Obelisk the Tormentor (card)

''For the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episode, see Obelisk the Tormentor (episode)

In the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk the Tormentor (オベリスクの巨神兵 Oberisuku no Kyoshinhei, lit. "Giant God-Soldier of Obelisk") is one of the three Egyptian God Cards. In the Japanese manga and anime, it is sometimes called by the English name "The God of Obelisk", while in the English manga, it is called The God of the Obelisk. "Obelisk the Tormentor" is the name used in the English anime, and on the English version of the real God Cards.

Initially passed to Seto Kaiba by Ishizu Ishtar, Obelisk the Tormentor is the first God Card appearing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga.

Note that obelisk, unlike Osiris and Ra, is not originally the name of an Egyptian god, but of a kind of structure commonly erected by the ancient Egyptians. He then represents the Egyptian god Set.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX counterpart is Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

Effects

Note: The effects stated in this section are based on the Japanese anime and/or manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!. On the card all it reads is the following:" The descent of this mighty creature shall be heralded by burning winds, and twisted land. And with the coming of this horror, those who draw breath shall know the true meaning of eternal slumber." (See God Cards for more details.)

According to the Japanese anime and manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Obelisk card has the following unique statistics (unlike most other cards which text are written in Japanese, in the Japanese anime and manga, the text on the God Cards are written in English):

• ATK (Attack points) 4000/DEF (Defense points) 4000

• (Effect) "The Player shall sacrifice two bodies to God of Obelisk. The opponent shall be damaged. And the monsters on the field shall be destroyed." [sic]

With what are observed in various duels, a deduction of the unique abilities of Obelisk is concluded below:

• ATK 4000/DEF 4000

• (Effect)
  • 'Offer two monsters on your side of the field as a tribute to destroy all opponent's monsters and inflict 4000 to his or her life points directly, or increase this cards attack to infinite until the end phase, however if there is a Slifer The Sky Dragon and/or The Winged Dragon Of Ra on the field this cards attack remains infinite until the end of the duel.'

However, in the Yu-Gi-Oh OCG, the effect (along with standard God card attributes) is listed as :

• Note: These effects may be used in any duel unless the controller is playing in a tournament.*
• (Effect)
  • 'This card is not effected by monster card effects, spell cards, or trap cards.'
• (Effect)
  • ''''''Offer two monsters on your side of the field to destroy all monsters on your opponent's side of the field and inflict 4000 points of damage to their life points.
• (Effect)
  • ''''''Offer two monsters and obelisk's power will become infinity until the end phase. However should you offer Slifer The Sky Dragon and The Winged Dragon Of Ra on the same turn so than Obelisk's power will remain infinity for the rest of the duel.

This effect is known as "Soul Energy Max"TORMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ソウルエナジーMAX) in the Japanese anime and manga.

There are also certain effects shared by all God Cards; these are listed in that entry for brevity.

Obelisk's attack is known as "God Hand Crusher" (ゴッド・ハンド・クラッシャー) in the Japanese anime and manga. And with this effect activated, Obelisk's "attack" is known as "God Hand Crusher/God Hand Impact" (ゴッド・ハンド・インパクト), or, in the English TV show, "Fist of Fate/Fist of Fury".

A note on Obelisk's effect

There are many contrary views on Obelisk's effect. Some say he gains infinite ATK and attacks directly for the win, others say he does 4000 points of damage.

In both the manga and anime of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk's effect was not explained clearly at the beginning. In manga Duel 148 published on October 19, 1999, when Obelisk's effect was activated during the duel between Seto Kaiba and the Duel Machine (this was the first time Obelisk's effect was used in the manga), there was no indication on exactly how much damage was inflicted on its opponent's Life Points by the effect. What you can see is only Obelisk's ATK increased to an unknown value, followed by Obelisk crushing Duel Machine's monsters, reducing its unhurt Life Points (4000) to 0 instantly (remember, Obelisk has an original ATK of 4000, which means it can wipe out 4000 Life Points with just one attack). With this scenario and the text written on the manga Obelisk card in mind, some Yu-Gi-Oh! fans deduced that Obelisk's effect inflicts 4000 points of damage on its opponent's Life Points. Others think that obelisk's effect is equial to his curent ATK points (example: obelisk's efect was activated at 4000 ATK and the oponent lost 4000 LP, obelisk's effect is activated after using black pendent [+500 ATK] and the oponent looses 4500 LP). And although some details of this duel was changed when it was shown in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 54, which first aired on TV Tokyo on May 8, 2001, there was still no indication of the exact ATK of Obelisk with its effect activated, thus nothing to clarify it. However, Obelisk destroys the Duel Machine's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and wipes out the opponent in one attack. Obelisk would have to reach up to 8500 attack points to inflict enough damage, or its possible that Obelisk's efffect "destroys all the opponent's monsters" and then Obelisk attacked directly.

In the manga, after Duel 148, it appeared that Obelisk's effect was activated again when Yugi Mutou and Kaiba formed a team to duel against two Rare Hunters in Duel 177, publishebd in mid 2000. However, what one can see about this duel is that both teams played some unknown cards, and then Kaiba summoned his Obelisk and defeated both Rare Hunters with one strike. All details of the duel were skipped, thus no indication of the exact amount of damage inflicted on the Rare Hunters, and no indication of the Life Points they had just before their defeats either.

However, when this duel was shown in anime episode 68 aired on August 14, 2001, many details were added, and one can clearly see that, after two monsters were sacrificed, Obelisk first destroyed all of the two Rare Hunter's monsters, then attacked and wiped out both of their Life Points (4000) at the same time.

But before this episode was aired, an unofficial effect stating that after Tributing 2 monsters, Obelisk "can attack all monsters on your opponent's side of the field at the same time and inflict 4000 points of Direct Damage to your opponent's Life Points" was given in a Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! card game rulebook called Thousand Rule Bible (サウザンド・ルール・バイブル), published by Shueisha on December 21, 2000. After that, although there were still disagreements on whether Obelisk, with its effect activated, destroys its opponent's monster by attacking them or using a monster-destroying effect on them, the deduction that "Obelisk's effect inflicts 4000 points of damage to his opponent's Life Points" was so widely accepted that it became somewhat "official". And, needless to say, when Yu-Gi-Oh! was introduced to the Western world in early 2002, the "official" effect of Obelisk spread even further through the Internet.

Finally, Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, clarified Obelisk's effect in Duel 275 by indicating that Obelisk's ATK increased to "∞" (infinity) when its effect was activated for the third time in the manga. This chapter was published on August 13, 2002, about three years after Duel 148 was published.

However, for some reason, Obelisk's effect was still not "updated" when it was used during the duel between Yugi and Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 131, aired on November 12, 2002. (Note that during the same duel in the manga, Obelisk's effect was never used.) Not until the airing of episode 141 on January 21, 2003 was the clarified effect of Obelisk finally appeared in the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. And to prevent contradiction with episode 131, this "new" effect was explained as a "miracle" brought forth by the anger of Obelisk. In the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, the Infinity effect, better known as the Soul Energy Max, activates when you sacrifice the other two God Cards or revealed during the duel with Marik Ishtar, you must sacrifice two of your opponents monsters equivalent to the God Cards.

This explains it all. This effect was a miracle, and it was Kaiba who said it (who was the previous owner of Obelisk, and this statement implies that he had never experienced this before, meaning that it isn't Obelisk's usual effect). This duel was between Marik and Yugi. Now this duel also brought up an irregularity. Obelisk's effect doesn't normally have to destroy all of the monsters your opponent has to deal the damage. It should also be noted that this damage is battle damage. These points are both enforce by when Kaiba used the effect agains Yugi, and it doesn't destroy Slifer, and Yugi discards Kuriboh to prevent the damage (this works, since the attack was being affected, not the actual God). During Yugi's battle against Marik (where the God Slime was sacrificed and Obelisk got infinite ATK), the Winged Dragon of Ra isn't destroyed†, and Marik took no damage (he activated no cards to prevent this). This would imply that Obelisk's effect is counteracted by the fact that Ra has a higher hierarchy level† that Obelisk.

†Now, to explain this. In the manga of this duel, Marik explains hierarchy briefly. In the anime it is replaced by the spell "Class System" (for more on hierarchy, check the God Card article). This spell is actually useless, but the producers probably didn't want to complicate things, but that doesn't explain where the damage went (for a little more info, check the "The Winged Dragon of Ra" article). So, either Yugi didn't need to discard Kuriboh (unlikely), or the controller of Ra takes no damage from Obelisk's effect due to Ra's higher ranking (much likelier). Also, when Obelisk got infinite ATK in the movie, it was because he sacrificed the other 2 Gods to his effect (he also turned red).

In the Gameboy games 'The Sacred Cards' and 'Reshef of Destruction', Obelisk's ability is listed as 'Destroy all monsters on your opponent's side of the field, and inflict 4000 points of damage to your opponent. Because of the odd rulings on card effects in the game, all card effects are considered Flip effects, and thus, Obelisk can only acitvate its effect when first summoned, or if flipped down by a card like Darkness Approaches or Castle of Dark Illusions. Also, activating its ability prevents Obelisk from attacking, and its ability can only be used once, unless flipped down again by the above cards or any other card requiering obelisk to be fliped face down.

It could also be stated that many Fan on sites have say that Only Atem might have the power to use all of the gods true power and if so then the Gaining infinite ATK would be The ture effect.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour

In the Nintendo DS game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, there are new versions of the God Cards. These versions do not have as many powerful effects as the ones used in the anime and manga. Obelisk the Tormentor's effect reads:

• Attribute (Main-Type): DIVINE
• Type (Sub-Type): Divine-Beast
• Level: 10
• Attack Points: 4000
• Defence Points: 4000
• Card Description: You must offer 3 Tributes to Tribute Summon this card. When this card is Special Summoned, it is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase. While this card is face-up on the field, it cannot be targeted by Spells, Traps, or Monsters that designate a target. By offering 2 Monsters on your Field as Tributes, all Monsters on your opponent's Field are destroyed.

Card Description

Card description of the English version Obelisk the Tormentor card:

• Attribute (Main-Type): DIVINE
• Type (Sub-Type): Divine-Beast
• Level: 10
• Attack Points: 4000
• Defence Points: 4000
• Card Description: The descent of this mighty creature shall be heralded by burning winds and twisted land. And with the coming of this horror, those who draw breath shall know the true meaning of eternal slumber.

nl:Obelisk the Tormentor pt:Obelisco o Atormentador zh:歐貝利斯克的巨神兵