Thunder Hand

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If a face-up monster(s) you control with 1600 original ATK or DEF is destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect and sent to the GY, while this card is in your hand or GY: You can Special Summon this card (but banish it when it leaves the field), and if you do, destroy 1 card your opponent controls. You can only use this effect of “Thunder Hand” once per turn.
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Currently Found In: Rise of the Duelist (ROTD-EN031)

Because there’s no resource mechanic compared to other card games, is virtually possible to fit any card in every Deck and find various results by pure experimentation. While this was specially the case during the first years of the game, as the card pool expanded options started to be exclusive towards archetypes or certain requeriments. Is still possible to mix arround these limited cards and still obtain outcomes that could even reach a competitive status, but in most cases they’ll be narrowed to a certain number of strategies where they’ll stand out the most.

“Thunder Hand” is part of the obscure Hand archetype, a small group of monsters with no exclusive support yet managed to have some prevalence in tournaments for a while. “Thunder Hand” is able to Special Summon itself from the hand or Graveyard if a monster of ours with original 1600 ATK or DEF is destroyed by the opponent, leading to not just its arrival but also allowing us to destroy any card on their field. The catch is that “Thunder Hand” will banish itself once leaves the field after being brought by this ability, but is nonetheless a solid comeback effect that can be either unpredictable on the hand or threatening the opponent as awaits in our Graveyard.

Despite Hand monsters not being an official archetype with options to make a full Deck with, “Thunder Hand” has enough options to make its pressence during a Duel. The Thunder Type grants us some interesting cards to make sure “Thunder Hand” is ready to go at any moment, with “Thunder Sea Horse” discarding itself to look for two copies, or “Thunder Dragon Fusion” with a Graveyard effect so we can search for this monster. However, given its ability to punish opponent’s actions there’s no much of a rush to summon “Thunder Hand”, so in some cases will be preferable to not reveal it by searching effects and instead wait to be drawn as soon as possible. On the other hand, given “Thunder Hand” can be revived by its own effect we can simply play it normally as the likes of “Summoner Monk” and “Mahunder” grants us summoning methods in one way or another to become a material and rest in our Graveyard, or use it arround discard and milling interactions to play certain effects and setups. Same applies while resting in our Graveyard, as instead of waiting for its ability to trigger cards like “Some Summer Summoner” can bring it back to the field for other plays.

With the ability to replace any losses as disrupts the opposite field, “Thunder Hand” can become quite dangerous as long we meet its ATK and DEF quota. The majority of Hand monsters (Including itself) shares the 1600 ATK or DEF, more particularly “Fire Hand” and “Ice Hand” which also grants us removal effects in response of their own destruction. Most of the reputation Hands gained over the years is by mixing along the Traptrix archetype, which fortunately some vital members such as “Traptix Myrmeleo” and “Traptrix Genlisea” will benefit of the coverage this monster offers them. Some of the mentioned support to assist this monster like “Some summer Summoner” and “Thunder Sea Horse” can even get help from this card in case something goes wrong, creating a cooperative strategy where we obtain other monsters or punish the opponent if they try to stop us. Overall by covering either ATK or DEF or not a single one of them “Thunder Hand” can become a strong addition to work along any monsters involved in our strategy, ranging from “Chaos Grepher” and the mentioned “Summoner Monk” which can pull out this monster from the Deck, “Cyber Dragon” or “Performage Trick Clown” with Special Summons suitable for nearly every Deck, and even boss monsters such as “Machina Fortress” and “Cyber Dragon Infinity” taking further dominance of the Duel even if they are destroyed. Last but not least important the removal effect of “Thunder Hand” doesn’t target the card we want to destroy, potentially avoiding one of many protective effects in some of the most dangerous monsters the opponent might bring out.

Hand cards lost their prevalence over the years and became rogue Decks due its passive strategy of punishing opponent’s plays, and “Thunder Hand” is a great example of it. Along becoming a substitute of the monster (or monsters) destroyed, “Thunder Hand” will take care of any opponent’s card with its untargettable ability. The required ATK and/or DEF might feel that “Thunder Hand” is heavily narrowed towards a few strong monsters, but it actually gains a wide number of powerful creatures that can even support this Hand monster in one way or another. The problem is not that “Thunder Hand” requires a steady pool of monsters that meet its effect’s criteria, but the variety of non-destructive effects many current Decks centers on to avoid activating this sort of effects. Nonetheless, with a very simple summon condition and many monsters to work along with in one way or another, “Thunder Hand” falls in the same position of other Hands where might not be the strongest monsters out there, but shouldn’t be easily underestimated thanks to many strong interactions under the right build.

Personal Rating: A-

+Special Summons itself from our hand or Graveyard when a monster with 1600 ATK or DEF is destroyed by the opponent
+Destroys an opponent’s card when summoned by its effect
+A wide number of monsters to cooperate with each other
+Removal effect doesn’t target

-Relies on the opponent’s actions
-Limited to Decks that can work arround its effect
-Various current Decks avoids using destruction to get rid of monsters