I am short on time so I shall have to abandon my normal formatting ways to make up time.

 

Golem Sentry is an interesting card.  It is a Level 4 Earth/Rock type, which sadly won’t get it too far: generally if it isn’t a Dark or Light Warrior, then these aspects won’t really matter.  At least it’s easy to get into play.  There are a few cards that reference Rock and/or Earth Monsters, but aside from noting that you can fetch this if your Giant Rat is slain in battle.  800 ATK isn’t going to do you a lot of good, but at least it’s low enough that the aforementioned Giant Rat, as well as Last Will and Sangan can search it from the deck.  The 1800 DEF though does help the card: just use your Sakuretsu Armor or other commonly played protective Traps and Spells to take care of the few higher ATK monsters commonly played (like Cyber Dragon) and the rest will have a hard time slaying Golem Sentry. 

 

Of course, the reason you want Golem Sentry to live is to use its effect.  Simply put, when you Flip Summon, you can “bounce” (return to hand) an opponent’s Monster.  On its own, that isn’t too great, but fortunately you can also change this card into face-down Defense Position one per turn via a built in effect.  So you can use the effect over and over again, so long as you survive (and the opponent doesn’t do anything to flip Golem Sentry up – it must be a Flip Summon to trigger the effect).  This can generate a good deal of advantage, though in terms of Card Advantage it does little.  However, since you only get one Normal Summon on each of your turns, you can constantly make that a “wasted” Summon, and keep your opponent’s field open, allowing for direct attacks.

 

Sadly, Nobleman of Crossout is currently at two making it likely this card will just fall prey to it.  Still, better this gets hit than a true Flip Effect Monster (Golem Sentry’s effect doesn’t start off with “Flip:” so only the targeted Golem Sentry would be removed).  Between those and Cyber Dragon, it will be hard to keep it in play long.  Still, some decks can make good use of it: I use it in a bizarre but quite fun Dark Dusk Spirit/Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys/Treeborn Frog deck: the constant triggering of those Monsters results in all S/Ts in play as well as any face-up Monsters being annihilated each turn.  Golem Sentry can clear out Set Monsters as well as avoid being destroyed by the effect of Dark Dusk Spirit.  A more competitive build just uses Dark Dusk Spirit and Golem Sentry.  I don’t expect either version to win a Regional anytime soon, but they seem quite puzzling to opponents when they first see them, and as such might be good for local events.  As already stated, they are quite fun and good for casual dueling.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5 – So many forms of Monster removal it isn’t funny.  This card will rarely survive long enough to use its effects.

 

Advanced        : 3/5 – Though unlikely to show up due to the current limited deck space, it isn’t a bad card.  In a deck that can use it, it is quite handy, and in any deck it should prove useful (just not enough to push out other Monsters).

 

Summary

A good, well made card that sadly won’t see much play to do the sickly potent, poorly made cards that plague this game.

 

-Otaku