Images courtesy of KONAMI
Maze of the Master is Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s latest booster set. These 112 cards cover a variety of different archetypes: there’s a new Ancient Gear card, some new Trickstars, and a thoroughly bizarre attempt at integrating Red Nova Dragon and the Earthbound Immortals. The big focus of the set, though, is on Odion’s cards.
Odion was a character from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. He was the adoptive brother, loyal henchman, and only friend of Marik Ishtar, the antagonist of the Battle City arc. Given that Battle City aired more than 20 years ago now, an upgrade for Odion’s cards is long overdue. Let’s look at Odion’s strategy from the early 2000s, and see how these new cards enhance it.
Pre-Existing Cards for Odion
Odion was a duelist specializing in impactful Trap Cards. The card Temple Of The Kings enabled him to activate one Trap Card on the turn that he set it. He would combo this with Monster Traps like Embodiment of Apophis to develop his field without using up his Normal Summon for the turn. His ace monster, Mystical Beast Of Serket, is a 2500 Attack Point scorpion that’s classified as a Fairy for unknown reasons. Mystical Beast Of Serket banishes any monsters it destroys in battle and gains 500 ATK whenever it does so. Unfortunately, this card gets destroyed if its controller doesn’t control Temple Of The Kings. This means that it’s awkward to get Mystical Beast Of Serket into play, and it can be destroyed with either front or backrow removal.
If you get a Mystical Beast of Serket out, don’t keep it in play for long. The second effect of Temple of the Kings tributes itself and Serket to bring any monster into play from your Hand, Deck, or Extra Deck. This allows you to upgrade your Serket into a big threat like Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon.
It’s worth noting that Temple of Kings was nerfed heavily by errata. This card’s current effect comes from its 2015 printing. Prior to that, the card enabled any number of Trap Cards to be activated on the turn that they were set, rather than just one. Additionally, any monster could be brought out from the Extra Deck, rather than just Fusion monsters. While it’s unfortunate that we can’t just flood the board with a massive number of Trap monsters in one turn, or use Serket to bring out Synchro and XYZ monsters singlehandedly, it’s understandable why these restrictions were put in place.
Odion’s reputation as a trap duelist was cemented by the powerful – for the time – Anubis-themed Trap Cards that he ran. At the cost of discarding a card, Judgement Of Anubis negates Spells that would remove your backrow. It then destroys one of your opponent’s face-up monsters and inflicts damage to them equal to that monster’s ATK. Curse Of Anubis, meanwhile, goes after effect monsters. It makes every effect monster on the field’s DEF 0 and then forces them into Defense Position until the end of the turn.
These cards all definitely show their age. Can the new support in Maze of the Master bring them back into the spotlight?
Marked Men, Treasures, and Temples in Maze of the Master
Maze of the Master gives Odion’s cards a more cohesive strategy. It batches them together as “cards that mention Temple Of The Kings.” The Apophis Traps are also worked into the plan.
The Man With The Mark forms the centerpiece of this new strategy. When this marked Spellcaster is summoned, he fetches a copy of Temple Of The Kings or a Spell/Trap that mentions it. The fetched card can be put into either the hand or the graveyard. So long as both The Man With The Mark and Temple Of The Kings remain on the field neither can be destroyed by card effects, and The Man With The Mark and Apophis monsters cannot be destroyed by battle. This card is an effective starter for the deck, that searches out relevant cards and provides protection. The question becomes, “Is the strategy this marked man enables worth playing?”
If this whole strategy was based around a Continuous Spell from the Duel Monsters era, it might be in a bit of trouble. Fortunately, there is a new iteration of Temple Of The Kings in the form of the Field Spell Treasures Of The Kings. When this card’s in play, it’s treated as a copy of Temple of The Kings. When it enters play, Treasures Of The Kings tutors for an Apophis Trap and sets it. Once per turn, it can then tutor for any monsters that mention Temple of The Kings. Like many archetypal field spells, this card holds the deck’s strategy together. It grabs relevant monsters from the deck and keeps your momentum rolling.
Serket’s Second Chance
Mystical Beast of Serket has now been reborn as Merciless Scorpion Of Serket. What this scorpion lacks in mercy, it makes up for in power. Once per turn, while you control Temple of The Kings, a copy of Merciless Scorpion Of Serket can be special summoned from the hand by banishing a level 10 or higher monster from the hand or deck. You’re free to go for any level 10 or higher monster; if you’re running Nibiru it’s an eligible target. Some of the Odion cards indicate that it was KONAMI‘s intention for players to banish The Winged Dragon of Ra here, but this isn’t really a practical choice. We’ll talk about Ra and why to avoid it later on.
Once per turn, during the main phase, Merciless Scorpion Of Serket fetches Temple Of The Kings, or a Spell mentioning it. It can also destroy any monster that it battles, at the start of the damage step, and gain ATK equal to half of that monster’s original ATK. This card is a nice callback to the original Serket, possessing the same 2500 ATK/2000 DEF statline, and a similar ability to get rid of monsters to raise its ATK. It removes threats before the fight starts, but plenty of cards can guard against effects like this.
The fetching ability of Merciless Scorpion of Serket is useful, if slightly limited. It fetches Spells, but you need a copy of Temple Of The Kings in play to use it. It can grab you Treasures Of The Kings if you control the Temple, or vice versa, and it can also pick up Defense of the Temple. It’s a shame that this card can’t grab Apophis Trap monsters, but it can grab Defense Of The Temple, the new Temple Of The Kings-based fusion spell.
Divine Scorpion Beast of Serket is a new Fusion monster. It can be made by fusing either of the two “Serket” monsters with a monster with less than 2500 ATK. It has 3000 ATK and can banish any face-up monster controlled by the opponent, or any card in their graveyard, when it attacks. Divine Scorpion Beast of Serket can also make a second attack if a level 10 or higher monster has been banished. Since Merciless Scorpion of Serket banishes a level 10 or higher monster from the deck when it enters play, this condition isn’t difficult to fulfill. All in all, this is a pretty good boss monster. It can grow strong quickly, and attack multiple times to close out the game.
Amended Apophis
Maze of the Master contains reprints of the original Embodiment of Apophis and the 2023 card Apophis the Swamp Deity. It also contains the brand new Apophis The Serpent. Apophis the Serpent is a Trap monster with the same stats as the original Embodiment Of Apophis. It’s strictly better though, as it allows another Apophis Trap to be set and immediately activated from the deck when it’s flipped face up. It also fetches a copy of the original Embodiment Of Apophis when it gets sent to the graveyard. This card is a reliable way of getting your hands on as many snakes as you want.
There’s also a new Apophis Fusion monster, Divine Serpent Apophis. This 28oo ATK card can be fused using any two monsters that mention Temple of The Kings. You can also Special Summon it by tributing two Apophis monsters. Once per turn, it returns up to three Apophis Trap cards in the graveyard with different names to the field. This means that it can bring the Apophis cards tributed to Summon it straight back into play. It also destroys a card controlled by the opponent once per turn when a Trap is activated. Its ability to remove frontrow and backrow makes it great at clearing the field so that your Divine Scorpion can punch in.
Spell Support for the Odion Archetype
Defense of the Temple is a new Odion-oriented fusion spell. It can only fuse Earth Fusion monsters, like Divine Serpent Apophis and Divine Scorpion Beast of Serket. If a fusion material mentions Temple Of The Kings, you can fuse with the opponent’s monsters as well. Defense of the Temple can be banished from the graveyard to fetch a copy of Dangers Of The Divine, although you may not want to.
Dangers Of The Divine is the most impractical of these new cards. It’s designed to mimic the unstable fake copy of The Winged Dragon of Ra that Odion summoned in the anime. At the cost of half of its caster’s life points, Dangers of the Divine brings The Winged Dragon of Ra into play from the Hand or Banishment and sets its Attack and Defense Points to 4000 each. Ra can’t attack and returns to the hand at the end of the next turn.
It’s easy to get Ra into banishment, thanks to Merciless Scorpion Of Serket. Ra can destroy itself for 1000 LP to summon The Winged Dragon of Ra – Immortal Phoenix. Immortal Pheonix was reprinted in this set, so you can easily get your hands on it. This is a lot of hoops to jump through, and a lot of life points to pay, for a mediocre reward. Outside of Sphere Mode, support cards for The Winged Dragon of Ra have a history of seeming cool but being utterly impractical. Dangers Of The Divine does nothing to challenge this trend. Fortunately, this card is non-essential and you can easily build an Odion deck without Ra.
Ambushed by Anubis
Finally, we come to the two new Anubis cards, Verdict Of Anubis, and Anubis The Last Judge. Verdict of Anubis leaves Judgment of Anubis in its dust. If you control three or more other spells or traps, Verdict Of Anubis negates and destroys a spell or trap. Then, if you control a copy of Temple Of The Kings, this card destroys every single monster controlled by the opponent and deals damage to them equal to half of their combined attack. This card is absolutely brutal and a draw towards this archetype.
Anubis the Last Judge, meanwhile, is a 3000 ATK Effect monster. It can be special summoned, from the hand or graveyard, by having three copies of Temple Of The Kings or Trap Cards in your graveyard and putting two of them onto the bottom of your deck. Sending it from the hand to the graveyard fetches a copy of The Man With The Mark. This card retaliates whenever a Spell or Trap you control gets destroyed, by destroying one card controlled by the opponent. Anubis provides extra consistency for the deck by retrieving The Man With The Mark. It also provides a threat later in the game that punishes opponents when they try to deal with your backrow.
Conclusion
Overall, these cards look pretty fun; they’re certainly very consistent. Anubis The Last Judge can search out The Man With The Mark, who can fetch Treasures Of The Kings, which then grabs any card that cares about Temple Of The Kings. With Treasures Of The Kings and The Man With The Mark in play, you grant yourself some valuable protection. You can then get your big threats, like Merciless Scorpion Of Serket and Divine Serpent Apophis, into play. Theoretically, you could also try and get Ra out, although this isn’t a great plan. Dangers of the Divine, true to its name, is a dangerous card, but more so for you than your opponent.
It’s too early to say whether these cards will have a significant competitive impact. Will they be able to stand up to explosively powerful archetypes like Maliss or Ryzeal? Fortunately, they’re all pretty cheap. You’ll also have a great opportunity to smirk and tell your opponent “you activated my Trap Card” whenever you use Verdict Of Anubis.
Wanna learn more about summoning in Yu-Gi-Oh!? Check out our guide to every summoning method.
