English Errata

Well, it was finally bound to happen. In fact, it needed to happen to some cards. On Friday, Upper Deck released official errata for some English cards.

For those that don't know, the term "errata" refers to officially changing the text for something, due to human error, mechanical error, or to alter a card so that it isn't fatally unbalanced.

In the case of Yugioh, this errata corrects some English cards that are different than their Japanese counterparts. This needed to happen if this game was truly going to be an "worldwide" game.

And once again, yes, it's official errata, which means that you should be playing with the new text as you read this. You will probably find this list on other areas of the Internet, but is reproduced here for commentary:

Lord of D.
All Dragon-Type monsters cannot be targeted by Spell Cards,
Trap Cards, or other effects that specifically designate a
target while this card is face-up on the field.

This simply "makes it official" that the older Lord of D. card is incorrect, and the current one takes precedence.

The Flute of Summoning Dragon
Playing this card when Lord of D. is face-up on the field
allows you to play up to 2 Dragon-Type cards from your hand
as a Special Summon.

Hey, now doesn't THAT one look familiar?

Mysterious Puppeteer
As long as this card remains face-up on the field, the Life
Points of this card's controller increase by 500 points for
each additional monster summoned (excluding Special Summon,
but including your opponent's monsters).

This just re-words the effect to makes it a little easier to read...but what happened to the clause about "flip?"

Steel Scorpion
A non Machine-Type Monster attacking "Steel Scorpion" will
be destroyed at the End Phase of your opponent's 2nd turn
after the attack.

This corrects a small error on earlier printings of the Metal Raiders version of this card.

Yado Karu
When this card is changed from Attack Position to Defense
Position, you can place any number of cards from your hand
at the bottom of your Deck in any order you desire.

This corrects this card...which NOBODY uses...

Ring of Magnetism
This card can only be equipped to your own monster. The
monster equipped with this card decreases its ATK and DEF
by 500 points. In addition, all the monsters on your opponent's
side of the field must attack the monster equipped with this
card when they attack.

This also re-words the effect to make it official that the currently printed card takes precendence.

Dust Tornado
Destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card on your opponent's side of the
field. You can then Set 1 Spell or Trap Card from your hand.

The last line about the "Quickplay Magic" was nixed. Forget that it even exists there...

Appropriate
You can activate this card when your opponent draws a card
outside of his/her Draw Phase. After that, each time your
opponent draws cards outside of his/her Draw Phase, you draw
2 cards.

This effect is re-worded to state that if you first activate it when your opponent draws the card, you will NOT get to draw cards at that instance; only during further draws.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
Each time this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent's
Life Points, you can remove up to 2 monster cards in your
opponent's Graveyard from play. In addition, as long as this
card remains face-up on the field, your opponent cannot remove
any cards in either Graveyard from play.

FINALLY re-worded to the Japanese version. You can only remove MONSTER cards now.

Bazoo the Soul-Eater
You can remove up to 3 monster cards in your Graveyard from
play to increase the ATK of this monster by 300 points for
each card removed from play until the end of your opponent's
next turn. This effect can only be used once during your turn.

FINALLY re-worded to the Japanese version. You can only remove MONSTER cards now.

Skull Lair
Remove any number of monster cards in your Graveyard from play.
Destroy 1 face-up monster on the field whose Level Stars are
equal to the number of the cards you removed from play.

FINALLY re-worded to the Japanese version. You can only remove MONSTER cards now.

Super Roboyarou
"Roboyarou" + "Robolady"
You can Special Summon "Super Robolady" by returning this card
from the field to the Fusion Deck. You cannot use this effect
during the same turn this monster is Special Summoned. In
addition, increase the ATK of this monster by 1000 points
during the Damage Step when this monster battles with a monster.

This one corrects it so that the effect is not the same as the Robolady.

Once again, yes, it's official, so if you want to cry for a while, go ahead. Then, go on and play the game.

Store Loyalty

Let's talk a little bit about store loyalty. It's an abstract concept that many of the younger gamers won't understand completely, but it needs to be addressed.

Basically, the store that I ran the tournaments at in Hagerstown (Insane Gaming) has closed its doors, after not even being open for a year. One of the owners, John, and I talked a while about reasons for closing down. The fact is, his store was just one of many across the U.S. that have been going out of business lately.

One of the things that is missing nowadays is store loyalty. Around ten years ago, you could only buy gaming stuff (role-playing games and the like) at gaming stores. This was a niche market, and a store that had such product would tend to remain in business for a while, because that was where the supply was found.

The problem is, within the last five or so years, gaming has entered the mainstream market. Why do I say that's a problem? Because once it enters the mainstream, you will find the product EVERYWHERE.

"So, Ed, how is the bad?" you're probably asking. "This is good for the consumer."

You would be entirely right -- it's good for the consumer.

But it's bad for the small game store that's etching out a living three blocks down from your house.

Back on the supply topic, you could only purchase those products at gaming stores. Now that it's mainstream, you can find role-playing games and card games at Wal-Mart, Walden Books, Borders, Toys 'R Us... Hell, even Gamestop has them.

This leads to the question that consumers have been asking the game shops. "Do you have [insert product name here]?" If the game store answers "No," the consumers are just going to go to one of the aforementioned stores and pick it up. Many years ago, if your local shop didn't have it, you would have to wait; after all, there was no other general place to get it.

It sort of a "thanks for your all your hard work" response from the big card game companies. We can talk about Magic: The Gathering a little bit. You could initially only find that game in game shops, where it got its following and Wizards got its starts.

However, they took some measures to get it more mainstream (even more so when Hasbro bought them out). Once they did, they tended to push aside the little stores that actually HELPED them get their games to market.

The little guys can't compete when they purchase one case for their own consumers, as opposed to the massive chain stores that will buy THOUSANDS of cases for their stores.

So, what does "loyalty" have to do with this now? It means that if you play games at a store: SUPPORT IT. "Support it" means by buying things at the store. At Insane Gaming, there were players that came week, after week, after week and played in tournaments, but spent NO other money in the store. So that does nothing for the store, but take up "shelf space."

If you have a corner store that you go to, buy something whenever you go there if you're going to hang around. Regardless if you know the owners or not, putting cash into the store WILL KEEP IT OPEN. The owners may like to talk to you, but the pleasure of your company won't fill their pocketbook.

It's sad, really. It's a shame that things have been coming to this in the country. I can't blame things ENTIRELY on loyalty; the economy has also been down a little, but it's impact isn't as big a slice of the proverbial pie than what I have stated earlier.

Who knows? You may go to your favorite store one day, and find it has closed its doors.

New Japanese Restrictions

Well, Konami finally updated their restriction list. It addresses at least two problem cards that people have been raising their voices about, one in particular.

Oddly enough, one of those cards was JUST released in English The Magical Scientist (don't know the English name right now) was something that people have been VERY steamed about, almost since its release. By using several level 6 Fusions, it attacks some of your opponent's Monsters and/or flings them at your opponent with Catapult Turtle. With its restriction to one per deck now, the Scientist Deck has been dealt a strong blow.

The next one is the Chaos Soldier. Though many will aggree that it's not as totally cheesy as the Dragon, its cheese factor rates up their Limburger -- totally smelly, and exposure needs to be limited to it.

Black Magician of Chaos is something that NEEDED to be nuked in decks. As those combos in the Card of the Week may have taught you, it's a rather ANNOYING card, often to the point of being unfair. The Choice + Raise Dead combo can get you three out on one turn. With something else on the Field, you can cut your opponent down in one turn. Not very thrilling, is it?

The XYZ Series

Now that Magician's Force is out in the U.S., the XYZ series of Fusion cards has been released. There are several things that people need to know about these cards, due to the wording.