Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector, isn't that great a protector...at all.  He's not even a brute, at Rank 8, requiring two Level 8 Monsters to XYZ Summon.  2300 attack is miserably for a Rank 8, the 3200 defense is awesome, but not enough to make up for the lack of attack, or ANY kind of protection.  Light is a semi savior of this card, but still, not enough in my opinion.  Plant is good if only because it more or less fits the generic theme of the Deck.  The thing that sucks most is he's a combo card with several others in the Deck, he can't do much on his own.  This Deck just doesn't have enough yet, it's not firing on all thrusters yet.  I mean, you're not screwed or anything if you don't get the effect off, although it's technically a -1.  For now, this Deck is better left in R&D friends
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  1/5
Advanced:   2/5 
Art:  5/5

Let’s take a look at the new Sylvan Xyz monster card, Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector. First, it is a Rank 8 monster. That means two things. One, it is going to be hard to summon. Two, we are going to need some level 8 monsters to summon it. Sense we are playing Sylvan’s, the best level 8 monster is Sylvan Hermitree. It is not that hard to summon as plants have Lonefire Blossom, Lord Poison, Miracle Fertilizer, Sylvan Blessing, and Call of the Haunted, while Sylvan decks are very good at sending cards to the graveyard. Sylvan decks are also very good at searching for other Sylvan monsters and placing them on top of the deck to be excavated.
 
Now that we have two Sylvan Hermitree monsters on the field and after we use their effects to gain advantage, we can then make our Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector. With Hermitree, we would have looked at the top three cards of our deck and hopefully put a Sylvan on top so we can add it to our hand or send it to the grave if we want to get its effect. We can also add a good Spell or Trap card to our hand. As you can see, Hermitree and High Protector are a perfect match for each other.
 
Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector has another nice effect to it that makes it much more than a lowly 2300 attack monster. If you excavate that Sylvan you put on top of your deck, you will get that monster’s effect if it goes to the grave and then you can detach 1 Xyz material to put one card on the field to the top or bottom of the deck. That is a lot of plusses. With 3200 in defense, you could just put High Protector in defense, protect it, and just keep plussing each turn. The issue with this card is that you are giving up two 2800 attack monsters with nice effects of their own and it takes some work to get it out. It is also not that useful in any other deck than Sylvan’s.
 
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Sylvan's are back in the CoTD this week, this time an Xyz Sylvan: Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector. Protector is a Light, Plant-Type monster, Rank 8, requiring two level 8 monsters. Protector has 2300ATK/3200DEF. “Once per turn: You can declare 1 card name; excavate the top card of your Deck, and if it is the declared card, add it to your hand. Otherwise, send it to the Graveyard. If a card is sent from your Deck to the Graveyard by a card effect (except during the Damage Step): You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 card on the field; place that target on either the top or bottom of the Deck. You can only use this effect of "Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector" once per turn.”
 
Very strong defense for a Rank 8 monster. Plants and light monsters have support for each other, and Sylvan monsters have their own support behind them, so Protector has some things going for it. Protectors effect allows you to name a card; excavate the top card card of your Deck, and if you called it correctly you add the card to your hand, otherwise it goes to the Graveyard. This in a Sylvan deck is a win-win scenario most of the time. If it is a Sylvan monster (combo this monster with Mount Sylvan to ensure you know what monster is on top of your deck), and you call it wrong, you will gain that monster's effect. If you call it right, you just got another card to your hand. When a card is sent to the grave from the Deck, you can detach a material from Protector, target a card on the field, and that card gets put on the top or bottom of the deck. Intentionally call the card name wrong, gain your Sylvan monster effect you excavate to the Graveyard, then activate this cards effect and get rid of a card your opponent controls.  Being able to activate two separate effects in the same turn to gain advantage is very good, even if you can only use them once per turn.
 
Weak attack for a Rank 8. Only one Sylvan monster is level 8, so you will likely need another way to make this Sylvan using level 8 monsters. Other than that, not much is holding this card back from being a pretty good monster for Sylvan decks and other decks that use a couple level 8 monsters (Lightsworn, Dragons, etc.). You can make this card in Sylvan decks, but you may have to really work to get this monster out, and it will need protecting once it's out with it's weak attack and no built-in protection.
 
Traditional- 1/5
Advanced- 3/5
Art- 4/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Alsei the Sylvan High Protector

For a monster that takes 2 LV8's (Sylvan Hermittree's I assume), it has weak stats. 2300 ATK is negligible compared to the cost you need to summon it. And 3200 DEF is nice to have, but DEF points rarely matter in YGO anymore (if they ever did). When you give up two powerful monsters to summon a big creature, you normally don't want him hunkering down in a corner, though you might want to due to the fact that this card is more control than aggro.

Its excavation effect is mundane as all mundanity, and is basically something that is had by, like every single Sylvan monster. It's detach effect is redeeming. You can return monsters to the top of your deck to get the excavation effects, but even more nasty, you can bounce your opponent's monsters. Though you can only do it twice (once per turn).

Think about this for a second. Draccosack and Big Eye are LV8 XYZ's. You need to have something powerful to compensate for the cost. This is not total garbage (it does have legitimate uses and it can pay off it's cost). But, it's still tough to recommend, even for the archeype.

Traditional – 1/5
Advanced – 2/5

Winnie the Pooh was a good show. I especially liked Tigger (that's T-I-Double "Guh"-"er"). He had a funny voice and was a cheerful fellow. Oh, he and Pooh and their motley crew got into all sorts of family-friendly shenanigans. Bounce, bounce, bounce.

....

Continuing our erratic review of the Sylvan archetype, today we come to Alsei, the big tiger of Sylvania (like Tigger. See, my stories have a point). Its paltry stats are not what you should pay heed (thought with 3200 DEF most things won't get over him) are not which you should pay attention to. No, look at that effect. If you guess wrong, you get +1 card (in a draw). If you guess right, you get +1 card (because your opponent just lost a card) and if you decided to mill a Sylvan, you get both this Xyz monster and that milled Sylvan monster's effect off, resulting in a +2. Decent, eh?

This isn't a game-ending card, but a tempo one. It can speed up your deck or disastrously slow down your opponent. Yep.

Advanced: 2.5/5
Traditional: 1/5
Art: 1/5. Sylvan monsters are often just pasted onto backgrounds, but there usually is some attempt to make them blend in. There is no such attempt with this one. Not to mention the monster's design isn't very good. At all. It's cluttered.