Once again, it’s preview time here on Metagame.com, and I couldn’t be more excited. You’ve already seen one of the new Sacred Beast cards that Jaden and crew are trying to protect from the Shadow Riders. Today, I’m going to show you a card from the future of GX. A future in which Dr. Crowler isn’t such a bad guy after all, and where he can go for days at a time without trying to expel people. As you may already know, Dr. Crowler is a huge fan of his Ancient Gear cards, and most especially of the massive Ancient Gear Golem. It’s also safe to assume that Dr. Crowler plays the Ancient Gear Beast and Ancient Gear Soldier as well. But what we don’t know is the kind of spell and trap support that he uses to keep his Machines nice and shiny.

Fear not, because today I’m pulling back the veil on Ancient Gear Drill, one of Dr. Crowler’s secret weapons. Check it out:

Ancient Gear Drill

Normal Spell

You can only activate this card by discarding 1 card from your hand while you have a face-up monster with "Ancient Gear" in its card name. Pick 1 Spell Card from your Deck and Set it on your side of the field. You cannot use that Spell Card this turn.

Let’s take a look at the other candidates for spell searching. First, there’s Different Dimension Capsule. The Capsule is a generic card—there’s no specific deck it has to go in, and it can actually get any card it likes. The downside is that you have to wait until your second turn after you play the Capsule to use your card, and if the Capsule is destroyed, the card is lost forever. That’s not bad, but it’s a bit too risky for my tastes. Of course, keeping the Capsule alive till your second standby phase after activating it is child’s play, considering what you have to do to play the other spell-searching card. I’m talking about Dark Sage. Yes, the same Dark Sage that Yugi used to take out Joey in the Duelist Kingdom finals. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to leave things entirely to chance, and that’s exactly what you have to do in order to play Dark Sage. No spell card is worth losing the game to a coin flip.

Keeping the alternatives in mind, let’s take a good look at Ancient Gear Drill. First, you have to discard a card to activate it. Normally that would turn me off from a card, but this one lets me search out any spell I want for the next turn. I’d gladly discard that card if it means not having to deal with Time Wizard, and I get the spell faster than I would in any other case, assuming everything goes right with Different Dimension Capsule. Second, you have to have a monster with “Ancient Gear” in its name in order to use it. I’m pretty sure I just heard the sound of ten thousand Cyber Dragon/Warrior Beatdown users closing their web browsers in unison, but stay with me on this one.

Ancient Gear decks, and Machine decks in general, are actually pretty good right now. They already have a little support in the form of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and Ancient Gear Soldier can take advantage of Giant Rat’s summoning capabilities. All of the current Ancient Gear monsters don’t allow your opponent to activate in response to their attack, or even in the damage step, making them an excellent choice in today’s Sakuretsu Armor- and Widespread Ruin-infested metagame. Heck, the Gear Beast negates the effects of monsters it destroys, making it the natural enemy of every currently popular monster of level 4 or lower (excluding Spirit Reaper). The coup de grace comes from the fact that all the Ancient Gear monsters are Machines, giving them access to the original “I win” card, Limiter Removal.

Speaking of Limiter Removal, I should probably mention that it’s currently limited to one copy per deck. This makes it pretty difficult for Machine decks to maintain the consistency that they had tried to boast in the previous Advanced format. If only there were a card made just for Machines that could help them overcome the hurdle of having to naturally draw into their win condition. Oh, wait, there is, and I’m previewing it right now. Searching out Limiter Removal with Ancient Gear Drill sends a strong message to your opponent that says, “Hey buddy, you better deal with me right now, because next turn, you’re going to lose.” It also limits their options on how to do it, because, as Dr. Crowler demonstrates to Chumley, attacking Ancient Gear monsters can be extremely hazardous to your health when there’s a set Limiter Removal on the field.

The biggest problem with trying to run a themed deck is finding a reason to play it. Duelists choose Spellcasters because Magician’s Circle and Magical Dimension let them swarm the field and take out pesky threats whenever they please. Duelists like Warriors because they have the best monster-searching effect in the game, combined with the most versatility of any of the monster types. The only reasons people ever had for playing Machines were Limiter Removal, Power Bond, and Cyber-Stein, three cards that are in one way or another geared towards one-turn kills. The problem was that none of these strategies had the reliability of Warriors or, since Magician’s Circle and Spellcaster’s Judgment, Spellcasters. Ancient Gear Drill gives you a good reason to sit down and give the Gear monsters some serious thought, even if you aren’t a fan of the crazy blonde guy who wears purple lipstick.

As for how it plays in Sealed Pack, it remains to be seen if there will be any more Ancient Gear monsters in the Shadow of Infinity set. Search type cards are pretty good in Booster Draft or Sealed Pack, but their usefulness depends directly on what you can fetch with them and what it costs you to do the fetching. I suspect it’s going to be difficult to justify picking this card in Booster Draft or Sealed Pack at the Sneak Preview event closest to you, especially if you don’t know you’ll be able to activate it consistently. The other thing problem is that in limited play it’s usually the traps that make the difference. Ancient Gear Drill is only a common, but most of the time, the best spells in the sets are rares or higher, making it a lot less likely for you to have something you’d want to search out with the Drill. Overall, in Sealed Pack, I’d probably pass on this in favor of a decent trap, a solid monster, or even a spell that’s going to do something every time you draw it.

That about wraps it up for me this week. The Sneak Previews are rapidly approaching, and if you haven’t made plans to get to the one nearest you, I highly suggest you remedy that situation. Personally, I’ll be at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA, so if you live in or around the area and you’re planning on heading to the preview, be sure to drop by and say hi. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

Jcmchale AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu