Welcome back everyone to our Wednesday edition of Pojo.com's Card of the Day! Today is a momentous occasion as we celebrate Kaijudo's 1 Year Anniversary! That's right, a year ago today we saw the Tatsurion VS Razorkinder Battle Decks at our local hobby shops for the very first time! Congrats Wizards on an amazing product and here's to many years to come! Alrighty, we are continuing our week of reviews with creatures of the Aquan race. I know from experience that these guys can pack a punch and today's card can keep the punches coming. Let's take a look at Aqua Rider.

Name: Aqua Rider
Civilization: Water
Type: Creature
Race: Aquan
Level: 4
Power: 2000
Flavor Text: Each defeat is simply another lesson.
Rarity: Common
Set Number: 16/110 l 7CLA

Abilities:
Remount- If this creature would be banished, return it to your hand instead.

Aqua Rider has one of my favorite flavor texts on a card and could be really inspirational to those players who don't always win all the time. I think it's important that we learn from our mistakes when it comes to misplays, deck building errors, or life lessons in general,  that way we can improve and do better the next time a similar situation occurs instead of just repeating the same things over and over again.

All right, on to the actual card! Aqua Rider is basically a slightly improved version of Aqua Commando. For an additional level, it gives us a creature with 1000 more power with the same effect with a different name, "Remount". I'm glad to see that WOTC has started to find some common key terms to use with cards now instead of just giving each card it's unique ability even though it's identical to another card's ability.

Personally, I think the additional 1000 power really doesn't make this card any more playable than Commando. It's nice not having to worry about running out of creatures since if it's banished, you get it right back to your hand, ready to play it next turn. These types of cards allow you to keep advantage even at times you would have a disadvantage and can also allow you to focus on more spells in your deck since you will almost always have a creature available as long as you draw into one of these creatures in your opening hand or the following 3-4 turns.

Overall, I don't really see this card seeing a ton of play, Commando is just easier to play as a creature and as Evolution bait for Aqua-Ranger Commander. That is probably one of the main reasons you would want to play this card, so you can always have an Aquan ready to go later in the game to evolve. Personally,  I think Hovercraft Glu-urrgle is a better option to run over these guys, but if we get more evolutions in the next set, Aquans could see a huge boost in play.

Ratings:

Constructed: 2.25/5.00 (A really poor turn four play. The best thing about it is that it will almost never stay down unless it gets hit with a Root Trap of course! Not bad for maintaining evo-bait though.)

Limited: 2.75/5.00 (It's not the strongest creature but it will provide you with consistency. If you managed to also get Aqua-Ranger Commander then it becomes even better of an option for limited!)

Check back again tomorrow when we check out an alternative to using Hydro Spy! Until next time my fellow Kaijudo Duel Masters, keep calm and game on!