Toa Nuva – Bionicle YGOPro Expansion

Release: Emergence

Those who read the previous release post to the very end already know what should be in this one, and in a miraculous alignment of planning and execution, that also happens to be what is in this one: The remaining Toa Nuva, and a card that provides recursion in order to let you Fusion Summon on your opponent’s turn as well, as Spright Elf once did. Now, let us see what has emerged from the hidden pool of Energized Protodermis.

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Some concepts for Toa Nuva decks can be found over here. Release notes below.

New Cards

Nuva Emergence

Trap

Fusion Summon 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by shuffling the Fusion Materials listed on it into the Deck, from among your hand, GY and/or face-up banished cards. If your opponent controls a monster, you can also banish 1 monster from your Deck as Fusion Material. During the Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, except “Nuva Emergence”, then discard 1 card. You can only use each effect of “Nuva Emergence” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Starting off, the title and cover card of this release is precisely the aforementioned upgrade of our fusion capabilities: Nuva Emergence. By default, it lets you fuse by shuffling materials back into the Deck, but if you wait for your opponent to have a monster first, you can also flip the script and banish one of the materials from your Deck – potentially even an Energized Protodermis Chamber that then acts as free removal as well.

The ability to do that is why I initially didn’t want to make this yet another cheap fuse-from-deck card, but the math just didn’t work out that way, so as a compromise it now lets you conditionally get just one of the two materials from there. That means you can recycle the Chamber from the Toa Nuva made turn 1 to make a different one turn 2, or recycle the Toa Mata to make the same one and trigger a fresh Chamber, or get both a different Toa Nuva and a Chamber trigger if you’ve managed to set up an additional Toa Mata as material somehow. Fairly reasonable tradeoffs that give you a surprising amount of flexibility.

Later on, the Nuva Emergence can also be banished from the GY to do the same search-and-discard all the Toa Nuva do on Fusion Summon, and while you can’t directly get another copy, you can do it indirectly via some updated Kanohi Nuva, as we’ll see a bit further down. This way, we have the issue of repeatability somewhat covered as well.

In the meantime, the remaining two Toa Nuva join the team with effects following the usual pattern. Almost.

Toa Nuva Pohatu

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | EARTH Warrior | ATK 2800 / DEF 2100

“Toa Mata Pohatu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can destroy Spells/Traps your opponent controls, up to the number of Rock monsters you control +1. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Pohatu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Pohatu Nuva is just a straightforward upgrade of his Mata form , replacing the Trigger Effect to destroy a Spell/Trap (and another if you control a Rock) with an unconditional Quick Effect to destroy a Spell/Trap (and as many more as you control Rocks). Subtle differences, but they provide powerful advantages.

Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Pohatu” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. If a monster(s) is Special Summoned, and you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand or GY. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, then Tribute 1 non-Fusion Monster.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

The Nuva Symbol of Granite Tenacity provides one way to assemble the Rocks needed to really take this effect over the top, by giving you a Level 4 or lower Special Summon from hand or GY whenever anyone Special Summons (if you have a Toa Nuva). This extends to all monsters in the Level range and doesn’t negate effects or anything, so you can also use it to bring out anything from starters to extenders to a bit of extra battle damage – Pohatu is a sociable guy, after all. However, the loss of elemental power upon removal of the Nuva Symbol will force you to Tribute a monster instead, with Fusions being exempt because lore-wise the Toa Nuva does have to stay around in its negated state.

You might notice the direct synergy between the effects of Pohatu and his Nuva Symbol is relatively thin, and indeed I have been considering an additional portion of Pohatu Nuva’s effect that summons a Rock Token when you e.g. destroy a face-up card. That would not only give you a built-in ramp to reach a higher number of pops, but also provide a trigger for Granite Tenacity to do its thing. But in testing, Pohatu just kind of seemed good enough already that it felt hard to justify the significant amount of extra text a Token would have brought with it, so for now the effect remains short and crispy.

Great Kanohi Kakama Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. If the equipped monster is a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, it can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. it. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, the monsters you currently control can attack directly this turn, but if they do so using this effect, their ATK is halved during damage calculation only.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

The Kakama Nuva is our first special case here, because it is one in the lore as well: This Kanohi Nuva alone provides not only a strengthened and shareable form of the power it had before its transformation, but also an entirely new ability of phasing through solid objects. Accordingly, the on-field effect has remained identical to the base Kakama , but the bonus effect it can grant from the GY instead lets your monsters attack directly. The halved ATK when doing so proved absolutely necessary to not make winning way too easy, and implementing it revealed to me that almost all the direct-attack cards in EDOPro are coded wrong since they don’t let you select which of multiple stacked effects of that type to use on a specific attack. At least Cyberdark Edge does it right.

Also don’t overlook that this card’s GY effect Sets a Trap rather than placing a Continuous Spell. That new feature was added to several Kanohi Nuva so that you can easily access and loop Nuva Emergence (or, more rarely, the Nuva Cube ).

Toa Nuva Kopaka

Fusion Effect MonsterLevel 8 | WATER Warrior | ATK 2400 / DEF 2900

“Toa Mata Kopaka” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. Once per turn, during the Main Phase, if you control no other monsters (Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish it. While this card is in face-up Defense Position, your opponent’s monsters cannot target other monsters for attacks, also your opponent cannot target other cards you control with card effects.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

In the case of Kopaka Nuva, we leave the regular upgrade patterns aside pretty much immediately. Granted, Kopaka Mata had a similarly nonstandard sword-and-shield effect setup going, so obviously translating that requires a different approach.

For the “sword”, we still banish (freeze), but now it can be used freely as long as Kopaka is working alone … and isn’t non-targeting against all cards any more, because that would be a bit broken when it’s so much easier to use.

For the “shield”, the condition is still being in Defense Position, and the effect is still preventing your other monsters from being attacked. Oh, and your other cards from being targeted. One might suggest this could be toxic when combined with various floodgates, and I am not legally required to respond to these allegations. Don’t worry, it’s totally just for the Nuva Symbols.

Notably, the effect to change to Defense Position (and thus make your other cards untargetable) after battle was dropped to save space, as it isn’t really all that necessary on a Fusion Monster that can be summoned in defense to begin with anyway. It does make attacking with Kopaka Nuva a serious investment that leaves you unguarded for a turn, but for how broad the protection is that’s probably fair.

Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity

Continuous Spell

You can shuffle this card you control into the Deck; add 1 “Toa Mata Kopaka” from your Deck to your hand, or reveal it in your hand and add 1 “Energized Protodermis” card instead. If a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control leaves the field because of an opponent’s card: You can banish 1 card from your opponent’s hand (at random) or their field. You can only use each of the preceding effects of “Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity” once per turn. If this card leaves the field: Target 1 “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control; negate its effects, and if you do, your opponent can add 1 of their banished cards to their hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

The Nuva Symbol of Frigid Serenity then answers the remaining question of “but what if they go after Kopaka since they can’t target anything else?”. If that happens, or generally if your opponent dares remove a Toa Nuva, they’ll find themselves on the receiving end of a true non-targeting banish. And this one can even reach the hand, just so it still works if they drop a Kaiju right away. Unfortunately this does not help you recover your lost monster in any way, so it can almost feel a bit underpowered at times. But boy is it fun to swap it in with a Nuva Cube at the right moment.

The punish for letting this symbol get removed is, aside from the usual negate, an opportunity for your opponent to add back a banished card. The impact of which ranges from nothing to devastating depending on whether or not Pot of Desires previously resolved on their side. That’s right, face-down banished cards are also allowed.

Great Kanohi Akaku Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While equipped to a “Nuva” Fusion Monster you control, your opponent must keep their hand revealed. If this card is sent to the GY, and you have not activated any “Kanohi” Equip Spell effects in the GY this turn: You can banish 1 monster from your GY; Set 1 “Nuva” Trap directly from your Deck, also if you control a “Nuva” Fusion Monster, look at your opponent’s hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Finally, the Akaku Nuva also deviates from the norm in its GY effect, but this time not because of the lore but because I could not come up with any way (that’s not horribly convoluted) to grant your entire field the power of revealing the opponent’s hand. Instead, it’s just a one-and-done hand reveal you get along with your Trap if a Toa Nuva is present. This card is also missing the banishing part of the base Akaku , because a) pretty hard to find the space for that, b) I think we’ve been doing quite enough banishing over here already, and c) just the information by itself is enough to make it worthwhile when every Toa Nuva can trigger it on summon.

Updated

The updates this time are numerous, but easily explained. You know how the Toa Nuva previously all said “You can only use each effect […] once per turn”? That says “this effect” now. That’s it. That’s the update. Check the sweet version selection dropdown I can enable in card blocks now.

Tahu
Gali
Onua
Lewa

Tahu

Toa Nuva Tahu

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

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. If your opponent controls a monster (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Gali

Toa Nuva Gali

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

“Toa Mata Gali” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up monster on the field; negate its effects until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Gali” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Onua

Toa Nuva Onua

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

“Toa Mata Onua” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 card in either GY; place it on the top or bottom of the Deck, then gain 1000 LP. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Onua” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Lewa

Toa Nuva Lewa

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

“Toa Mata Lewa” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster on the field; return it to the hand, then, if it was a monster you controlled, you can return 1 additional monster on the field to the hand. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Lewa” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

Okay but why do we suddenly not want the search effects to be HOPT anymore? Multiple reasons for that, but I’ll be honest, the main one is that Kopaka Nuva already has a lot of words and can get away without a HOPT clause if we do that. I strongly doubt this can enable any serious abuse since you can use this exact same effect on 6 different names anyway (7 if we count Emergence), and the discard means it doesn’t even plus you – unless you weave in a Kanohi Nuva, which are collectively HOPT in their own right.

Oh, and apparently I totally forgot to put a little update Tahu Nuva got into the overview image. His effect to drain ATK now only works if the opponent controls a monster, which is my solution to how easy it was to OTK into an emtpy field by draining your own monster in the middle of the Battle Phase. Tahu may be a hothead at the expense of his own allies sometimes, but probably not so much in cases where there isn’t even an enemy in front of him.

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

The tweak for the Pakari Nuva is technically a regression to a detail of its AoE ATK boosting effect from several versions ago, namely that it lasts through your opponent’s turn even if it was activated on yours. This is sort of a consequence of the Kanohi Nuva being split into Spell searchers and Trap searches, with one criterion being that the Spell ones ( Hau , Kaukau , Pakari) should have bonus effects more useful on your opponent’s turn and the Trap ones (Kakama, Akaku, Miru ) on yours. But there are other factors such as balancing things between Attributes, and through those the Miru with its targeting protection effect ended up split from Hau and Kaukau with their battle and effect protection. So to counterbalance that little mixup, the Pakari got similarly tweaked so its bonus effect works no matter whose turn you activate it on. Not sure that really makes sense, but it seems to go well in practice.

And with that we’ve also taken care of everything I wanted to say about the Miru Nuva, which only got changed to a Trap searcher and remained the same otherwise. Allow me to close this article with another fancy version-selectable card block.

Great Kanohi Miru Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

If you’ve gotten addicted to dropdowns, I can warmly recommend our shiny new card viewer page (that you may already have seen behind the hoverable card links, which are also a thing that exists now). It has EVEN MORE DROPDOWNS!!1!

Until next time.

Deck Idea(s): Things You Can Do With Toa Nuva

Back when the Toa Mata first (or second, if you want to be technical) assembled in card form, I put together a few different builds to help get a handle on how they could be played and how to approach the remaining support. With the newest release, that time has come for the Toa Nuva.

This can also be considered a follow-up to the deck featuring Isolde and Spright Elf that has been included in recent versions. Or rather, the experimentation documented here started mainly because that particular deck was ruined once Elf got banned, which is why the first ideas still resemble it pretty closely

For a quick overview and duel footage of each deck, you can also check out the video.

Watch this video on YouTube

Toa Nuva: Beyond the Elf

Spright Cope Nuva

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

This is the same convoluted Elf replacement I came up with in the previous release already, but to briefly reiterate: Isolde plus a Level 2 Warrior summoned with her effect makes Gigantic Spright, which summons Spright Jet, which searches Spright Double Cross, which revives Chamber on the next turn for another Fusion Summon. Unfortunately you need an extra monster to do your first Fusion Summon and set up said Chamber via Energized Protodermis Destiny , so the Warrior you bring out is ideally Hafu while another Level 2 Warrior is already in the GY.

Such conditions as well as the various bricks you need to play make this approach pretty clumsy and you’re probably better off just playing triple Emergence . This particular build is here mostly for historical reasons.

As with most decks of this form, you can pretty much play any assortment of Mata/Nuva you want along with their matching symbols. The Kanohi Nuva are similarly exchangable, but you should make sure to always have a Spell searcher and a Trap searcher (unless you e.g. forgo Nuva Symbols entirely). For a 40 card deck, four Toa seems to be the most that can really be fit in – here Gali, Kopaka, Lewa, Onua, but it could be any other four. I even awkwardly shoved a whole Pohatu package into the side deck to potentially swap if needed.

2 Attributes Nuva

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=13771135

Here’s what it looks like if you just play triple Emergence, with the extra twist that our four Toa Nuva are limited to two Attributes, WATER and EARTH. This doesn’t do anything other than make it marginally more likely you might be able to Tribute Summon a Toa Mata at some point, but it’s a nice way to identify the deck. Irrespective of that, this arrangement of Toa just happens to be pretty decent since it offers monster negation , GY control and recycling , Spell/Trap removal , and monster removal and blanket protection .

The Extra Deck also features some minor, but impactful tweaks compared to older builds, namely double Onua to be extra sure your Toa Nuva stay in rotation and Underworld Goddess to deal with monsters that resist everything else we can do.

60 Cards Nuva

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=12179095

If 40 cards fit four Toa Nuva, then it is only logical that 60 cards would fit all six. And for the rest of the slots, we might as well include a bunch of Toa Mata support since we need to play those anyway. So the basic idea behind this deck that mostly operates along the standard combo lines, but occasionally can also do a whole bunch of other neat things that are best explained via reference to the Toa Mata Theme Guide.

In the spirit of being fancy, I’ve even included Energized Protodermis Flow without so much as an Instant Fusion, so if you ever open with two Chambers you can turn them into an Extra Deck rip and eventually a Fusion from the GY. That’s one less way to brick at least, shouldn’t hurt when the deck is 60 cards thick.

EARTH Pile Nuva

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=13771160

Wait, what’s this? Where are the Isolde combos? Well, dear reader, this is a deck that makes use not of the Warrior type, but of the EARTH Attribute. Vernusylphs let us search and send Ishizu millers and shufflers to promptly fill up and curate the GY, modern Naturias provide a repeatable combo line, and Emergence lets us recycle materials amidst all of that to make Toa Nuva for even more GY control or just to pop some cards. Also Kashtira Fenrir is here.

Aside from the various engines doing their thing, I would like to draw attention to the fact that Energized Protodermis Flow is here with Instant Fusion this time. Since it’s Level 4, we can use it to overlay into Gallant Granite and search Nemeses Keystone, which is an extender if you have a banished monster (shufflers make this easy) and recycles itself if it’s banished e.g. by a Kanohi Nuva. Once you manage to resolve Emergence with this setup, that essentially means a Special Summon of a Rock each turn, which is pretty powerful with Pohatu Nuva and Granite Tenacity . Or you can just put up a Barrier Statue. You know, for those among us who enjoy “”fun””.

Kopaka’s Bad Day

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=13771179

Speaking of “”fun””, this one is what I came up with trying to abuse the fact that controlling exactly a single Kopaka Nuva in Defense Position translates to a monster banish every turn while all your backrow is untargetable.

Foolish Burial Goods, Ice Barrier, and maybe Trap Trick help you set up what you need to make the icy dude, while There Can Be Only One and Summon Limit act as the best floodgates we can hide behind the protection without interfering with it. Ko-Koro complements that as a one-sided effect negate and protection for Kopaka so long as we don’t use his activated banish effect. What’s still missing from the equation is a way to win the game while ideally keeping Kopaka in Defense Position, and there Cauldron of the Old Man and Amano-Iwato come in. The former fits in perfectly as backrow, while the latter can be summoned on your turn after using up the OPT banish, attack for some damage, and go back to the hand in the End Phase so your banish is live once again.

So is it good? Not really, setting up Kopaka Nuva is actually pretty hard when you don’t want there to be any other monsters on the field at the end of it, and even then you instantly lose to standard board wipes like Harpie’s Feather Duster and Lightning Storm unless you lucked into drawing exactly The Huge Revolution Is Over. But this failure in deckbuilding is perhaps indicative of a success in design, since apparently Kopaka’s unrestricted targeting protection isn’t that easily abusable after all. Or maybe I just tried to hard to also make the banish work, and setting up a bunch of toxic monsters alongside him would be the way to go.

Takeaways

Unlike the case of the Toa Mata, this exploration of the deck space was not really meant to inspire the design of future support as much as it was checking how the potential of the current cards can be unleashed. Still, I suppose it might be useful to consolidate the experience into a few useful points.

The shared HOPT on all the Kanohi Nuva GY effects is the biggest limiting factor to how much you can pop off, and makes it absolutely crucial to Fusion Summon on as many turns as possible. The newly added Nuva Emergence has proven to be the best and most splashable way to do so.
Isolde is a powerful setup tool, but kind of railroads you into playing a lot of Warriors. Other strategies are well worth exploring.
I wonder what you’d play in WATER Pile Nuva …

Theme Guide: Energized Protodermis (BPEV)

I guess I should get around to this one before it slips my mind again, huh.

Welcome to the very first Theme Guide featuring BPEV cards, specifically the mystery substance that is secretly the root cause of just about the whole Bionicle lore: Energized Protodermis.

This shiny silver liquid had its first appearance at the end of 2002 and immediately exhibited its strange properties by transforming the Toa Mata into the Toa Nuva when they came in contact with it. As the story went on, we also learnt that it will destroy anything that does not have a destiny to transform, that the substance is in fact sapient, and finally that its discovery on the ancient planet Spherus Magna was what ultimately led to the Core War, The Shattering, and the creation of the Matoran Universe as a whole. So yeah, it’s kinda important.

But as we still remain on the island of Mata Nui, what matters for now is its basic ability to transform those who are destined and destroy all others. Hence its current implementation as a small, simple archetype revolving around two key phrases – “Fusion Summon” and “send it to the GY”.

Energized Protodermis Chamber

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

If only your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and 1 monster in your hand as material. If this card is used as material for a Fusion Summon, except by its own effect: Target 1 Special Summoned monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

Both of them can immediately be seen in our sole Main Deck monster, Energized Protodermis Chamber. When Normal or Special Summoned (the latter of which it inherently allows you to do against established boards), it fuses with exactly 1 monster in your hand, and when fused by any effect except that one, it has a mandatory Trigger Effect to send a Special Summoned monster from the field to the GY.

Let’s unpack that bit by bit. The main effect is obviously the one that performs a Fusion Summon, and the idea is to “induce transformations” by Energized Protodermis to turn the monster in your hand into its upgraded form from the Extra Deck. This paradigm is currently implemented on the Toa Nuva, represented below by their glorious leader.

Toa Nuva Tahu

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.4.4)

That, of course, is an entirely separate archetype that just incorporates Energized Protodermis by design, but what’s relevant for this guide is just the first line with the Fusion Materials: A specifically named Toa Mata, plus any “Energized Protodermis” monster. This is how we represent the destined transformations – if exactly the correct individual comes into contact with Energized Protodermis, a new being will be born. Also keep in mind that Toa Mata are Level 6 monsters, so Chamber taking the other material from the hand specifically saves you a Tribute Summon.

The other half of Energized Protodermis is that it will destroy those not destined to transform by it, and this is represented in a slightly roundabout way by the mandatory effect sending a monster to the GY. The idea is that “forcibly” using it as Fusion Material is a violation of destiny, and so the destruction kicks in, eliminating a Special Summoned monster such as the one you just Fusion Summoned. Or, and this is pure bullshit for gameplay convenience, you can also hit any other Special Summoned monster including your opponent’s, so this drawback can be twisted into a major advantage if you play your cards right. It will just sometimes give you trouble when going first. And even though I say “destruction”, it’s implemented as non-destruction removal because of how almost nothing can resist it in-universe.

Funnily enough, as long as you use Chamber’s own effect to fuse, it has no problem whatsoever with making things that aren’t lore-accurate, destiny-conforming transformations. In fact, any Fusion is fair game as long as this particular Level 2 LIGHT Aqua monster is valid material for it, including quite a few pretty significant boss monsters from existing archetypes. That freedom is the main thing allowing us to mix Energized Protodermis with a lot of things other than just the Toa Mata/Nuva.

An additional option you have, at least under somewhat specific conditions, is the archetype’s own Fusion Monster: Energized Protodermis Flow.

Energized Protodermis Flow

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

While 2 monsters from the archetype is normally a really easy and generic material requirement, that’s not so true when the archetype currently only has a single Main Deck monster. Basically, Chamber + Chamber is your only means to bring this out, which won’t come up outside of very specific situations.

If it does, though, one of the Chambers would be fused away by an external effect, hence triggering its mandatory effect to send a monster on the field to the GY. Ideally this is aimed at your opponent’s side as removal, but Flow is also built to take a little advantage of the cases where no targets other than itself are available, since it will then proceed to relay the archetypal “send to GY” to the opponent’s Extra Deck. Also, it can be used to Fusion Summon from the GY, which technically works even if it wasn’t on the field before (but it’s kind of hard to usefully mill a 0 ATK monster from the Extra Deck).

To walk back that earlier statement a little, there are a few other ways to make this monster. It’s Level 4, so Instant Fusion works, and the effect to send from the opponent’s Extra Deck will then trigger in the End Phase even if you don’t have a way to e.g. Link it off more quickly. Or you could use the final card currently included in the archetype.

Energized Protodermis Destiny

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)🎉

Energized Protodermis Destiny is the entire transformation/destruction dynamic on which all the effects are based, encapsulated into one neat little Quick-Play Spell.

When you activate this card, you take the role of a Great Being shortly before everything went to shit and conduct an experiment with a little sample of Energized Protodermis in the form of a Token. If the unwitting guinea pig you targeted at activation has a destiny to transform, you can carry out that transformation with a Fusion Summon, limited to Defense Position because this works in the Battle Phase. Otherwise, your only option is to send the target to the GY, but in order to study the strange substance more closely (and still benefit in some way), you can then trade your Token for an actual Energized Protodermis monster in your Deck. Which, notably, will trigger Chamber, so under the right circumstances both options secretly say “Fusion Summon”.

Sample Decks

Aside from the straightforward Toa Nuva deck that will be covered in its own guide eventually, you have a couple interesting build options that take advantage of Energized Protodermis and its particular characteristics.

One example I’ve worked out in detail and tested is Pure Energized Protodermis Shaddoll Invoked (P.E.P.S.I).

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=12382564

The key synergy lies in El Shaddoll Construct and Invoked Mechaba having a generic LIGHT material that can be covered by an Energized Protodermis monster, so Chamber + a Shaddoll or Aleister is a hand that makes the respective boss monster in basically a single move. This is especially valuable with the Shaddolls, since it gives you an additional way to send them to the GY and trigger their effects, but on the Invoked side too, having an alternative to the classic combo helps you bait out and play through more things. That’s especially true going second, where you’ll usually be able to Special Summon Chamber and then, should it get negated, just follow up with an unhindered Normal Summon of Aleister to make Mechaba anyway.

Another way the archetypes line up is in the Fusion Spells: Shaddoll Fusion can use materials from the Deck under certain conditions, and Invocation from the GY. That gives you two extremely efficient ways of triggering the mandatory effect on Energized Protodermis Chamber in order to poke a hole in a board of Special Summoned monsters. And since the timing at which it triggers is sharead with the Fusion Summon itself, having Magical Meltdown active will render your opponent unable to respond to this threat.

Finally, we also have Energized Protodermis Flow summonable by Chamber + Chamber, Destiny targeting Chamber, or plain old Instant Fusion. You can get this into the GY at your leisure using Gravity Controller, where it can then create the aforementioned Fusions practically ex nihilo … and also Invoked Augoeides, because as it turns out a Fusion in the GY is still a Fusion.

To take proper advantage of both Shaddoll Fusion and Chamber’s S E N D, this deck tries to go second, which also enables the use of powerful board breakers including Forbidden Droplet and Super Polymerization.

If you lean just a little further into the Bionicle aspect and also add just a smidgen of Toa Nuva to this formula, you obtain another similar recipe that is no longer Pure, but rather Protodermically Energized Nuva Invoked Shaddoll. You’re not getting an acronym for this one.

https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=12383388

Of course, Tahu and Onua here could be any other pair of Toa, or even just one to leave a little more space. Either way, there really isn’t much difference to the PEPSI deck – in fact a lot of the time you’re just doing Invoked/Shaddoll stuff and that’s enough to last you a whole game. But the occasional chance you get to bring out a Toa Nuva does feel nice, as does sometimes being able to search your Energized Protodermis cards via Nuva Symbols. While it’s nowhere near as good as a proper Nuva deck and fitting in all the necessary cards is a real struggle, it’s another option to play around with for some fun.

I previously compiled some footage of these two builds into the Best of Test: Energized Protodermis video, as seen below.

Watch this video on YouTube

Best of Test: Energized Protodermis

Beyond that, there’s some more ideas that could be worth exploring in the future. In a similar vein to Shaddoll, Albion is a Fusion with a generic LIGHT material and Branded Fusion a compatible Fusion Spell using materials from the Deck, so some kind of Branded pile going second could make real good use of Chamber.

Or, to go even more modern, you could follow the Type instead of the Attribute and put Chamber to work as the Aqua material of Tearlaments Kitkallos. Probably not particularly optimal in that Deck since it’s a) useless when milled and b) won’t trigger its removal effect if shuffled back into the Deck as material, but perhaps it could to some degree serve as additional copies of Instant Fusion. Maybe even a replacement in a hypothetical future where that card is banned. Sure, it takes another Tearlaments monster to work, but that monster’s effect would then also trigger to Fusion Summon at least Rulkallos, ~~in the process triggering Kitkallos to mill 5,~~^{I may have managed to forget how Tear fusion effects work in the span of 2 sentences here} and holy hell it’s already sounding insane. Might have to try this after all.

Conclusion

Energized Protodermis a substance whose central property is that, upon contact, it transforms those who are destined and destroys those who are not. Translated to cards, this becomes a small Fusion engine whose main monster is a combination of Fusion Spell and material, meant to be merged with certain specific monsters in order to fulfill their destiny of evolution. Meanwhile, fusing it by external means will cause a violent destructive reaction that sends a Special Summoned monster from the field to the GY – potentially an opponent’s monster, so what is a liability going first can be utilized as a weapon going second.

In addition to the currently intended use case with the Toa Nuva, Energized Protodermis can be splashed into a variety of Fusion decks, the one condition being that some purple card in the Extra Deck can use exactly Energized Protodermis Chamber as material. In such a hybrid, the base strategy is enhanced with not only an additional way to Fusion Summon, but also with the potential of targeting non-destruction removal tied to its own Fusion Spells.

Release: Symbols of Power

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

Download for EDOPro

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

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

Gali

Toa Nuva Gali

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Toa Mata Gali

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

Lewa

Toa Nuva Lewa

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Toa Mata Lewa

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

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

Bionicle: Coming of the Toa (v3.21.6)

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

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

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

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

Gali
Lewa

Gali

Nuva Symbol of Flowing Harmony

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Lewa

Nuva Symbol of Soaring Vitality

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

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

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

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

Gali
Lewa

Gali

Great Kanohi Kaukau Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

Lewa

Great Kanohi Miru Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

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

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

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

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

Nuva Cube

Continuous Trap

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

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

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

Updated

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

4.1.3
4.2.5

4.1.3

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

4.2.5

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

4.1.3
4.2.5

4.1.3

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

4.2.5

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

4.1.3
4.2.5

4.1.3

Toa Nuva Tahu

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

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

4.2.5

Toa Nuva Tahu

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

“Toa Mata Tahu” + 1 “Energized Protodermis” monster
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand, then discard 1 card. (Quick Effect): You can target 1 other face-up Attack Position monster on the field; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK, until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of “Toa Nuva Tahu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

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

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

4.1.3
4.2.5

4.1.

Energized Protodermis Flow

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

4.2.5

Energized Protodermis Flow

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.2.5)

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

3.20.4
4.2.5

3.20.4

Matoran Guard Captain Jala

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v3.20.4)

4.2.5

Matoran Guard Captain Jala

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

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

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.2.5)

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

Deck Idea: Toa Nuva ft. Link-2 Enablers

As of version 4.2.5, 4 out of 6 Toa Nuva have been implemented, accompanied by their Nuva Symbols and Kanohi Nuva. That’s not quite enough to make a final Theme Guide just yet, but in testing these cards, I’ve come up with a pretty interesting build that seems to make pretty good use of them.

The core idea of this deck relies on a few convenient properties of the Nuva-related cards: Kanohi Nuva search Nuva Symbols when sent to the GY, Nuva Symbols can search any Energized Protodermis card if you already have the matching Toa in hand, and Energized Protodermis Chamber just so happens to be Level 2.

Energized Protodermis Chamber

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

The consequence is that any combo that makes Isolde will be able to search you Energized Protodermis Destiny (because she adds a Toa Mata on summon, and the Kanohi Nuva sent to GY as cost for her other effect can get the matching Nuva Symbol), which in turn can send one of your monsters to the GY and get Chamber from the Deck, triggering its effect to fuse with the Toa Mata searched by Isolde. And by linking into Spright Elf (Isolde is valid material for this!), you can bring back the Chamber every Main Phase to make additional Toa Nuva as long as you have a Toa Mata in your hand. Which is usually going to be the case when Toa Nuva search Nuva Symbols on summon, and Nuva Symbols search Toa Mata.

The Deck

… comes in two flavours – a 40 card version optimized for consistency, containing pretty much just the bare minimum to make the combo work, and a more bricky 60 card version that also takes advantage of various Toa Mata support cards.

Compact 40 card version

The combo is facilitated either by Neo Space Connector (summoning Aqua Dolphin) or by Kopeke (searching Taipu or Tamaru, potentially also returning a garnet to the deck). As outlined above, you make Isolde one way or another, add a Toa Mata to your hand (usually the one whose Nuva form you want to make), and send some number of Kanohi Nuva to your GY to Special Summon a Warrior monster (my preference is Taipu or Tamaru, depending on what has already been used). One of those Kanohi Nuva will then be able to trigger and place a Nuva Symbol from your Deck in your Spell & Trap Zone, and by getting one that matches a Toa Mata in your hand, you will be able to search Energized Protodermis Destiny.

Next, you use Isolde and the Warrior you summoned as material for Spright Elf and immediately activate it to bring back any Level 2 from your GY. Activate Destiny targeting that Level 2 monster, send it to the GY, Special Summon Energized Protodermis Chamber from your Deck, and Fusion Summon your first Toa Nuva. All of them have the effect to add a “Nuva” Spell/Trap and discard 1 on Fusion Summon, so if you can spare a card from your hand, you can get a Kanohi Nuva, a Nuva Symbol, or the Nuva Cube depending on your needs at that particular moment. And with Spright Elf on the field and Energized Protodermis Chamber in the GY, you are ready to bring out yet another Toa Nuva as soon as your opponent’s Main Phase rolls around. Furthermore, since the collective once per turn clause on the Kanohi Nuva will have reset by that point, the search and discard lets you put another Nuva Symbol on the field immediately, and since you control a Toa Nuva, you even get a nice little buff for your whole field along the way.

All currently implemented Toa Nuva are included in this Deck, but Gali and Lewa are slightly prioritized as our main disruption providers with a monster negate and a bounce, respectively. We run one of each Kanohi Nuva and Nuva Symbol to have a variety of benefits available, but realistically you could easily cut a few Kanohi Nuva – without a Suva, they’re mostly used for searching, and Kopeke putting a card back in the deck means Isolde will be live even if you happen to draw all of them. The Nuva Cube helps you dodge removal on your Nuva Symbols to escape their adverse effects, while granting you benefits including a quick swap to another Symbol and a Spell/Trap negate depending on how many of the Symbols you have gathered.

A great feature of this Deck I would like to point out is how well it lines up for Small World searches. Practically any monster you can draw has a bridge into all the others, be it starters, extenders, or handtraps. This is largely made possible by the fact that we play Neo Space Connector and a single copy of Fire Flint Lady, both of which share exactly the Warrior Type with all of the Matoran and Toa (except the Lady/Tahu pairing). This excellent consistency boost is more or less the only reason Connector is even in the deck over Takua (who wouldn’t need any additional bricks).

The Extra Deck has Xyz lines for Rank 2 (Matoran) and 8 (Toa Nuva) as well as a Zeus, none of which ever came up. Almiraj is a way you can trigger Kanohi searches from awkward positions, letting you still get to Destiny and therefore a Toa Nuva provided you have a Toa Mata in hand already. As for the Side Deck, a pretty funny detail is that Nibiru Tributes by effect and would therefore trigger a Nuva Symbol of Soaring Vitality if you activate it while already having an established board. Again, never came up.

Fancy 60 card version

This version is built on the same core as the other one, but uses the additional 20 cards of space on some fun things. First and foremost, that means redundancy on the remaining Toa Mata and a slew of their classic support cards: Kini-Nui lets you easily access a Rank 6 or Isolde if you draw 2 different Toa Mata, the Suva lets you actually easily equip Kanohi to Mata and Nuva alike, the Suva Kaita can bring back Mata from the GY as well as any Toa that is banished, and Coming of the Toa lets you get up to 3 Toa Mata straight from the Deck. Depending on your luck, Call of the Toa Stones can set all of that up, and Quest for the Masks allows you to get a bit more value out of all those Kanohi.

To keep some amount of consistency, Takua was included as an additional starter. If Normal Summoned, he offers another guaranteed way to get Taipu or Tamaru onto the field, which translates to a full Isolde combo. Still, the overall amount of playable hands you open in 60 cards is obviously going to be less than in 40.

In the Extra Deck, the Xyz package has been replaced by one each of the Toa Mata Combinations, which actually are quite useful if you go through a line with Kini-Nui, Coming of the Toa, and/or Suva Kaita. A spicy detail set up long, long ago is that Storm does not prevent using the monsters it summons from the Deck as fusion material, so Destiny can totally upgrade one of those into a Toa Nuva. The deck also includes Instant Fusion and Energized Protodermis Flow, which gives you the option to make Toa Nuva via the GY and also mess with your opponent’s Extra a little.

Sample Video

Includes a duel in EDOPro, as well as a little walkthrough of the base combo in Duelingbook.

Watch this video on YouTube

Toa Nuva ft. Link-2 Enablers

Release: Energized

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

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

Watch this video on YouTube

Best of Test: Energized Protodermis

Now, design notes.

New Cards

Energized Protodermis Destiny

Quick-Play Spell

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)🎉

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

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

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

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

Energized Protodermis Flow

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

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

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

Toa Nuva Tahu

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

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

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

Nuva Symbol of Burning Courage

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

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

Great Kanohi Hau Nuva

Equip Spell

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

Updated

4.0.4
4.1.3

4.0.4

Energized Protodermis Chamber

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

If only your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and 1 monster in your hand as material. If this card is used as material for a Fusion Summon, except by its own effect: Target 1 monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

4.1.3

Energized Protodermis Chamber

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

4.0.4
4.1.3

4.0.4

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

4.1.3

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

4.0.4
4.1.3

4.0.4

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

4.1.3

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.1.3)

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

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

Release: BPEV First Drafts

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

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

New Cards

Energized Protodermis Chamber

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

If only your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and 1 monster in your hand as material. If this card is used as material for a Fusion Summon, except by its own effect: Target 1 monster on the field; send it to the GY. You can only use this effect of “Energized Protodermis Chamber” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

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

Toa Nuva Onua

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

Nuva Symbol of Deep Wisdom

Continuous Spell

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

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

The End of the Swarm

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

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

Great Kanohi Pakari Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

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

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Sample Duel: Protodermically Energized Nuva Invoked Shaddoll

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

Bohrok Gahlok-Kal

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

2 Level 4 “Bohrok” monsters
Place materials detached from this card on the bottom of the Deck, instead of sending them to the GY. Once per turn: You can attach 1 “Krana” monster from your hand, field, or GY to this card as material. At the start of the Battle Phase: You can detach 1 material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; that target cannot attack until the end of the next turn, also you can equip 1 other monster on the field to it. You can only use this effect of “Bohrok Gahlok-Kal” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

Elite Bohrok require elite Krana, and so we get to the other new Extra Deck lineup, the Krana-Kal.

Krana Ja-Kal, Tracker

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

1 “Bohrok” or “Krana” monster
Cannot be used as Link Material. You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 Level 4 “Bohrok” monster from your hand or GY, but shuffle it into the Deck if it leaves the field. A “Bohrok” Xyz Monster that has this card as material gains this effect.
●Once per turn: You can detach 1 material from this card, then declare 1 card name; your opponent cannot activate cards, or the effects of cards, with that original name, until the end of their turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.0.4)

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

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

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

Watch this video on YouTube

Gahlok-Kal demo

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

Updated

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

3.15.5
4.0.4

3.15.5

Krana Ca, Clearance Worker

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

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

4.0.4

Krana Ca, Clearance Worker

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

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.0.4)

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

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

3.15.5
4.0.4

3.15.5

Premature Bohrok Beacon

Trap

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v3.15.5)

4.0.4

Premature Bohrok Beacon

Trap

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.0.4)

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

Site Updates

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