The second RANDOMLY SELECTED card of the day 2026 is none other than Ka, the airborne counterpart to the previous day’s Pewku . I can’t even pin this on some unknown technical quirk of my implementation that causes consecutive days to land on consecutive cards (which shouldn’t happen, supposedly CRC32C is pretty convincingly random), because it picked the movie-style artwork that has an entirely different ID.
If this repeats and tomorrow is, I don’t know, Washed and Chilled , I may as well exit the simulation. But while I’m still here, there are actually some interesting details to note about this one that weren’t covered on release.
2 monsters with different Attributes If this card is Special Summoned: You can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” or 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster in your hand, then activate 1 of these effects; ● Draw 1 card. ● Destroy up to 2 cards on the field, including a card you control. If this Link Summoned card is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can target up to 2 Level 4 “Avohkii” monsters with different names in your GY; Special Summon them. You can only use each effect of “Ka, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
First, the materials – 2 monsters with different Attributes. This is, surprisingly, not a combination that has ever been printed, unlike different Types or different names. I landed on it specifically because the Avohkii deck has a fairly wide Attribute spread (Jaller FIRE, Takua LIGHT, Pewku EARTH, Graalok WIND), while the Rahi decks that are also meant to get use out of this card usually put out some combination of EARTH, WIND, and occasional other Attributes.
Second, the effect on Summon. The idea of what it does remained consistent throughout development, but other than that it actually has quite a history. Once upon a time, in the earliest draft stage, it was two trigger effects – one on Summon that revealed the Avohkii or a Rahi to draw, and one on reveal of an Avohkii in hand that destroyed cards. Due to text length concerns and some uncertainty of whether or not searching an Avohkii and revealing it for confirmation would trigger that second condition, they were merged into something modular, with the benefit of Rahi now also getting to wield it as removal. For a while later on, the combined effect was still written to trigger again if your opponent Summons a monster, so you could also end on it as a piece of disruption. This was scrapped because it already provided enough value as a combo/toolbox piece, and you can get disruption out of it regardless if you’re clever about Special Summoning it with other effects .
Finally, the floating effect that is exclusive to the Avohkii deck, representing the crash in Ko-Wahi after which Jaller and Takua continue on foot. I briefly had plans to let you only bring back both of them if your opponent had a monster on field, and otherwise you’d have to pick one and shuffle the other back into the Deck – as a nod to their parting soon after. But that too was scrapped due to length, plus the fairly specific targets and needing to be properly Link Summoned are probably restrictions enough to justify the full refund on materials here.
So yeah, now you know all there is to know. Maybe a future card block overhaul will include a space to include trivia notes like these with each card when viewing them on the site, that might be fun to have.
Let it be known that the first card of the day in 2026 was, by pure hash function happenstance, the poster child of the latest release: Pewku, the true hero of the Avohkii party. Perhaps this is a sign of good fortune in upcoming activities with the new expansion?
Granted, these MOL cards do have twice the chance of getting picked because they’re doubled up with alt arts … another reason to fix that technical limitation eventually.
Now this would be a good opportunity to drop some interesting design notes or point out details about the card, but I kind of already did all of that in the release post, so what’s there left to say? I guess I could mention how the stats come from taking Takua’s 1500/1500 and adding the Ussal’s 1000 to DEF only (our girl isn’t exactly an attack crab, after all).
Also: Set 8595 Takua & Pewku has the greatest action feature ever made, in my objective opinion.
2 Level 4 monsters You can detach 1 material from this card; Set 1 Spell/Trap from your Deck that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii”, except an Equip Spell, also you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except monsters that mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii”. If a Level 4 “Avohkii” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your field, while this card is in the GY (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 of them; Special Summon this card, and if you do, attach that monster to it as material. You can only use each effect of “Pewku, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
Just because your Chronicler is “busy” and your Turaga slightly homeless (wait what) isn’t an excuse not to submit that annual report!
Was a bit short on time for this one, so slightly different format, but still the same old review and preview. The main plans for 2025 went smoothly and we are now well into adapting Mask of Light, and finishing up BPEV meant Best of Test and Theme Guides managed to make their return. Still hoping I’ll get to spread those out a bit more for this expansion.
Next year, we have:
April 2026: “Birth of the Rahkshi”, the first wave of Rahkshi support to upgrade the already existing Kraata into something more formidable.
August 2026: We’re taking a brief break. Officially it’s vacation time, but depending on the general state of things I would like to tackle some overdue maintenance like letting the card viewer on here handle alt arts correctly.
December 2026: “Play Well!”, AKA the -Koro update, AKA the one with the Kolhii stuff. I have devised a recipe to utilize the fresh new inter-village competition going on in the background of the story as support for all of the elemental strategies from BCOT, and here we’ll start cooking in MNGO2 order with Ga-Koro and their first two opponents, Onu-Koro and Ko-Koro.
Only two releases instead of three, but still a lot of neat stuff to look forward to.
Summer break might also be a time to get back on those side quests which were largely neglected this year, the open ones being:
Dungeon Duel Monsters: There is now a prototype “Bohrok Invasion” campaign (come check it out on Discord!), but it still has some adjustments to be made that I haven’t gotten around too. Will hopefully happen a bit sooner than summer.
Support for YGO Omega: This one has been for the list since forever and I still haven’t touched it, but my aim with it has gradually shifted to making a more generic multi-client scripting adapter – a library of uniform Lua functions that translates calls from scripts to the proper commands for each client, making it possible to write cards once and have them work everywhere. That way we’d also have something like MDPro3 covered at the same time. Maybe in summer.
mse2cdb Windows build: Surely one of these days those clever ey aye thingies will be able to just give me a working CMake file for this shit so I don’t have to sit down and deal with it. Also maybe in summer.
Figure out Master Duel modding: The state of the art on this still seems to be the same as two years ago – one guy somehow managed it at some point and never told anybody how. Probably not happening this summer either, but maybe a working adapter for MDPro3 will be “close enough”.
Overall, I’m very curious how everything is going to look by the end of next year, and very much hope you’ll be there to check it out as well.
This batch introduces the core of the “Avohkii” archetype, beyond just their barest engine that was included in the earlier preview. Though to be accurate, most of the cards here are actually unrelated by name and connected only through the fact that they mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii” (a card that still does not exist). I promise this makes total sense and there’s a perfectly logical reason behind it, read on to find out.
2 Level 4 monsters You can detach 1 material from this card; Set 1 Spell/Trap from your Deck that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii”, except an Equip Spell, also you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except monsters that mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii”. If a Level 4 “Avohkii” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your field, while this card is in the GY (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 of them; Special Summon this card, and if you do, attach that monster to it as material. You can only use each effect of “Pewku, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
2 Level 4 monsters You can detach 1 material from this card; Set 1 Spell/Trap from your Deck that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii”, except an Equip Spell, also you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except monsters that mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii”. If a Level 4 “Avohkii” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your field, while this card is in the GY (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 of them; Special Summon this card, and if you do, attach that monster to it as material. You can only use each effect of “Pewku, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
First on the list is Takua’s trusty companion Ussal crab, Pewku. Who does, in fact, have “Avohkii” in the name – because she’s a proper member of the party searching for the Toa of Light, carrying our heroes all over the island wherever the mask may lead them. This is also reflected in the first effect letting you fetch the many Spells and Traps that represent events along the journey, which could act as a gateway into the whole Avohkii package since this is a generic Rank 4. The missing ingredient for that is a target that actually works as a starter, but there might just be one planned, so this search already comes with an Extra Deck lock just to make sure Ryzeal doesn’t actually become the most optimal way to play Avohkii. A lot of time was spent debating myself on whether or not that is really needed, but in the end it stuck mostly because the combo lines you can do to dance around this lock ended up being kind of neat.
One possible enabler for said lines is Pewku’s own second effect, which brings her back from the GY by jumping on top of a Jaller or Takua you just put on the field – so you can get a nearly free Pewku with material after you’ve already done other things, and also easily get yourself even more backrow on the following turns.
2 monsters with different Attributes If this card is Special Summoned: You can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” or 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster in your hand, then activate 1 of these effects; ● Draw 1 card. ● Destroy up to 2 cards on the field, including a card you control. If this Link Summoned card is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can target up to 2 Level 4 “Avohkii” monsters with different names in your GY; Special Summon them. You can only use each effect of “Ka, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
2 monsters with different Attributes If this card is Special Summoned: You can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” or 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster in your hand, then activate 1 of these effects; ● Draw 1 card. ● Destroy up to 2 cards on the field, including a card you control. If this Link Summoned card is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can target up to 2 Level 4 “Avohkii” monsters with different names in your GY; Special Summon them. You can only use each effect of “Ka, Avohkii-Bearing Rahi” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Our next, more short-term, party member is the Gukko bird Ka, who is in the movie for exactly 57 seconds to air-fly the guys out of Le-Wahi and then crash in Ko-Wahi. Which isn’t a lot, but does help the Avohkii make meaningful progress towards its destination, so we award it the rank of an actual archetype member. The other archetype it belongs to (as does Pewku) are the Rahi, and since the bird actually does hang out in the jungle with the rest of the wild beasts, its first effect works by revealing either the Avohkii or a (correctly Typed) Rahi monster – either to draw a card (flying high) or to destroy up to 2 cards including one of yours (crashing down).
Rahi, being a Pendulum archetype, of course appreciate having a generic Link-2 with down-pointing arrows that gets them a draw or non-targeting removal, but the full power of this card shines in the Avohkii deck, where its second effect lets it float straight back into Jaller and Takua, making it basically free. In fact, this effect will even let you trigger Pewku in the GY to get that back as well – I think you can see how the interesting combo lines come together here.
Perhaps worth pointing out about that second bullet point: The way it’s worded means you are perfectly allowed to destroy just 1 card on your own field, including Ka itself, so if all else fails you always have that option to trigger the floating effect.
During the Main Phase, if this card is in your hand or GY (Quick Effect): You can either Tribute 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your hand or field, or reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand, then target 1 face-up card on the field; destroy it, and if you do, Special Summon this card to its controller’s field, but if you Special Summoned it from your GY, place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Graalok, Ash Bear Rahi” once per turn. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled: Return it to the hand.
During the Main Phase, if this card is in your hand or GY (Quick Effect): You can either Tribute 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your hand or field, or reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand, then target 1 face-up card on the field; destroy it, and if you do, Special Summon this card to its controller’s field, but if you Special Summoned it from your GY, place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Graalok, Ash Bear Rahi” once per turn. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled: Return it to the hand.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Thankfully we also have other options, such as Graalok, the Ash Bear that almost mauls Jaller’s and Takua’s masks off on their way through the jungle. This is clearly not party member behavior, but is something that happens to them, making this monster a non-“Avohkii” card that nevertheless mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii”, searchable by both Jaller and the Sealed Avohkii . By the way, if that “regular art” doesn’t look familiar, that’s because I (digitally) built it to have some non-movie representation of an Ash Bear. Might try to improve the look in future updates if I get my hands on the parts.
What it does is mostly one long effect, but with multiple options and applications. You can activate it from your hand or GY during any Main Phase, so it’s one of them shiny new-fangled turn 0 plays if you can meet the condition of either revealing the Avohkii in your hand or tributing a (properly Typed) Rahi from your hand or field (the latter is more expensive because it’s much easier to draw into in a Rahi deck, and tributing a Rahi from hand so it goes to the GY can actually lead into further plays). That lets you target a face-up card on either field, destroy it, and Special Summon Graalok to that same field. Some examples of how this can be used:
Your opponent activates a Continuous Spell on turn 1, you reveal an Avohkii to blow it up and give them Graalok instead, disrupting what they actually wanted to do.
Your opponent flips a floodgate, you get rid of it by chaining Graalok so you’re free to play the game.
You activate a Normal Spell during your Main Phase, then immediately target it with Graalok to get a free 2600 ATK monster on top of what you were already doing.
Mid-Avohkii combo, you use Graalok to blow up Ka, triggering the floating effect and handing you a board of not just two, but even three monsters.
And so on. Additional limitations to keep in mind are that using Graalok from the GY will make it go back to the Deck once it leaves the field, so you can’t keep doing it over and over, and that battling with it makes it return to the hand (or Deck, if that condition is applying).
This card is one case where the ATK/DEF values were actually somewhat carefully considered. 2600 ATK is just big enough to clear the “protagonist stat” of 2500 and matches Lewa Nuva (who comes to the rescue in the movie), while exactly 1800 DEF allows you to attack a Defense Position Graalok on your opponent’s field with Jaller to trigger the bounce and get it back to your hand (also much like what happens in the movie). Incidentally, these numbers on a Level 7 Beast are baboon stats, which is … not the right animal, but we are defending the forest here, so it works if you squint.
A Seventh Star
Continuous Spell
When this card is activated: You can target 1 “Avohkii” card in your GY or banishment; add it to your hand. Each time a monster(s) that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii” is Normal or Special Summoned, place counters on this card equal to how many of the following apply to at least 1 of those monsters. ●Warrior ●LIGHT ●Level 7 or higher ●cannot be Normal Summoned/Set During the End Phase: You can send this card with 7 or more counters to the GY; draw until you have 7 total cards in your hand and field. You can only activate 1 “A Seventh Star” per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Anyway, on to the Spell/Trap lineup, so Pewku actually has some targets. First, here’s A Seventh Star, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, ASS. This Continuous Spell celestially foretells the coming of the Seventh Toa, first by adding a proper “Avohkii” card back to your hand on activation to either restart or extend your combo, and then by gathering counters as you go through various Avohkii-related monsters. The number of counters gained for each monster (or group of monsters) depends on how close it is to being a Level 7 or higher LIGHT Warrior that cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. What an odd assortment of conditions. I wonder who that’s for.
Anyway, the ultimate payoff for this is that if you get to 7 counters (which is consistently possible through the currently available combo lines), you get to draw to 7 in the End Phase – counting cards on the field as well, so it’s usually not as huge as it may sound. A pure Avohkii combo from a 5-card hand will draw 1-2, and if mixed with other engines that generate advantage, you can very well find yourself in the first-world problem position of ending on too many cards to draw at all. Where this card truly shines is if you have to trade advantage to counter an opponent’s disruption while performing your combo, or if you manage to stick it in a low-resource grind game. In situations like that, I’ve seen it draw up to 4 in testing, which puts you in a position from which it’s pretty hard to lose.
Yes, this card is searchable by Seventh Ascension. It’s probably not the most useful target in the Decks where that is played.
Light of the Mask
Trap
Target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; for the rest of this turn, your opponent cannot activate cards, or the effects of cards, with the same original name as that target, also you can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand, and if you do, send that opponent’s card to the GY. If this card is in your GY: You can target 1 “Avohkii” card in your GY; shuffle both it and this card into the Deck. You can only use each effect of “Light of the Mask” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Our first Trap is Light of the Mask, which lets you shine a guiding light on an opponent’s card to indicate they won’t be using that, or anything with its name, this turn. Oh wait, you shook the Avohkii too hard while revealing it in your hand and it shot out a fricken lazor that sent the target straight to the GY as well. Oops. Well, maybe it can still make use of some kind of GY effect … except it can’t, because it’s locked! Ha!
So basically, this is disruption in the form of floating-proof targeted removal if you have an Avohkii to reveal in hand, and if you draw it without a way into a proper setup (or generically, in any deck) it can still stop some select things your opponent may do, if they require putting a card on the field before activating its effect. In the GY, this card can also recycle itself and another “Avohkii” card (that is, the monsters except Graalok, or the Equip Spell), which keeps your resources in rotation, ensures you always have something to set with a revived Pewku, and can potentially dodge something like Called by the Grave since it’s inherently a Quick Effect due to being on a Trap Card.
Washed and Chilled
Trap
(This card is always treated as a “Nuva” card.) If you control a face-up monster: Banish all face-up monsters on the field until the End Phase, then you can discard 1 WATER monster or reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 of your banished monsters. You can only activate 1 “Washed and Chilled” per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Finally, Washed and Chilled provides a second option for the backrow. It works in a similar way to Light of the Mask, with a generic effect that can be upgraded by revealing the Avohkii during resolution, but aims for a potentially much higher impact by just banishing all face-up monsters on the field at once, for a limited time. The counterbalance to this massive disruption is that it only works if you yourself have face-up monsters to banish, but getting to the bonus part of the effect does at least let you summon 1 of them back right away – which can itself be an advantage by e.g. triggering Ka again. The main idea here is that firing this at a reasonable time will ensure you live to your next turn, where you can then strike back with the strong recovery features of the Avohkii cards.
Two curious points I haven’t touched on: It’s always treated as a “Nuva” card, and you can also get the bonus by discarding a WATER monster. Both of those reflect the fact that this card is based on an attack (and “cool” one-liner) by Kopaka Nuva , so you can integrate it into a Toa Nuva deck as well. It has especially high synergy with Kopaka, because summoning him back to an otherwise empty field will let him use his effect to banish, even a second time on the same turn due to being a soft OPT. I was specifically considering making use of this in the “Kopaka’s Bad Day” deck, but didn’t actually try it since there are more motivating ideas than playing a round of floodgate turbo.
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by revealing “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand. You can only Special Summon “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” once per turn this way. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 card that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii” from your Deck to your hand, except “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” or an Equip Spell. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.1.2)
Just a small one within the archetype: Jaller now Special Summons himself from the hand as a procedure, i.e., without an activated effect. This was the result of various considerations, including balancing out the value provided by starting with Jaller vs starting with Takua, and opening up the theoretical possibility of a combo line that never triggers the K9 cards. The only reason I hadn’t previously done it was because an activated Summon effect can share its HOPT clause with the other effect, saving words, but whatever, Jaller still had enough room left. Truly the text box is a canvas waiting to be filled with legalese.
Strategy & Deck Options
Seeing how this release doesn’t just add some cards, but actually makes Avohkii properly functional as its own archetype, I should probably elaborate a bit on how it’s played. I mentioned above how the deck can consistently obtain a fully stacked ASS to draw some cards in the End Phase, so here’s a DB replay showing how that works (in a scenario where you have only the bare minimum resources for a nearly-1-card combo). It also demonstrates how that might not be the best thing to go for since you might just end up drawing 0 of your many handtraps, so in practice I prefer using more or less the same combo to search for a Trap and just going the ASS route as a bonus if I happen to have it.
In any case, you can tell these basic lines do not set up much of a board, only some points of disruption with Graalok, maybe a Trap, and whatever else you happen to have in your hand. But their strength lies in being very consistent and resilient in getting to some kind of play, and their ability to rebuild and recover very easily thanks to the Sealed Avohkii that stays in your hand. Combined with a good helping of generic power cards and handtraps, it’s actually pretty effective, and the best part is you get to play out all those Mask of Light scenes as seen here:
Alternatively, you could go off script a little and introduce a character who didn’t originally appear in the movie. A handsome individual who, given his LIGHT Attribute and Level of 6 could very well pass for the legendary Toa of Light, were he not so damn Fiendish. One who, while robbed of his most generic enabler, remains available through the Rank 4 plays that the Avohkii cards can so easily do.
That’s right, baby, the Masksmith is back.
By the power of Evilswarm Exciton Knight, the original Fiendsmith build of this deck still lives, and the best part is it’s now capable of pivoting into Fiendsmith AND back again! The trick to this is making Sequence and keeping it on the field after you Fusion Summon, acquiring a second (non-LIGHT!) monster via either ASS or Graalok, and linking the two into Ka. That Ka then explodes (or draws before being exploded by Graalok, if available) and gets back Jaller and Takua, letting you finish the combo on Pewku for your Trap of choice, long after making all the generic plays that the lock would prevent. It’s pretty effective, possibly the optimal form of Avohkii at this stage.
Other builds to consider include:
The previously covered Ryzeal-based 4vohkii – it didn’t get a huge buff here since the lock on Pewku makes it hard to use that particular Rank 4 as part of the strategy, but Jaller now being able to search Light of the Mask does give us an extra bit of disruption if we draw the Avohkii cards, and actually makes the recovery aspect work properly even without Gearbreed involved. Theoretically having Ka in the Extra Deck could give you a stealth route into Rank 4 access in some obscure situations, but it’s probably not worth the slot if we’re being honest.
Beast/Winged Beast Rahi with Graalok and Ka. Being more optimized for the Avohkii side, they don’t exactly represent a huge shift in how the Rahi deck is played, but they do provide both turn 0 plays and some interesting lines you can do without ever Synchro Summoning, which is nice to have I guess. Only tested this a little bit so far, though.
Kopaka’s Bad Day with Washed and Chilled. I may try this at some point when I feel like it – of course, if you feel like it, feel free to do it ahead of me and report results! Maybe it would even make sense to put the card into a regular Toa Nuva deck …
So much for that. Look forward to the next release, where the quest meets some opposition …
But this time, the idea isn’t mine: YouTube commenter @EditKingNumber5 astutely observed that there might be some synergy between Bohrok and the newly released Enneacraft archetype, both being Machine-Type Flip Monsters that Special Summon in face-down Defense Position.
So once I had an opportunity to slot in a little side task, I looked into that and cooked up an Enneacraft variant using the Bohrok as basically a self-recycling and self-replacing removal package.
The design of Enneacraft itself is such that it’s very hard to make a lot of room for other things in the deck, so I ended up including just the three Bohrok that instantly shuffle themselves back for their effects, at one copy each – there isn’t much benefit to be gained from keeping bodies on the field since we’re basically always locked out of face-up Special Summons. To ensure somewhat consistent access, triple Beware the Swarm is a must, while Bohrok Invasion is a more optional tech that gives us a way to get the engine back online if a Bohrok lands in the GY. Another one I considered for a bit was Bohrok Counterattack just as a general negation backrow, but the fact that it needs a Krana somewhere and is dead as soon as you flip an Enneacraft makes it impractical.
Due to the aforementioned lock, the Extra Deck also consists entirely of things that we could theoretically make in some scenario but probably won’t, including the special spice of Nuhvok-Kal and Kohrak-Kal to broaden our removal options if two Bohrok ever stick around at the same time. Don’t count on it.
A quick test match against the AI proved reasonably successful:
The Bohrok cards actually came up more consistently than I would have expected, probably due to the Enneacraft searches thinning the deck a lot, making it that much more likely to find one of our 6 hits. Of course, if you weren’t playing Bohrok that would instead apply to generic power cards, so who knows if this really is a worthwhile way to build the deck. In any case, it activates the plastic crack neurons, and that’s all we’re here for anyway.
What’s FIRE, LIGHT, and has 4 stars? That’s right, Ryzeal. And also Jaller and Takua from the new Avohkii archetype. How curious. You could make a deck out of this.
On a more technical Level, the appeal of this combination is in the fact that by using either Takua or the Sealed Avohkii as a starting point, you can make a Rank 4 Xyz without spending your Normal Summon or getting locked into anything. That makes it good for baiting out interactions before you limit your further options, and if undisrupted has potential to go into interesting lines that might be difficult otherwise. As a big bonus, the archetype gimmick of the Sealed Avohkii being back in the hand at the end of the combo also guarantees follow-up, provided you still have search targets in your Deck. See for yourself how it works here:
As with everything, there are of course tradeoffs. While 6 of the 7 (how topical a number) extra cards included get you to the combo as desired, Jaller by himself only does it if you spend your Normal Summon, which gets in the way of the Ryzeal half of the deck. Going first, the Sealed Avohkii will also only work if you can put a monster on the field without it already, so with certain hands the play:brick ratio will feel more like 3:4 than 6:1. The numbers get even less optimal if you play multiple copies of Jaller to enable the Avohkii’s follow-up functionality, though if you’re based like me, you can get around this by instead playing Gearbreed to recycle him for a draw (never mind that Gearbreed is also kind of a brick, it gets away with this due to being based, as previously established). Finally, the lack of restrictions on the whole thing comes at the cost of card economy: Searching with the Sealed Avohkii will force you to lose one of the other cards in your hand (because if you use it to add Jaller, you certainly do not want to discard either of the 2), and if you start with Takua before having any other Avohkii cards ready, he’ll also cost you a card to Special Summon. Can feel pretty bad in a deck like Ryzeal, where your hand tends to be stacked with useful engine cards and handtraps, but well, first-world problem if I’ve ever seen one.
So, all things considered, is Avohkii Ryzeal going to be the next big thing for Rank 4 enthusiasts once I break into the Konami servers and install my expansions into the official card pool? Eh, probably not. The ability to get a “free” Rank 4 without so much as an Xyz lock is certainly enticing, but so far the most special thing I was able to do with it is make Utopic Draco Future as part of the endboard, which is also possible with existing engines like Sharks and takes just enough steps to lose to Nibiru. Assuming there’s nothing else crazy I completely missed, the slight awkwardness of ratios and the discards would probably make this a package that’s just worth considering rather than anything life-changing.
Another perhaps more realistically relevant thing I was trying to test here: Is it a balancing issue to let Takua be Special Summoned unconditionally at a slight cost, thus making the entire setup fairly splashable? The results so far say no, but of course the payoff isn’t yet complete without Jaller having anything to search other than a second Takua. At the very least, I feel confident in saying that the engine’s ability to Special Summon two Level 4 monsters in and of itself is not broken, we’ll see how it looks in general after the next update.
By the way, if it were to turn out we can’t get away with Avohkii plays being quite so free, my go-to solution would be to simply change Takua to “If you control a card(s) that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii”, you can Special Summon this card from your hand”. That leaves the Equip Spell, which is slightly conditional by nature, as the only thing that can get you started without the Normal Summon. A convenient side benefit of this change would be that the effect would no longer activate in the hand, making it possible to play around the K9 cards if needed. Come to think of it, Jaller’s SS effect could also perfectly well be a non-activated summoning condition, provided I spend some extra words on the HOPT clause.
The time has come once more: New expansion, new archetypes, and a new chapter of lore to adapt. Grab your popcorn buckets, because we’re going to the movies with Mask of Light! And Mata Nui Online Game II, that’s here too.
While Protodermic Evolution consisted mostly of upgrades for Toa and Bohrok, this set builds up some new strategies from the ground up, but will also add a fresh coat of polish to the six -Koro strategies that have been neglected for these last few years. Here’s the details.
New Archetypes/Cards
Avohkii
The Avohkii archetype is the one that tells the story of the movie from the perspective of its protagonists: The two humble Matoran who discover the Mask of Light and embark on a quest to find the seventh Toa destined to wield it. Its basic idea is a simple, consistent setup engine that gets you the Main Characters on the field and the Kanohi Avohkii itself to the hand, as well as access to a variety of searchable cards representing events, characters, and concepts from the movie.
You can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand; Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 card that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii” from your Deck to your hand, except “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” or an Equip Spell. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” once per turn.
You can reveal 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” in your hand; Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 card that mentions “Great Kanohi Avohkii” from your Deck to your hand, except “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” or an Equip Spell. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Jaller, Avohkii Herald” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
The first of these we look at in detail is Jaller, leader of the party and the Avohkii’s chosen herald – or so it seems. Befitting his role, he gets to enter the field for free if you have the shiny mask to show off in your hand, and searches most of the cards related to it on summon. The notable omission from this are Equip Spells, because as we know, it is not Jaller’s role to find the mask itself.
You can reveal 1 other card in your hand; Special Summon this card from your hand, then send the revealed card to the GY unless you control 2 or more cards that mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii”. During your Main Phase: You can equip 1 “Avohkii” Equip Spell from your hand, Deck, or GY to 1 “Avohkii” monster you control. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Takua, Avohkii Chronicler” once per turn.
You can reveal 1 other card in your hand; Special Summon this card from your hand, then send the revealed card to the GY unless you control 2 or more cards that mention “Great Kanohi Avohkii”. During your Main Phase: You can equip 1 “Avohkii” Equip Spell from your hand, Deck, or GY to 1 “Avohkii” monster you control. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Takua, Avohkii Chronicler” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
That honor goes to Takua, tagging along to chronicle the historic events unfolding as a result of his serendipitous discovery (even if he’d rather have nothing to do with it). This is the guy who gets you the Equip Spells missing from Jaller’s portfolio, and as a funny little reference to his attempt to dodge responsibility, he can even equip them to another “Avohkii” monster you control – convenient side effect is not always losing to Ghost Ogre. He also has a way to be Special Summoned from the hand by revealing a card, but since his time to shine is precisely when you don’t have the Avohkii yet, any card whatsoever will do; in exchange, you’ll be losing that card if you do this without having prior Avohkii setup.
Basically, what this somewhat convoluted sequence tries to achieve is letting Takua work both as a search off a Normal Summoned Jaller, in which case you’ll get to bring him out at no cost, or as a separate starter who does not take up the Normal Summon, but will make you lose an additional card from the hand. More importantly, going through this effect step by step matches up with the way he talks while hopping across lava in the movie, which I found very funny and was perhaps 70% of the reason I ended up going this way. Mechanically speaking, it really might be better to make the Special Summon only if you control an “Avohkii” card and require the Normal Summon otherwise, so it might still change to that once I get tired of the joke in a later version.
Regular Art
Avohkii, Sealed Mask of Light
Equip Spell
This card’s name becomes “Great Kanohi Avohkii” while in your hand. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can return this card to the hand; add 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” or 1 monster that mentions it from your Deck to your hand, and if you do, send 1 card from your hand to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Avohkii, Sealed Mask of Light” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
Movie Style Art
Avohkii, Sealed Mask of Light
Equip Spell
This card’s name becomes “Great Kanohi Avohkii” while in your hand. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can return this card to the hand; add 1 “Great Kanohi Avohkii” or 1 monster that mentions it from your Deck to your hand, and if you do, send 1 card from your hand to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Avohkii, Sealed Mask of Light” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
Finally, all this talk about using Takua as a starter only makes sense with the context of the one and only Equip Spell he can get at this point in time: Avohkii, Sealed Mask of Light. Or Sealed Avohkii for short.
Revealing the Avohkii in hand is meant to become a recurring element in this theme, so this one takes on that specific name while it is in your hand. That means double the cards you can draw to unlock all those benefits, and at the current preliminary stage it is in fact the only thing you can reveal to satisfy the Special Summon requirement on Jaller. Truly unsealing the Avohkii will take some more time, despite it already being referenced all over the place.
This card is also crucial to the engine’s functioning because, after equipping it, you can return it to your hand to search any Avohkii-related monster, though you’ll have to give up a card in exchange so the advantage math works out right. That bridges Takua to Jaller, or lets you get to either of them if any equip target is present on the field. The fact that it bounces for cost is especially powerful, as that immediately gives you a Kanohi Avohkii to reveal and sets up follow-up for the next turn in the form of another search. It is, however, vulnerable for the small window between equipping it and activating the effect, where a savvy opponent may just chain MST and take that valuable resource away.
The slightly odd search pool of specifically the actual, currently non-existent Avohkii and the monsters (but only the monsters) that mention it came about through the following reasoning: Obviously you need the monsters so the combos work, as explained above. But if you could also search Spells and Traps, you could just play a package of Sealed Avohkii and some convenient backrow cards, many of which are planned to use the hand reveal gimmick and therefore may very well be able to wield their full power in such a scenario. That didn’t seem proper, so those searches have been locked behind Jaller instead, forcing you to play a fuller Avohkii party if you want access to their cards. Finally, searching the real Avohkii itself represents the “unsealing” (for maximum lore accuracy, you should send the Sealed Avohkii to the GY when resolving this effect) – originally it was planned to have this search happen when the Sealed Avohkii is destroyed, but having an effect that only searches a currently non-existent card seemed a bit too weird after all. We’ll see where we end up with that in the long run.
Thusly equipped with three combo pieces that can all get us to the desired setup, we build a first simple deck to make use of it. And where does this repeatable engine that puts two monsters on the field lead us? Into a LIGHT Fiend for Fiendsmith combos, of course.
Other points of note are Rank 4 access through the main combo, the possibility of Chaos Angel with Takua + Engraver, and two neat little packages that further enhance consistency by getting Takua directly from the Deck. One consists of Gen, Ken, and Triple Tactics Thrust to search Naming Day and upgrade the Level 3 LIGHT Warrior you Summoned into the Level 4 LIGHT Warrior you need. The other is Taipu and Prima Light (a card so fresh off the presses I had to use a custom on DB), letting you trade a free EARTH Warrior for a LIGHT Warrior. In a grind game, Gearbreed also shows its worth as a fun tech card, since it lets you recycle Jaller to get value off the Sealed Avohkii in your hand truly forever.
Here’s where I would normally put a sample video, but in this case it’s more a showcase of how the basic combo aligns with what we see in the movie. Worth a watch anyway (he said, unbiasedly).
As you probably noticed above, this is also the first time in this project I’m using alternative artworks – one version coming from the usual set/comic/game sources, and another directly using movie screencaps. Not everyone is a fan of the highly stylized character designs Miramax used (personally I think they’re okay, but easily at their worst in this first movie), so now you get to play whichever you prefer. However, the stone seal on the Avohkii was only ever depicted in movie form, so for that one I had to put my rather limited art skills to work for the first time since Lhii .
Artwork for Sealed Avohkii in full size
Currently the Card Viewer just shows these alt arts as separate cards, as they are in the database. If life stops being so damn busy at some point, I’ll hopefully get a nicer way to include them done.
Future updates for the Avohkii theme will add a variety of searchable Spells and Traps based on scenes from the movie, and a small set of Extra Deck monsters across different summoning types that help you build up advantage while always cycling back into Jaller and Takua. Over the course of a duel, you should (at least theoretically) be able to recreate their journey step by step, from discovering the Mask of Light all the way to finding the seventh Toa.
Kraata
Far away from the light, strange beings crawl through the shadows. They are the Makuta’s own substance, the source of the infected masks that have placed the island’s Rahi under his control, and wielders of many dreadful powers. Introducing the second theme of the set: The Kraata, tiny 0/0 DARK Fiend critters that swarm the field and spread devastation to your opponent’s monsters through the physical contact of battle.
… Yes, I am aware about half of that description overlaps with Yubel, but I swear this concept was in my drafts long before that deck got the modern support wave that made it functional. And taking a closer look at the cards will reveal some major points of distinction in the specifics.
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Kraata” monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Explosive Kraata Xi”. You can only use this effect of “Explosive Kraata Xi” once per turn. Cannot be destroyed by battle. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled an opponent’s monster with ATK less than or equal to this card’s Level x 600: You can destroy that monster, then destroy all cards your opponent controls in its adjacent Monster Zones or Spell & Trap Zones, also increase this card’s Level by 1.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
The best point to start is probably the Kraata Xi, the one that simply searches another monster from its archetype when summoned. That’s already the first obvious difference from Yubel, the fact that these aren’t high-Level bosses, but small combo pieces that try to gather in great numbers. Accordingly, their battle protection does not go as far as keeping battle damage away from your LP, and the offensive effects that represent their unique powers only work on enemies up to a certain ATK stat, determined by the Kraata’s own current Level (or “stage”, as it would correctly be called in lore terms). That means they’re more a bonus rather than your primary win condition, usually.
The Xi’s power is Fragmentation – making stuff explode. When it successfully does so to a monster, the splash damage also catches the surrounding cards, so you can do some real field clearing with this if you’re up against careless use of zones. A successful use of its power raises a Kraata Xi’s Level by 1, and thus the ATK threshold for its next target by 600.
If you control no face-up monsters, except DARK Fiend monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then you can add 1 “Kraata” Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand, also you cannot Special Summon Effect Monsters for the rest of this turn, except DARK Fiend monsters. You can only use this effect of “Erosive Kraata Ul” once per turn. Cannot be destroyed by battle. Monsters your opponent controls lose ATK/DEF equal to this card’s Level x 600.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
To make those thresholds a bit more attainable, you may want to pair your attacker with the support of a Kraata Ul, using its Disintegration ability to passively wear away at the stats of your opponent’s monsters. Here we actually see an anti-synergy with Yubel, which wants the opponent’s monsters as big as possible for the purpose of damage reflection.
This one also contributes to the swarming aspect by being able to Special Summon itself as long as your field is exclusively DARK Fiends (or empty), and on top of that it acts as a Spell/Trap searcher when you do that. Since this is rather powerful, it comes with a lock into the aforementioned Type/Attribute combination, though curiously only for Effect Monsters. I will not elaborate on this beyond pointing out that Energized Protodermis Destiny needs to make a LIGHT Aqua Token so it can Fusion Summon.
Kraata Stasis Breach
Field Spell
Each time you activate a “Kraata” monster effect, increase the Level of all “Kraata” monsters you control by 1 immediately after it resolves. You can only use each of the following effects of “Kraata Stasis Breach” once per turn. If a DARK Fiend monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your field (except during the Damage Step): You can add 1 “Kraata” monster from your Deck or GY to your hand, with a different name from the cards you control. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 “Kraata” monster in your GY or banishment; Special Summon it in Attack Position.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
The previous card kind of left two questions hanging, namely “what Kraata Spells/Traps” and “how does this gain Levels”. Both are answered by the Field Spell, which is a Spell (duh) and advances all your Kraata by 1 each time one of their effects resolves. That means putting a few of them on the field while this is up can actually get you to a point where the battle effects are a reasonable threat to an established board.
Like any Field Spell you want to be run at 3 copies should do, it also enhances consistency, in this case by translating any DARK Fiend you Summon into a Kraata in your hand. In testing, this turned out to give pretty insane value over time because a lot of DARK Fiend stuff can also Summon on the opponent’s turn, and in light of future plans I’m almost considering making it add only from the Deck and also requiring a name different from the ones in your GY. But with only 2 Kraata in existence right now, I didn’t want to impose that restriction just yet.
And finally, as a Makuta-related Spell/Trap, it does something in the GY, namely reborn a Kraata when sent there. This is kind of a flavor effect to represent the actual “Breach” that happens in the Kraata Cave moments after the card image. Hence why it summons in Attack Position, that Kraata is ready to strike.
By the way, in case the monsters had you wondering if there were really images so directly focusing on the Kraata using their powers, there actually weren’t. In fact, there was basically no usable promotional art of any specific Kraata type, forcing me to break out the literal drawing board for the second and third time in this single release. The shit I put up with, seriously.
Artwork for Kraata Xi in full size
Artwork for Kraata Ul in full size
Looking forward to doing this at least four more times for this archetype, oh joy. Hell, might as well go for the other 36 Kraata types that totally needed to exist while I’m already at it.
In spite of all the differences explained above, you do actually play these with Yubel and the related usual suspects for now. It’s just the most effective combo shell that falls in line with the DARK Fiend lock, other than sometimes not being able to use the red dog. The recent TCG exclusive Fiend Fusion support is also pretty good here, letting you bridge from the more generic combos into Kraata via Aerial Eater.
In fact, the plan for future versions, other than adding the remaining Kraata, calls for Rahkshi in the form of Fusion Monsters, so that’s a very promising direction. Those will also act as proper boss monsters that can deal with stuff too high on the ATK ladder for squishy little Kraata, so I expect the awkward inclusion of Yubel specifically may go away as we approach completion.
See below for some test footage with this deck.
The Final Chronicle
Finally (haha), this set includes a second Matoran-based engine, hailing from Mata Nui Online Game II: The Final Chronicle. Rather than a standalone thing, this is something you can add to any of the established Koro decks, along with other new cards to enhance those strategies.
Gains 300 ATK for each “The Principle” card with a different name in your GY and/or banishment. You can only use each of the following effects of “Matoran Chronicler Hahli” once per turn. If this card is in you hand (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Warrior monster you control, except “Matoran Chronicler Hahli”; return it to the hand/Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon this card. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 “The Principle” card from your Deck to your hand.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
The core of it all is Hahli, a Ga-Matoran surprisingly chosen to represent her village in the Kolhii championship. This task has her journeying across Mata Nui, learning the Principles of each village that form the foundation of their Kolhii Skills. Therefore: She searches those Principles and grows stronger the more of them you apply. For smooth integration in the different decks, all it takes to summon her is bouncing a Warrior you control, which doubles as a way to dodge stuff and triples as a reference to her spontaneously replacing Kotu on the team. Poor Kotu, they don’t let her have shit.
The Principle Of Purity
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 “Matoran”, “Toa”, or “Turaga” monster you control and 1 face-up card your opponent controls; negate their effects until the end of this turn, then, if all monsters in your GY are the same Attribute (min. 1), you can destroy that opponent’s card. At the end of the Damage Step, if your Warrior monster attacked: You can banish this card from your GY; it can make a second attack in a row. You can only use each effect of “The Principle of Purity” once per turn.
Bionicle: Mask of Light (v5.0.2)
And now for the Principles, starting from the first one you encounter in the game: Purity. As I certainly mentioned in some article way back when, the effects of the six Koro Field Spells were actually modeled on these in, uh, principle, so the basic idea for their direct representation in cards is to have them kind of loosely be one-shot versions of whatever the Field Spells do. In the case of Ga-Koro , its focus is protecting your plays from interference as long as you keep your GY “pure”, so the associated Principle of Purity similarly offers negation to protect your plays and adds removal if you happen to have a pure GY.
Other than the fundamental mechanical differences between a static Field Spell and a dynamic Quick-Play Spell, the Principle version adds a requirement of having a Matoran/Toa/Turaga to negate along with the target card, and indeed all of them will be restricted to working with those archetypes. You’ll have to play the villagers if you want to make use of their culture. Meanwhile, there isn’t any explicit Attribute synergy here (as that would make it hard to use Hahli with other villages), but Ga-Matoran do still align especially well with this Principle due to the Quick Effects they tend to have being able to slip past the negation before it applies.
A secondary thing each of these six cards will offer is a GY effect that grants some benefit to Warrior monsters. This is the Kolhii skill derived from the Principle, and for Purity that means Speed, simply allowing an extra attack.
For testing, I integrated the new cards into a Ga-Koro deck that aims to set up the dream team of Nokama and Chengying. Icejade Ran Aegirine helps us do the latter somewhat consistently, while the former can generally be cobbled together from Ga-Matoran. Ice Doll is also convenient for several reasons, one being that it’s an extra body, another that it gets you a card in hand for Nokama’s discard, and another that its Mirror is a somewhat useful Spell/Trap that Nixie can send to the GY if you miss with her effect.
Here, big Hahli (not to be confused with small Level 2 Hahli ) serves her intended purpose of just sneaking into a Ga-Matoran setup whenever you happen to draw her, getting you a copy of Purity to further counter anything that may still threaten your board. The End Phase effect of Nokama can also get her back to the hand, so you can actually repeat that move as often as the Principles in your deck allow (so twice in this case – seems to be enough).
And once again, a testing video. I would like to draw your attention to the faithfully recreated MNOG2 loading screens and UI popups, those were pretty fun to do.
That concludes the preview, thanks for coming. The next update will consist of the first dedicated wave of support to the Avohkii deck, hope to see you again then!
At the time of this writing, the core archetypes of the new Mask of Light set are currently being worked out and getting their first few cards made. Usually, a good place to start doing this is at the start, or rather the starter – the first step in the combo that kicks off everything else. The design for this part is pretty straightforward, it’s simply a card that gets you to your other cards that do the stuff you’re trying to do. But what I’ve found recently is that things get a lot more fuzzy once you advance to the second step – the first card that you get to that then further enables the stuff you’re trying to do. Intuitively, this is something that extends your combo, so it’s easy to assume we can just apply the widely used term “extender” and be done, but as I’ll go on to elaborate, not every second step in a combo necessarily has the properties people tend to associate with extenders.
Let’s begin by defining more specifically what I mean when using these words. My understanding may differ slightly from that of any given reader or even the general community, especially as the use of terminology has evolved and continues to evolve with the game, so we won’t get anywhere without cleary setting out what things mean for the purpose of this writeup.
The combo is the sequence of plays leading towards a certain game state a deck was built to achieve. Some decks have a single linear combo, some have many different paths leading to the same goal, others have multiple paths and goals, and again others just use their combo to accumulate resources and use them for a control style of gameplay. Any such sequence falls under the umbrella of “combo” here, not just the ones found in big spreadsheet decks. For the purpose of our examples, we’ll specifically consider a combo that leads to a field of two monsters A and B, potentially with some further advantage like B searching a Spell/Trap or whatever.
A starter is a card which, if present in your opening hand, holds the potential to access the combo, with no prior setup required on your field, GY, or banishment. Starters that also work if nothing else is in your hand are 1-card starters, while those that need resources from the hand but aren’t picky are 1.x-card starters (where x is arbitrarily chosen based on how hard it is to satisfy the requirement). A card that only works as a starter if (n-1) other specific cards are present in your hand is a n-card starter, and I suppose it’s also valid for a starter to require setup on your opponent’s side (we could call this a conditional starter).
An extender is a card that allows you to execute some portion of the combo, if and only if certain conditions are fulfilled in your field, GY, and/or banishment (in rare cases, other values like LP may be involved as well). Aside from being crucial to follow up your starter and actually make it into a combo, having an extender in your opening hand also allows you to extend and continue playing if your starter is stopped; this is the specific property I would argue is inherent to extenders, but not always to a “second step”.
The second step in the combo is specifically the thing you do immediately after your starter resolves. What exactly it is depends on the form of the combo, in many cases it can also act as an extender, but its one and only defining property is, as the name suggests, the point at which it comes up in the combo.
Now for some different design approaches.
Design 1: The Taketomborg
The most classic extender-style second step, a monster that is added to the hand by the starter and can Special Summon itself from there if you control a monster from some category (e.g. archetype) that also includes the starter. So if everything resolves, you get to the goal of the combo with only the investment required by your starter, and if the starter is stopped, having the extender already in hand allows you to keep going and end up in the same place, just with 1 less extra card.
However, if you draw a card of this type as your initial piece of engine, you won’t be able to fulfill that condition to Special Summon it, making it either a brick or a Normal Summonable alternative starter – generally for a line not quite as good as the main starter’s, because otherwise that one wouldn’t be the main starter.
Finally, it’s worth noting there are a few seemingly exchangable, but actually quite distinct ways to write a “Special Summon self from hand” effect on card B.
a) If you control "A", you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).
Technically not an effect, but a procedure – doesn’t activate, can’t be hit by effect negates, but is vulnerable to the rarer Summon negates. At this particular point in time, the fact that this type of Special Summon plays around K9 can also be considered a significant advantage.
b) If you control "A": You can Special Summon this card from your hand.
Activates in the hand, thus can be chained to and negated. Arguably a strictly weaker version of the above, but also easier to adjust for synergy with more specific archetype gimmicks (for example, you can make it a Quick Effect). I’m also fond of this one because it can be covered by a regular HOPT clause along with the on-field effects, rather than needing its own “can only Special Summon … once per turn this way”.
c) If you control "A": You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then you can [...].
Not so much a variant as it is an extension of the (b) approach. This is an effect that activates in the hand, and then, while it resolves, performs an additional action rather than leaving that to a separate on-Summon trigger. Put simply, in the case where the action consists of searching something, this plays around Imperm at the cost of losing harder to Ash Blossom. Bit of an all eggs in one basket tradeoff.
Within the Bionicle YGOPro Expansion, somewhat straightforward examples of this design are Tamaru (who also works from the GY with a discard cost) and Midak (who sends an EARTH monster instead of directly Summoning himself).
Design 2: The Faris
Where the major weakness of Design 1 was its inability to leverage the free Special Summon in situations without the conditions provided by at least attempting to use a regular starter first, this next one aims to also cover those cases … for a price, that is.
The essence of this approach is a Special Summon that does not rely on particular preconditions, but just asks you to invest resources from your initial pool of cards and/or LP. The titular example I’ve chosen is Vision HERO Faris, who can be Special Summoned from the hand with an activated effect discarding another “HERO” as cost, and then advances your game plan once he has hit the field. As a classic second step, you can use this after Normal Summoning Stratos and searching it, but there’s also the option to Special Summon it as the first step if you open it directly.
A more modern example is Diabellstar, who instead gets brought out with a non-activated summoning procedure and has a far more generic cost, but functions much the same in principle – you can extend with it when you’re already playing, or start your plays by investing a resource less critical than the prized Normal Summon.
All of this, however, is contingent on being able to pay the cost. If you have zero cards in hand and your draw for turn is Faris, you can only Normal Summon it (and not even that is possible with the Level 7 Diabellstar). Worse, if your draw is Stratos, searching Faris won’t do anything, even though this would be full combo under Design 1. We also should not overlook that, in terms of card economy, having to pay even a small cost is going to add up in the long run; the tradeoff for greater starter/extender versatility is, in this case, being a bit less efficient at each of those things.
In BYE, a curious example of this design exists in the form of Taipu , whose Special Summon is seemingly free, but actually comes at the “cost” of restricting your attacks for that turn. Can be a surprisingly big problem outside of turn 1.
Design 3: The Poplar
Now for a category that has recently gained popularity: The second steps that, somehow, manage to not be extenders. They achieve this by having their effects that bring them to the field trigger specifically when added to your hand (by a card effect, or by any means except drawing, or even by any means except the normal draw), which is just what the first step of the combo does.
The namesake of this design is, of course, Snake-Eyes Poplar, which summons itself as the second step of the combo if added by the starter Snake-Eye Ash. What’s notable about the titular Poplar is that it’s a very powerful card even in isolation, capable of acting as a starter itself by searching Original Sinful Spoils and providing additional setup or recovery when it hits the GY. So I suspect that this particular design was chosen to conserve the power budget, so to speak, making sure you’re not able to access all these benefits for free unless you manage to resolve the preceding combo steps that search Poplar – having it in your hand already won’t help you if your Ash gets Ash’d.
Of course, technically having a card with this design can still increase the number of traditional extenders in your deck, because it grants that role to e.g. any Spell that’s able to search it. It’s certainly no coincidence Poplar and Bonfire were released only months apart.
And I guess it bears mentioning that, even though it has become the name everyone associates with this kind of effect, Poplar didn’t actually invent it. Machina Unclaspare had the exact same clause years before, and R-Genex Oracle did it (in a more archetype-locked fashion) all the way back in 2010.
In BYE … we haven’t used this yet, the design work so far mostly happened before this fad started. But it may just pop up somehwere sooner or later, since it is a pretty neat trick for giving something the second step role without directly increasing the number of extenders.
Design 4: The Deep Sea Diva
I know what you’re thinking. “Deep Sea Diva? That one’s not a second step! It’s just a starter!” Which, yes, but the end result of using the starter is suspiciously similar to the two-step combos where A searches B and then B comes down to the field. By having the starter Summon directly from the deck, the second step has been rolled into the first.
So what’s the advantage of doing it like this? Well, it lets you include a much wider range of cards into that basic setup of two monsters on the field, not just the ones that provide their own way to make the jump from hand to field. Diva enables this for all low-level Sea Serpents, and even less generic incarnations like the modern powerhouse Ice Ryzeal give access to their whole archetype without needing to use up any additional effects.
And the downside? Mainly that it spends power budget like crazy, hence why both Diva and Ice only do their thing if you invest the Normal Summon into them. It also concentrates a lot more power in a single card, making it a much more enticing and valuable target for any disruption your opponent may have. To top it off, if you’re using this kind of effect to bring out cards that otherwise cannot Special Summon themselves, that very trait means they won’t work as extenders if you do get disrupted – though Ryzeal has solved this issue quite handily by still giving everything in the archetype some ability to self-Summon, Ice just lets you skip that step so you can use it to extend later.
The example for this in BYE is Takua , who mixes in a bit of a fancy excavation gimmick, but ultimately works out to a guaranteed Special Summon of any Chronicler’s Company member from the Deck if you invest your Normal Summon.
Closing Thoughts
All in all, which design should we use? It depends™. If you want your card B to also work as an extender if card A is stopped, then the free conditional Special Summon fits best. But if card B is useful to bring out all by itself as well, it may be worth adding a cost so you can do that without requiring a condition or using the Normal Summon. Finally, designs 3 and 4 act as more specific adjustments to the power budget of the individual cards, the options they give you in deck building, and how effectively your opponent can interact with the combo. Hard to make a general statement on those, but it’s certainly worth keeping them in mind as options.
What awaits at the end of evolution? This, apparently.
With the aesthetic group shot out of the way, actual readable card images are still found on the BPEV page, or you can watch everything nicely presented in the demo compilation below. I recommend the latter, for one thing it took way more effort to make.
(Note: Some decks from previous versions, like the Toa Nuva builds that relied on Isolde, have now been removed.)
Much like the previous set, this finalized release consists of maintenance and cleanup on all the card texts and scripts, including swapping out those auxiliary function calls that got deprecated right as I finished everything else (thanks Edo). Some cards actually got away without any PSCT changes, if you’re curious you can try to find them on the Card Viewer page.
Anyway, that by itself of course doesn’t explain the big version number jump from 4.8.3 to 4.8.6. That part is justified by some last-minute experimentation and functional updates to stuff like the Vahi cards that still needed to cook for a bit – let’s get into the meat.
You can only control 1 “Vahi” Equip Spell. If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. The equipped monster cannot attack or activate its effects, also your opponent cannot target it with card effects. Once per turn, while this card is equipped to a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster you control: You can add 1 “Vahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, except an Equip Spell. If this card is destroyed or banished by your opponent’s card effect: Both players skip their next Battle Phase.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)
Vahi Freeze
Quick-Play Spell
Activate 1 of these effects; ●Add 1 “Vahi” Equip Spell from your Deck or GY to your hand. ●If you control a “Vahi” Equip Spell: Target 1 face-up card on the field; until the end of this turn, its effects are negated, also it cannot be destroyed, or banished, by card effects. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can draw 1 card, but skip your next Draw Phase. You can only use this effect of “Vahi Freeze” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)
4.8.6
Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time
Equip Spell
If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. The equipped monster cannot attack or activate its effects, also your opponent cannot target it with card effects. If you control the equipped monster: You can add 1 “Vahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, except an Equip Spell. You can only use this effect of “Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Vahi Freeze
Quick-Play Spell
Activate 1 of these effects; ●Target 1 face-up monster on the field; equip it with 1 “Vahi” Equip Spell from your Deck, GY, or face-up field that can equip to it. ●If you control a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster equipped with a “Vahi” Equip Spell: Target 1 face-up card on the field; until the end of this turn, its effects are negated, also it cannot be destroyed, or banished, by card effects. If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can Set it, and if you do, skip your next Draw Phase. You can only use this effect of “Vahi Freeze” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
I did mention these weren’t quite there yet by the time of the previous release, so some major restructuring happened in those last few minor versions. In summary, the Vahi itself slimmed down, losing its weirder restrictions to simply become a monster-locking archetype searcher; special thanks to DuDono from the EDOPro Discord for setting me on the right path with that. The new incarnation is somewhat similar to Grief Tablet, including the fact that the effect to search is no longer locked behind an archetype requirement. Instead, that restriction has moved to the time-freezing effect of the search target, because really it makes much more sense to check for proper Kanohi usage qualifications at the point where the actual time powers get used.
Other than that, Vahi Freeze has experienced two significant changes: Its first effect, instead of simply adding the Vahi, equips it directly to a monster, and can even change the equip target of a copy that is already on the field (think Tailor of the Fickle). This adds a ton of versatility, letting you use the lockdown effects as a (fairly weak) form of disruption or shift the burden from one of your monsters to another depending on who you need available. The floating effect that skips your Draw Phase also has a different payoff now, resetting the card itself instead of granting a random draw. By doing so, the problem where the cyclic Vahi “engine” will sometimes run out of gas all on its own has been mostly fixed, and the flavor of it all is much more befitting of a “Freeze” that simply keeps the card on the field and the top card of your Deck out of reach.
The lore element where breaking the Vahi destroys time has been lost in this streamlining, but I’m probably just going to make a new card about that when it actually becomes relevant.
“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.
“Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” + “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” + “Bohrok Lehvak-Kal” Must first be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by Tributing the above cards. (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 “Bohrok” card from your GY, then target 1 other face-up monster on the field or in either GY; equip it to this card. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to this effect’s activation. 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 (v4.8.6)
Some changes are planned in advance, others come up suddenly when you run into a card text that balloons beyond all good sense if outfitted with the final coat of PSCT polish. In this way, the Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja went back to a version I tested mid-development and deemed “not interesting enough”, where it just banishes 1 card at a time for its it cost and gets the full package of equipping from hand/field while not allowing responses. Realistically, making these Kaita is so convoluted that the buff from this change shouldn’t be an issue, and this way it still works as a looming threat of uncounterable removal you can theoretically make (to defeat Wairuha Nuva , of course).
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↖] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●This card can attack directly, also if it attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)
4.8.6
Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↖] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●This card can attack directly, also if it attacks, your opponent cannot activate monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
A slight change to the Krana Yo-Kal for lore reasons: Instead of its tunneling ability guarding you against all responses while attacking, it only covers monster effects, so that the Bohrok-Kal don’t have a built-in way to escape devastation at the hands of Nuva Overcharge . This was always primarily meant to guard the effects of Pahrak-Kal and Krana Xa-Kal , so keeping those safe from boss monsters that negate activations still mostly accomplishes the mission.
If only your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and 1 monster in your hand as material. If this card is used as material for a Fusion Summon, except by its own effect: Target 1 Special Summoned monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.
If only your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using this card you control and 1 monster from your hand as material. If this card is used as material for a Fusion Summon, except by its own effect: Target 1 Special Summoned monster on the field; send it to the GY.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The mandatory effect of Energized Protodermis Chamber has lost its hard once per turn clause, after all the substance isn’t going to stop being destructive just because you already threw something in that turn. This is something of a buff as you can now fuse away multiple in a turn to clear multiple Special Summoned monsters, but that also requires multiple other cards to enable the Fusion Summons and only matters against established boards, so it should be fine. However, the mandatory effect on Flow did maintain its limitation, so no milling out the whole Extra Deck with bullshit loops turn 1.
“Toa Mata Pohatu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can destroy Spells/Traps your opponent controls, up to the number of Rock monsters you control +1. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Pohatu” once per turn.
“Toa Mata Pohatu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can destroy 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls, or up to 2 if you control a Rock monster. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Pohatu” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Another change with credit attached, this time to u/RedRedditReadReads on, well, Reddit. The infinite scaling on Pohatu Nuva’s backrow destruction, while a cool mathematical trick, is kind of overtuned for no reason if you ever manage to make the guy in an actual Rock deck. So I’ve lowered the ceiling to 2 like his Mata form , leaving the benefits of the Nuva upgrade as “only” the free activation timing and the fact that neither card has to be targeted. Good enough, I say.
If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While equipped to a “Toa Nuva” monster you control, your opponent must keep their hand revealed. 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; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Toa Nuva” monster, look at your opponent’s hand.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
4.8.6
Great Kanohi Akaku Nuva
Equip Spell
If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While this card is equipped to a “Toa Nuva” monster you control, your opponent must keep their hand revealed. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated a “Kanohi” Equip Spell effect in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap from your Deck, also if you control a “Toa Nuva” monster, you can banish 1 random card from your opponent’s hand, until the End Phase.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
I was always a bit uncomfortable with the Akaku Nuva just casually granting full hand knowledge as the bonus of its GY effect, so during the final tweaks I pulled the trigger and downgraded that a bit, by making it a hand snipe similar to what already existed on the base Akaku . This effectively gives you knowledge of 1 card only, while seeing the rest requires finding a way to properly equip the mask, and in theory it could even take out some kind of handtrap (though that isn’t likely to matter). Note that unlike other bonuses, this one is optional, so you can still get a Trap from Deck even if there’s nothing in your opponent’s hand.
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.
3 Level 8 monsters 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. After this card was Xyz Summoned during your turn using a “Toa” monster as material, apply these effects for the rest of that turn, except during the Main Phase 2 and End Phase. ●Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects. ●You cannot Special Summon monsters.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Akamai Nuva, whose concept is basically “Azathot but for beatdown only”, obtained an additional restriction to guard against twisting the idea into more unfun directions. That is, it now also locks its own controller out of Special Summoning for the same duration the opponent’s effects are turned off, so you’re not getting to do any setup combos under that protection. Just search yourself an Aki Nuva , go to battle, and unga that bunga like the dev intended. Use your Normal Summon if you absolutely have to put another body on the field in Main Phase 1, that’s always an option.
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.
3 Level 8 monsters You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. 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, then you can banish both that card and the top card of either player’s Deck, and if you banished 2 different card types (Monster, Spell, Trap), draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of “Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Wairuha Nuva got a much subtler change of making both of the effects usable in the same turn. I initially didn’t do this because negating a response to a search that can add a card that makes it unaffected felt a bit toxic, but on further consideration, making this with a Toa so it gets the negate requires enough effort and previous disruptable play that you really should be allowed to do that. After all, a properly made Akamai Nuva also guards his own search with the lockdown effect.
Target 1 Warrior monster you control; Tribute it, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Warrior monster from your hand or Deck, with the same original Attribute, but a different original name and a higher original Level than the Tributed monster. You can banish this card and 1 Warrior monster from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control; its name is treated as the banished monster’s, until the end of your opponent’s turn. You can only activate 1 “Naming Day” per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)
4.8.6
Naming Day
Spell
Target 1 Warrior monster you control; Tribute it, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Warrior monster from your hand or Deck with the same original Attribute that the Tributed monster had on the field, but 1 or 2 Levels higher than its original Level. You can banish this card and 1 Warrior monster from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control; its name becomes the banished monster’s name, until the end of your opponent’s turn. You can only activate 1 “Naming Day” per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The final card in the set also gets a bit of a fix for its second appearance in a release. Where Naming Day previously had a hard limit to Level 4 or lower, it now instead supports any jump of 1 or 2 Levels; so 1->4 no longer works, but 2->4 and 3->4 are fine, and lots of new options like 4->5 and 6->8 have appeared. The main motiviation for this was a deckbuilding issue I came to notice: If you have Level 4 Warriors you want to Summon with this, they’re probably also good to simply draw and Normal Summon, so you’re going to run multiple copies, and as a mostly unsearchable Spell Card the same is likely true of the Naming Day itself. This then leads to fairly probable situations where your hand has a Level 4 + Naming Day, which is a combination where the Spell does nothing! Now, however, you have the theoretical option to include a 1-of Level 5 or 6 (e.g. a Toa), maybe even a 7 or 8 to build off that, and so on. You might choose not to, but the possibility being there feels good, and the additional targets shouldn’t enable anything too broken considering Transmodify has always been able to do more or less the same for all Types.
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)
4.8.6
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. 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 (v4.8.6)
For Rahi from the Depths, the destruction option was slightly downgraded to only consider the ATK stat, though it still lowers both ATK and DEF. What I actually wanted to do was “0 ATK and DEF” rather than “or”, so it doesn’t trivially deal with big monsters that happen to not be so big the other way, but then it wouldn’t have worked on Link Monsters at all, so this is how it ended up.
And that’s it for the final tweaks on BPEV! But wait, there’s more. Because the Rahi Update also occured during this development cycle a few months ago, there are additional changes to be reported on that end as well.
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)
4.8.6
Rahi Swarm
Spell
Add up to 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but different names, from your Deck to your hand, then, if you added 2 monsters including an Effect Monster, banish 1 card from your hand, face-down. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, you cannot Pendulum Summon, except “Rahi” monsters. 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 (v4.8.6)
The omnipresent search Spell Rahi Swarm was simply outfitted with a Pendulum Summon lock to only Rahi. This does not matter at all in-archetype, but I felt it might be necessary since you can technically add a pair of Normal Pendulums for a generic 1-8 scale at no cost.
[ 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.
[ Pendulum Effect ] Once per turn, if a monster(s) you control 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 (v4.8.6)
One of those Normal Pendulums, the Kane-Ra, got the trigger condition of its Pendulum Effect downgraded so it only reacts if a monster on your field is destroyed. This change specifically targets the main intended combo between Kane-Ra and Muaka , where you pop a Rahi to search another one and then Special Summon that right away. Getting to do such a strong play without even needing to invest some kind of Summon just felt like one step too far.
[ 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.
[ Pendulum Effect ] You can target 1 “Rahi” 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 (v4.8.6)
For the Nui-Rama, I believe I already pointed out in the release post that it has no actual reason to let you target any monster for its Insect Summon, so now that’s limited to Rahi.
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.
1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters If this card is Special Summoned, or when this card declares an attack: You can send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the GY; until the end of this turn, this card gains 500 ATK for each “Rahi” card sent to the GY this way. 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 (v4.8.6)
What I also previously mentioned is that the Kirikori-Nui sending a card of your choice as cost is a poor design and would be replaced once I think of a good alternative. Well, I thought of one: It sends random cards as cost, and by being able to repeat that when attacking each turn, it highlights the cyclic nature of the locust swarms vanishing, returning, and feeding again and again. Very neat flavor, and doesn’t even lose any of its previous utility if you simply hit the right cards. Get it twisted.
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 negate the effects of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi” once per turn.
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 negate the effects of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls that has activated its effect on the field this turn, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi” once per turn.
Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)
The Electric Bug felt ever so slightly overtuned compared to the other handtrap-type Level 1 Insects, being able to just drop a non-targeting negate on your opponent to both disrupt plays and deal with established end board pieces. Now it has been restricted to pretty much only the former use case, through a fancy and unusual condition of only going after monsters that actually activated an effect this turn. You do still have a way to use this against a boss monster if you just bait its activation with something else and then chain the Electric Bug, but that is what I would consider a “banger play” and therefore 100% fine to allow.
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.
[ 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.
1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters When your opponent activates a card or effect (Quick Effect): You can target this card you control and 1 other face-up monster on the field or in your GY; 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.
[ 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 face-up Reptile “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck in your Pendulum Zone, also you cannot activate the effects of “Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi” for the rest of this turn.
Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)
Finally, a paired update on the Reptiles: The Ranama got subtly enhanced with the ability to pull monsters from your own GY into the backrow, which provided room to narrow the focus of the Bog Snake’s destruction effect down to placing only Pendulums into the proper Pendulum Zones – something the deck struggled to do before. Of course, when the Snake can destroy itself with its own Pendulum Effect (soft once per turn due to space limitations) and then re-scale itself, that opens up some unfortunate looping potential (well, looping twice), so to address that, I finagled a fresh type of quasi-HOPT that extends from the monster effect to the Pendulum Effect. Notably doesn’t cover the other monster effect that does burn damage, but since it only triggers when attacking, there’s no reasonable fear of FTKs here.
And now we’re actually done.
In Hindsight …
With another milestone cleared, this is a good moment to reflect on my design, testing, and documentation approaches of the past few years. For the most part, things have worked decently well, but there are a few key points where I see room for improvement in future development:
Design-wise, I’d like to move away from archetypes that just repeat the same pattern for the six elements. Having a shared structure and maybe some basic common effects is fine, but looking at the trends of modern card design, I feel like I really should be giving each monster more of an individual role in gameplay. This is just a bit tricky from an adaptation standpoint since we’re still in the era of clone sets that didn’t really get much individual story focus, but I’ll be doing my best to figure something out.
For testing and documentation, I revised my approach once more while working on the final BPEV showcase video, so next time I really should be at the point where I can just filter each card and pull out the footage I need to put that thing together. But that’s a behind-the-scenes matter anyway.
Not being able to make a Best of Test for Toa Nuva and Bohrok-Kal until the very tail end of development (because I spread their cards out all the way) was kind of annoying, so I’ll try to take that into account when planning the order of releases for the next set.
Coming Soon to Theaters
Except not really, Mask of Light is direct-to-DVD. But still, look forward to the first release from the BMOL (three guesses what that stands for) expansion this summer! I’ve also started working on a Toa vs Bohrok campaign for Dungeon Duel Monsters that I’ll try to get up on their Discord later this month, so come check it out there if that sounds interesting.
Otherwise, see you again with the next release, sometime before the end of human history.
Where there are heroes, there must also be … misunderstood cleanup professionals just trying to get their job back on schedule. Now, the time has come to awaken the Bahrag and unleash the swarms once more!
The Bohrok-Kal
A team of six elite Bohrok, to be activated in the event that the regular operations of the Bohrok swarms face a critical obstacle such as having their commanding queens sealed away.
Far more advanced than their regular brethren in both powers and intelligence, they have been realized as a suite of Rank 4 Xyz Boss monsters for the archetype here. Shared between all of them are two special features: The ability to attach “Krana” monsters from hand/field/GY as additional material, and the fact that their detached materials return to the Deck (which keeps you from re-attaching the same Krana and plays into the general Bohrok resource loop).
2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; it cannot attack or activate its effects this turn, also you can detach 1 material from this card, and if you do, destroy all monsters your opponent controls with less than 2000 ATK. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Tahnok-Kal” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The lightning powers of Tahnok-Kal manifest at two levels: The “stun” setting that was mostly used in the story so things don’t get too violent for Lego, and the straight-up Raigeki thunderbolt it should theoretically also be capable of. Not quite Raigeki, though – any monsters at 2000 ATK and above, such as all the Toa, will survive this quick effect boardwipe.
2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. At the start of the Battle Phase: You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; it cannot attack until the end of your turn, then you can equip 1 monster adjacent to it or in its column to it. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Gahlok-Kal uses its magnetism to make foes stick to the ground (preventing them from attacking) or to each other (acting as non-targeting removal given sufficient proximity). Since this happens at the start of either Battle Phase, it can be fun to have people (and/or AIs) run into it due to careless zone placement.
2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. You can detach 2 or more materials from this card, then choose that many Main Monster Zones and/or Spell & Trap Zones; return as many cards in those zones to the hand as possible, also any of those zones that are unused after that cannot be used until your next Standby Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Nuhvok-Kal gets a bit fancy with the mechanics, applying its gravity powers to both “float” cards off the field back to the hand and to “crush” the zones they were in into an unusable state. Since you pick the zones rather than the cards, this is essentially non-targeting mass removal.
2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles: You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish all cards they control in its column. Then, if this effect banished exactly 1 card, inflict 1200 damage to your opponent. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Pahrak-Kal” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
When Pahrak-Kal fires its plasma, it does so in the straight line of a column, obliterating everything in its path and burning the opponent behind it if not met with sufficient resistance. Being an upgrade of the battle-focused Pahrak , this happens in the Damage Step, so response options are limited.
2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can detach 2 materials from this card; change all other face-up monsters on the field to Defense Position, also negate their effects until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
What Kohrak-Kal does is stun everything around – friend or foe – with a sudden massive blast of noise, negating their effects and switching them to Defense Position. Which, it just so happens, provides a pretty decent setup for some Zeus action as well.
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 materials from this card, 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 (v4.8.6)
Lehvak-Kal twists the formula a bit by replacing the standard Krana-attaching effect with a more broad Quick Effect that can also steal stuff from the opponent’s GY. This is the “suck” component of its vacuum powers, with the “blow” coming into play once it has (usually over the course of several turns) gathered enough material to unleash it all in a destructive blast. In short, this one both sucks and blows, which paradoxically makes it pretty good.
And in case even this elite squad isn’t enough, they also possess the ability to combine into Kaita, either the usual way by Bohrok Swarm Fusion or more easily throug a contact fusion procedure (since getting the materials in the first place is already hard enough).
“Bohrok Tahnok-Kal” + “Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal” + “Bohrok Pahrak-Kal” Must first be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by Tributing the above cards. 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 (v4.8.6)
The Kaita Za primarily deals with monsters that would resist our effect-based removal attempts, by simply getting big and hitting over them. It also gains multiple attacks (on monsters) when doing so, granting it board-clearing and game-ending capabilities depending on the situation.
“Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” + “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” + “Bohrok Lehvak-Kal” Must first be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by Tributing the above cards. (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 “Bohrok” card from your GY, then target 1 other face-up monster on the field or in either GY; equip it to this card. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to this effect’s activation. 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 (v4.8.6)
The Kaita Ja, bearing the glorious mantle of “has appeared in the story”, serves as a thing you can theoretically build up to in the face of big negation boards. Since its brand of Quick Effect removal cannot be responded to, it can simply grab a problematic monster without giving it a chance to defend itself, and then do that again every turn as long as you have enough Bohrok to banish. In terms of lore, this usage tracks with its victory over Wairuha Nuva , who is, wouldn’t you know it, a boss monster that negates.
What both of those have in common is the second effect, which tries to offset the big material investment by floating into a regular Bohrok-Kal and kindly attaching itself as material. By doing that, it’s also in a position to go to the GY and trigger again next turn, so if you get to the point where you can make these Fusions, they actually have a stealth benefit of infinite revival baked in.
And another thing of note is that, due to requiring specifically named materials, the Kal Kaita are in fact still compatible with the material replacement effect of Premature Bohrok Beacon … if you’re not making them by Contact Fusion, that is. One good reason to actually run the Fusion Spell even with these.
The Krana-Kal
To walk back the earlier staement about the intelligence of the Bohrok-Kal a bit, technically that part belongs to the Krana-Kal who pilot those mechanical shells. Their 8 variations are just enough to make one round trip of all the Link Arrows, so they’re implemented as a bunch of Link-1 monsters with two effects each: One for utility, based on the direction of the arrow (Down: Xyz Summon with a single Bohrok / Up: Battle debuff for opponent’s monsters / Side: tag out into a Bohrok from hand or GY), and one granted to a Bohrok-Kal that attaches it, representing the unique special power of that Krana-Kal.
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▼] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can place up to 2 of your banished “Bahrag” Pendulum Monsters in your Pendulum Zone(s), then you can add 1 “As It Was in the Before-Time” from your Deck or GY to your hand.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The Xa-Kal carries the crucial task of awakening the Bahrag once contact is made, thus fulfilling the mission. In game terms, “making contact” here means dealing damage, and “awakening the Bahrag” means getting them out of their banished state (where they were put by, say, a Toa Seal ) back into the Pendulum Zone so that the swarms can proceed to make Mata Nui clean, As It Was In The Before-Time .
Za-Kal
Krana Za-Kal, Overseer
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↗] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a “Bohrok” card(s) you control (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)
The Za-Kal handles telepathic communication and coordination, protecting the group by reading the minds of potential threats and countering them with a negate once they attempt to strike.
Vu-Kal
Krana Vu-Kal, Transporter
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↘] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can banish this card until the End Phase, and if you do, you can add 1 “Bohrok” card from your GY to your hand.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The Vu-Kal holds speed and flight powers, mainly used to let its holder dodge away from the field. Doing so comes with the side benefit of recovering a Bohrok card from the GY, befitting its role as a “Transporter”.
Ca-Kal
Krana Ca-Kal, Seeker
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↙] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains these effects based on the number of “Bahrag” Monster Cards with different names in your field and banishment. ●1+: Cannot be destroyed by battle. ●2+: Once per turn: You can draw 1 card, then discard 1 card.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
Where the Xa-Kal awakens the Bahrag, the telepathic link of the Ca-Kal is the key ingredient to finding them in the first place. This has been translated to benefits granted from the mere existence of banished Bahrag: Being in contact with just one already makes your Seeker Bohrok-Kal not fall in battle, and with two, you get to draw deeper into your deck to accelerate the quest.
Yo-Kal
Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↖] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●This card can attack directly, also if it attacks, your opponent cannot activate monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The Yo-Kal grants the ability to tunnel through the earth and sense underground movement, making it excellent for suprise attacks. Specifically, it lets a Bohrok-Kal attack directly while simultaneously limiting responses during the Damage Step further, which has some obvious synergy with the pictured Pahrak-Kal.
Ja-Kal
Krana Ja-Kal, Tracker
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [◀] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●Once per turn: You can declare 1 card name; until the end of your opponent’s turn, “Bohrok” cards and Set cards you control are unaffected by the effects of cards with that original name.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The Ja-Kal’s job is to detect and track distant obstacles, so what it allows you to do is “sniff out” what your opponent may try to use against you in the future and render it ineffective in advance.
Su-Kal
Krana Su-Kal, Demolisher
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▲] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●This card gains 800 ATK/DEF and cannot be destroyed by card effects.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)
The Su-Kal is simply a boost to power and thoughness, so it gives bonus stats and effect protection.
TBo-Kal
Krana Bo-Kal, Visionary
Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▶] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0
1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect. ●Once per turn: You can look at all Set cards your opponent controls, also look at as many random cards in their hand as possible, up to the number of “Bohrok” monsters you control.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The Bo-Kal grants all kinds of vision through darkness and walls, and the private information of Set cards and hand is no exception. In order to not make looking at the hand too easy, it’s tied to how many Bohrok you have managed to put on the field, for which I engineered a novel “as many random cards as possible, up to” phrasing so you don’t have to go through an ingame dropdown where you’d always select the maximum anyway.
The Plan
We have the mecha-brawn and we have the bio-brains, so how do we proceed from here? First of all, we must set the scene. Gahdok and Cahdok have been sealed away, there is cleanup still to be done, and so the Bohrok-Kal arise to the sonorous sounds of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Enter Bohrok Kalifornication.
Bohrok Kalifornication
Continuous Trap
If your opponent controls a face-up card, you can activate this card the turn it was Set, by banishing 2 “Bahrag” monsters with different names from your Extra Deck. During the Main Phase: You can send 1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” card from your hand or face-up field to the GY, then target up to 2 “Bohrok” monsters in your GY; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, and if you do, attach the targeted monsters to it as material, but return it to the Extra Deck during your opponent’s End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kalifornication” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
This is possibly my favorite card name I’ve ever made, and it works just as described above: When facing a populated field, just set and activate it, banish the Bahrag to provide the conditions for Xa-Kal and Ca-Kal to work, and start trading your Bahrag cards in hand or field for a (somewhat temporary) Bohrok-Kal every turn. One neat trick you can actually do is attaching a Vu-Kal to a monster Summoned this way and banishing it before it would leave, thereby making it forget its expiry date and stay around permanently once it returns.
(As a side note, at the very end of development I noticed it would be better to have the Bahrag banish as an alternative effect activation cost rather than part of the accelerated card activation condition, so you can more reliably set up that board state. Didn’t want to change it at this point, but might happen in a legacy update eventually.)
Of course, simply arriving is not enough to accomplish the great task ahead. After all, the Toa Nuva and their mighty elemental powers are sure to stand in our way. Now watch and learn, here’s the deal: The Nuva Symbols we shall steal!
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)
If Kalifornication is one of my favorite names, then Bohrok-Kal Strategy is more generally one of my favorite designs in this set. A Continuous Spell that triggers every time you Special Summon a Bohrok (face-up, is the tricky part) and gives you the first trigger as a freebie with a Special Summon from hand. Either you get to destroy another Spell/Trap, which is great against floodgates and of course represents the lore aspect of stealing the Nuva Symbols, or you search another Bohrok Spell/Trap to help with your setup. If you properly Xyz Summon (note that Kalifornication does not do this!), you even get to activate both together for some insane value.
Well then, everything’s ready for our Counterattack. Oh look, a “Counter” Counter Trap, someone call Battlin’ Boxers.
Bohrok Counterattack
Counter Trap
When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, while you control a “Bohrok” monster or only face-down monsters (min. 1): Send 1 “Krana” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY; negate the activation, then you can attach that card to 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
It’s just a standard archetypal negation backrow, worded so it also works with the usual plain Bohrok setups but actually gets rid of the negated card if the Bohrok-Kal are in play. Getting a Krana into the GY does also come in handy.
And finally, when victory is at hand, the Krana-Kal unleash their last secret: The Silver Shield protecting the Bohrok-Kal from all interference as they cross the finish line.
Bohrok Silver Shield
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 “Krana” monster you control or in your GY; either return it to the hand or attach it to a “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material. At the start of the Battle Phase: You can banish this card from your GY; until the end of this turn, “Bohrok” Xyz Monsters you control are unaffected by card effects, except their own, while they have a “Krana” Link Monster as material. Neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this effect’s activation. You can only use each effect of “Bohrok Silver Shield” once per turn.
Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)
The activation effect is just basic utility to recycle or attach a Krana – doing this without activating a monster effect is actually a pretty good trick to have up your sleeve. But the main point lies in the GY effect, which triggers at the start of the Battle Phase to turn the Krana-Kal attached to your Bohrok-Kal into some of the most potent protection the game has to offer, ensuring your attack to trigger the Xa-Kal will go through uninterrupted. About the only thing that could stop you at that point is a form of negation that makes the Bohrok-Kal fall to its own power, but surely nothing like that exists .
Sterling Silver? Link-8? Match Winner? Whatever are you talking about? I fear you may have had too many expired Vuata Maca Fruits, friend.
Unlike the Toa Nuva, where a variety of decks came from the question of what to mix them with, Bohrok kind of just don’t mix with anything. The Kal all require archetypal materials only, cards like Strategy or Kalifornication need you to draw other Bohrok stuff to do anything, and so on. As a result, the different builds included in the expansion are more a consequence of limited Extra Deck space – with 8 Krana-Kal, 6 Bohrok-Kal, 2 Bahrag, and 2 Kaita, the numbers just don’t work out for a deck that does everything. However, since the differences are pretty minimal, I won’t bother going over them all and instead leave it at a quick rundown of the lore-accurate “awaken the Bahrag” build.
Its core is a Bohrok package of Gahlok , Nuhvok , and Pahrak , the three breeds that can use their effects and still remain on the field to serve as material. But in some cases you may value more potent removal over maximum efficiency, so the side deck also has a Lehvak to swap in. All of these come with their respective Bohrok Va for additional field presence and utility. Partnered with them are Bohrok Spells/Traps both new and old, as well as a Therion Regulus that Rank 4 lines can search by way of Merrymaker into Sargas.
The Extra Deck features the Bahrag we seek to awaken as well as the Xa-Kal and Ca-Kal to enable that, plus an useful (but necessarily incomplete) selection of other Krana-Kal and Bohrok-Kal. Of course Zeus is here too, it’s an Xyz deck.
Best of Test
Best of Test: Bohrok-Kal
Some assorted duel footage that shows not only the above build in action, but also those “minimally different” others that focus either on more general Bohrok-Kal spam or on making the Kaita.
Conclusion
The Bohrok-Kal, but perhaps more so the associated Krana-Kal and the various new Spell and Trap cards, take the slowly ramping Flip Monster strategy of the old Bohrok and augment it with such useful abilities as “building a board going first” or “breaking a board going second”. While their general reliance on archetypal cards makes it hard to put together anything other than a pure deck, the wide variety of Extra Deck monsters added with this support introduces some significant choices to be made in that process. Meanwhile, the Main Deck still contains all the flippy goodness of the Bohrok swarms, which can serve as a surpisingly powerful fallback strategy once the big bombs have been exhausted.
