Table of Contents
The fifth Yugioh main set in German
Labyrinth of Nightmare or LON for short, was the fifth Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG main set. This set was released in Germany on 01.03.2003. Naturally, this set also added several cards to the meta. However, the impact of this set was not as large as, for example, MRD or SRL.
Labyrinth Of Nightmare
Contents of the LON Set
Here too, the set contained only 2 different Secret Rares. In total, this set actually contained fewer cards than its predecessors. To be precise: 105! Here is a more detailed breakdown:
- 2x Secret Rare
- 10x Ultra Rare
- 10x Super Rare
- 17x Rare
- 66x Common
➡️ including:
- 21x Normal Monsters
- 32x Effect Monsters
- 1x Ritual Monster
- 3x Fusion Monsters
- 29x Spell Cards
- 19x Trap Cards
Buy Legend of Blue Eyes Cards Now
Highlights of the Fifth Yugioh Main Set
As always, we start with the 2 Secret Rares of this set! While one was never really relevant, the other was actually so strong that it was Limited to 1 for a while. Here we go!
Gemini Elf
Secret Rare
Even though this is a monster without effects, this card was still quite good! Because a monster with 1900 ATK that you could just summon like that was anything but a given back then! As already mentioned, Gemini Elf was never really meta, but was still played quite often since 1900 ATK could really make a difference!
Magic Cylinder
Secret Rare
And then we come to THE Secret Rare! Very well known from the first anime, as it was one of the best trap cards in Yami Yugi's deck! So this card was already popular anyway, but with its incredibly strong effect, it was naturally an important meta card. After all, you could sometimes win games with it alone. Because Magic Cylinder doesn't just protect the player from an attack, it often deals a significant amount of damage to the opponent's Life Points! Sometimes enough to decide the game! And for that reason, this card was naturally very quickly Limited to 1! Today it is allowed at 3, as trap cards are rather irrelevant in today's format. But it can still be quite useful every now and then!
So in this set, no one was disappointed by the 2 Secret Rares. But let's move on to the only card in the set that is still forbidden today!
Card of Safe Return
Ultra Rare
A continuous spell card that allows the player to draw a card for every summon of a monster from their graveyard! You hardly need to say anything about it, as you can tell immediately from the effect how incredibly strong and simply unbalanced this card must have been. And it was, even though there weren't nearly as many cards back then that allowed you to summon monsters from your own graveyard. If this card were allowed today, you could simply draw your entire deck and, for example, get all 5 Exodia pieces into your hand on the very first turn of the game to win. Therefore, we can confirm one thing: this card will never be allowed again with this effect!
That was the only card in the set that is still forbidden today. But let's move on to the only card in the set that is still frequently played today!
Torrential Tribute
Ultra Rare
Although we just mentioned that trap cards aren't really played in the current format, there are exceptions! Torrential Tribute, or "TT" for short, is a really strong trap card that is still played in certain decks today and can really decide games! Which is no wonder, after all, it has the same effect as "Dark Hole", with the advantage that you can activate it during the opponent's turn! The only requirement is that a monster must be summoned. So it's a truly extremely effective card that was logically even stronger in the past and was played in basically every deck!
With LON, we also got something else pretty cool! It is another alternative win condition! The first alternative way to win a game was Exodia. So in this set, the 2nd way was released, for which you also needed 5 cards. Only in this case, these 5 cards had to be on the field instead of in the hand. And in this case, they were spell/trap cards! Let's take a closer look at this "puzzle"!
The Spirit Messages
Ultra Rare & 4x Rare
Admittedly, we have never seen anyone manage to win a game with these cards, but it is definitely possible! We'll explain how it all works, even though these cards are very well known from the first anime used by Yami Bakura. The trap card is basically the head of Exodia. It has the effect that you win the duel if both it and all other 4 Spirit Messages are face-up on the field!
The trap also has the effect that once per turn (during the opponent's End Phase), it can place a Spirit Message card from the deck or hand onto the field. However, you have to pay attention to the correct order, as can be clearly seen on the card images. Furthermore, you are not allowed to just activate any of the "Spirit Message" spell cards from your hand! They must come onto the field step by step through the effect of Destiny Board!
This naturally means that you ultimately cannot use any other traps, as you have to leave the zones free. And if one of the cards is destroyed, they are all automatically destroyed with it. Therefore (as already mentioned), we haven't seen anyone win this way. It's a cool feature nonetheless!
But now we continue with 2 very strong Equip Spell Cards that were played in quite a few decks back then and definitely contributed something to the meta!
Mage Power & United We Stand
Ultra Rare
Two incredibly strong and extremely popular nostalgic equip spell cards! Even though they are absolutely no longer played today, they were very effective back then. Mage Power increased the ATK & DEF of a monster by 500 for every spell/trap card on your side of the field! So you could increase a monster's stats by at least 500 up to a maximum of 3000!
United We Stand gave even more! With this card, the equipped monster gains 800 ATK & DEF for every monster on your side of the field! So at least 800 and a whopping maximum of 4000 ATK/DEF were possible back then! Today you can even control 6 monsters, which would lead to an increase of 4800!
As always, we've saved the best, or rather the most popular, for last! Although in this case it's not a meta card, it is a card loved by many Yu-Gi-Oh! fans!
Dark Necrofear
Ultra Rare
The artwork of this card could seem disturbing to some, but it was extremely celebrated by most Yu-Gi-Oh! fans! And it still is today! Dark Necrofear is one of the favorite monsters of many Yu-Gi-Oh! players / fans. Of course, this is partly because we know this card very well from the first anime, as it is Yami Bakura's main monster! However, it was also always relatively strong in play. You can only Special Summon it by removing 3 Fiend monsters from your graveyard. And just like that, you have a monster with 2200 ATK and 2800 DEF! Not bad! But the monster's effect has always been something special! Because if this card is destroyed by an opponent's card (on the field) and ends up in the graveyard, you can equip Dark Necrofear from the graveyard (like an equip spell card) to one of the opponent's monsters, and as long as it remains equipped to the monster, you have control over the opponent's monster! A really cool effect, very special artwork, and simply absolute nostalgia!
Leave a comment
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.