RelinquishedDark, Level 1, [Spellcaster/Ritual/Effect]
ATK: 0, DEF: 0
SDP-001, Ultra Rare
"This monster can take on the ATK and DEF of 1 opponent's monster on the field (a face-down monster results in an ATK and DEF of 0). Treat the selected monster as an Equip Magic Card and use it to equip 'Relinquished'. You may use this effect only once per turn and can equip 'Relinquished' with only 1 monster at a time. When your opponent's monster attacks this monster with an ATK higher than 'Relinquished', the equipped monster is destroyed instead of 'Relinquished'. Any Life Point damage you receive from the attacking monster when 'Relinquished' is equipped is also inflicted on your opponent."
Starting with this review, I'm going to cover the bases and review all the interesting cards that I utilized in my latest deck, which you can read about below. The first on the list, and another one of my all-time favorite cards, is Relinquished.
Way back in my second review, I mentioned that the two rituals to run at that time were The Masked Beast for its strength, and Relinquished for its awesome effect (the only one added to the list since then is Paladin of White Dragon). By reading that incredibly long-winded effect description up there, you will realize the potential of this card. It can "suck up" any monster on your opponent's side of the field, absorbing it and using it as a puppet to both attack and defend. Since it's your opponent's monster, your opponent takes equal damage if his monster attacks Relinquished when it's equipped, and since the monster is defending for Relinquished, it gets destroyed instead, giving this card a precious second life. Note that it's possible to deliberately ram Attack Position monsters with Relinquished in order to destroy the monster it is equipped with and to inflict damage on your opponent. This allows you to trade up to a stronger monster more easily.
It is important to know all the rulings before you try to play this card; this is not a tool for noob decks by any means. First off, yes, he is a Ritual monster, and although they ran out of space to print the normal Ritual Monster spiel about summoning him, he must be Ritual Summoned using the Spell "Black Illusion Ritual", and he costs a measly one Level Star of Tribute. You cannot discard the monster equipped to Relinquished in order to equip another one, although you CAN destroy the monster with Spell removal, since it is being treated as an Equip Spell Card. The ATK/DEF position of the equipped monster at the time of absorption and thereafter is irrelevant; only the position of Relinquished can be subsequently changed and determines how the monster battles. Finally, like all Ritual Monsters, Relinquished can be revived from the Graveyard or Removed From Game piles IF it was properly Ritual Summoned before and without having returned to the hand or deck (I mention this only because someone tried to argue with me about it at the last session).
With all those caveats out of the way, let's talk about the card and how to use it. First off, it is by far the easiest Ritual Monster to summon. You can offer virtually any token in the game as Tribute for this summoning, since most tokens only forbid their use for Tribute Summons, which a Ritual Summon is not. That means for the measly price of a Scapegoat or Stray Lamb, you can get this guy on the field -- dead simple. No matter what happens, if Relinquished is successfully summoned and his effect is not negated, your opponent loses a monster, so that's good no matter what. The timing of the use of this effect is very critical -- you don't really want to summon him to an empty field or when your opponent only has face-down monsters (flip them up with the Book first if you must), and you'd do best to use him to take over something powerful. A Level 4 beatstick will work if it has ridiculous attack, but most of the time you'll be gunning for your opponent's Tribute monsters. Relinquished can be used defensively, offensively, or as a form of control. He is probably one of the most flexible cards in the game because of his effects.
Stealing monsters, having a monster with two lives, and having a monster that sends your opponent's attack back at him all rolled into one is great. It's important to note, however, that this card is considered eclipsed in the current metagame by its more highly evolved Fusion form, Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Until the release of the cards Metamorphosis and Magical Scientist, Thousand-Eyes Restrict was mostly ignored. Now, however, he can be found in almost every tournament-worthy Fusion deck in threes. Thousand-Eyes Restrict is more or less identical to Relinquished, but with one additional effect -- as long it remains face-up on the field, no other monsters can attack or change battle positions. This can be a double-edged sword of course, but when used with Scientist, that doesn't often come into play. Still, with the proper support, Relinquished is playable and every bit as fun. He's also easier to get, since he came in a starter deck -- Thousand-Eyes is only available as a Secret Rare and as an expensive promo card.
I just love Relinquished. He's tech, no matter what. His main liability is the requirement of Ritual Summoning him. I can no longer say I've not had a Ritual Spell negated, as this happened to me once during the last play session -- in the tournament scene, this would just be bad. In casual, however, it's forgivable. With all these diverse and wonderful effects to make up for his downsides, Relinquished is a card I won't hesitate to classify in the Great catagory. He'll probably see periodic play from me for a long time to come.