[Unbanned if Changed?] Exchange of the Spirit

[J-Max]

Welcome, Guys and Girls to Episode 3 of the series that discusses if a already Banned card could be Unbanned if revised.

 

Quick note, everyone is more then welcome to discuss the card itself in its current state.

 

Today we are covering Exchange of the Spirit. A Devestating card to use if you are running Mill Decks such as Lightsworns. Let's take a closer look at the effect.

 

Activate only while there are 15 or more cards in your Graveyard. Pay1000 Life Points. Both players swap the card(s) in their Graveyard with the card(s) in their Deck. Then, both players shuffle their Deck.

 

Back when this was at 1, most people would make OTK or even FTK Decks that takes full advantage of this Trap. By quickly milling their Deck, they could easily trigger this effect and deny their opponent a turn. This Trap only became much more lethal once Lighsworn's ruled the Format. 2 or 3 Lightswor'ns out could easily dump the 15 Cards required and then Game Over.

 

Another lethal combo was using Reasoning. EIther you get a monster or a ton of dumped cards. Also works well with cards such as Painful Choice which also Dumps cards.

 

STRENGTHS

Exchange of the Spirit can easily score FTK's due to its perfect Synergy with Mill Decks.

The cost is surprisingly low for what it does. 15 Cards is stupidly easy.

A few Spells and Traps can Mill your Deck easily to trigger this card.

 

WEAKNESSES

If you are making a Deck around Exchange of the Spirit and it happens to get dumped into the Grave, it can be hard to recover it.

 

REDONE EFFECT

Two key factors here.

 

First, the amount of the Cards in the Grave needs to be higher. 15 is stupidly easy to get into the Grave. Secondly, I will be addressing the whole FTK thing. Exchange of the Spirit can only be activated when your opponent has 10 or more cards in their Graveyard. I will also be removing the Life Point Cost or increasing it. So we have 2 potential effects

 

Effect 1:

"Activate only while there are 20 or more cards in your Graveyard and 10 or more cards in your Opponent's Graveyard. Both players swap the card(s) in their Graveyard with the card(s) in their Deck. Then, both players shuffle their Deck."

 

Effect 2:

"Activate only while there are 20 or more cards in your Graveyard and 10 or more cards in your Opponent's Graveyard. Pay 2000 Life Points. Both players swap the card(s) in their Graveyard with the card(s) in their Deck. Then, both players shuffle their Deck."

 

CURRENT TCG STATUS: FORBIDDEN

POTENTIAL AFTER REDONE EFFECT: LIMITED

 

With a increased number of cards required and your opponent needing to have cards too. Exchange of the Spirit could be just fine at 1. No more then that though as the effect is still very lethal.

[Aix]

Haven't looked at any of your other cards in this series, but you shouldn't be designing cards so that they will be limited.

[J-Max]

Haven't looked at any of your other cards in this series, but you shouldn't be designing cards so that they will be limited.

That's the whole point :P Of course, not every card I cover will be able to become Limited or better. Cards such as Pot of Greed has already been covered in other ways.

[Trebuchet MS]

Sometimes redesign attempts don't go over so well largely due to the core concept of the card in question. The least one could do during redesign is to make it less exploitable. At least it went somewhere other than the Forbidden list, right?

[J-Max]

Sometimes redesign attempts don't go over so well largely due to the core concept of the card in question. The least one could do during redesign is to make it less exploitable. At least it went somewhere other than the Forbidden list, right?

Yeah. I was tempted to make it Forbidden/Limited depending on the Format but it would have defeated the purpose of a Potential redesign. I also didn't want to ruin the flavour of the card but always thought that the FTK potental of this card was a Joke.

[Maeriberii Haan]

For things like these (the series of threads I mean), I'd rather have the cards in question to actually having enough merits in them not being unbanned and fixed, and I don't see Exchange to be really aiding anything aside from completely gimmicky or dangerous things to merit being fixed.

[LeLukeX]

Can Penguin Knight counter Exchange of the Spirit?

[Mysty]

Can Penguin Knight counter Exchange of the Spirit?

According to old rulings, Exchange doesn't "send" anything, so no.

[werewolfjedi]

if you wanted to potentially balance the card, then I'd make it something like 15 in the opponent's grave, your own doesn't matter. then it's more about making sure the card doesn't kill you in the process, because the opponent will have cards in their deck regardless of what else you do.

[玄魔の王]

For things like these (the series of threads I mean), I'd rather have the cards in question to actually having enough merits in them not being unbanned and fixed, and I don't see Exchange to be really aiding anything aside from completely gimmicky or dangerous things to merit being fixed.

That's my concern. The only non-mill application of this thing is preventing your own deckout, which is basically "screw the rules", and that's not really a card that deserves to exist.