House of Adhesive Tape - Yu-Gi-Oh!

I should be doing M14. It's out right now, meaning people are more interested. But I haven't played with the set yet (Norton deletes the patch from MWS, making me think they still have issues to iron out), and I haven't watched anyone else play with it. So we'll hold off a week or so.

Until then, enjoy this...

1 use for duct tape!

House of Adhesive Tape was a card from the English set Magic Ruler. When they did a worldwide reprint of the set though, they decided to call it Spell Ruler. Why the name change? There is a type of card in Yu-Gi-Oh! that was called Magic. With the English release of Magician's Force though, they decided to change the type to Spell. According to the wiki, this was to further separate Yu-Gi-Oh! from another gaming sensation, Magic: The Gathering. To reflect this change, they also changed the name of Magic Ruler to Spell Ruler. This decision was stupid on multiple levels. You don't change the entire name of a set unless you have good reasons for it. You don't see Magic the Gathering changing Fallen Empires to Our Bad. This confuses new players an annoys collectors. Plus, Yu-Gi-Oh has a serious problem with counterfeiters. Calling the set Spell Ruler makes it look like some Korean publisher is trying to capitalize with an idiot translation, meaning the packs stay on the shelves and nobody buys them because they seem fake.

But enough about that rant, here's another one. The card is very weak removal. The game already had better removal at this point, with cards like Fissure and Trap Hole. This is the same basic effect with an added restriction for no extra benefit. Mechanically, this card sucks, and that surprises no one.

The art though is very interesting, and very disturbing. You have the cartoonish nightmare house, like something out of a fairy tale, with a strip of tape rolling out the doorway like a tongue. You have little blue figures, struggling in vain to escape. The roof has this melting look to it, making it seem even more sticky. I like the concept, I love the art, that said I'm rarely going to play it.

House is also one of a few cards that were never reprinted in English. Not even the reprint sets, Dark Beginning 1 and 2 wanted to touch this guy. Not that anybody is complaining.