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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 Lord

Card 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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