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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Ultra Rare

If this card is destroyed by a card effect, Special Summon this card during your next Standby Phase. If you Special Summon this card successfully in this way, destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.

Type - Winged Beast/Effect
Card Number - FET-EN005

Card Ratings
Traditional: 3.85
Advanced: 4.1

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 03.11.05

Coin Flip	The Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. AKA the best two-tribute monster in the game. First, a little bit on this guy's restriction and cookie cutterness. In case you haven't noticed, the people in Konami of Japan's R&D are loony. They're crazy. On top of releasing one of the most broken monsters in the game as well as reviving Raigeki in the form of Lightning Vortex (and Change of Heart in the form of a new card we'll see next set…), they unrestricted Vampire Lord and now you can run two in a deck. Pure insanity. Two Vampire Lords and a Phoenix God Nephthys will be insane, and I expect to fully experience this insanity at the next Shonen Jump on April 2nd. The restriction is easily merited by his tutor. First off, the Heavy Storm effect is just unbelievable. Heavy Storm is restricted to one and now we have a Heavy Storm meeting Vampire Lord and it isn't immediately recognized as the mistake it is and banned. Second off, the revival effect is even better than Vampire Lord's. They made three small drawbacks to Vampire Lord when they made him. The first was that he had no good effect while on the field. The Deck Destruction effect is not the best thing in the world, since it effectively makes their topdecks better by letting them remove a card they don't want. The second was that he wasn't revived if destroyed by your cards. The third was that he died too easily to a 4 star monster like GAF or Zombyra or Dark Elf or whatever you wanted. Third off, the stats are excellent. Not ridiculous. They're balanced, but just at the line where balance is possible. The DEF is a bit low, but giving it a downside is a GOOD thing. The ATK places it on par with Jinzo, and below DMoC and Black Luster Sultry. I mean Soldier. Finally, his tutor has ridiculous stats. You need to Tribute it and one other monster (Scapegoat anyone?) to summon Nephthys from hand or deck. And the tutor is a Level 2 Spellcaster, meaning that the cookie cutter Apprentice Magician works well with it. Understand this card's unbalanced nature yet? Good. General: 4.5/5 Traditional. Revival is good. 4.5/5 Advanced (even though it's illegal). 4.5/5 New Advanced. Revival and Heavy Storm is good. 5/5 Limited. It not only kicks the ass of half the other monsters in the set (and the other half as well) but its tutor is a common and it will pay your entrance fee with ease.
JAELOVE	Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys Rated For: Any Deck This is unquestionably one of the best monsters ever printed, ranking up there with Vampire Lord, Black Luster Soldier, Chaos Emperor Dragon, and Yata-Garasu. The reasons for this are not generally visible to those who chose to remain willfully ignorant, and I’ve heard responses ranging from “great” to “overrated.” Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to overrate a card before its release, so let’s actually analyze it and see why the Sacred Phoenix is such a powerful monster. It was obviously intended to provide FIRE support, but Konami obviously made yet another mistake, dropped the ball again, and created another generic card that can basically be splashed into any deck. One level would have made a difference. I’m referring to Hand of Nephthys, the card that searches for Phoenix and makes it highly playable (despite its two tribute status). If the hand was a 3 star monster, it would only be searchable by UFO Turtle; unfortunately, they made it both a 2 star monster AND a Spellcaster, making it searchable by the now ubiquitous, cookie-cuttered Apprentice Magician. Why? Who knows. So now both decks have access to the best two-tribute monster in the game for a piddling. Since Turtle/Apprentice already puts the Hand on the field, all you need is one other monster to special summon Phoenix. This includes Scapegoat Tokens. And, even worse, they didn’t make Phoenix a nomi monster, which makes its secondary effect obscenely powerful. Unlike Vampire Lord, Phoenix’s effect activates if it is a) On your opponent’s side of the field (and you destroy it) b) Destroyed during the draw phase, or any phase, by your own traps. c) Equipped to a Call of the Haunted/Premature Burial that is destroyed It’s almost like Konami held back when creating Vampire Lord, realizing that certain “checks” had to be in place (namely a, b, and c), and decided to throw out ALLLLLLLLLLL the checks and balances so that Flaming Eternity could have some buzz. Now comes the problem of facing the Phoenix and trying to vanquish it. Advantage F/H: If you splash this into the FIRE deck it belongs to, it’ll come to the field with a muscular 2900 attack. Of course either way, with a 2400 attack monster on the field, they’re not going to have tribute fodder for Jinzo, or Mobius, or anything really. And the restriction of D.D Warrior Lady leaves very few things that can kill it once it hits the field. In fact, I’ll name all of them. BLS, D.D Assailant, D.D Warrior Lady, Snatch Steal (for a Tribute, highly unlikely). That’s about it. Of course you can pre-empt its summon with Bottomless Trap Hole, but for all intents and purposes Phoenix will absolutely dominate the field for a very cheap cost (Apprentice/UFO + one generic monster/token). Traditional Format Score: 9.5/10 Advanced Format Score: 9.5/10 Best Draw for the Situation: A terrible draw in all phases of play (I always use that line). This card should never willingly be drawn into, but it CAN be special summoned through the graveyard, and it has its own search buddy! T: 6.5/10 A: 6.5/10 Attributes/Effect: Being a FIRE is a godsend to all FIRE decks. It also has pretty solid stats, but a low defense score (that we’ll talk about in a minute). The effect is very, very powerful; probably the best monster effect in the game outside of banned cards and BLS. T: 9.5/10 A: 9.5/10 Dependability: The Phoenix is not invincible. In fact, he’s very susceptible to Windstorm of Etaqua/Book of Moon/Enemy Controller (because of a piddly defense). That’s why you need defensive spell/traps to support the beast, and you’ll also probably want some cards to help mitigate his strenuous summoning requirement. Build the deck around this guy, don’t just splash him in (even though you can!) He’s also a two tribute monster. T: 7/10 A: 7/10 The Bottom Line: Great monster! FIRE decks have no excuse not to run him (unless they’re running low level burn). A BAD Score— Traditional: 4.06 Advanced: 4.06 FORCE System Suggestions: ++ Contributes to Field Control, Removal (Spell/Trap), Counter-Disruption -- Detracts from On-Field Presence (slightly, Resource Replenishment.
ExMinion OfDarkness	Sacred Phoenix of Nephyths Welcome to the last card of the week and the most valuable card in Flaming Eternity. Sacred Phoenix is a rather powerful card that can be Special Summoned quite easily, in multiple ways. If you're running Sacred Phoenix, you're going to want to run 2-3 copies of Hand of Nephyths -- tributing him and 1 other monster lets you summon Nephyths from your hand OR DECK. This is important because Nephyths is restricted to 1, and you may not draw himw hen you need to. I know right up that this card's gonna get compared to Vampire Lord because of his recent semi-restriction. Nephyths is harder to Normal Summon than V-Lord (2 tributes), more powerful than V-Lord (2400), and has an effect that's more powerful than V-Lord's. He comes back when he dies by a card effect, EVEN IF IT IS YOUR OWN. Your opponent can summon BLS, you Torrential, and this card comes back (and destroys all M/Ts on the field when he does.) In Traditional, Dark Hole does the trick. If Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted get destroyed, and they're connected to this card, he triggers yet again! Let's look at this M/T kill stuff in more detail. If he's killing all M/Ts upon summon, that means that unles the opponent chains something preventing you from attacking (Waboku/Threatening Roar/Scapegoats if you don't have a way to deal with them) you're going to get a free shot at their LP, AND you'll get the chance to set M/Ts without worrying about Dust Tornado or the like. It's like going first...but you have a 2400 ATKer on the field when you do. Don't think he's invincible, however -- There are a LOT of people playing 2400 tributes (Jinzo, Mobius, Zaborg) that would gladly suicide them into a Nephyths to stop that revival from occuring. Additionally, BLS or Chaos Sorcerer can RFG it, and then laugh at you because he was restricted to 1 and isn't coming back this Duel barring some freak play of cards. He's good -- really good -- but if building a deck around him, you need to make sure that outside of the Hands of Nephyths you're playing and the Sacred Phoenix himself, the other 36-40 cards remaining in your deck can get the job done even if the Phoenix gets removed from game. Traditional: 3.5/5 (revival + Heavy Storm = wh0a) Advanced: Illegal New Advanced: 3.5/5
Tranorix	Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys Yes, today’s card is the big guy from Flaming Eternity, Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. It’s a powerful monster with a powerful effect, and it’s very desirable. So let’s get on with the review: 2400 ATK is good, but definitely not great, especially when you consider that Nephthys is actually a two-tribute monster. It’s not too difficult to get it out though, when you take into consideration Hand of Nephthys, which lets you tribute itself and one other monster to get the Phoenix from your hand or deck – very nice. Then, when the Phoenix is destroyed by a card effect (Exiled Force, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Smashing Ground, Fissure, Ring of Destruction, etc), it will be Special Summoned at your next Standby Phase (like Vampire Lord) and will destroy all Spells and Traps on the field (…not like Vampire Lord – more like Heavy Storm). So basically this card is Vampire Lord + Heavy Storm; now THAT’S a rentsy combination! The best thing about Nephthys is that it doesn’t even need to be destroyed by your opponent’s card effect; you can kill it yourself, with your own Ring of Destruction or even something horrible like Thunder Crash, if you really need to get rid of opponents’ Spells and Traps. No, this card isn’t for every deck; but it can fit into quite a few. Traditional – CCCC: 3.5/5 Traditional – FIRE Deck: 4.5/5 Advanced – CCWC: 4/5 Advanced – FIRE Deck: 5/5 OVERALL RATING: 4.3/5
Snapper	Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys Our last card for Adolescent Card Week is Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, the most highly anticipated card of FET. For a Level 8 monster, Nephthys has terrible stats; most popular Level 5 or 6 monsters can match its 2400 ATK. While the ATK certainly isn’t bad, it’s greatly below normal for a Level 8 monster. Of course there are a few ways to get around the Level 8edness of Nephthys such as dumping it and reviving it or using a Hand of Nephthys or a Flame Ruler to make it easier to summon. As a Winged Beast, it really only gains a trample potential from Enraged Battle Ox. Other than that, Nephthys doesn’t seem like a very good monster. First impressions are deceiving though. Nephthys is basically a greatly improved Vampire Lord, for that’s what it is; when destroyed by a card effect, Nephthys Special Summons itself from the Graveyard during your next Standby Phase. When it is Special Summoned in this fashion, Nephthys destroys all Spell and Trap Cards on the field. So let me get this straight; it revives itself AND has a built in Heavy Storm? Do you know anyone that I can “borrow” it from? In all seriousness, Nephthys is a great monster. There are only two ways to get rid of Nephthys permanently once it gets on the field. The easiest way is to destroy it in battle, but since it’s ATK matches/is higher than that of most popular Level 6 or lower monsters, you’ll have a hard time doing that. Put it in Defense Position to solve that problem. The second method is to remove it from play, something that will most likely require some prior planning to accomplish. Getting Nephthys on the field signals a chance for you, its owner, to be a little lazy. You don’t really need to worry about using your MST or Breaker anymore, because Nephthys should solve all you S/T destroying needs. You also don’t need to worry about summoning monsters because you’ll be having Nephthys for attacking purposes during each of your turns. The only thing you should be wary of is what you do with your Traps and Spells that stay on the field. Having two or more of cards like these and Nephthys on the field at the same time would nip you in the bud when Nephthys returns. So don’t get carried away with Setting Traps. You also may want to have a back up plan in case your opponent manages to get rid of Nephthys, but you shouldn’t worry about that too much. All in all, Nephthys is very cool monster that should only be used in its own Deck. Using it elsewhere would be beneficial, but you won’t get to use Nephthys to its full potential. And on a closing note, for the time being it might be wise to sell your Nephthys. If you buy one in a few months, you’ll probably come out ahead. Advanced: 4.5/5. Use slight caution and minor planning when using Nephthys. Traditional: 4.5/5. Use slight caution and minor planning when using Nephthys. Overall: 4.5/5. Art: 3/5. I don’t think it looks as cool as some say it does…
Dark Paladin	Welcome to Friday everyone, and we have one heck of a card to go in this slot. A highly anticipated Ultra/Ultimate Rare called Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys Level 8 2400-1600 Winged Beast/Effect Fire Effect: If this card is destroyed by a card effect, Special Summon this card during your next Standby Phase. If you Special Summon this card successfully in this way, destroy all Spell and Trap cards on the field. This is quite a doozy of a card. Just a quick note, this card is currently going for $54.99 on tw.com and one sold on e-bay Tuesday for $79. So, people want this card. Lets start by looking at its stats. 2400 attack for a two tribute monster means this guy is quite subpar. Also, 1600 defense won't stand up to much, and it's just high enough to miss being searched by Witch (in Traditional anyway.) Now, let's talk about 2400 attack for a moment. Red Eyes Black Dragon, Jinzo, Mobius, and the like all suicide with this guy. Dark Ruler Ha Des and Summon Skull, both ONE tribute monsters send Phoenix packing. Secondly, lets talk about the effect. He has almost a Vampire Lord type resurrection ability, which is nice. The second effect of the built in Heavy Storm is also a nice little added bonus. This card could have a tournament deck built around him, but it would take some work. This card is NOT for every deck, but feel free to try him out if you get one. Traditional: 3.5/5 There are better options, and more field clearers, use him wisely. Advanced: 4/5 I could chuck on an extra .2 or .3 if he were a bit stronger, but he isn't. Less removal here, and you're probably going to revive him once he hits the field. Limited: 5/5 If you can pull this guy in limited, he'll be a field controller for sure. He should easily (help you) if not win you the duel. Art: 5/5 This is one of the coolest art pictures I've seen in a long time. That does it for this week, until next time, you stay classy, Planet Earth :)
Otaku	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. A mixed blessing comes from being a Winged-Beast: as an under-represented type, this will boost Winged-Beast themed decks, but doesn’t really get much in return. It can feed off the Harpies’ Hunting Ground’s effect… but again, that’s probably not going to be something to use with this. 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. 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. Obviously, this card has to be played for use of combinations or effects. As you probably know since my review comes towards the bottom… both yield some sick opportunities to Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. 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 good, 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. Uses and Combinations : Burner be gone? In general, if your deck doesn’t have a lot of Continuous or not very chainable Spells/Traps, then you can risk side decking a copy of this… and two or three copies of the Hand of Nephthys, a tiny Level 2 600/600 Wind/Spellcaster. Hand of Nephthys is so small that Flying Kamakiri #1, Sangan, and Apprentice Magician can fetch this from the deck. The reason you want to run her is that her effect let’s you Tribute her and one other Monster to Special Summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from your deck. This then becomes possibly the ultimate answer to Stall/Burn in my opinion (and any deck that relies on Continuous or Field Spell/Traps. However, to really abuse it, build a deck around it. Could be fun with Vampire Lord, could be pointless. The real problem for Phoenix is that it can’t rely on a lot of Trap or Spell support to handle any Monsters that do get big enough to kill it. Except Skill Drain, which negates the Spell/Trap destruction effect but not the actual revival, as that kicks in when Phoenix is in the Graveyard. 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, and come April, it’s limited to one per deck. Finally, I don’t know if its second effect will be kicking in a lot in this format, where we still have both Heavy Storm and Harpies’ Feather Duster to clear the field. Advanced : 4/5-This is including its possible potency in the sideboard, as many decks could spare two to four slots to cripple so many decks that depend on Continuous Spell/Traps (and Field Spells). Otherwise, I think this card is being over-hyped by many considering Mobius the Frost Monarch and Jinzo can probably suicide it and it means little to Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning. Limited : 5/5-There are only like two Monsters strong enough in its set to run over it in battle. There are also a few cards that can help it out in this set. Summary