Card Appearances:The Winged Dragon of Ra

Overview

 * The Winged Dragon of Ra is the final and strongest of the Egyptian God Cards. It is the key card of Marik Ishtar during the Battle City arc of the series, and is described as being so powerful even the other two God cards combined cannot defeat it. To contain this power, an extra level of protection exists on the card; besides the above mentioned qualification of possessing a Millennium Item, a special text on the card referred to as the Hieratic Text ( 古代神官文字(ヒエラティックテキスト) ) prevents anyone who does not recite this text from using it. Also, the name of this card was printed in English in the original Japanese Anime and Manga: ＴＨＥ　 ＳＵＮ 　ＯＦ 　ＧＯＤ 　ＤＲＡＧＯＮ


 * The attack of this monster is called "God Blaze Cannon" 「ゴッド・ブレイズ・キャノン」. Its ability to attack in the turn it was summoned from the Graveyard, regardless of any effect or condition in play, is called "Instant Attack". Ra can be transformed into the "Egyptian God Phoenix" 「ゴッドフェニックス」, or it can absorb all of its controller's Life Points but 1 (which is known as "Point-to-Point Transfer").


 * Using the OCG/TCG terminology, the original effects of this card might described as follows:


 * Note: In episode 222, during the duel between Atem and Yugi, Marik Ishtar claims that if Atem activates the abilities of The Winged Dragon of Ra, he could increase it's ATK to almost 15,000: 5000 (Ra's ATK) + 2500 (Obelisk's ATK) + 3000 (Slifer's ATK) + 3999 (all but 1 of Atem's life points). In episode 85 of the Yu-Gi-Oh GX series, a man named Franz successfully activated both The Winged Dragon of Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer and Egyptian God Phoenix abilities. It should be noted that The Winged Dragon of Ra was Tribute Summoned in both cases. It is therefore ambiguous at best whether or not Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer and Egyptian God Phoenix abilities require Ra to be special summoned to be activated in the Anime series. It is possible this requirement was dropped after the Battle City Tournament since these were the only two major appearances The Winged Dragon of Ra had in a duel after that tournament.

Battle City

 * In the quarter-finals of Battle City, Marik Ishtar has his adopted brother Odion Ishtar use a counterfeit copy of the card to impersonate him while dueling Joey. When Odion plays the counterfeit Ra appears and strikes both duelist out cold with lightning. Kaiba then declared that whichever one of them stood up first would win the match.  When Joey wins this way Marik reveals himself before being consumed by his evil alter-personality.


 * Mai Valentine uses her "Amazoness Chain Master" to take the card from Marik and add it to her hand. She sacrificed her three" Harpie Lady Sisters" to summon "Ra "but it appeared in it's sphere from and not knowing the ancient text Mai was not able to release "Ra".  On his next turn, Marik recited the ancient text and took control of "Ra" and used it to defeat Mai.


 * In an unofficial duel in Battle City finals Yami Bakura takes control of Ra by using "Dark Designator" to force Marik to add the card to his hand then used Exchange to take the card from him (while Marik took Monster Reborn from Bakura). Since Marik's spirit was inside Bakura he could control Ra but Marik used "Joyful Doom" to set the ATK of all the monsters that Bakura tributed to 0, which also left Ra with 0 ATK. Seeing Ra as useless Bakura tributed Ra to summon "Dark Ruler Ha Des".  This proved to be faulty as Marik then used the Monster Reborn he took from Bakura to revive Ra and used it's hidden ability to transfer all his Life Points to "Ra" and defeated Bakura. Ra was also stated to have the ability to attack the first turn it is summoned, despite magic and trap cards that would usually prevent this.


 * In his duel against Joey in the Battle City Finals, Yami Marik discarded the card due to the effect of his Nightmare Mirror trap card. In his turn, Marik revives "The Winged Dragon of Ra" with" Monster Reborn" and uses its Egyptian God Phoenix to destroy "Gilford the Lightning".


 * In his duel with Yami Yugi, Yami Marik first used "Ra" in its Egyptian God Phoenix to destroy Yugi's "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Later on, Marik used "Ra" in several attempts to destroy "Obelisk the Tormentor". When Marik's evil side merges with Ra using one of its powers, and Yugi takes the chance to destroy Marik's evil side by destroying Ra and him together with his "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl". Afterwards, a reformed Marik surrenders and hands the card to Yugi.

Pyramid of Light

 * In the movie Ra is seen in Kaiba's simulation as he tries, but fails, to find a way to defeat the three God Cards. When Kaiba duels Yugi and Yugi summons "Slifer the Sky Dragon" Kaiba plays Obligatory Summon to force Yugi to summon Ra and Obelisk. Kaiba immediately activates "Pyramid of Light" removing all three God Cards from play.
 * Later, then Yugi plays "Reverse of Reverse" to activate Kaiba's "Return from the Different Dimension" against Anubis. Ra appears with "Slifer" and "Obelisk" to defeat Anubis and his "Theinen the Great Sphinx".

Waking the Dragons

 * The three God Cards are stolen by Dartz's henchmen and drained of their power for the majority of the season. However, Yugi and Atem recover them near the end of the season and use the hope of the people trapped inside the Great Leviathan to power them back up and defeat the Great Leviathan.

Dawn of the Duel

 * After Atem recovers his life force with the help of Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristen he is able to call on The Winged Dragon of Ra to battle Bakura's Diabound. Unlike Slifer and Obelisk, it is able to destroy Diabound, but Bakura reverses time to prevent Ra's summoning and avoid defeat. In the anime, it also takes part in the final battle between Atem and Yugi, although Atem does not use the full extent of its power in the battle. It is not used in Atem's final duel against Yugi in the manga.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

 * In episode 18, this card appears in a flashback to the second series anime.


 * In episode 85, a renegade card designer from Industrial Illusions named Franz uses a counterfeit copy of this card, defeating and wounding two participants in the Genex Tournament. He then duels Jaden Yuki and with "Mound of the Bound Creator", is able to enslave "Ra" and avoid having to fulfill any of the requirements for using it. Franz uses its effect to fuse with it, reducing his Life Points to 1, but Jaden then threatens to use "Neo-Spacian Glow Moss's" effect to attack directly, so Franz opts to use "De-Fusion" to drop "Ra's" ATK to 0 and restore his Life Points. Jaden destroys Ra with "Glow Moss" and then Special Summons it to his side of the field using "Necro Illusion". He Tributes his monsters and pays all but 1 of his Life Points to raise "Ra's" ATK and defeat Franz, who then returns the card to Maximillion Pegasus.

Yu-Gi-Oh! R

 * Yugi attempts to summon it during his second duel against Yakou Tenma. Yakou, however, prevented this summon with the effect of his "Triage" Trap Card.

The phrase to acess to it in the anime is Almighty protecter of the Sun and Sky, I beg of thee please heed my cry; Transform thyself from Orb of Light, and bring me victory in this fight; I beseech thee grace our humble game, but first I shall call out thy name; Winged Dragon of Ra!