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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Heroic Champion - Gandiva
- #ABYR-EN042 

2 Level 4 Warrior-Type monsters Once per turn, when a Level 4 or lower monster(s) is Special Summoned to your opponent's side of the field (except during the Damage Step): You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy that Special Summoned monster(s).

Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.25
Advanced: 3.67 

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 is average. 5 is the highest rating.


Date Reviewed - Dec. 5, 2012

Back to the main COTD Page

 

Dark

Paladin
Wednesday
 
Shifting to the XYZ front, we come to Heroic Champion-Gandiva.  This is a Rank 4 XYZ Monster, XYZ Summoned with two Level 4 Warrior type Monsters.  Gandiva has 2100 attack and 1800 defense, both which are rather low for a Rank 4, but using Mondays card, you have a Monster with 3100 attack, that's worth pointing out.  So what can Gandiva do?  Once per turn, by discarding an XYZ Material, you can destroy a Special Summoned Monster (or Monsters) your opponent Summons, except during the Damage Step.  I'm not a fan of that minor restriction, although it isn't all that big of a deal.  The fact it can't take out, potentially, more than one Special Summoned Monster at a time via its effect IS good, but the low attack can be a problem.  It would be better too if you could use the effect more than once a turn.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  2.25/5
Advanced:  3.25/5 
Art:  5/5 

John Rocha

Heroic Champion – Gandiva is a very powerful Xyz monster in the current format. Just think about all of the deck types that are wrecked by this card. By detaching a material, you can destroy a level 4 or lower monster that is special summoned once per turn. Let’s take a head count of some of the decks and monsters that rely on special summoning level 4 or lower monsters: Psychic, X-Saber, Synchron, Rabbit, Tour Guide, Wind-Up, Geargia, Deep Sea Diva, Heroic, HERO, and Six Samurai to name just a few.
 
If you are playing a Warrior deck like Heroic, HERO, X-Saber, and Six-Samurai, then you will want Heroic Champion – Gandiva along side your Steelswarn Roach in your Extra deck. With 2100 in attack, it is not going to get over many monsters, but it will not have too if your opponent can not summon enough level 4 or lower monsters to special summon a Synchro or Xyz monster. Where Gandiva falls short is against decks that summon big monsters like Hieratic, Chaos Dragon, and Prophecy decks. It also suicides against Cyber Dragon.
 
Heroic Champion – Gandiva should be a staple in a Warrior deck as it definitely makes the grade for the current format.
 
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 4/5

Miguel

Middle of the week brings us to a Heroic monster that I hope doesn't get overlooked by Warrior users, Heroic Champion - Gandiva. A Rank 4 Xyz EARTH/Warrior monster, with 2100 ATK and 1800 DEF. Gandiva needs 2 level 4 Warrior-Type monsters to Xyz summon. 
 
Once per turn, when a level 4 or lower monster(s) is special summoned to your opponent's side of the field (Except during the damage step): You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card, destroy the special summoned monster(s)
 
Right away, this card is an answer to any deck using Rescue Rabbit/Tour Guide, assuming you can get Gandiva out before that darn rabbit or the lovely Tour Guide hits the field. But this card, teamed with Steelswarm Roach can shut down pretty much any special summoning your opponent may try. If Gandiva hits the field before your opponent can get out Tour Guide or Rabbit, you really put them in a corner and will force them to use things like Dark Hole or Torrential Tribute just to get rid of this card. You can use cards like H.C. Extra Sword to give it a 1000 point boost so it won't get attacked over by a monster with 2100 or more ATK, and Overlay Regen to give Gandiva another shot at stopping your opponent's special summoning. Samurais, Heroics and any decks that use a lot of level 4 Warriors can use Gandiva. I like it, in Warrior decks only of course.
 
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: A gift, for me????


Philosophical
Psycho
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
When a Level 5 or higher monster would be special summoned: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the Special Summon and destroy it.
 
That is the effect of Steelswarm Roach, a 1900 ATK Rank 4 monster that, in the early eras of Xyz, was feared because of its ability to literally stop just about any Synchro and most boss monsters. However, what Roach suffered from was its inability to defend against fast Xyz plays such as Utopia.
 
Hiroikku Chanpion Gandeva, whilst having her (at least I think Gandiva is a her) use being limited to only Warrior Decks, is a very welcome addition and, in my opinion, is more impressive than Heroic Champion – Excalibur. Slifer the Sky Dragon and King Tiger Wanghu, when used rightly, can become very annoying, as they have effects that instantly eradicate monsters with low stats (like Infinite Dismissal, but better). While Steelswarm Roach can halt large plays, Gandiva works by taking out the small monsters that are required to MAKE those bigger plays. Here’s the scenario: Imagine your opponent has out four Level 4 Warriors. That’s when Gandiva comes out. Once Gandiva comes out, it can be assumed the next two low-Level monsters you bring out will be instantly slaughtered. Low-Level monsters are practically necessary to conduct most Synchro or Xyz Summons, so unless you have a way to summon a monster with over 2100 ATK WITHOUT the help of any of these low-Level monsters and you can’t get any Traps or Spells to help you soon, prepare for a rough time.
 
Lol…Gandiva reminds me of the #1 mistake of building a deck: Using too many high Level monsters.
 
There are some limitations to Gandiva, of course, that stop her from being a complete monster. Firstly, Gandiva can’t snipe Normal Summoned monsters, so at least I can still Normal Summon a Tuner and then Special Summon a Level 5 monster for some Synchro, exploiting her paltry 2100 ATK. Although Gandiva doesn’t negate the summon, she has an advantage over most other summon-thwarting cards in that she is not prone to missing her chance (for example, she doesn’t need to negate the actual card that does the summoning; Steelswarm Roach can’t negate Ritual Spells or Monster Reborn because Roach cannot negate chainable effects, and by the time the monster is actually summoned, it’s too late, a problem that Gandiva does not have). Also, she can use her effect only once per turn, so if you have can find a way to summon many low-Level monsters independently of each other, you can bait out her once-per-turn clause and summon something big.
 
Gandiva’s own text means she cannot negate something summoned by Mystic Tomato, Giant Rat, etc. Those don’t see a lot of play anyway. When you’re using a Warrior Deck, you have a large amount of options for Rank 4 Xyz. Personally, I enjoy using Blade Armour Ninja to try and win the game as swiftly as I can, but if you like to play more carefully, Gandiva is the best defensive Rank 4 Xyz for anticipating your opponent’s plays, even better than Utopia.
 
Trad: 2/5
Adv: 3.25/5
Aesthetics: 3.7/5 You know, I never really got the point behind the Heroic Challengers, but all three of the Heroic Champion cards I’ve seen so far seem to have some historical or mythological backing. Excalibur is a reference to English knights, and Kusanagi is based off samurai. Gandiva is not as clear, but I think she was based off of the heavenly bow of Gandiva, from Hindu mythology. It was used with two bottomless quivers (arrow holsters) by several people before the hero Arjuna used it in the Kurushetra War; afterwards, he put the Gandiva into a river to be returned back to the gods. The Gandiva was not a crossbow, nor was it attached to your wrist, but I still think this monster is pretty cool. This is funny as earlier this Thursday, I happened to see a very beautiful painting of the Greek goddess Artemis jumping up with her bow raised and it fit perfectly along the crescent of the moon in the background (if you Google “artemis moon bow” it should be the first thing you see). She also reminds me a lot of Lady Godiva, a British legend back all the way to about year 1000; her husband was a nobleman who put a really high tax on the people, and she made a deal with him to take the taxes off if she would go horseback riding throughout the town without clothes on. (Yes, this is also where the chocolate Godiva gets its name also.)
 
Philosophy Corner: continued from yesterday
Remembering Han-Kat: Out of all the people I personally knew that have passed away, no one was ever as close as Han-Kat. When she stopped responding, everyone feared the worst, myself included, even though I didn't show it, my expressionless, gaunt outlook as usual. Her boyfriend didn't seem to know what to think. Other young friends of ours were angry at me because I implied I didn't know whether she was truly dead or was just sleeping but clues pointed to the former. I threw no tantrum. I uttered no prayer. I produced no tear. But I kept looking over her last word over and over on the screen: "Bye." I was working that night, but throughout the entire night, I kept falling asleep and suddenly waking up back and forth, back and forth. As a hobby, I liked to copy down my dreams after I woke up from them and described them with great detail, but this time I had a lot of really short dreams that made absolutely no sense at all. Each time I woke, I constantly looked over my shoulder, wondering if her ghost would appear in my living room.
I was finally debriefed about fifteen hours following the incident. I shed no tear until forty-seven hours following this, when Jesse pulled me aside to give me his own eulogy and talked about my relationship with Han-Kat.
Han-Kat said that her favourite pair of people was Little Sister and me. She was many things to many people: Daughter, sister, girlfriend, friend. Not only was she bright, she was a dedicated worker that knew of her priorities. When Little Sister was going through sad times, Han-Kat was there for her also. On the side, Han-Kat was a very silly prankster, but she also happened to be very ticklish!
I had a whole list of things I wanted to tell her, a list I wish I remembered so that I could tell her before she died or perhaps could've saved her, but you never remember such things until it's too late. I forgot to remind her how she was just about ready to go to college after holding it off for so many years and how much I kept annoying her to taking an English major in my footsteps. I forgot to remind her how I made her promise me to read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. And so many so so many other promises. She would’ve been so good at writing. I remember last summer I made up a story about her walking through a luscious green pasture where the grass was long and it was all wavy from a light breeze going through it. After that I described to her what it would be like if we had a rock pool carved into the floor of the house, with cool rippling water and a running waterfall. Also in the summer I was making up funny sentences and tried to make all the words start with the same letter. I only got to around M. Throughout last month she kept wanting me to continue them again but I said no because I had so much work all the time and I couldn’t think properly to make the sentence really funny… Recently, she had gotten rather restless and would come online right in the middle of the night looking for her boyfriend. These nights, I was telling her the story of my life, and I only got up to when I was age 14 and I promised I’d finish one day. Most of our time was spent eating popcorn and playing with the bag afterwards. She loved animals and she also loved playing heavy metal on the electric guitar (also she also held a special love for "Carameldansen").
 
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