Reasons to love or hate Legacy of the Valiant

Back on demand, here's another edition of "Reasons to love or hate the latest set". In this edition: Legacy of the valiant.

Hits, or reasons to love Legacy

• Best Sneak Peek promo in a long time (if you like Sylvans): People who play the Sylvan deck all agree, Bladefender is a good card. 1900 beat stick that forces itself to your hand when "excavated".
• Less (crappy) anime cards: This is the OCG November set that appeared shortly after the Duelist Packs came out in Japan. The positive thing about this is that this means there are less (crappy) anime cards in here (hurrah!). And you have to admit, some of these cards are actually quite good (Rainbow Kuriboh, Moai carrier, the Gorgons, S.H.ARK).
• There are some cards in here that everybody wants: While the last few sets were kind of "meh", this set has people back on the ropes. Cards like S.H.ARK and Exciton Knight is triggering everybody's funny bone. Moneygrabber of the moment is Evilswarm Exciton Knight who's already a whopping €80$ and doesn't show any immediate signs of dropping in price.
• The TCG Exclusives are GOOD: It only happens once in a blue moon, but more than half of the TCG exclusives in this set are good cards.
• A decent Lv. 4 ritual monster: Paladin of Photon Dragon is a card that makes people like me look back at Advanced Ritual Art and Preparation of Rites.
• Old archetype that gets support: Gravekeeper's. Aah, an old fan-favorite archetype gets some support. Though a lot of people hate Gravekeeper's due to their past Royal Tribute shenanigans, but the limit of that card last September should help people get over those bad memories.
• Last "old" effect monsters finally printed: It took them well over a decade, but the last of the old "unnumbered" effect monsters are finally printed. Dark Artist and Swordsman of a Distant land can finally be scratched of the hated list of OCG cards we've never seen up 'till today. Not that many people care, their effects suck.
• Deluxe Edition: While no details are given as of yet what promo cards will be included, the Special Editions are gone (as Konami said last year). From now on, more Deluxe boxes with arts of popular themes. This time: Evilswarm and Gravekeeper's. And if they haven't decided yet (which I doubt) on what commons/rares to print as foil? here's a suggestion: Ghostrick Jackfrost and Dullahan would look amazing in a shiny foil!

Misses, or reasons to hate Legacy

• Ghost Mobius the Mega Monarch: With the last few sets, Konami wizened up to turn the most popular card both as an Ultimate Rare, Secret Rare AND Ghost rare. Star Eater got that treatment; Felgrand got that treatment... But WHY Mobius? Why not Evilswarm Exciton Knight? That would've looked AMAZING as a ghost rare!
• Gravekeeper's are no longer a budget deck: Good luck finding your Shaman and Secret Tombs at "budget" value (hint: you won't).
• Some Secrets are not justified: Rainbow Kuriboh is like Mystic piper all over again. Who is going to use that card? (*cough*me*cough*)
• Another case of "bad" card effects: I told it in the "Cards to look forward to" post. Evilswarm Exciton Knight is once more a card with horribly bad effect writing. The card reads as abuse and promotes bad play. This card isn't going to be legal for a long time and you know it!
• 5 OCG world Premiere cards you won't be seeing for a frigging year!: I'm still mad about it and Konami is going to DO IT AGAIN with the next set, because the OCG world Premiere cards were "so well received". No duh! 5 cards that made 2 archetypes competitive all of a sudden? Who wouldn't receive those cards well? Oh, and Primal Origin will have TEN of those cards. This can only be forgiven if we're given some sort of "Extra Pack" before the world Championship!
• Silly new game terms don't do anything, safe confusing the players: Ever since the Problem-Solving Card texts were introduced, Konami tries to make game terms like piercing a thing, thus trying to shorten card text. Sometimes this is with success. But in this case, it's a total failure.This set introduced the new term "excavate". The full explanation of this term is: "Reveal x cards from your deck". That's confusing for newer players and doesn't really shorten the total sentence. I mean compare: "You can reveal the top card from your deck" to "You can excavate the top card from your deck"". In fact, there's a higher amount of used characters in the card text. Fail?

My thoughts in general

Due to circumstances, I've obtained all necessary cards last weekend to upgrade my old Gravekeeper deck to the new meta (okay, okay, I was gloating with my 3 Imperial Tombs). So I'll probably play Gravekeepers as a change to my Prophecy deck (which is still a good deck).

I've also been able to pull both S.H.ARK and Exciton Knight (lol, this set clearly loves me) and playtested them in my Chaos Dragon deck yesterday, during a regional qualifier. The end result of the day was: Exciton Knight is kind of situational and "meh" (so not worth its pricetag); S.H.Ark is frigging awesome and worth EVERY PENNY.

And the more I'm confronted with Ghostricks, the more I seem to love these new cards.

For the rest, this set has some for all people who play the different archetypes (Bujin, Noble Knights, Ghostrick, Gravekeeper, Sylvan, Duston). But for even more diversity, I'll be waiting for Primal Origins, the last booster of this generation of YGO.

If you summoned a badass monster, I feel bad for you, son.
I got 99 problems, but your boss monster ain't one!

Advertisement