Stats:
Gustaph is a Wind/Warrior Level 4 Monster with
an ATK of 1400 and a DEF of 1500. Being a Level
4 is good, but given its low ATK, being a Level
3 would have been better in my opinion, as the
effect is not that potent (I’ll get to that
later) for a Level 4. Being a Wind/Warrior
isn’t too bad, as both have support. Warrior
has many, many goodies, while wind has some
recent heavyweights in Slate Warrior and Luster
Dragon #2. However, neither of them are also
Warriors. Other Wind/Warriors exist, but I have
not made my mind up about most of them-well, any
of them. All have uses, but usually require
more effort than people like to play well… like
the Sasuke Samurai. Anyway, so I find that the
combination is not great, but “good”-pick one
aspect and go with it.
Moving onto the ATK/DEF, both are pretty low.
The upside is that it can be searched out via
the effects of not only Witch of the Black
Forest and Sangan, but also Flying Kamikari #1,
but that is really only good for grabbing other
obscure Wind Monsters. I think it could stand
having been a bit higher, though to compete in
the current environment,
it would probably need to be 1700 or 1800. The
Defense doesn’t matter as much, since (given the
effect), we’d want it ATK mode most of the
time. As such, 1500 is probably perfect-it
allows it to still be searchable.
Card Text (Effects):
Okay, the effect lets you remove up to two Spell
cards from play to gain a +300 ATK bonus per.
Since this appears to be a Spell Speed 1 effect,
you would want to do this in Main Phase one,
before you attack. Removing the max would give
you a 2000 ATK monster. Of course, for decks
that want brute Strength, 1900 ATK Level 4
monsters are now abundant, which is one reason I
don’t care for the effect. Second, as of right
now, many decks I know run Fiber Jar, since it
takes a lot of bad luck for your opponent to
make you play it (though thanks for commonly
played cards like Cyber Jar it does happen), and
the effect can often be a lifesaver. If you
remove your Spell cards for Chaos Rider
Gustaph’s effect, you’ve gutted your deck! The
upside is that since Spell cards are so heavily
played, you will have plenty of fodder.
Uses/Combinations:
Some of the new cards need you to have an empty
graveyard… but I still wouldn’t waste time with
them. There is nothing that brings back removed
Spell cards in a fantastic
manner., the way Dimension Fusion does
for Monsters.
Ratings
Casual:
1.75/5-If you run a Wind/Warrior deck, it might
be useful. Fiber Jar will make you wish you
never played it though.
Constructed:
1.25/5-Similar to the above, Fiber Jar will make
you wish you never played it.
There are many options for getting a stronger
attacker, and since
monsters usually only last a turn there are many
better choices for beatsticks.
Limited:
3/5-Might be decent
here, since you probably won’t have to worry
about Fiber Jar resetting everything.
Summary
An attempt at making a “better” Bazoo… not
“broken” like before it was errata’d, but
stronger than it is now. Personally, I think
they needed to either make the stat changes I
said, make the ATK bonus stronger, or permanent,
or some combination of the two. Still, I’d
rather get poor cards like this than the
ridiculously over-powered
kind that seem to be favored.
