Beginning last Wednesday, a series of new rulings and rulings reversals were posted over at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Rules judge list forum. They affected several cards that are seeing play here today, but a couple of walks around the tournament floor earlier yesterday morning revealed that most players seemed to be unaware of them.
Players that are aware of the new rulings will have a distinct advantage over those that don’t, and while I can’t wade out onto the floor and start screaming rulings at everybody, I can at least make sure that you guys at home have easy access to the information. With that intent in mind, I present to you the rulings that nobody seems to know this weekend!
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner vs. Book of Moon
When I saw Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner for the first time I had the same thought you probably had — something along the lines of, “Hey, she’s Zombie Master, but for Lightsworn!” And that thought is partly true: Lumina does bring monsters back from the graveyard, for a cost that’s similar to Zombie Master’s. However, I think most people assumed that rulings related to Lumina’ effect would conform to those made for Zombie Master, namely that removing Lumina from the field in response to her effect’s activation would make her effect disappear (I did). After all, the two cards’ effects are worded almost identically.
But it turns out that’s not true — chaining Book of Moon or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to Lumina’s effect won’t prevent the special summon. The cards read the same in their English versions, but their original Japanese text is apparently different. To quote the ruling that was made, “[Lumina] does not, however, need to remain face up on the field. If an effect is chained that removes ‘Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner’ from the field or flips it face down, Lumina's effect will still resolve.”
This is good news for the handful of Lightsworn players who are aware of it and bad news for anyone banking on chainable cards to shut down Lumina’s special summon. The ruling makes Lumina far safer to play in a complicated game state, something in-the-know Lightsworn players will be taking advantage of.
You can see the complete ruling in its original context here.
Rulings Reversal on Zombie Master
Speaking of Zombie Master, a rulings reversal overturned a previously-controversial (and well-loved) ruling from the early days of this card’s release. Players were pleasantly surprised to find out at Shonen Jump Championship Washington last year that Zombie Master’s effect could be activated when there were no valid targets in the graveyard (so long as the monster discarded for the effect’s cost was a valid target itself). There were two camps of thought on this: the first was that the ruling was a strange departure from the standard line of “you can’t activate an effect you can’t resolve.” It was.
The other camp (which I was happy to be a part of and mostly just consisted of people who wanted Zombies to be good) had thoughts more like “Well, you can resolve it, so it must be legal. Amirite?” When people raised issues with the circuitous nature of that thought, I think the thought process changed to something more like “Wooooo! Zombie Master! SPRING BREAK!”
The new rulings reversal brings this scenario into line with a ton of other rulings, stating that, "You cannot activate Zombie Master's effect if there are no Level 4 or lower Zombie-Type monsters in the graveyard, even if you would discard one to activate the effect." You can still target and special summon the monster you discarded — there just needs to be another valid target in the graveyard first. This isn’t a huge blow to Zombies — it’s pretty rare that you’d want to play Zombie Master with its effect before playing Pyramid Turtle or Goblin Zombie anyway, and you can always discard a Zombie for Phoenix Wing Wind Blast or Raigeki Break. But it could send the deck in a bit of a different direction, with Card Destruction and Hand Destruction being slightly better plays. Overall, not a big shift for Zombies.
You can find the ruling right here.
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner Ruled the Same Way
. . . It’s a much bigger shift for Lightsworn though, as this is one respect in which Lumina is ruled the same way as Zombie Master. In the words of the official ruling that was made, “The same ruling applies . . .” to Fossil Excavation, Hysteric Party, and Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. This means big things for Lightsworn, which get to use Lumina without fearing Book of Moon or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, but they lose the opening play of Lumina special summoning Garoth. That move was arguably their best opening play, and inarguably one of their top two, for two reasons: free cards, and the ability to start getting stuff into the graveyard. It’s still possible now, but only if the Lightsworn player is lucky enough to open with Solar Recharge to fill the graveyard.
That has two effects: it makes the Lightsworn’s opening game a bit weaker, and makes Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter even more important than it was before (since it represents the deck’s second of what used to be two ideal openings). Lightsworn are by no means crippled, but priorities have to shift in order to adapt to this ruling. Whether or not Ryko remains a top pick in the wake of a Ryko-free Lightsworn win at UK Nationals this weekend will remain to be seen, but I think there’s a strategic opportunity there for anyone willing to see the trends and adapt accordingly.
Honest vs. Light-Imprisoning Mirror
The last big new ruling this past week was issued Friday night. The ruling had to do with Honest’s interaction with Light-Imprisoning Mirror, and stated that “Honest's effect is not negated, because [Honest’s] effect activates in your hand and not on the field or in the graveyard.”
This meant good things for the Overdose Lightsworn players and Jerome McHale, all of whom were at least somewhat vulnerable to Light-Imprisoning Mirror. For Overdose, it meant they could at least still dominate in battle if the Mirror flipped face up. For Jerome, it meant even more immunity to Light-Imprisoning Mirror. Bountiful Artemis already dodges that card’s effect: Artemis’s effect is continuous, not a trigger, so the Mirror can’t touch it (something few duelists here this weekend were aware of). With Artemis and Honest both online, the impact of Light-Imprisoning Mirror on Freed the Brave Wanderer and Harvest Angel is relatively minimal.
With Lightsworn and Counter Fairies both seeing potential play at Nationals thanks to their showings here this weekend, this will become an important ruling over the coming weeks. You can check it out right here.
This ruling also brought to light the fact that Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror doesn’t stop D.D. Crow because it also activates in the hand, a ruling that many believed to be new for this weekend (I’d totally forgotten it myself), but that had actually been issued back in January. As the Mirror traps continue to see more play, the average duelist is coming to understand their limitations more and more, but it seems to be a slow process. Brush up on the cards’ capabilities yourself and you may have an edge.
Keep watching the official Yu-Gi-Oh! Rules Forum to stay up on rulings the moment they’re released. Even just stopping by every Thursday or Friday to check out the week’s rulings can really help, and it’s always good to take a peek at the latest rulings before major events like this one.