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

Big Shield Gardna
Super Rare

Warrior / Effect Monster
Negate the activation of a Spell Card that designates this 1 face-down monster. At that time, flip this card into face-up Defense Position. If this card is attacked, change the Battle Position of this card to Attack Position at the end of the Damage Step.

Type - Earth / 4 / 100 / 2600
Card Number
- TP5-EN002

Traditional:
Advanced:

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

Date Reviewed - 11.04.04

Coin Flip The first thing we're going to do is admire the large DEF power of Big
Shield Gardna.

Oooh... Aaah.... Wow... Whoah...

Okay, now that that's done, say hello to the biggest 4-star defender
in the game. The first thing someone notices about Big Shield Gardna
is, of course, its DEF. The second thing is the effect. Here is what
someone's reaction should be: "Whoah, 2600 DEF! Oh, it has an
effect. ::reads:: Oh God, now I see." And, for the most part, that
is right. The effect is scarily weak - All you get out of it is a
one-turn wall for the most part, making it a reverse GAF, in essence.
The cool part about it is that it has a secondary effect that will
almost always be beneficial for you. Immunity against Change of Heart
and Nobleman of Crossout will probably win you 1 game out of 1000, and
come into play in only 30. It switches to attack mode after attacked.
Sort of like a reverse GAF, except without any offensive power. It
does quite well with Level Limit - Area B, though. The bad part is
that it is a fairly useless warrior - Command Knight is harder to kill
and has the better effect.

Rating: 3.3/5 overall. Chuck on .4 if the deck is maxed out on Level
Limit - Area B. 
Tranorix Big Shield Gardna

Most people probably think BSG should have been the Ultra instead of Luminous Soldier. It doesn't really matter, though; they’re more or less just as hard to get. Big Shield Gardna is a fun monster, and he can be extremely useful in the correct deck. With 2600 DEF, he has the highest base DEF of any Level 4 monster or lower. Not even End of Anubis can kill it straightaway. 100 ATK is pretty poor, though you won’t be putting BSG into ATK.

...Of course, his effect will do that for you. The big drawback is that BSG is only really going to protect you from one attack. Then he switches to Attack Position, where he's a sitting duck. You can use cards like Book of Moon or Zero Gravity to switch him back, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a great defender like him to begin with. If your opponent has more than one monster on the field, it's likely that BSG won't help you very much.

Late-game, he's a great monster to topdeck. Your opponent's Change of Heart and/or Nobleman of Crossout won't kill him, and any monster your opponent topdecks will likely result in HIS losing LP from attacking your Gardna. He's a fun monster, great for some Defense Decks (Shield and Sword or Weapon Change, anyone?) but only a crazy little surprise anywhere else.

Traditional – CCCC: 2.5/5
Traditional – Defense Deck: 4/5
Advanced – Defense Deck: 4.5/5 
ExMinion OfDarkness Thursday:
Big Shield Gardna

This "Yugi card" from the show finally gets to see play. But will it ever get into a half-decent Deck?

Basically, this is the Goblin Attack Force of defending. It's a 4 star monster with an obscenely high Defense score that can only block one shot before becoming vulnerable. Most people will outright attack F/D DEF monsters now though, so you're most likely going to be doing that damage. DDWL takes 1100 to remove it. The elemental searchers (like Shining Angel) take 1,200 for attacking it. A Spear Dragon takes 700. If your opponent has two monsters, this thing WILL die though, as the second shot will be hitting it while it has 100 attack.

If that isn't good enough, IT NEGATES NOBLEMAN OF CROSSOUT. Targeting spells can't touch this thing while it's face-down. Your opponent would have to waste TWO effects to get rid of it -- the Nobleman or Tribute to the Doomed that would flip it face up, and then another spell, trap, or monster effect to get rid of it from there. I'd like to note that Raigeki Break still kills this thing -- it only blocks spells, not traps.

And finally, it's a Warrior. Like Warriors NEED any more support. They already have a solid deck in Marauding, Don Z, Blade Knight, Command Knight, DDWL, Exiled Force, Mataza...searchable by Reinforcements of the Army, pulled back by Warrior Returning Alive...

Warrior deck typically don't stall, but they have a way to now. And it'll be funny as heck when your opponent cusses you out when their Nobleman doesn't work.

Traditional: 3/5 (Only thing people use that breaks through the DEF score is BLS, and he'd just remove this more often than not if it's F/D.)
Advanced: 3/5 (Spirit Reaper is a slightly better method of stall, but this just compounds on the problem an opponent can have against decks using all of thos continuous stall cards.) 
Snapper Big Shield Gardna

Today’s card is Big Shield Gardna, a Super Rare from TP5 that would have
been MUCH better as just a Normal Monster. Let’s see why.

Stats: Big Shield Gardna has 100/2600 ATK/DEF, allowing you to search for it
with Sangan. Big Shield Gardna was obviously created for one reason and one
reason only, to have the highest DEF of any Level 4 or lower monster. The
DEF is amazing; no Level 6 or lower monster will be able to destroy it while
in Defense Position without some kind of power up. It’s an EARTH monster,
which is nothing special. It’s also a Warrior, giving you the capabilities
to search for it with Reinforcement of the Army and Freed the Matchless
General. Stats – Good.

Effect: The effect is what makes Big Shield Gardna utter crap. The first
effect negates Spell Cards that designate only a face-down Big Shield
Gardna. So, that limits it to being able to negate Change of Heart, Nobleman
of Crossout, and a few others. That’s not too bad, but that’s about as good
as it gets because once that happens, Big Shield Gardna is flipped into
Face-up Defense Position. Now you’re probably asking what is so wrong with
the effect; it seems okay so far. Well, that’s true, but it’s the last part
of the effect that makes Big Shield Gardna basically un-useable. When Big
Shield Gardna is attacked, it goes to Attack Position at the end of the
Damage Step. While this part of the effect won’t be a problem if your
opponent has only one monster, if they have two, it might as well be a
Direct Attack to your Life Points. Now in retrospect, the effect isn’t that
bad I guess. If your opponent is going to attack a Defense Position Big
Shield Gardna, they are most likely going to lose a fair amount of Life
Points. It’s the after effect that earns Big Shield Gardna a bad grade in my
book. Effect – Badish.

Combos: Big Shield Gardna combos with Level Limit – Area B, and really
nothing else. Doing this will ensure Big Shield Gardna stays in Defense
Position.

Usability: Big Shield Gardna works in Defensive Decks, decks that try to
stall the opponent with high DEF monsters. It could also be used in a Yugi
Deck, seeing as Yugi uses this card.

You could try Big Shield Gardna in a casual deck, but it shouldn’t be used
elsewhere.

Advanced Format: 1/5. It won’t appear in a competitive deck.
Traditional Format: .5/5. It definitely won’t appear in a competitive deck.
Overall: .75/5.
Art: 2/5. It’s interesting I guess. I don’t know what a gardna is but, oh
well. 
JAELOVE

Thursday:       Big Shield Gardna

Rated For:      Any Deck

Sometimes, an object can grow so big that it has weeds and debris cluttered around it. The shield of this Big Shield Gardener, in fact, has grown so big that he has to trim it and take care of it.

Yes, a ridiculous name like "Big Shield Gardna" deserves scathing heaps of ridicule dumped upon it, but at least one of the most famous monsters from the show is finally making its way stateside, albeit in a pricey and rare form. 

This is no typo; Big Shield Gardna has a staggering 2600 defense! Wow! Whoa! Of course, such a monstrous defense is not without drawbacks.

Advantage F/H: Obviously this card is intended to be a big, bad defensive wall. It can lead to the waste of one of your opponent's targeted spell cards, including Change of Heart and Nobleman of Crossout. But it won't hold out long if your opponent has a multiple force of attack monsters. While they may take 500-1000 points of life point damage, the next attack will wipe out the puny 100 attack of the Gardna. Thus, he won't provide passive field advantage for long.

Traditional:                             5/10
Advanced:                              5/10
Limited (highly unlikely you'll be running an all TP5 limited draft):                        7/10.

Best Draw for the Situation: This is the best monster you can possibly set in the opening turn. He negates almost anything in the post-ban format that could possibly destroy him, and you'll be able to re-use him immediately because your opponent will only have one monster on the field. But here's the catch; if BSG is on the field, you're basically FORCED to take life point damage with him, because your opponent's next monsters will ram him, turn him into attack, then whup on him. He's a fantastic opening drop, but after that point you're in for a lot of trouble. Try to use tribute monsters to mask the pain.

Traditional:                             6.5/10 (More mass non-targeted removal)
Advanced:                              7.5/10
Limited:                                  7.5/10

Attributes/Effect: He would be absolutely fantastic with an attack strength of 1000 plus. As it stands, 2600 is great but his secondary effect makes it almost useless. You'll almost want to suicide him with your own traps to prevent him from being turned to attack position. Yet you can try to circumvent his weaknesses through Book of Moon and Tribute monsters. Simply tribute him the next turn, so that he can't be used against you!

Traditional:                             6/10 (Monster defense, but bad effect)
Advanced:                              6.5/10
Limited                                   7.5/10 (Less that can hurt you)

Dependability: If you're using him as a defensive wall, look elsewhere. Using this guy can get you in trouble. If you're using him as almost guaranteed tribute fodder, however, his prospects brighten.

Traditional:                             4/10
Advanced:                              4/10
Limited:                                  5/10.

The Bottom Line: Great stats done in by a horrible effect. 

A BAD Score --          Traditional:     21.5/40=          2.69/5
                                 Advanced:       23/40=             2.88/5
                                 Limited:           27/40=             3.38/5

Cards it functions well with: Book of Moon, Tribute monsters, Waboku

 

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