Those of you reading who might be familiar with my previous posts in this world will most likely recall the two posts I’ve done relating to the Egyptian God cards of the original series. Those three cards had such an impact on the fans of the franchise that the two shows that followed the original saga each had their own three-card pantheons of gods. I’m guessing the main reason ZEXAL didn’t follow that same trend is because they had the Numbers. It doesn’t seem like Arc-V will be getting its own god cards either. As for GX though, that show’s god cards came in the form of the Sacred Beasts.
Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
These three cards are considered to be evil doppelgangers of the Egyptian God cards. In the anime, the Sacred Beasts were even of the DIVINE Attribute and had the Divine Beast-Type. Yet while the Sacred Beasts were “Divine” entities, they were still quite evil and were thus sealed beneath the grounds of Duel Academy. In the first season though, GX’s first major antagonist, Kagemaru broke the seal and used the Sacred Beast cards to rejuvenate himself into a young man. In the show’s third season, the Sacred Beasts showed up again under control of Yubel, who used them to restore her almost completely destroyed body. It was during that season when it was revealed that the Sacred Beasts also had a combined form, but more on that later.
A few years back, I got all three of the Sacred Beasts in the promotional tins that came out around that time. I tried building a deck that used all three, but when I tested it out I didn’t get very good results. The advantage that the Sacred Beasts have over the Egyptian Gods is that all of them are special summoned to the field, which means they can be brought out faster. The thing that makes these cards virtually impossible to use in the same deck though is that they each have vastly different summoning requirements. Raviel requires the sacrifice of three Fiend-Type monsters, Uria can only be summoned by sacrificing three Trap Cards, and Hamon can only be summoned by offering three Continuous Spell Cards as tribute. So like the Egyptian God cards, the best thing to do with the Sacred Beasts is to find a deck they can be fit into, though it is possible (and in some cases perhaps required) to tailor those decks to better support the Sacred Beast in question.
Using Raviel
As the evil doppelganger of Obelisk the Tormentor, Raviel serves as the beat stick of the Sacred Beasts. In addition to having 4000 ATK, Raviel to sacrifice another monster his wielder controls to temporarily boost his ATK for a turn. In some ways, Raviel is the easiest of the Sacred Beasts to summon since the only requirement is three Fiend-Type monsters. It’s even possible to sacrifice the Kuriboh Tokens created by Multiply.
One of the most obvious deck choices for Raviel is a Dark World deck, is every single monster is a Fiend-Type. In fact one of the ace cards in that deck, Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World is an excellent monster to sacrifice using Raviel’s effect since it’s really easy to revive and can power up Raviel’s ATK to 6700. Another good deck option for Raviel is a Crashbug deck, as the Crashbugs can easily swarm the field. Plus Raviel is unaffected by the power of Super Crashbug since his ATK and DEF are the same. The one possible weakness that Raviel probably has is his compulsory ability to create Phantasmal Tokens each time the opponent normal summons a monster, so it might be a good idea to include cards like Token Stampede or Spirit Barrier to provide some protection.
Using Uria
As the doppelganger of Slifer the Sky Dragon, Uria is geared more towards field control. Since Uria needs three Trap Cards in order to be summoned and his ATK depends on how many Continuous Trap Cards are in the Graveyard, the most obvious deck choice would have to be a Trap Monster deck. While Trap Monsters may not be the most powerful cards out there, they can at least stall for time and fill up the Graveyard until Uria can be summoned. Another option for using Uria is a Volcanic deck, which goes well with Continuous Traps such as Backfire, Firewall and Gravity Bind. And in the event that Uria can’t be summoned and becomes dead weight in the hand, he can be used to activate the power of Blaze Accelerator.
Whatever kind of deck Uria is used in though will need a lot of Continuous Trap Cards, which might make a Trap Monster deck a better choice. There are a few cards worthy of consideration in just about any deck that Uria is used in. The Continuous Trap, Anti-Spell Fragrance combos extremely well with Uria’s card destruction effect since it forces all Spell Cards to be set on the field before they can be used. If this Trap is used in a Volcanic deck though, it’s probably best to play Blaze Accelerator before activating it. A couple of other cards to consider are Emergency Provisions and Gryphon’s Feather Duster, which can serve to dump Continuous Traps into the Graveyard to power Uria up.
Using Hamon
Hamon is probably my favorite member of the Sacred Beasts, partly because he’s the pantheon’s counterpart to The Winged Dragon of Ra. Because of Hamon’s summoning requirement of three Continuous Spells, the ideal deck to use him in is a Crystal Beast deck. I should know, since I’ve used Hamon in the Crystal Beast deck I ended up building a few years back. Hamon actually makes a good alternative to Rainbow Dragon since he has the same 4000 ATK and can be summoned a lot faster. My Crystal Beast deck used both Hamon and Rainbow Dragon, but usually I’d end up summoning Hamon more often than Rainbow Dragon.
One of the great things about Hamon is that he can be used both offensively and defensively quite well. Because Hamon inflicts 1000 points of damage each time he destroys an enemy monster, he can effectively pound through almost any defense the opponent tries to put up. While in Defense Mode, Hamon becomes the only monster that can be targeted for attacks. One good combo to use with this effect is to equip Hamon with a card like Mist Body to make it impossible to destroy him in battle, and at the same time use direct attackers like Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat or Jinzo #7 to slowly destroy the opponent’s life points. In that case, it would be a good idea to use Mound of the Bound Creator to give Hamon a layer of protection. For more details on Mound of the Bound Creator, check out my previous post, Support Cards of the Gods!
Using All Three
As I’ve said earlier, using all three Sacred Beasts in the same deck isn’t exactly the best strategy. Getting all three onto the field at the same time is extremely difficult. Getting one of them out can be done easily enough, and with luck two of them can even be summoned at the same time, but getting out all three is something that does not happen often. Yet there is one reason for using all three of the Sacred Beasts in the same deck. Just as the Egyptian God cards have a combined form known as Horakhty the Creator of Light, the Sacred Beasts have a combined form as well.
While Armityle doesn’t have the same instant win condition as Horakhty, he does gain an insanely high 10,000 ATK during his wielder’s turn. In many ways though, Armityle has a huge advantage over Horakhty since he’s a Fusion Monster, which means there’s no need to pull him from the deck. Like Horakhty though, Armityle needs all three Sacred Beasts on the field in order to be summoned. But there are a couple of shortcuts that can be used.
The best way to bring out Armityle is to use the substitute monster, Phantom of Chaos. By banishing a Sacred Beast from the Graveyard, Phantom of Chaos becomes a temporary copy of that Sacred Beast, so the basic strategy behind this kind of deck is to dump the Sacred Beasts into the Graveyard using cards like Foolish Burial and Hand Destruction. As for getting the three Phantoms of Chaos onto the field, Pendulum Summoning and the classic card, Inferno Reckless Summon would be the best option. An alternative to Phantom of Chaos is to use Elemental HERO Prisma, three copies of which can easily be Pendulum Summoned. Whatever substitute monster is used though, it’s best that an Armityle deck support the summoning requirements of all three Sacred Beasts, as getting even one of them onto the field is a step closer to summoning their fused form.
While it might be easier to base a deck around one of the Sacred Beasts than it is for one of the Egyptian Gods (and probably required in the cases of Uria and Armityle), such a deck isn’t the most reliable. For one thing, the Sacred Beasts don’t have the kind of search power that the Egyptian God cards have with Mound of the Bound Creator. So unless any of your reading want to build an Armityle deck, the thing to do is find a deck that the Sacred Beast in question fits into best. And in some ways, that’s a lot easier to do than it is with the Egyptian God cards.
