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"Arcana Force" (アルカナフォース Arukana Fōsu) are an archetype of cards used by Sartorius in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime and which debuted in Light of Destruction. The monsters are based on the Major Arcana tarot cards, each possessing a different symbolic meaning, while the Spell and Trap Cards come in the form of the Minor Arcana tarot cards, although, at the time of their release, there was not one for each card in a complete 78-card tarot card set that uses one of each card, as a full set consists of 22 cards in the "Major Arcana" set, and 14 cards in each of the four "Minor Arcana" suits, which add up to a total of 56 "Minor Arcana" cards.

The monsters often attribute with coin flips to activate their effects, one positive and one negative. "Arcana Force EX - The Light Ruler" and "Arcana Force EX - The Dark Ruler" are the only ones which are not based on tarot cards, and the only ones who have a positive effect for both coin flips. The cards' appearances are inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and taken from their appearance in Konami's own Silent Hill series. Arcana Force monsters keep their effects of the coin flip for the duration that the card is on the field.

These cards were introduced and exclusively used by the main antagonist of the second season of GX, Sartorius, and his psychic ability to look into the future. The card text is flip a coin, but in the anime and video games, the card keeps spinning and when the opponent says "stop" the card stops and its effect depends if it's right-side-up or up-side-down. The Light of Destruction possessing Sartorius manipulates destiny to consistently give him the positive card effect. It uses this ability and the effect that the opponent chooses when to stop the card's spinning to manipulate people during Duels, demonstrating that their belief they control their own destinies is false, but Sartorius has seen their future and they can change their destiny if they ally with him.

"Arcana Force EX - The Light Ruler" was, at first, the only Arcana Force card to be released. Many of the tarot "Arcana Force" cards were later released in Light of Destruction, which is considered the "official" debut of Arcana Force monsters. Certain key Arcana Force monsters were put into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 as game original cards, as well as many of the support cards. Most of the Arcana Force monsters whose number is given in Roman Numerals have an ATK and DEF of the respective number in their name × 100 + 1000; excluding "Arcana Force EX - The Light Ruler", "Arcana Force EX - The Dark Ruler" and "Arcana Force 0 - The Fool". The Deck focuses on trying to get the Heads Effect of the Arcana Force monsters to overpower the opponent.

Members[]

Number Arcana Force Origin
0 The Fool The Fool
I The Magician The Magician
III The Empress The Empress
IV The Emperor The Emperor
VI The Lovers The Lovers
VII The Chariot The Chariot
VIII The Strength Strength
XII The Hanged Man The Hanged Man
XIV Temperance Temperance
XV The Fiend The Devil
XVIII The Moon The Moon
XXI The World The World
EX The Dark Ruler World of Darkness
The Light Ruler The Light of Destruction

Support[]

Major Arcana[]

Number Card Origin
II Empress's Staff The High Priestess
V Emperor's Staff The Hierophant
X Reversal of Fate Wheel of Fortune
XIII Tour of Doom Death

Minor Arcana[]

Card Origin
Rank Suit
Ace of Sword Ace Swords
Ace of Wand Ace Wands
Cup of Ace Ace Cups
Knight of Pentacles Knight Coins
Pentacle of Ace Ace
Suit of Sword X Ten Swords

Strategy[]

There are a few cards that are handy for an "Arcana Force" Deck, such as "Second Coin Toss" to make sure you get the right effect, while "Lucky Chance" can help you draw more cards. "By Order of the Emperor" is also useful in an Arcana Force deck because you can negate the effect if you're afraid of losing the coin toss, and draw a card. As all "Arcana Force" monsters have equal ATK and DEF, "Shield & Sword", "Ojama Country", and "Inverse Universe" will have no negative effects to you. The chance taken when flipping a coin during "Arcana Force" Summons can be negated by activating "Reversal of Fate". Another handy card for "Arcana Force" monsters is "Athena": by Tributing your "Arcana Force" monsters and summoning the same one from the Graveyard you would burn the opponent for 600 and you would be able to flip the coin again again giving yourself another chance to get the effect that you want. "Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen" is also useful, as all "Arcana Force" monsters are Fairy. In addition, since all of "Arcana Force" monsters are Fairy, "Cestus of Dagla" is excellent equip card for them. Not only that it will strengthen them for 500 ATK, but will also allow you to increase your Life Points if they inflict battle damage to your opponent. This becomes even better if you have "Light Barrier" on the field.

Because you are already using "Second Coin Toss", this Deck can benefit from all coin toss cards, such as "Tour of Doom", "Cup of Ace" and "Lucky Chance". Also, "Light Barrier" can let you apply either effect of an "Arcana Force" monster without tossing a coin, making it extremely useful in "Arcana Force" Decks. Also, "Honest", "Barrier Statue of the Heavens", "Sky Scourge Invicil", "Herald of Green Light", "Herald of Orange Light", and "Herald of Purple Light" can work well with "Arcana Force" Decks. Another card that can work well in "Arcana Force" Decks is "Bad Reaction to Simochi", which can make Tails effect of the "Arcana Force I - The Magician" beneficial to you with it's ability to change any effect that increases your opponent's Life Points to inflict damage to your opponent's life points.

Due to the addition of Link Summoning, it's recommended to add cards that can Special Summon Tokens such as "Photon Sanctuary" so they can be used to Link Summon monsters such "Linkuriboh" to be send to the Graveyard with "The World'" effect, or to be used to summon "The Light Ruler" and/or "The Dark Ruler".

Weaknesses[]

Despite all the power this deck can have, it can have many weaknesses at the same time. Most notably, if you can't get the right coin flip, this deck will destroy itself. Some anti-Light cards can either disable or destroy this deck like Ally of Justice monsters. In addition, all non-tribute Arcana Force monsters have low attack power, so having them stay around is a big problem.

Another enormous weakness for Arcana Force is The World and Rulers' reliance on sending monsters successfully to the graveyard. If a card like "Dimensional Fissure" or "Banisher of the Radiance" is in play, you won't be able to use The World's Turn Skip ability, and you won't be able to summon either Ruler. You also cannot use tokens to satisfy these costs because tokens cannot hit the graveyard. However, this can be remedied by using the tokens to Link Summon first before using them to fulfill the effect condition.

The Arcana Force monsters are dependent on their effects so cards like "Skill Drain" or "Forbidden Chalice" can disable their effects. They do not regain their abilities if they temporarily lose them.

Recommended Cards[]


Trivia[]

  • The word "Arcana" is the plural of the word "Arcanum", which means a deep secret or an unsolved mystery.
  • All Arcana Force monsters follow the same formula to determine their ATK/DEF, except The Fool and both EX Arcana monsters.
    • ATK & DEF = 1000 + (Their number x 100)
  • All Arcana Force monsters have the exact same amount of ATK as they do DEF.
  • With the exception of "The Fool", "The Dark Ruler" and "The Light Ruler", "Arcana Force" monsters use Roman numeral characters in their OCG names, as depicted by a typeface different from the one used on basic Latin characters. They are the only cards in the OCG to do so. For example, while TCG "Arcana Force" cards use the Latin letter "V" to represent the Roman number five, OCG "Arcana Force" cards use the Roman form "V" instead.
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