Wednesday
 
The week takes an upswing, as we come to Noble Knight Gawayn.  Right off the bat, this guy has a lot of good things going for him.  He's Light, as opposed to Earth, like many of his Noble Knight brothers.  Obviously a Warrior, he also boasts 1900 attack, so he's also the strongest non XYZ Noble Knight I believe.  The 500 defense is troublesome, but he can be Special Summoned from your Hand, but only if you control a face-up Light Normal Monster.  Only in defense position, so if you do, you better XYZ Summon or something that turn.  That "Normal" part kinda makes that a kick in the ass.  He's got value as an attacker, but you're probably not going to get that Special Summon but once out of a hundred times, even in the Deck.  Not a terrible card though, not at all.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  1.85/5
Advanced:   2.85/5
Art:  4.5/5

Noble Knight Gawayn gives Noble Knight Decks their consistency and adds a lot of synergy to the deck. With 1900 attack, it is also still good on it’s own as a beat stick monster and as a light monster, it is great in light decks. Today we are going to look at Gawayn with respect to Noble Knight Decks, but it can be very useful in a HERO deck with Elemental HERO Neos Alius.
 
Now let’s look at some plays. A Rescue Rabbit and Gawayn in hand will net you a Shock Master by special summoning two Noble Knight Artorigus’s.  Any Noble Knight and Gawayn will net you a strong Warrior, Light, or Noble Knight Xyz monster. The play from yesterday to summon Noble Knight Medraut from your hand or with Summoner Monk, using its effect to special summon Gwalchavad and then using it to get Gawayn to your hand from the grave and then summon it for ether a Shock Master or two good Xyz monsters is always good.
 
Noble Knight Gawayn has great synergy with the light dominated Noble Knight deck and a monster called Genex Ally Birdman as you can normal summon one of your light normal type monsters, special summon Gawayn and then bounce it for Birdman. At this point, you can special summon black Rose Dragon to blow up the field or special summon Gawayn again and Xyz summon or Synchro summon monsters that love equip cards like Power Tool Dragon and Seven Swords Warrior.
 
After almost a full week of reviews, you should be getting the idea that Noble Knights can be a fun deck and pull off some nifty plays. It is a fun deck but still dependant and not the greatest for hand management. If you want to have fun, build the deck. If you want to do well in Regional’s and YCS’s you will need to stick to top tier decks.
 
Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2.5/5

After a long break off *Stares at still broken laptop* I return during Noble Knight week it seems. Gawayn is a really good card for the archtype. A strong level 4 LIGHT/Warrior monster with 1900/500 for ATK/DEF. If you control a face up LIGHT-type normal monster, you can special summon this card from your hand in face up defense position. This card is useful in a Noble Knight deck, as it can help out in gathering a strong field presence or just for Xyz summoning in general. Other decks can benefit from this, such as HERO Beat with Neos Alius and a certain upcoming structure deck revolving around a famous normal LIGHT-type dragon. Overall a decent card that can hold its own, in ATK position at least.
 
Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3/5 if used in the right deck

Noble Knight monsters (not counting Joan) are based off one of the Knights of the Round Table, and all of the currently released Noble Arms are meant to be their swords (thankfully you can equip them to any Noble Knight you want; if you could only equip them to the same Knight, that would be horrible!). They tend to have effects that let them become Normal monsters or to benefit other monsters, and have effects that can destroy Spell/Trap Cards, including their own Equip Cards which will let you re-equip them to someone else.
Unlike most other Noble Knights, Gawayn has no connection with the Noble Arms cards. However, he gives sense to Artorigus, Medraut, and Gwalchavad being Normal monsters, allowing Gawayn to come flying right out of the hand. It’s a common strategy to use Medraut to summon Gwalchavad out of the deck, then to use Gwalchavad to salvage Gawayn from the Graveyard into your hand, where he can summon himself. This is very easy as Rescue Rabbit can get out a pair of Artorigus and Summoner Monk can get out any Noble Knight. Now you have at least three Level 4 Light Warriors out. Even though he has to come out in his frail Defense Position, the point is to Xyz Summon with him right away with the two other Noble Knights (if you choose to do only a double Xyz, usually it is better to do it with Gwalchavad instead of Medraut). Also, since you can summon multiple Gawayn per turn, you can summon a whole bunch off the same Normal Monster. This also makes Gawayn a good choice to pay any costs that need to return him to the hand, such as for Genex Ally Birdman. Otherwise, his 1900 ATK makes him the strongest Level 4 Noble Knight, so you have that kind of power if you need it in a pinch.
 
As a semi-splashable, Gawayn has a lot of versatility built into him, because all he needs is a Normal Light to use his effect. Can anyone tell me what are most popular Decks that utilize Light Normal Monsters are? That’s right, Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Hieratic. The problem is, even though Gawayn can be Special Summoned super-easily, what’s the point? These Dragon Decks have a focus of Rank 8 Xyz Summoning and a Level 4 Warrior with 500 DEF would only slow them down. There are also six Gemini Monsters but they’re not all so spectacular. However, in Elemental HEROes, he may have a niche. Nowadays, it’s a popular strategy (actually it’s the focal strategy) to use the 1900 ATK Neos Alius and the self-summoning Bubbleman to create the strong Rank 4 Warrior Xyzs like Blade Armour and Excalibur. Since Neos Alius himself is treated as a Normal Monster, it would be a sound idea to use Gawayn on him.
 
Trad: 1.25 (I don’t know how you can make Normal Monsters work here)
Adv: 3.5/5
Aesthetics: 4.8/5 Gawayn is the wielder of Noble Arms - Gallatin. He is based off of Sir Gawain, and he is usually seen as the nephew of King Arthur and next in line for the throne, as well as Lancelot’s best friend. A great knight (probably the most famous Round Table Knight behind Lancelot – I remember how on the kids' show Between the Lions there was a segment called "Gawain's Word" and I thought that was pretty funny), Gawain is famed for having many virtues such as his high honor, courtesy, and solid loyalty to promises and friends. He’s also great with medicine and all the ladies love him. He’s known to have three kids named Florence, Lovell, and Gingalain, but it’s not always sure who is Gawain’s wife (Gingalain is the son of a fairy, but in one story, Gawain marries a women named Ragnelle). Another quality of him is that his power grows over the morning and is tripled by noon, but after that, it will drop again and he is weakest at night. I feel his green scarf is based on the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the original story, a mysterious huge man comes into the castle during Christmas dinner. He comes in peace, but he offers the challenge for a man to hit him with his huge axe and will give the axe as a reward, as long as he gets the chance to hit back at him at the Green Chaple in 366 days. Arthur decides to go for it, but Gawain takes his place. He chops the guy’s head off, but he isn’t dead! To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that the rest of the story shows example of Gawain’s politeness and loyalty, culminating in meeting the Green Knight at the designated area and time. On this card, though his face looks like he’s constipated or something…kinda reminds me of Syndrome from that movie The Incredibles. I also don’t get the lava on the bottom-right corner.
 
abc_at_123.com@hotmail.com