Thursday

ANOTHER Utopia XYZ Monster? So it's a baby of the original, with an actually surprising semi-decent effect, but makes you wonder why you'd place this instead of Utopia (or in addition to, assuming you were using Utopia to begin with) and why the opponent wouldn't simply destroy this card/negate the effect preventing you from any tactical gain? To elaborate, detach an XYZ Material when a Monster attacks to negate that attack (to include your own) and this card gains 500x attack the Rank of the XYZ that attacked, IF it was an XYZ, otherwise you just hopefully negated an attack. It's not absolute garbage, but it's close.

Ratings:

1.25/5 all

Art: Looks just like the original 4/5

Number 39: Utopia Roots
LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/Rank 1/500/100
2 Level 1 monsters
When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack, and if you negated an Xyz Monster's attack, this card gains ATK equal to that monster's Rank x 500.

Next we have yet another Utopia Variant, Number 39: Utopia Roots, used by Yuma and later Astral in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal. Statwise it is a LIGHT/Warrior like all Utopia monsters with 500 ATK and 100 DEF which is standard for a Rank 1. It does require 2 level 1 monsters but it is generic which is always a plus.

Effectwise it has the same effect as the regular Utopia in that it negates an attack by detaching 1 material. However instead of the bad self-destruct effect of the regular Utopia, it has a way better effect, if the monster whose attack you negated was a Xyz monster this card gains ATK equal to the Rank of that Xyz monster x500. So if it stops a Rank 4 it will have the same ATK as the regular Utopia and it won’t blow up if it has no material. Of course the opponent isn’t going to attack this with any Xyz monster unless they aren’t paying attention but this card doesn’t have to be the attack target.

Overall a pretty good card, if you play a lot of level 1 monster then this is a must.

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5

Hello Pojo Fans,

Today we get to look at Utopia as he may have looked as a child: Utopia Roots. This Light, Warrior, Rank 1 monster has 500ATK/100DEF. “When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack, and if you negated an Xyz Monster's attack, this card gains ATK equal to that monster's Rank x 500.”

The stats aren't very good, 500ATK/100DEF aren't going to win any one-on-one battles unless you are attacking smaller monsters than Roots. This smaller Utopia is all about its effect. It is the same as Utopia, but some changes. There isn't any downside to not having any Xyz materials attached to it (aside from it not being able to protect itself). If you negate an Xyz monster's attack, Roots gains ATK equal to the rank of that monster x 500. Most of the time if this goes off you will be boosting up 2000ATK (making it 2500ATK, like regular Utopia). You can negate your own Xyz monsters attacks as well, allowing you to self-pump up Roots for an attack that turn (and the gain in ATK is permanent so go nuts).

Low attack and lower defense make it vulnerable when it runs out of materials attached to it (unless it has absorbed a good amount of attack from negating Xyz monster attacks). If Roots stops two attacks from non-Xyz monster then he is ripe for destruction. Though many decks play a few level 1 monsters, not all decks play them, and to get the most use out of Utopia Roots you will need to play a good number of them. Utopia Roots can be handy, and can get big really quick in the right situation, but unless you have a reliable way of bringing him out, he isn't worth the Extra Deck space.

Traditional- 1/5
Advanced- 2.5/5
Art- 3/5

Until Next Time
King of Lullaby

Number 39: Utopia Roots 

Baby Utopia!  For 2 LV1 monsters (not such a steep cost), you can negate 2 attacks.  If your opponent happens to have no other cards in his/her deck but XYZ's to take on a 500 ATK monster, this card will get a nice attack boost.  If it isn't already destroyed by a card effect.  If it's even worth using a card effect on. 

There's not too many great LV1 XYZ's out there, and this could work for some decent stall.  Still, you would run this as a contingency in some odd situation more than you would actively hope to use this. 

Traditional: 1.0 (Horrible)
Advanced: 2.0 (Mediocre) 

Today's card is much less interesting than yesterday's. Utopia Roots isn't a good card. Rank 1 just isn't good.

"When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack, and if you negated an Xyz Monster's attack, this card gains ATK equal to that monster's Rank x 500."

Its effect isn't good either. It's a worse Utopia, who is easier to make as most cards are level 4. Don't run Roots unless you're making a gimmicky fun Zezzle deck.

Advanced: 1/5
Traditional: 1/5

Number 39: Utopia Roots joins Ghostrick Dullahan and Slacker Magician in the Rank 1 Xyz stable. While Dullahan provides offense, Utopia Roots and Slacker fill the defensive role. The two cards both handle defense in different ways, so which one is superior is largely based on the what your opponent has.

Utopia Roots is easily at its best when your opponent controls an Xyz monster. Generally, your opponent won't attack at all with their Xyz monster because doing so would simply make Utopia Roots stronger than your opponent's monster. Utopia Roots' increased attack is generally higher than the attack for the corresponding rank. And this is ignoring that your opponent would have to be able to attack over Utopia Roots 3 times. As such, attacking with an Xyz monster is highly impractical.

While Utopia Roots takes 3 attacks to kill versus Slacker Magician only taking 2, Utopia Roots does lack protection against everything besides battle. Slacker at least has protection against targeting effects. Slacker can also survive longer than Utopia Roots if your opponent can only attack once per turn.

It is worth noting that you can negate your own Xyz monster's attack to boost up Utopia Roots' attack. This can make his attack pretty high with the higher ranks, but most decks can't make Rank 1 as well as Rank 5+.

So overall, Utopia Roots isn't a game breaker, but it's a worthy edition to the Rank 1 toolbox (if you can consider 3 options to be a toolbox).

Rating: 3/5 (Good)