Card Discussion: Pot of Cupidity

How much would you pay or invest in order to re-live the good old days of Pot of Greed?

Cupidity or Stupidity?

As we await GeoTheBacon's 2nd Dee/Detailed/Dueling post, let us dive into a card many D/D/D players choose to include in their builds. It has been about a month since its introduction, but today, we at Dueling Cancer shall provide our view on this card's relevance in the current state of the Yu-gi-oh Metagame and decide if it does indeed live up to its hype.

Let's start off with the card's full effect:

Source

強欲で貪欲な壺 Gouyoku de Donyoku na Tsubo (Pot of Cupidity)

Normal Spell Card

You can only activate “Pot of Cupidity” once per turn.

(1) Banish the top 10 cards of your Deck face-down; draw 2 cards.

Diamond Dude Abuse

First off, let's not belittle the effect, or lack thereof, stated in the card text. A fourth of your deck is a hefty price to pay...
Would be nice if we could just y'know...not pay the cost.

 

Destiny HERO - Diamond Dude does just that. If Pot of Cupidity were to be milled, you can use its effect. Well, there's not much to the effect text of Pot of Cupidity. Draw 2 cards. Free of charge!
Sounds pretty fun to abuse, eh?

Check It Out!

Also, what many may not know is that in OCG land (where Elemental HERO - Stratos flies free~!) you can check your banished face-down cards.
Be it lamenting over the banished Harpie's Feather Duster or heaving in relief that your deck's key cards remain intact, you will know what you forfeited in order to "draw two".

PSY-Framelord Omega can even be used to return those face-down banished cards back to the graveyard. You will find more reason to run Pot of Cupidity when you realise how easy it is to summon PSY-Framelord Omega in a D/D/D deck. Looking at the big picture, with the help of PSY-Framelord Omega, Pot of Cupidity's cost is mitigated and it even serves as a mini-search function to quickly get some useful key cards into the graveyard, such as D/D Necro Slime or D/D Swirl Slime.

Draw Without Drawback

What many fail to realise is that Pot of Cupidity doesn't have the common drawback that most draw power cards have;

Be it the inability to summon after or during the turn,

 

Or the no more damage clause that Card of Demise has.

You can't activate Pot of Duality or Cards of Demise without giving up your special summons or damage, although one may try to bypass the latter by using Cards of Demise in Main Phase 2. Even then, special summons can't be performed, making it hard for players to capitalise on their newly drawn cards on the same turn.
Upstart Goblin is capable of thinning the deck at best, and it certainly can't compare to the additional card advantage the aforementioned cards provide. In addition, it is never fun for meta decks to give gift your opponent additional lifepoints. The only pro of Upstart Goblin is that you will always be able to fulfill the cost of the card, in contrast to Pot of Cupidity, which would probably hinder the user in the late-game of the game where the deck count runs thin.

So How Many Should I Play?

One, two, three? None?

The things is, Pot of Cupidity is not a viable tech for every deck.

Decks that banish cards on their own, ironically, do not enjoy the use of Cupidity. It would be terrible for key components of a PSY-frame or Ritual Beast deck to be banished. Three PSY-Frame Drivers banished as cost may spell disaster for the deck, as all the tuners turn into dead cards (although the new support card may be able to salvage the situation). Psychic Feel Zone is also incapable of interacting with those face-down cards, even if the player can check them.

Ruling is accurate as of the time this post is published.

This is because unlike PSY-Framelord Omega, Pyschic Feel Zone targets. Evidently, Pot of Cupidity does more harm than good in these decks.

The most common decks that having been utilising Pot of Cupidity for the past weeks are Metalfoe and D/D/D. Both decks are combo orientated. Their first turn revolves around  a series of special summons to ensure a lockdown on the opponent. Pot of Cupidity shines in such decks as it allows the user to quickly obtain their combo pieces with the card advantage it provides. Just look at how many things D/D/D can accomplish with a few cards.

You will most likely pull off a single Pot of Cupidity. Two, perhaps, if you are lucky to draw into a second one and be able to afford the cost. Playing three copies only increases the chance of the player drawing into it. It is highly unlikely that you can activate three Pot of Cupidity's in a single game, unless you run a 60-card deck.

Conclusion

Pot of Cupidity's cost may seem steep at first, but ways exist to make the most out of those banished cards. Currently, I feel that D/D/D has the most to gain from using Pot of Cupidity, due to the ease of summoning out PSY-Framelord Omega (which is unparalleled in its ability to recycle banished cards, even face down).

Cupidity is indeed a strong card, in the sense that it can lead to explosive combos, which is what combo-orientated decks require. I am skeptical about it being used in Phantom Abyss  decks as it is hard to recycle the banished cards, and the limited resources such as their single copies of Tour Guide & Scarm only makes it harder to abuse Cupidity. Decks which seek to farm for resources and gather field advantage, such as Tellarknights, Yosenjus and Pure Super Quantum should stay away from this card. Metalfoe decks, while being incapable of recycling the banished cards, justify their need to run Pot of Cupidity in order to obtain their combo pieces at a faster pace. Their deck's main objective is to set up a massive lockdown on the field on their first turn, with cards such as Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon & Naturia Exterio. This requires some key components and specific cards to set up the field, which Cupidity may be able to provide. Moreover, most of those said specific cards - Blackwing - Gofu the Ghostly Shadow, Cyber Stein are available to be played in 3 copies, reducing the risk of all of those cards being removed from play by Cupidity.


If you are that unlucky, accept my condolences for your bad luck.

Word has it that it will be the best "card-drawing card" there ever will be, as Pot of Greed is bound to suffer a massive nerf and erratum like poor Sangan did, should it ever be released from the banlist. If anything, we should be glad that they released a card which Exodia and Chain Burn are unlikely to abuse.

On an ending note, it would be real painful for the user if the opponent decides to chain Mystical Refpanel to Pot of Cupidity.