Tualatin’s effect can be a bit confusing because it isn’t quite clear when you should special summon it. Sure, there is a general idea that you do it during the battle phase, but when is the right time? In order to understand this, we need to explore how Tualatin’s effect is set up.

You need to have two or more monsters on your side of the field when your opponent begins his or her battle phase. Having one monster or special summoning additional monsters during the battle phase isn’t enough to satisfy Tualatin’s effect. When you have two or more monsters, these monsters get noted by Tualatin and Tualatin will be waiting for them to be destroyed in battle. It is important that these monsters are all destroyed in battle.

Suppose you have two monsters at the start of your opponent’s battle phase: Sangan and Spirit Reaper. In this situation, you will not be able to special summon Tualatin because Spirit Reaper cannot be destroyed in battle. And monsters that can’t be destroyed in battle aren’t the only problem. Monster tokens will cause you trouble because they will never reach the graveyard and trap cards that become monsters revert to being trap cards in the graveyard and cease to be monsters. Either way, Tualatin is denied its effect.

Furthermore, you don’t want any of your monsters destroyed by a card effect during the battle phase. Tualatin’s conditions are strict and it doesn’t leave any wiggle room. Each and every monster that was under your control when your opponent’s battle phase began must be destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard. When the very last of them hits the graveyard, Tualatin’s effect can, at last, be activated.

Example:
Player A has two copies of Batteryman AA in attack position and Tualatin in his hand. Player B has Cyber Dragon and Dark Valkyria in attack position. Player B attacks and destroys Player A’s first Batteryman AA with Cyber Dragon, and attacks and destroys the remaining Batteryman AA with Dark Valkyria.

When the second Batteryman AA is sent to the graveyard, Player A activates Tualatin’s effect and special summons it to the field. Player A activates its second effect and when it resolves, he selects "Dark"—destroying Dark Valkyria.

Sometimes, your last destroyed monster will have an effect that activates at the time it is sent to the graveyard. When this occurs, Tualatin’s first effect will be placed onto a chain with the effect of the destroyed monster. Since Tualatin’s effect is an optional trigger effect, the order of the chain will depend upon the type of effect activated by your monster that was sent to the graveyard. When the monster’s effect is a mandatory trigger effect, it will begin the chain. When it is a monster with an optional trigger effect, you will decide the order in which the effects are placed onto the chain.

If you have multiple copies of Tualatin in your hand, it can get a little crazier.

At the end of the damage step, Sangan’s effect activates. Player A can also activate the effect of each copy of Tualatin in his hand. Sangan’s effect is a mandatory trigger effect and as such it is placed first onto the chain. Both copies of Tualatin are placed onto the chain next, as chain link 2 and chain link 3. When the chain resolves, both copies of Tualatin are special summoned and Player A takes an appropriate monster from his or her deck for Sangan. The effects of each Tualatin start another chain. When this chain resolves, Player A can select Dark and Earth, destroying all of Player B’s monsters.

You can pick any attribute you want when resolving Tualatin’s effect, even if there aren’t any monsters on the field that would be destroyed. This is helpful when you want to prevent the summon of a monster you don’t want to deal with and the monsters on the field are something you can handle. Tualatin’s last effect is a continuous effect that is applied as long as it remains face up on the field. It must remain face up on the field, because any effect that flips it face down or removes it from the field will cause its effect to disappear. When it is flipped face up or returned to the field, its effect is not reapplied. Skill Drain, on the other hand, is only a temporary solution, because Tualatin’s effect will be reapplied when Skill Drain is negated or removed from the field.

Whatever attribute you chose when you resolved Tualatin's second effect becomes mostly off-limits to your opponent. He or she can still set and flip-summon monsters of the barred attribute, but normal summons and special summons aren’t possible. You determine whether or not a monster can be normal summoned or special summoned by checking what attribute is printed on the card. Sometimes card effects will alter a monster’s attribute, but these effects don’t apply until the monster is face up on the field. If I Special Summon Tualatin and declare "Earth", my opponent can still ritual summon Elemental Mistress Doriado because its attribute is not treated as Earth until it is face-up on the field. When I ritual summon her she is a Light monster.

While Tualatin's effect is applied, your opponent cannot activate an effect with the intention of special summoning monsters of the barred attribute. If you declare "Fire," your opponent cannot activate Monster Reborn and select an Fire monster. If you declare "Earth," your opponent cannot activate Scapegoat because he or she could not special summon the Sheep tokens. If you declare "Dark" while your opponent has Dark and Light monsters removed from play, the opponent can use Return from the Different Dimension to special summon the Light monsters but he or she cannot special summon the Dark monsters.

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