“Among the Dragons, the White-Horned Dragon has the most unusual relationship with Spellcasters. While most Dragons would feed only on the Spellcaster’s remains, the White-Horned Dragon is more interested in their spent toils and castings. The sorcerer is but a snack.” — Excerpt from the journals of General Freed

No other card included in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX McDonald’s promotion garnered the kind of attention that White-Horned Dragon did. It’s all right to admit that you wanted one. We all did. What Bazoo the Soul-Eater could do, White-Horned Dragon can do better. 

This week, we examine the mechanics of White-Horned Dragon, followed by a look at the equip spell card Mist Body. The effect isn’t too complicated and you will see that it can be of great benefit to your weaker monsters. 

Blue-Eyes meet White-Horns

The White-Horned Dragon doesn’t start off as the most threatening single-tribute monster, but feed it some spell cards and it grows into a substantial threat.

“When this card is Normal Summoned or Special Summoned, select up to 5 Spell Cards from your opponent’s Graveyard and remove them from play. Increase the ATK of this card by 300 points for each card removed from play by this card’s effect.”

When you successfully normal summon or special summon your White-Horned Dragon, you will look through your opponent’s graveyard and select up to five spell cards as targets for its effect. When the effect resolves, these selected cards are removed from play and your White-Horned Dragon’s ATK is increased by 300 points for each card you just removed from play. Any cards that were already removed from play before this effect resolves are not included in this increase.

You will notice that the trigger effect of White-Horned Dragon does not say “you can select . . .” The effect is not optional, so you don’t have to worry about “missing the timing” as you can with optional trigger effects. Even if you special summon your Dragon mid-chain, its effect won’t be lost. The effect is mainly dependant upon the number of spell cards your opponent has in his or her graveyard.

Sometimes this can put players off using this card. They think that they need to remove the full count of five spell cards for their Dragon to be any good. In reality, you only need to remove one spell card to make it bigger than the Monarchs and most other single tribute monsters it might encounter. The removal of four additional spell cards totals out the dragon’s ATK at 3700.

The Striking Mists

Mist Body is the easiest way to give a monster long-term battle protection in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

“A monster equipped with this card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. (Damage calculation is applied normally.)”

Mist Body gives its equipped monster the “cannot be destroyed in battle” effect made popular by Spirit Reaper, but without any pesky side effects. We know what this protection means for Spirit Reaper, but what can it mean to other monsters? Long-term protection in battle used to be reserved for Heart of Clear Water, and while that was fine for weaker monsters, it did nothing for even mid-range monsters.

Injection Fairy Lily demonstrates the weakness of Heart of Clear Water. It would protect her well if you equipped her with it, but if you ever decided to use her effect, the ATK increase would cause the equip card to self-destruct. Equip her with Mist Body, however, and you’re free to use the effect and retain the protection (though without the targeting protection found in Heart of Clear Water).

Mist Body lets you give assistance to monsters you would like to keep in play, but which would normally meet a swift end in battle. Syrus’ monster, Steamroid, for example, works great on offense but quickly becomes a target on defense, due to its ATK penalty. You can protect Steamroid with Mist Body during this vulnerable period. It will return the favor in your next battle phase.

Monsters that generate burn damage over time used to be protected by multiple copies of Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B, but those days are long past. We have Nightmare’s Steelcage in multiples, and they suffice for short periods of time, but Mist Body ultimately gives back the protection these monsters desire. It doesn’t do any good for the stall/burn monsters that flip face down, like Stealth Bird, but for monsters like Bowganian, the protection is a blessing.

Special combat monsters, like Raging Flame Sprite, can use the protection to support their long-term strategies. The Flame Sprite will be able to build up its ATK value without fear of being destroyed in battle before completing the task. Direct attack monsters that don’t have this power build-up can also use the Mist Body, but they can get kicked around by stronger monsters and become a drain on your life points.

Equip Armed Samurai - Ben Kei with Mist Body and he’ll be protected in battle and gain an additional attack. Equip it to Maha Vailo and its ATK will increase to 2050 with the addition of the battle protection. If you want, you can even equip it to Zone Eater, also found in the McDonald’s promotion. It makes it easier to use that card’s effect . . . but you’ll probably want to add in Spirit Barrier too.

When you play with Silent Magician LV4, you normally have to take measures to protect her during the first few turns she is on the field. Mist Body will handle this task well until Silent Magician LV4 is strong enough to stand on her own. You can use this card to protect some of the other LV monsters as well, but since they level up more quickly, you won’t see Mist Body stick around for long. Still, until the monster “levels up,” it will serve a practical purpose.

2007 may prove to be quite an exciting year for promotional cards. That brand new never-before-seen promo card at the Strike of Neos sneak preview event is inching ever closer.

Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@metagame.com