There’s one funny thing about booster set releases that’s happened over the past few years. Whenever Konami releases a new booster set in the U.S., they add twenty extra cards to that set. Ten of the cards are promotional cards that were never before released in the U.S., and the other ten are completely new cards that were never released in Japan. But not too long ago I discovered that this country isn’t the only one to get some added cards to their booster releases. It turns out that when a booster set is released in Korea, it gets five additional cards added to it. This seems to have been going on at least as far back as the tail end of the ZEXAL era, and released in the last three Korean booster set releases are a group of cards that I’d like to bring to everyone’s attention.
Those of you reading this post may be asking why I’m making such a big deal about these cards. The reason is because these cards are based on entities from the Cthulhu Mythos, started originally by American horror author, H.P. Lovecraft. As someone who’s a fan of many of Lovecraft’s original stories, I’m rather excited that these cards have been created. Of course while it is pretty cool that there are now cards inspired by Lovecraft’s work, these cards themselves at the moment don’t seem to be the kind of cards one should base a deck around. But most of them can be fairly useful in certain kinds of decks.
Old Entity Chthugha: Because this card appears to be based on a Cthuluh Mythos creature that appeared in a story not written by Lovecraft, I’m pretty unfamiliar with this card’s literary counterpart. So I’ll simply focus on the card itself. As far as Synchro Monsters go, it’s a little bit hard to summon even with the new Pendulum Summon mechanic introduced by Arc-V. One way to summon Chthugha is to use the effect of the level one Dark Bug to recycle a level three Tuner from the Graveyard. Chthugha’s effect can help get any troubling Rank 4 Xyz Monsters the opponent has out of the way, and can give a little more draw power when used for a Fusion or Xyz Summon. In short, Chthugha isn’t that bad a card to use in Synchro/Fusion or Synchro/Xyz decks if you’re willing to go to the trouble of summoning it.
Elder Entity Norden: If memory serves, the whole concept of the Elder Gods was added to the Cthulhu Mythos post Lovecraft. So I’m totally unfamiliar with Norden’s literary counterpart. The card itself though it pretty good as far as level four Fusion Monsters go. One good tactic with this card is to use Super Polymerization to on an opponent’s Synchro or Xyz Monster and your own weaker Synchro and Xyz Monster to summon Norden, then use his effect to summon another level four monster or a Tuner from the Graveyard to set up another Synchro or Xyz Summon. Not a bad way to get rid of threats like Stardust Dragon. The other method of using Norden is to just use the Spell, Instant Fusion to quickly summon him from the Extra Deck for a fast Synchro or Xyz Summon. All in all, Norden is a pretty splashable card for Synchro/Fusion or Xyz/Fusion decks.
Outer Entity Nyarla: This horrid-looking monster is based on a very infamous alien god from the Cthulhu Mythos known as Nyarlathotep, a shape-shifting entity that spreads chaos and madness wherever he goes. In addition to his title, The Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep has also been known by the names of the many avatars he’s taken in various Cthulhu Mythos stories. Nyarlathotep’s ability to take on many forms is reflected in Outer Entity Nyarla’s ability to change its rank, type and attribute, and it’s this effect that makes Nyarla quite useful in decks that use Rank-Up-Magic Spell cards, particularly decks that use CXyz and Number C monsters. Say you want to summon Number C39: Utopia Ray V, but your Number 39: Utopia was sent to the Graveyard. Using Nyarla’s effect, you can attach Utopia to it as Xyz Material, making Nyarla compatible to summon Utopia Ray V using Barian’s Force or Limited Barian’s Force. And because Utopia is attached to Ray V through Nyarla, you can use Ray V’s effect.
Outer Entity Azathoth: The creature this card is based upon has been referenced many times in Lovecraft’s original stories as a mindless god of chaos that supposedly exists at the very center of the universe. As a card, Azathoth seems to be the current “boss monster” of the three Entity archetypes. From the way Azathoth’s effect is written, the card designers obviously intended it to be summoned in the following way:
- Step 1: Synchro Summon Old Entity Chthugha.
- Step 2: Summon Elder Entity Norden using Super Polymerization or Instant Fusion (depending on if Chthugha is on the field), and then use his effect to summon Chthugha from the Graveyard.
- Step 3: Overlay Norden and Chthugha to Xyz Summon Outer Entity Nyarla.
- Step 4: Use Nyarla as material to Xyz Summon Outer Entity Azathoth, thus giving Azathoth the materials needed to activate its destruction effect.
Azathoth’s destruction effect combines with its effect to prevent monster effect activation make it a decent card to get rid of Stardust Dragon, but both its powers seem to be very one time use. Not only is Azathoth’s activation paralyzing effect good only for the turn its summoned, it requires three very specific kinds of Xyz Material to activate it’s destruction effect. If you get rid of even one of those materials, Azathoth is pretty much just another monster with 2400 ATK. Of course there are ways to get more use out of Azathoth’s destruction effect with cards like Overlay Regen or Xyz Override, but these limited abilities make this card worthy of Azathoth’s well-known title, The Blind Idiot God.
The Unspeakable Trapezohedron: This Spell card is based on an object central to plot of Lovecraft’s story, The Haunter of the Dark, and is currently the only support card for the three Entity archetypes. As far as support cards though, The Unspeakable Trapezohedron doesn’t really seem all that great. It can provide kind of a shortcut for summoning all of the previously talked about Lovecraftian monsters, but isn’t really the best card to use for summoning Azathoth if you want to use its destruction effect. Of course the monsters required to use the Trapezohedron’s effect don’t need to be of the three archetypes it supports. For instance, having say Red Dragon Archfiend and Number 103: Ragnazero on the field can let you use the Trapezohedron to summon Norden. And then by extension you could use Noden to summon Chthugha from the Graveyard, and then use the two of them to Xyz Summon Nyarla followed by Azathoth.
While Nyarla, Norden and Chthugha are useful cards for certain types of decks, at the moment I don’t think I’d want to use a deck based around these Cthuluh Mythos deities. Not unless these archetypes grow a bit more, if they ever do. Of course talking about the best ways to use these five cards may be pointless, as these cards haven’t been released outside of Korea. And chances are that they probably never will be. In the meantime, the only literary inspired cards we’re getting here in the U.S. are cards that seem to be based on Dante’s Inferno. Oh well, that’s just life I guess.
EDIT: There have been some developments with the cards I've just talked about since the writing of this post. The biggest change is to the names of the three archetypes, which unifies all three as the single Entity archetype. Part of the reason for this change seems to be the fact that Elder Entity Norden is going to be released as a promo card in one of this year's collectors' tins, along with another Entity monster that I have not talked about in this post. I'll be covering that monster at a later date. Anyway, I decided to update this post to reflect the name changes, and in the process fix the links and polish off a few parts of it.
Another thing I should add is that Norden and Nyarla have been out in Japan for ages now. I've actually seen Norden show up in more than a few tournament deck lists on this one OCG news blog I check out at least once a day.
