Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition – #MVP1-ENS49
When this card is Normal or Special Summoned from the hand: You can destroy as many other monsters on the field as possible, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the highest original ATK on the field among those destroyed monsters (your choice, if tied). This card’s ATK becomes equal to the damage inflicted to your opponent by this effect. Once per turn, during your End Phase: Halve your LP.
Date Reviewed: May 16th, 2024
Rating: 2.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition is the Throwback Thursday choice for us as we review the new Gandora tomorrow.
The second version of a Gandora dragon monster, Gandora-X wipes the board of monsters when Normal or Special Summoned and does some burn damage along with it. Highest original ATK, so no pumping up a monster to try and OTK your opponent. Make sure the monster you burn your opponent’s LP for is a high ATK, as Gandora-X’s ATK is based on the damage you do. You don’t have to halve your LP to activate the effect to wipe the board of monsters, but you do have to halve your LP at your End Phase each turn. Life Points aren’t the worst thing to lose, you’ve got 8000 of them and if you wipe the board with Gandora-X you should be winning or close to winning after that play. This is a card that is meant to setup or close games, even if you don’t burn your opponent for big damage. Also, with the ability to do this off a Special Summon, you don’t even have to two-tribute Gandora-X to nuke your opponent’s monsters. Not sure how many people are doing the old ditch to the grave to Monster Reborn play in 2024, but with it being a Level 8 and Dragon, it has plenty of support to get into and out of the grave.
There’s a host of ways to do what this monster does, and not just in monster form. It needs very little setup and if negated it didn’t cost you anything until the End Phase which you can always Extra Deck this card away before that to avoid this effect. You are likely to get more ATK with this than the original because the more cards on the field for the original Gandora, the more likely it was to be negated.
Advanced- 3/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
With tomorrow being the new Gandora of course, Throwback Thursday was fitting to look at a previous form, and since the TCG never got Gigarays Gandora, it was left between the original and the one chosen for today: Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition.
Gandora-X is a Level 8 DARK Dragon with 0 ATK and DEF. Not great base stats, but DARK and Dragon has been amazing for it in the past in the OCG for how the first effect worked over there. Here, upon Normal or Special Summon from the hand, you can destroy as many other monsters on the field as possible to then inflict damage to the opponent equal to the highest original ATK of the monsters on the field (your choice in the case of a tie). Funny enough, the OCG got this first and the burn effect was instead the highest ATK on the field in general, letting you get a monster like Crusadia Equimax to ridiculous numbers of ATK for this to destroy it and burn the opponent in an FTK combo, which is why they banned it and just this year errataed it to work like it does over here in the TCG. There was still an FTK combo in the TCG I remember, requiring you to use Number 6’s LP halving effect and Number 95 being a good combo piece for that while also having 4000 ATK, but Dark Matter’s ban put an end to anything like that being consistent. This card’s ATK also becomes equal to the damage inflicted by the first effect, so if you didn’t do big enough burn to finish the game, you’ll likely have a big Gandora on the field. Final effect just halves your LP during each of your End Phases, so finish the game fast after summoning this I guess. It’s a cool card, mainly held down by Gandora not being a fully fleshed out archetype and instead just having four monsters, one of which only benefits Shining Sarcophagus. You can still do some cool things with this, especially if we ever get Gigarays Gandora over in the TCG, but for now it’s a niche application card.
Advanced Rating: 3/5
Art: 5/5 How to take the original Gandora and make him look cooler.
Mighty
Vee
In preparation for tomorrow’s card, Throwback Thursday brings us a monster that has a mildly amusing history– Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition, a promotional card for the Dark Side of Dimensions movie. Part of the Gandora mini-series, Gandora-X is a level 8 DARK Dragon monster (still one of the best things to be in this game), so you can access it with a variety of techs like Draconnection and Starliege Seyfert, and it shares the stat spread of 0 attack and defense like its kin.
Gandora-X has two effects, with only the latter being soft once per turn, though as we’ll find out, Gandora-X’s deadliness wouldn’t budge even if both were hard once per turn. Gandora-X’s primary effect triggers when it’s Normal or Special Summoned from the hand, letting you destroy as many other monsters on the field as possible, then burn your opponent for the original attack of the destroyed monster with the highest attack; additionally, Gandora-X itself gains attack equal to that burn. Prior to its errata in the OCG, this effect burned for the current attack instead; you could summon a huge stat stick like Crusadia Equimax, destroy it with Gandora-X, then instantly FTK your opponent. Naturally, this got Gandora-X banned over there. In the TCG, whether it be by accident or by stealth errata, Gandora-X’s effect was changed to original attack as it is now, which makes the FTK basically impossible and causing Gandora-X itself to be largely mediocre. Now that the OCG has given X its errata, it is unbanned there as well! Gandora-X’s other effect triggers during the End Phase, halving your life points and keeping up the tradition of Gandora monsters punishing you for their alleged broken abilities. In practice, this didn’t matter in the FTK build, and it’s just another annoying downside if you’re playing Gandora-X as intended. While Gandora-X can be a funny nuke option that can deal massive burn damage, it’s held back by not summoning itself and lacking solid combo lines for being searched. Dragon Link can probably access it, but why would you when you could search strong combo pieces instead?
+Can clear a board while doing decent damage against your opponent
+(OCG pre-errata only) Able to FTK with massive burn damage
-Not worth the effort of summoning when it can’t summon itself
-Relies on destroying a high-attack monster to maintain offensive pressure
Advanced: 2.25/5
Art: 3.25/5 I’m not too sure about this one, compared to the other Gandoras it has more evil gremlin energy than destructive impact.
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