There are a ton of great new themed cards in The New Challengers, for Decks ranging from Shaddolls to Burning Abyss, Satellarknights to Qliphorts. NECH certainly has a lot of great cards for individual strategies like those, but today’s spotlight falls on something that can go in any Deck! A twist on the always excellent classic card Call of the Haunted, take a look at Oasis of Dragon Souls!

Activate this card by targeting 1 monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it in Defense Position. It becomes Wyrm-Type. When this card leaves the field, destroy that monster. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this card.

Oasis of Dragon Souls, like Call of the Haunted, is a Continuous Trap Card that Special Summons a monster from your Graveyard. The differences are that Oasis brings the monster back in Defense Position, and also changes the monster into a Wyrm-type! And just like Call of the Haunted, the fate of Oasis and the monster are linked – if one leaves, the other is destroyed.

For most Decks, changing the monster into a Wyrm doesn’t have a huge impact, but by making a monster into a Wyrm, it does become compatible with Yang Zings! Specifically, it can be a Synchro Material for Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing – a devastating Synchro Monster in a world where most monsters have effects if they hit the Graveyard!

Typically, your Deck won’t really care about changing your monsters into Wyrms. You’ll be more interested in having a Defense Position Call of the Haunted! Oasis of Dragon Souls can make most of the same kinds of plays Call of the Haunted does, but in a more defensive way.

Obviously, Oasis works better with high DEF monsters, such as Samsara, Dragon of Rebirth or Ancient Fairy Dragon. It’s also great with monsters that have defensive abilities, such as Marshmallon.

Oasis of Dragon Souls is great for triggering the effects of weaker monsters safely, too. For example, you can use it with Satellarknights, just like you already use Call of the Haunted. The strongest Satellarknight reaches 1800 ATK, and most are even less, so bringing them back in Defense Position lets you play a little safer. The same applies to the Traptrix monsters – trigger Traptrix Myrmeleo’s and Traptrix Dionaea’s effects safely, or bring back Traptrix Nepenthes in its stronger Defense Position.

One thing to note is that Oasis of Dragon Souls and Call of the Haunted have slightly different wording when it comes to their last two sentences. Veteran Duelists are probably aware that Call of the Haunted will not be destroyed if the revived monster leaves the field without being destroyed – a quirk that usually ends up leaving Call stuck on the field doing nothing. Oasis of Dragon Souls is worded in such a way that it doesn’t have that problem, so you don’t have to worry about it taking up space in your Spell & Trap Card Zone. It’s also a much safer card to play if you’re using Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, since your field will stay clear.

When you get down to it, there’s not too much to be said about Oasis of Dragon Souls that hasn’t been said about Call of the Haunted. It’s a defensive twist on Call, a card that’s been around over a decade, and spent much of that time Limited or Forbidden. If you’ve ever wanted more Call of the Haunted or the power of Call of the Haunted without the risk to your Life Points, this is the card for you!