Friday

Saving the best for last, we come to Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, which is like Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, but it looks better, does more, and is an XYZ Monster instead of a Fusion. This is the sickest XYZ to date, in terms of attack, defense, art, and effect, (the lattest of the later being my opinion perhaps) and OH, I just made up a word! This is a Rank 8 XYZ Monster, with 4500 attack, 3000 defense, of the Light attribute, obviously a Dragon, and XYZ Summoned with THREE (yes you read that correctly, three) Level 8 Monsters.

I put Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon into the category of a card like Shooting Quasar Dragon, insane summoning requirement, but ridiculously insane payoff. What three Level 8 Monsters would you use to XYZ summon this card? Obviously you would use at least one Galaxy-Eys Photon Dragon, and I think at least one Stardust Dragon would be an easy enough task to pull off. Maybe some combination there off, and another Level/Rank 8 XYZ/Synchro of your personal pleasure. When Neo is XYZ Summoned with Galaxy Eyes an Material, you negate the Effects of ALL other face-up Effect Monsters. That's bitching, for lack of a better word, my friends.

As for what else Neo can do, his effect is Galaxy Eyes on steroids. Once a turn by discarding an XYZ Material, you detach ALL other XYZ Material on the Field. Interesting note, I couldn't find ruling wise, but I'm not sure if that effect encompasses the rest of this cards XYZ Material, but even so, you're very likely winning this turn, adding in a successful Heavy Storm or something. But continuing along, Neo gains 500 attack for EACH damn XYZ Material discarded by this effect, that could prove to be beyond insane. OH, and if that weren't enough, Neo can attack once per the number of XYZ Material discarded by this effect. Insane to summon? Hell yes! Insane to play? Hell yes, again. Game breaking, game changing, potential for breaking and to end Duels everywhere...HELL YES!

Ratings:

Traditional: 3.5/5 SLOOOOOOOW but still unwieldy

Advanced 5/5...Bitches =)

Art: 5/5

Galactic Overlord has upgraded the Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon theme with Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. At 4500 attack and the ability to be even bigger, it has a potential OTK in that it can attack as many times as Xyz material it has removed from your opponent’s side of the field. All we need now to get this incredible monster on the field is three level 8 monsters.
 
There are decks in play today that can accomplish this feat without too much trouble. The first is a build with Gagaga Girl and Magician. We have talked about the Gagaga deck’s ability to special summon high ranked Xyz monsters all week. To clarify, you get both monsters on the field, change Magician to level 8 and then have Girl copy it for two level 8 monsters. If you get another Girl on the field with say Inferno Reckless Summon, you can have 3 or 4 level 8 monsters and Xyz to your hearts content.
 
Another deck that is all the rage right now is Hieratic. Use the tribute effect of a Hieratic monster to special summon Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon Overlord or Blue-Eyes White Dragon (it becomes a 0/0 atk/def) then play Inferno Reckless Summon to give you 3 level 8 monsters on the field. You can also special summon a Hieratic and normal summon a Hieratic monster and use Dragonic Tactics to tribute them both to bring out Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and two Normal level 8 monsters.
 
It takes a bit more effort and resources to summon or make 3 level 8 monsters, but it is doable in the right deck.
 
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5

Our last card of Dark Paladin's choice week is a card who's name I dare you to say 5 times real fast, Neo Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon. Neo is a Rank 8 Xyz Dragon, needing 3 level 8 monsters to Xyz summon. Sounds like a lot, but it's not that hard. Any 3 level 8 monsters will do. A well put together Blue Eyes deck with a Galaxy Eyes in it could get it done. The Gagaga trio, Hieratics, all work well, with card like Resonance Device, Dragonic Tactics and Photon Sanctuary as well. Not to mention over the top stats. If one of those level 8 monsters is regular Galaxy Eyes, Neo gets a neat ability. You can negate the effects of all other face up cards...Monsters, spells and traps that are currently on the field. Once per turn you can detach one Xyz material from this card to detach all Xyz materials you opponent controls. then Neo gains 500 ATK for each card detached, and it can attack the same amount of times as well. This card can win games, assuming nothing bad happens to it. 
 
Traditional: 1.5
Advanced: 3.5

Friday:

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
Rk 8/LIGHT/Dragon-XYZ/4500A/3000D
"3 Level 8 monsters
When this card is Xyz Summoned using "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" as any of its Materials: Negate the effects of all other face-up cards currently on the field. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; detach all Xyz Materials from monsters your opponent controls, then this card gains 500 ATK for each, also it can attack up to that many times during each Battle Phase this turn."

O... Kay. Here we have what's called a 'game winner that's nearly impossible to play' type of card. Getting out three Level 8 monsters is nearly impossible until Photon Kaiser gets released in an American format:

(Photon Kaiser Lv 8/LIGHT/Warrior/2000A/2800D "When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Photon Kaiser" from your hand or Deck." from the upcoming Return of the Duelist set)

But even then, that won't be enough to get NGEPD out easily as this card will takes such a serious amount of effort just to hit the field, only to most likely be instantly destroyed by a Trap card. While his effects are killer, he'll most likely never see any serious play due to his heavy and very costly summoning conditions. A great idea with amazingly high stats, but far too restricted to be even remotely practical.

Traditional: 2
Advanced: 1.5

I was mistaken in my review of Force Focus by citing Leviathan Dragon. Leviathan Dragon, being an Xyz, is not prone to being negated by Force Focus; however, I used Leviathan Dragon for the sake of example in illustrating how adept Force Focus is at negating continuous effects, effects that can be used more than once per turn, and how Force Focus can chain to any card and not necessarily to the effect you are intending to negate. This is significant as Xyz monsters or low-level monsters tend to have more dangerous effects. A high-level monster such as Judgment Dragon or Black Luster Soldier can run Force Focus over with brute force. This also a testament to how commonly players may forget about Force Focus' Level restriction, so keep that in mind lest your opponent forgets about it as well or is purposefully trying to cheat you out. Now back to our originally scheduled review:
 
Giving up three Level 8 monsters at once to summon the second-strongest Xyz monster.

THREE LEVEL EIGHTS AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

Well, like I say with most hard-to-summon Extra Deck cards, if your Deck has the capability to summon it and when that opportunity arises and you can't, you'll regret it. But is NGEPD actually worth using?

A given Photon Deck is able to supply the materials quite easily if it opts to. Two weeks ago I played against a (relatively weak) Photon Deck which was able to summon a triplet of Photon Dragons on the first turn. Now, as far as Photon Decks go, having triple Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is not common, although Photon Kaiser, a Level 8 with swarming capabilities, was created specifically for NGEPD (and was indeed the card Kite used himself to play NGEPD).

Remember that the only thing GEPD will do for this monster is to prohibit the effects of most other monsters, aside from running Skill Drain basics like Beast King Barbaros and Fusilier Dragon. This is fun for crushing Ryko, Marshmallon, D.D. Warrior Lady, and can help protect it from a Tour Guide → Zenmaines combo the following turn, but this is usually a moot point as NGEPD is supposed to deal the finishing blow as it is summoned (Photon Trident helps, assuming you're actually using a Photon Deck!).

That said, the actual summoning isn't a problem. For example, as I alluded to in the Lucky Straight article, "Star Light, Star Bright," "Resonance Device," or "Galaxy Queen's Light" is extremely helpful to do a triple Xyz (especially for the Hieratic Deck). In any Deck that uses Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon (mostly Photon and Ninja, sometimes Hieratic and general Dragon), well, if you have GEPD, there is a very little chance I'm intending to summon an Xyz Monster, and any Xyz Monster I had out before GEPD came out is probably doomed. In short, the only real way you'll use GEPD to play Neo and then use Neo to devastate all my Xyzs if I happened to have several Xyzs out, you summoned GEPD to dispatch one, then summoned Neo the following turn to wipe out the rest, OR if you're fortunate enough to summon GEPD and Neo on the same turn. Completely neglecting GEPD (I just explained how all it does is grant NGEPD extra protection*), NGEPD is only effective if you can summon a bunch of Level 8's at once in order to properly deal with a wave of opposing Xyzs.
*Actually, the Photon Deck benefits from using a lot of Level 4 monsters with negative effects, who benefit from Neo's Skill Draining effect.

It's not Gate Guardian, and it's actually useful, but it's still not practical.

Niche Decks: Photon, Hieratic

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 3/5
Aesthetics: 5/5 This is what happens when Galaxy-Eyes drinks too much Red Bull... ARUTIMETTO FOTON STREAM

Philosophy Corner: "BAZINGA!" -Sheldon Cooper, fictional character portrayed by Jim Parsons in Chuck Lorre's and Bill Prady's The Big Bang Theory (2007)
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