I know I haven’t done any significant posts in this world for quite some time. Chalk it up to a lack of time and ideas. This morning though, I learned of a new card that inspired me to do a sort of follow-up to my post on the Egyptian God cards. As iconic as these three monsters to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Franchise, they’ve sadly been left behind the times in the real world card game. In more recent years though, a couple of occurrences happened that made the god cards a bit more usable.
One of those things is the Pendulum Summoning mechanic introduced by Arc-V. Just as players can use Pendulum Summoning to bring out the materials needed for a Synchro or Xyz Summon, it also allows players to instantly bring out the tributes needed to summon a god card. The other thing that happened was the creation of the following three support cards.
The Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode
Some of you reading may recall the first three cards from a minor but notable episode of GX where a rouge card designer tried controlling a counterfeit copy of Ra. Those cards came out a while ago in the first Waking the Dragons booster set. As for the third card, that will come out in Japan sometime soon. Anyway, these three cards alone aren’t enough to justify making an Egyptian God card-based deck, but when used in the right way they can make wielding the god cards a bit easier.
Servant of the Gods!
At the moment, Ra’s Disciple is the only monster out there designed specifically to support the Egyptian God cards, and probably the only one that ever will be made. The nice thing about this card is that summoning just one copy instantly brings out the other two. While this monster may be the disciple of Ra though, it actually works best with Slifer the Sky Dragon since it allows one to potentially bring out three tributes without drastically reducing hand size. Of course this is assuming that all three copies of Ra’s Disciple aren’t in the hand when it’s summoned. In that instance, a card like Magical Mallet can be very helpful.
Land of the Gods!
Mound of the Bound Creator is probably the best thing that ever happened to the Egyptian God cards in ages. Not only does it give the gods an extra layer of protection, it also lets them inflict extra damage. One of the beautiful things about this card though is that it works with other “God Card Class” monsters such as the Wicked Gods, the Sacred Beasts, the Earthbound Immortals and the Aesir. In some ways, Mound of the Bound Creator makes it possible to make a sort of “Mixed God” deck. For instance The Winged Dragon of Ra could be used with The Wicked Avatar, or Obelisk the Tormentor could be used in the same deck as an Earthbound Immortal.
The best thing about Mound of the Bound Creator though is that it gives the Egyptian God cards something that they’ve desperately needed since they became legal for use in the game, search power. All the player in question needs to do is destroy their own Mound of the Bound Creator with a card like Mystical Space Typhoon to add a god card to their hand. Of course the better card to use would be Ancient Fairy Dragon, since she would let you replace the copy you just destroyed and gain some extra life points as well. It might also be a good idea to include Ancient Fairy Dragon’s servant, Regulus to recycle the Field Spell if needed. The important thing is that Mound of the Bound Creator gives decks that use god cards a level of control they’ve never had before.
Sphere Mode, Activate!
One of The Winged Dragon of Ra’s most iconic features has always been the locked Sphere Mode he first appeared in during his debut duel. I’ve read that in some of the older videogames, Ra’s Sphere Mode had gotten its own card, which I thought was kind of weird. Since this morning though, my opinion of a Sphere Mode card has drastically changed, since this card helps Ra overcome the weaknesses made by his watered down effects. Before, the player in question would have to give up a significant amount of life points when summoning Ra, or else he’d have zero ATK. Thanks to Sphere Mode though, Ra’s usual summoning conditions can now be bypassed, allowing Ra to be brought out with a healthy 4000 ATK and leaving the player with plenty of life points to spare for his “Phoenix Mode” effect.
While summoning the Sphere Mode can be a fun way to mess with the opponent, it’s also very risky. It’s a dangerous move to leave such a key card in the opponent’s hands, especially for an entire turn. There’s too big of a chance the opponent could use the Sphere Mode for a tribute or as material for a Synchro or Xyz Summon. In some situations though, summoning Ra’s Sphere Mode to the opponent’s side of the field is a good way to get rid of potentially dangerous cards like Archlord Kristya or Stardust Dragon. In that scenario, I strongly recommend using cards like Remove Brainwashing and Owner’s Seal to get the sphere back right away instead of giving the opponent the chance to dispose of it.
Modernization of the Gods!
Again, while the three cards I’ve just spent time talking about aren’t nearly enough to make a stable deck based totally around the god cards, it does allow them to be used in new and better ways. For instance, the Sphere Mode finally allows players to use The Winged Dragon of Ra without sacrificing a huge amount of life points for an all or nothing final attack. In short, the Sphere Mode creates a few alternatives for using Ra that just weren’t possible before. When it comes to all these cards, it’s more or less a matter of figuring out what kind of deck they can best fit into. In the end though, these support cards have helped the god cards better adapt to the modern era of dueling.
