After yesterday’s look at a new dog unit, I thought that tonight was the right time to look back at the last card from this set that has not yet gotten its own First Thoughts article. Magnifier Chow Chow was revealed alongside Fullsack Squirrel, and similarly has a lower base power for his grade. Is that lower power worth it?

[AUTO](RC)[1/Turn]:[Soul Blast (1)] When your unit is successful and is retired from (RC), you may pay the cost. If you do, draw a card.

A very short and simple ability, to be sure. This is a dog that wants to watch other units die. I mean, succeed. Once per turn, when a successful unit dies, you can draw a card for the relatively small cost of a single SB. First in this card’s series of issues is that “once per turn” clause. Great Nature does not have a large amount of soul to throw away but even so, if this card was not limited to once per turn, it would be more worthy of consideration. Only being able to draw you one extra card in a clan that already draws so heavily makes me question why this card is a 5k G1. The only reason seems to be that Bushiroad did not want to make it too much better than other 5k G1s that Soul Blast 2 on-call for that draw 1.

Bittersweet is the lack of a success ability or condition on this card itself. Yes, it is somewhat nice that this card itself does not have to reach an extra condition for its draw. However, considering that another card has to be successful, this means that Chow Chow would have been successful as well, assuming similar Success thresholds. What this takes away from this card is versatility. In non-Success decks, you will not be retiring successful units often enough to consistently take advantage of Chow Chow. In decks that run enough Success units to consistently get Chow Chow’s skill off, running him will lower the number of spaces you have for Success units and in turn lower both Chow Chow’s consistency as well as Teacher’s Cane of Affection, Bigbelly’s consistency.

This card appears to just miss the mark on nearly every point and falls short of being useful. Its low base power makes meeting Success thresholds more difficult, its lack of Success makes it too awkward to run in Success-centered decks, and its “once per turn” clause prevents it from being a source of constant draw power. Unless something new is revealed, I cannot suggest his inclusion in any G-CHB02 GN decks.

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