Orichalcos
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Orichalcos, spelled Oreichalcos (オレイカルコス Oreikarukosu) in the OCG, is an anime-exclusive series of cards used by Dartz and Rafael in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. The series is based on orichalcum, a fictional metal featured in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis written in Plato's dialogue, Critias.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, the "Orichalcos" Field Spell Cards, when activated, would trap the Duelists within the seal and prevent them from escaping; the losing Duelist would lose their soul, which were then sacrificed to revive The Great Leviathan. In the Japanese version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, the cards' texts are written in the Enochian language appearing in the circles, except for "Orichalcos Sword of Sealing", the only other "Orichalcos" card used by Rafael.
In addition, the Field Spells all share the same effects, which includes increasing a monster's ATK by 500 and move monsters to the Spell & Trap Zone, preventing them from being attacked. "Orichalcos Deuteros" is the stronger version of "The Seal of Orichalcos", which allows the player to gain 500 Life Points for each monster they controlled and Tribute a monster they control to destroy an opponent's monster. "Orichalcos Tritos" is the strongest form of the previous "Orichalcos" Field Spells, which negates the effects of a card effect targeting the player's monsters.
The true strategy behind the series is to use the effects of the "Orichalcos" Field Spells and the revival effects of "Orichalcos Gigas" to stall the opponent while using the effects of "Mirror Knight Calling" and "Mirror Knight Tokens" to implement the attack force. In addition, the effect of "Orichalcos Kyutora" is used to reduce battle damage to 0 and, upon being destroyed, Special Summon "Orichalcos Shunoros", "Orichalcos Aristeros" and "Orichalcos Dexia", and convert the battle damage to "Shunoros'" ATK, while the effects of "Aristeros" and "Dexia" further increase "Shunoros'" ATK.
The related "Divine Serpent Geh" in the anime is used as a contingency plan in case "Shunoros" was destroyed. It featured ∞ ATK/DEF and prevented the player from losing the Duel; however, the player had to pay a heavy cost of sending 10 cards from the Deck to the Graveyard to attack.
So far, the only cards in the series released in the [OCG]]/TCG are "Orichalcos Shunoros" and "The Seal of Orichalcos". Prior to its release in Legendary Collection 3: Yugi's World, the latter card was not originally a legal card, while the former card was retooled as a Normal Monster support card.
Origin[edit]
"Orichalcos" (Ορείχαλκος) is the Greek word meaning "mountain copper/metal", although some scholars believe that it refers to natural brass. Consequently, "Orichalcos Deuteros" ("Ορείχαλκος Δεύτερος") means "second brass" while "Orichalcos Tritos" ("Ορείχαλκος Τρίτος") translates to "third brass".
"The Seal of Orichalcos" is a unicursal hexagram inscribed in a circle. The unicursal hexagram was used by occultist Aleister Crowley as a symbol representing the religious philosophy of Thelema.
