Gaia

Name: Gaia

Type: R (Rare)

Element: Earth

Family: Divine

Cost: 8

No: 63

Pack: "Otherworldly Visitor "

HP: 74

AGI: 37

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Abilities: (Listed in order of Element, Name, Cost, Attack, Effect)

- Forest / Earth's Poem / 1 / 32 / Inflicts 3 splash damage on all standby monsters.

- Light / Thousand Suns / 1 / 25 Increases this monster's ATK by 5.

SP Skill:

None.

Reverse:

Increases your Forest monsters' ATK by [turns passed x 1].

Ability:

Increases your summoned monster's ATK by 4 and MAX HP by 4 while this monster is in the standy state.

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Personal Thoughts: At a cost of 8, Gaia does carry with her a pretty high cost to consider using. Her Earth's Poem does damage to all standby monsters (not just your opponents). And Thousand Suns does take a while to build up in damage output.

Thousand Suns is amazing in the fact that both of Gaia's attacks go up in +5 ATK every turn. Also, both Earth's Poem and Thousand Suns only cost 1 mana each to use.

I've used Gaia mostly versus the CPU, and occassionally versus human opponents. Tailoring a deck to work against the CPU is one thing, but get a bad matchup versus a human player, and Gaia can be wrecked pretty easily.

For those that may be curious as to what I use versus the computer:

A 6 formation layout, Green Jewel or Light Jewel, Agility Bonus.

None / Wind Sword Zephyrus / Wind Sword Zephyrus or not if using Fallen Angel Plumage (rear row)

Gaia / Wind Sword Zephyrus / Hermes' Boot or Earth Bow or Fallen Angel Plumage (front/starting row)

The concept is pretty simple. Raise up Gaia's ATK and AGI to as high as I can, and kill. You may notice that leaves you with zero mana to start.

Possible start up method #1: Summon Hermes Boot. Now, Hermes Boot has a whopping 40 AGI. Few computer controlled monsters come close to that. Use it's ability to give Gaia +10 AGI. That gives you +3 Mana when the Boot dies. You get more mana as well, since no other monster commited to a mana using action. What happens next depends. If any of the opponent's monsters has higher AGI than the Swords, or you feel Gaia is in danger (Dwarf for example) summon Gaia. If you can get away with it, summon another sword. In either case, continue to sacrifice the swords to boost Gaia's attack. If you have to summon Gaia, then do so, whichever attack you decide to use, sacrifice another sword through it's SP Ability.

Possible start up method #2: Your cpu opponents have way too much AGI. Scrap the entire right side down to just the Fallen Angel Plumage. It gives +10 AGI to your summoned monster while it's in standy mode (it's permanent ability). In this case, your swords should have a total of 41 AGI (they start with 31) and you should be able to safely summon the swords and sacrfice them to Gaia.

With either method, not counting any use of Thousand Suns, each Sword gives +10 ATK bonus. That's either +20 or +30 ATK, along with a possible +10 AGI from either the Plumage or the Boot. At this point Gaia will help you create havoc with cpu water or dark decks (usually, there are some cases where the computer will have a situation that pure damage won't be able to overcome).

Since Gaia is a pull from Otherworldly Visitor as well as the Swords and the Boot or Bow (both from the Legend Begins), you have a decent chance of setting this all up. The only stickler would be the Plumage, since that's from Birth of the Deities (but Ranked Matches can help with that or just outright buy a booster pack).

One final thought: I would've expected a Deity like Gaia to be involved with healing and recuperative powers, but Gaia is all about kicking ass. "When Nature calls, run in the opposite direction."