Product Announcement: Egyptian God Structure Decks!

Hey there lads and lasses! We're taking a break from the weekly Top 5s this time to produce a special article to celebrate one of the biggest developments the world of Yu-Gi-Oh has known in over ten millennia: the release of two earth-shattering, sky-ripping, dimension-warping and plot-twisting (not to mention game-changing) structure decks dedicated to two of the all-powerful Egyptian Gods! Unneccessary hyperboles aside, this truly is a monumental milestone in the history of the game for multiple reasons.

First of all, the game of Yu-Gi-Oh hasn't seen a simultaneous double Structure Deck release in almost 4 years, when the Structure Decks Machine Reactor & Dinosmasher's Fury took the world by storm (well only the latter really, but we'll be nice). Secondly, Konami has shown a particular interest since early last year to reinvigorate the strategies of YuGiOh's olden days; this started with Shaddolls and later went on to include the Sacred Beasts, Charmers, Ice Barriers, and has now culminated in the revival of the Egyptian Gods in a way that they've never seen before!

That said, let's discuss the details of the matter at hand in a bit more depth.

Konami announced just a few weeks ago that it would be releasing two Structure Decks for the Egyptian Gods; it didn't take a genius to figure out that this meant Slifer and Obelisk, since Ra support has always traditionally been a part of booster boxes. It was later confirmed on the official Konami website that these structure decks would recieve the following names: Egyptian God Deck: Slifer the Sky Dragon and Egyptian God Deck: Obelisk the Tormentor.

For the casual player and those who follow the game for collecting and nostalgic purposes, this was an immediate dream come true even before the exact contents of the decks were begun to be hinted at. The Egyptian Gods have always been notoriously chased-after cards in the history of the game and it goes without saying that we all wanted to have our own God cards when we were kids. (A kid in my school even went to the length of printing out pictures of the cards, sticking them over real cards and then tried to pass them off as the real thing. The funny thing is that it actually worked for the first week, until someone else came with a better high copy to fool us all even better.)
These structure decks present a long time dream of every duelist and make it a reality for all to enjoy in. No high copies, no fake cards, no Chinese black market products, it's really the genuine thing this time.

We're not done quite yet.

As is fitting for an event with such importance, Konami really didn't hold back anything when planning the contents of these decks. However, before we get into those details and present you with some exclusive insights, here what the official YuGiOh website says about these decks:
"Each Egyptian God Deck is 40 cards total and includes 1 Egyptian God Card and 5 new cards – 4 unique new cards as well as 1 copy of Soul Crossing, a brand-new Quick-Play Spell Card included in both Decks that lets you Tribute Summon your Egyptian God Card by Tributing your opponent’s monsters!

Each Deck is playable on its own straight out of the box and comes with a Dueling Guide that explains the basic strategy and some rules you should know to get the most out of your Deck. Of course, if you pick up both, you can mix and match their strategies to create an awesome Deck that can wield multiple Egyptian God Cards!"

For the rest of this article, we're going to discuss about these mysterious new cards that are mentioned. If you're a competitive player looking to obliterate the competition at your next locals or one of those duelists who likes to bring out each deck's unique potential or just curious about the new cards made to support the legendary God Cards, this is time time for you to pay attention.

Let's start off with Soul Crossing- the common card in both Structure Decks.

Here's what the quick play Spell card's text reads:
"During the Main Phase: Immediately after this effect resolves, Tribute Summon 1 Divine-Beast monster. When you do, you can also Tribute monsters your opponent controls even though you do not control them, but if you do, until the end of the next turn after this card resolves, you can only activate 1 card or effect per turn other than Divine-Beast monsters' effects. You can only activate 1 "Soul Crossing" per turn."

At its simplest, this card presents a way to remove up to 3 monsters your opponent controls and summon an Egyptian God to your side of the field. Keep in mind that this is a non-targetting, non-destruction form of removal, meaning that it will get rid of all monsters in the game, except those which explicitly say "unaffected by your opponent's card effects" or "unaffected by spell cards and effects". The good news is that less than 20 monsters in the game currently meet this requirement, meaning that in the overwhelming majority of your duels, this card (if not negated) WILL bring your opponent to their knees and leave you with a massive egyption God on your field, that's free to attack and activate its effects without restrictions. The more keen-eyed duelist will also realise that since this is a quick play spell, you can even activate it as a trap on your opponent's turn- resulting in some very disruptive plays that would make even Nibiru jealous.

Next up, we have the Slifer-exclusive (Quick Play Spell) support in the form of Thunderforce Attack!

Here's what this devastating card reads:
"If you control a monster whose original name is "Slifer the Sky Dragon": Destroy as many face-up monsters your opponent controls as possible, then, if this card was activated during your Main Phase, you can draw cards equal to the number of monsters destroyed and sent to your opponent's GY by this effect, but you can only attack with 1 monster this turn. This card's activation and effect cannot be negated. You can only activate 1 "Thunderforce Attack" per turn."

A quick-play Raigeki for face-up monsters with the potential to draw you up to 6 cards; that's the peak potential of this card. Let's face it, though- you aren't gonna be drawing 6 cards; the most likely outcome is somewhere between 1-3. Nevertheless, a Raigeki and Pot of Greed in a Quick-play effect is something that's capable of utterly breaking the game. Not only does this card safeguard Slifer from monsters with higher ATK, it also presents an instant opportunity for Slifer to boost its ATK by thousands within a flash: fixing the monster's main drawback and garnering its user card advantage like no card in the game till date. The fact that your opponent cannot negate this effect makes it all the sweeter, meaning that there's no force capable of withstanding Slifer's absolute wrath.

Coming onto our next card- this time as support for Obelisk, Fist of Fate does the following:

"If you control a monster whose original name is "Obelisk the Tormentor": Negate the effects of 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls, and if you do, destroy that card, and if you do that, for the rest of this turn, its effects are negated, as well as the activated effects and effects on the field of monsters with the same original name. Then, if this card was activated during your Main Phase, you can destroy all Spells and Traps your opponent controls. This card's activation and effect cannot be negated. You can only activate 1 "Fist of Fate" per turn."

We are REALLY sorry for whatever monster comes on the receiving end of this un-negatable spell of pure destruction. Fist of Fate renders its effects useless (as well as all its fellow brothers or sisters on the field), destroys it without targetting and then (as if that wasn't enough on a quick play spell) wipes away your opponent's entire backrow if they dare to prepare an armada of annoying traps to keep your legendary Tormentor at bay. There's little this card doesn't permanently mess up upon its activation; some may point out that it only destroys 1 monster but is that really a problem when you have an untargetable 4000ATK beatstick (with an effect that can wipe out all their monsters) backing you up? Didn't think so either. Truly the only thing capable of rivaling this deadly combo is Slifer's own support.
Even after discussing these new cards, that leaves at least 3 slots unaccounted for in each deck! What these cards are going to turn out to be is anyone's guess- but if they're anywhere near as maddeningly powerful as the ones we've discussed so far, we just might be looking at a new meta, folks!

While the versions of the Egyptian Gods in the TCG are no doubt weaker than their anime counterparts, Konami has shown that they are increasingly unafraid to narrow this distinction with each wave of Egyptian God support. With the upcoming release of the King's Court Booster Box and its promised Slifer support, the full potential of these legendary beasts still remains unexplored...
The Egyption Gods are returning, duelists; the only question is- Will you be ready when they do?

*If you wish to preorder this product, click on this link and place your order: Preorder Form!