Nobleman of Crossout
Normal Spell Card
SD1-EN012, Common (Pictured: 1st Edition)

"Destroy 1 face-down monster and remove it from play. If the monster is a Flip Effect Monster, both players check their respective Decks and remove all monsters of the same name from play. Then shuffle the Decks."

Nobleman of Crossout is just about the most powerful counter to Flip Effect monsters in the game. Since the best of such monsters not only totally break the game but are usually run in threes when allowed, this card almost always carries out its full effect on each use. Even when it does not, it still provides extra monster destruction, which is a vital component of every deck.

Nobleman of Crossout has some interesting and, in some cases, unfortunate uses. When played in a deck that emphasizes Remove From Play effects, it is possible to remove your own monsters from play intentionally using this card, and then bring them back with Dimension Fusion or Return From the Different Dimension. One such monster this works great with is Slate Warrior, who is unusual in that he is a strong beatstick with a flip effect.

The unfortunate usage this card has acquired as of late is an abuse of the ruling on empty hits occuring when an effect targets cards in the deck. If the opponent is so inclined, he or she is allowed to view your entire deck to verify that you have no cards targeted by the effect. While this ruling was made in good faith, it is poor, because it allows behavior that otherwise borders on cheating, and has contributed to the publishing of players' deck lists on the Internet for abuse by people who play in the tournament circles.

This problem aside, Nobleman of Crossout seems to also border on staple status, and it seems to be showing up in just about every deck these days. This was the first deck I ever ran it in personally, and I ended up liking it quite a bit. It can save you from unknown perils. Flip effects are some of the most powerful magic that goes on in the game (just consider the Jars as a good example), and packing negation and destruction to counter them has become more and more critical during the past two years of metagame evolution. There was a time when you could almost ignore them, but that time is now far past.

Nobleman of Crossout fits into the Great catagory, although he's certainly not the most powerful Flip Effect negation or monster destruction. It's the combination of these effects and the great need for them in the metagame that makes him excel. To top it all off, the Nobleman is now dead easy to get, since he comes in both of the new structure decks as well as in Starter Deck Kaiba Evolution (which is where the copy I actually ran in this deck came from).