Giant Soldier of Stone
Earth/Rock/3/1300/2000
A giant warrior made of stone. A punch from this creature has earth-shaking results.
Rulings:
1. [Re: Big Bang Shot] If you equip your "Big Bang Shot" to your opponent's "Dark Magician", and "Dark Magician" attacks your "Giant Soldier of Stone", the opponent of the owner of the "Big Bang Shot" takes the damage (so your opponent, who attacked with "Dark Magician", takes 900 points of damage.)
Its been a awhile since I've done a CoTD. I hope I'm not too rusty. An old school monster that to this day remains one of my favorite rock types. During the earlier days this card stood as one of the best non-tributing defenders around. A DEF of 2000 that back in the day of just 1800 hitters would not been easy to overcome. Not only did it have a good amount of DEF, it also had a pretty good ATK strength. Give it a malevolent nuzzler and it was just as attacking as defending. Nowadays its still very good monster. With Lost Millennium it'll probably see more play once again. Its stats makes it a good defender in many decks. Rock, Earth, and more specifically in Stall decks. Few monsters can compare to the soldier's stats. Sure there are plenty of LV4 monsters that have 2000 DEF and an ATK around 1300 BUT this card can do something they can't. It gets around ALL Stall cards.
This card is LV3 which means in addition to getting under Messenger of the Peace it will also get under Gravity Bind, Level Limit Area B, and if you used Non-Spellcasting Area it'll rumble its way past Swords of Revealing light/Concealing Light and other more general Spell cards that stall. Stumbling will still affect it but I'm pretty sure no one (other the opponent) will complain about summoning a 1300/2000 monster and having it go to DEF mode.
There a few notable cards that cause problems for this guy. Namely Tiger King Wanghu in combination with a card the prevents you from setting monsters. If he and Light of Intervention (or some other card designed to prevent you from setting monsters) are around, he's pretty much useless until you get rid of the Tiger King. Though with Gigantes and now Megarock Dragon around this won't be much of a problem if it gets sent the graveyard. Setting him is danger itself as well. Unless you use Stumbling you want to set this guy anyway which means he's prey to cards like the Mystic Swordsmans, nobleman of crossout (thank god he's not an effect monster, let alone a flip). With an attack of 1300, this guy is not that hard to overcome when he's in attack mode. When you have him in attack mode be sure to have him covered. Anything with an ATK 1400-2000 that can do nothing more than glare/growl/whatever at him when he was in DEF mode will mop the floor with him in ATK mode.
In Megarock Dragon/Gigantes decks, this card is probably one of the best non-tributing Rock monsters around. Most Rock monsters at or below LV4 follow a trend of having a higher DEF than ATK. An ATK of 1700 is a decent as it gets for a lv 4 Rock (Beta and Rock Spirt) with the exception of Gigantes and Master Monk both which are special summons anyway. High DEF is common among Rocks and the LV4 or more precisely LV 3 with the best combination of ATK and DEF is the soldier but Legendary Jujitsu Master can give him a run for his money with a bounce effect.
In Stall decks it goes without saying its one of the best monsters to use. With a Def of 2000 anything your opponent actually can get under those Stalls probably won't get past him (unless he has an effect like Silent Swordsman LV 5) and he himself won't be hindered by the Stalls. Level Limit will let you power him up and still be able to attack. Messenger ensures nothing that can get through can't take him anyway (unless they have an effect like Drilloid from CRV). In a deck with Messenger be sure to have plenty of Direct attacking monster like Inaba White Rabbit. It won't matter if the opponent puts up just as good defense as you do.
Finally, Ratings for various formats. In Sealed Pack I'm pretty sure you'll be set with this guy until a tribute monster or Dark Hole/raigeki comes around. Its a rare so each pack is a chance of getting one. I would comment on useful it is in Limited and Traditional format but my guess would be as good as anyone's.
Advance format he'll do ok. Just look out for those specific cards that problematic for this guy.
Earth/Rock/3/1300/2000
A giant warrior made of stone. A punch from this creature has earth-shaking results.
Rulings:
1. [Re: Big Bang Shot] If you equip your "Big Bang Shot" to your opponent's "Dark Magician", and "Dark Magician" attacks your "Giant Soldier of Stone", the opponent of the owner of the "Big Bang Shot" takes the damage (so your opponent, who attacked with "Dark Magician", takes 900 points of damage.)
Its been a awhile since I've done a CoTD. I hope I'm not too rusty. An old school monster that to this day remains one of my favorite rock types. During the earlier days this card stood as one of the best non-tributing defenders around. A DEF of 2000 that back in the day of just 1800 hitters would not been easy to overcome. Not only did it have a good amount of DEF, it also had a pretty good ATK strength. Give it a malevolent nuzzler and it was just as attacking as defending. Nowadays its still very good monster. With Lost Millennium it'll probably see more play once again. Its stats makes it a good defender in many decks. Rock, Earth, and more specifically in Stall decks. Few monsters can compare to the soldier's stats. Sure there are plenty of LV4 monsters that have 2000 DEF and an ATK around 1300 BUT this card can do something they can't. It gets around ALL Stall cards.
This card is LV3 which means in addition to getting under Messenger of the Peace it will also get under Gravity Bind, Level Limit Area B, and if you used Non-Spellcasting Area it'll rumble its way past Swords of Revealing light/Concealing Light and other more general Spell cards that stall. Stumbling will still affect it but I'm pretty sure no one (other the opponent) will complain about summoning a 1300/2000 monster and having it go to DEF mode.
There a few notable cards that cause problems for this guy. Namely Tiger King Wanghu in combination with a card the prevents you from setting monsters. If he and Light of Intervention (or some other card designed to prevent you from setting monsters) are around, he's pretty much useless until you get rid of the Tiger King. Though with Gigantes and now Megarock Dragon around this won't be much of a problem if it gets sent the graveyard. Setting him is danger itself as well. Unless you use Stumbling you want to set this guy anyway which means he's prey to cards like the Mystic Swordsmans, nobleman of crossout (thank god he's not an effect monster, let alone a flip). With an attack of 1300, this guy is not that hard to overcome when he's in attack mode. When you have him in attack mode be sure to have him covered. Anything with an ATK 1400-2000 that can do nothing more than glare/growl/whatever at him when he was in DEF mode will mop the floor with him in ATK mode.
In Megarock Dragon/Gigantes decks, this card is probably one of the best non-tributing Rock monsters around. Most Rock monsters at or below LV4 follow a trend of having a higher DEF than ATK. An ATK of 1700 is a decent as it gets for a lv 4 Rock (Beta and Rock Spirt) with the exception of Gigantes and Master Monk both which are special summons anyway. High DEF is common among Rocks and the LV4 or more precisely LV 3 with the best combination of ATK and DEF is the soldier but Legendary Jujitsu Master can give him a run for his money with a bounce effect.
In Stall decks it goes without saying its one of the best monsters to use. With a Def of 2000 anything your opponent actually can get under those Stalls probably won't get past him (unless he has an effect like Silent Swordsman LV 5) and he himself won't be hindered by the Stalls. Level Limit will let you power him up and still be able to attack. Messenger ensures nothing that can get through can't take him anyway (unless they have an effect like Drilloid from CRV). In a deck with Messenger be sure to have plenty of Direct attacking monster like Inaba White Rabbit. It won't matter if the opponent puts up just as good defense as you do.
Finally, Ratings for various formats. In Sealed Pack I'm pretty sure you'll be set with this guy until a tribute monster or Dark Hole/raigeki comes around. Its a rare so each pack is a chance of getting one. I would comment on useful it is in Limited and Traditional format but my guess would be as good as anyone's.
Advance format he'll do ok. Just look out for those specific cards that problematic for this guy.