Turbo Warrior may be the ugliest Transformer I’ve ever seen.  And I’ve been obsessing with them since 1984.

 

Attributes: First and foremost, it’s a Synchro Monster.  Definite benefit right there, since it just has to fight for space in the Extra Deck… oh wait, that is slowly filling up, isn’t it?  It will always be nice to be a Monster that can be Synchro Summoned; it will become less and less a serious advantage as time goes on.  It is a Level 6 Monster, which would be fine except we see that the Synchro requirements are… Turbo Synchron and 1 or more non-Tuner Monsters.  Ouch.  Turbo Synchron is only a Level 1 Monster, so you’ll have to use two smaller Monsters or a Level 5 to meet the requirement.  Of course, Turbo Synchron’s effect can make that a little easier, but by banging your head into something your opponent controls for enough damage to Special Summon a Monster for fodder.  That means you’d have to Synchro Summon Main Phase 2, and that means a turn of surviving for your newly Summoned Synchro Monster.

 

Turbo Warrior is a Wind/Warrior.  It’s nice to see another Wind Warrior, as far too often Warriors seem to be Dark, Light, or Earth.  Of course, given the appearance I’d have expected a Machine.  And while it’s nice a lesser used Attribute was given to it, it is still a Warrior.  I know I’ve been inactive for a while and am still catching up on things, but aren’t Warriors still one of the top three supported Types, if not the top?  Neither seems apt to affect this cards performance, anyway.

 

It has a 2500 ATK score, which would be great if this card was a standard Effect Monster in your deck and is still good for a Synchro Monster.  It’ll power over anything played that isn’t a higher Level or boosted by an effect of some sort.

 

Effect(s): Any Synchro Monster with a Level of 6 or higher has its ATK halved when it is attacked by Turbo Warrior.  It also cannot be targeted by the effects of Level 6 or lower Synchro Monsters.  No, wait… for once the opposite has happened: instead of reading a card and missing the restriction that makes an effect nearly useless, I did the opposite: Turbo Warrior is cannot be targeted by effects of any Level 6 or lower Effect Monster.  That is actually a useful ability.

 

So basically Turbo Warrior can run over all currently released Synchro Monsters (barring their effects), and it will take Spell or Trap removal to get him off the field… unless you’re a high Level Monster.  So Dark Armed Dragon can still hit him, but the Monarchs, Exiled Force, Snipe Hunter, etc. can’t.  It is still vulnerable to being attacked back by anything “big” still falls prey to Bottomless Trap Hole, Sakuretsu Armor, Smashing Ground, and decent use of Shrink or Rush Recklessly.  Few cards don’t fall prey to that, but it puts the “immunity” effect into proper focus.

 

Uses and

Combinations: Executioner.  It is the “anti-Synchro” Monster, but how well it’ll fulfill that purpose is debatable.  It requires a specific Tuner Monster, and I didn’t see any other Turbo Synchro Monsters.  Turbo Synchron’s effect can help get fodder, but you have to hurt yourself, unless they are being generous and counting no damage as “zero” damage.  Given all the past effects that didn’t trigger for “zero” damage (like Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper), I find that doubtful.  And if it does, as I mentioned earlier… you’ll have to Synchro Summon Main Phase 2, or keep Turbo Synchron and its friend alive another turn.

 

Even if you are able to use it to get out zero attack Level 5 Monsters, that requires you run them and have them in hand.  There are three candidates for that tactic: Millennium Shield, Labyrinth Wall, and Satellite Cannon.  The first two are vanilla Earth Monsters (Wall being Rock and Shield being a Warrior) with 3000 DEF.  That can help them survive through the next turn or force removal to be wasted on them, but that’s about it.  Satellite Cannon is sort of the love child of Spirit Reaper and Wave-Motion Cannon.  It can’t be destroyed in Battle except by Level 7 or better Monsters, and during each of your End Phases, it gains 1000 ATK (but loses all its gained ATK after it attacks).  It is a Light/Machine.  All three of these cards could be brought out via the appropriate Attribute based searcher (getting them to the field at the same time) or Sangan (if for some reason you want them in hand first).  If we focus on just Normal Monsters, you actually have several other options because then you can use Ancient Rules for the Special Summon and Summoner’s Art to get them to hand from the deck.  A few actually border on useful, like Summoned Skull with its 2500 ATK or you could even match our featured card’s Attribute with Cybertech Alligator (and again, gain a beefy 2500 ATK beatstick when Synchro Summoning isn’t an option).  Satellite Cannon is a nice card and has decent support… but it’s more or less a win condition on its own: protect it then attack for game.  A well timed Limiter Removal even lets you surprise the opponent.

 

All of this seems far too complicated to base a deck around to me.  That means one of two things: you add Turbo Warrior to your Extra Deck when you already have an ample supply of easy-to-summon Monsters (that will yield five Levels) and can squeeze in a copy of Turbo Synchron… or you add a copy of Turbo Synchron to make it easier to Special Summon a low ATK, high Level Monster, and as long as its possible you’ll end up with the right Levels from other cards in the deck, add Turbo Warrior to your Extra Deck.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1/5 – I’ve heard nothing indicating that Synchro Monsters are tearing up Traditional, so a counter-Synchro card isn’t apt to matter, unless I missed where Turbo Synchron is helping out Magical Scientist FTK.  To be fair, I guess it could… ;)

 

Advanced: 2/5 – This card can put the hurt on a lot of Synchro Monsters if you can get it out in a timely manner and take out the threat on your turn, before they can attack it back.  It can also frustrate players who rely on Level 6 and lower Monster effects for Monster removal to the exclusion of Spell and Trap cards.

 

Art: 1.5/5 – I love Transformers… but that thing is ugly.  Most Go-Bots have a better design aesthetic.

 

Summary

Turbo Warrior is a “class counter” card, designed to beat up on its fellow Synchro Monsters.  Although I go on and on about like destroying like for this game, when it comes to countering, that doesn’t lead to balance.  If Synchro Monsters are everywhere, then a Turbo Warrior deck would just become another Synchro focused deck, which wouldn’t restore balance to the metagame. Its protection effect is nice, but not complete enough to warrant building a deck around it.  The most devastating aspect of the card is that it requires a specific Tuner; more over a specific Level 1 Tuner whose effect just doesn’t help Turbo Warrior enough.

 

Shrink it when it attacks your Level 6+ Synchro Monster for an ironic kill.

 

-Otaku