“I think it would be wise not to linger while these two do battle.”—Kozaky

This week, the epic battle of Last Turn begins. The Last Turn player has chosen his or her champion, and all other cards on the field and in both players’ hands have been “sent to the Graveyard.” The time has come for the opponent to choose his or her champion.

The Rival Appears

“After that, your opponent selects and Special Summons 1 monster from their Deck in face-up Attack Position . . . ”

Your opponent is free to choose any monster to special summon, as long as that monster can be legally special summoned. Does your opponent have Blue-Eyes White Dragon in his or her deck? Then you’d better be careful, because this strong monster can easily be chosen as his or her representative. Perhaps Dark Magician of Chaos is in the deck? It’s fair game, too.

Monsters with special summon restrictions are off limits, as would normally be the case. Strong monsters like Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 and Dark Necrofear will need to remain in the deck, because their special summon restrictions prevent them from being brought into play with Last Turn. Ancient Gear Golem and Spirit monsters are also off limits, because they cannot be special summoned. Finally, powerful ritual monsters like The Masked Beast and Dark Master – Zorc are also off limits. Ritual monsters need to be ritual summoned, and Last Turn is not going to satisfy those requirements.

What about Jinzo? If the opponent decides to special summon Jinzo as his or her champion, it will be far too late for Jinzo to stop anything Last Turn has set up. The impending battle will still occur, and the winner will still be determined according to the rules of Last Turn.

This is the point where I must mention the interaction of Last Turn with . For a few months, rumors spread that it was not possible to activate Last Turn while Jowgen was on the field. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. Jowgen the Spiritualist prevents both players from special summoning monsters. We know this to be true. Due to this, it prevents both players from activating cards that special summon monsters when they resolve.

This is the important part. When Last Turn resolves, it does not special summon a monster. The special summon occurs as a separate event afterLast Turn has resolved. After the Last Turn player chooses his or her champion and all other cards are sent to the graveyard, the resolution of Last Turn ends. Everything else is applied afterwards. This means that Last Turncan be activated while Jowgen the Spiritualist is face-up on the field.

Using Jowgen with Last Turn effectively prevents your opponent from special summoning his or her champion. This can be a devastating blow and can easily win you the duel. You can also use Non Aggression Area to achieve a similar result.

“ . . . and attacks your selected monster. (Any Battle Damage from this battle is treated as 0.)”

This is the point at which things get interesting. This battle occurs during the same game phase in which Last Turn was resolved. If you activate Last Turn during your opponent’s draw phase, this “special battle phase” (SBP for short) will occur during that very same draw phase.

It’s like Last Turn creates a cage match in which the two monsters will battle one another, free from all outside interference. This SBP has its own start step, battle step, damage step, and end step, just like the normal battle phase. Any monster effects that involve the battle phase can be activated during the SBP.

Suppose my opponent has 3000 life points and decides to special summon Injection Fairy Lily from her deck to be her champion. During the SBP, my opponent can activate the effect of her Injection Fairy Lily to give it 3400 ATK. This can be a devastating blow to just about any monster I have chosen for Last Turn.

The one thing I don’t have to worry about is the loss of life points from this battle. Any battle damage that my life points would normally suffer from such a battle will not occur. If I choose Spirit Reaper as my champion and I have it in defense position, my opponent could use Enraged Battle Ox as his champion, but would not be able to inflict any damage to my life points from the piercing effect of Enraged Battle Ox. This is because my life points are protected from battle damage during the SBP.

However, this does not mean that I cannot take any damage at all. It’s still possible for card effects to inflict damage to me, based on what happens in the SBP. What if my opponent special summoned a monster like Needle Burrower and used it to plow through my champion? Its effect would inflict damage when my champion monster is sent to the graveyard, and it’s very possible that I will lose the duel as a result of taking this damage.

It is important to remember that monster effects will be a factor in the SBP. If you choose Reflect Bounder as your champion for Last Turn, the monster your opponent special summons to attack it will cause Reflect Bounder to inflict damage with its effect. This could be beneficial when your opponent is low on life points.

Monsters like D. D. Warrior Lady and D. D. Assailant will activate their effects during the SBP. If my opponent has chosen a strong monster like Dark Magician of Chaos as his champion, I can use the effect of my D. D. Warrior Lady to remove Dark Magician of Chaos from play during the damage step of the SBP.

Monsters that can attack multiple times, like Hayabusa Knight, can also attack multiple times during the SBP. This is normally not a major concern, but it can become relevant when you run into a monster like Big Core.

The Battle Phase?

One more note of great importance—the SBP does not replace the turn player’s battle phase. If you activate Last Turn before or during your opponent’s battle phase, he or she will still be able to conduct his or her regular battle phase

Remember the situation with Spirit Reaper where my opponent chose Enraged Battle Ox as his champion? In that situation, my life points were protected by Last Turn’s effect and the piercing effect of Enraged Battle Ox was of no concern. But after the SBP, my opponent can use his regular battle phase to smash my Spirit Reaper and end the duel. Last Turn’s protection only covers the SBP and will not protect me during my opponent’s regular battle phase.

Remember my example from last week where the turn player used Brain Control to take the Last Turn player’s only monster? In that situation, Last Turn still tried to resolve as best it could. This means that the turn player took control of the targeted monster and special summoned a monster afterwards. But since the opponent no longer controls a champion monster, the SBP does not occur, and the remainder of that game phase continues as normal. If this happened during the turn player’s first main phase, he or she could attack with both monsters. If the turn player can inflict enough damage, he or she can win the duel.

Now that we’ve covered the special summoning of the opponent’s champion and the special battle phase, it’s time to examine who has won the duel. This is just as complicated as everything else we’ve covered thus far, so we’ll save it for next week. Be sure to be here for the finale!

(Send all comments to Curtis @ metagame.com.)