Nov 6, 2010
Gravekeeper cards originally come from Pharonic Guardian, a booster pack from 2003! Ever since then cards like Gravekeeper’s Spy, Gravekeeper’s Guard and Necrovalley have become firm favorites of Duelists and made their way into several top Decks throughout the history of the game. Experienced Duelists have fond memories of these cards, and if you’re new to the game you can meet them for the first time in Structure Deck: Marik. So what better way is there to celebrate the return of the Gravekeepers with than with an all-new Gravekeeper that makes them better than ever before?
When you control Gravekeeper’s Recruiter and it’s sent to the Graveyard, you can add any Gravekeeper’s monster with 1500 DEF or less from your Deck to your hand. No matter how Gravekeeper’s Recruiter goes from the field to the Graveyard you’ll always be able to activate its effect, one that’s very similar to Witch of the Black Forest, a card so useful that it’s currently Forbidden! You can add almost any other Gravekeeper monster to your hand with Gravekeeper’s Recruiter, so if you use a Gravekeeper Deck you’ll have a wide variety of options available to you.
You can get Gravekeeper’s Assailant if you want to take down high ATK monsters by switching them to a more vulnerable Defense Position, or you could go for Gravekeeper’s Commandant which can then get you Necrovalley as quickly as possible. If you already have Necrovalley on the field, Gravekeeper’s Chief will allow your Graveyard to be unaffected by it, and you get to Special Summon a Gravekeeper from your Graveyard for free!
Gravekeeper’s Descendant was released in Absolute Powerforce and lets you Tribute your Gravekeepers to destroy your opponent’s cards, and Gravekeeper’s Priestess gives all your Gravekeeper monsters an extra 200 ATK and DEF while also treating the field as Necrovalley, activating the effects of several Gravekeeper cards in the process. There’s also Gravekeeper’s Cannonholder, Gravekeeper’s Curse, Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier, Gravekeeper’s Vassal and Gravekeeper’s Watcher, so you’re never short of cards to get with Gravekeeper’s Recruiter. You can even add another copy of Gravekeeper’s Recruiter to your hand if you don’t need anything else, so its effect will never go to waste!
Some of the most popular Decks in recent times to use Gravekeeper cards in are the ones that use Flamvell monsters to make easy Synchro Summons.s Combining the easy access to Level 4 Tuner Flamvell Magician (through Flamvell Firedog and Rekindling) with the solid defense of non-Tuner Gravekeeper monsters (thanks to Gravekeeper’s Spy), Gravekeeper’s Recruiter can fit in there as well. While it can’t get Gravekeeper’s Spy with its effect (Spy has 2000 DEF) you can get Gravekeeper’s Descendant, and Spy can get both Descendant and Recruiter with its Flip Effect.
Let’s say you have a Set Gravekeeper’s Spy and a Flamvell Magician in your hand. While normally you’d have to Flip Summon Spy and Special Summon Descendant, having Gravekeeper’s Recruiter in your Deck gives you more options. With just Descendant in your Deck you can only make a Level 8 Synchro, but if you Summon Gravekeeper’s Recruiter instead you have the choice of a Level 7 or a Level 8 Synchro Monster, and if you opt for Level 7 (Arcanite Magician and Black Rose Dragon can be more useful than Level 8 Synchros in certain situations) you can add Descendant to your hand for free! This kind of choice wasn’t available to Duelists before, and we should be seeing Gravekeeper’s Recruiter make its way into Flamvell Decks once Starstrike Blast is legal.
Gravekeeper’s Recruiter also works well with several cards you may be using already. First off it’s a DARK monster, so it can be used with Allure of Darkness and Dark Armed Dragon. It’s also a Spellcaster, so you can use it to Synchro Summon Tempest Magician, Explosive Magician or Arcanite Magician. Finally its 1200 ATK allows it to be Special Summoned by Gravekeeper’s Spy, added to your hand with Sangan, and your opponent can’t remove it from play with Bottomless Trap Hole.
Gravekeeper’s Recruiter is the latest in a long line of effective and useful Gravekeeper monsters, and you’ll only be able to find it in Starstrike Blast!
