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 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)

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; 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)

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 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 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 (v4.5.6)

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 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)

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 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)

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)

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 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)

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 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 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 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)

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 cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)

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 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)

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 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)

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 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)

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, and if you do, you can attach that card to 1 “Bohrok” Xyz Monster you control as material.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.3.3)

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; 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 with a “Krana” Link Monster as material are unaffected by card effects, except their own. 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 (v4.8.3)

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

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: Time of Troubles

The last few cards of BPEV are here!

Install via EDOPro Configuration

Sample Decks

Through troubles and time, this final batch of lore from the first half of 2003 brings us to the end of the Time of Troubles. Surely the island of Mata Nui will be safe and nothing bad will ever happen again from here on, right?

… right?

New Cards (and one update)

Deprived of their elemental powers and repeatedly outmaneuvered by the Bohrok-Kal, the Toa Nuva follow the trail of their adversaries deep beneath the ground, heading to a final confrontation where the sealed Bahrag yet slumber. But before reaching that far, they bear witness to the sight of … Exo-Toa moving on their own!?

Exo Autonomy

Spell

Special Summon 1 “Exo-Toa” from your hand or Deck, but it cannot activate its effects, also destroy it during the End Phase. During your End Phase: You can banish this card from your GY and shuffle 1 “Exo-Toa” from your GY or banishment into the Deck; add 1 “Toa” monster from your Deck to your hand, then you can Set 1 “Exo Armaments” from your Deck, GY, or banishment. You can only activate 1 “Exo Autonomy” per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

It’s a small scene, but the one comic page where these underutilized Aliens references move as autonomous battlebots to stop the intruding Bohrok-Kal grants me an opportunity to inject new life into the always kinda janky and at this point also outdated design of my Union Monster take on them. The basic idea of Exo Autonomy is to act as an independent (autonomous, you may say) engine starter that gives you all the pieces for powerful Exo-Toa plays.

Through a main effect that just puts a body on the field (2k ATK and Level 6 does have some utility by itself) and an End Phase effect that follows it up with some specific searches, we end up in a situation where a Toa is in hand, an Exo-Toa is in the Deck, and Exo Armaments – the complementary Trap that requires just these conditions – is Set and ready to go next turn. But because that alone didn’t yet work as envisioned, the Trap itself also gets a bit of a touch-up in this release.

Exo Armaments

Trap

Special Summon 1 “Toa” monster from your hand, then equip 1 “Exo-Toa” from your Deck or GY to it, but that Equip Card cannot activate its effects this turn. If you control “Exo-Toa”: You can banish this card from your GY, then activate 1 of these effects;
●This turn, if an “Exo-Toa” you control battles, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.
●This turn, “Exo-Toa” you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent’s card effects, also your opponent cannot target them with card effects.
●Target 1 “Exo-Toa” you control; destroy 1 other card in the same column as that target.
You can only use this effect of “Exo Armaments” once per turn.

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.8.3)

Specifically, the clause that banned all Special Summoning for the rest of the whole turn now just locks that specific Exo-Toa you put on the field from activating its standard Union effect to unequip. This preserves the original intent while not making the card a huge liability, though if I’m being honest it probably wouldn’t be a problem to drop this restriction entirely- it’s a Trap that summons from hand, putting two monsters on the field isn’t exactly crazy in that context. The other upgrade is that its GY effect, the actual “Armaments”, can now be activated the same turn it went to the GY, to suit the current speed of the game.

So, if all goes through, the final payoff from an activation of Exo Autonomy consists of whatever you used the Special Summoned Exo-Toa for, as well as a 4k+ vanilla sitting on the field with a Quick Effect in the GY to either pop a card in its column (or that of the Equip Card), protect it from effects, or isolate it while it battles. That’s decent enough to finally justify the inclusion of an Exo-Toa at least in decks that already use the Toa Mata – it might even be somewhat splashable in combation with last release’s Shadow Toa .

Anyway, after passing through that whole situation, the Toa Nuva finally catch up to the Bohrok-Kal, but the attempt to stop them in the final moments of their task is once again thwarted – by the sudden appearance of a Silver Shield.

Bohrok Silver Shield

Quick-Play Spell

Target 1 “Krana” monster you control or in your GY; 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 with a “Krana” Link Monster as material are unaffected by card effects, except their own. 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 (v4.8.3)

The Krana-Kal have turned to silver to promote a blind pack collectible gimmick project an impenetrable shield and prevent any outside interference! That’s precisely what this card does if if’s in the GY at the start of the Battle Phase, granting you free reign to resolve the effect granted to your Bohrok-Kal by a Krana Xa-Kal and thus awaken the Bahrag. But before that point, it acts as a way to recycle your Krana or attach them to the Kal without using a monster effect, which can come in handy for example if you’re staring down a monster negate and have a Krana Za-Kal at your disposal.

Out of options, Tahu resorts to one last trick up his sleeve to quite literally buy some time: He dons the Kanohi Vahi.

Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time

Equip Spell

You can only control 1 “Vahi” Equip Spell. If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. The equipped monster cannot attack or activate its effects, also your opponent cannot target it with card effects. Once per turn, while this card is equipped to a “Toa” or “Makuta” monster you control: You can add 1 “Vahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, except an Equip Spell. If this card is destroyed or banished by your opponent’s card effect: Both players skip their next Battle Phase.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

Vahi Freeze

Quick-Play Spell

Activate 1 of these effects;
●Add 1 “Vahi” Equip Spell from your Deck or GY to your hand.
●If you control a “Vahi” Equip Spell: Target 1 face-up card on the field; until the end of this turn, its effects are negated, also it cannot be destroyed, or banished, by card effects.
If this card is sent from the field to the GY: You can draw 1 card, but skip your next Draw Phase. You can only use this effect of “Vahi Freeze” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

Now, Legendary Kanohi are something that will become a much bigger deal way down the line with the Ignika, so I approached this one as a bit of a test run. The idea in my head was that wearing the mask would render a monster incapable of doing anything but access the powers contained within, represented as an archetype of cards the Kanohi lets you search while equipped to a worthy user. Because the sole usage shown in the story by this point was temporarily freezing the Bohrok-Kal in time, there’s also only one search target introduced here: Vahi Freeze, which renders a targeted card equally impotent and immovable.

Attached to this basic idea comes some side utility: The Vahi’s shutdown of other functions isn’t limited like the search is, so it can be used against the opponent’s monsters as well, it also grants targeting protection (they can’t penetrate the timey-wimey stuff I guess), and Vahi Freeze lets you add the Kanohi to your hand so it doesn’t matter in which order you open the pieces.

All of this still didn’t quite feel like enough time fuckery to me, so I engineered another neat little thing onto Freeze: If sent from the field to the GY – primarily after activating it, so it acts as a bonus effect for both of the available options – you get a draw at the cost of “freezing” your next Draw Phase. This helps you access resources before your opponent has a chance to stop you, and actually generates real positive card advantage if you manage to do it on both your own and your opponent’s turn. In a way, it’s a built-in miniature version of Runick Fountain with a drawback that appropriately messes with the flow and timing of gameplay.

The Vahi itself also has a slight drawback in that it skips the next Battle Phases if your opponent destroys or banishes it, to represent the part of the lore where breaking it would also break time within the Matoran Universe. This is set up in a way that hopefully makes it get in the way as little as possible, but I still see some cases where it can be annoying as hell (imagine a Runick banishing this from the Deck). May need some more refinement.

… which can be said for both of these cards in general, honestly. I’m not yet convinced this experiment can be called a successful one. In theory, being able to search a negate turn 1, use it turn 2, and add it back to use again turn 3 while going +1 along the way seems decent enough, but in testing I experienced various situations where the math doesn’t math that well. Like, what happens if you use the Freeze on turn 3 but then you need to keep grinding? You can’t add it back a second time right away, so you’re missing your negate for a turn and also skipping your Draw Phase after that – a perfect opportunity for the game to slip away. Similar issues crop up going second. While these are fairly reasonable weaknesses, they feel somewhat frustrating given that the Kanohi Vahi itself already forces various handicaps onto you; you need to bring out a Toa or Makuta (neither of which is super easy) only to pretty much sacrifice all benefits of having it on the field by locking it under the Vahi, and well-timed backrow removal from your opponent can really screw you over.

A major reason this felt so bad in testing is that the deck I built for super consistent Vahi access just kind of lacked the ability to do much else at all, and particularly couldn’t do much to recover from suboptimal situations. So it may just be a matter of figuring out a better strategy, or maybe the Vahi’s built-in drawbacks need to be toned down a bit. But if an actual redesign is needed, one funny idea I had is that the search could be implemented as something that replaces the equipped monster’s effect (instead of just locking its activation), which would let it be a Quick Effect and thus immediately resolve the math issues. A bit more mechanically weird than I’d usually like to be, but on the other hand it would be a suitably unique thing to establish as the gimmick for Legendary Kanohi.

Well, enough of that, let’s get on with the story. Their little time-out lets the Toa Nuva figure out that they may just be able to take down the Bohrok-Kal by channeling their elemental powers through the Nuva Symbols still held by the creatures, which leads the Kal to lose control of their own powers and self-destruct because they were only protected from outside harm.

Nuva Overcharge

Counter Trap

If your opponent activates a monster effect on the field while you control a “Toa Nuva” monster, and there is a “Nuva” Continuous Spell/Trap on your field or in your GY: That effect becomes “banish this card”. During the End Phase, if this card is in your GY and you control a “Toa Nuva” monster: You can Set this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of “Nuva Overcharge” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

That’s the idea of Nuva Overcharge, our searchable Counter Trap that functionally negates monster effects with a rewrite into “banish yourself NOW”. Since it’s a Counter Trap, this works even during the Damage Step, and because the banishing is done by the monster’s own effect, it correctly penetrates the Silver Shield we saw above (yes, rewrites work against unaffected monsters, I’ve seen it happen in MD with Gossip Shadow vs Crystal Clear Wing). No Krana-Kal will be resolved to awaken the Bahrag in this card’s presence. To stay in the realm of reasonable balance, this only hits one monster rather than destroying all the Bohrok-Kal at once like in canon, but you can slightly emulate the use against multiple targets by resetting it from the GY once – which also makes it an efficient search target if you get two Toa Nuva effects in a turn or just aren’t playing any Kanohi Nuva.

With the threat vanquished, the Time of Troubles was finally considered over, and the Turaga called together the Matoran to celebrate and avoid legal issues honor great achievements in the grand festival of Naming Day.

Naming Day

Spell

Target 1 Warrior monster you control; Tribute it, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Warrior monster from your hand or Deck, with the same original Attribute, but a different original name and a higher original Level than the Tributed monster. You can banish this card and 1 Warrior monster from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control; its name is treated as the banished monster’s, until the end of your opponent’s turn. You can only activate 1 “Naming Day” per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

A slightly unusual card for this expansion: It’s generic Warrior support! With a somewhat narrow focus of swapping a low-Level Warrior you control for a slightly higher-Level one of the same Attribute. How truly odd that this doesn’t seem to have any application with the Matoran made so far, those are all Level 2. Oh well, at least we can turn Takua into Gen or Ken. Or Jala into Razen. Or Taipu into Morning Star. Those are all pretty amusing.

Taipu is also a good use case for the GY effect, which is a more literal take on the spirit of the name-changing holiday. Simply do a C.C. Matoran combo into a big boss monster, and then dub it a C.C. Matoran to bypass the attack restriction on Taipu’s Special Summon procedure. Though to be completely clear, this effect was written entirely under the vague idea of “surely you can do something cool with this”, with nothing more specific in mind.

Also, the art for this one was unexpectedly annoying to make, because the close-up of rebuilt Jaller and Takua from the animation wasn’t tall enough to fill a square image frame, and the more zoomed-out shot was completely different in terms of distances between the Turaga and such. AI was able to convincingly add the top half of the sun to the close-up, but also insisted on having the sky fade to an ugly gray, so I had to mask it with the specters of the two Matoran’s diminished forms floating above. Came out well enough in the end, I’d say.

And that’s all for now! See you again for the final BPEV release and a bunch of Theme Guides to come in the near-ish future. Then, finally, we can move on to the next stage – where a hidden mask shall spark a great quest …

New/Changed Sample Decks

Just a quick summary for the sake of documentation, without going in too much detail:

  • The Tearlament build of Mata-less Nuva got Nuva Overcharge added (you can use it if you mill it!)
  • The “Awake” build of Bohrok-Kal got Bohrok Silver Shield added (lore-accurate unstoppable Bahrag awakening plays!)
  • New “Vahi Pile” deck centered on a cute combo that goes from Psi-Reflector via Power Tool Braver Dragon into Onua Nuva with Vahi access; also featuring Exo Autonomy and Naming Day
  • A deck called “Exo Shadow Toa” that’s actually Centur-Ion and Fiendsmith with Exo Autonomy and Shadow Toa splashed in. Makes both high-Level Synchros and Rank 6 Xyz, but of the latter there aren’t many good options (we archetype-locked the Toa Mata ones …)