I am still low on time this week, so I’ll try to keep it to the point. Rocket Warrior is another Joey Wheeler card.  It has an interesting effect, but one that is hard to utilize well. During the Battle Phase of your turn, Battle Damage (so the damage a Monster does to another Monster and what a Monster does to you) becomes 0.  That means you can crash into something bigger than Rocket Warrior and not only survive, but you won’t take any LP damage either.  As an added bonus, after the damage calculation, you can decrease the ATK of the Monster Rocket Warrior attacks… but only until the end of your turn.

 

Now, the main problem with this effect is when it occurs: if it happened on your opponent’s turn when they attacked you, it might not fit the “story” behind the card, but it would actually have a chance of mattering.  As is, you have to have another Monster out for it to really be of any benefit.  After that, I just run him down with any normal beatstick and save my Monster removal for the beatstick accompanying it.  After all, his ATK is low enough (1500) that it isn’t likely to live without some help but high enough that it can’t be used with Messenger of Peace (if you were wanting to use that with cards like Don Zaloog.  So it either needed to be about 200 ATK higher or 50 ATK lower.  It also would be nice as a Level 3 so it could attack under Gravity Bind and Level Limit-Area B.  But it is a Level 4 so it can’t.  Besides, a direct attacker would probably be of more use to you in those decks.  I suppose you could add Twin Flashing Swords – Tryce: not only would you be able to attack twice (making it much more useful since it can now knock 1000 ATK off the opponent’s Monster (or hit two for -500 ATK), but that makes it so it can slip under Messenger of Peace (which it would need, since Rocket Warrior’s own attack would be dropped to 1000 by this combo).

 

The problem is that is a very, very big combo.  On your opponent’s turn, as I stated, Rocket Warrior is a more or less a sitting duck.  So I might as well have just used some Monster removal or an Equip for all the good Rocket Warrior will be doing me the next turn, and still have yet another Monster to play.

 

I guess I should mention that Rocket Warrior does have a Tsukuyomi-proof 1300 DEF for what it is worth, and is a Light/Warrior, having some decent support (that all other Light/Warrior Monsters have).

 

Now, just because I can’t resist, here are some ways to salvage this card with future upgrades:

 

1). A Spell that lets you Summon more than one at a time (I’d call it Rocket Warrior Salvo myself).

 

2). Another Spell called Rocket Warrior Head (warhead, get it?) that would let you zero out a Monster you attack’s ATK/DEF (but all Rocket Warriors would be Destroyed after they attacked).

 

3. Rocket Warrior Launcher-a Continuous Trap that would let you activate Rocket Warriors effect on your opponent’s turn.  Yes, I like puns.

 

Can you tell I am doing it late at night and suddenly instead of being short on time, had to kill a few minutes?  Hope you found that entertaining. ;)

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5-To use this even close to correctly, you’d need a huge set up that just couldn’t survive here.

 

Advanced        : 2/5-You could try it with Don Zaloog, Messenger of Peace, and Twin Flashing Swords – Tryce.  You might make your opponent laugh his or herself to death, though.  I guess you could use it in general, but for the most part you might as well just run Zombyra the Dark Hero or Goblin Attack Force or something like that since if your opponent has monster bigger than those out, Rocket Warrior probably wouldn’t have been much help anyway.

 

Limited            : N/A-And again, it’d be half decent here, like most of this week’s cards.  Save it in hand incase your opponent gets a good beatstick.  As long as you have at least one other good monster of your own already out, Rocket Warrior could then earn its keep by softening said opposing beatstick up.