The effects of the new secret rares from Force of the Breaker may not make sense, until you factor Ectoplasmer into the equation. That’s when the old neurons start firing and you think, “Ooooooohhhh, that’s what they do.”

Given that these cards are secret rares, it isn’t easy to gather them all together at once and figure out how their effects work. This week, we will look at the effects of the new secret rares and detail how they function. Malice Doll of Demise has got some company.

The Abyss Stares Back at You

Diabolos, King of the Abyss is a challenge to get out, but once you have it, you gain the ability to exert control over your opponent’s draw phase.

“This card cannot be Special Summoned. If you Tribute Summon this card, the Tributes must be DARK. This card cannot be Tributed by a card’s effect. During your opponent’s Draw Phase, before their draw, look at the top card of their Deck, then put that card on the top or bottom of their Deck.”

Diabolos’ first effect states that it cannot be tributed by a card’s effect. This effect refers to situations where a card would tribute Diabolos when the card’s effect resolves. Tributing Diabolos to pay the activation cost for a card’s effect is not included, because costs are not the result of a card’s effect. Diabolos’ effect will not prevent you from tributing it to pay for cards like Deck Devastation Virus or the new Eradicator Epidemic Virus.

Diabolos’ remaining effect is applied whenever your opponent begins his or her turn. Before the opponent draws a card for the start of his or her turn, Diabolos’ effect has you pick up the top card of your opponent’s deck and then decide whether he or she will get to keep it there. You get to put the card back on top of the opponent’s deck, if you don’t mind him or her having it, or you can drop the card down to the bottom of the deck. During this entire process, your opponent is unable to see what the card is, so unless you place it back on top of his or her deck, he or she won’t know what you sent away.

This gets a little weird when someone is playing with Convulsion of Nature. The effect of Diabolos, King of the Abyss is still conducted in this case, but now that the deck is flipped face up, your opponent already knows what card is on top of his or her deck (as do you). When you carry out Diabolos’ effect in this situation, you will still pick up the top card of the opponent’s deck and decide if you want to place it back on top, or onto the bottom. You also get a little bonus info because your opponent’s next card will be revealed (thanks to the upside-down deck), and this information can be used when you make your decision.

Lich Lords and Ectoplasmers

Lich Lord, King of the Underworld has the same strict tribute summon restriction of Diabolos, but being a Zombie gives it one major advantage.

“If you Tribute Summon this card, the Tribute must be DARK. If this card is Tributed by a card’s effect and sent to the Graveyard, it returns to its owner’s hand.”

Unlike Diabolos, the Lich Lord does not have any special summon restrictions to slow it down. This gives the Lich Lord access to the Zombie-specific Call of the Mummy and Book of Life, in addition to the usual revival cards. Its DEF also places it in the range of Pyramid Turtle, so even getting access to it isn’t difficult.

The Lich Lord’s effect, like that of Diabolos, doesn’t initially seem all that useful until you take Ectoplasmer into consideration. Whenever Lich Lord, King of the Underworld is tributed for a card’s effect (Ectoplasmer for example), its own effect activates to return it to its owner’s hand. This cycle tributes the Lich Lord, inflicts 1200 damage to the opponent, and then returns the Lich Lord to its owner’s hand. If Lich Lord can be returned to the field, the cycle can be performed again.

Diabolos, King of the Abyss and Lich Lord, King of the Underworld both function around or with Ectoplasmer in their own ways. Our final monster card for today, Mist Archfiend, doesn’t have an effect that specifically ties it to Ectoplasmer, but when you consider the consequences of its effect, the tie-in makes sense.

Mist Archfiend is like Majestic Mech - Ohka, although even more brutal. It says:

“You can Normal Summon this card without Tributing a monster. If you do this, during the End Phase it is destroyed and you take 1000 damage.”

Mist Archfiend already shares Majestic Mech - Ohka’s weakness, but that extra 1000 points of damage is not an extra burden you want to take on. Ectoplasmer gives you a way to play around it, by tributing Mist Archfiend before it is destroyed during your end phase.

During the end phase, the effects of both Ectoplasmer and Mist Archfiend will want to activate. If it is your turn, you have the option to resolve the effect of your Mist Archfiend before resolving the effect of Ectoplasmer. Normally this means you can tribute your Mist Archfiend for Ectoplasmer’s effect to inflict damage to your opponent instead of taking that 1000 damage. You lose Mist Archfiend either way, so you might as well get something out of it.

Also included among the new secret rares is the equip card Sword of Dark Rites. Its text says:

“Equip only to a DARK monster. It gains 400 ATK. When the equipped monster is Tributed and this card is sent to the Graveyard, return this card to your hand.”

Sword of Dark Rites is interesting because it will return to your hand no matter how or why you tribute the equipped Dark monster. In the context of Ectoplasmer, this card doesn’t add any extra damage, but it does return to your hand when you tribute the equipped Dark monster with Ectoplasmer’s effect. You will notice the real impact this card makes when you use it to help your Dark monster become strong enough for Deck Devastation Virus or possibly even Eradicator Epidemic Virus.

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