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In the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series (known as simply Yu-Gi-Oh! in English-speaking countries), God Cards, a.k.a. Egyptian God Cards, are three all-powerful Duel Monsters cards created by Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese anime and manga) after the mysterious Shadi showed him an ancient stone carving of three ancient creatures, the Divine Beasts (幻神獣 Genshinjū, lit. Phantom God-Beasts), surrounding the Millennium Puzzle.
The three Divine Beasts (and thus, the three God Cards) are Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and The Winged Dragon of Ra. Each of these Divine Beasts represents two poles in the universe: Obelisk represents light and darkness, Slifer represents goodness and evil, and Ra represents heaven and earth.
According to legend, those who own all three God Cards shall acquire the title of the "Duel King". The God Cards are also the key to the nameless Pharaoh (Dark Yugi or Yami Yugi)'s lost memories.
Although the God Cards seems to be normal pieces of cardstock, in the anime and manga they possess the actual powers of the Divine Beasts they represent. Furthermore, the nature of the God cards is based upon the heart of its controller: should one with an evil heart use them in a duel, they may capable of taking their opponent's life. For this reason, they are described as the "ultimate weapons" in duels. God Cards become a focal point later in the series.
Abilities shared by all three God Cards
N.B.: The effects explained in this section are only inferences based on what is seen or heard in the various versions of Yu-Gi-Oh!; other interpretations of the cards may be possible. No version of any of the God Cards, whether anime, manga, or physical trading card, has any effects printed on it. (See also the Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra pages for details on their individual effects.)
In the anime and manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the three God Cards have the following effects in common:
- Attribute (real card only): God(神); Level: 10; Type (real card only): Divine Beast (In the manga, the Attributes of all three God Cards, and the Monster Types of Obelisk and Ra are not stated; the Monster Type of Slifer is "Dragon".)
- All God Cards must be Normal Summoned by sacrificing three monsters as Tributes.
- God Cards are unaffected by Trap effects. (See A note on Spellbinding Hexagram and Additional note below for explanations on possible contradictions to this effect.)
- The control of the God Cards cannot be shifted by Spell effects. i.e., cards like "Change of Heart" (effect: receive control of 1 of your opponent's monster on the field till the End Phase of the turn) are useless against God Cards.
- God Cards cannot be possessed by Monster or Spell effects. This was shown in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 208: "Should I Shoot!?" (撃てるのか！？) when the effect of the Monster Card "Dark Necrophilia" (ダーク・ネクロフィリア/ ネクロフィア; a.k.a. "Dark Necrofear") was proved useless against Slifer.
- Main effect of Dark Necrophilia (in manga only): when Dark Necrophilia is sent to the Graveyard, its soul will possess on 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field (chosen by the owner of the Necrophilia card). This owner can change the target of possession in each of his/her turn. Your opponent is not allowed to know the target of possession. When a possessed monster attacks, negate the attack and inflict damage equal to half the ATK (ATtacK points) of that monster on your opponent's Life Points. Also recover your Life Points by the same points.
- Note that in the anime (episode 84: "The Dark Spirit Revealed (Part 3)", Japanese name: "Smashing the Darkness God's Blow!" (闇を砕け 神の一撃！)), this effect was carried out by the Field Spell Card "Dark Sanctuary" (ダーク・サンクチュアリ) instead, and the soul possessing other monsters was considered an Equip (Spell) Card.
The above two abilities are preferential to the one below.
- Monster or Spell effects can only affect God Cards for 1 turn. e.g., if you use the Spell Card "Monster Reborn" (effect: Special Summon from either player's Graveyard 1 monster into your side of the field) to resurrect Ra, it will be sent back to the Graveyard at the end of the turn that you use Monster Reborn.
A note on Spellbinding Hexagram
In Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 173: "Combo of Despair!!" (絶望のコンボ！！) and anime episode 66: "Mime Control (part 2)" (Jap. name: The Heaven Dragon of Osiris (オシリスの天空竜)), during the duel between Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto) and Malik Ishtar's (Marik Ishtar) "mind slave" - the Pantomime (パントマイマー; a.k.a. Strings), Yugi used the Trap Card "Spellbinding Hexagram" (六芒星の呪縛, a.k.a. "Spellbinding Circle". Effect (in anime/manga only): a chosen monster on the field cannot attack; its ATK is lowered by 700 points.) to stop Slifer's attack. Although Hexagram 's effect was negated after 1 turn, being a Trap Card, it did affect Slifer. One may then conclude that the ability stated above is wrong. However, this is not true.
In fact, the reason behind this "contradiction" is that the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kazuki Takahashi, somewhat considers Spellbinding Hexagram as a Spell Card in the card game. Although the phrase "Trap Card" did appear on the Hexagram card in the manga, and all characters referred to it as a "Trap Card", it was still considered a Spell Card in terms of gameplay. Whether this contradiction is caused by that miswritten phrase, or that Mr. Takahashi forgets about what was indicated on the Hexagram card, or even that the Hexagram card is in fact a Spell Card with Trap properties(!) is unknown.
In fact, similar problems have appeared before in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. In Duel 96: "Fear of the Malevolent God!!" (魔神の恐怖！！), during the double duel between Yugi-Jonouchi team and the Paradox Brothers, bigger brother Mei (Mei has the Kanji "迷" on his forehead) a.k.a. Para used the Spell Card "Release Spell" (魔法解除. Effect: negate all Spell effects received from your opponent.) to destroy Yugi's Hexagram card card (still indicated as "Trap Card"). However, unlike the previous case, this time the "contradiction" did not appear in the anime, as what was used in anime episode 21: "Double Trouble Duel (Part 3)" (Jap. name: Fiend Dragon! Black Demon's Dragon (悪魔竜！ブラック・デーモンズ・ドラゴン)) was the card "Remove Trap" (effect: destroy 1 face-up Trap Card on the field.) instead.
(Note: although the picture on the Release Spell card is almost the same as that of another Spell Card "De-Spell" (魔法除去), these two cards have different names and effects. While De-Spell is a card in the real Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, Release Spell exists only in manga.)
Additional note
In Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 340: "A Strong Feeling!!" (強い気持ち！！), during the duel between Yugi and the nameless Pharaoh, Yugi attempted the Trap Card "Cracked Hatchet" (皹(ひび)割れゆく斧. Effect: For every turn this card spent in face-down position, decrease the ATK of 1 monster on the field by 500 points.) to decrease Obelisk's ATK. The Trap Card did work on Obelisk and this is clearly another contradiction to the effect stated above.
In fact, this contradiction is widely considered a mistake made by Mr. Takahashi. And in the same duel in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 221: "The Last Duel of Fate" (運命のラストデュエル), this card was replaced by another Trap Card (yes, still a Trap) "Erosion of the Earth" (大地の浸蝕) which, instead of targeting Obelisk himself, targeted the Monster Card Zone he was staying in, thus bypassing Obelisk's Trap-negating effect.
(Effect of the Continuous Trap Card "Erosion of the Earth" translated from the text printed on the card: In each of your Standby Phases, put 1 Turn Counter on this card. Offer this card with Turn Counter(s) to a sacrifice to select 1 Monster Card Zone on your opponent's side of the field. During the rest of the Duel, for each Turn Counter put on this card, the ATK of a monster staying on the selected Monster Card Zone is decreased by 500 points. All of the effects of this monster are sealed. The effects of this card apply to all monsters staying on that Monster Card Zone.)
The real God Cards
The God Cards were first released by Konami as special pack-in Japanese cards in the first version of the Japanese GBC game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle Record of the Strongest Duelists (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ4 最強決闘者戦記) Yugi /Kaiba /Jonouchi Version" in December 7, 2000. They were released again by Konami in April 17, 2003 as special pack-in cards in the Japanese GBA game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International - Worldwide Edition" (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズインターナショナル ～ワールドワイドエディション～;
the Japanese version of another GBA game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition - Stairway to the Destined Duel"), this time with both Japanese and English text printed on them.
The real God Cards, regardless of which version, are ILLEGAL in all official tournaments. This is mainly due to the following reasons:
- The background colors on their fronts are different from that of other Monster Cards. In the Duel Monsters card game, Ritual Monster Cards are color-coded blue, Effect Monster Cards are color-coded orange, while Normal Monster Cards are color-coded yellow. The Obelisk card has a blue background, but this "blue" is slightly deeper than that of Ritual Monster Cards; the Slifer card has an orange background, but this "orange" is slightly deeper than that of Effect Monster Cards; the Ra card has a yellow background, but this "yellow" is fresher than that of Normal Monster Cards.
- Their backs are different from that of other cards. In Duel Monsters, all cards have brown edges on their backs. However, for God Cards, the colors of their edges are the same as that of their backgrounds. Also, all real English Version Duel Monsters cards have the YU-GI-OH! TRADING CARD GAME logos in the right bottom corners on their backs. However, God Cards do not have this logo.
- They have the texts "公式デュエルには使用できません" (It cannot be used in official duels) printed in the bottom left corners on their fronts. For this reason, the effects of the God Cards are not written on them (it's just background info in the Card Description boxes), and Konami dosen't even bother to list them on the Forbidden Card List, as they are released simply for collection and trading purposes only.
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