Artifact Moralltach

I was a bit shocked to see Morall at #4 on the list, considering it wasn't on my list.  Probably means the other 4 people who had it on their list had it in their top 3 or something.  I chose to put Artifact Sanctum on my list instead of Moralltach, but I should've just put Moralltach on there.

For those who don't know, the main #1 use of the monster Artifact Moralltach is to combo it with Artifact Sanctum.  They're co-dependent on each other.  It's kind of like a quote from Mitch Hedberg.  "Belts hold up my pants, but the loops of my pants hold the belt up.  What is going down there?  Who is the real hero here?".

The other Artifact cards aren't very strong.  Artifact Ignition and Artifact Beagalltach were initially used, but Moralltach/Sanctum is the purest Artifacts will ever be.

You activate Sanctum to Special Summon Morall from your deck.  So, from 1 trap card you get a quick 2100 beater on the field and you get to destroy 1 card on the opponent's field.  Since Sanctum is chainable, you can activate it at anytime and them at the most devastating moment.  For example, when a Qliphort deck plays Scout in their Pendulum Zone, you immediately use Sanctum and Morall to destroy it so it can't search.

It's basically a 6-card engine: 3 Sanctum and 3 Moralltach.  First, HAT (Hands/Artifact/Traptrix) decks used the engine to make the overall anti-meta aspect of the deck even more defensive.  Then, a lot of Shaddoll players decided to include the Artifact engine in their build.  It helped Shaddolls because they lacked defensive counter moves during the opponent's turns. 

Another plus, Moralltach can activate it's effect from the graveyard during your opponent's turn.  This makes Call of the Haunted a really viable card to use.  In decks that already use Call of the Haunted, like Satellarknights, I like to splash the Artifact engine in, as a personal preference.

The downside of the Morall/Sanctum engine is that if you draw Morall before Sanctum, it becomes lopsided.  You want to set Sanctum so you can get Morall.  But Morall is dead-weight in your hand by itself.  That's why you need a deck that can work around with.  With Shaddolls, if you get a dead Morall, you can use it as food for Construct.

I like Moralltach.  I mean, it's frustrating to play against because its such a powerful card, and sometimes the Artifact engine gets inconsistent, but it also encourages creativity in deck-building and hybriding.  I'm sure a lot of decks can benefit from Moralltach, especially in the future.  There's always going to be new combos we can discover with the engine.

Addendum

This card is going to be limited to 1, as of Jan 1^st 2015.  As a result, this limitation significantly affects this card's viability.  It, of course, limits its use purely to an Artifact-focused deck which has other monsters to summon via Sanctum.  This, effectively, cripples the Sanctum/Morraltach engine.  In itself, it'll still be a useful card, but it is now sorely lacking a combo to pioneer it.

Ratings

4.5/5 – for 2014

2/5 – for 2015

#4 on our Top 10 Cards of 2014 is Artifact Moralltach.

Position on my list: #2

I think very highly of this card. This may be in part due to my fondness of the Artifact Engine, but at the same time the card remained relevant even after Duelist Alliance, something that can’t be said for most of the other relevant cards of the April 2014 format. Even with The New Challengers bringing even more powerful cards into the game, the Artifact Engine still held on, making small showings at events until the January 2015 banlist Limited Moralltach to 1.

The card, when combined with Artifact Sanctum, provides a large amount of momentum shift in the user’s favor. Being able to take out any threat without targeting it is an incredible ability, and the fact that it happens during the opponent’s turn can screw up any plan they had. And after all of that, Moralltach provides you with a powerful 2100 ATK that the opponent has to deal with.

Of course, the card wouldn’t be anything without Artifact Sanctum, but of the two I would say Moralltach plays the bigger role, as it is at the end of the day the actual threat.

With Moralltach now Limited, we likely won’t see any more of this engine (at least until it comes back to 3); access to only one Moralltach doesn’t really justify running Sanctum. But for the seven months that it was viable it sure made its mark.

Advanced: 4/5