isfet lingering in the shadows,

you set me free.

Wings spread,

sheltering me from the bite of isfet,

you bring your essence and meaning to my khat,

killing my nostrils with life.

Ma'at ———————————————— Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by sending 1 LIGHT Dragon-Type monster and 1 LIGHT Fairy-Type monster you control to the Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Once per turn: You can declare 3 card names; excavate the top 3 cards of your Deck, add any of them that you named to your hand, also send the remaining cards to the Graveyard. This card's ATK and DEF each become equal to the number of cards added to your hand by this effect × 1000. ———————————————— Can Be Found In: Premium Collection (PRC1-EN017), Astral Pack Four (AP04-EN021), Star Pack 2014 (SP14-EN042)

Excavating effects have very interesting mechanics and setups arround them. Due their random nature, is really up to chances to reveal key card(s) to obtain their benefits. While might not provide assured results in comparison to other playstyles many of them punishes the user by dumping certain excavated cards, which can actually benefit the Deck if they work along Graveyard resources afterwards. Overall, excavating might not always give the best results but there's always something to gain from its usage.

"Ma'at" is a very unique nomi monster as all its abilities really depends of our Deck itself. Requiring two face-up LIGHT monsters on our field, a Dragon and a Fairy, "Ma'at" arrives without any stats until starts using its effect. Once per turn we can declare three cards for then "Ma'at" excavate the first three cards in our Deck. If any of the mentioned cards are along the ones excavated they will be added to our hand and "Ma'at" will increase its stats by 1000 for each card guessed this way, while the incorrect cards will be sent to the Graveyard instead. This makes "Ma'at" a very random creature to rely on all the time specially with a restricted summon, but with the proper assistance will stand out as a powerful searching effect as gradually becomes more powerful.

While requiring a Dragon and a Fairy LIGHT monsters for its arrival might seem a very unusual condition, fortunately both Types shares some resources to assure the immediate arrival of "Ma'at" to the field. A good example of this is the Lightsworn archetype, as although carries a diverse pool of Types they often assitance Fairies and Dragons with their abilities and summoning effects. Some other tools include summoning the needed monsters from our Deck, like "The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh" bringing "Winged Kuriboh" or "Rescue Rabbit" summoning two Normal Monsters with ease. Some alternatives are slightly slower but gives us a breather to fully prepare for "Ma'at", like "Marshmallon" surviving any attacks until next turn or "Shining Angel" becoming either one of the materials or bring a Dragon if needed. If the opponent plays along Dragons we might considerably cheapen the arrival of "Ma'at" with "Victoria", a monster able to steal Dragons from the opponent's Graveyard. Finally there's some late game options to gather both needed monsters without much effort, going from Pendulum Summon bringing them from the Extra Deck or cards like "Soul Charge" and "Guiding Light" gathering both monsters together with revival effects.

The ability and stats of "Ma'at" are too random to blindfully depend on in most circumstances, requiring some assistance of other cards to assure the best of its abilities. First and most important is the build itself, as the more copies we carry of certain cards the higher the chances of guessing right when using "Ma'at" without assistance. "Convulsion of Nature" is a safe way to atleast add one card to our hand, as will flip all Decks face-up making the top completely visible. Some effects like "Spellbook Organization" and "Fruits of Kozaky's Studies" will allow us to see all three cards on the top of our Deck, completely assuring that "Ma'at" adds them to our hand as well obtain the max stat boost from its effect. Some other effects like "Plaguespreader Zombie" and "Edge Imp Sabres" instead let us place cards from the hand to our Deck as a cost, which we can follow with "Ma'at" to bringing them back and gain stats. Keep on mind that the longer "Ma'at" stays on the field the more ATK and DEF will stack together, so try to keep it alive with cards like "Honest" and "Book of Moon" defending it against stronger enemies. Do not worry if we cannot guess the excavated cards by "Ma'at", as being sent to the Graveyard can allow us to mill key cards to use along certain effects immediately.

For a nomi monster, "Ma'at" has too many risks to become a reliable monster to invest on. After investing on its summoning condition we obtain a statless monster which relies on luck to excavate the cards we might or not guess, making its abilities completely random to become efficient. Is a monster with severe problems to become a true menace, easily overshadowed by cheaper excavating effects like Sylvan monsters and "Archfiend's Oath". However, gathering both a Dragon and a Fairy which only condition is being LIGHT is not a big challenge, and with various cards allowing us to guess the top of our Deck "Ma'at" might become consistent in its outcomes. "Ma'at" is far from being a huge threat, but gradually getting stronger as fuels our hand or Graveyard with its excavating effect it has powerful benefits to be worth a shot.

Personal Rating: D+

+ Adds to our hand any excavated cards we guessed right + Gains ATK and DEF for each card obtained by its excavate effect + Well supported arround its summon and effects + We can gain some benefits if the excavated cards are sent to the Graveyard