ShadowBlade's Anime/Manga Card of the Day! 8/20/2009 - Blasting Vein

Welcome to ShadowBlade's Anime/Manga Card of the Day! This is the series of threads where I ramble on about anime-only cards while shoving caffeine down my throat.

Then, I'll give it a personal rating - using several factors that I welcome everybody to discuss - out of 10, and ask the question: Do you think the game would benefit from the anime-only card being real? Feel free to discuss!

So, let's crack open an RC and get on with the first of what will be many - provided I don't get lazy - of ShadowBlade's Anime/Manga Cards of the Day! I reserve the right to not randomly post a card on each day for whatever reason.


Today's card is...


Blasting Vein
Spell Card
Destroy 1 face-down Spell or Trap Card you control. Draw 2 cards.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Blasting_Vein

Art: Look at the pretty card art!

Appearance: Apparently O'Brien uses this card against Judai in Turn 109 of GX. Do I remember it? Definitely not. Oh well. It is a one-shot card, so I am slightly annoyed. However, after going back to watch the duel, its appearance makes sense. Therefore, it gets a 1 out of 1. For my Appearance section, a card pretty much gets a 1 if the appearance makes sense and it wasn't obviously made to one-shot a character out of a sticky situation. (Oh boy, will reviewing some of Judai's cards be fun.)

Mechanic: Frankly, this card lets you ditch an unneeded Set Spell or Trap Card for two cards. This is a 2-for-2, so it's not terrible. Of course, there are cards that make this card better; such as Dummy Marker, Dark Coffin, and so on. Its use is almost as splashable as Pot of Greed. Even if you are not using it for a combo attack, Blasting Vein can still help dump that dead Set card, or replenish your hand. I see no problems with this mechanic.

Effect Analysis: Most places I play at have this at 1 on the ban list. DME banned it during my run. What exactly is the problem with this card? Could it be that its splashability affects gameplay when combined with all other draw cards? While I do agree that this could potentially be a factor, I do not recognize it as a full-blown and legitimate argument. This is more of a "what if?" complaint, rather than an actual one with valid points. So, I'll only knock off a couple points for that one.

For me, splashability plays a pretty significant factor in whether a card could be broken. As I point out in the Mechanic section, this card can fit in almost every Yu-Gi-Oh! deck out there. With this being the case, we have to recognize the potential of a Blasting Vein user being matched against another Blasting Vein user. This would, in some ways, even out the draw power on both sides, since they both have access to it. At the same time, I do not mean to say that everybody SHOULD run this card. However, we can easily recognize how useful it is. Does this mean it's broken? I do not believe so.

Now, is the overall concept of sacrificing ANY one face-down Spell / Trap Card for two free draws broken? Maybe I could agree with this in some sense. Draw power is quite common in modern-day Yu-Gi-Oh. Adding Blasting Vein grants easier cycling. It also allows a one-time throwaway of any one undesired Spell / Trap Card that may be considered a "dead" card. I'm sure some would complain that this makes Blasting Vein's use rather unskilled. However, I would also argue that you cannot just start throwing any card away for free draws and get somewhere. Frankly, if the only cards to which I had access are Blasting Vein and Mirror Force, I would not be prompted to use Blasting Vein. Even if my opponent does not have any monsters, I would rather wait it out for another turn or so. I think the big problem with most draw cards, psychologically speaking, is that most players believe you have to instantly use them when they are drawn. It does speed things up, but one must analyze the situation before making bold decisions. I will only knock off 2 points for recognizing the possibility of broken concept.


Real Game Add-on: Would Blasting Vein be good for the real life game? I'm inclined to agree for the most part. I do realize that draw power is still rampant when only limited to real cards. In fact, we are soon receiving Destiny Draw back at 3. I'm sure Blasting Vein would gravely affect the game in a negative fashion. However, the overall negative impact on the game would be somewhat affected by the rarity of the card. We have already established that just about anybody can use it. But, how many people should have access to it? Because it seems to be fairly designed for all persons, I would elect this card to be a Secret Rare in a set. This would make it sought after as I believe it rightfully should be, while at the same time recognizing its potential as a powerful card. Therefore, I would foresee its overall distribution going quite well.

Well, that's all I have to say. Now I will give Blasting Vein my personal score.

Art: 4/4
Appearance: 1/1
Mechanic: 5/5
Effect Analysis: 15/20
Real Game Add-on: 7/10

Final rating: 8/10

What do you think of Blasting Vein? Would it be good for the real life game? Let your opinions be heard!

The banning of Blasting Vein goes past that of just throwing away cards for easy draws. Yes, draws are common and we don't necessarily want more. The problem is that there are plenty of things that want to be destroyed or go to the graveyard, and Blasting Vein lets you use those far more easily. How about simpler stuff like comboing with Blast with Chain, or the more exclusive anime stuff? (No, DME's not up now, I don't remember them all.)

In addition, At the moment, the real game already has something similar but limited in the form of Magic Planter.

And finally, saying that it's fair because both sides have is doesn't work in cases like this. That can be said for ANY card, and it doesn't necessarily lead to more equal gameplay.

Is it a good card? I used it when it was out, yes. But if everybody wants to use it? Then, chances are, it's probably already strong enough to consider banning for a reason. When there's so much draw tech, and the new ban list's got D-Draw at 3 again, so I doubt we need to see more in the current game.

Ruduen wrote:

And finally, saying that it's fair because both sides have is doesn't work in cases like this. That can be said for ANY card, and it doesn't necessarily lead to more equal gameplay.

My reasoning here uses the idea that Blasting Vein does not necessarily "break" the game when the card is available to both sides. I agree that we can say almost any card is fair because it could fit both players...most of the time. However, one other factor I take into consideration there is whether it can simply be used for both players, or if it's a race to see who can play it first.

Chaos Emperor Dragon, for example, is (or was, if you prefer) a card that players would race to play first in order to win the game. I don't really see this happening with a card like Blasting Vein. The only exception would be in what I call Late Game Panic, where two extra draws could really provide a difference. Even then, it stretches logic a little to say that both players should be rushing to play Blasting Vein in order to win. Rather, they would likely have an ace card in mind. The usefulness of Blasting Vein slowly disintegrates as both players lose resources throughout the game, which then plants a type of luck factor in when a player can draw it.

I also acknowledge middle ground with cards like these, such as Ryko. Obviously it's seen multitudes of play outside of Lightsworn decks, especially those that benefit from some milling. The destruction of any one card is powerful, but not necessarily game-breaking in every case.

However, I suppose the above depends on how you look at the game. I tend to pick apart game mechanics over which most people just gloss.

I am curious about something though. You briefly discuss if everybody wants to use the card, it might have grounds for being banned. Do you use this same reasoning with cards like Monster Reborn? This really isn't meant to start a debate. I'm just intrigued.

The one thing I must disagree with you upon is the use of it for Blast with Chain. Blast with Chain's destruction effect does not activate unless it was already treated as an Equip Card, which in turn requires it to be face-up. Therefore, Blasting Vein could not effectively combo with it. I do take your overall point though, which is why I mentioned others like Dark Coffin and such. In the same instance, since I forgot to revisit this point in the Real Game Add-on section, I will drop that section's score from 8/10 to 7/10. For the same reason, I'll drop Effect Analysis from 16/20 to 15/20.

Thanks for the input, Klarth. I'll still remember those Lucky Gem cards. Yes, I liked them that much that I still remember them over a year after they were removed. (By the way, I might come back to you about those, depending on how far I get with a certain project.)

I believe that they're stored in my card maker, so I can still pull them up at some point.

And as for the whole "everybody wants to use them" argument, yes, I believe that it's a good point to look at it for limitations and bannings. If everybody wants to use a card, then chances are, its abilities are far greater than the "questionable" cards that people put into theme decks. If it's found in every deck, then there's a reason for it, and that means that its power has to be high enough for it. It's for that reason that staples are staples to begin with, and it's also for that reason that those usually tend to tip the game in your favor enough suddenly.

Finally, DME's up, so I can state that other cards to use in conjunction are things like Black Pendant, Cursed Coffin, and so on. It's not as big, but the combinations that could use it are still there.