Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess – #MAGO-EN041
2+ monsters with different names, except Tokens
You can only control 1 “Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess”. The original ATK of this card becomes 800 x the number of Link Materials used for its Link Summon. Once per Chain, when your opponent activates a monster effect (Quick Effect): You can make this card lose exactly 800 ATK, and if you do, negate the activation.
Date Reviewed: September 8th, 2022
Rating: 4.38
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess is our Throwback Thursday choice, though a young throwback.
One of the best Link 4’s in the game, and even if other Link 4’s gain traction in the meta, I can’t see them ever fully replacing Apollousa completely.
No token monsters available to be used for her summon (can you imagine using Scapegoat in the End Phase of the opponent’s turn to make her?), two or more different monsters with different names are basic for Link 4’s, though you can use copies with other Link 4’s. Some decks may have problems with this with multiple monsters becoming the same monster on the field, but there’s easy ways around that. The more you use to summon Apollousa, the more counters you get on her and the more ATK she gains. Each chain she can chain her negation effect to any card, making her a potential double or triple negation in one turn depending on how responsive your opponent is to your moves.
Two Link 2’s nets you a monster that will give you a good negation power for your turn to make some big moves. Getting all four counters on Apollousa is the most ideal play, attacking with a huge monster, then holding down your moves from being negated. She is left pretty exposed as her ATK gets lower and after two negations almost anything can take her down typically, but she has served her purpose at that point. With that “?” for ATK, stuff like Impermanence and Skill Drain wreck her and leave you with nothing for your investment, and with those at three a piece and heavily used in the meta can make it rough to commit to her.
Apollousa will likely always serve a purpose in the game because she is a negater and those are important monsters. The only way I can’t see her being considered as a top Link Monster would be if a better version of her got released that had at least Link 2 range base ATK with the same effect (even if the ATK boost was less).
Advanced-4/5
Art-4.5/5- Like the original art more, but this is beautiful artwork.
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We saw her yesterday, but Throwback Thursday this week reviews the card herself: Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess.
Apollousa is a Link-4 WIND Fairy with ? ATK and arrows pointing upward and all three downward arrows. ? ATK means the effect will define its stats, which in this case is 800 times the number of materials used to summon her, so anywhere from a paltry 1600 to a strong 3200, WIND isn’t that great, but Fairy is a nice type at least, and the arrows are near perfect for a Link-4. Summoning materials are any 2+ monsters with different names that aren’t Tokens, so easy to summon, but doesn’t let you cheat by just simply summoning Tokens. You only get to control one of this, cause the effect isn’t a hard once per turn and you can use it a ton if they let you have 2 or 3. All she does really is a once per chain effect, which is also a Quick Effect, to negate a monster’s effect by reducing her ATK by 800. A simple and really good negation effect that you can use multiple times a turn and get more uses out of if you give her more ATK than what she’ll have on summon. Only negative is negating her effects brings her back down to 0 ATK, and that’ll stick unless you buff her back up, but it’s still a strong Link-4 you see on many end boards to negate several monster effects by herself. It’s still one of the best Link Monsters in the game and I wouldn’t be surprised if in about 5 years if we do a Top 10 Links of all time, that she makes the list. She’s a great card and one of the few Link-4s that hasn’t truly cycled out of being an Extra Deck staple like many other Link-4s.
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5
Art: 3/5 for the orignal and 500/5 for the alternate art, cause I just can’t really care for the original artwork anymore after we got the new one.
Alex
Searcy
Throwback Thursday isn’t a very old card this week, but it’s a damn good one for many reasons. Many of which I’d venture to guess most of you are aware. But Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, is a Link 4 Monster, Wind/Fairy pairing, with arrows pointing to all 3 bottom zones, as well as directly above. Link requirement is 2+ differently named Monsters, excluding Tokens. Attack equal to 800x the number of Monsters used for the Link Summon, giving you a cap at 3200, which is plenty enough to deal with most anything. Sacrificing 800 atk, via Quick Effect, lets you negate an opponent’s Monster Effect, once per Chain. There’s always ways to increase your attack as well, outside the original Link Summon, so this Effect, especially coupled with other things (say protection, or some negation from elsewhere) only make this card all the more powerful the longer it remains on the Field. There’s the oft heard, seldom seen ‘only control one of these’ clauses attached, but even at once per Chain on the Quick Effect, multiple would just be too much to have at your disposal at a time.
Rating: 4.25/5
Art: 5/5 Yeah, this is stunning, just gorgeous in every aspect. I’d take her out on a date.
Mighty
Vee
If Ultimate Slayer wasn’t any indication, this week’s Throwback Thursday is Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, a link 4 WIND Fairy Link monster. With up, down left, down, and down right arrows, it’s a good choice for the Extra Monster Zone. Apollusa requires two or more monsters with different names excluding tokens, which isn’t too hard to accomplish as long as the deck doesn’t lock you. Can’t say anything about ? attack without going over its effects first.
You can only control one Apollousa at a time, which is fine since most decks can’t really afford to summon multiple anyway. Apollousa’s original attack becomes 800 times the number of its link materials, so it’ll have either 1600, 2400, or 3200 attack, which ranges from pitiful to quite good for a Link 4 monster. Its main strength, however, is its controversial once per chain Quick effect which allows you to reduce its attack by 800 to negate a monster effect. At the very least, you have a monster negate that can be fired off twice in one turn, up to four times in a best case scenario. The only real way to deal with Apollusa is backrow like Infinite Impermanence, Forbidden Chalice, and boardbreakers like Dark Ruler No More and Forbidden Droplet (and, ironically, Ultimate Slayer). This understandably caused a lot of panic back when the card was released and contributed to Yugioh’s “negate mania” stereotype. Indeed, Apollousa has seen a lot of play in decks that can spit out lots of Link bodies such as Dragon Link, Tri-Brigade, Adamancipator, ABC, and more. Currently, Apollousa has fallen out of the meta along with most Link decks, but I think a deck that can use it again will eventually rise up.
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 4.5/5 Both arts are really good, though I’m slightly partial to the original because I really like the wind swirls.
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