Stats: Like its siblings, XZ-Tank Cannon is a Fusion, so its Level being 6 means little-you can’t go under Gravity Bind, but hey it counts for six levels of a Ritual Summon (wow-that still sounds lame).  Like the whole XYZ Series, it’s a Light monster.  On the off chance you haven’t read the two previous reviews, I’ll remind you that means you can support it with a Field Spell card, run it in Light decks, use it for Chaos Monster summoning fodder, etc.  As I stated the last two days (and will in the next two reviews), I like Machine monsters; there are things that target just them.  Some are good (Limiter Removal).  Some aren’t (other than tribe, which hurts any mono-type deck, I don’t think they are out yet).  Its attack is 2400-just about right for a Level 6 with an effect.  While this card, as we will see, isn’t as potent as say, Jinzo, it still has its uses.  Only a few single tribute monsters can give it trouble, like Dark Ruler Ha Des, Summoned Skull, Skull Archfiend of Lightning, etc. are not what you’d call staples (at least in general).  There are also a handful of non-tribute monsters that will annoy it, but (like Injection Fairy Lily) they are costly to play.  It can run over most beatsticks and of course Vampire Lord, which is good.  It’s Defense, while probably not something you’d make use of a lot, is pretty good (not like we have to search the deck for it).  At 2100, only the top beatsticks can get around it, though most tribute monsters can.

Card Text (Effects): Like XY-Dragon Cannon, YZ-Tank Dragon, and XYZ-Dragon Cannon, this card can only be summoned by removing from play the required pieces.  This is not so good-you can’t use convenient Fusion substitutes, you have to remove the pieces used from play, and you can’t revive them even when they were properly summoned.  Fortunately, the two more useful (imo) pieces combine for this one.  X-Head Cannon, as stated Monday, is a decent 1800 Level 4beatstick searchable by Witch of the Black Forest.  Z-Metal Tank can be searched out by Witch, Sangan, and Shining Angel.  Shining Angel is what really helps this Fusion.  Since you don’t need Polymerization, you can just let your opponent run over a Shining Angel, use it for Z-Tank (assuming they have not other monsters to attack with), then summon X-Head Cannon, and if it makes it, remove them from play for XZ-Tank Cannon.

The second effect is somewhat useful.  Destroying a face-down Spell/Trap card is sometimes worth discarding a card.  First, you probably will use it to make sure your coup de grace isn’t spoiled by a Mirror Force or the like.  Second, you will also probably use Sinister or something else you want to discard (like a Jinzo).  About half the time, though, you’ll probably nail a Chainable Spell/Trap, which means they will chain it, thus making it an illegal target.  This causes the effect to fizzle, so that they still get their Spell/Trap (though possible at a less than useful time) and you discarded a card for (next to) no reason.

Uses/Combinations: Again, anything that works well with Light, Machine, and Union Monsters can be considered.  This will mostly see play in a Light/Machine deck, so Jinzo, Mechanical Chasers and a Reflect Bounder are probably good partners for it.  Again, there are Union specific Spell and Trap cards-since I haven’t ever run or faced a Union deck (they aren’t really mainstream), I’ll leave the lists of what is useful to the more experienced reviewers.  And of course, run it in an XYZ-deck. XD

Ratings

Casual: 3.5/5-Posibly my favorite of the two-piece XYZ-Fusions.  Best attack, good defense, and a decent effect.  Toss in some Limiter Removals and you might consider running this against the big boys.

Tournament: 3/5-Same as above, but the whole XYZ deck is less playable here.

Limited: 2.5/5-Few spell/trap cards in these events, so its effect is much less useful.  A decent attacker though, provided you can somehow summon it.

Summary
A good card… for XYZ-decks only.

-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)