The next Heroic monster we will be reviewing is Heroic Challenger – Night Watchman. Night Watchman does not exactly fit the theme of Heroic monsters in that it does not do anything to increase the attack of a monster. However, it does give the Heroic theme a tool box type card. Its 1200 attack is not going to scare anyone, but it has the nice little effect of destroying monsters in defense position. The monster will still flip and get its flip effect, but if you play cards like Book of Moon and Enemy Controller, you can destroy just about any monster your opponent plays.
 
I really wish that Night Watchman had 200 attack less so we could keep the Limit Reverse theme going with the deck, as 200 attack does not do much for us. The Watchman is a level 4 Warrior monster, so it works great with the Heroic theme to summon Rank 4 Xyz Warrior monsters. Being an Earth monster with less than 1500 attack also helps us to summon or search for it with cards like Sangan, Reinforcement of the Army, Giant Rat, and Warrior Lady of the Wasteland.
 
You should be catching on to how to build a Heroic deck by now. Combine your Heroic monsters with recruiter monsters, reborn cards, special summoned Warrior monsters, and Tour Guide from the Underworld to make Warrior Xyz rank 4 monsters. You could even add in Grandsoil as they are all Earth monsters. For defense, maybe cards that turn your opponent’s monsters to defense. I can’t say that Heroic Challenger – Night Watchman is an integral part to the Heroic theme, but it fits the bill for what we need and could find a spot in the deck, even if it is at one for a tech card.
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5

Continuing with John's Heroic week, we look at Night Watchman, who reminds me of a human Tonberry. He's a level 4 EARTH/Warrior with 1200 ATK and 300 DEF.
 
Before damage calculation, if this card attacks a defense position monster your opponent controls: You can destroy that monster.
 
There are a few cards that do what Night Watchman does, so something like this is nothing new. Night Watchman can wreck monsters with high defense with no problem. You can use Enemy Controller (Remember that card?) or Book of Moon to switch them to defense mode and have him charge in. His stats aren't going have him winning too many battles, but his effect can help him win a few more. Not the best card, use if you feel like it.
 
Traditional: 1.5
Advanced: 2
Tomorrow: What's a Gandiva?

Heroic Challenger - Night Watchman
Lv. 4/EARTH/Warrior/1200A/300D
"Before damage calculation, if this card attacks a Defense Position monster your opponent controls: You can destroy that monster."

This effect certainly isn't new and other cards have done it better due to having a higher ATK stat, but still, he can use his effect on face down monsters, which is nice. He's good at pressing the advantage once you have constrol of the field with stronger monsters, but unless your opponent is desperate, this guy won't really be needed much. An alright card, but not any better than that.

Traditional: 2
Advanced: 2.5

My first thoughts upon looking at this card: Looks like a Hobbit.
So basically, this card can destroy any Defense Position monster without damage calculation. By the way, he WILL flip the monster. So…hrm…where have we seen this before?
 
Watchman’s cousins, from my opinion of best to worst (in terms of eliminating Defence Position monsters): Ehren, Lightsworn Monk: doesn’t destroy the monster but instead returns to deck (which is probably even better...), much better ATK/DEF, Light Attribute is significantly better than Earth as it allows the use of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning Drillroid: exact same effect, Machine, much better ATK/DEF (and I probably wouldn’t even use Drillroid outside of Machine Decks)
Reverse Buster: I covered this back on April 17, giving a 1.5 saying his effect may get usage but isn't exactly practical
Wattmole: less ATK, requires target to be facedown, doesn't flip the target (which is good)Light, can attack twice, isn't a Warrior Search Striker: more ATK, requires target to be facedown, doesn't flip the target, can't attack next turn
Sasuke Samurai: less ATK, requires target to be facedown, doesn't flip the target (which is good)
Mystic Swordsman LV2: less ATK but at least more than Sasuke Samurai, requires target to be facedown
Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke: much better ATK/DEF, Light Attribute, requires target to be face-up
Zubaba Knight: same as Sasuke with all-around worse stats
Ally of Justice Reverse Break: requires target to be facedown, doesn't flip the target, gest destroyed when there's a Light monster on the field
Razor Lizard: better ATK, doesn't flip the target, biggest drawback of all is that it can only be used in Reptile Decks Disk Fighter: less ATK, requires target to be face-up, requires target to have 2000 DEF or up
I listed pretty much every Normal Summon monster that has an effect to destroy Defence Position monsters. Ideally, it won't flip the target and doesn't matter if the target is faceup or facedown. Very rarely does it matter if it flips or not, it's just "better." The faceup/facedown thing doesn't matter much either, but it's important to at least be able to hit the facedown ones, since those are more common. I would probably place Night Watchman between Reverse Buster and Wattmole; I criticized Reverse Buster's inability to attack directly, but it's not like Watchman can do much better; granted, Wattmole can attack twice, but in terms of just destroying Defence monsters, it's an uncommon situation for the opponent to have two facedown monsters (and I wouldn't want to use a Wattmole just for that purpose). A card with an effect along the lines of "Destroy any Defence Position monster this attacks without applying damage calculation" isn't necessarily a bad effect, but rarely is it game-breakingly useful, especially since so many cards nowadays can destroy stuff regardless of position.
 
Anyway, my point is, Reverse Buster is better than Watchman, and Drillroid is even better than Buster (after all, I DID say Drillroid is the exact same as Watchman except for name, Type, and ATK/DEF). So why even use Watchman? Maybe you're using Warriors, and Drillroid just doesn't fit. Then I think Ehren, Lightsworn Monk is significantly better.
 
The other reason to use Watchman is because he gets Heroic support, but since Heroic support isn't all that great anyway...it diminishes Watchman's usefulness as a card.
 
In other news, I dunno why they renamed him to a "Night Watchman" when the original name was more like "Nighttime Kantera Attacker." Kantera is supposed to be the Dutch word for lantern, but kantera is also a type of igneous rock that is used as a common building material because of how well it stands up to humidity.
 
Yeah, everything about this guy is random.
 
Trad: 1/5
Adv: 1.25/5 (it's just that the effect, while not bad, is INCREDIBLY useful, and it would be much better had Watchman had at least 1600 ATK to at least protect himself, because 1200 ATK is pretty measly)
Aesthetics: 1.9/5 ♪He sees you when you’re sleeping… He knows when you’re awake…♪
 
Philosophy Corner: continued from yesterday
The Incident: She said “See you tomorrow” to some of our friends the day before, but only four other friends, plus Little Sister and myself, were there when it happened (some of us more present than others).
Han-Kat lived halfway across the country. Before the entire ordeal ended an hour later, I had just woken up and was enduring a heavy load of work. I had a chat room opened up at all times with Han-Kat and all of our friends in there and I just entered that night after waking and it was complete chaos. I scrolled up a bit and couldn’t exactly tell why Han-Kat was acting like this. I noticed she was being sadder recently (she often mentioned her "Happy Hannah Mask"), but this came as a complete shock. I tried my best to reason with her, but I was still too confused from just waking up and stressed from handling all my other work that was going on at that point. Looking back on it, I know there are so many things I could’ve done differently. I thought about calling the police halfway through, but I knew it wouldn’t do to serve much purpose as I didn’t know her address of the time (or whether she had an address at all). I was really dizzy and tried to promise her I’d talk to her tomorrow, but she was repeating over and over how she couldn’t wait another night. I felt so disappointed how I never got to say the things I wanted to say or that I was too tired at the time to really talk to her properly before she died, or that I never even got to hear her voice before she left. I’ve dealt with suicide emergencies before but this would be the only time I failed in completing the mission. When she stopped talking, I still don’t know if she did it or if she went to sleep. I felt empty as to what I could do; I ended up visiting suicideispreventable.org, but by that point it was already too late. It was just a reminder of everything I did wrong in my final moments with Han-Kat.
 
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