Hedge Guard

What makes Hedge Guard so great? Let's compare it to other, somewhat similar cards.

Shield Warrior. The effect is practically the same, except that one is from the Graveyard while the other is from the hand. Of course, it comes at less of a cost when it's a Graveyard effect, but the surprise factor of a hand effect could make up for that.

Waboku. Both are -1's, but one protects for the whole turn. The upside to Hedge Guard in this situation is that it can be used during damage calculation. The opponent throws down Honest, it's already too late to use Waboku (if you didn't read an Honest), but, you can chain Hedge Guard. You'll lose half of your ATK before Honest's effect resolves, so you wouldn't take any more damage than you would have anyways.

Essentially, getting a monster killed in battle is a -1, so the fact that Hedge Guard is a -1 shouldn't be much of an issue. You would lose a card either way, at least with Hedge Guard, you get to decide. Maybe you'd benefit from your monster surviving for the turn. Vengeful Shinobi and Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind are a couple of prime examples. With stuff like Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame and Goyo Guardian getting pluses from killing monsters in battle, you might want to prevent them from getting that extra card.

I shouldn't have to talk about the applications of Hedge Guard in a Junk and Debris deck. It's a Level 3 with 0 ATK, and it's also a Plant. It's not hard to figure out.

Of course, Necro Gardna is generally better than Hedge Guard. It's a graveyard effect (essentially no loss in card advantage) and is a Dark Warrior. It gets into the Graveyard easily (Armageddon Knight, Dark Grepher, Lightsworn, etc.) and completely negates the attack. The only upside about Hedge Guard is to have the opponent waste Honest instead of letting them hold onto it.

Hedge Guard should prove useful against Blackwings and Lightsworn, but not so much against Gladiator Beasts. But, that's what Mirror of Oaths and Swallow Flip are for...