Pharaonic: Zombie Gemini archetype for Spirit of the Pharaoh

[Eshai]

Yesterday I made a Continuous Spell that made it easier to Summon Spirit of the Pharaoh, a card that would when brought out Special Summon up to 4 Zombies from your GY. However, I forgot to realize that it’s other conditions, being that they have to be LV 2 or lower Normal Zombies, I wanted to do some brainstorming on how to make that good, but Il Blud, a Zombie Gemini monster did that all for me.

 

Pharaonic Horus

LIGHT - Level 2 - Zombie/Gemini/Effect - 900 ATK/0 DEF

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the GY. While you control no monsters, or only Gemini monsters, this card is treated as an Effect Monster in the GY. You can banish this card from your GY to Special Summon 1 “Pharaonic” monster from your GY. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

● Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can Normal Summon 1 Level 2 or lower Zombie monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.)

 

A while back I was experimenting with GY effects on Gemini monsters. It isn’t so much that I’m putting it here because I think I may have invented the idea but that Level 2 Zombies have been known to have pretty good GY effects, so here it is. Might make this a Tuner, but I don’t know if that’s necessary. As for the main effect, Quick-play Summoning may not sound like much now, but the other effects thrive off cards like this and Catalyst Field.

 

Pharaonic Set

DARK - Level 2 - Zombie/Gemini/Effect - 0 ATK/2100 DEF

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the GY. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

● If this card is Normal Summoned: You can send 1 Gemini monster from your Deck to the GY, except “Pharaonic Set”, and if you do, you can send 1 Zombie monster from your Deck to the GY. You can only activate this effect of “Pharaonic Set” once per turn.

 

Case in point Dragon Shri-- I mean Pharaonic Set, a double Foolish Burial if you abide by the weird limitations that only this archetype can take advantage of. I don’t think I have to go too deep into this, but it fuels Spirit of the Pharaoh, which is otherwise a lot slower.

 

Pharaonic Thoth

DARK - Level 2 - Zombie/Gemini/Effect - 800 ATK/1000 DEF

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the GY. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

● If this card is Normal Summoned: Take 1 “Pharao” Spell from your Deck, and either activate it or add it to your hand.

 

The cool one, because Metaverse wasn’t enough. If you don’t know, you can technically activate Pharaoh’s Treasure (a weird recovery card) and Judgment of the Pharaoh, the Yugi Trap that takes advantage of Unity and Yu-Jo Friendship. I think that’s about as searchable as the cards are going to get. This can leave some things to desire, like Spells that can actually take advantage of the activation effect, but for now this is fine.

 

Pharaonic Atum

LIGHT - Level 2 - Zombie/Gemini/Effect - 1200 ATK/0 DEF

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the GY. While you control no monsters, or only Gemini monsters, this card is treated as an Effect Monster in the GY. You can banish 1 Zombie monster you control until your next turn to Special Summon this card from your GY. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

● If this card is Normal Summoned: You can destroy 1 card on the field. You can only activate each effect of “Pharaonic Atum” once per turn.

 

If you don’t get the exact theme of this Deck, it’s to love Horus, because he can make any of these effects into Quick Effects. Destroying a card doesn’t sound to great for a 1 time effect on a Gemini monster, but in context your opponent could get screwed if you keep your Level 2 or lower Zombies on the field rather than Link or Xyz Summoning (who does that anyway?)

 

Pharaonic Catacombs

Field - Spell

This card is always treated as “The First Sarcophagus” on the field and in the GY. Once per turn: You can send 1 Level 2 or lower Zombie monster from your Deck to the GY. At the start of your Standby Phase, if you have 3 or more Zombie monsters in your GY, destroy this card. If this card is destroyed and sent to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 “Spirit of the Pharaoh” from your hand, Deck, or GY.

 

Wanted to replicate the original First Sarcophagus, so rather than waiting for Spirit of the Pharaoh while doing nothing, you’re waiting to get enough Zombies in your GY FOR Spirit of the Pharaoh to Summon. This card has a lot more utility than you might think though, since it’s destruction effect is seperate from the effect that destroys itself, so you can use it like Geartown, pay another Field Spell, and just immediately Special Summon Spirit of the Pharaoh.

 

Point of the Deck is to be another Low Level set of Zombies similar to Skull Servants, but with a twist in the knife. Surprisingly enough you could run a Skull Servant Pharaonic hybrid if you really wanted to, but Idk how practical that is.

 

Also if you’re a bit mad that the LIGHT Zombies are the only ones with GY effects, it was only a coincidence that I gave a no to Armageddon Knight, so if the Deck needs a buff that’s probably what’s happening first.

Hope you comment, because otherwise I’m in the dark until I test on Duel-Portal

 

[spoiler: Nice cards to consider running with the Archetype]

Plaguespreader_Zombie - LV 2 Zombie Tuner that can Special Summon itself

Shiranui_Spectralsword - LV 2 Zombie Tuner that can Synchro from GY

Chemicritter_Carbo_Crab - LV 2 Gemini OPT Foolish Burial + ROTA

Il_Blud - DARK LV 6 Zombie Gemini that can Special Summon Zombies

Catalyst_Field - Destroys Pharaonic Catacombs similarly to how Geartown works, Helps Summon Il Blud, Helps get Gemini Effects off, and Some nice destruction.

Tri-Wight - Special Summons 3 LV 2 or lower Normal Zombie monsters from your GY

[Eshai]

This is a shameless bump. You may have seen many like it, but none that describe it in so many words just to make it look like something about the post changed. The reason it is here is that I would like to know if there's anything I can do with the remaining monsters and Spell/Traps since I'm not sure where to go with them. For now, I'll be working on other projects, so if anyone ends up reviewing or giving ideas that would be nice.

[Armoire]

First and foremost. cheers for supporting a long forgotten card.

Let's see... I guess I'll start with

Pharaonic Catacombs

I love how it is automatically The First Sarcophagus. Gets rid of the pointless build-up for a lackluster monster. The mill is also neat--basically acting as a search for the Geminis you need for Spirit to summon.
Although because Spirit of the Pharaoh is underwhelming as is, I think having this card give an extra effect to Spirit of the Pharaoh (if summoned by this card):

Protection (to itself or others) or something like being able to Special Summon a Zombie from the GY once per turn would be enough.

That way, Spirit continuously gives advantage rather than only getting its effect on summon and have it clog the field the rest of the time (vulnerable as it is).

So in short, it would help to have this card make Spirit of the Pharaoh a more active boss monster.
 

Pharaonic Horus

Horus is basically the playstarter from what I understand.
The extra normal summon is good to get the other zombies' effects.

Paired with Atum, it becomes a very dangerous force and will probably be the main offense of the deck.

The Mezuki effect is undeniably helpful.

It's interesting how it becomes an effect monster in the Graveyard as well.

Other than that, I have nothing to add. I think Horus functions well, is designed well, and interacts well with other cards. 

 

Pharaonic Set

Fueling the Graveyard helps, especially with Zombies.

Good combo potential since it can drop ANY Zombie from the deck.
Mezuki shenanigans.

Beefy body as well, nice.

 

Pharaonic Thoth

A Spell searcher is never bad.

Its targets aren't too strong (yet) though.

No other comment on this.

 

Pharaonic Atum

Non-target removal, similar to Artifact Moralltach. The effect is powerful, but... it is a Gemini, so I think that somewhat alleviates it. And it only activates upon Normal Summon, meaning you actually have to use up your NS for the turn. So I think it's fine the way it is.

Same deal with Horus about being an effect monster in the Graveyard. Interesting.

Self-summoning effect is pretty good too, considering if you're at a disadvantage, Atum can make comebacks quite easy.

 

 

Surprised no one has said anything about it yet. And it's rough making a bunch of cards with so much effort and not get any feedback, so no shame in bumps! Usually, I'm not a fan of reviewing archetypes but these look fun to play and I wish they were real--anyway, all that aside.

My only qualm about this is with the same vein as Spirit of the Pharaoh: once summoned, the cards just take up space once they're Normal Summoned until they can be resummoned again. Obviously, this can be worked around via Links, Spark Field, Gemini Spark, etc.

However, I see potential in Thoth and creating Spells that can send them to the Graveyard faster or make them turn back into Normal Monsters again would give the deck a more dynamic and fluid feel.

 

Overall, I love it. I love the flavor. I love the concept. I hope this was a valid review for you.

Additional Gibberish:

Them being Geminis, I imagine that when they're treated as Normal Monsters, they're still mummified or still in their Sarcophiguses(Sarcophigi?) and once Normal Summoned, their powers are regained or something. Really adds to flavor. Was this intentional? If so, that's good. I'm a sucker for symbolism stuff like that.
 

[Eshai]

Thx for the review! (Although this took me like an hour after I figured out what I was doing so overall not that much work)

 

Pharaonic Catacombs I think giving Spirit of the Pharaoh protection that turn is a bit pointless (since it's rather getting negated by Solemn Strike or something else along those lines, and making it immune to negation might be something to think about but that comes with making the rest of the cards and testing on the Duel-Portal). Instead, I was thinking something along the lines of Evilswarm Infestation, since Thoth would activate it and get some immunity. I am a bit skeptical though since you can't activate it in the same chain you Summon Thoth (which is kinda depressing) so I might add a sort of "immediately" clause to the NS effects. Moving on.

 

Horus Yep. Not much else to say. GY effects on Geminis are really cool. I first experimented with the idea on my take on Wyrm Gemini LV monsters (GY effect is my idea, not Wyrm Gemini LV. I might have to throw in the towel for craziest card maker to D'septyr for that.)

 

Set Yep. Although I'm wondering if I should switch the stats with Thoth, since having more defense on Thoth might be more practical.

 

Thoth is an archetype Metaverse (at least right now). Again, there's going to be an Evilswarm Infestation and possibly a Unleash your Power! If I make archetype Traps that wouldn't break Thoth, I might give Thoth Spell/Traps, even though it'll include Traps that aren't technically a part of the archetype.

 

Atum didn't want to make it broken, but let's be real here it really isn't. Also has a great interaction with Catalyst Field, which destroys 2 cards every turn similar to Seal of Oricalchos and Lightray Daedalus, Actually all of these work really well with Catalyst Field... this wasn't exactly intentional when I first made them but I'm happy they work well.

 

 

Additional at first I wanted to just do Zombie Gemini, but yeah that's what ended up happening (and that idea all on its own is awesome enough for Konami to make an old card viable.) 

 

I'm probably going to make the Evilswarm Infestation and a Trap. I was hoping to make a monster, but idk what it would do and there's already a lot of generic Zombies. I kinda attempted at keeping these cards away from the usual Zombies. It's enough for me, but a lot of the Zombie support can come in for support without much consequence. 

 

Again Thanks for the review. I personally like the sub-types for what they can become. My next projects are a bit sketchy though. I was working on making an archetype based on Ignition Beast Volcannon, but now I'm thinking about Gate Guardian Retrains similar to what ABCs did for XYZs and Electromagnets did to Magnet Warriors. Also thinking Convulsion of Nature archetype, although I have no idea how to test that for Duel-Portal.