Keldo the Sacred Protector – #MAMA-EN025
You can discard 1 other EARTH Fairy monster; Special Summon this card from your hand, then add 1 “Exchange of the Spirit” or 1 card that mentions it from your Deck to your hand. (Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your field or GY, then target up to 3 cards in any GY(s), or up to 5 if “Exchange of the Spirit” is on your field or in your GY; shuffle them into the Deck. You can only use each effect of “Keldo the Sacred Protector” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: January 2nd, 2023
Rating: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Happy New Year to all, hopefully you’ve gotten 2023 off on a good note. We are going to start the new year by continuing a look at the new Ishizu cards, starting with Keldo the Sacred Protector.
New Keldo can be Special Summoned from the hand if you discard another EARTH Fairy monster, triggering those Fairy monster’s effect(s) when they hit the grave. Once Special Summoned, Keldo will search “Exchange of the Spirit” for you so you can discard it in some fashion so that all your retrained Ishizu monsters (including this one) can benefit from it being in the grave. Not running EotS? No problem, the retrained Ishizu monsters mention it, and Keldo will search any card that mentions EotS in its text, making Keldo a Level 4 EARTH Fairy searcher for the most part, but also a narrow Spell/Trap search monster as well. It is kind of dejecting that in all the new support this is the only card that searches that trap out specifically. It can create so much advantage for you, you would’ve thought they would have at least made another card to search it out.
Banish Keldo at any time from the field or grave to shuffle back three cards in any grave back to the deck. A great responsive effect to prevent deck-out or to remove targets for your opponent to benefit from or disrupt their plays (Tearlament Fusion Summon(s), Special Summons from grave, grave effects activating when a monster hits the grave). If you have that “Exchange of the Spirit” you may have searched with Keldo, and it is in the grave, then you get to cycle back 5 instead of 3. Two cards is two cards, take it however you want. Could be worthwhile, could mean nothing.
Keldo is almost all the time going to search one of its retrained counterparts and then get you a cycle-back of three. Both effects are great, especially with the potential for disruption. Cycling back something you lost that you didn’t get to use is great for Spell/Trap cards, or monsters you’d rather use their on-field effect(s) instead of the grave…or both effect(s). Keldo is a good card and while not as splashable as a few of the retrains, is good.
Advanced-4/5 Art-3.5/5
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We’re here in 2023 and since we got nothing new yet for the year, we finish off loose ends from 2022 by looking at more Ishizu cards this week, starting with Keldo the Sacred Protector.
Keldo 2.0 is a Level 4 EARTH Fairy witht 1200 ATK and 1600 DEF. Stats are not great at all, but I’ve seen worse, and EARTH/Fairy does make for a solid combination now. First effect lets you discard another EARTH Fairy to Special Summon this monster and then let you search for Exchange of the Spirit or any card that mentions it from your Deck. It’s an easy body to get on board and it makes up for the cost by searching for a potential piece you might need. Second effect is a Quick Effect that banishes itself from the field or graveyard to target up to 3 cards in either graveyard, or up to 5 if Exchange of the Spirit is on the field or in the graveyard, and shuffle them into the Deck. A great effect to use mainly while this is already in grave to either disrupt the opponent’s plays that involve the graveyard or to put cards back into your Deck that you might want there again. Hard once per turn on each effect, as is tradition with a ton of modern cards. Keldo the Sacred Protector is pretty good to run with the other Ishizu monsters, mainly for the shuffling effect since a Quick Effect way to move up to 5 cards from the grave is pretty strong, even if you need to run and mill a brick to ensure you get the maximum value. You could suffice with not running Exchange of the Spirit and just using this to target up to 3, though.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 3/5 It’s just a basic statue, to be honest.
Alex
Searcy
I suppose it made sense to cover some more of the Ishizu retrains, so here we are, first, with Keldo the Sacred Protector. Level 4, Earth/Fairy, meh atk/def at 1200/1600. Special Summon from the Hand by discarding any Earth/Fairy Monster is good. You then also net yourself an Exchange of the Spirit (or a card listing it in its text, because why not) so you are +1 off that, assuming it’s successful. Despite the Special Summon, you’re still giving up a card for that to happen. A Quick Effect lets you remove this from play to shuffle (this Targets) up to 3 cards from either/both Grave(s) (or up to 5 if you have Exchange cited above in your Grave or on your Field). The latter disruption is the money Effect here. An extra Fairy in your Grave for the Special Summon is nothing, and the Exchange bonuses are random and not enough too. But cycling resources from your Grave back to your Deck (or even just ridding them from your opponent’s Grave, even temporarily) is fantastic.
Rating 3.75/5
Art: 3.75/5 A bit ominous for a Fairy, in my opinion, but I still like it.
Mighty
Vee
A new year, same old Pojo! This week we’re expanding on last week’s Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard by covering the Ishizu cards (they have no official name, so bear with that moniker) introduced in Magnificent Mavens in the TCG. starting with Keldo the Sacred Protector. Like the other Ishizu cards, it’s a level 4 EARTH Fairy and comes with a mediocre stat spread of 1200 attack and 1600 defense, though having synergy with Vernusylph decks and other EARTH Fairy monsters is nice. Additionally, a key element of the Ishizu cards is them being level 4, letting you access Rank 4 plays. As you might’ve surmised from Crunch’s opinions, all of the Ishizu monsters have their role in being a perpetual thorn in the side, which we’ll get to.
Keldo’s effects are both a hard once per turn, which is great since it’s not uncommon to have multiple Keldos live in an Ishizu Tearlaments deck. First, by discarding any other EARTH Fairy monster (so a Vernusylph or another Ishizu monster), you can Special Summon Keldo from your hand, then search Exchange of the Spirit or a card that mentions it (which is every other Ishizu monster, plus its related Traps). In the past you’d want to search Exchange of the Spirit to make your bonus effects live, though with many builds cutting it, it doesn’t hurt too much to simply grab another Ishizu monster, like Kelbek. Keldo’s other effect is the far more lethal one (and one it shares with Mudora the Sword Oracle), a Quick effect that lets you banish it from your field or Graveyard to target and shuffle up to three cards in either Graveyard into the deck. If Exchange of the Spirit is in the Graveyard or on the field, you can shuffle up to five instead, though three already is frankly overkill. Basically, as long as you can mill Keldo to the Graveyard (which isn’t hard in Ishizu Tearlaments decks), you’ll have a Graveyard disruption that can also recycle your own cards. The bonus effect is largely unnecessary, with most builds cutting Exchange of the Spirit anyway in the current meta. Really, all of the Ishizu monsters have amazing value, and Keldo being a ROTA and disruption against most Graveyard decks, including its own deck, is just absurdly strong.
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 3.5/5 Much like Kelbek, the original was rather plain to an unnerving degree; the new art gives Keldo a bit more personality and makes her a lot less creepy (though still kinda scary with the pose).
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