Release: Symbols of Power

The Toa Nuva receive their first proper wave of two times three (plus one) cards, and the archetype’s general concept begins to take a more refined form.

Download for EDOPro

I’ll be honest, I totally forgot about the Energized Protodermis guide until I saw it mentioned just now in the previous release post, so that’s gonna take a while longer. What I do have ready is a little introduction to what I believe is currently the most effective way to play Toa Nuva. Worth checking out if you’re planning to try the deck yourself.

If you’d just like to see what’s changed in this update, simply continue below.

New Cards

Gali

Toa Nuva Gali

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | WATER Warrior | ATK 2700 / DEF 2200

“Toa Mata Gali” + 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 target 1 other face-up monster on the field; negate its effects until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Gali” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Toa Mata Gali

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WATER Warrior | ATK 2300 / DEF 1800

To Tribute Summon this card face-up, you can Tribute a WATER or “Toa Mata” monster in your hand, except “Toa Mata Gali”, instead of a monster you control. Once per turn, when the turn player’s opponent activates a monster effect, except “Toa Mata Gali” (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up monster on the field; negate its effects, and if you do, this card gains 400 ATK.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
Lewa

Toa Nuva Lewa

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | WIND Warrior | ATK 2600 / DEF 2300

“Toa Mata Lewa” + 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. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster on the field; return it to the hand, then, if it was a monster you controlled, you can return 1 additional monster on the field to the hand. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Lewa” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Toa Mata Lewa

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | WIND Warrior | ATK 2200 / DEF 1900

To Tribute Summon this card face-up, you can Tribute a WIND or “Toa Mata” monster in your hand, except “Toa Mata Lewa”, instead of a monster you control. Once per turn, if a monster(s) is Special Summoned from the hand, Main Deck, and/or GY while you control this card: You can target 1 monster on the field; return it to the hand, then, if it was a monster you controlled, you can return 1 additional monster on the field to the hand.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

The protagonists of the release are the Toa Nuva of Water and Air, Gali and Lewa. I went with these two because their effects as Toa Mata were the ones that worked best for interacting on the opponent’s turn, so adding them to the Nuva roster – where the effects are the same but much more freely usable – would immediately provide some reliable end board options. This panned out as expected, and I can proudly report that pure Toa Nuva decks are now playable in the sense that they consistently put up at least one relevant disruption.

If you make Gali Nuva, you get a targeting monster negate usable whenever you want, though it lacks the stacking ATK boost of her Mata form to make up for the added flexibility. If you make Lewa Nuva, you get a targeting bounce that can be made non-targeting if you’re willing to get rid of one of your own monsters as well, which is exactly what he already did as a Toa Mata (if the trigger condition was met).

You might notice that Lewa is Main Phase only, while Gali has no such limitation. This reflects a newly introduced general rule for adapting Mata Trigger Effects to Nuva Quick Effects: If all the features of the effect are essentially retained, it will be limited to the Main Phase, but cutting out some bonus such as Gali’s ATK gain allows me to lift that restriction. And save some words, which is neat.

Of course, both of the Toa Nuva also have the archetypal ability to search a “Nuva” Spell/Trap when Fusion Summoned, with which we segue straight into Nuva Symbols.

Gali

Nuva Symbol of Flowing Harmony

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Gali” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. When a card or effect activated by your opponent in response to your “Nuva” Fusion Monster’s effect activation resolves, you can negate that effect, and if you do, destroy that card. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Flowing Harmony” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects. You cannot activate monster effects in response to this effect’s activation.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)
Lewa

Nuva Symbol of Soaring Vitality

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Lewa” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. If a face-up “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control leaves the field by card effect (except during the Damage Step): You can target 1 Level 8 or lower monster in your GY; Special Summon it. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Soaring Vitality” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, and if you do, you cannot Special Summon for the rest of this turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Like all Nuva Symbols, Flowing Harmony and Soaring Vitality can go straight back to the Deck to find you a missing fusion material for their respective Toa Nuva, they have on-field effects granting benefits to all the Nuva (but synergyzing especially well with the correct one), and, if removed from the field, activate a mandatory effect of negation and punishment contrasting the benefit.

Gali’s Nuva Symbol of Flowing Harmony protects the Toa Nuva from outside interference by negating and destroying any response to their effects (once per turn, of course). Continuously negating and destroying, which means it works even against things that can’t be responded to otherwise, and even if you were to set up the symbol at Quick Effect speed after your opponent already activated their response. You know, hypothetically. If there was some way to do that. The matching punishment you suffer if the card is destroyed is simply that you cannot activate monster effects in response to the negation of your Toa Nuva, so you miss out on that last chance to fire its effects.

Lewa’s Nuva Symbol of Soaring Vitality acts as an outsourced floating effect, bringing back a Level 8 or lower monster from the GY if a Toa Nuva leaves the field by card effect. Incidentally, Toa Nuva happen to be Level 8, so in some cases you can just revive the exact same monster immediately. Or a Toa Mata. Or an Energized Protodermis Chamber to make a new Toa Nuva. It also triggers off your own card effects, so if Lewa Nuva has to bounce himself to get some non-targeting removal, here’s your replacement. However, if the Symbol itself instead leaves the field, you’ll be locked out of Special Summons for the rest of the turn.

Our other search targets, the Kanohi Nuva, got a significant design overhaul, so let’s talk about those.

Gali

Great Kanohi Kaukau Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, it is unaffected by your opponent’s card effects, unless they target it. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, the face-up monsters you currently control cannot be destroyed by card effects this turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)
Lewa

Great Kanohi Miru Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, negate any effect activated by your opponent that targeted it. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, your opponent cannot target the monsters you currently control with card effects this turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Gone are the cumbersome bullet point effects, and instead the ability granted when equipped is now listed just like it was on the original Great Kanohi, but limited to Toa Nuva.

The major changes lie in the GY effects, however. They still generally do the same thing as the Kanohi Nuva seen in previous versions: Banish a monster from the GY, get a Nuva Symbol from Deck. But now the former secondary bullet point effect to temporarily buff or protect your whole field has been merged into this, under the condition that you must control a Toa Nuva (since sharing the power requires having someone who can use it in the first place).

The first part of this shared effect has proven extremely valuable in making all the different components of a full Toa Nuva deck work together smoothly, in more than one way. It boosts consistency by letting you get Toa Mata/Energized Protodermis searches off Isolde or even just by linking off an equipped monster, it offsets the discard included in the Toa’s on-summon effects since you can just discard a Kanohi Nuva to get a Nuva Symbol for free, and it provides you with a way to set up Nuva Symbols on the opponent’s turn as well. But it is also a +1, and when what you’re getting isn’t always just a Level 6 monster in your hand (as it was with the Mata Kanohi), that gets a little out of hand with this many cards able to do it. Adding the shared buffs to these effects obviously doesn’t make them any tamer, either. So how to keep this under control without throwing out all the fantastic utility it offers?

The answer came to me in a literal fever dream: One must simply be limited to only using a single Kanohi Nuva per turn, and then neither the plusses nor the buffs can accumulate to an unreasonable degree! In practice, I achieve this by requiring you to not have previously activated any “Kanohi” effects in the GY the same turn, which means the first one you use locks you out of all the others. It’s a bit of a weird approach and I couldn’t find a clear ruling on how it would work with multiple simultaneous triggers (I imagine you’d still only get one, and coded it as such), but it’s nicely compact in wording and has the added benefit(?) of making it so you can’t chainblock the ashable Mata Kanohi with the non-ashable Nuva Kanohi. Also, notice how we can completely forgo individual HOPT clauses now, because the restriction also keeps other copies of the same card from activating.

And that just leaves one thing to cover, and ideally it should be covered in Nuva Symbols.

Nuva Cube

Continuous Trap

While you control a “Nuva” Continuous Spell, your opponent cannot target this card with card effects. Once per turn: You can target up to 6 “Nuva” Continuous Spells with different names on your field and/or in any GY(s); shuffle them into the Deck, then you can apply any of these effect(s), in sequence, based on the number shuffled.
●1+: Place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone.
●3+: Negate the effects of 1 other face-up Spell/Trap on the field until the end of this turn.
●6: Special Summon up to 2 of your banished monsters.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

The Nuva Cube is the first Toa Nuva search target that doesn’t belong to a series of six and also the first Trap (we have officially outpaced Nekroz). In the story, its role was limited to being the spot where the Bohrok-Kal have to put the stolen Nuva Symbols to undo the seal on the Bahrag, and after that arc it was never seen or heard from again. Seriously, even when the Bahrag later are actually unsealed, the Toa Nuva seemingly do it by just combining their powers without the use of the cube. It’s all a bit strange.

In gameplay, meanwhile, I think I’ve found a decent use for it as insurance against removal targeting your vulnerable Nuva Symbols. First of all, while surrounded by “Nuva” Continuous Spells (i.e. the Symbols), it is safely out of reach of your opponent’s effects. And at Quick Effect speed, because that’s how Traps work, you can shuffle different Nuva Symbols from your field or either GY into the Deck and then proceed to resolve various effects depending on how many Symbols you “placed on the Cube” this way. You’re always given the option to get a single replacement Symbol from your Deck, so even if you’re not dodging removal, you can use this to swap into what you need at a given moment (now where have we heard this before?). If you’ve gathered at least 3 symbols, it also negates another face-up Spell/Trap until the end of the turn, which could even be the Harpie’s Feather Duster your opponent activated to get rid of all your Nuva Symbols. And if you manage all 6 (currently impossible, as only 4 have been created), you get to “unseal the Bahrag”. Which, in more generically useful terms, means you can Special Summon up to 2 of your banished monsters.

This last effect and its lore association is the reason you can shuffle from either GY, by the way. Because then a Bohrok-Kal deck could, if facing a Toa Nuva deck, follow the canon by removing Nuva Symbol after Nuva Symbol, and finally fulfill the mission as planned by returning them all from the opponent’s GY to the Deck in order to Special Summon a pair of banished Bahrag. In this hypothetical lore-accurate duel, those were previously banished by the effect of Toa Seal, of course.

Updated

Updates to the structure of Kanohi Nuva means the old ones are adjusted to match, of course.

4.1.3

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Hau Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle, also you take no battle damage from battles involving it.
●Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; face-up monsters you currently control cannot be destroyed by battle, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)
4.2.5

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, it cannot be destroyed by battle, also you take no battle damage from battles involving it. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, the face-up monsters you currently control cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)
4.1.3

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
●Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)
4.2.5

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Aside from the generic updates to merge the field buffs into the GY effect and the collective OPT, the Pakari Nuva also now gives an extra 100 ATK with its field buff, for a total of 600. This incredibly relevant change serves to mirror the stat boost Normal Summoned Toa Mata get from the Mata Nui Field Spell, and also makes it so the 400 extra on each stat the Nuva have compared to their old forms get rounded up to a nice 1000 while affected by a shared Pakari.

4.1.3

Toa Nuva Tahu

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 2900 / DEF 1900

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 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. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)
4.2.5

Toa Nuva Tahu

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 2900 / DEF 1900

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 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 target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Compared to his Mata form, Tahu Nuva is missing the burn part of the effect and can also only target Attack Position monsters, but he does instead boost his own ATK for a turn and is able to target your own monsters as well. I’ve come to the conclusion that this overall comes out to an effect that lacks features from its original incarnation (mainly that it no longer lets you deal big damage through a defense position wall), and so by the current design philosophy, it should not be limited to the Main Phase. Which means we are now free to Tahu Nuva during the Damage Step, which is kind of nice. I also ended up not including a restriction that prevents draining your own monsters after they already attacked, because

  1. the biggest risk is that you can OTK against an empty field if you manage to put out another monster with >2500 ATK, and that sounds kind of reasonable.
  2. the drain to 0 ATK is permanent, so in cases where you don’t OTK being left with a powerless Attack Position monster is a drawback.
  3. Tahu getting overly “heated” to the detriment of his own allies is actually fairly lore-friendly at this stage of his character.

Still not 100% sure if it was really the right call to lift the Main Phase restriction, but so far it hasn’t felt broken or anything.

4.1.

Energized Protodermis Flow

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 4 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

2 “Energized Protodermis” monsters
If this Fusion Summoned card is sent to the GY by a card effect: Look at your opponent’s Extra Deck and send 1 monster from it to the GY. During your Main Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing 2 Fusion Materials mentioned on it from your GY, including this card. You can only use each effect of “Energized Protodermis Flow” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)
4.2.5

Energized Protodermis Flow

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 4 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

2 “Energized Protodermis” monsters
If this Fusion Summoned card is sent to the GY: Look at your opponent’s Extra Deck and send 1 monster from it to the GY. During your Main Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing 2 Fusion Materials mentioned on it from your GY, including this card. You can only use each effect of “Energized Protodermis Flow” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Energized Protodermis Flow got ever so slightly buffed by also letting you rip something from your opponent’s Extra Deck if sent to the GY by ways other than card effect, which means you can just use it as Link material or something now. The condition of needing to be Fusion Summoned remains, though, so no Dogmatika shenanigans still.

3.20.4

Matoran Guard Captain Jala

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 500

While your opponent controls a face-up monster, Level 4 or lower FIRE Warrior monsters you control gain 400 ATK for each “Matoran” monster you control. During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 “Matoran” or FIRE “Toa” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn) You can only control 1 face-up “Matoran Guard Captain Jala”.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)
4.2.5

Matoran Guard Captain Jala

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 500

While your opponent controls a face-up monster, Level 4 or lower FIRE Warrior monsters you control gain 400 ATK for each “Matoran” monster you control. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Normal Summon 1 Warrior monster. You can only control 1 face-up “Matoran Guard Captain Jala”.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.2.5)

Last but not least, Jala got the effect update that’s been listed in Pending Changes for a bit. Instead of an awkwardly targeted continuous extra Normal Summon, you now just get an effect-induced Normal Summon when he attacks (during the Damage Step, nicely safe from interaction), with which you can bring out any Warrior. Maybe a fellow Matoran to boost his own ATK just in time, maybe Tahu Mata to aid an ongoing OTK, or maybe something generic I haven’t found yet. I have tested this a grand total of once and actually beat the Swordsoul AI with Ta-Koro, so I shall firmly conclude that this version of the effect works great and I was justified in thinking myself genius when I came up with it. No further questions.

Release: Energized

Bionicle’s most important liquid gets a batch of new cards – the first of many, assuming I ever reach 2004 and beyond.

Download for EDOPro

Didn’t have all that much time available this month, so some things here are more preliminary than usual. For the same reason, I didn’t make a Theme Guide for Energized Protodemis yet, but there is a Best of Test showcasing what it does so far.

Best of Test: Energized Protodermis

Now, design notes.

New Cards

Energized Protodermis Destiny

Quick-Play Spell

Target 1 face-up monster you control; Special Summon 1 “Energized Protodermis Token” (Aqua/LIGHT/Level 2/ATK 0/DEF 0), then apply 1 of these effects.
●Send the targeted monster to the GY, and if you do, you can destroy that Token and Special Summon 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster from your Deck.
●Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster that mentions an “Energized Protodermis” monster as material from your Extra Deck in Defense Position, using only that Token and the targeted monster as Fusion Material.
You can only activate 1 “Energized Protodermis Destiny” per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

The foremost addition to the Energized Protodermis archetype is the Quick-Play Spell Energized Protodermis Destiny, which provides dynamic utility while pretty neatly encapsulating the destruction/transformation dichotomy that lies at the core of the whole substance. Mechanically, the way it does this is a design I’m personally pretty fond of, so allow me to break it down a bit.

The things that always happen when activating Destiny is that you choose one of your face-up monsters as the subject whose “destiny” is to be determined, and an Energized Protodermis Token is created to carry out the test. After that, however, the effect splits into two paths. If you are able to make a Fusion Monster that explicitly mentions Energized Protodermis as material using your target and the new Token, you can Summon that monster, thus completing the destined transformation. But if that is not the case, the only choice you have left to finish resolving the effect is the path of destruction – sending your targeted monster to the GY and leaving behind the Token alone. Well, as a consolation prize, you are allowed to swap it out for any Energized Protodermis monster in your Deck (which means exactly the Chamber, for now), so that also has its uses.

Pretty much the only thing on this one I would consider changing is that it can currently only Fusion Summon in Defense Position. That was initially put in as a standard precaution against squeezing too much damage out of fusing a monster that already attacked during the Battle Phase, but it might be fair to allow that when you can only access a limited pool of Fusions anyway.

Among that limited pool is also Energized Protodermis Flow, the actual in-archetype Fusion Monster.

Energized Protodermis Flow

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 4 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

2 “Energized Protodermis” monsters
If this Fusion Summoned card is sent to the GY by a card effect: Look at your opponent’s Extra Deck and send 1 monster from it to the GY. During your Main Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing 2 Fusion Materials mentioned on it from your GY, including this card. You can only use each effect of “Energized Protodermis Flow” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

Yes, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel so hard for Energized Protodermis content in this part of the lore that I was forced to make a card out of some vague state of the stuff, represented by some vague AI-generated image.

The purpose of this one is pretty much to provide a productive outlet for Energized Protodermis’s mandatory drawback of sending a monster to the GY when used as material by a different fusion effect. Obviously the best option is (ab)using it to take out an opponent’s monster, but in case that’s not possible you can hit this card to instead go after the Extra Deck. I also considered having it remove a card from the hand instead, but this way is probably more fair and fun, especially when Instant Fusion is able to make and trigger Flow in any deck. On the other hand, -1 Extra Deck is in most situations weak enough that it might actually be fine to lift the need to be sent by a card effect specifically – so you’d also be able to use the effect after linking off.

Anyway, it ultimately doesn’t matter too much what the card does when it goes to the GY, because it definitely provides value once it’s there by acting as a GY-based fusion “spell”. Like Chamber, it is limited to using exactly itself and 1 other monster, but even that allows for some fun plays such as making Augoeides from zero resources in hand or field. And all the Toa Nuva, of course.


And now we enter the more unfinished part of this release. I figured that the two EP cards alone probably wouldn’t be enough to fill the month, and also threw in another Toa Nuva in anticipation of the next release to come. Enter the team’s hotheaded leader, Toa Nuva Tahu.

Toa Nuva Tahu

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 2900 / DEF 1900

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 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. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

Like Onua previously, the basic design concept is that the trigger effect he had as a Toa Mata (setting a targeted monster’s ATK to 0 after battle and adding burn damage if it’s destroyed) turns into a quick effect that does roughly the same thing in a somewhat streamlined fashion. In this case, that means draining an Attack Position monster to 0 ATK while gaining its original ATK himself, setting up an enormous hit of battle damage.

This effect hasn’t changed yet from its first draft, and probably will get some adjustments for the proper Toa Nuva release, since there’s at least three specific points I’m unsure about:

  • It only works during the Main Phase. This was done to keep consistency with Onua Nuva and is also in line with the restriction Despian Quaeritis has on a similar effect, but it’s kind of a waste to have stat manipulation not be usable during the Damage Step.
  • It only works on Attack Position monsters, which is in line with how I’ve envisioned its use (make big number, hit small number), but also weirdly more restrictive then Tahu Mata’s effect.
  • It can also drain the ATK of your own monsters. That means more flexibility, obviously, but it’s hard to find a good justification of why Tahu would willingly turn his elemental powers on his own allies. Arguably this point is kind of the root of all evil, since one legitimate purpose of the restriction to Main Phase is that it keeps you from attacking with a big monster and then using its ATK again via Tahu Nuva, and the restriction to Attack Position monsters adds a neat risk factor to draining your own monsters.

So the next revision might be to only allow targeting the opponent’s monsters, but regardless of battle position and phase. Might even do something like letting you force the target into attack position for maximum chance of ungabunga, but we’ll see in a while.

Nuva Symbol of Burning Courage

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

With Tahu’s Nuva Symbol, we can already see some tweaking has happened to the general layout of the Nuva cards. I did mention last time that having any Energized Protodermis card freely searchable by at least six different cards might not be a good idea, and now that search has been locked behind already needing to have the appropriate Toa Mata in your hand to reveal – otherwise you’re limited to getting exactly that Toa Mata. Still a good way to fetch the materials you need for a Toa Nuva, and nicely inefficient to abuse for any other purpose. A subtler change to this effect is that it now shuffles the card into the Deck rather than placing it on the bottom, because you’d have to shuffle after searching anyway.

Also significant is that the abilities granted by Nuva Symbols are now no longer reliant on having exactly the correct Toa Nuva on your field, and conversely the backlash of losing the Symbol can also hit any Toa Nuva. This little break from lore came about because it turned out Toa/Symbol mismatches are already annoying as hell even when a deck only has Tahu and Onua, so I don’t even want to imagine how it would go with all six.

As for the specific effects of Burning Courage itself, it simply plays into Tahu’s focus on attacking for massive damage by shutting off your opponent’s effects while a Toa Nuva is battling, thus ensuring the attack goes through. Meanwhile, the matching punishment for losing the symbol is that you lose an entire Battle Phase.

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Hau Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle, also you take no battle damage from battles involving it.
●Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; face-up monsters you currently control cannot be destroyed by battle, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

Tahu’s Hau Nuva largely follows the pattern already known from Kanohi Nuva – fetches a Nuva Symbol from Deck when it goes to the GY, grants Toa Nuva the same benefit it had as a Great Kanohi (in this case, battle protection), and has an activated effect while equipped that extends some of that benefit to your whole field. That last one, however, now comes with a discard cost, because activating it every turn for free seemed slightly silly. However, I have no real idea if that’s at all balanced, because these field boosts did not come up a single time in testing after I made the change.

That’s just one of many reasons the Kanohi Nuva are likely to get restructured quite a bit in the upcoming proper Toa Nuva release. Sharing the abilities with others is one of their major distinguishing features in the story, but as it is right now, it barely ever comes up in gameplay because getting a Toa Nuva equipped with a Kanohi Nuva is already such a major feat. Maybe it would be different in a pure Toa Mata/Nuva deck that also has cards like the Suva to aid the equipping process, but further testing is definitely needed once the team is complete. Another issue with the current structure is that I’m always dangerously close to beating the record for most words on a Spell Card, which I’d prefer to avoid. And with the Hau Nuva in particular, the battle protection it inherits from its Great form is actually rendered kind of useless by the fact that Tahu Nuva can drain ATK before battle, rather than needing to battle before he does that. Very much a work in progress.

Updated

4.0.4

Energized Protodermis Chamber

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

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 monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)
4.1.3

Energized Protodermis Chamber

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

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.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

The main Energized Protodermis monster receives a slight adjustment to its “drawback” when fused away by means other than its own effect, namely that the target you send to the GY must be a Special Summoned monster. In most cases this doesn’t make a difference, but it nicely increases the risk of backfire in various corner cases, which I felt was needed in order to make the mandatory S E N D not feel completely like a convenient weapon (even though it’s very much meant to be used as one).

Other than that, Onua’s Nuva Symbol and Kanohi Nuva have also received the general updates I already talked about.

4.0.4

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
●Once per turn: You can make all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)
4.1.3

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
●Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)
4.0.4

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

You can only control 1 “Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom”. You can place this card you control on the bottom of the Deck; add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card or “Toa Mata Onua” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom” once per turn. Once per turn, if a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control activates its effect while you control “Toa Nuva Onua”: You can pay 1000 LP; draw 1 card. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Toa Nuva Onua” you control; negate its effects, and if you do, banish 1 card from your hand face-down.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)
4.1.3

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Onua” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. If a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control activates its effect: You can pay 1000 LP; draw 1 card. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, and if you do, banish 1 card from your hand face-down.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

A not-yet mentioned change is that Nuva Symbols are no longer limited to 1 per name on the field and instead Deep Wisdom’s draw effect has become HOPT (by use of the game’s weirdest HOPT clause). There’s no deeper reason to this than the fact that the unique constraint took up text space and made the cards feel more cluttered than they needed to be.

Unfortunately no legacy updates this time, since I barely squeezed this out between other stuff going on. Not sure yet how things will change in the coming months, but there’s a chance I might be forced to make releases less frequent than currently planned, so be ready for that I guess.

Release: BPEV First Drafts

For the first time in the history of this site, we are entering a fresh new expansion, and that means a whole lot of new cards and archetypes to explore! As the first step, here’s a bit of everything, to give you an idea what’s in store.

Download for EDOPro

Read right ahead for not only design notes on the above cards, but also some more details on what I have planned for the themes they represent.

New Cards

Energized Protodermis Chamber

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Aqua | ATK 0 / DEF 0

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 monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

First off, we have the substance that gives the expansion its name: Energized Protodermis. Contact with this sapient liquid transforms those who are destined to, and destroys those who are not. Similarly, its first representation as a card is a monster that acts as Fusion Spell and material in one, but will exhibit potent destructive properties when used for a Fusion by any other effect. That second part is mandatory and thus cannot be avoided, but since you can choose to aim it at any monster on the field, it might just end up beneficial anyway. On top of all that, you can bring this out without spending your Normal Summon if only your opponent controls a monster, because to be quite honest the playability of the entire Toa Nuva archetype hinges on this card and I really need it to be as convenient as possible.

For the broader Energized Protodermis archetype, which will be the focus of the next release, I have the following things in mind – spread across some number of cards:

  • A search spell (that maybe Special Summons from Deck directly at some significant cost?)
  • A way to fuse with a monster on the field rather than one in hand
  • A way to fuse with monsters in the GY (maybe)
  • A Fusion of 2 “Energized Protodermis” monsters that does something valuable on turn 1 when sent from field to GY, so you have another way to weaponize the drawback in a “pure” Energized Protodermis strategy

Toa Nuva Onua

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2500 / DEF 2500

“Toa Mata Onua” + 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. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 card in either GY; place it on the top or bottom of the Deck, then gain 1000 LP. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Onua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

The primary output of transformations induced by Energized Protodermis are the Toa Nuva, the evolution of the Toa Mata from BCOT. Simply enough, they are Fusions of a specific Toa Mata each and some Energized Protodermis, and their main effects are more or less the same thing they had in their previous forms – for Onua, that means simply returning a card from either GY to the Deck and gaining some LP. However, while the Toa Mata had the intentional inconvenience of only being able to use their effects when specific events happen, the Toa Nuva can do so freely on either player’s turn, allowing you to get a whole lot more value.

Separate from that, they are also planned to all share the effect where they can search a “Nuva” Spell/Trap on Fusion Summon (and then discard a card so you don’t go +1, because even with HOPT there’s going to be six of these available!). This serves to ensure consistent access to some major cards that further power up the Toa from the backrow, first and foremost the Nuva Symbols containing their elemental powers.

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

You can only control 1 “Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom”. You can place this card you control on the bottom of the Deck; add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card or “Toa Mata Onua” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom” once per turn. Once per turn, if a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control activates its effect while you control “Toa Nuva Onua”: You can pay 1000 LP; draw 1 card. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Toa Nuva Onua” you control; negate its effects, and if you do, banish 1 card from your hand face-down.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

Each Toa Nuva has one of these, and they all follow a simple structure of three effects:

  1. Return it to the Deck to search one of the corresponding Toa Nuva’s materials, for when you’re still setting up. Once again, there are going to be six of these when all is said and done, so I’m not sure allowing the search targets to freely include any “Energized Protodermis” card is really the best idea – I just haven’t come up with a good limitation that fits inside a reasonable wordcount yet.
  2. Provides some additional benefit to all your Toa Nuva if you control the right one. In this case, controlling Onua Nuva lets you pay LP (the exact amount you get from his own effect, by the way) for a draw, which means putting any card from your GY on top of your Deck becomes adding that card to your hand.
  3. If it leaves the field, the matching Toa Nuva’s powers will also be lost entirely, and if that happens, you suffer a punishment opposite the benefit you gain from the Symbol, in this case losing a card in your hand.

Now #3 has some interesting mechanical details to consider. First of all, the latest ruling is that “leaves the field” effects do not trigger if the card returns to the Deck, which means you could theoretically take advantage of the cost of #1 to remove the Nuva Symbol from the field before it becomes a liability. Also, the effect targets the Toa Nuva whose powers are about to be lost and will only reach the “punishment” part if that exact target actually has its effects negated, so if something were to remove it from the field before resolution, you’d dodge the drawback entirely. Even better if that something would then return the Toa Nuva to the field, and hell, why not add the Nuva Symbol back to your hand as well while we’re at it? Yes, if only something like that existed.

The End of the Swarm

Quick-Play Spell

If you control a “Toa” monster: Activate 1 of these effects;
●Target 1 Level 8 or higher monster you control; banish that target. During the End Phase of this turn, return that banished monster to the field, and if you do, you can add 1 Continuous Spell Card from your GY to your hand.
●Change face-up monsters your opponent controls to face-down Defense Position, up to the number of Level 8 or higher monsters you control. A monster changed to face-down Defense Position by this effect cannot change its battle position, also, if it is attacked, send it to the GY at the start of the Damage Step, then inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Anyway, having followed up on that bit of foreshadowing from 2.5 years ago, time to move on to the next group of “Nuva” Spell/Traps: The Kanohi Nuva.

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; place 1 “Nuva” Continuous Spell from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva” once per turn. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, this card gains these effects.
●The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage.
●Once per turn: You can make all monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK, until the end of your opponent’s turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

Just like the Toa Mata evolved, so did their masks, and while their powers are now usable only by the Toa Nuva, they also come with the fantastic ability to share those powers with allies, including those that cannot use Kanohi at all. So the Pakari Nuva does what the Pakari did, but on top of that lets you grant a similar buff to your whole field for a limited time. It also retains the part where it can banish a monster from your GY to search something when sent there, but instead of a specific Toa Mata it lets you get a Nuva Symbol … which can then search a specific Toa Mata, so from a consistency perspective the Kanohi Nuva do decently well replacing regular Kanohi in a Toa Mata/Nuva deck. They also fall under the category of “Nuva” Spells/Traps, so if you use a Toa Nuva’s on-summon effect to search a Kanohi Nuva and then discard it, you can get the Nuva Symbol at the cost of your GY instead of your hand.

One aspect I’m a bit unsure about, and this applies to the Nuva Symbols as well, is identifying the Toa Nuva as “Nuva” Fusion Monsters. I kind of want to avoid making “Toa Nuva” a proper archetype because that’s awkward to implement when both “Toa” and “Nuva” are independent archetypes as well, but I foresee the current solution causing some false positives down the line. For one thing, just “Nuva” monsters in general is right out because Takanuva is also around the corner, and despite the name that guy sure shouldn’t be able to use Kanohi Nuva. And even with the extra requirement of being Fusions, there’s still Takutanuva, a result of Energized Protodermis transformation and literal Fusion of two beings that most certainly does have “nuva” in the name despite not being a Toa Nuva. So yeah, this part is probably just going to change to “Toa Nuva” unless I find a more elegant trick to use.

The most interesting application of Energized Protodermis and Toa Nuva (in so far they already exist) I’ve thought up at this point is a little pile deck I have chosen to dub Protodermically Energized Nuva Invoked Shaddoll, for … reasons.

Sample Duel: Protodermically Energized Nuva Invoked Shaddoll

I’ll wait until the Toa Nuva have more than one member to make a full theory post on this one, but the basic idea is that Shaddoll Fusion can potentially use Energized Protodermis Chamber in the Deck as material for El Shaddoll Construct, while Invocation can use it in the GY to make Invoked Mechaba. In both cases, you trigger the effect that sends a monster from the field to the GY while not actually spending much of your own resources, so it’s an extremely strong play going second. Oh, and sometimes you draw Onua and can make Onua Nuva as an alternate form of interaction.


Bohrok Gahlok-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | WATER Machine | ATK 2200 / DEF 2100

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; that target cannot attack until the end of the next turn, also you can equip 1 other monster on the field to it. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

Meanwhile, on the other end of the conflict, the Bohrok swarms send their own evolved forces into the fray, in the form of the six Bohrok-Kal. These elite units introduce Xyz to the colorful Extra Deck options available to the swarms, and befitting their role as a last resort released after the invasion is stopped, their effects are meant to improve the deck’s performance against established boards. A peculiar design element they have in common is that their detached materials return to the Deck, which keeps the infinite recursion of the Bohrok fueled. It also ensures that the second shared effect, using Krana from almost anywhere including the GY as additional materials, does not get too out of hand, since detaching the Krana will take it out of circulation this way.

Their first implemented member, Gahlok-Kal, boasts magnetic powers that can root other beings to the ground or make them stick to each other to take them out of the fight. This translates to an extremely versatile effect that can not only stop a monster from attacking, but also serve as unique and powerful removal by non-targetingly equipping any other monster on the field to its initial target. This is a lot of power to get out of just one material and is therefore limited to the start of the Battle Phase, but I’m also considering making it so you can only equip monsters in the zones adjacent to or in the same column as the target. That would serve as a pretty neat representation of limited magnetism range, encourage clever counterplay through zone management, and wouldn’t actually restrict your removal options all that much since you can always put your own monster in the right column if needed (though it won’t be able to attack, which is a fair tradeoff).

Elite Bohrok require elite Krana, and so we get to the other new Extra Deck lineup, the Krana-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, but shuffle it into the Deck if it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn: You can detach 1 material from this card, then declare 1 card name; your opponent cannot activate cards, or the effects of cards, with that original name, until the end of their turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

These Link-1 monsters come in the same 8 flavours as the regular Krana and can be made not only with those, but also with any Bohrok monster – though they themselves cannot be Link Material, so no switching from one Krana-Kal into another. Their first effect varies depending on where the arrow is pointing, with the one on the left-pointing Ja-Kal allowing you to tag it out for any Level 4 Bohrok in your hand or GY. This has no once per turn at all, and combined with the non-HOPT removal effects on the Bohrok that also leave them on the field in some cases, it may be very, very abusable. But if it is, I’d really like to see it because it sounds fun, so for now I’ll keep it this way. Making a loop here is at least not entirely trivial, since shuffling the monster back when it leaves the field means the line Ja-Kal -> Bohrok -> Ja-Kal already leaves one less Bohrok in your hand or GY. Maybe the shuffle should even be a banish, since returning Bohrok to Deck does refuel the engine and can be seen as kinda beneficial.

The actual Krana powers are represented by effects granted to Bohrok Xyz Monsters (i.e., Bohrok-Kal) while attached as material. The Ja-Kal offers sensory powers similar to the plain Krana Ja, which had the ability to neutralize visible threats during the turn following its activation. In its enhanced Kal form, it can even “sniff out” threats that are not yet directly visible and shuts them off from the moment it resolves until the end of the next turn, though it’s limited to focusing on a single target since it’s a “Tracker”. Sometimes in testing it does feel like in-archetype Psi-Blocker is a bit broken, but my testing is also against AI that is both predictable and has no concept of playing around locks on specific combo pieces, so I’m guessing it would be fine in a more realistic setting.

Since both new cards for the Bohrok live in the Extra Deck, you can pretty much play them as before, just with some additional options, as seen in the following short video.

Gahlok-Kal demo

Also notable is the use of a Special Summoned Bohrok Va to get a second Level 4 Bohrok via the Krana Ja-Kal, which is how you can make Xyz plays quickly without needing to wait for Flip effects to go off.

Updated

For the updates, I decided to improve the Bohrok’s general playability by fixing two frustrating restrictions found on cards from BBTS.

3.15.5

Krana Ca, Clearance Worker

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | DARK Zombie | ATK 0 / DEF 0

Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Level 4 or higher “Bohrok” monster you control; equip this card from your hand to that target. While this card is equipped to a “Bohrok” monster, the first time a “Bohrok” monster you control would be destroyed by battle each turn, it is not destroyed. During your Main Phase 1: You can return this card you control to the hand; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your Deck in face-up Attack Position, then it becomes the End Phase of this turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
4.0.

Krana Ca, Clearance Worker

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | DARK Zombie | ATK 0 / DEF 0

Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Level 4 or higher “Bohrok” monster you control; equip this card from your hand to that target. While this card is equipped to a “Bohrok” monster, the first time a “Bohrok” monster you control would be destroyed by battle each turn, it is not destroyed. You can return this Normal Summoned/Set card to the hand; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your Deck in face-up Attack Position, but it cannot attack or activate its effects this turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.0.4)

First is the shared last effect of the Krana Xa, Yo, Ca, and Ja – here represented by the Ca because it’s probably the simplest. Previously, these cards operated like Cardcar D in that they would replace themselves with a Bohrok from your Deck and then immediately end your turn, ensuring that you could neither use the summon from Deck for any crazy combos nor somehow abuse the lack of OPT to spam infinite Bohrok. The general idea behind the effect was that it should help consistency by giving you access to a Bohrok even if you drew too many Krana, but in practice, doing that and then ending the turn was basically no better than doing nothing at all.

Under the new restrictions, the turn continues, but the Bohrok you bring out is mostly unable to do anything for its duration – except be used as material, which opens up at least some lines of play, especially factoring in the new Krana-Kal and Bohrok-Kal. Additionally, the Krana now cannot access this effect if it was Special Summoned itself, which should quite effectively limit it to something you can do only once or maybe twice per turn, outside scenarios where you can somehow perform an obscene amount of Normal Summons (in which case there’s way more broken stuff you could do anyway).

3.15.5

Premature Bohrok Beacon

Trap

Target 1 face-down Defense Position monster you control; change that target to face-up Attack Position. If there are no face-up monsters on the field, you can activate this card from your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can Special Summon this card from your GY as an Effect Monster (Machine/DARK/Level 4/ATK 1400/DEF 1400), but banish it when it leaves the field. (This card is NOT treated as a Trap.) If Summoned this way, this card can be used as a substitute for any 1 Fusion Material whose name is specifically listed on a “Bohrok” Fusion Monster, but the other Fusion Material(s) must be correct. You can only use this effect of “Premature Bohrok Beacon” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
4.0.4

Premature Bohrok Beacon

Trap

Target 1 face-down Defense Position monster you control; change that target to face-up Attack Position. If you control no face-up monsters, you can activate this card from your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can Special Summon this card from your GY as an Effect Monster (Machine/DARK/Level 4/ATK 1400/DEF 1400), but banish it when it leaves the field. (This card is NOT treated as a Trap.) If Summoned this way, this card can be used as a substitute for any 1 Fusion Material whose name is specifically listed on a “Bohrok” Fusion Monster, but the other Fusion Material(s) must be correct. You can only use this effect of “Premature Bohrok Beacon” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.0.4)

The other change is to Premature Bohrok Beacon, and it’s really quite simple: Instead of being able to activate it from hand “If there are no face-up monsters on the field”, you can now do so “If you control no face-up monsters”. Because being mostly unusable when you go second was a really annoying weakness in an archetype that already struggles in that scenario, being composed of Flip Monsters and all. I originally did it that way because I was worried there might be something broken about just having a fast effect you can activate from hand to flip any face-down monster, not just Bohrok, face-up, but now we have Sol and Luna, which is just that exact effect with upsides specifically when your opponent controls face-up monsters. So clearly there’s no need to hold back after all.

Site Updates

Really minor thing, but we have a Card of the Day visible in the sidebar and on the linked page now. It automatically switches to a different random card each day (using a hash of the date modulo the number of cards, if anyone cares), so now there’s some dynamic content between the occassional updates.

Release: BCOT – Finalized

It’s finally here.

Download for EDOPro

The original of the above image with all the cards at readable resolution is so large that WordPress refuses to display it, but you can find them in an even more convenient form on the BCOT page instead.

Or, if you have a bit of time and prefer to actually see things moving, the following demo video also shows and describes everything:

Anyway, this last update mostly consists of PSCT refinements, refactored scripts (that more correctly handle certain edge cases), and visual improvements. For example:

3.21.5

Copper Kanohi of Victory

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. At the start of the Damage Step, if a “Matoran”, “Turaga”, or “Toa” monster equipped with this card battles an opponent’s monster: You can destroy both this card and that opponent’s monster. When a monster declares an attack while this card is in your GY: You can equip this card to the monster you control with the highest ATK, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Copper Kanohi of Victory” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)
3.21.6

Copper Kanohi of Victory

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. At the start of the Damage Step, if a “Matoran”, “Turaga”, or “Toa” monster equipped with this card battles an opponent’s monster: You can destroy both this card and that opponent’s monster. When a monster declares an attack, while this card is in your GY: You can equip this card to 1 monster you control with the highest ATK (your choice, if tied), but banish this card when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Copper Kanohi of Victory” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
  • If another “Kanohi” card is equipped -> If another “Kanohi” card becomes equipped (to clarify that the effect happens once at the moment of equipping)
  • When a monster declares an attack while this card is in your GY -> When a monster declares an attack, while this card is in your GY (most similar precedent has the comma)
  • the monster you control with the highest ATK -> 1 monster you control with the highest ATK (your choice, if tied) (clarifies tiebreaking, matches precedent)
  • but banish it when it leaves the field -> but banish this card when it leaves the field (to clarify you banish the Copper Kanohi, not what you equipped it to)

In addition to these text changes, the card image is now noticeably different and in higher resolution. This is owed to the ygopic component of piface314’s ygo-fabrica, which I have finally gotten around to setting up so it can be used for all the cards going forward.

Of course, the higher resolution also looks quite a bit nicer when printed 😉

The attentive reader who happens to be familiar with my versioning system (mostly hypothetical, because why would anyone) may have noticed moving from 3.21.5 to 3.21.6 technically requires some functional changes, rather than just cleanup and maintenance. This is a weakness of the versioning system that probably should be fixed, but for now, I have complied and included some tiny updates I still had in reserve.

Updated

3.18.5

Suva

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Rock | ATK 0 / DEF 0

While in your hand, and while face-up on the field if you control a “-Koro” Field Spell Card, this card is also WIND, WATER, FIRE, and EARTH-Attribute. Once per Chain (Quick Effect): You can pay 500 LP, then target 1 “Toa” monster you control; equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell from your hand or GY to that target, except a card that is in the GY because it was destroyed while face-up on the field and sent there this turn. If you control a “Toa” monster: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. You can only use this effect of “Suva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
3.21.6

Suva

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Rock | ATK 0 / DEF 0

While in your hand, and while face-up on the field if you control a “-Koro” Field Spell, this card is also EARTH, WATER, FIRE, and WIND-Attribute. Once per Chain (Quick Effect): You can pay 600 LP, then target 1 “Toa” monster you control; equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell from your hand or GY to that target, except a card that is in the GY because it was destroyed while face-up on the field and sent there this turn. If you control a “Toa” monster: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. You can only use this effect of “Suva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)
3.21.5

Call of the Toa Stones

Spell

Discard 1 card; roll a six-sided die and excavate cards from the top of your Deck equal to the result, and if you do, you can add up to 2 excavated “Toa Mata” monsters with different names to your hand, also shuffle the rest into the Deck. Then, apply this effect, based on the number of cards added to your hand this way. You can only activate 1 “Call of the Toa Stones” per turn.
●0: Set 1 “Coming of the Toa” directly from your Deck. It can be activated this turn.
●1: Add 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck to your hand.
●2: Gain 2000 LP.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)
3.21.6

Call of the Toa Stones

Spell

Discard 1 card; roll a six-sided die and excavate cards from the top of your Deck equal to the result, and if you do, you can add up to 2 excavated “Toa Mata” monsters with different names to your hand, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. Then, apply the following effect, based on the number of cards added to your hand this way. You can only activate 1 “Call of the Toa Stones” per turn.
●0: Set 1 “Coming of the Toa” directly from your Deck. It can be activated this turn.
●1: Add 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck to your hand.
●2: Gain 1800 LP.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Long story short, the LP cost and gain on Suva and Call of the Toa Stones respectively were moved to the closest multiples of 600. The basis for this is that I wanted the Suva to be able to cycle through a set of 6 Kanohi for less than 4000 LP total, and 6*600=3600 still fits that requirement. The LP gain from Call then follows from that, as basically 3 additional Suva activations. It’s a bit less arbitrary than the previous 500 and 2000, but probably won’t make any practical difference.

Other News

I’ve added a “Pending Changes” page to keep track of some improvements I still had in mind, but wasn’t sold on enough to actually include them in this final release. It’s not included in the on-site navigation currently, instead I’ll just throw the link at people when asking for feedback in hopes that some outside input will help me make up my mind. I guess if I ever figure out a way to include multiple comment areas and maybe even some kind of voting system on the page, it could be turned into a convenient little feedback hub of its own.


… And with that, on to BPEV!

Release: Tale of the Toa

Download for EDOPro

At last, the time has come. BCOT has had its last few cards remade, and is now only one final round of polish away from its complete release that will be followed by the next evolution of BYE. But for this month, the news are just the cards added to the current version and a small adjustment of the roadmap.

Oh, and also adding these last few cards has finally made it possible to write the last two remaining Theme Guides, where you will find detailed information on the strategies mainly affected by this update:

And so, design notes.

New/Reworked Cards

The titular Tale of the Toa is represented by a series of three cards chronicling the Toa Mata’s arrival on the island of Mata Nui.

1.0.0

Call of the Toa Stones

Trap

You take no Battle Damage this turn, also shuffle your entire hand into the Deck and draw the same number of cards, then you can activate any of the following effects in sequence, depending on the number of “Toa” monsters in your hand, and discard 1 card.
●0: Add 1 “Toa” monster from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand.
●1+: Special Summon this card as a Normal Monster (Rock-Type/LIGHT/Level 6/ATK 0/DEF 0). It cannot be destroyed by card effects.
●2+: Special Summon 1 “Toa” monster from your hand.
●3+: Add 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Call of the Toa Stones

Spell

Discard 1 card; roll a six-sided die and excavate cards from the top of your Deck equal to the result, and if you do, you can add up to 2 excavated “Toa Mata” monsters with different names to your hand, also shuffle the rest into the Deck. Then, apply this effect, based on the number of cards added to your hand this way. You can only activate 1 “Call of the Toa Stones” per turn.
●0: Set 1 “Coming of the Toa” directly from your Deck. It can be activated this turn.
●1: Add 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck to your hand.
●2: Gain 2000 LP.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

First on the list is Call of the Toa Stones, and I just had to put the comparison between the old and new versions in for this one because holy shit almost everything changed. What was previously a Trap Card meant to keep you alive for a turn after you bricked while also replacing the brick with something more playable is now a Spell that directly searches you the cards you need to play in the most convoluted way possible. The image is now also different. And obviously the effect has been updated into something more functional.

The change of card type is because it occured to me that, in a game where a single undisrupted turn can very well make a setup that locks the other player out of the game, taking that long to repair a terrible opening hand is probably a bad idea even if you’re guaranteed to technically not die. And it also kind of sucks to have one of your main consistency cards be a Trap in an archetype that would otherwise be pretty decent going second. By making it a Spell, we get to do the unbricking quickly and proactively enough to actually be useful, and the part where the card prevents damage is still kind of sneakily represented by the 2000 LP it gains you if you’re really lucky.

As for the different image, I’ll have to honestly admit that I never actually played Quest for the Toa (where both images are from) and just got the artwork from BS01 back in the day. It was only when I watched the game’s ending sequence more recently that I noticed the wiki’s gallery is actually missing a shot, and that particular one happens to be a much better fit for a square canvas while also showing the “Call” itself more clearly. So obviously I had to swap it in, and I think the result is a clear improvement.

Some things I would like to note about the updated effect is that excavating up to 6 cards is a direct reference to Takua, who was of course majorly involved in the depicted event, and that the die roll to decide the number of excavated cards was mostly added because one of the few people who actually comment on my Youtube videos suggested I do some gambling effects. As I always say, I do appreciate any input I can get.

1.0.0

Coming of the Toa

Trap

Target up to 3 Level 4 or lower monsters in your Graveyard that were destroyed this turn; Special Summon 1 “Toa” monster with the same Attribute from your hand or Deck for each of these monsters. Monsters Special Summoned by this effect cannot attack during the turn they are Summoned. If this face-down card is destroyed by your opponent’s card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can destroy all monsters you control (min. 1); Special Summon 1 “Toa” monster from your hand or Deck. You can only activate 1 “Coming of the Toa” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.2.15

Coming of the Toa

Trap

Target up to 3 monsters with different names in your GY; Special Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster from your Deck with the same Attribute as each target, but they cannot attack, also return them to the hand during the End Phase. Then, if all targets are in the GY because they were sent there this turn, you can place 1 “Quest for the Masks” from your Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. You cannot Special Summon monsters with 2000 or more ATK the turn you activate this card, except “Toa” monsters. You can only activate 1 “Coming of the Toa” per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

Coming of the Toa changed much less drastically, but since we were already comparing I might as well keep doing that. In both the old and the new version, the idea is to get a bunch of Toa at once to your field after your GY has been filled with monsters of matching Attributes. The old one was much more restrictive about this, letting you only work with monsters that were destroyed the turn you activate it, and thus needed a second effect to still bring out a Toa if it was destroyed before the activation conditions were met. The new one drops both the same-turn requirement and the secondary effect, instead making it a convenient chainable Trap Card at any point after you have set up your GY. It also adds some harsher restrictions to balance out its powerlevel, which the card most likely should have had in the first place anyway.

Special thanks to the card Doll House released in 2021, which provided some nice compact PSCT wording for effects that do something “for each” of a number of targets. The EDOPro script was also a good starting point for setting up the complicated targeting procedure this needed.

1.0.0

Quest for the Masks

Continuous Spell

When a monster your opponent controls is destroyed by battle: You can send 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Card from your Deck to your Graveyard. You can send this card from the field to the Graveyard; add 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Card from your Graveyard to your hand.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Quest for the Masks

Continuous Spell

When a “Toa” monster is Normal Summoned: You can equip 1 “Great Kanohi” or “Noble Kanohi” Equip Spell from your Deck to it. You can send any number of “Kanohi” Equip Spells from your hand to the GY; draw that many cards. You can only use this effect of “Quest for the Masks” once per turn. Once per turn, during the End Phase: You can target 1 of your banished monsters whose Level is less than or equal to the number of “Kanohi” Equip Spells with different names in your GY; Special Summon it, then destroy this card.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

The changes to Quest for the Masks are also fairly tame and basically amount to a speed and utility boost. The part where the Toa gather their masks now happens by equipping when they are Normal Summoned (which kind of recreates the Normal Summon effect the Toa Mata themselves had back then) rather than by milling on battle destruction, and the reward for quest completion was changed from simple Kanohi recycling to a revival from banished that actually takes into account how many masks you really collected. And as a third (second, in terms of order) effect, you now have a way to trade away bricks in Kanohi-heavy decks, a service previously provided by the Kini-Nui.

1.0.0

Gift of the Shrine

Quick-Play Spell

Target 1 “Toa” monster you control and 1 “Suva” you control or in your Graveyard; Banish the second target, then destroy all Equip Spell Cards equipped to the first target and equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Card from your hand, Deck or Graveyard to it, also you gain 800 LP for each “Kanohi” card in your Graveyard.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Gift of the Shrine

Quick-Play Spell

Target 1 face-up monster you control, then activate 1 of these effects;
●Equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell from your hand or GY to that target.
●Banish 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF you control or in your GY, and if you do, equip 1 “Noble Kanohi” or “Great Kanohi” Equip Spell from your Deck to that target.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

Gift of the Shrine kind of almost got nerfed, with it no longer restoring a bunch of LP in addition to equipping a Kanohi. But the new version represents a massive convenience gain, since it can now target monsters other than Toa and has a less powerful effect to use if you don’t have a Suva ready to banish.

1.0.0

Golden Great Kanohi

Equip Spell

Must be equipped to a “Toa” monster that has no “Kanohi” card equipped by banishing 6 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Cards with different names that could be equipped to that monster from your Graveyard. This card gains the effects of each card banished by its effect as long as they remain banished. During each of your End Phases: Shuffle 1 of your banished “Kanohi” Equip Spell Cards into the Deck.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Great Golden Kanohi

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While this card is equipped to a “Toa” monster: You can banish 6 “Great Kanohi” Equip Spells with different names from your GY, and if you do, replace this effect with those banished cards’ original effects. If this card is sent to the GY: You can send 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell from your Deck to the GY; add this card to your hand, then place 1 card from your hand on the bottom of the Deck. You can only use this effect of “Great Golden Kanohi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

The Great Golden Kanohi underwent a name change to take it out of the “Great Kanohi” sub-archetype. Mechanically, the main adjustments are that copying Kanohi powers now happens as a separate effect while the card is already equipped, that you can only copy Great Kanohi now (to match the lore), and that it actually keeps the copied powers indefinitely. In fact, you could say the effect that returns banished Kanohi was almost reversed into one that helps you set them up in the GY to prepare the Golden Kanohi. I figured something like that was more reasonable to include than a glaring intentional weakness, seeing how banishing your Kanohi stockpile is already such a risky move and the whole thing completely loses to backrow removal.

1.0.0

Copper Kanohi of Victory

Equip Spell

Cannot be destroyed by card effects. You can shuffle this card from your hand into the Deck, and if you do, draw 1 additional card for your next normal draw. If you draw this card during your Draw Phase: Discard it. If this card is banished: Place 1 “Copper Kanohi of Victory” from your Deck on top of your Deck. When this card is sent from the hand or field to the Graveyard, activate 1 of the following effects:
●Send 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell card from your Deck to the Graveyard, except “Copper Kanohi of Victory”.
●This turn, if a “Toa”, “Matoran”, or “Turaga” monster battles an opponent’s monster, destroy that opponent’s monster before Damage Calculation.
You can only activate 1 effect of “Copper Kanohi of Victory” per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Copper Kanohi of Victory

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. At the start of the Damage Step, if a “Matoran”, “Turaga”, or “Toa” monster equipped with this card battles an opponent’s monster: You can destroy both this card and that opponent’s monster. When a monster declares an attack while this card is in your GY: You can equip this card to the monster you control with the highest ATK, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Copper Kanohi of Victory” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

For the Copper Kanohi of Victory, I left behind the admittedly cute and unique mechanics centered around randomly drawing the card and instead made it something more in line with the general pattern used by other Kanohi. That said, “victory” is still the basic idea behind the effects, and the main one on field is pretty much just an adaptation of the most useful thing it did originally.

1.0.0

Makoki Stone

Continuous Trap

When the effect of a “Toa”, “Matoran”, or “Turaga” card is activated: Place 1 counter on this card. During either player’s turn: You can send this card with 6 or more counters to the Graveyard; Add 1 Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. You can only control 1 face-up “Makoki Stone”.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)
3.21.5

Makoki Stone

Continuous Trap

When this card is activated: Banish 1 card from your Deck, face-down. Each time an effect of a “Matoran”, “Turaga”, or “Toa” card is activated, place 1 Key Counter on this card when that effect resolves (max. 6). You can send this card with 6 Key Counters to the GY; add the card banished by this card’s effect to your hand. You can only control 1 face-up “Makoki Stone”.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

The Makoki Stone now more accurately reflects the idea of sealing something and then unsealing it when 6 keys are gathered, by simply banishing the card you want to get at activation. To make up for the additional risk taken this way, it can now also search monsters, even if the lore technically has no precedent for sealing a living creature or something like that.

Initially my overhaul also had a condition that prevented using the searched card the same turn you add it to your hand, but between the inherent delay of a Trap card and the need to get 6 effects off for the keys, it was just way too slow to ever work. By the way, the wording may sound like you can also gain counters by activating archetypal Spells and Traps like “Coming of the Toa”, but as I learnt after looking up rulings, this clause does in fact ignore the activations of Spell/Trap Cards (but not their effects when they are already on the field, GY, etc). Might still change this to explicitly say “monsters” to avoid confusion, since there aren’t really any other Matoran/Toa/Turaga cards that qualify currently.

Updated

3.11.0

C.C. Matoran Kapura

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 600 / DEF 200

If a “C.C. Matoran” monster you control attacks, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated until the end of the Damage Step. At the start of your Battle Phase: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control that was not Summoned this turn; it can make a second attack during this Battle Phase. You can only use this effect of “C.C. Matoran Kapura” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.0.0)
3.21.5

C.C. Matoran Kapura

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 600 / DEF 200

If a “C.C. Matoran” monster you control attacks, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated until the end of the Damage Step. At the start of your Battle Phase: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control that was not Summoned this turn; it can make up to 2 attacks on monsters during this Battle Phase. You can only use this effect of “C.C. Matoran Kapura” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

This one has been mentioned before, so no surprises here. Kapura now only grants a second attack on monsters rather than a second attack in general, since the restriction to monsters not Summoned that turn proved too light when cards like Omega can basically fulfill it without risk or effort.

3.20.4

Matoran Musician Makani

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Warrior | ATK 500 / DEF 400

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monster from your hand. If this card is in your GY, except during the turn it was sent there: You can banish this card, then target 1 WIND Warrior monster in your GY, except “Matoran Musician Makani”; add it to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Musician Makani” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)
3.21.5

Matoran Musician Makani

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Warrior | ATK 500 / DEF 400

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned from the hand: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monster from your hand. If this card is in your GY, except during the turn it was sent there: You can banish this card, then target 1 WIND Warrior monster in your GY, except “Matoran Musician Makani”; add it to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Musician Makani” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

Makani‘s overall level of convenience just felt a bit too high despite the individual effects all being fairly tame, so I limited the effect on Summon to trigger only if you are bringing him out from the hand. This stops it from having synergy with Isolde and revival effects, while still working the same as a Normal Summon or when Special Summoned by Matau in a Le-Koro deck.

3.20.4

Turaga Matau

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)
3.21.5

Turaga Matau

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.5)

That same Turaga Matau also got a change of exactly 1 word in this update, but rather than a balance improvement, this one is just to avoid some annoying edge cases. Previously, his delayed effect that adds a WIND monster from GY to hand during your next Standby Phase after he goes there couldn’t be used to recycle himself, but in theory, “1 other WIND monster” COULD be the same physical copy of Turaga Matau if it somehow leaves the GY and returns there during the delay. That is very stupid, so I just went and dropped the “other” to avoid the problem entirely.

Roadmap Change

Just a slight change of plans: Instead of doing both the final refactoring/release of BCOT and the update to 4.0 with the first BPEV cards in June, I’ve decided to focus on BCOT only that month and push the new cards back by one release cycle, so to August. I fear I’d end up half-assing the important last layer of polish due to lack of time otherwise, and I also might to do some internal updates to my tools and workflow before starting on the next expansion. This unfortunately means we won’t be getting to the Bohrok-Kal this year, unless something else goes faster than expected.

The main roadmap post has already been updated with this information.

Release(?): “Classic” Edition

I wasn’t going to have any kind of joke release for the annual joke release day this year, but then images of an upcoming Lego set including a rather hilarious kind of Bionicle homage emerged and I had to put something together last minute after all. Presenting: The Bionicle YGOPro Expansion “Classic” Edition.

Download (v3.20.4) here

It’s pretty much just a pack of alternative arts for all the Toa Mata monsters. Making the MOCs, editing them onto the respective background, and putting together a release on such short notice ended up being a bit more work than expected, but I somehow made it in time. If your timezone disagrees, it’s wrong.

Oh yeah, and I also recorded a quick video showing how these look in a duel. Enjoy.

Release: The Matoran Update

Download for EDOPro

Yep, it’s a big one. Just as foretold in the ancient prophecies of the roadmap, this month was focused on giving the Koro strategies I’ve been building up throughout the BCOT overhaul some more material to work with. One half of that was making the older Matoran from BCOR and BBTS align with their respective village’s newly established gameplan, and the other was introducing actually new cards representing Matoran of varying irrelevancy. This was a lot to get done in not a lot of days and as a result testing was a bit more minimal for these, so if you see something that looks blatantly broken, definitely speak up because there’s a good chance you’re right.

Rather than the usual release note structure of New / Updated, I think it makes more sense to go village by village here and investigate how each deck is impacted by its new options. At some point I’ll also have to update the old theme guides with that information, but for now let’s just put it here.

General

First of all, we should get the two tweaks with a more global impact out of the way.

3.19.4

Matoran Chronicler Takua

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Warrior | ATK 350 / DEF 350

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can take 1 of your “C.C. Matoran” monsters from your Deck, GY, or that is banished and place it on top of your Deck, and if you do, this card’s Attribute becomes that monster’s original Attribute. You can discard 1 card; excavate the top 6 cards of your Deck, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 excavated “C.C. Matoran” monster, also you can add 1 excavated “The Chronicler’s Company” to your hand, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Chronicler Takua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)
3.20.4

Matoran Chronicler Takua

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Warrior | ATK 350 / DEF 350

If this card is Normal Summoned: You can take 1 of your “C.C. Matoran” monsters from your Deck, GY, or that is banished and place it on top of your Deck, and if you do, this card’s Attribute becomes that monster’s original Attribute. During your Main Phase: You can excavate the top 6 cards of your Deck, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 excavated “C.C. Matoran” monster or add 1 excavated “The Chronicler’s Company” to your hand, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Chronicler Takua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

Takua now only does the convenient setup for getting a C.C. Matoran from the Deck when he is Normal Summoned, which means you’re in gambling territory if you Special Summon him using Isolde, for example. However, after implementing this and testing, it became apparent that outside a deck filled to the brim with Chronicler’s Company members, the discard cost before excavating was never worth paying given the tiny chance of actually finding anything. So away went the discard, and along with that, the option to add “The Chronicler’s Company” (the archetypal Trap Card) was transformed from a lucky bonus to an alternative. Otherwise you’d be looking at a potential +2, which probably isn’t too healthy of a design.

With this change, Takua seems to perform well both in various Koro decks and in the main C.C. Matoran strategy. But he was also an essential component in the gimmicky Turaga Nui Turbo deck, and there, the inability to stack the deck and change his Attribute when Special Summoned actually does completely break one part of the combo. Thankfully, I was able to fix this issue by changing another card, Amaja-Nui, in a way that I think even improves it from a lore adaptation and balance standpoint.

3.19.4

Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui

Link Effect MonsterLink-3 [↙ ▼ ▶] | LIGHT Spellcaster | ATK 1900

2+ monsters, including a “Turaga” monster
This card’s Attribute is also treated as the original Attributes of all “Turaga” Link Monsters you control or in your GY. You can only use each of the following effects of “Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui” once per turn. If this card is Link Summoned: You can send 1 “Turaga” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY. You can target 1 of your Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monsters with the same Attribute as this card that is banished or in your GY; Special Summon it to your zone this card points to.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)
3.20.4

Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui

Link Effect MonsterLink-3 [↙ ▼ ▶] | LIGHT Spellcaster | ATK 1900

2+ monsters, including a “Turaga” monster
This card’s Attribute is also treated as the original Attributes of all “Turaga” Link Monsters you control or in your GY. You can only use each of the following effects of “Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui” once per turn. If this card is Link Summoned: You can send 1 “Turaga” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY. You can target 1 of your Warrior monsters that is banished or in your GY; Special Summon 1 “Legend Stone Token” (Warrior/ATK 0/DEF 0) with the same Level and Attribute to your zone this card points to, then place that target on the top or bottom of the Deck.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

The old version let you bring back a Matoran with the same Attribute as Amaja-Nui (meaning LIGHT or the Attribute of any Turaga you’ve used) as if calling them before the gathering of Turaga, which kind of fails to convey the core purpose of the location – telling stories and legends. On the other hand, the latest update changes this to creating a Token inheriting Level and Attribute of a spent Warrior monster, representing the stones within Amaja-Nui that were a key device in exactly this storytelling. The original monster is then placed on the top or bottom of the Deck, which is also important to recreating the combo that used to be possible with Takua.

Previously, what you would do is revive Takua with Amaja-Nui, stack Kapura on top of your Deck, and then use Takua (now FIRE) and another monster to make Vakama, who is then able to summon a FIRE Warrior from the top of your Deck and thus give you an extra body to continue the combo. Now, you instead directly target a FIRE Warrior with Amaja-Nui, place it on top of the Deck, and then use the Token you get to make Vakama for the same result. Only downside is you now need to get a FIRE Warrior banished or into the GY first, but that can be done pretty consistently by adopting Sublimation Knight as one of the starters in the deck.

Speaking of Kapura, he’s this month’s winner of the “should probably fix this but haven’t yet” prize. Specifically, in the final few test duels of the latest version, I noticed that letting any monster that survives a turn attack twice enables OTKs that just feel undeservedly sudden. Especially taking into account that the wording of the limitation as “not Summoned this turn” means something like a PSY-Framelord Omega coming back to your field after your opponent had no opportunity to interact with it at all is also a valid target.

C.C. Matoran Kapura

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 600 / DEF 200

If a “C.C. Matoran” monster you control attacks, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated until the end of the Damage Step. At the start of your Battle Phase: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control that was not Summoned this turn; it can make a second attack during this Battle Phase. You can only use this effect of “C.C. Matoran Kapura” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.0.0)

The very simple solution I’m considering here is making that second attack on monsters only, which is a common restriction on effects of this type and greatly limits the potential damage output. In the Ta-Koro strategy itself, attacking monsters is what you want to do anyway, so it shouldn’t make any problems there.

Ta-Koro

(Theme Guide)

The unga bunga strategy of Ta-Koro, a simple beatdown that hopes to OTK and benefits from destroying monsters in battle, receives an updated version of the captain of the guard himself as their first new asset.

3.15.5

Matoran Guard Captain Jaller

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 500

While your opponent controls a face-up monster, “Matoran” monsters you control gain 400 ATK for each “Matoran” monster you control. During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 “Matoran” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn) You can only control 1 face-up “Matoran Guard Captain Jaller”.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Guard Captain Jala

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 500

While your opponent controls a face-up monster, Level 4 or lower FIRE Warrior monsters you control gain 400 ATK for each “Matoran” monster you control. During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 “Matoran” or FIRE “Toa” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn) You can only control 1 face-up “Matoran Guard Captain Jala”.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Where Jala previously buffed all other Matoran, that same buff is now applied to all your FIRE Warrior monsters up to Level 4, so it also affects the Tokens Vakama creates when his effect misses. And the additional Normal Summon can now be spent on not only Matoran, but also a FIRE Toa, which at this point means exactly Tahu. This part of the design I’m not terribly happy with, because it feels extremely forced and out of line with the other Matoran who do not directly reference the Toa (after all, they were fighting without them for a thousand years). The reason it’s in here for the time being anyway is that Tahu’s effect to both lower ATK and inflict burn damage upon battle destruction is extremely helpful when it comes to pulling off an OTK, but you also don’t really have the spare Normal Summon to get him out in the same turn you set up all your other stuff. If I eventually figure out a way to get around this without an ugly crutch, Jala is presumably going to change accordingly.

Moving on, this village’s contribution to the lineup of fresh Matoran is perhaps the most irrelevant of them all: Lhii, the legendary lava surfer.

Matoran Legend Lhii

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 0 / DEF 0

During the Damage Step, when your FIRE monster battles an opponent’s monster (Quick Effect): You can send this card from your hand to the GY; until the end of this turn, that opponent’s monster loses 500 ATK/DEF, also its effects are negated. If your FIRE Warrior monster destroys an opponent’s monster by battle, while this card is in your GY: You can Special Summon this card, and if you do, it gains ATK equal to that destroyed monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use 1 “Matoran Legend Lhii” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

This entirely fictional (as in, more fictional than the rest of the story) individual was only found as a brief mention in some sections of the website in the early years, and only much later properly established to be a legend told in memory of the deceased Toa Lhikan. What this translates to is a 0 ATK/DEF monster (because he is not, in fact, real) that supports the residents of Ta-Koro by acting as a handtrap enabling destruction by battle where it would normally not have been possible, and by returning from the grave as a source of additional damage to close out games. These effects were chosen mostly because they were useful to the deck, but the fun thing is that I could potentially come back and reference them when I eventually implement the actual Lhikan, thus creating a solid piece of L O R E from absolutely nothing.

Another downside of Lhii being such an absolute background detail is that there wasn’t any official depiction of him, so rather than go look for fanart and having to deal with nuisances such as “permissions” and “credit”, I just went and made my own – a task only slightly complicated by not actually possessing the ability to draw. Praise be unto Krita and its wide array of brushes that can be spammed randomly until the image looks kinda decent.

Art for Lhii in full size

The simple concept here is to show the Legend of Lhii being told through fire and smoke, with the fire being the lavaboard and the smoke the rest of the body. Hope that’s recognizable at least. From what I’ve found, there’s also the idea that Lhii is supposed to wear a Kanohi Pakari floating around, but that doesn’t seem to be backed by very solid evidence, so I went with the more obvious approach of giving the Matoran based on a Hau-wearing Toa a Hau.

… Did you notice the lava surfer in the background?

Ga-Koro

(Theme Guide)

For Ga-Koro’s signature playstyle that involves a lot of both defensive and offensive actions on the opponent’s turn, we have Hahli as the updated BCOR Matoran.

3.15.5

Matoran Assistant Hahli

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 400 / DEF 700

If you control a “Matoran” monster other than “Matoran Assistant Hahli”, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). Other “Matoran” monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn, if you control another “Matoran” monster: You can add 1 “Matoran” monster from your Deck to your hand, except “Matoran Assistant Hahli”.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Assistant Hahli

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 400 / DEF 700

Other “Matoran” monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. You can only use each of the following effects of “Matoran Assistant Hahli” once per turn. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can inflict 400 damage to your opponent. If a WATER “Matoran” monster(s), except “Matoran Assistant Hahli”, is sent to your GY, while this card is in your GY (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon this card, but banish it during the End Phase.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Unchanged is the destruction protection granted to other Matoran, but the rest of the card, a combination of a non-OPT Special Summon from hand and soft OPT Matoran search, was frankly broken as hell and needed to go. In it’s place comes a Quick Effect that does nothing but inflict a little bit of damage, reflecting the basic, yet helpful chores Hahli had to do in her position as assistant flax maker. The purpose of this is really just letting you easily get to Chain Link 2 on the opponent’s turn (the threshold where Ga-Koro makes all your effects unrespondable), so the amount of damage might even need to be lowered a bit. The other thing new Hahli has to offer is the ability to Special Summon herself from the GY when another WATER Matoran goes there, for example via being discarded for Nokama’s cost. Effects that trigger when sent from the hand or field to the GY are, to give a little spoiler, a staple of Ga-Matoran, so by having this trigger at the same timing, Hahli can once again “assist” in building Chain Links. I think it might make sense to have this effect happen during the opponent’s turn only so you can’t easily dodge the EP banish and instead need to recycle with Nokama, but the extra setup tool felt kinda important during testing, so for now it’s staying like this.

Before we get to the new face, there’s also a Matoran from BBTS that has received an update this time.

3.15.5

Matoran Tender Kotu

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 800

The monster(s) your opponent controls with the highest original ATK loses 800 ATK during the Battle Phase only. If this card is Normal Summoned: You can target 1 monster on the field; its owner draws 1 card, and if they do, return that target to the hand. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Tender Kotu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Tender Kotu

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 800

During the Main or Battle Phase (Quick Effect): You can make the monster(s) your opponent currently controls with the highest ATK lose 800 ATK, until the end of this turn. If this card is sent from the hand or field to the GY: You can target 1 monster on the field; its owner draws 1 card, and if they do, return that target to the hand. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Tender Kotu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.20.4)

Kotu only got very slight changes to her mechanics so they align better with the deck – reducing the opponent’s largest monster by 800 ATK is now an activated Quick Effect for dem Chain Links, and her previous effect on Normal Summon is now one of those effects that trigger when sent to the GY. Otherwise, it still does the same.

New to the crew is Ga-Koro’s astrologer Nixie.

Matoran Astrologer Nixie

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 400 / DEF 500

When a monster effect is activated while you control a WATER monster and this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can draw 1 card and show it, then if it is a monster, Special Summon this card, and if you do, its Level becomes that shown monster’s Level. Otherwise, discard this card. If this card is sent from the hand or field to the GY and you have no Spells/Traps in your GY: You can send 1 Spell/Trap from your Deck to the GY. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Astrologer Nixie” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

As her job involves observing the stars, I wanted to do something with Level manipulation, and since Ga-Koro tends to use Synchros, that went well with making her a tuner. The effects are once again a pair of a Quick Effect – this time triggering from the hand – and a trigger effect when sent from hand or field to the GY. The former makes you draw a card, check its Level (or “observe its stars” if you will), and Special Summon Nixe with the same Level, or discard her if it’s not a monster (though you still get to keep the card). The latter simply puts a Spell/Trap in a GY that doesn’t have them, to help set up Nokama’s protection.

Final tweak is on Ga-Koro itself, and simply consists of lifting the Level limit on WATER monsters you can Special Summon from your hand.

3.12.10

Ga-Koro, Village of Water

Field Spell

During your opponent’s turn, if all monsters in your GY (min. 1) are WATER, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of your WATER monster effects as Chain Link 2 or higher. You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower WATER monster from your hand in Defense Position, but its effects are negated and its Type becomes the same as the banished monster’s, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except WATER monsters. You can only use this effect of “Ga-Koro, Village of Water” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.12.10)
3.20.4

Ga-Koro, Village of Water

Field Spell

During your opponent’s turn, if all monsters in your GY (min. 1) are WATER, your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of your WATER monster effects as Chain Link 2 or higher. You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your hand in Defense Position, but its effects are negated and its Type becomes the same as the banished monster’s, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except WATER monsters. You can only use this effect of “Ga-Koro, Village of Water” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

There are already several official cards that can do the same thing, so it’s pretty safe to say it doesn’t enable degenerate bullshit, and this way you can more easily make powerful Synchros worth protecting with Nokama.

Onu-Koro

(Theme Guide)

The key feature of Onu-Koro is its ability to constantly replenish your resources, and this release supplements that with a nice little resource loop facilitated by an adjusted Onepu, the Ussal from the Rahi archetype, and the newly added Midak.

3.15.5

Matoran Racer Onepu

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

During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Beast or Winged Beast monster from your Deck in face-up Defense Position, and if you do, this card gains 800 ATK until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Racer Onepu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Racer Onepu

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Ussal, Crab Rahi

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Matoran Tender Midak

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

To walk you through the play quickly: Putting Onepu on the field fulfills the condition to activate Midak in your hand, sending him and an Ussal from your Deck to the GY and being rewarded with 400 LP because he did his job as an Ussal handler. This will trigger the Ussal to bring back another EARTH monster from your GY, such as Midak. Furthermore, Onepu’s effect allows him to bring out the Ussal from the GY as well (and not from the Deck like in the old version, that was pretty stupid), and suddenly you have three whole monsters on the field. After using them all as material for something, Onepu and Midak will be in the GY where Onu-Koro can put them back into your Deck so they’re ready to go again, except Midak will avoid the darkness of the Deck and instead claim a bright spot in your hand – he’s not the Midak Skyblaster’s namesake for nothing. Meanwhile, the Ussal remains banished, but if you can just manage to find Onepu again, his other effect allows you to recycle that as well, with a bonus of gaining an LP reward depending on how many Matoran are in attendance to be awed by the tales of the great Ussal Racer’s achievments. And at this point, you might have noticed, you’re at the exact point where the combo started and can do it all over again.

Po-Koro

(Theme Guide)

Po-Koro follows the tried-and-true principle of Special Summoning a bunch of monsters and using them as fodder to bring out bosses from the Extra Deck via various mechanics. Their new support helps with this in what I find to be interesting ways, starting with Huki.

3.15.5

Matoran Champion Hewkii

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 300

Your opponent cannot target “Matoran” monsters for attacks, except “Matoran Champion Hewkii”. Once per turn, if you control another “Matoran” monster, this card cannot be destroyed by battle. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled a monster with 2000 or more ATK: Destroy that monster and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Champion Huki

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 800 / DEF 300

If your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in Attack Position to your zone in a column with no monsters. You can only Special Summon “Matoran Champion Huki” once per turn this way. Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls in the same column as a “Matoran” monster you control; until the end of this turn, this card gains ATK equal to that target’s current ATK, but it cannot attack directly.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Special Summoning from the hand with some funny column shenanigans obviously helps you combo, especially if you manage to hit a zone Onewa points to (thus triggering further Special Summons). Meanwhile, the ATK boosting effect is a more balanced replacement for the old version’s crazy blowout effect when battling powerful monsters. I think I may have even overbalanced it by making its activation condition stand at odds with the Special Summon condition, but who knows.

And to be entirely honest, a lot of this effect was designed to interact specifically with Maku and thus recreate the most classic ship from a world where love is not canon. I even made a little video to illustrate.

Shippers Rejoice

I know, I’m a comedic genius.

Anyway, there’s another Po-Matoran to talk about, and among the new additions he stands out as easily the most plot-relevant one. It is none other than the prolific traitor trader Ahkmou.

Matoran Trader Ahkmou

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 400 / DEF 600

During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon this card from your hand to your opponent’s field, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monster from your hand. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Trader Ahkmou” once per turn. If you activate a monster effect, except “Matoran Trader Ahkmou”: Give control of this card to your opponent.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

The trade deal offered by this trustworthy merchant involves placing him on the opponent’s field in exchange for bringing out one of your Matoran from the hand, but he will in fact change sides at the drop of a hat, or rather at the activation of a monster effect. What this does in practical terms is putting a monster on your opponent’s field going first, turning off certain interruptions like Infinite Impermanence or Gamma and softening the blow of others by giving you an additional monster to work with once the chain resolves. Just make sure you don’t accidentally lose his allegiance again before you can use him. Oh, and Ahkmou can enable Huki’s inherent Special Summon turn 1, which is also pretty cool.

Ko-Koro

(Theme Guide)

For the stall strategy of Ko-Koro, the new release provides more ways to get yourself the advantage in field presence you need to keep the game locked down until you win. As the BCOR updatee (is that a word?), we have Matoro, Nuju’s translator.

3.15.5

Matoran Translator Matoro

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 900

If this card was Normal Summoned this turn: You can Tribute this card; Special Summon up to 2 Level 2 “Matoran” monsters from your GY, except “Matoran Translator Matoro”. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Translator Matoro” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Translator Matoro

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 900

If this card was Normal Summoned or flipped face-up this turn: You can Tribute this card; Special Summon up to 2 Level 2 “Matoran” monsters from your GY, except “Matoran Translator Matoro”. When a monster(s) you control is flipped face-down, while this card is in your GY: You can banish this card; change those face-down monsters to face-up Defense Position. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Translator Matoro” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

His original ability to revive others by Tributing himself (based on, well, the obvious) remains pretty much unchanged, with the only difference being that it now also works if he was flipped face-up that turn, since Nuju flips your own monsters to clear the opponent’s field. This leads us straight to the second effect, which replaces the Tuner designation as the representation of his job as translator. Because if the monsters being flipped face-down is meant to be Nuju confusing his allies by speaking in bird language, then obviously Matoro clearing up the confusion would simply revert the flip.

In the new slot, we have Jaa, one of the scribes in charge of writing down Wall of Prophecy translations. Where did those prophecies even come from? Honestly I’m not sure, but it probably also doesn’t matter.

Matoran Scribe Jaa

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 700

You can banish 1 Spell/Trap from your hand or field; Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 of your banished Spells/Traps; place it on top of your Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 WATER “Matoran” monster from your GY, except “Matoran Scribe Jaa”, but negate its effects, also you cannot Special Summon while you control that face-up monster. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Scribe Jaa” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Jaa takes advantage of the large amount of Spells and Traps you run in a Ko-Koro deck (since you don’t want to use monster effects on the opponent’s turn) and uses them as fodder to put himself on the field, making him a useful on-Attribute search target for Kopeke. Later, when he hits the GY, he can put the card banished for his Summon back on top of the Deck (as if writing down a prophecy of your next draw) and simultaneously bring out another WATER Matoran from the GY. With the tiny drawback of getting locked out of all Special Summons. Which you can turn off by simply flipping the monster face-down to bounce something with Nuju. I think you get the idea. Do note that the Special Summon is mandatory, so activating the effect to get back a banished card may bite you in the ass – an intentional flaw to make sure he isn’t quite so easy to use as a generic Spell/Trap recycler.

Ko-Koro also got one little update to patch a somewhat fatal flaw. While it previously only negated the effects of your opponent’s Special Summoned monsters for a single turn, this negation is now permanent – as long as the other conditions of only controlling WATER monsters and not having activated monster effects that turn are fulfilled, of course.

3.16.6

Ko-Koro, Village of Ice

Field Spell

While all face-up monsters you control (min. 1) are WATER, apply these effects.
●If you did not declare an attack during your last turn, monsters your opponent controls cannot attack the turn they are Summoned.
●If none of your opponent’s cards where destroyed or banished by your card effects since your last Standby Phase, monsters you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects, also your opponent cannot target them with card effects.
●If you did not activate any monster effects this turn, negate the effects of face-up monsters that were Special Summoned this turn while your opponent controls them.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.16.6)
3.20.4

Ko-Koro, Village of Ice

Field Spell

While all face-up monsters you control (min. 1) are WATER, apply these effects.
●If you did not declare an attack during your last turn, monsters your opponent controls cannot attack the turn they are Summoned.
●If none of your opponent’s cards where destroyed or banished by your card effects since your last Standby Phase, monsters you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects, also your opponent cannot target them with card effects.
●If you did not activate any monster effects this turn, negate the effects of face-up Special Summoned monsters while your opponent controls them.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

This way you aren’t totally helpless against opponents who can bring out a monster during your End Phase or something like that, and I figure it’s still not all that terribly oppressive and unfun as far as lockdowns go, since you need to keep actively removing monsters anyway if you want to keep yourself safe from battle as well.

Le-Koro

(Theme Guide)

Most important to Le-Koro is the ability to recover and rebuild starting from minimal resources, and the first new piece of support for this is another Matoran/Rahi combo in the form of Kongu and the Kewa.

3.15.5

Matoran Pilot Kongu

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

Once per turn: You can target 1 Beast or Winged Beast monster you control; equip that target to this card. (You can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card with this effect.) While equipped with a monster by this effect, this card can attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls with DEF less than or equal to the ATK of the monster equipped to this card; destroy it. When this card is destroyed while equipped with a monster by its effect and sent to the GY: Special Summon that monster from the GY.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)
3.20.4

Matoran Pilot Kongu

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

Kewa, Vulture Rahi

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.15.5)

Replacing super gimmicky and overly complicated equip shenanigans is something that may feel familiar from the Onu-Koro section. Indeed, the Kewa is the same type of Rahi as the Ussal, and provides the same service when sent to the GY, just for WIND monsters. Kongu, meanwhile, is the way to get the birb there, symbolically allowing him to fly over the enemy lines and attack directly. Which you may not use if you’re instead using him and the monster revied by the Kewa as material, but if you do, there’s also the additional utility of destroying monsters with sufficiently low DEF after inflicting battle damage.

The final new card of the release is Makani, whom you may know from the famous Le-Koro Band. Or from the Elementsaber archetype. Turns out naming a wind guy after the Hawaiian word for “wind” isn’t the most unique idea.

Matoran Musician Makani

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WIND Warrior | ATK 500 / DEF 400

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned from the hand: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monster from your hand. If this card is in your GY, except the turn it was sent there: You can banish this card, then target 1 WIND Warrior monster in your GY, except “Matoran Musician Makani”; add it to your hand. You can only use each effect of “Matoran Musician Makani” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Aside from being a Tuner (because music), Makani provides a very simple pair of effects: Bring out another Matoran on Summon – regardless of Attribute, since he plays music to welcome travellers as well – and recycling a WIND Warrior in your GY on later turns. This, as it turns out, is a much more potent combination than I had anticipated, and in testing Makani seriously feels like one of the most useful Matoran cards to date. Not sure if it’s actually to the point of requiring some kind of nerf, but he’s certainly good.

Something I should point out is that both Kongu and Makani having effects that trigger when they are Summoned reflects an important design element for Le-Koro, since it lets you chain them to the Field Spell’s search effect and get value before the negate from that hits.

Last but not least, the second effect of Matau received some changes.

3.17.4

Turaga Matau

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.17.4)
3.20.4

Turaga Matau

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.20.4)

One thing is that it doesn’t target the monster to get back during the next Standby Phase at activation anymore, mostly because EDOPro didn’t really make that easy to keep track of. Instead you get to choose when it resolves, which I think might pose some issues with the requirement of “other WIND monster” (since Matau may have left and returned to the GY in the meantime) – if so, I’ll probably either remove the other or strengthen it to “except Matau”. The other change is that the bonus draw in case your opponent controls more monsters was replaced with a temporary ATK/DEF reduction for your opponent’s field, potentially making the board easier to break when you make your comeback. I think this is better because it incorporates the prankster aspect of Matau, and now you can get an extra card to your hand by simply having Makani in GY anyway.


This was long and I am very sorry for that. Respect to you if you actually read it all.

Release: The Chronicler’s Company

Download for EDOPro

As previously hinted, here’s another update to close out 2021. The previous batch of new cards brought together the Toa Mata that had been coming out one by one into a single strategy, and now it’s time to repeat that for the other archetype I have been dripfeeding across the village releases: The Chronicler’s Company, or C.C. Matoran for short.

For a detailed description of how this new strategy plays, refer to their Theme Guide. Or check out Turaga Nui Turbo for a somewhat less reasonable way to use them in conjunction with some other new cards from this release.

Meanwhile, let’s proceed to individual design notes over here.

New/Reworked Cards

Matoran Chronicler Takua

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | LIGHT Warrior | ATK 350 / DEF 350

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can take 1 of your “C.C. Matoran” monsters from your Deck, GY, or that is banished and place it on top of your Deck, and if you do, this card’s Attribute becomes that monster’s original Attribute. You can discard 1 card; excavate the top 6 cards of your Deck, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 excavated “C.C. Matoran” monster, also you can add 1 excavated “The Chronicler’s Company” to your hand, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. You can only use this effect of “Matoran Chronicler Takua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)

First and foremost, let’s talk about Takua, the hidden protagonist of the Mata Nui saga and the Chronicler who gathers the Company. True to his role, his effects allow him to “set his sights” on one of his comrades (matching their Attribute in the process, as a reference to his Av-Matoran color changing abilities) and then “travel” through the six villages to pick them up.

This sounded good on paper, but after testing, I’m starting to feel like I messed up here a little. Since Takua will stack one of the very targets he excavates for on top of your Deck every time you Summon him, the excavation is completely meaningless and the effect may as well just be to Special Summon a C.C. Matoran from any location except the hand at the cost of a discard. The reason he does this is because I wanted him to give 1-card access to the Turaga in each Koro deck (instead of having to come up with six different cards to do that), and since you only run one of the C.C. Matoran in each of those, blind excavation wouldn’t have had a sufficient hit rate. To add back a bit of the gambling excitement, I included a secondary payoff where you get to add the archetypal Trap should you come across it, but in the end that still means there are zero surprises in the Summoning part, and having the chance to offset the discard cost like that may even be a bit too convenient.

The better solution is probably to simply have the stacking happen only on Normal Summon, which I may do in a future update after doing some proper testing with Takua in the Koro decks. An unfortunate detail is that the Attribute change and stacking on Special Summon are integral to one of my favorite parts in the Turaga Nui Turbo combo, but I’m willing to sacrifice that since it’s just a gimmicky side strategy. However, I remain not entirely convinced this is the correct fix, so I’d very much appreciate hearing some outside opinions.


3.19.4

The Chronicler’s Company

Continuous Trap

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)
1.0.0

The Chronicler’s Company

Continuous Trap

You must control this many face-up “C.C. Matoran” monsters to activate and resolve the following effects:
●1+: Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 “C.C. Matoran” monster from your hand, Deck or Graveyard.
●2+: Once per turn: “C.C. Matoran” monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects.
●3+: If a “C.C Matoran” monster(s) you control is sent to the Graveyard: Draw 1 card.
●4+: Once per turn: You can target 1 “C.C. Matoran” monster you control and 1 card your opponent controls; return both targets to the hand.
●5: You can send this card to the Graveyard; destroy all cards on the field, except “C.C. Matoran” cards. You can only activate this effect of “The Chronicler’s Company” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)

Since I mentioned the archetypal Trap up there, I guess I should go over it as well, though there isn’t really much to say. Like its original from back in the day, The Chronicler’s Company accumulates helpful effects as you gather more members of its namesake, but they have been slimmed down to the most significant ones and tweaked a bit. The 1+ tier no longer includes a free Summon from the Deck (since that tends to be a bit broken) and only lets you get those members you don’t have already, the previous 4+ tier is now at 3+ and downgraded to a 2-for-1 trade (it’s still disruption either way), and the previous 5 tier got moved to the more appropriate 6 (thanks, Extra Monster Zone!) and buffed a whole lot because if you ever get there you’ve pretty much won and might as well get to do it in a flashy way.


Diminished Matoran Kaita

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 2 | LIGHT Warrior | ATK 1200 / DEF 1500

3 Level 2 “Matoran” monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle while it has material. If this card is Xyz Summoned: You can detach up to 3 materials with different Attributes from this card, then apply the following effect(s) depending on their Attributes, in sequence. You can only use this effect of “Diminished Matoran Kaita” once per turn.
•WIND: Add 1 Level 2 “Matoran” monster from your Deck to your hand.
•WATER: This face-up card cannot be destroyed by card effects. •FIRE: This card gains 1200 ATK.
•EARTH: Draw 1 card. •LIGHT/DARK: Special Summon 1 Level 2 “Matoran” monster from your hand or GY.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)

The Diminished Matoran Kaita went through a few design iterations which all focused on the concept of getting different effects based on the Attributes of its materials, and the one I ended up liking best was immediately detaching the Attributes whose effects you want when its Summoned. This means it’s best when summoned with Matoran of different elements, as it should be (disregarding the lack of STONE and ICE Attributes), and you may run into the interesting dynamic of having to choose between detaching the third material for the effect or keeping it for the battle protection.

The effects themselves are mostly just meant to align with the respective village’s playstyle while remaining generically useful, but it’s a bit concerning that a triple detach of WIND + EARTH + LIGHT/DARK works out to a +1 even factoring in the 3 materials that need to go into the Kaita. May still have to tweak at least one of these effects so it doesn’t give immediate advantage.


3.19.4

Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui

Link Effect MonsterLink-3 [↙ ▼ ▶] | LIGHT Spellcaster | ATK 1900

2+ monsters, including a “Turaga” monster
This card’s Attribute is also treated as the original Attributes of all “Turaga” Link Monsters you control or in your GY. You can only use each of the following effects of “Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui” once per turn. If this card is Link Summoned: You can send 1 “Turaga” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY. You can target 1 of your Level 4 or lower “Matoran” monsters with the same Attribute as this card that is banished or in your GY; Special Summon it to your zone this card points to.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)
1.0.0

Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui

Field Spell

You can target 1 “Turaga” Tuner monster you control; until the End Phase, it is treated as a non-tuner monster. You can target 1 “Turaga” monster you control; increase or decrease its Level by 1. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon 1 “Turaga” monster from your Graveyard. When this face-up card is desroyed by your opponent’s card effect and sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 “Turaga” Tuner monster and 1 non-Tuner monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon them. Immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 monster using only those targets . You can only use each effect of “Circle of Legends, Amaja-Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v1.0.0)

The Turaga get a collective updgraded form in Amaja-Nui, which, curiously enough, used to be a Field Spell in the original version. And that makes sense since it is a location, but in order to avoid adding another name to Mata Nui’s search targets and to give the Turaga an easy Link climbing route (which I often felt was missing when testing the villages), this time I chose to focus on Amaja-Nui’s nature as a gathering of Turaga instead. For some reason group shots are within the design space of Link (and Fusion?) Monsters, so this makes it an entirely valid choice for a Link-3.

The two main effects are pretty simple – take on the Attribute of any Turaga you have around (as it’s the gathering of exactly those) and call previously used Matoran of that Attribute back to the field (since the Turaga have authority over them), which should be decently useful to any of the villages. For the sake of Turaga Nui Turbo specifically, it can also send a Turaga from your Main or Extra Deck to the GY when Link Summoned, which could be either the big boss itself or just an additional name and/or Attribute.


Diminished Matoran Nui

Effect MonsterLevel 6 | LIGHT Warrior | ATK 2100 / DEF 1500

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned by its own effect. You can discard this card; reveal 3 Level 2 “Matoran” monsters with different Attributes from your Deck, your opponent randomly picks 1 for you to add to your hand, and you send the rest to the GY. You can shuffle 6 Level 2 “Matoran” monsters with different names from your GY into the Deck, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; Special Summon this card from the GY, and if you do, destroy that target. You can only use each effect of “Diminished Matoran Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)

Turaga Nui

Effect MonsterLevel 9 | LIGHT Spellcaster | ATK 2000 / DEF 3000

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned by its own effect. You can send this card from your hand and 1 “Noble Kanohi” Equip Spell from your Deck to the GY; reveal 1 “Turaga” Link monster in your Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Warrior monster with the same Attribute from your hand. When your opponent activates a card or effect while there are 6 or more “Turaga” Link Monsters with different names in your GY (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from the GY, and if you do, negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls. You can only use each effect of “Turaga Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)

The Diminished Matoran Nui and Turaga Nui both are powerful entities formed by combining 6 individuals, and they both reflect this through the same design principles. They provide an effect in the hand that trades them for resources which help their respective components, and an effect in the GY that summons them with great impact once you have gathered all six of those components.

Setting up 6 Level 2 Matoran in the GY is fairly easy, so the payoff there is “only” destroying a single monster and getting a decently big body on the field, and it returns the individual Matoran to the Deck so you can’t repeat it right away. On the other hand, getting 6 Turaga Link Monsters in the GY is a fool’s errand that takes something stupid like Turaga Nui Turbo to accomplish within reasonable time, so the Turaga Nui actually lets you keep that setup and just negates your opponent’s entire field when you do manage to Summon it.

Updates

Time was a bit short since I squeezed this into what was left of the month, so I ended up only implementing one of the changes to existing cards I contemplated here and there. That one is Kopeke, who now has a drawback when searching non-WATER monsters.

3.19.4

C.C. Matoran Kopeke

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 600

If this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: You can add 1 Level 2 Warrior monster from your Deck or GY to your hand, except “C.C. Matoran Kopeke”, then, if it is not a WATER monster, place 1 card from your hand on top of your Deck. You can only use this effect of “C.C. Matoran Kopeke” once per turn. If another “C.C. Matoran” monster you control would be destroyed, you can change this card to face-down Defense Position instead.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.19.4)
3.16.6

C.C. Matoran Kopeke

Effect MonsterLevel 2 | WATER Warrior | ATK 300 / DEF 600

If this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: You can take 1 Level 2 Warrior monster from your Deck or GY, except “C.C. Matoran Kopeke”, and either add it to your hand or place it on top of your Deck. You can only use this effect of “C.C. Matoran Kopeke” once per turn. If another “C.C. Matoran” monster you control would be destroyed, you can change this card to face-down Defense Position instead.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.16.6)

This replaces the previous weird option to put the card you search on top of your Deck instead of adding it to your hand, which I can now reveal was meant to synergize with Takua’s excavation effect, since Kopeke is himself a future Chronicler. Just kind of unfortunate that Kopeke takes up the Normal Summon, getting Takua with something like Isolde ends up shuffling the Deck, and even using the Matoran Kaita to Special Summon him from hand or GY requires him as the LIGHT/DARK material to begin with, but eh, there are theoretically possible scenarios where it could work.

Anyway, there are two reasons I really like this change from a design standpoint: One, the idea behind Kopeke being the searcher is that he “shapes the hand” as a skilled ice crafter, and that really fits now that he can also remove unneeded elements from it. Two, his shy personality that was already reflected in his protection effect flipping him face-down is further highlighted by the fact that he becomes less effective when interacting with strangers from outside his village. But due to the limited Attributes available, it turns out he’s still completely fine with the ladies from Ga-Koro. What a chad.

Release: Heroes Unite

Download for EDOPro

With all the villages implemented, Bionicle: Coming of the Toa is approaching completion, and this release gives those titular heroes a significant boost to their strategy as a team. However, there is still one more support wave for them I need to bring over from the ancient scriptures, so the theme guide explaining the whole picture in detail will have to wait a bit longer. Instead, here’s a slightly longer release post to briefly go over the new additions.

Sample Duel

New/Reworked Cards

Suva Kaita

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Rock | ATK 0 / DEF 0

While in your hand or GY, this card is also WIND, WATER, FIRE, and EARTH-Attribute. (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card, then target 1 Level 6 “Toa” monster in your GY; Special Summon that target. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 of your banished “Toa” monsters; you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except “Toa” monsters, also Special Summon that target in Defense Position. You can only use each effect of “Suva Kaita” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)

As the sole new Main Deck monster, the Suva Kaita provides an additional way of summoning multiple Toa while having the same conveniently searchable statline as the regular old Suva. Also like the Suva, it’s treated as multiple Attributes in the hand for Toa Mata Tribute Summoning purposes, but why it does the same thing in the GY is at this point still a secret. The Suva Kaita’s on-field effect requires you to tribute it and only fetches the Level 6 (i.e., Main Deck) Toa, but being a Quick Effect means you can use it to set up a Toa Mata at exactly the right time for its effect to trigger during your opponent’s turn. The GY effect is slower and locks you into “Toa” Extra Deck monsters after using it, but in exchange it works on any banished Toa and actually nets you an additional monster on the field.

But wait, “Toa” Extra Deck monsters? Yes, that’s the other major contribution of this release, starting with three monsters depicting scenes of the Toa Mata uniting their elemental powers.

Magma

Toa Mata Combination – Magma

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 6 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 2900 / DEF 1200

2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters
You can detach 2 materials from this card; send 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck to the GY, and if you do, you can halve the ATK/DEF of 1 monster your opponent controls. (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card with no material, then target 2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters (1 FIRE and 1 EARTH monster) in your GY; Special Summon them, but they cannot attack this turn. You can only use 1 “Toa Mata Combination – Magma” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
Storm

Toa Mata Combination – Storm

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 6 | WIND Warrior | ATK 2200 / DEF 0

2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters
During the Main or Battle Phase (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; Special Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster from your Deck, but its ATK becomes 0 and it cannot be used as material for a Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summon, also banish it during the End Phase of the next turn. (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card with no material, then target 2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters (1 WIND and 1 WATER monster) in your GY; Special Summon them, but they cannot attack this turn. You can only use 1 “Toa Mata Combination – Storm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
Crystal

Toa Mata Combination – Crystal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 6 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2000 / DEF 2700

2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters
When a Spell/Trap Card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can detach 2 materials from this card; negate that effect, and if you do, banish that card. (Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card with no material, then target 2 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters (1 WATER and 1 EARTH monster) in your GY; Special Summon them, but they cannot attack this turn. You can only use 1 “Toa Mata Combination – Crystal” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)

As momentary alliances rather than wholly new beings, all of these 2-material Xyz share a Quick Effect to split apart into two Toa Mata of the appropriate Attributes once they run out of materials, kind of a roundabout way of rewarding you for actually using the correct team members. As for what benefit summoning them brings:

  • Magma (Tahu + Onua) is simply big and can use up all its materials in a single volcanic burst that both launches a Rock into your GY (where both your Suvas can be useful) and optionally makes an opponent’s monster wilt under the heat. The ability to immediately detach 2 materials also means the tagout effect is already available on the opponent’s following turn.
  • Storm (Gali + Lewa) – the only one of these with a concrete basis in the story – serves as the ultimate way of setting up exactly the right Toa Mata in exactly the situation where its effect can be triggered, by summoning them directly from Deck as brief flashes of lightning. One fun thing you can do, for example, is bring out Kopaka in response to an effect that will remove another card you control, thereby letting you banish something in retaliation.
  • Crystal (Pohatu + Kopaka) rounds out the trio with a solid defensive option in the simple form of a Spell/Trap negate. I always feel a bit bad giving a card boring old negation rather than something more unique, but in this case the old version already had an effect to negate what targets it (now made redundant by the Kanohi Miru) and both Toa Mata and the Rank 6 Xyz pool at large are a bit lacking in ways to guard against blowout Spells and Traps, so I figured it was justified here. Needing to detach both materials for the cost is half a balancing measure and half a trick to ensure you can set up the tagout effect quickly.

At this point you may have noticed that, should one of these Toa Mata Combinations ever wind up banished, a Suva Kaita in the GY can bring it back, at which point it will be without material and thus able to turn itself into 2 Level 6 Toa Mata. And if you can just get a third from somewhere, that naturally opens the door to the most obvious choice for the archetype’s ultimate bosses: Toa Kaita.

Akamai (+ Aki)

Akamai, Toa Kaita of Valor

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 6 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 3000 / DEF 2000

3 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters
Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects during the Battle Phase. If this card battles an opponent’s monster, that monster has its effects negated until the end of the Damage Step. Once per turn, if this card destroys an opponent’s monster by battle: You can detach 1 material from this card; inflict damage to your opponent equal to the destroyed monster’s original ATK.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)

Great Kanohi Aki

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa Kaita” monster, it cannot be destroyed by battle, gains 1000 ATK, and can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each, also if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage. Once per turn, if this card is equipped to a “Toa Mata” monster you control: You can Special Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster with the same Level from your hand, then, immediately after this effect resolves, Xyz Summon 1 “Toa” Xyz Monster using monsters you control, including that Special Summoned monster.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
Wairuha (+ Rua)

Wairuha, Toa Kaita of Wisdom

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 6 | WIND Warrior | ATK 2600 / DEF 2600

3 Level 6 “Toa Mata” monsters
Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation. If a material(s) is detached from this card (except during the Damage Step): You can declare 1 card type (Monster, Spell, or Trap); your opponent reveals 1 random card in their hand and the top card of their Deck. Then, apply these effects, in sequence, based on the number of cards of the declared type revealed. You can only use this effect of “Wairuha, Toa Kaita of Wisdom” once per turn.
●1+: Draw 1 card.
●2: Banish 1 card your opponent controls or in their GY.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)

Great Kanohi Rua

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)

As acquiring the materials for these amalgamations of three Toa Mata is a feat that either requires using quite a few cards or having a bit of prior setup, they’re designed as outright win conditions for the deck, with the decision which one you summon dependent on the particular game state you find yourself in.

Akamai is an incredibly straightforward tool for ending games: It locks your opponent out of all activated effects as soon as you enter the Battle Phase, negates continuous effects (including battle protection) of anything it fights for good measure, and then inflicts burn damage after destroying a monster. While not quite an OTK on its own, the Toa Kaita of Valor does get rid of just about any monster under 3000 ATK with no fear of consequences and may finish off an already damaged opponent.

Wairuha is the more forward-thinking option in case you expect the duel to continue past the current turn, backing you up with the simple yet devastating power of a singular omninegate. This negation, notably, does not come with built-in destruction, and that’s because it is instead followed by a slightly more amusing aftermath. After a material is detached from Wairuha, including for the negation cost, you may choose a card type based on your understanding of your opponent’s hand and deck, and if you choose wisely, the rewards include both drawing a card and banishing from the opponent’s field or GY. This is a separate trigger effect for the simple reason that I didn’t want the negation to be dependent on the opponent having a hand or vulnerable to Ash Blossom. While not quite an unbreakable board on its own, the Toa Kaita of Wisdom still serves as an annoying piece of disruption with the potential to bring its controller great benefits.

And now that I’ve used the phrasing “not quite […] on its own” for both of them, it’s time to cover the final extra piece that changes this. Both of the Toa Kaita come with their unique Kanohi that grants only them the combined power (more or less) of three Equip Spells. Akamai’s Aki (Hau + Pakari + Kakama) upgrades it to a 4k attacker that inflicts piercing and hits all monsters while being indestructible by battle – usually enough for an OTK. And Wairuha’s Rua (Kaukau + Akaku + Miru) grants full protection from all effects while allowing you to see the opponent’s hand (giving you an advantage in the wisdom game) – making it the fabled omninegating Towers that basically only falls to Kaijus.

Both of these Kanohi also do something when equipped to the main deck Toa Mata, namely summoning another from the hand to immediately overlay (originally I just wanted the effect to be treating them as 2 materials for an Xyz Summon, but it turns out that doesn’t exist in the real game and is only supported in EDOPro if you use a hardcoded effect type, which I didn’t like). Another point they share in common is that both of their names also refer to characters in the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, but our scientists are still working on figuring out what that might mean.

Updates

Some tweaks have been made to a few cards other than the new additions as well. Least among them are tiny stat changes on Onua (DEF 2000 -> DEF 2100) and Pohatu (DEF 1650 -> DEF 1700), for an overall smoother DEF curve from Tahu’s 1500 to Kopaka’s 2500. Not even going to waste a card viewer block on this.


Next, a tributed Toa Mata summoned back to the field by Kini-Nui will now be banished when it leaves the field.

v3.18.5

The Great Temple, Kini-Nui

Field Spell

During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) If a “Toa” monster(s) is Tributed for the Tribute Summon of a “Toa Mata” monster and sent to your GY: You can target 1 of those monsters; Special Summon it in Defense Position, but banish it when it leaves the field. During the End Phase: You can destroy this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck. You can only use each effect of “The Great Temple, Kini-Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
v3.14.3

The Great Temple, Kini-Nui

Field Spell

During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 “Toa Mata” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) If a “Toa” monster(s) is Tributed for the Tribute Summon of a “Toa Mata” monster and sent to your GY: You can target 1 of those monsters; Special Summon it in Defense Position. During the End Phase: You can destroy this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 1 Rock monster with 0 ATK/DEF from your Deck. You can only use each effect of “The Great Temple, Kini-Nui” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.14.3)

This means making Isolde with Kini-Nui is slightly worse (and provides you one less Kanohi search opportunity), but the archetypal Xyz Monsters conveniently bypass this change. It might also serve as another way to set up the Suva Kaita GY effect.


The Suva now requires a cost of 500 LP for each Kanohi change, similar to the built in swapping of the old Kanohi.

v3.18.5

Suva

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Rock | ATK 0 / DEF 0

While in your hand, and while face-up on the field if you control a “-Koro” Field Spell Card, this card is also WIND, WATER, FIRE, and EARTH-Attribute. Once per Chain (Quick Effect): You can pay 500 LP, then target 1 “Toa” monster you control; equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell from your hand or GY to that target, except a card that is in the GY because it was destroyed while face-up on the field and sent there this turn. If you control a “Toa” monster: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. You can only use this effect of “Suva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
v3.14.3

Suva

Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Rock | ATK 0 / DEF 0

While in your hand, and while face-up on the field if you control a “-Koro” Field Spell Card, this card is also WIND, WATER, FIRE, and EARTH-Attribute. Once per Chain (Quick Effect): You can target 1 face-up “Toa” monster you control; equip 1 “Kanohi” Equip Spell Card from your hand or GY to that target, except a card that is in the GY because it was destroyed while face-up on the field and sent there this turn. If you control a “Toa” monster: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. You can only use this effect of “Suva” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.14.3)

This came about because something about the whole dynamic of filling your GY with Kanohi and then freely accessing them via Suva while potentially triggering a search effect each time felt pretty unfair, and after spending a while warily staring at said search effects and their +1 nature in card advantage, I came to the conclusion that the problem is in the Suva being a completely free once-per-chain effect. Because getting a specific Level 6 monster that most of the time requires a Tribute Summon to hit the field honestly deserves to be a plus even if there’s a combo that allows doing it repeatedly, especially when each search does have a tangible cost of banishing a monster from the GY. Meanwhile, being able to just spam the Suva effect to cycle through Kanohi as much as you want not only almost makes it so that all of them are equipped at once, but also that as many of them as the present GY setup allows can and will trigger each turn. And don’t get me started on negating your own Suva with Wairuha just so you can use the detach effect while losing absolutely nothing. An LP cost may be the most insignificant of costs, but at least it disincentivizes and punishes spam that doesn’t lead to worthwhile benefits. I went with 500 LP rather than the classic 800 because I wanted cycling through a set of 6 Kanohi to cost less than half of the starting 8000, which I guess would also work if it was 600. Might still play around with the value a bit.


Turaga Nuju can now bounce not only one target at a time, but as many as you want if you just have the same number of monsters to flip face-down in exchange.

v3.18.5

Turaga Nuju

Link Effect MonsterLink-2 [◀ ▶] | WATER Spellcaster | ATK 1100

2 monsters, including a WATER Warrior monster
If this card is Special Summoned: You can target 1 face-up Spell/Trap you control; until the end of the next turn, while you control a WATER monster, that target cannot be destroyed by card effects (even if this card leaves the field). Once per turn: You can target any number of cards your opponent controls; change that many monsters you control to face-down Defense Position, and if you do, return the targeted cards to the hand.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
v3.16.6

Turaga Nuju

Link Effect MonsterLink-2 [◀ ▶] | WATER Spellcaster | ATK 1100

2 monsters, including a WATER Warrior monster
If this card is Special Summoned: You can target 1 face-up Spell/Trap you control; until the end of the next turn, while you control a WATER monster, that target cannot be destroyed by card effects (even if this card leaves the field). Once per turn: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; change 1 monster you control to face-down Defense Position, and if you do, return that target to the hand.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.16.6)

This helps Ko-Koro’s terrible going-second ability a bit, but more importantly plugs a gaping hole in the gameplan where it was really hard to keep your opponent locked down as intended if they ever managed to put out multiple monsters. Now, you just have to make sure they can’t exceed your field presence in a single turn while restricted by Ko-Koro and you should be good. Do watch out for the devil in the details of the new effect, though: While (according to the precedent I found) it will resolve even if not all the targets are on the field any more, you will still have to flip “that many” (the original targeted number) of your monsters, and if you can’t, you bounce nothing.


The Kanohi Akaku got a little overhaul motivated by some realizations I came to while designing for and testing Toa Mata decks. One, there’s no way anything as fancy and complicated as the original effect can even partially fit into the Rua’s text. And two, a Kanohi that needs to be on the field at a certain point to gain its effect and also permanently ceases to apply once no longer on the field sucks ass in a strategy that involves rapidly changing masks in response to the situation. Thus, the fancy complicated “hand sniping” effect was replaced by a continuous hand reveal just like the Rua (if it’s fair on Mind on Air then it shouldn’t be a problem on an archetype-restricted Equip Spell) plus a simpler hand sniping effect that just banishes for a turn.

v3.18.5

Great Kanohi Akaku

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; add 1 “Toa Mata Kopaka” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Akaku” once per turn. While equipped to a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster you control, this card gains these effects.
●Your opponent must keep their hand revealed.
●Once per turn, if your opponent adds a Spell/Trap(s) to their hand (except during the Damage Step): You can banish that Spell/Trap(s) until the End Phase.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.18.5)
v3.16.6

Great Kanohi Akaku

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, if this card is equipped to a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster you control and your opponent draws a card(s): You can activate this effect; your opponent reveals that card(s) (until your next End Phase). Spells/Traps revealed by this effect cannot be activated or Set while you control this face-up card. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; add 1 “Toa Mata Kopaka” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Akaku” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.16.6)

And that concludes the information on the Version 3.18.5 release. We’re still only about halfway through the month, so maybe there’s enough time left to also implement a certain Chronicler … ?

Release: Le-Koro & The Map of Mata Nui

Download for EDOPro

This month’s release is a double feature: On the one hand, we have Le-Koro, the final village to receive its overhaul with a dedicated strategy – all detail on this can be found in the Theme Guide. On the other, we have one additional card that boosts the consistency of all the Koro-focused decks I’ve been putting together for the past few months: The Island of Mata Nui. With all six villages and the island itself now accounted for, I have also written an overall Theme Guide for this archetype of Field Spells, so just check there to see how exactly all of this works.

In the “Updated” section, there’s just one change to the Kanohi Kaukau that I may have mentioned before. Rather than protecting from Spell/Trap effects, it now protects from all non-targeting effects instead.

v3.14.3

Great Kanohi Kaukau

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card is equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster, it is unaffected by other Spell/Trap effects. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; add 1 “Toa Mata Gali” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Kaukau” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.14.3)
v3.17.4

Great Kanohi Kaukau

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” card becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster, it is unaffected by your opponent’s card effects, unless they target it. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; add 1 “Toa Mata Gali” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Kaukau” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

This was done in conjunction with the Le-Koro release changing the Miru from something that avoids monster effects to something that avoids targeting effects – now they complement each other just as before, and their respective original ideas (protection from environmental conditions vs avoiding stuff by floating out of range) are, in my opinion, represented better than ever.

Finally, it has occured to me that design notes should probably be more separated from theme guides than they have been so far, so for the first time ever I’ll just do them right here in the release post as a quick list.

  • This month I had to split the time allotted to this project between more things than usual (Le-Koro, updating the other Koro strategies with Mata Nui, an additional video, and building the card viewer plugin for the site). Therefore I wasn’t able to do quite as much experimenting and fine-tuning as I would have otherwise, and in particular Matau’s delayed floating might see some changes in the future. There’s some usability concerns with the current version (like having no explicit indication of what the target is in EDOPro), and I’m not sure if it wouldn’t be better to have the bonus in case you’re behind on field presence be something like reducing the stats of the opponent’s monsters to lessen the hurdle of a comeback rather than just giving you an extra card.
  • The Mahiki unfortunately had to lose one of its effects from the old version (making the created Token the only available attack target) to keep the text length within reasonable bounds. Maybe I’ll add it back in as a separate card, but I can’t imagine it being very useful.
  • Lewa is the second Toa Mata after Kopaka to receive a stat change, in this case from 2500 ATK/1400 DEF to 2200 ATK/1900 DEF. This way, the team is spread over the whole ATK range from 2000 to 2500 without any duplicates, and I think it makes sense for the one with the removal effect to have comparatively low utility as a beatstick. I also briefly considered making him 2300 ATK and putting the 2200 on Gali instead, but being able to easily run over Gameciel seemed more valuable to the Ga-Koro strategy.

And with all that said, see you in the next release! Maybe it’s finally time for the Toa Mata to get their Extra Deck back.