Trident Warrior starts of promisingly enough.  It is Level 4 (easy drop), Light (good support), and a Warrior (more good support).  1800 ATK isn’t as big as it used to be, but it is still a functional beatstick.  Since it has decent ATK, the 1200 DEF is tolerable: it is low enough that should your opponent shift Trident Warrior to Defense Position, he’s probably toast but at least it requires something more than Sangan or Goblin Zombie.

A strong foundation is followed by a decent effect: when Trident Warrior is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon a Level 3 monster from your hand.  Oh so close.  Like I said, this is a decent effect.  You can drop any Level 3 you want alongside it, so plenty of Tuners qualify.  If it said “Level 3 or less”, this would be huge for several decks.  That isn’t what it says, though, so you have the very real chance that it will be a vanilla Level 4, 1800 ATK beatstick.  Level variety is actually quite high in decks, relative to the past.  If you want the effect to go off reliably, that means a deck where most monsters are Level 3.  That restricts you greatly.  It also diminishes the synergy that would have existed between this and Junk Synchron.  They still make a decent team, but if you use Trident Warrior to bring out Junk Synchron, the latter’s effect won’t trigger, making it seem like a bit of a waste.  Worse still, Junk Synchron wants the deck loaded with Level 2 monsters so running Trident Warrior and a few other Level 3 monsters will hurt that combo.

All in all, it is a decent card because the decks that are already Light or already have plenty of Level 3 monsters they want to get into play gain a good beatstick with a useful trick.  Everything else just gets a plain beatstick.

Since the review is so short, I’ll take time to comment on aspects not so important to the TCG.  The art is technically sound (at least by my standards) but the outfit looks pretty silly, like someone trying too hard to be “creative” and instead looking a bit silly.  What actually annoys me is the name.  The name and art clearly fit: it’s a warrior wielding a trident.  The effect is completely random.  Why should guy with a trident have a smaller ally?  As a pencil-and-paper RPG fan (think “Dungeons and Dragons” or my preferred system, GURPS) it seems like such a waste for the Trident Warrior to apparently be an arbitrary piece of name and art.  Many weapons in Yu-Gi-Oh miss the chance to have logical effects.  The trident would be wielded much like a spear, but with an interesting trade off: it requires more strength to wield due to the extra weight on the end, and was harder to use, but a good blow will often have at least two of the points impaling.  Quite vicious if all three connect.  I could see some interesting trample derived effects that would be much more appropriate.

Ratings

Traditional: 2/5 – With the sheer scope of cards, a bizarre “weenie Chaos” should be feasible.  Effective is another matter.

Advanced: 3/5 – Some decks can really make good use of the effect.  All decks get a solid beatstick.  Light decks get a solid beatstick they can back up with Honest. 

I am still selling my former collectables on eBay.  I’ve had a lot of hobbies over the years, so at various times I’ll have comic books, manga, action figures, and video games on the auction block.  You can take a look at what’s up for bids here.  I usually add new stuff on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for this and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auctions here. ;)