For every student who wishes to learn more about the ways of Oja-jutsu, allow me to introduce Ojamagic and Ojamuscle, the newest moves from Elemental Energy. We will also discuss two cards that are not directly Ojama-related by name, but are certainly welcome additions to the Oja-Jutsu fighting style: Chthonian Alliance and The League of Uniform Nomenclature.

We begin our class with the ultimate Ojama search card, Ojamagic. “When this card is sent from the hand or the field to the Graveyard, add 1 each of "Ojama Green", "Ojama Yellow" and "Ojama Black" from your Deck to your hand.”

You will notice that the card text doesn’t say, “you can.” This is perfect, because it means that the effect is mandatory and it’s impossible to miss the timing. Let’s examine how we can make this effect work.

The text says that Ojamagic must be “sent” from your hand to the graveyard, or “sent” from your field to the graveyard. The wording “sent” is a broad term that applies itself to several methods.

If you discard Ojamagic from your hand to the graveyard, you are “sending” it as well, because discarding is a specific method of sending a card from your hand to the graveyard. Knowing this, if you were to activate Divine Wrath and discard Ojamagic to pay its cost, would its effect activate? You bet it would!

Let’s suppose that you set Ojamagic on the field and your opponent uses Mystical Space Typhoon on it. When your opponent’s Mystical Space Typhoon resolves, it will destroy your set Ojamagic and send it to the graveyard. Because Ojamagic is sent to the graveyard, you’ll get to activate its effect.

You can also use Emergency Provisions, sending Ojamagic from your side of the field to the graveyard to pay the cost. Once again, you will get the effect, because you have successfully sent your Ojamagic from your side of the field to the graveyard.

However, Ojamagic does have one critical weakness. You must have one copy of all three Ojamas in your deck, or the effect will fail. If you don’t have all three monsters, you don’t get to put any in your hand at all. Make sure that your deck is well stocked with Ojamas so that this does not occur!

Next we have Ojamuscle, Ojama King’s power-up card. “Select 1 face-up "Ojama King" on the field. Destroy all monster(s) on the field that include "Ojama" in their card name, except the selected "Ojama King". Increase the ATK of the selected "Ojama King" by 1000 points for each destroyed monster.”

When you activate this effect, select only one face-up Ojama King to be the target of the effect. Your opponent is then given the chance to respond.

When the effect resolves, destroy all cards on the field that have “Ojama” in their card name, but not the Ojama King that you targeted with the effect. After destroying every other card on the field that has “Ojama” in its card name, count up how many cards were destroyed, multiply the value by 1000, and then increase Ojama King’s ATK value by the product.

Now comes the question that simply must be asked, because it’s a big part of the strategy—“Will Ojama Tokens count toward the effect?” You bet they will! While on the field, all monster tokens are treated as normal monster cards. Because of this, the Ojama tokens have “Ojama” in their card name and they will be destroyed by the effect of Ojamuscle. And since Ojamuscle destroys them, they will also inflict damage to their controller’s life points. If your opponent happens to be the player who controls them, you’ll be increasing your Ojama King’s ATK and damaging your opponent’s life points at the same time.

During the time between choosing your targeted Ojama King and the effect of Ojamuscle resolving, your opponent has a chance to ruin everything. He or she can do this by turning your Ojama King face down with a card like Book of Moon. Even though your Ojama King has been turned face down, Ojamuscle still tries to resolve, destroying every “Ojama” on the field. The ATK increase never happens, because it cannot apply to a face down monster.

However, if your opponent negates your Ojamuscle with a card like Magic Jammer, you will not destroy the Ojama cards, because the effect of your Ojamuscle was negated. Destroying Ojama monsters is not a cost to activate Ojamuscle.

Perhaps the Ojamas aren’t all that extraordinary, but they do form a common alliance when they use the right support cards. Elemental Energy was kind enough to provide us with just the right cards to do the job.

Our first support card is The League of Uniform Nomenclature. “Select 1 face-up Level 2 or lower Normal Monster on your side of the field to activate this card. Special Summon from your Deck to your side of the field as many cards as possible with the same name as the selected monster.”

When you activate The League of Uniform Nomenclature, you will select one face-up normal monster of level 2 or lower on your side of the field. This selected monster card will be your reference when resolving the effect. It also warns your opponent what monsters will soon be joining the battle.

When the effect resolves, search your deck for any other cards with the same name as the card you selected from your field and then special summon them onto the field.

Here’s a neat trick to remember—only the level of the selected monster on the field is important. If you take a normal monster on your side of the field and lower its level to 2 or lower, you can then select it for the effect of The League of Uniform Nomenclature. It doesn’t matter that the monsters you will special summon from your deck are above level 2, because they are not the monsters that are limited by the effect of The League of Uniform Nomenclature.

Knowing this, you could lower the level of a strong normal monster like Vorse Raider and then special summon two more copies of Vorse Raider from your deck with The League of Uniform Nomenclature.

However, we want to use this card to bring out more Ojamas, because they’re far superior to Vorse Raider.* We can use The League of Uniform Nomenclature to bring out multiple copies of the same selected “Ojama” monster, but not any of its allies. If I use The League of Uniform Nomenclature with my Ojama Green, I can only special summon other copies of Ojama Green from my deck. I won’t be able to get the other Ojamas, because they have a different name.

Some monsters in the game have the same name as others, but are totally different cards. Harpie Lady, Cyber Harpie Lady, and Harpie Lady #2 are all treated as having the same card name. Due to this, if I can reduce Harpie Lady’s level to 2 or less, I can use it with The League of Uniform Nomenclature to special summon any other cards named Harpie Lady from my deck to the field. Doing this would allow me to special summon Cyber Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady #2 from my deck.

But I didn’t get Harpies, Vorse Raiders, or anything like that. I got Ojamas. Now what do we do with them?

We equip them with Chthonian Alliance! “Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by 800 points for each other face-up monster on the field with the same name as the equipped monster.”

The monster you equip with Chthonian Alliance is not counted for the increase. You only count the other monsters on the field with the same name as the equipped monster. For example, my equipped Ojama Green increases its ATK by 1600 points when there are two other copies of Ojama Green face up on the field.

If your opponent also happens to control any face up monsters with the same name as your equipped monster, they will also count toward the ATK increase for Chthonian Alliance. If my opponent has any copies of Ojama Green on his or her side of the field, their Ojama Green cards will be counted towards the effect of my equipped Ojama Green.

The ATK increase is a dynamic value and will change as the number of “same named” monsters appear or disappear from the field. Be sure to keep track of this as your game progresses. You don’t want to risk miscalculating the ATK of your equipped monster during a most inopportune time.

Until next week, send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com

*That’s what the Ojamas told me, so it must be true. I bow to the might of Oja-Jutsu!