Wednesday

Iron Core Specimen Lab, a rather interesting Field Magic Card, and I wouldn't put this in the small group that are playable and you should be playing if you are playing the Deck, but I would put it in the pile that isn't absolute crap, as most fall in to.

During your End Phase, you destroy this card unless you reveal one Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru from your Hand...where have we heard that before?
Each time a Koa'ki Meiru monster on the Field is destroyed, during the End Phase, its owner can add a Koa'ki Meiru monster from the Deck to the Hand.

It's interesting, not necessarily a downside, but interesting, that both players can use this card, assuming you run into someone who is also using the Deck. The Field Card would be far more powerful if it allowed Special Summon of said monster from the Deck or Graveyard as opposed to just transference...

Ratings:

Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5
Art: 4/5

Iron Core Specimen Lab

Yesterday we had a filler rare from ABPF, but here is a filler super rare card! Iron Core Specimen lab is a Field Spell in which you have to reveal an Iron Core of Koa'KI Meiru from your hand during each end phase or it's destroyed and when a Koa'Ki Meiru monster is destroyed during the end phase, you can search your deck for any Koa'Ki Meiru monster.

This card is rubbish. You have to be playing the full on Iron Core deck to even tink about playing it and it generates no advantage and encourages an opponent to just let it sit there it's effect is so bad. I suppose you could get a little search engine going with Ultimate Offering and this, but it is just not worth all the trouble to get a search, even if it is a good one.

Traditional-1/5
Advanced-1/5

Iron Core Specimen Lab …

This one is an easy one. If don’t need a koa’ki meiru monster on the field or u don’t have the required card type in hand to show to maintain it, u can let it be destroyed. If u have Iron Core Specimen Lab on the field when this DOES happen – u can add 1 koa’ki meiru monster from your deck to your hand … by showing an Iron Core 1st, of course. I hate the koa’ki meiru theme, but if u must play them, then u must play this card as well. There are a few scattered Koa’ki Meiru’s that have some legit bite n’ punch to them. This will help speed your way towards them. Let’s u grab your big guns instead of worrying about drawing them. If u have 2 on the field, then (I hope), much like the Blackwings and their Whirlwind, u can have twice the fun with a loss of but one.

Not much more to say.
Pretty good for the deck. Crap everywhere else.

Traditional: 3.5/5
Advanced: 4/5
(ratings are for the Koa’Ki Meiru theme)

- FREEZA

Iron Core Specimen Lab, a not so good card for the Koa'ki Meiru theme. During the end phase you have to reveal an Iron Core in your hand to keep it on the field. Each time a Koa'ki Meiru monster is destroyed during the end phase you can add another Koa'ki Meiru monster from your deck to your hand. Now, it isn't bad to get another Koa'ki Meiru monster as a result of losing one of your on the field Koa'ki Meiru monsters, however I'd prefer to keep them on the field so I would have some sort of defense. Personally with Iron Core Specimen Lab, you would want to use Ultimate Offering, considering you can summon during their battle phase with it, protecting your life points basically at the cost of 500 life points. Specimen Lab isn't too bad but I honestly think it would probably just take up space in the deck. I'd run 1, 2 tops.

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 2/5

Iron Core Specimen Lab:

Ug, I guess this card is good for Iron Core decks, I just don't care much because it's an archetype that NOBODY plays! The whole having to have an Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru in your hand to keep this card on the field is the death of this card, just like its the death of the deck. You always have to have a worthless card taking up space in our hand, deck, and graveyard. AND for the deck to really function properly, you need to run more than one of them! Yes, this card will let you search out high level Koa'ki Meiru monsters if needed, but you are still losing your monsters on the field to do this, which means you are stuck with an open field for a turn, and in this format, that isn't very good. Who cares if you get to search your deck for a card, just to lose it to an Airbellum direct attack next turn. Iron Core decks need something more than this if people are expected to play them, but I would be content with them just abandoning the archetype altogether and making decent support for another theme. HINT HINT Konami!

Traditional: 1.5
Advanced: 2.0 (it does let you search your deck for a monster without level restriction... too bad it has to be a Koa'ki Meiru)

4/7- Iron Core Specimen Lab

By now it's become pretty clear that the Koa'ki Meiru experiment has gone horribly awry. I believe the design intent was to create a broad anti-meta group of cards that focused on a specific support spell (Iron Core). While the designers have done a good job with certain experiments (Gladiator Beasts and Gadgets), I think the Koa'ki Meiru case failed for two reasons:

1) The Iron Core card itself is terrible. When you have to devote two or more slots in your deck to a card with zero utility, the cards that are based off Iron Core had better be good.

2) The monsters that utilize Iron Core, with few exceptions, are exceptionally well-balanced. Unfortunately, well-balanced simply doesn't cut it for theme execution. The cards that require Iron Core have to be slightly better than well-balanced, venturing near “broken” territory. It's the clear way to balance the dead space of Iron Core.

Iron Core Specimen Lab is a waste of space. Simply put, it's not good enough and serves as theme filler. I think the design team realizes this card is garbage but felt compelled to print it anyways. As realistic YGO fans, we can't expect every card in every set to be good, or even solid. A certain amount of garbage needs to be released to make the money cards worth something.

But Koa'ki Meiru needs a lot of help. Balanced cards aren't going to cut it at this point. And terrible cards, such as this one, certainly aren't helping the cause. Save the set filler for non-desperately needed theme support.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 1/5