Renewal of the World

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When this card is activated: Banish 1 Ritual Monster from your Deck. You can send this card to the GY, then activate 1 of these effects;
● Tribute 1 monster from your hand or field, or shuffle 1 Ritual Monster from your GY into the Deck, whose Level equals or exceeds the Level of the monster banished by this card’s effect, then Ritual Summon that monster.
● Add the monster banished by this card’s effect to your hand.
You can only use 1 “Renewal of the World” effect per turn, and only once that turn.
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Can Be Found In: Cybernetic Horizon (CYHO-EN072)

Ritual Monsters were the first cards to work outside the norm in the first years of the game, yet took them quite a while to become a noticeable mechanic. While the gradual improvements in the Extra Deck made huge summons quite easy to perform from early to late game, Rituals took a lot of resources by not only requiring a specific Ritual Monster and Spell on hand, but also monsters that can pay the summon’s Level. While there was some noticeable monsters such as “Relinquished” and “Herald of Perfection” taking over in some competitive events, it wasn’t until Ritual Decks started introducing a variety of shortcuts on their setups and Graveyard options where they started to truly stand out over other kinds of monsters.

 
“Renewal of the World” is part of a small archetype centered arround “Demise, King of Armageddon” and “Ruin, Queen of Oblivion”, two Ritual Monsters which along others tried to replace the at the time banned “Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End” and “Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning”. But despite the relation with an archetype “Renewal” works with any Ritual Monster as banishes it from inside the Deck upon activation, which then will follow with one of two effects as soon we decide to send this Trap Card to the Graveyard: Either we simply add the banished Ritual Monster to our hand, or we Ritual Summon it by using a monster with same Level from our hand or field, or shuffling a Ritual Monster from the Graveyard instead. Given its relation with “Ruin” and “Demise” this Trap Card aims towards supporting each other with the very last ability, but “Renewal” can have some pratical uses in any Ritual Decks that can take use of its chainable nature.

 
The usage of “Renewal” is kinda particular due the specifications of its Ritual Summon. In early game can act as a searcher to start gathering the needed Ritual cards for a proper summon, although if we plan a bit ahead we can try to gather Ritual Monsters that share the same Level with each other for their respective summons. But while in normal circumstances we will Ritual Summon by traditional means or even “Renewal” itself by using materials from the hand or field, some options like the Nekroz archetype will go directly to the Graveyard to use a variety of alternative effects as they are ready to be shuffled back for this Trap’s Ritual Summon. As a Trap Card also give us some additional advantages over the average Ritual Summon, as can bring out powerful monsters from the Deck during the opponent’s turn, or prepare an additional attack in the middle of our Battle Phase.

 
“Renewal of the World” has a variety of practical uses to work along with, and despite requiring a Deck with monsters sharing the same Level that’s far from the biggest issues. By running several copies of the same Ritual Monster(s), working arround “Ruin” and “Demise” as intended, to try to accelerate its preparatives by the use of Nekroz and even milling effects, the preparatives of “Renewal” are quite easy to handle given Ritual Decks mainly consists of searching effects to gather the key cards which includes this Trap Card itself. But is that fact that makes “Renewal” not as outstanding, as although able to use its effects during the opponent’s turn it still faces a slow activation as a Trap Card. Not only that, but “Renewal” doesn’t treat the shuffled Ritual Monster for the summon as a tribute but more like a effect’s cost, therefore ignoring some special benefits of certain summons like the additional attack from “Ruin, Supreme Queen of Oblivion”. Due some of its negatives won’t make it a strong backrow choice in every Ritual Deck, the premise “Renewal” offers makes it worth trying out specially in builds heavily filled with Ritual Monsters with the same Level.

 

Personal Rating: B+

 

+ Banishes a Ritual Monster from the Deck to Ritual Summon it or add it to our hand
+ If summons the banished Ritual Monster we can shuffle a Ritual Monster from the Graveyard as the summoning cost
+ Various builds can handle some of its limitations as well ease its activation

 

– Requires a Deck with several monsters sharing the same Level
– Slow compared to the many other mechanics involving Ritual Summons nowadays
– If we use a Ritual Monster from the Graveyard as material it might dismiss certain effects