Embodiment of Apophis is one of the infamous “Trap Monsters”, and was used in the animé by Odion as he pretended to be Marik.  It is a Continuous Trap, making it vulnerable to S/T removal, even after it also becomes a Monster.  Yeah, that’s right: Monster Removal and Spell/Trap removal can kill this snake.  It even takes up both a Spell/Trap Zone and a Monster Zone.  It can only be activated during a Main Phase, which really, really hurts it: no “surprise defender” during the opponent’s battle phase.  There are many more headaches associated with this cards dual nature; I recommend you head over to the official Upper Deck FAQ and read up on it if you plan to use it.  I’ll list the most important here though: once Jinzo or Royal Decree become active, this reverts to a face-up Trap card in your Spell/Trap Zone, sitting their uselessly until it’s removed from play, even after Jinzo/Royal Decree leave play.

 

The Monster you get out of this has “okay” stats: Level 4, Earth/Reptile with 1600 ATK and 1800 DEF.  There is just enough ATK to do as a minimal beatstick and a “solid” defender (while the top beatsticks can kill it, anything but will have trouble).  Been pretty sweet as a Level 3… and the Attribute/Type pairing has no real synergy.  Still, you can fetch a few combos out of it.

 

So… is it any good?

 

Yes, for certain decks.  Obviously, if you want to make an all Trap deck, this would be handy.  I advise against such a procedure since it’s pretty easy to shut an all Trap deck down.  As a Trap, it can be forced to the top of your deck with A Cat of Ill Omen and it can be recycled with Mask of Darkness.

 

More realistic uses are Dinosaur decks and decks that need a lot of Tribute fodder.  Why Dinosaur decks?  Ultra Evolution Pill turns this into a Special Summoned Dinosaur from your hand.  Unfortunately, it has to be a real nice big one, since you’ll be burning a Set Trap (that can function as a Monster) and a Spell from either the hand or Field.  The good news is that after you get out one of the few, big, playable Dinosaurs… you still have your normal Summon.  Plus, Dinosaurs are one of those Types that have cards, but many aren’t so great.  So Embodiment of Apophis isn’t too shabby bye comparison.  Otherwise, just about any deck that needs Monsters for Tributes will like this.  So cards like Gilford the Lightning (who has the effect of Raigeki if you Tribute Summon it with three Monsters), decks using Summoner of Illusions (again, make sure it’s for something real strong since that’s a lot of cards worth of effort, and you need one more card to keep the Monster for more than a turn), decks using Cannon Soldier, etc.

 

All in all, it’s an interesting card, but its usefulness is pretty low.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1.5/5-It makes some very poor rogue decks a bit less pathetic, but this thing destroyed by Raigeki or Harpy’s Feather Duster.  No thank you.

 

Advanced: 3/5-This is not a straight forward score.  There are a few decks that get a nice boost from this card.  Also, the average deck can make decent use of it as well.  So once again, we have a card that is getting a good boost from its “specific deck use” component.  Considering that only boosts it to a three, you better be real low on cards, or have some combo I idiotically missed (it happens…) to be using this even in your side deck, let alone your main.

 

Limited: N/A-This is only available as a promo.  You know, it seems like any card that would be really nice here is a promo. ;)