Friday

Photon Slasher closes the week, a Level 5, Light attributed Warrior, with 2100 attack and 1000 defense. Photon Slasher has an effect vaguely reminiscent of Cyber Dragon. If there is a face-up XYZ Monster on the FIeld (yours or your opponent's) you can Special Summon this card from your Hand, in face-up Defense position. All right...a Special Summon is a good thing, the restriction, isn't all that difficult at all. The defense position part does irk me a bit, as the 1000 defense isn't likely to last long. But it's a free Level 5 to do with what you wish. I think you could make a sound argument to play about any of these cards this week into their Deck, but maybe you could do without this one. But at the same time, I feel, like Monday, you could use this in other Decks if you play a lot of Rank 5 XYZ Monsters. But that too could raise a point where, even being theme specific, at least as to why run this in other Decks over say Cyber Dragon?

Ratings:
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5
Art: 5/5

We end this week of Zexal tin cards with a decent card. Photon Slasher has way too many things in common with Cyber Dragon, except that to special summon it with its own effect, there has to be an Xyz monster somewhere on the field, either you or your opponent's side. If you do that it is summoned in defense position. They have the same ATK in 2100 but Slasher has 600 less DEF, so that's 1000 DEF. Not too bad ATK stat wise. He's also a LIGHT?Warrior, so you guys know all that good stuff there, so I don't have to mention things Honest and Warrior Returning Alive. You can even summon out two of them if you can, making a Rank 5 Xyz. Or use with Photon Satellite to get out a Rank 6 Xyz. You can special summon him and IF you just so happen to have a tuner monster, you can use him for a synchro summon (Remember those?). Photon Slasher is a decent versatile monster that can get you out of a few jams, just gotta use him at the right time. 
 
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3

Today we are looking at: Photon Slasher
“If a face-up Xyz Monster is on the field, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in face-up Defense Position.”

On the one hand it’s nice that you can special summon him, but outside of some crazy Solar Wind Jammer deck I really think better options exist. If you need a 5 star you have Solar Wind Jammer, Purply thorny east, Etc. Tiras/Adreus are good, but there are easier ways to make them.

Advanced: 1/1
Traditional: 1/1

Today's Card of the Day Review is Photon Slasher, a Super Rare from the Zexal Collection Tin.
 
This particular review will be short because there isn't a lot to explain concerning this. It is a 2100 ATK, Level 5 LIGHT Warrior with a Cyber-Dragon based effect with different restrictions: Instead of having no monsters on the field to Special Summon it, you only need an Xyz Monster on the field to do so.
 
This makes the card less generic in a sense since you need a certain type of monster on the field to get the most value out of it. However, it has a bigger payoff because you can drop 2 or more in the same turn unlike Cyber Dragon where you can only drop 1. Also, it doesn't matter who controls the Xyz Monster. If you got an Xyz Monster on the field, you can drop as many Photon Slasher as you want. Considering how easy it is to get an Xyz Monster on the field, that shouldn't be too difficult to pull off
 
Unfortunately, it does get Special Summoned in Defense Position so only do so when you are ready for an immediate Xyz Summon.
 
All-in-all, I can see this being a side deck card against Xyz-focused decks since this can easily be an aggressive way to drop Rank 5 Xyz like Number 61, Tiras, Adreus, and the underrated Number 33. Of course, it can also serve as tribute fodder so this can also work in a deck like Monarchs as well.
 
I would keep this card in mind. While I don't think it will do a lot of damage overall in this game, it is nifty enough to consider if you need extra monsters for Xyz Summoning considering the sheer number of decks that does somewhat rely on their Xyz Monsters.
 
Traditional Format: 1/5 (I'm sure there is far better ways to drop Xyz Summons than using this.)

Advanced Format: 3/5 (This card is better and more flexible than people give it credit for. It's not broken but it's not utter trash either.)

Photon Slasher
Light/Warrior/Effect/Level5/2100/1000
If a face-up Xyz Monster is on the field, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in face-up Defense Position.

“Look mammy, it’s another level 5 monster that thinks it is Cyber Dragon.”

That’s right Photon Slasher from the 2013 ZeXal Collection Tin wants to be the next Cyber Dragon. Like Cyber Dragon it’s a Level 5 LIGHT monster with 2100ATK, but Photon Slasher is a Warrior and only has 1000 DEF. So what about its Cyber Dragon style effect? Well Photon Slasher requires that a Xyz monster be on the field before you can special summon it from your hand. The good thing is that it doesn’t matter which side of the field the Xyz monster is on as long as it’s face-up, so you can have a Xyz monster and you will still be able to special summon him, so that’s 1 thing over Cyber Dragon.

However Photon Slasher is special summoned in DEF mode, unlike Cyber Dragon which can be special summon in any mode you want. So that’s a plus for Cyber Dragon. Still chances are you a going to use Photon Slasher for something other than cheap DEF, so it might not be a problem.

Overall yes Photon Slasher is another Cyber Dragon knock-off but he is actually 1 of the better ones and if you do play a lot of Xyz monsters he might be one to consider

Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 4/5