Curtain of the Dark Ones - Yu-Gi-Oh!

Continuing our venture into Volume 1, and the cards that never were printed here or reprinted in Japan, we have this gem. One of the things that still appeals to me about Yu-Gi-Oh! is how bizarre it utterly is. Previous entry, you could attack someone with an eyeball. Now, you can attack them with a curtain with arms.

Aaah, curtains. My only weakness.

Translated, the card is Curtain of Black Demonic Being. Why a black demonic being would have a red curtain is beyond me, and why he would have a curtain with arms is even further beyond. Because you can't have demons in a children's card game, the English version is Curtain of the Dark Ones.

While The Drdek had no impact beyond its single OCG appearance, Curtain of the Dark Ones actually has relevance to the anime and to a few other cards. In the Virtual World arc (essentially the characters are trapped in the Matrix and must fight their way out by playing card games) one of the villains (Johnson, aka Chikuzen Ooka) summons this guy and fuses it with the Mystical Elf to summon Kamionwizard, or as I prefer to call it, Chaos Wizard! In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Elf + Curtain = Dark Wizard. Still, several style points subtracted since Johnson was going with a courtroom motif. What any of this has to do with courtrooms is also beyond my comprehension.

But yeah, Mystical Elf, Chaos Wizard, both actual cards. Of the two, only Mystical Elf made it to the US, while the wizard was left to sulk at one-shot status. It's alright though, his stats kind of suck. How bad? Wizard loses to Magician King. The power of rock and roll is enough to defeat a wizard in the Yu-Gi-Oh-verse. Bet you won't hear that said in Magic the Gathering!

Another thing of note comes from the video game Duelists of the Roses, where Yu-Gi-Oh! plays fast and loose with British history. All of the cards got 3D renders for optional battle sequences. Curtain's appearance, let's face it, is kind of lame. So the programmers created an original appearance for it. While it's pretty stagnant and kind of boxy, in my opinion it is much cooler than the original. Behold!

"I can stare into your soul!"