If you get a sense of déjà vu reading this, it would be because I am merely updating my old review.  Large portions will be the same as the old because many basic fundamentals haven’t changed.

 

Stats                : Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is a big Level 8 Fire/Winged-Beast.  Pity the Level isn’t one lower; a Ninja would have to be Level 5 or more to use this with Ninjitsu Art of Transformation. ;) At least it is high enough for Lighten the Load, should you wish to run that (probably not a good idea as we’ll see).  Fire does have some good support available, so this is nice… except most of it, we’ll find, isn’t really Phoenix friendly.  The same is largely true of Winged Beasts: most useful Support will be S/T based and in a manner that doesn’t suit Phoenix.

 

Well, let’s move onto the ATK.  We have 2400.  This is on par with most Level 5/6 Monsters that see play… but this is a Level 8 Monster, so it’s rather puny.  Any Monarch can match this and suicide into Phoenix, which is not an unlikely occurrence as well see.  Although I don’t find Chainsaw Insect to be unbalanced (it has a good drawback effect), note that it now means there’s a Level 4 Monster that can suicide our big bird.  A DEF of 1600 is low enough to also be puny, but high enough that Witch of the Black Forest can’t search it out in Traditional.  Of course, now that Tsukuyomi will be banned, it won’t be quite as bad, but don’t forget there are many position changing cards waiting to fill the void if only people will let them.  Obviously, this card is played for useful combinations and its effects.  You know this since this is not the first time we’ve reviewed the card. 

 

Effect(s)            : There are two effects to this card.  The first makes Vampire Lord look picky: whenever this card is destroyed by a card effect, in typical phoenix fashion, it revives itself during your next Stand By phase.  This is incredible, and explains the lackluster stat scores: if the ATK/DEF was any higher, this would be nearly impossible to get rid of in a more permanent fashion.  The second effect is mixed: when you Special Summon this card successfully via its own effect, you destroy all Spell/Trap cards on the field.  If it was optional, this card would be phenomenal.  As is, it is still a great card, but requires you avoid using cards that aren’t highly chainable.  Someone used it against me when they didn’t have mostly chainable cards, and it back fired horribly four out of five games.  It did prove sick in that one game out of five, though.

 

Uses and

Combinations  : Here is where things have changed a bit.  With Chaos Sorcerer gone, the last of the repeatable Remove From Play Monsters is gone.  Being removed from play totally ruins Phoenix since it won’t revive itself unless it goes to the Graveyard.  Macrocosmos decks should still be a problem for it though.  It gains a bit of a boost thanks to Ring of Destruction returning: now if you want you can nuke your own bird to safe it from being removed in play by certain effects, and it’ll come back next turn.

 

Personally, I think people are being a bit naïve.  First, as stated, we still have a good deck type dedicated to removing the opponent’s stuff (and its own too) from play.  Second, Monster ATK scores are high enough that suiciding into the bird shouldn’t be that hard.  A Monarch deck should be able to survive giving up one of its guys to get rid of Phoenix, and from that point its more luck than skill if you can revive it.  If Phoenix does see a lot of play, that just means we’ll see the return of Bottomless Trap Hole in more decks, probably D.D. Assailant as well.  Pretty easy to dedicate 10% of your deck to messing up Phoenix and as a bonus, Bottomless Trap Hole can annoy the Monarchs as well.  Then there are cards that are useful against Cyber Stein players, like Waboku and Threatening Roar.  Oh, you didn’t kill that Monster in play because I stopped you?  Oh, but there’s nothing useful you can do with a Monster… oh, except tribute it for something bigger?  Sure, most can only tie with Phoenix, but again, that’s what Waboku is for.

 

Hand of Nephthys is a great tutor, but hurt a bit since we are down to one Apprentice Magician and we still only have on Last Will.  So it’s not as easy to get out as it used to be, though Treeborn Frog offsets it if you go back to before it was out.  However, anyone who experimented with Phoenix recently, like myself, will still feel the loss.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 2.75/5-It’s revival effect will help immensely, and most Monsters won’t be big enough to make a dent.  Still, removing it from play will stop its revival.  Finally, I don’t know if its second effect will matter much in this Format, where we still have both Heavy Storm and Harpies’ Feather Duster to clear the field.

 

Advanced        : 4/5-It’s still a great Monster and very potent.  Of course, this is a score for a deck that is built for it, either main or side deck.  Notice this is the same score as last time: ultimately things are better and worse than it used to be.  With the lost of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning we learned how to be more judicious with our Remove From Play effects, so while we lack the easier ones, we know how to use what’s left far better now.

 

Summary

We looked at Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys recently as part of “X3” week in honor of the third X-Men movie (which, even as a former X-Men fanboy who was so excited about the last two, I just wasn’t interested in enough to go see).  Originally we were supposed to look at Exiled Force today, and personally I think we should have since both cards were reviewed recently anyway (the reason it was changed from Exiled Force).  Exiled Force is what will really be impacting the game.