Give Me Sanctuary!

Seek Sanctuary... There, you will find your Dueling answers!

By John Bae September 15, 2016

Duelist Pack: Rivals of the Pharaoh gives some screen time to Bakura, the ultimate enemy in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime by finally bringing to life his most famous card: Dark Sanctuary!

Bakura’s Duel against the Pharaoh in the first round of the Battle City Finals is one of the most iconic Duels in the entire original series. It takes place atop a Kaiba Corp. blimp, on its way to a remote island where the winner of Battle City would be crowned. While the Pharaoh takes a quick lead and nearly wipes Bakura out, he inadvertently allows Bakura to unleash the power of Dark Sanctuary and Destiny Board, making his own defeat all but inevitable.

0915 Ygo Sanctuary 1

Dark Sanctuary is one of the most terrifying Field Spells ever created. Just having it on your side of the field gives every attack your opponent makes a 50-50 chance of backfiring and exploding in their face, taking out a chunk of Life Points with it. Each time your opponent attacks, you flip a coin, and if it comes up heads, the attack is negated and your opponent takes damage equal to half the current ATK of the attacking monster!

But that’s not all: Dark Sanctuary allowed Bakura to use his Monster Zones as extra Spell/Trap Zones to complete the terrifying message of Destiny Board. At the end of each of your opponent’s turns, Destiny Board places another “Spirit Message” card from your hand or Deck into your Spell/Trap Zone. After the entire message is spelled out, you win the Duel automatically. Including Destiny Board, that’s a total of five cards, so normally you’d be unable to protect Destiny Board and the Spirit Messages from destruction with Trap Cards. Dark Sanctuary changes that by letting you place Spirit Messages in your Monster Zones as faux monsters that don’t interact with other cards. They can’t be attacked or affected by other card effects, but they don’t protect you from attacks either, so make sure to use other monsters to keep your Life Points safe!

You can find Dark Sanctuary, Destiny Board and all of the “Spirit Message” cards in Duelist Pack: Rivals of the Pharaoh , in stores September 16!