Our new prize card is not impressed by your monster’s effect. A worthy follow-up to Gold Sarcophagus, Doomcaliber Knight comes on the heels of a great set of Dark monsters, adding even more power to their already considerable sum. This week, we look at what our new prize card can do and how it will interact with other effects.
The Dark Rider
Doomcaliber Knight is the enemy of monster effects.
"This card cannot be Special Summoned. When an Effect Monster’s effect is activated, you must Tribute this card. Negate that effect’s activation, and destroy the monster."
If a monster card effect activates while Doomcaliber Knight is face up on the field, it will tribute itself to activate its effect. When its effect resolves, it destroys the effect monster and negates the effect that the effect monster activated. This effect is involuntary and will activate whenever it is required to do so, whether you want it to or not. Doomcaliber Knight will treat weak effects and strong effects exactly the same.
Example: Squash the Sniper
Sam has Doomcaliber Knight and Dark Horus face up on his side of the field. His opponent Dean summons Snipe Hunter and activates its effect, targeting Dark Horus. Doomcaliber Knight is then tributed to activate its effect. When the chain resolves, Snipe Hunter’s effect is negated and it is destroyed.
Like Light and Darkness Dragon, Doomcaliber Knight has no way of negating the continuous effects of monsters because they never "activate," meaning they won’t start a chain. When you special summon Cyber Dragon from your hand, Doomcaliber Knight won’t flinch. Normal summon Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast without tributes and Doomcaliber Knight won’t even blink.
Doomcaliber Knight’s effect can activate during any game phase, even the damage step. It never backs down from the challenge of an effect monster, even when it is engaged in battle with a different monster. When this occurs during damage calculation, as it can with Kuriboh, the battle between Doomcaliber Knight and the opponent’s monster is still conducted.
Example: Gravekeeper vs. Knight
Tai has Doomcaliber Knight in attack position. His opponent Rose has Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier in attack position and Charm of Shabti in her hand. Tai attacks the Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier with Doomcaliber Knight. During damage calculation, Rose discards Charm of Shabti to try and protect her Spear Soldier. Seeing that a monster card effect has activated, Doomcaliber Knight tributes itself to chain its effect.
When the chain resolves,
Charm of Shabti’s effect is negated. The battle between Doomcaliber Knight and
Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier is still conducted. The
Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier is destroyed and Rose receives 400 points of battle damage.
If Doomcaliber Knight attacks and a monster card effect activates during the battle step, the results are different. Removing the attacking monster from the field during the battle step stops the attack, and the attack will not continue to the damage step.
Example: Knight vs. Mammoth
Roy has Doomcaliber Knight in attack position. His opponent Francisco has Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger and Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth in attack position. Roy attacks Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger with Doomcaliber Knight. Francisco activates Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth’s effect. Doomcaliber Knight tributes itself to chain its effect.
When the chain resolves, Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth’s effect is negated and it is destroyed. The attack stops because Doomcaliber Knight is no longer on the field.
One Man Army?
What happens when Doomcaliber Knight is sent against a chain of monster effects? It has to respond when they activate, but would it stop them all or just one? Doomcaliber Knight isn’t free to pick and choose who it will negate. It goes after the first monster effect it can stop: the one highest up the chain.
Example: Simultaneous Effects Go Boink?
Liam has Mystic Tomato and Doomcaliber Knight in face-up attack position. His opponent Wes has Giant Rat in attack position. Liam attacks Giant Rat with Mystic Tomato. During the damage step, both monsters are destroyed, and when they are sent to the graveyard their effects can activate.
If both players activate the effect of their monster, the effects will form a chain. Liam, the turn player, places his effect as chain link 1 and Wes’ effect is placed as chain link 2. Seeing that a monster’s effect has activated, Doomcaliber Knight’s effect is activated. It can only negate one of the effects, and the one it goes after is the highest on the chain: Giant Rat. Giant Rat’s effect is negated by Doomcaliber Knight, and Mystic Tomato is safe to resolve normally.
If there are multiple copies of Doomcaliber Knight face up on the field at the same time, every copy will activate its effect when a monster’s effect activates. They don’t turn on each other. Instead, they all try to go after the same effect. One of them will negate the monster effect, and the others won’t do anything. When the effects of multiple Doomcaliber Knight cards activate simultaneously, we add their effects to the chain by following the rules for simultaneous effects found on the advanced rules FAQ.
Example 1: Two-Man Army
Jessica has two copies of Doomcaliber Knight face up on her side of the field. Armin normal summons Red Gadget, activating its effect. Both copies of Doomcaliber Knight tribute themselves and activate their effects.
Jessica decides the order the Doomcaliber Knight cards are placed onto the chain, although you’ll find that the order doesn’t really matter. Red Gadget’s effect is going to be negated. Whether it’s my copy or your copy that does the job is usually not important. We create an order to the effects because we have to.
When
Light and Darkness Dragon and Doomcaliber Knight are face up on the field at the same time, everything is fine until a spell card, trap card, or monster card effect is activated. When this happens,
Light and Darkness Dragon and Doomcaliber Knight react. Spell and trap cards set off the Dragon, which in turn sets off the Knight. Monster card effects set off the Dragon and the Knight simultaneously.
When Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect activates in response to a spell or trap card, Doomcaliber Knight’s effect activates in response to the Dragon. The Knight negates the Dragon’s effect and destroys the Dragon, allowing the spell or trap card to resolve without being negated. When the Dragon and the Knight activate in response to a monster card effect, the results depend on which effect is chained immediately to the activated monster card effect.
Example: Dragon > Knight
Chazz has Light and Darkness Dragon face up on his side of the field. Simon has Doomcaliber Knight face up on his side of the field. Chazz discards D.D. Crow to remove a card in Simon’s graveyard from play. The effects of both Light and Darkness Dragon and Doomcaliber Knight activate in response. Chazz is the turn player, so his is placed first, followed by Simon’s Doomcaliber Knight.
When the chain resolves, Doomcaliber Knight’s effect disappears because it was not chained directly to the effect it wants to negate, D.D. Crow. Light and Darkness Dragon resolves, negating the activation of D.D. Crow’s effect and losing 500 ATK and DEF. D.D. Crow remains in the graveyard, and so does the card it had targeted.
Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.