Monday

Welcome to a Noble week, brought to you by Philosophical Psycho. Dark Paladin made a funny...two actually. Noble Knight Gwalchavad, has a long winded name, a mediocre (at best) effect, and is dependent on Noble Arms Magic cards to even function with an effect. This is common mostly outside of Noble/Heroic XYZ Monsters, which you can use perfectly well in Warrior and other Decks without even having to use a Deck of Noble/Heroic. They're easier to use than Guardian Monsters, and most Gemini Monsters, but they function more or less the same. Light and Warrior is good, Level 4 is too, 1500 attack is not, 1800 defense isn't bad though. But again, his effect is dependent on an Equip Magic card, and it's not ever that good. Target a Noble Knight in your Graveyard and add it to your Hand. But you have to destroy a Noble Arms Equip card to do so. Seems pretty counter productive, even as easy to recycle those cards as it is.

Ratings:

Traditional: 1.25/5
Advanced: 2.25/5
Art: 4.5/5 Most of the Noble Knights have bitching artwork

This week we will be looking at the Noble Knight or Knights of the Round Table archetype. We start the week off with Sir Galahad or Noble Knight Gwalchavad. The basic idea of these knights is to give them a sward so they can slay their opponents. By attaching a sward or Noble Arms, you will trigger the effect of the knight and gain the effect of the sward. Noble Knight Gwalchavad has the effect to add a Noble Knight from your grave to your hand.

So let’s take a look at some of the plays we can make with Noble Knight Gwalchavad. First summon Noble Knight Medraut, attach a Noble Arms to it and use its effect to special summon Gwalchavad from your deck. The Noble Arms card will be destroyed and you can then attach it to Gwalchavad. Then use Gwalchavad’s effect to bring Noble Knight Gawayn to you hand from the grave and then special summon Gawayn. That gives you 3 level 4 monsters to Xyz summon Shock Master with. Noble Knights also give you the option of summoning strong Warrior and Light Xyz monsters like Constellar Omega, Blade Armor Ninja, Starliege Paladynamo, and the Heroic Champions.

I built and play tested a Noble Knight deck and I am here to tell you that it can not compete with competitive decks. It has a bunch of nice tricks but it is too slow and dependant and runs out of resources fast. If you are going to run this deck, you will need Noble Knight Gwalchavad and a will to just have fun.

Traditional: 1/5
Advanced: 2/5

Noble Knight monsters (not counting Joan) are based off one of the Knights of the Round Table, and all of the currently released Noble Arms are meant to be their swords (thankfully you can equip them to any Noble Knight you want; if you could only equip them to the same Knight, that would be horrible!). They tend to have effects that let them become Normal monsters or to benefit other monsters, and have effects that can destroy Spell/Trap Cards, including their own Equip Cards which will let you re-equip them to someone else.
I’ll start with stats. 1500/1800 is pretty decent, especially as a defender. He’s a good set in any situation where you can’t attack (including when summoned via Medraut), but if you’re in that sort of situation and it’s not the first turn, it’s not that great a sign. Most ideally, whether you can attack or not, Noble Knights should be performing Xyz Summons consistently (unless you were really unlucky and can’t draw any Noble Arms), so his stats don’t matter much at all. I’m not complaining, but he really would be better if he had 1800 ATK.
 
Effect time: If Gwalchavad’s got a Noble Arms on him, you can add any Noble Knight from your Graveyard to hand once per turn. The part where he destroys his Noble Arms is a benefit, since all Noble Arms regenerate after being destroyed, so he’ll get it back (or any other Noble Knight you control, if you so choose) and if the Noble Arms has a once-per-turn effect, you get to use it again (although it is a bit annoying how you can’t have out multiples of the same Noble Arms). A lot of Noble Knights get effects once they get a Noble Arms though, and the idea is that after Gwalchavad uses his effect, he just passes it around so that everyone can get high off it too. Hopefully you got good card advantage after activating so many effects and then you can Xyz Summon. Due to this utility, you should also consider running a Foolish Burial.
 
Marauding Captain is one of the most iconic Yu-Gi-Oh Warriors. He’s definitely not the most famous (all the Normal E-HEROes and Utopia probably fit that slot due to anime appearances) and even among all Level 4 or lower Warriors he’s far from best. So why do I bring up the old Captain? It’s because you see him on the picture on a lot of simplistic support cards for Warriors, most prominently Reinforcement of the Army and The Warrior Returning Alive. They add to your hand. respectively, a Level 4 or lower Warrior from your Deck or ANY Warrior from your Graveyard. However, RotA is considered one of the best support cards of all time. Why? Your Deck is a much bigger resource to collect from than from your Grave (especially near the beginning of the game) and also thins your Deck, while Returning Alive gives you a Warrior you already lost, which can usually be just summoned straight-out with Monster Reborn of Call of the Haunted. Gwalchavad suffers from such a complex; you either need to use the monster he got for you right away or have it conserved for next turn and Xyz Summon using monsters you have right away. Otherwise, you lose a lot of speed because while Gwalchavad can fend off most other Level 4 monsters, he will get stomped by an enemy Synchro or Xyz unless he’s protect by Noble Arms of Destiny. This is why Medraut is so significant even in an unpopular Deck such as Noble, because he summons out of the Deck, but Gwalchavad is still extremely flexible and you should pack a couple of both in the Noble Deck, (just be wary of these weaknesses).
 
Trad: 1.2/5 (I don’t think Noble Knights can function at all and Gwalchavad will just slow it down, but I guess if you really REALLY need more Light Noble Knights…)
Adv: 3/5 (I would not use three copies and two is kinda pushing it, but I admit he does add to card advantage…kind of a good balance of reliability and magnitude when compared to The Warrior Returning Alive and Beckoning Light)
Aesthetics: 4/5 Gwalchavad is the wielder of Noble Arms of Destiny. He is based off of Sir Galahad, the son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic. Unlike his father, he was famous for being the only Knight that was completely pure of heart, and was said to represent Jesus himself. The magician Merlin prophesized he will attain great success. Galahad takes upon the quest for the Holy Grail, a mission in which no other had survived. King Arthur walks Galahad out to the river to a stone. The stone has a sword in it and on the stone is written, “Never shall man take me hence but only he by whose side I ought to hang; and he shall be the best knight in the world.” Galahad takes the sword effortlessly and King Arthur recognizes him as the greatest knight ever. Galahad then sets off on the search for the Holy Grail, the cup that allegedly caught Jesus’ blood as he was dying. He ultimately finds it as he visited another king who showed it to him, and Galahad is instructed to deliver it to another holy city. He makes the wish that he can die at any time he chooses. While sailing home, he sees the saint Joseph of Arimathea, who helped bury Jesus. He is content with his life, and after telling his friends good-bye, he lets angels take him up to heaven. In the poem Le Morte d’Arthur written by Thomas Malory, it is said he was the last knight to ever hold the Holy Grail. What makes me really disappointed was that Galahad’s shield was known for having a big red cross and you can barely see it on Gwalchavad.
Philosophy Corner: None for this week, sorry.
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