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The Egyptian God Cards
(English version)
by Sean Hardner
Finally the Egyptian God Cards (EGC) are available in an English version so
let's take a look at these three very powerful cards and some deck building
strategies to help get them on the field. Konami of Japan printed
these God Cards for the Japanese version of the latest Gameboy Advance game
Worldwide Edition. For some reason they decided to print the cards in
English (probably because they were already released in an earlier Japanese
GBA game in Japanese) which is fortunate because it gives Americans the
opportunity to play these
cards in English. The Egyptian God Cards cannot be used in Upper Deck
sponsored Duelist Kingdom tournaments because, even though they are in
English, Upper Deck does not distribute them for use in the US & Canada.
The only reason these cards are not tournament legal is because they were
made for distribution in Japan in a Japanese video game therefore they are
not authorized for use in the
US & Canada. Also, Konami and Upper Deck aren't giving any rules or
regulations for these cards, so they won't appear on their Card Restricted
List (or even the Forbidden Card List) and they won't have any card rulings
available for them.
This does not mean you can't use these cards in your own local tournaments
and in casual play. If you are going to use the EGC I suggest the
following restrictions and regulations for their use. First of all,
these are not effect monster cards. They do not have any special
powers or abilities regardless of what you may have seen on the cartoon.
They are however, quite powerful when used properly and with the right kind
of deck strategy they can easily win a match. You should restrict
their use to one God Cards per deck (most decks
would not support more than one and multiple copies of the same God Card
would be unfair, like using 3 Monster Reborn or 3 Magical Cylinders in a
deck). Because they are level 10 monsters, they should require three
tributes to summon to the field and should not be summoned from the
graveyard unless they have already been summoned to the field normally (same
as Ritual Monsters and Gate
Guardian). All 3 God Cards are level 10 Monsters, their attribute is Divine
and their type is Divine-Beast.
You can also play these optional rules for the God Cards if everyone who is
dueling agrees to them in advance:
1.. The EGC are not affected by Trap and Magic cards including your
own
equipment Magic cards, Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, etc.
2.. God Cards do run over damage ("trample") to their opponent's life
points
even if the defending monster is in defense mode (the same as the effect of
Mad
Sword Beast or Fairy Meteor Crush).
3.. If you are having them be affected by Magic and trap cards, the
effects
only last for one turn. If you Monster Reborn Obelisk, he only stays out
until
your next standby phase or if your opponent puts Spell Binding Circle on
your
Slifer, it is released on your next turn.
However you decide to play them they are a lot of fun, when you get Slifer
the Sky Dragon out at 9000-attack strength or Megamorph Obelisk the
Tormentor to give him an 8000 attack power, you'll see what I mean. Just
being able to summon the Egyptian gods and say "I had the Winged Dragon Ra
on the Field with 6600 Attack and 5600 Defense!" is ALMOST as much fun as
winning with them.
Now let's look at the God Cards individually:
Obelisk the Tormentor (GBI-002)
Obelisk is probably the weakest of the three God Cards, but at the same time
he is the easiest to add to an existing deck with little or no modification.
Basically he is a big, beat down monster with 4000 Att./4000 Def. His
4000-attack power can easily be enhanced with cards like Axe of Despair,
Mage Power, United We Stand, and Megamorph (which can give him a life point
crushing 8000 attack strength). The only thing you have to do is get him out
on the field and let him destroy your opponent's monsters and life points.
Adding him to a
standard beat down deck is easy. Make sure to include cards to destroy your
opponent's traps and magic cards such as Harpie's Feather Duster and Heavy
Storm because you don't want Obelisk to run into a Magical Cylinder or even
an Enchanted Javelin. I would also include 3 copies of Nimble Momonga
(MRL-086) and a Cyber Jar since these cards can give you two or three
monsters on the field to use to tribute. Mystic Tomatoes, though they
have a low 1400 Attack Strength, can be set in defense mode and when they
are killed you can get another dark monster out to be used as a tribute for
Obelisk. Also Ritual Summoned monsters would work well in this
type of deck, since they allow you to summon an extra monster during your
turn. I would suggest using the Masked Beast since it's the biggest beat
down ritual monster available at this time but even Crab Turtle or a smaller
Ritual Monster could be used if you're only going to
turn around and tribute it for Obelisk. If you are going to add Ritual
Monsters to any deck you should use at least two copies of Sonic Bird and
Senju of the Thousand Hands in order to make the Ritual Summon dynamic work
properly. If you are having trouble keeping 3 tribute monsters on the
field, you could use a couple copies of Soul Exchange (SDY-041) in your
deck. But remember, if you Soul Exchange one of your opponent's monsters as
a tribute for Obelisk, you must skip your Battle Phase, which means The
Tormentor could be destroyed by your opponent during his turn before you
even get to attack with him.
The Winged Dragon of Ra (GBI-003)
This
God Card can be extremely powerful, but is more difficult to use than
Obelisk. Because its attack and defense strength is determined by the
combined attack and defense strength of the monsters which you tribute to
bring it to the field, you need to sacrifice big monsters if you want to
make Ra big enough to make it worth playing. I would suggest adding Ra
to a Beat-down Dragon Deck. Tributing BEWD, Tri-Horned Dragon, or even REBD
can easily give Ra over 8000 attack strength. The new Legacy of Darkness
expansion contains some powerful dragons and other cards that will help out
dragon decks and make them more powerful than they ever were before.
In order to get three large dragons on the field I would suggest using the
Lord of Dragons/ Dragon Summoning Flute combination along with Monster
Reborn, Call of the Haunted, and Premature Burial. You can use equipment
cards like Axe of Despair and Megamorph on the creatures you are going to
tribute, that way Ra gets additional attack power even though those
equipment cards are going to go to the graveyard. I've also found that
Relinquished works well with Ra, even though he's not normally found in a
Dragon Type Deck, because you can relinquish your opponent's biggest monster
and then use Relinquished as one of your tributes for Ra; giving Ra the
power of your opponent's monster and destroying it at the same time.
Relinquished is also good for taking control of one of your opponent's face
down monsters, after you have Ra on the field, to clear the way for a direct
Ra attack while keeping cards like Penguin Soldier, Man-Eater Bug and Cyber
Jar from being activated.
Slifer the Sky Dragon (GBI-001)
This
might be the most powerful of the three God Cards, but it is definitely the
most difficult to use. Slifer's attack/ defense strength depend on the
number of cards its owner has in their hand, for each card Slifer gains 1000
ATT & DEF. Because of this, you need to support his ability with an entire
deck dynamic as well as building a deck that will allow you to tribute three
monsters to get him
out on the field. Because of the special cards you are going to need to make
Slifer effective, the Sky Dragon deck has to be classified as a Gimmick
deck. Here I combined Slifer's dynamic with another Gimmick deck, the Toon
World Deck, and found it to be quite compatible, but you can use Slifer and
the cards I show to support him in several different types of decks. First
of all you need to use cards like Nimble Momonga, Cyber Jar, and Soul
Exchange so that you will be able to summon Slifer at all. Fortunately,
these cards also work well with the Toon World deck dynamic, which is one
reason I thought of trying Slifer with the Toon Deck. Then you need the
extra cards that Slifer needs to make him huge, these are from
Labyrinth of Nightmare:
Infinite Cards(LON-027, Magic Card), Jam Defender(LON-028,
Trap Card), Card Safe
Return(LON-029, Continuous Magic Card), and Revival Jam (LON-006, Effect
Monster)
These cards combined will work to give you a strong defense (though costly
in terms of life points), the ability to draw extra cards, and no limit to
the number of cards you can have in your hand. Don't bother with equipment
cards for Slifer, remember he'll lose 1000 Attack/Defense strength as soon
as you play the card from your hand, so even Axe of Despair isn't going to
increase his attack strength, anyway. With this type of deck you need to
play defensively until you have the card you need for your Slifer
combination (don't play Infinite Cards when you only have 2 cards in your
hand, giving your opponent the opportunity to destroy it.) When using Slifer
in my Toon Deck, which is mostly defense until you get the Toons out, I can
try for Toon World and the Toon Summoned Skulls and
while my opponent is dealing with them I keep working at getting Slifer out
with 5 or 6 cards in my hand. When I do it's pretty much game over, because
my opponent has used up everything they had keeping my Toon Skulls from
attacking their Life Points directly, allowing Slifer to swoop down at 5000
attack strength and finish them off quickly. |
