Scapegoat
Quick-Play Spell Card
SDJ-041, Super Rare

"When this card is activated, you cannot summon any monster in the same turn (including Flip Summon and Special Summon). Place 4 'Sheep Tokens' (Beast-Type/EARTH/1 Star/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position on your side of the field. The tokens cannot be used as a Tribute for a Tribute Summon."

Now here's a card which is almost considered a staple. Scapegoat is one of the best token-summoning cards in the game which has a remarkable variety of uses.

The most basic way to use Scapegoat (and the one its name suggests) is to defend your Life Points. Because it is a Quick-Play Spell, you can set it and then activate it during your opponent's turn, including during the Battle Phase. However, there are many other ways to use this card. One of them, in Traditional Format, is to summon the goats alongside United We Stand, the powerful equip card that powers up a monster based on the number of allies it has on the field. This causes the equip to jump to full power instantly, easily pushing your monster's ATK into the range of four to five thousand points. You can use Scapegoats as tributes for purposes other than Tribute Summons, as well. As mentioned before, a single goat can be used as Ritual tribute to summon Relinquished, or it can be offered as Tribute to activate Metamorphosis and summon Thousand-Eyes Restrict from the Fusion Deck. If given ATK points through some other card, they can be launched with Cannon Soldier or fried up with Mystic Wok. Their Beast type can also prove useful in "Beastdown" decks. In an Insect deck, Scapegoat can provide Insect Queen with an entire field full of monsters to eat, and since DNA Surgery is almost always run in Insect decks, they also pump up her ATK power to its maximum.

In Traditional format, it was almost impossible to ever have more than two or three monsters on the field, but with Scapegoat, you could have the full five, and this made it powerful for defense and for swarming the field. In Advanced format, its usage is even more widespread and indeed more powerful, with very little mass destruction to blow up all the goats at once. The best part about this card is that it was available in Starter Deck Joey, making it very easy to get!

Scapegoat wins an unquestionable Great classification for power and versatility. Even in this deck, it served two primary purposes -- to provide tribute for Relinquished and to replenish my defensive wall when it had been expended. It served well in both capacities. This is a card I often overlooked in the past, but I am not likely to do so again.