Level Eater – Yu-Gi-Oh! Review

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Went from one broken banned card to another, this time its Level Eater.

This little guy is just as bad as yesterday’s card, if not worse. While it can’t be tributed except for a tribute summon, that won’t stop it from being degenerate. Reducing a Level 5 or higher monster’s level to Special Summon Level Eater from the grave is far too easy a requirement. A Level 8 gets you 4 free summons…FREE! You can use Level Eater to Synchro or Link Summon, and, like Fishborg before, you’ll l just keep climbing that ladder for Links. When you could do extra Normal Summons via card effects this card was great in Monarch-based decks. So easy to get in the graveyard, it’s DARK so you could use Allure on it, Formula Synchron possibilities through and through alongside Glow-Up Bulb, and all you needed was a way of getting it into the grave and a high-level monster on your field. You could even Mind Control your opponent’s monster and reduce their levels for this card. At the very very least it could come back and help be a blocker against damage. With the ease nowadays to get big monsters on the field, and the game more based around graveyards, Level Eater would be needing a rewrite of its effect to be “once per turn” like Fishborg yesterday.

Advanced-5/5- I don’t like throwing these ratings out there, but once in the grave, it’s live as long as you have a Level 5 or higher.

Art-3.5/5

Until Next Time  
KingofLullaby

Crunch$G

This one might be the biggest shocker that the site has never looked at, Level Eater.

Level Eater is a Level 1 DARK Insect with 600 ATK and 0 DEF. Stats are poor on a Level 1 as almost always, DARK is great, and Insect is pretty meh. If this card is in your graveyard, you can target 1 Level 5 or higher monster that you control and reduce its Level by 1 to Special Summon this from the graveyard and Level Eater cannot be tributed except for a Tribute Summon. Back in the day, this was good at giving you some more Synchro Material to work with cards like T.G. Hyper Librarian and this being Level 1 means you can use another Level 1 Tuner with this for Formula Synchron, the best Synchro Tuner, and Level Eater basically helped you keep Synchro Summoning while Hyper Librarian helped draw cards and you go into Quasar. I believe the OCG banned this when they dealt with DARK Synchro because of Trish and Omega being abused and Omega leaving the field so it comes back at Level 8 and Level Eater can eat again, but the TCG banned this in the middle of the Link Era as you can just control any one high leveled monster and Level Eater will eat at its levels and help get you into big Link Monsters. It wasn’t in any meta deck when it was banned, but the ban was likely preemptive to not limit their design of high level monsters. I respect them putting the clause though of it not being able to be tributed except for a Tribute Summon to prevent Cannon Solider FTKs at least. This card either needs a hard once per turn or to not be used as Link Material to balance it out, it was fine when we had Synchros only, but Links was what made this so good.

Advanced Rating: 5/5

Art: 4/5 A ladybug with the level symbol, how cute.

Alex
Searcy

As we move into my half of the week, are you surprised that Level Eater never had been reviewed, even before being Banned, given that it’s been out so long and the fact that it got plenty of time to be abused before said Ban took effect.  So, at a glance, about the only thing this guy has going for him is Dark.  Insect is meaningless, not a Tuner, Level 1, 600 attack and 0 defense, very little of that is going to do…well…very little for you.

By reducing the Level of a Monster you control on the Field by 1, Level Eater Special Summons itself from the Graveyard.  Obviously this brings easy Level 5 Synchro Monsters to your Field (remember Hyper Librarian, just for one) but it was a setup play, not just for that (and Librarian was rather broken also) but it can also bring Link Monsters into play today too, only making this card MORE powerful.

As referenced earlier this week, maybe a once per duel clause would make this guy worthy to come back, but even once per turn still gives you a shot for mass Summoning and advantage on potentially everyone of your turns, and that’s just no bueno folks.  Also, you can’t Tribute this card except for a Tribute Summon, so if somehow you aren’t using it for a big(ger) play, it’s can’t just leave the Field.  

Rating:  Banned/5 but honestly, 5/5 here

Art:  3/5  One starred ladybug of…mechanical?  The one star is appropriate though given the effect, but there’s not much to wow me in this picture.