Part 1

Now that we’ve resolved Rivalry of Warlords and established its reign over the dueling field, we must learn how to navigate the unexpected game developments that often result when Rivalry of Warlords is involved in a duel. Rivalry of Warlords can make normal situations become quite complex, and sometimes it isn’t easy to figure out how to handle its impact on all aspects of a duel.

Today we take a deeper look into Rivalry of Warlords and sort out more complex scenarios. Be sure to refer to last week’s article for the basics of Rivalry of Warlords before reading on.

Rivalry of Warlords has the good fortune of not having any specific activation timing. You can activate your set Rivalry of Warlords during any turn after you set it and during any game phase, except for the damage step.

It also doesn’t matter if either player has a face-up monster on his or her side of the field. It’s perfectly legal for a player to activate Rivalry of Warlords when he or she has a face-up monster and his or her opponent has no monsters. He or she can even activate it when neither player has any monsters at all.

Given the flexible nature of this card, careful activation planning can net some very positive results.

Example: Battle!

Dinah has Gemini Elf, Vorse Raider, and Cyber Dragon in face-up attack position on her side of the field. Her opponent Jonathan has only a face-up, defense position Sangan, but he also has a set card in his spell and trap zone.

Dinah decides to attack Sangan with her Vorse Raider. In response to the attack, Jonathan activates his set trap card, Rivalry of Warlords.

When Rivalry of Warlords resolves, it establishes its hold upon the duel and demands that each player control only one type of monster. Since Dinah has three monster types on her side of the field, she has a choice to make. Whichever type she chooses will cost her two monsters. However, Jonathan has only one type of monster on his side of the field, so he will stick with Sangan and not lose any monsters at all.

If Dinah continues to attack with the monster that she has remaining, Sangan will be easily destroyed and Jonathan will no longer have any monsters on his side of the field. He’ll be free to choose any type of monster with Sangan’s effect, because he knows that he’ll be able to summon that monster during his following turn.

Example: Vengeance Against Mobius

Jonathan has a face-down monster and a face-up Mystic Swordsman LV2 on his side of the field. He tributes his face-down monster to summon Mobius the Frost Monarch. The effect of Mobius activates, and with it, Jonathan chooses to target Dinah’s only face-down card in her spell and trap zone. She activates the card in response, revealing Rivalry of Warlords.

Since Rivalry of Warlords’s effect will resolve first, it will establish its control over the duel and cause Jonathan to choose between his Mobius the Frost Monarch, an Aqua-type monster, or his Mystic Swordsman LV2, a Warrior-type monster.

Even though Rivalry of Warlords will shortly be destroyed by Mobius’s effect, it will survive long enough to cause Jonathan to lose a monster, because it resolves before Mobius’s effect resolves.

Plight of the Face-Down Monster

As we discussed last week, face-down monsters are not affected by the effect of Rivalry of Warlords until they are flipped face-up. Once this occurs, the monsters are bound by the rules of Rivalry of Warlords, and the controller of those monsters must abide by its restrictions. After establishing your active monster type, if the flipped face-down monster does not share the active monster type, it will be destroyed.

Example: Swords of Revealing Light

All the face-up monsters on my side of the field are Warrior-type monsters, but my set monster is a Zombie-type monster. If my opponent activates Swords of Revealing Light, it will cause my set monster to flip. Since the flipped monster is not a Warrior-type monster, it will be destroyed.

How would things change if my set Zombie-type monster was attacked instead? When the monster is flipped by the attack, it will be revealed that it is not a Warrior-type monster, so it must be destroyed. However, its destruction will not occur until after damage calculation. If, after damage calculation, the monster has managed to survive the battle, it will be destroyed at that time and sent to the graveyard.

It is possible that the flipped monster could have a flip effect. If this is the case, take care of the flip effect before destroying the monster.

When multiple monsters are special summoned simultaneously while Rivalry of Warlords is active on the field, things can become a bit more complicated.

When Cyber Jar resolves while Rivalry of Warlords is active, all monsters on the field are destroyed. This clears the field for both players and allows them to decide a new monster type to use as their active monster type. After picking up five cards from his or her deck, each player will special summon his or her level 4 or lower monsters, according to Cyber Jar’s effect.

But the decisions affecting how the player will special summon his or her monsters changes, depending on the influence of Rivalry of Warlords. If either player chooses to special summon face-up monsters of different monster types, they will be forced to send face-up monsters to the graveyard until they control only one monster type. A player can avoid this by setting monsters of different types, because face-down monsters are unaffected and are not taken into consideration when resolving the effect of Rivalry of Warlords.

Example: Cyber Jar

Kira picks up her five cards from Cyber Jar and finds three monsters that she can special summon: Mokey Mokey, the Fairy-type; Kozaky, the Fiend-type; and Skull Servant, the Zombie-type. If she chooses to special summon all three monsters face-up, she will be forced to choose between them in order to maintain only one type among her face-up monsters. But if she chooses to special summon two of her monsters face down, the face-up monster will dictate her chosen monster type.

If Kira decides to special summon Mokey Mokey face up and the other two monsters face down, Fairy will become her active monster type. Her other two monsters will be fine for now, but this chosen type will limit what she can normal summon, flip summon, and special summon.

Even after a player has chosen his or her active monster type, it is still possible to take control of an opponent’s monster that does not share the selected monster type.

If you have Fiend as your active monster type, it would still be possible to target an opponent’s Warrior-type monster with Brain Control and move it to your side of the field. After doing so, the monster is destroyed, because it does not share your active monster type.

Creature Swap can make things a bit more interesting. If both players only control one face-up monster and these two monsters are “swapped,” neither player will face any difficulty from Rivalry of Warlords. But if either player receives a face-up monster that does not share his or her active monster type, that player will lose the monster that he or she received from the opponent.

Example: Warrior and Plant Exchange

Marv has Marauding Captain and Command Knight face-up on his side of the field. His opponent Denise has only Prickle Fairy face-up on her side of the field. Denise activates Creature Swap. When it resolves, Marv chooses to give Marauding Captain to Denise, and Denise chooses to give Prickle Fairy to Marv.

Now that the exchange is complete, Marv sees that he now controls two monster types, Warrior-type and Plant-type. Since his active monster type” is currently Warrior-type (thanks to Command Knight), Prickle Fairy has to go, because it does not share Command Knight’s monster type. Prickle Fairy is destroyed, and Marv is left with only Command Knight.

We’ll finish our discussion of Rivalry of Warlords by looking at Jinzo, everyone’s favorite trap card menace. Jinzo is ordinarily a problem for continuous trap cards, but with Rivalry of Warlords, this isn’t the case. Since Rivalry of Warlords doesn’t allow for monsters to be normal summoned, flip summoned, or special summoned unless they all share the same type, Jinzo cannot be summoned unless your active monster type is Machine.

But if a player has only one face-up monster on his or her side of the field, he or she can tribute that face-up monster and tribute summon Jinzo, allowing Jinzo’s type to take over and negate Rivalry of Warlords.

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