Stats                : Ancient Gear Beast is a Level 6 Monster.  This isn’t normally too bad, since you can dump and revive.  Sneaking a peak at the effect, we notice this can’t be Special Summoned.  That isn’t too great, but it isn’t too crippling, since we’ve gotten used to Tribute Summoning Level 5 and 6 Monsters thanks to the Monarchs (as they don’t get their effects otherwise).

 

This is an Earth Monster.  All of the Attributes are pretty well supported now.  It probably would have been best off if it was compatible with Chaos builds, that is a Light or Dark Monster, but this will still do nicely.  It is also a Machine.  Machines are an excellent Type with some pretty sweet support, like the infamous Limiter Removal.  There are actually a decent amount of Earth/Machines, some that are quite good.

 

Now we come to the second concern for Ancient Gear Beast.  Its ATK and DEF are 2000.  The DEF is quite good: only the strongest Level 4 beatsticks, all of which have at least one drawback, can kill it.  Of course, most Level 5 and 6 Monsters can take it down, but they’d be able to take it down when it is in the ATK position anyway.  The ATK is a concern.  This is the Vampire Lord level of punishment, weak enough that the top Level 4 beatsticks can at least suicide you.  Looks like this card needs something else to make it worth playing.

 

Effect(s)            : Aside from the prohibition on Special Summoning this Monster, it has two other effects.  The first is a familiar sight: the effects’ of your opponent’s Effect Monsters that are destroyed by Ancient Gear Beast in battle are negated.  This is pretty sweet, since it’s not an effect common to Machines (I didn’t find any).  On its own it wouldn’t justify running this, but it is a good start.  The next effect is something featured on the other Ancient Gear Monsters: when you attack with Ancient Gear Beast, your opponent cannot activate any Spell or Trap cards until the end of the damage step.  This has some nice advantages, rendering some of the best Traps useless against Ancient Gear Beast: Magic Cylinder, Mirror Force, and Sakuretsu Armor would all be illegal to activate.  Of course, many other great Spell and Trap cards can be activated before a Monster attacks: Book of Moon, Enemy Controller, Ring of Destruction Scapegoat, Threatening Roar, Waboku, and Windstorm of Etaqua, just to name a few.  Also, a Continuous Spell or Trap that has already been activated, but has an effect you can “trigger”, like Skull Lair, is legal to use still.  So we have two decent effects, but still not enough to justify the low ATK coupled with the Special Summon prohibition.  Maybe it has a combo?

 

Uses and

Combinations  : Personally, I think it does.  To explain it, I’d have to practically review Ancient Gear Golem.  Fortunately, it is tomorrow’s CotD, so you just have to check in tomorrow for a detailed explanation of it.  Long story short, that Monster has the same Type/Attribute combination and same effects sans the Monster effect negation.  But it is big, and can trample!  Both have high DEF scores, so Book of Moon and Enemy Controller are basically a one Monster Waboku against these.  In other words, Ancient Gear Golem fears Effect Monsters, and this handles them for it and fits the theme.  There is also the benefit of Limiter Removal, whose use I will further explain here: as it is a Quick-Play Spell, you can set it and wait for an opponent to “suicide” a Berserk Gorilla into Ancient Gear Beast.  Trip Limiter Removal in response (your effect doesn’t affect your use of Spells and Traps) and while you still lose Ancient Gear Beast, you just did 2000 points of damage.  It would also be enough to take down all commonly played large Monsters in a “suicide” ploy.

 

Ratings (for a dedicated Ancient Gear Golem deck)

 

Traditional       : 1.25/5-It is useful to such a deck, but such a deck is pretty weak here.

 

Advanced        : 3.65/5-It fits a valuable niche here, covering one of Ancient Gear Golem’s major weak points.

 

Limited            : 3.75/5-There are a decent amount of single Tribute Monsters (and no Tribute effect Monsters) with the potential to be bigger than this.  However, the rest of the Monsters in this set simply aren’t, and many have Flip Effects.

 

Summary

This card is a hair weak, but overall, it serves its purpose, protecting [its Master?] Ancient Gear Golem from threatening Effect Monsters.