Sacred Beast

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Sacred Beast
From left to right: "Uria", "Raviel" and "Hamon", with "Armityle" in the back, in the artwork of "Dimension Fusion Destruction"
From left to right: "Uria", "Raviel" and "Hamon", with "Armityle" in the back, in the artwork of "Dimension Fusion Destruction"
Japanese
  • さんげん
  • 三幻魔 (base)
  • さんげんま (ruby)
  • Sangenma (romanized)
  • Three Phantasms (translated)
Traditional Chinese
  • 三幻魔
  • Three Phantasms (translated)
French
  • Bêtes Sacrées
German
  • Heiligen Ungeheuer
Italian
  • Bestie Sacre
Korean
  • 삼환마
  • 三幻魔 (Hanja)
  • Samhwanma (romanized)
  • Three Phantasms (translated)
Portuguese
  • Bestas Sagradas
Spanish
  • Bestias Sagradas
Sets
TCG
OCG
Korean
Anime appearances
Lists

The Sacred Beasts, known as the Three Phantasms (さんげん Sangenma) in the OCG, is a series of monsters used by Kagemaru and Yubel in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. The three Sacred Beasts consist of "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames", "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder", and "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms", and their fused form, "Armityle the Chaos Phantasm", the latter of which is used by Yubel.

Gameplay-wise, each Sacred Beast features a Summoning condition that requires it to send to the Graveyard or Tribute 3 cards of a certain card type.

Design

Sacred Beasts linework
"Armityle" linework

The designs of the Sacred Beasts were overseen by Kenichi Hara. "Uria", "Hamon", and "Raviel" each resemble one of the Egyptian Gods, but they are seen as skeletal counterparts to their predecessors, featuring translucent wings and more pronounced claws. "Uria" is the counterpart in "Slifer the Sky Dragon", "Hamon" isthe counterpart to "The Winged Dragon of Ra", and "Raviel" is the counterpart to "Obelisk the Tormentor".

In the anime, the Sacred Beasts shared the same DIVINE Attribute and Divine-Beast Type, and similarly-colored card borders matching their respective color schemes. In the OCG/TCG, the Sacred Beasts are given their own Attribute, Type, and orange-colored card border (the color of Effect Monster Cards), and the background of their card artworks feature archaic symbols similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphs in the background of the Egyptian God cards' artworks. Both series feature similar Summoning conditions by sending, or Tributing, three cards to Summon them from the hand, and a combined form that guarantees victory.

The Sacred Beasts' names are derived from the names of angels in Judeo-Christain religion or texts. "Uria" is named after the archangel Uriel, the angel of repentance who guards the gate to the Garden of Eden and wields a sword of fire. "Hamon" is named after the alternative name of the archangel Gabriel used in the Book of Enoch. "Raviel" is named after Raziel, an angel who is depicted as the author of the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh which he gives to Adam and Eve shortly after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden so they would find their way back and better understand their God. "Armityle" is named after Amatiel, one of the angels of the spring in Pietro d'Abano's grimoire Heptameron.

Appearances

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

The tablets depicting the Sacred Beasts.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, the Sacred Beasts are legendary monsters whose cards were sealed by Kagemaru underneath Duel Academy behind the Spirit Gates, which requires seven Spirit Keys to open, as he could not unlock their power at the time. Should they ever be set free from their stronghold, chaos and darkness will envelop the world, destroying everything.

The three "Sacred Beasts" in card form.

The Shadow Riders, led by Kagemaru, sought to acquire the Spirit Keys and revive the Sacred Beasts. In order to open the gate, a strong Dueling presence is required; if the keys are stolen and placed in the gate (as attempted by Don Zaloog), nothing will occur. To meet the challenge of the Shadow Riders, seven of Duel Academy's finest Duelists were selected: Jaden Yuki, Zane Truesdale, Chazz Princeton, Alexis Rhodes, Bastion Misawa, Vellian Crowler, and Lyman Banner (whose hidden identity, at the time, was the Shadow Rider, Amnael). Although the Shadow Riders were defeated, the gate was inadvertently opened by Chazz, and Kagemaru managed to acquire the awakened Sacred Beasts because of the Dueling energy released from the Duels. In exchange for freeing them from imprisonment, the Sacred Beasts slowly returned Kagemaru to a youthful state, empowering him with the energy sapped from Duel Monster spirits, but Jaden's interference resulted in the man's downfall. They were thus locked away once more.

After Duel Academy is transported to an alternate dimension in the third season, Marcel Bonaparte, possessed by Yubel, retrieves the Sacred Beasts and builds a Deck around them, which boosts the Summoning speed of the Sacred Beasts and also supports the Summoning of their combined form, "Chaos Phantasm Armityle". When Jesse Anderson reappears after he was possessed by Yubel, he uses them in a Deck based around quickly Summoning the Sacred Beasts and "Armityle" for his Duel against Adrian Gecko. Although Yubel didn't use them in her final Duel with Jaden, "Raviel" was shown to be in her Deck. After Yubel merged with Jaden, they are safely returned to their resting place.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V (manga)

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V manga, Eve uses "Phantasm Emperor Trilojig", a Fusion Monster that reference the Sacred Beasts by name. It can be Summoned by "Dimension Fusion Destruction" in the OCG/TCG.

Playing style

The three Sacred Beasts historically lacked support cards that worked to effectively support all three monsters, and so were typically played separately as individual decks focused on bringing out one of the three Sacred Beasts, using their own summoning conditions. Later on, as the three Sacred Beasts received consistency support and series-wide support, Sacred Beast Decks gradually homogenized around the new series-wide support.

Before receiving their shared consistency support, historical Sacred Beast decks focused on individual Sacred Beasts differed significantly between them in order to fulfill the monsters' summoning conditions:

After receiving their shared support, Sacred Beast monsters became far easier to summon thanks to the effects of "Chaos Summoning Beast" and "Dark Summoning Beast", and became far easier to access thanks to the searchers "Dark Beckoning Beast" and "Opening of the Spirit Gates".

Modern Sacred Beast Decks can be built to focus on summoning one of the three Sacred Beasts and use its dedicated Signature move support (e.g. "Cerulean Skyfire") to maximize consistency, or playing multiple different Sacred Beast monsters to enable stronger support cards that require multiple different Sacred Beasts (e.g. "Awakening of the Sacred Beasts"), including summoning "Armityle" with the effect of "Dimension Fusion Destruction".

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