La-ki-oh
Duelist Soul

Review of ...

This is perhaps my favorite ritual monster ever. A first glance at him would make people wonder what in the world they were to do with him, with no attack or defense whatsoever, but his effect, especially when used skillfully, can devastate an opponent and make him cry.

Relinquished can equip any monster to himself, turning it into a Spell card, and use its attack and defense against your opponent. So if your opponent had one powerful monster waiting to strike you hard, you now have a clear field to strike him with all the power he had. One word: ouch.

If you play someone who is generally dumb, when they get a more powerful monster out to get rid of relinquished, they'll hurt themselves and give you a chance to absorb a new monster. Most people aren't dumb, though, so they'll try to exploit Relinquished's weak spots, which include any form of destruction, such as Dark Hole, Fissure, etc.

There is a special tactic to using Relinquished that both helps and hurts it. Since the equiped monster is now treated as a spell, it can be destroyed by anything that could destroy a spell. And since it's an equip spell, if Relinquished is flipped face-down, the monster equipped to it is destroyed. Now how can you flip him face-down? Tsukuyomi, Book of Moon, and Ready for Intercepting come to mind as reasonable. If the controller of this monster takes the lead in that, he can become nearly invulnerable by continuously absorbing monsters and destroying them. However, if the opponent takes out the equipped monster, it could leave some serious damage on your buddy, especially if he's unequipped using a spell-destroyer and remains in attack position.

What really makes this card great is that he's the easiest ritual to use. Being only level 1, basically any card can be used as a tribute from the hand (Sinister Serpent is a favorite). Also, being a dark monster has it's advantages.

If this card were any better, it would have to be restricted or banned. I mean just imagine if it wasn't ritual ... no tribute ...