Hey guys, NoUserName's back with another article and this time I came with card that's been talked about a lot recently.
Oddly enough, it's a trap card, and in the past few formats traps haven't been so stressed unless they were your so-called "staples" (by that, I mean cards that are ALWAYS used and practically needed in almost every kind of deck. Some disagree with the logic behind "staples", if there is any at all. In my opinion, a staple card is only a staple card if I can use it in every deck and still have the ability to affect the majority of the meta game. I would elaborate on this, but this article is about something entirely different..... Let's continue...).
The card in subject just so happens to be Breakthrough Skill.
Now before you guys go nuts with the whole "WTF, I don't even know what this does" thing, pause and give me a moment to tell you exactly what this thing does....
Breakthrough Skill
- It's a Trap Card
- It allows you to target 1 face-up Effect Monster your opponent controls; until the end of that turn, and negate that target's effects.
- It also allows you to banish this card from your Graveyard to target 1 face-up Effect Monster your opponent controls and negate that target's effects during that turn, except the turn it was sent to the graveyard.
Now why is this card so questionable?
Well for starters, it's works like Effect Veiler. It simply stuns your opponent's monster for 1 whole turn.
Naive Little Duelist asks:
But what about that second part?Yeah. That's the part that makes everything so insane. Yes, this card is a simple little trap card, not at all lasting longer than Fiendish Chain. But being able to activate this in the grave puts a big spin on the "inb4heavystorm" or "inb4MST" thing. What's worse is that no matter how it gets into your graveyard, you can still use it. That means if it's milled, if it's sent, if it's sent as a cost, if it's discarded, and etc., you can use it the turn after it's sent to the grave. This proves helpful in decks like Lightsworns or Dark Worlds since stuff goes to the graveyard constantly. Another thing that makes this such a decent card is that you get 2 uses out of it.
Now the controversy is incredible when it comes to the comparison between this card and others like Fiendish Chain and Effect Veiler.
People are saying that Breakthrough outclasses both Veiler and Chain. Some say only Veiler, but not Chain. Some say Chain, but not Veiler. Some say it's not as good as either.
My opinion is that it depends on the deck and the user.
I agree that this card has great stats. 2 uses from a normal trap card is pretty awesome, you only usually get that type of usage from a field spell or a continuous spell/trap. This card hurts cards like Zenmaines, Catastor, Utopia, Krystia, Stardust, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Tragoedia, and a bunch of others that become huge problems mid-game.
But I can't compare this card to Veiler or Chain.
Naive Little Duelist chimes in:
Why not? Don't they almost do the same thing?You're right.
Almost.
Fiendish Chain still has the ability to stop an opponent's monster from attacking. Yes, a lot of decks only used Chain for the effect negation, but there are still those that find it useful in the other area. Breakthrough Skill can't help you if you're opponent drops Judgement Dragon simply to swing for game.
Though, let's not forget that Breakthrough CAN be activated during the battle phase. Which means Catastor and Tragoedia have something to worry about when attacking a monster that's supposed to be bigger than they are!
With Effect Veiler, it's a hand trap. Your opponent can play around a Veiler, but often times can never actually see it coming, unlike Breakthrough Skill where if you want that 1st negation, you have to set it, thus making it susceptible to the random Mystical Space Typhoons or Heavy Storms. Veiler also stops a lot of dangerous loops and combos that occur on your opponents first turn. If Breakthrough Skill is in your hand and your opponent drops Shi En, Shogun, and Naturia Beast first turn, what can you possibly do besides top-decking ridiculously hard or just plain old losing? Breakthrough also fails at the MST/Heavy into OTK scenario.
There are many areas where this card shines and many instances where it fails. It's not at all a horrible card, and I will give credit to where credit is due. But is it truly broken? It can be. I'm not a Yu-Gi-Oh expert, but one thing I do know is when a card is broken, everyone and their mother uses it. Only time will tell.
Give your feedback and let me know if I missed anything. Decide for yourself if this thing is broken or not.
