YGOL Forums: Pyramid Of Light, Andro Sphinx, Sphinx Teleia - YGOL Forums

This is a little outside-the-normal for my reviews, but it gives me a small chance to catch up on what I haven't done in a while.


MOV-EN004
Pyramid of Light
Continuous Trap
If this face-up card is removed from your side of the field, destroy "Andro Sphinx" and "Sphinx Teleia" on your side of the field and remove them from play.
COMMON

EPI-EN002
Andro Sphinx
LIGHT/Beast/10/3000/2500
You can pay 500 Life Points to Special Summon this monster when "Pyramid of Light" is on the field. This card cannot attack during the turn it was Summoned. This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. If this card destroys a Defense Position monster on the field, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of the ATK of the destroyed monster.
Ultra Rare

EPI-EN003
Sphinx Teleia
LIGHT/Beast/10/2500/3000
You can pay 500 Life Points to Special Summon this monster when "Pyramid of Light" is on the field. This card cannot attack during the turn it was Summoned. This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. If this card destroys a Defense Position monster on the field, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of the DEF of the destroyed monster.
Ultra Rare


I had a hard time figuring out what card to do for my 2nd CotD article, but sometimes you need inspiration to make you do something. Well, my inspiration came in the form of Cartoon Network showing "Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie." I was watching Kaiba's duel with Yugi when he played Pyramid of Light, and later when Anubis, who "took over" for Kaiba, Summoned Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia. I then remembered how powerful this could be, so I decided to write on it.

Pyramid of Light isn't anything special. If it's removed from the field, you destroy your two Sphinxes and remove them from play. Um...NOT GOOD! If you can't protect your Sphinx(es) or Pyramid of Light, your Sphinxes are just waiting to be destroyed by one card, and it'll usually be a card to destroy Spell and/or Trap Cards (usually either Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, or [in Traditional] Harpie's Feather Duster). Yes, if you're using it against a Yugi Starter Deck, Remove Trap becomes a "god card" for the Starter Deck player. But let's say you can protect them. How special are they?

Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia are both Level 10 monsters with Attribute/Type of LIGHT/Beast. They are both Level 10 monsters, which usually means having to Tribute 2 monsters (or 1 if you're using Kaiser Sea Horse). But with Pyramid of Light on the field, you can simply pay 500 Life Points for each of them to summon them without Tributes. This could give you a cheap high-level Summon, or it could give you a 500 LP monster to use for Tribute. That?s not bad, especially given their ATK, DEF, and effects.

Sphinx Teleia has 2500 ATK and 3000 DEF, while Andro Sphinx is the opposite (3000/2500). Considering they might not need Tributes, that's not too bad. Both monsters have effects that activate when they destroy a Defense Position monster. Andro Sphinx will deal damage to the opponent equal to half the ATK of the destroyed monster, while Sphinx Teleia deals damage equal to half the DEF. That's GREAT for no Tributes. I mean, doing damage even when monsters are in Defense Position can be a dream come true for you. However, there are some significant downsides to using these two Sphinxes.

The first bad effect of these monsters is that they can't attack the turn they're Summoned. If you're hoping to Summon them as a last-ditch effort to help you win, you'll have to wait a turn to do it. Also, they cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. This isn?t a drawback if you're playing with Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension (another movie card, found in Exclusive Pack 1), but if you decide to Tribute either of them you cannot use cards like Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted to get them back.

Final Verdict: If you're using a LIGHT Beatdown and can save your Sphinx(es) from the ravages of a destroyed Pyramid of Light (Interdimensional Matter Transporter, maybe), then 500 LP for a 3000-ATK Level 10 monster with a direct damage effect is GREAT! If you can't guarantee their safety, though, then pass them up faster than the plague.

Traditional: 3/10 with Pyramid of Light, 4/10 without it. Not being able to attack in the same turn it's Summoned hurts the Sphinxes terribly. Also consider that Harpie's Feather Duster is run in Traditional and it's even harder to use Pyramid of Light to more easily get the Sphinx(es) onto the field and keep them there.

Advanced: 6/10 with Pyramid of Light, 5/10 without it. Again, not being able to attack immediately is a significant downfall to the Sphinxes. I doubled the score with Pyramid of Light because you don't have to worry about Harpie's Feather Duster in Advanced Format. The only reason I bumped up the without score to 5 because, even though you don't have Raigeki or Dark Hole in this format, you do have to deal with Lightning Vortex. Even if you discount that, Black Luster Soldier simply has to snap its fingers and your Sphinx bites the dust. As well, Metamorphosized Thousand-Eyes Restrict just simiply has to blink 1,000 times to turn your Sphinx against you.

Casual (any format): No score. I'd definitely consider running the Pyramid of Light/Sphinx combo so that you can get some high-Level, high-ATK monsters onto the field for next to nothing.


Anime Appearance: Not technically in the Anime, all 3 cards were used in the movie "Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie." Pyramid of Light had a completely different effect, to remove all God Cards on the field from play (which is unplayable in the official game since God Cards cannot be played). Since it was a Continuous Trap, the God Cards were out of play as long as Pyramid of Light was face-up on the field. Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia were used late in the movie by Anubis to destroy Yugi's last two monsters, Watapon and Obnoxious Celtic Guard (weird, considering Obnoxious Celtic Guard shouldn?t be destroyed by any monster with 1900 ATK or more), but it seems like the only monster?s effect to stay was Andro Sphinx's.

i think u forgot somthing
the most favorite monster jinzo and trap royal decree
if thos cards on the field u wont be able to special summon the pheonixes
thos making u to trib summon them and 2 trib summon is not a good deal now days

shadowknight, on Jul 12 2005, 02:45 AM, said:

The Sphinxes don't mention that Pyramid of Light needs to be active, just that it's face-up on the field.

Nice job doing reveiws on those cards and other cards you do too.

these cards are useless it's imposible to make a combo with them even when peramid of light is active

Blue-Eyes Black, on Jul 12 2005, 06:08 PM, said:

both monsters are hard to get on the field, but can help a lot if you do.

only thing i could find a use for is for Thelos or something like that...just get them both on the field with some light deck cards and then tribute (don't have pyrimid of light) and just use dark hole....i mean that would do it...i haven't used them for sometime now so i am not quite sure if it would work.

That would work, but if you use Pyramid of Light you wouldn't need to use a bunch of Kaiser Sea Horse or strong monsters that you'd only use for Tribute. You'd just need 4 cards and 1500 Life Points:

Andro Sphinx
Sphinx Teleia
Pyramid of Light
Dark Hole


Whereas the way you're going, you'd need 500 Life Points and:

Andro Sphinx
Sphinx Teleia
2 Tribute Monsters for Andro Sphinx
2 Tribute Monsters for Sphinx Teleia
Dark Hole

That route takes 7 cards. Using Kaiser Sea Horse for both monsters, you'd be using 5 cards instead of 4.

It will depend on what your environment is like, too. If it involves a lot of Spell/Trap Card destruction, then you'd want to use strong monsters and Kaiser Sea Horses instead of Pyramid of Light. But if the people you play with have never heard of Dust Tornado, Heavy Storm, or Harpie's Feather Duster then I'd say use Pyramid of Light since you won't have to have the monsters on the field first. And it'd be faster. Instead of having to waste 4 turns to get the Sphinxes onto the field (Turn 1 Kaiser, Turn 2 Andro Sphinx, Turn 3 Kaiser, Turn 4 Sphinx Teleia), you could have an opening hand containing Pyramid of Light, Andro Sphinx, and Sphinx Teleia. Then on Turn 1 you'd set Pyramid of Light, then on Turn 2 you'd pay 1000 Life Points to Special Summon Andro Sphinx AND Sphinx Teleia. And you still haven't conducted your Normal Summon!

Isn't a good combo: Swords of Reveailing Light, and then a cancellation trap/magic card to protect your monsters. I mean Swords of Revealing light can really be reliable for when you need to protect yourself in battle, also you have the clear advantage if you can clear the other persons trap and magic cards, while you summon your PoL card. I think the key of vicotry, which was stated above is to protect POL, at all cost.... so these two beasts can attack.

Swords of Revealing Light is definitely a must-have in a Deck like this. You can't let your opponent take out too many of your Monsters too soon. If you need the extra 3 turns to set up your Monsters for Tribute just to use the Sphinxes, then Swords of Revealing Light gets you those 3 turns.


Also consider one of the "Trinity Combos" (or rather, equations) in the game: Scapegoat + Metamorphosis = Thousand-Eyes Restrict stall. Just make sure you pack some Book of Moons to help you out since you don't want your own Thousand-Eyes Restrict to keep you from attacking with your Sphinx. Of course, also be aware of an opponent's Snatch Steal. If they use Book of Moon, too, then they could Snatch Steal your Thousand-Eyes Restrict, use Book of Moon on it after Snatch Steal resolves, then Flip Summon it to take your Sphinx. And they keep Thousand-Eyes Restrict, too. Of course, chain Snatch Steal with your Book of Moon and they won't get to take control of it. The downside to that is that your opponent can then choose to attack your face-down Restrict and destroy it, leaving you one option short on how to stall enough to make full use of Pyramid of Light.


I think I'm going to expand this review to include "Tournament-level Reviews" of this combo:


Traditional Format, Tournament: 3/10 with Pyramid of Light, 2/10 without Pyramid of Light. Tournaments will always be dominated by Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End and use more than enough staples for me to safely say that you won't afford the space. You won't want to Tribute off your Blade Knight AND your Breaker. You could afford one or the other (for Jinzo), but you can't afford both, especially since the Sphinxes (Sphinxi?) can't attack the turn they're Summoned. In other words, you get too little for too much effort. If you do end up using Pyramid of Light, chances are it'll be destroyed before you get a chance to use it thanks to the presence of Harpie's Feather Duster.

Advanced Format, Tournament: 6/10 with Pyramid of Light, 5/10 without Pyramid of Light. It ought to be a good experiment. Heavy Storm, Breaker, and Mystical Space Typhoon can hurt your Pyramid of Light, but using cards like Magic Jammer and Divine Wrath can help you out. Watch out, though, because if your opponent uses a Side Deck and decides to add in Dust Tornado(s), then you're only going to get one use out of Pyramid of Light.


The lower scores in both cases (without Pyramid of Light in the Deck) are due to the Sphinxs' speed. To get one of the Sphinxes onto the field, you'll probably need a MINIMUM of 3 Turns PLUS 1 more turn in order for it to attack. Then you have to worry about Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, and maybe even Draining Shield [which I'll predict will gain momentum in use as Yu-Gi-Oh!: GX comes on the air. I mean, come on! You could gain a potential 3000 Life Points {BLS attacking}, you could essentially negate 2 attacks {again, if BLS would have destroyed your only monster or something like that}, and it helps to negate an attack and possibly stall for some time]. I'd say a definite "NO" in Traditional Format and a "maybe" in Advanced Format. If you can compete well against near-Tournament Level casual decks, then I'd say try using them in a tournament and see how they work out for you.

This is really interesting, I am not so much into the card game, I like the video games better, but the same concept applies. What is complicated though is what is restricted from tortuoment play, but if you play with a friend, then I guess you can just follow the basic moves. I have a question which is a little off topic, but still applies to tributes. I remember watching Season One of Yugioh, Yugi and Seto was able to summon creatures that were high level, both dark magician, blue eyes, and summon skull, how can this be when later on summons needed to be involved?

YamiBakura0385, on Aug 15 2005, 07:34 PM, said:

I think I remember reading on another site that Season 1 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub was based on the "Junior Rules" of Yu-Gi-Oh! (Japan-only rules for beginners/little kids). One of the rules was you didn't Tribute for higher-level Monsters. If the Tribute rule was in place, Kaiba would be in the best position since he could guarantee that most of his monsters could survive the mediocrity of most of the other monsters used in the Duelist Kingdom tournament decks. BTW, "Junior Rules" only used 4000 Life Points, but the Anime halved that amount.

Since then the seasons have been working more toward the actual rules. I believe GX is supposed to have its Duels play almost the exact same as the regular card game except for a few minor differences in effects (especially among the Elemental Hero fusions) and, of course, the halved Life Points (4000 instead of 8000).

Kewl, thanks for clearing it up for me. I know the rules of Duel Monsters have changed with the card game, to the anime, to the video games, and I would really just like to learn about all of the rules of Yugioh to understand more about the timeline of the game. From where it started to how it is now, I think its great knowing such information, I really love this show/game. Also yeah, Yugioh GX has about the same game play (unsure about the card game, but in the anime the rules follow what was protrayed in Kaibia's Battle City). They also do have 4000 life points, but with Judai's fusions I am figuring out if he can attack as soon as he summons, I dont think he can, but with some cards it allows him to do so.

pyramid of light being bdestroyed isn't THAT bad when you have Theinen...

they are alright but better to get theinen the great sphinx out

I was reading the first few posts, and I was wondering why NO ONE mentioned Theinen the Great Sphinx. Thank goodness, the previous few posters.

Theinen the Great Sphinx: Beast/10/3500/3000

"This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by paying 500 Life Points when both "Andro Sphinx" and "Sphinx Teleia" on your side of the field are destroyed at the same time; then you can Special Summon this monster from your hand or deck. When this card is Special Summoned successfully, pay 500 Life Points to increase the ATK of this card by 3000 points until the end of the End Phase."

(I remember there was this one version where Theinen's attack increases by the combined attack of all monsters in your graveyard, instead of just 3000).

A little bit of inspiration to make you destroy your own Pyramid of Light. That, or if your opponent doesn't know that destroying the pyramid will bring forth Theinen, he's in for a BIG surprise!

I too was wondering if someone would mention Thienen. The Great Sphinx also has his own effect which is just for another 500lps increase his atk by 3000!!! That's 6500 total, more than enough to deal with Obelisk, BEUD, Ra, and Slifer (Since the max card hand limit is 6 unless unlimited hand is on the field). I actually made a deck off of these cards and in casual play destroyed my opponent in 5 turns. Quite nice it was to see his face, utter despair. However, any trap removing card, even Dust Tornado, can destroy the strategy immediately. Negate or not, Pyramid of Light and be destroyed before u can summon the Andro and Teleia thanks to Spell Speed.

Can the sphinxes be specal summoned from the deck?

Unless it's stated otherwise on a card, you cannot Special Summon from the Deck.

Yeah. You can choose to Normal summon Sphinx Teleia or Andro Sphinx. But if you have Pyramid of Light active on the field, you can special summon them instead IF you have them in your hand. When they are both destroyed in the same turn (doesn't have to be at the exact same time...just has to be in the same turn), you can special summon Theinen the Great Sphinx from your hand or deck.

EDIT: If the two lesser sphinxes could be special summoned from your deck, then Pyramid of Light would be WAY too powerful. Summon a 3000/2500 and a 2500/3000 instantly from one trap card? Don't think so.

This post has been edited by Sangaera: 06 March 2006 - 10:54 PM