November 2009

Egyptian God Cards and the Current Metagame  - Matt

Good day to all. I am both a player of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game and quite knowledgeable about the events of the anime it is based on, and my favourite anime curiosity in this regard is the triad of cards known as the Egyptian God Cards. In the anime there exists only one copy of each of these cards, incredibly powerful and sought after constantly. After many a Shadow Game is fought for their fate, they are reunited with the spirit of the Pharaoh, and dissipate upon being taken back to 3000-year old Egypt.

Konami has since released real-life counterparts of these cards in several formats, all expensive to obtain and illegal to use in either the OCG or the TCG (Well, there’s a new OCG version of Obelisk, but we’ll ignore that). Nevertheless the cards are very fun to use in casual duels – with the agreement of one’s opponent, of course – and I often enjoy using my homemade copies. (A print-off of the card shoved in a card sleeve with an actual card so that the sleeve is of approximately the same thickness as normal. What? I don’t see the need to spend US$150 dollars on three cards I can’t actually use. :D) This set me to thinking – what if they were legal? Characters in the anime seem to believe that an Egyptian God is an unquestionable addition to any Deck, but even a cursory examination of the summoning requirements for these cards shows that that can’t be true. So, in today’s fast, merciless metagame, just how long would these cards survive?

Now, firstly I’d just like to make clear that I am by no means an expert, and I’m sure there are far wiser players than I on this esteemed website, certainly better deckbuilders! That said, I’ve started to really get into the card game now after beginning to play semi-seriously again, and my partially-netdecked Gladiator Beast deck is starting to win most of its matches, so I’d like to think I’ve skill enough to conduct this little analysis. Secondly, of course, there’s the problem that the English Egyptian God Cards have no effect text, and the anime treats the God Cards inconsistently. To clear up this second obstacle, I’m going to set out below the effects I will treat the Cards as having, based on analysis of the anime and certain other articles:

Slifer the Sky Dragon

Level 10/DIVINE/Divine-Beast/X000/X000

This card cannot be Set. This card can only be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 3 monsters. While this card is on the field, control of this card cannot switch and the card is unaffected by the effects of Trap Cards and Effect Monsters other than “Obelisk the Tormentor” and “The Winged Dragon of Ra”. The effect of “Obelisk the Tormentor” only affects this card for one turn. The effects of Spell Cards only affect this card for one turn. This card cannot be removed from the field by the effects of Spell Cards. This card’s ATK and DEF are equal to 1000x the number of cards you have in your hand. When a monster is summoned to your opponent’s side of the field in Attack or Defense Position, decrease its respective ATK or DEF by 2000. If this reduces that card’s ATK or DEF to 0, destroy that card.

Obelisk the Tormentor

Level 10/DIVINE/Divine-Beast/4000/4000

This card cannot be Set. This card can only be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 3 monsters. While this card is on the field, control of this card cannot switch and the card is unaffected by the effects of Trap Cards and Effect Monsters other than “Slifer the Sky Dragon” and “The Winged Dragon of Ra”. The effect of “Slifer the Sky Dragon” only affects this card for one turn. The effects of Spell Cards only affect this card for one turn. This card cannot be removed from the field by the effects of Spell Cards. Once per turn, you may Tribute 2 monsters to destroy all monsters your opponent controls, increase this card’s ATK to ∞ and attack your opponent with this card. (This card may not declare another attack in the turn this effect is activated).

The Winged Dragon of Ra

Level 10/DIVINE/Divine-Beast/????/????

This card cannot be Set. This card can only be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 3 monsters. While this card is on the field, control of this card cannot switch and the card is unaffected by the effects of Trap Cards and Effect Monsters other than “The Winged Dragon of Ra”. The effect of “The Winged Dragon of Ra” only affects this card for one turn. The effects of Spell Cards only affect this card for one turn. This card cannot be removed from the field by the effects of Spell Cards. This card can always attack in the turn it is Summoned. This card’s ATK and DEF are equal to the combined ATK or DEF of the monsters Tributed to summon it, respectively. Once per turn, you may pay 1000 Life Points to destroy every monster your opponent controls. You may Tribute monsters in order to increase this card’s ATK by the Tributed monsters’ ATK. You may pay any amount of Life Points in order to increase this card’s ATK by the amount of Life Points paid. If you use this effect, you may send one “De-Fusion” in your hand or under your control to the Graveyard in order to reduce this card’s ATK to 0 and increase your Life Points by this card’s prior ATK. You may activate this effect at any time.

Finally, we will treat all the God Cards as Limited to one per Deck.

Phew. That’s a lot of effects. No wonder they didn’t print them, the immunities alone would dwarf the lore on Relinquished. So let’s sum up: these things are practically invincible once you get them out, no doubt about it, since they can only be removed through battle, and with the ATK levels of Obelisk, Ra and (most of the time) Slifer, that’s going to be pretty rare. Obelisk and Ra get potent monster removal for a small price, usually resulting in a win, and Slifer’s auto-destruction is obscene. If you get one of these on the field, you are likely to win in a few turns. Fair enough.

What I want to cover here is their weaknesses, and why they might not dominate the metagame if they were to be released as legal. Some of these are emphasised in the anime, but others are not.

Firstly and obviously, the summoning requirements. 3 Tributes to summon one monster is insane – it’s a card advantage of -2 (not that that matters with a God Card on your field – except likely with Slifer, which we’ll come to). It’s rare to get 3 monsters out at once in this format, and like so many good ideas in this game comes under the heading of “If you can do this, you don’t need to – you’re winning already”. Let’s be honest – this straight away kills the idea that, at least in Constructed, you can throw a God Card into a Deck and instantly get unlimited power!!! Even the anime acknowledges this as a significant problem – Kaiba and Yugi spend 2 gruelling episodes attempting to get 3 monsters apiece to sacrifice for Slifer/Obelisk, and most of the time the anime utilises wacky non-existent cards to either revive a God from the graveyard constantly (if revived with a Spell, remember it’s back in the grave at the end of the turn, so one has to contrive a way to recycle it again and again) or generate Tribute fodder quickly, as in the cases of Marik and Franz, respectively.

Still, build your Deck around this and it’s not an insurmountable problem. A few stall cards coupled with the element of surprise might serve you better than you think. The combo Atem uses in Episode 221, with The Tricky and Tricky Spell 4, is actually a viable option, and unusually for anime shortcuts, is actually existent. Build your Deck around Tribute fodder and you have an extremely feasible concept – assuming you can actually draw them, since another huge weakness with a God Deck is the simple fact that there are zero tutors for God Cards. Obelisk’s 4000 ATK/DEF and Slifer and Ra’s variables aren’t searchable by either Sangan or, in Traditional, Witch of the Black Forest, and you can count on the fingers of a snake the number of support cards for the DIVINE Attribute and Divine-Beast Type. And – to be even more negative – these things are horrible topdecks. That’s not something that comes across in the anime, but no matter how dramatic and appropriate it may seem to topdeck Obelisk when staring down a field of angry Gladiator Beasts, it is in fact an utterly dead draw. So, while in a dedicated Tribute fodder Deck these powerhouses would certainly be very competitive, 90% of the time in any other Deck, they’re actually going to be useless.

The best way to get them out that I can think of is to use Call of the Haunted and Foolish Burial. Gods aren’t immune to Traps while in the Graveyard, as proven by Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 180. Dump them with Foolish Burial and revive them with Call – and since Gods are immune to Traps once on the field, nuking Call won’t touch your God. Try the same thing with Monster Reborn or Premature Burial (in Traditional) though, and you’d better either have some Spell recursion or be going for a Marik-style OTK, since the Spell will wear off at the End Phase.

That’s enough whinging about the summoning requirements. There are worse summoning requirements that see casual play (Elemental Hero Neos’ army of Fusions, anyone?). Do these things have any weaknesses while on the field?

For Obelisk and Ra...simply put, no. They can’t be destroyed other than through battle. Obelisk has 4000 ATK and if you tribute, say three 1800 ATK beatsticks for it, Ra has 5400. Sure, it is possible to overcome that with enough Spell and Traps to boost up the ace card of a Deck, but really – Solemn Judgment, Magic Jammer. Once you have your God out, you can surely afford to ensure it won’t die through battle. And most all decks around nowadays find it really difficult to actually reach that level of ATK. I really have to admit that while getting them out still seems a Herculean task, Obelisk and Ra simply aren’t going to die once you’ve got them out. You will win that Duel.

Slifer, on the other hand...I really don’t like this card. Sure, you’ve got his so-called “Second Mouth” ability, and that can be a bitch to get around. But think about it. What’s the average hand size in this format? In my experience, it’s around 2. That makes 3 Tributes to get out a monster that can’t beat that Goblin Attack Force they’ve had sitting there. No thank you. This is even assuming you haven’t burnt your hand even worse than normal just trying to get the Tributes.

Slifer really is the weak link of the Gods. Even if you do get him out, all your opponent has to do is dodge his ability – there are ways to do that – SynchroCat Goyo Guardian, take him down and oh look free Slifer for your opponent. (No immunity in the grave, remember?) Seems cruel, but in a God Deck I’d seriously consider leaving Slifer out and going with the other two. Your choice: do you make it more likely to draw a God, or do you make it more likely that the God you draw will make it a certain win?

Lastly, we’ll look at the last weakness of the Gods. They are vulnerable while in the hand or Deck, and there are two cards that I think would see a modicum of Side Decking if these cards hit the game. Firstly, Exchange, possibly in combination with Dark Designator. Be certain your opponent has a God, activate Exchange and seize it, either to use it or just to keep it from them. Never seems to pay off in the anime, but there’s actually no reason it shouldn’t work in real life.

The second card is Abyssal Designator, which otherwise sees no play. The card allows you to declare a Type and Attribute, and your opponent must discard from hand or Deck one card with the declared pair. Useless most of the time since your opponent can pick their discard, but how many DIVINE/Divine-Beast monsters do you commonly run into?

So. There was my analysis of the Egyptian God Cards. Fun to run in casual? Yes. Would be competitive in tournament play? Yes. Broken? No. Not by a long shot.

Agree? Disagree? Have a question about the effects I chose for the God Cards? All criticism, positive and negative, is welcome at matthew.matt@live.co.uk. Incidentally, if anyone would happen to be interested in a YVD duel with the God Cards, do give me a shout.

This was my first Yu-Gi-Oh! Article. I hope you enjoyed it.