Iris Magician

[Bringerofcake]

Q: During my Main Phase 1 of the first turn of the Duel, can I activate the Pendulum Effect of Iris Magician?

A: A Battle Phase cannot be conducted during the first turn of the Duel. During your Main Phase 1 of the first turn of the Duel, you can activate Iris Magician from your hand to your Pendulum Zone, but you cannot activate the Pendulum Effect of Iris Magician.

 

RIP

[The Nyx Avatar]

The Pendulum Effect is okay; nothing special. Though, it's a nice generic Scale 8.

 

The Monster effect is nice I guess, having no "once per turn" clause. As far to my recollection, there only seems to be 2 Pendulumgraph cards right now, and neither seem all that unfair for this card's search effect.

 

It's an okay Scale 8, and maybe a cute addition to Pendulum Magicians, but not much to otherwise.

[Kaiji]

Interesting to note: Insight Magician is at 2 in OCG so while less likely, it still  a viable combo with Astrograph.

 

 

That said, the next step is obv Zodiacs and Pendulum Advent (MACR) which applies to ygopro when Astrograph finally gets fixed.

Drancia and Sign r p good cart to pop Iris to grab Spacetime / baits ASF and Dbarrier.

[Blake]

The Pendulum Effect is okay; nothing special. Though, it's a nice generic Scale 8.

 

The Monster effect is nice I guess, having no "once per turn" clause. As far to my recollection, there only seems to be 2 Pendulumgraph cards right now, and neither seem all that unfair for this card's search effect.

 

It's an okay Scale 8, and maybe a cute addition to Pendulum Magicians, but not much to otherwise.

and you couldn't be more wrong!

 

Both of the Pendulumgraphs are great, the P-Effext is good for self-exploding, with an occasional damage boost, and the monster effect is good due to the former being good. It's not just a "cute addition", it's one of the backbones.

[Darj]

I wonder why they decided to not make the Pendulum Effect work on turn 1 when there are other effects that involve the Battle Phase and yet can still be used on turn 1, namely Soul Charge and IIRC Ruffian Railcar's burn effect. Reading around, it is said that since the ""you cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this card" can still be fulfilled on turn 1, then those 2 are able to be used; but, the effect given by Iris Magician's is an "if" to begin with, which means it isn't mandatory to apply it, and yet they chose to not allow it on Turn 1.

 

And, going a bit off-topic here but isn't Pendulumgraph of Ages actually not that great? I ask because I see it relies on you doing something else, it its case removing a "Magician" Pendulum Monster from your field, and thus is in a way situational and AFAIK these kind of cards reliant on other actions end up as more of overkill/"winmore" cards. Sure, it may be somewhat easy to activate, and being searchable by Iris Magician helps, but on the off-chance you cannot activate it, it may as well be a dead card. I actually randomly faced a Magician deck once, and stopped his/her plays so he/she couldn't activate the Pendulumgraph, effectively rendered dead; or if he/she did, he/she was already in a bad position and didn't really saved him/her. On the other hand, in a duel against a different player who destroyed me, the Pendulumgraph was just generating extra pluses he/she didn't seem to actually need, and this is where I think it crosses into the "overkill" side.

[Azuriena]

I wonder why they decided to not make the Pendulum Effect work on turn 1 when there are other effects that involve the Battle Phase and yet can still be used on turn 1, namely Soul Charge and IIRC Ruffian Railcar's burn effect. Reading around, it is said that since the ""you cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this card" can still be fulfilled on turn 1, then those 2 are able to be used; but, the effect given by Iris Magician's is an "if" to begin with, which means it isn't mandatory to apply it, and yet they chose to not allow it on Turn 1.

When Iris Magician's Pendulum Effect resolves, you don't have the choice of not applying its effect. You must apply it, if possible, but that applied effect will only do anything "if" the monster it was applied to battles a monster.

 

It can't be applied on a turn without a Battle Phase. The rule of thumb is that you can't activate a card or effect if it would do nothing.

 

(In contrast, Soul Charge's restriction is not an effect, nor is it tied to its effect, and simply has to be true. Also like you said, you don't require a Battle Phase to not conduct one. But you do require one to conduct one and do Battle Phase things.)

 

You similarly cannot activate Dark Matter Dragon's Ignition Effect (multiple attacks) or Inzektor Hopper's effect while equipped (attack directly) during turns without a Battle Phase, among other precedents.

[Darj]

When Iris Magician's Pendulum Effect resolves, you don't have the choice of not applying its effect. You must apply it, if possible, but that applied effect will only do anything "if" the monster it was applied to battles a monster.

 

It can't be applied on a turn without a Battle Phase. The rule of thumb is that you can't activate a card or effect if it would do nothing.

 

(In contrast, Soul Charge's restriction is not an effect, nor is it tied to its effect, and simply has to be true. Also like you said, you don't require a Battle Phase to not conduct one. But you do require one to conduct one and do Battle Phase things.)

 

You similarly cannot activate Dark Matter Dragon's Ignition Effect (multiple attacks) or Inzektor Hopper's effect while equipped (attack directly) during turns without a Battle Phase, among other precedents.

 

Right. I suspected there was be a proper explanation for that ruling, since it wasn't quite the same case as with Soul Charge, Railcar, etc. And yeah, the ruling on Hopper is a precedence I remember now.

[Kaiji]

 

And, going a bit off-topic here but isn't Pendulumgraph of Ages actually not that great?

It's prob the only card that can be considered a "copy" of Insight Magician which gives it some merit considering how valuable it is w/Startime combos (smh startime no search). In the absence of better cards to play you might as well play all 3 Ages (originally I was playing 1 copy but that was because Iris + Astro was a pretty ez T1 play that helped guarantee the chain of multiple Iris into Spacetime). I would still concede that T1 and given the choice to, you would prioritize Pendulumgraph of Spacetime as its such a good defensive trap; if you have more than 1 pop available (Sign / Drancia / Duelist Advent ---> Luster Pend) I see no reason not to go ahead and grab Ages, especially when having its decent enough to help grind past backrow decks like paleos.

 

Tho tbh I don't think the Spell-targetting protection will ever come up outside of goofy stuff, since you are likely to be hit by Eclipse/Geki/Hole/Slumber.

[The Highlander]

An amazing monster and easily on the same level as Dark Fang Magician (which makes setting up scales and/or pendulum summoning safer, as well as extending plays and triggering Ages similar to Insight Magician).

It is funny how both of these cards are amazing (unlike the low scales ... ok that is unfair, considering venom is amazing as well ... however light wing is kind of mediocre).

In the end both of its targets are amazing (especially Spacetime).