TLM-EN038
Brain Control
Normal Spell
Pay 800 Life Points. Select 1 face-up monster on your opponent?s side of the field. Take control of the selected card until the End Phase of the turn this card is activated.
SUPER RARE/ULTIMATE RARE

My Card of the Day is one that you're fairly familiar with if you watch the Anime. Yugi uses this enough times to consider it a Yugi card. It's called Brain Control. In the Anime, it was a Quick-Play Magic Card that allowed the player to take control of one monster on the field for the rest of the turn. It was always used on face-up cards, so I don't think anyone expected that the real card would be much different. Turns out some of us were wrong.

The Brain Control found in The Lost Millenium varies from the Anime card in that you must pay 800 Life Points to activate the card. This isn't exactly a steep cost. I mean, people pay 1000 Life Points for Delinquent Duo. It helps you out even more if you use it in a Spellcaster-Type deck that uses Spell Economics (Continuous Spell Card; Effect: You do not have to pay any Life Points to activate a Spell Card). This would essentially give you a free Change of Heart effect. However, you probably won't play Spellcaster/Dark Magician until Dark Magic Curtain comes out in English (Normal Magic Card; Effect: Pay half of your Life Points. Special Summon a Dark Magician from your Deck. You cannot Summon any other monsters during the turn in which this card is activated.) to give you a free Dark Magician Summon. However, in current Spellcaster decks that might revolve around Sorcerer of Dark Magic, the Spell Economics + Brain Control combo makes a great way to get Dark Magician Girl or Chaos Command Magician or the upcoming Cybernetic Magician card out onto the field more easily (Cybernetic Magician; LIGHT/Spellcaster/6/2400/1000; Effect: Discard one card from your hand. The ATK of one face-up monster on the field becomes 2000 until the End Phase of the turn this effect is activated.) for Sorcerer of Dark Magic while at the same time getting rid of an opponent?s monster. You could use it in a Direct Damage deck that uses Toon Cannon Soldier or just regular old Cannon Soldier or even Catapult Turtle to get rid of a monster on their side of the field and do damage to your opponent. At the worst, you might be willing to play this card and pay 800 Life Points to destroy an opponent's face-up Spirit Reaper (Spirit Reaper would be targeted). That's not bad, but there are a few cards to watch out for when using Brain Control.

You might face a few dangers when trying to use Brain Control in a competitive duel. First, Book of Moon runs rampant through competitive decks. Why does this matter to you? Let's say your opponent has only a Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning and one face-down Spell/Trap Card on his/her side of the field. You have no Monsters and nothing on the field. You draw Brain Control, hoping that you can at least get rid of their juggernaut. You activate Brain Control, paying 800 Life Points to activate it and targeting Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning. Your opponent reveals their face-down card: Book of Moon.

Chain Link 1: Brain Control, targeting Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning
Chain Link 2: Book of Moon, targeting Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning

Resolve in reverse.

Chain Link 2: Book of Moon flips Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning face-down into Defense Position.

Chain Link 1: Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning, the target of Brain Control, is now face-down. Brain Control only takes control of face-up monsters, so Brain Control resolves without effect.

Other than that, there are no real downsides to this card. Obviously it faces problems against cards like Magic Jammer, Solemn Judgment, and Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, but what Spell Card doesn't?


Final Analysis: This card can be great in decks that use a lot of Tribute monsters like Blue-Eyes White Dragon decks, Sorcerer of Dark Magic decks, and LIGHT Destruction decks (using Moisture Creature and one of the new 2005 tin promos, Gilford the Lightning). I think it will shine in Dark Magician decks once people have a reason to play Spell Economics. For right now, though, you're probably better off using Snatch Steal if your only objective is to remove your opponent?s face-up Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning or destroying an opponent?s Spirit Reaper.


Traditional Rating (Tournament): 5/10. It's good, but decks are too packed in with staples to support another "retrained" Spell Card. Besides, Change of Heart and Snatch Steal are popular options for stuff that Brain Control can do, and Change of Heart can take face-down monsters for free.

Traditional Rating (Casual): 7/10. This and Dummy Golem in the new set can allow for you to build a Take Control deck using cards like Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, Creature Swap (x2), Invader of the Throne (x2, at least), Brain Control (x2, at least), and Dummy Golem (x2, at least). This is also great for Tribute-heavy decks. You might consider using this instead of Soul Exchange, especially if Book of Moon is not heavily used.

Advanced Rating (Tournament): 7/10. This card gets a lot more uses in Advanced, and there's usually space to spare for it. Nearly every deck using Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning, so this gives you a Change of Heart replacement to take control of it and remove it from play. Some still play Spirit Reaper, so this can be another opportunity to destroy him while he?s face-up. Just beware of Book of Moon.

Advanced Rating (Casual): 8/10. This is Change of Heart's replacement. Use this, especially if you?re using a Sorcerer of Dark Magic deck. Without Magical Scientist to get your Sanwitches, you'll need an easier way to get your Level 6 Spellcasters onto the field. If you're worried about Book of Moon, put in some Magic Jammers or Magic Drains. You might also consider this in a Last Turn deck to help rid yourself of the plague that is Black Luster Soldier ? Envoy of the Beginning, and believe me when I say that 800 Life Points is chump change to get rid of him for good. Why the two points less? 1 point is for the existence of Book of Moon as a Quick-Play Spell. 1 point is for the fact that it only gets face-up monsters.


Anime Appearances: As far as I can remember, the first appearance of Brain Control came when Yugi played Pegasus at the end of the Duelist Kingdom saga. Yugi took control of Pegasus' Jigen Bakudan and used it as part of the sacrifice for the Ritual card for Magician of Black Chaos. He also used Brain Control against Arcana to take control of his Fiend Jester and sacrificed Fiend Jester and Alpha the Magnet Warrior to summon Dark Magician and attack directly. The last use I know of was against Strings ("The Quiet One") when Buster Blader destroyed Revival Jam. According to Battle City rules and effects, Revival Jam reformed immediately after the attack for no Life Point cost. When Revival Jam attempted to re-form, Yugi activated Brain Control before Revival Jam fully re-formed. This allowed Revival Jam to re-form on Yugi's side of the field. Since it was Summoned to Yugi's side of the field, Slifer had to attack with its second mouth attack. Revival Jam went to Strings' graveyard, was Special Summoned to Yugi's side of the field, and Strings had to draw 3 cards each time Revival Jam was re-formed (Card of Safe Return in the Anime allowed a 3-card draw, not just 1). Then since Revival Jam re-formed on Yugi's side of the field due to Brain Control, Slifer had to attack again. Another 3-card draw, another re-formation, another Slifer attack, etc. Strings eventually ran out of cards in his deck and lost the Duel since he could not draw any more cards.

I re-call Yugi using it on Mai'S Harpies Pet Dragon as well to have it take down Mirror Wall with Catapult Turtle.

You're right. I completely forgot about that. Good catch!

Wow Bravo, your card analysis is so extremely detailed and hits all points on the cards possible. Keep up the good work as I enjoy tuning in.

At some point I like for you to do a review on a Ancient Gear Golem if possible. I think it is a card that is little over rated.

I've played with Brain Control, and with Enemy Controller, but there is still a difference between their usage... For instance, everybody is playing 2 to 3 Scapegoats in their decks, so Enemy Controller is easier to use. Second, because of his Quick-Play ability, you can activate the card in your opponent's turn. When he tries to attack your your weak Magician of Faith that is on the field in face-up Attack Position with his Black Luster, offering it, to keep Black Luster for the remaining turn isn't that bad...

Brain Control is easy to use, since it doesn't need any monster to use it's effect, but in decks with Premature Burial, Delinquent Duo and Ring of Destruction, activating Brain Control is rather risky.

Therefore, I decided to play Enemy Controller over Brain Control...

Hope you accept my choice...

Well, Brain Control is the best CoH replacement we got. Even still, it's a good card. If you need a face down monster just for the flip effect, go with Mind Control.

Good Article...
Nice and Slick.
Brain Control is a pretty neat card and has a nice effect.
Good Job.

I would prefer snatch steal - it may give 1000 LP per turn but you can chain it with cards like "really eternal rest". Brain control just seems too much effort for control for a single turn

I have both Brain Control and Snatch Steal in my deck. Do you think that I should replace Brain Control with Creature Swap?

I've always been waiting to see when this card would actually come out. Too bad you have to pay 800 lifepoints. But it's not too much.

Question - if you have only scapegoats on your side of the field and you opponent has regular monsters, can you use creature swap?

You're new to the forums, so I'll just say that there is a topic for rulings in the TCG section.


Sure you can use Creature Swap if you only have Scapegoat tokens. You'll just chooose a Scapegoat token to give your monster with Creature Swap.

Well, I don't think there's really much to say about this card other than what ChaosBahamut said. It pretty much is the best current substitute for Change of Heart we have right now.

The 800 Life Points really isn't too steep for what you could be able to do with the stolen monster.

Anyway, I think it's a good card. It really is too bad they didn't keep it a quick-play, though. That might have made it too broken, I guess.

I think that Brain control is a very good card and it is easy to use
but 800 life point even though it is not that much I still like this card.

it's great
you can even use 3 in your deck

combo it with something like megamorph or last turn

Seriously dude, when are you gonna learn. And you also make us dutch people look stupid.
Please don't do this again, you're already warned several ti