As promised, we're not looking at an XYZ Monster today.  In fact, a Tribute Monster...a two Tribute Monster!  Gandora the Dragon of Destruction is our card for today.  Gandora is a Level 8, Dark attributed Dragon Monster, with 0 attack and defense, but is one hell of a destroyer, as might be implied by its name.  Ideally and obviously, this should be a finishing move.  Gandora is one two tribute Monster, in my opinion, actually worth the cost of two Tributes.  Gandora cannot be Special Summoned, which is good and appropriate, as we'd have instead of a great card, a great, broken card.  By paying half your Lifepoints, you can destroy all other cards on the Field, and all of said cards are removed from play.  That's a nice bonus if you aren't winning the game, and it's equally nice it doesn't destroy your Hand (though setting a couple cards for extra attack isn't necessarily a bad idea).  Gandora gains 300 attack for each card destroyed this way.  So ten cards would be ideal as you'd be at 3000 attack which I hope would be enough to wipe out your opponent.  If you have it and can play it, just use it intelligently.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  4/5  Honestly it could be even better here.  Assuming the effect goes through, you can destroy both Envoys with this thing. 
Advanced:  4.5/5 
Art:  5/5

Gandora the Dragon of Destruction
DARK/Dragon/Effect/Level 8/0/0
Cannot be Special Summoned. You can pay half your Life Points; destroy all other cards on the field, and if you do, banish them. This card gains 300 ATK for each card destroyed this way. During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned: Send it to the Graveyard.

Wrapping up this week isn’t a Xyz monster in fact it is a card from the original series, Yugi Moto’s Trump card Gandora the Dragon of Destruction. In the manga and anime one of the visually impressive monsters but is the actual card impressive?

Statwise, Gandora is a DARK/Dragon so there is plenty of Support there, but he is a level 8 monster with 0 ATK and DEF which is really bad. As seen from my reviews I like high level tribute monsters to have an alternative summoning condition; Gandora however has a summoning restriction as he cannot be special summoned. This is really bad, especially for a high level monster.

Effectwise for the high price of half your life points Gandora will destroy and banish everything else on the field and then he will gain 300 ATK for each card destroyed by his effect. At least this will allow you to take advantage of the mass destruction but unless you or your opponent have clogged the field, the chances of getting over 2000 ATK with this effect are slim.

Unfortunately there is another problem, he is destroyed on the turn he is summoned, this isn’t good especially since he can only be normal summoned. So unless you have either another monster or some cards in your hand to protect yourself, chances are you might have more damage to yourself than to the opponent.

Overall, A nice effect, but too many conditions and high cost, makes this not worth playing. There are plenty of other Dragons you can play.

Traditional: 1.5/5
Advanced:  2/5

Masterzanza

Alright so today we are taking a look at Gandora the Dragon of Destruction. AKA regular Yugi's Ace card. We've seen him use it against Bakura in the most epic way and again against Atem in the final duel. I'm still heads or tails on this guy. Me and my friend have made two different variations to see its potential and we got interesting results.
 
First off, we have a level 8 Dark Dragon, all of which is good: Trade- in, Allure, *insert dragon support card here*. However, it can't be special summoned in any way. Did I mention it has 0 attack and defense? Automatically you expect him to have a game breaking effect. By paying half your life points you get to destroy and banish all cards on the field and he gains 300 attack for every card he nuked.
 
Right off the bat that makes his maximum attack potential to be 5700. Is it ever going to be that way? No, realistically you'll banish 2-6 cards in today's game. So where does this deck shine exactly?
 
During our test of this card I found out the best place, believe it or not, is in a slushy deck. Using the frog engine will get your typical spam frogs out on the field. They key cards to use here are XYZ dimensional Splash, Slushy, and 3 Spiral Serpents and any other 3 level 8 water monsters you'd like, gogiga gagagigo or white knight dragon are preferable. Get the set up with the frogs like in any other frog related deck. set xyz dimensional splash. summon gandora, nuke the field. splash get's banished and now you are left with 3 level 8 monsters.

Granted the 2 water monsters can't attack, but here is where the beautiful act of XYZ Summoning comes into play. Summon Felgrant the Divine Dragon to counter your opponent's next play for example. if you managed to get all the slushy's and at least 1 Spiral Serpent in the set up, which you should have, you can summon a 2900 atk monster. 2900+2800+whatever attack power gandora has and you deal roughly 5700 damage at the cost of half your life points. If somehow that didn't kill your opponent xyz for another rank 8.
 
Like in any other deck type you need to watch out for cards like veiler or anything else that may hurt you. This deck is playable and very fun to use, your opponent will never see Gandora coming. As the saying goes, any card can be useful and Gandora fits well in a frog/slushy deck. anywhere else? Dunno, haven't tried. But it is risky.
 
Traditional: 1/5 (sadly creativity like this doesn't even exist in traditional format)
 
Advance: 2.5/5 (My rating is reflected on the usability of the card on it's own. However in a well built deck that could take advantage of this effect and combo for an otk, Gadora will get a solid 3/5)
 
Art: 5/5 (It's a yugi card, it's too badass looking and for good reason

Gandora the Dragon of Destruction

So, the last card this week, and only one that is not Xyz monster is Gandora the Dragon of Destruction - DARK attributed, 8-star, Dragon type with zero ATK and DEF points, and packing hell of a effect. It’s worthy to mention he’s a target for Trade-In, Recurring Nightmare and Dark Eruption which makes him pretty recyclable in a dedicated deck, packing ways to Summon him efficiently and ways of abusing his effect such as Phantom of Chaos.

For the price of half the Life Points, you get to destroy all the other cards on the field and banish them in the process, while boosting it's attack by 300 ATK for each card destroyed that way. This is really powerful effect, clearing the way for swarming if you run the deck that is capable of doing so after the field nuke by Gandora. And most Dragon decks are very good at that.

But, our Gandora has a few restrictions that make him little less playable.

First, and most painful - no Special Summon. So he’s not target for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon , Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders or any other Special Summon trick that most deck have at their disposal, mainly Dragon Rulers. However, he can be searched from the deck by Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms.

So only option is to Tribute Summon him in a ways of Scapegoat, Double Coston Totem Dragon in a dedicated Dragon deck or other deck that can put tribute fodders on the field on a regular basis. Next, he will send himself to the Graveyard during the End Phase of a turn he was Summoned. That’s somewhat evadable by using Book of Moon or more extravagant choices like Interdimensional Matter Transporter.

To conclude, he can be one beast of a card in a deck dedicated to bring him out regularly, abusing his effect and recycling him as much is possible, by giving your opponent nuke after nuke and swarm afterwards until you burn through all of his defenses. All in all great card if you put your mind in creating environment where his true power will shine.

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5

First off, I didn't introduce myself yesterday.  I'm Cyberplum, I've been playing the game since the beginning, and I've always been a big fan of the Pojo COTD, so it's a huge pleasure for me to be able to write here.
 
Gandora the Dragon of Destruction
Dark/Dragon/ATK 0/DEF 0
 
Cannot be Special Summoned. You can pay half your Life Points; destroy all other cards on the field, and if you do, banish them. This card gains 300 ATK for each card destroyed this way. During the End Phase of the turn this card was Summoned: Send it to the Graveyard.
 
A host of problems should be pretty obvious as soon as you read the effect.  First, it can't be special summoned.  That means that unless you're really creative with your tributes, you're going to give up two monsters you control to bring this out.  Your alternatives would be Fires of Doomsday, Double Coston, or Totem Dragon, and of course any cards that can summon multiple copies of themselves or drop tokens, like Giant Germ/Nimble Mamonga, or something such as Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts, which summons two tokens when destroyed by battle.
 
So now that it's on the field, is the effect worthwhile?  Well, in a best-case scenario, you're going to blow up an entire field, which would put this guy in the mid-5000s or so, assuming you destroy two entirely full fields.  In reality though, you're probably going to hit a couple backrow and a monster or two on your opponent's field, and anything you wanted to sacrifice for the cause, putting you at 1500-1800 attack.  Yes, banishing cards en masse is great, but I don't feel the cost is worth the effect.  And then it destroys itself at the end of turn?  It's just too vulnerable to 95% of trap cards, other problems like Effect Veiler, and any monster that can't be destroyed, several of which are popular right now.
 
On the plus side, it's dark, so you can pay the cost on Allure of Darknes with it.  It's level 8, so you can use it with trade-in.  It's a dragon, so if you're one of those people, you can pay an e-dragon cost with it.  Other than that?  I'd skip it.  If you can actually summon it and use the effect, your opponent either doesn't care enough to stop it, or can't stop it, in which case you're probably already winning, and can use a myriad of other, better monsters to stop it.
 
Traditional: 1.5/5, if only because it's dark
Advanced: 1/5, I just don't see a place for it
Art: 4/5, it does look pretty cool
 
Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone. My name is Christian, I am the newest addition to Card of the Day here at Pojo! My goal is to give you another 3rd party perspective on the selected cards and how their performance ranks in the game at the time of the review.

Today, we are reviewing Gandora the Dragon of Destruction.

This monster packs an effect, that at first glance, seems reminiscent of other large "staple" cards such as Black Rose Dragon, Judgment Dragon, and so forth.

Unfortunately, Gandora will not be nearly as easy to summon for most decks this format as compared to the two aforementioned cards. He also has a terrible no special summoning condition, which means you will be forced to use two tributes to bring him out, instead of using all the fun dragon special summoning support we have well too much of right now.

"Okay, okay, so he's a bit trickier to get out, but his effect nukes, and even more so than that, he banishes, so he has to be good, right?"

Well, unfortunately, not so much. You see, ideally, you want to be bringing out a nuke card when you have little or no resources out, while your opponent has several, so that you plus card advantage off the effect. So it's imperative to have an easy set up to summon the nuke, however, in order to set up two monsters, and then tribute, you would usually need some back row support to keep all your monsters alive long enough to tribute, especially in a format like this. Because of this, when/if Gandora hits the field you will likely have a few resources on the board.

On top of all of this, he has no protection abilities whatsoever, so it's easy for your opponent to stop him before he ever has a chance to activate his effect. And to activate his effect, you must pay half your life points! An extremely steep cost to pay for an unreliable monster and effect.

"Well at least he gains atk for each card destroyed, right?"

Wrong again, unfortunately. With a very underwhelming atk bonus of just 300 per card, Gandora will most likely be very weak. Let's say your opponent has 5 cards on the board you get to destroy, that would be pretty good, right? And let's say you have 2 cards on the field that are destroyed, even more resources than you want to waist, and he will only be at 2100 atk!

As if all of these drawbacks weren't already bad enough, Gandora also reads, "during the end phase of the turn this card was summoned, send it to the graveyard."

So now you just risked it all to summon this monster, and it was successful, you paid half your life points, and now you don't even get to keep the card for more than a turn? This effect is a really big letdown.

In closing, I'm sure there are specific, specialized decks that could run this guy relatively effectively, but that's a point, and reflection of this card in itself.

As a "tech" card, a card that can be effectively incorporated into a variety of competitive decks, I feel this card holds no value in either the advanced or the traditional format, at this time.

Ratings:

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1.5/5
Art: 4/5
Looks like he could be Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons long lost brother, too bad he can't be special summoned so they could work together :/

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Today's Card of The Day is Gandora the Dragon of Destruction. A Dragon-Type, 8 star DARK monster, Gandora cannot be Special Summoned. When it is Normal Summoned, the player can pay half their life points to activate Gandora's effect: Destroy all other cards on the field, and if you do, banish them. Then, Gandora gains 300 ATK for each card destroyed this way. At the End Phase of the turn Gandora was Summoned it is sent to the grave.
 
Gandora can be very flexible. It can be used as fodder for Allure of Darkness and Trade-In. Dark Eruption can fetch it from the Graveyard if it were sent there by a card effect (Dark Grepher, Trade-In, Armageddon Knight, etc.). Gandora can be Summoned easily in any deck that can Special Summon multiple monsters in one turn, or by sacrificing two Fires of Doomsday tokens. Another easy way of Summoning Gandora would be by using Totem Dragon. Special Summon Totem Dragon from the Graveyard when you have no monsters on the field, sacrifice it for Gandora (Totem is then removed from play), activate Gandora's effect, clearing the field, then remove Gandora for Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Special Summon a Dragon from your Graveyard or hand. While in the Graveyard, Phantom of Chaos could remove Gandora and use it's effect to clear the field, as well as it being removed for any monster requiring DARK removal (Lightpulsar).
 
Not being able to be Special Summoned is a big drawback (regardless of it's ATK being zero if it were Special Summoned). Even after successfully Normal Summoning this monster, you can't Special Summon it later. Paying half your life points isn't always an option for players, especially when cards that will be destroyed by the card effect can be chained to the effect. The ATK gain is good, but the more cards on the field (with the exception of no backrows for your opponent at the time of the Normal Summon) the more chance you are inviting the effect to be all for naught. Effect Veiler derails any momentum this card tries to give you. Losing Gandora at the End Phase is a negative.
 
Gandora, in the right deck could be useful. It's ability to be used with draw cards, clear the field, and have a free shot at your opponents life points is great...if you can pull it off. If card effects couldn't be chained to Gandora's effect it would see more playability. Totem + Gandora + REDMD is still an optimal play for the card. Trap Stun can also help to give Gandora a better chance of getting it's effect off.
 
Traditional- 1/5- Too many better monsters to be played (CED clears the field MUCH easier)
Advanced- 2/5- More playability, but needs to be in a deck that can Summon it without causing too great a negative to the player.
Art- 4/5- The show art I like a little better http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/File:GandoratheDragonofDestruction-JP-Anime-DM.jpg
 
 
Until Next Time,
 
KingofLullaby