Naturia Barkion

Closing Naturia Week is Naturia Barkion. Barkion's effect is the opposite of Naturia Beast's, removing 2 cards from your Graveyard to negate a Trap. Barkion lost some potency with the September 2011 format, since fewer traps are being run as a whole, but it is still a very powerful card, essentially being a +1 whenever your opponent activates a non-Counter Trap. His Synchro Materials limit him to certain decks like Six Samurai, X-Sabers and Karakuri, but his effect more than makes up for it and 2500 attack points are nothing to scoff at.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 3.5/5

It's the end of Naturia week here on Pojo and the last card is a game winner. Naturia Barkion is one half of the Naturia tag team champions that, once on the field, will most likely win you the game. Like its other Synchro buddies, it needs an Earth tuner and earth non-tuners. Barkion is a LVL 6, Earth, Dragon type with 2500 ATK and 1800 DEF. 2500 ATK can get over your LVL 4 and Monarchs of the world, while 1800 DEF is ok, it's still easy to get over. But it's real power lies in its effect. When your opponent activates a trap card, you can send the top two card of your deck to the grave to negate and destroy. Simple and very effective. Barkion on the field is bad enough, if you manage to get both Barkion and Beast on the field, you're a shoe-in to win. Barkion's weaknesses are any Counter-Trap with Solemn in its name along with Divine Wrath. Also, there are Quick-Play spell cards such as Book of Moon and Enemy Controller are cards to look out for. But if  you manage to get both Barkion and Beast on the field together, there isn't much you have to worry about. Naturia Barkion is an awesome monster, plain and simple.
 
Traditional: 1
Advanced: 5 (In or out of a Naturia deck)
Art: Looks like he's waiting for someone to activate Mirror Force Fun Fact: I can't wait for Photon Shockwave!

Like its cousin, Landoise, Barkion is a monster capable of negating a certain type of card effect (traps) and can be used in any deck that can synchro summon with all Earth material monsters. The cost for this card is banishing two cards from your graveyard. This means that at the start of a duel, you should be able to negate at least one trap. With chainable traps being preferred this format, Barkion’s power has increased. Waboku & Threatening Roar will be negated letting you charge in! And with 2500 Atk it rivals other negating synchros such as Stardust Dragon and Shi en!
But for all of Barkion’s strength, it suffers from being an Earth-attribute, Dragon-type synchro monster. Super Polymerization can easily turn Barkion against you. HERO decks can summon Elemental HERO Gaia or Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste (both of which are easy to get from tins). And if you’re not careful, Barkion could also be used to summon Naturia Exterio. You also need to make sure that big monsters, such as Judgment Dragon and Black Luster Soldier, stay off of the field.

Super poly aside, Naturia Barkion is a very good synchro, especially during this format. If you have this and Naturia Beast out, you’re close to a lockdown. In a Naturia deck, you could make this into a total lock. Well, that’s it for Naturia week. Have a good weekend everyone! See ya next week!

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4.5/5
Art: 3/5 (did’ja know that Barkion is in Black Return’s artwork, a card it can negate?)

Naturia Barkion

First let me say that there is a huge shortage of this bad boy around my locals.  Now with that out of the way…

Lets start out with the obvious, level 6 synchro, easy enough to whip out these days.  2500 ATK, very solid, only being beat in his level category by gaia, and the banned goyo.  1800 DEF, not that he’ll be in defense much, but its enough to get by with.  Requiring only earth monsters as synchro material ensures that his power doesn’t run rampant.  Now for the reason this guy is played, while you control this guy (face up) you can remove 2 cards in your grave to negate the activation of a trap and destroy it. 

Very solid effect, in the two main decks that utilize this guy (off the top of my head) samurais and naturias both usually do not make use of cards once they have hit the grave yard (sans teched variants), so paying for the cost on this guy mid game shouldn’t be a problem.  Negating your opponent traps is always a plus, especially in this format of heavy space typhoons, with almost everything being chainable.

Really not much else to say about this guy, he packs a punch and does it with a nice added effect.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4/5 in any deck that can bring him out    

Friday:

Naturia Barkion
Lv 6/EARTH/Dragon-Synchro/2500A/1800D
"1 EARTH Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner EARTH monsters
While this card is face-up on the field, you can remove from play 2 cards in your Graveyard to negate the activation of a Trap Card and destroy it."

Well, the effect is fairly usable, but with so much S/T hate available, you're better off using something else in the early to mid game. This card should be a late game play, once players have drained their hands and S/T removal is scarse, making it fairly useful to wrap things up. By then, players' hands will have little to make use of and the Graveyards will be stacked with useful fodder for NB's effect, so this card can shut down Mirror Force and other late game defense cards. His stats are fairly reasonable for his level, possibly giving you the edge you need to finish the duel in your favor. While there's a slight restriction on the Tuner being an EARTH monster, that's not enough to keep this guy out of most decks. Definately a good choice for a splash card for your extra deck.

Advanced: 4
Traditional: 3

Today we finish off the Naturia review week with a pretty popular synchro monster. Naturia Barkion is a level 6, so it is fairly easy to make in Earth decks. Besides Naturia's, you have X-Saber's, Samurai's, and Psychics that would make a good fit for this card. If you are running these decks, you should be running this card. 2500 attack is good for a level 6 monster and 1800 defense is not too shabby ether. Throw in the ability to negate traps easily and, you have a real solid card.
 
Naturia Barkion has that clause "While this card is face-up on the field", so if it is booked or leaves the field before it's effect resolves, it will not negate. It is a quick effect, so it can be used in the damage step and it can be used as many times as you can pay the cost in the same chain.
 
Unfortunately for Naturia Barkion, today’s format is ruled by Fairies, Plant Synchro, and maybe even Dark World soon. None of these decks run a lot of traps or have the capability to run this card, so the ratings on this card suffer accordingly.
 
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 3/5