“The Dark Being has risen. We have no hope for defeating it.”

 - Pegasus

Reshef the Dark Being was unknown to Yugi, the Pharaoh, or their friends. Reshef was an ancient divinity that was sealed away and long forgotten by the world. But while the world may have forgotten about Reshef, Reshef had not forgotten about the world.

From behind the seals that entombed it, Reshef sought out and gathered lost souls to do its bidding. Pegasus was one of those souls, broken by his defeat to the Pharaoh and the loss of the Millennium Eye to the thief dwelling inside Bakura’s Millennium Ring. Pegasus was an easy target for Reshef, and he proved to be a worthy acquisition, because he had what Reshef needed to break free.

The Millennium items vanished. The Pharaoh disappeared and appeared to be working with the enemy. Bandit Keith had reunited the Ghouls. Things didn’t look good for our heroes. With each defeated duelist, Reshef grew stronger and moved closer to realizing its goal.

In The Lost Millennium, Reshef the Dark Being is freed from its prison. Like in the video game, Reshef can take control of others and bend them to its will. But unlike the video game, you don’t need the negative energies of defeated duelists to unleash Reshef.

“The final ritual? Of the ancients? All the negative energies of the defeated duelists—Reshef has their power. It’s hopeless. We’re finished.”

 - Pegasus

Reshef the Dark Being is a Ritual monster that requires a Ritual spell card, Final Ritual of the Ancients, to begin its reign of destruction.

“Discard one spell card from your hand. Take control of one monster on your opponent’s side of the field until the end phase. You can only use this effect once per turn.”

This effect is similar to the one on Change of Heart, with the additional requirement that you discard a spell card from your hand to pay for Reshef’s effect. Since it’s a targeting effect, you’ll need to pick the monster you want to take control of when you activate Reshef.

Brain Control should be familiar to fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! television series. The card has often been used by Yugi to take control of an opponent’s monster so he could achieve victory. The TCG version is similar to the one in the anime, except the spell demands more from players who use it.

“Pay 800 life points. Select one face-up monster on your opponent’s side of the field. Take control of the selected card until the end phase of the turn that this card was activated.”

Brain Control’s effect is more affordable than Reshef the Dark Being’s. Paying 800 life points is relatively inexpensive when you consider the potential benefit that can come from taking an opponent’s monster.

When playing with Brain Control, you need to keep in mind that you can only use it to take control of an opponent’s face-up monster. That limits your options, because Brain Control won’t help you stop face-down monsters like Magician of Faith.

This limitation causes another problem. Let’s look at an example.

Example: Big Brain Defeated by a Book

Ben wants to use Brain Control to take over one of Nora’s monsters. He pays 800 life points and activates the spell, choosing to target Nora’s face-up copy of Blade Knight. Nora responds by activating Book of Moon and targeting the same monster.

Once you’ve taken control of an opponent’s monster, you need to have a use for it. Simply removing a barrier from your path may not be enough to win the game.

Tribute summons quickly come to mind as an option. Taking control of an opponent’s monster and then using it for a tribute in a tribute summon is a classic move for bringing out monsters like Jinzo, Airknight Parshath, and Ancient Gear Golem. But we have access to many other opportunities in the card pool, so let’s see what else we have to choose from.

Gift of the Martyr can work well with Reshef the Dark Being. Despite being a level 8 monster, Reshef isn’t quite as strong as it could be. Gift of the Martyr sends away the monster you grabbed with Reshef’s effect and uses that monster’s strength to give the Dark Being more power. This plan may not always be the best though, as it’s sometimes better to allow your opponent’s monster to attack.

Assault on GHQ can help you accomplish two goals: it prevents your opponent from reclaiming his or her monster, and it depletes your opponent’s deck. This tends to work better if you plan on using deck depletion as a strategy. Otherwise, depletion will only serve as a slight annoyance for your opponent.

Ectoplasmer also works well with Reshef the Dark Being. On each of your turns, you could use Reshef’s effect to take control of an opponent’s monster. During the end phase, you could use Ectoplasmer’s effect to tribute that monster and inflict damage to your opponent’s life points. This combo can help you defeat your opponent quickly, but you must have a spell card to discard for Reshef’s effect each turn, and your opponent must always have a monster that you can use against him or her. If either condition falls apart, you might have to tribute Reshef, and that’s an option you’d want to save for the end of the duel. To help keep the combo going, you can use Light of Intervention to stop your opponent from setting monsters.

Creature Swap is a useful tool for taking over a monster for the long haul. You could use Brain Control or Reshef the Dark Being to take control of a monster that you don’t want and then use Creature Swap to swap that monster for a monster that you do want. Naturally, this tactic is useful only if you can get a better monster out of the deal.

Until next week, send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.