Friday

Closing the week is yet another XYZ Monster, One-Eyed Skill Gainer. This guys should totally be Dark, looking like an evil scarecrow, who assimilates himself into other XYZ Monsters. On his own, he is Light, Rank 4, XYZ Summoned with three Level 4 Monsters, and a Warrior. 2500 attack and 2600 defense are good, and by discarding an XYZ Material, he can target a face-up XYZ Monster your opponent controls. This Monster becomes that Monster...the attack and defense stay the same, but it's name, and effects, change to resemble the chosen XYZ Monster. The effect can only be used once while face-up on the Field. I really like the last part of that effect. Flip it face down, flip it back, and use the effect again.

Ratings:

Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3.5/5
Art: 5/5

One-Eyed Skill Gainer is aptly named as it gains the effects and attack of your opponent’s Xyz monster. If you are going to relinquish 3 level 4 monsters on your field, you will want to be summoning a monster with pretty good effects. Obviously, playing One-Eyed is very situational, as your opponent is going to need to have a good Xyz monster on the field for you to copy.
 
Let’s take a look at some of the situations where One-Eyed Skill Gainer would come in handy. If your opponent has Leviathan Dragon on the field with 2500 attack, you can detach a material to make your monster 2500 in attack and then detach a material to make it 3000 to attack over their monster. On your next turn, you can detach the last material to make this card 3500 in attack. If your opponent has Tiras, Keeper of Genesis or Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon, you can use their effects to destroy cards your opponent controls. If they have Utopia, you can use its effect to stop two of your opponent’s attacks. I think you get the picture.
 
Deck space is extremely limited, so the question of this card being better than other 3 level 4 Xyz monster comes into play. Gagagigo the Risen has 2950 in attack, so if it is a high attack monster you need, then go with Gagagigo. Number 32: Shark Drake gives a high 2800 attack with a good effect that can inflict damage on your opponent. Number 16: Shock Master can shut down just about any win condition your opponent relies on. And then there is a personal favorite of mine, Vylon Disigma. Disigma can get around the problem of having the same attack as your opponent’s monster by simply taking it and using its attribute as a Cataster like effect.
 
The same attack stipulation is a negative to One-Eyed Skill Gainer, as it normally will need an attack boost to get over the opponents monster. Cards like the Seal of Orichalcos and Forbidden Lance can help with the negative, but then that still make Gainer dependant. It’s my opinion that there are just better options and One-Eyed Skill Gainer is just too situational to take up valuable extra deck space.
 
Traditional: 2/5
Advanced: 2.5/5

One-Eyed Skill Gainer is one of those cards that I wanna like, but not really. A Rank 4 Xyz, needing 3 level 4 monsters. Daybreakers, Six Samurai, Batterymen and even Hunders can get that out of the way. It's effect is situational, but given the state of the game and everyone loving those wacky Xyz monsters, this could happen more often then not. The real catch is getting a Xyz monster effect that you want to copy. And the fact you can only do it once as long as Skill Gainer is face up means you better use it wisely. Shock Master or Excalibur are two good ones, but you just gotta wait for the right Xyz monster. In most cases you may not even need to do that, just looking at Skill Gainer's stats shows that it can get over most monsters as it is. I like it, I like its stats, it's effect is ok, but you just gotta wait till the right Xyz monster is out to fully use it,
 
Traditional: 2
Advanced: 2.5