Common Rulings and Misconceptions #2

So before I begin, yes, I know I haven't done any post about Assassination Demons. I've been putting it off until we know all the cards that they're getting in set 1 of Season 4. I don't want to make 5 different posts about every single card that comes out. I don't have that much free time.  I'm going to make one big post about my thoughts on them.  Generally speaking, I do find them interesting and I like what I'm seeing. I want to see the full picture of them before posting.

But anyways, let's get onto ruling number 1!

Ruling #1: Monster Call-over Cost Clarification

I don't blame people for legitimately not understanding this misconception. It's finely worded and people don't tend to think further into the wording. The misunderstanding is what happens to a monster on the field when a monster is called on top of the monster on the field and when a monster on the field is put from the field into the soul of the monster you're calling.

So let's start with the first one.  The most common card that has a call over call cost is Silhouette Joe, "Illusion Shadow Dragons". Let's print out the call cost:

Ninja Arts, Half-kill: Not the hero we deserve but the hero we need

[Call Cost] [Pay 2 gauge & Put this card on top of a《Shadow Shade》monster on your field & Put a spell from your drop zone into this card's soul] 

So when you put the monster you're calling over a monster on the field, a couple things happen:

1. The souls that were in the original monster on the field stay in the soul of the called monster (in this case, impact Joe).
2. Joe cannot be moved to a new zone on the field because that's not where the original creature you put Joe over is located.  You cannot call impact Joe on top of a monster on the left and decide to move him to the center for example.

The second call cost example is Mikazuki Munechika, "Forbidden Art Blade Deity Descends!".  Let's go over his call cost:

Sorry, but you cannot add all of Onimaru's souls into this guy

[Call Cost] [Pay 3 gauge & Put a 《Japanese Blade》 from your field into this card's soul]

So in this case, the following things happen:

1. The souls that were in the original monster on the field do NOT get transferred to Mikazuki Munechika.  They're send to the drop zone. The monster on the field is leaving the field to go into his soul. You cannot activate soulguard to keep the monster on the field because the call cost won't be successful and then you couldn't call the impact monster in the first place. 
2. The Mikazuki Munechika impact monster can be called to any space and can be called over other monsters on the field. You are not restricted to where you want to play him because you are not restricted to where the monster on the field is located.

So as you can see, both kinds of call costs have their pros and cons and they're actually opposite of each other.

Ruling #2: Different Kinds of Defensive Spells

This one is usually taught early on to new people but I feel like this would be an injustice if I didn't touch upon this. Not including counter destruction spells, there are 5 different ways to defend your monsters and precious life points from attacks and they all have their pros and cons:

1. Nullify the attack
2. Reduce damage
3. Redirecting attacks
4. Resting monsters
5. Defense boosting cards

Nullifying:

Nullifying the attack stops the attack from finishing. They are the most common defensive spell. Typically, nullify spells have an abstract requirement such as the attack not being a link attack or no monster must occupy your center to nullify the attack. Star Dragon World's nullifies also have the requirement of the player must be the one being attacked in order to nullify it.

Pros: 

• The monster being attacked doesn't get destroyed so Penetrate and Spectral Strike don't activate and on-damage/on-destruction abilities don't activate as well. 

Cons:

• Abilities that activate upon declaring the attack still activate.

• The monster attacker doesn't get in battle with the monster being attacked.  Therefore, counterattack doesn't go off. 

• Some cards abuse your opponent for using nullify spells such as cards saying "this card's attack can't be nullified if it is attacking alone" or "if this card's attack is nullified, deal 1 damage to your opponent".

• Does not stop spells from dealing effect damage.

Reduce Damage:

Reduce damage spells tend to reduce damage by X amount. Typically it's 2 but the Dungeon World one reduces by 3 but that one has another call requirement that the reduce by 2's don't have to balance it out. 

There is also a better version of reduce damage spells that are typically referred to as Chillax clones. Typically, they have a call cost of 1 gauge.  They then reduce the next time you would be dealt damage to 0 and you gain 1 life.

If an effect goes off by dealing damage (Like "To Darkness", "Sense Synchronization", etc) to the opponent and the damage gets reduced to 0, the effect does not go off.  Yes you "hit" the opponent but no damage was dealt.

Pros:

• Penetrate, spectral strike and other effect damage can be reduced by these kinds of spells.

• Chillax clone spells absorb all the damage from a direct link attack to the player. Link attack critical damage is done all at once. However this is different with penetrate/spectral strike damage which I will explain below.

Cons:

• This should be obvious but unlike nullifies, reducing damage doesn't stop your monster from being destroyed in a battle.

• Doesn't stop counter attack

• While penetrate/spectral strike effect damage can be reduced, it only reduces the damage from one card's penetrate/spectral strike within a battle.  So for example, say you have a monster in the center and your opponent calls 2 monsters with penetrate. One with 1 critical and the other with 2 critical. The 2 monsters link attack your center monster. You can play a Chillax clone in response to the battle declaration but you don't reduce all 3 critical damage. Your opponent chooses in which order his monster's penetrate goes off. So logically, he would send the 1 critical damage to be reduced to 0 so then the opponent gets hit with the 2 critical.  Penetrate and spectral strike damage is dealt in parts.  Not at once. 

• Doesn't stop upon attack declaration effects

• There are some cards that say "This card's attack can't be reduced" but this isn't too common.

Generally speaking, reduce damage by X spells aren't as good as nullify spells because their usefulness is static and limited. Would you rather be attacked by a monster with 3 critical, reduce damage by 2 and still take 1 damage or just nullify the whole 3 damage?

Redirecting Attacks:

Redirecting attacks do exactly what they say.  They move the target of the attack to somewhere else. Most say to redirect the attack to another monster but there is one for Fifth Omnis that redirect the attack from a monster to the player instead.

You'd have to be a fool to use this

Pros:

• As of writing this, there are no cards that say "This card's attack cannot be redirected".

• You can redirect a whole link attack.  Not just one monster in the link attack

Cons:

• Several redirect cards (such as Lightning Speed, Tsukiusage and Rescue Dragon, Mach Braver) call a monster to the center to absorb the attack.  This means penetrate/spectral strike can still activate.

• To continue on with the above mentioned cards, if you call those cards to the center, obviously the center monster must be sent to the drop as well because something else is taking its place.

• Don't stop spell cards dealing effect damage

Resting Monsters:

In order for a monster to attack, they must be rested (turned sideways).  If they are already rested, they cannot attack. Typically, you should rest a monster at the counter-timing of entering the battle phase.  That way, your opponent can't call over them during the main phase. Also, don't rest a monster when your opponent declares an attack.  The monster gets rested for his attack before your counter timing to rest it.

The three most common resting spells are Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze, Stop Right There! and Barbed Wire.

My locals hate this card 

Pros:

• Stops double/triple/quadruple attacks

• Virtually no monster says it can't be rested by card effects.  The only exception that I know of is Pinnacle of Martial Arts, Duel Jaeger "God Vortoise".

• Stops attack declaration effects from activating.

• Stops link attack effects from going off.

• If you have a monster with high defense in your center and your opponent plays a size 3 and a couple size 0s, resting the size 3 can "essentially" nullify the size 0's attacks as well if they can't hit your defense.

• Stops penetrate/spectral strike

Cons:

• The call cost for some of the cards requires life so the spells aren't effective on 1 critical monsters and you can't cast them if you're at 1 life without losing the game.

• Resting spells exclusively rest either monsters or items.  

Defense Boosting Cards:

Boosting a monster's defense to be higher than the attacker or attacker's combined attack keeps your monster on the field. Nothing more happens if the attack power of the attacking monster is less than the defense of the target. Defense boosting cards can also work on items that have defense. This typically happens on cards you Ride or Transform into and is mainly prevalent in Hero World.

Also, fun fact, if the player does not have an item with defense and they're being attacked directly, no battle occurs.  This is why all monsters have a value in defense. Even if that value is 0 (from stat-reducing effects).  This allows a battle to happen. Weapons don't have a defense of 0, they are devoid of any value.  Including 0. Don't get confused and think I said that no ATTACK happens.  An attack can happen but it's possible for it to not be a battle.

Burn baby burn!

Pros:

• Most stat boosting spells have a free cast cost.

• Better used on cards with high defense to bait link attacks.

• If the monster being attacked has higher defense than the attacker(s), the defending monster doesn't get destroyed.  Ergo, penetrate/spectral strike doesn't activate.

• Justice Will Prevail! can be used on transform/ride items. Because your item will obviously survive the battle, you get to counterattack a monster in that battle. 

Cons:

• If you don't have a monster on the field or an item with defense, stat boosting cards do little to actually defend you.

• Stat boost cards are a waste if the attacker has more attack than the defender's defense after a stat boost card is activated on the defender. 

Ruling #3: Counterattack Rulings

This is the rapid fire counterattack rulings sections!

Think of this card when reading
 ruling #3 bullet 2 

• Counter attack is mandatory. No exceptions.  Pretty straightforward but there can be times when destroying a monster by counterattack can backfire and people might try to weasel their way out and say they choose not to use counterattack.

• A monster being destroyed by counterattack is regarded as effect destruction.  Not battle destruction.  Therefore, penetrate doesn't go off if the counterattacking monster also has penetrate and destroys a monster in the center.

• This also means if monster A counterattacks monster B and monster B also has counterattack, monster B's counterattack doesn't go off.  Counterattack only activates after surviving a battle. Not effect destruction. Bushiroad probably did this so it wouldn't be a chain reaction of back and forth counterattack.

Ruling #4: Monsters Called to the Field by Effects

Monster calling nullify spells (like Begone!!) cannot be used on monsters that are called by card effects. So monsters called with spells, like Return to the Underworld, and monsters that are called by their own effects, like Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi, can't be nullified with Begone!! clones. 

Don't ask me why this is.  My best guess is the process of calling monsters via effects is different than the process of calling from hand and therefore, there isn't a counter timing to nullify the monster being called.

Ruling #5: INV Second Omni Demon Lord, Death Asmodai's Effects

This one is in regards to when Death Asmodai gets destroyed and his lifelink and monster call effect occur. Both effects happen at the same time, therefore, the player chooses in what order each effect happens.

Usually this doesn't affect anything significant but if you're playing fifth omnis, for example, you can hope to get a monster on the field that gives you a benefit to taking effect damage first, then take the lifelink 2 since lifelink is regarded as taking damage.

The only one-off situation I can think of is if you're at 2 life (so the lifelink would kill you). You can hope to mill your buddy and buddy call to gain a life before taking lifelink 2.

Again, nothing significant but it can mean the difference between life and death in some games.

-End Rulings Section-

To wrap things up, I think I'm going to do future rulings and misconceptions in sets of 5. It seems like a healthy amount to read in one sitting. Also, if you have any rulings you're curious about that I haven't touched on, feel free to leave a comment and I can get to it in the next set of Common Rulings and Misconceptions!