Neo-Spacian Ground Mole is a tiny Level 3 Earth/Rock Monster with a paltry 900 ATK and 300 DEF.  Yet it has an effect that makes it worthy of being Banned before we’d officially gotten it.  When this Monster does battle with an opponent’s Monster, both are bounced to the hand at the start of the Damage Step.  For those who never learned their fundamentals, that means before you flip over a Set Monster and approximately 90% of Battle based effects go off, plus before Damage Calculation.  Now, you’re probably giving up a Summon to use this… but that’s okay.  In exchange for not being searchable via Reinforcements of the Army (and other Warrior goodies) you have what amounts to an infinitely re-useable “bouncing Exiled Force”.  Combined with all the handy Special Summons we possess, this should lead to much direct attack sickness.  In Japan, I understand that it had quite a few nasty combos, which explains some of the seemingly odd Bans/Restrictions for this list.  It is small enough to Giant Rat and Sangan to search for and almost as importantly, to make people question whether or not it’s worth using removal on.  Remember, you can Summon it and attack them direct and if they try to run it over next turn… they bounce.

 

Do I even need to point out that this is yet another card that makes it stupid to play Tributes (who are largely kept alive by a handful of broken examples), Fusions, and Rituals?  Even with Metamorphosis it hurts to have something bounced.  If this had only worked in one kind or at least a very limited amount of decks (Neo-Spacian), it might have been a good way to diversify the metagame.  Instead, its even more general purpose than Elemental Hero – Stratos.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 2/5

 

Advanced: 4.25/5