Original Source: https://aminoapps.com/c/ygo/page/blog/card-discussion-pot-of-disparity/PJ5F_muNbnJKYYoDga1QZ1qmzBY61dG
Hey, everyone, this is The_SynchroGuy, and I’m here to discuss Pot of Disparity! This is a new card that’s coming out in Blazing Vortex (BLVO). BLVO will be released to the TCG on February 5th, but it has already been released in the OCG. It comes with a bunch of interesting legacy support and new archetypes, but one of the things that most people will want to get their hands on is Pot of Disparity.
Much like the last few Pot cards that came out, this card can really help a lot of different decks. Things are getting more and more interesting as each latest Pot card gets revealed. Now this card brings up an interesting question given the other Pot cards we currently have. Let’s discuss it!
What does it do?
“Banish 3 or 6 cards from your Extra Deck, face-down; excavate cards from the top of your Deck equal to the number banished, add 1 of them to your hand, also place the rest on the bottom of your Deck in any order. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, any damage your opponent takes is halved. You cannot draw any cards by card effects the turn you activate this card. You can only activate 1 “Pot of Disparity” per turn.”
(Source: https://ygorganization.com/potofdisparity/)
Right off the bat, this card has a lot of similarities to Pot of Extravagance. That being you have to banish either 3 or 6 cards from your Extra Deck, face-down. But instead of drawing 2 cards, you get to reveal the top 3 or 6 cards of your Deck and add one of the revealed cards to your hand!
Given that, this brings up an interesting question that makes you want to ask yourself: Do you want to go +1 in card advantage, or get 1 specific card? Now there are arguments to be made for both sides. But it really comes to down the kind of deck you’re playing.
Obviously if your Deck heavily revolves around using the cards in your Extra Deck, you may not want to play this card. But if you don’t mind losing a couple of cards, or just don’t care about the Extra Deck entirely, then you may want to consider running this card. Especially if you already play something like Extravagance. And if you’re thinking of playing both, that’s gonna be a bit rough since Disparity requires you to not draw any cards on the turn you activate it. Meaning if you activate Extravagance and draw the Disparity, that Disparity is going to be dead until your next turn… if you can live that long. Similar thing happens when it’s the other way around.
Anyway, let’s just say it’s best to play one or the other, so which one should you go for? Well, let’s compare and contrast the two and see.
Extravagance vs Disparity
Once again, the big difference between the two is one gets you 2 draws and the other lets you dig for one card. Right away, Extravagance sounds better since it nets you an extra card. However, getting one certain card for some Decks might be a lot better.
For example, if you’re playing a Deck that needs one of their starter cards to get their plays going, you will want to make sure that you get one of those starters into your hand as often as possible. While Extravagance does get you 2 new cards, Disparity can do you one better by letting you look through 6 cards. So instead of testing your luck, you can instead guarantee yourself, somewhat, that you’ll get the card you need. On the other hand, drawing 2 cards is still very nice. Especially if your Deck lacks any draw power.
Another argument to be made is that while both cards banish your Extra Deck cards, face-down, Disparity shines a bit better as it gives you the power to choose! So instead of playing multiple copies of cards or full playsets of Extra Deck cards so that you still have at least 1 copy of it in your Extra Deck, you can play whatever cards you want in any ratio and just choose which ones you don’t need. This can be especially helpful when you know the kind of Deck you’re dueling against.
Now, again, this doesn’t mean it’s better than Extravagance. Considering that people are playing a bunch of generic good cards, or playing Decks that can win games without needing most of those cards, they are not gonna care a whole lot on what might get banished. Especially if it means having one more card than their opponent.
And unlike Extravagance, however, Disparity has an extra downside of halving any damage your opponent takes for the rest of the turn. But here’s how us Yugioh players react to that:
Yeah, no one is going to care about that little drawback. They can just use that turn to prepare for themselves for whatever their opponent might do the turn after. Plus, if you’re going first when you activate this card, you’re not going to be able to deal damage anyway since you can’t go into your Battle Phase that turn, so, unless you’re playing a burn strategy, that drawback means nothing.
Okay, so how do you decide which one to go for? Well, as I said earlier, it depends on the kind of Deck you’re playing? But after doing some research, there’s actually an argument to be made on playing Disparity along with other Pot cards. And so far, it seems to be surprisingly effective.
Play Both?
I know I said earlier how each of the Pot cards being played with Disparity can screw each other over since as soon as you activate one of them, you can’t activate the other that same turn. However, there is an actual argument to be made on why this is okay.
For starters, if you activated something like Desires or Extravagance and then draw into another copy of itself, that copy is not gonna be helpful since you’re restricted to only activating one copy of it per turn, so how is drawing into Disparity any different? Plus, by playing an extra Pot card, you’re increasing your chances of opening with one Pot card in your opening hand, which can make your hand even better by either getting one extra card, or getting a card that will go perfectly with your current hand.
Also, from the reports we’ve been getting over in the OCG, some players have started playing Disparity in Decks like: Dogmatika Invoked, Eldlich, and even Virtual World. And they’re playing it quite the ratio. Some are playing two copies of Disparity and two copies of either Extravagance or Desires, three copies of one of the pot cards and the other at one copy, or even just playing a playset of each of the two pot cards they play. As to why they’re doing this, well I already mentioned a couple of the reasons as to why, but another reason is because of Triple Tactics Talents (TTT).
While TTT is a good card, players have actually started to play around it by activating their hand traps, such as Maxx”C” and Artifact Lancea, before their opponent goes into their Main Phase. This is important since TTT needs the opponent to activate a monster effect during the Main Phase in order to activate. If that doesn’t happen, then it’s pretty much a dead card in hand. But since Disparity needs no requirement like that, the player doesn’t have to be concerned about their opponent using their hand traps before the Main Phase.
And a Deck like Dogmatika Invoked has started using multiple Pot cards in order to unbrick their hand. The Deck sometimes has moments where half of their opening hand is either Dogmatika or Invoked and the rest is not the other half. So by playing cards like Desires and Disparity together, they can have a better chance of getting access to the missing half.
(Source: https://roadoftheking.com/ocg-2020-10-metagame-report-8/)
So yeah, Disparity is going to be a very interesting card. Even though I went into comparing and contrasting Disparity with Extravagance to see which one would be better, I think it’s cool that players are able to get away with playing both. This is especially interesting since we never normally see this when it was just Extravagance and Disparity. Normally you’d have to pick one or the other. But if players are able to get away with playing one of those two along with Disparity, then this is going to make things very interesting in Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Will We See Something Like This In the TCG?
I would say yes. Even though our metagame is different from the OCG, I can see players playing this card along with Extravagance and Desires. Not just because players are gonna find a way to play around TTT, but because, in a sense, it’s better than TTT. We’ve seen how consistent some Decks have become when they were playing just a playset of Desires or Extravagance. But now when Disparity gets thrown into the mix, making the Pot count increase from 3 to 4-6, this is going to increase their consistency even further.
If I were you, I would try to get my hands on Disparity, as soon as possible. Because as soon as players start showing huge success rates with their Decks thanks to Pot of Disparity, that’s going to drive up the price of the card. But hey, maybe I can be wrong about this and Disparity won’t be widely as good as it is being portrayed over in the OCG. Still though, you’re gonna want to get this card when you can.
End
I hope you enjoyed this! Disparity is going to be a very good card when it comes out. And you can probably bet that it’ll be hard to pull since I don’t see this card being printed in a rarity lower than a Secret Rare. And if you manage to get your hands on one when BLVO drops, don’t lose it and use it wisely! Anyway, let me know in the comments what you think about Pot of Disparity! Do you think it’s going to be amazing in the TCG? Do you think players are overhyping it? Is there anything of interest about this card I may have missed? Let me know!
I’ll see you in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today!