Hieratic Techs : Forbidden Chalice

I main copies of Forbidden Chalice, Mike and Andrew knows this. Oh, before I forget, Congrats Andrew, for winning last Sunday's Seed Qualifier, with Hanzo Hieratics. This Saturday is the last qualifier in KL, so I really do hope Mike don't waste it, considering he lives 5 minutes from Card Arena.

Back to topic. I was siding Chalice until 2 weeks ago where I gradually began to see myself siding them in every single game. Now, its a firm piece in my deck that I would not consider taking out without strong reasonings.

Chalice acts as extra copies of Veilers, to some. To me, Veiler acts as extra copies of Chalice. Playing a playset of them lets you have up to 6 effect negation which is more than enough to seal a game, if played right. I'm discussing this card from a Hieratic player's point of view, if your piloting another deck type, this might not be the case. Also, the Hieratic deck I'm talking about doesn't feature Gustaph MAX, since its a promo, and that card is down right broke and made Hieratics almost Auto pilot. Not here.

If your gonna tech anything in this format, it better be Inzektor hate. That is exactly what this card is. While it shuts down a lot of decks, this card is mainly there to mess up Inzektors even more. Some might argue this to be a weak counterpart to Veiler because you can't play them without setting them first. You can't play Chalice when your opponent is going first, meaning you can't stop their turn 1 combo. That is true, not gonna argue with that. But, does it really matter?

Sure, if I hold Chalice and my opponent opens Damsel and Gruf, he easily makes a Rank 5 and sets up for next turn. If you hold Veiler, you can stop that. But, in most times, I don't bother stopping my opponent at all. Veiler is like precious ammo your low on, why waste it on something thats not a threat. I'm saying a rank 5 on my opponent side of the field isn't much a threat to begin with. I basing this off the point that Exa-Beetle takes care of it and my OTK will go through no matter what they put on the board. Saving that Veiler for a Hornet play is much more effective because they now minus-one'd themselves. I never really play Hornet on an Inzektor unless its equipped with Hornet (unless the situation calls for it), if my opponent wants to equip Hornet during the first turn, I don't really care. If so, what differs Veiler from Lance? The immunity to MST maybe, but apart from that, it isn't that much of a difference. (To me)

Like I've said previously, Chalice can also be use offensively. The three Hieratic OTK, it can't be done in Asian format, sad to say. But, with Chalice, it is possible. Usually, you end up making 2 Gaia Dragoons and a Watt Dragon (with 2 Red-Eyes in def). The total damage you can ditch out is 7700. Chalice helps you put end the game right there. You can also use it on a Tragodia, making it a 0 defense monster and walk through it with Gaia Dragoon. Its just a very very versatile card.

Of cause, all cards have a flip side. The 400 attack boost may serve as much as a threat as the opposing monster's ability. Side out this card against Hieratics and Chaos Dragons. While this card can stop REDMD from summoning another dragon (and saving your ass for the turn), it makes the dragon over 3000 for the turn too. Although one may argue that this card can be good to get pass Koaki Meiru Drago, there are just better cards for either match ups. But seeing that Inzektors are still the most popular deck in the format, I think it is safe to have it mained.

Thanks for reading, and again, most of the points are based on my point of view, you don't have to agree with me and I welcome discussions.