2 Level 4 monsters
When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack. When this card is targeted for an attack, while it has no Xyz Materials: Destroy this card.
Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.20
Advanced:
3.20
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - July 18, 2011
I've been dreading this, really dreading this...the
new Xyz monsters, pronounced Ik-seez. Let me give
you a little background on these monsters from what
I found on the Yugioh wiki and yugioh-card websites.
These Xyz monsters have traveled through a Black
Hole, and end up in our Universe. They have black
card outlines to signify them being in space, are
made of anti-matter, a term I previously thought
only applied to Star Trek. Now, the Black Orbs that
contain Yellow Stars pertain to a Rank of the Xyz
Monster, not a Level. Why is this important? It
means that the Xyz crew cannot be used for Synchro
Summons, Fusions, Rituals, or to pay a Cost (or
anything else) where Levels of monsters are
required.
On that note, since they have no Level, I believe
cards that specifically effect Levels of Monsters
(say something like Gravity Bind, An Xyz Monster of
any Rank would still be able to attack. Each of
these Xyz Monsters specifically states on it how
many of what Level of Monster(s) are required to
Special Summon. Xyz Monsters are kept in the Extra
Deck, like Synchro and Fusion monsters (which is
fine, as very few of these are playable in my
opinion, but more will come, even in the next set I
believe.) Now, how do you Xyz Summon? The required
material Monster(s) go underneath the Xyz Monster
you choose to Special Summon. They stay on the
Field, in the same Monster Zone that the Xyz Monster
you choose to Summon sits in.
When you have to discard a Monster to activate or
use an effect of an Xyz Monster, you simply discard
one of the "attached" Monsters to said Xyz Monster,
and send it to your Graveyard. Now, believing I
have covered everything of importance here, let's
take a look at the actual card of today: Number 39:
Utopia...This is a Rank 4 who is Xyz Summoned with
two Level 4 Monsters. You can use any two Level 4
Monsters...any Attribute, Type, whatever, as long as
they are both Level 4. This is a Light monster,
with 2500 attack and 2000 defense. When any
player's Monster declares an attack, you can discard
an Xyz Material card from Utopia, to negate the
attack. When this card is targeted for an attack
while no Xyz Material card, destroy this card.
Now, let's look at this card specifically against a
Synchro Monster. It's very likely easier, or at
least as easy, to get two Level 4 Monsters as
opposed as bringing out at least two Monsters for
Synchro Summoning. Now, the big flaw in the Xyz
Monsters is obviously in the fact that their effects
are almost completely dependent on how many Xyz
Materials they have. Granted for a Synchro you need
a Tuner(s) but it's a more reliable Monster, I'd say
99 times out of 100. There's a nice bit of speed
here, and the convenience of not needing Tuners, so
I guess it's sort of a trade-off. Honestly, I don't
see this taking off as it's own Deck, at least not
for long, I'm expecting this overall to be more of a
fad. There ARE good ones coming, a couple for sure,
namely in Generation Force, I think that's what the
next set will be called.
This week we blast off into the future with
Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz. Up first is Number
39: Utopia, Aspiring Emperor Hope to those who favor
the OCG translation. Utopia is the ace monster of
the Zexal protagonist; much like Dark Magician,
Elemental Hero Neos, and Stardust Dragon before him.
Though not level 8, his rank 4 summoning requires
two level 4 monsters and he keeps the prerequisite
stats of 2500/2000. Utopia’s effect allows it to
negate the attack of ANY monster by removing an Xyz
material from him. He protects your weaker utility
monsters and can be used to protect your own
monsters from Dimensional Prison. The down side,
well more of a balance, is that once his materials
are used up he self-destructs to any attack.
Rating
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3.5
Though I don’t talk about artwork I would like to
say that I like the new black borders
Skyphantom
So this week we're looking at the new starter
deck: dawn of the xyz. A new mechanic, cool new
cards, and perhaps a breath of fresh air to this
oversped power creeping game. Here we have number 39
utopia, a rank 4 exceed with stardust stats, and a
light warrior. All of these traits are great Now,
how exceeds work is you have 2 monsters of the same
level on the field (let's say you have a manju of
the ten thousand hands and a sonic bird). You can
stack them on top of each other, and summon this.
Now, when a monster declares an attack, you can send
1 of the monsters underneath utopia to the grave to
negate the attack. Any attack, yours or your
opponents. This is brilliant, because you can A. buy
yourself some time to get rid of that colossal
fighter staring you down, B. combo this puppy with
double up chance, a card from generation force, or
C. protect your monster from dimensional prison, as
the attack is negated. However, if you run out of
materials, if he's selected as an attack target, he
is destroyed. A slight drawback, sure, but he's
still a great beginning to the exceed revolution
and gadgets will love him.
Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5
Mark
Howard
Number 39: Utopia is the first Xyz (pronounced Eck-seez)
monster being reviewed on Pojo. These are just like
Synchro monsters, except you don't need any
Tuners--you just take two monsters whose Levels
match the Xyz's Rank and summon the Xyz, putting the
Xyz Materials under the new monster.
This means the cards are no longer considered in
play, and they're sent to the graveyard when they're
Detached. Because they're considered to be out of
play, you won't trigger cards like Sangan (or Reborn
Tengu, I believe), so that's a huge loss. Also, to
make up for their accessibility, Xyz monsters are
very weak.
So, with that in mind, what will Utopia be doing in
the meta? Not much. Although he has 2500 ATK, he
can't defeat cards like Master Hyperion, Archlord
Kristya or Shi-En (built-in protection). The stall
power is great (also, note that Xyz's are totally
unaffected by any Level-based effects--they don't
have Levels, they have Ranks!), but once he's out of
ammo, any monster can kill him, even a Skull
Servant. He doesn't have protection from effects,
either, like Stardust.
It comes out of nowhere when you have things like
Gravekeeper's Spy, but a lot of the meta can take
him down. Most top decks are able to pull those
strong monsters out of nowhere, and Utopia can't do
much about that. Xyz monsters aren't going to make
much of an impact on the TCG, and Synchros aren't
going anywhere.
3.8/5
Art: Reminds me of M:tG's Doom Blade.
Fun Fact: His Japanese name was Aspiring Emperor
Hope. I like it better.
Tomorrow: More Xyz cards!
