Lesson #6: Field Spells
Hello, class! Today's lesson will be on a bit of an unusual topic nowadays: The titular Field Spells.
Most players won't need this, but as a brief explanation, Field Spells are Spells with their own Card Zone, the aptly named Field Spell zone. Only one Field Spell may exist on the field at a time, and playing one will destroy any others currently on the field. As their name would suggest, they affect the entire field and all the monsters on it.
Or at least that's how old Field Spells worked. Over the past few years, Field Spells have taken a turn towards only assisting the monsters of the player controlling the Field Spell, such as The Seal of Orichalcos, to even Field Spells that have nothing to do with the monsters on the field, such as Dragon Ravine and The Grand Spellbook Tower.
While this makes their description as Field Spells a bit laughable, it doesn't change the fact that these are unique cards in their own group.
Older Field Spells are generally looked down upon, as in the old days, Field Spells tended to affect both sides of the field and granted no benefit other than increased ATK. While that was important in the day of their release, nowadays it is an outdated concept to lose card advantage for a (meager) boost in attack.
Some of the newer Field Spells, however, are cards that generate advantage or otherwise help a player set up their plays, giving them usability in today's metagame. In the fast, advantage-based atmosphere of today's game, these cards have uses in their own particular Decks and must be taken into consideration.
One of the most prominent (and helpful) Field Spells used in today's metagame is, in fact, used by a Tier 1 Deck which we learned about during the lessons on the Meta, Spellbooks.
The Grand Spellbook Tower generates massive advantage for Spellbooks, allowing them to recycle easily-searchable Spellbooks and giving them a free card. Little explanation is needed as to why this card is helpful to these Decks.
However, as previously mentioned, gaining advantage isn't the only things Field Spells are capable of helping with. Certain Field Spells support a certain Archetype, increasing the overall lethality of the Deck in ways more important that a gain in ATK.
Madolche Chateau is extremely useful for Madolche Decks. Although it is nice having 500 more ATK, the more useful effects are the card's ability to recycle Madolche monsters and to prevent a loss of advantage through the effects of Madolche monsters which send monsters back to the Deck. Combined with the high searching ability of the Deck, this card allows much advantage to be built up without thinning the Deck.
Although most Field Spells created recently were designed to support a certain archetype, some Field Spells can have uses in different Decks when studied closely enough
Dragon Ravine was originally designed to support the Dragunity archetype, allowing the Graveyard to be quickly loaded with the Archetype's Tuners for the quick plays the Deck made. The card itself, though, helps many more Decks than just Dragunity.
Nowadays, the ability to send cards to the Graveyard from the Deck is generally highly valued, especially with the accuracy Dragon Ravine does it with. Many Dragon-oriented Decks, such as Chaos Dragons and Tempest Dragunity, can benefit from this card's Graveyard-loading abilities enough to outweigh the general loss of advantage this card causes, by giving the Deck more options and quicker access to spamming the Graveyard.
As a rule, ATK is never a priority when using Field Spells. One of the card known as a great ATK booster, the (in)famous The Seal of Orichalcos card, finds itself little-used in most Decks due to its nature of being nothing but an ATK-booster that sticks around.
The main use of this card, rather than its ATK-boosting ability, is its destruction ability. While not popular, this Deck does see use in Malefic Decks, since those monsters rely on Field Spells existing in order to survive. However, even this is circumvented by the fact that most Malefic Decks run Skill Drain, mitigating the need to have a destruction-resistant Field Spell.
One exception to the rule of Field Spells being mainly about increasing advantage or setup is a particular Field Spell that can lock down opponent's plays, though you must be careful of which Deck it is used in or it could screw you up as well.
In a metagame that is generally extremely reliant on the Graveyard, this card works wonders by locking the Graveyard. This Deck can work as in any Deck that doesn't rely on the Graveyard to disrupt opponents. It's another card where the fact that "well, it's a Gravekeeper's card" doesn't really matter in the slightest. (Not that Gravekeeper's don't make a decent anti-Meta deck, but that's for another discussion).
The problem many people have with Field Spells is the same as with a lot of Continuous Spells and Traps in that they have to stick around to work. A simple Mystical Space Tornado can clean off a Field Spell, meaning that unless you can search and recycle them easily, having a Field Spell as a major part of your Deck is generally a bad idea.
One card, though unpopular, that helps defend Field Spells is a card known as Field Barrier.
The main perk of this card is that this is the only Field Spell defense that generally works against the simple act of your opponent playing their own Field Spell, as only one Field Spell can exist on the field at a time. However, it's a generally slow card, truly a loss of advantage and usually not worth the draw, since most Decks don't place enough emphasis on their Field Spells to take extra measures to protect them. Also, this card is completely useless if in your hand before your Field Spell, or if your opponent doesn't care enough to try to destroy your Field Spell.
So, review. Old-style Field Spells that simply grant ATK bonuses are bad in just about every case, and not worth running or worrying about. However, if considered properly, certain Field Spells can be used to great effect in support of your Deck. As a general rule, a Field Spell is good if it helps you gain advantage or sets up big plays.
Homework this week is split up into three parts, each worth 100 OD. First, find one Field Spell that is not listed above that would be considered a useful Field Spell for a given Deck, and explain how the Field Spell and that Deck work together well. Second, list a good card for protecting Field Spells, aside from Field Barrier. Lastly, come up with a card that is useful for destroying or otherwise nullifying a Field Spell's usefulness through some level of protection. Overall, the assignment is worth 300 OD. Best of luck!
Subject: Lesson #6: Field Spells 
