Stats                : Doom Dozer is a Level 8 Monster, but it’s a nomi that can only be Special Summoned through its effect, so the Level will rarely matter.  Insects are a Type that has a little support, but it’s rarely used and until this latest set, the best Insects usually worked best splashed into non-Insect decks.

 

For the most part, Attributes only matter for Chaos – I like using Field Spells as pressure cards, and often find them worthwhile, but my decks aren’t usually your standard fair.  Doom Dozer is an Earth/Insect, which is quickly becoming the premiere Attribute for Insects, with only a few non-Earth notables.  Spiritual Earth Art –Kurogane is solid though, especially when you need to “dodge” certain cards’ effects, like Snatch Steal (which would fizzle because the original target is gone).

 

The ATK is 2800 – just shy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon – which sounds about right.  After all, ATK and DEF scores for this game should probably be lower rather than higher.  I mean, right now a direct attack from this critter is worth 35% of the starting LP value.  It can run over a 1500 ATK Monster and still hit for 25% of the starting LP value.  So the ATK score is indeed good, since this is a Special Summoned nomi Monster and you still have your normal Summon left.

 

The DEF of 2600 has two major implications: first, Doom Dozer is going to be the most likely target for Smashing Ground and second, that if you are in a bad way it should be a solid DEF.  Of course, anything it can survive an attack from it should be able to destroy in battle.

 

Effect(s)            : As I already stated, this is a nomi Monster; that is it can only be Special Summoned by an effect.  In this case, it is an effect printed directly on the card (as opposed to just listing a second card whose effect Summons it).  For the cost of removing two Insect Monsters from your Graveyard (yes, this is a cost, I’ll explain why shortly) you get to Special Summon this big bad bug to the field.  As a nomi Monster, this is the only way to Special Summon it to the field: feel free to remove a deceased Doom Dozer for your next Doom Dozer’s Summoning requirement unless you have a Pot of Avarice or something else ready to return it to your deck or hand (and feel like paying the cost again).

 

Doom Dozer also forces the opponent to discard a card from the top of their deck if it inflicts damage via battle.  This is alright: it shouldn’t really hurt you, but it’s only moderately helpful.  After all, one win condition is the opponent decking out, and most cards don’t help the opponent in the discard pile.  At least, when the discard is off the top of the deck, it’s much less likely to help; that card was their next draw: now in order to use it, they must use another card.  Occasionally, it’s not going to matter or would be beneficial: you discard Dark Magician of Chaos and they then use Call of the Haunted to revive it.  You discard a Light Monster, and they bring out Chaos Sorcerer.  For most cards, it just means it’s wasted, even if they can immediately revive it: Spell go to the Graveyard?  Yeah, their Magician of Faith now has a target to revive, but they can’t use it once and then get it back to use again.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : This is the trick that Insect decks needed.  Why just Insect decks?  Well, as I stated, removing two Insects from the Graveyard to summon the card is a cost.  You actually need those Insects in there to remove, of course, and once you do either they are gone or you need to include Return From the Different Dimension or the like to get anymore use out of them.  Nor can you revive them with a card like Premature Burial to aid in swarming, or to meet the requirements for Pot of Avarice.  It is far from a major cost, and Insect decks will just learn to work with it.  Other decks will probably be hard pressed to get enough discard fodder in the Graveyard to make running a copy worth it: you’d be better off augmenting your current Light/Dark Monster selection to make your deck “Chaos compliant” than to run enough Insects for Doom Dozer to slip in.

 

For Insect decks, it provides the combination of power, speed, and numbers they have been sorely lacking.  It seems odd that Insects, which in real life use Swarm Tactics, aren’t so great at it in the TCG.  Multiplication of Ant gives you some so-so Tokens at the cost of a Monster, Insect Queen’s Tokens are mainly for paying for her attack, and pretty much everything else is a monster for monster trade.  This gives you a buggy bomb to drop on your opponent at a nice price, and it’s quite nice.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1.5/5 – The raw power of cards in this format tends to allow only certain, ridiculously broken decks to survive.  Insect decks aren’t apt to become one of them: simply put whatever an Insect deck can do, aside from depletion, Chaos can do it better.

 

Advanced        : 4/5 – The score is, of course, deck specific since its pretty hard to run this effectively in a non-Insect deck.  It’s been called the Dark Necrofear for Insects, and it seems like an apt description.

 

Limited            : 4/5 – Looks like there are some good Insects in this set to go along with Doom Dozer and Chainsaw Insect.  So paying for Doom Dozer’s Special Summoning shouldn’t be too hard.  An added bonus: this card is only a Normal Rare, as is yesterday’s.  So while multiples of them will be tricky, all the other bugs are commons.

 

Summary

This looks to be a solid, well rounded card and exactly what Insects needed to see some serious play.  It looks like Konami is learning its lesson with this style of game mechanic: unlike the Chaos Monsters, it’s a true nomi, its Summoning requirements focus on the Type (and it’s a lesser used one), and it’s mostly important as a big beatstick with an okay effect instead of a big beatstick with super sick tricks.  Good job, people (like they read these XD).