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Pojo's
Kaijudo Card of the Day
Image from
Wizards Duel Master site |
|
Hydro Spy
#44
Date Reviewed: 01.10.13
Constructed Rating: 2.65
Limited Rating: 3.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
Raijinku
YouTube Acct.
Twitter Acct. |
Hello again everyone, welcome back for another one
of our Card of the Day reviews! Today we'll be
looking at a card that admits to being spy... not
very stealthy if you ask me! Today's card is Hydro
Spy, a Level 4 Cyber Lord with 1,000 Power. His
ability "Subsea Recon" states: "When this creature
enters the battle zone, you may draw a card.
Right away this guy reminds me of a Water
Civilization version of Fumes; instead of making
your opponent discard, you draw a card. The question
is, "Is this card worth running in my deck?" That
depends... I would recommend using this card if
you're looking at running Cyber Lords or Evolutions
of Cyber Lords (Neuron/Axon). His ability to
essentially replace himself by allowing you to draw
a card is good but he's just a little too high cost
to just draw one card. Cards like Logos Scan (Pay 3
mana, draw two cards), Spy Mission (Pay 4 mana, draw
two cards. AND it's a shield blast), and Crystal
Memory (Pay 4 mana, search your deck for any card.
Also a shield blast!) all do this a great deal
better than Aqua Spy but they also don't give you a
creature on the field.
Personally, I think this is more of a tech choice
than anything else. I prefer to use Aqua Seneschal
to this guy since every time he attacks he gets you
a free card. You could combo this card with Return
From Beyond to get another draw off him when he gets
banished but I wouldn't normally recommend it. A
better combo for this card would be to use him with
Hovercraft Glu-urrgle and if he loses a battle, no
worries, he just returns to your hand instead!
In most of my decks, the Level 4 slot always runs a
little high for me, so I don't really see a ton of
space for this card if it's only function is to add
another card to hand. If you're trying to make a
deck that's purely based upon gaining advantages,
then I suppose he can fit in there, just a little
too slow for me.
Ratings:
Constructed:
2.75/5.00
(A playable “tech” card that is suited for
decks that run Cyber Lords, attrition strategies, or
really needs to get to those combo pieces. There are
better, faster options, however.)
Limited: 3.50/5.00
(Allows for drawing into more of your key cards
when you don’t have access to Logos Scan or other
draw spells)
Check back tomorrow when we review a card that is
near impossible to banish!
|
Aiden Thorne
YouTube
Account |
Hydro Spy
Even the murky depths require some subtley in their infinite pursuit for knowledge. The Council of Logos may know a lot, but everyone has their secrets and Hydro Spy lives to uncover those secrets for the Council. Hydro Spy
Cost: 4
Civilization: Water
Type: Creature
Race: Cyber LordCard Abilities:
Subsea Recon - When this creature enters the battle zone, you may draw a card.
Hydro Spy lacks in brute force but this cybernetic secret agent makes up for that in card advantage. He hits the field and immediately replaces himself in your hand, this is an ability that everyone absolutely adored the moment he existed.
The problem however, comes down to the fact that Hydro Spy as a body is near useless. Sure he can break a shield, but outside of that he won't be doing anything but sitting there and taking up space. Due to this, he has seen very little play and control decks often opt to run Aqua Seneschal over him simply because Aqua Seneschal can actually do things and net advantage.
I'm still a fan of Hydro Spy, though I haven't played him in ages; but perhaps in a meta where the aggressive mentality has lost popularity he might find a home.
Constructed Rating: 2.5/5
|
AHShadow |
Hello again! AHShadow here with another Kaijudo
COTD! Today’s card is a member of the Cyber Lords
race: Hydro Spy!
Hydro Spy is a level 4 creature of the water
civilisation and is from the Cyber Lord race, like I
mentioned above! He has an attack power of 1000 and
possesses one ability:
Subsea Recon —
When this creature enters the
battle zone, you may draw a
card.
Advantages:
Hydro Spy’s biggest advantage is that he is a
floater! A floater is a card that, when played, is
able to replace itself. In this case, when Hydro Spy
is summoned on the field, he is able to replace
himself, since you can draw a card! This effectively
means that you got to put a creature on board for
“free”, since you are still keeping the same hand
advantage as before! Playing Hydro Spy forces the
opponent to react to it, since the only way to
remove Hydro Spy from battle without losing
advantage, is by destroying it by battle! This
implies that all your opponent’s destruction cards
will be “useless” against Hydro Spy, since even if
he does play a Bones Blade or a Heat Seeker on your
creature, you would still be ahead in terms of
advantage, which is almost always a big factor when
playing! Another advantage of his is the fact that
he is of the Cyber Lord race! This means that you
can evolve him from the almighty Emperor Neuron! If
you have seven mana available, this is one of the
best plays that you can make if you are playing both
of these cards. Playing Hydro Spy first ensures that
you replace it and you can play Emperor Neuron,
while only losing “itself” from your hand. Then,
even if you hit a Bones Blade or any other shield
blast that would remove your Emperor Neuron, you
would already replace both of your cards, since
Hydro Spy already replaced itself and Emperor Neuron
also replaced itself when attacking! If you do have
places for Hydro Spy in a deck that plays Emperor
Neuron, I would definitely recommend trying him out!
Disadvantages:
The biggest disadvantage that Hydro Spy has is his
highish mana count and his weak attack power.
Playing Hydro Spy on turn 4 is usually a lackluster
move, since even though you are playing a floater;
you are not really putting a very good field
presence. Almost every commonly played creature on
turn four has a higher power than Hydro Spy, meaning
that most of the time, he would just be there to
look pretty. In most of the cases, playing other
turn 4’s such as Screeching Scaradorable, Fumes,
Gilaflame, the Assaulter, Rusalka, Aqua Chaser or
even turn 3’s such as Aqua Seneschal, Scaradorable
of Gloom Hollow and Razorhide are usually better
plays!
Summary:
When Kaijudo just came out, Hydro Spy was thought to
be as good as his Duel Master counterpart, Aqua
Hulcus who has 2000 power and can be played on turn
3. However, the metagame has shifted towards more
aggressive plays and Aqua Seneschal has become the
“water staple” that almost every plays and fears at
the same time! I still find that Hydro Spy is a good
card, especially for more control-oriented decks
(and metagames for that matter). It is just not his
time to shine, yet! Hopefully, the next set will
give us better ways to control aggro/tempo decks and
Hydro Spy will be able to see the day again!
Ratings:
Constructed:
3/5
Limited: 3/5
|
WooMod |
Hydro Spy
Civilization - Water
Level - 4
Power - 1000
Undersea Recon - When this creature enters the
battle zone draw a card.
Oh Aqua hulcus how the mighty have fallen.
Anyways despite my lamentations hydro spy is far
from an awful card. Control decks in kaijudo often
try to play creatures with enter the battle zone
triggers like hydro spy to generate
card advantage while building a mass of bodies on
the table for one massive game winning push.
In that respect hydro spy is a very basic card for
that strategy, of course there are a lot of other
cards for that strategy as well and hydro spy might
get cut in the margins despite being a
perfectly serviceable card in his own right.
Thankfully for hydro spy, this card just might find
new life with emperor neuron roaming around, as
hydro spy is a great evo bait since he replaces
himself.
3/5
|
Gorby
Twitter Acct. |
Hello again,
Kaijudo duelists! This is Gorby, back again with
another Card of the Day! Today’s card of the Day is
Hydro Spy, known affectionately over on channel
EarthP0w3R as Paul Clarke! Let’s start, as usual,
with a look at the card’s stats!
Name:
Hydro Spy
Civilization:
Water
Rage:
Cyber Lord
Cost: 4
Power:
1000
Ability:
Subsea Recon
Like I mentioned
previously, Hydro Spy was very popular upon the
initial release of Kaijudo in the form of the
Tatsurion vs Razorkinder battle boxes. It was an
inherent +1, drawing a card from your deck when it
is summoned thanks to its Subsea Recon ability (card
from your hand [-1], card on the field [+1], card
into hand [+1]) The guaranteed +1 was the main
reason this card was used into the mid-stages of the
Dojo Edition era, even with the advent of Aqua
Seneschal, who wasn’t a guaranteed +1, but could
potentially net you more than a +1 given time.
However, as time
continued on, Hydro Spy was generally phased out by
Aqua Seneschal. This was due to a lot factors: not
only could Seneschal net you more in the long run,
but it came down a turn earlier. But, perhaps the
most important reason is that Seneschal was 2000
power, while Hydro Spy is only 1000. The difference
might not seem like much, but in the early stages of
the game, that 1000 power makes all the difference.
2000 power beat over cards like Essence Elf,
Bonze-Arm Tribe and Hydro Spy (the very card it was
phasing out) as opposed to trading with them in
battle, and with Essence Elf on the board (a very
popular card at the time), Seneschal potentially
netted you a trade with blockers like Reef Eye and
Sun-Stalk Seed. All of these combined led to the
eventual demise of Hydro Spy among competitive
players.
The current state
of the game may prove to be a different story for
good old Hydro Spy, though! The advent of Evo Fury
brought to the game Emperor Neuron, a very powerful
evolution on a Cyber Lord (be sure to check out the
Card of the Day review from 1/3/2013 for insight on
this very popular card), and as luck would have it,
Hydro Spy fits the bill perfectly, being a Cyber
Lord and all. Admittedly, there is more popular bait
right now in the form of Cyber Sprite and Cyber
Trader (Aqua Seneschal isn’t exactly ideal bait),
but Hydro Spy is definitely worthy of your
consideration. It really shines in Mono-Water decks
where it is supported by cards like Finbarr, Council
of Logos, which allows Hydro Spy to dodge Barrage,
and can give support to cards like Emperor Neuron
(as potential evolution bait) and Hokira, Council of
Logos. Hydro Spy has also made an appearance in some
Water/Nature and Water/Darkness decks as of late,
mostly, as one might expect, in the role of extra
evolution bait for Neuron.
IN REVIEW
Rating
(constructed): 2/5 – Hydro Spy definitely isn’t
restored to its former glory, but it’s getting
there. There are certainly better options for Hydro
Spy’s primary role as evolution bait in decks that
utilize more than one or two civilizations in the
form of Cyber Sprite and Cyber Trader, but that
doesn’t mean players should be discounting him
entirely. If a player should feel like he or she
needs the extra evolution bait, or if he or she
intends to use something with plenty of Cyber Lord
support, then look no further than Hydro Spy!
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