Well it's Mr. Rocha's week, and we are looking at
cards in the Heroic theme! Opening the week is a
reasonably useful Monster in Heroic Champion-Extra
Sword. On his own, he is rather unremarkable.
Being a Level 4, Warrior, with only 1000 attack and
defense, but his effect can certainly work in your
favor. When an XYZ Monster is Summoned using this
card as an XYZ Material, that XYZ Monster gains 1000
attack. For that reason alone, I see him as useful
not only in Heroic Champion Decks, but Warriors, and
maybe anywhere else that XYZ Summons. The only real
downside I see is that it works both ways, as in if
your opponent steals this Monster, and XYZ Summons,
they gain the 1000 attack. But I don't see that as
reason enough to not play him.
Ratings:
Traditional: 1.75/5
Advanced: 2.75/5
Art: 3/5
John Rocha
Now that we have two sets released with Heroic
monsters in them, it is a good time to take a good
look at the Heroic theme to see if it has any chance
of making it to tier 1. For the rest of this week,
we will be reviewing all of the Heroic monsters and
support cards that we have yet to talk about from
Abyss Rising. To date, only the Heroic Champion
monsters (Xyz monsters), have been worth talking
about. Today, we will be looking at one of the
Heroic Effect Monsters, Heroic Challenger – Extra
Sword.
Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword has an effect that
gives a Xyz monster that is summoned using this
card, an extra weapon worth 1000 attack points. As
most of the Xyz rank 4 monsters in the game already
have a decent attack of over 2000 attack, giving
them an additional 1000 attack gets them over just
about any monster your opponent can summon. With
1000 attack and defense, that is just about all that
Extra Sword is good for.
Having low stats and a level 4 helps us summon our
Heroic Challenger more easily. We can use cards like
Giant Rat, Goblindbergh, Ultimate Offerings, Limit
Reverse, Summoner Monk, along with Call of the
Haunted and Monster Reborn to special or normal
summon Extra Sword and use with another level 4
monster for an Xyz summon. We could also use Tour
Guide to Xyz summon M-X-Saber Invoker and use its
effect to summon Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword. If
we had a level 4 monster on the field, special
summoned a level 4 monster or had special summoned
Photon Thrasher, we could then Xyz summon Blade
Armor Ninja for a 3200 attack monster that could
attack twice. If you add all that up, it comes to
8000 in attack. Another interesting fact is that
Photon Thrasher and Goblindbergh are both Warrior
monsters, so you can Xyz summon all of those great
Xyz Warrior monsters
The only question that remains is; how do we use
Extra Sword in a Heroic deck? Let’s start with
Heroic Challenger – Swordshield. Swordshield will
protect your Heroic monsters from battle damage and
give you a turn to summon another level 4 monster.
It also has no attack points so it can also be
special summoned with Limit Reverse. With 2000 in
defense, Swordshield could survive a defensive
battle, giving you time to summon Extra Sword.
Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword’s greatest value is
probably in summoning Warrior Xyz monsters like the
Heroic Champion monsters. With poor stats, it makes
it more easily summoned, but it also makes it
reliant on other cards and combos.
All in all, Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword is not a
bad monster as it has a decent effect that will
usually allow your Xyz monsters to survive battle,
but having an effect that protects those monsters
from card effects would have been better in my
opinion.
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5
Miguel
It's a Heroic week, as we look at Heroic monsters
and some support. Up first is Heroic Challenger -
Extra Sword. A level 4, EARTH/Warrior with both 1000
for ATK and DEF.
An Xyz monster that was Summoned using this card as
Xyz material gains this effect: When it is Xyz
summoned, it gains 1000 ATK.
This card has a lot going for it, as it can give ANY
Rank 4 Xyz monster an extra 1000 ATK boost.
Sometimes all you need is that little extra
something to out muscle your opponent's bigger
monster. And the boost is permanent, even better.
Utopia becomes 3500 that negates attacks, Blade
Armor Ninja is a 3200 ATK monster that can attack
twice. And don't get me about Extra Sword and Shark
Drake. Even Gagagigo The Risen becomes a few ATK
points shy of 4000. Need it on the field quick?
Summoner Monk and Goblindbergh can speed that up.
Extra Sword is a Warrior, so Im sure I don't have to
remind you about Reinforcements of the Army and
Warrior Returning Alive. And yes, he is also useful
in a Heroic deck as well. His stats, well, no one is
perfect. You play Xyz monsters? Try using Extra
Sword for a little bit.
Heroic Challenger - Extra Sword
Lv 4/EARTH/Warrior/1000A/1000D
"An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card as
Xyz Material gains this effect.
● When it is Xyz Summoned: It gains 1000 ATK."
There isn't much to this guy, but what he does is
pretty good. You can bring out Number 39: Utopia
with 3500A, which is really good, not to mention
giving any other Rank 4 XYZ, such as Heroic Champion
- Gandiva, an extra 1000A. A fair card for the theme
and a nice addition, but nothing earth-shattering.
Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 2.75
Philosophical
Psycho
I'm sorry I have not done reviews for three months.
I was in the process of doing the Evigishki
Gustkraken to Gem-Knight Citrine week (I’ll get
those also by the end of this week) when a friend
died. This sudden emergency took away some of my
time. I always intended to get back on Pojo and to
make up for the stuff I missed, but I got busier and
busier over time and I haven't been able to review
since. I always intended to make up all the stuff I
missed, but now that I'm three months back, I don't
know what to do. I was especially busy over
November, most of all during the final week. It was
so stressful that I decided to come back to Pojo for
this week. I do not know when exactly I'll return
regularly; hopefully I will do more work around
Christmastime and I can be a full regular again
perhaps by June.
Welcome to the fourth week of Abyss Rising. We are
going to be talking about one of the two medival-themed
Warriors that have been coming out lately, and we're
NOT talking about Noble Knights. We're talking about
the fiery phoenix-like Heroics, which will be used
in the anime very soon (for respect of those who
don't watch the Japanese version I will only tell
you that they are used by...someone). In the anime,
they had different support cards for Heroic
Champions and Heroic Challengers. Fortunately for
us, the support cards (which are all rather lame)
refer to all Heroics.
Hiroikku Charenja - Ekusutora Sodo is a nice touch
for Xyz Turbo Decks, especially those centered
around Warriors (I know Heroics are such a kind of
Deck, but I mean more general). These "General Xyz
Turbo" Decks are efficient at creating a lot of
large Xyz or Synchro Monsters at the end of combos;
mini-combos like these include cards like
Goblindbergh, Summoner Monk, and Double Summon,
which is why Utopia and Stardust Dragon are easier
to summon than they seem. In fact, check this out:
I only have two cards in my hand: Photon Thrasher
and Tour Guide to the Underworld.
Photon Thrasher is a staple in Xyz Turbo Decks
because it's a Level 4 monster that Special Summons
itself from the hand. Tour Guide is too, because she
summons any Level 3 Fiend out of the deck.
I Special Summon Thrasher and Normal Summon Tour
Guide. Tour Guide transforms into M-X-Saber Invoker.
With Invoker's effect, I can summon any Level 4
Earth Warrior out of the deck, and I pick Extra
Sword.
Thrasher and Extra Sword together can make the
double attacker Blade Armour Ninja; with Extra
Sword's help, Ninja now has 3300 ATK.
So now I have a 1600 ATK monster and a 3300 ATK
monster that attacks twice. This is over 8000 worth
of Direct Damage.
A 1000 ATK boost is cool, but only ok. Many Rank 4's
with good effects suffer from a modest ATK score. Do
you know how annoying it is to have your Number 16:
Shock Master get pulverized by Utopia or Stardust
Dragon? Are you unsatisfied with Maestroke the
Symphony Djinn or Photon Pampilloperative? Or just
imagine, Blade Armour Ninja coming at you with a
force greater than that of Black Luster Soldier's...
Heaven forbid you use two Extra Swords on the same
Blade Armour Ninja...
Extra Sword isn't FANTASTIC; he's just a monster and
an Axe of Despair all in one. However, I have a
friend who likes to summon Stardust Dragon with
Vylon Prism (basically the Tuner version of Extra
Sword). And I can tell from experience a 3500-ATK
Stardust is VERY annoying, which makes Extra Sword a
solid 2.9/5.
As for the Heroic Deck itself, they don't have much
support, and the support they do have doesn't work
that well with Extra Sword. To make matters worse,
the #1 Heroic Champion, Excalibur, doesn't even work
with Extra Sword because once you use Excalibur's
effect, it erases Extra Sword's bonus! I wouldn't
use more than one Extra Sword in a Heroic Deck and I
grant him a 2/5 score (Extra Sword is really cool
with Gandiva, the other Heroic Champion with 2 Level
4's). However, just because it's mediocre in a
Heroic Deck, I won't let his own name count against
him, so my final score is his higher one. Many
Heroics are better in other Decks than the actual
Heroic Deck, and Extra Sword is such.
Niche Decks: Xyz Swarm, Warriors, Heroic
Traditional: 1/5 (ATK points do not exist here, and
while it is nice Double Sword leaves behind a gift
for the Xyz Monster, I prefer my Xyz Material
monster to have a more productive effect)
Advanced: 2.9/5
Aesthetics: 1.5/5 I'm not fond of the Heroics in
general aesthetics-wise, but that's probably because
they only released around thirteen cards right now
so I can't form a good opinion around them. Extra
Sword in particular...he looks like he's getting a
wedgie off his own armour.They should've just made
all Heroic monsters Fire-Attribute. But I can tell
you for sure that the near future has a lot of new
Fire monsters (most of which have 200 DEF). And they
are very scary...
Philosophy Corner: On most YouTube music videos that
have a theme about death (the specific example I'm
thinking of is "How to Save a Life") you see a lot
of people commenting on the video about their
personal experiences with death. I always look over
these comments and to feel sorry is one thing, but
to feel sympathetic is another. A lot of people
think "pathetic" means weak, but if you break down
all its meanings, it really means "you can relate to
it." I never had an extremely close connection to
anyone that had died until last Thursday at
approximately 1:26 A.M. when she ended her own life.
Her birthday would have been December 30.
My older sister's name was Hannah. Everyone called
her Kitty. I called her Han-Kat. I called her
Han-Kat and she liked calling me Psy-duck since I
studied psychology and we just liked nuzzling each
other all the time…
Even though she was late getting to college (she was
going to go after her birthday), she was up there as
one of the smartest people I have ever known. I
always had these constant, little, immature
arguments with my younger sister and I always called
Han-Kat to mediate and she always took my little
sister’s side. We always hung out together every day
and it was all pretty laid-back; she always got mad
at the way I used the word “hella” as an adverb
because she thought I was using it out of context.
Now that I can’t get any more memories with her, I
find it hard to unearth the old ones. Another family
member named Jesse just had a new girlfriend and we
talked about “Jesse’s Girl,” after the song. I spent
every day with her and she made the day fun as we
talked about silly nonsense such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh
and other game stuff. She was top-notch at Pokemon.
Her Yu-Gi-Oh was ok…she used Watts. I beat her a lot
in these games, and she pretended to get mad
afterwards… It was really funny and cute of her to
do that. She got drunk a lot and when she did I had
to help her sleep. When she wasn’t drunk though, I’d
tell stories to her as she got into bed.
I talked with her every day.
I talked with her every day.
I talked with her every day…never regretted a single
moment of it.
