Stats:
Gravekeeper’s Chief, like all the Gravekeepers,
is a Dark/Spellcaster. This is good-Dark means
Chaos Food, amongst other support, and
Spellcasters are heavily supported, like
Warriors and Zombies, but without a bunch of
anti-measures available, like Dragons. Unlike
all the other Gravekeepers, the Chief is the
only one who requires a tribute, as it is a
Level 5 Monster. SO far, this card seems worthy
of its title. Let’s check the final stats: ATK
and DEF. Ouch. Its Base ATK is a mere 1900.
Now, that’s not the end of the world-Airknight
Parshath is still
pretty popular as a Tribute Monster, and it has
the same paltry ATK score. The Defense is only
1200, which is low
enough to for this card to be searched out by
Witch of the Black Forest. Personally, I would
have preferred a 1500 DEF, as that is still low
enough to keep it searchable, but high enough to
block a lo of support and control monsters.
Now, I debated saying this in the combination
section, but if you’ve been paying attention to
the recent CotDs you should recall that
Necrovalley provides all monster’s with
Gravekeeper in their name with a +500 bonus to
both ATK and DEF. So, in a proper Necrovalley
deck, this will be a solid 2400/1700 single
tribute Monster. However, that still really
isn’t enough. Fortunately, this is again like
all other Gravekeeper’s Monsters, and is an
Effect Monster.
Effect(s):
There are three effects to this card: two
positive, one Negative. I will start with the
good, as they explain the bad. The first effect
is one of the primary reason’s to play
Gravekeeper’s Chief-Necrovalley no longer
affects the Graveyard of this card’s
controller. Since it is not the owner’s but the
controller’s Graveyard, this can backfire- if
your opponent uses Change of Heart, Creature
Swap, or Snatch Steal. They get your Chief,
and can finally use their Chaos Monster or
recursion cards. It can also backfire if they
use something like Monster Reborn and target
your Graveyard. This effect becomes much
less important with the latest Japanese Ban
List-I find that it makes little sense to run
Call of the Haunted and Pre-Mature Burial. You
have three recursion cards already in a
Gravekeeper deck: three copies of Rite of
Spirit. Most of your monsters will be
Gravekeeper’s anyway. Still, since Magician of
Faith and D.D. Warrior Lady are or were already
general deck cards, you might squeeze a Black
Luster Soldier in. There could be other cards
you’d wish to use on yourself as well, but that
escape me.
The second effect does make sense when you have
a tight Gravekeepers deck: when you Tribute
Summon this monster,
you can Special Summon a monster that includes
“Gravekeeper’s” in its name from your
Graveyard. It has been ruled that you can
resurrect a Gravekeeper that you just used for
Tribute to Summon Gravekeeper’s Chief. That
make’s it almost a free
summon. If you are really lucky, you may
sack something lame like a spent Morphing Jar,
then revive a
Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier or Assailant.
The final effect states you can only have 1
face-up Gravekeeper’s Chief on your side of the
field. This help’s keep Chief from being
abusive. If that limit wasn’t there, you know
it would be “Tribute Chief for Chief, revive
Chief”. It also makes sense for there to be a
single “Chief”-that’s part of the definition of
chiefdom. Should two somehow get on the field
at once, I believe you just have to nuke one
(this is extrapolated from a ruling on Chief and
Skill Drain). Under normal circumstances, you’d
be prevented form summoning a second one anyway.
Uses/Combinations:
As stated, this make Necrovalley almost
completely one-sided (you still couldn’t Monster
Reborn their cards, for example). In the latest
ban format, it can become a liability, but it
also is the strongest Gravekeeper’s Monster,
meaning it still is useful. Also note that you
can use Metamorphosis to change it into Dark
Balter the Terrible, Fiend Skull Dragon, and
Reaper on Nightmare (well, those are the only
one’s you’d want to, anyway). This almost feels
natural in a Gravekeeper’s deck-the Chief
sacrificing his very existence to summon a
powerful, “magical” monster from beyond. Fiend
Skull Dragon might be pushing it, but Dark
Balter (the most useful) has a close feel, and
Reaper on the Nightmare seems very appropriate
(and is even a set mate to both Chief and
Metamorphosis). Pretty
sweet to randomly chuck cards from the
opponent’s hand when they can’t get them back
(thanks to Necrovalley).
Ratings
Casual:
4/5, 4.25/5, with current bans, 4.5/5 with new
October 1st bans. I was growing
worried about it, since my deck has no cards
negated by Necrovalley, it was actually a
possible weakness, as stated above-but using
Metamorphosis gives it a decent fall back use.
Of course, both are largely untested aspects, so
use all do caution.
Tournament:
3.5/5, 3.75/5 with bans, and 4/5 with the new
October 1st bans. Simply put, nearly
all coherent themed decks I see now are on much
more even footing, and this is the “biggest”
Gravekeeper.
Limited:
2/5-Not so hot. If you manage to draft a
plethora of other Gravekeepers with Necrovalley,
then he can be good, but otherwise, most of his
effects become useless, and he is just a sad,
level 5 1900 attacker.
Summary
Don’t underestimate him, but don’t over estimate
him either-his high score comes from being the
only Gravekeeper that (with Necrovalley) can
stand up to most commonly played single Tribute
Monsters… and GAF.
