Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

Hello readers. It's been 2 weeks but instead of dwelling on the banlist, it's time for some card reviews. Everyone likes card reviews, right?

Following on from my latest video on my channel, we have the Djinn archetype debuting in the Xyz Symphony starter deck, which is coming out half way through april.

Now, there are 4 Djinn xyz monsters that come in the starter deck. But instead of going on about each one, I'm just going to flat out state that Maestroke the Symphony Djinn is the only one talking about.

 The TCG picture is not clear enough on the Wikia, so this will have to do.

 Its a Rank 4, requires 2 level 4s and has 1800 attack and 2300 defence.

"Once a turn, you can detach a material to select one of your opponent's face-up attack position monsters; switch it to face-down defence position"

Starting with that part of the effect first. You get to use this effect up to 2 times which is not too bad. It can flip your opponent's monsters into a weaker position. Simply put, this card can get over anything with less than 1800 defence (That's a lot of monsters). You can flip a Zenmaines down and blow it up with a dark hole since it cannot activate it's effect and therefore dies right there. It's got a lot of uses and that's not even the end of the effect.

"When a Djinn Xyz monster you control would be destroyed, you can detach one of it's materials instead"

Now if we take a look back at the debut of zenmaines and gachi gachi, we know that being able to stick around is a really beneficial effect. If your opponent has a monster above 2300 attack, then you can use a material to keep it alive, then on your turn you can flip their monster down with the second material and attack over it. It's a really nice way to get out of a sticky situation.

How does it fare when used competitively? Well it can survive a Laggia attack and then kill it next turn. It can outright survive a dolkka with it's defence unlike something like Wind-Up Zenmaines. It can survive an Inzektor assault (unless of course they have a monster reborn or something). It's an all round decent wall and can help you gather resources for a few turns while your opponent is using theirs to get over it. Oh and it cannot be killed by a Catastor or need to use its materials.

 Best of all, it's generic.

There is no need to discuss the other djinns. They are decent but nothing like this guy, which is a shame. Until next time, duelists!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Gurensaurus and Gachigachi Gantetsu

I apologise for not making a blog entry for the last few days. I've had some project involving other blogs on my mind at the moment and now that thats over, i am free to write on this one (My main one, of course. YUGIOH FTW!). As a big sorry note, i've decided to review 2 cards instead of 1.

And these are the other two Exceed (Now officially called XYZ in the TCG, yet pronouned Exceez) from the starter deck, Gurensaurus and Gachigachi Gantetsu.

Lets start with Gurensaurus.



This rank 3 fire type requires 2 level 3 monsters and boasts a meh 2000 attack and 1900 defence. 2 level 3 monsters was easier to accomplish when Rescue cat was legal, but there are other ways to get 2 level 3s (Like Tour guide to the underworld).

When this card destroys a monster in battle and sends it to the graveyard, you can remove one exceed monster on this card to deal 1000 attack to your opponent.

Like most FIRE types, its got a burn effect. Burn effects are not very good. I would have preferred that 1000 damage to be 1000 more attack on the monster itself instead, but thats a little too strong for a rank 3.

Unfortunately there is not much to say about this card. Even though the XYZ monsters are not out yet, there are already better options, like Leviath Dragon (which i will review in the future) which has the same summoning requirements. It would have been a bit better if it could remove the monsters and deal burn damage without having to destroy a monster in battle. There are many times where 1000 damage can end a game or make their face down Solemn warning useless, so its not terrible.

With that out of the way, we can move on to the second, and much better card from the starter deck, Gachigachi Gantetsu (it will probably get a name change, or maybe not)


This rank 2 requires 2 level 2 monsters to summon it. Its got 500 attack and 1800 defence, which is fitting since its a rock type. Its got a decent effect that can keep itself on the field and benefit your other monsters too.

If this face-up card would be destroyed (either by battle or effect), you can remove one of this card's exceed materials instead. Also, all of your monsters gain attack and defence equal to the number of exceed materials on this card x 200.

So upon summon (In defence mode, obviously), its got a solid 2200 defence, which is not bad at all. Also, your monsters gain 400 attack so your level 4 beatstick can go up to around 2200-2300 attack. And with its ability to stop itself being destroyed, its got a nice immunity from bigger monsters and annoying spell cards like Dark hole or Black rose dragon.

However, due to its bad attack power, there is no real offensive benefit to this card. You would only go into this card when you are forced into a corner and need to hold off for a turn or two until you draw an out. While it is easy to summon (Deep sea diva comes to mind), you would rather have summoned something else to take on your opponent rather than let him set up. Fortunately, with its ability to stick around a while, it gives you a nice tribute fodder for a monarch.

So that's it for the XYZ monsters from the starter deck. In my personal opinion, the only one that MIGHT see play is Number 39: Utopia due to its attack negation and ease of summoning, but over time there will be better rank 4 monsters.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Aspiring Emperor Hope/ Number 39: Utopia

Hello once again readers. After looking on the wiki (If you don't use it, why not?) and it seems like the next yu-gi-oh related item to be released by Konami is the 2011 starter deck. This deck is no ordinary starter deck, it marks the beginning of a new era in duel monsters: Exceed monsters. This starter deck comes with 3 Exceed monsters and a bunch of the new protagonist's monsters (Which are not very good).

The starter deck comes with Yuma's ace monster, Aspiring Emperor Hope or as it's called in the TCG, Number 39: Utopia (Which i will call it from now on)

Exceed monsters look so badass

This Exceed monster is a Rank 4 (I'm going to have to get used to saying rank) and to exceed summon it, you must overlay 2 level 4 monsters on your field. It's got the standard 2500 attack and 2000 defence like all of the previous protagonist's ace monsters had. It's a light attribute, so it works with Honest and other light support. It's effect is pretty good:

When a monster on the field declares an attack, you can remove 1 exceed material from this card (Which you have 2 upon summon) to negate the attack. When this card is attacked while it has no exceed materials on it, destroy it.

So its got a good effect and a bad one. With a possible 2 attack negations, that can be the difference between surviving a swarm and losing to it. However, i would never recommend using both negations unless its necessary since you can just get attacked by a weak monster and it destroys itself (Meklord's don't mind that though). This negation effect is comparable to something like Necro guardna and that card's limited on the banlist. While it might not be as versatile as guardna, its still good.

The best part of exceed monsters is how easy it is to bring them out. They don't ask for a specific monster, just its level. There are so many level 4 monsters that can bring out more level 4s and bring this card out:

• Gravekeeper's spy: It lets you special summon any gravekeeper from your deck with less than 1500 attack, so just grab another spy and exceed summon on your turn.
• Batteryman AAA: While this card sucks in general, it is a level 4 that lets you special summon another AAA from your hand or graveyard, so thats all good.
• Summoner monk: Ditch a spell and grab any level 4 from your deck then exceed summon, without having to wait a turn like spy.

But the best way to get a bunch of rank 4 exceed monsters on the field at once is with the Gadget + Ultimate offering combo. All you have to do is activate ultimate offering, summon a gadget and add a new one to your hand. There you can just pay 500 life points and summon the gadget you just added to your hand and then you can get another gadget from your deck. Repeat this process and you will now have 5 gadgets on the field for the cost of 2000 life points from ultimate offering. You can just overlay 2 of them and exceed summon Utopia and since you have 3 left on the field, you can exceed summon another utopia. Now that you have freed up 2 monster slots on your field, you can just summon 2 more gadgets and exceed another utopia. Overall it cost you 3000 life points, but now you have 3 Utopias on the field and a gadget. With those utopias you can negate up to 6 attacks!

Because of that malicious combo, you can expect Ultimate offering to be limited or even banned come september.

So thats it. Exceeds are going to hit this game with its versatile summoning conditions and hopefully, their effects will rival that of the first synchro monsters.

I shall be picking up a few starter decks for myself, and i suggest that you do too.