Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

 

Today’s CotD is Turbo Synchron.  Sound familiar?  That’s right: I basically reviewed this card last Friday since we reviewed Turbo Warrior.  Since, ya know, I kind of had to, since you have to use this card to get Turbo Warrior out.

 

Stats: Turbo Synchron is a Level 1 Wind/Machine/Tuner.  Being a Level 1 is unfortunate; the fewer levels you get from your Tuner, the more levels you have to supply elsewhere, after all.  Part of why Turbo Warrior scored so low was that it means an awkward need of five more levels.

 

Of course, being a Tuner Monster is a huge advantage: I mean, it lets you trade the Tuner Monster and another card for what is usually a much better Monster.  Even in Yu-Gi-Oh, it seems there is always a situation where the best of cards is useless.  Being a Tuner helps to reduce the likelihood of that happening: your deck’s real focus falling flat?  Toss a Tuner onto the field and Synchro Summon what you need.  What’s that?  I sound like I am trying to convince my self?  Well… yeah, I am.  Like I said, I am still playing catch-up and re-learning the ropes.

 

Since increasing my dabbling in this game every so slightly so I could return to reviewing, I haven’t heard much about Wind Monsters.  Wind cards get a few Monsters for Support, a lame Equip Spell from TP1 (Gust Fan), a second generation Field Spell (Rising Air Current), and Spiritual Wind Art – Miyabi.  Of the Wind supporting Monsters, most are cards that have counterparts for all or mostly all other Attributes (Attribute searcher, Charmer series, first generation ATK booster, etc.).  What does help a little is that they have a small-but-reusable backfield clearer in Lady Ninja Yae, a bigger one-time backfield clearer in Swift Birdman Joe, and a second generation Attribute boosting Monster in Harpie Lady 1.  This matters because Wind is pretty good at swarming.

 

The Machine Type allows you access to Machine Support.  The bad news is, there aren’t a lot of Wind Machines, but of the 11 I could find, about half could be decent or better… in a properly balanced metagame.  Oh well, the generic Machine Support card that benefits Turbo Synchron is Machine Duplication.  With this little gem you can net one card of advantage by bringing out another two copies of Turbo Synchron.  Yes, that means it has less than 500 ATK: a pitiful 100, with a 500 DEF.  Both make it searchable and allow such a combo, which is nice, but even thinking of the effect, I might prefer some more.

 

Effect(s): Well, besides being a Synchro Monster, it can attack a card and force it into DEF mode.  When it takes damage from attacking something, you can Special Summon a Monster from your hand whose ATK is equal to or less than the damage you took.  I mentioned in the Turbo Warrior CotD that I don’t know if taking “zero damage” counts as taking “zero damage”.

 

The effect can be a nice, interesting way to Special Summon some cards that would otherwise be harder to, but not that many, especially since they have to already be in your hand.  Either you just use it as a fancy way to Special Summon something that isn’t that hard to Summon another way, or you have to load your deck with cards that are easiest to Summon in this manner, and prey you don’t get a lot of dead draws.  The shifting to DEF of the target is nice, not just since it keeps you from having to actually suicide into something, but low DEF scores attached to high ATK scores are fairly common, and a second Monster could conceivably finish things up for you.  Not your Special Summon though, since of course at best it would have an ATK equal to said Monsters DEF.  It isn’t even that helpful for Synchro Summons, since you have to burn your Attack Phase first and Synchro Summon in Main Phase 2.

 

Uses and

Combinations: Not a whole lot.  You must run it if you are running Turbo Warrior, but as you saw if you read last Friday’s CotD, isn’t really good enough to run for itself.  Basically you need a deck where Turbo Synchron already has a use (either for the position change, the ability to work with Machine Duplication, or its actual Special Summoning effect).  See last Friday’s CotD for more details.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1/5 – If you find a FTK or even a decent OTK for it, I am wrong.  Or a good way to mix Synchro Summons in with Chaos.  Right now, though, I can’t see a good use for it here.

 

Advanced: 2/5 – Perhaps some combo oriented decks and of course if you want to run Turbo Warrior.  I just don’t think you will want it for either.

                                                    

Art: 3/5 – Fond memories of the much better designed Turbo Man from “classic series” Mega Man 7 for the SNES or “Battle Network” series game MegaMan: BattleChip Challenge.  Both games are great, the latter even feeling like a strange video game TCG.  Pity the real MegaMan TCG died.

Summary

At least it isn’t broken, so far as I can tell.  It may be called Turbo Synchron, but it seems slow at aiding in Special Summons and not to great for Synchro Summons.

 

-Otaku