Release: The Rahi Update

After years of research, months of work, and possibly even some amount of testing, here’s a really big one.

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Sample Decks

Usually, a release covers 6, 7, maybe 8 new cards and a few odd updates. Not so this time. This one is already above average from having 10 wholly new creations, and then completely leaves the realm of sanity by updating no less than 55 previously existing cards – the entire Rahi archetype, with no exceptions.

This is … a lot to get through for design notes, so for this article I’ll only give a brief summary of the underlying strategies and mostly focus on what changed from the old version and why. A more detailed explanation of how the various decks are meant to be played will follow in Theme Guides soon™.

Also, general disclaimer: Since I didn’t actually get more time to work on this behemoth of a release than usual (except the coincidental summer benefit of vacation time), testing was a good bit less rigorous than normal. If you see some issue I missed, do leave a comment so I have a chance to fix it eventually!

Structure

As mostly established in our long-running series of Rahi articles, the key to taming the sheer variety of wildlife that inhabits the Matoran Universe is splitting it up by Type (and sometimes other traits), connected by their shared name and Pendulum/Synchro focus. Doing so resulted in five decks on which my design and testing were focused:

  • Beasts + Winged Beasts
  • Fish + Sea Serpent + Aqua
  • Insects
  • Reptiles
  • Place of Shadow (Rahi Nui)

Another interesting division here is the multiple expansions spanned by the update – Challenge of the Rahi (BCOR), Beware the Swarm (BBTS), and now with the new additions also Protodermic Evolution (BPEV). While this update affects them all at once, their original releases are far apart, creating something much like the staggered support waves of real-life archetypes. I tried to respect this in the update process by making sure each strategy – except the Rahi Nui one that is only enabled by BPEV releases – already had a functioning gameplan with the initial BCOR wave, and anything further just added options or patched weaknesses.

Finally, there are some fresh standalone non-Rahi cards snuck in here, just because I felt they fit best in BCOR and I might as well add them when I’m already doing stuff there. Actually, let’s start with those, as a digestible appetizer before heading into the pile.

Free Agents

Red Star of Prophecies

Spell

Banish 1 Spell/Trap from your hand, Deck, or GY. When a card, or the effect of a card, with the same name as a card in your banishment that was banished by “Red Star of Prophecies” resolves while this card is in your GY, negate that effect, then shuffle this card into the Deck. You can only use this effect of “Red Star of Prophecies” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The idea is simple: You banish a Spell/Trap, and when either player uses it (as per your prophecy) this card turns into a negate – mandatory even, so no triggering Swordsoul or Kashtira cards with this. Now why would you ever play this when Crossout Designator does it all and more without the foresight required? Good question – maybe it’s helpful in some archetype that can easily recover banished cards, or you just want to have fun with the fact that the second Red Star you get in the GY is still a negate for the thing the first one banished (that’ll catch them off guard).

But perhaps the real use case for this card still lies in the distant future. Consider it a … prophecy.

Shadow Toa

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | DARK Illusion | ATK 0 / DEF 0

(Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster with 2000 or more ATK your opponent controls; Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, it gains ATK/DEF equal to that monster’s ATK/DEF, also its Attribute becomes the same as that monster’s. You can only use this effect of “Shadow Toa” once per turn. If this card battles a monster, neither can be destroyed by that battle. Unaffected by the activated effects of monsters with the same Attribute.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Just so the new Illusion Type doesn’t feel left out of the expansion, here it is applied to a little plot element that I skipped over the first time around. The novel-only shadow versions of the Toa Mata are all represented by this single card that summons itself from the hand by copying a high-ATK monster (e.g. a Toa Mata) and is then very hard to remove for monsters of that particular Attribute.

This reflects the “switch opponents” method by which they were defeated in the original novel, rather than the story bible’s “absorb your darkness” method that was later retconned over it. Mainly because the former goes better with the standard Illusion battle protection effects, and doesn’t require me to condense an entire character arc of self-acceptance into a single card text.

Now on to the meat, or more accurately biomechanical tissue-stuff that makes up the true stars of this update.

General Rahi Spells/Traps

Due to our method of division being monster Types, the Spell/Trap cards that fundamentally do not have those are one of the best vehicles for providing generic support to all the different decks. That purpose is served by a lineup of cards from the first expansion BCOR, ranging from essential to gimmicky and listed here in more or less that order.

3.15.5

Rahi Swarm

Spell

If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters: Add 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but different names, from your Deck to your hand. For the rest of this turn, your opponent takes no damage. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, but it cannot attack, also it is destroyed during the End Phase. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Rahi Swarm

Spell

Add up to 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type from your Deck to your hand, then, if you added 2 monsters including an Effect Monster, banish 1 card from your hand, face-down. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up Monster Card you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster with the same Type and an equal or lower Level from your GY. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Your main search card with followup revival in the GY. That was the concept of the old version as well, but the new version frees it from the shackles of its activation condition, allowing it to be applied freely in one of three use cases:

  1. Search any 1 “Rahi” monster, classic ROTA stuff.
  2. Search 2 “Rahi” Normal Monsters with the same Type.
  3. Search any 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but say goodbye to a card in your hand.

Mostly you’ll be doing 1. and 2., the latter of which is meant specifically for the pairs of high-Level Normal Pendulums that would be uncomfortably bricky if you always had to find them separately. 3. is something you don’t want to use if you can help it, but could be necessary at times.

Later on, or if it was sent to the GY directly without activating it first, the card allows you to literally “swarm” the field with an additional monster from your GY. This, too, was freed from some restrictions and instead put under new ones that fit into the overall Type-matching theme.

3.15.5

The Ussalry Arrives

Quick-Play Spell

During the End Phase of the turn this card was activated, draw 1 card for each “Rahi” card banished to activate its own effect this turn. If you have 2 or less cards in your hand and this card is in your GY: You can shuffle this card and 1 of your banished “Rahi” cards into the Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only use 1 “The Ussalry Arrives” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

The Ussalry Arrives

Quick-Play Spell

(This card is always treated as a “Rahi” and “Matoran” card.)
Target 1 face-up monster you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card with the same Type or Attribute from your Pendulum Zone, GY, or face-up Extra Deck, but banish it during the End Phase. During your Main Phase: You can shuffle this card and 1 of your banished “Rahi” cards into the Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only use 1 “The Ussalry Arrives” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

This one changed quite drastically compared to its original incarnation, from a Super Rejuvenation clone to a more literal interpretation of reinforcements from behind the frontlines. It also gained an archetype clause marrying it into both Rahi and Matoran, and indeed the activation condition of matching either Type or Attribute allows it to be used with both. Not sure if you would, but you technically can.

In contrast, the GY effect stayed the same because I already liked the way it worked. Only thing is that it has been freed of its near-empty hand condition; you already need banishment setup to make it work at all, so it’s not exactly at risk of powercreeping Metalfoes Fusion (a card from nearly a decade ago, I might add).

3.15.5

Siege of the Rahi

Continuous Spell

Once per turn, when your opponent Normal or Special Summons a Level 4 or lower monster(s): You can change 1 of those monsters to face-down Defense Position. During your End Phase, if you do not control a Level 5 or higher “Rahi” monster: Destroy this card. If a Level 5 or higher “Rahi” monster you control would be destroyed, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Siege of the Rahi

Continuous Spell

If a “Rahi” monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your field, except during the Damage Step: You can activate 1 of these effects, based on the Level of that monster(s) on the field;
●4 or lower: Draw 1 card. ●5 or higher: Change 1 face-up monster on the field to face-down Defense Position.
If a Level 5 or higher “Rahi” monster you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your field or GY instead. You can only use each effect of “Siege of the Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

In positive news, the weird floodgate of the Rahi archetype has been reconfigured to keep the same theming while supporting a more interactive playstyle. Specifically, it rewards you for summoning Rahi during both your and your opponent’s turn, with the small ones getting you ahead in advantage and the big ones doing the traditonal Siege job of locking down the opponent’s monsters. Do note that both of those bullet point effects can be used in the same turn.

The only change to the GY effect, meanwhile, was to also make it work on the field – having a way to get a continuous card out of the backrow might not be a bad idea in a Pendulum deck, I figured.

3.15.5

Devastation of the Rahi

Spell

Destroy any number of other “Rahi” cards you control, and if you do, destroy the same number of cards your opponent controls. You can banish this card and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, then target 1 card on the field; banish it. You can only use 1 “Devastation of the Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Devastation of the Rahi

Spell

Destroy any number of other “Rahi” cards you control, and if you do, send the same number of cards your opponent controls to the GY. You can banish this card and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it, or if you control a “Rahi” Synchro Monster, you can banish it instead. You can only use 1 “Devastation of the Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Getting into the more gimmick territory now, we have an offensive Spell trading your Rahi for the opponent’s cards, based on the battle that once upon a time burned down the Charred Forest. A serious modern approach to this Type of effect would be a Quick-Play like Fire King Sky Burn, but since it didn’t feel right to copy that, I kept it as a Normal Spell and instead ramped up the impact to make it non-targeting, non-destruction removal.

Even with that, I’ve found myself mainly using it for the GY effect – a cheaper, more convenient piece of standard spot removal with a slight upgrade for controlling a Rahi Synchro.

3.15.5

Encounter in the Drifts

Counter Trap

When your opponent Summons a monster(s), except during the Damage Step: Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster whose Level is less than or equal to the highest Level among those monsters from your hand or Deck. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this Summon. You can only activate 1 “Encounter in the Drifts” per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Encounter in the Drifts

Counter Trap

(This card is always treated as a “Rahi” card.)
When a monster your opponent controls activates its effect, except during the Damage Step: Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your hand, Deck, or GY, then destroy that opponent’s monster if your monster’s ATK is higher. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 “Rahi” monster you control; banish it until the End Phase. You can only use each effect of “Encounter in the Drifts” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Our Counter Trap (now properly integrated into the archetype) depicts a Rahi ambush in the snowy wastes , and so it basically lobs wildlife of your choice onto the field when an opponent’s monster dares to move, with lethal consequences provided it’s also sufficiently big. Note the change in condition from the previous on-Summon trigger – turns out that’s not something that usually goes on Counter Traps, those negate Summons instead of responding after they happened. Chaining to an effect activation though? Perfectly legitimate even if we don’t try to negate it!

A cute detail of the theming here was always that this card bypasses the debilitating effects of the Drifts Field Spell linked above. Originally it did so by shutting off all responses to the Summon, but the fact that this also killed your own on-summon effects didn’t sit right with me, so instead I gave it a GY effect to “dodge” whatever misfortune may befall your monster, as if vanishing into the snowstorm. You can imagine this has a lot of neat side utility outside the very unlikely use case it’s secretly made for.

3.15.5

Rahi Hive Showdown

Spell

If your opponent controls 2 or more monsters with 2000 or more ATK and you control no monsters with 2000 or more ATK: Take control of the monster your opponent controls with the highest original ATK (your choice, if tied). During your opponent’s Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Level 4 or lower monster your opponent controls that was Summoned this turn; take control of it until the End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Rahi Hive Showdown” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Rahi Hive Showdown

Spell

If your opponent controls 2 or more monsters with 2000 or more ATK: Take control of the monster your opponent controls with the highest original ATK (your choice, if tied), but it cannot activate its effects while you control it. If you control a “Rahi” Synchro Monster: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase, but it cannot declare an attack. You can only use 1 “Rahi Hive Showdown” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Here we have better Change of Heart … with extra conditions that make its activation effect fairly unusable. I actually dared to get rid of one half of those conditions in the update, so hopefully that didn’t accidentally make it good enough to run generically, seeing how it doesn’t require any Rahi on that end.

Much like Devastation earlier, this one is much easier to use from the GY. While that’s no longer a Quick Effect (because you aren’t supposed to put those on Spell Cards), it now works on anything and can be used during your own turn; just need to control a Synchro to make it work (Spoiler: There’s a real convenient one in the Insects).

3.15.5

Infection of the Rahi

Continuous Trap

Once per turn, before damage calculation, when a “Rahi” monster you control battles an opponent’s monster: You can place 1 Comet Counter on that opponent’s monster, and if you do, it cannot be destroyed by this battle. During the End Phase: Take control of all monsters with Comet Counters your opponent controls. If this face-up card leaves the field: Remove all Comet Counters on the field and inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each, then return control of all face-up monsters on the field to the owner.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Infection of the Rahi

Continuous Trap

You can only control 1 “Infection of the Rahi”. Each time a monster your opponent controls activates its effect while you control a “Rahi” Monster Card, place 1 Comet Counter on that opponent’s monster (max. 1) after that effect resolves. Monsters with a Comet Counter cannot attack, also each time 1 leaves the field, inflict 400 damage to its owner. During your Battle Phase or your opponent’s Main Phase: You can banish this card from your GY or your face-up Spell & Trap Zone; take control of all monsters your opponent controls with a Comet Counter, until the end of this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

And this last one is and has always been all gimmick and no utility. It just spreads an “infection” in the form of Counters to your opponent’s monsters, which leads to some inconvenient symptoms and allows you to wololo everything affected at some point.

The specifics of this changed pretty fundamentally, as you can see. Instead of having to battle with your Rahi, you just need to have one hanging around somewhere while your opponent activates monster effects, which is arguably more accurate to how the infection in Po-Koro went down (and even sort of aligns with what Ahkmou does!). Instead of having burn as an outbound “fuck you” if it gets removed, that’s now a proper part of the symptoms and happens when the affected monsters leave (e.g. by being used as material). And instead of needing to wait until the End Phase for the infection to fully take hold, it’s now a one-time move you can fire at a convenient timing. Do note that all the drawbacks associated with the Counters are provided by a continuous effect on the Trap itself, so once you banish to steal, you’re free to do whatever you want with the monsters – but so is your opponent once they get them back.

Insect Rahi

Insects crawl all over the place and into every deck – in other words, they’re the monster side of the shared glue that powers different Rahi variations. Coming right off the Spells and Traps, nothing exemplifies this better than one very important Insect Synchro Monster.

3.15.5

Nui-Kopen, Wasp Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Insect | ATK 2100 / DEF 2000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; excavate cards from the top of your Deck until you excavate a “Rahi” monster, then, if that monster’s ATK is higher than the target’s, send all excavated cards to the GY and take control of the target until the End Phase. Otherwise, Special Summon that monster and shuffle the remaining cards into the Deck.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Nui-Kopen, Wasp Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Insect | ATK 2100 / DEF 2000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned: You can take 1 “Rahi” Spell/Trap from your Deck, and either add it to your hand or send it to the GY. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can Tribute 1 monster; Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower “Rahi” Tuner from your hand or GY, but negate its effects. You can only use each effect of “Nui-Kopen, Wasp Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Where the Nui-Kopen was originally just a funny excavation thing (I recall I was pretty into that mechanic at the time I made it) with chances of stealing and opponent’s monster or getting a free Rahi, it has now obtained a new identity as a universally useful searcher for all the Spells and Traps we just went over. It can even send them straight to the GY, so you get free choice which of the two effects on each you’d like to have available – including the Synchro boosts for Devastation and Showdown, because this is, in fact, a Synchro!

Actually, let’s take a closer look at that Rahi Hive Showdown use case. The thing that guided the original design of the Nui-Kopen was its role in putting Lewa under the control of an infected mask, and through that Spell which depicts the same event, this flavoring remains indirectly intact: Simply send the Showdown and steal a monster of your choice. Here’s where the Nui-Kopen’s second effect becomes relevant, the idea being that you Tribute away the stolen monster so your opponent won’t get it back in the End Phase, and you get a Tuner to the field. Incidentally, it’s also a good way to dodge targeted negation, which is very appreciated on such a load-bearing enabler for the entire Rahi archetype.

The other things Insects help with is making Synchros in the first place, namely by supplying some nice splashable Tuner monsters.

3.15.5

Fikou, Spider Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | EARTH Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 400

You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Level 3 or higher “Rahi” monster you control; reduce that target’s Level by 1, then Special Summon 1 “Fikou, Spider Rahi” from your hand or Deck. You can only use this effect of “Fikou, Spider Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Fikou, Spider Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | EARTH Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 400

If this card is in your hand or GY: You can target 1 Level 2 or higher “Rahi” monster you control; reduce that target’s Level by 1, and if you do, banish this card, then Special Summon 1 “Fikou, Spider Rahi” from your hand or Deck. You can only use this effect of “Fikou, Spider Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The historic precedent here is the Fikou, which remained unchanged in principle, only receiving some convenience updates. But it is now joined by a few other Level 1 Insect Tuners, adapted from what used to be Level 2 handtraps.

3.15.5

Hoto, Firebug Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 300

(Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, then target 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls; banish that target. Your opponent cannot activate the targeted card in response to this effect’s activation. You can only use this effect of “Hoto, Firebug Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Hoto, Firebug Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | FIRE Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 300

If this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck; Special Summon this card, and if you do, you can destroy 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls. You can only use this effect of “Hoto, Firebug Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Let’s look at this via the example of the Hoto. The cost of banishing a spent Rahi remains the same, but extended with the face-up Extra Deck to account for our monsters’ Pendulum nature. The Spell/Trap removal that was previously the main point of the card has been slimmed down and converted into an optional bonus after you Special Summon, meaning it’s now an easily accessible Tuner with upsides going second. A similar conversion has been applied to the Cliff Bug and Electric Bug , making for a quartet of Level 1 Rahi Tuners with different Attributes – very aesthetically pleasing. Though with the Electric Bug (formerly Lightning Bug) in particular, I’m not completely sure of the balancing – a non-targeting negate is a deceptively powerful thing that can even take down boss monsters, rather than just acting as the well-placed disruption it’s meant to be. There’s a chance some future version will amend a restriction to that if I think of one (suggestions welcome!).

Fikou-Nui, Tarantula Rahi

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↗] | EARTH Insect | ATK 1000

1 Level 2 or lower “Rahi” monster
If this card is Link Summoned: You can target 1 “Rahi” monster in your GY or banishment; add it to your hand, then place 1 card from your hand on the bottom of the Deck. You can only use this effect of “Fikou-Nui, Tarantula Rahi” once per turn. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, and if you do, you can increase or decrease its Level by 1.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Now for a new card that builds on the Fikou’s Level manipulation gimmick while bridging some gaps in the size-based assignments of Levels to our Rahi. The recently unearthed Legend of Mata Nui mini-boss Fikou-Nui arrives as a Link-1 you mainly make on top of your small Tuners, optionally recycling a thing (“then” makes it free for Extra Deck stuff!) and then tagging back into another Rahi while granting a 1-Level margin of error. Mostly you’ll use this to bump up one of the aforementioned Level 1 Tuners, and in the small Fikou’s case it fixes the oddity that bringing it out by draining one of your big Rahi always left you unable to go into the Synchro 1 Level above that would represent the appropriate combination model.

That about covers the Insects that go everywhere, but there are also some more advanced options you can play if you’re willing to accept limitations.

3.15.5

Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | FIRE Insect | ATK 1300 / DEF 1900

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
When a “Rahi” monster is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●When a monster effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that monster if its ATK is lower than the ATK of the monster you shuffled into the Deck.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 6/6 | FIRE Insect | ATK 1200 / DEF 1900

[ Pendulum Effect ]
If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s) (except during the Damage Step): You can destroy this card, and if you do, that monster(s) loses 1200 ATK/DEF, until the end of this turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If a face-up Spell/Trap is on the field (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card; add 1 Insect “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi”. If this card is banished while you control a “Rahi” Tuner: You can Special Summon this card, and if you do, increase its Level by 1, also you cannot activate non-Insect monster effects for the rest of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Kofo-Jaga only resembles its original incarnation in that it adds a monster from your Deck, but the way it does so has been changed into a reference to its heat-loving and light-fleeing nature, and the targets have been changed to other Insects … including, of course, the above handtrap-style Tuners, for which it can be the cost and then immediately return to the field ready to Synchro into a Nui-Kopen. Just need to let yourself be a little Insect-locked.

Also its Pendulum Scale is now 6, mainly to accomodate the following two Level 5s.

3.15.5

Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 3/3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1700

Pendulum Scale = 3
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 5 Insect “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Pendulum Summon of a “Rahi” monster. You can target 1 “Rahi” monster you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster with the same Type and a lower or equal Level from your Deck, but it cannot attack this turn. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
A harsh buzz fills the air…a rustle of wings…a dark shape flying out of the sun…the warning signs of a Nui-Rama attack.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Nui-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 8/8 | EARTH Insect | ATK 2300 / DEF 700

Pendulum Scale = 8
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 5 Insect “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, cards in your Pendulum Zones cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. Once per turn: You can add 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck to your hand, then destroy 1 card in your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Nui-Jaga commonly hunt in packs, which helps to make up for the fact that they are not very fast. One of the creatures will drive prey forward, usually into a canyon, where others wait to strike. Once the target is surrounded, the Nui-Jaga will call to each other. Their cries have been compared to the sound of glass breaking.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 1/1 | WIND Insect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can target 1 face-up monster you control; Special Summon 1 Insect “Rahi” monster with a lower or equal Level from your Deck in Defense Position, also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except Insect monsters. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
A harsh buzz fills the air…a rustle of wings…a dark shape flying out of the sun…the warning signs of a Nui-Rama attack.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Nui-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 8/8 | EARTH Insect | ATK 2300 / DEF 700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
If an Insect “Rahi” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your field (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 face-up monster on the field; destroy it, and if it was an Insect “Rahi” monster, you can add 1 Insect “Rahi” monster with a different name from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi” once per turn.
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[ Flavor Text ]
Nui-Jaga commonly hunt in packs, which helps to make up for the fact that they are not very fast. One of the creatures will drive prey forward, usually into a canyon, where others wait to strike. Once the target is surrounded, the Nui-Jaga will call to each other. Their cries have been compared to the sound of glass breaking.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

With these two, we get our first look at the category of Normal Pendulums representing the iconic large Rahi from 2001. These have collectively been updated to remove their pair-matching bonuses, as the small text budget for Pendulum Effects does not at all vibe with that. Instead, you’re encouraged to use them together by the potential +1 from Rahi Swarm and simply because of natural synergies between what remains of their effects.

Here, that means the Nui-Rama gets an Insect straight from the Deck – downgrading the scope of it from what used to be all the Rahi, but also letting you activate it by targeting non-Rahi monsters (to go with the Nui-Kopen/Showdown play, but I am just now noticing that might be pointless since you have the Nui-Kopen anyway in that case). The Nui-Jaga then reacts to that Special Summon to either throw its stinger tail (beware it!) towards the opponent’s field or taking out your own monster to call further allies.

Oh, and all the low-scale Normal Pendulum Rahi such as the Nui-Rama now have a scale of 1. I want putting these cards in the Pendulum Zones to be optimal in those Types that have them, so clashing with Level 2s and 3s would be bad.

3.15.5

Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1400 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can send 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to the GY; this card gains 500 ATK. You can banish this card until the End Phase of your next turn; destroy 1 card on the field. You can only use this effect of “Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1400 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Synchro Summoned: You can send 1 “Rahi” card from your Deck to the GY; this card gains 500 ATK. You can only use this effect of “Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi” once per turn. You can banish this card until the Standby Phase of your next turn; destroy 1 card on the field.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The final thing, sitting in a bit of a weird standalone position, is the Kirikori-Nui. It used to send a Rahi from Deck as cost and temporarily banish itself to destroy stuff, and that is still what it does. Just the send has been expanded to also work with Spells and Traps, so we can dip into the Nui-Kopen use cases, and the banish now expires at a less inconvenient timing. Also the hard once per turn has been moved to the effect that probably deserves it more.

To be honest, I’m not too happy with this – it’s basically a broken send-as-cost thing ostensibly balanced by the fact that we (currently) can’t go into Level 3 Synchros very easily. But I haven’t figured out what else to do with it yet, and the current design is relevant to some enjoyable combos, so it is what it is for now.

By the way, you can also put these in an Insect pile. I have a demo video even.

Beast and Winged Beast Rahi

Alright, with the shared preliminaries out of the way, here’s the updates to the Rahi that make up the first of the dedicated Type-based strategies. Beasts and Winged Beasts, grouped together for their obvious similarities, are a pretty broad category, so I’ll try to do this via as few examples as I can manage.

In general, the strategy here can be described as a fairly traditional combo deck, aiming to either build a board of disruptive boss monsters going first or to clear the opponent’s field and win with some big beaters going second.

3.15.5

Muaka, Tiger Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 8/8 | WATER Beast | ATK 2800 / DEF 1900

Pendulum Scale = 8
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 7 Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, cards in your Pendulum Zones cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. If a “Rahi” monster you control destroys an opponent’s monster by battle: Gain LP equal to the destroyed monster’s original ATK.
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[ Flavor Text ]
This Rahi relies primarily on its claws when hunting. Sinking them into its prey, it forces the unfortunate victim to the ground and then finishes the job with its teeth. The Muaka will then carry its kill off to a nearby lair.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Kane-Ra, Bull Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 3/3 | EARTH Beast | ATK 2600 / DEF 2300

Pendulum Scale = 3
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 7 Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Pendulum Summon of a “Rahi” monster. While you control exactly 1 “Rahi” monster (and no other face-up monsters), that monster gains 1000 ATK and cannot be destroyed by card effects.
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[ Flavor Text ]
Surprisingly, the Kane-Ra Bull is not a herd animal. Unlike some beasts, it does not require others of its kind for protection.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Muaka, Tiger Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 8/8 | WATER Beast | ATK 2800 / DEF 1900

[ Pendulum Effect ]
During your Main Phase: You can destroy 1 other “Rahi” Monster Card in your hand or face-up field, and if you do, add 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Muaka, Tiger Rahi”. You can only use this effect of “Muaka, Tiger Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
This Rahi relies primarily on its claws when hunting. Sinking them into its prey, it forces the unfortunate victim to the ground and then finishes the job with its teeth. The Muaka will then carry its kill off to a nearby lair.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Kane-Ra, Bull Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 1/1 | EARTH Beast | ATK 2600 / DEF 2300

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn, if a monster(s) in your possession is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can destroy 1 card in your Pendulum Zone, then Special Summon 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, with a different name from the cards you currently control, and if you do, it gains 1000 ATK until the end of this turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Surprisingly, the Kane-Ra Bull is not a herd animal. Unlike some beasts, it does not require others of its kind for protection.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The pair of Normal Pendulums aiding us in this are Muaka and Kane-Ra. The former has changed completely (because what was I to do with battle-focused LP gain?), now providing us with the search power we need to get all our various pieces in play. It’s still roughly themed after “hunting down other Rahi and dragging them off to its lair”, but obviously tilted much more to the utility side. The Kane-Ra, meanwhile, retains some of its identity with that 1000 ATK boost and not allowing duplicate names at least, but now also works in a way that helps you build up your field presence. The obvious synergy of combining them is that the Muaka’s required destruction causes the Kane-Ra to trigger after the search resolved, immediately letting you Special Summon whatever you got – and the fact that this discourages you from having your Muaka destroy your Kane-Ra doubles as a nice representation of the horns that canonically keep the bull safe from the tiger.

On the effect monster side, I actually ended up sticking fairly closely to how Rahi in general used to work previously. In case of the Level 4 Pendulums, that meant an effect to Special Summon itself from the Pendulum Zone and a monster effect that is granted to a Synchro using it as material, and looking at the Fusa, that still is very much the case.

3.15.5

Fusa, Kangaroo Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1600 / DEF 1300

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If a card in your Pendulum Zone is destroyed: You can place 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck in your Pendulum Zone. You can only use this effect of “Fusa, Kangaroo Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●Your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated during the Battle Phase.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Fusa, Kangaroo Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1600 / DEF 1300

[ Pendulum Effect ]
During your Main Phase: You can destroy 1 other Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” Monster Card in your hand or face-up field, and if you do, Special Summon this card. You can only use this effect of “Fusa, Kangaroo Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains these effects.
● Once per turn, at the end of the Damage Step, if this card attacked an opponent’s monster: You can activate this effect; this card can attack again in a row.
● A “Rahi” Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains the above effect.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

However, it’s also clear that a lot of things changed. Aside from the granted monster effect being swapped out entirely (a double strike fits a Kangaroo more than blocking effects, doesn’t it?), it can now also be passed on through a second Synchro Summon using the monster that gained it as material, provided it’s for a Rahi. This sets the stage for potential Accel Synchro climbs with future support, and already comes up right now with another card that will be mentioned below. The Pendulum Effect has been reduced to only the Special Summon (again, tight text budget), but rather than a generic “no monsters” condition, it now plays into the overall self-destruction thing going on with Muaka and Kane-Ra as well. The specific mechanics of this Special Summon now also differ between Rahi, with the Vako having a more expensive requirement to balance its on-summon effect and the Husi not having one at all, instead electing to spend its Pendulum Effect on other utility.

The Level 3s retain similar miscellaneous Pendulum Effects from before the update, as well as their triggered abilities when either sent to the GY or banished, overall compressing a bunch of different small things you can weave into your lines. Let’s make the Mahi our exhibit of choice.

3.15.5

Mahi, Goat Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 700 / DEF 1500

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
(Quick Effect): You can send 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck to the GY, then destroy this card. You can only use this effect of “Mahi, Goat Rahi” once per turn.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished: You can add 1 of your banished Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monsters that was not banished this turn to your hand. You can only use 1 “Mahi, Goat Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Mahi, Goat Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 700 / DEF 1500

[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can target up to 2 “Rahi” monsters you control; destroy 1 Beast or Winged Beast Monster Card in your Pendulum Zone or face-up Extra Deck, and if you do, increase or decrease the targeted monsters’ Levels by 1.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Mahi, Goat Rahi”. If this card is banished: You can target 1 of your banished “Rahi” cards that was not banished this turn; add it to your hand. You can only use 1 “Mahi, Goat Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Here we see that the updates were, at least in some cases, pretty minor. The Pendulum Quick Effect to send from Extra Deck to GY (so as to trigger various Level 3s) was rewritten to account for the fact that Pendulum Quick Effects aren’t a thing, now also providing some Level manipulation to make up for the loss of quickness. The search from GY was shifted from the pool of Level 3 or lower Rahi to Level 4 or lower Beast or Winged Beast Rahi, reinforcing the Type association, and I figured the very slow effect to recycle banished cards might as well cover the entire archetype. Some other monsters that didn’t have as much of a clear identity, for example the Moa got more extensive updates, but for the most part we’re looking at small tweaks.

Before we move on from the Pendulums, I need to address one particular pattern break with the Levels here, owed to the fact that I completely mixed up the sizes of Kewa and Taku back in the day.

3.15.5

Kewa, Vulture Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 400

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If you control no other cards: You can add 1 WIND monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Kewa, Vulture Rahi”, and if you do, destroy this card during the End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” once per turn.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WIND monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can add 1 “Rahi” card from your GY to your hand. You can only use 1 “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Taku, Duck Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 1700

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
During your End Phase: You can add 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your Extra Deck face-up. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
● When a Spell Card is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Kewa, Vulture Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 2/2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 400

[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can target 1 Spell/Trap on the field; send 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or face-up Extra Deck to the GY, and if you do, destroy that target. You can only use this effect of “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 other Level 4 or lower WIND monster from your GY, but negate its effects. If this card is banished: You can add 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck to your hand, except “Kewa, Vulture Rahi”. You can only use 1 “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Taku, Duck Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 5/5 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 1700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card, and if you do, add 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your Extra Deck face-up, except “Taku, Duck Rahi”. You can only use this effect of “Taku, Duck Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains these effects.
● Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation.
● A “Rahi” Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains the above effect.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

A simple Level swap fixed this mishap, but because the Kewa’s association and thus synergy with the WIND deck Le-Koro was lore-relevant, I ended up sticking with the effect designs based on their original (inaccurate) Levels. So the biggest changes here are just that the Kewa’s broken search for all WIND monsters was replaced with something more restrained and that the Taku has fully taken up the mantle of negation granter from what used to be a trio of Rahi (with the old Hikaki and Kofo-Jaga ) doing that for different card types. The effect has been toned down a little by removing destruction, but I still feel like it might be too much for a semi-free bonus and am considering a further restriction to your own turn only. Also, congrats to the Kewa for finally being photographed from the correct side.

Now for the Synchros … I can’t get out of mentioning all of these, can I? Alright, speedrun time.

Dikapi

3.15.5

Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi

Synchro Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1650

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can choose a number from 1 to 4; reduce this card’s Level by that number, then take damage equal to that number x 300. When using this Synchro Summoned card as a Synchro Material, you can use 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck (and no other monsters) as the other Synchro Material.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi

Synchro Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1650

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this Synchro Summoned card would be used as Synchro Material for a “Rahi” monster, 1 face-up Beast or Winged Beast Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck (and no other monsters) can be used as the other material. If you do this, you can treat this card as any Level from 1 to 5 for that Synchro Summon. If you control no monsters and this card is in your GY: You can target 1 of your banished monsters; shuffle it into the Deck, and if you do, Special Summon this card. You can only Special Summon “Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi(s)” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Synchro Tuner. Enables both stacking of granted effects and triggering of Pendulum GY effects by using a monster from the Extra Deck as material – now limited to only Beast and Winged Beast materials, and only Rahi Synchros. The Level change has also been rolled into this specific use case, as you have other options to make the stars align if you’re working with the field.

Since it’s also domesticated by Po-Matoran and used as a mount for scouting missions due to its endurance, I’ve added a recursion effect that helps you endure long grind games while being generic enough to also work in a Po-Koro deck.

Gukko-Kahu

3.15.5

Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 2500 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Synchro Summoned: Draw 1 card. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: Add 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 2500 / DEF 1000

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned: You can send 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your Deck to the GY. If this Synchro Summoned card is sent from the field to the GY: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower “Rahi” monster in your GY; Special Summon it. You can only use each effect of “Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Mid-combo body that does something useful when Summoned and when it leaves again. That hasn’t changed from how it used to be, but the useful things are now more tied to the Beast/Winged Beast typing and general playstyle. Like the Dikapi, it can be made with generic materials not because it’s a Winged Beast, but because it has been domesticated and should thus be an option in a Le-Koro deck.

Mata Nui COw

3.15.5

Mata Nui Cow, Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1800 / DEF 2400

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy Spell/Trap Cards on the field, up to the number of “Rahi” monsters you control. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: Add 1 Level 4 or lower “Rahi” monster from your GY to your hand.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Mata Nui Cow, Bovine Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1800 / DEF 2400

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn, if a monster(s) is Special Summoned to your opponent’s field (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 of those monsters; either destroy it or negate its effects. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card is in the GY because this Synchro Summoned card was sent there from the field this turn: You can add 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck to your hand.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Going-first endboard piece offering reactive spot interaction and followup in case it’s removed. Its original effects were a combination of what Gali and Pohatu (its component models) used to do way, way back, and in the same way its current on-field effect combines the on-summon trigger and destruction aspects of Pohatu with the negation aspect of Gali, while also having a general flair of retaliating with its horns when it feels threatened. But floating is nice to have, so that was carried over as well, albeit shifted to the End Phase since you want to keep this one on the field in the opponent’s turn, unlike a certain bird up there.

Kuma-Nui

3.15.5

Kuma-Nui, Rat Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 8 | EARTH Beast | ATK 3000 / DEF 2500

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
At the start of the Battle Phase: You can destroy all face-up or all face-down Spell/Trap Cards on the field, then this card gains 500 ATK for each of your cards destroyed this way, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Kuma-Nui, Rat Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Kuma-Nui, Rat Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 8 | EARTH Beast | ATK 3000 / DEF 2500

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
Gains 300 ATK for each other “Rahi” card you control. If this card battles an opponent’s monster, at the start of the Damage Step: You can activate this effect; change that opponent’s monster to Attack Position, also negate its effects until the end of this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Big beatstick for going second or generally finishing out games. Where its activated effect previously allowed it to get big and/or clear backrow, it now gets big all on its own (well, with moral support) and instead only activates during the Damage Step, grabbing the foe with its claws and dragging it into a helpless position to ensure big damage is done.

Alright, that’s done. If seeing these Synchros made you wonder “where’s the Tuners”, you’ve hit on one of the interesting realities of the multi-expansion release cycle on which the current Rahi card pool was built. The truth is, Beast or Winged Beast Rahi Tuners did not actually exist in the original BCOR wave, forcing the archetype to instead rely on Insects beyond the scope of its own native search effects! BBTS fixed this with two Winged Beast Tuners – now freshly updated from handtraps to combo extenders – and BPEV, in this very release, adds a Beast Tuner that’s a bit more gimmicky in design.

Pokawi (BBTS)

3.15.5

Pokawi, Flightless Bird Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 300 / DEF 600

(Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY; monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK for each of your banished “Rahi” monsters, until the end of this turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Pokawi, Flightless Bird Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 300 / DEF 600

If a Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your field (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 “Rahi” Synchro Monster using monsters you control. You can only use this effect of “Pokawi, Flightless Bird Rahi” once per turn. During the Battle Phase (Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your GY; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose 500 ATK for each of your banished “Rahi” monsters, until the end of this turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.7.3)

The Pokawi comes in with the ability to come out of the hand and make a Synchro, which exists mainly because one combo I labbed out got a Taku as precisely the 4th summon, meaning this allows you to get a Synchro with a negate to the field before your opponent has a chance to activate Nibiru. On top of that, it also does its original ATK debuff but now from the GY, which, now that I look at the whole package like this, is kind of an insanely big upgrade and might still get dialed back a bit. I will say it never really felt broken in testing, though.

Mata Nui Fishing Bird (BBTS)

3.15.5

Mata Nui Fishing Bird, Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 500 / DEF 400

(Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, then target 1 card your opponent controls; banish it until the End Phase, and if it was a face-up monster with 2000 or more ATK on the field, banish 1 random card from your opponent’s hand face-down. You can only use this effect of “Mata Nui Fishing Bird, Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Mata Nui Fishing Bird, Swooping Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 500 / DEF 400

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster in your GY; Special Summon it, but negate its effects, also if your opponent controls a monster with 2000 or more ATK, you can banish 1 card from either GY. You can only use this effect of “Mata Nui Fishing Bird, Swooping Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.7.3)

The Mata Nui Fishing Bird now quite literally “fishes” monsters out of your GY to enable Synchro plays that way, and keeps its theming of harassing large predators in the form of a bonus banish from GY when appropriate.

Lava Rat (BPEV)

Lava Rat, Blazing Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Beast | ATK 400 / DEF 200

Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can reduce the Levels of all other monsters currently on the field by 1, also they lose 500 ATK. At the start of the Damage Step, if your “Rahi” monster battles an opponent’s monster: You can banish this card from the GY; destroy that opponent’s monster. You can only use this effect of “Lava Rat, Blazing Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

The theming on this one is that it sets itself on fire to ward off enemies, while being immune to the flames itself. That manifests in an on-field effect of turning up the heat to either fix your own Levels or annoy the opponent (though I’m not sure the latter use case is word having it be a Quick Effect rather than an Ignition Effect), and a GY effect to burn an opponent’s monster to the ground if it happens to touch yours.

And with that, we’ve made it through probably the hardest part of the design notes. If you just want a simple look at how this deck actually plays in practice, see the demo video below (though it is from a slightly older version).

Marine Rahi

Another big group that combines three whole Types, though only two of them have actual Rahi at this moment. Sea Serpents sure are elusive.

What we saw so far was a combo deck aiming for big boss monsters using more or less the same design principles as the old Rahi designs did, but things are going to be quite different here. The Rahi of the seas don’t really care about “building boards” or the concept of a “Synchro boss monster” all that much – their idea of gameplay is throwing small fish with sharp teeth at the opponent until only bones are left.

In other words, we’re looking at a grindy control deck that uses its Tuners to disrupt the opponent and its Pendulums to build advantage while that’s happening. Let’s look at how the cards evolve for the new version to make that possible, starting with the prime bity fish itself: The Ruki.

3.15.5

Ruki, Fish Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Fish | ATK 700 / DEF 100

(Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY; destroy 1 monster your opponent controls. You can only use this effect of “Ruki, Fish Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Ruki, Fish Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Fish | ATK 700 / DEF 100

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your hand, then discard 1 card. You can only use this effect of “Ruki, Fish Rahi” once per turn. (Quick Effect): You can banish both this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster in your GY or face-up Extra Deck; destroy 1 monster your opponent controls.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

This, too, was one of those Level 2 Rahi handtrap Tuners, and it has retained both its cost and its way of interacting through non-targeting monster destruction. However, to bring it from just another random Rahi to something that can serve as one centerpiece of a dedicated strategy, it has been upgraded in two ways: One is that there’s no longer a hard once per turn on that destruction effect, so Ruki swarms actually get to be as voracious as they should be. The other is that it also searches the Pendulums of its Type when summoned, with a discard that both keeps it from plussing too much and can set up the Ruki’s own cost in the GY.

The other thing that makes this all work are, of course, the Pendulums. BCOR only has two of them, so we can just take those as our examples.

3.15.5

Takea, Shark Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Fish | ATK 1800 / DEF 900

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
At the start of the Damage Step, if a “Rahi” monster you control battles: You can double any battle damage your opponent takes from that battle. You can only use this effect of “Takea, Shark Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck with ATK less than or equal to half the damage inflicted, but it cannot attack this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Makika, Toad Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | EARTH Aqua | ATK 600 / DEF 2100

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If a card in your Pendulum Zone is destroyed: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy that target. You can only use this effect of “Makika, Toad Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●If this card is destroyed by battle: Destroy the monster that destroyed it, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster’s original ATK.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Takea, Shark Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Fish | ATK 1800 / DEF 900

[ Pendulum Effect ]
If your Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua “Rahi” monster(s) is banished: You can target 1 of those monsters and 1 card your opponent controls; place the first target on the bottom of the Deck, and if you do, destroy the second target. You can only use this effect of “Takea, Shark Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can banish up to 2 “Rahi” Monster Cards from your hand and/or field; add that many Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua “Rahi” monsters with different names from your Deck to your hand, except “Takea, Shark Rahi”. If this card is banished: You can target 1 card you control; destroy that card, also, after that, add this card to your Extra Deck face-up or place it in your Pendulum Zone. You can only use each effect of “Takea, Shark Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Makika, Toad Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 1/1 | EARTH Aqua | ATK 600 / DEF 2100

[ Pendulum Effect ]
During the End Phase: You can target 1 of your banished Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monsters, except “Makika, Toad Rahi”; add it to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Makika, Toad Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
During the Main Phase, if this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monster you control; return it to the hand, and if you do, Special Summon this card in Defense Position. If this card is banished: You can add this card to your Extra Deck face-up or place it in your Pendulum Zone, then take 1000 damage. You can only use each effect of “Makika, Toad Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Gone is the old formula of random Pendulum Effect, self-summon from Pendulum Zone, and bonus effect when used as material. Instead, the Pendulum Effects aim to extract further value from the banishing cost tied to your disruption effects, either by further devastating your opponent’s field or by replenishing your own resources. The monster effects are a combination of miscellaneous utility – here, searching and dodging stuff – and a shared effect that brings the monster back to the Extra Deck or Pendulum Zone at some cost when it is banished, thus ensuring we don’t run out of ammo and keep getting those boosts from the backrow. The Makika even changed both its Level and its Pendulum Scale!

I also can’t quite gloss over BCOR’s other Tuner, the Shore Turtle.

3.15.5

Shore Turtle, Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 1200

When a monster declares an attack: You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY; change the battle positions of all face-up monsters. You can only use this effect of “Shore Turtle, Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Shore Turtle, Shelled Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 1200

Your opponent cannot target Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua “Rahi” Monster Cards you control with card effects. If your opponent activates a card or effect: You can banish 2 “Rahi” cards from your hand and/or face-up field, including this card; Special Summon 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” Tuner from your Deck. You can only use this effect of “Shore Turtle, Shelled Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

While I did enjoy it’s previous position-changing gimmick (originally stolen from Speedroid Menko) and would have liked to keep it, in a post-Link era with a questionably relevant Battle Phase, it just would be totally worthless except for the unlikely case where it totally walls of your opponent, which isn’t very fun and interactive either. So instead, this “slow and harmless” creature has turned into something that slowpoke triggers after your opponent does something (this is not a Quick Effect), bringing you something potentially less harmless to the field, in the best case even a live Ruki on turn 0. Or you can go into another copy of itself and enjoy targeting protection, because this turtle can fly. Also it’s WIND now, because this turtle can fly.

And while I did say this deck doesn’t care about boss monsters, there’s still one for when you’ve managed to spam a whole lot of bodies onto the field.

3.15.5

Mana Ko, Guardian Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 11 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 3500 / DEF 2800

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner “Rahi” monsters
Control of this card cannot switch. The ATK of all face-up monsters your opponent controls is halved during their Battle Phase only. When this card that was Synchro Summoned using exactly 1 non-Tuner monster as material leaves the field: Special Summon that non-Tuner monster from your GY. This card that was Synchro Summoned using 2 or more non-Tuner monsters as material cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent’s card effects.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Mana Ko, Guardian Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 11 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 3500 / DEF 2800

1+ “Rahi” Tuners + 1+ non-Tuner “Rahi” monsters
Control of this card cannot switch. Other cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. (Quick Effect): You can banish this card; Special Summon any number of Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua “Rahi” monsters from your GY and/or banishment, whose total Levels equal 10 or less, and if you do, banish 1 card on the field. You can only use this effect of “Mana Ko, Guardian Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Mana Ko is the biggest thing in our Extra Deck, and is truly exclusive in that all its materials must be Rahi (NEW: multiple Tuners are allowed, works better in Fish/Aqua/Sea Serpents that way). Secretly trained by the Order of Mata Nui, it is immune to mental manipulation … and that’s where the similarities between the versions end. You see, the ATK reduction that follows was meant to represent its disintegration beams (hinting how I’m going to do Guurahk a bit down the line, by the way), but upon rechecking their novel appearance and the guidebooks … it turns out no such thing exists. They just shoot explosive blasts. So back to the drawing board it was, and now it just does something that fits right into the deck’s supposed non-reliance on boss monsters: It fucks right off, bringing back just a smidgen less than the material used on it and making something go kaboom with a banish along the way. While it’s around, though, it does also protect the rest of your field from destruction, because that goes well with both the name “Guardian” and the fact that your opponent can’t steal it.

A total of three more Aqua Pendulums were introduced in BBTS, but curiously, only two of them have remained Pendulums, acting as a secondary pair of scales. Those are the Ghekula and the Keras . No need to say much about their updates, as I really just translated the same ideas they were already based on to the mechanics of the new strategy. The Ghekula causes your opponent bad luck for harming it (even accidentally), and the Keras is generic support for low-Level WATER monsters that hates Defense Position monsters, representing its role as an anti-Bohrok mount for Ga-Matoran. The latter also doesn’t have the effect to recycle itself if banished, instead investing that word count into a way to Special Summon it from hand – having variety doesn’t hurt.

And what of the third new card? Well, the Waikiru became a Synchro.

3.15.5

Waikiru, Walrus Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Aqua | ATK 1800 / DEF 1000

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
When the battle position of a face-up monster(s) you control is changed: You can apply this effect until the end of this turn, depending on that monster’s new battle position.
● Attack Position: It gains ATK equal to its Level/Rank x 200.
● Defense Position: It cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.
You can only use this effect of “Waikiru, Walrus Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can change the battle position of up to 2 face-up monsters on the field that have the same battle position.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Waikiru, Walrus Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 5 | WATER Aqua | ATK 1800 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monster from your Deck. (Quick Effect): You can banish this card; Special Summon up to 2 Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua “Rahi” monsters from your GY and/or banishment, whose total Levels equal 4 or less. You can only use 1 “Waikiru, Walrus Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.7.3)

This is one of the most total redesigns, going from a battle position manipulator to a Gold Sarc on, uh, fins that can alternatively do a miniature version of the Mana Ko’s tagout. However, the lore behind it remains the idea of a creature that is “slow on land and swift in the water” – even though it’s now mostly the latter part with how it can run away from the destruction a banished Takea would attempt. I guess the shared hard once per turn on both effects that I added because it felt broken otherwise could be considered the “slow” portion.

Lastly, three new additions fresh off the virtual printer. One is a stealth-add to BCOR and a Level 1 Tuner: The Lightfish that illuminates the huts of Ga-Koro.

Lightfish, Luminescent Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | WATER Fish | ATK 700 / DEF 100

While face-up on the field, this card becomes LIGHT. (Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or GY, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; apply 1 of these effects.
●Change its battle position. ●Discard 1 card, and if you do, that face-up monster cannot activate its effects this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

It doesn’t do a whole lot, but it’s an easily accessible self-banishing quick effect, which is neat both for the Ga-Koro deck (to get high chain links) and for this one (to trigger Takea or Keras in the Pendulum Zone). Don’t read anything into the part where it becomes LIGHT on the field, that’s just because they glow “as long as they’re alive”. And so it can be a LIGHT Fish in some way at least.

… I just noticed this has the same stats as the Ruki. That’s a copypaste error, should be more like 100/100 probably. Can’t catch ’em all, just one more thing to fix in a future update!

MKT Fish, Biting Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 3 | DARK Fish | ATK 900 / DEF 300

If this card you control would be used as Synchro Material, you can treat it as a non-Tuner. During your opponent’s Main Phase, you can (Quick Effect): Immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon using Fish, Sea Serpent, and/or Aqua monsters you control, including this card. You can only use this effect of “MKT Fish, Biting Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

What’s those random letters? Those are my refusal to write a “not treated as” clause into this text, because the proper name of this creature is “Makuta Fish“. It’s basically a slightly bigger Ruki that appears here and there in the novels and doesn’t do anything special, so for the effect I just went with what I felt would be fun and made it a way to perform all kinds of Quick Synchro plays in addition to your base strategy – that gives us something to do with the Extra Deck space at least.

Rahi from the Depths

Trap

Target any number of “Rahi” monsters you control; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK/DEF equal to the total ATK of those monsters you control (until the end of this turn), then you can destroy 1 monster your opponent controls with 0 ATK or DEF. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monster from your GY or banishment, but its ATK/DEF become 0. You can only use 1 “Rahi from the Depths” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

And the final one is a new Trap card, based on the novel-only scene featuring an early (distant) look at Metru Nui’s Great Temple Squid. The idea is to have tentacles restraining your opponent’s monsters, perhaps even crushing one if it’s weak enough – late in testing, I realized this part should probably be 0 ATK and DEF rather than or, otherwise you can take out big threats laughably easily sometimes if they’re only big one way. While this activation effect works with all Rahi, the goal was balancing it so it’s only really worth the space in decks that can also use the Type-locked revival effect in the GY, which I’m not sure the current design achieves.

Reptile Rahi

Reptiles are, and will for a good while remain, a fairly unrepresented Type among Rahi. They do, however, get a pair of Normal Pendulums as early as BCOR, whose old designs already went well with the planned “scale manipulation” gimmick. So I did my best to put together the baseline of a functioning deck with what’s available at this point.

To elaborate on said gimmick a little, it’s a hit-and-run strategy that moves monsters back and forth between the front and back rows of the field, including the Pendulum Zones. In fact, precisely that is what the two Normals sort of did and now absolutely do.

3.15.5

Tarakava, Lizard Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 6 | Scale 3/3 | WATER Reptile | ATK 2600 / DEF 1200

Pendulum Scale = 3
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 6 Reptile “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Pendulum Summon of a “Rahi” monster. When an opponent’s monster declares a direct attack: You can destroy this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
The first thing to remember about Tarakava is that even if you can’t see them, they are always there.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Sand Tarakava, Lizard Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 6 | Scale 8/8 | EARTH Reptile | ATK 2300 / DEF 1800

Pendulum Scale = 8
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 6 Reptile “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, cards in your Pendulum Zones cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster you control; place that target in your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Sand Tarakava are slightly smaller than their Tarakava relatives. Their hunting method is to hide under the sand and wait for unsuspecting prey to come near.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Tarakava, Lizard Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 6 | Scale 1/1 | WATER Reptile | ATK 2600 / DEF 1200

[ Pendulum Effect ]
When an attack is declared involving an opponent’s monster: You can target 1 Reptile “Rahi” Monster Card in your Spell & Trap Zone; Special Summon it (but it cannot attack directly this turn), and if you do, destroy that opponent’s monster. You can only use this effect of “Tarakava, Lizard Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
The first thing to remember about Tarakava is that even if you can’t see them, they are always there.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Sand Tarakava, Lizard Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 6 | Scale 8/8 | EARTH Reptile | ATK 2300 / DEF 1800

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Reptile “Rahi” monsters in your leftmost or rightmost Main Monster Zone gain this effect.
●Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can place this card face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell, or if it is a Pendulum Monster, you can place it in your Pendulum Zone instead.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Sand Tarakava are slightly smaller than their Tarakava relatives. Their hunting method is to hide under the sand and wait for unsuspecting prey to come near.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Tarakava is the forward motion in this equation, and being a battle-centric effect, I saw fit to give this one a major upgrade. Rather than only springing its ambush on a direct attack and doing it indirectly by destroying itself and then summoning from the Extra Deck (not the best idea under new Master Rules), it just throws a Reptile directly from the backrow at any opponent’s monster that finds itself battling, destroying the unfortunate target in the process.

The Sand Tarakava (a totally different creature, of course) provides the opposite direction of movement, the changes being that I’ve worked around the taboo on Spells having Quick Effects and that it can also put stuff into regular Spell & Trap Zones so it works with our Synchros. Speaking of which:

3.15.5

Ranama, Magma Toad Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Reptile | ATK 2200 / DEF 600

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
You can target 1 card your opponent controls; banish both that target and this card until the End Phase of your next turn. You can only use this effect of “Ranama, Magma Toad Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Tarakava-Nui, Lizard King Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 7 | WATER Reptile | ATK 2900 / DEF 0

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; this card loses 1000 ATK, and if it does, shuffle that target into the Deck. You can only Special Summon “Tarakava-Nui, Lizard King Rahi(s)” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Reptile | ATK 2200 / DEF 600

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When your opponent activates a card or effect (Quick Effect): You can target 2 face-up monsters on the field, including this card; place them face-up in their owners’ Spell & Trap Zones as Continuous Spells. You can only use this effect of “Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi” once per turn. Once per turn, during the Standby Phase, if this card is a Continuous Spell: You can destroy 1 other Monster Card in a Spell & Trap Zone, and if you do, Special Summon this card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Tarakava-Nui, Lizard King Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 7 | WATER Reptile | ATK 2900 / DEF 0

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned: You can target up to 2 cards your opponent controls; this card loses exactly 1000 ATK for each targeted card, and if it does, shuffle them into the Deck. You can only use this effect of “Tarakava-Nui, Lizard King Rahi” once per turn. Loses 1000 ATK during your Main Phase only. While this card is a Continuous Spell, “Rahi” cards you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Ranama, now slightly renamed to mask the fact that this isn’t too much of a reptile (I really need it over here, sorry Aquas), still does its thing of dragging an opponent’s monster under the Lava and then staying there until it’s done eating. But “under the Lava” now means the backrow in accordance with the updated mechanics, and mealtime reliably ends in each Standby Phase, where the Ranama properly digests its prey and returns to feed again. Functionally, this results in something best described as “S:P at home”.

The next tier up is the Tarakava-Nui, themed on the concept of punching things so hard they go back to the Deck. That much is unchanged, but it now does so each time it’s summoned, since we’re trying to do that a whole bunch with the regular Tarakava. As a fancy little debuff, summoning it the normal way during the Main Phase only gets you one target rather than two, because it pays with its ATK and is thus limited by that otherwise useless Main Phase stat reduction. And if you somehow get it in the backrow, which it has no way to do on its own, you can enjoy some blanket protection.

The catch is, this is another of these Types without a Tuner, and since we also don’t have the sheer swarming and searching potential of BCOR Beasts, the one and only Main Deck Effect Reptile is forced to pick up the slack.

3.15.5

Bog Snake, Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Reptile | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If your opponent takes effect damage: Draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of “Bog Snake, Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
● Each time your opponent activates a card or effect, inflict 300 damage to your opponent immediately after it resolves.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Reptile | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn: You can destroy up to 2 “Rahi” Monster Cards you control, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Reptile “Rahi” Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level is less than or equal to their total Levels (this is treated as a Synchro Summon), then place it face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card declares an attack: You can inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each Monster Card in your Spell & Trap Zone. If this card is destroyed: You can place 1 Reptile “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. You can only use each effect of “Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

What remains from the old focus on effect damage (you know, the venom) is just a bonus burn effect when attacking – be sure to sequence it correctly with the Tarakava for maximum value. The more important job the card adopted due to necessity is the Pendulum Effect, cheating out our Synchros … into the backrow. I’m sure they’ll find a way to come forward. For one thing, destroying the Bog Snake itself Poplars something into the backrow as well, so that right there gives a Ranama its meal for the next Standby Phase.

Overall, I still feel like there are some adjustments left to try here. For example, granting the Ranama the ability to also snatch stuff out of the GY would enhance its use as disruption and give you a way to put your other Synchros back on the field, which could then free up the Bog Snake to fetch only Pendulums from the Extra Deck and properly place them in the scales. Lacking a way to do that without a Sand Tarakava already in place really hurts the deck’s recovery at the moment.

Rahi Nui

And finally, something completely new introduced by this very release. Coming straight from the Tales of the Masks novel, an enemy of Toa from ancient times rises in a Place of Shadow.

Rahi Nui, Vengeful Chimera

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 11 | DARK Dinosaur | ATK 3800 / DEF 2200

3+ “Rahi” monsters with different names
Must be Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by Tributing the above cards, including a DARK monster. This card’s Type is also treated as the original Types of the materials used for its Summon. If this card is Special Summoned, or your opponent Special Summons a monster(s) from the Extra Deck: You can Special Summon 1 Level 10 or lower “Rahi” monster from your Extra Deck that shares a Type with this card, also this card cannot attack for the rest of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Rahi Nui, Vengeful Chimera” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

For some reason I can’t quite explain myself, the design on this one is themed around the kind of boss fight where the big guy suddenly throws the bosses you fought previously at you – in this case, the Rahi Synchros. Befitting its chimeric nature, the ones it can get are based on the Types it has absorbed from its materials, and vengeful as it is after its previous defeat, triggering this effect keeps it from attacking that turn, almost like it’s stuck in a wall or something.

The native Type of Dinosaur does not have any targets to Summon from the Extra Deck … or didn’t, until now.

Subterranean Worm Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 7 | DARK Dinosaur | ATK 2700 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If a “Rahi” monster you control battles, inflict piercing battle damage. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can target 1 “Rahi” Tuner in your GY; Special Summon it. You can only use this effect of “Subterranean Worm Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

Also featured in Tales of the Masks, this supposedly ancient creature (whatever that means in Bionicle time) is always available to get with the Rahi Nui and give your whole board piercing. But it’s primary use case actually lies before that: As a DARK Rahi that lives in the Extra Deck, it provides a consistent way to access the Rahi Nui via its Contact Fusion clause. And when you do so, the Worm in the GY will trigger to bring back a Tuner, enabling further climbing with your complementary free Synchro.

Place of Shadow

Continuous Spell

(This card is always treated as a “Rahi” and “Makuta” card.)
Once per turn: You can Tribute 1 monster; take 1 “Rahi” Normal Monster from your Deck or GY, and either add it to your hand or Special Summon it. If you Special Summon it, it becomes DARK. If this card is sent to the GY (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 “Rahi” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing materials from your field, GY, and/or face-up Extra Deck. You can only use this effect of “Place of Shadow” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)

Another way to get DARK Rahi is this card, which fetches specifically the Rahi Normal Monsters (which are, of course, the Rahi Nui’s canon components) from the Deck. This comes at the cost of a Tribute, because I thought it would be very funny to have synergy between Place of Shadow and Lair of Darkness. It’s basically the same name, after all!

Alternatively, if you send this card straight to the GY, it works as a traditional Fusion Spell that banishes its materials from field, GY, and face-up Extra Deck, leading to a whole bunch of Types on the resulting monster if you have the setup.

The following demo video also does a good job of showing these features.

Makuta

The cards related to the overlord behind all the infected Rahi terrorizing the island also got some tweaks along the way, just to keep them up to date.

3.15.5

Infected Kanohi

Equip Spell

Destroy all other “Kanohi” Equip Spell Cards equipped to the monster equipped with this card. During your opponent’s Standby Phase, if they control the equipped monster: Your opponent can send 1 card from their hand or field to the GY, except the equipped monster; otherwise, take control of the equipped monster. While your opponent controls the equipped monster, it cannot declare an attack unless your opponent sends 1 card from their hand or field to the GY. During your Draw Phase, if your opponent controls a face-up monster and this card is in your GY, instead of conducting your normal draw: You can add this card to your hand.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Infected Kanohi

Equip Spell

Destroy all other cards equipped to the equipped monster. The equipped monster cannot declare an attack or activate its effects unless its controller sends 1 card from their hand or field to the GY. During your opponent’s Standby Phase, if they control the equipped monster: Your opponent can send 1 other card from their hand or field to the GY; otherwise, take control of the equipped monster. During your Draw Phase, if your opponent controls a face-up monster and this card is in your GY, instead of conducting your normal draw: You can add this card to your hand.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Infected Kanohi got what could as this point be called a fairly standard modernization update of also restricting effect activations in additon to attacks. And it now does so even after control of that monster changes to you, because if you think about it, the struggle against the infection doesn’t end even after it manages to turn you against your allies.

3.15.5

The Makuta

Ritual Effect MonsterLevel 2 | DARK Fiend | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

You can Ritual Summon this card with “I am Nothing”. Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. If this card is Ritual Summoned: Return all Special Summoned Level/Rank 5 or higher monsters on the field to the hand. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your hand, Deck, or GY whose Level is less than or equal to the number of monsters in your GY. You can only use this effect of “The Makuta” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

The Makuta

Ritual Effect MonsterLevel 2 | DARK Fiend | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

You can Ritual Summon this card with “I am Nothing”. If this card is Ritual Summoned: You can return all Special Summoned monsters on the field with 2000 or more ATK to the hand. You can Tribute 1 DARK monster; add 1 “Rahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, then you can Special Summon 1 monster from your hand whose Level is less than or equal to the number of monsters in your GY. You can only use this effect of “The Makuta” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Makuta himself sticks to the concept of being a small Ritual Monster that mass removes large Special Summoned monsters on Summon and brings out a Rahi. But the definition of “large” has been updated to suit the standard Toa identifier of >=2000 ATK – ideally this would just have been Extra Deck monsters, since it’s based on the Toa Kaita coming undone in Makuta’s presence, but I didn’t want to ruin the Kaiju Makuta synergy. The effect to get a monster has also been upgraded to get any “Rahi” card, and after doing that you get to Summon something from hand based on how stacked your GY is, meaning the old use cases are still intact, among many others. And the change in cost is once again meant for Lair of Darkness synergy.

3.15.5

Mangaia, Lair of Makuta

Field Spell

When this card is activated: You can add 1 “Makuta” Ritual Monster or 1 Ritual Spell Card from your Deck to your hand. Once per turn: You can send up to 4 cards from the top of your Deck to the GY, and if you do, increase the Level/Rank of all Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls by 1 for each, until the end of this turn. You cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except “Makuta” monsters. Summons of “Makuta” monsters and the activation of their effects cannot be negated. If this card is in your GY: You can destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card you control, and if you do, add this card to your hand, but it cannot be activated for the rest of this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Mangaia, Lair of Makuta

Field Spell

When this card is activated: You can add 1 “Makuta” Ritual Monster or 1 Ritual Spell from your Deck to your hand. Once per turn: You can send cards from the top of your Deck to the GY, equal to the number of Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls; the ATK of all Special Summoned monsters your opponent currently controls become 2000, until the end of this turn. If this card is in your GY: You can destroy 1 Spell/Trap you control, and if you do, add this card to your hand. You can only activate 1 “Mangaia, Lair of Makuta” per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Speaking of Lairs: The wall of text that was Mangaia got cut down a bit, specifically by removing the clause preventing responses to your Makuta summons and effects – while appropriately villainous, that kind of noninteractive clause is still the thing I’m most ready to cut given the choice. Its generic milling effect has been depowered by tying it to the number of your opponent’s Special Summoned monsters, and adjusted to suit Makuta’s own new text. And rather than not being able to activate it the turn you add it back, you’re just generally limited to activating 1 per turn only.

And I guess this is a fairly reasonable point to bring up one more Rahi that’s technically Aqua, but exists outside that Type’s strategy to instead act as support for all the different Normal Pendulums representing the large sets from 2001. I’m talking about the guardians of Mangaia that did in fact release in that same wave of toys: The Manas.

3.15.5

Manas, Monstrous Crab Rahi

Effect MonsterLevel 10 | DARK Aqua | ATK 3200 / DEF 2600

Cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. Once per turn, if a Spell/Trap Card is activated: This card gains 800 ATK until the end of this turn. During your Standby Phase: Return this Special Summoned card to your hand.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Manas, Monstrous Crab Rahi

Effect MonsterLevel 10 | DARK Aqua | ATK 3200 / DEF 2600

Gains 400 ATK/DEF for each face-up Spell/Trap on the field. You can only use each of the following effects of “Manas, Monstrous Crab Rahi” once per turn. You can discard this card; add 1 “Rahi” Normal Monster from your Deck to your hand. During your opponent’s turn, if you control a “Rahi” Normal Monster Card (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from your GY, and if you do, it is unaffected by other monsters’ effects, also return it to the hand during the End Phase.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Initially, this was a big protected beater you were meant to Tribute Summon over whatever you spam with the Pendulum Rahi, to the point where it wouldn’t even stay on the field if Summoned another way. After some thorough reconsidering, its primary function is now discarding it to search a Normal Monster, and on the opponent’s turn it can be Special Summoned as a wall that’s hard to get over (in fact, it’s specifically designed so a Toa Kaita can’t deal with it except by taking out the backrow “heating towers” granting it strength). Doing this still makes it return to your hand, as before, but now that just means you can discard it for another search.

Yes, I am Nothing received no changes. Can’t fix perfection.

The Rest

One Rahi and one ex-Rahi remain, by virtue of not being at home in any of the listed strategies.

The first is a Dragon that can work with them all: the Hikaki.

3.15.5

Hikaki, Dragon Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | FIRE Dragon | ATK 1900 / DEF 700

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
When a “Rahi” monster(s) is Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Rahi” Tuner from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Hikaki, Dragon Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
● When a Trap Card is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Hikaki, Dragon Rahi

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 3 | FIRE Dragon | ATK 1900 / DEF 700

2+ Level 3 monsters
If this card is Xyz Summoned: You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. If a “Rahi” monster(s) is sent to your GY (except during the Damage Step): You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up card on the field; destroy it. You can only use each effect of “Hikaki, Dragon Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The initial use case this was meant for was getting from Beast combos into those otherwise unsearchable Insect Tuners, so really not too different from its old Pendulum Effect if you think about it. But it also has applications in other decks with multiple Level 3s, like Marine Rahi, and even in those without since it can be made generically with the Terrortop engine.

The second one has been taken out of the Rahi archetype entirely, since it technically isn’t one. “I can’t be a Rahi?”, said the Daikau. “Then I’ll be a Trap Hole, fuck you.”

3.15.5

Daikau, Floral Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WATER Plant | ATK 1500 / DEF 300

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can send 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to the GY; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK equal to that monster’s ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Daikau, Floral Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WATER monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can discard 1 “Rahi” card, then target 1 monster with 2000 or less ATK on the field; destroy it. You can only use 1 “Daikau, Floral Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
4.7.3

Daikau Trap Hole

Trap

When a monster with less than 2000 ATK activates its effect on the field: You can destroy that monster, and if it was Normal or Special Summoned this turn, you can Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Plant/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 0). (This card is NOT treated as a Trap.) If this card is in your GY: You can banish 1 Insect or Plant monster you control; Set this card. You can only use this effect of “Daikau Trap Hole” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

I wonder if anyone would bother playing this in Traptrix.

Closing Thoughts

From the moment I first put out the original versions of these cards in … 2016 I think?, I wasn’t happy with how they turned out. I even said as much in the design notes back then – I didn’t finish, I just decided to be done and move on. So you can imagine I am now very relieved to finally have this done properly. There’s still room for fixes and adjustments, as noted above, but at the very least, the archetype is now in a state where the future support that will surely come has clear design directions to follow.

Aside from that, I have to say this was fun. Way too much work at once, but still fun. I got to nerd out over a spreadsheet, write what is basically a guidebook on Rahi zoology as applied to card games, think up a bunch of cool effects and interactions, and even build some Rahi that only ever appeared in text form – the Lava Rat, Subterranean Worm, Makuta Fish, and Rahi Nui you see here are all original creations. It’s certainly a mix of creative activities I couldn’t be getting any other way.

Now, dear reader, whether you’ve made it this far through all of the above or you just scrolled and skimmed your way down here, I thank you very much for your attention and hope to eventually have it again when the Time comes.

The next update after this will be in a few months.

Designer’s Quip: Rahi for All Shapes and Sizes

With the sonorous rhyme of pottery, we enter the final article of Rahi investigation, just in time to start actually working on the update.

The remaining topic is simply all those archetype support cards that provide basic utility and are meant to be played in different strategies regardless of Type or focus, to avoid reimplementing a certain core lineup of effects over and over again.

See also:

Initial Considerations

Our scholarly journey so far has uncovered that it makes sense to group the multitude of Rahi species into a few major Types focused around distinct playstyles. Beast, Winged Beasts, and Beast-Warriors who climb into massive Synchros and win via beatdown. Aqua, Fish, and Sea Serpents who use removal and disruption effects to control the board without centering on singular boss monsters. Reptiles running a focused strategy of moving monsters, particularly Pendulums, between the front and back rows. And Insects, who provide somewhat splashable swarming of small critters and a toolbox of larger ones. All rounded out by the occasional wildcard that’s a Dragon or something.

Now if we want a reusable “Rahi core”, it’s important for it to be smoothly compatible with all of those major strategies, but at the same time it shouldn’t have too much direct synergy with any one of them, as it would just make them feel suboptimal when used in the rest. Also, anything we can put on the intentionally splashable Insects and the various standalone Dragons should be on a good path towards filling the kind of role we are aiming for here.

Other than that, a very simple and straightforward way for a card to support all available Types without belonging to any of them is for it to not have a Type at all – in other words, Spell and Trap Cards. The Rahi archetype already contains several of them, so making use of those slots effectively could lift a lot of the burden off the monster lineup.

But in any case, what needs to be established first and foremost if we want our generics to handle the universally required groundwork is this: What mechanics are actually common to all Rahi strategies, and what can be done to support those in a simple, easy-to-use manner? Here are some thoughts on that.

  • Synchro Summoning! While I have planned Fusions, Links, Xyz, and even Rituals for certain special cases, the primary representation for combiners and other large Rahi is supposed to be Synchros. Beasts & co go in extra hard on this aspect, but some basic access should be guaranteed and supported for everyone.
  • Pendulums with GY and banishment effects. One of my earliest Rahi observations on this site was about that design making it so they inhabit every niche of the gameboard ecosystem, which really suits their nature as wildlife. So I’d like to preserve that aspect, and since it doesn’t especially connect to any of the proposed playstyles, it’s probably going to end up a shared trait.
  • Support Spells/Traps with an additional effect in the GY. Nowadays, this is pretty common, but back when the first version of BCOR was made, it was meant to be a special trait – not of Rahi, but of Makuta. That’s why cards like Rahi Swarm or Rahi Hive Showdown were deliberately themed after instances of Makuta using the Rahi as a tool to attack the villages of Mata Nui. Be that as it may, the concept is still somewhat appropriate for the Rahi archetype in general, since milling and discarding are going to be major ways to actually get your Pendulums into the GY. So it’s possible additional Rahi backrow in the long term will also function like this, and as mentioned before, non-monster cards are a good vehicle for utility across Types.

Assuming I didn’t forget anything, all mechanics beyond that should be specific to a certain Type or other subgrouping of the large Rahi pool. So that restricts the focus for generic support to a few key areas: stuff like searching, revival, and maybe removal that archetypes generally tend to have, Synchro Summoning, and the specific mechanic of getting Rahi monsters, Spells, and Traps into the GY or banishment. Let’s talk about the options we have for each.

Support Directions

Searching

A very straightforward example I tend to think of when I talk about not wanting to repeat universally applicable effects across multiple subgroups is searching, i.e., adding a specified card from your Deck to your hand. Obviously, having a card that just says Add 1 “Rahi” monster is better than having one that lets you Add 1 Beast, Beast-Warrior, or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster, plus one that lets you Add 1 Aqua, Fish, or Sea Serpent “Rahi” monster, plus one that lets you Add 1 Reptile “Rahi” monster, and so on. While we do not quite have such a searcher in the style of ROTA, there are a few cards that get reasonably close.

Rahi Swarm

Spell

If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters: Add 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but different names, from your Deck to your hand. For the rest of this turn, your opponent takes no damage. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, but it cannot attack, also it is destroyed during the End Phase. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

One is Rahi Swarm, a double searcher in which a very early flash of Type-based strategy planning can be seen. That is, it searches regardless of Type, so long as both of your targets belong the same one. However, it doesn’t quite get all the way to fitting the current iteration of the concept, since it fails to account for the multi-Type groups around Beasts and Fish. What it does still cover are the Normal Pendulum Pairs for which it was originally designed, and so it will probably continue to work that way in the new version, meaning we should keep in mind that monsters you want in your hand together benefit somewhat from having the exact same Type.

Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 2500 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Synchro Summoned: Draw 1 card. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: Add 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Gukko-Kahu gives us a search of just one, but on an Extra Deck monster … when it’s sent from the field to the GY. That’s a bit nonstandard, but basically the idea is to search extension or followup while you use it as material to climb higher. Not out of tune with how Beast-ish Rahi are supposed to work, but may need some more specific limitations to avoid crossing streams with other Types.

Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 3/3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1700

Pendulum Scale = 3
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 5 Insect “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Pendulum Summon of a “Rahi” monster. You can target 1 “Rahi” monster you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster with the same Type and a lower or equal Level from your Deck, but it cannot attack this turn. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
A harsh buzz fills the air…a rustle of wings…a dark shape flying out of the sun…the warning signs of a Nui-Rama attack.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Nui-Rama offers a different kind of search by Special Summoning from the Deck, and like the Rahi Swarm that references it, it does so by matching another monster’s Type. In principle, this being an Insect does qualify it for being used by everyone and everything, but I kind of see the high-Level Normal Pendulums as something meant to specifically go into the native Type strategy, and their Insect member should be no different. Might end up restricting this one a bit more, but as a Level 5 brick with no monster effects it’s probably not worth running outside of Insects anyway. Side note, the Nui-Kopen also gets something from the Deck, but does it in a weird probabilistic way, so can’t really consider that one seriously.

Encounter in the Drifts

Counter Trap

When your opponent Summons a monster(s), except during the Damage Step: Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster whose Level is less than or equal to the highest Level among those monsters from your hand or Deck. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this Summon. You can only activate 1 “Encounter in the Drifts” per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Trap Encounter in the Drifts serves a similar purpose and also does it in a weird reactive way, but as a non-monster I’m much more inclined to preserve it for universal use. The thing is, this kind of Summoning in response to something usually works best when the monsters you bring out actually do stuff immediately when they hit the field, and how much that applies to Rahi is going to vary by strategy. Not sure yet how and where this card is going to be integrated, and in a redesign of the effect it might also be interesting to link it with The Drifts a bit more.


Next up, a known trio of troublemakers makes not trouble, but its return.

The Dragon

Hikaki, Dragon Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | FIRE Dragon | ATK 1900 / DEF 700

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
When a “Rahi” monster(s) is Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Rahi” Tuner from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Hikaki, Dragon Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
● When a Trap Card is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
The Scorpion

Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | FIRE Insect | ATK 1300 / DEF 1900

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
When a “Rahi” monster is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Kofo-Jaga, Scorpion Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●When a monster effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that monster if its ATK is lower than the ATK of the monster you shuffled into the Deck.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
The Duck

Taku, Duck Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 1700

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
During your End Phase: You can add 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your Extra Deck face-up. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
● When a Spell Card is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Hikaki searches Tuners when you Special Summon, the Kofo-Jaga searches Pendulums when you Normal Summon, and the Taku just puts stuff straight into the face-up Extra Deck. This is all in service of a little mini-engine that stacks bonus negates on a Synchro Monster, but I don’t think I’ll be keeping that around as it lacks any basis in the lore whatsoever.

So, can we at least apply their functionality as searchers generically? The two most relevant ones do happen to be a Dragon and an Insect and are therefore not strictly tied to one strategy, but I think the search utility they offer right now isn’t sufficient to make up for the Type mismatch of including them. They’d need to be cleaned up into something that’s not necessarily stronger, but easier to use and providing a service that’s hard to replace otherwise.

The Taku is out, sorry. Winged Beasts have their own thing going on, and I’m sure it will find an appropriate use over there without needing to fly into other decks.

Mahi, Goat Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 700 / DEF 1500

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
(Quick Effect): You can send 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck to the GY, then destroy this card. You can only use this effect of “Mahi, Goat Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished: You can add 1 of your banished Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monsters that was not banished this turn to your hand. You can only use 1 “Mahi, Goat Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Similarly, the Mahi searching low-Level Rahi (the handtrap Tuners, mainly) doesn’t really make too much sense for a Beast – those barely even have small ones among their ranks, for one thing. So this is another generic search we’ll end up losing in favour of supporting a specific sub-strategy.

Ghekula, Amphibious Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Aqua | ATK 1550 / DEF 1400

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
During your Main Phase: You can add 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck or GY to your hand, except “Ghekula, Amphibious Rahi”, and if you do, take damage equal to its original ATK. You can only use this effect of “Ghekula, Amphibious Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●Once per turn, if you take effect damage: Gain LP equal to the damage you took, and if you do, inflict the same amount of damage to your opponent.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

The Ghekula is a weird one that only searches because I couldn’t think of anything else useful to include in its Pendulum Effect, where the main point is actually dealing damage to yourself. Once again, it’s Aqua, those aren’t supposed to be generic, and thus there is no need to consider it here any further.

Takea, Shark Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Fish | ATK 1800 / DEF 900

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
At the start of the Damage Step, if a “Rahi” monster you control battles: You can double any battle damage your opponent takes from that battle. You can only use this effect of “Takea, Shark Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck with ATK less than or equal to half the damage inflicted, but it cannot attack this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Similar things can be said about the Takea, which summons from Deck in the weirdest, most roundabout way possible. Will definitely end up changed into something that meshes with its Fishy friends better.


So, final tally, it looks like we’ll just have three cards – a Spell, a Dragon, and an Insect – that can be used to add search power to any and all Rahi decks. Should be enough since there can always be Type-specific consistency cards to further boost it where needed; we just have to make sure these three slots are used effectively without huge redundancy. For example, if Rahi Swarm takes care of searching monsters, maybe the other two could be variants of Spell/Trap searchers. We don’t have those at all right now, and it kind of makes sense they’d be generic when the backrow is too.

Revival

Oh look, it’s Rahi Swarm again.

Rahi Swarm

Spell

If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters: Add 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but different names, from your Deck to your hand. For the rest of this turn, your opponent takes no damage. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, but it cannot attack, also it is destroyed during the End Phase. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The GY effect on this card is indeed a revive, so it fits two of the categories we’re looking for here. That’s perhaps not a bad approach to take generally, since it will help us keep the package of reusable utility small and in turn leave more room for each deck’s own gimmick. One thing I would change about this is making the revival also dependent on matching Types somehow, to keep that theme consistent.

Husi, Ostrich Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1700 / DEF 1100

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If a card in your Pendulum Zone is destroyed: You can Special Summon 1 face-up Level 4 or lower “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck. You can only use this effect of “Husi, Ostrich Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
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[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the GY: Target 1 “Rahi” monster in your GY with a lower Level than this card; Special Summon it.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Husi has revival locked behind a floating effect granted to a Synchro Monster, so even if it wasn’t mostly disqualified by virtue of its Type, using that probably wouldn’t be realistic.

Ussal, Crab Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1000

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn: You can reduce the Pendulum Scale of the card in your other Pendulum Zone by 1 until the End Phase; this turn, while this card is in your Pendulum Zone, you can also Pendulum Summon “Rahi” Pendulum Monsters from your GY, but monsters Summoned this way are destroyed during the End Phase.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower EARTH monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your GY. You can only use 1 “Ussal, Crab Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Ussal lets us revive stuff in the fanciest way possible, by rewriting the rules and Pendulum Summoning from the GY. I kind of want to keep that just for the novelty, but it may be refined with a Beast(-ish) lock and more Synchro focus. There’s also a second avenue of revival in the monster effect for EARTH monsters specifically, which kind of bleeds into other Type decks at random points, but this effect, as well as its counterparts for other Attributes, will require careful planning of their interaction with all kinds of decks anyway.

The Makuta

Ritual Effect MonsterLevel 2 | DARK Fiend | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

You can Ritual Summon this card with “I am Nothing”. Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. If this card is Ritual Summoned: Return all Special Summoned Level/Rank 5 or higher monsters on the field to the hand. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster from your hand, Deck, or GY whose Level is less than or equal to the number of monsters in your GY. You can only use this effect of “The Makuta” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

And finally, we should at least mention The Makuta one time. The overlord of the infected Rahi can get any of them to the field from almost anywhere, but I don’t really see that as Rahi support. Instead, you’re meant to use it to easily access Rahi in a deck focused around Makuta, which is something that will have to be worked out in lockstep with the Rahi update as a whole.

Synchro Support

Okay, what does that even mean? There isn’t really a specific phrase I can search to filter the cards that apply, so I guess the play is going through the potential categories of universal support and finding the stuff that interacts with Synchros. For what it’s worth, though, I can already say that none of the currently implemented cards explicitly mention “Rahi” Synchro Monsters.

Siege of the Rahi

Continuous Spell

Once per turn, when your opponent Normal or Special Summons a Level 4 or lower monster(s): You can change 1 of those monsters to face-down Defense Position. During your End Phase, if you do not control a Level 5 or higher “Rahi” monster: Destroy this card. If a Level 5 or higher “Rahi” monster you control would be destroyed, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Of the Spells/Traps, the one that gets closest is Siege of the Rahi, which acts as disruption if you control a high-Level Rahi, and as protection for that same group. That does include a lot of Synchros, but not all Synchros are high-Level and not all high Levels are Synchros, so it’s only tangentially relevant.

Since Synchro Summoning is a pretty monster-centric process, I’m not sure backrow can meaningfully contribute to that anyway, outside of general stuff that gets you more monsters. An alternative way they could take advantage of Synchros being used by all Types is gaining additional or stronger effects while you control a Synchro Monster. Something like Devastation of the Rahi may get to blow up additional cards in that case, for example.


One thing that more directly helps us with Synchro plays is, of course, Tuners. As those tend to be at low Levels, Insects may be of some assistance.

Fikou, Spider Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | EARTH Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 400

You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Level 3 or higher “Rahi” monster you control; reduce that target’s Level by 1, then Special Summon 1 “Fikou, Spider Rahi” from your hand or Deck. You can only use this effect of “Fikou, Spider Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

If the Normal Pendulums were the first prototype of Type-specific Rahi support, then the Fikou was the original Type-independent support card to go with them. It’s purpose is simply to duplicate itself next to a high-Level Rahi to enable a Synchro play, which is kind of the key thing we’re going to need for all the different Synchro-based strategies: An easily Special Summonable Tuner.

The rest of the little bug dudes – the Hoto , Electric/Lightning Bug , and Cliff Bug -do not currently satisfy this requirement, instead acting as handtraps with no inherent way to get them on the field for Synchro plays. That leaves the Fikou in an unfortunately load-bearing position, and has just now started bothering me aesthetically because all of these monsters even have different Attributes! They’re missing DARK and WIND, but the powers afforded to me by The Spreadsheet let me know those slots can be filled later with something like Niazesk and Protodites, so really these guys are just asking to be grouped together. Will probably redesign them all so they can get themselves on the field for some Tuning, maybe with a small hint of their original disruptive effects, and possibly change them to Level 1 as well.


If you have your Tuners and non-Tuners assembled, you’re ready to perform a Synchro Summon … if the stars align. Swarming the field won’t help you if you can’t get the right sum of Levels, so ways to modulate those also fall under the category of Synchro support. We’ve already seen the Fikou do it as a drawback that could be cleverly worked into a combo, but there is another card that gives you this ability with much more freedom.

Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi

Synchro Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1650

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can choose a number from 1 to 4; reduce this card’s Level by that number, then take damage equal to that number x 300. When using this Synchro Summoned card as a Synchro Material, you can use 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck (and no other monsters) as the other Synchro Material.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Dikapi is not only a Synchro Tuner, but can also lower its Level to whatever you need to make the numbers work out. As a Winged Beast, it couldn’t be in a better place to provide that kind of help to its native deck, but meant to be splashable in other Types it is not. As it is right now, I wouldn’t build a Rahi deck without using this, so to keep things orderly it will need some restrictions added.

Where, then, are we to get our Level modulation? Well, for one thing we could simply make sure the Levels on the Synchros and their materials natively line up so that isn’t necessary, just like plenty of archetypes have managed already. But with how much variation there is in Rahi sizes, it might not end up feeling right to strictly tie the best size indicator we have to gameplay maths, so I’d like a plan B just in case. And the most suitable choice for that are probably the Insect Tuners, since you’ll need them for Synchro plays anyway, and the Fikou already changes Levels anyway. My second preference would be the Spells/Traps, where you can cheaply include a bonus Level change as a GY effect or something.

Graveyard/Banishment Support

This last one is actually really important to have freely available with minimal investment, so as to enable smooth operation of the schizoid design choice that is “Pendulum Monsters with GY effects”. In an age where regular monsters can access their postmortem shenanigans simply by becoming Link Material, we can’t afford to jump through any major hoops just to trigger the ones we have on our Pendulums. That means effects, or even better costs, that send from hand/Deck/Extra Deck need to be nearly as accessible as basic game mechanics.

Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1400 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can send 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to the GY; this card gains 500 ATK. You can banish this card until the End Phase of your next turn; destroy 1 card on the field. You can only use this effect of “Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Kirikori-Nui offers such functionality from the Insect side, sending straight from Deck to GY as cost. You just need to pull of a Level 3 Synchro Summon, which is going to be a bit tricky without the Level modulation covered in the previous section. As of right now, this is meant to be made by using the Fikou on one of the Level 3 Rahi, which are the ones concentrating all the GY/banish effects. Maybe with a softening of those established statlines, a legitimate Level 2 non-Tuner may also pop up somewhere.

Daikau, Floral Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WATER Plant | ATK 1500 / DEF 300

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can send 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to the GY; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK equal to that monster’s ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Daikau, Floral Rahi” once per turn.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WATER monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can discard 1 “Rahi” card, then target 1 monster with 2000 or less ATK on the field; destroy it. You can only use 1 “Daikau, Floral Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Daikau’s Pendulum Effect is a Main Deck example of milling a Rahi for cost, though with the drawback that the associated effect requires your opponent to have a monster first. Its misfit Type of Plant looks like something we’re looking for at first glance, but keep in mind that this is an actual plant and not technically a Rahi – which makes its future inclusion in the archetype dubious. As of right now, I would not count on having this available in this form after the update.

Moa, Bird Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1300 / DEF 600

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can banish 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck; this card’s Pendulum Scale becomes the same as that monster’s, and if it does, destroy this card during the End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Moa, Bird Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can shuffle 1 of your banished “Rahi” cards into the deck. If this card is banished: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your hand. You can only use 1 “Moa, Bird Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

And the Moa is the counterpart to those two for banishing, while requiring nothing but itself on the field to be usable. Unfortunately, it’s a Winged Beast, so we don’t actually want it to be overly generic. That said, I believe birds having a bit of a native banishing focus is an idea that has come up before, so this effect might be worth keeping with some anti-splash restriction.

A brief mention goes to various Beasts that help us bin or banish stuff, but in ways that aren’t really good enough to be worth keeping. The Mahi sends from Extra Deck to GY as its entire Pendulum Effect, the Brakas lets you banish for free if you happen to draw a Rahi while it’s scaled, and the Vako gives you a draw you can discard (thus putting it in the GY) for a stat boost.

Hoto, Firebug Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 300

(Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your hand or field and 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY, then target 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls; banish that target. Your opponent cannot activate the targeted card in response to this effect’s activation. You can only use this effect of “Hoto, Firebug Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

More interesting are the Level 2 handtrap Tuners, many of them Insects. The banishing costs on these were initially meant to be how you get the banish triggers, but that idea was always weak on account of requiring Pendulums in the GY first. I don’t see anything wrong with a simple fix of letting you also banish from the face-up Extra Deck, so that’s likely to happen for their update – maybe combined with a way to more easily get them on field as Tuners.

Finally, a stealthy one.

Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi

Synchro Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1650

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can choose a number from 1 to 4; reduce this card’s Level by that number, then take damage equal to that number x 300. When using this Synchro Summoned card as a Synchro Material, you can use 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck (and no other monsters) as the other Synchro Material.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Dikapi’s additional ability to use Pendulums in the Extra Deck as Synchro Material does cause them to go to the GY by game mechanics, making it the closest equivalent we have to “just linking them off”. As noted previously, this is supposed to be a card exclusive to the Beast strategy, which has two key implications for me. One, there will have to be some (Winged) Beast Rahi that do stuff in the GY to take advantage of this, and two, I might need to come up with a generic equivalent if this really does turn out to be the absolute best Extra->GY mechanism.

One plan I can reveal in that direction already is that the Rahi Nui, big multi-Type Contact Fusion monstrosity that it is, will also come with a kind of Fusion Spell, and that one will allow using materials from hand, field, and/or face-up Extra Deck. So at least there’s going to be an option that can theoretically work in any deck, if it’s willing to run Rahi Nui stuff.

Conclusion

In summary, the following areas in need of generic support have the following cards that can potentially fill that role right out of the gate:

  • Searching: The Rahi Swarm Spell, the Dragon-Type Hikaki, and the Insect-Type Kofo-Jaga; matching Types may be relevant for monster searches, and a way to search Spells and Traps would certainly be helpful.
  • Revival: Rahi Swarm again … but nothing else currently, outside the Synchro Spam of the Beast strategy. Maybe we should provide something in the Extra Deck, but whether that’s generic or not and whether that’s part of the initial wave or not is still up in the air. Pendulums do kind of have this built in anyway, but then we send ours to GY and banishment, not to mention the Tuners tend not to be Pendulums at all …
  • Synchro Support: A way to universally ensure access to Synchro Monsters is implementing various small Insect Rahi as Tuners that can Special Summon themselves. A way to take advantage of having those Synchros everywhere is letting generic Spells/Traps access bonus effects in the presence of Synchro Monsters. Level Modulation is something we might need, but do not currently have a solid home for – may be the Insects as well.
  • GY/Banishment Support: Methods exist to get Pendulums where we want them in the form of costs, several on them even on cards that are appropriate to be made generic. However, like with the searchers, a way to do this with Spells and Traps is absent and should be added.

Overall, I think it’s best to limit the use of generic Main Deck monsters to key engine-driving features like searching and tuning, as otherwise it will be hard to justify including them despite mismatched Types. Everything more involved should be either Extra Deck monsters, which are easier to fit (but do need to be designed around when it comes to Type locks and such), and Spells/Traps that can trivially go anywhere. There are a few already existing backrow cards like Infection of the Rahi that have not been mentioned here yet because they do absolutely nothing relevant, so certainly those could be reworked to do stuff we’re missing. Not to mention that new ones can be made at any time if I can just find some Rahi-related object/place/event/concept to base it on. A lot easier than monsters.

More precise design decisions will have to wait until the update is further along, because the really challenging part is going to be simultaneously streamlining these generic cards in each and every one of the different strategies. One can only hope that 10 full articles of yapping about Rahi have sufficiently prepared me for this task.

Designer’s Quip: Matoran’s Best Friend

Oh golly, finally a post that talks about something else than Rahi and …

nah, tricked you, still a Rahi post. But only one more to go after this, so we have in fact reached peak penultimacy. I’m not sure that’s a word, but at the very least it’s a combination of letters that has been typed before.

See also:

Concept

Certain Rahi appear not only in the wild, but also fill significant roles within Matoran society, particularly its more rural incarnation on the island of Mata Nui. Whether they are used as beasts of burden, kept as pets, or handle more specific tasks, that is a relationship that would be nice to reflect in card design.

To some extent, this has already been done from the Matoran side:

Matoran Racer Onepu

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 700 / DEF 500

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can target 1 of your banished EARTH monsters; place it on the bottom of the Deck, then you can reveal any number of “Matoran” monsters in your hand, and if you do, gain 500 LP for each. During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Racer Onepu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Matoran Pilot Kongu

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 400

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can send 1 Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or Deck to the GY, and if you do, this card can attack your opponent directly this turn. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Pilot Kongu” once per turn. When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can banish 1 WIND monster from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls with DEF less than or equal to that banished monster’s ATK; destroy it.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

These two individuals whose occupations both involve riding certain types of Rahi interact with just that in-game Type, providing a point of synergy that justifies mixing a Rahi or two into an appropriate Koro deck. In the other direction, the interaction is a bit less targeted and stems mainly from that small group of Rahi that provide a generic revival effect for their respective Attributes – as we will see in a moment.

To summarize the question at hand: What is the best way to encode these connections between Matoran and Rahi into designs going forward?

Implemented

For four of the six Attributes, we already have one Rahi each that helps out by bringing back other matching monsters from the GY. Most prominent in this group are the EARTH and WIND ones that are already involved in combos with the Matoran shown above.

Ussal, Crab Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1000

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn: You can reduce the Pendulum Scale of the card in your other Pendulum Zone by 1 until the End Phase; this turn, while this card is in your Pendulum Zone, you can also Pendulum Summon “Rahi” Pendulum Monsters from your GY, but monsters Summoned this way are destroyed during the End Phase.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower EARTH monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your GY. You can only use 1 “Ussal, Crab Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Ussal is a crab that sees widespread use among Matoran for … more or less anything you might use a horse for in our world. Transporting passengers or cargo, riding into battle, racing for sport, and all that stuff. Their chief employers are the Onu-Matoran and, on Metru-Nui, also the Le-Matoran. Between being strictly ground-based creatures and their special skill of helping with tunnel-digging, it’s clear EARTH is the most reasonable Attribute to support.

The other effects are specific to Rahi, so a Matoran deck won’t derive any benefit from them (though they do theoretically work with additional copies of the card). This isn’t necessarily a problem, since the synergy already functions fine when built around the single generic effect, but we will have to reconsider the in-archetype interactions in light of the shift to Type-based substrategies. Perhaps in that process, we could take some care to give the Rahi in this little category abilities that, to some extent, still apply in a non-Rahi deck – like recycling themselves, for example.

Kewa, Vulture Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 400

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If you control no other cards: You can add 1 WIND monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Kewa, Vulture Rahi”, and if you do, destroy this card during the End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” once per turn.
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[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WIND monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can add 1 “Rahi” card from your GY to your hand. You can only use 1 “Kewa, Vulture Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Gukko and its subspecies, including the Kewa, are the aerial steeds used in Le-Koro, and thus a close counterpart to the Ussal. It only makes sense then, to make it the WIND representative of the same category, and indeed much of what we said for the crab also applies to the vulture. The Pendulum Effect on this one is actually extremely useful in generic WIND decks, being able to search basically anything as long as you use it on an empty field, but it also definitely isn’t surviving a redesign, so eh.


Daikau, Floral Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WATER Plant | ATK 1500 / DEF 300

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can send 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to the GY; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK equal to that monster’s ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Daikau, Floral Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WATER monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can discard 1 “Rahi” card, then target 1 monster with 2000 or less ATK on the field; destroy it. You can only use 1 “Daikau, Floral Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Infernavika, Lava Bird Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | FIRE Winged Beast | ATK 1100 / DEF 800

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn, at the start of the Battle Phase: You can target 1 face-up monster you control; this turn, when that target battles an opponent’s monster, destroy both monsters at the start of the Damage Step, except FIRE monsters.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower FIRE monster from your GY, except this card. If this card is banished: You can banish the top card of your Deck; add this card to your Extra Deck face-up. You can only use 1 “Infernavika, Lava Bird Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Now the WATER and FIRE members don’t get more than a footnote in this article, because neither the Daikau nor the Infernavika are in any way utilized by Matoran (and the former technically isn’t even a Rahi). I just gave them these effects to round out the quartet as an afterthought, and they’re probably not keeping them.

Of course, this does raise the question of who should instead fill the niche for these Attributes – would be unfair for only half the villages to have Rahi support, after all. Ta-Koro is a bit out of luck here, since it seems like the only real candidates are an elemental recolor of Po-Koro’s Mahi and an unnamed six-legged fox … not exactly the most worthwhile things to turn into cards.

We do, however, have one more legitimate option for Ga-Koro.

Keras, Crab Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WATER Aqua | ATK 1400 / DEF 500

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
At the start of the Damage Step, if a monster you control with 1000 or less ATK battles an opponent’s monster: You can destroy this card, and if you do, that monster you control gains 1400 ATK until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Keras, Crab Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower monster on the field; that target is unaffected by Spell/Trap effects until the end of this turn. If this card is banished: You can target 1 Set card on the field; destroy it. You can only use 1 “Keras, Crab Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

The Keras are a more aquatic kind of crab that served as special steeds to the Ga-Matoran when they were fighting off the Bohrok swarms. This is reflected by their effects that actually all work generically to either support those with low ATK and/or Levels (Hint: that includes Matoran), or fight against face-down cards (Hint: Bohrok are Flip Monsters). That’s kind of a step up in terms of splashable design compared to what we saw so far, but given the clear parallels to Ussal and Kewa, replacing some part of these abilities with the WATER revive currently held by the Daikau is under serious consideration.


Now, moving on to Rahi that have been implemented, but failed to receive any mechanics reflecting their canon domestication. There’s a surprising amount of these.

Mahi, Goat Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | EARTH Beast | ATK 700 / DEF 1500

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
(Quick Effect): You can send 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck to the GY, then destroy this card. You can only use this effect of “Mahi, Goat Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished: You can add 1 of your banished Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monsters that was not banished this turn to your hand. You can only use 1 “Mahi, Goat Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Mahi are iconic for the herds of them that can be seen (and heard) in MNOG’s Po-Koro, but their usefulness as livestock has only been adapted here in the sense that they provide a lot of helpful utility effects to the Rahi archetype. One idea I have for an overhaul is to have an effect that not only provides a bit of generic utility, but also resembles some part of what Po-Koro does – the destruction replacement effect, for example, was specifically based off the Mahi trading happening in the village!

Husi, Ostrich Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1700 / DEF 1100

Pendulum Scale = 5
[ Pendulum Effect ]
If a card in your Pendulum Zone is destroyed: You can Special Summon 1 face-up Level 4 or lower “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck. You can only use this effect of “Husi, Ostrich Rahi” once per turn. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster that was Summoned using this card as Synchro Material gains this effect.
●If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the GY: Target 1 “Rahi” monster in your GY with a lower Level than this card; Special Summon it.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

The Husi plays a similar role as livestock slash trade item, and in this case the effect it gives to a Synchro Monster is based on the idea of “trading”. But again, nothing here in any way works outside the Rahi archetype, so adjustments will have to be made if we want Matoran synergy.

Hapaka, Shepherd Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WATER Beast | ATK 1200 / DEF 1400

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
“Rahi” monsters you control gain 700 DEF. If a “Rahi” monster(s) you control would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If you do not control “Hapaka, Shepherd Rahi”, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand or GY) by changing 1 Level 4 or lower “Rahi” monster you control to Defense Position. If Summoned this way, banish this card when it leaves the field. If this card is banished: You can return 1 of your banished “Rahi” monsters to your GY, except “Hapaka, Shepherd Rahi”. You can only use this effect of “Hapaka, Shepherd Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

For the protection of their Mahi herds and Husi flocks, the Po-Matoran employed Hapaka. Accordingly, the effects on this one are themed around protecting other Rahi (or in case of the banish one, “returning them to the herd”), but again locked into the archetype specifically. Adjusting it for use with Matoran is going to be a bit awkward because the color scheme and their habitat in the mountains suggest to me that it’s an Ice Rahi, thus WATER … but it’s mainly used in Po-Koro, which wants EARTH. A though nut.

Since these three are so explicitly connected and all belong to the Beast/Beast-Warrior/Winged Beast typings, I could actually see them primarily acting as a small synergistic group within that strategy. Then maybe helping out Matoran could be kept to a largely symbolic level, with effects that can technically work in a Po-Koro deck, but don’t necessarily have to be so good you actually would use them.

Dikapi, Ostrich Rahi

Synchro Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 5 | EARTH Winged Beast | ATK 1000 / DEF 1650

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can choose a number from 1 to 4; reduce this card’s Level by that number, then take damage equal to that number x 300. When using this Synchro Summoned card as a Synchro Material, you can use 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck (and no other monsters) as the other Synchro Material.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

On a less prominent note (in fact I wasn’t aware of this previously), the Dikapi apparently were also tamed by Po-Matoran, but as mounts for scouts and messengers rather than for trading. As the resident Synchro Tuner, this is a key piece in the Beast & co Synchro climb strategy, so I’m having a hard time imagining it redesigned in a way that also works with decks using Matoran. But maybe there is a chance if the materials are adjusted to make it feasible? Po-Koro does also want to spam stuff from the Extra Deck, after all. Side note, since the Dikapi’s big selling point is endurancem, and strong grind game is all the hotness in Yugioh these days, it would be nice if it did something related to that.

Moa, Bird Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 2/2 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1300 / DEF 600

Pendulum Scale = 2
[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can banish 1 “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck; this card’s Pendulum Scale becomes the same as that monster’s, and if it does, destroy this card during the End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Moa, Bird Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card is sent to the GY: You can shuffle 1 of your banished “Rahi” cards into the deck. If this card is banished: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower “Rahi” monster from your hand. You can only use 1 “Moa, Bird Rahi” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

To continue and complete the theme that Po-Matoran will tame anything, the Moa also appeared domesticated in the one game that included it. But that was only one individual Rahi, so honestly it’s probably better to just ignore that unless we happen to figure out a really subtle way to include it.


Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 2500 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Synchro Summoned: Draw 1 card. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: Add 1 “Rahi” monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Gukko-Kahu, Hawk Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

What we can’t ignore is the Gukko-Kahu, the larger of the birds ridden by Le-Koro’s aerial cavalry. This is another case where the domestication was translated into effects with broad utility, but in this case one of them is a simple draw, so that’s even generic. Once again, an adjustment of materials might be all it takes to make this justifiable in a Le-Koro deck. Those aren’t explicitly about Synchro Summoning, but with Makani in there, they certainly can.

Potential Members

Now on to those candidates that have not yet received cards. This could be because we haven’t reached their part of the story yet, or because they were just deemed too irrelevant.

By that latter category, I really just mean the Lightfish, the shiny little things you see floating in Ga-Koro’s lamps in MNOG backgrounds. If implemented, they would go into the Fish/Aqua/Sea Serpent strategy that centers on effect-based removal and disruption, while also helping the Ga-Matoran playstyle that wants as many quick effects as possible. That does sound like a winning combination at first, but then things stop aligning when you consider the Attribute – wouldn’t this one have to be LIGHT going by the name? When Ga-Koro has one of the most xenophobic Attribute limitations of all the villages? I guess you could work around it a bit if it was able to banish itself from the GY as cost for a quick effect, but still, doesn’t sound too optimal. And just making it WATER feels so boring.

Anyway, I think that does it for the Rahi species that were domesticated on the island of Mata Nui. It’s worth mentioning that the Mask of Light movie prominently figures a specific Ussal and Gukko that are both going to get their own cards in the next expansion, but I already have a fairly solid plan in place to make those work primarily in the Mask of Light deck while having some secondary utility for Rahi decks.


The years of 2004 and beyond, of course, introduced some more Rahi kept by Matoran. With the wolf-like Kavinika, taming them and using them as guard dogs ended in failure, so maybe giving them outside synergy isn’t even the right move. But I think it would be funny if I manage to figure out a technically generic effect that looks enticing to include in Ga-Metru decks, but ends up not working in practice due to debilitating drawbacks that bite you in the ass. Not exactly an easy balancing task, though.

Razor Whales, gentle giants of the sea, can also be tamed and ridden by Matoran once their tail spines fall off in old age. This gives us the interesting case of a Rahi that joins the domesticated group with a delay, which is mechanically problematic in a speed freak game like this one. Perhaps it could work in a way where it has one effect representing its young self, and using that one immediately enables a second one that has it acting as a mount. And like many large Rahi, there’s a good chance this would be a Synchro, so this is another case where we might want it to be generic for use with Matoran.

The Kikanalo is a bit of a questionable inclusion, since they aren’t exactly kept by Matoran. Rather, they’re accidentally beneficial due to the Protodermis they dig up – which is also appreciated by other Rahi like Catapult Scorpions. It stands to reason that this trait may translate into some (semi-)generic way to generate (excavate?) resources, but I don’t think it needs to be tuned to the point where you’d actually use it in a Po-Metru deck or anything like that. There’s also the matter of Toa Lhikan riding a Kikanalo in his set representation, but that never comes up in the lore and is also sufficiently explained by Lhikan being just that badass, so I don’t think it needs to be addressed from the Rahi side.


Moving on to Voya Nui, there isn’t really much worth mentioning – even the native Rock Ussal were never seen domesticated, probably because they’re a more aggressive breed.

But even in this kind of hostile ecosystem, the Le-Matoran Piruk specifically still managed to have a pet, namely a tame Burnak. Since this is such a minor one-time thing in side media, much like Lhikan’s Kikanalo, it should be sufficient to maybe include some unassuming piece of synergy with whatever Piruk ends up doing.


And as the last hurrah of Rahi getting along with Matoran, we dive into the waters of Mahri Nui and find Hydruka at work in the air fields. In a first since Mata Nui, we’re looking at a Rahi that appeared primarily in a domesticated state, so that definitely should be a significant part of the effect design. They harvest the air bubbles that are essential to the survival of the underwater Matoran, which makes me think their role should be to provide whatever in-game resource will end up representing that. Of course, this being 2007 story material that won’t be implemented for ages, the details are still fuzzy at best.

Finally, we do also have two more cases of specific individuals being tamed, rather than a species as a whole.

One is the Energy Hound Spinax, guard dog of The Pit. While their looks and abilities indicate they might very well be serving similar roles in a lot of other places, we only ever see one of them. Since their skill at tracking was always going to be the primary guide for their design anyway, domestication status probably doesn’t even make a difference here. Throwing in a pit (this was a typo but I’m leaving it) of synergy with all the other stuff surrounding The Pit only makes sense, of course.

The other, as I am just realizing, may actually be a throwback to the Ussal and to Pewku in particular, since we’re talking about a Hahnah crab kept by Jaller.

While it didn’t do much other than act as a Cordak mount, I could see it belonging less with other Rahi and more with the Toa Mahri archetype as a “team pet” of sorts. The affinity for heat also suggests FIRE synergy, so you really don’t have to look hard to find generic usage for this one.

Conclusion

Rahi domestication was primarily a focus during the Mata Nui years, so a large part of the cards to consider here have already been implemented. However, since only a select few of them actually incorporate synergy with Matoran, this is going to be a major point to consider in upcoming redesigns. So far, the main direction has been support based on the Attribute, which I intend to keep at least for the Ussal and Kewa, since those already work pretty well with their Matoran handlers. The Keras may also join this group, but at the same time its present incarnation shows a different approach of having the card generically help with the task for which it was tamed.

When it comes to the remaining Rahi, it would of course be nice to have a proper FIRE member so every village gets a helping Rahi, but it’s a bit unfortunate that the first real opportunity for that is the Hahnah all the way in 2007. Others can be categorized either as being domesticated at large scale for a given purpose, or as wild creatures that beneficially interact with the Matoran population in some spots, or as pets that belonged to certain individuals. I believe the Keras model of just doing something generically helpful and thematically appropriate should work fine for the first two types, while the final one is easily handled by synergizing specifically with the pet’s owner.

An interesting thought that cropped up along the way is that large Rahi like the Kahu or the Razor Whale, which are generally expected to be Synchro Monsters, could be made accessible to Matoran and others by simply making their materials fully generic. This potentially simplifies effect design compared to main deck cards, since you can then incorporate them in a combo without needing to justify running a non-archetypal brick.

Finally, I want to make sure that these Rahi, while capable of helping Koro and other non-Rahi decks, do also still have a spot in their native Rahi strategies. After all, a big reason to split those up by Type was always that it simplifies design of anything added to the archetype later, and that’s especially useful when you have the extra challenge of also making it work outside the archetype.

It also helps, as I’m just noticing, that all the Rahi covered here come from only two Type groups: Beast/Beast-Warrior/Winged Beast and Fish/Aqua/Sea Serpent. No Reptiles or Insects to be found, and nothing exotic either if we (rightfully) ignore the Daikau. In other words: We now know everything except those two groups is free to throw around archetype locks and such without having to worry about ruining some lore-friendly hybrid in the distant future!

Designer’s Quip: Surprise Rahi

Boo! Bet you didn’t expect another one of these! What, you obviously did because there are several unaddressed items left in the overview? Shut up and pretend otherwise for the sake of my joke, because this is the Ambush Predator article.

Much like an ambush, this should be relatively quick since it’s such a small group, but let’s see what there is to cover.

See also:

Concept

The reason I’m specifically highlighting this one as a “behavioral grouping” in addition to those that go by card properties is that it appears prominently in the traits of a few different Rahi, and translates fairly nicely to card game mechanics. So naturally, it would be nice to have a somewhat consistent way of representing ambush predation, though we may need to differentiate based on the broader deck types each Rahi is meant to play a role in. Today’s goal is getting a handle on exactly that.

The Rahi Who Predate Ambushingly

An early and already implemented example of an Ambush Predator is the Tarakava, as evidenced by its flavor text.

Tarakava, Lizard Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 6 | Scale 3/3 | WATER Reptile | ATK 2600 / DEF 1200

Pendulum Scale = 3
[ Pendulum Effect ]
While you have a Level 6 Reptile “Rahi” Pendulum Monster Card in your other Pendulum Zone, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Pendulum Summon of a “Rahi” monster. When an opponent’s monster declares a direct attack: You can destroy this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
The first thing to remember about Tarakava is that even if you can’t see them, they are always there.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

What’s relevant here is the Pendulum Effect that Special Summons in response to an attack, “ambushing” the opponent with a monster they couldn’t see – but it was always there. Never mind that they could technically see it in the Pendulum Zone, we can’t exactly give a Normal Monster a hand effect.

This effect implements the idea of a sudden Tarakava attack, but also somewhat ties into the broader planned Reptile Rahi playstyle that’s supposed to be all about moving monsters back and forth between Monster and Pendulum Zones (and a future overhaul would probably align with that even more closely). A Beast-Type employing the same hunting tactic, by comparison, may have received a version of the effect that doesn’t mess around with Pendulum Zones in the same way.

We should probably consider a quick statistical rundown of the remaining Ambush Predators, which I have marked as candidates for the “Flip” subtype in the spreadsheet. These make up a modest total of 5 Rahi, consisting of 2 Insects, 1 Reptile, 1 Beast and 1 Winged Beast.


On the Insect side, the general plan calls for making them weird and toolboxy, with the option of integrating them with other Rahi Types or the established Insect pile. The latter has its own prominent ambush predator in Infinite Antlion, popping out of the hand and then popping the opponent’s cards during battle. We could use this as reference, however we must keep in mind there’s a significant difference between this Level 3 and the substantially larger 5- and 6-star Rahi noted down as ambushing Insects.

One is the Chute Lurker, a Visorak combiner that could also be Aqua because it’s amphibious and could also get away with being a Level 4, but my instinct from just looking at it leans more towards a high-level Insect. Its ambushes take the form of grabbing prey that comes flying around curves in the Le-Metru Chute System, so the exact implementation of its effects will hinge on how we end up representing that stuff. In any case, the Flip idea where it would be triggered by the opponent attacking it sounds much too slow for such a speedy context, so more likely it’d be something from the hand again. Maybe related to some measure of speed like when your opponent is drawing/summoning/activating too much stuff in a short period of time.

By comparison, the Tunnel Stalker’s wait-and-lurk approach to hunting would actually go well with it sitting face-down, “under the sand”, and assaulting whatever dares walk over it. The tricky part is also providing enough general utility to be worth playing when your chances to get off the battle effect as planned aren’t exactly going to be high, but I imagine we could just have it offer a weaker version of its gimmick from hand and/or GY as a less high-roll alternative.

There’s actually a third maybe-Insect, which also happens to be our first probably-Beast. You see, typing tends to be a bit uncertain on shapeshifters like the Archives Beast, so my two main options are to go with what’s mentioned in the name or the kind of animal most known for mimicry. Either way, the unique method of ambush by shapeshifting means we’re probably combining the element of surprise with one of copying properties of other cards – maybe more than just monsters, given that its part in the story had it posing as a room. As an Insect, this would probably be implemented in a fairly simple and straightforward manner to work as a standalone tool, while as a Beast, I could see it being more of a inherited effect in the same vein as the current Level 4 Pendulums, aiding that Type’s goal of climbing into big Synchro bosses. And if it’s instead a Reptile – could be – then it might do something like destroying a Spell/Trap to take its zone and then assault monsters from there.

As a sister Type to Beasts, the Winged Beast representative Vahki Hunter would likely be worked into the same Synchro climb strategy, but might up being itself one of the mid-tier bosses since it’s pretty damn big. As previously noted, its diet of mostly machinery should manifest in some kind of bonus against Machines, but the broader effect representation of its ambushing tactics should be generically usable to have any relevance. It attacks the tail end of passing Vahki squads, so maybe something “at the end of the Battle Phase”, to somewhat keep with the beatdown theme?

And finally, the Swamp Stalker is a Reptile that hunts much like a crocodile … which is just the Tarakava all over again. Except this one doesn’t punch and is smaller, even more so when it’s not a mutant specimen. I struggle to think of anything super original it could do while aligning with the scale manipulation gimmick, so maybe the Reptiles just need to cook a bit more before we settle on something here. It’s from Karda Nui, so there’s ample time.

Conclusion

I definitely don’t get the impression that my very first idea of making the Ambush Predators a cohesive Flip-based strategy has any chance of panning out at all. The different types they span simply have too widely varying needs and gimmicks, and mechanics based on ambushing aren’t a strong enough focus to easily work as a completely standalone thing with so few members.

Instead, what’s probably going to happen is that they all end up as unrelated pieces of their own native strategies, offering different takes on ambush-based effects depending on what most helps the decks they’re supposed to go in.

But maybe, just as a little gag, we could set things up so eventually a support card can be made that works for specifically those scattered Rahi? Like by making them all Flip monsters after all (that don’t necessarily rely on flipping), or using a common statline, or have an effect pattern that could be referenced by a “that has an effect that …” clause. We’ll see, not like it matters too much.

Release: Unity Evolved

Featuring Xyz made from Fusions, Fusions made from Xyz, a Rank-Up (that also goes down?) and … Mata-less Nuva?

In the spirit of evolution, we have also evolved past the need for download links – the expansion is now available as a repository integrated with EDOPro, automatically updating in the background whenever you open the game!

To set that up, all you need is a simple edit to a config file – see here.

The one thing that doesn’t include is decks, which you can instead get from this archive. This update brings a whopping 5 new ones, so we’ll cover that in addition to the usual notes.

New Cards

Let’s start with the odd one out, the one that doesn’t relate to the overall Kaita theme of the release. A new “Nuva” Continuous Spell called Tales of the Nuva.

Tales of the Nuva

Continuous Spell

When this card is activated: You can add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card from your Deck to your hand. If a “Nuva” Spell/Trap(s) is sent from the hand and/or Deck to your GY: You can target 1 of them; Set it to your field. If your opponent activates a monster effect: You can send this card to the GY, then target 1 “Toa Nuva” monster you control or in your GY; shuffle it into the Deck, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 “Toa Nuva” Fusion Monster with a different name from your Extra Deck. You can only use each effect of “Tales of the Nuva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

The name and image on this one borrow from Tales of the Masks, the fourth book in the Bionicle Chronicles series, in which the Turaga tell each other stories of the Toa Nuva’s exploits while dropping Metru Nui foreshadowing left and right because it was already late 2003. We aren’t quite that far yet, however, so rather than foreshadowing, this card is motivated by two other specific aims:

  • Providing a Continuous Spell that isn’t a Nuva Symbol . While I do quite like the shared structure of search + major benefit + punish I put together for those, it’s proven to be a bit of an annoyance in deckbuilding – the search part makes it feel like you’re missing out if you’re not also playing the matching Toa Mata (i.e., a Level 6 Main Deck Brick), while the lore-relevant punish gives your deck a whole new weakness you really might rather avoid. But if you then decide not to play the Nuva Symbols, the half of the Kanohi Nuva that searches Continuous Spells becomes useless, which also doesn’t sit right with me. Thus the conclusion: We need a “Nuva” Continuous Spell that is not a Nuva Symbol, doesn’t require playing a Toa Mata, and doesn’t risk accidentally losing you the game!
  • Dabbling in designing a “custom card”, in the meaning of the term used when talking about actual Konami-published Yugioh product. That is, a support card printed a wave or two after the core of its archetype, featuring a patently ridiculous lineup of effects that resolve a bunch of outstanding issues and make a flawed deck seriously playable overnight. I figured a boost like this might be needed after the Isolde ban kneecapped my previous Toa Mata/Nuva builds (Warriors and Equip Spells!), and thematically it fits this particular card because the book it’s based on was also a late addition to the Toa Nuva vs Bohrok-Kal part of the story.

So what issues does this actually resolve? Well, on activation it searches you an Energized Protodermis card , giving you a bridge from our numerous Nuva Spell/Trap searchers into our fusion enablers – one that doesn’t need a specific Toa Mata in hand to work. While on the field, it lets you Set a Nuva Spell/Trap that was sent from the hand or Deck to the GY, offsetting the discard required by the aforementioned searches in situations where you can’t do so with a Kanohi Nuva. Finally, when your opponent does stuff, it can send itself to the GY to swap a Toa Nuva into a different one, allowing you to make better use of the toolbox offered by their various effects. And because this can also target a monster in the GY, it doubles as a way to recover after the front row of your board is broken.

Overall, the structure here is search + minor benefit + major benefit, so just from that you can tell this card is deliberately set up to be a bit ahead of the curve balance-wise. However, to keep things somewhat fair, it does have a few drawbacks the Nuva Symbols don’t suffer from: The search only works on activation, meaning you can’t get it if it’s placed via a Kanohi Nuva, and it has to remove itself to activate its major benefit, so you can’t use it turn after turn. Remember, the Toa Nuva only search when properly Fusion Summoned, so swapping them in with this won’t help you get to another copy that would let you do it again!

In those decks I tested that played both this and the Nuva Symbols, it definitely did feel like the latter were still more powerful options in many situations, so I do think I managed to hit about the powerlevel I was aiming for. The card is crazy, but not in such an all-encompassing way that it totally eclipses the other members of its design space.

One small thing of note is that the swap actually lets you target any Toa Nuva, not just Fusions. This paves the way for distant-future synergy with Phantoka and Mistika, but more immediately works with our freshly introduced Xyz Monsters: The Toa Nuva Kaita.

Akamai

Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 3400 / DEF 2400

3 Level 8 monsters
After this card was Xyz Summoned during your turn using a “Toa” monster as material, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects for the rest of that turn, except during the Main Phase 2 and End Phase. You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

Great Kanohi Aki Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa Nuva” Xyz Monster, it cannot be destroyed by battle, gains 1000 ATK, and can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can reveal 1 “Toa” monster in your Deck or Extra Deck, then target 1 monster you control with a Level; its Level and name become the same as the revealed monster (until the end of this turn), then destroy this card.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
Wairuha

Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | WIND Warrior | ATK 3000 / DEF 3000

3 Level 8 monsters
When your opponent activates a card or effect while this card has a “Toa” monster as material (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, you can banish both that card and the top card of either player’s Deck. Then, if you banished 2 different card types (Monster, Spell, Trap), draw 1 card. You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use 1 “Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

Great Kanohi Rua Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa Nuva” Xyz Monster, it is unaffected by your opponent’s card effects, also your opponent must keep their hand revealed. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can add 1 “Nuva” Normal or Quick-Play Spell from your Deck to your hand, then destroy this card. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Rua Nuva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

Like all the other Toa Nuva, both of these guys share a Nuva Spell/Trap search effect – but through the power of three combined, they can even do it without discarding. Their other effects are more or less direct upgrades from their Mata counterparts, so let’s take them one at a time.

Akamai is still an OTK enabler that locks your opponent out of doing stuff in the Battle Phase, be it responding to attacks or triggering floaters. However, the Nuva incarnation covers its bases even further and applies the lock from the instant of its summon to when you’ve finished your one-sided beatdown. That means there’s no risk of getting outed before going to battle, and you can even safely make additional plays to get enough damage on board. That last part is a bit worrying because you can also do it going first and then still go for a degenerate combo that is now impossible to interrupt, but I did not manage to figure out a restriction that would prevent that without harming the intended use cases and/or being an unreadable word salad. So I’m just banking on there not being a way to make this turn 1 while still retaining resources and without offering ample opportunity for disruption before you get to that point, which seems to be true so far. Do correct me in the comments if you have a different idea, though!

Besides that, Akamai Nuva does … nothing. While his previous form also made sure to negate continuous effects of what he battles and burned upon victory, I ended up cutting these features here to stay at a nice compact 2 effects. Being able to search already offers plenty of OTK help in and of itself, because one of the targets is the Kanohi Aki Nuva, granting exclusively Toa Nuva Xyz Monsters the same benefits its base form gave to the base Kaita – more ATK, more attacks, piercing, and battle protection. And for secondary utility, it lets you disguise a monster as a Toa to help with Xyz plays.

Wairuha , meanwhile, retains his role as an omni-negate for turn 1 setup. Where the original version had its “Wisdom” component implemented as a little guessing game on a separate effect, the Nuva incarnation already gives you (a less versatile form of) the banishing reward for free with the negate, and then also a draw on the same effect if you wisely choose between the players’ decks.

Now the reason I originally split the game from the negate was that the game, by virtue of involving a draw, is vulnerable to Ash Blossom. That isn’t a weakness you typically want on a disruptive effect, but for Wairuha Nuva I found it acceptable because it’s in some way offset by the search effect. If that already eats an Ash, that’s one thing less to worry about with the negate, and if it doesn’t, it just adds the Kanohi Rua Nuva, which makes him immune to all effects including those that would negate the negate. This specific interaction is why I made the effects share a HOPT clause here, because otherwise you either let the search go through and have to deal with an omninegate Towers … or you try to stop the search, get negated, and still have to deal with an omninegate Towers. That felt like an unfun kind of interaction, so I wanted to prevent that. Might still soften that to only forbid using them in the same Chain though, or walk this back entirely – not sure yet if it makes sense to put an Xyz with a Fusion as material under the same scrutiny as famous 1-card Synchro Chixiao.

Anyway, the Rua Nuva also lets you see if anything threatening is in the hand. And for utility, it searches those Nuva cards none of the other Kanohi get and then blows itself up. Can you tell I’ve been playing Infernoble?

In general, despite being two Ranks higher, these cards are not strictly stronger than their predecessors – in fact, they do lack some specific features those had. That is because their most significant upgrade is instead in the materials line, which just says “3 Level 8 monsters” – they’re generic, though with the big caveat that their true boss effects only work with a Toa as material. Putting out 3 Toa Nuva just did not seem realistic, and if you look at actual card releases, almost all Xyz Monsters have been generic for ages. Once in a while there’s a Type restriction, but archetype ones are basically unheard of nowadays.

The implication of this is that something like a Horus deck that can easily make a Rank 8 before breakfast is now able to access the Nuva Spell/Trap lineup, and if you throw some actual Toa Nuva into the mix, even gets a nice big boss monster on top. One of our new decks covered below takes advantage of exactly this.


In those last few paragraphs, several things were casually brought up that do not fully make sense relative to the cards shown so far. Why does Akamai Nuva specify it only locks if Summoned during your turn? What does the Rua Nuva actually search if there aren’t any Nuva Normal/Quick-Play Spells? And why do the Kaita work with any Toa as material even though the Toa Nuva are the only Level 8s?

The answer to all those questions lies in the cover card of this release and the namesake of this part of the expansion: Nuva Rank-Up-Magic Protodermic Evolution.

Nuva Rank-Up-Magic Protodermic Evolution

Quick-Play Spell

During the Main Phase: Target 1 Warrior monster you control with “Toa” in its original name; Special Summon, from your Extra Deck, 1 Warrior Xyz Monster whose Rank is 2 higher than that target’s Rank or 2 lower than that target’s Level, by using it as material, and if you do, you can attach 1 other card from your hand or face-up field to the Summoned monster as material, except this card. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon. Transfer its materials to the Summoned monster.)

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

From the very moment I settled on the set name “Protodermic Evolution”, I was thinking “that sounds like a RUM“. And here it is, the so far one and only Nuva Quick-Play Spell, allowing you to flex your Toa into all kinds of Warrior Xyz above their Rank or below their Level. Specific use cases include:

However, with apologies to the Dark Infinity stans in the audience, I may yet end up futureproofing this to only summon up to Rank 8. Just because there isn’t a crazy R10 Warrior yet doesn’t mean there’ll never be, and at that point this would be searchable access in any deck that can make 3 Level 8s.


And let’s not forget about the other side of the conflict. The Bohrok-Kal only have two cards here, but that’s enough to get them all geared up and ready to fight a Kaita battle.

Kaita Za

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Za

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 9 | LIGHT Machine | ATK 3000 / DEF 0

“Bohrok Tahnok-Kal” + “Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal” + “Bohrok Pahrak-Kal”
Must first be Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by Tributing the above cards you control. You can banish up to 3 “Bohrok” cards from your GY; until the end of this turn, this card gains 1000 ATK for each, also it can make up to that many attacks on monsters during each Battle Phase this turn. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster in your GY; Special Summon it, and if you do, attach this card to it as material. You can only use each effect of “Bohrok-Kal Kaita Za” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
Kaita Ja

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 9 | LIGHT Machine | ATK 2500 / DEF 2900

“Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” + “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” + “Bohrok Lehvak-Kal”
Must first be Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by Tributing the above cards you control. (Quick Effect): You can banish up to 3 “Bohrok” cards from your GY, then target 1 monster in either GY, or if you banished 2 or more, you can target 1 monster on the field instead; equip it to this card. If you banished 3 cards to activate this effect, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster in your GY; Special Summon it, and if you do, attach this card to it as material. You can only use each effect of “Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

Like their non-Kal counterparts, these are meant to deal specifically with situations that their components alone cannot handle, and use banishing from the GY as cost to go with the Fusion Spell .

Kal Kaita Za is for when all effect removal fails and you must simply unga the bunga, either to hit over something specific or to deal massive damage. Rising up to 6000 ATK, it gets even bigger than the original Kaita Za, and while it lacks the protection at full tilt, it instead doubles, nay, triples down on offense by also gaining additional attacks. I think this effect remained unchanged from the very first draft, because it arrived fully formed in my head the moment I actually built the combiner. Seriously, what else could fit “Tahnok-Kal with beefy arms” better than dealing three big hits to the face? Except I allowed the extra hits to be on monsters only, because 18k direct damage seemed just a tad too extreme.

Kal Kaita Ja has the, among Kaita, rare privilege of having its effects based on something it actually did in the story: Showing up for a few comic panels so Wairuha Nuva can job hard enough to completely erase the concept of Toa Kaita from all following installments. Accordingly, its effect is basically a combination of Gahlok- , Kohrak- , and Lehvak-Kal tuned to beat specifically Wairuha Nuva, as well as other negates and disruptive monsters. The whole thing is tied into a neat, yet still somehow really wordy modular package that lets you access more of the effect depending on how much you banish for cost. For 1, it’s GY disruption, for 2 it can also be removal, and for 3 your opponent can’t even do anything about it.

A point of distinction from the original Bohrok Kaita is that the costs on these let you banish any Bohrok card, not just monsters. This is partially to expand the recycling capabilities of Bohrok Swarm Fusion , and partially because being forced to banish your own Bohrok-Kal with these would really, really suck. You see, in addition to their situational effects on the field, the Bohrok-Kal Kaita have a floating effect that massively boosts your recursion once you get them into rotation: When sent to the GY, they bring back a Bohrok Xyz from there (not the banishment!) and attach to it as material. Now if that material gets detached, it returns to the Extra Deck, but if the Xyz as a whole leaves the field with it attached, that means the Kaita is sent to the GY and triggers again! If it’s not the same turn, anyway. I did have the presence of mind to put a HOPT on these.

I feel like I also need to say something about the fusion materials, because didn’t I mention before that getting out 3 Toa Nuva was unrealistic? Yet now we are demanding not just 3 Bohrok-Kal, but even specifically named ones? Even with a contact fusion clause, that seems quite hard to achieve, no?

Well yes, kinda. The reason we can’t make these anymore generic is that a) Fusions don’t really do generic materials (for obvious reasons) and b) Bohrok have an in-archetype fusion substitute “monster” , so not having a specific name in the materials would have been anti-synergistic. The most that could be justified is something like “X-Kal”, “Y-Kal”, or “Z-Kal” + 2 “Bohrok” Xyz Monsters, but even that’s extremely questionable.

Also, funnily enough, between contact fusions not working with substitute materials and Bohrok-Kal Strategy providing plenty of searching for the Fusion Spell while you set up your Xyz, it actually seems to be easier to make these by fusing the normal way. A surprise, but a pleasant one, because that means you can also get an extra draw while you’re at it.

Updated

A sweeping change that barely affects anything is that cards which previously said “Nuva” Fusion Monster now say “Toa Nuva” monster so as to also include the Toa Nuva Kaita. That means all the Kanohi Nuva, all the Nuva Symbols, and also Nuva Emergence for consistency (still only lets you Fusion Summon Fusion Monsters though – shocking, I know). I’m only putting up one representative for each category here, surely nobody needs more to get the idea.

Kanohi Nuva

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa Nuva” monster, it gains 1000 ATK, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone, also if you control a “Toa Nuva” monster, all monsters you currently control gain 600 ATK until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
Nuva Symbol

Nuva Symbol of Burning Courage

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Tahu” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. You can only use this effect of “Nuva Symbol of Burning Courage” once per turn. If your “Toa Nuva” monster battles, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Toa Nuva” monster you control; negate its effects, and if you do, skip the Battle Phase of your next turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
Nuva Emergence

Nuva Emergence

Trap

Fusion Summon 1 “Toa Nuva” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by shuffling the Fusion Materials listed on it into the Deck, from among your hand, GY and/or face-up banished cards. If your opponent controls a monster, you can also banish 1 monster from your Deck as Fusion Material. During the Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, except “Nuva Emergence”, then discard 1 card. You can only use each effect of “Nuva Emergence” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

And balanced as all things should be, the Bohrok-Kal also get a little tweak, this one just consisting of me finally finding the right wording for what I wanted the effect to do all along. Bohrok-Kal Strategy now only lets you trigger both effects at once if you do an actual proper Xyz Summon, courtesy of Progression Playoffs staple Dimension Slice.

Bohrok-Kal Strategy

Continuous Spell

When this card is activated: You can Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” monster from your hand. If a “Bohrok” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your field (except during the Damage Step): You can activate 1 of these effects, or, if the Summon is an Xyz Summon, you can activate both, in sequence;
●Target 1 other Spell/Trap on the field; destroy it.
●Add 1 “Bohrok” Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand, except “Bohrok-Kal Strategy”.
You can only use this effect of “Bohrok-Kal Strategy” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

Ever since Kalifornication got added, it bothered me a bit that I could just throw out a Bohrok-Kal on both my and the opponent’s turn to simultaneously remove backrow and search cards, even if the monster itself didn’t do anything before going back. Not to mention that Special Summoning even a poopy little Bohrok Va in the presence of a Kal would get the same crazy benefit.

Now, however, all has become as it should be. Cheating with Kalifornication only gets you one of the effects, merely summoning stuff while you have an established Bohrok-Kal only gets you one of the effects. Only good, proper overlaying of two Level 4 monsters as Astral intended gives you access to the glorious “Both” option. Or doing it with a Krana-Kal , we’re not that picky.

Decks

Bohrok-Kal with Kaita

Not much different from previous Kal builds, except you spend two spots in the Extra Deck on the Kaita and one in the Main Deck on Bohrok Swarm Fusion . If you ever find yourself in a spot where you have two appropriate Bohrok-Kal and Strategy on the field, simply bring back a Beacon from your GY to search the Fusion Spell, and you get to enjoy all the benefits of a Kaita. Granted, in those spots you’re already winning anyway most of the time, but might as well be fancy about it.

A detail worth mentioning is that the specially tight ED space forced me to put the two Regulus enablers as well as the King himself into the side deck this time. Going first, you can make room by taking out the Bahrag, since they only serve to accelerate your Kalifornication into established boards.

Also, regarding Kalifornication, I somehow only recently noticed a trick with it that always existed: use the effect to bring out a Bohrok-Kal, have it attach the Krana Vu-Kal , use the gained effect to banish until the End Phase … and just like magic, the part of the effect that would return it to the Extra Deck in your opponent’s End Phase fails to apply. Certainly helps with getting those Kaita materials ready.

Mata-less Nuva

A new possibility that opened up thanks to Tales of the Nuva alleviating the Toa Mata dependency is “Mata-less Nuva” – Toa Nuva builds that use fusion substitute monsters to stand in for all the different named materials you’d normally need. The advantage, other than removing bricky Level 6 monsters from the decklist, is that you can use the same substitute for any of the 6 Toa Nuva, so you have more freedom to choose between the options in your toolbox for a given situation. The downside is that these faux materials don’t work while in the Deck or banished, so Nuva Emergence specifically loses some versatility.

Now obviously, “put in random substitutes and hope you draw them” isn’t exactly a better use of deck space than just playing the Toa Mata, so instead I looked for a strategy that actually makes good use of those monsters already. Which of course brings us straight to notorious meta kingpin Tearlaments, where King of the Swamp has seen play quite unironically as a way to pretend Kitkallos isn’t banned. Other than that, the main synergy points are that the Toa Nuva’s on-summon searches discard as part of the effect so you can trigger Tear cards, and that milling a Kanohi Nuva, or any Nuva Spell/Trap while Tales is active, gets you something for your backrow.

Strategy-wise, the deck primarily aims for the very funny combo line where you overlay Kashtira Fenrir and Tearlaments Kashtira to get Dracossack, link the Tokens it makes into Cherubini to send King of the Swamp, link the Cherubini and something else into Sprind to send Merrli, and Fusion Summon to your heart’s content, usually for a Rulkallos. If the Dracossack stays around, Sprind doubles as an additional disruption, and if anywhere in your opening hand or many, many mills you found an extra King of the Swamp and access to Nuva Emergence, that’s all you need to also have full access to the custom half of the Extra Deck.

Now if Kitkallos actually was still around, the Energized Protodermis cards would go super crazy in here due to being hybrid Fusion Spells and materials that are also Aqua, and fusing them with a Tearlaments monster puts the the latter into the GY where it immediately triggers to fuse again. But sadly LIGHT Aqua + Tearlament does not actually make anything currently legal, and so I appear to have missed that window of opportunity. Unless there’s progress on Master Duel modding …

For a different take on the concept, I remembered that around the time Branded Fusion was first revealed, people quickly came up with the idea of sending the LIGHT and DARK Hex-Sealed Fusions as material for Albion or Lubellion, then proceeding to reuse them with those cards’ own fusion effects to make stuff like Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Now there’s an issue here for our purposes: Thanks to fusion substitution not working in the Deck, as well as a Konami-said-so ruling declaring that “Fallen of Albaz” cannot be impersonated when using Branded Fusion, we can’t actually get both substitutes into the GY off a single activation. But doing fancy Dragoon plays obviously removes whichever one we sent from the GY, and then it won’t substitute anymore …

So instead, you either make Mirrorjade and leave the substitute around for later, or spend it on a Granguignol that sends Muddy Mudragon to replace it. Of course, if you factor in the cards in your hand that aren’t Branded Fusion, it’s perfectly possible to also make both of those together, or one of them plus Dragoon, or maybe all three plus Nuva access – it really depends on the materials available in the specific situation.

Ultimately, to make a Toa Nuva you need both a substitute you aren’t using for anything else and some access to either Nuva Emergence or an Energized Protodermis card. Branded Fusion can provide one or the other, but for the second piece of the puzzle you’re just kind of reliant on luck, and without the ability to go through a good chunk of your Deck like the Tear build does, that means you can expect to just be playing plain old Branded a decent chunk of the time. For this reason, I consider this variant the less successful one of the two, but still, when it works it works. Finding a way to play less than 48 cards may help as well, despite what they say about 50-card Branded being “optimal”.

Some test footage of both variants can be seen in this video:

Protodermic Evolution

Now for the big shiny Rank-Up of the release, the first deck I attempted to put together was … this. It’s not very good, sadly. The idea was to just skip out on the Toa Nuva entirely and play classic Toa Mata, leveraging Protodermic Evolution to either access Rank 4s from a single Main Deck Toa, or the Nuva Kaita themselves from a Toa Mata Combination. In the former case, your options would be King Dempsey to get a little Warrior/FIRE Link climb going, or Raider’s Knight for big damage on turn 2 and beyond.

Unfortunately I appear to have underestimated just how little this archetype actually does without “Isolde send 6” holding it together. Or maybe I’m just still too stuck on the plays and combos I remember from back when that was allowed, even though something completely different would be needed in this new era – perhaps a blind second board-breaking approach could work?

Will have to investigate this some more before I decide what, if anything, should be done to fix the issues. In the meantime, if you have an opinion or idea, do speak up – additional viewpoints certainly don’t hurt.

So after mostly giving up on R6->R8, I started looking into the other way to reach the Nuva Kaita: Hard making them with three Level 8s. Conveniently, recent set releases have given us some dudes who easily provide the required bodies: The Horus monsters. Of them, we’re playing just enough names to overlay into what we need, a trio consisting of Imsety (of course), Hapi, and … Gesundheit. Add the King’s Sarcophagus, and surprisingly we find ourselves left with more than enough space to play a fat Nuva package of actual Toa Mata, Nuva Symbols, and even the coveted Cube . Which in turn makes our Kaita quite powerful even when made with only Horus materials, because the search then gives us whatever we were missing to enable Fusion Summons. Even better, Horus combos don’t require the Normal Summon, so if necessary we have the option to spend that on an Energized Protodermis Chamber , or bring out a Toa Mata to fuse away with Destiny .

The Rank-Up still appears in this list, and has some reasonable utility here and there. While you won’t ever Summon two Toa Mata to get into a Rank 6 you can turn into a Rank 8, what you can do is turning a lone Toa Nuva into a Rank 6, either the base Kaita or specifically Toa Mata Combination – Storm , actually still a pretty nice tool to throw a specific Toa Mata on the board in the very instant the condition for its trigger effect would be met. Better yet, the lock preventing those free monsters from being used as material just so happens to omit Fusion Summoning, so an activation of Energized Protodermis Destiny takes you straight into your next Toa Nuva. This is far from your main play, but does come up and feels quite good to pull off.

Overall, I’m super happy with how this one turned out. It lets the Nuva Kaita fully utilize their dual role as Extra Deck search cards that can also on rarer occasions act as crazy boss monsters. Usually your very consistent access to Toa Nuva, which can still very much be considered bosses in their own right, is the foremost way you take control of the game, but every once in a while you can also enjoy Wairuha as a beefy negate or Akamai as an OTK enabler, giving you a nice cherry on top of an already functional strategy.


Speaking of functional, now begins the countdown of a few months until I hope to roll up with properly functional Rahi designs. O joy.

Well, see you then!

So I came up with some games

As is tradition, I have used the opportunity of April Fools’ to invest more effort than is reasonable in something that isn’t really part of the project. Usually this comes with a nice little haha funny release, but this year … well, making an actual implementation of what I felt like doing would have required an amount of effort more unreasonable than what the date can justify, so instead you’re getting PowerPoint presentations. Yay!

To make the occasion extra special, I even bothered narrating this one myself. But don’t worry, all the information and more can also be found in the usual textual form at the links below.

Custom CCG: Virtues

Custom Board Game: Rahi Overlord

And we now return to our regularly scheduled programming, see you at the end of the month.

Custom Board Game: Rahi Overlord

If looking at all the card game stuff usually posted here makes you think “man I wish this had more than just cards”, then boy have you come to the right article. In this one we’re covering a full board game that, yes, involves cards, but also a physical board, colorful little marbles, movable game pieces, and a headache-inducing amount of math.

Rahi Overlord is an idea that was sparked during the in-depth Rahi study I’ve been doing for the past year or so. In this game, players take the role of two or more Makuta engaging in what one might call a “Rahi-off”: A showdown where they aim to have Rahi of their creation become dominant in the ecosystem of a certain area.

Now I will say in advance there’s not all that much depth to this yet – I’m obviously less immersed in the board game space than in the card game one, and also ran out of time before I could really start doing the research I’d need to do this properly. But I believe there are still some interesting things to show off, and maybe I’ll come back to build on them one day.

Game Elements

The Board

The field on which the game is played represents the setting of the Makuta’s showdown, perhaps some part of the Southern Continent or a remote island. In any case, it is divided up into multiple individual Zones, each of which has the following properties.

  • Biome: Dictates which Rahi will thrive in this Zone, as well as what resources players can obtain from it. A wide variety of Biomes is possible, but they all belong to one of the three categories Land, Sea, or Mixed.
  • Capacity: A fixed number of slots that can be filled with different Rahi species. Different population levels within each slot are represented by printed markers that also provide information on population growth.
  • Point of Interest (PoI): Randomly distributed across the Zones at the start of the game. Different PoIs (Makuta Lab, Protodermis Pool, Matoran Village, …) have different effects that may positively or negatively affect Rahi and players.

A player is said to control a Zone if the total population of their Rahi within that Zone is strictly greater than every other player’s. In all other cases, the Zone is considered unassigned.

The Points of Interest, represented by something like small tokens at the center of the respective Zone, start the game face-down (with the exception of the Makuta Labs, of which there is one per player) and are flipped face-up once a player takes control of the Zone. It remains that way even if control of the Zone changes or it becomes unassigned later.

Resources

In a game of Rahi-making, the relevant resources are obviously going to be the ones used to make Rahi: Viruses and Liquid Protodermis. I imagine the latter would generally be a static reserve that is not meaningfully depleted with use, so it is only subtly represented as a limit on how many Rahi you can create in a round – a limit that may increase while holding Protodermis Pool PoIs.

That leaves Viruses as the main resource you gather and spend over the course of the game. Physically, they’d be represented by little orbs or cubes or whatever-hedrons in different colors. Mechanically, their main purpose is being mixed and matched into different recipes of Rahi creation, so a color is really the only property they need. Each Rahi lists a combination of Virus colors required to create it, and players periodically gain Viruses whose colors are determined by factors like their controlled Biomes, their Rahi, and a bit of randomness to keep things fresh.

Rahi

Now here lies the main focus and complexity of the game. A Rahi, or rather a Rahi species, is represented by a card that lists several pieces of information.

  • Recipe: The combination of Virus colors needed to create this Rahi.
  • Habitat: The Biome in which the Rahi lives. The mechanics of this follow four simple rules:
    • Rahi whose Habitat is a Land Biome cannot be played into a Sea Biome.
    • Rahi whose Habitat is a Sea Biome cannot be played into a Land Biome.
    • Rahi whose Habitat is a Mixed Biome can only be played into Mixed Biomes – they need both Land and Water to survive, basically.
    • Being in a Biome that exactly matches the Habitat, not just its category, grants some additional bonus.
  • Diet: Provides the baseline of how the Rahi’s population in a Zone develops over the rounds. Herbivores experience a fixed amount of growth depending only on their location and population level, Carnivores grow by “stealing” population from other Rahi in their Zone, and Omnivores can mix these two sources, but gain less from each alone than the pure Diet types.
  • Size: A number that mainly plays into carnivorous population growth – wouldn’t make sense to have giant beasts be the prey of tiny critters, after all.
  • Traits: An assortment of standard keywords that describe in more detail how a Rahi lives, feeds, and grows. Stuff like Flying, Poison, Ambush Predator, and so on would go here. I’d like to keep this to a level of complexity where you just need a reference page in the rulebook to figure it all out.

The Rahi card can basically be considered the blueprint of the species and always remains with the player. The actual physical Rahi populations only come into being once the blueprint is realized by investing Viruses according to its Recipe, and are separately represented by a little plastic stand (colored depending on the player) in which you place a token identifying the Rahi species.

Such an assembled playing piece is then placed into a free slot on the chosen zone, in the lowest so-called population level. Round by round, the combination of Biome matchups, feeding, and traits is used to calculate a population change in each species, and the piece moves up and down the levels on the board accordingly. If a population hits zero, it’s considered extinct and removed from the Zone entirely.

Now the details of all this involve, ugh, numbers, and so haven’t been worked out at all. I do get the impression it may just end up ludicrously complicated no matter how we slice it, but hey, nothing wrong with a game that appeals only to Ecologists and Mathematicians.

Sample Rahi cards:

Makuta

Finally, each player takes the role of a different Makuta, also represented in the form of a card. In this case, though, there are only two key properties to consider.

  • Affinities: Some combination of Biomes, Diets, Size ranges, and/or trait keywords. When creating a Rahi featuring any of those listed, the Makuta is allowed to substitute one Virus listed on the Recipe with one of any other color.
  • Ability: A unique effect that the Makuta can apply when certain conditions are fulfilled. Unlike the fixed ability keywords of Rahi, this can be just about anything and is described as text on the card.

Each Makuta also comes with a unique Makuta Lab PoI, which is placed face-up in a Zone by that Makuta’s player at the start of the game and gives only that player a certain bonus to any population calculations happening in that Zone.

Sample Makuta cards:

How to Play

Or, well, as much of an outline of it as I’ve figured out at this point. It’s not exactly an instruction manual.

Setup

Each player selects a Makuta and takes the respective card, as well as the PoI token for that Makuta’s Lab. Place the board on the table, and have each player (in turn order) pick a Zone where they put their Lab, along with a plastic stand in their chosen color (so you can easily tell who has which). It might even make sense to have the Zones be individual board segments that you connect together, so the greater number of Labs with more players can be accounted for using a greater number of Zones.

In any case, once the Labs are placed, add random face-down PoI tokens to the remaining Zones. Shuffle the Rahi cards and form a deck that is also placed on the table. Admittedly, with almost 200 Rahi species, this could end up physically difficult if you’re playing with the full set, but maybe it makes sense to have multiple decks anyway – to ensure more demanding Recipes only appear late in the game, for example.

Finally, each player gets a starting stock of Viruses – something like one of each color, I guess.

Research Phase

This is where blueprints are acquired from the shared deck, one way or another. A lot of fun options like drafting and trading come to mind here, but for this loose description let’s just keep it simple and do the following: Players take turns picking up 3 cards from the top of the deck. They choose one to take, one to place back on the top, and one to place on the bottom. Once every player has done so and thus taken a card, the research phase is complete.

Creation Phase

Players again take turns to create Rahi from a blueprint they have, using Viruses as per the Recipe. They select one of the Zones where they have either their Lab or a population of Rahi, and place a piece (plastic stand + cardboard token) representing the new population into the lowest population level of an empty slot in that Zone. A player may also pass, either voluntarily or for lack of Viruses matching their blueprints.

The creation phase ends once all players have exhausted their maximum creation count – one by default – or passed.

Calculation Phase

This is where you all put your heads together, grab pen and paper, and figure out the population change for every Rahi in every Zone. Most likely some kind of helper sheet should be provided for this purpose.

After all calculations are done and the positions of the Rahi pieces have been updated to reflect the new populations, the calculation phase ends.

Migration Phase

Optionally, players now have the opportunity to split off part of the population of any Rahi species past a certain threshold into an adjacent Zone, putting together and placing a new Rahi piece in the process. This is crucial because it’s how you spread your reach and ultimately approach victory, but since it requires a fair amount of population gain first, activity in the migration phase only really starts a couple of rounds into the game.

Additionally, it could be useful to also have the option to entirely migrate a species, taking its whole population (no matter its size) and shifting it over to an adjacent Zone. This could be used to escape predators, for example. However, we don’t want Rahi zipping all over the map in an endless migration phase, so if we have this mechanic, it should only be once per player and round.

It’s worth nothing that, as it currently stands, this is the only part of the game where a player can actually gain control of an unassigned Zone. Do remember to flip up the appropriate PoI when that happens – its effects will begin applying immediately!

Once no further movements are possible or all players have passed, the migration phase ends.

Extraction Phase

Players obtain fresh Viruses, their colors distributed as per the latest board state. The details are left as an exercise to the reader, but I imagine you could assign colors to Biomes and then distribute Viruses based on the players’ controlled zones, or something with Rahi properties, or have them blindly pick out of a mixed bag. Maybe some combination of those.

Once everyone is stocked up and ready, return to the Research Phase for the next round.


Now you might say it doesn’t look like I have any idea when this game would end, and you would be totally correct. Let’s just say that at some point, perhaps simply after X rounds, the terrible cycle above will have to be broken, and the player who controls the most Zones at that point is crowned the victor of the Rahi-off – the Rahi Overlord, if you will.

Custom CCG: Virtues

The Bionicle YGOPro Expansion, unsurprisingly, is all about designing cards for specifically the game of Yugioh. Which is fun and has been going well, but between the scope of the topic that is Bionicle lore and the project’s rather slow and steady progress, I have sometimes worried about the risk that the actual game may meet its demise and fall out of relevance before I’m done over here. Not looking like that’s happening anytime soon, but with strange aeons …

So what do we do in that case? One option is to just keep going and enjoy not having new product releases continuously changing the landscape I’m trying to design for, but I feel like it might be hard to maintain my or anyone else’s interest in the long term when working on a static corpse. Another is moving the project to any of the countless other similar card games that exist, but honestly there’s a reason I picked this one, and anything else would just feel like a downgrade in terms of how well it accommodates the source material.

The third, my favourite, and the one that means the most work, is the following: I make my own card game, with blackjack and hookers. And so, presenting “Virtues”, an original CCG made from and for the legend of the Bionicle.

What’s a CCG?

The acronym stands for “collectible card game”, a type of game that can be traced back to 1993’s Magic the Gathering. Since then, the concept has inspired a wide variety of titles that add their own twists to it, but broadly speaking they all can be described as follows:

Players pick from a large pool of cards with different properties and abilities to construct a deck that they then use to face off against another player. Over the course of the game, cards are played according to some basic ruleset to interact with each other and the players. The winner is the first player to achieve some fixed goal, which often means reducing a specific resource on their opponent’s end to zero.

And then things get complicated because cards have text on them.

Great. With all that established, let’s see how our own cards look.

Card Properties

Card Type

In most CCGs, and especially in this one, cards represent the building blocks of a story that is told as the game unfolds. So if we want to begin by figuring out what types of cards there are, the question we have to ask is “what types of building blocks does our story need?”. In that regard, I think the storylines of Bionicle – and really most other stories – can be reasonably generalized to the following form:

Someone uses something somewhere to do stuff.

From that, we can derive four different types of cards:

  • Beings – Represent the characters in the story (“someone”). These cards have a white frame, are played onto the field, remain until removed by some means, and actively engage in battles.
  • Items – Represent inanimate, mostly physical objects in the story (“something”). These cards have a gray frame and stay on the field permanently just like Beings, but do not themselves play an active role in battles.
  • Locations – Represent the setting of the story (“somewhere”). These cards have a green frame and are played into a dedicated zone from where they influence the game.
  • Actions – Represent things that happen in the story (“do stuff”). These cards with a blue frame are played onto the field only briefly, resolve their listed action(s), and then immediately proceed to the Grave.

In Yugioh terms, this is roughly equivalent to a division into Monsters, Continuous Spells/Traps plus Equip Spells, Field Spells, and then all other Spells/Traps. Important disclaimer: The interpretations of what each card type represents are only a guideline, and exceptions based on gameplay considerations are always possible.

Generic Properties

Most of the information that can be found on a card is actually universal to all card types. Some – the name, the image, and the card text – are obvious, so let’s proceed right to the more interesting ones.

In the top right corner, you have an icon and number denoting the cost of the card. Which tells us that, like most CCGs and unlike Yugioh in particular, this game comes with a general system of costs that must be paid in order to use cards. While such a fundamental difference is naturally going to make recycling existing designs a little harder, I wanted to include a cost system just because coming up with one is a lot of fun, and I must say I’m quite satisfied with the result. More on that later, as it’s not something that can be explained while looking only at the cards. For now, just remember this kind of icon labeled with “Duty” and the number 1 indicates a Duty Cost of 1.

Below the name, we can find two different types of descriptive properties. Leftmost, highlighted with an icon and colored background, stands the card’s Element – this can be Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, or Dark, but also Stone, Ice, and all other manner of nonsense – in some cases it may even be blank. The remaining space with the gray background lists any number of groups, which can also include subgroups (denoted as e.g. Toa > Toa Mata). These two properties are frequently used to identify cards in card text, with one special piece of terminology being that two cards sharing either the same element or at least one group are said to match each other.

Combat Stats

Specific to Beings and Items is the block of stats at the bottom of the text box. For Beings, who can both attack and be the target of attacks, it consists of both Attack and Defense values. For Items, who can be targeted for attacks but not attack by themselves, there is only Defense.

At this point we should probably talk about how battling works a bit. In yet another break from Yugioh, I have decided to handle the stats in a way more similar to MtG: Defense acts like a little health bar for each card, and a battle involves the two combatants dealing their Attack worth of damage to each other’s Defense. It’s just a nice storytelling device that allows depicting various scenarios – teamwork, damage resistance, poison, and regeneration are just some examples of concepts that can be neatly implemented through battle-related effects this way.

As far as battles in general are concerned, instead of also copying Magic’s system of attackers and blockers, I’d prefer to go with something less involved. A good candidate is the system of Shadowverse, where Attack/Defense stats work as previously described, but also target selection is simply left to the attacking player much like in Yugioh.

There are, of course, many more aspects to consider with this central design element. Do we have summoning sickness? Is there a dedicated Battle Phase? Under which conditions can you directly attack the opponent’s life points? But such things are best figured out in the process of actual testing, of which I did none. So yeah.

Location Level

The number underneath the textbox of a Location is unrelated to combat, as Locations go into their own separate zone where they can neither attack nor be attacked. Instead, this value represents the Location’s “zoom level”, and to explain this I have to elaborate a bit on how Locations work. Take a look at the Mata Nui Field Spell on the Yugioh side of things:

The Island of Mata Nui

Field Spell

All Normal Summoned “Toa Mata” monsters gain 600 ATK/DEF. During your Main Phase: You can reveal 1 monster in your hand and add 1 “-Koro” Field Spell that mentions that monster’s Attribute from your Deck to your hand. If you revealed a “Toa Mata” monster, you can add 1 “The Great Temple, Kini-Nui” instead. If a card in your Field Zone, except “The Island of Mata Nui”, is destroyed while this card is in your GY: You can activate this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of “The Island of Mata Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

One of its effects searches you the Field Spell of a particular village on the island (“zoom in”), while another is able to bring the island back to the Field Zone later (“zoom out”). This kind of dynamic with locations that exist within other relevant locations is something that occurs all the time in Bionicle’s story, so I’d like to have it implemented on the level of game mechanics rather than card effects.

Which is where the Location Level comes in: If you have an active Location, and you play another Location with a higher Level, it is simply stacked on top of that active Location. Only the topmost layer of the stack actually applies its effects and interacts with the field, but if it’s ever removed, you simply fall back to the layer below it. On the other hand, if a new Location you’re trying to play does not have a higher Location Level than the active one, you will be required to remove cards from the stack until you reach a Location for which that is the case – essentially zooming out and then back in.

Card Text

We previously brushed this one aside as “obvious”, but that of course meant only as far as its inclusion on every type of card is concerned. After all, card text is what truly makes the game go round and the source of most of the things that actually occur when you’re playing. So a fair amount of consideration is needed when it comes to layout, format, and structure of these texts. To summarize my stance on a few relevant points:

  • Structure: Please yes. There’s no good reason to make it just one big paragraph.
  • Keywords: Sparingly, but don’t shy away from them either.
  • Icons: Please no. At least not as a way to replace words in the big main text box.

Basically, the goal is to maintain the very useful property of “reading the card explains the card”, while still doing what we can to simplify said reading.

Let’s start with some simple ways to add structure to a card text. What Yugioh does in the OCG, and for some reason not in the TCG, is numbered effects – so you can clearly see where each of them starts and ends. We’re definitely copying that, as well as the practice of listing meta-restrictions like once-per-turn clauses in a leading sentence using those numbers. Additionally, if space allows, putting a line break and some kind of visible separator between effects further helps everything look clean and orderly.

In the effects themselves, I would like to extract two particular pieces of generic information so they can be found at a glance: The type of the effect, and the location(s) where it can be used. Maybe things like costs and conditions could also receive some special highlighting.

For instance, a Yugioh effect of:

If you control no monsters: You can discard 1 card; Special Summon this card from your hand or GY.

might all in all take on this form:

[Active | Hand, Grave] (If you control no Beings) Discard 1 => Place this card in your Destiny Area.

With this format, a quick scan of the [bold bracketed] parts on the left edge of the text box already tells you which parts are actually relevant in a given game state. The activation condition for this “Active” effect is in (parentheses) because it has no bearing on the actions you need to perform when using the effect, and the cost (paid at activation) is split from the effect (performed at resolution) by a nice bulky “=>”, acting much like the “;” in PSCT.

We’ll see various effect types and tentative standard wordings while looking at sample cards, so I won’t bore you with a dictionary at this point. The idea of how card texts are built should be clear from this brief introduction, at least.

The Field

Now that we know the cards, it’s time to look at where they’re played, and how. Virtues gives each player a field that looks like this:

We’ll go into some detail about the marked locations and the mechanics that involve them, but for starters here’s a quick overview:

  • (Duty) Deck: The standard main deck from which you draw.
  • Unity Deck: The Extra Deck equivalent, containing an always available pool of cards you can form by “combining” other cards.
  • Destiny Area: The main “battlefield” where you play cards in order to beat your opponent.
  • Duty Area: Used to pay the Duty Costs of the cards played into the Destiny Area.
  • Unity Area: Used when playing cards from the Unity Deck – the materials go here.
  • Location: The special zone where Location cards are played and stacked on top of each other.
  • Grave: Where spent cards go; the GY (duh).
  • Seal: Alternative place cards can be removed to, usually by effects; the banishment.

The Deck (and drawing cards)

There’s a lot that could theoretically be said about the Deck, or “Duty Deck” as its full name would be. How small or large can it be? How many copies of each card are you allowed to play? How many cards do you draw at the start of the game? How many each turn?

All valid questions, and all questions I have not studied enough to make any kind of statement that’s not a random guess. So, leaving out specific numbers, we can just say your opening hand of X cards comes from here, and then presumably you draw an additional one at the start of each of your turns.

Destiny

Now this is really getting into the meat of things. The Destiny Area, located right in the middle of the combined board formed by both players’ fields, hosts the core of the gameplay. In the story you carve out as you play, the cards placed here are the heroes fighting to fulfill their destiny.

The main way to get a card – specifically a Being, Item, or Action – into the Destiny Area from your hand is to pay its Duty Cost (more on that in a moment). Once you have done so, you can put the card into any part of your Destiny Area; there are no zone divisions or limits planned here at the moment (though I can’t say I’m not slightly tempted to open up the super fun design space that is columns). If the card is a Being or Item, it stays there until otherwise removed. If it’s an Action, you apply its effect and then put it straight into the Grave. As a side note, the act of putting a card into the Destiny Area by paying its cost (basically our Normal Summon) is called “Assembling” it, in reference to the constructable nature of the material.

What Beings, and to a lesser extent Items, can do while in the Destiny Area is, of course, battle. During its controller’s turn, a Being gets to attack one opponent’s Being or Item and each combatant with an Attack stat subtracts it from the other’s Defense stat. A card whose Defense hits 0 goes to the Grave, and presumably some manner of damage to the player is involved at some point. As I said before, the details of all this would only really take shape during actual testing.

Duty

To the right of the Destiny Area lies the Duty Area. Its purpose is, quite simply put, to hold the resource used to pay Duty Costs. And that resource is none other than cards.

Duty is a cost system that, out of the ones I looked at, most closely resembles the mana system of Duel Masters: By placing arbitrary cards into a special location, they each act as 1 of the resource that drives your plays, and you indicate payment of a certain cost amount by changing the position of that many such cards until your next turn. This achieves a gradual ramp into being able to pay for more and more expensive cards, allowing cost to act as a design handle which determines in which part of the game a card is meant to be played.

Another thing I was considering getting out of this cost system was a “soft” deckbuilding restriction, comparable to those that result from MtG’s different mana colors. But rather than requiring payment in different types of Duty, the idea would simply be that you can only Assemble cards that match (= share the Element or a Group with) at least one card in your Duty Area. However, while putting together some example cards, I already realized cards don’t quite end up being playable together the way I’d want them to be, so that idea has been shelved for now.

Flavor-wise, the cards in the Duty Area represent the ones working in the background to keep the world running while the heroes of Destiny engage in their epic tale. Therefore, I would refer to an upright card here as being “on duty”, and when it gets turned sideways, it becomes “idle” until the next turn.

Finally, for balancing it’s important to consider how quickly the Duty Area can grow. My initial idea was to let you just place cards in it as much as you want, paying in card advantage for a quicker progression to more powerful cards. However, it’s not hard to imagine how to abuse this – stuff your deck full of cards with Duty Cost 4 or so, immediately put almost everything into the Duty Area and use it to turbo out a boss, and then another one on each subsequent turn as your opponent either does the same or fails to catch up.

To work around this issue, three approaches come to mind.

  • Card design: If everything is consistently set up so that a combination of a few low-cost cards has an advantage over a single high-cost card, one could keep boss turbo from being the optimal playstyle. But that seems hard to keep up in the long run.
  • Delay: We could amend the Duty Area’s mechanics so that paying a cost flips the card face-down (“resting”), and then it returns to idle on the next turn and finally goes back to being on duty two turns after the inital use. That would change the dynamic insofar as it would give decks with a lower rate of growth a faster rate of play, since they can still replenish their resources from the hand while waiting for their initial supply to recover. But for that extra turn to make a meaningful difference, we again need appropriate card design.
  • Growth limit: Pretty much all card games with a cost system actually put a hard limit on how quickly you can amass your resource, following in the footsteps of the limit MtG puts on Lands. Often, the limit is you just get to add 1 resource at a specific point early in the turn, providing a stable cap on how fast one can really go. Adopting this rule would be the most reliable fix, but I’m not sure I really want to, since I do very much enjoy the concept of a tradeoff between resource availability and card advantage. Surely the latter can be considered a solid limitation of its own, I mean just look at the shit Purrely gets away with in Yugioh.

Finding out which, if any, of these approaches is the right solution would once again require a fair amount of testing. So, moving on.

Unity

The final of the three virtues that give the game its name is associated with both a secondary deck and an area on the left-hand side of the field. These are both in service of a mechanic that works a lot like the Extra Deck of Yugioh, but more specifically meant for cards that represent multiple entities combining or working together – consider the examples below.

Unity Cards look mostly like regular cards and cover the same card types as well, with the exception of Locations (I imagine Spherus Magna might be an exception to that exception as the one and only Unity Location). They can be recognized as Unity Cards by two special features: A symbol labeled “Unity” without a number where you’d expect to find the duty cost, and a section at the start of the text box marked with the same symbol.

As this should ideally suggest at a glance, playing a Unity Card does not require paying a Duty Cost, but instead you have to use the listed materials. To do so, move them from the Destiny Area to the Unity Area in the sideways “idle” position. The Unity Card now enters the Destiny Area and remains there – or not, if it’s an Action. The basic card types continue to function as usual.

The instant a Unity Card exits the Destiny Area, no matter by what means (unless it goes to the Unity Area itself, maybe?), you take as many of the idle materials in the Unity Area as possible and flip them into the upright position … which I guess can’t be called “on duty” here (“ready” works, but suggestions welcome). At the start of your next turn, presumably in the same phase where the Duty cards are restored from their resting or idle state, all upright cards in the Unity Area return to the Destiny Area, as if the combination has come apart.

What this slightly involved process achieves in particular is that, in addition to Kaita-like boss monsters smoothly floating back into their components, Unity Actions functionally “blink out” the used material until the next turn – since the Action will leave the Destiny Area by itself right after resolving, causing the cards in the Unity Area to be primed for coming back at the next opportunity.

LoCation

Really, we’ve said everything that there is to say already when describing the Location Cards that go here. You can stack them in order of increasing zoom level, but only the topmost Location is active at a time. If you want to play a Location with lower zoom level than the active one, you have to remove layers from the stack until you find one with even lower zoom (or all cards are gone).

Probably should also be noted that just like when playing a card into the Destiny Area, you have to pay the Duty Cost of a Location you add to this zone.

Grave and Seal

The Grave just fills the basic role of a place where cards go after they have been used and/or removed from the field. CCGs like to have some unique name for this thing, but none of the options I’ve considered have really convinced me – “Archives”, “Chronicle”, or “Wall of History” all don’t sound right one way or another. Maybe there’s a good one I’ve missed?

The Seal is a brazen copy of Yugioh’s banishment, because I had some pretty neat design associations with that mechanic already. Namely, abilities that could non-lethally seal away someone or something, be it simple freezing or a mighty Toa Seal, were generally associated with banishing. Therefore, I have decided to already highlight this piece of flavor in the name of the location itself.

Further Mechanics

Below are some mechanics that I also figured would be nice to have, but might introduce too much additional complexity to be really worth it.

Destiny Cards

Besides combining through Unity, there is another way by which individuals in Bionicle often attain more powerful forms: Evolving under certain conditions as ordained by their Destiny. Consider as examples the transformation from Matoran into Toa, the changes brought about by Energized Protodermis, or even the Makuta turning into energy beings at some point in history.

These evolutions, I was thinking, could be represented by a type of card similar to, yet distinct from, Unity Cards. Such “Destiny Cards” would also be marked with a special cost symbol and label, as well as a dedicated materials section in their text box. However, their cost still comes with a number, and the materials tend to require a more specific setup.

How this works is that you can play a Destiny Card in either your Duty Deck or your Unity Deck. In the former case, you would be able to play it from your hand through the regular assembly process of paying the listed cost in Duty. But in the latter case, you can Assemble it from the Unity Deck for free using a material that meets its condition. Doing so will send any used materials to the Grave instead of storing them away in the Unity Area, as an evolution through Destiny is generally neither temporary nor reversible.

This gives you the opportunity to tell either a story of the evolution itself by playing a deck aiming to set up the right conditions, or a story that simply features the evolved form by playing it in your deck like any other card – no materials required. Think about it like the difference between the Toa Nuva in the Bohrok Saga and in Mask of Light.

Equipping

If you are familiar with the Bionicle YGOPro Expansion, you know it has its fair share of Equip Spells in the form of all the different Kanohi. And on each of those cards, you can find one shared clause:

If another “Kanohi” card becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card.

every Kanohi ever

This is meant to represent the simple fact that only one Kanohi can be worn and used at a time, and in order to avoid writing that over and over again, I wanted to give Virtues an equipment mechanic that inherently handles that kind of stuff.

My idea was as follows: An Item, and perhaps a Being in some cases, can have one or more of its listed Groups marked with a special symbol. This would, while in the Destiny Area, give it the non-effect ability to equip to a Being in the Destiny Area by attaching much like an Xyz Material (in particular, it also goes to the Grave if the Being leaves the Destiny Area). In this state, its effects labeled with the Equip location apply, and we say it is equipped “as” the Group that had the equip symbol (player’s choice, if multiple available). And to accomplish the single-Kanohi rule from this position, we just make it so that whenever a Being has two Items equipped as the same Group, its controller must pick one of them to send to the Grave. Of course, an equipped card can also be voluntarily removed and return to being standalone in the Destiny Area.

Beyond this, I was thinking about further extending the design space of this “equipment slot” mechanic by also allowing the equip symbol on a group name to be listed either multiple times or in combination with a number. The meaning would be that this specific item “tolerates” sharing its equip slot with up to that many others, so if you for example equip two Kanohi with an equip value of 2 (the halves of the Vahi?) to a Being, they would both be able to stay. But if only one of the pair has the value 2 and the other is a regular 1-equip, one of them needs to go. Basically, you’d need to find any legal state in which no currently equipped Item exceeds its equip value. As you can imagine, this could end up really complicated for the player to handle and isn’t really needed for all that many cases, so probably better to not go there.

More Gameplay Details

Phases

Considering all the elements introduced so far, it seems like a turn needs to be divided into at least:

  • Draw Phase: Where you draw for turn.
  • Ready Phase: Where time-based adjustments to cards in Unity and Duty Areas happen (rested to idle, idle to on duty/ready).
  • Main Phase: Where the turn player Assembles cards, uses effects, and battles.
  • End Phase: Where stuff expires.

Arguably some kind of distinct Battle Phase could be beneficial to have, but like most details of the battle system, that’s a question for a later stage of development.

Activated Effects: Order and Responses

With trigger effects and probably also quick effects in the game, there’s no getting around having some mechanism to order simultaneous activations and to dictate when and how effects can be activated in response to something.

The two well-documented examples of such a thing are Yugioh’s Chain and Magic’s Stack, both of which basically amount to resolving in reverse activation order. However, there are two main differences to be pointed out:

  • Once a Chain starts resolving, it does so in one go with no room for further activations until it’s done, while the Stack allows activating more stuff between two individual resolutions.
  • Chains only allow responses to the most recent Chain Link, but anything on the Stack can be responded to even if other objects have been stacked on top of it already.

The former gives long Chains that nice feeling of building tension that finally culminates in a massive, unstoppable sequence of resolutions – whatever happens, happens. The latter is what enables Chain Blocking to protect crucial trigger effects from negation, which is just a super nice part of the learning curve. So even beyond the fact that we’re operating under the conceit of repurposing effects designed for Yugioh’s system, I’m inclined to go with something like Chains just because Chains rule.

On the other hand, when it comes to ordering simultaneous trigger effects, it’s probably better not to copy Yugioh and its pedantic distinction of mandatory and optional effects. We can just keep it simple and use the same rules as more or less any game out there: Each player freely decides the order of their triggers, turn player first.

Example Card Conversions

With all that established, thank you very much for reading! Enjoy some additional cards from the Expansion that I’ve attempted to translate to the system of Virtues, but do always keep in mind a lot of the details are guesswork that is far from being suitable for a functional game.

BYE

Toa Mata Onua

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2100 / DEF 2100

To Tribute Summon this card face-up, you can Tribute an EARTH or “Toa Mata” monster in your hand, except “Toa Mata Onua”, instead of a monster you control. Once per turn, if a monster(s) is sent from the hand or Deck to the GY: You can target 1 card in either GY; place it on the top or bottom of the Deck, and if it was a monster whose original ATK in the GY was lower than this card’s current ATK, gain LP equal to the difference.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

Turaga Matau

Link Effect MonsterLink-2 [↙ ▶] | WIND Spellcaster | ATK 1400

2 monsters, including a WIND Warrior monster
During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WIND monster from your hand in Attack Position, but its ATK becomes 0. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can activate this effect; during the Standby Phase of your next turn, add 1 WIND monster from your GY to your hand, then, if your opponent controls more monsters than you do, you can make all monsters they currently control lose 700 ATK/DEF until the end of that turn. You can only use each effect of “Turaga Matau” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

Ta-Koro, Village of Fire

Field Spell

While all face-up monsters you control are FIRE (min. 2), face-up monsters you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. If your FIRE monster battles an opponent’s monster with higher original ATK, before damage calculation: You can discard 1 card; your monster gains ATK equal to the highest original ATK on the field, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Ta-Koro, Village of Fire” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

The Makuta

Ritual Effect MonsterLevel 2 | DARK Fiend | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

You can Ritual Summon this card with “I am Nothing”. If this card is Ritual Summoned: You can return all Special Summoned monsters on the field with 2000 or more ATK to the hand. You can Tribute 1 DARK monster; add 1 “Rahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, then you can Special Summon 1 monster from your hand whose Level is less than or equal to the number of monsters in your GY. You can only use this effect of “The Makuta” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
Virtues
BYE

Toa Mata Pohatu

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2400 / DEF 1700

To Tribute Summon this card face-up, you can Tribute an EARTH or “Toa Mata” monster in your hand, except “Toa Mata Pohatu”, instead of a monster you control. Once per turn, if a monster(s) is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, or a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck activates its effect: You can target 1 Spell/Trap on the field; destroy it, also, if you control a Rock monster, you can destroy 1 additional Spell/Trap on the field.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

The Chronicler’s Company

Continuous Trap

You can only control 1 “The Chronicler’s Company”. This card gains these effects based on the number of “C.C. Matoran” monsters you control.
●1+: Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 “C.C. Matoran” monster from your hand or GY with a different name than the cards you control.
●3+: Once per turn: You can target 2 “C.C. Matoran” monsters you control and 1 card your opponent controls; return them to the hand.
●6: You can send this face-up card to the GY; shuffle all cards on the field into the Deck, except “C.C. Matoran” cards. Neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this effect’s activation.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

The Island of Mata Nui

Field Spell

All Normal Summoned “Toa Mata” monsters gain 600 ATK/DEF. During your Main Phase: You can reveal 1 monster in your hand and add 1 “-Koro” Field Spell that mentions that monster’s Attribute from your Deck to your hand. If you revealed a “Toa Mata” monster, you can add 1 “The Great Temple, Kini-Nui” instead. If a card in your Field Zone, except “The Island of Mata Nui”, is destroyed while this card is in your GY: You can activate this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of “The Island of Mata Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

Taku, Duck Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 3 | Scale 5/5 | WIND Winged Beast | ATK 1400 / DEF 1700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card, and if you do, add 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Deck to your Extra Deck face-up, except “Taku, Duck Rahi”. You can only use this effect of “Taku, Duck Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
A Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains these effects.
● Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can shuffle 1 face-up “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck into the Deck; negate the activation.
● A “Rahi” Synchro Monster Summoned using this card as material gains the above effect.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
Virtues

BYE

Bohrok Nuhvok

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | EARTH Machine | ATK 1500 / DEF 1800

FLIP: Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your Deck in face-down Defense Position, except “Bohrok Nuhvok”.
Once per turn: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy that target, and if you do, its Spell & Trap Zone cannot be used until your next Standby Phase. During the End Phase of the turn you activated this effect, shuffle this face-up card into the Deck.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
Virtues
BYE

Bohrok Lehvak-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | WIND Machine | ATK 1900 / DEF 2400

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other card you control or in either GY; attach it to this card as material. If this card has 5 or more materials: You can detach all of this card’s materials, and if you do, destroy up to that many cards your opponent controls, then you can attach 1 of those destroyed cards to this card as material. You can only use each effect of “Bohrok Lehvak-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)
Virtues
BYE

Great Kanohi Rua

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa Kaita” monster, it is unaffected by your opponent’s card effects, also your opponent must keep their hand revealed. Once per turn, while this card is equipped to a “Toa Mata” monster you control: You can Special Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster with the same Level from your hand, then, immediately after this effect resolves, Xyz Summon 1 “Toa” Xyz Monster using monsters you control, including that Special Summoned monster.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Virtues
BYE

Toa Seal

Quick-Play Spell

Target 6 “Toa” monsters with different names you control, in your hand, and/or in your GY, including at least 1 on the field; banish the targets in your hand and GY (if any), and if you do, banish up to 6 cards from your opponent’s hand (at random), field, and/or GY, but the number of cards banished from the hand must be less than or equal to the number of Normal Summoned monsters you control among the targets. You can only activate 1 “Toa Seal” per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
Virtues

Third-party icons used:

Sword icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

Shield icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

Link icons created by Creaticca Creative Agency – Flaticon

Deck Idea: Mechanized Springtime in Onu-Koro

March is right around the corner and large parts of the world are entering the beautiful season of spring; Sylphs are abound in Flourishing Hills and Awakening Forests, reviving EARTH monsters and getting their shit kicked in by ghost girls. What better time to look at a new decklist revolving around Onu-Koro, the perhaps even second best Field Spell That Lets You Draw 3 Cards?

Onu-Koro, Village of Earth

Field Spell

You can target up to 5 EARTH monsters in your GY; shuffle them into the Deck, then gain 600 LP for each card shuffled into the Main Deck this way. If your LP are higher than your opponent’s: You can send 1 EARTH monster from your hand or field to the GY, then pay LP in multiples of 1000 (max. 3000); draw 1 card for every 1000 LP paid, then, if your LP are lower than your opponent’s, send that many cards from your hand to the GY. You cannot Normal or Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except EARTH monsters. You can only use each effect of “Onu-Koro, Village of Earth” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

My main goal with this build was setting up a standard combo line that actually leaves you able to use and resolve this card’s pair of effects to their full potential, by filling the GY with material used to build your board while never summoning any non-EARTH monsters in the process. Previously, the importance of Isolde in the Gouki-based EARTH Warrior shell usually forced you to fail this condition and relegated the village’s ability to just a neat thing you sometimes got to use on later turns, but with the latest banlist, that has become a thing of the past.

For what it’s worth, I still think Gouki is a good fit and meshes well with the general Onu-Koro strategy, but I specifically wanted to experiment with something else here. That “something else” being Vernusylphs, who do a good job of filling both field and GY, coupled with a few Machines that allow us to have some sort of payoff without leaving the confines of our Attribute.

The Deck

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=14840983

.ydk Download

The lineup of monsters in the Main Deck can be divided into three categories:

  • EARTH Matoran, specifically Taipu and Onepu , plus the Ussal to go with the latter. What you’re meant to do is get either of the Matoran on the field by some means and link off into Whenua to search the other, thus providing even more bodies to combo with. Rookie Warrior Lady is also in here as a third potential search target, since she can help refill your hand and even easily sets up Onepu’s Normal Summon effect (sadly it doesn’t do much).
  • Vernusylphs, which are frequently going to be the “by some means” mentioned in the previous paragraph. We play the two that search the rest, and as a one-of search the target the one that dumps an EARTH monster into the GY. Using all three of these already puts up to 4 EARTH monsters in the GY and 3 on the field, and even if we just use one search and the mill, that’s 3 and 2 – basically a complete Onu-Koro setup. The primary target for Awakening Forests is of course going to be the Ussal that will trigger to revive yet another monster (and can then itself be brought back by Onepu), but if you happen to draw that, you can do a cute thing where you discard it for cost with Forests, send something else from the Deck, and then actually do get to bring back that sent monster right away – if it’s Level 4 or lower.
  • EARTH Machines. Just a small package, not the whole deck that kinda does this whole “combo and then draw a bunch” thing way better already. The three names represented here serve three different purposes: Planet Pathfinder is an additional way to get to Onu-Koro, Revolution Synchron is a Tuner so we’re able to access the Naturia Synchros for a reasonable end board, and Regulus is another negate we can add to that if we find him. Which is also possible by means of Discolosseum, which in turn can be provided via Planet Pathfinder, who as a Machine also sets up Regulus’s own Summon (i.e., Planet Pathfinder is an omni negate). The Power Tools are also here for additional Revolution lines, but without Isolde making Equip Spells worth playing they’re not all that useful.

Other than that, we just have a good helping of handtraps that Onu-Koro will hopefully draw for us, as well as generically good EARTH monsters Fenrir and Mudora. Keldo is there in the side deck too, but I only found room for one shuffler, and Mudora was the one to make the cut simply because its Special Summon effect works even without a search target.

The EARTH payoffs in the Extra Deck consist of the aforementioned Naturia Synchros Beast and Barkion, Power Tool Braver Dragon, and Soldier of Chaos. Saryuja is for those times we have a full field but lack the right cards in hand to get anywhere, while Cerberus and Dolmen are mostly just to get stuff linked away in niche scenarios. And Plan B for Bagooska is here too, turns out that fucker is EARTH.

Now you may notice we have also spent some Extra Deck slots on non-EARTH bosses; Baronne and Crystal Wing in the Synchro half, I:P and S:P in the Link half. These are for the times we actually do not manage to get to Onu-Koro, at which point we will have a bunch of material on the field and nothing locking us out of any summons. So might as well put up some good proper household names instead and switch our strategy to the old style where Onu-Koro just shows up as refueling help in the mid to late game.

Sample Video

Takeaways

To me personally, this build honestly feels like a bit of a failure because it doesn’t really seem to get a lot of mileage out of the concept of “combo then draw 3”, despite how solid that sounds on paper. The good news is that there’s some specific reasons for that located within my own designs, which I may be able to fix in future updates. The Onu-Koro cards just trip over themselves in some small ways that didn’t become obvious until I really tried to rely on the Field Spell’s effect that’s supposed to be central to the whole thing.

Onu-Koro, Village of Earth

Field Spell

You can target up to 5 EARTH monsters in your GY; shuffle them into the Deck, then gain 600 LP for each card shuffled into the Main Deck this way. If your LP are higher than your opponent’s: You can send 1 EARTH monster from your hand or field to the GY, then pay LP in multiples of 1000 (max. 3000); draw 1 card for every 1000 LP paid, then, if your LP are lower than your opponent’s, send that many cards from your hand to the GY. You cannot Normal or Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except EARTH monsters. You can only use each effect of “Onu-Koro, Village of Earth” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

First, there’s Onu-Koro itself. This is a design from an era before Runick Fountain, which means I was super careful with an effect that basically reads “draw 3” and restricted the hell out of it. Only works if you have higher LP (which it does try to provide natively via the shuffle effect), requires sending an EARTH monster from hand or field to GY so you don’t plus as hard, makes you discard as much as you drew if you’re not still ahead on LP after paying the cost, and on top of all that it locks all your Summons into EARTH for the whole turn, including retroactively. Let me tell you, after trying to build this deck, I now fully understand why Vernusylphs went with an effect lock instead – there just aren’t a whole lot of good payoffs in this particular Attribute.

This heavy balancing even bleeds into the shuffling effect, which only gives you back LP for cards you shuffle into the Main Deck, essentially forcing you to choose between valuable Extra Deck recycling and the resource you need to pay for draws. And as a small but nasty detail, it shuffles the cards instead of placing them on the bottom, meaning any deck filtering your combo did to ensure you only draw into, say, handtraps at the end is at least partially undone.

So how would I change this? Well, assuming we stick with the full EARTH Summon lock, I think that can be allowed to carry a lot more weight as a restriction and we can in turn take off some others. Specifically, the requirement to send an EARTH monster for cost always hurt like a bitch in testing, so I’d like to drop that. The discard if you lack sufficient LP is probably fine since it fits the flavor (and we can capitalize on it by making Onu- cards with GY effects), but I’d make it a bit more avoidable by making it easier to gain LP when you return cards to the Deck. The shuffle effect could say “gain 600 LP for each targeted card, then shuffle them into the Deck” or something like that and it would already be much better. That way it would even work properly with Midak too.

Matoran Tender Midak

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 500 / DEF 500

If you control a “Matoran” monster, except “Matoran Tender Midak”: You can send this card from your hand to the GY; send 1 EARTH monster from your Deck to the GY, and if you do, gain 400 LP. If this card in your GY would be returned to the Deck by a card effect, you can add it to your hand instead. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Tender Midak” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Speaking of Midak, why was that guy not in the decklist at all? Because, dear reader, the dumbass who wrote his first effect made it basically unusable if you’re not spamming Matoran enough to always have one around. That wasn’t the case in this deck, though, and after wishing for the nth time that I could just search Midak with Whenua and actually use him reliably, I sadly had to cut him.

But yeah, that’s also my solution: Make it so he actually always works when you search him with Whenua, because there aren’t a lot of good search targets for our Turaga anyway. To achieve that, the first line simply has to change to “If you control a “Matoran”, “Toa”, or “Turaga” monster” – perfectly reasonable because they belong together in the lore anyway.

Turaga Whenua

Link Effect MonsterLink-2 [▼ ▶] | EARTH Spellcaster | ATK 1450

2 monsters, including an EARTH Warrior monster
Each time an EARTH monster(s) is sent from your hand or field to the GY, gain 400 LP for each. If this card is Link Summoned: You can pay 1000 LP; add 1 Level 4 or lower EARTH Warrior monster from your Deck to your hand, with a different name from the cards in your GY. You can only use this effect of “Turaga Whenua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Whenua himself isn’t safe from my complaints either, though only in a minor way. I’ve mentioned here and there that any numbers I write on cards tend to be guesstimates, and the 1000 LP cost is a good example of that. Only now, after actually playing in a way that made it important to earn it back, have I realized that the correct number was 800 all along: The exact amount you need to break even off a single instance of using two EARTH monsters as material while Whenua watches, and also the amount you would gain from using a Midak he searched. Fool that I was to disregard the ancient mantra of “pay 8, feel great”.

Matoran Racer Onepu

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 700 / DEF 500

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can target 1 of your banished EARTH monsters; place it on the bottom of the Deck, then you can reveal any number of “Matoran” monsters in your hand, and if you do, gain 500 LP for each. During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Racer Onepu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Onepu has served us well as an Ussal fetcher, but his other effect has really proven to be damn useless – especially in a deck that, once again, isn’t filled to the brim with Matoran. I think I wanted to hold back on this one because the main purpose is just to get a spent Ussal back into rotation, but surely you can expect more from a Normal Summon. My initial idea of having it draw à la Chaos Space was rejected (by me) because a) Onu-Koro is supposed to be the draw provider, everything else just makes “money” (LP) to pay for it, and b) “but Chaos Space is so strong, that would be broken”.

Regarding a), I now realize that a second source of draws probably wouldn’t hurt at all, as the old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket could have told us all along. And b) was always stupid when you consider that Chaos Space does its thing from the GY rather than at the cost of your Normal Summon and supports Attributes that are significantly better equipped than EARTH.

The current LP gain does have the funny flavor of “Onepu brags to the Matoran in hand and gets rewarded”, but we can actually retain that if we just let you do the same thing after drawing a card – or even just reveal the drawn card itself.

Side note to fully tie the loop here, notice how Onepu makes the Rahi he summons get banished when it leaves the field? That also means it can’t be used to pay the monster cost for Onu-Koro, so even if we weren’t getting rid of that cost entirely it would at least have to change to say “Tribute” or something like that. Nothing feels worse than the cards that are meant to go together in a deck locking themselves out of actually working with each other.


For now, I’ve compiled these notes on the secret Pending Changes page, and will be trying to work them in over the course of upcoming releases.

The 2024 Roadmap

Now also available in fancy video form, with visual previews and editing and stuff!

Quick textual summary: The 4 month intervals worked out even with a lot of other stuff going on, so we’re sticking with that. That means the following schedule:

  • April 2024: “Unity Evolved” (Nuva/Kal Kaita)
  • August? 2024: “The Rahi Update” – may be multiple releases in the second half of the year, we’ll see how long it takes
  • After that (maybe still 2024?): “Time of Trouble” (final BPEV lore batch)

As tantalizing as it is to maybe have the BPEV expansion done with the next year, I really can’t allow myself to put the Rahi stuff off any longer. So if that isn’t done within one gigantic release (which I wouldn’t expect unless things go really, really well), that sweet taste of completion will have to wait for a bit.

Also, if you watched the video, you may have seen some “optional side quests” at the end. Those are things that might be happening in the background along the way to improve my and/or the users’ experience. To repeat them here and elaborate a bit:

  • EDOPro repositiories – Apparently those can be used to have custom expansions that automatically update after installing them once, so that would tremendously simplify the releases for everyone.
  • YGO Omega – There’s another popular client flying around, maybe I can get my scripts set up so they work in both (without having to maintain them separately).
  • mse2cdb Windows build – I’m currently running my beautiful tool in the Linux subsystem because I haven’t been able to make a Windows executable for years now. Should probably fix that, but all attempts so far have been foiled by CMake being CMake.
  • Master Duel modding – The holy grail of custom card creation at this time. I’ve seen exactly one video claiming to have pulled this off in any capacity and it was never followed up on, so if it’s possible at all, it might only be in a very limited fashion. But no way to know until I’ve at least given it a try myself.

No guarantee any of these will actually happen, it’s just a general outline of what might come up. And outside of that, there’s also the usual stuff like deck ideas and April Fools’.

Happy new year!