SD17-JP001
Phoenix Gear Freed
Fire/Warrior - Dual/8/2800/2200
When this card is in Graveyard or face-up on the field, it is treated as a Normal monster. When this card is face-up on the field or in Graveyard, treat this card as a Normal monster. When this card is face-up on the field and as treated as a Normal Summon you re-summon this card, this card becomes an effect monster and gains the following effect.
- When opponent activates a Magic card, you can choose and special summon a Dual monster from your Graveyard. Also, by sending a face-up Equip card on your field to Graveyard, negate the activation of a Magic/Trap card that target monster on the field and destroy it.
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Well, back with a card review after being busy for the past month...

Anyway, Phoenix Gear Freed is the cover boy for the upcoming Structure Deck, Warrior's Strike. Will it continues the tradition of not-so-good cover monster? We'll see...

Art:
Well, we've seen Gear Freed in a black armor, surrounding itself, then we see it getting semi-naked after breaking itself out. Well, I guess Gear Freed realized that it's time for a shiny new armor...

Equipped with Supervis (I'm not sure if it's the cloak, the sword, or the whole armor...), with a flaming back showing the power of the Phoenix, a Paladin-ish Armor + Shield, etc., you just can't beat the sheer hot-bloodness of the newest Gear Freed.

Rating: 10/10

Stats/Requirement:
Fire Main-type...well, other than cards like [Fire Spiritual Art], nothing notable about a Fire monster other than Fire having nearly no support...

Warrior Sub-Type, well, [Warrior's Return] get this card back, can be played around with [Phoenix Blade] (Ironically, this card is not holding it...), anti-Warrior card get to this card. Other than that, this is one of the few stronger Warrior sub-type monster (Strongest normal summonable Warrior, tied with Gilford the Lightning and Puppet King).

Dual monster, well, Normal Monster rebirth card ([Birthright] and [Swing of Memories]), and the limited number of on-field Normal monster support (Can't think of one from the top of my head), and obviously, Dual support (Not that there are many powerful one...).

8-star, well, 2-trib. This card doesn't have any other summoning method, although there's always dump-reborn. Other than that, 8-star means not much Synchroing with this card (Unless you somehow reduce the level of this card, but it's just a waste of cards that way...)

2800/2200. Nothing distinguishable. 2800 ATK does make it strongest normal summonable Warrior monster, as mentioned, but it's only tied with [Goyou Guardian] and [REDMD], although this beat 95% of the monster out there. As for 2200 DEF, does it really matter? Well, it means that this card is not 100% doom if it get [Book of Moon], but other than that, I just don't see why anyone would put this card in defense mode, on purpose.

Rating: 6.5/10

Effect:
As mentioned in the previous section, this card is a Dual monster, which means the standard Dual text. Obviously, Dual monsters always have an advantage over other by being able to get back via Normal Summon rebirth card, but the disadvantage is that it takes more effort just to get the effect.

The actual effect? Well, it's divided into 2 parts.

The 1st part is a [Dark Horus]-ish effect, in which you get a Dual monster back whenever opponent activate a Spell card. Obviously, getting a free monster is always a good thing no matter what, and if you have a super strong Dual Monster in Graveyard, opponent may think twice before activating a Spell card. Other than that, however, you still need to re-summon that Dual monster to be anything useful.

The 2nd part gives you a 1:1 negation trade by using an Equip card to negate a Spell/Trap card that target monsters on field. Obviously, [Phoenix Blade] works pretty good with this effect, as you can get it back easily. [Supervis], the equip card that comes with the Structure, works wonder as well, as you get a Normal monster (Most likely a Dual monster if you're using that card) in addition to negating a Spell/Trap card. The bad thing? Well, only able to negate something that target just doesn't works well. I can think of [Brain Control], [Book of Moon], and [Dimensional Confinement] from the top of my head, but I also think of [Lightning Vortex], [Mirror Force], or even [Bottomless Trap Hole] that this card can't negate.

Rating - 8.0/10

Overall - 7.7/10: The card is not super-bad, with a reborn effect and all, but a bit situational? I'm not even considering near-broken card like [Goyou Guardian] for good effect, but I just don't see the card being anything special. The fact that it's also hard to build a deck around this card doesn't help the rating - being themed is one thing (Just look at Lightlord / BF / Gladial Beast), but I just don't see how an effect that have "Once in a while, I can pull it off, but most of the time, I get cards clogged in my hand" being viable even in a fun deck environment. Bad design? Not really, it's just that Dual is never powerful enough to do anything...