Yu-Gi-Oh! Card of the Week: Steelswarm Roach 10/07/2011

With the start of the ZeXal era, the guys (and girls) at Konami have given birth to "Xyz" Monsters (pronounced ik-seez) and are summoned from the Extra Deck just like "Fusion" and "Synchro" Monsters. Instead of Level, these cards have "Rank". They also have a black outline and are immune to cards that mention Level Manipulation, e.g. "Gravity Bind". To create Xyz Monsters, it involves you combining two Monster Cards of the same Level. The Monster Cards you have used for the Xyz Monster are placed behind the Xyz Monster and are treated as "Overlay Units/Xyz Materials". All Xyz monsters have effects that involve removing one or more of their Materials to activate their effect. This week's card is being released in the upcoming pack, Generation Force. This week's choice is the Xyz Monster, Steelswarm Roach!

Sorry about it being in Japanese guys!

Fiend/Xyz/Effect
ATK/1900 DEF/0
2 Level 4 Monsters

When a Level 5 or higher monster is Special Summoned: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this monster: negate the Special Summon and destroy it

This card is great against decks that use Fusion Monsters to beat you down. "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus" is a great example. If you have Steelswarm Roach on the field, you can negate it's summon and it's effect doesn't work and your cards will be safe. The same applies for Elemental Heroes. If the opponent would Fusion into "Elemental Hero Absolute Zero" or "Elemental Hero Necroid Shaman" you can just toss a Xyz Material to the grave and voila! No fusion!

Since the decks revolve around these, Steelswarm Roach can shut them down!

Steelswarm Roach works great against Synchro Monsters too! For example, if they want to summon "Black Rose Dragon", negate its summon and save all of you cards that are on the field. You can also negate the summon of "Great Shogun Shien" and you still get to play as many Spell and Traps as you want! It can also create a confusion among your opponents, as they will think on what to Special Summon carefully, as you can negate most Special Summons!

Steelswarm Roach can prevent these cards from ruining your game!

There are two main bad points about Steelswarm Roach; His low attack and the fact he only prevents the summon of a Level 5 or higher Monster. If your opponent is running Blackwings, they can Normal Summon a "Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn" and because it has 2000 attack, it can easily defeat a 1900 attack Steelswarm Roach. Another point is that if an opponent Special Summons a "Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan", you can't negate it as it is Level 4 and your opponent can start abusing "Gateway of the Six" to Special Summon even more Level 4 or lower "Six Samurai" Monsters. And, for irony, you cannot negate an Xyz Summon as they are "Rank" not "Level", so your opponent can slam into your Steelswarm Roach with a "Number 39: Utopia."

These three cards = The bane of Steelswarm Roach's existence.

Overall, Steelswarm Roach is a good card. It has a nice effect and can slow down the opponent. He's weak but, I like this fact, as it doesn't make him too overpowered. So, he won't be seeing the September 2011 List. Steelswarm Roach should be run in most decks that use Level 4 Monsters often. Decks such as Blackwings, Machina Gadgets, or even Gladiator Beasts can run this card to it's potential. I'm gonna give Steelswarm Roach a well deserved 8/10. Thanks for reading!

Peace out!