Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel - DAY 19!

Non-specific holiday greeting and welcome back to another frosty edition of Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel! We've been trucking on through a trading card Advent Calendar in the spirit of the holidays while also finding out what we can on each cardboard creature, so sit a spell, won't ya?

Day 19, courtesy of Winged Kuriboh's forearm.

Whoa, we've released a one-eyed bandit! It's Kuribandit!

General Observation:

Kuribandit is definitely one of the most interesting Kuribohs yet, as he's not a Level 1 Monster, doesn't have an effect that activates by discarding him and/or blocks attacks or damage, and he's the strongest of our easily-summoned crew yet, with 1000 ATK. Not exactly a beast, but impressive among Kuribohs that can be summoned without a tribute or special summon requirement.

So what CAN he do? Well, you can tribute him at the end of the turn you normal summoned him and then excavate (meaning pick up from the top of your deck and look at) your deck's top five cards. You can then pick a single Spell or Trap card among what you picked up and add it to your hand. (The others are sent to the grave.) Risky if he's your only Monster out, but useful for searching for specific Spells and Traps as well as for planting specific cards in the grave to activate their effects. He's also a Fiend, meaning he helps feed strategies for cards like Dark Necrofear.

Trivia Observation:

Kuribandit was printed for the first time ever in the anime-realizing set Dragons of Legend. (Which you might also remember from when we got Sabatiel.) He's only had a single anime appearance (played by Yami Yugi during his rematch with Rafael in the Waking the Dragons arc of the DM anime) as well as a brief resurgence in the non-canon scripted VA duels as part of Yugi's deck. (Used when he dueled Astral and Kaiba.) 

His effect was also pretty different in the anime, originally being summoned by bringing together the five Kuriboh brothers (Much like how another member of the Kuriboh family that I still SOOOOO want to finally be printed, Kuribabylon, was summoned) and allowing the player to keep ALL Spell and Trap cards they excavate using his effect rather than just one.

Personal Observation:

Haha, I knew this guy was coming, but he slipped to the back of my mind since the last DM card was a while ago.

Kuribandit's gotta go into hiding, but come back for more Kuriboh craziness tomorrow on Astral's Advent Observations: The Kuriquel!