Stats                : B.E.S Covered Core is another “Boss” from the Gradius game series.  A Level 7 Monster, it’s hard to get into play via a Tribute Summon, and when we get to the effect, we’ll see why that is important.  This high a Level really hurts its playability.

 

Being an Earth Monster is solid: they have more support for that Attribute than some others, though as always, most of it just doesn’t see play.  Machine support is towards the high end of the Type support, both in terms of amount and use.  Of course, it’s still paltry compared to Warrior support.  All in all, these are solid.

 

Here is the first sign that something is wrong: just a 2500 ATK and 800 DEF.  Ouch.  These small of scores mean the effect or combos for this card have to be amazing.

 

Effect(s)            : Well, the effect isn’t amazing.  When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, you put two counters on it.  Not Spell Counters, just generic counters which there are no ways to replenish.  Then, whenever this card battles, you flip a coin at the end of the damage step and call it right or else you lose a counter.  If you do battle and have no counters, this Monster blows itself up.  So it has “potential immunity” to death by battle.  The reason that effect normally works well is that it belongs to small, easy to Summon Monster, like Spirit Reaper.  On something this big, it isn’t so great: the ATK may be small for its level, but it’s still bigger than many Monsters that see regular play, so it’s often going to be your own attacks that leave you vulnerable.  Also, requiring a Normal Summon on a Level 7 is very difficult.

 

The effects seem to clash with the stats, and neither is very good.

 

 

Uses and

Combinations  : The only way you should play this is in a hardcore Gradius deck.  That would include the other “B.E.S.” Monsters (and Big Core) and Boss Rush, and maybe Gradius and its related cards.  Not a very coherent theme though, and even just doing a Gradius Bosses theme doesn’t work to well: Boss Rush is a Continuous Spell that lets you get replacements for destroyed “Bosses”, but since it Special Summons them, their effects (which all include counters) are mostly negated.  They are also all Level 5+.  Your opponent just needs to more or less wait you out with solid Monsters, and you’re dead.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5 – Don’t be ridiculous.

 

Advanced        : 2/5 – Hardcore Gradius fans only.  You might be able to take out an unprepared opponent though.

 

Limited            : 4/5 – Why so high?  Because it’s the fourth biggest Monster in the set, and the three that beat it are the “Sacred Beasts” or whatever they’re called.

 

Summary

Interesting ideas that just clash so much make B.E.S. Covered Core and its fellows too risky to use.  You might be able to make use of one or two in customized decks, but that’s for fun and not major tournaments.  If their “counter” based effect protected against all kinds of destruction, then it could be interesting.  Too bad they don’t.