Battle Warrior - Yu-Gi-Oh!

This caption needs three exclamations!!!

Battle Warrior, aka Grappling Warrior Ultimator, was one of the Japanese cards that was never printed in the TCG. Recently, this has changed. In the US, they decided to do another special set, five card packs with all foils, featuring cards previously unpublished in the TCG. That set was Number Hunters. For some reason, they decided to sneak this guy in the list and get it in print.This raises one big question: why?

A lot of the cards from the OCG that are missing from the TCG aren't printed because they are very weak in today's environment. Had they been printed much earlier, their inclusion would have been fine, but today they are woefully out of place. Players didn't seem to be asking for them, since nobody was going to play them. So what's changed? My guess is collectors have started asking for them. Collectors don't like knowing there's a card exclusive to the OCG that they'll never get in the states. Yes they know its weak, but they still feel like they're missing out on something. I am personally happy that this card is seeing print, then again I'm also happy when a card from the anime finally sees print. Twin-Tail Cat Lady! Somebody make it happen.

Back to the card itself. Battle Warrior appears in the art of two other cards, Sneak Exploder and Small Stopper. Those cards however only exist in the anime. This card has also made anime appearances, mostly in the second series (not GX, there was a Yu-Gi-Oh series before the Yu-Gi-Oh series that ran in the US), and usually under the command of Joey Wheeler, aka Jounouchi. In fact, one of the times Battle Warrior was reprinted in the OCG was in the Joey deck.

Art wise, this is just a blue guy with fists and an impractical visor. Not too much to critique there.