GigantesEarth, Level 4, [Rock/Effect]
ATK: 1900, DEF: 1300
IOC-021, Common
This card can only be Special Summoned by removing 1 EARTH monster in your Graveyard from play. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.
As an extension of the previous "Monks of Rock" Advanced Deck Workshop article, I've chosen to review Gigantes, another remove-from-play Special Summon Rock monster. Though I've known about the card for a long time, I didn't personally own a copy until last week, when I found it amongst the contents of a now very rare Invasion of Chaos Special Edition box.
Gigantes, like all of the "spiritual" monsters that are summoned by removing fallen monsters of the same Attribute from your Graveyard, is useful in the way he provides extra summoning momentum for greater field presence, faster damage to the opponent, and easier tributes. At the same time, he loses a few points in reliability due to the fact you need to get a monster of a particular Attribute into the Graveyard before he can be summoned.
Once Gigantes is summoned, however, he can become a real threat. 1900 ATK is very strong and would increase to a frightful 2100 with Wasteland active on the field. With 1300 DEF, he could be searched by Witch in Traditional format (or if they ever bring her back to Advanced). On top of that, his effect is extremely powerful. When destroyed in battle, he becomes an automatic Heavy Storm. This will discourage your opponent from attacking Gigantes when he/she has Spell and Trap Cards (and in Advanced, that will be most of the time). The power of the effect comes with a drawback, of course, and that drawback is that you do not have perfect control over the timing. Your opponent could destroy your own Gigantes when he or she has nothing to lose and you have a field full of spells or traps. For this reason, Gigantes is best employed only when his effect or the momentum he provides is severely and immediately needed. Don't rule out ramming Gigantes into your opponent's monster intentionally just to activate his effect, as this could be very strategic and well worth a few Life Points. Using him in this manner effectively gives your deck two Heavy Storms, one of which cannot be countered by Spell negation.
For Advanced-format Rock decks, Gigantes gets a Good rating. He's not critical and he doesn't lock into a high-defense strategy very well, but he's a strong Earth/Rock beatstick with a powerful effect -- almost a unique card in this game. It may be worth running one, especially over or along with "The Rock Spirit", whom I included in my workshop deck. For other decks in either format, he probably only deserves a rating on the high side of Fair. All his attributes remain wonderful, but he is easily crowded out of the deck list by cards which are either universally consistent or fit some particular theme.