Cards Of The Week #16

Sabo (OP05-007)

Today's set of dual card reviews is a comparison between 2 cards that have the same exact effect. Only one effect, and nothing else. The first card in question is Sabo from OP05; the oldest set legal in our standard format right now. It sort of reflects this card; having a simple on summon effect and nothing else.

When you play this Sabo you can KO up to 2 of your opponent's characters with 4000 power or less. Since this is the only effect on this card it automatically puts him in the tech/counter category or a card that needs dedicated partners to become more effective. After all, 4000 power is very weak; we're talking about characters that can't even swing on leaders. Without a way to boost the range, the most generic good use of this effect would be to get rid of a few cheap blockers or small support characters without wasting attacks.

That would be a generic tech use, however, this effect can be a nice direct counter to decks that spam a lot of cheap characters. A great example of this would be the cheap characters used in the Blue Green Impel Down Luffy deck from OP16. The wax boxer Luffy, Daz Bones and Bon Clay are very common cards in that deck and you can easily take 2 of them out with Sabo.

In spite of the uses I just described, Sabo's effect is still functionally situational. It could be a good tech though if you have easy ways to get it out of your hand when you know you won't use it.

SaberWolf's Rating: 3.6/5

Get Out of Here! (OP09-018)

This Red Haired Shanks event is 5 sets newer than Sabo but could still be considered an "older" card in the format getting printed in OP09. Same effect as Sabo only you don't get a body on your field afterwards. Has no trigger effect either; to give it some kind of additional edge.

Your only pros against Sabo is a cheaper cost to play (Sabo has 7000 power after all) and that Blackbeard wouldn't be able to negate it. So you may be asking, "which is the better card of the two?" Well, it will still come down to what your deck is.

Both of these cards can be grabbed from the deck with various searchers and they could both fit in an OP15 Lucy deck since that leader can facilitate event cards and OP05 Sabo as a Revolutionary Army card.

Overall, I think the contrast of their costs is fairly balanced. You pay 3 Don!! more and get the effect with a character or pay only 3 Don!! and don't get anything else. I'd give this card the same score as Sabo. Depending on the game state or your deck one could be better than the other and vice versa. Both have the same effect and both could be very dead in your hand depending on the situation.

SaberWolf's Rating: 3.6/5