Go with the Flow

The notion of card advantage is not exclusive to Yu-Gi-Oh! Having more resources than your opponent can be very beneficial in a number of games and even in war. More cards means more options and that can be critical in determining which side will be victorious. However, more does not always equal better. If while dueling someone, you find yourself with six Gadgets in hand while your opponent has one Judgment Dragon on their field, the situation is not exactly in your favor. Therefore it is very important that you make optimal use of the resource you have available. Consider the following scenario:

You summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius and use it to attack your opponent's face-down monster which is revealed to be Skelengel. Your opponent draws 1 card due to its effect. While you might have gained field presence over your opponent, the Skelengel you destroyed has already replaced itself with another card. Cards such as these—known as "floaters"—allow players to make moves without risking a loss of advantage. Look at it this way:

You destroyed a Skelengel by battle. (-1 for your opponent)
Your opponent draws a card due to Skelengel's effect (+1 for your opponent)
Net card advantage is: -1 + 1 = 0

The Gadgets are a prime example of floater concept as each of the three Gadgets (Red, Green, and Yellow) adds another to your hand, so that even if your opponent destroys it, your card has already paid for itself. It is for this reason that cards like Deep Sea Diva, Elemental Hero Stratos, and Gravekeeper's Spy are widely used.

Note that Monsters need not have effects to be considered floaters. If a Normal Monster were to destroy at least one of your opponent's monsters by battle then it would become a floater.

But as I said earlier, having more cards than your opponent isn't everything. What's important is that you utilize what resources you have optimally. Let's compare two very popular monster removal cards:

Smashing Ground:

Destroy the 1 face-up monster your opponent controls that has the highest DEF. (If it's a tie, you get to choose.)

Lightning Vortex:

Discard 1 card. Destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls.

While both cards destroy your opponent's face-up monsters, the former is costless and affects only a single whereas the latter requires a discard and can destroy as many as five. Because of this using the Lightning Vortex to destroy only one of your opponent's monsters would not be an optimal play as the former could same without the added requirement (the discard).

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 1 face-up Monster:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+1 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 1 = -1

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 2 face-up Monsters:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+2 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 2 = 0

Using Lightning Vortex while your opponent has 3 face-up Monsters:
-1 (the discard)
-1 (the Lightning Vortex itself)
+3 (for the opponent's monster you destroy)
Net card advantage is: -1 + -1 + 3 = +1

That's not to say that -1 yourself isn't always an acceptable move but it is not always likely to be advantageous in the long run to the players who does.

Card advantage may sound pretty straightforward, but it's up to the player to know when to respond appropriately. After all it's better to -1 yourself to by using Lightning Vortex to destroy your opponent's Dark Armed Dragon when he/she has two more Dark Monsters in his/her Graveyard than simply want for him/her to summon more monsters. With enough experience any player can make the right call.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

MIND CRUSH!!!

I did not make this video. Yu-Gi-Oh! © Kazuki Takahashi

Nostalgia FTK! Serious, I can't count the number of times I thought of Yami Yugi mind crushing the his opponents every time I see the actual card. That aside today I'll be discussing a fairly straightforward yet often overlooked ruling regarding the titular card.

Now first let's look at Mind Crush's effect:

Declare 1 card name. If that card is in your opponent's hand, they must discard all copies of it in their hand. If it is not, you randomly discard 1 card.

Fairly simple, no?

Now previously the following rules applied for Mind Crush:

• You cannot activate "Mind Crush" if you have no hand. Both players must have at least 1 card in hand in order to activate "Mind Crush".
• You declare the card name when you activate "Mind Crush".
• If the opponent doesn't have the named card, you can check their hand to confirm.
• If the opponent discards the named card, you do not check their hand to verify. (Judge List Ruling)

Unfortunately that last ruling poses a little problem. Say if you were to activate Mind Crush and you opponent had multiple copies of the declared card in hand, since they only need to reveal their hand is they claim to have held zero copies your opponent could theoretically discard only one copy and make it look like they they drew into the other copies later in the duel. Now not all players would cheat like this, but in the competitive scene this could pose a major issue as in the case with certain Infernity players setting monsters in their Spell and Trap Card Zones to be able to pull off their handless combos.

Because of this Konami has recently issued a ruling reversal for Mind Crush.

"If the maximum legally allowed number of copies of the declared card cannot be verified as public knowledge, you may ask your opponent to verify their hand."

This cards should be shown quickly so as not to interrupt the flow of the duel and the opponent should never handle the cards. The intent of this ruling is to show that an effect has been successfully completed, not to reveal private information to an opponent or allow him to take extensive time strategizing over it.

What does this mean exactly? Let's look at some examples.

Example 1: You activate Mind Crush and declare Call of the Haunted. Your opponent responds by chaining their Call of the Haunted targeting the Sangan in his/her Graveyard. Since Call of the Haunted is currently limited, your opponent can not legally own more than one copy and does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 2: You activate Mind Crush and declare Call of the Haunted. Your opponent discards one Call of the Haunted. Since Call of the Haunted is currently limited, your opponent can not legally own more than one copy and does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 3: You activate Mind Crush and declare Honest. Your opponent, who had previous used a copy of Honest earlier in the duel, discards his/her second copy. Since Honest is semi-limited and your opponent can not legally own more than two copies it, he/she does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 4: You activate Mind Crush and declare Honest. Your opponent discards one Honest. Since Honest is semi-limited and there were previously no other Honest(s) in his/her Graveyard, you are allowed to verify their hand for the presence of another copy of Honest.

I hope that makes sense to everyone.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Black Sheep of the Family

I was going to take Monday and Tuesday off, but after seeing at least three different conflicting rulings I've decided to clarify it here:

Hundred-Eyes Dragon is NOT treated a "Red-Eyes" monster even though it may have "Red-Eyes" in its name. (Hundred-Eyes Dragon).

Why is this you ask?

Look at the Japanese name for 100-Eyes: ワンハンドレッド・アイ・ドラゴン

Not making much sense to you non-Japanese readers, eh? Well translated into English it reads out as "One-Hundred Eye Dragon" (Wanhandoreddo Ai Doragon).

Last time I checked "Red-Eye" is not the same as "Red-Eyes".

Still having difficulty believing me? Well, let's take a look at Red-Eyes Wyvern's effect:

During your End Phase, if you did not Normal Summon or Set a monster this turn, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard to Special Summon 1 "Red-Eyes" monster from your Graveyard, except "Red-Eyes B. Chick".

Now going by this text this would indict that one could use the effect of one Wyvern to revive another. Red-Eyes Wyvern's name in Japanese appears as: レッドアイズ・ワイバーン

In English, that's "Red-Eyes Wyvern" (Reddoaizu Waibān).

By comparing the katakana of their names, 100-eyes doesn't have that "ズ after "アイ" which would have recognized it as a "Red-Eyes" monster, and as such is not compatible with Wyvern's effect.

Futhermore, in an e-mail sent to Konami:

From: [mailto:*************@aim.com]
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 6:25 AM
To: us-ygorules@konami.com
Subject: Ruling Question

Are you able to Special Summon "Hundred-Eyes Dragon" with the effect of "Red-Eyes Wyvern", provided it has been properly Synchro Summoned already? Technically, the card has "Red-Eyes" within its name, despite the fact that the capitalization is different (although the same is true with "Unifrog" in respect to "Frog" monsters).

Thanks in advance.

Their response:

You cannot Special Summon Hundred-Eyes Dragon with Red-Eyes Wyvern. There should be no hyphen in the name.

Looks like Konami's just trying to be extra careful.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Absolute Zero Barrier

Remember when the early spoilers for The Shining Darkness pack came out and players were hyping up Infernities? The archetype had amazing capacity to generate field advantage, primarily in the form of Synchro Monsters. Then it was revealed that in the TCG release Infernities would be getting their own Counter Trap, Infernity Barrier, which offered complete negation of all effects with the sole criteria of needing an Attack Position Infernity Monster and no hand.

Players went ecstatic. That one card guaranteed Infernities a spot as a Tier 1 deck. Now, not only could they swarm the field, they could protection themselves while they did. Many called it unfair that an already powerful archetype be given such an all-purpose form of negation. Well, it looks like the folks at Konami still haven't learned their lesson.

Paradox Fusion (Counter Trap)

Activate by removing 1 face-up Fusion Monster you control from play. Negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card, OR the Special Summon of a monster and destroy that card. During your 2nd End Phase, return the removed Fusion Monster to the field in face-up Attack Position.

When I saw this card in the spoiler for Duelist Revolution, one specific card came straight to mind:

Elemental Hero Absolute Zero (Warrior-Type/WATER/Level 8/ATK 2500/DEF 2000)

1 "Elemental Hero", "Destiny Hero" or "Evil Hero" monster + 1 WATER monster

This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. This card gains 500 ATK for each WATER monster on the field other than "Elemental Hero Absolute Zero". When this card is removed from the field, destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Think about it: Paradox Fusion can do just about everything that Solemn Judgment can do, though without the benefit of being able to negate Normal and Flip Summons. On the flip side, however, you get the cost you paid (the Fusion Monster) returned within two turns anyway, so the card is essentially free negation, without the need to pay half your Life Points.

Speaking of cost, since the Fusion Monster would be removed from play—and hence leave the field—if Elemental Hero Absolute Zero were used to pay the cost, your opponent would loose all their monsters due to Zero's effect. Even if Paradox Fusion were negated, the cost cannot be unpaid, so at the very least you would be able to take out any of their monsters.

Elemental Hero Absolute Zero cannot be Special Summoned, but this doesn't matter. Like the case with Interdimensional Matter Transporter, Paradox Fusion does not summon the Monster back, it merely returns it to play. Meaning that same Fusion Monster can be used to pay for more Paradox Fusions later in the game.

The card is a common in the OCG, but I believe it will be promoted to Super Rare at the very least for the TCG release. If my suspicions are correct, Hero Fusion decks will be making a huge revival within the coming months.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Powerless Powerhouses

Recently, I had a discussion with a friend of mine regarding future deck projects. During our our little chat, he brought out the fact that he could not understand why a player could not chain his/her D.D. Crow to the effect of Machina Fortress that Special Summons it from the Graveyard.

Machina Fortress:

You can discard Machine-Type monster(s) whose total Levels equal 8 or more to Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, select and destroy 1 card your opponent controls. When this face-up card you control is targeted by an opponent's Effect Monster's effect, look at your opponent's hand and discard 1 card from their hand.

D.D. Crow:

During either player's turn, you can discard this card to the Graveyard to remove from play 1 card from your opponent's Graveyard.

In the scenario he presented me, his opponent discards both Machina Fortress and Green Gadget in order to Special Summon the former from the Graveyard. His logic was that he should be able to chain the effect of his D.D. Crow after Machina Fortress is discarded from his opponent's Hand as part of the cost to Special Summon it. He could not understand why he would not be able to respond in this way.

In order to resolve this conflict, let's first look at another card:

I'm sure most players are familiar with Cyber Dragon; its ability to be easily Special Summoned combined with its 2100 ATK reinvented the standard of beatsticks upon its release in Cybernetic Revolution. Now technically speaking Cyber Dragon is an effect monster, however, it has no effect. Though it may seem like I'm contradicting myself here, it's real straightforward. Cyber Dragon's text states:

If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.

What kind of effect is this? It's neither Continuous, Ignition, Trigger, Flip, nor Quick, which comprise the only five categories by which a Monster's effect can be organized into. In actuality this effect would fall into the range of a Summoning Condition, which explains why Cyber Dragon cannot have it's ability to Special Summon itself negated by Divine Wrath. Machina Fortress, as well as a few other monsters like Dark Armed Dragon, King of the Beasts, and Endymion, the Master Magician, also possess this inherit, or built-in, Summoning Condition, which is not considered part of their effects. As such, cards effects cannot to chained to the action of summoning them. Make no mistake, however, this method of summoning can still be negated with Solemn Judgment or responded to with Bottomless Trap Hole.

Unfortunately there are some rare exceptions that may confuse players. For example, Dark Simorgh has two methods of Special Summoning itself as indicted in its text:

While this card is face-up on the field its Attribute is also treated as WIND. You can remove from play 1 DARK monster and 1 WIND monster from your Graveyard to Special Summon this card from your hand. You can remove from play 1 DARK monster and 1 WIND monster from your hand to Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. Your opponent cannot Set any cards on the field.

In this case, unlike with Machina Fortress, Dark Simorgh's text is actually an Ignition Effect. The difference between both cases is that the former is an inherit Special Summon which involve fulfilling a condition and instantaneously Special Summoning the monster in question without using the chain, whereas in the latter is an effect that Special Summons a monster as part of a chain.

I realize that his topic is not easy for many duelists to understand, but—given time—most tend to get the hang of it eventually. When in doubt the best practice is to check the individual card rulings and look to see if the effect is classified as a summon or one of the five categories of monster effect. (Hint: When looking at the card page on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia, look for where it displays "Card Effect Type")

Remember players, the game ends with you.

The Rising Cost of Jewelry

I'm sure many players are familiar with Elemental Hero Prisma. The card achieved much notoriety once players discovered the potential it brought in creating a one-turn

Gladiator Beast fusions (mainly Gyzarus and Heraklinos). The card is a godsend for Fusion based builds mainly for its searchability, thinning the deck, and loading the Graveyard with Fusion Materials. Its usage has extended even into the current meta with the so-called "Prismadiator/Prismaglad" builds which made their debut during the 75th Shonen Jump Championship at Edison, New Jersey.

Though Prisma has long been a fairly expensive card (formerly costing a minimum of $20 for a single copy), its recent reprinting in Gold Series 3 has fortunately allowed for the price to drop. This latest re-release of the card has also sparked a ruling reversal regarding Prisma's effect. Let's look at both texts:

Original Effect: Once per turn, you can reveal 1 Fusion Monster from your Fusion Deck and send 1 of the Fusion Material Monsters listed on that card from your Deck to the Graveyard. Until the End Phase, this card's name is treated as the send monster's name.

Errata'd Effect: Once per turn, you can activate this card's effect by revealing 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck and sending 1 of the Fusion Material Monsters listed on that card from your Main Deck to the Graveyard. Until the End Phase, this card's name becomes the name of the monster you sent to the Graveyard.

Formerly, under UDE Elemental Hero Prisma's effect was considered costless and the Fusion Material Monster selected was sent to the Graveyard at the resolution of its effect.

The Fusion Material Monster is sent from your Deck to the Graveyard when "Elemental Hero Prisma's" effect resolves.

However, as the revised text indicates Elemental Hero Prisma's action of sending a specifically named Fusion Material Monster to the Graveyard is now the effect's cost. This is likely to match the OCG ruling, which has always been this way.

Showing 1 Fusion Monster to your opponent and sending 1 Fusion Material Monster to your Graveyard is a cost to activate the effect.

Source? This information was obtained from an e-mail sent to KDE:

From:************** [mailto:*************@*******.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 8:33 PM
To: us-ygorules@konami.com
Subject: Elemental Hero Prisma and Prime Material Dragon/Bad Reaction to Simochi

Hello, I have 2 questions.

1. Is Elemental Hero Prisma a cost when sending a monster to the graveyard?


2. If Prime Material Dragon and Bad Reaction to Simochi are both on the field and Gift Card is played, what will happen? Do the players gain or lose life points? What if Ceasefire is played while Prime Material Dragon and Bad Reaction to Simochi are both on the field?

Their response:

US YGO Rules [us-ygorules@konami.com]
Date Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 1:45 PM
Subject RE: Elemental Hero Prisma and Prime Material Dragon/Bad Reaction to Simochi

1. Prisma is activated by revealing a Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck and sending one of the named Fusion Material Monsters on that card from your Main Deck to the Graveyard, as clarified on the GLD3 text.

2. If Gift Card is played, the opponent will gain 3000 Life Points. If Ceasefire is played, the opponent will be damaged.

What are the implications of all this? Well, formerly since sending a Fusion Material Monster to the Graveyard was part of Prisma's effect, this meant that the effect could still be used even if cards like Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure were active, since the Prisma didn't require the monster to actually reach the Graveyard. However, with the new ruling the cost would not be payable in such a situation. On the bright side this means that if a Book of Moon or Bottomless Trap Hole chained to Prisma's effect won't stop the monster from being sent as the cost would be paid prior to the resolution of the chain.

I hope that cleared things up for today.

Remember players, the game ends with you.

Darkwing Duck

 

Seriously, how many of you guys couldn't help but think of a certain 90's cartoon featuring an eponymous superhero anthropomorphic duck with the alter ego of Drake Mallard when you first heard the TCG name for the Black Feather archetype? I'm sure I wasn't the only one out there, but let's not get off topic. Today's topic is dedicated to my friend Raz, who has bested me more times then I like to admit. Since he is an avid user of Blackwings, I decided to talk about the theme today, more specifically about the types of draw power the deck has at its disposal.

Five cards will the primary focus of this discussion:

• Morphing Jar
• Allure of Darkness
• Cards for Black Feathers
• Pot of Duality
• Reckless Greed

Morphing Jar
Though not a Blackwing itself, Morphing Jar accomplishes two very important goals in a Blackwing deck: 1) loading the graveyard for Vayu/Blizzard/DAD/Dark Creator and 2) replenishing your Hand. I've seen a few players using Ryko to accomplish the former and immediately thought of this card. There have been quite a few times in practice duels where I've seen Sirocco and Vayu stuck in a player's Hand, and what better way to get them in the Graveyard than this? At the very least it can save your Spies and Rykos (should you run them) from getting removed by a Nobleman of Crossout. Definitely a card to consider running.
Run 1 (limited)

Allure of Darkness
Most (if not all) Blackwing players were upset when this card was limited, and with good reason. Before it's limitation, using multiples of Allure in conjunction with Black Whirlwind gave the deck plenty of speed, making easier to get the Kalut or DAD you needed to turn the game around. How's that different from any other draw card? Well considering the fact that every Blackwing is a DARK Monster and that most players run multiple copies of Bora/Shura/Kalut, there's should no problem removing one for the extra draw. Had this card been semilimited or unlimited I say run as many copies as you can. Unfortunately that's not an option.
Run 1 (limited)

Cards for Black Feathers
Had this card not required a Blackwing to be removed and the prevent Special Summoning, it would be a carbon copy of Allure. In fact, I'm sure one of the contributing factors for Allure's limitation was so that this card would sell more. (Sneaky Konami ಠ_ಠ) In actuality Cards for Black Feathers is not quite as versatile as its predecessor. Blackwings rely a great on their Special Summons so while the extra draws can definitely help, don't expect to pull off that game-ending swarm the field during the same turn.
Run 1-2 (depending on your reliance on Special Summons)

Pot of Duality
It may be seem like I've contradicting myself a little here, but I like this card much better for Blackwings than Cards for Black Feathers. While both cards seal off Special Summons, Pot of Duality lets you scout out your upcoming draws and lets you pick out the best card out of the three for your current situation, which can make a world of a difference.
Run 2-3 (depending on your reliance on Special Summons)

Reckless Greed
Now this is a card I haven't seen being used in a while in Blackwing decks. Many consider it unreliable, and this is more or less true. The only way to truly benefit is if you manage to activate 2 or more simultaneously and that involves getting multiple copies in hand. If you can pull it off there's a good chance you can end the game that turn, depending on what you draw, but the lack of consistency makes running this card less than desirable.
Run 3 (if you decide to run it at all)

In conclusion, my ideal lineup would consist of:

• 1 Morphing Jar
• 1 Allure of Darkness
• 2 Pot of Duality

Obviously, other players will have their own preferences regarding their drawing options, some even completely forgo it.

Remember players, the game ends with you.