Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys – Yu-Gi-Oh! Review

King of
Lullaby

Hello Pojo Fans,

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is our Throwback Thursday pick, and a card that finds itself with an archetype behind it and more ways of playing it in 2019.

While 2400ATK is low for a Level 8, as a Winged Beast, Sacred Phoenix can find some synergy with other Winged Beast archetypes. Any archetype that uses destruction card effects to plus can use Sacred Phoenix as a way to clear the field of spell/trap cards or to constrict what your opponent commits to the field during their next turn. Once you put them under Sacred Phoenix, they have to either leave their spell/trap zone open/minimal at the very least, or go for the OTK during their turn. Even if they negate the effect of Sacred Phoenix, you still have a monster to use however you want. Cards like Warning or Strike will just rest the effect to use next turn. This card’s playability has grown throughout the years, and it remains unused because you want to destroy it in the hand and most effects destroy on the field. It needed its own archetype to shine and now it has it.

Advanced-3.5/5     Art-4/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

WarlockBlitz

The original Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is a Level 8 Fire Winged Beast-type monster with 2400 Atk and 1600 Def. It only ever had one effect. When destroyed by any card effect and sent to the grave, it would Special Summon itself from the grave during your next standby phase. If successful, it destroyed every Spell and Trap on the field. That’s it. It was weak for a Level 8 and still is. It’s nice to have some archetypes that can destroy this from the hand so it will help you next turn. However, the Nephthys archetype suffers from being slow. If you’re lucky, you can destroy a set of these with something like Card Destruction and then have 3 beaters on board to attack directly and almost OTK. Since your ideal scenario can’t even push for game, this Nephthys and all the others will just be average. 

Score: 3.5/5     Art: 5/5

Crunch$G

With Nephthys week, there was truly only one card we could look at on Throwback Thursday, and that is Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys.

Before anything, I see Alex’s review and find it interesting that despite having 5 previous reviews that this card hasn’t been reviewed on this site in nearly 12 years, so it is nice to see this card see the light of day on this site for a review again.

Sacred Phoenix is a Level 8 FIRE Winged Beast with 2400 ATK and 1600 DEF. ATK and DEF is on the low side for a Level 8, but not too low, while it being FIRE isn’t the best unless it is working with FIRE archetypes, and Winged Beast is a fine type as it has some good cards. Once per turn, during your next Standby Phase after this card was destroyed by a card effect and sent to the GY, you Special Summon this card from the GY and if you do, you destroy all Spells and Traps on the field. This effect isn’t optional, but it is rare that you wouldn’t want to do this, and getting a Heavy Storm out of it upon revival is great, because the Phoenix is always going to burn and come back. It would of been nice if the effect happened when it is destroyed in battle, but considering when this came out, that might of been too good for the time. This obviously works with the Nephthys archetype as it can easily get this thing triggered and going, but another archetype that makes use of this is Fire Kings, as they can also easily get this out with Onslaught of the Fire Kings and then it’ll be destroyed by Onslaught and live for the next turn, though Garunix is mostly better, you’ll never know when you wanted Sacred Phoenix live. The negative of this in Fire Kings is that this isn’t a Fire King and that if this destroys Fire King Island, you’ll lose all your monsters. Still, Sacred Phoenix is good in the Nephthys and Fire King archetypes and worth running with the both of them still, since Spells and Traps are being played.

Advanced Rating: 3.75/5

Art: 4/5 Rise from the ashes like a phoenix!

Alex
Searcy

Tell me you didn’t see this coming.  Could it be more appropriate to look at the original Sacred Phoenix for Throwback Thursday?  This card has had many reviews (albeit the last one was in April of 2007) reviewed FIVE times in a two year span, usually in new Formats/Ban Lists, but links below will show you those, should you care to see what was said:

• March 2005
• May 2006
• August 2006
• January 2007
• April 2007

This card has also suffered from a long number of erratums, but I don’t feel it’s destroyed or ruined this card, as some have (Ring of Destruction, I’m looking at you, for one).  Anyway, the biggest weapon against Sacred Phoenix was removal…granted an outright destruction in Battle doesn’t trigger the revival + Heavy Storm effect, which I still feel is good, but it would still exist in the Graveyard, to be brought back.

There’s more removal in the game than ever, which hurts Phoenix a lot…BUT there’s more ways to trigger her effect as well, and remember, you or your opponent can do it, and it can be done by ANY card effect. The 2400 attack body isn’t bad, on the low side for Level 8, but it balances a powerful, wild ability of destruction and rebirth (see what I did there?) 

Whatever variation of the Phoenix Deck you’re playing, you’d be hard pressed to play ALL of them now, big and little alike.  But I’d still save a place for the original.  She (yes SHE) has a tutor of her own in Hand of Nephthys too!

Rating:  3.25/5

Art:  4/5  Like the armor, like the fire, like the background as well.  Always been a fan