Tag: Makuta

Deck Idea: Kaiju Makuta

No, not talking about Miserix, we still have quite a few years to go before getting to that guy. The Makuta in question here is the one and only who was released as a Ritual Monster in BCOR:

The Makuta

Now this particular form of the master of shadows is certainly a bit too small to qualify for the “Kaiju” title, but of course that term here refers to the actual archetype. Those are high-level monsters summoned to your opponent’s field by tributing one of their monsters, and if you add to that Makuta’s ability to return high-level monster to the hand when he is summoned, the bit of synergy that prompted this deck idea should be quite apparent.

Kaiju Makuta Deck

(The above deck is also included in the new BYE release for EDOPro as BYE_Makuta)

Basically, you want to use Makuta to clear the field of monsters, and to do that you have to make sure as many of your opponent’s monsters as possible fulfill the condition of being at least Level/Rank 5.

Mangaia, Lair of Makuta

Back in ze day, the trick to doing that was the Mangaia Field Spell, which can increase Levels and Ranks by up to 4 by self-milling. It also serves as a searcher for Makuta or his Ritual Spell and protects them from negation, so using this was usually enough to get pretty much anything off the field. Until Link Monsters came along, because those have neither Levels nor Ranks to be increased and so literally do not care about any of this. They can, however, still be tributed for Kaijus, so that’s a convenient way to fill that gap.

Once you have successfully summoned and resolved Makuta, he can tribute himself to summon a Rahi from anywhere, ideally going into some big Synchro for a quick win. Failing that, his Ritual Spell does allow summoning him once more from the GY, so that can still give you a second chance (remember, any Kaijus you used before will also be back in your hand ready to go again!).

Some additional interesting inclusions in this deck are the Ritual Djinns, which can be used as material for a Ritual Summon while in the GY and thus go well with Mangaia’s milling effect. Cherubini can send not only those directly to the GY, but also any of the Level 3 Rahi to trigger their effects, and Cross-Sheep gives you one of its better effects for summoning a Ritual Monster, which the Makuta Ritual Spell conveniently does twice. Finally, if you’re wondering why the deck uses specifically Gadarla as part of its Kaiju lineup, that’s because some genius thought it made sense to let the Kewa search every single WIND monster. Very balanced.

Theme Guide: Makuta (BCOR)

An expansion about Mata Nui’s Rahi must of course also include the evil mastermind controlling them from the shadows. Makuta are sure to become a large archetype of their own when I get to the parts where the Brotherhood becomes relevant, if not sooner, but for now there’s just a small selection of cards representing the one and only Makuta who that name used to mean back in the day.

For starters, we have the Infected Kanohi symbolizing Makuta. It’s an Equip Spell Card just like regular Kanohi, but rather than granting positive effects it just destroys any Kanohi equipped in parallel and then attempts to take control of the opponent’s monster it is equipped to. “Attempts” because they can struggle against it by losing a card every turn, and one more every time that monster dares attack you.

But that is only the prelude to the actual Makuta cards, of which there are three in this set.

“I am Nothing“, declares the dark lord before the final battle commences, and thus is the name of the Ritual Spell used to Summon this particular form of Makuta. Besides the standard condition of Tributing monsters from hand or field, you can also pay the cost by putting a Kanohi from the field or either GY back into the Deck – which could be your opponent’s actually beneficial Kanohi, or simply your own Infected model. Moreover, you can also banish the Ritual Spell from the GY for another Ritual Summon from that same location, at a slightly higher cost. Spells and Traps with GY effects, especially Ritual Spells, are a theme I decided on pretty early for the Makuta archetype, so expect more of that in future expansions. It just feels properly villainous to me.

The Makuta is then implemented as the Ritual Monster to match the Spell, with a tiny Level of 2 since he is taking the form of a diminished Matoran here. His on-summon effect lets him take out Special Summoned monsters with high Level or Rank, which sure is a lot less useful in an age of Link Summoning than it used to be when I made it. Still, it works on the intended targets (the Toa Kaita), so as far as the lore is concerned everything’s fine. Makuta’s second effect allows him to leave the stage and return to the position of the evil power pulling the strings behind the Rahi invasion, where the size of the Rahi he can bring out is dependent on your GY setup to go with the general GY-based nature of Makuta.

Completing the trio is Mangaia, Lair of Makuta. This Field Spell lays the groundwork for Makuta’s big entrance with a search on activation and with an effect that simultaneously sets up the GY and makes your opponent’s monsters into suitable targets for the incoming mass bounce. It even goes as far as preventing any negations against Makuta, for there is no stopping him within his own domain. Finally, this card of course has a GY effect, in this case simply adding itself back to the hand forcibly by destroying a Spell/Trap on the field.

Fun fact to close this out: The Island’s Dark Tyrant is more of a Rahi support card than a Makuta support card, but the Type and Level of the Tokens it Summons are actually based on the Ritual Monster seen above – hence the name “Rahi Overlord Token”. The matching Level means you can simply Tribute a single one of these Tokens for Makuta’s Ritual Summon, so I guess there is some incidental synergy.

Conclusion

At this point, Makuta is not yet an archetype and instead just a single small engine that helps out GY-centric Rahi builds with a powerful, but situational removal effect and immediate access to almost every monster in the deck. An example of the cards being incorporated that way can be found in the 60 Card Graverahi decklist from the BCOR release.