Card Review: Summoner Monk

Here is a card that is useful for many decks, but is often hard to come by. With an incredibly useful effect, this card opens up the possibilities for many combinations to bring forth bigger, stronger, and more powerful monsters!

So let's examine this master evocator of monsters. Summoner Monk is a, DARK Attributed, Level 4 Spellcaster/Effect Monster with 800 ATK and 1600 DEF. Clearly not made to battle, especially because he immediately switches to the defensive upon summoning. (Unless Flip Summoned.) 800 ATK is very low for a Level 4 Monster, so it is probably a good thing that he switches to defense mode anyways. What makes this card so special is that he can Special Summon any other Level 4 Monster from your deck, at the expense of 1 Spell Card from your hand; the monster MUST be Level 4. The Monster Special Summoned by this effect cannot attack the turn the effect is used, and the effect is limited to being allowed only once. Those drawbacks are minor trade offs for being able to Summon Rank 4 Xyz Monsters like Number 39: Utopia, or Synchro Summoning Monsters if the aforementioned  Special Summoned card was a Tuner.

Summoner Monk fits best in decks that use many Level 4 Monsters and expendable Spell Cards. Because it is a DARK monster, Summoner Monk may be used to fit the costs of lots of Card Effects that affect DARK Monster, like Allure of Darkness, which calls to remove 1 DARK Monster from your hand.

Summoner Monk is another example of a highly potent card as it was once restricted to only 1 card per deck on the Limited List, but is now Semi-Limited which means that 2 copies are allowed per deck. The reason that Summoner Monk's cost is a Spell Card is that the deck he is included in is a Spell oriented Deck. A great card but often difficult to come across. They are very reliable when added to certain decks, and so they are valuable.