So we're back to Wind-Up it seems.  That big beady eye almost makes Wind-Up Rat look cute...at least as cute as a giant mecha-rat can be.  Anyway, let's go over the basics.  Leve 3, Earth-type, Beast, 600 attack and defense...none of that really screams particularly good, so let's move on to the effect.  So once, while face-up on the Field during your Main Phase, you can change this card from face-up attack to defense position, thus allowing you to Special Summon a Wind-Up Monster from your Graveyard.  This is strange, cause I mean a Special Summon is almost always a good thing.  The hoop you have to jump through is strange, and it's odd you can only use the effect once, although the odds of the Rat surviving very long likely aren't good.
 
Ratings:

Traditional:  1.5/5
Advanced:   2.5/5 
Art:  4/5

If anyone has been watching the large tournament scene, they would see that Wind-Ups and Dino/Rabbits are dominating. Most of you even know how devastating a Wind-Up deck can be in the first or second turn. And even more of you are wondering why Wind-Ups were not hit on the last ban list. For those of you wondering what I am talking about, this article is for you.

Wind-Up Rat is an important card in the Wind-Up theme. All you need to get the hand destruction theme going is a Wind-Up Hunter in the grave and a couple of Rats in the deck. This is how it works. Summon Wind-Up Rat and use its effect to special summon Hunter, then Xyz summon Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity. Detach Hunter and special summon another Rat. Use Rat’s effect to special summon Hunter again. Tribute Zenmaity with Hunter’s effect to send a card from your opponent’s hand to the grave. Xyz summon another Zenmaity using Rat and Hunter and then just do it all over again. By the time you are done, you will have a plus 3 advantage with a powerful monster on the field.

Getting a Wind-Up Rat to the field is the easy part. It is an earth so you can use Giant Rat, a level 3 Beast so you can use Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, below 1500 so Sangan gets it to your hand, and a Wind-Up so you can search it with the effects of Honeybee, Magician, and Factory. Wind-Ups are here to stay for a while. We talked about them before so do a search on them and make sure you understand them, for if you are going to be attending a large tournament you will be playing against them.

Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4/5

Time to get wound up....again....it's Wind-Up week and if you're part of the yugi community that has been complaining about Wind-Ups lately, you might wanna pass this week. We're starting off with the dirtiest of dirty rats, Wind-Up Rat. Rat is a level 3 EARTH/Beast type with 600 ATK and DEF. Once per turn you can target one Wind-Up monster in your grave, turn this attack postion card to defense and special summon the targeted card from your grave in face up defense position. You can only do this once while this card is face up on the field. I'm aware of the whole Wind-Up trick with Hunter and Zenmaity, I will not go into it. Rat can be searched out by other cards including Wind-Ups Honeybee, Magician Zenmaity and Wind-Up Factory. Giant Rat and Sangan are a few other ways if you're thinking outside the box a little. Rat lets you set up for the quick Xyz summon if you have either Hunter or a level 3 Wind-Up in the grave. This card's major weakness is a personal favorite of mine, D.D. Crow or other cards that get rid of card in the grave. Beyond that, Wind-Up Rat is a must for the deck.

Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 4
Tomorrow: NO...NO NOT THE BEES!

Welcome to another week! This weeks seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun!
Wind-Up Rat
Beast/ Earth/ Lv 3/ 600 ATK/ 600 DEF

During your Main Phase: You can target 1 "Wind-Up" monster in your Graveyard; change this face-up Attack Position card you control to face-up Defense Position, and Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. This effect can only be used once while this card is face-up on the field.
 
Today we are looking at what is basically the” Monster Reborn” for Wind-Ups. Searchable by Wind-Up Factory and Wind-Up Magician, it is very easy to swarm the field with cute little toy mouse and spam rank 3 xyz. This little guy in conjunction with Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaighty is the bane of most players most hated loop currently.
Over all, if you’re playing wind-ups or are planning on making wind-ups you will want to run 3 of these.
Pros: Great effects and is bascially an instant rank 3 xyz.
Cons: Low ATK and DEF

Monday:

Wind-Up Rat
Lv 3/EARTH/Beast/600A/600D
"During your Main Phase: You can target 1 "Wind-Up" monster in your Graveyard; change this face-up Attack Position card you control to face-up Defense Position, and Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. This effect can only be used once while this card is face-up on the field."

Try not to get too wound up for Wind-Up week...

Sorry, I couldn't help it. :)

Anyways, the Wind-Up monsters focus on one-time effects that run the gambit of abilities, but there are a few that can raise or lower their Level by 1 or 2. It's a rather interesting deck for those who know how to make the most of those one shot effects. Fortunately, recursion is a big theme in the W-U deck, which helps to make them a fairly competitive theme deck.

W-U Rat gives you the chance to reuse a different W-U monster, so long as you don't plan on attacking with it. He's great for getting out W-U Zenmaity or W-U Zenmaines as well.

All-in-all, a rather good card for any Wind-Up deck, but sadly that's the only place he's usable, which hurts his overall usefulness in the general Yu-Gi-Oh! universe.

Traditional: 3
Advanced: 3.75

BROKEN!!
Ok, perhaps not ban-worthy broken, but more often than not, you'll be loving this guy more than you will Monster Reborn. The condition it can only use the effect once or its failure in battle barely matter at all, seeing as you'll use the critter off to Xyz a Zenmaighty or Zenmaister on your first turn or launch it off as Hunter ammo anyway. Oh yeah, and of course it sets Wind-Up Factory off to instantly add a card from your Deck. The least it could've done was negate the effect of the revived monster, as the potential with this guy is enormous:
 
Pair of Rats + Final Attack Orders or Level Limit - Area A + Cannon Soldier = good game
Rat + Infernal Reckless Summon = uh-oh

The swarmability of Wind-Ups and their destructive power is absolutely ridiculous. The reason they have grown so popular is because how potently a Rat transforms into Zenmaighty and how Zenmaighty keeps Summoning Rats from the Deck over and over for a Wind-Up Hunter to snipe every last card away in your Hand, finishing this off with an Xyz to Giga-Brilliant to pump up your sure-to-be-packed field and mob attack like AAAAAAARRRRRGH ... except the problem is that Wind-Ups are horrendously expensive.
 
You better hope you have Necrovalley, Effect Veiler, Maxx C, even a consideration to be pulling a Solemn Judgment soon if this Rat is ticking. It is due to this card that you might want to start siding some more D.D. Crows or perhaps even Dark Worlders. It's almost scarier than Yata-Garasu... 0_o
 
Traditional: 5/5 (Rescue Cat like wh~oa!)
Advanced: 5/5
Aesthetics: 5/5 ♪It's so adorable, I could cuddle it all day long, and with gameplay scores of 5/5 how could I not praise the art as well to that innocent face♪
Philosophy Corner: Life is a game. You play to win. And you play because there’s nothing better to do.
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