This is going to be a fun week, as we look at some of the number hunter cards. We open the week with an XYZ Monster in Norito the Moral Leader. A Rank 6 XYZ Monster, of the Light attribute, who is a Spellcaster and specifically XYZ Summoned with two Level 6 Spellcasters. She boasts an impressive 2700 attack for a Rank 6 (as well as 2000 defense). This girl is good, if you're playing Spellcasters, you're playing her. Once, during either player's turn, when the opponent activates a Magic or Trap card, you can detach an XYZ Material from this card to negate the activation of said card, and if you do, destroy it. Great attack, Light, Spellcaster, all wonderfully supported things...plus negation on either turn, even if it's just once? All aboard

Ratings:

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

Today's Card of the Day Review is one of the more hyped cards from the Number Hunters booster set: Norito the Moral Leader.

This Rank 6 LIGHT Spellcaster-type Xyz Monster needs 2 Level 6 Spellcasters to Xyz Summon. It comes packing with a very strong 2700 ATK, capable of dealing with Number 11: Big Eye and Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack in battle. It also can deal with Spells and Traps using its effect, making it an Xyz version of Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

First of all, it's a bit specific to Xyz Summon since it does need 2 Level 6 Spellcasters to call it out. However, we have at least 2 decks that can bring out Norito with relative ease. The first deck is Gagaga, the archetype that is piloted by Yuma and is getting additonal support along the way. Gagaga Magician, Gagaga Girl, and Gagaga Child all happens to be Spellcasters that can change its Level from 1 to 8 with ease. If you Normal Summon Gagaga Magician, change his Level to 6, and then Special Summon Gagaga Child from your hand, Child also becomes Level 6 via its effect and you can Xyz Summon Norito the Moral Leader just like that.

The second deck that can make use of this is the Reaper of Prophecy deck. Reaper of Prophecy and Prophecy Destroyer can easily make Norito since both cards is Level 6 and they both are Spellcasters. In fact, if you Summon Reaper of Prophecy while you have 5 different Spellbooks in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon Prophecy Destroyer or another Reaper of Prophecy and Xyz Summon Norito the Moral Leader just like that. It's an nice added bonus for playing Reaper as opposed to the more popular High Priestess-based Prophecy build.

Lastly, it can come as a nice boost to other strategies. For example, Chaos Sorcerer is a Level 6 Spellcaster that can see play in all kinds of rogue strategies. Lightrays has a boss monster in the name of Lightray Sorcerer, the LIGHT retrain of Chaos Sorcerer. Finally, if you want to go old-school, Pharoah Atem's Dark Magician Girl is also a Level 6 Spellcaster and there is support for her as well so there is many different ways to bring out Norito.

With that said and done, Norito is pretty simple to figure out. Simply put, if your opponent activates a Spell or Trap card, you can just negate its activation and effect by detaching an Xyz Material. Nothing complex at all. Overall, it is a powerful effect that will certainly gives a boost for underdeveloped strategies or to ones that can use the help, like Reaper of Prophecy builds.

Traditional Format: 1/5 (It won't make the cut there. Too slow, too restrictive. Yeah. That format got Imperial Order after all.)
Advanced Format: 3/5 (It's pretty good but it's not utterly broken either. It's worth picking one up if you are using Gagaga or Reaper of Prophecy decks. Also, if you are playing Dark Magician Girl in your casual build and you pack enough Level 6 Spellcasters like Cyberknetic Magician and Chaos Sorcerer, I don't see the hard of playing one there either. It's worth the spot if you can actually summon it.)

Norito the Moral Leader
LIGHT/Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect/Rank6/2700/2000
2 Level 6 Spellcaster-Type monsters
Once per turn, during either player's turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it.

This week we are looking at a couple of cards from Number Hunters, but only 1 of this week’s cards has anything to do with Number card. First of this week is Norito the Moral Leader, a LIGHT Spellcaster Xyz monster which needs two level 6 Spellcasters. This card in many ways is a Spellcaster version of Photon Strike Bounzer, it has the same rank and ATK and it has a negation effect.

Norito the Moral Leader’s main effect is similar to Dark Bribe but without the benefit of being a counter trap but at least the opponent doesn’t get a free card. Still being able to negate and destroy an opponent’s spell/trap card with only a small cost can’t be overlooked. Of course not being generic does hurt this card but maybe in a way that’s a good thing.
Overall, a good Xyz monster with a very good effect and very good stats as well, of course it’s only useful in Spellcaster decks, but might be one to consider

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 3.5/5

Kicking off our “Non-Numbers Number Hunter Week” is Norito. If you ever played against a Six Samurai Deck, then you know how easy it is for it to summon Shi En, and between canceling one Spell/Trap each turn and his 2500 ATK, it’s not easy to bring him down. I wish Norito didn’t have the “once per turn” thing, seeing as how he can only really use his effect twice ever, but he’s still good, especially since we don’t have a great amount of Rank 6 monsters. 2700 ATK is pretty hefty and 2000 DEF, while not stellar, is high enough to avoid being slain by Maestroke the Symphony Djinn. Not bad, considering all you need to summon him are two Level 6 Spellc-WAI-WAI-WAI-WAIT WHAT?!? When was the last time you’ve ever even seen a Level 6 Spellcaster??

Currently, there are twenty-two Level 6 Spellcasters, the most famous of which being Dark Magician Girl, who isn’t very practical outside a Dark Magician Deck. Of course, the Dark Magician Deck isn’t very practical in itself, but if you are using such a Deck, you might be running at least a pair of Dark Magician Girls. She’s rather easily summonable with Magician’s Circle or Magical Dimension, so you might as well throw a Norito into the Extra Deck. Prophecies would probably get the best chance at reliably using Norito; Prophecies have two Level 6 Spellcasters (Destroyer and Reaper). Although only Reaper really gets used, and usually he’s summoned at End Phase, Prophecies tend to overpower their opponents quickly, and you can use two Reapers to make Norito for extra protection as you go for the win (plus, Reapers usually come in pairs, as one can summon another). Monarch Decks also like to do Rank 6, but there is only one Spellcaster Monarch, Delg, which can’t provide card advantage (curiously, he is still the most expensive one). Another good point is that the most popular Level 6 Spellcaster, Chaos Sorcerer, is also very actively employed in the Spellcaster and Monarch Decks alike. The Gagaga Magician + Girl combination is also capable of summoning Norito, but unless I was very positive Norito would not get run over by battle, I would rather smash with Zombiestein.

On the more unorthodox side of things, Fortune Ladies have a lot of fun with their Levels, and Lightray Madoor and Sorcerer are both Level 6. Toon Decks can easily summon a pair of Toon Dark Magician Girls, but chances are there will be fifteen other choices I’d want for my Extra Deck than Norito in that case. Although I would expect it to be more trouble than it’s worth, you can use DNA Surgery. Maybe you can do this as a Side Deck strategy, and combine with Arcane Barrier and Puppet Plant to constantly steal your opponent’s monsters. You could combine this with a full-on Spell Counter strategy; there are two Level 6 Spellcaster Synchros and both revolve around Spell Counters.

I understand I basically just gave a list of all the good Level 6 Spellcasters. My point is, Photon Strike Bounzer is the most popular Rank 6 monster because of its power to negate monster effects, and currently monsters are more dangerous than Spells/Traps. Of course, Norito is unplayable outside a Spellcaster Deck; however, many kinds of Spellcaster Decks can do Rank 6, so if you are such a Deck, Norito is a good consideration (PSB would still be better even if Norito didn’t have the Spellcaster restriction). 

One funny thing you should know, there’s another Xyz Monster that needs two Level 6 Spellcasters; her name is Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal. If the effect of Norito can be compared to Dark Bribe or Shi En, then Magi Magi will turn any card in your hand into either Change of Heart or Monster Reborn. This would make Magi Magi more powerful than Norito, although in any Deck that can make Magi Magi, you might as well throw in a Norito too. A funny note is that at the time of this publication, Magi Magi is available only in Japanese, while Norito is not available in Japanese. 

Trad: 2/5 (if you open with Magical Scientist you may be interested in shelling out 2000 LP to summon a pair of Sanwitch to Xyz into Norito)

Adv: 3/5 (effect is not bad, but the effort needed in order to reliably summon him detracts from the card as a whole)

Aesthetics: 4/5 This monster’s design is based off a priest of Shinto, the primary religion in Japan. Aha, this guy’s name keeps reminding me of Nobita, the incompetent fifth year student in the manga Doraemon (also known as Ding-Dong), where a blue robot cat needs to help him with all his troubles. He also reminds me of Doritos.

Riddle: Everybody was lying on the floor, painfully dying, surrounded by shards of glass and water. What had happened?

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