The Egyptian God Cards

So, everyone who is familiar with the game, anime or manga, should know what the three Egyptian God cards are. Just in case you don’t know, I’ll give you a quick overview of them. If you do already know about them, or just can’t be bothered reading this part, feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. The origins of the cards themselves lie in the foundations of the game. When Maximillian Pegasus travelled to Egypt and found out about the ancient Shadow Games, it inspired him to create the game Duel Monsters. Pegasus also found out about three beings in Egyptian Mythology that he believed existed during the times of the Shadow Games. These beings were called Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor and The Winged Dragon of Ra- The three Egyptian Gods. (In actuality, there are a lot more than three Gods in Egyptian Mythology and none of them are called by the above names, although it has been confirmed that Slifer is supposed to represent Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Afterlife (or underworld. I forget which one). The Winged Dragon of Ra, obviously is supposed to represent Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun. Obelisk is not linked to a God, but rather a rectangular statue called an “obelisk”). Apologies for the tangent. Pegasus began having the cards made but after his staff suffered injuries/death, or after a nightmare (this part varies between the manga and the anime) while designing the cards, Pegasus made one copy of each card himself as he was protected from “the wrath of the Gods” by his Millennium Eye. He then gave these cards to Ishizu Ishtar, knowing they were too dangerous to be released, who hid them. The cards play a large role in Seasons 2 and 3 as well have a significant part of the plot of Seasons 4 and 5, despite not being used until the end of each Season.

The reason I’m talking about the God cards is because I think they are about to see a lot more play. Some of you will have heard about a new card that will be released soon (I haven’t managed to find the exact release date yet) called “The Winged Dragon of Ra- Sphere Mode”. If this card isn’t banned straight off the bat, which I hope it isn’t, it will be Limited, because the card’s effect is just insane. You normal summon it, to your opponent’s side of the field by tributing three of their monsters. They can’t attack/defend with it, they can’t destroy by battle or by effects that target it. Theoretically, they could banish it, though there’s no cards that I know of that allow you to banish monsters you control from your field, permanently. So basically, the card just sits there for your opponents whole turn. You then take it back during their End Phase and you can then tribute it to Special Summon one The Winged Dragon of Ra from your hand or deck, ignoring its summoning conditions and it has 4000 ATK/DEF. It just makes Ra so much more worth summoning because previously, it was dangerous to summon, it took almost all your life points (although you didn’t have to sacrifice your life points to Ra) so if you got it wrong and Ra was destroyed, you were basically screwed, and so a lot of players didn’t run Ra in their decks. Sphere Mode bypasses that downside and on top of that, you can still activate Ra’s other ability and pay 1000 Life Points to go all “Egyptian God Phoenix” on your opponent and destroy all their monsters.

I also think that if Sphere Mode does stay legal, we’ll see legal summons of Horakhty, because right now, the only way I’ve seen it done is through using cards like Return from the Different Dimension, which is banned. Theoretically, it could be done with Different Dimension Reincarnation (DDR), but that would make Horakhty harder to summon because you would have to have both Slifer and Obelisk banished, as well as have three monsters on the field, have two copies of DDR ready to go with two cards ready to discard, and have Ra and Horakhty in your hand. That is a lot of requirements and you need to plan a lot to do it. If even one thing goes wrong, your strategy is ruined and you will basically lose. Also, if your opponent catches onto what you’re doing, they can activate Mind Crush, call Horakhty and you basically lose, unless you use Ra’s ability. So Sphere Mode makes summoning both Ra and Horakhty a lot safer and easier to summon as most decks these days rely on summoning multiple monsters in a turn, so you can use that your advantage.

I don’t think we’ll see versions of Sphere Mode for Slifer and Obelisk as in the anime only Ra appeared in this form after summoning. According to Yami Marik, Ra could only be controlled by those who could read and recite the ancient text on the bottom of the card (Which at the time was himself, Marik, Yami Yugi and Kaiba). When Mai summoned Ra, it appeared in this form, but she was unable to read the text and so Marik took control of Ra and won the Shadow Game. Yami Bakura managed to bypass this requirement when he acted as a vessel for Marik, who could read the text. Although, Yami Bakura is actually Zorc, a creature that existed in ancient Egypt and so should have been able to read the ancient text that Yami Bakura/Zorc should have been able to control Ra without Marik’s help. Because Slifer and Obelisk never appeared in this form, it unlikely we will see a “Sphere Mode” for them.