Welcome to our Realm of Light Structure week!  Things had to turn around eventually, right?  We're off Friday, but we'll be having a twofer on Thursday, so worry not.  Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden opens our week.  Our cute little friend here is a Level 3, Light attributed Spellcaster, with 800 attack and 200 defense.  She also benefits from being a Tuner.  She does some pretty cool things doesn't she?  When Normal Summoned, you can add a Light, Dragon Monster from your Deck to your Hand whose Level is less than or equal to the number of differently named Lightsworn Monsters in your Graveyard.  Plus, she has two ways to further add speed and combo potential to the Deck, be sending a card from the Deck to the Graveyard when she herself is sent from Deck to Graveyard.  And requires a two card mill each turn.  

Ratings:

Traditional:  2.5/5 
Advanced:   3.5/5 
Art:  4.5/5

Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden
 
It’s Lightsworn week as we look at some of the cards from the new Realm of Light Structure Deck. First off is Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden, a Lightsworn Tuner monster.

Statwise she is a LIGHT/Spellcaster which is good with 800 ATK and 200 DEF but are very bad for a level 3 but since this is a tuner the stats aren’t really going to matter.

Effectwise, when she is Normal Summoned you can add a LIGHT/Dragon from your deck to your hand whose level is equal to or less than the total number of different named Lightsworns in your graveyard.  The obvious choice here would be Judgement Dragon but that would require at least 8 different Lightsworns in your graveyard and I’ve never seen a deck with that many Lightsworns, the other choice would be Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon but that would still require 6 monsters. So unless you either use other LIGHT/Dragons or a lot of different Lightsworns, this effect isn’t as great as it first seems.

The second effect sends the top card of your deck if this goes from the hand or deck to the graveyard. This effect is quite easy to use and could be the difference between that Judgement Dragon ort not. Not exactly massive but still a handy effect. Finally like most Lightsworns you send a certain number of cards to the graveyard during your End Phase, in this case 2, which is a decent number.

Overall a solid monster that will probably be more used for due to it being a Tuner or an extra discard card than a searcher.
Traditional: 2.5/5
Advanced: 3/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Lightsworn week has come and it starts with Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden. She isn't as useful as I would have hoped she'd be. Being a level 3 Tuner isn't bad now that Goyo Guardian has been freed from the Ban List and made Limited again. You need at least 8 or more different named Lightsworns in the Graveyard just to activate her effect and search Judgment Dragon from the deck. You could search a different dragon from the deck, but rarely do Lightsworns use a different Light dragon other than Judgment. Also, her effect is only when Normal Summoned, so off a Lumina effect she won't do anything for you except mill like most Lightsworns at the End Phase. Weak stats, an almost useless effect, the only real thing she has going for her is that she is a level 3 Tuner.
 
Traditional-1/5
Advanced-1/5
Art-3.5/5

Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden
 
First, I'll admit that I overrated The Monarchs Erupt a bit.  I concur that is too situational to be in the 3-range.  Okay, moving onward.  Welcome to Lightsworn week!  We're going to focus on the exclusives of the new Realm of Light structure deck.
 
In a nutshell, this card has a lot of flaws but for the simple fact that is a Tuner and a Lightsworn, it has extrinsic value in relation to other cards.  In the same sense that Gyakutenno Megami had extrinsic value in relation to Perfect Herald and Advanced Ritual Art.
 
The card has a lot of weaknesses:  
- Her stats are awful.
- Her searching effect only works on LIGHT Dragons (aka only Gragonith and Judgment Dragon).  Gragonith is plain bad.
- Judgment Dragon requires 8 Lightsworns of a different name.  Are there even 8 good Lightsworns out there, much less the possibility of you having all of them at once.
- Due to requiring Lightsworns, it wouldn't work in a LIGHT Dragon deck as its not splashable in anything.
- The searching must activated immediately.  You can't wait until you have a full graveyard.
- The searching effect does not activate if Special Summoned
- The searching effect only searches from the Deck.  It does nothing to alleviate the fear of milling a Judgment Dragon.
- When sent to the graveyard, all the card does is mill one card.  Sounds very circular.  Totally random, especially since you can't stack your deck like you do in Sylvans.
 
Its redeeming quality is the fact that its a tuner and is summonable by Lumina, so you can get into Goyo Guardian (soon to be legal) really fast for example.  Or, Michael with a LV4.  Despite all the bad I said, being a tuner with search support can make a card even a little bit worthwhile even if its effects are pretty bad.  So, there's that.  Also, it expands your options with Soul Charge.  It's a Lightsworn monster so its searched by Light Brigade and dumped by Solar Recharge.
 
Overall, I'm still skeptical but it wouldn't hurt Lightsworn decks to just try one.  You don't need more than one due to the sheer speed of the deck.  You can discard it and mill it so you don't even have to summon it normally.  Just use it as a Tuner and its not so bad.  I'd imagine it would be good-ish in Traditional Format as well, due to it being a faster format.
 
Marginally good, but due to the support it has rather than the card itself.
 
Traditional - 2.5
Advanced - 2.75

Judgment Dragon: Finally as a common, it's actually worth its price. I am the king.
 
Ahem. Welcome to Realm of Light week. More importantly, welcome to the king's review of Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden. As a seasoned Lightsworn player of 6 years, I, regardless of what other Lightsworn players may say, am telling you that the only thing that lets Lightsworn hang with other decks is Judgment Dragon. It's a hard thing to admit, yes, but it is the truth. Now, not being able to search out Judgment Dragon with just one card makes a Lightsworn player sad, and has done so for years. That's where this comes in. She searches a Judgm... I mean a Light Attribute Dragon-type (no, seriously, you aren't using Gragonith, are you?) monster whose level is less than or equal to the number of Lightsworns with different names is in your Graveyard. 
​
Let's look at this closely. The only Lightsworn monsters that should be in your deck are: Raiden, Lumina, Lyla, Jain, Wulf, Ryko, Garoth and Ehren. To search out the card that this card is clearly meant to be searching, you need to have 1 each of those in your Graveyard. That's pretty darn difficult, which means this is pretty inconsistent by definition. On the plus side, she's a Tuner, so you can use her with Lumina to make Goyo Guardian (or any other Level 6 Synchro), or tune her with one of the numerous Level 4s to make Michael. This is not a card worth considering.
 
Advanced: 1.5/5
Traditional: 1/5
Art: 1/5. Mighty fine spine you got there. Were you perhaps drawn by Rob Liefeld? 

Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden
Lightsworn, one of my favorite archtypes of all time. I actually played LS at the 2009 WCQ, how I did is another story..but it's better than the guy who went 3-7 with a bye and 2 no shows that went with me ;). This week is Lightsworn week as we review various cards from the structure deck. Minerva is flat out amazing. Being a 3 star tuner combos really well with a variety of cards in Lightsworn, even giving access to Leo if you're running a dragon ruler variant. Minerva has one of the more unique LS effects being that when it goes to the graveyard and it doesn't matter how, you mill a card. Discard for Lumina or Recharge? Mill(after you resolve those effects of course). Synchro Summon? Mill. Every little bit helps when it comes to getting off your Lightsworn Combos and this is no different. I've seen builds running either 1 or 2, but 3 is not at all necessary, especially due to what we look at tomorrow.
 
Traditional - 1.5/5 - LS could be a fun contender for traditional if more anti FTK errata's hit
 
Advanced 3.5/5 - This and tomorrow's card are just the shot in the arm that the Lightsworn strategy needed to bring it back to the forefront of the dueling world. With this weekend being the North American WCQ I have little doubt that we'll see plenty of Lightsworn players attending.