So today is a rather short article about the card My Body as a Shield. It’s an old card I’m sure some veterans know good and well. After many a format of Solemn Warning and other sorts of life point payments is it finally time to bring back an old favorite?
Activate only by paying 1500 Life Points when your opponent activates a card or effect that would destroy a monster(s) on the field. Negate the activation of that card and destroy it.
My Body as a Shield has always been a good card, but now it’s better than ever. Destruction effects are really just all over the place now and you really need a cards that allow you to play aggressively and My Body (as I will likely be referring to it as from now on) is the perfect card. If your deck is looking for reliable monster protection and it can’t really get that Stardust Dragon out effectively or consistently then this is by all means the best alternative.
In almost every deck nowadays there’s cards that destroy monsters. Cards like Master Hyperion and Herald of Orange Light in Agents or card like Judgment Dragon or Celestia in Lightsworns and even Grapha in the up and coming Dark World deck. There’s even cards that you see in a lot of decks like Dark Hole and Bottomless Trap Hole or even Black Rose Dragon, Scrap Dragon and Stardust Dragon.
The best place for My Body as a Shield to shine though is in very aggressive decks. Decks like Karakuri that flood the field with monsters and really are just begging for them to be destroyed make my body really easy to play. It’s especially important that it’s a quick play spell card since this allows you to negate effects on your turn out of your hand making two really big cards this format, Bottomless Trap Hole and Herald of Orange Light, really a non-issue since you don’t have to literally wait a turn after setting your protective traps, but it can also work in the same fashion to protect you during your opponents turn. It’s also important that it’s played out of the hand since setting protective cards is now unreliable with 3 Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm being used in nearly every deck. Because of this setting protecting can randomly be picked off and then a well timed Dark Hole will cost you the game.
The card also can nicely take advantage of the fact that it’s one of the only spell cards in the game that can negate and destroy cards. The fact that it’s a spell means it’s incredibly hard to negate and also means it can be played in tandem with Royal Decree if need be or it can be used under an opponent’s Royal Decree to catch them off card. (This happened for me the other day. I was playing against Chaos Lightsworns and they summoned a Judgment Dragon while they had Decree face-up and used its effect thinking they where safe because of Decree, but I responded with My Body destroying JD, pretty cool)
I suggest everyone test it out, it’s been doing wonders for me so far. On a final note (Although this may no longer be official since this was ruled when Upper Deck was still in control, but that’s just because this card is old) My Body as a Shield cannot be activated in the damage step. That means it can’t negate cards like Ryko when you attack into them. So keep that in mind and good luck everybody!