Those who read the previous release post to the very end already know what should be in this one, and in a miraculous alignment of planning and execution, that also happens to be what is in this one: The remaining Toa Nuva, and a card that provides recursion in order to let you Fusion Summon on your opponent’s turn as well, as Spright Elf once did. Now, let us see what has emerged from the hidden pool of Energized Protodermis.
Some concepts for Toa Nuva decks can be found over here. Release notes below.
New Cards
Nuva Emergence
TrapFusion Summon 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by shuffling the Fusion Materials listed on it into the Deck, from among your hand, GY and/or face-up banished cards. If your opponent controls a monster, you can also banish 1 monster from your Deck as Fusion Material. During the Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, except “Nuva Emergence”, then discard 1 card. You can only use each effect of “Nuva Emergence” once per turn.
Starting off, the title and cover card of this release is precisely the aforementioned upgrade of our fusion capabilities: Nuva Emergence. By default, it lets you fuse by shuffling materials back into the Deck, but if you wait for your opponent to have a monster first, you can also flip the script and banish one of the materials from your Deck – potentially even an Energized Protodermis Chamber that then acts as free removal as well.
The ability to do that is why I initially didn’t want to make this yet another cheap fuse-from-deck card, but the math just didn’t work out that way, so as a compromise it now lets you conditionally get just one of the two materials from there. That means you can recycle the Chamber from the Toa Nuva made turn 1 to make a different one turn 2, or recycle the Toa Mata to make the same one and trigger a fresh Chamber, or get both a different Toa Nuva and a Chamber trigger if you’ve managed to set up an additional Toa Mata as material somehow. Fairly reasonable tradeoffs that give you a surprising amount of flexibility.
Later on, the Nuva Emergence can also be banished from the GY to do the same search-and-discard all the Toa Nuva do on Fusion Summon, and while you can’t directly get another copy, you can do it indirectly via some updated Kanohi Nuva, as we’ll see a bit further down. This way, we have the issue of repeatability somewhat covered as well.
In the meantime, the remaining two Toa Nuva join the team with effects following the usual pattern. Almost.
Toa Nuva Pohatu
Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2800 / DEF 2100“Toa Mata Pohatu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can destroy Spells/Traps your opponent controls, up to the number of Rock monsters you control +1. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Pohatu” once per turn.
Pohatu Nuva is just a straightforward upgrade of his Mata form , replacing the Trigger Effect to destroy a Spell/Trap (and another if you control a Rock) with an unconditional Quick Effect to destroy a Spell/Trap (and as many more as you control Rocks). Subtle differences, but they provide powerful advantages.
Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity
Continuous SpellYou can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Pohatu” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. If a monster(s) is Special Summoned, and you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand or GY. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, then Tribute 1 non-Fusion Monster.
The Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity provides one way to assemble the Rocks needed to really take this effect over the top, by giving you a Level 4 or lower Special Summon from hand or GY whenever anyone Special Summons (if you have a Toa Nuva). This extends to all monsters in the Level range and doesn’t negate effects or anything, so you can also use it to bring out anything from starters to extenders to a bit of extra battle damage – Pohatu is a sociable guy, after all. However, the loss of elemental power upon removal of the Nuva Symbol will force you to Tribute a monster instead, with Fusions being exempt because lore-wise the Toa Nuva does have to stay around in its negated state.
You might notice the direct synergy between the effects of Pohatu and his Nuva Symbol is relatively thin, and indeed I have been considering an additional portion of Pohatu Nuva’s effect that summons a Rock Token when you e.g. destroy a face-up card. That would not only give you a built-in ramp to reach a higher number of pops, but also provide a trigger for Granite Tenacity to do its thing. But in testing, Pohatu just kind of seemed good enough already that it felt hard to justify the significant amount of extra text a Token would have brought with it, so for now the effect remains short and crispy.
Great Kanohi Kakama Nuva
Equip SpellIf another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, it can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. 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; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, the monsters you currently control can attack directly this turn, but if they do so using this effect, their ATK is halved during damage calculation only.
The Kakama Nuva is our first special case here, because it is one in the lore as well: This Kanohi Nuva alone provides not only a strengthened and shareable form of the power it had before its transformation, but also an entirely new ability of phasing through solid objects. Accordingly, the on-field effect has remained identical to the base Kakama , but the bonus effect it can grant from the GY instead lets your monsters attack directly. The halved ATK when doing so proved absolutely necessary to not make winning way too easy, and implementing it revealed to me that almost all the direct-attack cards in EDOPro are coded wrong since they don’t let you select which of multiple stacked effects of that type to use on a specific attack. At least Cyberdark Edge does it right.
Also don’t overlook that this card’s GY effect Sets a Trap rather than placing a Continuous Spell. That new feature was added to several Kanohi Nuva so that you can easily access and loop Nuva Emergence (or, more rarely, the Nuva Cube ).
Toa Nuva Kopaka
Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | WATER Warrior | ATK 2400 / DEF 2900“Toa Mata Kopaka” + 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. Once per turn, during the Main Phase, if you control no other monsters (Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish it. While this card is in face-up Defense Position, your opponent’s monsters cannot target other monsters for attacks, also your opponent cannot target other cards you control with card effects.
In the case of Kopaka Nuva, we leave the regular upgrade patterns aside pretty much immediately. Granted, Kopaka Mata had a similarly nonstandard sword-and-shield effect setup going, so obviously translating that requires a different approach.
For the “sword”, we still banish (freeze), but now it can be used freely as long as Kopaka is working alone … and isn’t non-targeting against all cards any more, because that would be a bit broken when it’s so much easier to use.
For the “shield”, the condition is still being in Defense Position, and the effect is still preventing your other monsters from being attacked. Oh, and your other cards from being targeted. One might suggest this could be toxic when combined with various floodgates, and I am not legally required to respond to these allegations. Don’t worry, it’s totally just for the Nuva Symbols.
Notably, the effect to change to Defense Position (and thus make your other cards untargetable) after battle was dropped to save space, as it isn’t really all that necessary on a Fusion Monster that can be summoned in defense to begin with anyway. It does make attacking with Kopaka Nuva a serious investment that leaves you unguarded for a turn, but for how broad the protection is that’s probably fair.
Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity
Continuous SpellYou can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Kopaka” 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 leaves the field because of an opponent’s card: You can banish 1 card from your opponent’s hand (at random) or their field. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, and if you do, your opponent can add 1 of their banished cards to their hand.
The Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity then answers the remaining question of “but what if they go after Kopaka since they can’t target anything else?”. If that happens, or generally if your opponent dares remove a Toa Nuva, they’ll find themselves on the receiving end of a true non-targeting banish. And this one can even reach the hand, just so it still works if they drop a Kaiju right away. Unfortunately this does not help you recover your lost monster in any way, so it can almost feel a bit underpowered at times. But boy is it fun to swap it in with a Nuva Cube at the right moment.
The punish for letting this symbol get removed is, aside from the usual negate, an opportunity for your opponent to add back a banished card. The impact of which ranges from nothing to devastating depending on whether or not Pot of Desires previously resolved on their side. That’s right, face-down banished cards are also allowed.
Great Kanohi Akaku Nuva
Equip SpellIf another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control, your opponent must keep their hand revealed. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, look at your opponent’s hand.
Finally, the Akaku Nuva also deviates from the norm in its GY effect, but this time not because of the lore but because I could not come up with any way (that’s not horribly convoluted) to grant your entire field the power of revealing the opponent’s hand. Instead, it’s just a one-and-done hand reveal you get along with your Trap if a Toa Nuva is present. This card is also missing the banishing part of the base Akaku , because a) pretty hard to find the space for that, b) I think we’ve been doing quite enough banishing over here already, and c) just the information by itself is enough to make it worthwhile when every Toa Nuva can trigger it on summon.
Updated
The updates this time are numerous, but easily explained. You know how the Toa Nuva previously all said “You can only use each effect […] once per turn”? That says “this effect” now. That’s it. That’s the update. Check the sweet version selection dropdown I can enable in card blocks now.
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. If your opponent controls a monster (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 this effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.
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 this effect of “Toa Nuva Gali” once per turn.
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 this effect of “Toa Nuva Onua” once per turn.
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 this effect of “Toa Nuva Lewa” once per turn.
Okay but why do we suddenly not want the search effects to be HOPT anymore? Multiple reasons for that, but I’ll be honest, the main one is that Kopaka Nuva already has a lot of words and can get away without a HOPT clause if we do that. I strongly doubt this can enable any serious abuse since you can use this exact same effect on 6 different names anyway (7 if we count Emergence), and the discard means it doesn’t even plus you – unless you weave in a Kanohi Nuva, which are collectively HOPT in their own right.
Oh, and apparently I totally forgot to put a little update Tahu Nuva got into the overview image. His effect to drain ATK now only works if the opponent controls a monster, which is my solution to how easy it was to OTK into an emtpy field by draining your own monster in the middle of the Battle Phase. Tahu may be a hothead at the expense of his own allies sometimes, but probably not so much in cases where there isn’t even an enemy in front of him.
Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva
Equip SpellIf 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 your opponent’s turn.
The tweak for the Pakari Nuva is technically a regression to a detail of its AoE ATK boosting effect from several versions ago, namely that it lasts through your opponent’s turn even if it was activated on yours. This is sort of a consequence of the Kanohi Nuva being split into Spell searchers and Trap searches, with one criterion being that the Spell ones ( Hau , Kaukau , Pakari) should have bonus effects more useful on your opponent’s turn and the Trap ones (Kakama, Akaku, Miru ) on yours. But there are other factors such as balancing things between Attributes, and through those the Miru with its targeting protection effect ended up split from Hau and Kaukau with their battle and effect protection. So to counterbalance that little mixup, the Pakari got similarly tweaked so its bonus effect works no matter whose turn you activate it on. Not sure that really makes sense, but it seems to go well in practice.
And with that we’ve also taken care of everything I wanted to say about the Miru Nuva, which only got changed to a Trap searcher and remained the same otherwise. Allow me to close this article with another fancy version-selectable card block.
Great Kanohi Miru Nuva
Equip SpellIf 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; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, your opponent cannot target the monsters you currently control with card effects this turn.
If you’ve gotten addicted to dropdowns, I can warmly recommend our shiny new card viewer page (that you may already have seen behind the hoverable card links, which are also a thing that exists now). It has EVEN MORE DROPDOWNS!!1!
Until next time.