Introduction
The Sacred Beast Structure Deck has finally come out. It turned an unplayable deck into something usable. With new support cards, players can construct their decks and experiment with new strategies. Part 1 and Part 2 of the “Sacred Beast Introduction” articles got into the new cards we received and how they work. It’s recommend you read those first before reading this one about Armityle.
Mere days after the Structure released, we got even more news! On July 12th 2020, Konami announced a new card for the deck.
Debuting in Phantom Rage is “Armityle the Chaos Phantasm - Phantom of Fury”. This is a brand new Fusion Monster. It has got a lot of interesting aspects. We will often say ‘original Armityle’ and ‘new Armityle’ here to refer to the two versions.
This card is one of the ‘attack/effect name’ cards, in a similar vein to “Ancient Gear Golem - Ultimate Pound” and “Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper”. It’s based on an anime-only effect that Armityle had during ‘Yugioh GX’ Episode 149 where Yubel in the body of Jesse duels Adrian Gecko. It was used against Exodius, the Ultimate Forbidden Lord, another big boss monster.
The Effects
That’s where the effect originates from, but let’s take a look at what it does. It’s a Level 12 DARK Fiend Fusion Monster, with 0 ATK and DEF. Unlike the original Armityle, it does not possess the effect to jump up to that massive ten thousand ATK. The new one uses the same materials as the original. However, it does not have the ability to perform a contact fusion by banishing the materials. Instead, it is Fusion Summoned normally. Thankfully, the deck has a good way of doing that.
Its first effect treats it as the original “Armityle the Chaos Phantom” while on the field. Anything that refers to the original will therefore do the same to new Armityle. "Fallen Paradise" will apply here to help out and let you draw two cards as well as protection.
The rest of its effect reads: “Once per turn: You can give control of this card to your opponent. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card's control changed this turn: Banish as many cards you control as possible, then this card's owner can Special Summon 1 "Armityle the Chaos Phantasm" from their Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions.”
Cards that involve Monsters changing control can often confuse a lot of players. For instance “Silent Wobby” and “Santa Claws” have frequently been the center of ruling debates. Let’s look at how the new Armityle works step-by-step in order to break down the effect.
Effect Breakdown
So it’s currently your turn. It’s likely your Main Phase and you’ve just summoned the brand new Armityle onto the field. After you’ve summoned it, you give control of it to your opponent. From this point, things that say “you control” refer to the player controlling it. Your opponent, in this case. Don’t be worried about them potentially linking it away or something when you give them this monster, since it’s still your turn. The main thing to worry about here is disruption of the effect itself, which we will talk more about later.
Now that your opponent controls it, new Armityle’s effect continues. You go to your own End Phase. Then your opponent has to banish as many cards that they control as possible. Their whole field is wiped, just like that. New Armityle also gets banished during this and goes to your own banished pile.
The next part refers to the owner (you) and Special Summons the original Armityle to your field.
In summary: summon new Armityle on your field, give control to your opponent, and declare End Phase. The opponent’s field gets banished. Then you summon original Armityle to your field. Pay attention to who is controlling what at any time and any mention of "owner." Now, let’s look at this effect in practice.
Using the New Armityle
The aim of this card is to break boards. The Sacred Beast deck loves to perform big OTKs, but if they can’t actually get past the opponent’s board, then getting there is difficult. The idea here is play this if your opponent has made a good board turn one. Your turn comes around and you summon new Armityle. This banishes their field and you get original Armityle out. As your turn comes back around, you hopefully still have original Armityle and can OTK.
However, the new Armityle is relatively slow going. It is absolutely incredible to have such an impactful board breaker. However, you have to your end your turn to do so. That gives your opponent a chance to recover. You’ve got to think about the right timing for it. Sometimes, you just want to go into the original Armityle and OTK. Or maybe the effect of “Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper” attacking everything can break the board better.
Still, you want to keep this new tool in mind. It’s worth running at least one copy in your Extra Deck, because it could come up.
You are likely summoning this card with “Dimension Fusion Destruction”, the Sacred Beasts' fusion spell. The new Armityle is often summoned with the same combo as the original, detailed in Part 2 of this series. To sum it up, you’ll be using “Chaos Core” to send the material to the Graveyard and then using “Predaplant Verte Anaconda” to copy the effect of the fusion spell. Theoretically, you can use “Future Fusion” too, but that's far too slow.
Making Sure Armityle Works
So you summon the original, but what if your opponent goes to disrupt it? They have some sort of quick-effect, like a hand-trap. You ideally want "Fallen Paradise" to protect it, but that's not always around.
The new Armityle is a soft once-per-turn effect. That means if it’s destroyed and you manage to get it back, you can try again that same turn. If you bring it back, you can try to use its effect again. A good way to do that is via “Opening of the Spirit Gates”. You can discard a card to Special Summon a Fiend with 0 ATK and DEF from your Graveyard. The new Armityle fits the bill, so as long as it's been properly summoned first. Then you’ll be able to change control and continue with your strategy. Monster Reborn also works here.
Another important thing to keep in mind is what happens with the original Armityle once you’ve summoned it by the effect of the new one. Because you didn't summon the original via the Spell, it doesn't get the bonus effect of “Dimension Fusion Destruction” stopping damage. This Spell had helped deal with the problem of having original Armityle around on your opponent’s turn. Before, if it was in attack position, your opponent could just run over it. It wouldn’t be destroyed, but you still took damage. That problem is back, as you end your turn with original Armityle having no damage protection. Therefore, if you Special Summon original Armityle in Defense position, you won’t take the damage. Then you can switch it to Attack position when your own turn comes back around.
It has also been Special Summoned ignoring the summoning conditions. If it’s taken out, getting original Armityle back won’t be easy, so bare that in mind. Fallen Paradise will hopefully protect it, so you don’t have to deal with that.
Conclusion
That’s our newest addition to the deck and it’s a real fun one. Hopefully we’ll get even more support later on. Now that it has become a more viable deck, anything is possible. Remember to check out Parts 1 and 2 of the ‘Sacred Beast’ Introduction articles to learn more about the deck.
I hope this has clarified how the new Armityle works and what to think about when summoning it. Have fun when it finally comes out for us in the TCG!
