Sylvan Guardioak is the best non-Xyz Sylvan and don't you question it

[Lonk]

 

Once per turn: You can choose a number from 1 to 3, then excavate that many cards from the top of your Deck, send any excavated Plant-Type monsters to the Graveyard, also place the other cards on the bottom of your Deck in any order. If this card is excavated from the Deck and sent to the Graveyard by a card effect: You can target 1 other Plant-Type monster in your Graveyard; place that target on top of your Deck.

 

Guardioak may seem unfeasible when compared to the other higher-leveled Sylvan monsters, and he might even less when compared to the lower-leveled Sylvans.  Yet, there is one part that most people keep forgetting that actually makes him good:

 

Once per turn: You can choose a number from 1 to 3,

 

In a Deck that relies around excavation, a once per turn excavation of 3 cards automatically makes Sylvan Guardioak good.  He may not have the draw power as Hermitree or the Special Summon effect/S&T recovery effect as Sagequoia.  However, he doesn't need any of that, considering that Naturia Pineapple, Lonefire Blossom, Miracle Fertilizer and Sylvan's Blessings are cards.  In addition, being a Level 6 does invite very good Synchro and Xyz options for the Deck.  It may not seem like much, but when [url=http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Sylvan_Sproutcolyte]Sylvan Sproutcolyte[/url] is officially released, then the ability to excavate and Summon Copyplants for toolboxing becomes much faster and viable than before.  However, he can't really work in the same Deck as Hermitree and Sagequoia.  Yet, excavating 3 cards once per turn is much more feasible than simply excavating the top card of the Deck once per turn, right?  Plus, he also recovers other Plant-type monsters when excavated, which is always a plus.

 

Anyways, discuss the best non-Xyz Sylvan whose potential is astounding in the right build.

[Althemia]

This doesn't feel correct to me.

For one, you seem to be completing disregarding the effect that the S/Ts have on the actual best non-Sylvan Xyz: Sylvan Hermitree. You stack cards so incredibly easily with the rest of the support that the draw power becomes a major help when you already know what you're drawing into. You get to see a lot of the cards that you want to see incredibly easily with him while also triggering effects that you can very easily just place on the top of the deck. He's also a 2700 body that can turn into Alsei easy as 1-2-3 now that Copy Plant + Copy Plant Tutor exist.

This isn't to play that Guardioak is bad. Guardioak is alright, but he require his own special kind of build where you focus around just throwing effects down rather than playing to turbo into an OTK like Sylvan do now. His build will be inferior just because Sylvans have somewhat built AWAY from him due to their new support, but he's still an alright card nonetheless. The one major problem is that he isn't a level that can become an Xyz that Sylvan want. He can become a Synchro target with something like Spore but really that's about it.

[Delibirb]

I dont think that triple excavation akes him better than Sagequoia, given it is ridiculously easy to get 2 of him out and make a Number 11: Broken Eye.

 

Like the above post, Guardioak is a half-decent Sylvan, but the direction they are being pulled is leaving him behind.

[Lonk]

This doesn't feel correct to me.

For one, you seem to be completing disregarding the effect that the S/Ts have on the actual best non-Sylvan Xyz: Sylvan Hermitree. You stack cards so incredibly easily with the rest of the support that the draw power becomes a major help when you already know what you're drawing into. You get to see a lot of the cards that you want to see incredibly easily with him while also triggering effects that you can very easily just place on the top of the deck. He's also a 2700 body that can turn into Alsei easy as 1-2-3 now that Copy Plant + Copy Plant Tutor exist.

This isn't to play that Guardioak is bad. Guardioak is alright, but he require his own special kind of build where you focus around just throwing effects down rather than playing to turbo into an OTK like Sylvan do now. His build will be inferior just because Sylvans have somewhat built AWAY from him due to their new support, but he's still an alright card nonetheless. The one major problem is that he isn't a level that can become an Xyz that Sylvan want. He can become a Synchro target with something like Spore but really that's about it.

 

In all honesty, while Hermitree is cool, has access to Alsei and the S/T support makes his effect much easier to compensate for, you aren't guaranteed to always go into the stacking effects of cards, and Hermitree becomes a crapshot if his effect becomes luckbased when the player doesn't get a proper hand.  Don't get me wrong, I love Hermitree for what it does.  However, Hermitree can very easily become dead in the hand and relies heavily on the stacking of the Deck in order to serve his purpose.  They both have their pros and cons, but I feel that Guardioak has many more pros than cons when compared to Hermitree.

[Blake]

After playing Sylvans with both this and Hermitree, the latter is far superior.

This is neat and powerful, but idk why I would ever forego tree. Between Charity, Mount, etc. the top of your deck is easy to manipulate as all hell, and it's just a powerful card that's basically never dead. That extra draw wins games.

[Sora1499]

Since its clear that Hermitree is the best Sylvan, I ask you all this:
Is Guardioak still worth playing for its "when excavated" effect? Recycling/toolboxing dead sylvans while further manipulating your top deck for Tree, etc. seems not half bad. But I could see why it wouldn't be played anymore.

[Maeriberii Haan]

It's the only non-gimmicky recycling that the Sylvans have atm.

 

Recycling Peas could win games.

 

maybe.

[The Warden]

Well, I dunno if it's gimmicky, but I thought it might be funny to use Exodius as as far as I know Sylvans run a high monster count. I just thought it would be funny.

[Delibirb]

Personally I think Sagequoia is the best non-Xyz Sylvan, not Hermitree, solely for the fact it is an easily summoned L7.

[Althemia]

Personally I think Sagequoia is the best non-Xyz Sylvan, not Hermitree, solely for the fact it is an easily summoned L7.

Really? Because the reason why he's good is because of an Xyz, not because he's easy to summon. This is disregarding Xyzs from the statement, making Sage pretty shitty

[Blake]

One good thing this has going for it is that it + Spore = Lv. 7 for Sagequoia comboes

 

on the other hand Hermitree + Sage + Spore is better and combos out better because you end up with Scrap Drag + Felgrand instead of Black Rose/Sagequoia + Dracossack