It’s time for another overview of a forgotten archetype, ignored ever since that lovely 5D’s story arc: the Dark Signers and their signature Earthbound Immortals. Sealed away 5000 years before by the Crimson Dragon, the Level 10 DARK monstrosities became locked in stone, represented by the Nazca Lines. They were eventually released in a scientific failure, resulting in a danger to the world itself! Each colored after a different hue of the rainbow, the Earthbound Immortal are each pictured as an evil embodiment that emerged from ruptures in the lines themselves. Choose your immortal, because all of them are not as sealed away as they seem!
The Earthbound
All of the Earthbound Immortals share a few key qualities, ones that define any decks that wish to utilize them to their full potential. First off, there can only be one of them on the field. This is not all that bad of a restriction, because it kind of helps to focus on getting out one boss monster, then keeping it there until it wins the Duel for you. Secondly, “If there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field, destroy this card.” The Earthbound Immortal archetype was one of the first to introduce a ‘Face-up Field Spell is required’ mechanic. Similar to Malefics, the archetype requires that at least one of the two players maintains an active Field Spell. Thirdly, no “Earthbound Immortal” monster can be selected as an attack target. This effect allows the player to stall in times of desperation in combination with Revival of the Immortals, or simply ignore the possibility of battle enhancers, such as Honest or Bujinji Crane. And last but not least, the reason for running the Earthbound Immortals is that they all have the uncanny ability to attack directly. And yes, all but 1 of the Earthbound Immortals boasts an original ATK of 2500 or more.
So if these monsters are so strong, why do they never see the light of day in most decks? Simply put, the difficulties of an Earthbound Immortal deck are easily seen as two difficult challenges to overcome: first, you must choose an Immortal and have an easy method of getting said Earthbound Immortal to the field and secondly, you must have a Field Spell. One may quickly look to the likes of Mausoleum of the Emperor, which can serve as an answer to both aforementioned problems; however, a 2000 Life Point cost is nothing to throw down for a monster with no built-in protection.
So why write up a brand new article on an archetype that has been tried, tested, then tried some more to no avail? Because it is finally time for the archetype to see some recognition; the game has finally evolved to the point where it is possible to use most of the Immortals in their own specific decks, and if you’re lucky, you may even get the chance to sacrifice the souls of those around you to unleash their power! Without further ado, let’s jump right in with the first of our 7 Immortals!
The Giant
“I sacrifice all these souls to you… Advent! Earthbound God Ccapac Apu!”
Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu is sometimes regarded as having the most counterproductive effect of any Earthbound Immortal (EBI for short), and yet, it just happens to be one of the most easily summoned to the field due to its unique typing. Being Fiend-Type and DARK, this bugger happens to have one of the greatest pools of support cards imaginable. Since it works with everything from Allure of Darkness to Escape from a Different Dimension that can work with any of the EBI, to the entirety of the Dark World archetype, Apu happens to be in a great spot. But while all of these cards help, sparks never truly flew until the under-the-radar World Premiere card weaseled its way into Shadow Specters: Sinister Yorishiro! Not only does the giant have its own way to be summoned without Tributes, but Yorishiro also protects him from being destroyed once. Also, since Apu features a whopping 3000 ATK, he can almost single-handedly win a game through a series of direct attacks.
And when you thought the fiend support was running dry, it’s time to introduce Apu’s favorite sidekick, Evil HERO Infernal Gainer. With the effect of Gainer on your Apu, that is 6000 damage worth of direct attacks every turn. The main issue with Apu that becomes apparent with many of the Earthbound Immortals is choosing the correct Field Spell to partner with him. My suggestion is this: choose the Field Spell to complement the strategy of your deck. It does not make sense to run Magical Citadel of Endymion with your fiends if you cannot use the Spell Counters other than to negate its destruction! This advice will hold true for the rest of the Immortals, so keep that in mind!
Also, for your convenience, I have included sample decklists for some of the Earthbound Immortal variants discussed here! To view each, simply click on the picture of its respective Immortal!
Advantages:
Yokoshiro
Fiend-Type support cards
Disadvantages:
Lack of a noteworthy effect
Field Spell Options:
The Seal of Orichalos
Necrovalley
Archfiend Palabyrinth
Chaos Zone
Sargasso the D.D. Battlefield
The Lizard
“O God which resuscitated my life, now I offer you my soul. Break free from the spell held over you for so long! Earthbound God Ccarayhua!”
The lizard has emerged, except this time, the Earthbound Immortal is not necessarily chosen for his direct attack potential, but rather his ability to be used as a tech option. With a unique effect that triggers when he’s destroyed -destroyed anywhere: field, hand or Deck-, Ccarayhua is mainly used in decks that can easily trigger that special nuke with minimal loss of presence. A perfect example of such a deck would be the Fire Kings, because Fire King Yaksha can destroy him when he is in the hand for an immediate field bomb! In addition, if Yaksha was destroyed by battle, the opponent can’t even attempt to activate Starlight Road to prevent the mass destruction, so you can use that to your advantage!
However, the option is always there to run Ccarayhua as the star of his own Earthbound-centric variant, and the best archetype to use with him would be the “Reptilianne”. Being a Reptile-Type archetype themselves, the pairing works fairly well, giving the archetype a power card to end the duel even faster. Also, his unique typing gives him the quality of one of the easiest searched Earthbound Immortal, because he is only a King of the Feral Imps away from the hand at all times. Compared to most of the other EBI, he is in between two distinct roles, tech option or boss, as a result, he can have a rough time succeeding at either.
Advantages:
Tech Option
DARK Reptile archetype that is a match made in heaven for him
Searchability
Disadvantages:
Unusable effect unless he’s included specifically for it
Not much helpful Reptile-Type support outside of Viper’s Rebirth and King of the Feral Imps
Field Spell Options:
None (With the Fire Kings)
The Seal of Orichalos
Clock Tower Prison
Geartown
The Monkey
“I sacrifice the souls of these spirits! Advent, Earthbound God Cusillu!”
Next up is our dear yellow monkey, Cusillu! And he is one unique EBI to say the least, as his effect can only be activated when he would be destroyed in battle. It seems kind of counter productive, considering that he cannot be selected as an attack target; however, being able to halve the opponent’s Life Points is quite useful early on in the game. That is, if you are able to get Cusillu’s effect activated early in the game.
In terms of compatible decks, the monkey is in a weird spot as he seems to be just one or two Beast-Type support cards away from being the star of a semi-competitive deck variant. With the somewhat recent introduction of the Beast-themed Uniflora, Mythical Beast of the Forest and the Baby Raccoons, the Beast-Type certainly has its share of tech options. The main selling point for running Cusillu over the other immortals is the insane synergy with his main Field Spell: Closed Forest. Closed Forest boosts the ATK of all Beast-Type monsters by 100 points for each monster in your Graveyard. Therefore, Cusillu fills a niche role of being able to easily surpass 4000 ATK power for a decisive blow to end the Duel. Also, Beast-Types in general have awesome ways to special summon tons of little monsters, enabling easy Tribute Summons as necessary to summon your EBI if you happen to draw it!
Advantages:
A very synergistic Field Spell
Beast-Types have great ways of getting Tribute fodder to the field (Chain Dog spam) or simply Special Summoning him from the hand or Graveyard like with Uniflora.
Disadvantages:
Effect is difficult to pull off, useless in the later stages of most games.
Field Spell Options:
Closed Forest
The Seal of Orichalos
Clock Tower Prison
Geartown
The Orca
“Souls who rest in the earth, garnering such longstanding grudges! Now it is time to come forth from the impure earth and lend me your power! Advent, Earthbound God Chacu Challhua!”
And just when you thought that every Earthbound Immortal had some hidden potential, we arrive at the orca: meet Chacu Challhua, the odd fish out. Not only is he one of the few non-WATER Fish-Type monsters (In fact, he’s one of 2 DARK Fish-Type monsters, the other being Shark Fortress) , but most Fish-type support is useless in terms of getting him to the field, as most are tuned towards lower-Leveled monsters. Add in the fact that the other 2-Tribute Fish-Types simply outclass him like Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth, but also the fact that most, if not all, Fish-Type decks do not or cannot run Field Spells.
So now that we’ve covered the numerous negatives to trying to run Chacu, it’s time to continue adding to the laundry list, this time concerning his actual effects. But before that, I must highlight that he is the only Earthbound Immortal with 2 unique effects: 1) Your opponent cannot conduct their Battle Phase at all when Chacu is sitting in Defense Position. 2) You can inflict effect damage equal to half of his DEF instead of attacking. And that’s when the positives truly stop, because the Orca can’t be targeted for an attack anyways, and 1200 effect damage is quite trivial when you could be attacking directly for 2900.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some situations where both of those effects can shine, and the main method for using Chacu is actually to abuse that last burn effect with the Spell Card Unity! The goal of a Unity-OTK Deck is to boost the defense of Chacu Challhua above 16000, resulting in burn damage of 8000 to knock the opponent out in one shot powerful blast. While this OTK condition has always a far-off dream of the everyday creative deckbuilder, it has gotten a huge boost from the somewhat recent release of Box of Friends, because Labyrinth Wall and Millennium Shield both arrive at the party with a solid 3000 DEF.
Advantages:
Able to deal effect damage.
Potential OTK with Unity
Disadvantages:
Somewhat useless effects, if he’s your only monster your opponent couldn’t attack anyways.
Outclassed by other EBI
Not much Fish-Type support for high level DARK Fish-Types like him.
Field Spell Options:
Mausoleum of the Emperor
The Spider
“O souls of the dead who lurk in my light of destiny! Grant me the power to lead the dark truth in this protean world! Fhahahaha! Appear now, Earthbound God Uru!”
Now it’s time to discuss the Infernal Spider, our dear friend Uru. Boasting the highest ATK and DEF power, sitting at a lovely 3000 each, this Immortal takes your opponent’s best monsters with ease, literally. His unique ability allows for you to simply pluck whichever monster you want from their field for the turn, for the low cost of one tribute. Not too shabby qualities for a direct attacker.
The main goal of Uru-centric Earthbound decks is to come out of nowhere and just win the game with his high stats, or simply use him as the generic Earthbound for your boss strategy. Unlike the Giant or the Monkey, the Spider does not have the luxury of amazing Insect-type support cards. There is a great DARK Insect-Type archetype called the “Inzektors”, but the synergy is severely lacking as they do not use any Field Spells and don’t quite have the ability to spam Tribute fodder on demand. Therefore, you will be resorting to Worm Bait or other token-generating cards in order to get Uru to the field in Insect builds! That is why many choose to run the generic Earthbound route with him, choosing tech options such as Hardened Armed Dragon to protect the boss.
Advantages:
Extremely powerful
Great effect that can lead to OTKs
Disadvantages:
Hard to Special Summon outside of pinch hopper or generic Special Summoning traps.
Not much Insect-Type support in general
Field Spell Options:
Spider’s Web
The Seal of Orichalos
Clock Tower Prison
Geartown
The Hummingbird and The Condor
“Behold as five thousand years past and a portal to the netherworld opens! Behold the terrifying manifestation of what will be, when all the spirits in the satellite is swallowed by darkness! Descend, Earthbound Immortal Aslla Piscu!”
“Bring forth the ultimate destruction! The strongest Earthbound God! Come forth, Wiraqocha Rasca!!”
It’s time to unveil the final two Immortals, the winged-beast duo. While Aslla Piscu, the Hummingbird, was featured by Carly, the Dark Signer most known for her Fortune Ladies, Wiraqocha Rasca was used by the leader of the Dark Signers, Rex Goodwin! Now, these two are being discussed together simply because the Condor has no chance of ever being the star of his own Earthbound deck, because he simply is too weak to fulfill the role. His only quality brought to the table is the fact that he is a level 10 DARK Winged Beast with 100 ATK. In other words, he can be Special Summoned by Mystic Tomato and can bring Aslla straight from the deck by using Swallow’s Nest! Many deckbuilders have attempted to build Rasca-centric builds in the past, and I do not believe that any recent additions to the cardpool have changed the issues surrounding them. As a result, I wish you the best if that is the path you wish to trod; however, I have no intentions of trying to go down that road.
In terms of their effects, Aslla is easily seen as having the best effect of any Immortal, compensated by a much lower ATK than its other friends. leaves the field, except by its own effect of course, all face-up monsters your opponent controls are destroyed and your opponent takes 800 effect damage for each. And yes, this is a mandatory effect that leads to a few lovely OTK’s involving Just Desserts and Nightmare Archfiends! On the other hand, Rasca ranks right up there with Chacu as having the most useless effect! While this effect does have the potential to boost Rasca’s ATK to 3100 and rip 3 cards from the opponent’s hand, it requires for you to return cards you control to the deck AND your opponent to have a hand large enough to discard from (not really all that feasible in most duels). Therefore, Rasca’s only true utility is being an Earthbound that is searchable by the all-powerful Mystic Tomato!
Since Aslla has such a great effect, you can always choose to run a build without Rasca, and you have just the same if not better chances of success! In tandem with Black Garden, Aslla can throw a major thorn in your opponent’s side, turning every token on their field into 800 more points of effect damage! And as always, don’t forget Swallow’s Nest that can trade out Aslla for a new one WHILE triggering its effect during the Battle Phase! And if that is not enough incentive for you to attempt the deck, Icarus Attack works wonders, letting you destroy set cards and then wiping the opponent’s field of face-up monsters!
Advantages:
There are TWO Immortals with the same Type, and Winged-Beast has “Blackwing” support, Icarus Attack, and Swallow’s Nest.
Earthbound tech options are slightly more viable here, as you will be running a greater number of Immortals
Disadvantages:
More of a combo deck rather than powerful boss centric strategies as most other Earthbound strategies
Field Spell Options:
Black Garden
The Seal of Orichalos
Necrovalley
Geartown
Ancient Forest
Mausoleum of the Emperor
Mystic Plasma Zone (If using BW’s for ATK boost, works well with Black Whirlwind)
The Earthbound Support Options?
So, if you made it this far you’re expecting the amazing cards that Konami has crafted for this anime evil antagonist archtype, I’m sorry to inform you that you’re wrong. There are some possibilities, but there is no doubt in my mind that many of the Earthbound support are simply outclassed by generic spells or traps. And Earthbound Linewalker? He should be kept at the reach of no less than a 5 and a half foot pole from any Earthbound Immortal deck. Sadly, I am not joking… There are two gems in the rough that warrant being touched upon, and those are Revival of the Immortals and Offering to the Immortals.
Revival: This is the Earthbound’s themed COH-esque trap that just specials an Earthbound from the Graveyard at no cost. I personally think it is a tad better in some situations to COH because it is Chainable (without losing the monster). It is true that the more blanket summoning trap, Call of the Haunted, is considered better in a larger majority of cases. The cool thing with Revival is that it summons the Immortal simply to use their effects or to prevent opponent attacks, as they cannot inflict battle damage after being summoned by it. So are the restrictions worth it? That call is left up to you.
Offerings: And this is the support trap that really does not have a generic counterpart in the game. It is restricted to whenever you are directly attacked with less than 3K Life Points, so it is somewhat situational, but in exchange for negating that direct attack, you get 2 free Tokens and a free search of any “Earthbound Immortal” or any other Earthbound support card! This is basically a one-card setup for an Earthbound summon, so you can definitely use it to turn the tides of the duel to your advantage. And yes, it does give you a +2 with the Tokens while stopping a direct attack, therefore it does not hurt card economy one bit.
Closing Remarks:
In theory, the Earthbound Immortals are a series of clunky yet powerful monsters. They all have the Achilles heel of the Field Spell, and they all have the issue of being unable to protect themselves from card effects; however, they have the potential to make an impact in the current Field-Spell heavy meta. With both Prophecy and Dragon Rulers resorting to Field Spells, a majority of opponents you are bound to face will be running the fuel to keep your Immortal alive and well. Also, any Immortal you summon is definitely a card that your opponent will not see coming from a mile away. As with any rogue deck, make its obscurity your advantage. After all, just about every boss monster has been written off as worthless at least once in its history, it’s about time that people unleash the power contained in the Nazca Lines: break the seal, let the world meet the Earthbound Immortals in all of their glory and might!
May the earth quake for years upon end; the Advent of the Earthbound Gods has arrived! The devil shall now emerge here! Give the roar that created heaven and earth!
