Classic COTD Reviews – Pharaonic Guardian (2003)

Card Name

Pojo Avg

My Rating

Notes

Ring of Destruction 

4.4

4.75

Meta-altering card that makes life points matter more and can end the duel in a draw.

Chainable removal with no cost.  Auto-include card.

Spirit Reaper 

~3.7

3.75

I love the utility of it both being a defense wall and generating card advantage depending whether you’re defending or have an opportunity to be aggressive.

The targeting effect isn’t too big of a downside because the opponent has to spend a card on it, making it a 1-for-1.  

This card can plus but it almost never minuses!!

The downside is you take a lot of damage if you leave this in attack position, especially from Don Zaloog.  

Don Zaloog 

4

4

Agreed.  It can keep plussing if it remains on the board.

If you’re concerned about its low ATK, you can just run 1 copy and search it out when its needed.  And this card is very searchable: Witch, Sangan, Tomato and ROTA.  

Guardian Sphinx 

3.5

3

Strong effect and reasonable defense stat.  But it costs a tribute and provides no immediate value on the turn you use it, giving the opponent time to play around it.

If the opponent attacks into it, yes, they take some damage.  But you’d have to flip it down.  Either not being able to use its effect or leaving it in attack mode vulnerable to LV4 beaters.

Mirage of Nightmare 

n/a 

4.75

The combo is to destroy this card with MST before you draw.  If you use it with an empty hand you essentially +2 (and draw 4 cards deeper into your deck).

This card means MST x3 as a staple, if it wasn’t already.

Book of Moon

~3

3.5

This may not have the plus potential of the power spells, and there is limited deckspace, but it has a ton of utility.

Block an attack.  Negate a continuous effect (i.e. Jinzo).  Get over a monster in battle.  Re-use a flip effect.  Protect your monsters from cards like Mirror Force, Snatch Steal and Ring of Destruction.  etc

One of the best designed cards in the game. 

Secret Passage to the Treasures

2.4

1

Situational and -1. 

Even if you use it on a White Magical Hat or Masked Sorcerer, the advantage you gained is turned to a +0 with this card.

Barrel Behind the Door

3.75

3

Optional side deck card against burn.  Don’t main.

That being said, you may be better off just siding spell/trap removal, as it’s versatile against more decks and you can just attack directly.

Rope of Life 

2

1

Even a rating of 2 is way too high.  Too many problems.

Is a -1 at best.  

It’s unusable with 0 cards in hand, and a loss condition

Can only be used in Battle Phase.

Only works when monster is destroyed in battle.

It’s extremely slow 

Maybe if the effect were “If your monster is recently destroyed, 

Dice Jar 

2

2

I think we’re all in agreement that this is definitely a card.

Pyramid Turtle 

2.6

3.5

In all fairness, Vampire Lord and Ryu Kokki weren’t out yet so you’d search Patrician of Darkness (or Spirit Reaper) with it.

This could have a place in Rat Toolbox decks, for some deck thinning and Creature Swap synergy.

Book of Life  

~2.5

2.5

I agree with the reviews. 

This card would eventually go up to a 3-3.5 when Vampire Lord and Ryu Kokki come out.  And when Monster Reborn is banned so there’s an extra slot for a revival card.

Ordeal of a Traveler 

~3

2.5

Spicy, fun and cheeky card.

It’s kind of slow since it’s a Battle Phase trap and the first turn you activate it, all you really do is just return a card to the hand (assuming they guess wrong).  It takes time to get the full value out of this, and that gives time for the opponent to play around this.

Reaper of the Nightmare 

~2.5

3.75

My rating may seem high, but my premise is.

1 – You’re summoning this only Metamorphosis
2 – This is in your Fusion deck, not main deck.  So it’s never a dead-draw or a minus; you can only bring it out when you need it.  You can ignore it if it doesn’t. 
3 – There are very few Fusion monsters with useful effects so it lacks competition.  Including 1 of these in the Fusion deck is a nobrainer. 

You can have a few Fusion monsters of each level.  For the LV5 slot, you can have 1-2 Dark Balter and 1 of this.

Metamorphosis 

~3

3.5

Scapegoat + Meta into Thousand-Eyes Restrict would not become hard-meta until the Tsukuyomi ruling.  But it’s still a viable, and probably underrated back in 2003.

You’d need to find 4-6 deck slots to fit this, which was hard to do before the ban list happened a year later.  If you wanted to make a Goat Control deck, you could reduce your monster or trap count to accommodate this engine.

King Tiger Wanghu 

~2.5

2.5

Agreed.  This would later become a viable side deck card in Goat Format.  But right now it’s the beatdown era with lots of 1400+ ATK monsters.

Master Kyonshee 

1.2

1

Necrovalley 

n/a

3.5

Reviews on this card were all over the place.  This card is auto-include in Gravekeepers, but bad everywhere else, so the power level of this card is dependent on how meta Gravekeeper’s are.  

To be fair, GK’s do win some retro tournaments nowadays, but they were seen as offmeta back then probably because players weren’t building the deck properly.

Raigeki Break 

3.2

3

Pojo reviews were all over the place on this one and I understand.  It’s chainable with a good effect but also a -1.

You need more than just Sinister to make this work.  You’d want Thunder Dragon or maybe a monster you plan on reviving.

Not a bad side deck card, since it affects set monster and spells/traps, it could be a catch-all for a variety of decks.  But if I were to use it, I’d only use 1 since the discard cost makes it situational.

This card would become better after the ban list is introduced, but right now there are just too many strong spells/traps that compete against this.

Reasoning 

1.5

1.5

Fair rating.  People will call LV4, which will force you to use little to no LV4’s and instead use more higher level monsters make this card consistent (which will lead to brick hands).

It also puts them face-up which means it’s a -1 for flip effects.

Cards that synergize with this deck type like Monster Gate and Dimension Fusion weren’t out yet.

HelPoemer 

2.6

1.5

This effect seems good on paper but its slow.  You have to wait a turn for it to be attacked, and the opponent would be leery to attack a set tribute monster (and would probably want to use removal on it).

The opponent can play around it

For the memes, you could use Thunder Dragon to make your opponent think you’re setting a Thunder Dragon so they attack into it.

Lava Golem 

2.4

2

Might be okay for burn decks, but the opponent needing 2 monsters and you needing a stall card to protect yourself makes this unreliable.

Dark Room of Nightmare 

2

1

Even burn decks don’t use this.  Low damage.  And it does nothing by itself.

Dark Coffin 

2.1

1.5

Too many issues with this card.  It’s inconsistent if the opponent doesn’t fall for the bluff, and slow if the opponent takes a few turns to remove it.  Setting this means you have a card that does nothing for a few turns instead of a trap that protects you.

Coffin Seller 

1.8

1

No deck should use this.  Even burn decks avoid this.  300 damage isn’t much.  It’s very slow.  And it requires you to destroy opponent’s monsters, which a stall/burn deck probably isn’t attacking into them much.

Non Aggression Area 

~2

1.5

Good effect but is basically a -2.  You give up 2 cards but it doesn’t actually get rid of any of the opponents cards.

Different Dimension Capsule 

1.7

1.5

The downside of this card is that if you set another trap card, you could -1 from Heavy Storm and HFD.  So it puts you in a situation where you risk minusing, or you don’t set traps and leave yourself vulnerable.

Summoner of Illusions 

2.25

1

Horrible.  Too many requirements.  

You need to set this card and wait a whole turn.

The opponent can’t attack it (or else this dies and you wouldn’t be able to attack with a Fusion monster summoned on the opponent’s turn anyway)

Then you’d have to give up a Normal Summon and tribute another monster.

So that’s -2 (the tribute and using this low stat creature).  Just to summon a Fusion that will die at the end of the turn anyway.

Moisture Creature

3

1

Reviewers were way off… 🙁

Three tributes is not viable ever.  Having 3 monsters on the field is a difficult condition to meet, and it puts yourself at risk of mass removal.  

3 tributes + 1 tribute summon is 4 summons so this is too slow to ever work.

But even if you could meet that cost, it’s a -3.

You would need to destroy 3 spell/trap cards just to break even. 

And that’s assuming that the opponent doesn’t chain any of those cards!!

This might’ve been a viable side deck card against stall/burn if you could use the effect with only 2 tributes.  But honestly, just side Dust Tornado (it’s quick and reliable)

Sasuke Samurai 

3.2

3.5

Not safe to main deck because you may face beatdown decks that don’t set monsters much.

But a great card to side deck against defensive or flip effect based decks if you decide that 2 Nobleman of Crossout isn’t enough.  + Searchable by ROTA

Fushioh Richie 

3

1

So this requires a very specific card to summon.  That specific card is a tribute monster with low stats and it needs to have an effect fulfilled.  

Book of Taiyou 

3

2

Viable in deck destruction decks, but those are off-meta.

Otherwise this card is just really situational.  It only helps a handful of flip effect monsters you have, but it doesn’t interact with anything else.

And it’s a -1, so you basically have to have a Magician of Faith + Pot/Duo set up just for this to pay for itself.

Trap of Board Eraser 

2.5

3

The Pojo reviewers were focused on its matchups vs. regular decks which is not a factor since you’re never main decking this card.  It’s a side deck card

Reversal Quiz 

1.5

1

Cute

Gravekeeper’s Chief 

3.9

2.25

The revival effect essentially pays for the tribute which is fine, but I wouldn’t consider that card advantage either.

It requiring a tribute makes it a dead card in the opening hand and dead if the opponent destroys your monsters.

Negative synergy with Royal Tribute.  If this card is stuck in your hand, then you’ll have to discard it and that’s a -1.

It’s effect of your graveyard not being affected by Necrovalley doesn’t matter because you’re not using Call/Reborn/Premature in a GK deck anyway.  It’s not worth the risk of them being unusable if you don’t have Chief on the field.

Gravekeeper’s Spy

3.6

4.5

Many people underrated this card back then.  A few years later people realized you can run Spies without the other GK cards, and it’s essentially a +1 that puts a 2nd body on the board, that you can use to stall, or push for 2400 direct damage.  And it thins your deck.

Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier 

3.5

3.5

GK decks only.

Gravekeeper’s Guard 

~3.2

3.75

Aside from Spy, this is the other GK that is most splashable in non-GK decks.  Good defense.  Effect can let you make aggressive plays and push damage.

Gravekeeper’s Assailant 

3.5

3.5

GK decks only.  Good effect, but I would probably only use 1 because it has no baseline value without Necrovalley.

Rite of Spirit 

3.5

3.5

GK decks only, used in lieu of Reborn, Call and Premature.

Royal Tribute 

~2.6

3.5

If you use this card, it would be in a dedicated Gravekeeper deck with a low monster count.  (And no Chief)

Maybe reviewers underrated this card because many players were using decks that didn’t meet ths

Gravekeeper’s Cannonholder

3

1.25

Reviewers were way off.

Stats are bad.  Does nothing without Necrovalley.  Doesn’t contribute to hand/field advantage at all. 

The damage effect is more of a late-game finisher effect, but with Gravekeeper’s setting up your board early-game is super important and this is a dead draw early game.

Mystical Knight of Jackal 

3.1

1.25

Martin’s review was correct.  This is horrid.

Two tribute monsters in general are dead on arrival because they’re dead-draws that need to be discarded and special summoned (which is situational)

And this effect is slow, as in, it only happens after a successful attack.  You can -2 to tribute 2 monsters, only for this to be destroyed by a Ring, Mirror Force or Torrential before it even gets to destroy anything in battle.

The effect is decent.  If this were a 1-tribute monster with 2400 ATK, this may have seen play.

Nightmare Wheel

2.75

3

Great, but only for dedicated burn decks.  But in beatdown, control or aggro you’d rather just destroy the opponent’s monster.

I like that this both stops monsters from attacking and precludes flip effects.

Dark Snake Syndrome

2.25

1.25

Very slow, as in it doesn’t do any significant damage until the 3rd or 4th turn, and by then, it’s destroyed by removal.

It also damages you, so if you’re a burn deck and your life points are low, the opponent can just destroy your defenses and win with only 1 direct attack.

It wasn’t good even on release, but the very next set, Wave-Motion Cannon makes this obsolete.

Newdoria

3

3

Since decks already use Tomato for Witch and Sangan, you could use 1 of these as a target for it.

It replaces itself, can help you get rid of high ATK monsters and rarely minuses.

1200 ATK means it’ll destroy recruiters like Tomato with its effect rather than in battle.  But the downside is you get punished by Don Zaloog if it’s left in attack position.  (Yes, that’s only 1 card but it’s searchable).  I’d also be wary about attacking into a set Don.

Dark Jeroid

~3

2.5

This could get over a 1900 ATK beater.  Or occasionally help your beater get over a Jinzo.  But it’s only a one-time effect and it’s likely to be destroyed in battle next turn.

Weakening an opponent’s monster once isn’t as useful as having a beater on the field that consistently has attacking power.

And as said above, 1200 ATK in attack mode is vulnerable to Don Zaloog.

Byser Shock

2

1.25

This card is a -2.  You lose 1 card by offering a tribute, and you lose another 1 by this being easily destroyed in battle by almost anything.  Searchable by Tomato, but still…

Question

2

1.25

There are too many issues with this card.

1 – What if the first monster in your graveyard is a Flip Effect?  2 – What if its a monster you don’t want to summon?

3 – Decks already have 3 much stronger revival cards

4 – It does nothing if the opponent answers correctly.

5 – Revival cards in general are weak early game, but this one especially because the opponent is likely to remember.

Trap Dustshoot

n/a

3

This card would become very powerful, and it was overlooked for a few years, but on release it wasn’t great.

In this meta, hand counts were low.  People used less monsters.  Hand removal like Don Zaloog and Yata leave both players with small hand sizes in the lategame.  

Possibly side-deckable against decks with higher monster counts but not safe to main.