Number 20: Giga-Brilliant (PHSW-EN042)

Card:  PHSW-EN042
Card Name:  Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
Attribute:  Light
Level/Rank:  3
Type:  Insect/Xyz/Effect
ATK:  1800
DEF:  1800

Card Text:
2 Level 3 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; all face-up monsters you currently control gain 300 ATK.

Personal Comment:

Another great Xyz Monster from the Photon Shockwave release, Number 20: Giga-Brilliant is a support card that can give you that slight edge in winning a duel.  The summoning requirement is simple and it can be ran in virtually any deck (I don't know of any deck that doesn't have Level 3 Monsters).  The question is which is a better card...Number 20: Giga Brilliant or Number 17: Leviathan Dragon?

Attribute:
Giga-Brilliant - Light
Leviathan Dragon - Water
Winner - Giga-Brilliant.  This is the first Light Xyz Monster and can be played in more decks.

Level:
Giga-Brilliant - 3
Leviathan Dragon - 3
Winner - Push

Summoning Requirement:
Giga-Brilliant - 2 Level 3 monsters
Leviathan Dragon - 2 Level 3 monsters
Winner - Push

Stats:
Giga-Brilliant - 1800 ATK, 1800 DEF
Leviathan Dragon - 2000 ATK, 0 DEF
Winner - Leviathan Dragon.  The extra ATK will help it stay on the field longer.

Effect (these are lingering effects so the ATK increase are cumalative):
Giga-Brilliant - Once per turn: you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; all face-up monsters you currently control gain 300 ATK.
Leviathan Dragon - Once per turn: you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; this card gains 500 ATK.  If this card has no Xyz Materials, it cannot attack your opponent directly.
Winner - Push (this all depends on the situation during the duel)

So which card is better?  There's no correct answer (that's not the answer some are looking for but it's the honest truth).  Which card you play depends on what you want to accomplish.  If you're swarming the field with monsters, using Giga-Brilliant to boost all your monster's ATK by 300 (600 if you can detach the second Xyz Material) is absolutely brutal for an opponent to deal with.  However, the additional 500 ATK (1000 if you can detach the second Xyz Material) that Leviathan Dragon brings into play can take out most beat stick monsters your opponent might throw at you.  So whichever card you decide to run, have the other one in your side deck so you can adjust accordingly.  Don't run them both since summoning one will make it tougher to summon the other.  Both are great cards...that much I can say with certainty.

Personal Rating:
Artwork - 8/10
Power - 7/10
Easy To Play - 8/10
Collectable - 6/10
Overall Score - 7.25/10

Exodia The Forbidden One (MC1-EN001)

Card:  MC1-EN001
Card Name:  Exodia The Forbidden One
Attribute:  Dark
Level/Rank:  3
Type:  Spellcaster/Effect
ATK:  1000
DEF:  1000

Card Text:
When you have "Right Leg of the Forbidden One", "Left Leg of the Forbidden One", "Right Arm of the Forbidden One" and "Left Arm of the Forbidden One" in addition to this card in you hand, you win the Duel.

Personal Comment:
Another card with a spelling error.  Instead of "you" it should say "your".  But that doesn't take away from the value of this card.  Exodia The Forbidden One is not a very powerful card by itself.  However, combine with the other four pieces it is the most powerful card in the Yugioh game.  Because of this, Exodia is one of the most collected and sought after cards out there.  The challenge is how to play this card successfully.  Bringing all 5 pieces into play to end a duel is one of the toughest challenges in the game.  Here's a few tips to help building an Exodia deck.

1.  Make sure the main purpose of the deck is to bring the 5 pieces out.  Don't waste precious deck space with fluff.
2.  Have support cards that can bring cards back into play once they are removed or sent to the graveyard.
3.  Have cards that can halt your opponent's attacks to buy you more time to draw out cards.
4.  Have cards that can increase your life points (this will help extend the duel).
5.  Go heavy on Spell and Trap cards that can protect the pieces when they are on the field.
6.  Have monster cards with effects that can search your deck and Graveyard for the pieces of Exodia.

Doing all this still won't guarantee you success.  But if you are able to end a duel by bringing all 5 Exodia pieces together, consider yourself an elite duelist...the best of the best.

Personal Rating: (This one is a little tricky)
Artwork - 8/10
Power - 5/10 (by itself...10/10 with all the pieces)
Easy To Play - 5/10 (extremely hard to get all the pieces together)
Collectable - 10/10
Overall Score - 7/10 (don't let this low rating fool you)