Performapal King Bear

This is the third straight card this week that isn’t used very much, but has great future potential in my eyes. And this is one guy who I could see splashable in various formats for a decade. Forget his monster effect – it’s mediocre at best. However, his pendulum effect is what really draws my eye. Because he can get any level 7 or higher monster in the grave or face-up extra deck, King Bear is what I often call a “hero horn.” It means that for decks that rely on one single monster, this is a card that can keep it running. Decks like Dark Magician are like this. They need hero horns like Illusion Magic to maintain consistency and keep him in hand for necessary plays.

Oddly enough, another card I can’t help but tie to King Bear is yesterday’s COTD, Barbaros, since he’s a beast-warrior. And as I said with Monday’s COTD, this card has potential beyond the current format simply because of the lack of high pendulum scales right now for Performapals. Once there are more scale 8’s, thus allowing for more level 7 monsters, thus allowing more targets for King Bear, I believe he could be really useful. While it’s too bad he only operates at the end phase, that could prove to be a small hindrance when he’s a hero horn for a level 7 or higher monster that you really want in hand at all times, especially as the game expands further. His greatest potential is in pendulum decks, but he will have a place in this game for a long time to come.

Advanced: 2/5

Future Potential: 3.5/5

Here is something good. Performapal King Bear is a Level 6 Earth Beast-Warrior type Pendulum Monster with 2200 Atk and 1000 Def and Scales of 7. Performapals have a ton of support with more always coming. Level 6 is a good option against Domain Monarchs because you only have to tribute one monster to Tribute Summon King Bear. High Scales are good, but 8 would have been better. The attack value is passable for a Level 6. Earth and Beast-Warrior just fill the blanks for attribute and type. 
 
Performapal King Bear's Pendulum Effect is already good because it doesn't restrict what can or cannot be Pendulum Summoned. The real effect activates in the End Phase that King Bear was placed in the Pendulum Zone. It destroys itself and adds a Level 7 or higher monster from the grave or face-up from the Extra Deck to the Hand. So this is very effective Pendulum Monster recovery. Or it can get Gorz or Extra Deck monsters back to the Extra Deck from the grave. This effect is useful in almost every deck. I wonder if this would work in Lightsworn to get JD out of the grave. Anyway, the monster effect is only really useful in a Performapal deck. King Bear pumps his attack by 100 per Performapal card under the player's control, but only during the player's Battle Phase. I'm glad this includes himself and Scale Performapals, but the real money effect is that it can't be destroyed by Spells or Traps while in face-up attack position. Call of the Haunted comes to mind instantly since that Special Summons only in attack position. If it left the field King Bear would not be destroyed. 
King Bear has great effects, most of which can be used in more than just Performapal decks. As such consider owning three and playing around in decks that rely on high level monsters that need to be in the hand.
 
Score: 3.5/5 I wish the pumping effect worked during the opponent's turn. 
Art: 3/5 Regal but sad?
 
-WarlockBlitz