Rafael

Rafael, known in Japan as Raphael, is the strongest of Doma's Swordsmen and the most mysterious in his strategy. He is the only swordsman that defeated his target once. He is also the only swordsman not to lose his soul after he was defeated by his target. He and Alister were responsible for bringing Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood to Dartz. He is also one of the few characters to ever defeat Yami Yugi in a Duel.

Character design


Rafael's usual outfit consists of a large open full-body coat with padded shoulders and belted sleeves and fingerless gloves with studded knuckles. His blonde hair is raised and points upwards behind his head it also features two locks in front of his ears turning through ninety degrees and pointing forward. His Orichalcos Stone is worn around his neck. He carries a Chaos Duel Disk on his left hand.

Character biography
Rafael came from a very wealthy family, and led a perfect life. He had a little sister and brother, and two parents. Rafael was separated from them when, on a luxury cruise, the boat went off course and directly into a tidal wave. As a result the family was killed and he was the only survivor (In the English anime version the story was altered to say that the family survived, but had forgotten about Rafael). Rafael was stranded on a deserted island with only his Duel Monsters, which included Guardian Eatos, Guardian Grarl, and Guardian Kay'est, which he treasured. One day, Rafael saw a city right off the island. He quickly sailed towards it, but as he got near, it disappeared, and he was pulled down underneath the sea by a tidal wave. There, Dartz's voice told him to remember his voice, for they would meet again. Rafael became conscious aboard his raft, and was then rescued by a fishing boat. He traveled and eventually went with Dartz to a graveyard, where he was tortured by digging where he finds the skulls from his siblings corpses' confirming that his family has died in the shipwreck (The Skulls have been removed from the English anime). He was then seduced by a Dark Guardian, and given The Seal of Orichalcos card and a Dark Duel Disk. Forced to do Dartz's bidding, he then became one of his many minions. Until the duel between Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba vs. Dartz, Rafael did not know that Dartz drove the ship into the tidal wave.

Rafael is probably the most complicated of all Dartz's lackeys, except perhaps Mai Valentine. Blinded by Dartz's influence, he honestly believed that he was simply following his set destiny, and proceeded to capture many souls in the series, including Yugi's and Mai's. He believes the pharaoh Yami Yugi was an evil pharaoh and thus desires his soul above all others. To this end Rafael give his Seal of Orichalcos to him using Exchange. Yami Yugi's mind only became evil because the Seal of Orichalcos tampered with his head but was never truly evil to begin with, something Rafael failed to see. Yami Yugi eventually lost the duel, but Yugi Muto pushed him out of the Seal of Orichalcos and let the Seal take his soul instead

After discovering this, Rafael duels Yami Yugi again, and this time plays the Seal himself. After Yami Yugi defeats Guardian Eatos Rafael calls forth Guardian Dreadscythe. After sacrificing his monsters like Yami Yugi did, Yami Yugi plays Underworld Circle, sparking a vision of Rafael's past that snaps him out of the Orichalcos' control. Rafael then concedes defeat by using Soul Charge to revive all his monsters and deplete his Life Points. Afterwards the Orichalcos attempts to take his soul, but his stone shatters and he is freed. He rescues Mai and Valon from the collapsing building and confronts Dartz, who later admitted that he was the one responsible for sinking the luxury cruise that he and his family were on and for all of his and his friend's suffering, after this revelation, he finally saw that the true evil was none other than Dartz himself, shocked, distraught and angered, he used his remaining strength to use the Seal of Orichalchos against Dartz, but it backfired on him and ended up having his soul taken by it.

Rafael has two monsters who represent his character. Guardian Dreadscythe represents his dark mind and Guardian Eatos his light mind. Following his "rebirth" by Dartz, Eatos was also "reborn", in a wicked, twisted sense, creating the separate Guardian Dreadscythe.

At the end of the arc, he is set free, along with all of Dartz's prisoners. He is last seen standing before the Arc de Triomphe.

Deck
Rafael uses a Guardian Deck, where many of the monsters require a specific Equip Spell Card to be on the field before they can be summoned. His particular attachement to his cards means that he will use any means necessary to protect them, which is seen with cards such as "Rescuer from the Grave" and "Swords of Revealing Light". Also, he uses "Backup Gardna" to equip the Guardian's respective Spell Card (allowing him to Normal Summon it), then uses its effect to transfer it to its owner. In the Japanese versions, this is because Raphael's family died, and he doesn't want the monsters he has spent his life with to suffer the same fate. The majority of his cards are also very old and worn, and can be seen with wrinkled edges and numerous discolored spots on their faces.

The majority of his early offensive strategy relies on "Guardian Grarl". His upmost protection of his monsters also serves another purpose, as his most powerful monster, "Guardian Eatos", can be summoned with no Tributes as long as his Graveyard is free of any Monster Cards. Eatos has the potential to gain immense strength through its effect, which absorbs the Attack Points of every monster in the opponents' Graveyard, starting at the top and going down until it reaches a Spell or Trap Card.

In his second duel, he reveals his "Guardian Dreadscythe", which can only be summoned when Eatos is destroyed. This monster has impressive regenerative abilities, being able to return to the field as long as the controller discards a card from their hand in the process except that the controller has no choice, if they can, they MUST discard a card to revive Dreadscythe. Furthermore, for the sacrifice of other Guardian Monsters, Dreadscythe can increase its own attack strength. Rafael's willingness to sacrifice his own monsters at this point is due to the fact that Dreadscythe is the representation of Rafael's darker side and as such, is a completely different persona. He abandons his usual personal rule of always keeping his beloved monsters removed from play as opposed to in the Graveyard, similar to Yugi's reaction to Orichalcos in their first duel, which eventually leads to his defeat.