Emissary of the Afterlife Limitation

To:  Upper Deck Entertainment

The purpose of this petition is to correct an oversight on the part of Upper Deck Entertainment and affiliates with regard to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. Those who play and have run across this card will probably agree: The card "Emissary of the Afterlife" when used in combination with "Exodia" is an unfair pairing when one can use three copies of Emissary.

Emissary of the Afterlife reads as follows: DARK/Fiend-Type/4star/1600/600/Effect: When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, each player selects 1 level 3 or lower Normal Monster from their deck and adds it to his/her hand after showing it to the opponent. The decks are then shuffled.

Exodia The Forbidden One reads as follows: DARK/Spellcaster-Type/3star/1000/1000/Effect: When you have "Right Leg of the Forbidden One", "Left Leg of the Forbidden One", "Right Arm of the Forbidden One", and "Left Arm of the Forbidden One", in addition to this card in your hand, you win the Duel.

The left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg of Exodia are all Normal 1star monsters. They can all be obtained by the effect of Emissary of the Afterlife. Emissary can also be taken straight from the deck by the effect of Soul Rope.

Soul Rope reads as follows: Trap/Effect: Activate only by paying 1000 Life Points when a monster you control is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. Special Summon 1 Level 4 monster from your Deck.

Each part of Exodia is forbidden, limiting it to one copy per deck. Previously, this arrangement balanced the game, preventing one from easily drawing one of each part. However, under the current arrangement in which one is allowed to use three copies of Emissary of the Afterlife and three copies of Soul Rope with which to get Emissary, Exodia's five parts can be drawn with little to no effort. Since Emissary's effect activates when sent from the Field to the Graveyard with no condition, the effect is almost impossible to avoid on the part of the opponent. With the large number of cards (eg: Monster Reincarnation, Monster Reborn, The Shallow Grave, Spear Cretin) that can bring Emissary of the Afterlife back to the Field to be sent to the Graveyard again - thus once more activating its effect - drawing one Emissary from the deck can be the end of the game. Effectively, this would be what may as well be a victory from drawing five cards that comes from the task of drawing one card.

The reason for Emissary of the Afterlife not being limited to two, one, or zero copies in a Deck or Side Deck thus far may be due to the fact that Emissary allows both players to partake of its effect. The logic behind this is reasonable, as the undoing of most cards lies in the opponent being given a chance to defend by taking advantage of the effect played at the same time as the opponent. Many times, these effects will actually give the opponent of the card's owner an advantage, though such is not always the case. However, in the case of Emissary, a very small number of decks will realistically be able to take advantage of the effect, as a 3star Normal monster is not a commonly used card. When they do, it will be a rare thing that their boon will be as great as Emissary's owner, or even that they will experience a real boon at all. The fact that Emissary's effect applies to both players, therefore, is not a sufficient reason to make it exempt from restriction.


For these reasons, Emissary of the Afterlife should be limited to one copy in the Deck or Side Deck.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Emissary of the Afterlife Limitation Petition to Upper Deck Entertainment was created by and written by Max Gray (derangedproductions@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.