While you have no cards in your hand, yr opponent
cannot activate Spell Cards.
Type - Machine/Effect
Card Number - CRV-EN018
Card Ratings
Traditional: 2.85
Advanced:
3.1
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - 09.06.05
Lord
Tranorix
Mechanical Hound
Mechanical Hound is a very interesting monster. With
2800 ATK, it’s strong; though it’s also Level 7 and
thus requires two tributes. It’s a Machine, so it
benefits from Limiter Removal; and it’s EARTH,
always nice.
If you have no cards in your hand, your opponent
can’t activate Spells. So if you’re both topdecking
for some reason, and you get, I dunno, Premature
Burial, and you bring Mechanical Hound out from your
Graveyard, and then your opponent topdecks Pot of
Greed, it won’t help him.
It’s an extremely useful effect, but there’s a huge
drawback. You can’t have a hand. Not having a hand
in this game is a precarious position to be in; even
if you do get Mechanical Hound out, and his effect
working, your opponent can still kill it with Traps
and monster effects.
There are a bunch of cards in CRV that rely on your
not having a hand. In a deck like that, Mechanical
Hound is rentsy.
Here we have a two-tribute (BAD) 2800 ATK (okay)
Machine (good) that prevents your opponent from
using any spells (good) but only when you are
handless (HORRIBLE).
The problem with this guy is that he's STILL
vulnerable to too much, especially come the new
Advanced Format (or at least what we think it'll
be.)
Without Mirror Force or Ring of Destruction, and
Goat Control crippled, people will be playing more
Bottomless Trap Holes and Sakuretsu Armors to deal
with the aggressive style most decks will be using.
This means that this guy can still be hit with
Bottomless, Sakuretsu, Torrential, T-Virus, X-Force,
DDA's effect, DDWL's effect...oh yeah, and if
Tsukuyomi gets involved, Nobleman of Crossout will
get him outta there too.
Bottom line: You REALLY don't want to play out your
entire hand to block spells -- if you're going to
protect a monster from spell effects, play Silent
Swordsman Lv. 8.
1/5 all
Coin Flip
Something that occurs to me just right now is that I
never alerted everyone to the fact that I made a
mistake in the Drillroid review. I made a quick
assumption based on Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke's
effect text and assumed the monster wasn't flipped
face-up before being destroyed if it was face-down.
It is flipped face up. That probably drops its
rating down in both rating formats by half a point.
Incredible.
Mechanical Hound basically rewards bad hand
advantage, which is rarely a good thing. Cybernetic
Cyclopean and Cybernetic Archfiend are better cards
to play with, and that says something. Both of them
suck.
On the upside, you can get a really nice lock going
on with this and Decree. But hey, you can do the
same thing with Horus, Spell Cancellor, or Silent
Swordsman LV7.
It's good. Not great. But good.
2/5 Advanced
3.5/5 "Cybernetic" deck
Snapper
Mechanical Hound
Today's card is Mechanical Hound, a monster that can
become a one-sided Spell Canceller.
MH is a very acceptable 2 Tribute monster. With 2800
ATK, it can stomp almost every single monster a CC
Deck may be able to dish out. Additionally, incase
you didn't get this fact from it's name, MH is a
Machine, allowing you to use it with Limiter
Removal… um… equip it with Rare Metalmorph… and…
Heavy Mech Support Platform… other paragraph
lengtheners, and so on.
While your hand is vacant of cards, MH prevents the
opponent from activating Spell Cards. Needles to
say, this effect roxs! Because around 40% of the
average Deck is nothing but the artist formerly
known as Magic, MH effectively stops… 1 + 1… carry
the 8… multiply by π… roughly 40% of most
Decks. So, yeah, MH stops the opponent from using
Lightning Vortex, Snatch Steal, Pot of Greed, and so
on.
It should be noted though that MH stops the opponent
from activating Spells, it does nothing to those
that the opponent has already set in motion.
Example: your opponent stole your Jinzo with Snatch
Steal. You, in retaliation for this thievery, use
Premature Burial on the MH you discarded a while
back. MH is summoned to the field, your opponent
can't use their beloved Spells, and they get to keep
your Jinzo, which is sad. But do not fret! MH is
stronger than Jinzo, so you need not feel pity for
the psychotic android shocker because you can send
it to an eternal rest!
The only real issue with MH, which I almost forgot
to mention, is that its effect only activates when
you have no cards in your hand. Currently, that
isn't very common unless you're up against a "Hand
Control" Deck. It isn't impossible though; if you
play recklessly and often find you have no cards in
you hand, MH is for you! If you enjoy Setting Normal
Spells and having a full Monster Card Zones just for
the heckuvit, MH is the answer to all of your
prayers. If you like canines yet have allergies, MH
is the only thing available that will keep you
entertained.
All in all, MH is a really useful monster that could
be very useful in Decks already using Cyber
Archfiends and Cybernetic Cyclopean. But for the
average Deck, I wouldn't advise using it, unless of
course you enjoy having a beatstick that may once in
a blue moon prove very helpful.
Advanced: 3/5. Its Level brings it down a few pegs,
as does the stipulation under which it activates.
Traditional: 2/5. Imperial Order robs it of its
recognition.
Overall: 2.5/5.
Art: 1/5. It might just be a bad scan that I'm
looking at, but that's one ugly dog.
Mechanical Hound does have the unfortunate setback
of requiring two tributes, but Trojan Horse can deal
with that if you want since he is an Earth monster.
Hound harbors 2800 attack points which is pretty
good for a monster of his Level and a relatively low
1500 defense (which is good for Traditional being
Witchable).
Then the effect, while you have no cards in your
hand, your opponent cannot activate any Magic cards.
Now, this card along with yesterday, promotes BAD
hand management. However, your opponent not being
able to use Lightning Vortex, Brain Control, NoC,
Scapegoat and the like isn't something to shake a
stick at.
Ideally, you would summon Mechanical Hound when you
had only the said card in hand, and then just play
every card you draw to keep the effect or set your
cards if you are drawing traps.
Ratings:
Traditional: 2.9/5 Again, he wants an empty hand =
Yata Lock
Advanced: 3.9/5 A solid effect here, and having no
hand isn't the
end of the world.
