{"id":32882,"date":"2018-03-14T15:14:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T15:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/?p=32882"},"modified":"2018-08-06T16:17:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T16:17:16","slug":"the-apex-of-unset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/?p=32882","title":{"rendered":"[Names] Lore of the Pit: Secrets of the Advent Skull Archfiend"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you all know about that new Ritual version of Summoned Skull? Well, the history behind him goes a bit deeper than you may have realized.
\n
\nFor those viewers at home just catching up, a new promo card was announced for the OCG: Advent Skull Archfiend<\/strong>, a Ritual version of everyone\u2019s favorite name rulings nightmare. A quick recap from yesterday\u2019s article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Source: Yugioh.jp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u30c7\u30fc\u30e2\u30f3\u306e\u964d\u81e8 Daemon no Kourin \/ Advent Skull Archfiend<\/strong>
\nDARK Fiend \/ Ritual \/ Effect
\nLV6 2500\/1200
\nYou can Ritual Summon this card with \u201cContract with the Abyss\u201d.
\n(1) This card\u2019s name is treated as \u201cSummoned Skull\u201d while it is in the Monster Zone. (This card is still treated as an “Archfiend” card.)
\n(2) This card on the field cannot be destroyed by battle with non-Ritual Monsters, and cannot be destroyed by the monster effects of non-Ritual Monsters.
\n(3) If this Ritual Summoned card in its owner\u2019s possession is sent to the GY by an opponent\u2019s card (by battle or card effect, or by being destroyed): You can Special Summon 1 \u201cSummoned Skull\u201d from your hand, Deck, or GY.<\/p>\n

Now some of you old fogeys like myself out there may have done a double take at \u201cContract with the Abyss\u201d. Yes, you\u2019re thinking of the right one. Even you! Oh wait, no, not that guy. Not you. But the rest of you!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Source: Yugipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the generic DARK Ritual Spell!<\/p>\n

Yes, they pulled the same trick here that they did with Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended<\/strong> and Sprite\u2019s Blessing<\/strong> \u2013 sticking a new Ritual Monster to an otherwise generic Ritual Spell.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s not entirely the same trick.<\/p>\n

You see, it\u2019s important to check the Japanese name of the card \u2013 which, in this case, is \u5948\u843d\u3068\u306e\u5951\u7d04 (Naraku to no Keiyaku<\/em>, pretty much \u201cContract with the Abyss\u201d.) As an aside, that word naraku<\/em> also shows up in the Japanese name for Bottomless Trap Hole<\/strong> (Naraku no Otoshiana<\/em>), but what we\u2019re really interested in is how it also shows up in \u5948\u843d\u306e\u738b (Naraku no Ou<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Or rather, as he\u2019s known on this side of the pond, Lord of the Pit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yeah, there weren’t too many big images for this. Source: magiccards.info<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As it turns out, Summoned Skull<\/strong> appears to be based on this early Magic the Gathering card \u2013 which makes a bit more sense when you realize it debuted in the very first appearance of Duel Monsters in the manga, back when the idea was to showcase several different types of games. So having a card game called \u201cMagic and Wizards\u201d and making a monster that was much more of an overt reference to Magic was likely the point. In fact, the Anniversary art for Summoned Skull<\/strong> comes full circle, with art much more evocative of newer artwork for Lord of the Pit<\/strong> than of a skeletal demon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"
\n\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"
\nSources: Johnnymagic.jp, TappedOut, Yugipedia<\/p>\n

Additionally, you can also see where Summoned Skull<\/strong> takes some further inspiration from his Magic counterpart: the old wording for creature typing in Magic was \u201cSummon X\u201d, with X being the type of the creature. In this case, it would be \u201cSummon Demon\u201d, or \u30c7\u30fc\u30e2\u30f3\u306e\u53ec\u559a (Deemon no Shoukan<\/em>). Now compare that to the Japanese name for our skull boy up there. Look familiar?<\/p>\n

On less of an obvious note, this may also explain why Summoned Skull is Level 7 in the manga \u2013 looking at Lord of the Pit<\/strong>\u2019s converted mana cost gives us 7 as well.<\/p>\n

\u2026Now let\u2019s switch gears back to Yugioh to explain the \u201cAdvent\u201d part of Advent Skull Archfiend<\/strong>. (You thought you were free, didn\u2019t you? Silly, I\u2019m untying these ropes so I can redo the knots.)<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019ve been keeping track, or if you scrolled back up to the top of the article real quick, you may have noticed there\u2019s not really much of a difference between the Japanese names for the two Skulls. Basically going from \u201cDemon Summon\u201d to \u201cDemon Advent\u201d. And yes, that\u2019s true. But this is also a reference that probably goes over English speakers\u2019 heads. This one won\u2019t take as long, don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvent\u201d (\u964d\u81e8, Kourin<\/em>) is the original word used on Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spells to describe the act of a Ritual Summon. In addition to saving space on the tiny text boxes on old OCG cards, it probably makes them sound like more of a big fancy deal that way, plus different kinds of Summons weren\u2019t being scrutinized as much anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Though maybe they could have…used the space better.
Source: Yugipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, even today, with text being more standardized and the concept of Ritual Summoning being a thing, \u201cadvent\u201d is still used on OCG Ritual cards, though usually just to refer to what kinds of Ritual Spells they work with. Hell, look at the first line of effect text on our Ritual skull buddy – \u300c\u5948\u843d\u3068\u306e\u5951\u7d04\u300d\u306b\u3088\u308a\u964d\u81e8 – it\u2019s right there! Go scroll up though, I\u2019m not posting the same image again down here.<\/p>\n

In short, Advent Skull Archfiend takes several card concepts and terms from Yugioh and beyond, tying them together in a neat little package that TCG players otherwise wouldn\u2019t get the chance to see. But now you have! And now you can look forward to explaining this nugget of card game history once it arrives on our shores. Or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you all know about that new Ritual version of Summoned Skull? Well, the history behind him goes a bit deeper than you may have realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":32849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1789,1792,1791,1790],"class_list":{"0":"post-32882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-coming-full-circle","9":"tag-ill-be-here-all-week","10":"tag-more-like-ritual-summoned-skull-am-i-right","11":"tag-summoned-skull"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.ygorganization.com\/2018\/03\/AdventSummonedSkull.png?wsr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36950,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32882\/revisions\/36950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}