The importance of "Soul Taker" and missing the timing.

Hello, so I've decided to make a new article given that not many people know the value of the card, so I guess I though that it would be good to show it. As the title says this one would be about "Soul Taker" and missing the timing.

Soul Taker, Type: Spell Card - Property: Normal

Code:

Destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Then, your opponent gains 1000 Life Points.

As you can see "Soul Taker" Normal Spell that destroys 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Then, your opponent gains 1000 Life Points.
In other words you pick one of the troublesome monsters your opponent controls, destroy it and as you do that your opponent gains 1000 Life Points. Very simple.

The hidden ability of this card require one to understand the mechanics of cards that miss their timing. In this format there are 2 big and very used monsters that can "miss their timing" - "Lightpulsar Dragon" and "Elemental Hero The Shining". Yes they are 2 very nasty monsters, given that after they are destroyed the opponent can special summon a Level 5 or higher DARK Dragon-Type from their grave (Pulsar's effect) and pick 2 of their banished heroes and add them to their hand (Shining's effect), but did some of you know that both of their destruction effects are optional? They certainly sometimes might seem to be as if they are the mandatory like "Sangan" , but they both most definitely are not.
If either "Lightpulsar Dragon" or "Elemental Hero The Shining" are not the last thing on the chain link to be destroyed they may not trigger their destruction effects. Given that people understanding of how chain links work or specific cards such as "Soul Taker" or "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter" or will be able to counteract these powerful effects.
For the example:
"If your opponent were to summon a copy of Elemental Hero The Shining while you had Mystical Space Typhoon and Torrential Tribute set you are in a position to not only destroy a backrow and The Shining, you can stop the opponent from returning two Elemental Heroes! If you were to activate Mystical Space Typhoon on a backrow and respond with Torrential Tribute the chain would resolve in such a manner that The Shining would be destroyed by Torrential Tribute but miss the opportunity to activate because Mystical Space Typhoon must resolve. The same would apply to Lightpulsar Dragon!"

About "Soul Taker" now - reading the text again "Destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Then, your opponent gains 1000 Life Points." The key word “then” signifies a disruption between the moment in which Soul Taker destroys the monster and the effect finishing resolving. That said given that the effects aren't mandatory they will miss their timing. The thing is to know that your card didn't resolve fully, therefor the optional effect monster like the 2 from before - "Lightpulsar Dragon" and "Elemental Hero The Shining" will miss their timing. The same thing will happen if you use a different card that has that "tricky" effect that can make optional effects miss their timing. Like: flip "Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter" and destroy the card, since "Ryko's" effect hasn't been fully resolved after it destroys the monster, it's optional effects miss their timing.

Now missing the timing is one thing. It's true that "Smashing Ground" sometimes do a better job, like say you have a "Thunder King Rai Oh" and "Smashing" in your hand - you're facing a 1 monster and a 1000LP left opponent. You hit "Smashing" you attack with "TK" and you win. But there is something else, now "Soul Taker" is not always the best choice in your deck/side deck, given (just for the example) you're playing Hieratics (TCG) OTK version, now the deck makes something like 8400 LP damage (again, this is TCG - not OCG), if you replace "Smashing Ground" with a "Soul Taker" you won't make the OTK, so my point is that I'm not saying that "Soul Taker" is always better than "Smashing Ground".
That said I'd replace "Smashing" with "Soul Taker" in the Hero match-up, in the Chaos Dragon match-up, even in the Dino Rabbit match-up, it just works better there. I've read countless of articles from YCS's how people just win cause of that one card - "Soul Taker". Like you're doing against a "Dolkka" with negation and a "Gorz" - you have "Dragonfly" + "sword" + "Hornet" and "Soul Taker". Now if that was a "Smashing Ground" you lose, you can't kill the 1700 DEF "Dolkka" meaning you can't use your effects, so you lose... But if you have "Soul Taker" you have the ability to target the monster, to choose for yourself. So you Choose "Dolkka" and kill your opponent with a OTK. So what is the other difference between the 2 cards - the ability to choose what card to destroy. As you see that's very important sometimes. The possibilities just seem endless with this card!

Well with that's said thank you for reading and till next time, I guess.

good article LL, nice to see attention being put on cards that are over looked. i'd like to recommend that for an article like this where your talking about timing to refrain from using other cards like: "smashing" during it. it'd be better for you to write a comparision article between the two giving the pros and cons of them and how they're situational.

other than that great job, i used to use soul taker but trying to explain timing to ppl on DN sometimes is just too much so i went back to my mass destructions lol. good read and good work, keep it up.

Yay L! Keep making moar of these :3

Aha ^^ I'm glad that you liked it. And yeah, I will, don't worry about it.

After the article, your signature appears and it says "THE END" :KK:

Unknown wrote:: After the article, your signature appears and it says "THE END" :KK:

Well it was the end of the article after all ^^

Soul Taker > Smashing Ground on so many levels. Good article ^^ keep it on !

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