Tag: Bohrok

A Threefold Dose of Reheated Foolery

Triple Baka, if you will.

It’s April 1st, the day of the year where I talk myself into investing time into silly side projects that don’t go anywhere serious. In the past, this has brought forth some ideas that could honestly be pretty cool if pursued further, so this time I thought why not follow up on some of the greatest hits?

#1: Skull Army in Rush Duels

Once upon a time in 2021, an April Fools’ post had the honor of becoming the first ever so-called release post on this website, featuring the Toa of G2 adapted as Rush Duel cards. This left hanging a question that was often asked in early 2015 as well – where are the villains to face our heroes?

Oh look, here they are.

Enter the Skull Army led by Kulta the Skull Grinder, bringing along some new mechanics like Rituals and Contact Fusion that were added into Rush Duels over the past five years.

Download here (also includes the previous Rush release)

(This is a non-repository release in the old style, so you’ll have to copy the files into your game folder as per the included README)

Long story short, the core concept of these is beatdown with Zombie monsters whose gimmick is covering a bunch of different Attributes. Their boss Kulta is a Ritual Monster (those go in the Extra Deck in Rush Duels!) whose effect simply calls the others back out of the Graveyard, in addition to adjusting battle positions – but not of DARK monsters, because he himself is on Makuta’s metaphorical payroll. Fun Fact: This guy is also somehow the only FIRE Zombie in Rush Duels as of right now. Basher is an EARTH monster who simply deals piercing damage while you have a higher-Level Zombie around, making him ideal to revive with Kulta. Slicer is a WIND Zombie (an actually pretty well supported category) who can multi-attack at a hefty discard cost, but he can also offset that by adding back either the resident high-ATK Level 4 Normal Monster Skorpio (Beware its stinger tail!) or Kulta’s Ritual Spell Skull Raid. At Level 3 (this also has synergy with existing Zombie support), there’s the WATER Warrior, who makes use of your variety of Attributes to make the opponent’s field smaller. And finally, the Contact Fusion Skull Chimera combines Warrior, Basher, and Slicer to obtain … a big ATK stat and protection. The usefulness of this relative to how likely you are to make it mirrors how it never showed up in the story either.

From my brief gameplay experience, these slot pretty well into existing Zombie Ritual decks like Defiant Soul. One part of the design where I may have gone overboard is Kulta just being able to bring a guy back every turn, another more unexpected one is Warrior’s stat reduction and how it can stack if you manage to recycle him since it’s an (implicit) soft once per turn. But that’s just an initial, very vibes-based observation based on the few rounds of testing I managed to fit in.

#2: Toa Mata in Virtues

Virtues. A card game devised in 2024 to cause great damage to the human spirit without a single benefit hypothetically salvage my design work in case Konami comes after my ass with a C&D for making custom Yugioh cards. While the initial draft was quite comprehensive in all the mechanics I wanted to include, many details were still left open as they would require deeper consideration and/or testing than the allotted time could fit back then.

So the obvious thing to do when going back to it was to explore those, and for that I picked the classic Toa Mata as a case study. Behold their glorious forms:

As a quick recap to what there’s to see on Virtues cards: The white frame color on all of these indicates they’re Beings, the active entities akin to monsters, creatures, minions, and so on. The “DUTY 4” in the top right corner is their Duty Cost, the number of cards in your Duty Area you have to turn in order to play (formally, “Assemble”) them. The line below that holds a list of groups, as well as an element, which are classifications used by card effects. Then below the image, the text box contains effects – nicely numbered and structured, but written in full sentences so that reading the card explains the card. Finally, the little box at the bottom contains Attack and Defense values, indicating how much damage a Being can deal and take, respectively.

There are some slight visual improvements here compared to the sample cards from two years ago – the Element moved to the right side so there isn’t an awkward gap on non-elemental cards, the image now takes the whole width of the card, the font size in the text box increased slightly, and the stats at the bottom are centered and labeled with their proper names for clarity.

The new versions of the Toa Mata you see above in this style were made while trying to find answers to all the open questions from last time. Let’s go over them by category.

Duty Costs

The general outline of the “Duty” resource system is that you place cards from your hand in a special Duty Area and then rotate them to pay the costs of other cards. At the start of the next turn, those cards recover so you can pay with them again, establishing a ramp that makes more expensive cards available the longer the game goes. Sounds simple enough, but there were several crucial details I was still pretty fuzzy on.

How many cards can you place in your Duty Area per turn? Part of me wanted this to be unlimited, so the level to which you trade card advantage for speed can be up to the individual, but it’s easy to foresee a scenario where simply dumping almost your whole hand into Duty right at the start and then getting to play powerful bosses every turn would be difficult to beat for more conservative strategies. My current, still rather experimental idea, to solve this would be: At the start of your turn, you get to place as many cards as you want from your hand in the Duty Area. However, the number of used Duty that recovers each turn is capped at how many cards the opponent has in their Duty Area. So if both players want to have a big chungus slugfest, they’re free to do that, but if one of them wants to take it slower, that approach automatically forces the game into a more manageable pace. Maybe this works as intended, maybe it has horrible unforeseen consequences, maybe it’s too complicated to keep track of – whatever the case, there’s always the fallback of just hard capping Duty/turn to 1, much like any card game with a resource system does.

Should there be a soft deck building restriction associated with resources? A standard example would be the mana colors in magic, and I did originally have one in mind where you can only play cards that share at least one group or element with something in your Duty Area, but quickly dropped it because it didn’t seem to work the way it should. Thinking back, however, the main reason was that non-elemental cards – which includes most generic things – have a hard time finding matches, so that should be fixable by just limiting the rule to cards that have an element. Feels a bit arbitrary, but worth trying I’d say. If it’s no good, that just means element/group cohesion has to be achieved on the level of effects, like the Toa Mata already do with their passive cost reduction effects (adapted from their YGO incarnations’ Tribute-from-hand clauses).

Turn Structure

As briefly touched on, there’s a specific step at the start of the turn where you set up the Duty Area, but actually I have more generally de- and revised the structure of a whole turn.

  1. Start Phase: The following things happen in order.
    1. The turn player draws 1 card.
    2. The turn player puts as many Idle cards in their Duty Area as possible On Duty, but no more than the number of cards in their opponent’s Duty Area.
    3. The turn player can place any number of cards from their hand On Duty.
    4. All Ready cards in the turn player’s Unity Area return to the Destiny Area.
    5. Anything that should happen at the start of the turn according to effects.
    6. Proceed to the Main Phase.
  2. Main Phase: The turn player can perform any of these actions.
    • Assemble a card from the hand by paying its Duty Cost.
    • Assemble a card from the Unity Deck by moving the materials from the Destiny Area to the Unity Area.
    • Assemble a card from the hand or Deck by sending its listed Destiny Material from the Destiny Area to the Grave.
    • Equip an equippable Item in the Destiny Area to a Being.
    • Use applicable [ Active ] or [ Quick ] effects of their cards.
    • Declare an attack with a Being in the Destiny Area.
    • Proceed to the End Phase.
  3. End Phase: The following things happen in order.
    1. Anything that should happen at the end of the turn according to effects.
    2. All damage is removed from Beings and Items.
    3. The turn player discards until their hand size is 6 or less.

“But wait”, the astute reader may note. “Where do Trigger effects go?”

Everywhere. Trigger effects go everywhere. Essentially, any time an action is performed as described above, it causes a State Check (name pending) in which the following happens:

  • If a player’s Life is 0, they lose the game (this ends both the game and the State Check).
  • If a Being or Item in the Destiny Area has 0 Defense after factoring in all modifiers and damage, it is destroyed.
  • If multiple equips are in conflict, all but the most recently equipped one are destroyed.
  • Any modifications due to [ Passive ] effects are refreshed according to the latest state of the game.
  • If anything whatsoever changed during this State Check, perform another State Check.

And once that is done, both players get to declare any [ Trigger ] effects that met their condition at any point since the previous opportunity to do so – we have no such thing as missing the timing here, because why does any game even have that. As already decided in the earlier draft, multiple simultaneous effects activated here form a Chain, with the turn player’s coming first and the order being otherwise freely decided by the activating player.

And after that, Chain Building starts. The players alternately get a chance to append an applicable [ Quick ] or [ Chain ]* effect to the Chain, then once they both have nothing more to add, it all resolves backwards in one unstoppable sequence.

Oh yeah, and every time an effect is chained or resolves, there’s another State Check (this one not followed by Triggers). Or maybe not, we could also move that to only the end of resolution so a card/player can die mid-Chain and still be saved by a recovery effect that resolves immediately afterwards … another case of two viable options that would need to be tested for their exact implications.

I know this might be a bit late to realize this, but man, how is there a whole fucking minigame every time anyone does anything? CCGs are hell.

*Examples for [ Chain ] effects among the Toa are Gali, who responds to effects in general with targeted negation, and Lewa, who responds specifically to Actions (broadly the Virtues equivalent of Spells/Traps) with a bounce that can be either removal or a way to dodge something dangerous. The latter is a big change in trigger condition relative to the YGO Lewa design, because I suspect Le-Koro’s playstyle of spamming Special Summons would be hard to keep intact in a game driven by a resource system.

Battle

Since some form of battling between cards tends to be a central mechanic in these games, there’s a good argument to be made that you can’t reasonably start designing anything before you’ve settled on how the system for that works. As I am a deeply unreasonable person, this did not stop me from leaving a bunch of questions open about exactly this topic the last time we were here. Let’s do something about that.

The general outline of how battles should work was at least already established: Beings have Attack and Defense, Items have only Defense. A Being can attack another Being or an Item, any Being in that battle inflicts damage equal to its Attack to the other combatant’s Defense, and if anyone’s Defense hits 0 the card in question is destroyed.

Now when it comes to damage, how persistent should it be? My initial thought was “completely”, making Defense act as a little per-card health bar with all the cool narrative implications that holds. But keeping track of that seems a bit annoying as hell in a physical game – hence why it’s usually found in digital-first games like Hearthstone and Shadowverse. While I have no idea in what format Virtues is meant to be played, if it is ever meant to be played at all, it’s probably good not to close off options with fundamental design elements, so I settled on resetting accumulated damage at the end of each turn, which should keep the book-keeping from escalating too much. Another option would have been to make Defense simply represent how much attack you need to hit a target with in a single battle to beat it, but then making your little guys team up would only be possible if we had an MtG-type n:m battle system with multiple attackers and blockers going at it simultaneously, and I’m personally not very fond of how that plays.

Also regarding the management of damage, one important insight I had while brainstorming card effects is that “damage” and “Defense modifiers” should be two distinct concepts. That is, imagine damage not as a direct change to the Defense stat, but a separately tracked value per card that is used in the computation of the current Defense (= Base Defense +/- modifiers – damage). That allows the end-of-turn recovery to work smoothly even if there are lingering modifiers, lets card effects (e.g. Gali) say things such as “recover X damage”, and gives non-damage Defense reductions a role equivalent to reducing maximum HP, since by the formula you can’t heal past (Base Defense +/- modifiers) through merely removing damage. Incidentally, as can be seen on Tahu and Pohatu in our examples, damage can also be dealt by effects, in which case it simply adds to that same counter with nothing special to consider.

Okay, that’s how we do damage to cards, what about the players? Ostensibly, and largely for lack of better ideas, the way to win the game is to reduce someone’s Life to 0, so there needs to be some way to deal damage in that direction. The simplest case is attacking into an empty field, in which case you do a direct attack that makes your opponent lose Life equal to your Being’s Attack – having this is probably essential to properly incentivize playing Beings and Items to defend yourself. But should there also be player damage when two cards battle? My current leaning yes, specifically by having the excess damage from “overkilling” a target pass on to the player (so if you hit 4 Defense with 6 Attack, that’s 2 damage to the player). Alternatively, it could be a fixed amount of damage equal to the destroyed card’s cost value, to reward taking down bigger targets, but I’m not sure how that would work with Unity cards that don’t have a numeric cost. Anyway, both sound worth trying and testing in the event of further development.

To give all the numbers some grounding, we should probably establish a specific Life total, and for this I’ve decided on 36, a nice round number in base 6. Accordingly, I’ve scaled the stats of Beings so that the average Toa has around 6 Attack and the combined attacks of a standard team are approximately lethal. Comparing this to the numbers from Yugioh, it’s like if Toa were in the 1000-1500 ATK range, which is substantially smaller than my 2000+ ATK designs, so it’s probably a good thing the mechanics include plenty of damage being dealt from non-direct attacks. Or we might have to give up on some of the base 6 beauty, another question for practical testing.

There’s also the question of summoning sickness, i.e., should Beings be able to attack the same turn they hit the field? Many games don’t allow this, but my approach would be to make it legal and just keep the restriction in reserve as a balancing measure depending on how things work in practice. If we did have it, I’d probably also introduce a concept of position in the Destiny Area, where Beings that can’t attack are simply indicated by being turned sideways.

So, in summary, the battles work like this:

  1. During a player’s Main Phase, they can declare an attack with any of their Beings in the Destiny Area against an opponent’s Being or Item in the Destiny Area, or directly against the opponent if there are no other targets. The two entities involved are now formally considered combatants, one the attacker and the other the defender.
  2. At this timing, a State Check occurs, and this is also where any triggers that want something to “attack” or “battle” would fire.
  3. Any combatant with an Attack stat (= Beings) inflicts that much damage to the other. In the case of cards, that means increasing the accumulated damage that is subtracted from their Defense, and in the case of players it’s simply subtracted from their Life.
  4. At this timing, another State Check occurs, and triggers that revolve around damage being dealt fire (note that, due to the preceding State Check, any lethally damaged combatants will already be destroyed at this point!).
  5. The battle ends, and the statuses of combatants, attacker, and defender are lost.

What’s not mentioned here is the “overkill” damage dealt to players, because I’m thinking about having that be an inherent part of Defense-based destruction, so it would also happen when something is (more than) lethally damaged outside of battle by effects. Alternatively it would simply be an extra thing to take care of in Step 3 above.

Notably, while there is some manner of “damage step”, I’m not currently planning on imposing any restrictions on what can be activated during that part of the game. That means in particular that both Onua and Kopaka can apply their triggers if something is destroyed as a result of battle – may or may not have balancing implications.

What remains open

Given that time was fairly limited, I didn’t quite manage to get to everything I wanted to tackle for this revisit of Virtues. There’s a whole spreadsheet of card designs that I couldn’t finish to the point of having an image to post, and in the back of my mind I’ve also been strongly reconsidering a slight redesign of the field (moving the Duty Area to the bottom edge and the Unity Area to the left edge above the Unity Deck). Meanwhile on the card text side, I’ve been wondering if it might be good to introduce a separate quick effect marker that can be applied to [ Active ] and [ Action ] effects, so there are fewer fully distinct categories to keep track off.

I guess those will have to wait for round 3 and/or the intellectual property apocalypse.

#3: Bohrok in DE/JP/MA

In 2023, the “Polyglot Edition” delievered translations of the basic Ga-Koro cards (because those include the Kanohi Rau, obviously) into every language in which I consider myself capable of assembling a card text: German, Japanese, and the Matoric conlang crafted from Bionicle terminology by word wizard outofgloom.

For our second time on this rodeo, the Bohrok seemed like a good candidate – overall nice, simple, and uniform, but featuring some structural components that weren’t touched on by the last round of translations.

For the sake of completeness, I’ve supplied download links for each translation, but the advancement of technology has rendered them kind of impractical: If you have the expansion installed via repository, as is the recommended method nowadays, the English cards provided that way will simply override the translations without leaving any trace. The only way to see them is to turn off the repository or use a whole separate install of EDOPro.

German

Tahnok

Bohrok Tahnok

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Machine | ATK 1600 / DEF 1700

FLIPP: Beschwöre 1 “Bohrok”-Monster der Stufe 4 von deinem Deck als Spezialbeschwörung in die verdeckte Verteidigungsposition, außer “Bohrok Tahnok”.
(Schnelleffekt): Du kannst diese Karte ins Deck mischen, und dann 1 offenes Monster wählen, das dein Gegner kontrolliert; zerstöre jenes gewählte Ziel.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)
Gahlok
Nuhvok
Pahrak
Korahk
Lehvak
Beware

Download

There’s not too much to say here, the process was the exact same as for the previous batch. One new thing I learned, or at least consciously noticed for the first time, is that German PSCT translates the “then” in “, then target” as “und dann”, while usually it’s only “dann”. Fascinating.

Japanese

Tahnok
Gahlok
Nuhvok
Pahrak
Korahk
Lehvak
Beware

群れに注意

Spell

このカード名のカードは１ターンに１枚しか発動できない ①：デッキから「ボロック」カード１枚を手札に加える。それがモンスターだった場合、自分の墓地からそのモンスターのレベル以外のレベルを持つ「ボロック」モンスター１体を手札に加える事ができる。その後、手札を１枚選んでデッキに戻す。

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Download

Business as usual over here as well, just stitching together appropriate phrases from the card database. And of course the beautifully elegant OCG format with its numbered effects; observe how it makes visible that Pahrak is actually the only Bohrok with 3 effects, technically.

I did face a slight bit of frustration with these when Magic Set Editor decided the already translated bottom halves of Gahlok and Nuhvok were garbage data that needed to be deleted with no backup, and another when it turned out my 2023 jury-rigging of ygopic to generate Japanese card images was based on an older version of the program and no longer compatible. Luckily there was time to resolve those problems since I ran into them a whole two days before the deadline.

Also something funny about the spelling of the names – I took the individual Bohrok’s names from Lego’s official building instructions download site for Japan, but for the Pahrak specifically it’s actually inconsistent because they spell its Kal version with a soft バ, as in “Bahrak”. I assume that’s a typo, though the odd spelling of Kohrak as “Koowakku” actually is consistent. The word “Bohrok” itself wasn’t so easy to find a primary source for, I ended up just basing it on what’s written on fan sites, same for “群れ” being the correct terminology for this particular swarm.

Matoric

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Last but certainly not least, the translation that requires the most brain juice on account of not having any established concept of PSCT. I figured this wouldn’t be too difficult this time since I could just reference my notes from Ga-Koro … but it turns out those are nowhere to be found, so I had to re-engineer it based on the luckily extensive explanations in the 2023 post instead. See, the public walls of text DO serve a purpose!

The usual disclaimer: This ostensibly “Matoric” translation is technically its own dialect, in which I deliberately retain PSCT layout and punctuation and also make a bunch of more or less educated guesses on vocabulary and more involved grammatical constructions.

Alright, on to those pellets.

Bohrok Tahnok

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Machine | ATK 1600 / DEF 1700

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Tahnok” va) za fe-idoya.
(Kah-Akiro): O’o uka paro’o-sapo za sapuru ko kelika ya, ihu-manas ya-rupu borau-za 1 aro ya ka vo; oto’u-aro za ikhya.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

One shared component between all Bohrok is the type line, which contains two new words to translate: “Machine”, which thankfully has an official dictionary entry as akka, and “Flip”, which is … surprisingly tricky.

In essence, the word refers to both a specific motion and the more general idea of something having opposing sides, all things which tend to be handled with affixal markers in the available language references. So isolating a standalone word for the concept itself needs a bit of spitballing, which in this case brought me to rohai, a combination of the marker -ro for “in front” and -hai for “behind”, aiming to express something like “back of front”. The reason I choose -ro to be abused as a prefix is because it’s also homonymous with ro simply meaning “item”, so you can have an alternate reading of “back of an item”, which still points in the right direction. Another important factor is that this is a nice, crisp combination that rolls off the tongue well, much like the original “Flip”.

With that figured out, we also have the first word of the shared Flip Effect covered, so that only leaves the rest. “Special Summon […] from your Deck” is a familiar structure with an easy enough translation:

At sapuru’u a […] za fe-idoya

With sapuru’u being “your Deck”, fe-idoya being the imperative (it’s mandatory!) of an “unusual being-calling” or “Special Summon”, and at_a the marker for “originating” from. Now we just need to fill in the rest:

  • 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster – a simple chain of adjective-ish words, translated individually and flipped around for suffix modification: manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1.
  • in face-down Defense Position – we previously had ka hau a, “oriented towards defense”, to indicated that a Special Summon goes into Defense Position, so to further make that face-down or “downward”, just add another modifier and make ka iru-hau a.
  • except “Bohrok Tahnok” – here it makes sense for readability to apply a slight restructuring previously used on Gali, and put a (“Bohrok Tahnok” va) right after the description of what you summon. That’s “other than Bohrok Tahnok” – not to be confused with the lesser Bohrok Tahnok or Bohrok Tahnok Va, of course.

And so, we arrive at a general translation of the Flip Effect that’s ready to use on all six of these Bohrok:

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok …” va) za fe-ido ya.

Neat. Now on to the Tahnok’s unique removal effect. Its most special trait is that it’s a Quick Effect, or kah-akiro, and it lets you target (aro ya) 1 face-up monster (ihu-manas) that your opponent controls (ya-rupu borau-za) and destroy (ikhya, as an imperative) that target (oto’u-aro). All familiar, or at least easy enough to derive from what we’ve seen before. Except there’s also the cost, “shuffle this card into the Deck” – how do you translate “shuffle”?

In a way it’s another of those card game terms like “card” and “deck”, but I think in this case we’re better served with a more general term expressing something like “to randomize”. Which is still not directly in the dictionary, just “randomness” as one meaning of rahi … but I’d rather not have the name of one of the largest archetypes double as game terminology. Luckily, there’s also an entry kelika, for “branching futures” or simply “chaos”, so if we use that as a verb and apply an appropriate direction marker, we get sapuru ko kelika ya, “chaos-ify forward into the Deck”, or simply “shuffle into the Deck”. Voilà!

Bohrok Gahlok

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | WATER Machine | ATK 1700 / DEF 1600

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Gahlok” va) za fe-idoya.
On agiro u takaro: Uka akiro ai-aka ve sapo rupu ai-bakuala hu ai-atu u za lutu ya vo. E’e agiro yanu-paro’o-akiro za lutu ai-End Phase po ai, paro’o-ihu-sapo za sapuru ko kelikya ke.
●Manas: Sapo ya-rupu borau-za 1 aroya; oto’u-aro za ikhya.
●Doka: Paro’o-agiro ai-oko po ihu-manas ya-rupu borau-za 1 ai-akiro za rya.
●Ilhura: End Phase ko at rupu ai-arnoro a rahi-sapo 1 za khya.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.5.6)

The Gahlok, much like every Bohrok going forward, has the same Flip Effect that we can now immediately skip over to get to the other part. In this case, it’s a modular effect, so there’s a lot to translate.

The first hurdle is the disambiguation itself, which tells you to activate (lutu ya) a certain effect (akiro). The way I figured makes most sense to describe what decides that effect is with a complex modifier on the word “effect”, specifically one derived from the sentence ve sapo rupu ai-bakuala hu ai-atu u akiro ta ai (lit. “the effect extends from the type of the card on top of the opponent’s GY”, with the “extends from” marker ve_u being flexed into a metaphorical sense of “follows from”). That means the (here explicitly marked) subject akiro ta gets pulled forward and swapped for the placeholder aka, the equative sentence predicate ai attaches to it as a prefix, and the whole thing goes right after the akiro we seek to modify. And thus, “you can activate the effect that extends from the type of card on top of the opponent’s GY”. Close enough.

Before we get to the actual effects you can choose from, a slightly different self-shuffling cost that only applies in the End Phase of the turn sneaks its way in. We’ve covered the “shuffle” part, but translating “the turn you activated this effect” is another headache. I ended up fuzzing it a bit into “the turn related to this effect having been activated”, which should be agiro yanu-paro’o-akiro za lutu. A rare use of the past tense nu in these, here becoming a prefix together with the ya designating the verb. Also, in keeping with previous translations, the macro structure of the clause is slightly reworded from “During” to “If it is the End Phase […]”, by wrapping the whole thing in the sentence-level conditional e’e_ke.

Finally, the modes for Manas/Doka/Ilhura (Monster/Spell/Trap) are luckily quite simple. The first is just another targeted destruction (though now with an imperative aroya), the second combines the known mechanics of negation and “until the end of this turn” (paro’o-agoiro ai-oko po, lit. “during the future of this turn”), and the third banishes from a place “until” or “forward to” the End Phase (End Phase ko). A literal random card is involved here, so it’s hard to argue against following the dictionary and writing rahi-sapo in this case. Just don’t go banishing “Rahi” cards with this!

Bohrok Nuhvok

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

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Nuhvok” va) za fe-idoya.
On agiro u takaro: Uka sapo doka/ilhura nuala po 1 aro ya vo; oto’u-aro za ikhya, e apaia ka Standby Phase’u kova a vala’ai o doka ilhura na za iro ya voru ke. E’e agiro yanu-paro’o-akiro za lutu ai-End Phase po ai, paro’o-ihu-sapo za sapuru ko kelikya ke.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Three Bohrok in, we can now recycle both the Flip Effect and the delayed shuffling clause, leaving only a targeted removal effect. With a second half that’s a bit more difficult.

For the connective “and if you do”, we have a nice phrasing e apaia […] ke, meaning “if successful, […]”. Then, we need to block a “Spell & Trap Zone” until “your next Standby Phase”. The former becomes vala’ai o doka ilhura na, combining the established game terms with a basic o_na conjunction instead of the foreign “&”. The latter is Standby Phase’u kova, “your imminent Standby Phase” – there isn’t a literal “next” (except one meaning of the location marker ko, but I believe that needs another reference point relative to which something is the next element), so this seems to convey the meaning best. This is also another occurrence of the notoriously annoying “until”, now transformed to the direction marker ka_a. With iro (“work, “perform function”) as the verb, we achieve a literal meaning of “toward your imminent Standby Phase, its Spell & Trap Zone cannot function”.

Bohrok Pahrak

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | EARTH Machine | ATK 1900 / DEF 1400

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Pahrak” va) za fe-idoya.
E’e paro’o-sapo ta barra ya, ka Damage Step ai-fahi a ve rupu ai-akiro e iza u aro ikhi sa ya voru ke. E’e o’o Battle Phase ai-fahi po ai paro’o-sapo ta barra ya nu na: Uka sapo ya-rupu borau-za 1 aro ya vo ke; oto’u-aro za ikhya. E’e agiro yanu-paro’o-akiro za lutu ai-End Phase po ai, paro’o-ihu-sapo za sapuru ko kelikya ke.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

The Pahrak is again a bit special in that it has a continuous protection effect to supplement its battle-based removal. This is a conditional where the left side is simply “this card battles” (paro’o-sapo ta barra ya) and the right side makes some creative use of location markers: “toward the end of the Damage Step” (ka Damage Step ai-fahi a), “extending from the opponent’s effects” (ve rupu ai-akiro e), it cannot “be targeted or destroyed” (u aro ikhi sa ya).

Then the removal immediately makes use of ai-fahi for “end of” again, nested in the interesting configuration of a conditional whose left side is a conjunction (e’e o’o A B na C ke) – “if it is the end of the Battle Phase and this card battled”. And then it’s just another targeted destruction.

Bohrok Kohrak

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

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Kohrak” va) za fe-idoya.
E’e paro’o-agiro po paro’o-sapo ta vua ya nu ta cu: O’o uka paro’o-sapo za sapuru ko kelika ya, ihu-sapo ya-rupu borau-za 1 aro ya ka vo ke; oto’u-aro za khya.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Okay, I promise it gets simpler from here on. The only real novelty is the condition “If this card did not declare an attack this turn”, which introduces vua, the proper word for “attack”, and attaches a bunch of suffixes to give us vua ya nu ta cu, “did not begin to attack”.

Bohrok Lehvak

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | WIND Machine | ATK 1400 / DEF 1900

ROHAI: At sapuru’u a ka iru-hau a manas bahtu 4 “Bohrok” 1 (“Bohrok Lehvak” va) za fe-idoya.
E’e Main Phase 1’u po ai: Uka paro’o-sapo za sapuru ko kelika ya vo ke; sapo nuala po 1 za ikhya.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

And the last one has barely anything new to cover, with an activation condition of “If it is during your Main Phase 1”, a standard shuffle cost, and a non-targeting destruction of a card on the field.

Actually there’s one more, because I really wanted to translate the name:

Vah Rhapaya

Spell

At sapuru’u a arnoro’u ko sapo “Bohrok” 1 za ivoya. E’e o apaia iza manas ai na, o’o at bakuala’u a arnoro’u ko uka manas “Bohrok” 1 ya-aka ku-bahtu za ima te oto’u-manas za ivo ya, at arnoro’u a sapuru ko sapo 1 za kelika ya ka vo ke. On agiro u uka “Vah Rhapaya” za lutu 1 ko ya voru.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

“Vah Rhapaya”, AKA “Beware the Swarm”. Standard search spell, but its little bonus clause that would be used to grab matching pairs of Bohrok and Bohrok Va involves some heavier nesting of structural markers.

  • E’e A, B ke = “If A, then B”
  • A = o apaia iza manas ai na = “success, and it is a monster” (so on the left side of the conditional, it’s essentially “if you do, and it is a monster”)
  • B = o’o C, D ka vo = “possibility of (C, then D, in sequence)”; the order of ka and vo is relevant here to indicate your options are either doing “C then D” or nothing at all.
  • C = at bakuala’u a arnoro’u ko uka manas “Bohrok” 1 ya-aka ku-bahtu za ima te oto’u manas za ivo ya = “you move 1 “Bohrok” monster that has a different Level relative to that monster from your GY to your hand” … luckily Nokama from last time already had a (admittedly kind of convoluted) wording figured out for the “different from” restriction
  • D = at arnoro’u a sapuru ko sapo 1 za kelika ya = “shuffle 1 card from your hand into the Deck”

Now you know, and always remember: vah rhapaya!

Overall Conclusion

If there’s one thing to take away from all this, it might just be that when you don’t hear anything from me for a while, it’s probably because I’m doing something very stupid and can no longer be stopped or reasoned with.

Speaking of which, where did I put that Rahi Overlord rulebook…

Bohrok Invasion: A Dungeon Duel Monsters Campaign

Today, I bring a special “release” of something I’ve been tinkering with on the side for a good while now. Using selected custom cards from this expansion, Bohrok Invasion offers a 2-player experience of the conflict between the Toa Mata and the Bohrok, reaching all the way to Nuva and Kal.

Powering all this on a technical level is, of course, Dungeon Duel Monsters, the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! roguelike platform developed by Mika. Check their homepage for more information, how to download the actual program, and a link to the Discord server where you’ll find many user-made campaigns including this one!

Now, it’s an open secret that I like to ramble about the thought process and all the various considerations during development when presenting something new, so let’s get straight to that.

Campaign Storyboard

The basic idea I set out to implement went like this: One player chooses to play as the Toa, the other as the Bohrok. They each go through three areas to collect cards and build their decks, first with the core of each archetype, then adding sub-engines and optional boss monsters, and finally upgrading to the Nuva and Kal. At the end of each area, they meet for a duel, summing up to a best-of-three match that decides the winner of the run. All this is, of course, accompanied by a brief retelling of the relevant lore to give it some flavor.

One interesting feature of DDM is the ability to choose between different paths as you advance through the “dungeon”, so I wanted to use that to make various build options of the decks available. In the end, this came out to the following:

  • Toa Area 1: Kanohi-centric, Kaita-centric, or paired with a package of Insect Rahi (they have a good Attribute spread).
  • Bohrok Area 1: L4 Bohrok-centric (+ generic Xyzs), Krana-centric (including Swarm Servants), or Va-centric (+ generic Synchros).
  • Toa Area 2: Add a Boxor package or an Exo-Toa package.
  • Bohrok Area 2: Add a Bahrag package or a Bohrok Kaita package.
  • Toa Area 3: Upgrade to Toa Nuva.
  • Bohrok Area 3: Upgrade to Bohrok-Kal.

So the paths spread out in the beginning, then narrow down in the subsequent stages, which I figured would give better replay value since you get the most possibility to switch things up for a new run right at the start. Each player has 3×2 = 6 ways to go through the campaign without even factoring in card choices and deckbuilding, so there’s something to be had from doing it more than once.

This attempt at variety of course led to greater difficulty with the part I quickly found to be the hardest of all …

Balancing

The Fundamental Problem

Generally, what I do in this project is make custom archetypes for offline use against the various AIs included in EDOPro, with a focus on interesting lore-based designs that function well in that environment. While that sometimes implies specific interactions between cards from two of those archetypes, they are not actually designed, tested, or balanced to play against each other in any way. (I believe the only time I did go in that direction so far was when I briefly played with AI scripting during the Percy days.)

So, when you build a competent Toa Mata deck and a competent Bohrok deck, there is no reason to assume these in-universe opponents would be evenly matched on the dueling field. Worse yet, there is no guarantee they would interact with each other in a way that is even fun.

Let me illustrate this with one of the earliest standout examples I noticed: You know how all the Bohrok have a mandatory Flip Effect to Special Summon another one from the Deck face-down?

Bohrok Lehvak

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | WIND Machine | ATK 1400 / DEF 1900

FLIP: Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your Deck in face-down Defense Position, except “Bohrok Lehvak”.
During your Main Phase 1: You can shuffle this card into the Deck; destroy 1 card on the field.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

You know how there’s a Kanohi that gives the power to attack every monster your opponent controls, including any new ones that show up during the Battle Phase?

Great Kanohi Kakama

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 can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. If this card is sent to the GY: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; add 1 “Toa Mata Pohatu” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Great Kanohi Kakama” once per turn.

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Yeah, so when the latter meets the former, not only is the Bohrok deck suddenly out of monsters, resolving the whole thing is also torture for everyone involved since every single Bohrok needs to separately come out of the Deck, get flipped face-up, die, and repeat. On a manual simulator, because that’s what DDM uses.

To summarize the issue briefly, the Toa have access to certain cards that completely shit on the Bohrok’s Flip-based strategy with very little in the way of interactive counterplay. Conversely, if they fail to have those cards, there’s really very little they can do against the threatening board of one (1) face-down Bohrok other than attack into it and get snowballed to death by the thus awakened swarm.

Both of these are extremely frustrating patterns of gameplay that need to be counteracted if anyone is to actually enjoy this campaign, so several measures were taken to that end.

Card Pool

The most unintrusive tool available is the specific lineup of cards that is actually given to players. On the one hand, it can be used to mitigate a general power imbalance by giving better pull ratios and generic tools to the weaker side, and on the other it can be used to hand out – or withhold – cards that enable particular interactions.

What isn’t actually on the table here is simply leaving out the Kakama or Lewa (who can easily bounce face-down Bohrok to keep the engine from starting indefinitely), since that would leave things incomplete and the Toa do need their outs to stand a chance. Instead, I decided to add some helpful generic options so the games don’t center on randomly drawing those few natively available interactions as much, while in turn providing the Bohrok with means to recover from the counters to their basic strategy or even prevent them.

For the Toa, this means choice Tribute fodder in the form of Lhii (whose hand effect can shut down a single Bohrok), Nixie (who can dump a Kanohi for a search if Tributed early), and Green Ninja (who can force a Bohrok Flip Effect to trigger in the Main Phase right into that Lewa you just Tribute Summoned; also Ninjago crossover). They also get boss monsters like the Kuma-Nui on the Rahi path or Gauntlet Launcher on the Kaita path that serve as effective removal in exchange for some resource investment. And thanks to how beautifully the Levels add up, they can use Revolution Synchron into Power Tool Braver Dragon to throw a bunch of Kanohi in the GY all at once. Fun!

Kuma-Nui, Rat Rahi

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

The Bohrok, meanwhile, don’t need as much help to put up a fight against the Toa, since their core engine comes with great consistency and removal tools that still hold up perfectly fine in this format. What they lack are good counters to killer plays like the Kakama outlined above, access to disruption that doesn’t rely on resolving a Flip effect first, and a way to beat big monsters while maintaining board presence early on. The one thing I found to address the first point is Tindangle Angel, which brings back a Bohrok and then conveniently ends the Battle Phase so it can’t get run over again. For the second, Red Wyvern and Hot Rod GT19 provide options that feel appropriate for the power level (okay, I’ll admit the latter is more here because it’s really funny). These also help with point three, as do Silent Honor ARK and Crazy Box (no wait, that one’s for the lulz too).

Finally, area 2 lets each player pick one of three generic power cards, which were also selected specifically to cover these known weaknesses should you happen to draw them – from Nobleman of Crossout for the Toa to Daruma Karma Cannon for the Bohrok.

Design Tweaks

Since there was a limit to what I could give the Bohrok in generic cards without making them feel absolutely unbeatable when things went in their favor, I next made targeted adjustments to effects that were responsible for the annoying Kakama thing in particular. Most significantly, the mandatory Flip Effects were turned optional, letting you cut the assault short whenever you wish, but also the Krana Ca’s battle protection was upgraded to work once for each monster and not just the very first one attacked. This change will probably make it into the main expansion by the next version, because there’s honestly no reason to have the card be as restricted as it is. I actually assumed I was misreading it for a good while before I re-checked what the script was doing!

Boons

As the final and greatest measure, I ended up including a pair of wholly new cards making use of one of DDM’s special features: the so-called Boons, Spells and Traps that can be activated directly from the Extra Deck when their activation conditions are met. Think of them as kind of like Duel Links Skills, at least that’s approximately the application in this case.

For the Toa, the problem to fix was how much you had to rely on random chance to even see the particular Kanohi or Toa you would need to crack a given board. So their Spell Boon, Heroes Assembled, takes the form of a simple searcher flavored by utilizing the mentions of specific Toa Mata on the six Great Kanohi. One thing I wanted to make really sure of is that you don’t always default to using this, but just when really needed – so on top of requiring you to have fewer monsters, it’s also a -1 in card advantage (though you can make it neutral by triggering a discarded Kanohi’s search effect, as is expected). Technically you only get one copy of the Boon, but if so inclined I know a guy who can recover it …

Since with this it’s basically guaranteed the Bohrok setup will be contested by something, they have the Trap Boon Queen’s Gambit at their disposal for equally reliable access to counterplay. Whenever your opponent’s effect removes your Bohrok from the field, and you now have fewer monsters (to keep it from being used for squashing a comeback from the losing player), you get to respond with a search or your own removal effect – and if you Tribute a monster as well, you can either do both of these things, or do one of them and return the Boon to the Extra Deck to use it again later. I got a bit cute with the mechanics on this one, so yes, you can also activate it just to put it back. Do what thou wilt.

Combined, these Boons establish a more solid framework for the interplay between the two decks: The Bohrok player will attempt their setup, and the Toa player will find an out to it. The Bohrok player will neutralize that particular threat, forcing the Toa player to try a different angle. This keeps both players moving with an active role in the game, unlike the otherwise possible scenarios of “Toa fail to out face-down Bohrok and get stomped” or “Bohrok have no response to getting outed and get stomped”.

Conclusion

So, to summarize my main takeaway from this experiment … boy is balancing these decks against each other hard. No wonder I usually don’t do it. But being able to observe how they fare in that kind of environment is some interesting data, and might inspire some improvements in future updates that I would otherwise not have thought of.

And of course, having the whole thing set up as a campaign with different choices and little lore sequences scattered throughout is just a whole load of fun in its own right. As a first attempt, this one was meant to be unambitious in concept (even if it still ended up taking a lot of work), but I already have a far more unhinged followup in mind for when BMOL is finished …

Hope you guys like MNOG2 🙂

Deck Idea: Bohrok + Enneacraft

But this time, the idea isn’t mine: YouTube commenter @EditKingNumber5 astutely observed that there might be some synergy between Bohrok and the newly released Enneacraft archetype, both being Machine-Type Flip Monsters that Special Summon in face-down Defense Position.

So once I had an opportunity to slot in a little side task, I looked into that and cooked up an Enneacraft variant using the Bohrok as basically a self-recycling and self-replacing removal package.

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=19104335

The design of Enneacraft itself is such that it’s very hard to make a lot of room for other things in the deck, so I ended up including just the three Bohrok that instantly shuffle themselves back for their effects, at one copy each – there isn’t much benefit to be gained from keeping bodies on the field since we’re basically always locked out of face-up Special Summons. To ensure somewhat consistent access, triple Beware the Swarm is a must, while Bohrok Invasion is a more optional tech that gives us a way to get the engine back online if a Bohrok lands in the GY. Another one I considered for a bit was Bohrok Counterattack just as a general negation backrow, but the fact that it needs a Krana somewhere and is dead as soon as you flip an Enneacraft makes it impractical.

Due to the aforementioned lock, the Extra Deck also consists entirely of things that we could theoretically make in some scenario but probably won’t, including the special spice of Nuhvok-Kal and Kohrak-Kal to broaden our removal options if two Bohrok ever stick around at the same time. Don’t count on it.

A quick test match against the AI proved reasonably successful:

The Bohrok cards actually came up more consistently than I would have expected, probably due to the Enneacraft searches thinning the deck a lot, making it that much more likely to find one of our 6 hits. Of course, if you weren’t playing Bohrok that would instead apply to generic power cards, so who knows if this really is a worthwhile way to build the deck. In any case, it activates the plastic crack neurons, and that’s all we’re here for anyway.

Theme Guide: Bohrok-Kal

Where there are heroes, there must also be … misunderstood cleanup professionals just trying to get their job back on schedule. Now, the time has come to awaken the Bahrag and unleash the swarms once more!

The Bohrok-Kal

A team of six elite Bohrok, to be activated in the event that the regular operations of the Bohrok swarms face a critical obstacle such as having their commanding queens sealed away.

Far more advanced than their regular brethren in both powers and intelligence, they have been realized as a suite of Rank 4 Xyz Boss monsters for the archetype here. Shared between all of them are two special features: The ability to attach “Krana” monsters from hand/field/GY as additional material, and the fact that their detached materials return to the Deck (which keeps you from re-attaching the same Krana and plays into the general Bohrok resource loop).

Tahnok-Kal

Bohrok Tahnok-Kal

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

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; it cannot attack or activate its effects this turn, also you can detach 1 material from this card, and if you do, destroy all monsters your opponent controls with less than 2000 ATK. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Tahnok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The lightning powers of Tahnok-Kal manifest at two levels: The “stun” setting that was mostly used in the story so things don’t get too violent for Lego, and the straight-up Raigeki thunderbolt it should theoretically also be capable of. Not quite Raigeki, though – any monsters at 2000 ATK and above, such as all the Toa, will survive this quick effect boardwipe.

Gahlok-Kal

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; it cannot attack until the end of your turn, then you can equip 1 monster adjacent to it or in its column to it. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Gahlok-Kal uses its magnetism to make foes stick to the ground (preventing them from attacking) or to each other (acting as non-targeting removal given sufficient proximity). Since this happens at the start of either Battle Phase, it can be fun to have people (and/or AIs) run into it due to careless zone placement.

Nuhvok-Kal

Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | EARTH Machine | ATK 2000 / DEF 2300

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. You can detach 2 or more materials from this card, then choose that many Main Monster Zones and/or Spell & Trap Zones; return as many cards in those zones to the hand as possible, also any of those zones that are unused after that cannot be used until your next Standby Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Nuhvok-Kal gets a bit fancy with the mechanics, applying its gravity powers to both “float” cards off the field back to the hand and to “crush” the zones they were in into an unusable state. Since you pick the zones rather than the cards, this is essentially non-targeting mass removal.

Pahrak-Kal

Bohrok Pahrak-Kal

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

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles: You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish all cards they control in its column. Then, if this effect banished exactly 1 card, inflict 1200 damage to your opponent. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Pahrak-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

When Pahrak-Kal fires its plasma, it does so in the straight line of a column, obliterating everything in its path and burning the opponent behind it if not met with sufficient resistance. Being an upgrade of the battle-focused Pahrak , this happens in the Damage Step, so response options are limited.

Kohrak-Kal

Bohrok Kohrak-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | WATER Machine | ATK 2300 / DEF 2000

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can detach 2 materials from this card; change all other face-up monsters on the field to Defense Position, also negate their effects until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

What Kohrak-Kal does is stun everything around – friend or foe – with a sudden massive blast of noise, negating their effects and switching them to Defense Position. Which, it just so happens, provides a pretty decent setup for some Zeus action as well.

Lehvak-Kal

Bohrok Lehvak-Kal

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Lehvak-Kal twists the formula a bit by replacing the standard Krana-attaching effect with a more broad Quick Effect that can also steal stuff from the opponent’s GY. This is the “suck” component of its vacuum powers, with the “blow” coming into play once it has (usually over the course of several turns) gathered enough material to unleash it all in a destructive blast. In short, this one both sucks and blows, which paradoxically makes it pretty good.

And in case even this elite squad isn’t enough, they also possess the ability to combine into Kaita, either the usual way by Bohrok Swarm Fusion or more easily throug a contact fusion procedure (since getting the materials in the first place is already hard enough).

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Za

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Kaita Za primarily deals with monsters that would resist our effect-based removal attempts, by simply getting big and hitting over them. It also gains multiple attacks (on monsters) when doing so, granting it board-clearing and game-ending capabilities depending on the situation.

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Kaita Ja, bearing the glorious mantle of “has appeared in the story”, serves as a thing you can theoretically build up to in the face of big negation boards. Since its brand of Quick Effect removal cannot be responded to, it can simply grab a problematic monster without giving it a chance to defend itself, and then do that again every turn as long as you have enough Bohrok to banish. In terms of lore, this usage tracks with its victory over Wairuha Nuva , who is, wouldn’t you know it, a boss monster that negates.

What both of those have in common is the second effect, which tries to offset the big material investment by floating into a regular Bohrok-Kal and kindly attaching itself as material. By doing that, it’s also in a position to go to the GY and trigger again next turn, so if you get to the point where you can make these Fusions, they actually have a stealth benefit of infinite revival baked in.

And another thing of note is that, due to requiring specifically named materials, the Kal Kaita are in fact still compatible with the material replacement effect of Premature Bohrok Beacon … if you’re not making them by Contact Fusion, that is. One good reason to actually run the Fusion Spell even with these.

The Krana-Kal

To walk back the earlier staement about the intelligence of the Bohrok-Kal a bit, technically that part belongs to the Krana-Kal who pilot those mechanical shells. Their 8 variations are just enough to make one round trip of all the Link Arrows, so they’re implemented as a bunch of Link-1 monsters with two effects each: One for utility, based on the direction of the arrow (Down: Xyz Summon with a single Bohrok / Up: Battle debuff for opponent’s monsters / Side: tag out into a Bohrok from hand or GY), and one granted to a Bohrok-Kal that attaches it, representing the unique special power of that Krana-Kal.

Xa-Kal

Krana Xa-Kal, Liberator

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▼] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can place up to 2 of your banished “Bahrag” Pendulum Monsters in your Pendulum Zone(s), then you can add 1 “As It Was in the Before-Time” from your Deck or GY to your hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Xa-Kal carries the crucial task of awakening the Bahrag once contact is made, thus fulfilling the mission. In game terms, “making contact” here means dealing damage, and “awakening the Bahrag” means getting them out of their banished state (where they were put by, say, a Toa Seal ) back into the Pendulum Zone so that the swarms can proceed to make Mata Nui clean, As It Was In The Before-Time .

Za-Kal

Krana Za-Kal, Overseer

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↗] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a “Bohrok” card(s) you control (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

The Za-Kal handles telepathic communication and coordination, protecting the group by reading the minds of potential threats and countering them with a negate once they attempt to strike.

Vu-Kal

Krana Vu-Kal, Transporter

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↘] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can banish this card until the End Phase, and if you do, you can add 1 “Bohrok” card from your GY to your hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Vu-Kal holds speed and flight powers, mainly used to let its holder dodge away from the field. Doing so comes with the side benefit of recovering a Bohrok card from the GY, befitting its role as a “Transporter”.

Ca-Kal

Krana Ca-Kal, Seeker

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↙] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, by using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains these effects based on the number of “Bahrag” Monster Cards with different names in your field and banishment.
●1+: Cannot be destroyed by battle. ●2+: Once per turn: You can draw 1 card, then discard 1 card.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Where the Xa-Kal awakens the Bahrag, the telepathic link of the Ca-Kal is the key ingredient to finding them in the first place. This has been translated to benefits granted from the mere existence of banished Bahrag: Being in contact with just one already makes your Seeker Bohrok-Kal not fall in battle, and with two, you get to draw deeper into your deck to accelerate the quest.

Yo-Kal

Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↖] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●This card can attack directly, also if it attacks, your opponent cannot activate monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Yo-Kal grants the ability to tunnel through the earth and sense underground movement, making it excellent for suprise attacks. Specifically, it lets a Bohrok-Kal attack directly while simultaneously limiting responses during the Damage Step further, which has some obvious synergy with the pictured Pahrak-Kal.

Ja-Kal

Krana Ja-Kal, Tracker

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [◀] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn: You can declare 1 card name; until the end of your opponent’s turn, “Bohrok” cards and Set cards you control are unaffected by the effects of cards with that original name.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Ja-Kal’s job is to detect and track distant obstacles, so what it allows you to do is “sniff out” what your opponent may try to use against you in the future and render it ineffective in advance.

Su-Kal

Krana Su-Kal, Demolisher

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▲] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●This card gains 800 ATK/DEF and cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

The Su-Kal is simply a boost to power and thoughness, so it gives bonus stats and effect protection.

TBo-Kal

Krana Bo-Kal, Visionary

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▶] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but place it on the bottom of the Deck when it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn: You can look at all Set cards your opponent controls, also look at as many random cards in their hand as possible, up to the number of “Bohrok” monsters you control.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The Bo-Kal grants all kinds of vision through darkness and walls, and the private information of Set cards and hand is no exception. In order to not make looking at the hand too easy, it’s tied to how many Bohrok you have managed to put on the field, for which I engineered a novel “as many random cards as possible, up to” phrasing so you don’t have to go through an ingame dropdown where you’d always select the maximum anyway.

The Plan

We have the mecha-brawn and we have the bio-brains, so how do we proceed from here? First of all, we must set the scene. Gahdok and Cahdok have been sealed away, there is cleanup still to be done, and so the Bohrok-Kal arise to the sonorous sounds of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Enter Bohrok Kalifornication.

Bohrok Kalifornication

Continuous Trap

If your opponent controls a face-up card, you can activate this card the turn it was Set, by banishing 2 “Bahrag” monsters with different names from your Extra Deck. During the Main Phase: You can send 1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” card from your hand or face-up field to the GY, then target up to 2 “Bohrok” monsters in your GY; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, and if you do, attach the targeted monsters to it as material, but return it to the Extra Deck during your opponent’s End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kalifornication” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

This is possibly my favorite card name I’ve ever made, and it works just as described above: When facing a populated field, just set and activate it, banish the Bahrag to provide the conditions for Xa-Kal and Ca-Kal to work, and start trading your Bahrag cards in hand or field for a (somewhat temporary) Bohrok-Kal every turn. One neat trick you can actually do is attaching a Vu-Kal to a monster Summoned this way and banishing it before it would leave, thereby making it forget its expiry date and stay around permanently once it returns.

(As a side note, at the very end of development I noticed it would be better to have the Bahrag banish as an alternative effect activation cost rather than part of the accelerated card activation condition, so you can more reliably set up that board state. Didn’t want to change it at this point, but might happen in a legacy update eventually.)

Of course, simply arriving is not enough to accomplish the great task ahead. After all, the Toa Nuva and their mighty elemental powers are sure to stand in our way. Now watch and learn, here’s the deal: The Nuva Symbols we shall steal!

Bohrok-Kal Strategy

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

If Kalifornication is one of my favorite names, then Bohrok-Kal Strategy is more generally one of my favorite designs in this set. A Continuous Spell that triggers every time you Special Summon a Bohrok (face-up, is the tricky part) and gives you the first trigger as a freebie with a Special Summon from hand. Either you get to destroy another Spell/Trap, which is great against floodgates and of course represents the lore aspect of stealing the Nuva Symbols, or you search another Bohrok Spell/Trap to help with your setup. If you properly Xyz Summon (note that Kalifornication does not do this!), you even get to activate both together for some insane value.

Well then, everything’s ready for our Counterattack. Oh look, a “Counter” Counter Trap, someone call Battlin’ Boxers.

Bohrok Counterattack

Counter Trap

When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, while you control a “Bohrok” monster or only face-down monsters (min. 1): Send 1 “Krana” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY; negate the activation, then you can attach that card to 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

It’s just a standard archetypal negation backrow, worded so it also works with the usual plain Bohrok setups but actually gets rid of the negated card if the Bohrok-Kal are in play. Getting a Krana into the GY does also come in handy.

And finally, when victory is at hand, the Krana-Kal unleash their last secret: The Silver Shield protecting the Bohrok-Kal from all interference as they cross the finish line.

Bohrok Silver Shield

Quick-Play Spell

Target 1 “Krana” monster you control or in your GY; either return it to the hand or attach it to a “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material. At the start of the Battle Phase: You can banish this card from your GY; until the end of this turn, “Bohrok” Xyz Monsters you control are unaffected by card effects, except their own, while they have a “Krana” Link Monster as material. Neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this effect’s activation. You can only use each effect of “Bohrok Silver Shield” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The activation effect is just basic utility to recycle or attach a Krana – doing this without activating a monster effect is actually a pretty good trick to have up your sleeve. But the main point lies in the GY effect, which triggers at the start of the Battle Phase to turn the Krana-Kal attached to your Bohrok-Kal into some of the most potent protection the game has to offer, ensuring your attack to trigger the Xa-Kal will go through uninterrupted. About the only thing that could stop you at that point is a form of negation that makes the Bohrok-Kal fall to its own power, but surely nothing like that exists .

Sterling Silver? Link-8? Match Winner? Whatever are you talking about? I fear you may have had too many expired Vuata Maca Fruits, friend.

Sample Decks

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=17643290

Unlike the Toa Nuva, where a variety of decks came from the question of what to mix them with, Bohrok kind of just don’t mix with anything. The Kal all require archetypal materials only, cards like Strategy or Kalifornication need you to draw other Bohrok stuff to do anything, and so on. As a result, the different builds included in the expansion are more a consequence of limited Extra Deck space – with 8 Krana-Kal, 6 Bohrok-Kal, 2 Bahrag, and 2 Kaita, the numbers just don’t work out for a deck that does everything. However, since the differences are pretty minimal, I won’t bother going over them all and instead leave it at a quick rundown of the lore-accurate “awaken the Bahrag” build.

Its core is a Bohrok package of Gahlok , Nuhvok , and Pahrak , the three breeds that can use their effects and still remain on the field to serve as material. But in some cases you may value more potent removal over maximum efficiency, so the side deck also has a Lehvak to swap in. All of these come with their respective Bohrok Va for additional field presence and utility. Partnered with them are Bohrok Spells/Traps both new and old, as well as a Therion Regulus that Rank 4 lines can search by way of Merrymaker into Sargas.

The Extra Deck features the Bahrag we seek to awaken as well as the Xa-Kal and Ca-Kal to enable that, plus an useful (but necessarily incomplete) selection of other Krana-Kal and Bohrok-Kal. Of course Zeus is here too, it’s an Xyz deck.

Best of Test

Best of Test: Bohrok-Kal

Some assorted duel footage that shows not only the above build in action, but also those “minimally different” others that focus either on more general Bohrok-Kal spam or on making the Kaita.

Conclusion

The Bohrok-Kal, but perhaps more so the associated Krana-Kal and the various new Spell and Trap cards, take the slowly ramping Flip Monster strategy of the old Bohrok and augment it with such useful abilities as “building a board going first” or “breaking a board going second”. While their general reliance on archetypal cards makes it hard to put together anything other than a pure deck, the wide variety of Extra Deck monsters added with this support introduces some significant choices to be made in that process. Meanwhile, the Main Deck still contains all the flippy goodness of the Bohrok swarms, which can serve as a surpisingly powerful fallback strategy once the big bombs have been exhausted.

Release: Kalifornication

Watch out for those psychic spies from China who try to … awaken the queens and Clean it All?

Download for EDOPro

Welcome to the final release of 2023, and the best named one to date (your mileage may vary). In addition to a series of test footage videos uploaded along the way, you can watch the latest additions as part of a (p)review video I put together to welcome the new year. It’s pretty long and contains a bunch of other stuff as well, but please do take a look if you have a few minutes to spare – it took a fair bit of time and effort to get this one out of my head into reality.

And from here, on to the design notes.

New Cards

Bohrok Kalifornication

Continuous Trap

If your opponent controls a face-up card, you can activate this card the turn it was Set, by banishing 2 “Bahrag” monsters with different names from your Extra Deck. During the Main Phase: You can send 1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” card from your hand or face-up field to the GY, then target up to 2 “Bohrok” monsters in your GY; Special Summon 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck, and if you do, attach the targeted monster(s) to it as material, but return it to the Extra Deck during your opponent’s End Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kalifornication” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

Much like the previous release, this one is also themed around a Trap Card that helps the evolved forms make an appearance. For the Bohrok-Kal, it’s the Continuous Trap Bohrok Kalifornication (“Kalifornication, noun: The process of transforming a Bohrok into a Bohrok-Kal”; it’s right there in the latest version of The Dictionary, maybe they haven’t shipped it in your area yet?).

In theory, it lets you bypass the regular procedure and get an Xyz Monster every turn, though with an expiration date attached. In practice, there are two preconditions: You need an archetypal card to send as cost (including Kalifornication itself, making this the easier condition), and at least one “Bohrok” monster in the GY before paying the cost – which can be surprisingly tricky because Bohrok love going back to the Deck so much. This second condition is partially based on the idea that the Kal are released after the regular swarms have been defeated, as is the fast-track activation condition for going second that banishes Bahrag to set up a situation where they can later be awakened again. Also you can use it to dodge Imperm going first, so that’s funny.

Krana Ca-Kal, Seeker

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↙] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon from your Extra Deck 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains these effects depending on the number of your “Bahrag” Monster Cards with different names that are banished or on the field.
●1+: Cannot be destroyed by battle.
●2+: Once per turn: You can draw 1 card, then discard 1 card.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

I’ll get straight to the point and reveal that the aforementioned situation where the Bahrag are banished (perhaps due to a Toa Seal ?) is not just lore fluff, but actually serves a gameplay purpose. Some Krana-Kal only show their powers in the presence of sealed Bahrag, such as the Ca-Kal that serves to contact and locate them. If one of the queens has been found, the Seeker on their track can no longer be defeated through simple battle (in reference to the base Krana Ca ), and once in contact with both, it will be able to help you dig into your Deck for resources needed to complete the mission.

Krana Xa-Kal, Liberator

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▼] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon from your Extra Deck 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can place up to 2 of your banished “Bahrag” Pendulum Monsters in your Pendulum Zone(s), then you can add 1 “As It Was in the Before-Time” from your Deck or GY to your hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

To do that, the Krana Xa-Kal must make contact with the frozen queens, making it the win condition of this particular gimmick. “Contact” is here defined as battle damage, and the “awakening” consists of placing them in the Pendulum Zones (because that works even if Kalifornication banished them directly from the Extra Deck). And to get some immediate benefit, you get to add a little Quick-Play from BBTS that, assuming you properly placed both Bahrag, either draws 2 cards or sends the entire non-Bohrok field to the GY.

As It Was in the Before-Time

Quick-Play Spell

Activate 1 of these effects;
●Target any number of “Bahrag” cards you control; destroy them, then draw 1 card for each card destroyed.
●Shuffle 2 “Bahrag” cards you control with different names into the Extra Deck; send all cards on the field to the GY, except “Bohrok” and “Krana” cards.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

Both of these Krana-Kal have the Xyz shortcut effect previously seen on the Vu-Kal , because that is in my opinion the strongest of the Krana-Kal utility effects and so balances the granted effects not working without a Bahrag setup. The other two types of utility effects get a new card each, too.

Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↖] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●This card can attack directly, also if it attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

The Yo-Kal is the brainwashing type, which I consider the weakest because it never helps you combo. Accordingly, as material it gives a very powerful effect that lets an attacking Bohrok-Kal tunnel straight past any monsters or responses your opponent may have. If you ever get to a point where you have two Krana-Kal attached (the lore weeps), this can make for an easy way to trigger the Xa-Kal, but more realistically it’s just solid help in getting in possibly lethal damage.

Krana Bo-Kal, Visionary

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▶] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but 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 look at all Set cards your opponent controls, also look at as many random cards in their hand as possible, up to the number of “Bohrok” monsters you control.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

Finally, the Bo-Kal represents the third type previously seen only on the Ja-Kal , trading itself for a Defense Position Bohrok. This is the “mid-tier” effect that has no single massive payoff but broad utility, from flexing a face-up setup into a face-down one to recycling a Bohrok’s removal effect, or just simply getting extra material. When attached itself, it just does its Night Vision and X-Ray combination thingy to look at face-down cards and hand alike. The latter is limited by how many Bohrok are in attendance since hand knowledge is so powerful, but I’ve worded it in a slightly novel way so it automatically looks at the maximum number possible without needing two confirmation prompts on the way. You’re welcome.

Another general thing to say about Krana-Kal is that their Link-1 nature provides a fairly reliable way to set up a Kalifornication summon, since Krana on the field can be used to pay the cost as well. So any Bohrok turning into any Krana-Kal and going to the GY immediately fulfills the preconditions.

Finally, the stars of the show, the remaining three Bohrok-Kal.

Bohrok Pahrak-Kal

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

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles: You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish all cards they control in its column. Then, if this effect banished exactly 1 card, inflict 1200 damage to your opponent. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Pahrak-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

Pahrak-Kal, wielder of plasma, takes until battle to fire its effect, but once it does, there goes an entire column, banished to smithereens. And if that column didn’t have much in it? Then we have enough plasma left to burn the opponent’s LP as well. Advantages on the side are that it only costs one material despite potential multi-removal (because the timing is so inconvenient) and it all happens in the Damage Step, so a wide variety of effects that may stop it simply cannot be chained at that point. None at all, in fact, if you have a Yo-Kal attached – Pahrak-Kal is on that card art for a reason.

Bohrok Kohrak-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | WATER Machine | ATK 2300 / DEF 2000

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can detach 2 materials from this card; change all other monsters on the field to Defense Position, also negate their effects until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Kohrak-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

Kohrak-Kal, certified noise machine, gives you another way to disrupt on the opponent’s turn, by unleashing a blast of sound that forces all other monsters to abandon their effects and go to defense. All monsters including your own, however, so it’s not exactly a team player. This card is actually at its strongest when you manage to make it alone against an established board that has exhausted its relevant disruptions, because then you can detach 2 to shut everything else down, attack over or into something (Defense Position means Kohrak-Kal survives no matter what), and then attach a Krana before stacking up into a Zeus that clears the field. Puts you in a pretty good position as long as you have some kind of followup.

As a brief experiment, I also took the once per turn away from this effect entirely in an intermediate version; the idea being that, should you ever stack up enough materials, being able to negate even through a response seems like a nice ability to have. This was reverted not because it turned out to be broken, but because it never actually came up within the archetype – the only fringe line that ever gets you 4 materials involves Bohrok Counterattack , which already takes care of responses by itself. So the only ones to possibly benefit would have been unrelated Rank-Up strategies or something like that, and I didn’t want to specifically support those.

Bohrok Lehvak-Kal

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

And finally, Lehvak-Kal … breaks the pattern. Yes, the effect to attach a Krana is here replaced by a more generic vacuum-sucking Quick Effect that works on anything on your field, or in either GY. That can be wielded as disruption against cards that like to be in the GY (and if detached, you don’t even need to put them back), to save your other monsters from targeting effects, or simply to flexibly get something like a Su-Kal in response to a destruction effect. In exchange for such a wide range of applications, the effect that actually does something to the field – the massive vacuum blast blowing away all that stands in its path – is firmly locked behind a minimum of 5 materials. That means in absence of external help, a Lehvak-Kal needs to survive a full turn cycle to actually start destroying cards, but once it does, you get to immediately start the process again by attaching one of those destroyed cards (possibly keeping something like Waking the Dragon from triggering, too).

Updated

Two simple updates on the Bohrok side.

Bohrok-Kal Strategy

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

Bohrok-Kal Strategy previously was intentionally designed so you could only activate 1 copy per turn, but use the effects of as many as you want once you have them. The addition of an additional good search target that also lets you Xyz Summon on the opponent’s turn made it quite apparent that this has potential to get horrendously out of hand, so now it’s a regular old HOPT. The flipside is that the activation limit has been lifted, so you can get multiple Bohrok out of (your) hand in a turn instead. Solves some specific bricks that can theoretically happen.

Bohrok Gahlok

Flip Effect MonsterLevel 4 | WATER Machine | ATK 1700 / DEF 1600

FLIP: Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your Deck in face-down Defense Position, except “Bohrok Gahlok”.
Once per turn: You can activate the following effect, based on the type of card on top of your opponent’s GY. During the End Phase of the turn you activated this effect, shuffle this face-up card into the Deck.
●Monster: Target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy that target.
●Spell: Negate the effects of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn.
●Trap: Banish 1 random card from your opponent’s hand, until the End Phase.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.5.6)

The base Gahlok has been a thorn in my eye since I made the first Bohrok-Kal deck and realized the Bohrok with delayed shuffling cost on their effects are really convenient because you can use them as material after firing them. Their weaker removal effects generally balanced this out, except for the Gahlok: Its drawback should be that it only gets to destroy when a monster is on top of the opponent’s GY and does other things otherwise, but those “other things” were so overtuned that it was generally the best Bohrok effect in almost any situation. Now the Spell option only negates a monster’s effects but doesn’t take away its ATK (we have Krana for that anyway), and the Trap option doesn’t permanently handrip (with actual handtraps in the game, it was possible to do this turn 1 and its a soft once per turn, so obviously a big no-no).

I believe with these changes, all the Bohrok are finally properly balanced for their respective type of cost. Even in the material-hungry Kal builds, something like a Lehvak now feels like a justifiable inclusion for the reliable removal it offers, which is about where I want to be.

And for my closing words, I will note that the roadmap for the coming year has been released – mostly covering the same things as the new video (but in much less detail and special effects, seriously, watch it).

Release: Bohrok-Kal Strike

After the Toa, it is now the Bohrok Swarms’ turn to undergo their (non-)Protodermic Evolution. Presenting the first wave of Bohrok-Kal, plus some related support cards.

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New Cards

As a reminder, the Bohrok were introduced in BBTS as an archetype of Flip monsters with massive potential for swarming and removal, mainly shackled by the fact that there’s inherently a turn of delay in starting a Flip-based engine. The Kal extension tries to cover for this weakness by providing an alternative gameplan to establish turn 1 disruption or deal with established boards turn 2, by means of Rank 4 Bohrok-Kal and Link-1 Krana-Kal.

But before we get into the additions to those Extra Deck groups, here are some new Main Deck cards to help as well.

Bohrok-Kal Strategy

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

Bohrok-Kal Strategy is perhaps the key piece for consistent combos on your first turn, bringing out a Bohrok from hand when first activated and then immediately triggering off that Summon to either destroy a Spell/Trap or search an archetypal one – or both if you have a Bohrok-Kal out. The first of these options is purely lore, referencing the Kal’s theft of the Nuva Symbols (which are here Continuous Spells with negative effects when destroyed), while the latter is purely utility, letting you find essential Bohrok support cards without spending too much deck space that they really need for monsters.

One of the best search targets is the newly added Counter Trap, Bohrok Counterattack (yes, the new Battlin’ Boxer card can technically search this too).

Bohrok Counterattack

Counter Trap

When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, while you control a “Bohrok” monster or only face-down monsters (min. 1): Send 1 “Krana” monster from your Deck or Extra Deck to the GY; negate the activation, and if you do, you can attach that card to 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

This one represents the most straightforward form of the turn 1 disruption I’m trying to add – just a classic omni-negate that can be used both to protect your dormant Bohrok waiting to flip and to back up the swarms in action. Note that it does not destroy what it negates, so unless you have a Bohrok-Kal to attach to, this will let your opponent keep their monsters and continuous cards. Would be a bit too good otherwise, given its fairly low requirements and lack of HOPT.

Now for the stars of the show: Two more Bohrok-Kal join Gahlok-Kal to complete half of the team already.

Bohrok Tahnok-Kal

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

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; it cannot attack or activate its effects this turn, also you can detach 1 more material from this card, and if you do, destroy all monsters your opponent controls with less than 2000 ATK. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Tahnok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

Tahnok-Kal, just like its base form, offers monster destruction as a Quick Effect, but looking at official media makes it quite clear that its electric powers were actually not really used for destructive purposes as much as to stun its enemies. At the same time, I can’t in good conscience make the Lightning Bohrok-Kal not have some kind of built-in Raigeki, so here’s the compromise I ended up with: Detach 1 to stun a target monster for the turn, and then on resolution, you can detach another to blow up all of your opponent’s monsters below the 2000 ATK “Toa threshold”. This is also an extra balancing factor on this very powerful effect for a Rank 4, since it means removing it from the field before it resolves will stop the destruction.

Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 4 | EARTH Machine | ATK 2000 / DEF 2300

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. You can detach 2 or more materials from this card, then choose that many Main Monster Zones and/or Spell & Trap Zones on the field; return as many cards in those zones to the hand as possible, also those unused zones cannot be used until your next Standby Phase. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Nuhvok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

Nuhvok-Kal, in contrast, is slow, but armed with Gravity powers that are hard to resist and cover a wide range. I thought through a few concepts for this, but the one that won out is just a mass bounce (“floating” cards up off the field) limited only by material count that also locks zones in reference to base Nuhvok (“crushing” the land with supergravity). I kind of wanted to have something with flipping face-down in there as well, but couldn’t quite make it worthwile on a “slow” ignition effect. Fun Fact: This one can be really rude against Pendulum decks in particular.

Test footage of these two new bosses can be found in the below demo videos I posted earlier this month.

Thunderbolt and Lightning
Gravitation

The Krana-Kal have also been brought up to half-completion, but in their case that means 3 rather than 2 new ones, for a total of 4 (out of 8).

Krana Vu-Kal, Transporter

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↘] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster this card points to; Special Summon from your Extra Deck 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster using that target as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon.) A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can banish this card until the End Phase, and if you do, you can add 1 “Bohrok” card from your GY to your hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

The Vu-Kal grants flight like its base version, but also enhanced speed, so rather than “dodge” things with targeting protection, it more literally lets its Bohrok-Kal dodge instantly off the field, optionally recycling a card in the process to live up to its name of “Transporter”. As a downwards-pointing Krana-Kal, its utility effect provides a way to Xyz Summon with only a single Level 4 Bohrok, which can then attach the Link Monster as its second material. This card is part of my current preferred turn 1 play, where I use it to make a Tahnok-Kal that can, on the opponent’s turn, activate the banish effect in chain before its own Quick Effect, letting you detach both materials to blow up the field while still getting a card back with the effect granted by the Vu-Kal.

Krana Su-Kal, Demolisher

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [▲] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●This card gains 800 ATK/DEF and cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

The upwards-pointing Krana-Kal, such as the Su-Kal, bring back a possibly familiar effect previously seen on the Servants of the Swarm, some technically-not-Bohrok (and thus kind of unplayable) cards from BBTS. A monster they point to will be brainwashed into voluntarily surrendering to the Bohrok in battle, setting its stats to 0 so it can easily be hit over. All of this is continuous, so it can out a gargantuan range of threats, assuming you can safely get it and a Bohrok to the Battle Phase. The actual power granted to a Bohrok-Kal using this Krana-Kal is as simple as it gets: Super strength (+800 ATK/DEF) and resistance to heat and cold (effect destruction protection).

Krana Za-Kal, Overseer

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [↗] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. If an opponent’s monster this card points to battles a “Bohrok” monster, that opponent’s monster’s ATK/DEF become 0 during the Damage Step only. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a “Bohrok” card(s) you control (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

The Za-Kal has the same on-field utility effect and grants the power of telepathy, which turns Bohrok-Kal into budget Stardust Dragons. Sounds strange, but the background to that is that the original Krana Za allowed you to protect a Bohrok from destruction by shuffling back another monster, to represent the squad coordination it enables. Now plain old protection would have been redundant when the Su-Kal does that and more, so instead it shuts down destructive effects against all your Bohrok by detaching (and thereby shuffling back) an Xyz Material. This is a little less convenient than it sounds because it requires the effect to be one that would destroy a card from the archetype, so you won’t be able to chain it to anything that could theoretically be resolved in such a way that it only destroys unrelated cards (e.g. the average DPE activation).

Updated

The updates this time are simple, just refining the first drafts of the Bohrok support a bit now that I’ve worked my way deeper into it.

4.0.4

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)
4.3.3

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 your turn, also you can equip 1 monster adjacent to it or in its column to it. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

As I said the moment it was first released, it’s just thematically super neat to have the range of Gahlok-Kal‘s “magnetism” limited to adjacent zones or the same column, so I ended up doing just that. And sure enough, it made zero difference in testing, partially because AI doesn’t understand how to play around things and partially because I can always just put a monster in the column myself. Oh yeah, and the attack restriction now always lasts until your End Phase only, so you can’t block an opponent’s monster by targeting it on your turn. This way it’s more of a downside to targeting something on your own field than additional benefit for an already powerful removal effect.

4.0.4

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)
4.3.3

Krana Ja-Kal, Tracker

Link Effect MonsterLink-1 [◀] | DARK Zombie | ATK 0

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY in face-up or face-down Defense Position, but 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 declare 1 card name; until the end of your opponent’s turn, “Bohrok” cards and Set cards you control are unaffected by the effects of cards with that original name.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

For the Ja-Kal, both effects got some significant changes. First, the tag-out was buffed to also allow Special Summoning in face-down Defense Position, so you can use it as a way to prepare the Flip engine without needing to commit an actual Set action to it. This is, for example, relevant when using Bohrok-Kal Strategy, since activating it, Special Summoning a Bohrok, searching a Spell/Trap, and then using Ja-Kal to put that Bohrok face-down leaves you in a significantly better spot than just setting the monster right away.

The effect to block a card by declaring its name did always feel a bit too oppressive, so I ended up nerfing that part by bringing it more in line with the original Krana Ja and just granting your Bohrok (and face-down) cards immunity to the declared name instead. In exchange, it’s now free, so you can keep the materials attached for more important purposes.

A deck update, rather than a card update, was forced from me by Konami’s ruthless (but honestly deserved) banning of Spright Elf, thus rendering the last version’s Toa Nuva deck illegal. Due to the strict collective HOPT on all the Kanohi Nuva, conducting a Fusion Summon on the opponent’s turn is kind of super important if you want to use your resources optimally, so I needed something that could replace Elf’s role in setting that up. A card that can bring back Energized Protodermis Chamber as a Quick Effect, while also being consistently accessible through the basic Isolde combo. And I can proudly report that I have found it.

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=12178919

In fact, it wasn’t very far from the Elf-shaped hole in the decklist at all: Within the same archetype, there’s Spright Double Cross, a Trap with multiple effects including GY revival, searchable by Spright Jet and therefore via Gigantic Spright, which can be made in the standard combo line after the first Toa Nuva by overlaying Isolde with a leftover C.C. Matoran (we play Hafu now to ensure the latter is available). Gigantic Summons Jet and Jet adds Double Cross, and if you further link those two into I:P Masquerena, you even get an additional way to interact for your trouble.

Now of course, with Hafu, Jet and Double Cross, that means three extra bricks we need to run, and after all is said and done this only works once, unlike Elf’s infinite revival forever and ever. The deck’s definitely worse now that it has lost one of its central pieces, but I’m also kind of glad it happened because it reminded me that it probably isn’t a good idea to make all the recursion dependent on some external card. That’s why the next update will contain, in addition to the remaining Toa Nuva, a card that provides this functionality in-archetype. Probably. More or less. We’ll see how it turns out.

Designer’s Quip: The Thin Line Between Victory and Defeat

Notice the similarity between these cards? That’s right, both are Quick-Play Spells that let you activate one of two effects if you control a specific category of monsters. Even more, in both cases the first effect has lower requirements and provides some simple utility, while the second needs more setup but deals a potentially game-ending blow.

This is, of course, no coincidence. As It Was in the Before-Time shows the scenario in which the Bohrok swarms successfully eliminate everything else that dwells on the surface, and The End of the Swarm shows the scenario of their defeat that eventually came to pass in the 2002 storyline. They are victory and defeat, so they naturally form a pair – though which one is which obviously depends on what deck you are playing.

No, I am still not going to explain what’s going on with the Level 8+ monsters and Continuous Spells. Try to figure it out on your own if you really want to know already, or just wait patiently 😉

Designer’s Quip: The Unintended Jahnok Combo

Splashability is when a card or group of cards can be used outside their own deck/archetype to achieve benefits in combination with entirely unrelated cards. Taking this into account when making custom cards adds a lot of depth and therefore fun to the process while also achieving more balanced results, but for a long time I didn’t really do that. So once in a while I have the funny experience of looking back at older designs and realizing they do something generically useful I wasn’t actually going for. Here’s one such example.

Bohrok Tahnok can shuffle itself into the Deck to destroy a face-up monster, and this is a Quick Effect. Already seems quite useful, but between having to return to the Deck, the limitation of the targets to only face-up monsters, the fact that it targets at all, and the lack of a built-in way to easily bring it out, it probably wouldn’t be that good to just splash it into random stuff.

In comes the second card of this package, the Krana Ja. By discarding it from your hand while you control a Bohrok, you can scout ahead and render everything that is already visible on your opponent’s field ineffective during the following turn, and like many other Krana it can return from the field to your hand during Main Phase 1 to bring out a Bohrok from the Deck at the cost of immediately ending the turn.

The bottom line is that by just getting a Krana Ja on the field somehow in your Main Phase 1 (e.g. with One for One or simply a spare Normal Summon), you can easily out any single monster that can have its effects negated. Return the Ja to your hand to Special Summon a Tahnok from your Deck, activate the Ja from your hand during the immediately ensuing End Phase (since you do have a Bohrok now), then in the following turn activate the Tahnok’s Quick Effect to target and destroy whatever you like. At this point all protection and/or negation on your opponent’s field will be negated by the Ja, so you don’t have to worry about that stuff at all.

Now, this does ultimately cost you your Battle Phase and only takes care of a single monster, so it probably isn’t really that impactful in the grand scheme of things. But I found it pretty funny that these two cards on their own could pull this off even though neither of their designs was in any way geared towards it. The Tahnok just has a Quick Effect because it’s fast, and the Krana Ja does what it does because it’s literally a Scout.

Theme Guide: Bahrag (BBTS)

At the top of the Bohrok swarms stand the Bahrag, ancient twin queens utterly dedicated to carrying out their one and only mission. As the final bosses of the 2002 storyline, it is only appropriate that they are also the ultimate boss monsters of the Bohrok archetype.

Since I like to make pairs into Pendulum Monsters, that’s what they are, and also Synchros to complement the Fusion Bohrok Kaita and the Xyz [REDACTED]. Their Pendulum Effects attempt to alter the way Bohrok function in order to let them take better advantage of Pendulum Summons: Cahdok lets you put a Bohrok into face-down Defense Position when it’s Summoned face-up, with added protection to make sure you’ll get to the Flip effect. Gahdok replicates the recursion ability of Pendulum Monsters by returning a Bohrok that gets sent from the field to the GY to your hand.

In the Monster Zone, their shared gimmick is that they gain and grant each other protection if you control the other Bahrag anywhere on the field (including as a Pendulum Scale!), with Cahdok protecting from effects and Gahdok protecting from battle. Both of them also place themselves in the Pendulum Zone if they are face-up during your Standby Phase – their shadowy presence behind the Bohrok swarms cannot be easily eliminated, and if you successfully summon them once you will have access to them for the rest of the Duel.

Finally, each queen has the ability to Special Summon certain members of the swarm (the Level 2 Bohrok Va for Cahdok, the Level 4 Bohrok for Gahdok) from the GY if it is the only face-up monster you control. This has a lot of situational utility since there are no restrictions on attacks or effects for the Summoned monster, but the main intent actually is simply to help assemble the materials for the other Bahrag (usually you need 1 Bohrok Va + 2 Bohrok).

A potentially simpler, if temporary, way to get to the Bahrag is Queens’ Illusion, a Trap Card based on, well, the queens’ ability to generate illusions. By shuffling the materials from hand, field, or GY into the Deck, it places an “illusory” Bahrag in the Pendulum Zone and imposes attack restrictions based on its stats. The illusion ends after a turn, but while it is active you can freely use the Pendulum Effect and potentially enable another Bahrag’s protection with the added name.

And once you do get the Bahrag out, is there anything you can do other than sitting on them and throwing Bohrok at your opponent? Well yes, there’s a card specificall to ensure that all shall be …

Representing the final goal of the Bahrag and their Bohrok swarms, As It Was in the Before-Time is the ultimate payoff to assembling the pair. By activating this Quick-Play Spell and returning both of the Bahrag (either as monsters or as Pendulum Scales) to the Extra Deck, you can send everything on the field except the swarms themselves to the GY, completing the great mission of cleaning it all. Somehow I feel like that sounded more impressive before Konami made Zeus, but whatever. To make the card not completely useless outside the absolute best case scenario, it can also be used as a draw spell at the cost of destroying a number of Bahrag cards equal to how much you want to draw (again, these can be monsters or just Pendulum Scales). With the Bahrag automatically returning from the Extra Deck each Standby Phase, this is usually a pretty good trade.

Conclusion

Sucessfully setting up the Bahrag provides significant lasting benefits to a Bohrok strategy, and on top of that they simply serve as nice big boss monsters to go into. This makes them into a package that can be included both as just an additional option and as the main win condition.

The BBTS release provides examples of the former approach in any of the multiple Bohrok decks, and of the latter in the Bahrag deck specifically.

Theme Guide: Krana (BBTS)

The eight types of Krana are sentient, organic beings that provide the guiding intelligence as well as a set of special powers to the Bohrok swarms, so the BBTS expansion implements them as monsters that allow Bohrok access to some effects that are generally a bit more clever than what the archetype otherwise does. Each Krana essentially has two effects: One that activates in the hand and is different for each monster while following one of two templates, and another that can only be one of two options, each of which is shared by half the Krana.

Let’s just use those second effects to segment the Krana in the following explanation and cover the rest as we go.

Based off the idea that Bohrok are really just robot suits piloted by the Krana inside them, these monsters have the ability to return themselves from the field to the hand to get any of the Level 4 Bohrok directly from the Deck. This is not something you want to rely on unless you need to since it only works during your Main Phase 1 and then ends the turn, but having the option at least avoids total bricks when playing a lot of Krana.

Regarding the first effect, the Krana Yo and Krana Ca follow the template of equipping themselves to a Level 4 or higher Bohrok from the hand in order to grant some continuous benefit. The Yo, holding the power to let its Bohrok dig through most substances, allows the equipped monster to attack directly. The Ca with its shielding powers protects all of your Bohrok from battle, but only once per turn for each.

Krana Xa and Krana Ja feature the alternative effect template, which means you can activate them by sending them directly from the hand to the GY at a certain timing. With the Xa, which are mainly in charge of formulating the more complex strategies of the plans, you can counteract negations or other responses to your Bohrok effects. It can be activated in any chain that has a Bohrok monster’s effect anywhere but as the last link and will negate the effects of all non-Bohrok cards on the field that appear in this chain. This lasts all the way to the end of the turn, so you might be able to disable something vital using this if you can just bait an activation out of it first. Another mass effect negation option is provided by the Krana Ja, which gives the swarms advance warning of known threats and thus renders everything that is visible on your opponent’s field useless during the following turn. This effect can be activated at any time as long as you control a face-up Bohrok, so you’d probably want to use it during the End Phase for maximum effect.

The other group of Krana are those that can banish themselves from the GY to steal a monster destroyed by a Bohrok from your opponent’s GY, controlling their enemies to make them part of the swarm. The monsters are Special Summoned in face-down Defense Position for thematic reasons and there’s a restriction on it that effectively prevents you from doing it more than once per turn, but even with that it’s obviously a damn strong move.

The equipping Krana among these are the Krana Za and Krana Su. The squad leader-type Za allow Bohrok to communicate and coordinate telepathically, which in this case is used to protect the equipped monster via strategic retreats of your other monsters (including face-down ones) while also keeping up the card supply. The Su is the caveman among the Krana, merely granting a stat boost, but that is very versatile in its simplicity, especially considering the equipping is a Quick Effect.

The pure hand effects here belong to Krana Vu and Krana Bo. The Vu makes Bohrok capable of flight, so it can be used to dodge targeting effects and even goes as far as negating and destroying the card in question to really make your opponents think twice about targeting your Bohrok with anything. The Bo can be triggered in response to your Bohrok cleaning up any card with their removal effects, using its night vision capabilites to track down further copies of the same card hiding in the darkness of your opponent’s hand and get rid of them for good.

On the topic of Krana that can steal your opponent’s monsters, we should take another look at Bohrok Confrontation, which was already covered in the main Bohrok article. What it does is send a Krana from your Deck to the GY to boost a Bohrok’s ATK/DEF, and knowing what we do about Krana now, the idea is obviously to have a Bohrok run over a monster in battle and then immediately steal it with the Krana.

There are other cards that further expand on the idea of Krana mind control. The following four monsters, for which I like to use the umbrella term “Servants of the Swarm”, represent the unwilling victims of this power.

Bohrok Servant is the generic standin for arbitrary beings under the control of a Krana. Its purpose is basically to make immediate use of the face-down monsters you get from the stealing effect, by contact fusing them (remember, that works when face-down) with a Krana from pretty much anywhere, banishing both and giving you a monster that at least copies the stats of whatever you stole.

The remaining Servants of the Swarm are a bit more specific, each of them being based on one particular inhabitant of Le-Koro that was possessed by a Krana during the takeover of that village. They generally work by sending a Krana from the Deck to the GY to neutralize an opponent’s monster and set up a situation where you can easily steal it, though the way in which they do so differs greatly.

Matoran of the Swarm counters Xyz Monsters by attaching to them as a material, which locks their effects and makes their ATK/DEF become 0 during battle with a Bohrok. It can also attach itself from the GY to your Xyz Monsters that are flipped face-up, obviously so a stolen Xyz can actually have material.

Turaga of the Swarm interferes with Synchro Summons in a particularly funny way, inserting itself on the opponent’s field in place of a Tuner and immediately forcing a Synchro Summon. When used as material, it gives you control of the Summoned monster for a turn and permanently makes it so its ATK/DEF become 0 when battling a Bohrok. This approach comes from the fact that Turaga were originally Tuners, so now that the BCOT remake is changing them to Link Monsters this card might be due for a redesign sooner or later as well.

Toa of the Swarm is the simplest of these, since it just Tributes over an opponent’s high-level monster and then surrenders itself willingly by making its ATK/DEF 0 when battling a Bohrok. The Level restriction was already iffy to begin with and is even more so when considering the prevalence of Link Monsters, so I might eventually tweak that to something like “2000 or more ATK”.

Finally ,we have a funny little card that simultaneously supports and counters Bohrok/Krana decks. Krana Pit lets you protect a card from destruction each turn by banishing a Krana monster from the GY instead, but since this works on both GYs you can just as well use it if your opponent is the one playing Krana. Similarly, it allows recovering a banished monster when there are 2 or more Krana banished, without specifying whose Krana they must be.

Conclusion

Krana add quite a few sophisticated effects to the Bohrok toolbox, giving you interesting options to interact with your opponent beyond just razing their field to the ground. The ability to steal a destroyed monster makes the Bohrok’s effects and attacks a bit more threatening than they already were, and with the Servants of the Swarm can itself be made into a central strategic element of your deck.

A selection of Krana can be found sprinkled throughout the sample Bohrok decks in the BBTS release, while the Servants of the Swarm usually appear as Side Deck options.