Tuesday

Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City (may have been chosen by me solely for artwork) has a nasty little print on along the lines of "This card cannot be used in a Duel" but it's not the first time we looked at something like that, so for the sake of review, let's not let that bother us. This is a Rank 8 XYZ Monster, of the Light attribute, and Machine type (both good), with 2800 attack (not bad) and 3500 defense (very good) although requiring three Level 8 Monsters for an XYZ Summon makes you wish that was reversed I think. Furthermore, it can only be Special Summoned via XYZ Summon, so that's also a bit of a downer. This is one of those cards (with extra text too) that wins you a Match if this card successfully brings your opponent's Lifepoints to 0. Keep in mind it has to be a Direct Attack, it has to have an XYZ Material attached (shouldn't be an issue as it has no effect/cost to discard), and it has to have been a Machine Monster that was said XYZ Material. Even if you could use this guy, I'm not sure why you would, unless you love that picture as much as I do.

Ratings:

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2.25/5
Art: 5/5

Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City
LIGHT/Machine/Xyz/Effect/ Rank 8/2800/3500
3 Level 8 monsters
Must be Xyz Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. If this card attacks your opponent directly and reduces their Life Points to 0, while it has an Xyz Material attached that was originally Machine-Type, you win the Match.

Next up we have a Prize Card, Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City. Since it is a match winner and a Prize card you will probably never see it and if you were the lucky one to actually win this card, well you can’t play it in a duel.

Overall, it can’t be used in a duel but it does look nice.

Traditional: N/A
Advanced: N/A

Moving along with this week's review, we come to Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City. This card was a World Championship prize card, meaning there are about as many copies of this card as there are honest politicians.

Like any good World Champ card, this one wins you the match should you attack directly with it and put your opponent at 0 LP by doing so. Furthermore, one of its XYZ materials must be a Machine, a task not at all difficult with the recently released Gimmick Puppet archetype. It has a reasonable 2800 attack, so the last hit can be a big one if it needs to be. As far as the match winning cards go, this is probably one of the easier ones to utilize. Sadly, since it's not legal in tournament play, it's a moot point. If you ever own this card keep it, because it's probably more valuable than your whole deck, and a great keepsake.

Traditional: 1/5 (because I have to give a number)
Advanced: 1/5
Art: 5/5, all the match winners look good

Thanks for reading!

Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City

Note: This card is illegal, meaning it cannot be used in Advanced or Traditional Format in tournament play. It can be used in a friendly duel, but only if both players agree on it.

Cards like Ulevo, Emperor of Lightning and most notably Victory Dragon have set this tradition of “Tribute 3 of ___ type monsters. If this card attacks directly and wins the duel, you win the Match”.  So, this card is a matter of tradition and nostalgia-tickling more than necessity

If you do pull off a direct attack and win, you don't just win the duel. You win the entire match. Cards of this nature weren't banned because they were overpowered, but due to a ruling confusion.. In Japan, you cannot surrender. In the United States, you can surrender before the opponent makes an attack making the card useless.

As for the viability of this card if it were legal, 3 LV8 Machines, your opponent's life points being low enough for a direct attack to finish them off, and your opponent having no monsters/traps to protect them make the odds really bad.

(This card cannot be used in a duel. Ratings are hypothetical.)

Traditional – 1.0 (Horrible)
Advanced – 1.5 (Bad)

Okay, I shall confess. I missed the entirety of last week because even I was distraught about 21-1. If you don't know what that is, do not let it trouble you.

Today we are looking at Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City. If you reduce your opponent's life to 0 with it, you win the whole match (not just that duel, but the whole match). It can't be played in a duel, so it doesn't really matter. If it could, there's Match Winners that are easier to make (that also can't be played in a duel)

Traditional: Can't be played in a duel/5
Advanced: Can't be played in a duel/5
Art: 1/5

First of all, it's worth pointing out that Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City is not actually legal for play. Like all match winners, you can only play this when you're playing for fun with your friends. Of course, when I play with my friends, I try to win, so I'll be analyzing Grandopolis as if it could be used competitively.

To summon it, you need 3 level 8 monsters, one of which has to be a Machine. The only easily summonable level 8 Machines are Gimmick Puppets, which limits Grandopolis to one deck. To summon this, you would need to get 3 of Magnet Doll, Shadow Feeler, Gear Changer, and/or other monsters most builds don't run onto the field. This can be difficult to do, but its certainly not impossible, especially with Junk Puppet.

The main problem with this is you're clearly overextending with this play. Grandopolis doesn't have any targeting or destruction protection, so any commonly played trap will deal with him, giving you a minus 2. You can use him with Trap Stun to try to protect him, but then you're up to a four card combo. This is even ignoring that Grandopolis doesn't actually do anything for you unless it can attack your opponent directly for game, which is situational. In most circumstances you'd be better off summoning a better rank 8, like Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand, rather than risking summoning Grandopolis.

Rating: 1/5 if legal for play (Terrible)