Obelisk the Tormentor
ATK 4000 DEF 4000

Type: Divine-Warrior
Attribute: Light
Owner: Seto Kaiba

The descent of this mighty creature shall be heralded by burning winds and twisted land. And with the coming of this horror, those who draw breath shall know the true meaning of eternal slumber.

Obelisk The Tormentor is one of most feared beasts of all time, one of the three Egyptian God Cards - the most powerful cards in Duel Monsters. Created by Maximillian J Pegasus, and then sealed away to protect the world from its terrible power, Obelisk is the Egyptian God of Light and Darkness. Only those with a connection to the millennium items, ancient relics possessing incredible power, may control an Egyptian god. By the soul of the controller Obelisk may be Good or Evil, and is capable of taking the life of a duelist unlucky enough to stand in the way of its wrath. 

Obelisk has many special abilities, but none more terrifying than it's Direct Attack. When Obelisk is in play, he may take the souls of two of his allies and add them to his own. Obelisk will then destroy all opposing monsters and attack the opponent directly with its mighty fist of fate, and in most cases finish the duel.

This monster requires three tributes, and is considered a Normal Summon.

 
Obelisk's Special Ability

Soul Energy MAX

You may activate this effect during you, or your opponent’s turn.
Sacrifice two monsters other than this card on your side of the field.

Obelisk Attack becomes "∞" (Infinite) until after it attacks, and inflicts this amount of damage to all monsters on your opponent's side of the field. This attack is known as God Hand Crusher or Fist of Fate in the manga. If your opponent receives battle damage at this time, your opponent's Life Points becomes zero.

 Obelisk's ability is not considered an attack, and the player may still use their Attack Phase.

  

 

 
Trap cards

God cards are immune to the effects of trap card's.
Traps that are activated before, or after a God Card is summoned to the field have no effect. That includes cards such as Gravity Bind and Waboku.

While the card’s are in the owners hand they are vulnerable to the effects of trap cards such as 'Lightforce Sword'.

Magic Cards

Magic card effects last for 1 turn only.
This Includes card’s that designate more than one target such as 'Swords of Revealing Light'. The exception to the 1 turn rule are cards that sacrifice, or change the ownership such as 'Change of Heart' or 'Soul Exchange', the effects of those card’s may not target a god card on the field.

While the card’s are in the owners hand they are vulnerable to the effects of magic cards such as 'Exchange'.

A magic card that targets a monster may destroy a god card, however Raigeki and Dark Hole (and other cards that target more than one monster on the field) are ineffective.

Monster Effects

Monsters may target god card’s with an effect that reduces their attack and or defense strength. They may also stop an attack or change its battle position.
However a monster effect may not destroy, remove-from-play, send back to the opponents hand or change ownership of a god card. e.g. Hane-Hane, Man-Eater Bug and Cyber Jar.

Monsters that switch control of opponent’s monsters when sent to the graveyard, like 'Dark Necrofear' can not target a god card on the field. The effect of a card such as 'Beast of Gilfer' would be allowed as it simply reduces the monsters attack.

The effects of monsters on God Cards last only for 1 turn.

While the card’s are in the owners hand they are vulnerable to the effects of monsters like 'Morphing Jar'.

These rules also include your own monster, magic and trap cards.

  

 
Additional Information on Obelisk

Obelisk's Ability vs Thousand Rule Bible

In both the manga and anime of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk's effect was not fully explained in the early episodes. Because of this his ability was not fully understood. In an episode where Seto Kaiba tests his new Dueling System, once summoned, Kaiba sacrifices two monsters and Obelisks attack raises to some unknown value - Then the dueling computer is destroyed. In the anime episode 'Legendary Fisherman' more detail was added, and one it clearly showed that after two monsters were sacrificed, Obelisk first destroyed all of the two Rare Hunter's monsters, then attacked and wiped out both of their Life Points at the same time. In the Battle City Tournament players start with 4000 LP.

An unofficial Japanese rule book named Thousand Rule Bible' printed an effect stating that after sacrificing two monsters, Obelisk "attacks all of the opponent's Monsters at the same time and does 4000 points of direct damage to the opponent". After that, although there was still disagreement over Obelisks ability the assumption that Obelisk's effect inflicts 4000 points of damage to his opponent's Life Points during its effect was so widely accepted that it became sort of 'official'.

Finally, in the Chapter 275 of the manga, Obelisks effect was properly explained, indicating that Obelisk's ATK increased to "∞" (infinity) when its effect was activated. For some reason, during the same duel in the anime, Obelisk's effect was not updated and still came across with the idea of doing 4000LP damage. Obelisk's ability, however, was never used in the same duel in the manga.


Trap Cards and Obelisk

During a chapter in the manga and the anime, Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba are blocked by two Rare Hunters while trying to locate Yugi's friend, Joey Wheeler (Jounouchi). Seto Kaiba tells them that himself and Yugi will duel them in a 2p vs 2p tag-duel. 

Kaiba uses a combination of Lord of D. with the flute of summoning dragon to bring out a total of five monsters. During his next turn he summons Obelisk the Tormentor and sacrifices two monsters to activate its special ability. The rare hunters monsters are destroyed and Kaiba orders Obelisk to attack them directly, one of the Rare Hunters flips 'Mirror Force' (Destroy all opponents face-up attack position monsters on the field) and Obelisk punch's straight through it without any ill effects.

Obelisk's ability on the Winged Dragon of Ra

The manga and anime differ in the last duel of the Battle City Tournament, involving Yugi Muto and Marik Ishtar (Obelisk's Anger: Soul Energy—MAX). During the duel, Yugi attempts to use Obelisk the Tormentors Special Ability on the Winged Dragon of Ra. The attack fails and Ra is unharmed, Marik's explanation was that the three Egyptian Gods are ranked among themselves, and Ra is ranked the highest. Due to this, Obelisk's special attack is useless against Ra.

However, during the anime the battle was altered, and Marik used the Quick-play Spell Card 'Class System' to stop Obelisk's effect.

  

 

 
History of the God Cards

When game designer, Maximillion J. Pegasus went to Egypt, he found stone tablets of battles fought in ancient times, known as Shadow Games.

He based a Collectible Card Game on these stone tablet recordings and called it Duel Monsters. However, he also created 3 unimaginable cards based on one of the stone tablets engravings.

Each of these 3 mythological beasts represented the polarity of the universe. Obelisk represents light and darkness. Slifer represents good and evil. Ra represents earth and sky. However Pegasus regretted ever making these 3 rare cards, because as if with the power of the actual deity living inside them, all three possessed a power like nothing he had experienced. Every single person involved in making these 3 Egyptian God Cards, met with an untimely end, all but Pegasus who was shown a vision of his demise at the hand of the three god monsters.

Whoever obtains these cards can use them for good and for evil. If an evil heart uses these cards, they can take away a persons soul. In shadow games, they could become the ultimate weapon. Pegasus originally wanted to take care of the cards himself, but he failed, therefore he decided to let these cards sleep forever where they came from, deep underground at the "Valley of Kings" in Egypt. The Egyptian department of archaeology accepted the job and sealed the 3 cards at 3 different locations in the Valley of Kings. However, these powerful cards have resurfaced in order to fulfill their mission, so that the lost Pharaoh may regain his memories, and pass on to the afterlife.

After Pegasus created the God cards, and realized his mistake, he gave them to Ishizu Ishtar for safe keeping. However a group known as Rare Hunters stole two of the three card’s from their secure locations. Obelisk the Tormentor was the only one of the cards Ishizu managed to keep out of their hands. Ishizu kept it under her guard for a time, until she invited Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation to Domino Museum, where she was holding an exhibit, hinting about some 'Rare Cards'

Ishizu explained about a 3000 year old conflict, believing that Seto Kaiba was the reincarnation of the sorcerer depicted on the ancient stone tablet in the exhibit. She explained of a group of individuals called Rare Hunters, who were after items called 'God Cards'. These were the most feared cards in all of duel monsters, immensely powerful and leaving them in the hands of the Rare Hunters would be a big mistake. Ishizu spoke of the two cards, the Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon that the Rare Hunters now had in their possession. Ishizu suggested Kaiba held a tournament to aid in retrieving them, and to help Kaiba assist her she told him that he may borrow Obelisk the Tormentor for the duration of this tournament. Of course Kaiba would never intend to give up such a powerful cards like Obelisk, and the Tournament that he would organize would be so he could claim these cards for himself - but Ishizu thought the future was in her control.

The Battle City Tournament was then organized in order to lure out the Rare Hunters so that Kaiba could claim the two remaining God Card’s – The new rule created especially for Battle City being that the loser of the duel surrendered their rarest card to the winner.

Kaiba also knew that Obelisk would be the ultimate weapon again his biggest rival, Yugi Muto.





  

Robert Hague © 2004