. . . It’s nothing compared to what I will do to you. ”
-Mobius the Frost Monarch

Last week, we began our examination of the four Monarchs by talking about Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, and Granmarg the Rock Monarch. These Monarchs should be no mystery to you any more, but this week’s Monarch is the most complex of all.

Mobius the Frost Monarch

Soul of the Duelist introduced the second Monarch, Mobius. At the time, Harpie’s Feather Duster and Mystical Space Typhoon had recently been restricted, with the Duster on the Forbidden list and the Typhoon limited to one copy per deck. Mobius saw play almost immediately as a replacement for the perceived loss of spell and trap removal in the Advanced format.
 
Mobius is by far the trickiest of the Monarchs to play, because unlike the other Monarchs, Mobius has an optional effect. When Mobius is successfully tribute summoned, you are given the option to activate its effect and target up to two spell or trap cards that will be marked for destruction. This is your only chance to use the effect, so make it count.

If you decide not to destroy any cards with Mobius’s effect, you simply decline to activate it. In that case, the effect does not start a chain. However, if you decide that you do want to destroy spell and/or trap cards, tell your opponent how many cards you are targeting and then designate the targets for destruction. Your opponent is then allowed a chance to respond.

I’m Prophesying

Let’s jump right into the complexity of Mobius’s optional effect—the timing. Sometimes, there are card effects in play that activate automatically when a monster is summoned. Stumbling and Mysterious Puppeteer are examples of this kind of card effect. Effects like these are activated immediately when the appropriate trigger is satisfied and will immediately start a chain. If you decide to activate Mobius’s effect, the effect will be placed onto the chain afterward.

You can still benefit from Mobius’s effect while Stumbling is in play, because, as luck would have it, Mobius’s effect will resolve before Stumbling’s effect. This is because Mobius’s effect is placed onto the chain after Stumbling, and chains always resolve last to first.

Chain: Stumbling à Mobius

After you put Mobius’s effect onto the chain, your opponent is given a chance to respond.

The next complexity we’ll be dealing with is the opponent’s response. It is possible that your opponent will respond by activating a spell or trap that you targeted with Mobius’s effect. Any card effect that your opponent responds with will resolve before Mobius’s effect resolves, possibly even stopping it altogether.

Sometimes you will target two cards, and one of the two will be destroyed before Mobius’s effect has resolved. If this is the case, Mobius’s effect will destroy the remaining target card. If both cards are destroyed before Mobius’s effect resolves, it will not destroy anything.

Example: The Gravity Bind Vanishing Act

Kenny has a set copy of Mystical Space Typhoon and two face-up copies of Gravity Bind. His opponent, Kyle, tribute summons Mobius the Frost Monarch and decides to activate its effect. He then chooses both copies of Gravity Bind as the targets. In response, Kenny decides to use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy one copy of Gravity Bind. Kenny thinks that doing this will save the other copy, because Mobius will try to destroy two cards and now one of them will be gone.

But Kenny is out of luck. It doesn’t matter that one of the target cards is gone when Mobius’s effect resolves. The Monarch will destroy whichever targeted card is left.

What happens if the opponent responds with Torrential Tribute? It won’t matter, because once Mobius’s effect is activated, the effect is separated from the monster. Similarly, the Monarch’s effect will resolve even if you turn Mobius face down with Book of Moon or return Mobius  to its owner’s hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device.

Level Limit – Area B is another problem when dealing with Mobius. Level Limit – Area B has a continuous effect that doesn’t use the chain. Therefore, any monster of level 4 or higher that is summoned will be shifted to defense position before that monster’s effect can be activated.

How does the spell affect Mobius? Mobius will be shifted into defense position before its effect can activate. If you are thinking about tribute summoning Mobius to take out  Area B-Level Limit , and you also want to attack with the Monarch in the same turn, you’re out of luck.

The Unending Cold

Let’s tackle some Mobius questions.

“If my opponent tribute summons Mobius but does not want to destroy any cards, can I still use Divine Wrath?”

That’s a negative. If an opponent decides that he or she doesn’t want to destroy any cards with Mobius’s effect, the effect isn’t activated. If the effect isn’t activated, you can’t respond with Divine Wrath.

“Why can’t I use the Monarch’s effect if I tribute summon Mobius with Ultimate Offering in the middle of a chain?”

Mobius has a problem—the card has an optional trigger effect, and optional trigger effects have a weakness concerning when they can be activated. Optional trigger effects must be activated as soon as their triggers occur, otherwise you will “miss the timing” and not be able to use the effect.

If Mobius is tribute summoned in the middle of a chain, you can’t use the Monarch’s effect, because the chain is still resolving. New effects can’t interrupt a chain’s resolution. Therefore, you “miss the timing.”

Mandatory trigger effects do not have this problem, but we’ll save that topic for another article.

Until next week . . . take some time to chill out.