Not all updates to the Yu-Gi-Oh! card roster needs to be bombastic. Sometimes even a small push can help out any of the older archetypes sleeping in the depths of obscurity.
First introduced back in the Ignition Assault expansion back in 2020, the Megalith archetype is getting a small but welcomed boost to their roster.
Megalith Phuloch
You can Ritual Summon this card with any “Megalith” card. You can only use the 2nd effect of this card's name once per turn. You cannot activate the 1st and 2nd effect of this card’s name in the same Chain.
(1) If this card is Ritual Summoned: You can add 1 “Megalith” card from your GY to your hand.
(2) During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can Ritual Summon 1 “Megalith” Ritual Monster from your GY, except “Megalith Phuloch”, by Tributing monsters from your hand and/or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of that monster, including this card on the field.
Megalith Phuloch comes in as another piece of Megalith graveyard recursion. Like most of the Megalith extension pieces, Phulock shares in the archetype’s capabilities of turning into a pseudo-ritual spell once it hits the field.
But unlike some of its brethren, like Megalith Och and Megalith Phul, Megalith Phulock specializes in bringing back a Megalith card from the graveyard. This happens both upon its summon and for its on-field effect.
The former can be used to bring back any of the sorely needed in-archetype back-row support like Megalith Unformed or Megalith Portal.
The latter can be used to bring back any of the bigger Megaliths (Aratron, Bethor, and Phaleg) that pitch themselves into the graveyard to initiate any needed ritual summon. This can help extend your opening plays.
Unfortunately, Phuloch is firmly locked as an extension piece. Its recursion effects are good, but without support from another Megalith card or another archetype like Impcantations to get Phuloch off the ground, it sadly does little on its own. Despite this, having yet another extender for Megaliths does allow for some stronger endboards. Fortunately, the new Megalith support doesn't end here.
Megalith Nortra Phulra
You can Ritual Summon this card with any “Megalith” card. Must be Ritual Summoned, using only Ritual Monsters. You can only use the 1st and 2nd effect of this card’s name each once per turn.
(1) You can reveal this card in your hand; your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation of your “Megalith” Ritual Monsters’ effects for the rest of this turn.
(2) When your opponent activates a card or effect (Quick Effect): You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then, if that effect targeted a card(s) on the field, you can Tribute 1 monster your opponent controls.
Nortra Phulra is Megalith’s answer to some of the gaping holes in its defense. By just revealing a copy of this card, Nortra Phulra just pseudo-stuns the opponent.
Being able to stop the opponent from responding to the Megalith ritual monster effects allows the controlling player to save valuable hand traps (e.g. Crossout Designator) for better targets of opportunity or pave the way for Megalith Bethor to just clear the field.
And once Nortra Phulra hits the field, it’s a walking omni-negate. To add salt to the wound, Nortra Phulra further punishes any card/effect that specifically targets anything on the field by tributing any 1 monster the opponent controls.
Not only does the tribute effect bypass a lot of standard protections, it’s non-targeting as well. This basically leaves the protection clause of ‘unaffected by other card effects’ as the only out to this monstrous ability.
All of this is on top of a gigantic 3,700 attack power, far more powerful than the typical boss monster in any given archetype.
There's only two things stopping this card from being broken. One, it's locked into an archetype that doesn’t see a lot of direct support. Two, it needs Ritual monsters for its summoning conditions.
Thankfully, there’s a bit of forgiveness as Megalith Nortra Phulra doesn’t specifically need other Megalith monsters. This means that old tech choices like Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended or Cyber Angel Benten can be used as substitutes should the need call for it.
Interested players would have to figure out a way to protect Nortra Phulra itself though. For being Megalith’s new boss monster, it has a pretty shallow protection once its omni-negate has been burned.
Megalith Anastasis
You can only use the 1st effect of this card’s name once per turn.
(1) You can discard 1 card; add 1 Level 4 or lower and 1 Level 8 or higher “Megalith” monsters from your Deck to your hand.
(2) Once per turn, if you Ritual Summon a “Megalith” monster(s): You can activate 1 of these effects (but you can only use each of these effects of this card’s name once per turn).
● Draw 2 cards, then discard 1 card.
● Tribute 1 monster your opponent controls.
This Continuous Spell acts as a very versatile tool. Most notable is its combined package to cycle through the controlling player’s deck at the cost of pitching a card into the graveyard.
It may be susceptible to removal or the standard Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring while on the field, but Anastasis greases the Megalith engine further, grabbing two Megalith monsters straight from the deck.
With the introduction of Phuloch, alongside existing tools, to fuel graveyard-based effects, Anastasis’ cost isn’t a painful one.
Furthermore, by just going through the standard plays Megalith wants to do in the first place, Anastasis can also help with any board breaking interactions because of its non-targeting tribute effect.
Megalith Anastasis, and the rest of the new support cards, will likely not upturn the state of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh!
At best, these cards will just push Megalith into rogue territory. At the very least, these cards can give the Megalith archetype some positive optics to be played again if anyone is intrepid enough to invest into them.
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