Egyptian God cards

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The Egyptian God cards, known in Japan as the Three Phantom Gods (三幻神, Sangenshin^?), are a series of cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! that serve as a focal point in the series' manga, the second series anime, and video games based on the anime and manga. Introduced as the strongest of all Duel Monsters, the cards have heavy ties to the fictional history of Ancient Egypt within the series and become central plot devices. The cards inspire events in various spin-offs of the series as well and have inspired the creation other cards directly based on them. The real versions of the cards have become widely hunted collector's items, but are not legally playable in any sort of official tournament.

Contents 1 Egyptian god cards 2 Anime history 2.1 Weaknesses 3 Anime god cards 3.1 Obelisk the Tormentor 3.2 Slifer the Sky Dragon 3.3 The Winged Dragon of Ra 4 Real god cards 5 See also 6 References 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Egyptian god cards

The Egyptian god Cards are:

• Obelisk the Tormentor (オベリスクの巨神兵, Oberisuku no Kyoshinhei^?, Giant God Warrior of Obelisk in the original Japanese anime)
• Slifer the Sky Dragon (オシリスの天空竜, Oshirisu no Tenkūryū^?, Sky Dragon of Osiris in the original Japanese anime)
• The Winged Dragon of Ra (ラーの翼神竜, Rā no Yokushinryū^?, Winged God Dragon of Ra in the original Japanese anime)

[edit] Anime history

The Egyptian Gods are one-of-a-kind all-powerful cards created by Maximillion Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters in the anime^[1]. Pegasus modeled the cards after three Ancient Egyptian beasts whose likenesses appear on the stone tablet said to hold the memories of the nameless Pharaoh. The wielder of the cards is able to acquire great power, but in the wrong hands they are capable of causing injury or even death.

The cards are used in the series as the key to unlocking the memory of the nameless Pharaoh^[2]. As such, Marik Ishtar, the main antagonist of the Battle City arc, seeks possession of the cards cards in an attempt to dethrone the Pharaoh and claim his title. He manages to acquire the Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon, but his sister Isis manages to safeguard the final card^[3]. Isis gives the final card - Obelisk the Tormentor - to Seto Kaiba, whom she believes he is destined to help the Pharaoh defeat Marik. Kaiba, eager to show off his new power at a tournament he is planning to throw, spreads news of his new card as Isis has hoped, luring Marik there with the promise of acquiring the final card and meeting the Pharaoh. Marik loses Slifer the Sky Dragon to the Pharaoh's vessel Yugi Mutou in a duel^[4], but manages to retain The Winged Dragon of Ra. After Yugi defeats Kaiba and claims Obelisk from him, he uses Obelisk and Slifer in a final battle with Marik, winning and claiming the final God card^[5].

Afterwards, the God cards are stolen in Season 4 by Dartz and his henchmen as part of a plan to revive a Leviathan to destroy the world^[6], and are not retrieved until the end of the season and used to battle the Leviathan. The cards are used in Season 5 to send the Pharaoh into a world made up of his own sealed memories, allowing him to recover them and defeat the opponent he could not defeat in the past, the God of Darkness, Zorc. During the battle the Pharaoh learns his true name, Atem, and merges the Gods together into their ultimate form, The Creator of Light - Horakhty^[7]. He uses the God cards in his final duel with Yugi, and they are sent to the afterlife with him at the end of the series.

The God cards appear in the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, where the film villain Anubis uses the titular item to attempt to destroy the God cards and revive the power of light using Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. However, the film is not considered canon to the anime or manga. The God cards are featured prominently in the video games Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards and Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, both of which are alternate universe games based on the second season of the anime.

The Slifer and Ra cards re-appear in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX; the former is used by Yugi in the final duel against Jaden Yuki. The latter card is seen only as a copy which is stolen by a developer for Industrial Illusions.

[edit] Weaknesses

God cards do have weaknesses but only specific due to confrontational rules and when and how they are seen. For example "Mirage Knight" can defeat any of the three unless Ra activates "Phoenix Mode". "Judgment of Anubis" due to its direct relation to Egyptian dietes and destroys a monster and does damage at the same time. "Blast held by tribute" and "Widespread Ruin" is a two-part connection; in Episode 94 Obelisk is seen to have "Blast held by tribute" inside then "Widespread Ruin" is shown as foresight by Ishizu. "Neo-Spacian Dark Panther" does not target them but copies and must survive Slifer's second mouth either by card effect of coping Slifer because then "Neo-Spacian Dark Panther" would gain from the number of cards in its owners hand. "Patrician of Darkness" can only delay them or reflect Slifer second mouth and redirect their attacks back at each other but cannot survive Ra's Pheonix Mode. "Horn of Heaven" only prevents their summoning.The Ride of Destiny "Divine Wrath" can destroy one with it being one of the only cards in the game with "Divine" and counters it. Other then the above cards players must defeat them in battle.

[edit] Anime god cards

The God Cards are unaffected by all card effects, but the specifics of this varies subtly in each duel they are played; sometimes they are immune to card effects entirely, at other times they are not immune, but certian cards can destroy them.The God cards are only capable of being summoned by offering three of the player's own monsters as sacrifices. When summoned from the discard pile, the God card remains on the field as a re-summon. The God cards also have an unofficial effect that states only someone with a Millennium Item, like Yugi Mutou, or a connection to a Millennium Item, like Seto Kaiba, can wield them. Anyone else is punished with death or near-fatal injury, but this is only seen happening on limited occasions. This is seen in the show season episode 94 Ishizu vs. Kiaba, proving "Blast held by Tribute" & "Widespread Ruin" as cards fullwith capable of taking down a God Card and that specific cards can affect them.

[edit] Obelisk the Tormentor

Obelisk the Tormentor is the first of the cards to appear in the anime. Obelisk is the only card Marik could not acquire, and his sister Ishizu gives the card to Seto Kaiba in the hopes he will use the card in his upcoming tournament and lure Marik out of hiding to claim it during the preliminaries, but loses to Yugi Mutou in the semi-finals and thus hands the card to him. Yugi goes on to use Obelisk against Marik in the tournament finals.

Obelisk makes sporadic appearances after the Battle City arc. It is used by Gurimo in season four of the anime, and takes part in the battle against the Leviathan. It is used to battle Bakura's Diabound in the final season; it defeats Diabound in the manga, while it is a draw in the anime against the power of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that Diabound had absorbed. In the manga, it is the only God card that Atem uses in his duel with Yugi (in the anime, he uses all three Gods).

Obelisk's attack and defense scores are 4000, and its effect allows a player to offer two monsters as sacrifices to destroy all of an opponent's monsters and inflict four thousand damage to the opponent^[8]. When used by Seto Kaiba, Obelisk was used multiple times to achieve a victory in a single turn by this effect, as in the anime and manga a duelist only receives four thousand life points. It is also shown that Obelisk is able to achieve an infinite attack strength. However, this only happened in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, and a single time in the canon series which was then explained as "a miracle of Obelisk's anger" and not confirmed as an actual effect^[9].

[edit] Slifer the Sky Dragon

Slifer the Sky Dragon is the second God card revealed. It was one of the two God cards owned by Marik, who gives it to one of his mind slaves in an attempt to defeat Yugi. Yugi defeats the slave, however, and claims Slifer as his prize. Although reluctant to use Slifer due to its vast power, Yugi places it in his deck during the finals of the tournament due to the threat presented by Kaiba and Marik's own God cards.

Slifer makes sporadic appearances after the Battle City arc. It is used in season four of the anime to battle the Leviathan, and in the final season it battles Bakura's Diabound, but Bakura is able to weaken and destroy it by having a brainwashed priest attack the stone tablet housing Slifer's spirit. During Atem's final duel with Yugi, Slifer is Atem's final summoned monster before the duel ends.

Slifer's attack and defense scores are equal to the number of cards in its owner's hand times 1000^[10]. Whenever the opponent summons a monster, Slifer inflicts an attack worth 2000 damage to it with its second-mouth ability, either destroying the monster if its attack or defense score (depending on if the monster is in attack or defense mode) is less than two thousand, or weakening it by 2000 points if its score is higher than 2000.

[edit] The Winged Dragon of Ra

The Winged Dragon of Ra is the final and strongest of the God cards. It is the key card of Marik Ishtar during the Battle City arc of the series, and is described as being so powerful even the other two God cards combined cannot defeat it. To contain this power, an extra level of protection exists on the card; besides the above mentioned qualification of possessing a Millennium Item, a special text on the card referred to as the "Hieratic Text" (古代神官文字, ヒエラティックテキスト) prevents anyone who does not recite this text from using it. The text is described in the series as a secret code known only to the highest ranking members of the Pharaoh's court^[11].

In the quarter-finals of Battle City, Marik has his servant and adopted brother Rishid use a counterfeit copy of the card to impersonate him, but when Rishid loses Marik reveals himself before being consumed by his evil alter-personality^[12]. Marik uses the card in his duels with Mai Kujaku and Katsuya Jonouchi during the finals as well as against Ryo Bakura in an unofficial duel, exploiting Ra's various powers during the duels to easily claim victory. During his duel with Yugi, Marik's evil side merges with Ra using one of its powers, and Yugi takes the chance to destroy Marik's evil side by destroying Ra and him together. Afterwards, a reformed Marik surrenders and hands the card to Yugi^[13].

Ra makes sporadic appearances after the Battle City arc. It is used in season four of the anime to battle the Leviathan, and in the final season it battles Bakura's Diabound. Unlike Slifer and Obelisk, it is able to destroy Diabound, but Bakura reverses time to prevent Ra's summoning and avoid defeat. In the anime, it also takes part in the final battle between Atem and Yugi, although Atem does not use the full extent of its power in the battle. It is not used in Atem's final duel against Yugi in the manga. Ra appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, when a counterfeit version of the card is stolen from Maximillion Pegasus by a rogue card designer, Frantz. By using a card of his own design, Mound of the Bound Creator, Frantz is able to enslave Ra and avoid having to fulfill any of the requirements to using it. He is defeated in a duel by Jaden Yuki, and the card is returned.

When summoned by sacrificing three monsters, Ra's attack and defense points become the combined attack and defense points of the sacrificed monsters^[14]. When summoned from the discard pile, Ra gains several additional powers; it can merge with its summoner and drain their life points to increase its attack points^[15], absorb the attack points of other monsters on the field, and turn into a Phoenix at a price of 1000 life points and is immune to destruction and capable of destroying all monsters regardless of attack scores on their opponents side of the field only and the pheonix mode only last for that turn unless the owner keeps paying the additional 1000.^[16]. However, the exact manner in which any of these powers activates varies from duel to duel in the series², and because Ra's card text is written in the unreadable Hieratic Text, its true effects cannot be determined.

[edit] Real god cards

The use of the God Cards is forbidden in all sanctioned tournaments of real-world competition because of their unique color templates and backings. Each God Card has its back colored the same color as the god card itself, blue for Obelisk, red for Slifer, and yellow for Ra; compared to the normal brown backing used for standard cards. The cards themselves possess text on the bottom of the card that states that they may not be used in a duel. As they do not possess effect text, conflicts arise over how they operate once summoned in unofficial duels. Some local hobby stores allow people to play "unofficial matches" provided everyone playing agrees on their effects before play.

The first version of the God Cards was released by Konami as a privilege for those who made a pre-order of the Japanese Game Boy Color game Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelist released on December 7, 2000. The second set was released by Konami on April 17, 2003 as special pack-in cards in the Game Boy Advance game Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International — Worldwide Edition, the Japanese version of the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel.

Unlike previous versions, the third version of the God Cards was not released simultaneously. The Winged Dragon of Ra was included as a limited edition card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dawn of Destiny game for Xbox, released March 23, 2004. Slifer the Sky Dragon was released as a special pack-in card for the ani-manga of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: The Pyramid of Light, published November 23, 2004 by VIZ Media. Obelisk the Tormentor, finally, was released as a free gift to subscribers of United States Shonen Jump in May 2005.

Obtaining the God Cards once demanded high prices on the secondary market. This was prior to their current widespread availability. During this time, countless counterfeit copies were made and distributed primarily throughout East Asia, causing widespread warning articles on the internet and in card price guides on how to avoid paying for counterfeits and ensuring authenticity.

[edit] See also

• List of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

[edit] References

[edit] Notes