#soul taker

[googlyeyesonyugiohcards]

Soul Taker

with googly eyes

[tenchiforum]

For Pioneer's 10th anniversary in 2002, artists from each of the series they produced did a special piece of art included on the cover of this Not For Sale trailer DVD. Here is the one Masaki Kajishima did of Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki.

[magicandwizards29anniversary]

Yugi's Battle City Magic Cards: How to Take Down a Sun God

This is the end of the line. These two cards represent Dark Yugi's last two attempts to take out Dark Malik's insanely powerful god card Ra and save Yugi, Malik, and the rest of his friends from the evil intelligence of the Millennium Rod currently possessing Malik's body. On his side, Dark Yugi has another ancient god, a mythical beast king, and a singular magician. Will any of them be enough to take down the Sun God himself?

Let's find out.

Obelisk gets his chance first. Is the power to snatch souls enough to stop Ra's impending reign of terror? Dark Yugi gives it his all when he plays "Soul Taker"!

So I admit: I messed up with my initial version of this card on two accounts.

First of all, I based my text on the manga's card text, which simply says "Sacrifice 1 of your opponent's monsters. Your opponent gains 1000 Life Points".

Second, I figured that sacrificing your opponent's monster is effectively equivalent to destroying it. So if I changed 'sacrifice' to 'destroy', it would work the same. Konami's rendition did something similar, so at the time I figured that meant I was on the right track.

But I was wrong. Going back over the manga, I realized: sacrificing your opponent's monsters is an act completely different from destroying them, and there are many in-manga cards- "Cross Soul" ("Soul Exchange"), "Enemy Controller", "Sacrifice-Stopping Mask" ("Mask of Restrict"), "Black Magic Resurrection Coffin" ("Dark Renewal"), and "Lava Devil: Lava Golem"- that play around with the limits of this mechanic.

As you may know, I intend for my cards to be as function-accurate as possible. So I went back and re-read this card's debut chapter, "Ambush from the Darkness!!". Here, we see:

Panel from chapter 274, "Ambush from the Darkness!!".

Dark Malik confirms that this card can sacrifice one of his monsters. In all prior appearances, a card telling a player to sacrifice an opponent's monster meant that they had to use it as part of a Sacrifice Summon for one of their own monsters.

Panels from chapter 274, "Ambush from the Darkness!!".

Here, we see that Dark Yugi can use this sacrificed Fusion Monster (which, thanks to the manga's version of the rules, counts as its two constituent parts when being sacrificed) as a means to activate a monster's special ability- in this case, Obelisk's ability, which can activate any time so long as its controller is able to sacrifice two monsters.

From this, and from the function of similar cards, I infer that this card should be able to allow its controller to sacrifice an opponent's monster for use of at least their own monster's special ability. Since that's possible, there's logically no reason its controller couldn't also use it to satisfy a sacrifice condition for a Magic/Trap/etc. Card's sacrifice effect. Finally, keeping this card in line with other cards that allow a player to sacrifice an opponent's monster, this card should allow you to use that sacrifice for an immediate Sacrifice Summon as well. Dark Malik's dialogue in this chapter implies that he thought Dark Yugi was going to do just that, before Dark Yugi clarified his plans.

With all of that accounted for, I believe this best represents how this Magic Card is intended to function in the in-universe version of the Magic & Wizards card game.

I also suspect that this card's art contains another reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The foreground figure on the left bears a slight resemblance to Stardust Crusaders protagonist Jotaro Kujo, doesn't it? Then again, another friend of mine swears that this card's function is a reference to chapter 391, or chapter 126, of Diamond is Unbreakable, called "Highway Star, Part 8" (originally "I'm the Angry One Here!!"). The healing aspect, they tell me, is a big giveaway. But read about it sometime and decide for yourself which might be true!

At any rate: "Soul Taker" and Obelisk together are not enough to take down Ra. It all comes down to a pair of Dark Yugi's oldest friends, coming together at long last.

Our favorite Magician duo have a surprise trick ready for one very special Sun God! That's right: Ra gets to participate in his own private showing for the Magician's most mystifying trick, "Dimension Magic"!

Konami international's translators called this card "Magical Dimension". The original manga's name for it is 「ディメンション・マジック」, which is a pretty close approximation of the English words 'dimension magic'. As far as I'm aware, the distinction between what the phrases 'dimension magic' and 'magical dimension' might mean is pretty murky, especially in the context of what this card is shown to do on-panel. So I think calling this card "Dimension Magic" is fine.

It's a little vague, but I think this card is based on the classic 'disappearing box' or 'vanishing act'. The trick admittedly has a lot of overlap with the trick represented in Yugi's other Magician support card "Magic Box of Death".

I also revised this card's text as well. Not just to put quotation marks around the word 'Magician', as I did for all other cards that mentioned that term, but also to clear up a typo. The typo in question resided in a part of the card's text I originally added to clarify the card's function. Upon further thought, I decided that this clarification was unnecessary.

See- the means by which this card destroys a monster is very unclear in the manga. God cards are theoretically supposed to be immune to destruction effects, so going by prior statements, Ra wouldn't be destroyed by this card.

The card also says that the two Magicians can 'perform a combined attack', and we visually see "Black Magician" and "Black Magician Girl" attack Ra together; but what is the nature of this attack?

A logical interpretation would be that the ATK values of the two "Magician" monsters are added together, then, if that value is greater than the attack target, the targeted opponent's monster is destroyed. But that can't be true: on-panel, when this attack happens, Ra's ATK is 4899. Added together, the ATK of both Magicians would be only 4500.

Additionally, in the manga itself, ATK values are never brought up. The combined attack just happens, and the matter of numbers or even a formal declared Battle Phase is not a factor in it at all.

Panel from chapter 275, "The Strength of 1 Point!!". Panel edited for the sake of presentation.

The truth of the matter is probably this: this climactic moment of the manga is intended to work on an emotional level, not a strictly logical one. Dark Yugi is shown taking down Dark Malik's god with a display of the power of friendship, represented here by the two Magicians appearing together for the first time and launching a special, never-before-seen attack. Ultimately, Takahashi expects that as long as the moment works on that level, his audience will accept it. And his instincts were correct: from a story perspective, this is a great moment.

"Black Magicians, combine your power! Black Burning Magic!!" Two-page spread from chapter 275, "The Strength of 1 Point!!".

All that means for me and my project, though, is that functionally speaking this card simply destroys a monster, and that the 'combined attack' part of the sentence is there just for flavor. It's just barely a good enough effect for the very specific and difficult feat of keeping 3 monsters, at least one of which must be a Sacrifice Summoned monster, on-field while you have a "Magician" card that you can Special Summon ready-to-go in your hand. Seriously, only Dark Yugi could make a wildly impractical card effect like this work!

And that's it! That's all of the cards that were originally in Yugi's Battle City deck. We have one last card to go before we move onto the cards from the Pharaoh's Memories arc!

But it'll be a real sunburst of a final card. Come back tomorrow for the unveiling of the mightiest of the 3 Mythical God Cards!

[kply-industries]

"Ha! Got your soul!"

[onlyurdarling]

My Proxy OC Soul Taker her Lore is dence and deep and is a whole walking trigger warning to be completely honest and I love her she is my oldest oc

[dumblr]

If you are a giver please learn your limits because the takers don't have any.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Soul Taker #6 by Thomas E Sniegoski, Jeannine Acheson, Valeria Burzo and Emilio Lecce. Cover by Michael Sta. Maria. Out in January 2025.

"On the run after the Venatori's brutal attack on her home and closest friends, Amara has taken the monstrous Hound captive hoping to extract information about her mortal enemies, who are attempting to hunt her down. But, the bestial tracker refuses to spill his masters' secrets so the last of the soul takers must turn to another enemy for help… but at what cost?"

[maxsindiecomics]

[PREVIEW] Soul Taker #1 (July 10, 2024)

writer(s): Thomas E. Sniegoski and Jeannine Acheson | artist [penciller & inker]: Valeria Burzo | colorist: Emilio Lecce | letterer: Jim Campbell | cover artist: Michael Sta Maria | publishing company: Mad Cave Studios

synopsis: Amarantha is the last of her race, an ancient species that has lived among us for millennia, feeding on the life energies of humanity. Now enjoying a peaceful existence in a retirement community, she continues to consume just enough to survive. But Amarantha has made enemies throughout her long life and an ancient foe thought long defeated has returned and is out for blood, while a newer threat seeks to capture her for their own nefarious purposes! Now Amarantha must do everything in her power to vanquish her enemies and protect the life she has made for herself.