[-Griffin] Frontline Replacement

[-Griffin]

|Frontline Replacement|
|Normal Trap Card|
|This card cannot be activated in response to a card effect. Select and activate one of the following effects:
*Tribute a monster and Special Summon a level 5 or lower EARTH Warrior-type monster from your Extra Deck.
*Tribute a level 5 or higher monster and Special Summon a level 6 or lower EARTH Warrior-type monster from your Extra Deck.|

The tribute is not a cost. The Summon is improper, so the target cannot later be retried from the Graveyard.

[Saynt]

Is the second effect meant to be Level 6 or [i]higher[/i] monster?

[-Griffin]

No.

[Bringerofcake]

Karbonala Warrior
Ryu Senshi
X-Saber Wayne
XX-Saber Hyunlei
Gaia Knight the Force of Earth
Gravity Warrior
Drill Warrior
Mighty Warrior
Junk Gardna
Scarred Warrior

9 targets for summoning. And considering the way the costs work, this seems perfect for a Hieratic-Warrior combo build that drops a bunch of Rank 6s pretty reliably.

[-Griffin]

tbh I forgot about Hieratics entirely.

Would this be stupidly broken with them? Should I change it to send to Grave? Or even return to Deck?

And Drill Warrior is the main reason the level 6 targets needed a stronger tribute, but Ryu Senshi was also a factor.

[Bringerofcake]

Since it's a Trap, I don't think it's as big of a problem as Gishki Aquamirror or any of the other absurdly abuseable cards that Hieratics can make use of, unless some really awful Rank 6 comes out (since Atum needs 2 dragons explicitly)

[-Griffin]

I consider Bounzer pretty bad, but I suppose it's the sort of thing that needs testing.

How do you feel about it outside of Hieratics?

[Bringerofcake]

I can think of a couple of decks that can effectively run it (X-Sabers immediately comes to mind)[color=#ffffff](note to self; make an XX-Saber 8 star) [/color]
But I think I'm missing the main intention of the card.

[-Griffin]

Turn monsters you can't use into useful cards. (T.G. Power Gladiator/Scarred Warrior). Or slightly stronger monsters into toolbox options (Drill Warrior, Ryu, you can even get Gravity Warrior during the Battle Phase). Gives Decks that don't have lots of swarm methods a new way to get semi-boss-monsters out.

[Bringerofcake]

Ok, I can get behind this now. It feels like a more balanced Instant Fusion, except more geared toward Synchro monsters. Not to mention you can get quite a few higher up Synchros from lower ones. (seriously, the more I look at it, the better I can see it in Sabers)

[-Griffin]

Yeah, the Saber targets are actually pretty mediocre since they don't get their effects and can't be Summoned later, but trading Darksoul for T.G. would be a great play. I feel it can help some Decks play monsters that can't make plays on their own, but have cool interactions, by making them fodder for this.