Yo duelists! In anticipation of YCS Dallas this weekend I felt it necessary to talk about a card that’s been seeing both increasing play and increasing hype; Forbidden Chalice. This article is basically a follow up to the one that Patrick Hoban wrote about after YCS Long Beach. I’m sure you’ve heard about the crazed duelists scramming around at Long Beach looking for copies of Forbidden Chalice in hopes of siding it in their Dino-Rabbit decks or teching it in whatever crazy decks they might’ve come up with. The card was once considered to be the lesser of Fiendish Chain and Effect Veiler because it only lasts for 1 turn, it doesn’t stop the monster from attacking, and it’s a card that must be activated on the field. On the other hand, it can be activated during the damage step unlike Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain. It’s a spell which means that you can topdeck it against an Evolzar monster and make immediate use of it. It also gets under Royal Decree because it’s a spell and this is especially useful when siding against Inzektors since they will often bring in Decree to fight against your Shadow Mirrors and Macro Cosmos. Also, Chalice has the extra bonus of granting the monster an extra 400 attack power which has a few implications in itself. Most people already know what it’s being used for the most, which is just to attack a facedown Snowman Eater with an Evolzar Laggia and then negate the Snowman’s effect during the damage step when its effect activates. I think that’s only ONE of the reasons why this card is a lot better now. Let’s dive in.
Forbidden Chalice has immunity to chained Mystical Space Typhoons unlike that of the ever popular Fiendish Chain. There have been many times when you really needed that Tour Guide from the Underworld, Wind-up Rat, or Inzektor Dragonfly negated and the opponent simply chains MST to your Fiendish Chain and wins the game that turn. It sucks. If you have more than one backrow a good player will not use a blind MST unless they have a legitimate reason to do so. Good players will wait for the Fiendish Chain to get flipped face-up and then MST that card specifically. The same can be said against Skill Drain. Alistar and I have talked about this many times on the ARG Live Stream and if you’ve watched us play you might’ve caught an exhibition of this exact technique.
What I really love about Forbidden Chalice is its utility off the topdeck. You can draw it and put it to use immediately. Effect Veiler can’t be used on your own turn and Fiendish Chain must be set before you can activate it since it’s a trap card. This means that both of those cards don’t do anything when you draw into them. They take a whole turn to get set up and sometimes that’s far too late. Have you ever been put into a situation where you’re playing against Dino-Rabbit and you want to summon Tour Guide, Inzektor Dragonfly, or your own Rescue Rabbit this turn but they have a Laggia with 2 materials? If you rely on your Fiendish Chain or Effect Veiler for the following turn it could be disastrous--if say--they summon a Tour Guide or something that needs the same attention as Laggia. At this point, if you tried to negate Tour Guide with Fiendish Chain they could just negate it. Chalice allows you to force your play through on THAT turn that you have it. Be careful of the higher attack stat on the monster whose effect has been negated since a Laggia would be sitting at a staggering 2800 instead of a measly 2400 where Utopia could’ve dealt with it. For Inzektors, forcing through a Dragonfly on THAT turn is so much more devastating than forcing through a Rescue Rabbit against a Rabbit deck. Inzektors don’t have to consider the high attack power of a monster because they’re all the same to Inzektor Hornet’s effect. You could be a Five-Headed Dragon or an Unhappy Maiden; it’s all the same against destruction effects.
The random 400 attack boost, as miniscule as it may be, can actually help you to maintain field presence. If you’re in a Rabbit mirror match it could help a Kabazauls beat a Sabersaurus where an Effect Veiler or a Fiendish Chain would be deadweight. And at the same time it could stop their Tour Guide from causing problems. It’s the only card that can really do both of those things outside of a Solemn Warning or Solemn Judgment. Book of Moon wouldn’t be so bad there either but it’s a limited card. I found a very weird way to use Chalice against my opponent while playing in the YCS at Long Beach where I sided a single copy of the card. My opponent had a Dolkka and he swung at me directly. At first I was going to just let it go until I realized that the Gorz in my hand was not only live but it would also create a much bigger token than expected which is very relevant since Dino-Rabbit decks have a hard time dealing with high attack power. I chained to his Dolkka’s attack, took 2700, and then dropped Gorz to get a 2700/2700 token. Obviously, that game ended pretty quickly after that. After doing that play I realized that there are other ways where that could happen. For example, you could set Chalice and end your turn against Inzektors, waiting for them to summon a monster, activate the effect to equip, and you chain Forbidden Chalice to make the hornet or whatever fall off. Then they swing in directly and you get a 2000 attack token. It almost reminds me of the way you can set MST against a monster and then wait until it swings at you directly to MST the backrow and drop Gorz. That play can single handedly win games and so can Chalice into Gorz. Also, Chalice doesn’t stick around like Fiendish Chain does which may be problematic since we’re on the topic of Gorz.
I feel like if you’re playing anti-meta, one of the best cards that you could side deck to combat the possibility of Royal Decree is the use of Forbidden Chalice. I don’t like to side cards like Trap Eater or Breaker the Magical Warrior when playing anti-meta because I don’t want to put in more monsters and chances are that you need the monsters that are already in your deck to be synergetic. Chalice can give you that extra turn to draw into a Gemini Spark or an MST or to make a T.G. Wonder Magician to get rid of the Decree. There are many uses for Forbidden Chalice and I think it’s definitely a card that you should consider in the coming months. If you have any cool plays that you want to share with ARG feel free to drop them in the comments section below.
Remember, Play Hard or Go Home!
-Frazier Smith
-YCS Atlanta Champion
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