Today's card is Meklord Astro. Astro is yet another of the Synchro haters. Unfortunately this card has a rather tough summoning condition, I don't care how easy it is to get 3 Meklord's on the field, a potential minus 3 always takes its toll. It isn't that Astro is a bad card, it's just that minus 3's are bad, a single monster is easy for an opponent to deal with, and his ability will probably max out at doing just 1000 to an opponent, aside from plant decks and fish decks.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5

Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk is today's card, one of two bosses of the Meklord theme. While Asterisk won't take away your card presence just to summon it like Mekanikle, it can't do much of anything unless you give up some monsters to its effect. At least with Mekanikle you know you're getting a huge monster no matter what you already had in play.
 
Overall, I just don't like Asterisk very much. It's got its uses, like getting rid of monsters which would die from Limiter Removal or Chaos Infinity anyway, but those are situational. It's only really great use is to consolidate your smaller monsters into one large monster, to get over an opposing large monster. There are plenty of better ways to deal with such issues, though. The Meklords can be good, but Asterisk isn't.
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5

Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk
LV 10 0/0
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set.  This card can only be Special Summoned by controlling 3 or more face-up "Meklord" monsters.  When this card is Special Summoned, you can select any number of other face-up "Meklord" monsters you control, and send them to the Graveyard.  This card's ATK is equal to the combined original ATK of the sent monster(s).  Each time a player Special Summons a Synchro Monster, inflict 1000 damage to that player.
 
Yesterday we had a great example of a card that helps make a theme decent without being incredibly busted.  Today's card is a great example of a card that isn't incredibly busted either, but does not help make a theme better in the least.  Let's disect Asterisk and see if there are any redeeming qualities.
 
The first thing that hinders the playability of Asterisk is the summoning condition.  You need 3 Meklord monsters in order to special summon it from your hand.  At least you don't need to tribute the 3 monsters to bring them out, but in a way, you kind of need to based on the effect.  Once you summon it, you choose how many of your Meklords you want to get rid of in order to gain a Maju Garzett-like effect.  Pretty underwhelming to say the least.  What do you get rewarded with for clearing your field?  1000LP burn to the opponent when they synchro summon.  Not nearly worth the effort.
 
Ratings:
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5

Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk
 
Traditional: 1
Advanced: 2.5
 
Ahhh another Merklord thing. What a strange looking monsters. Like a mix between a facehugger and one of those things from invasion of the body snatchers. 10 Stars, dark, 0 Att/Def, and a machine. This monster is just downright silly, and I doubt it will see even the most moderate amount of play. He can only be SS by controlling 3 Merklords and can send any number of face up merklord to the grave to gain there attack.

Cool...but really just not worth it. Even if you make him huge off the large attack Merklords aside from an OTK its like...why would I bother?
I do like the 1000 burn damage towards synchro summoned monsters...but thats all. Its really useful but I'd rather prevent the synchro entirely than do some burn damage. Besides doesn't the theme deck focus on using your opponents syncrhos so your opponent is going to try and avoid this. No real way to search him aside from generics; sangan, gold sarc, whatevs. I guess you can use cards like machine assembly line to bring back what he sends but then youre using cards like machine assembly line. Overall...feh.

Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk
 
With such a daunting name, one might expect bigger things from a “Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk”, but sadly, this card seems destined to remain literally just an ‘asterisk’ to even its own archetype.
 
Requiring use of the Meklord monsters, Astro Dragon Asterisk cannot exactly mesh with any existing Traditional format deck. Why would this even be attempted? I can only wonder.
 
In the Advanced format, I suspect that Astro Dragon Asterisk was supposed to be a big boss monster for the Meklord archetype, providing a big beat stick that can inflict a bit of burn damage against opponents who thrive on Synchros. However, its summoning requirement, controlling 3 or more Meklord monsters and then sending any number of those to the graveyard, is simply atrocious. It needs a heavy field investment to begin with, and then requires you to immediately deplete that investment for it to have any sort of decent attack. Of course, that would only be meaningful if it had some sort of protection effect, or reward for its summon…but it does not. It just consumes resources and does pretty much nothing in return; a waste of a card, much less something to run in any deck.
 
Ratings –
Art: 2.5/5
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5