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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day
![](GravekeepersAssailant.jpg) |
Gravekeeper's Assailant
Common
Spellcaster / Effect Monster
You can activate this card’s effect only when
“Necrovalley” is active on the field. When this card
attacks, you can change the battle position of 1
face-up monster on your opponent’s side of the
field.
Type
- Dark / 4 / 1500 / 1500
Card Number
- PGD-067
Ratings
are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being
the worst. 3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating
Date Reviewed - 9.9.04 |
Tranorix |
Gravekeeper's Assailant
Assailant is simply a good monster. Being 1500/1500,
he's searchable by Witch, Sangan, Tomato, and Spy.
His effect makes him great in a Gravekeeper deck but
utterly worthless in any other deck.
When Assailant attacks, you can chance the position
of one of your opponent's face-up monsters. Does he
have a troublesome End of Anubis or Jinzo on the
field? Kill it with Assailant. Sheep Tokens
protecting him from damage? Kill them with
Assailant, doing 2000 damage in the process
(remember, he'll usually be at 2000 if you're using
his effect). Assailant's effect essentially allows
him to attack a monster's weakest position, which is
definitely useful as far as killing things
effectively goes.
The drawback? Necrovalley must be on the field.
While it should be on the field most of the time in
a Gravekeeper deck, it won't always be; and that's
when Assailant isn't very good. Of course, in a
regular deck, he’s just 1500/1500 potential Chaos
food.
Typical tournament deck: 1.5/5
Gravekeeper deck: 4.5/5
OVERALL RATING: 3/5 |
ExMinion OfDarkness |
Thursday:
Gravekeeper's Assailant
Another great utility card. I basically gave its
best use yesterday -- with Necrovalley out, this is
2000 ATK and it can force a Jinzo into defense and
kill it. (And then you flip your Rite of Spirits
while still in battle phase and pwn.) Even better --
this is a great answer to Spirit Reaper. Too bad you
can't force it to stay in ATK, because it dies when
it's targeted, but it gets it out of the way.
It can hold its own against the world of Control
with 1,500, and the world of Beatsticks falls to
2,000 (or at least ties it, considering Berserk
Gorilla.)
4.25/5 -- the only downside is that you may not want
to use the effect half the time; how often will your
opponent have something in ATK, over 2,000, that you
need to shift to kill? Usually 2,000 will just kill
what they had. |
Otaku |
Stats:
Gravekeeper’s Assailant is one of the two key
Gravekeeper’s for the preferred beatdown version
of the deck (as the burn version jus doesn’t
seem too potent enough). What makes this card
so potent? Not really his stats: like most
other useful Gravekeepers, the Assailant is a
Level 4 Dark/Spellcaster. Again, this is a very
good mixture-Dark Monsters have some solid
support, and can off course be used as Chaos
Food. Spellcasters have few “anti-type” cards,
but multiple specific bonus cards. That is,
there are things that give them goodies, but
nothing that expressly smacks them down. Moving
on, we see a 1500 ATK and a 1500 DEF. On their
own, these would be somewhat weak stats, though
at least a monster that can be searched and
brought out of your deck into hand by both
Sangan and Witch of the Black Fore, or searched
out from your deck and Special Summoned by
Mystic Tomato and Gravekeeper’s Spy. Now
consider that with Necrovalley in play, this
card becomes a 2000/2000 monster that is good at
keeping up the attack or holding the defensive
line. Plus, there is a limited, but beneficial
effect.
Effect(s):
The bad news is that this monster’s effect can
only be used when Necrovalley is on the field.
Also, the trigger to the effect is when you
declare an attack, which can also be a problem
(if you can’t attack, you can’t use the
effect). The effect is pretty sweet though:
when you do declare an attack, you may choose an
opponent’s face up monster and change it’s
battle position-either from ATK to DEF mode or
vice versa. This is part of what allows a
Gravekeeper deck to maintain control; make sure
you opponent’s monsters are put in the worst
position possible. Most beatsticks are high ATK,
low DEF. This let’s you walk all over them.
Jinzo on the field? Attack, shift it to DEF
mode, and mow it down. Opponent activates Scape
Goat when you attacked? No worries-that would
trigger a re-play (since the number of monsters
on the opponent’s side of the field changed).
That means Assailant gets to redo his attack,
meaning he gets to use his effect. That means
you can shift a Sheep Token into ATK position to
make it act like it wasn’t even there.
Uses/Combinations:
This card works best with tomorrow’ card, by
maximizing the ways you can abuse your
opponent’s monsters’ battle positions. As is,
it’s just a great, all around monster with
Necrovalley on the field. There is one good
combo for it though-Ceasefire. Gravekeeper’s
decks run almost pure Gravekeeper’s Monsters.
Gravekeeper’s decks also tend to excel at
swarming. Now toss in a Ceasefire, and you have
some easy burn. That also means that all of
your opponent’s monsters will be face-up, and
legal to change their positions, like most weak,
supporting effect monsters (Sangan, Cyber Jar,
Spirit Reaper, etc.). It let’s you get good
burn while setting up for the beatdown.
Ratings
Just a quick reminder, these scores are for use
in an actual Necrovalley deck. Again, this goes
against how I used to rate cards, or else I
wouldn’t even mention it.
Casual:
4/5, 4.25/5 with bans, 4.5/5 with October 1st
bans. This card can just dominate the
competition, unless they have exceptional ATK
and DEF scores. As I stated earlier, as
long as you can maintain your Necrovalley on the
field, the monsters that are normally favored
(high ATK/low DEF) for their ability to be
easily searched out now become liabilities. The
current ban list helps since it makes it a touch
easier to keep both monster and Field Spell in
play. The October 1st bans make this
pretty sick, allowing you to deal with a lot of
threats the following turn.
Tournament:
3.75/5, 4/5 with bans, 4.25/5 with October 1st
bans. As usual, just a little off since the
competition is much more refined here.
Limited:
3/5-Without Necrovalley, it’s just a solid
Monster that happens to be a Gravekeeper. Yes,
here 1500/1500 on a Level 4 is solid.
Summary
If its effect didn’t need Necrovalley, this
would be the equal of tomorrow’s Gravekeeper and
surpass Gravekeeper’s Chief.
|
JAELOVE |
Thursday: Gravekeeper’s Assailant
Rated For: Gravekeeper’s Deck
Gravekeeper’s Assailant is the coolest looking card
of the bunch. Equal parts freaky and mysterious,
he’s certain to evoke fear within your opponent’s
trembling heart. But does A BAD System fear him? Of
course not!
Advantage F/H:
He faces the same problem afflicting
nearly every Gravekeeper. With Necrovalley, he’s a
stunning 2000 attack powerhouse with the ability to
kill nearly anything on the field. Without it, he’s
a puny 1500 attack sitting duck. So while it’s out,
he’s a 10/10. However, his weakness without
Necrovalley lowers his score to
8/10.
Best Draw for the Situation:
Once again, he’s great
search/draw/revive when Necrovalley is out on the
field. In fact, nobody will argue that he’s the best
Gravekeeper with it on the field. In many cases,
he’ll be the only card that can save you from Jinzo
and other powerhouses. However, he’s a real
liability without Necrovalley (are you starting to
see how important it is?). This severe drawback
lowers his score three points.
7/10.
Attributes/Effect:
He packs 2000 attack with the ability
to transform the position of any monster on the
field (killing Scientist, Jinzo, Spirit Reaper,
Berserk Gorilla) and such. It’s truly nothing short
of godly. In fact, it makes him one of the best
monsters in the game. Unfortunately, he’s nothing
without Necrovalley. This brings him down to a
9/10.
Dependability:
We’ve gone over the math before, but
with 3 Necrovalley and 2-3 Terraforming, you’re
almost guaranteed to have a Necrovalley in the
opening hand. Will this protect Necrovalley and
leave it on the field? No. That’s where the
dependability of Necrovalley comes in play,
especially because the Assailant relies heavily upon
it. I’m going to assume the skilled deck-builder
will almost always be able to defend it.
7/10.
The Bottom Line: Run in three’s.
A BAD Score: 31/40=
78/100.
Cards it functions with: You know the drill,
standard GK support.
E-mail address it functions with:
JAELOVEJOURNEY@hotmail.com is my new e-mail
address. It is NO LONGER
pojojaelove@yahoo.com. It’s now
JAELOVEJOURNEY@hotmail.com! |
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