Dies Tempestus

One of the frustrating things about the Egyptian God cards is how far short they fall from their anime appearances. We all want to summon Slifer the Sky Dragon and feel like we’ve just called forth an ancient and unstoppable force, and then our opponent plays Lightning Storm and that’s the end of that.

            This was certainly how I felt before something called The Tin of the Pharaoh’s Gods came out. Like many duelists, I rejoiced in the release of King’s Court, and how neatly it supported the coolest Egyptian God (these are facts).

Joker's Straight into Thunderspeed Summon, and behold: Slifer the Executive Producer, summoned just like Yugi himself did it, more or less. Joker's Straight returns itself to hand to keep Slifer’s attack up, and his second mouth obliterates just about any monster your opponent has the audacity to summon.

            But, while Slifer is now easier to use than ever before, that doesn’t change the unfortunate fact that he’s not actually that difficult to deal with. His automatic attack is good monster disruption, but he still dies to Raigeki. I used to play three Mound of the Bound Creators, a Terraforming, and a Metaverse, just to try and grant Slifer the protection that I felt a Divine-Beast deserved.

            However, now that we have the Tin of the Pharaoh’s Gods, and the trap card The Revived Sky God, there’s a whole new way to play said Sky God. Now, it’s okay if Slifer is destroyed—that’s all part of the plan.

            Instead of going to the effort to summon Slifer and then getting frustrated by just how easily he dies, you can let him die, knowing he’ll be back and stronger than ever—for one turn. And then another, after that.

            Just for fun, let’s take a look at the absolute best-case scenario:

            Foolish Burial on Slifer—set your whole hand (including The Revived Sky God)—end turn. The instant your opponent draws, flip your trap and resurrect Slifer. You draw six cards, and your opponent, with their full hand, gets nothing. Slifer looms large at 6,000 ATK, torching any monster that raises its unworthy head in his divine presence. At the end of your opponent’s turn, Slifer returns to the Graveyard, and you activate The Revived Sky God’s in-Graveyard effect: stack Monster Reborn to the top of your deck, and then draw one card (if Slifer (any DIVINE monster, technically) is in your Graveyard (which he is)).

            That means when you do draw, you’ll have eight cards in hand, and one of them will be Monster Reborn. Let’s say another is Thunderforce Attack—Reborn the Monster on Slifer, Thunderforce to clear your opponent’s board (if they managed to build one under Slifer’s scrutiny), and draw a card for every monster you destroy, and then attack for game.

            Glorious.

            If you somehow fail to draw an absolutely perfect hand, then the way to play the deck is as a straight King’s Court deck: get those knights on the field, and fuse, link, or tribute them into one of the big Joker boss monsters. Don’t force Slifer into the game; let him show up when he’s ready.

            Some notes about playing the King’s Court cards:

            You have three Joker's Straights, and this is the most important card in the deck. Everything hinges on having King’s, Queen’s, and Jack’s Knights on the field, and that’s what Joker's Straight does for you. Joker's Wild works as a backup Joker's Straight, as well as being able to stand in for Thunderspeed Summon and Face Card Fusion. Both Joker's Straight and Joker's Wild will return themselves to your hand endlessly, in addition to returning Knights from GY to deck.

            Joker's Knight can be Special Summoned as Queen's Knight, and then if you Normal Summon King's Knight, he will warp Jack's Knight onto the field.

            Thunderspeed Summon is for Slifer, but it can also be used to summon Arcana Triumph Joker, who has a useful card-destroying ability: discard any type of card, and destroy all opponent’s cards of that type (Monster, Spell, or Trap). Thunderspeed Summon is also a Quick-Play, which does afford you the opportunity to use it as a combat trick: you can attack with all three knights, and then tribute them to call forth Slifer and attack with him as well.

            Arcana Extra Joker is easy to summon, it replaces itself when it dies, and it protects any monster it’s pointing to from being targeted. This is something to keep in mind when it comes time to summon Slifer; while this deck ideally runs on the premise of recurring Slifer out of the GY with The Revived Sky God and Monster Reborn, sometimes things fall short of the ideal, and we need backup plans.

            The Revived Sky God, like The Breaking Ruin God, aims to set you up for one big, potentially game-ending move with an Egyptian God card. This alternate way of playing the Divine-Beasts is most welcome as far as I’m concerned. In the anime, the very summoning of any God card usually meant the game would be over that turn. That seems to be what the new cards in the Tin of the Pharaoh’s Gods are trying to capture, and, if played the right way, they succeed.

            This is the Day of Storms.