We’ve seen that Invasion: Vengeance has its fair share of Fusion Monsters with the Metalfoes and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, Synchro Monsters like Vermillion Dragon Mech and Xyz Monsters like Toadally Awesome, but we haven’t seen any Ritual Monsters… yet!  Today we introduce the newest member of the Blue Team: Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended!

Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended is a Level 7 Dragon-Type LIGHT Ritual Monster.  While it’s in your hand, when a card or effect is activated that targets a monster you control, you can discard Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended to negate the activation. In the case of negating the activation of a Spell/Trap Card, the card is sent to the Graveyard similar to how Light and Darkness Dragon works.  On the field, Sauravis has 2600 ATK and 2800 DEF, and when the opponent would Special Summon one or more monsters, you can return Sauravis to your hand to negate the Summon and banish all of the monsters.  Sauravis can be Ritual Summoned with the Ritual Spell Card Sprite’s Blessing which allows you to Ritual Summon any LIGHT Ritual Monster but you have to Tribute monsters whose total Level matches the Level of the Ritual Monster you’re attempting to Summon.

Whenever you’re looking at Ritual Monsters, two Spell Cards to always look at are Preparation of Rites and Pre-Preparation of Rites.  Because Sauravis is Level 7, you can use Preparation of Rites to add it from your Deck to your hand, but because Sauravis isn’t specifically listed on Sprite’s Blessing, you won’t be able to use Pre-Preparation of Rites to add Sprite’s Blessing and Sauravis from your Deck to hand. It’s an “and” effect, not “and if you do,” so you must do both or you can’t do either. Sauravis is a LIGHT Ritual Monster though, so Ritual Sanctuary can add it to your hand – worth noting especially if you’re playing Ritual Sanctuary as a secondary Field Spell in a Deck like Subterrors!

Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended is the perfect complement to another LIGHT Dragon Ritual: Saffira, Queen of Dragons!  Saffira is a Level 6 LIGHT Ritual Dragon, so she could be Ritual Summoned with her own Ritual Spell, Hymn of Light or with Sprite’s Blessing.  And as it turns out, if you control Saffira, you can use Sauravis’s effect to protect her during either player’s turn and in the End Phase, use Saffira’s effect to get Sauravis (or any other LIGHT monster in your Graveyard) back to your hand, or either of the other 2 effects depending on what the situation calls for. It’s essentially the same thing as the old Effect Veiler trick, but with a monster you can discard on either player’s turn instead!

It’s easy to get hung up on the fact that Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended is a Ritual Monster with a good on-field effect, but the real key to this card is the fact that you can discard it from your hand to negate any card or effect that targets a monster you control. It’s a Quick Effect that can be used at any time during either player’s turn, including the Damage Step because it negates the activation of a card or effect, and it can negate any kind of card or effect be it monster, Spell, or Trap. That makes it the perfect counterpick for today’s competitive field.

You can use it to negate the activation of ABC-Dragon Buster’s banishing effect during either turn, a crucial Majespecter Tornado or Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin, a Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, or The Phantom Knights of Break Sword, the Limited Kozmo Dark Destroyer, Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, or one of the Level 7 Synchro Monsters that can be Summoned by Blue-Eyes White Spirit Dragon, and even an Effect Veiler that would otherwise ruin your perfect turn.

Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended may officially be part of the Blue Team, but it can actually help out any Deck regardless of what kind of monsters you prefer, especially if you prefer your monsters to stay on the field and do their job. You can get Sauravis, the Ancient and the Ascended in Invasion: Vengeance available on November 4^th!