), or a pop.
To sum it up, you didn't often go into the Box but when you did, it was glorious.
Honorable Rollers
We won't be able to talk about all the dice cards as that'd take too long, but here are some others that also had stints of relevance.
Dice Jar was able to get 1st Place at the second biggest stage at Worlds 2017 in the Dragon Duel side event! YGO Prodigy Ryan Yu was able to bring this card glory, piloting it in none other than a Chain Burn list. Unfortunately, it hasn't had any notable appearances since then, but that's still one heck of an achievement.
Number 67: Pair-A-Dice Smasher for its hilarious Mystic Mine-esque lockdown effect. One brave soul was able to reach Day 2 at YCS Sydney with Combo Dinomist of all things. Lolkin brought the card to the limelight and made Dinomists players proud!
Lucky Straight was a funny meme option in Dragon Rulers, though it didn't really do all that much.
Morphtronic Celfon and Smartfon for their really neat combo potential in their respective deck. RNG aside, they're pretty nifty at spamming bodies or setting your plays up.
Conclusion
And that marks the end of our relevant Dice cards article! I hope you were able to enjoy this read, and let me know if you also want to hear about the other side of the luck fiesta, Coin flips!
