Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended ββββββββββββββββ You can Ritual Summon this card with "Sprite's Blessing". During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect that targets a monster you control: You can discard this card; negate the activation. During either player's turn, when your opponent would Special Summon a monster(s): You can return this card from your field to the hand; negate the Special Summon, and if you do, banish that monster(s). ββββββββββββββββ Can Be Found In: Invasion: Vengeance (INOV-EN037)
Abilities activated from the hand immediately became of vital importance in many Decks due the aggresive nature of the game. With many disruptive methods to deal with Set cards and monsters, hand effects overall becomes a final resort to save us from the worst situationes when everything else fails. Regardless of some of these abilities being restricted against specific defensive scenarios, the impact that can cause to the Duel can save us out of danger.
"Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended" is a curious Ritual Monsters due how its abilities work separately or with each other. While requires the usual setup most Ritual Summons must pass through, "Sauravis" can be discarded from our hand instead to negate and destroy an effect targetting any of our monsters. On the field "Sauravis" instead will be able to negate a Special Summon and any monster(s) involved in it, but to do so will return back to our hand. This last ability is what makes "Sauravis" an odd monster to play along with due the many preparatives Ritual Monsters goes through to be bounced back to our hand and start over, but if timed properly and working along its hand effect it can be a tough creature to pass through its defensive abilities.
"Sauravis" has nearly the same options as many other Ritual Monsters to be brought to the field, but with an ability activated from our hand might not be in a rush compared to others. This is further encouraged by its Ritual Spell "Sprite's Blessing", as although doesn't provide any particular abilities like recent cards of its kind allow us to work along other LIGHT Ritual Monsters with higher priority than "Sauravis" to be on the board. When comes to support is the usual for builds of this kind, with cards like "Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands" and "Ritual Sanctuary" looking for "Sauravis" or a Ritual Spell, in addition of shortcuts provided by cards like "Advanced Ritual Art" and the Ritual Djinns to ease its arrival. One alternative in particular is "Odd-Eyes Advent", allowing us to spend Odd-Eyes monsters from the Extra Deck if the opponent has monsters than us.
To obtain the best from "Sauravis" is all about figuring out the best moment to activate one of its two abilities to counter opponent actions. Its hand effect will usually protect other monsters from many threats like "Compulsory Evacuation Device" or "Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer", keeping our board strong and safe even if "Sauravis" is bounced back by its second effect. This negation effect highly benefits "Saffira, Queen of Dragons" as will trigger one of three effects once is discarded, and since they share Ritual Spells like "Odd-Eyes Advent" and "Sprite's Blessing" they won't conflict with each other's setups. When comes to negating Special Summons "Sauravis" might seem tricky as can make all the effort for its Ritual Summon go to waste, but if activated on the right occasion can go from ruining the main goal of huge setups to banishing a big quantity of monsters brought to the field together by an effect like "Ties of the Brethen" or by Pendulum Summon. Obviously it won't be a huge loss from our part with its hand effect, so even if the opponent tries to bluff "Sauravis" we can still depend on protecting our other monsters from any danger.
"Sauravis, the Ancient and Ascended" is not a Ritual Monster to completely depend protecting the field on its own, but rather support other cards with its two abilities. Obviously makes it a riskful monster to use its ability against Special Summons while alone on our field, as either makes its Ritual Summon a complete waste and/or leaves the field defenseless against the opponent's next moves. However, with many options supporting both LIGHT and Dragon Rituals together, "Sauravis" is capable to work along other Ritual Monsters with higher priority to be summoned as takes a support role right from our hand. "Sauravis" might not be a creature to blindfully rely our resources, but even with one or two copies in a build arround other Ritual Monster(s) it can provide great results if its effects are timed correctly.
Personal Rating: B+
+ Can be discarded to negate and destroy an effect targetting a monster in our field + Returns to our hand to negate a Special Summon and banish any monster(s) involved + Greatly supported to work along other Ritual Monsters
- Returning to our hand can become either a high risk or make its Ritual Summon go to waste
