Yusei's Card of the Day 1.2.2012 - Alexandrite Dragon

Who says Normal monsters are useless? Not me. When used right, they can be quite useful. And this Photon Shockwave Sneak Preview promo card is one of Normals (or "vanillas") that can be splashed in many decks due to its Type and stats.

Alexandrite Dragon

All fame in "Photon Shockwave" set belongs to Rescue Rabbit (90% meta decks today are Dino Rabbit, 9% Chaos and 1% any other). But this Sneak peek promo deserves a bit of fame too, and I will do it for him.
Summoning
As level 4 monster, Alexandrite can be Normal summoned. Also Special summoned by Goblindbergh, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Summoner monk, and, hate to say, ResQ Rabbit. Also can be Special summoned from Graveyard via Birthright or Soul Ressurection. Also can be quickly Special summoned via Photon Lead.
Abilities
Since Normal monsters haven't any effects or abilities, I will write out some combos with Alexandrite. Since he's Dragon and LIGHT (Gene-Warped Warwolf is EARTH and Beast Warrior, so his usefulness is a bit limited), he can be used in Chaos Dragon deck - nice stats for beginning and later can be banished to Special summon Lightpulsar and Darkflare. Also very useful in pure Dragon Beatdown. With release of Galactic Overlord, he's almost mandatory in Hieroglyph (or Holy Carved/Holy Marked) deck since they work with Normal Dragons. Also can work in Photon deck as quick Tribute for Special summoning of Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.
Stats
That's a reason why is Alexandrite so amazing - 2000 ATK for level 4 monster without any kind of drawback (besides 100 DEF). Only one monster before broke "Law of 1900" - Gene-Warped Warwolf. But he could be only used as attack force because its not very combo-able Type and Attribute. Alexandrite is LIGHT Dragon, so he is far more useful. His ATK can be further boosted with Honest or Photon Rising Stream so he can beat almost any monster in battle.
Summary
Playablity: 9/10
Stats: 10/10
Artork: 8/10
2000 ATK for non-Tribute monster without drawback? Why not try it in some decks and corner opponent right on first turn? I'm looking forward to 7.2.- release of Dragonic Legion structure deck, so I can build Chaos Dragons and include this beater Dragon in it.