First of all, an apology:

I’ve been without Internet access for about 2 weeks so I’ve been out of touch and without submitting articles, checking E-mails or PMs for about that long. A thousand apologies to you all and especially to Tamahome.

Now on with the next installment of “Waldo’s Favorite Cards”

I’ve always been a gambler. I like taking chances but whenever I can, I like to improve those chances. I guess that’s why I like the Archfiends so much. Rolling a die and flipping a coin are the standard ways to taking a chance in this game. However, there are a few cards that allow you to gamble by guessing card names, like “Mind Crush”, “Question” and a few others. However, none of them have won my heart and approval quite like:

D.D. Designator
Normal Spell Card
Declare 1 card name. Look at your opponent's hand, and if he/she has the declared card in his/her hand, remove that 1 card from play. If he/she doesn't have the declared card in his/her hand, remove 1 random card in your hand from play.

In a Metagame full of Sangans, Magician of Faiths, Tsukuyomis, Reinforcement of the Army, Warriors Returning Alive, Matchless Generals, and Sinister Serpents, there are times during a duel where you can TELL what half of the opponent’s hand is composed of. No card punishes predictability quite like D.D. Designator. Losing a Spell or Trap card, or either of the “Special Summoned only” monster-type (Nomi or Not), is a definite so long, and fair well.

I began using D.D. Designator when Deck Devastation Virus was released. I used it in conjunction with Mind Crush to create a strange kind of Hand Control deck before Deck Devastation virus was restricted to one per deck. Then IU chucked the idea out the window. But last week, when I replaced my Bottomless Trap Hole with DDV, I took a nice long second look at D.D. Designator. I was using DDV to counter those annoying Tsukuyomis when it all came together. If I look at my opponent’s hand for three turns while DDV is active, that’s 3 turns in which I can use D.D. Designator to remove any card in my opponent’s hand from play. And with the new addiction to my Fiend Family, Morphing Jar and Magical Thorn, D.D. Designator adds a 4th dangerous factor to being under the influence of the Virus while Morphing Jar flips::

1) Discard the hand: This effectively disrupts your opponent’s current plans and forces them to re-strategize. This keeps them off balance and gives you a small edge.

2) Draw 5 cards: Shaving 5 cards from the top of your opponent’s deck when they are not ready for it, is brutal.

3) DDV: The virus now forces them to drop all monsters with 1500ATK or less. This is instant hand advantage.

4) D.D. Designator: Since the virus allows you to take a peek at your opponent’s hand as the draw it, and takes care of all the small fries, D.D. Designator now gives you your pick of Spells, Traps and High ATK monsters to remove from play.


Nowadays, there’s nothing worse than attacking your opponent’s FD Magician of Faith with your all-powerful monster and having them get that Lightning Vortex, or Smashing Ground or Pot of Greed.

Attack Sangan and your opponent gets to search for a monster for you to remove. YAY!!!!

There are a few cards that go great together with D.D. Designator:

Dark Designator
Normal Spell Card
Declare 1 Monster Card name. If the declared card is in your opponent's Deck, add 1 of that card to your opponent's hand.

DUH! Activate Dark Designator and make them search for a monster and use D.D. Designator to remove it from play. This is especially handy against decks that revolve around a single monster or that depend on a monster in the deck to emerge. This is especially handy against the “LV” monsters that can cause major problems later on in the duel. It is a very NASTY combo in duels 2 and 3, after you’ve already seen what monster can give you the most trouble. Run Heavy Traps? Jinzo. Playing against a Chaos Deck? BLS-EotB. Last Turn? Jowgen (though he’s run in threes). Playing against a Phoenix Phan? Poof!

Just look at the monsters that are restricted to one per deck:

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Cyber Jar
D. D. Warrior Lady
Dark Magician of Chaos
Exiled Force
Exodia the Forbidden One
Injection Fairy Lily
Jinzo
Left Arm of the Forbidden One
Left Leg of the Forbidden One
Morphing Jar
Protector of the Sanctuary
Reflect Bounder
Right Arm of the Forbidden One
Right Leg of the Forbidden One
Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Sangan
Sinister Serpent
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Twin-Headed Behemoth

Using that two card combo can put a HUGE dent on your opponent’s plans.

I have PERSONALLY used it on an Exodia deck and pretty much locked the game for me.

Mind Crush
Normal Trap Card
Declare 1 card name. If your opponent has a declared card(s) in his/her hand, discard all of the declared card(s) to the Graveyard. Otherwise, you randomly discard 1 card from your hand.

This card kinda see-saws with D.D. Designator.

While D.D. Designator is Spell Speed 1 and can only be activated during your own turn, Mind Crush is Spell Speed 2 and can be activated anytime during your own or your opponent’s turn.

But Mind Crush only sends the card to the graveyard, while D.D. Designator removes it from play from the hand.

But Mind Crush can send multiple copies of the same card to the graveyard, while D.D. Designator only sends ONE.

But Mind Crush is a trap and is generally slower and more susceptible to Jinzo and the standard MST and Dust Tornado while D.D. Designator always catches people by surprise.

Overall, though, both together are a killer combination. Both let you see the hand before you activate the other and are a 1-for-1 trade off in terms of hand control.


Compulsory Evacuation Device
Normal Trap Card
Return 1 monster on the field to its owner's hand.

You would think people would figure out that these 2 are made for each other. CompEvacDev and D.D. Designator seem made for each other. With this 2 card combo, you can rid yourself of any monster on the field.

There are literally dozens of cards that let you know of at LEAST one card in your opponent’s hand from a previous action (Cyber Jar, Mind Haxors, Giant Trunade, etc). The choice is up to you as to which one fits your theme best. One things is for sure, D.D. Designator is not a card to be messed with.

So grab a D.D. Designator and take it for a spin and see how it works for you. If it doesn’t, so what? Switch it back. But if it does, you’ll open a can of whupping on your opponents that they’ll never forget!!!!






Waldo10032 – The Fiendish Duelist says:
-------------------------------------
"Everything I know, I learned from Novastar, VenomLord, Magicien_Noir, KrazyKillRoy, Pyrofire14, Nataku, Jeff_Mop, Tamahome and Tyloki. So praise me for learning so well when I'm right and blame THEM when I'm wrong. (More people will be added to this list as needed) "

This doesn't fit in my Sig --> http://www.yugiohrealms.com/forum/sh....php?p=3510793

Excellently written Waldo.

Deck Destruction Virus in todays metagame (as well as tomorrow with the release of DB2 hits the market in the next month or two) it's a great card to main deck. Most Chaos and Warriors all run 1500 or less and it really hinders them. Then Deck Destruction will be no more with this card. It's a really great card, and I think you've shown the world it's potential.

As for the other cards mentioned, genious. After Forceful and Confiscation were banned, D.D. Designator saw less play. Maybe now people will see that the other cards mentioned have uses as well.

Great job with the article!

Once again excellent article Waldo........... I for one have really placed DDDesignator on the top of the chart, I just loved this card once I placed it in my Bounce deck, the Abyss Soldiers, CEDevices, Penguin Soldiers, Phoenix Wing Wind Blasts and Back 2 Square One among all the other field bounce control DD Designator just poofed up to be an incredible suprise destruction weapon against my opponent. This is without a doubt an outstanding new tech card, as Waldo said it take it for a spin, you'll certainly get a thrill when you try it out.

How wonderfully eeeeeeevil. That ddv combo was truly wicked......I liekd this article very much. Well written waldo!

ReK~99

I'm glad you did an article on DD Designator. A friend of mine, who will remain nameless, had a DD Designator. He wouldn't run it...ever, because, "He didn't like double-edged swords." So I tried to trade him for it, but he didn't accept any of my deals. It's sad to see a card with a great effect not get used. This has awesome combo potential, and all of them were pretty much covered by Waldo. And even if you don't want to do combos, you can use it when you have a Scout Plane, a DD Survivor in the hand, or a Gren Maju deck. Suppose you get the guess wrong. Remove Scout Plane or DD Survivor. It comes back. Or this card powers Gren Maju by an extra 400 ATK/DEF points.

Darn it waldo!!!!!! I wanted to be the first to suggest this!!!!!!!!

Main decked 2 DD Designators today and found that it can be REAL pain. Yes, Everybody has MOF, Sangan, Tsukuyomis, Sinister. I Also main Deck Chain master.
Attack the MOF and DD the card they got plus see their hand.....EVIL!!!!!!!!!

I DDed a Soldier 4 times today and chained it 2 times.

First of all id like to tell the4x8 that d.d. survivor has to be face up on the field, but back on topic, another great card to combo this with would be the first monarch, and Exchange .... not to mention exchange is the best card in my opinion to side deck vs exodia.

for the past month or so i've been using DD.designator in place of delinquent duo... and i gotta say i prefer it, whether it's removing a magician-of-faithed magic card or a monster because of an opponents sangan or even a bls that your opponwent was so happy with drawing they told the world about it MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!! and i totally agree with ur DDV comments aswell, it pained me to remove it from my warrior deck but i HAD to get off 45 cards somehow ^-^'

well, as always, nice article

Ahhh at last... Finally I got another great article by Waldo, it takes eons but is finally hear.


D. D. Designator along with the "Others" hand control cards have being quite under used by most players, I for one have always used the "Dark Designator" + "D. D. Designator” combo as my Anti-Chaos defense and have always work wonders for me.


Now after reading the article some ideas have come to my mind for deck building. Thanks for the tips Waldo.

If I'm not mistaken another advantage of these cards, espicailly dd you can look at their hand and thier deck. Correct? :cross-eye

Correctamundo!

And of course




Waldo10032 – The Fiendish Duelist says:
-------------------------------------
"Everything I know, I learned from Novastar, VenomLord, Magicien_Noir, KrazyKillRoy, Pyrofire14, Nataku, Jeff_Mop, Tamahome, mortals and Tyloki. So praise me for learning so well when I'm right and blame THEM for screwing up when I'm wrong. (More people will be added to this list as needed) "

This doesn't fit in my Sig --> http://www.yugiohrealms.com/forum/sh....php?p=3510793

When mind crush was first released I created a deck that was based around viewing the opponents deck then using its own predicatbility against the opponent. The key card to my deck was Convulsion of nature as it turned mind crushes into drop offs and made DD designator a 100% useable card. I took this deck to a city championship and found it had one fatal flaw. n00bs.

When you play against a n00b you cannot predict the deck at all, so cards like Abysal and Dark designator became redundant. All the matches I played against choas decks where extremley easy to win as they all had the same cards in them and you could play Abyssal designator an get rid of their Chaos Emperor Dragon for a mere 1000lp.

I played 3 chaos decks that day and beat them all very easily but I also played 2 complete random decks and I lost due to the fact that they had such pointless cards in their deck that I couldnt predict their stratagey.

trap dustshoot is another good card to use if you're using d.d. designator. and while not quite as good as some of the other cards mentioned imo, mind haxorz works too. pay 500lp and you get to see opponent's hand and set cards on field. :)