When it turned out that Professor Banner was the final Shadow Rider, Jaden was taken aback. This was someone he knew. Someone he had trusted. Now that man was an enemy. He had never seen his Professor’s deck and he had no idea what he would be up against.

In the end, it was a test, to see if Jaden had the spirit and ability needed to defeat whoever was orchestrating the reawakening of the Sacred Beasts. In order to prove himself, Jaden would have to overcome Professor Banner’s ultimate strategy: Macro Cosmos.

Three of Professor Banner’s main monsters were released recently as promotional cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters video game. Enemy of Justice gave us the remaining pieces of the equation, including the all-important Macro Cosmos.

We begin our examination of the mechanics of Professor Banner’s cards by looking at the three promotional monster cards from Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters.

Helios - The Primordial Sun kicks things off with a simple effect that is used to determine its ATK and DEF. Helios’s ATK and DEF are both equal to 100 times the number of monsters removed from play. Naturally this means it will take quite a few monsters to get Helios into a strong range, so we’ll call upon a higher power: Helios Duo Megistus.

“This card can be Special Summoned by Tributing 1 ‘Helios - The Primordial Sun’ on your side of the field. The ATK and DEF of this card become the number of monsters that are removed from play X 200 points. If this card is destroyed as a result of battle and sent to the Graveyard, this card will be Special Summoned during the End Phase, increasing the ATK and DEF by 300 points.”

So you can normal summon Helios Duo Megistus, just like most other high-level monsters, but it can also be special summoned from your hand by tributing one Helios - The Primordial Sun on your side of the field. In this way, you could normal summon your Helios and then tribute it to special summon Helios Duo in the same turn. Helios Duo takes the ATK and DEF effect of Helios - The Primordial Sun and increases it, but not by much. It makes up for this with the remainder of its effect.

Whenever your Helios Duo is destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, during the end phase of that same turn, it will return to your side of the field with an additional 300 ATK added on to whatever ATK value its effect is already giving it. This additional 300 ATK and DEF increase is a set amount and is not based on what Helios Duo’s ATK and DEF values were before it was destroyed.

Suppose you have five monsters removed from play. Your Helios Duo will have 1000 ATK and 1000 DEF. If it is destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, it returns to your side of the field in the end phase and its effect gives it an additional 300 ATK and DEF. This means it will have 1000 ATK and DEF plus an additional 300 ATK and DEF, totaling 1300 ATK and DEF.

What if it gets destroyed in battle again and no additional monsters are removed from play? When it returns to your side of the field, it sees that you have five monsters removed from play, so it sets it ATK and DEF values at 1000. Then the additional 300 kicks in again and takes the ATK and DEF total to 1300. The additional 300 ATK and DEF is simply added onto whatever Helios Duo’s ATK and DEF are currently at, based on the number of monsters that are removed from play. It is not an increase that stacks on repeated returns to the field.

Unfortunately, Helios Duo Megistus can only be special summoned by its own effect if it is sent to the graveyard when it is destroyed in battle. This actually runs against Macro Cosmos, so be careful when you combine the two cards.

Golden Homunculus works a bit differently. It counts only your own cards that are removed from play, but it has a higher initial ATK and DEF (1500). Its effect only counts every type of card you have removed from play, but it increases both its ATK and DEF at a faster rate of 300 per removed card. The Golden Homunculus is a good choice when you want raw power, and since it counts every type of card you have removed from play, it will function well with Macro Cosmos.

You won’t find many cards that let you summon a monster from your deck whenever you want and ask for nothing in return. Macro Cosmos does this and allows you to do much more. “You can Special Summon 1 ‘Helios - The Primordial Sun’ from your hand or Deck. While this card is on the field, any card sent to the Graveyard is removed from play instead.”

Special summoning Helios - The Primordial Sun from your hand or deck is completely optional. This means you can still activate Macro Cosmos even when you think you don’t have any remaining copies of Helios in your deck. After you’ve special summoned your free monster (or opted out), Macro Cosmos establishes domination over the game. From this point forward (and for as long as Macro Cosmos remains active) any card sent to the graveyard is removed from play instead. For decks that rely on the consistent use of self-replacing monsters like Mystic Tomato, this can be disastrous. Monsters that need to be sent to the graveyard in order to activate their effects will be completely out of luck.

The gravitational forces of Dark Hole may be strong, but they’ve got nothing on Grand Convergence. “You can only activate this card while ‘Macro Cosmos’ is on your side of the field. Inflict 300 points of damage to your opponent’s Life Points and destroy all monsters on the field.”

Grand Convergence requires Macro Cosmos to open the gateway to the universe. Once opened, you can activate your quick-play spell Grand Convergence to not only destroy every monster on the field, but also inflict 300 points of damage. When combined with Macro Cosmos, the destroyed monsters will also be removed from play.

We conclude this week with the card that Professor Banner used to halt the majority of Jaden’s attacks, Elemental Absorber. “Remove from play 1 Monster Card in your hand. While this card is on the field, your opponent’s monsters that have the same Attribute as the monster removed by this effect cannot declare an attack.”

When you activate Elemental Absorber, you don’t do anything. You just wait and see if your opponent will respond. While the first line of text has the appearance of being a cost, in the case of Elemental Absorber, it is not.

When you resolve Elemental Absorber, you will select one monster in your hand and remove it from play. This monster is used as a reference for the remainder of the effect. From this point on, Elemental Absorber will not allow any of your opponent’s monsters to declare an attack if their attribute is the same as the attribute of the monster that you removed from play for its effect.

Let’s say you activate Elemental Absorber, and when it resolves, you select Exarion Universe to remove from play. Since Exarion Universe is a Dark-attribute monster, Elemental Absorber will prevent all of your opponent’s Dark-attribute monsters from declaring attacks. Given the popularity of Dark-attribute monsters, this can be a powerful blow to your opponent.

Elemental Absorber has a limitation, though. You are only allowed to remove one monster card from your hand as part of its effect. Due to this, one copy of Elemental Absorber will only prevent attacks from monsters sharing one specific attribute. You cannot remove more than one monster card from your hand when you resolve your Elemental Absorber, so you have to be certain of your choice.

You can get around this by using multiple copies of Elemental Absorber. That way, each copy can be chosen to prevent attacks from monsters with different attributes. For example, you could use one copy to prevent attacks from Dark-attribute monsters and another copy to prevent attacks from Light-attribute monsters. In order to accomplish this, you will need to ensure that you have monsters of each attribute at your disposal.

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