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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Giant Rat

Card Number - MRL-079

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Date Reviewed - 11.12.03

NickWhiz1
Wednesday - Giant Rat
 
This is what life does
It distracts you like, big time
Hey, it's Giant Rat!
 
I have no comment :x
 
MRL-079
Giant Rat
EarthBeast/Effect/4/1400/1450
When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with and ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-up Attack Position (no Tribute is required for monsters of Level 5 or higher). The Deck is then shuffled.
Rare
 
The second best Monster of this type (Mystic Tomato is obviously the best).  There are a good number of Earth monsters that you can bring out with this critter, including Marauding Captain (although you don't get the Special Summon requirement), Dream Clown, Giant Soldier of Stone, and Pyramid Turtle.  Not bad for not being Mystic Tomato.
 
Like Tomato, it's always susceptible to Monster removal, but that doesn't stop people from playing Tomato, does it?  Then again, Tomato does a better job than this critter.  If you are building an Earth deck, or a Dream Clown deck, you will want to consider this guy.  Otherwise, I would save it just for fun decks.
 
Casual: 3.5
 
If you can find a fun use for him, by all means.
 
Tournament: 2.5
 
There aren't many Earth-types used with the stats required for Giant Rat to work, so that definitely bumps it down.
 
Draft: 3.0
 
It's not likely that you'll be drafting many Earth-types with the required stats, but if you snatch a couple good ones, by all means use Giant Rat.
SomeGuy
Wednesday - Giant Rat
 
Earth/4/1400/1450
[Beast/Effect]
When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with and ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-up Attack Position (no Tribute is required for monsters of Level 5 or higher). The Deck is then shuffled.
Giant Rat isn't near as playable as Mystic Tomato, but it definitely has it's uses. The most common Monsters that will be fetched via Giant Rat are:
 
-(Another) Giant Rat
-Dream Clown
-Exiled Force
-Injection Fairy Lily
-Nimble Momonga
-Pyramid Turtle
 
Not that amazing of a list, but still decent nonetheless. Of course, this list will only get bigger as time goes on. Meaning that it may be a very top tier card in the future.
 
In Limited, I can see him being used effectively. There are tons of weak Earth Monsters that you could Special Summon with his Effect. And at the very least, they will provide a small amount of defense. Not amazing, but definitely playable with the 1400 ATK. In Draft specifically, it's an early to mid pick. It really just depends on what is being opened.
 
Ratings:
 
Constructed - 3/5
Limited - 3.5/5
 
Alot of people are confused as to what "Limited" means. I'll briefly go over it with everyone.

"Limited" is a tournament where your card pool is just what it says, limited.

"Constructed" is when you have the ability to use whatever cards you want to construct your deck. Your basic Duelist Kingdom tournaments.

The two most popular forms of "Limited" tournaments are "Sealed" and "Draft".

"Sealed" usually consist of either a random Starter deck and X amounts of Packs OR just X amounts of Packs. Everyone opens their Packs and/or Starter Deck and creates a deck with the cards which will be used in the tournament. Regular dueling rules usually apply.

"Draft" usually consists of 3 Packs of either one set or assorted sets. A group of 8 players, also known as a "pod", sit around a table. Depending how the Draft is being run, each player opens one Pack, takes one card out of it, and then passes the rest of the pack to the left or right. This continues until there are no cards in the Pack left to pass. The next Pack is then opened and passed to the opposite direction that was passed last time. This continues until there are no cards left to pass, and no Packs remaining. Decks consist of 20 cards, and Life Points are set at 4000.

The other way that UDE runs a "Draft", is that two packs are opened at once instead of one. One card is taken from _each_ pack and then passed.

That should somewhat explain everything.
DuelMonster Wednesday:

Giant Rat
MRL-079-Rare
Earth/Beast/4/1400/1450
Effect: When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with and ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-up Attack Position (no Tribute is required for monsters of Level 5 or higher). The Deck is then shuffled.


Pros:
Special Summoning Effect
Searchable by WotBF, Sangan, Giant Rat and Last Will

Cons:
Has to be destroyed in battle and then make it to the Graveyard
1400 ATK isn't much, but it doesn't matter

Combos:
Suicide itself into another Monster, not really a combo but it's sometimes better than waiting to be attacked.
Book Of Moon - allow you to use a Rat Summoned Flip Effect Monster.

Notes:
Well now that we actually have Earth Monsters with 1500 or less ATK worth using Giant Rat has begun to see some play lately. I've actually had many people lately asking for them for trades, and I had plenty of extras but never thought anyone would want them that bad and never bring them to tournaments.

Anyways, lets see, right now he can pull Decayed Commander, Zombie Tiger, D.D. Crazy Beast, Neko Mane King, Great Phantom Thief, Amazoness Fighter, Amazoness Swords Woman, Amazoness Blowpiper, Amazoness Tiger, Cat’s Ear Tribe, Marauding Captain, King Tiger Wanghu, Pyramid Turtle, Injection Fairy Lily and Exiled Force but you usually don't want him summoned on the opponents turn. There's more than that and if you combo it with Book of Moon you can grab an Earth Monster with a Flip Effect like Fiber Jar.

There's always bound to be more Monsters coming out that will be Rat searchable but there's still a lot more Tomato searchable Monsters out and coming. The only bad sides this card really has is running out of Monsters to Special Summon, but that shouldn't happen too often, and then if he's destroyed via Monster Removal Effect you don't get crap out of it. There's also Banisher Of The Light, Lesser Fiend, D.D. Crazy Beast, NoC+BoM and Dark Core that can also get in the way.

Ratings:
Casual: 3.5
Tourney: 3.0
ArtWork: 3.5 - Yeah! A giant rat holding a skull, I think I've seen that same one running around the dumpster down the street, I guess he's famous. 
MerrilHess Giant Rat
Earth/Beast
4 Stars/1400 ATK/1450 DEF
When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with an attack of 1500 or less and special summon it to the field in face up attack position (no tribute is required for monsters of level 5 or higher). The deck is then shuffled.

Upsides: Searchable by Witch, Sangan, and Itself; Injection Fairy Lily’s best friend; decent attack

Down sides: Has to be attacked and killed; weak stats; only 1500 or less can be searched for

This card is exactly like Mystic Tomato except without the powerful friend to make his own deck like Tomato has. In Clown Control and Earth decks, this card will see considerable play, but other than that, it may not see as much play as it’s dark twin tomato. The others like it (ufo turtle, Mother Grizzly, Flying Kamikiri #1, and Shining Angel) will not see much play either. I still like Giant Rat though.

In Sealed, This card is Speed. Since every starter has at least 2-3 low attack earth monsters, it can help thin your deck by at least 1 or 2 cards. That, my friends, is very good.

Casual Rating: 4.0
Tourney Rating: 2.5
Sealed Rating: 2.9
f00b Wednesday 11/12/03 - Giant Rat

Giant Rat Earth/4/1400/1450
[Beast/Effect]
When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with and ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-up Attack Position (no Tribute is required for monsters of Level 5 or higher). The Deck is then shuffled.


Pros
+Deck thinner
+Special Summon Effect
+Combos with Dream Clown
+Kamikaze a Zaloog and summon a…erm…something else

Cons
-Utterly Useless =\
-Nothing good to summon
-1450 defense normally is good, but you WANT a thinner to die in battle.

Come on, this isn’t tomato. Creature Swapping this over and attacking it can only fetch you a nimble, or an exiled, or maybe a swordswoman, nothing compared to what tomato does. However, if your opponent attacks your rat and you summon a dream clown in attack mode, then it goes to your turn and you get instant monster removal via the clown. But you just coulda had something better…

In my opinion, I would just rather use nimbles than giant rats, although both are fine as thinners/searchers. Until the future, there just aren’t good enough 1500- earth monsters to make this monster a more viable option.

Even in limited, where it’s important to keep monsters on the field, there are better choices than this card. So just put it back in the box along with those earth monsters…

Ratings:
Constructed - 1/5
Limited - 2/5 
DrZap84 Giant Rat

Earth/4/1400/1450
[Beast/Effect]
When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you may select 1 EARTH monster with and ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-up Attack Position (no Tribute is required for monsters of Level 5 or higher). The Deck is then shuffled.

Card Number MRL-079
Card ID No. 97017120
Rare


This is becoming one of my favorite cards. With the Magician's Force set Earth Monsters have become better. In my latest deck I run 2-2 On Giant Rat and Mystic Tomato. I do this, because cards like D.D. Crazy Beast and Decayed Commander are incredibly useful. Also by running 2-2 I now have an extra searcher.

Pros:
-A lot more mons to get with this card
-1400 Attack can ram into Don, Tomato, any other 1400.
-Its search

Cons:
-Monster removal
-D.D. Crazy Beast owns this and others like it.
-1400 attack of course is low.

Pros: Like Tomato, Giant Rat now has a higher selection of monsters to choose from. Earth monsters got better with the MFC set. Also since it has 1400 attack it can still ram don zaloog, other tomato's or any other 1400 attack mon and get the search.

Cons: Like every monster in the game Giant Rat is weak to monster removal. It is especially weak, because of the same reasons as Mystic Tomato. Also, even though it can search for D.D. Crazy Beast D.D. Crazy beast is also its weakness. Lets do the math D.D. Crazy beast removes the monster therefore put 1+1 and you don't get the effect! YAY! And finally 1400 attack is very low. So if you need a long lasting monster like Jinzo and you need some staying power. 

Combos:

Creature Swap + Giant Rat: Its just the same as Mystic Tomato and Swap.

That's really it, there aren't really any other combos with Giant Rat.

Tourney Play: 3.3/5 It got better with Magician's Force.

Casual Play: 3.3/5 No better, no worse.

Limited Play: 4/5 Any search is good in draft, plus most mons won't be over 1500 anyways.

Artwork: Well, besides the fact that its a huge rat, uh I would say it was pretty sexy. Except the rat thing sort of brings down its points. So....1/5 Just cuz the rat doesn't do it for me.  

 

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