Yu-Gi-Oh! World Superstars (TCG) review

 

You can purchase Yu-Gi-Oh! singles at Big Orbit Cards.

World Superstars is a 52 Yu-Gi-Oh! card set, 50 of which were previously exclusive to the OCG (Asian format) and are available for the first time in the TCG.

Much like The Secret Forces set, each box of World Superstars contains 24 booster packs with each pack containing 5 cards. Unlike The Secret Forces which gave 1 Secret Rare and 4 Super Rares per booster this set reintroduces the Prismatic Secret Rare which takes the place of the Secret Rare in the booster pack.

First Impressions

At first glance we see that “The legendary Dragon of White” has been chosen as the box mascot for the set. This card pays tribute to the Blue Eye’s White Dragon which was the mascot of the Legend of Blue-Eye’s set, the first set released in the game.

On opening the booster box one of the first things I notice is that the booster packs come with more than one cover art, this isn’t something you see often in Yu-Gi-Oh.

Within each booster pack the top card is a Prismatic Secret Rare, this rarity hasn’t been seen in the TCG for many years. Prismatic used to be available only as promos from early Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG video games such as Duelist of The Roses which gave you the three Magnet Warriors. This rarity is a welcome change to the types of rarity we have come to expect to see.

Support

Whilst you won’t be able to create a full deck out of the cards in this expansion, these cards do offer a lot of versatility for many different deck builds. From this set there are a number of notable cards that improve synergy within each Archtype whereas some cards simply work on their own.

Star Seraph’s are an Archtype that primarily uses level 4 Light-Fairy type monsters; they mainly focus on swarming the field with effects that allow them to summon one another or by summoning themselves to the field once a condition is met. This Archtype was in need of some new powerful support and Star Seraph Sovereignty gives just that.

What this card lacks in attack power is more than made up for by it’s abilities. Star Seraph Sovereignty’s main ability allows you to special summon it from your hand by normal or special summoning any Star Seraph monster, this can be done at any point except during the damage step.

Additionally this effect isn’t limited to being used once per turn, so if you have more than one Star Seraph Sovereignty in your hand then you’ll be able to activate that ability for each you hold. The second effect for Star Seraph Sovereignty chains from the first effect, if successfully summoned through the first effect you can draw 1 card, if that card happens to be a Star Seraph monster then you get to special summon it. This card is really good for quickly filling your side of the field with monsters whilst also getting a free draw.

Pendulum Impenetrable is a non-themed, quick-play spell card which will be an asset to any deck that runs Pendulum cards. By preventing your opponent from using abilities that target cards in the Pendulum Zones will prevent a lot of returning to hand effects many decks have access too. Not only will this card prevent destruction of any card in either player’s Zones, this will also prevent any Pendulum card your opponent may have that triggers it’s effects by destroying itself or the card in the other Zone. This card will become a big problem for the upcoming Igknight Archtype, released in the upcoming Clash of Rebellion set, that specialises in destroying their own Pendulum cards.

However, this card is weak against decks that use cards with abilities like Satellarknight Triverr which sends all cards on the field back to the hand without destroying or targeting.

Number F0: Utopic Future is very interesting in that he is the first, and currently only, Xyz monster card in the game which doesn’t have a Rank. This card can be run in almost any type of deck, as long as you have access to 2 Xyz monsters with the same Rank that aren’t “Number” monsters.

A really good thing about Utopic Future is that he has the ability to use your opponents monsters against them, this can be used whether Utopic Future is attacking or being attacked. In the damage step any monster in battle with Utopic Future comes under your control until the end of the battle phase. This is a huge advantage to have if you are facing a monster with an attack you can’t quite get past. Use Utopic Future to attack that monster to gain control and attack your opponent with that very same monster.

Numeral Hunter is a level 4 Light based Warrior monster that will benefit from being in many Warrior type decks.

He’s a counter to Number Xyz monsters by simply not allowing them to be on the field at the same time he is present, any Number monsters that are on the field when Numeral Hunter is first summoned are returned to the extra deck, with all materials attached to them going straight to the graveyard.

This card also offers great defence against any deck that relies on Xyz monsters to attack, as those attacks won’t destroy this card nor will their abilities have any effect on this card.

Elemental HERO Blazeman – my favourite card in the set. Firstly, Blazeman has two different effects; either of these will increase the Synergy of many different Hero builds. Additionally, this card finally gives the Elemental Hero’s a good Fire type monster to use.

I personally find this card works best for the Masked Hero Sub-Archtype, Masked Heroes specialise in being easy to get onto the field from the extra deck through spell cards that Transform your Hero into one of the Masked Heroes.

You can activate Blazeman’s second ability by sending one Elemental HERO monster to the graveyard, by doing this Blazeman will receive that monster’s attribute, attack and defence points, however by using this you will be giving up the ability to special summon all types of monsters with the exception of fusion monsters.

This is a great ability that enables you to essentially summon any Masked Hero monster from your extra deck with the Masked Change spell card regardless of that monsters attribute.

To truly get the most out of Elemental HERO Blazeman you will want to use him to send Elemental HERO Shadow Mist to the graveyard, this in turn will trigger Shadow Mists second ability which at the same time will enable you to get any Elemental HERO monster from your deck to your hand.

Pro’s

The set covers a lot of Archtypes giving support to each, because this set offers a large range of variety there will be something that will appeal to most players.

The most appealing thing for me is how there aren’t any reprints of older cards that are already widely available.

Some of the cards this set introduces to the TCG really help out the Archtypes they are being added too, Elemental Hero Blazeman for instance can fit nicely into any Hero build as his effects will benefit you by attribute swapping with monsters in the main deck or by simply giving you a Polymerization if you need it.

Con’s

Whilst it is great to see support for many different Archetypes this does unfortunately mean there is less support for each individual Archetype – the cards are spread to thinly. This is very different to what you would expect from a main series set release.

Unless you are someone who plays a large number of the Archtypes from that are included in this set it just won’t be worth buying a sealed booster box, you will likely save a lot of money by buying singles.

Whilst they are a nice tribute, another issue are the Legendary Magician of Dark and Legendary Dragon of White cards in this set. Collectors will appreciate these cards, but as these cards are banned from the advanced format they will not be very useful to the average player.

Summary

World Superstars lacks the same level of focus that a main set would have, it definitely feels like random cards exclusive to the OCG have just been thrown together in this release.

There are many cards in this set that will benefit the Archtypes involved, giving them more balance and smoother game play, Star Seraphs especially.

That said, for someone who plays just one or two Archtypes I would recommend singles over sealed.

Overall I really like this set as it adds a good number of interesting and useful cards to the TCG; I am looking forward to seeing the different ways that players put these cards to use.

Remember you can purchase Yu-Gi-Oh! singles at Big Orbit Cards.