[Blue-Eyes Black]

TLM-EN006
Ancient Gear Golem
EARTH/Machine/8/3000/3000
This card cannot be Special Summoned. When this card attacks with an ATK that is higher than the DEF of a Defense Position monster, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent?s Life Points. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any Spell or Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step.
ULTRA RARE/ULTIMATE RARE


This one's a bit of a user request. Somebody wanted me to review Ancient Gear Golem and, well, since I had nothing else in mind I think I will.

For the basics, Ancient Gear Golem is a Level 8 monster, so Summoning him won't be easy. He's an EARTH/Machine, so if you can somehow combine the powerhouse cards of each you could make him spectacular (not like his effects aren't spectacular, but we'll get to that in a minute). He's got 3000/3000 stats, which is tied for the second-highest DEF for a 2-Tribute Monster (Yamata Dragon beats it and a few others at 3100 DEF). So you're saying, "Why should I use him? Blue-Eyes White Dragon has 500 less DEF but is MUCH easier to Summon." Well, you'll reconsider after looking at Ancient Gear Golem's effects.

Ancient Gear Golem has what I call the "Ancient Gear Effect." When it Battles, your opponent can't activate Spell and Trap Cards until the end of the battle's Damage Step. This means you don't have to worry about Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, Enemy Controller, or any of that during Battle. Be careful with some cards, though, as even though they can be used in Battle to help protect your opponent they can also be used Offensively on their turn or Defensively during their Main Phase to help protect themselves. "Okay, you have me convinced. I'll use Ancient Gear Golem. But is that all it does? Because, you know, I'm sold. I'm just looking for extras." Boy, does Ancient Gear Golem have extras.

Ancient Gear Golem has what's "officially" referred to as Piercing. You may know this as Trample from the Magic: The Gathering TCG. Maybe saying that it has "Fairy Meteor Crush" helps? Anyway, when it battles a Defense Position monster with a lower DEF than the attacking monster's ATK, the opponent will still take Battle Damage equal to the difference. Why is this so special? How often do you run into monsters with even 1800 DEF? Rarely, right? Right. If you attack with Ancient Gear Golem, you'll almost guarantee damage. Equip it with United We Stand and Mage Power and he goes from a 3000 monster with Piercing to a 4800 ATK monster with Piercing. That's a lot of damage, even against a monster with 3000 DEF. "That's great. I'll take it!" Not so fast. I need to let you in on a huge downside.

Ancient Gear Golem has what what I call the "Normal Summon Only" effect. Ancient Gear Golem cannot be Special Summoned. Period. Not through Monster Reborn. Not through Return from the Different Dimension. Not through anything. You MUST Normal Summon or Set it. How you do that, though, is up to you.


FINAL THOUGHTS: Ancient Gear Golem is a huge monster, literally. It has two great effects, high ATK, high DEF, and a lot of Level Stars. It'll be hard to Summon, so it might be too slow for tournament play (unless you're only experimenting with 1 copy in the Deck). In casual formats, though, I'd say it's a great card to at least try out if you can afford one.

RATINGS:

Causal Play, Traditional: 6/10. It's a huge monster that doesn't have to worry about most Spells and Traps that are used defensively during the Battle Phase. Raigeki and Dark Hole will kill it, so if your opponent knows you're using it he/she will probably wait to use Raigeki and Dark Hole to take out your Ancient Gear Golems after you Summon them. It gets a 6 because unless your opponent uses something like Enemy Controller in the Main Phase you Summon it you're almost guaranteed to do a minimum of 1500-2000 damage against a face-down monster. Try using cards like Magic Jammer or, if you think you really need the negation, Solemn Judgment to ward off Raigeki and Dark Hole.

Casual Play, Advanced: 8/10. No Raigeki and no Dark Hole to have to worry about, but you have a card that's just as bad: Metamorphosis. If Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Level 1 monsters see a lot of play in your area, then stay away from using Ancient Gear Golem because it could easily be used against you. If your opponent doesn't even know what a Thousand-Eyes Restrict is, though, then you're good to go to use this card. Also take into account Chaos Sorcerer and maybe Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (it is a Casual format, after all), monsters that can easily remove your Ancient Gear Golem from play. Run Magic Jammers and Royal Oppressions if you really want to keep Ancient Gear Golem on the field.

Tournament Play, Traditional: 4/10. Chaos is way too fast. Ancient Gear Golem is way too slow. Unless you can get it out and keep it out, it'll probably end up being a dead card in 10 duels before being useful in 1. I would suggest counters to the staples, but Decks are usually so full with Staples that only 10-12, maybe fewer, cards are different in each Deck, no matter what the "theme" is.

Tournament Play, Advanced: 4/10. It would have received a higher rating because Raigeki and Dark Hole are gone, but there are cards that are a whole lot worse. Your opponent could run their D. D. Warrior Lady into your Ancient Gear Golem, whether it's in Attack Position or Defense Position, to remove it from play. If your Ancient Gear Golem is in Attack Position, your opponent will gladly use one of their 2 or 3 D. D. Assailants to destroy itself in battle against your monster and remove both itself and your Ancient Gear Golem from play. Then you have the new classic combo of Book of Moon on Ancient Gear Golem PLUS Nobleman of Crossout. You also have Metamorphosis + Magician of Faith/Sinister Serpent/Sheep Token to Special Summon a Thousand-Eyes Restrict and use the high ATK and DEF of Ancient Gear Golem against you. Advanced Format decks can usually spare the space for theme-specific cards, so try using some Magic Jammers, Solemn Judgments, Bottomless Trap Holes, and Royal Oppressions to help take care of the big threats.



Anime Appearances: None so far, but watch Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I hear it's supposed to make an appearance in one of the first few episodes.


Next CotD Review: I hope you don't mind me going casual and reviewing an Egyptian God Card. The first review: Obelisk the Tormentor, on Monday, 6/15.

[Necros]

I believe that the Ancient Gear Golem is a monster far over rated as I see you did well to explain. It is powerful and extremely menacing, however it is costly and far to unwieldy to use in competitive play. Though it is a very fun card to play with. I got a Machine Deck made already with 2 in it and it is a hoot.
I found this card in some areas nearby where I compete it is like the new God Card. As is with most other rare, powerful, and flashy cards. Players will jump to it expecting to give them a edge regardless of how usually unwieldy it may be. Like the Gearfried the Swordmaster for instance.

On a side note to follow up what you said about keeping it on the field to do any real good. I might also point out My Body as a Shield. Only slightly costly by 1500 LP. It can do well to make every LP count threw allowing almost assured protection from “Destruction” regardless of whatever circumstances in place. The next protective asset that does well is Heavy Mech Support Platform. Lastly try using a Limiter Removal with this Behemoth. Once it attacks then victory could more then likely be guaranteed.

Sorry for going one like that. It was a solid review and look forward to more on the way.

[Blizz3112]

Trouble Summoning Ancient Gear Golem? Try combining it with Level Conversion Lab. A little risk of losing it 1/6, but if your Golem is Lv4 or 3, you can just summon it without the help of Tributes...

[horus emperor20]

I have a question,is Ancient Gear Golem good in a traditional chaos deck.

[FinalValkyrie]

No, its not. Honestly, you must make a deck built around getting in hits with this monster.

Even then, what does he do? Just damage? I'd rather clear the field and get in a hit with Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi, at least his LP hit would actually DO something.

3000 ATK, M/T negate, Piercing is nice, but in the end, its just damage.

4/10

[ChaosBahamut]

Well once, or if for that matter, Ancient Gear Castle hits the U.S., then all it would take is 3 of your turns to be able to summon Ancient Gear Golem tribute free. That said he's pretty good in a Kill before getting killed deck. One of the few 2 trib monsters worth the tributes. Add Limiter Removal and Heavy Mech Support Platform and you get a 7000 piercing monster during that specific turn, then a 6000 piercing monster for as long as he stays face up on the field. Youch. (haven't tried that yet, but from the numbers alone :shudder:) Well that's all for now, and I liked it better when he was called Antique Gear Golem don't ya think?

P.S. Not having to worry about Mirror Force and the like also rocks.

edit: Spelling fix :gba:

This post has been edited by ChaosBahamut: 03 September 2005 - 09:35 PM

[vor]

AGG would be an awesome card to play with "twin swords of flashing" when an opponent has more than one monster on the field. Especially if you could equip it with an axe of despair - you could rack up 3000-4000 damage in one turn

[mmlgamer]

It would be good with a rock strategy. That is why Megarock Dragon is in the same Booster Pack. You can put it in your deck with Golem Sentry, Gigantes, The Rock Spirit, Guardian Sphinx, Granmarg the Rock Monarch, etc.

BTW, AGG is in the first episode of YGO GX. It is the powerful monster that Judai has to face in his first appearance in a duel.

EDIT-AGG is a Machine monster, so I guess I'm wrong about the "rock strategy" thing.

This post has been edited by mmlgamer: 02 March 2006 - 11:12 PM

[VinZ07]

it's a very fun card to play.

combo it with metal morph for more piercing damage!

[Chronoexe]

You know that rule that says no bumping topics two months old. That goes for topics over two months old too. Topic closed.

[Mickey]

Article's stay open for comments (unless clear reason to close it).

Remeber these sections arnt just "topics" it's snyced with the website itself so alot of this is actual website content.

[TrueMariksPower]

Mickey, on Jun 30 2006, 06:01 PM, said:

Article's stay open for comments (unless clear reason to close it).

Remeber these sections arnt just "topics" it's snyced with the website itself so alot of this is actual website content.

well I am glad it was reopened due to SOI's gear support placing this card on a much better scale. Due to the Castle, Factory, Drill and th elike. People have to realse that in a propperly built deck the Gears can actually work, yes I know amazing.

Within a gear deck, th eability to summon with few to no actual tributes is a simple matter. Using Muaselium of th eDeseased Emporer *POTD* will allow you to slap this down for a measily 2000 lps, nothing in today's meta where Return will swing the game quickly no matter what the life. You see any machine + MEch Support is a one shot protection against anything. Thus the 2000lps + a MEch on field will quickly spell trouble for your advantag happy opponent when their reapers suddenly turn into -2800s for them.

However this card really shines when paired with the other helpful Gears, Soldier, and Beast stop the rampant removal of the meta and provide a back bone to the deck itself.

On a more fun sided note, the use of the Ancient Gears along with Cannon and Mech Support give reasons for having Magnet LV2 in the deck for fast ss. Then add in drill for a Spell tutor to nab that Graceful charity you needed and all will turn out well for the smart Gear player.
-TMP

(I am happy to see such another great bvoard on the web, and look forward to learning and participating as much as possible)