Why the Destiny Hero Disk Commander Errata? - A Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review

by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist

Once one of the most popular decks in Yu-Gi-Oh, Destiny Heroes returned to modern Yu-Gi-Oh in 2018 with the Legendary Hero Decks. Because it was included in the decks, it was decided to return Destiny Hero - Disk Commander from the Banned and Restricted List to Unlimited status. This means you can now play three copies of one of the most powerful Destiny Hero cards of all time in your deck… But, wait, there’s an errata?

That’s right. There was no way that a monster that could draw you two cards every time it returns from the graveyard to the battlefield could be brought back into play without some serious limitation on its effect. So, Konami continues their rather frustrating trend of nerfing old cards just to make them legitimate cards that can be played in tournament decks without severely warping the competitive game.

The “new” Destiny Hero - Disk Commander after errata is extremely different from the original version. This little Level 1 Warrior monster originally read like this:

“When this card is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, draw 2 cards.”

Wow, that sounds pretty busted… It was. There’s a reason why Destiny Hero decks dominated Yu-GI-Oh for a long time. That is some nuts card advantage. So, how can they make it fair enough for it to return from the banned list?

Here is the Disk Commander Errata:

“Cannot be Special Summoned from the GY the turn this card was sent to the GY. If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can draw 2 cards. You can only use this effect of "Destiny HERO - Disk Commander" once per Duel.”

Wow, that’s a lot of deck. Let’s break this down.

Cannot be Special Summoned from the GY the turn this card was sent to the GY.

OK, this bit is understandable. This makes the effect a bit more fair, right? You can draw 2 cards if you Monster Reborn this guy, but you can’t do it until next turn, OK?

If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can draw 2 cards.

That sounds awfully familiar. So, if that’s all, that’s not too bad of an errata. Let’s all run three copies of Disk Commander!

Oh, wait, there’s more…

You can only use this effect of “Destiny HERO - DIsk Commander” once per Duel.

Ick. You mean we can only draw two cards ONCE? Hmm… well, that makes playing three copies rather pointless, doesn’t it?

You can see why this errata was made. It’s a double-whammy, but there are many reasons why this is necessary. First of all, it’s easier to Special Summon monsters from the GY more often than ever. Drawing two cards is still obviously quite good, and being a Level 1, there are plenty of reasons to want to play this card just as material to summon a Synchro, XYZ, or Link monster. But if its effect is only good once per turn, is it still worth playing?

I say yes. If you are playing a dedicated Destiny Hero deck, it’s totally worth playing one copy of Disk Commander, pitching it to Destiny Draw to draw two cards. Then, there are a myriad of ways to take advantage of him being there and Special Summoning him. Also, Elemental Hero Stratos was returned to one copy per deck in September of 2018, so he’s an obvious monster to choose with Stratos’ ability.

Destiny Hero - Disk Commander is still worth playing even with this double-edged errata craziness. There is pretty much zero reason to play more than one copy in my opinion. It’s easy to hate the errata, but there’s good reasoning for adding both of those restrictions on his effect. While he hasn’t seen competitive play since the initial return of Destiny Heroes in 2018, he’s still a fun card.

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