MA-17 YATAGARASU ("EIGHT GIANT CROWS") Air/Demon - Spirit/2/200/100 This card cannot be Special Summoned. Return this card to its owner's hand during the End Phase of a turn in which it is Summoned or Reversed. If this Monster does damage to your opponent, he or she skips his or her next Draw Phase.

One-in-twenty nine is the chance that a person has of guessing the number twenty nine if you ask them to pick a number from one to twenty nine. Though that has nothing to do with this Card of the Week, twenty nine is the number. We'll be coming up to the thirtieth (!) anniversary of the Card of the Week in the next card.

This is one of the cards in Yugioh that you have to ask Konami, "Why?" Though it seems like a balanced card when you take a quick glance at it, since it doesn't remain on the Field, it turned out that this card is one of the most underhanded cards in the entire game, and is one of the few cards in the game that can create a perfect "lock." Those who have read through my original discard deck already know what this card is about, along with those who have been on both the giving and receiving end of this card.

For those who are still wondering about this card, this Card of the Week will explain it for you.

Truthfully, the statistics of Yata don't matter at all. As usual, we're looking at the effect of Yata, which is to prevent your opponent from getting his or her next Draw Phase.

While many of you are thinking "Well, that's harmless enough", I can tell you that's a bit naive. Yata isn't so bad by itself. The reason why the card is restricted in Japan is when you combo it in a discard deck.

What you're supposed to do is destroy your opponent's hand with a variety of cards (Mischevious Demon Twins and Confiscate work well, along with White Thief and Don Zaruug), then attack with Yata to prevent them from drawing.

Yes, it takes up your summon for the turn. But the question is: "What happens when you already have a Monster or two on the Field, and you use Yata to prevent your opponent from drawing?"

No new cards = no new options = Game Over. As my Discard Deck probably told you, I was on the giving end of this combo more than once.

Yata wouldn't be so strong, but the fact is that the effect that was supposed to hinder it in the first place turned out to actually make the card BETTER. We're talking about the inherent Spirit effect, which is to return it to its owner's hand at the end of the turn. Meaning this: if you attack with it, it returns to your hand at the end of the current turn, which means it's no longer there for your opponent to use removal in.

So, how do you deal with? Well, there are a variety of methods: Hand Obliteration (that is, if you have it in your hand before it's discarded by your opponent); Vampire Lord (even if your opponent destroys it, it will keep coming back, but that still doesn't solve the problem of the other Monsters that you should have on the Field after using Yata); Negation Cards (to prevent it from hitting the Field in the first place); Kuribo, Mirror Force, etc. The problem is, almost all of them are REACTIVE cards.

Good thing is, if it should hit the Cemetery, it can't be Special Summoned from there.

Yata was one of the reasons why I pulled my Discard Deck apart. The card is more than a bit unfair. Sure, I could have pulled it out of my deck and continued with the deck, but it was about time that I moved on to another deck type anyhow.

Edo's Rating: 4 out of 5. Yata is quite a good card. Though it doesn't belong in every deck, many tournament-level decks (even Beatdown) subscribe to using Yata for an extra bit of punch. Just keep a watch out for this card, as it will be appearing in the next English expansion...