For those in an area observing Memorial Day, please set aside a few minutes for a moment of silence to reflect upon those who have died before you, and especially those who have laid down their lives to preserve your own and your way of life.  Even if you aren’t celebrating the holiday, still consider a moment of silence.

 

Stats                : Amazoness Chain Master is a Level 4 Earth/Warrior.  Pretty solid foundation: all thought not “Chaos-compliant”, Earth is still a solid Attribute that a deck can be easily based around, as is Warrior a solid Type.  The two together are quite fearsome, counting several potent cards in their ranks.  The name itself, Amazoness, also opens up some theme options, and of course, being a Level 4 makes it easy to summon and only a few annoyances from cards like Level Limit-Area B.  The attack is just low enough that you can fetch this card with all appropriate search cards: Giant Rat (Attribute Searcher), Sangan (generic searcher), and Last Will (generic searcher).  The DEF of 1200 is low enough that Witch of the Black Forest can search her out… well, in Traditional.  Otherwise, while small, the stats are adequate so long as the effect is useful in at least some reasonable decks.

 

Effect(s)            : The good?  This card allows you to snag a card from your opponent’s hand for you to then add to your own.  The bad news (in order of least significant to most) is a) it costs 1500 LP, b) it requires that Amazoness Chain Master die in battle, and c) it only lets you snag a Monster.  The LP payment is high enough to discourage reliance upon the effect, but it is optional, so it’s more useful than Delinquent Duo, for example, when you can’t spare the LP for the effect.  Generally, 1000 or less for the cost is negligible unless you are running like 10 cards like that, and anything over 1000 but no more than 2000 requires a little forethought.  Dying in battle hurts, but isn’t impossible to accomplish.  It is the restriction of having to choose a Monster that really makes the effect more a novelty than a devastating addition to hand control.  Most decks are made up of about 1/3 to 1/2 Monsters.  So, if they have 1 card in hand… that’s pretty expensive for what is most likely a 50% shot at gaining control of their last card in hand.  Still devastating, but expensive.  Over all, it becomes a passable effect.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : It works reasonably well with the assorted Amazoness, Warrior, and Earth Support.  Gaia Power turns this into a 2000 ATK beatstick… just watch out for opposing Berserk Gorilla and D.D. Assailants, who are also boosted and thus still top you.  Such a deck might be worth considering given the amount of non-Earth Monsters in the average deck is still pretty low outside the two I mentioned.  You can add in some other useful Earth/Warriors as well, like Marauding Captain, Exiled Force, and Goblin Attack Force.

 

It might be worth considering for a hand control deck.  It will let you see the opponent’s hand after all, something much harder to do lately, and if there is a Monster there, all the better.

 

Finally, it might work for Suicide Beatdown, where lowering your LP will often be a benefit.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional      : 1.5/5-Amazoness decks aren’t something to run here and expect to win.  Hand control has much better options, and so does Suicide Beatdown.

 

Advanced       : 3.15/5-Here, she fits a niche.  The rating is for general play, mainly because it is roughly average in a few decks, and pretty good for Amazoness decks.

 

Limited                        : 4/5-Didn’t think you could use this kind of promo here.  So why the high score?  Assuming this card is released, it is actually quite nice.  Just strong enough to be a weak “beatstick” in this format, it also will almost certainly get the effect off here, where decks tend to be monster heavy.

 

Summary

This is a very solid addition to Amazoness decks and an interesting possibility for several others.  It is hurt by too many restrictions on an interesting effect, but not to the point of being unplayable.  A quick note though: I wish the art was better.  I don’t have a clue as to whether or not it was altered, but the whole fur bikini thing?  It’s just so cliché… and I think a few other Amazoness cards also have it, making it seem repetitive.  The shoulders seem a tad broad as well, giving the character a very masculine frame.