Escafil Monster

An Escafil Monster is a type of Monster Card introduced by HelixReactor. They are stored in the Extra Deck.

Design
Color-wise, Escafil Cards have a dark electric blue border color with a golden vertical stripe in the middle. Below their Level stars, they have an additional "star" stat named Endurance. Their effect textbox is split in a similar fashion to Pendulum Monsters, with the top box named Escafil Effect, and the bottom box named Original Effect. Both boxes include an ATK and DEF line at their bottom (named E-ATK and E-DEF in the case of the Escafil Effect box - keep in mind that despite the naming differences, any effects affection ATK and DEF will also affect E-ATK and E-DEF).

States
Escafil Monsters exist in two different States: an Original State, and an Escafil State. Depending on their State, only their corresponding Effect box is taken into consideration.

Changes affecting an Escafil Monster's Endurance and State are permanent, unless it is returned face-down to the Extra Deck. Any changes in an Escafil Monster's (E-)ATK and (E-)DEF are removed when changing States.

Morphing
For an Escafil Monster to change between States, the player controlling that monster must "Morph" it by reducing its Endurance by 1 (min. 0), and can do that once per Main Phase (so up to twice per turn) for each Escafil Monster they control.


 * To Morph an Escafil Monster from their Original State to their Escafil State, the player must flip face-up one of the Acquired Cards that are attached to that monster. Face-up Acquired Cards attached to Escafil Monsters are called Morph Cards. Under normal circumstances, an Escafil Monster can only have one Morph Card at a time, but cards and effects can make it possible. Such effects must however be heavily regulated.
 * To Morph an Escafil Monster from their Escafil State to its Original State, the player must turn face-down all of its Morph Cards (if any).

As such, it is possible for an Escafil Monster in their Escafil State to return to their Original State even if they have no Acquired Cards attached to it, but the opposite isn't.

Escafil State
When an Escafil Monster is in its Escafil State, it gains the effects of its Morphed Card as part of its Escafil Effects. This way, it becomes also able to "activate" Normal, Quick-Play, Ritual, and Counter Spell/Trap Cards as if they were monster effects, but it can only do so once every two turns per Acquired card. Also, if a Morph card has multiple effect boxes, the Escafil Monster can only obtain its original/standard effects. Acquired Cards are not meant to be used as an activation cost for the effects of an Escafil Monster. However, if the Morph Card is a type of monster that usually keeps its Materials attached to it (Xyz Monsters for example), then all Acquired Cards attached to the Escafil Monster become also treated as Materials of the same type, therefore allowing their use as such. If an Escafil Monster is destroyed while being in its Escafil State, all of its Acquired Cards are banished.

Trivia
The concept of Escafil Monsters is a reference the Animorphs book series:
 * The Escafil Device, also simply known as "the blue cube", is an alien technology invented by the Andalite scientist Escafil, that grants its user the ability to morph into any animal they touch/acquire.
 * The concept of Endurance is loosely inspired by the fact that one cannot stay in a single morph for over two hours, otherwise they will be trapped forever inside that morph.