The last of the three “character art” cards that are the only three cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG that feature characters from the animé/manga… Well, ignoring all those Monsters that have shown up both as holograms/cards and as actual characters in the show, like Dark Magician Girl.  If you don’t know what I am talking about, you missed some story arcs. ;)

 

Anyway, Judgment of the Pharaoh is a Trap featuring Atem in all his Egyptian splendor!  It is a Normal Trap, and in order for it to have any effect, it requires at least one of the other two character cards (Unity and Yu-Jo Friendship) be in your Graveyard.  The effect of Judgment of the Pharaoh is variable: there are two effects listed, and you choose one.  If "Yu-Jo Friendship" is in your Graveyard, until the end of this turn your cannot Normal Summon, Set, Flip Summon, or special Summon a monster(s), or activate an Effect Monster's effect, and their monsters' effects are negated.  If "Unity" is in your Graveyard, until the end of this turn: negate the effects of all Spell and Trap Cards on your opponent's side of the field, and your opponent cannot activate or Set Spell or Trap Cards.  Based on the wording, I am guessing that means you can only pick one.  Wow… the end result is actually pretty good.  About the only downside is that, as this isn’t a counter Trap, your opponent can respond with certain cards to bypass at least part of the effect.  Oh, wait, yeah, I left out the other major downside that may hurt this worse than the “card in Graveyard” requirement: pay half your LP to activate it.

 

As is, the card does have some use.  I can see a weird stall/burn built around all three cards, and if you play it right, Unity and Judgment of the Pharaoh can work alone, simplifying the combo.  I mean, provided you find a use for Unity, chaining Judgment of the Pharaoh at the right time can be quite nice, as it reads as almost a “Solemn Judgment +”.  What do I mean?  Well, your opponent activates a Spell or Trap, you respond with this, and it should effectively negate Spell or Trap (it will “be in play” for a split second, even if it is a Normal Spell/Trap), plus for the rest of the turn any other Spell/Trap cards are useless.

 

Assuming I am reading it right.  As we all know, this game is Japanese in origin, and sometimes the languages don’t translate quite right, so one can’t read too much into all of this.  Still, if my interpretation is correct, then that effect can be pretty handy.  The other effect is also somewhat useful, since most of the time if you activate it in response to your opponent’s Draw Phase there will be no way for the opponent to Summon Monsters that turn, increasing the odds of maintaining field control (and scoring a direct attack).

 

Even the LP cost which I explained as being a huge drawback has a silver-lining: Yu-Jo Friendship can turn it into an offensive weapon: use Judgment of the Pharaoh then Yu-Jo Friendship to make your opponent pay for half of your negation.  Still, all in all it seems pretty hard to get some otherwise great effects from this card.  The dependency upon the other cards really hurts Judgment of the Pharaoh.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 1/5 – Okay, none of the others were any good here, so naturally this one won’t be either.

 

Advanced        : 1.75/5 – It can be devastating to your opponent if you pull it off at the right time, but its too delicate overall.  If you were paying attention, this card really won’t raise the previous scores, at least not a significant amount (maybe by a twentieth of a point).  Oh, and if I am wrong and you can’t chain this in response to a Spell or Trap to effectively negate it, then this card basically becomes a one out of five: it does stuff, but so poorly its not worth worrying about.