Release: BPEV – Finalized

What awaits at the end of evolution? This, apparently.

With the aesthetic group shot out of the way, actual readable card images are still found on the BPEV page, or you can watch everything nicely presented in the demo compilation below. I recommend the latter, for one thing it took way more effort to make.

Latest sample decks

(Note: Some decks from previous versions, like the Toa Nuva builds that relied on Isolde, have now been removed.)

Much like the previous set, this finalized release consists of maintenance and cleanup on all the card texts and scripts, including swapping out those auxiliary function calls that got deprecated right as I finished everything else (thanks Edo). Some cards actually got away without any PSCT changes, if you’re curious you can try to find them on the Card Viewer page.

Anyway, that by itself of course doesn’t explain the big version number jump from 4.8.3 to 4.8.6. That part is justified by some last-minute experimentation and functional updates to stuff like the Vahi cards that still needed to cook for a bit – let’s get into the meat.

Updated

4.8.3

Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

Vahi Freeze

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)
4.8.6

Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. The equipped monster cannot attack or activate its effects, also your opponent cannot target it with card effects. If you control the equipped monster: You can add 1 “Vahi” card from your Deck or GY to your hand, except an Equip Spell. You can only use this effect of “Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Vahi Freeze

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

I did mention these weren’t quite there yet by the time of the previous release, so some major restructuring happened in those last few minor versions. In summary, the Vahi itself slimmed down, losing its weirder restrictions to simply become a monster-locking archetype searcher; special thanks to DuDono from the EDOPro Discord for setting me on the right path with that. The new incarnation is somewhat similar to Grief Tablet, including the fact that the effect to search is no longer locked behind an archetype requirement. Instead, that restriction has moved to the time-freezing effect of the search target, because really it makes much more sense to check for proper Kanohi usage qualifications at the point where the actual time powers get used.

Other than that, Vahi Freeze has experienced two significant changes: Its first effect, instead of simply adding the Vahi, equips it directly to a monster, and can even change the equip target of a copy that is already on the field (think Tailor of the Fickle). This adds a ton of versatility, letting you use the lockdown effects as a (fairly weak) form of disruption or shift the burden from one of your monsters to another depending on who you need available. The floating effect that skips your Draw Phase also has a different payoff now, resetting the card itself instead of granting a random draw. By doing so, the problem where the cyclic Vahi “engine” will sometimes run out of gas all on its own has been mostly fixed, and the flavor of it all is much more befitting of a “Freeze” that simply keeps the card on the field and the top card of your Deck out of reach.

The lore element where breaking the Vahi destroys time has been lost in this streamlining, but I’m probably just going to make a new card about that when it actually becomes relevant.

4.6.5

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
4.8.6

Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Some changes are planned in advance, others come up suddenly when you run into a card text that balloons beyond all good sense if outfitted with the final coat of PSCT polish. In this way, the Bohrok-Kal Kaita Ja went back to a version I tested mid-development and deemed “not interesting enough”, where it just banishes 1 card at a time for its it cost and gets the full package of equipping from hand/field while not allowing responses. Realistically, making these Kaita is so convoluted that the buff from this change shouldn’t be an issue, and this way it still works as a looming threat of uncounterable removal you can theoretically make (to defeat Wairuha Nuva , of course).

4.6.5

Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.5.6)
4.8.6

Krana Yo-Kal, Excavator

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

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

A slight change to the Krana Yo-Kal for lore reasons: Instead of its tunneling ability guarding you against all responses while attacking, it only covers monster effects, so that the Bohrok-Kal don’t have a built-in way to escape devastation at the hands of Nuva Overcharge . This was always primarily meant to guard the effects of Pahrak-Kal and Krana Xa-Kal , so keeping those safe from boss monsters that negate activations still mostly accomplishes the mission.

4.1.3

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)
4.8.6

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 you control and 1 monster from 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.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The mandatory effect of Energized Protodermis Chamber has lost its hard once per turn clause, after all the substance isn’t going to stop being destructive just because you already threw something in that turn. This is something of a buff as you can now fuse away multiple in a turn to clear multiple Special Summoned monsters, but that also requires multiple other cards to enable the Fusion Summons and only matters against established boards, so it should be fine. However, the mandatory effect on Flow did maintain its limitation, so no milling out the whole Extra Deck with bullshit loops turn 1.

4.4.4

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)
4.8.6

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 1 Spell/Trap your opponent controls, or up to 2 if you control a Rock monster. You can only use this effect of “Toa Nuva Pohatu” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Another change with credit attached, this time to u/RedRedditReadReads on, well, Reddit. The infinite scaling on Pohatu Nuva’s backrow destruction, while a cool mathematical trick, is kind of overtuned for no reason if you ever manage to make the guy in an actual Rock deck. So I’ve lowered the ceiling to 2 like his Mata form , leaving the benefits of the Nuva upgrade as “only” the free activation timing and the fact that neither card has to be targeted. Good enough, I say.

4.6.5

Great Kanohi Akaku Nuva

Equip Spell

If another “Kanohi” Equip Spell becomes equipped to the equipped monster, destroy this card. While equipped to a “Toa Nuva” 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 “Toa Nuva” monster, look at your opponent’s hand.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
4.8.6

Great Kanohi Akaku Nuva

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

I was always a bit uncomfortable with the Akaku Nuva just casually granting full hand knowledge as the bonus of its GY effect, so during the final tweaks I pulled the trigger and downgraded that a bit, by making it a hand snipe similar to what already existed on the base Akaku . This effectively gives you knowledge of 1 card only, while seeing the rest requires finding a way to properly equip the mask, and in theory it could even take out some kind of handtrap (though that isn’t likely to matter). Note that unlike other bonuses, this one is optional, so you can still get a Trap from Deck even if there’s nothing in your opponent’s hand.

4.6.5

Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 3400 / DEF 2400

3 Level 8 monsters
After this card was Xyz Summoned during your turn using a “Toa” monster as material, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects for the rest of that turn, except during the Main Phase 2 and End Phase. You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
4.8.6

Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | FIRE Warrior | ATK 3400 / DEF 2400

3 Level 8 monsters
You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Akamai, Toa Nuva Kaita of Valor” once per turn. After this card was Xyz Summoned during your turn using a “Toa” monster as material, apply these effects for the rest of that turn, except during the Main Phase 2 and End Phase.
●Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects. ●You cannot Special Summon monsters.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Akamai Nuva, whose concept is basically “Azathot but for beatdown only”, obtained an additional restriction to guard against twisting the idea into more unfun directions. That is, it now also locks its own controller out of Special Summoning for the same duration the opponent’s effects are turned off, so you’re not getting to do any setup combos under that protection. Just search yourself an Aki Nuva , go to battle, and unga that bunga like the dev intended. Use your Normal Summon if you absolutely have to put another body on the field in Main Phase 1, that’s always an option.

4.6.5

Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | WIND Warrior | ATK 3000 / DEF 3000

3 Level 8 monsters
When your opponent activates a card or effect while this card has a “Toa” monster as material (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, you can banish both that card and the top card of either player’s Deck. Then, if you banished 2 different card types (Monster, Spell, Trap), draw 1 card. You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. You can only use 1 “Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.6.5)
4.8.6

Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom

Xyz Effect MonsterRank 8 | WIND Warrior | ATK 3000 / DEF 3000

3 Level 8 monsters
You can detach 1 material from this card; add 1 “Nuva” Spell/Trap from your Deck or GY to your hand. When your opponent activates a card or effect while this card has a “Toa” monster as material (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, then you can banish both that card and the top card of either player’s Deck, and if you banished 2 different card types (Monster, Spell, Trap), draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of “Wairuha, Toa Nuva Kaita of Wisdom” once per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

Wairuha Nuva got a much subtler change of making both of the effects usable in the same turn. I initially didn’t do this because negating a response to a search that can add a card that makes it unaffected felt a bit toxic, but on further consideration, making this with a Toa so it gets the negate requires enough effort and previous disruptable play that you really should be allowed to do that. After all, a properly made Akamai Nuva also guards his own search with the lockdown effect.

4.8.3

Naming Day

Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)
4.8.6

Naming Day

Spell

Target 1 Warrior monster you control; Tribute it, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Warrior monster from your hand or Deck with the same original Attribute that the Tributed monster had on the field, but 1 or 2 Levels higher than its original Level. You can banish this card and 1 Warrior monster from your GY, then target 1 face-up monster you control; its name becomes the banished monster’s name, until the end of your opponent’s turn. You can only activate 1 “Naming Day” per turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

The final card in the set also gets a bit of a fix for its second appearance in a release. Where Naming Day previously had a hard limit to Level 4 or lower, it now instead supports any jump of 1 or 2 Levels; so 1->4 no longer works, but 2->4 and 3->4 are fine, and lots of new options like 4->5 and 6->8 have appeared. The main motiviation for this was a deckbuilding issue I came to notice: If you have Level 4 Warriors you want to Summon with this, they’re probably also good to simply draw and Normal Summon, so you’re going to run multiple copies, and as a mostly unsearchable Spell Card the same is likely true of the Naming Day itself. This then leads to fairly probable situations where your hand has a Level 4 + Naming Day, which is a combination where the Spell does nothing! Now, however, you have the theoretical option to include a 1-of Level 5 or 6 (e.g. a Toa), maybe even a 7 or 8 to build off that, and so on. You might choose not to, but the possibility being there feels good, and the additional targets shouldn’t enable anything too broken considering Transmodify has always been able to do more or less the same for all Types.

4.7.3

Rahi from the Depths

Trap

Target any number of “Rahi” monsters you control; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK/DEF equal to the total ATK of those monsters you control (until the end of this turn), then you can destroy 1 monster your opponent controls with 0 ATK or DEF. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monster from your GY or banishment, but its ATK/DEF become 0. You can only use 1 “Rahi from the Depths” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Rahi from the Depths

Trap

Target any number of “Rahi” monsters you control; all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK/DEF equal to the total ATK of those monsters you control (until the end of this turn), then you can destroy 1 monster your opponent controls with 0 ATK. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua “Rahi” monster from your GY or banishment, but its ATK/DEF become 0. You can only use 1 “Rahi from the Depths” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.6)

For Rahi from the Depths, the destruction option was slightly downgraded to only consider the ATK stat, though it still lowers both ATK and DEF. What I actually wanted to do was “0 ATK and DEF” rather than “or”, so it doesn’t trivially deal with big monsters that happen to not be so big the other way, but then it wouldn’t have worked on Link Monsters at all, so this is how it ended up.

And that’s it for the final tweaks on BPEV! But wait, there’s more. Because the Rahi Update also occured during this development cycle a few months ago, there are additional changes to be reported on that end as well.

4.7.3

Rahi Swarm

Spell

Add up to 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type from your Deck to your hand, then, if you added 2 monsters including an Effect Monster, banish 1 card from your hand, face-down. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up Monster Card you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster with the same Type and an equal or lower Level from your GY. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Rahi Swarm

Spell

Add up to 2 “Rahi” monsters with the same Type, but different names, from your Deck to your hand, then, if you added 2 monsters including an Effect Monster, banish 1 card from your hand, face-down. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, you cannot Pendulum Summon, except “Rahi” monsters. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 face-up Monster Card you control; Special Summon 1 “Rahi” monster with the same Type and an equal or lower Level from your GY. You can only use 1 “Rahi Swarm” effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

The omnipresent search Spell Rahi Swarm was simply outfitted with a Pendulum Summon lock to only Rahi. This does not matter at all in-archetype, but I felt it might be necessary since you can technically add a pair of Normal Pendulums for a generic 1-8 scale at no cost.

4.7.3

Kane-Ra, Bull Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 1/1 | EARTH Beast | ATK 2600 / DEF 2300

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn, if a monster(s) in your possession is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can destroy 1 card in your Pendulum Zone, then Special Summon 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, with a different name from the cards you currently control, and if you do, it gains 1000 ATK until the end of this turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Surprisingly, the Kane-Ra Bull is not a herd animal. Unlike some beasts, it does not require others of its kind for protection.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Kane-Ra, Bull Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 7 | Scale 1/1 | EARTH Beast | ATK 2600 / DEF 2300

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn, if a monster(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can destroy 1 card in your Pendulum Zone, then Special Summon 1 Beast or Winged Beast “Rahi” monster from your hand or GY, with a different name from the cards you currently control, and if you do, it gains 1000 ATK until the end of this turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
Surprisingly, the Kane-Ra Bull is not a herd animal. Unlike some beasts, it does not require others of its kind for protection.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

One of those Normal Pendulums, the Kane-Ra, got the trigger condition of its Pendulum Effect downgraded so it only reacts if a monster on your field is destroyed. This change specifically targets the main intended combo between Kane-Ra and Muaka , where you pop a Rahi to search another one and then Special Summon that right away. Getting to do such a strong play without even needing to invest some kind of Summon just felt like one step too far.

4.7.3

Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 1/1 | WIND Insect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can target 1 face-up monster you control; Special Summon 1 Insect “Rahi” monster with a lower or equal Level from your Deck in Defense Position, also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except Insect monsters. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
A harsh buzz fills the air…a rustle of wings…a dark shape flying out of the sun…the warning signs of a Nui-Rama attack.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi

Normal Pendulum MonsterLevel 5 | Scale 1/1 | WIND Insect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1700

[ Pendulum Effect ]
You can target 1 “Rahi” monster you control; Special Summon 1 Insect “Rahi” monster with a lower or equal Level from your Deck in Defense Position, also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except Insect monsters. You can only use this effect of “Nui-Rama, Fly Rahi” once per turn.
—————————————-
[ Flavor Text ]
A harsh buzz fills the air…a rustle of wings…a dark shape flying out of the sun…the warning signs of a Nui-Rama attack.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

For the Nui-Rama, I believe I already pointed out in the release post that it has no actual reason to let you target any monster for its Insect Summon, so now that’s limited to Rahi.

4.7.3

Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1400 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Synchro Summoned: You can send 1 “Rahi” card from your Deck to the GY; this card gains 500 ATK. You can only use this effect of “Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi” once per turn. You can banish this card until the Standby Phase of your next turn; destroy 1 card on the field.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 3 | WIND Insect | ATK 1400 / DEF 1000

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned, or when this card declares an attack: You can send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the GY; until the end of this turn, this card gains 500 ATK for each “Rahi” card sent to the GY this way. You can only use this effect of “Kirikori-Nui, Locust Rahi” once per turn. You can banish this card until the Standby Phase of your next turn; destroy 1 card on the field.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

What I also previously mentioned is that the Kirikori-Nui sending a card of your choice as cost is a poor design and would be replaced once I think of a good alternative. Well, I thought of one: It sends random cards as cost, and by being able to repeat that when attacking each turn, it highlights the cyclic nature of the locust swarms vanishing, returning, and feeding again and again. Very neat flavor, and doesn’t even lose any of its previous utility if you simply hit the right cards. Get it twisted.

4.7.3

Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 300

If this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck; Special Summon this card, and if you do, you can negate the effects of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi

Tuner Effect MonsterLevel 1 | LIGHT Insect | ATK 600 / DEF 300

If this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck; Special Summon this card, and if you do, you can negate the effects of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls that has activated its effect on the field this turn, until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of “Electric Bug, Zapping Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

The Electric Bug felt ever so slightly overtuned compared to the other handtrap-type Level 1 Insects, being able to just drop a non-targeting negate on your opponent to both disrupt plays and deal with established end board pieces. Now it has been restricted to pretty much only the former use case, through a fancy and unusual condition of only going after monsters that actually activated an effect this turn. You do still have a way to use this against a boss monster if you just bait its activation with something else and then chain the Electric Bug, but that is what I would consider a “banger play” and therefore 100% fine to allow.

4.7.3

Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Reptile | ATK 2200 / DEF 600

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When your opponent activates a card or effect (Quick Effect): You can target 2 face-up monsters on the field, including this card; place them face-up in their owners’ Spell & Trap Zones as Continuous Spells. You can only use this effect of “Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi” once per turn. Once per turn, during the Standby Phase, if this card is a Continuous Spell: You can destroy 1 other Monster Card in a Spell & Trap Zone, and if you do, Special Summon this card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)

Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Reptile | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn: You can destroy up to 2 “Rahi” Monster Cards you control, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Reptile “Rahi” Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level is less than or equal to their total Levels (this is treated as a Synchro Summon), then place it face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card declares an attack: You can inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each Monster Card in your Spell & Trap Zone. If this card is destroyed: You can place 1 Reptile “Rahi” monster from your GY or face-up Extra Deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. You can only use each effect of “Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi” once per turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.7.3)
4.8.6

Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi

Synchro Effect MonsterLevel 4 | FIRE Reptile | ATK 2200 / DEF 600

1 “Rahi” Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters
When your opponent activates a card or effect (Quick Effect): You can target this card you control and 1 other face-up monster on the field or in your GY; place them face-up in their owners’ Spell & Trap Zones as Continuous Spells. You can only use this effect of “Ranama, Lava Lurker Rahi” once per turn. Once per turn, during the Standby Phase, if this card is a Continuous Spell: You can destroy 1 other Monster Card in a Spell & Trap Zone, and if you do, Special Summon this card.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi

Pendulum Effect MonsterLevel 4 | Scale 5/5 | WATER Reptile | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

[ Pendulum Effect ]
Once per turn: You can destroy up to 2 “Rahi” Monster Cards you control, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Reptile “Rahi” Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level is less than or equal to their total Levels (this is treated as a Synchro Summon), then place it face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell.
—————————————-
[ Monster Effect ]
If this card declares an attack: You can inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each Monster Card in your Spell & Trap Zone. If this card is destroyed: You can place 1 face-up Reptile “Rahi” Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck in your Pendulum Zone, also you cannot activate the effects of “Bog Snake, Venomous Rahi” for the rest of this turn.

Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahi (v4.8.6)

Finally, a paired update on the Reptiles: The Ranama got subtly enhanced with the ability to pull monsters from your own GY into the backrow, which provided room to narrow the focus of the Bog Snake’s destruction effect down to placing only Pendulums into the proper Pendulum Zones – something the deck struggled to do before. Of course, when the Snake can destroy itself with its own Pendulum Effect (soft once per turn due to space limitations) and then re-scale itself, that opens up some unfortunate looping potential (well, looping twice), so to address that, I finagled a fresh type of quasi-HOPT that extends from the monster effect to the Pendulum Effect. Notably doesn’t cover the other monster effect that does burn damage, but since it only triggers when attacking, there’s no reasonable fear of FTKs here.

And now we’re actually done.

In Hindsight …

With another milestone cleared, this is a good moment to reflect on my design, testing, and documentation approaches of the past few years. For the most part, things have worked decently well, but there are a few key points where I see room for improvement in future development:

  • Design-wise, I’d like to move away from archetypes that just repeat the same pattern for the six elements. Having a shared structure and maybe some basic common effects is fine, but looking at the trends of modern card design, I feel like I really should be giving each monster more of an individual role in gameplay. This is just a bit tricky from an adaptation standpoint since we’re still in the era of clone sets that didn’t really get much individual story focus, but I’ll be doing my best to figure something out.
  • For testing and documentation, I revised my approach once more while working on the final BPEV showcase video, so next time I really should be at the point where I can just filter each card and pull out the footage I need to put that thing together. But that’s a behind-the-scenes matter anyway.
  • Not being able to make a Best of Test for Toa Nuva and Bohrok-Kal until the very tail end of development (because I spread their cards out all the way) was kind of annoying, so I’ll try to take that into account when planning the order of releases for the next set.

Coming Soon to Theaters

Except not really, Mask of Light is direct-to-DVD. But still, look forward to the first release from the BMOL (three guesses what that stands for) expansion this summer! I’ve also started working on a Toa vs Bohrok campaign for Dungeon Duel Monsters that I’ll try to get up on their Discord later this month, so come check it out there if that sounds interesting.

Otherwise, see you again with the next release, sometime before the end of human history.

Release: Time of Troubles

The last few cards of BPEV are here!

Install via EDOPro Configuration

Sample Decks

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

… right?

New Cards (and one update)

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

Exo Autonomy

Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

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

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

Exo Armaments

Trap

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

Bionicle: Beware the Swarm (v4.8.3)

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

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

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

Bohrok Silver Shield

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

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

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

Legendary Kanohi Vahi, Mask of Time

Equip Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

Vahi Freeze

Quick-Play Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuva Overcharge

Counter Trap

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

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

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

Naming Day

Spell

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

Bionicle: Protodermic Evolution (v4.8.3)

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

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

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

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

New/Changed Sample Decks

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

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