JY-22 SCAPE GOAT Instant Magic When you play this card, you can't Summon, Reverse Summon or Special Summon any more Monsters during that turn. Put 4 [Goat Tokens] (Earth/Animal/1/0/0) on the Field in defense mode. (They cannot be sacrificed to summon.)

The twenty-six mark means something special. On December 26th, it means only 364 more days until Christmas.

Anyway...this week is the introduction of a cute and fuzzy little card that Jounouchi uses in the series. It's coming out in English very soon, so you should watch out, since you're going to be seeing a LOT of them.

From websters.com, we get:

scapegoat: (n.) One that is made to bear the blame of others.

In order to use the card, you must have four open slots on the Field. Period. After that, we get four Goat Tokens on the Field for free when using this card. So, what can we do with them? Obviously, we can't use them for Summoning. I thought I read somewhere on the Japanese Expert Rules Page that they couldn't be used for other unique Special Summons as well (such as Death Guardius), but I can't seem to find that ruling anymore. It was a long while ago (when the Guardius first came out), so it might have changed since them.

According to the Japanese Expert Rules Page, Goat Tokens can be sacrificed for Rituals, Hatching, Deck Destruction Virus of Death (if you change its Main-Type to Dark in some way), Ascending Horn, and Share the Pain. You CAN'T sacrifice them in a Normal Summon or Set, nor can they be used toward the effects for Gilford the Lightning and Moisture Alien.

The most often used effect with these little guys is for Cannon Soldier. 2000 damage in one turn it's too bad. The secondary effect is to block up to four attacks -- count on that working for only one turn, at the most. The final usage effect, will be told to you later.

The item about not being able to Summon, Reverse Summon or Special Summon is a bit tricky. You can only activate this card if you haven't Summoned, Reverse Summoned or Special Summoned during the turn. You also can't do anything after those using this card either. To save face, just use it during an opponent's turn.

What's more, special situations force some effects to discard Monsters. If you used a Scapegoat, some items like Cyber Pod and Chaos Pod will make the legal Monsters ILLEGAL, and they will be forced into the Cemetery. The same goes for Parasite; it will go the Cemetery as well, and no damage will be done. Most other effects will simply be negated, since you can't physically put a Monster out.

So, what do people use Scapegoat for? Why, it's used in combination with Power of Teamwork, of course. I guess a 4000 point increase to a Monster's attack strength in one turn was too much; Konami quickly restricted Power of Teamwork quickly.

Valuable Book Four gave a Sheep Attack deck, where you use Scapegoats with Power of Teamwork, Gaia Power and Milis Radiants. You also add in Thieving Goblins. I couldn't stop laughing...

Edo's Rating: 3 out of 5. Scapegoat is a bit tricky to use correctly. It takes a little planning ahead of time to get it running, but can save you in a tight spot. It can also be used as a "mini" Sealing Swords of Light. But watch out for "Trample" cards. OUCH.

SPECIAL BONUS! Straight from the PC Game I wrote, here is the picture for the Goat Token used during the game. Feel free to print them out (you might have to blow them up a bit) and use them during your games.