Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings – Yu-Gi-Oh! Throwback Thursday

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings was the first Gimmick Puppet and is our Throwback Thursday choice.

Simple to Xyz Summon and strong at 3000ATK, Gimmick Puppet of Strings sadly doesn’t have the greatest effect. Mass destruction is good, but with GPoS it takes to long. By the opponents End Phase they will already have linked off the monster(s) with strong counters on them. Aside from that, 500LP burn isn’t much for the long wait. Nowadays as well the graveyard is used even more and monsters being destroyed isn’t as devastating as it used to be. The game today is too fast for GPoS to keep up or have any benefit to its effect.

Support behind it and its ATK aside, there isn’t much going for this monster anymore.

Advanced-2.5/5     Art-3/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

Throwback Thursday brings us to the best Gimmick Puppet Rank 8, though that doesn’t say a lot, Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings.

Number 40 is a Rank 8 DARK Machine with 3000 ATK and 2000 DEF. Pretty solid stats for a Rank 8, and the DARK/Machine combo is still a fine one. The summoning requirements are any 2 Level 8 monsters, which getting Level 8s on the field isn’t necessarily hard to do, especially in Gimmick Puppets. Once per turn, you can detach a material from this card to place a String Counter on every face-up monster on the field, excluding itself. These counters will matter because at the end of the opponent’s turn after you used this effect, you destroy every monster with a String Counter and burn the opponent for 500 for each monster. It’s pretty slow, but you can instead get an immediate payoff by using a Rank-Up-Magic and going into Number C40 to immediately destroy the monsters with String Counters, draw a card, and burn the opponent for the strongest monster destroyed. Otherwise you just got to hope your opponent doesn’t use their monsters with String Counters for Link Summons, cause then this effect feels pointless, though it could just force the opponent to do something that wasn’t as optimal. Like I said, it’s the best Gimmick Puppet Rank 8, but I’m comparing it to a monster with poor stats that targets and destroys a monster twice per turn and burns if said destroyed monster was an Xyz as well as another Rank 8 that needs three materials and is a Win Condition in three turns that won’t really let you set Spells or Traps on the way to trying to pull it off. I guess you can argue between this and Giant Grinder being the better Rank 8s, but at least Strings can destroy non-Special Summoned monsters, even if it’s a bit slower in doing it. You play it in Gimmick Puppets since the archetype likes restricting you from going outside the archetype, but in other Rank 8 decks you got better options unless you do use this with a Rank-Up-Magic, which I doubt you’d even do that outside Gimmick Puppets.

Advanced Rating: 3.5/5

Art: 4/5 A big puppet, but I don’t see many strings.

Alex
Searcy

I’d have preferred to look at Leo today, but this card is better, and each card has only had one prior review (back in 2018).

Number 40:  Gimmick Puppet of Strings is Rank 8, requiring two Level 8 Monsters.  You’d think Machines would be required, but alas not.  3000 attack is very nice on a Rank 8 (2000 defense isn’t awful) still Dark as well.  Detaching an XYZ Material from this card lets you put a String Counter on every Monster on the Field, other than this card.  Yes, your Monsters are included in this.

This does only count Face-up Monsters, however, so there’s flexibility for the player in how to play around this.  All Monsters with String Counters are destroyed during your opponent’s next End Phase, which is cool.  Additionally awesome, is that each destroyed Monster deals 500 Damage to your opponent.  Which isn’t a LOT, but that can add up remembering your Monsters are in on this too.

The biggest downside to me is that I don’t like it’s at the opponent’s End Phase.  It gives them too much time to navigate and get around this issue.  Remembering as well this is only for face-up Monsters, this could end up doing nothing at all, or very negligible Damage.  You want this to be a swift, decisive, destructive action.  There’s certainly potential here, I just don’t see it as the most reliable.  3000 attack is still good though.

Rating:  3.25/5

Art:  5/5 Definitely a Machine this time, but forgive me, I don’t see ANY strings.  Are those gold beams/lines supposed to be representative of strings?