Friday 6 April 2012

Geargia Possibilities

Anyone who has played in the format where junk doppel/debris dandy was one of the top decks in the meta would understand that the deck was simply a mesh of good cards that somehow worked together. Better players piloting the deck were able to exploit the deck's inherent ability to float and spam synchro amongst many other plus points toward large success. Konami obviously didnt want a deck that they had no business creating (im pretty sure they never intended Debris Dragon + Dandylion to be so monstrous, or for such a collaboration to be meant to exist in the first place) to hold scuh a strong prescence in the meta, as such resulting in the restriction of many of the decks key cards. With much irony though, Return of the Duelist has brought us an archtype with so many similar properties to the debris deck, albeit this time being a properly designed archtype, but still boasting a myriad of possibilities. The following will be a glimpse into the Geargia archtype, and some(if not mostly) personal thought and theory-oh with regard to the matter.

The Mechanical Midgets

Geargiano
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Level: 3
ATK/DEF: 500/1000
You can Tribute this card to target 1 Level 4 Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it from the Graveyard, but its effects on the field are negated.

Some of you may remember this little critter as a one-off from Generation Force. Sure, he is part of the Geargia archtype, but he literally doesnt do much even with the release of his proper counterparts. I can foresee him being run as a one-off in Geargia decks, but nothing much more than a target for the following.

Geargiano MK-II
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Level: 3
ATK/DEF: 1000/500
When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned: Special Summon 1 "Geargia" monster from your hand or Graveyard in face-up Defense Position.

This is where the archtype truly begins. As the first of the REDU Geargias, we can already see that his effect screams pluses. It's the Tourguide/JunkSynchron/DebrisDragon of the deck, with the drawback of having to summon from the grave or hand and not the deck, and the plus of being able to go into a one card rank 3, or simply to tutor the other Geargias. note unlike previously mentioned tutors, MK-II doe snot negate the effects of it's target, therefore opening up much more possibilities. I would say a must run in pure Geargia variants, and splashable in other more obscure variants.

Geargiaccel
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Level: 4
ATK/DEF: 1400/800
If you control a "Geargia" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in face-up Defense Position. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 "Geargia" monster from your Graveyard to your hand, except "Geargiaccel".

The first of what I would call the"trinity" of the Geargia archtype, this card was obviously made to assist the archtype in xyz summoning rank4, which would be the main xyz rank for this archtype amongst others. The added bonus of returning a Geargia from your grave to fuel future plays is nice considering the amount of disruption currently in the game. I would say staple in anything Geargia.

Geargiarmor
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Level: 4
ATK/DEF: 1100/1900
Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. When this card is flipped face-up: Add 1 "Geargia" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Geargiarmor".

The second of the Geargia "trinity". This card boasts rather decent stats and has the mian purpose of searching your Geargiaccel for instant rank 4 if it survives, or if you flip it on your turn. You could also search MK-II for instat rank3 or simply more tutoring and xyz-ing. The cool thing about this guy is if your opponent rams into it and it survives, you get a search, plus you can flip it down with its effect on your turn, and flip it up again for another search. Search both accel and MK-II this way for immense swarmage. See where I'm going with these bitches yet? If not, the next dude most likely will. Oh yea, staple.

Geargiarsenal
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Level: 4
ATK/DEF: 1500/500
This card gains 200 ATK for each face-up "Geargia" monster you control, except this card. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 "Geargia" monster from your Deck in face-up Defense Position, except "Geargiarsenal".

Oh hey it's our last Geargia monster........What the fuck? Lonefire Blossom. That's pretty much my first thought when I saw this card. With decent attack stats, this card alone makes the whole archtype accessible via its effect. Drawing this first turn sets you up so well. Summon arsenal, tribute off for armor. Set armor with its own effect. Or, speical accel from hand, rank 4 then and there. Or, special Geargiano or MK-II to fuel future MK-II recurssions into one card rank 3. Possibilities people, possibilities. The arsenal into armor play alone nets you so much thining, and if the armor survives(bar inzecters...but we'll get to that another time), you'd be seeing a live Pot of Avarice soon enough. Fantastic. Staple. Nuff said.

Now we go on to the xyz, well, only one actually.

Geargiganto X
Attribute: Earth
Type: Machine/Effect
Rank: 4
ATK/DEF: 2300/1500
2 Level 4 Machine-Type monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; add 1 Level 4 or lower Machine-Type monster from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. When this card leaves the field: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower "Geargia" monster from your Graveyard.

IMO, The best asia format legal rank 4 xyz released to date. It's a stratos for everything and anything machine(level four or lower), and brings back a Geargia(Geargiano or MK-II) when it dies. The latter effect is mostly negligible, but what most of you might have realised now is the sheer brokensauce that is this here Gundam X. Im probbaly not going to be able to convince everyone to hop on the Geargia train after this post, but this guy on the other hand, is just wrong. Every machine player WILL have this somewhere close to or in their extra decks.

Lets stop and side track abit, and explore just how much wrong this card can do. First off, it can search the following(amongst many others): Karakuri Komachi and friends, Gadgets, Machina Gearframe, fucking Pot of Greed, I mean Card Car D! Now when you think machine spam, you think Offering Gadgets. Lets see what happens when you have: Ultimate Offering and a Gadget in hand, nothing else matters. Gadget into Gadget, offering into another Gadget and effect, xyz first Gundam X. Effect and search, lets use Gearframe for starters. offering into Gearframe, search Fortress, offering into Gadget, search Gadget. Xyz Gundam X number 2. Search Gearfram again.... you know where this is going. Or, you could just use gadgets, searching into each other, making Gundam Xs, and then using it to search Drill Jumbo. Offerings 2 more gadgets and then Drill Jumbo, and you have a variety of rank 5 at your disposal. This isnt new, but the fact that Gundam X searches your Drill Jumbo just gives the deck sheer consistency by just having Gadget + Offering, which in anyway, is wrong on so many levels. Even without offering, Gundam X has its utility in things like Karakuri, where by Kuick into a level 4, nets you Gundam X, and a Komachi for your next turn. The possibilities and wrongness of Gundam X are so endless that I can foresee this to be one of the money cards of the set. Geargia themselves benefit and summon this guy so easily that it isnt funny. The simple arsenal into armor, special accel from hand and overlay. is already four monsters for a potential POA as mentioned earlier, while searching an MK-II or whatever combo piece is required. Geargia hybrids with the likes of Machina could net you a Gearframe, or Geargiakuri gets you another Komachi and so forth. Possibilities.

Now with all thats been said, the archtype itself has no spell or trap support, therefore requiring some outside assistance. This would come in the form of....

Iron Call.

This card in here is just spammage on all levels. Arsenal into armor, special accel from hand, Iron Call back your arsenal, overlay for Gundam X, effect to search for accel, special accel, overlay another Gundam X, search for whatever (Scrap Recycler just came to mind). Its at worse a 3 for 3, even a veiler midway is a breakeven. You thinned your deck a fair bit, whats not to like. Besides, you could even do say a Emeral or Lavalval Chain for the second xyz depending on what's necessary. Notice with Geargiarsenal, Ironc Call is mostly live as arsenal allows monsters to be put in the grave relatively quickly.

Other options for the deck could include Genex Ally Birdman, which is searchable by X and provides an added synchro or rank3 option to the deck. Summon/Flip summon MK-II, special any geargia from grave(preferably arsenal or armor), bounce for birdman and xyz with MK-II. With this much xyz potential, you can let your imagination run wild with so much room for improvisation and hybrids. Off the top of my head, variants could include, pure, GeargiaKuri, MachinaGeargia(see what I did there =P), OfferingGeargia(oh lord please no), ScrapGeargia(think floater like GK Spy), WindupGeargia( Mostly just MK-II spam). Many more possibilities but this is what I have off the top of my head.

Personally, I feel that most variants should comprise the core of accel, armor and arsenal, and can possibly include MK-II given the room and up to preference.( MK-II is an amazing top deck, I don't include it as a must have as compared to the above mentioned 3 as it can be a tad slow early game as it does not have the brokesauce text of Tourguide, and milling in this archtype is generally bad hence no referencing JunkSynchron and DebrisDragon lol). The original Geargiano wouldn't do much in any variant though, with its only use being to tribute off for a level 4 geargia to xyz, or be a MK-II decent target, but regardless, it is slow. Last but not least, onc eagain, Geargiganto X is potentially disastrous, knowing how the Japanese are so much better innovators than I am.

That concludes my look into the Geargia archtype, something which I have found to be my first cup of tea in terms of playstyle and xyz mechanics. Hopefully it has been insightful, and not that jarring to the eyes as most, if not all of this post comprised of dumping my mental notes online. REDU seems to be interesting and with so many new archtypes to be released, Im pretty excited to see what others can come up with. Comment away. =)

Cheers
Lamby

4 comments:

  1. This is some pretty good insight. Nice job!

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  2. Iron Call + Geargia + Karakuri splashed = Karakuris are back in the game again . Not a joke .

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