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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day
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Armed Dragon LV3
Common
Dragon / Effect Monster
During your Standby Phase, send this face-up card to
the Graveyard to Special Summon 1 "Armed Dragon LV5"
from your hand or Deck.
Type -
Wind / 3 / 1200 / 900
Card Number - SOD-EN013
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being
the worst. 3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating
Date Reviewed - 10.13.04 |
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Armed Dragon LV5
Rare / Ultimate Rare
Dragon / Effect Monster
Send 1 Monster Card from your hand to the Graveyard
to destroy 1 face-up monster on your opponent's side
of the field with an ATK equal to or less than the
ATK of the sent monster. During the End Phase of a
turn that this card destroyed a monster as a result
of battle, send this card to the Graveyard to
Special Summon 1 "Armed Dragon LV7" from your hand
or Deck.
Type -
Wind / 5 / 2400 / 1700
Card Number - SOD-EN014 |
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Armed Dragon LV7
Ultra Rare / Ultimate
Rare
Dragon / Effect Monster
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This
card cannot be Special Summoned except by the effect
of "Armed Dragon LV5". Send 1 Monster Card from your
hand to the Graveyard to destroy all face-up
monsters on your opponent's side of the field with
an ATK equal to or less than the ATK of the sent
monster.
Type -
Wind / 7 / 2800 / 1000
Card Number - SOD-EN015
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Tranorix |
Armed Dragon Family
I'll say right now that I don't like multiple
reviews. I feel focusing on more than one card at a
time detracts from the attention each individual
card should get. But anyway, let's get on with it.
The Armed Dragons are very impressive monsters, but
unfortunately they usually get passed over in favor
of the Horus Dragons. I have noticed, however, that
people usually combine both sets into one deck; and
I've seen mixed results...
Lv3 is worthless. Its only purpose is to bring out
Lv5; if you ignore that, it's just a monster with
very crappy stats. What hurts is that you need to
have it on your side of the field during your
Standby Phase, meaning if you Normal Summon this
thing, you have to keep it alive through your
opponent's next turn. Not extremely difficult, but
definitely not guaranteed...but when you DO pull of
Lv3's effect, you get to get rid of the little guy
to summon the much-better Lv5.
With an ATK of 2400, Armed Dragon Lv5 is pretty
impressive. He's also a Dragon, so he can be
summoned via Lord of D/Flute – a nice bonus. You can
discard a monster from your hand to destroy a
monster on your opponent's side of the field with
less ATK than the monster you discarded. Discard
another Lv5 and you kill everything from Jinzo down.
Discard Blue Eyes and you’ve taken care of just
about everything people will consider playing. It’s
definitely a nice effect, but it shouldn't be relied
upon to save you; your hand may very well not
contain anything worth using with Lv5. That aside,
if Lv5 kills a monster in Battle, you can send it to
the GY during the End Phase to Special Summon Lv7.
Armed Dragon Lv7 is obviously superior to his two
counterparts, but he has one big weakness: You can
only summon him through the effect of Lv5 (or Level
Up). He is a nomi monster, meaning that even if you
do summon him properly, you can't bring him back
from the Graveyard later on. His effect is similar,
but better, than Lv5's. Discarding a monster from
your hand will now destroy ALL monsters on your
opponent’s field with ATK equal to or less than the
discarded monster. You can just imagine the
destructive potential of that one...discard another
Lv7 and you basically just used Raigeki. It's
definitely useful, and 2800 ATK is definitely solid.
All in all, the Armed Dragon family can be just as
effective as the Horus family. I personally wouldn't
recommend combining them unless you know what you're
doing; I've seen a lot of failed decks that try to
incorporate both themes. Pick one and go with it
until you really see what each one can do; THEN make
your decision.
Traditional Format – CCCC: 2/5
Traditional Format – Armed Dragon Deck: 3.5/5
Advanced Format – Armed Dragon Deck: 4/5 |
|
Coin Flip |
Today is a triple fun review as we review a triple fun
lineup! Expect some length from this review, kiddos,
and I'm not using my standard I-SUC system of
Introduction-Stats/Cost,Usability/Effect,Combos for
rating! Instead, I'll review the Armed Dragon
decktype.
Well, Armed Dragon is a beast. The Level 3 and Level
5 variants are somewhat lackluster - LV3 is a weak
monster that you won't be able to keep out on the
field for long, and has no effect of its own besides
the standard LV effect. It can slip under Gravity
Bind, but so can Masked Dragon and Twin-Headed
Behemoth. Masked Dragon, by the way, is an excellent
way to get him out for your standby phase, if you
want to bother with it. Level 5 has a very decent
attack, and the effect, albeit weaker than
Tribe-Infecting Virus' similar effect, will at least
serve for some quick destruction. You can just dump
and revive him, too, if you don't want to use LV3 or
sacrifice a monster. After destroying a monster in
battle, you can pull out LV7.
The effect is interesting. Most of you will
immediately make the parallel to Tribe-Infecting
Virus, but that's not quite what this is. See, with
Tribe, you could discard a Sinister Serpent or a
Night Assailant and have taken no real loss - with
LV5, you need to 1 for 1 each of your opponent's
monsters, and ram the rest. It doesn't touch face
down monsters, unfortunately... But that's where you
begin to include a few things to assist it. First
off, next set, we will be getting a level 7 monster
with 2800 attack that can be normal summoned without
tribute with its attack and defense halved. A good
deal of the time, that is equivalent to a Raigeki,
and even without a LV7 or a LV5, you can summon it
to the field and use it as a weak 1400. Second off,
if you include Light of Intervention, you can keep
your opponent from surprising you and not have to
worry about Armed Dragon not killing a monster.
Finally, a few Goblin Attack Forces and Giant Orcs
will give the deck high-powered attackers that also
serve as Raigekis. Oh, don't forget to include a
Final Attack Orders, as that will keep the GAF and
Giant Orcs in attack as well as reduce the need to
actually use your Monster-Raigekis. Just attack
instead of discarding if they only have one monster
on the field.
So, here, I'll list an example of what I would run
as an Armed Dragon deck. (Championship format, of
course.)
Monsters: 18
2x Armed Dragon LV7
2x Armed Dragon LV5
2x Armed Dragon LV3
3x Goblin Attack Force
3x Spear Dragon
3x Giant Orc
Cyber Jar
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Magic: 13
Pot of Greed
Change of Heart
Swords of Revealing Light
Snatch Steal
Heavy Storm
Forceful Sentry
Premature Burial
3x Level Up!
3x Stamping Destruction
Traps: 10
3x Light of Intervention
3x Final Attack Orders
Call of the Haunted
2x Magic Drain
Dragon's Rage
Note that I suck at making Armed Dragon decks (and
noted this when I tried to make one a few months
ago). This is just what I would use as my base. |
|
ExMinion OfDarkness |
Armed Dragon Lv. 3/5/7
This is our first of 3 reviews this week where we
look at multiple cards in the same monster line --
reminds me of Pokemon days where Squirtle and
Wartortle had to at least be mentioned to adequately
review Blastoise.
I'll only briefly look at the lower levels, saving
the strength of the review for the higher levels.
Level 3:
Only 1200/900. However, this isn't as bad as it
doesn't have to kill a monster in battle to level up
to 5 -- it just has to be on your field at Standby.
Call of the Haunted + Lv. 3 = quick Lv. 5.
Level 5:
Jinzo-like attack strength and non-searchable by
things outside of the Level family. An important
note: YOU MAY OFFER A TRIBUTE TO TRIBUTE SUMMON THIS
CARD NORMALLY. You do NOT have to go through Level 3
to get to this guy. This card gives you an ability
we've since overlooked in the XYZ cards -- a discard
of 1 card to get rid of one card. The problem hers
is it requires a very specific discard -- a monster
card that's stronger than the opponent's monster on
the field. This means you can't just use Sinister
Serpent with it every turn (as all discarding was
meant to be!) This card has to kill a monster in
order to level itself up, which brings us to:
Level 7:
One of the in-demand ultras of the set, Armed Dragon
Lv. 7 wields great power. 2800 ATK and a built-in
way to kill multiple monsters. The specific discard
is bad for most things -- it still doesn't get rid
of face-down monsters, so that Stealth Bird that's
plaguing you won't be hurt...but a Sinister Serpent
can be sent to get rid of ALL of their stupid
Scapegoats (which is BIG in Advanced.)
I would say that this card's Witchability (in
Traditional) is a pro but it isn't; you want this
card in the deck, not in the hand...unless you have
two of it, take the one from the deck, and discard
the other one for the effect.
This card had the potential to be really, really
broken, but the way his discards work bring him well
short of that. It's a Tier 2 deck to build at best.
Conclusions:
Traditional -- 1.5/5 -- There are better decks to
play. They're called cookie-cutters. Some deviation
from the norm is understandable if the deck can hold
its own against the hand negation and Envoys, but
this deck just won't cut it.
Advanced -- 2.75/5 -- Mass removal is good, but the
specific type of mass removal provided with the
Dragons can be worked around by an opponent. |
|
Snapper |
Armed Dragons LV3, LV5, and LV7
Today (and for the remainder of the week) we’ll be
reviewing more than one monster each day. And as you
can probably guess, they will be the more popular of
the LV monsters. Today’s cards are the Armed
Dragons, the forgotten LV lizards of SOD.
Stats (All LVs): LV3 has 1200/900 ATK/DEF, allowing
you to get it with Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan,
Masked Dragon, and Flying Kamakiri #1. Its stats
aren’t ideal for such a low level monster, but are
useable. LV5 has 2400/1700 ATK/DEF, which are good
numbers considering it’s a level 5 monster, thus
requiring a tribute. It isn’t searchable by
anything, which brings it down a little. LV7 has
2800/1000 ATK/DEF, allowing you to search for it
with Witch. The ATK is pretty good for a monster of
such a high level, and considering it can only be
Special Summoned makes it an even better card. All
of the Armed Dragons are WIND monsters, which is the
most neglected Attribute. They are also all Dragons,
hence the word Dragon in their name. Dragon’s have
always had a fair amount of support, and SOD has
only given them more. Stats (LV3) – Adequate. Stats
(LV5) – Good. Stats (LV7) – Good.
Effect (LV3): LV3’s effect is not as good as the
other LV monsters. All you need to do is have it
face-up on the field during your Standby Phase, and
you can send it to the Graveyard to Special Summon
LV5 from your hand or Deck. Unlike the other LV
monsters, that’s all it does. It has no bonus
effect. And to bring it down further, it can only be
done during the Standby Phase. This contradicts the
other LV monsters, which can use this effect during
the End Phase, assuming they’ve destroyed a monster
of battle that turn. LV3’s effect has two sides to
it though; with its low ATK, LV3 won’t be destroying
much, so to take away that part of the effect is
helpful to LV3. But, the problem then arises as to
how you are going to get LV3 to last until your next
Standby Phase without protection. Of course you can
use cards like Waboku to protect it from attacks,
but I think you’d rather save Waboku for LV5 or LV7.
This small fact greatly brings down LV3’s
playability. Effect – Bad.
Effect (LV5): LV5’s effect is much better than that
of LV3; it does something other than Special Summon
LV7. All you need to do is SEND one MONSTER in your
hand to the Graveyard to destroy one of your
opponent’s face-up monsters with equal or less ATK
than the sent monster. I don’t find this first
effect to be extremely useful; most of the monsters
you’d come up against could be easily destroyed in
battle by LV5, and you’d still have an extra monster
in your hand. And, if your opponent managed to
summon something stronger than LV5, what are the
odds you would have a stronger monster in your hand
that you would want to send to the Graveyard? But,
if the chance arises that you wanted to use this
effect, you can use it as often as you want as long
as you have a monster in your hand. The second
effect is all that is really useful with LV5. It
allows you to send LV5 to the Graveyard during the
end phase of a turn it destroys a monster IN BATTLE,
to Special Summon LV7 from your hand or Deck. Please
note it says in battle, meaning you can’t use this
effect if you destroyed a monster with LV5’s first
effect. This effect shouldn’t be to hard to use
considering LV5 has a good ATK, allowing it to
destroy most monsters your opponent might have.
Effect – Adequate.
Effect (LV7): LV7 is basically equal to LV5. Send
one monster in your hand to the Graveyard to destroy
all of your opponent’s face-up monsters with equal
or less ATK than the sent monster. The same problem
with LV5’s effect exists with LV7 as well; most
monsters your opponent would use would have a lower
ATK than LV7, allowing you to destroy them in battle
much easier. Of course, LV7’s is slightly better by
working on all of your opponent’s face-up monsters,
and not just one like LV5's. The only thing that
lowers LV7’s score is that it can only be Special
Summoned through LV5’s effect. This means its dead
in your hand until you summon LV5 and use it’s
effect, and as soon as LV7 is in the Graveyard, it’s
going to stay there. Effect – Adequate.
Combos: You can use Level Up! on LV3 and LV5 to
Special Summon the next level, allowing you to get a
better monster sooner. You could also use Light of
Intervention to make sure your opponent keeps their
monsters face-up to allow you to use the effect of
LV5 and LV7 with greater possibilities.
Interdimensional Transporter would also help out LV7
to keep it on the field longer, extending its short
life.
Usability: The Armed Dragons function in two deck
types. One is a deck dedicated solely to the Armed
Dragons, focusing on getting LV7 out as soon as
possible, and continuously using its effect to
ensure direct attacks to your opponent’s Life
Points. Another deck to try them in is any form of a
Dragon Deck. The Dragon Deck would probably not
include LV3, and would instead use The Flute of
Summoning Dragon to Special Summon LV5 from the
hand, or even just Normal Summon it. I personally
like the Dragon Deck idea better than an Armed
Dragon Deck, only because the Dragon Deck would
function better. But that’s just me…
And that concludes my lengthy review of the Armed
Dragons. As much as I like the idea of the Armed
Dragons, I don’t think they are monsters that work
well. Try them out if you’d like, but don’t get your
hopes up.
Advanced Format (All LVs): 3/5. The number of cards
in your hand is irrelevant in Advanced, and there
aren’t many mass monster removal cards, which Armed
Dragons are good at.
Traditional Format (All LVs)t: 2/5. The number of
cards in your hand is very important in Traditional,
and there many better mass monster removal cards
available, which don’t help out the Armed Dragons.
Art (All LVs): 4.5/5. I really like all the Armed
Dragons. With the exception of LV7, they all look
like they could be Toon Monsters. |
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