Today we wrap up our examination of Light and Darkness Dragon with a deeper look into how its third effect functions. We will begin with a brief look at its interactions with Skill Drain, a card some players saw as a solution for their little Dragon problem.
Fun with Skill Drains
Skill Drain and Light and Darkness Dragon have an odd relationship. Activating Skill Drain while Light and Darkness Dragon is face up on the field doesn’t accomplish much, because the Dragon will just negate it and go about its business. But if Skill Drain is already face up on the field or manages to successfully activate, Light and Darkness Dragon’s effects are cast into disarray.
Light and Darkness Dragon’s first effect is promptly negated . . . not that it was doing all that much. The second effect is also negated, but only when it resolves. This means that the second effect still activates whenever a spell, trap, or monster card effect is activated, and still places its effect onto the chain. When the effect is resolved, Skill Drain negates the effect and prevents Light and Darkness Dragon from negating the activation of the card that got its attention. Light and Darkness Dragon doesn’t lose ATK and DEF when this occurs, because this effect is also negated.
It is certainly debatable that a person would normal summon Light and Darkness Dragon when Skill Drain is eyeballing him or her. It is much more likely that Skill Drain will make its appearance when activated in response to Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect. This would allow Skill Drain to resolve first and begin applying its negation against a helpless Dragon.
Example: I Was Useful
Chazz has Light and Darkness Dragon in face-up attack position on his side of the field. His opponent Natalie has Mirror Force and Skill Drain set in her spell and trap card zone. Chazz enters his battle phase and attacks Natalie directly with Light and Darkness Dragon.
When the attack is declared, Natalie activates Mirror Force. Chazz’s Light and Darkness Dragon immediately responds with its own effect. Light and Darkness Dragon is unable to activate its effect at this time, so Natalie decides to pay 1000 life points to activate her Skill Drain.
When the chain resolves, Skill Drain resolves first and begins negating the effects of all face-up monsters on the field. Next, Light and Darkness Dragon attempts to resolve, but its effect is negated so it cannot negate the activation of Mirror Force and its ATK and DEF remain unchanged. Finally, Mirror Force resolves and destroys the Light and Darkness Dragon.
What becomes of Light and Darkness Dragon’s third effect? It activates while Light and Darkness Dragon is in the graveyard, and because of that, Skill Drain cannot negate it. Skill Drain isn’t really a problem here, and that’s certainly good news because the third effect has its own quirks that cause enough trouble on their own.
Vengeance
As I mentioned in my first article on Light and Darkness Dragon, its third effect will activate any time it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard. It doesn’t matter if it was on the field, in a player’s hand, or even in his or her deck at the time it was destroyed. Certainly the Dragon is more likely to get destroyed while it is on the field, but those of us on the receiving end of Crush Card Virus will be happy to know our Light and Darkness Dragon isn’t going down without a fight.
When the third effect is activated, Light and Darkness Dragon selects one monster from your graveyard as a target. When the effect is resolved, you first destroy every card on your side of the field. These are referred to as the cards “you control.” After every card you control is destroyed, the monster you selected is special summoned from your graveyard in the battle position of your choice. This effect will activate even if you don’t have any cards on your side of the field, which is nice when you’re down to your last Dragon. This is certainly the ideal . . . so let’s see how it all goes wrong.
If an effect is chained that removes the monster you selected in the graveyard from play, the third effect of Light and Darkness Dragon still resolves as much as it can. You are not allowed to select a different monster, because you already made your choice when the effect activated. The effect resolves without you getting to special summon a monster . . . but every card you control is still destroyed.
Yeah, it isn’t enjoyable to be on the receiving end of this blow. Unfortunately it can get worse. If your Light and Darkness Dragon is destroyed and sent to the graveyard while you have no monsters there that you can special summon, its effect will still destroy every card that you control. Hopefully the monsters you tribute to summon it are still in the graveyard, because this one is seriously harsh.
If a card effect prevents you from special summoning the selected monster from your graveyard, Light and Darkness Dragon will still activate its effect, but it will not special summon the selected monster. Like our problems before, Light and Darkness Dragon wipes out every card you control and gives nothing in return. It isn’t like it wants to. Things just didn’t work out as planned.
How would a monster with an optional trigger effect that activates when the monster is destroyed—like Peten the Dark Clown—interact with this effect? When this effect is resolved, Light and Darkness Dragon performs two separate actions: destroying every card you control and then special summoning a monster. If a monster like Peten the Dark Clown is destroyed by this effect, it would like to activate its effect but it cannot because we are still in the process of resolving Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect. Light and Darkness Dragon still needs to special summon a monster, and after doing so, the opportunity to activate Peten the Dark Clown’s effect has passed.
Dragon Generation
I wanted to wrap up our examination of Light and Darkness Dragon with a situation that takes advantage of what we’ve learned. When Light and Darkness Dragon whittles down to an ATK and DEF below 1000, somebody somewhere says “finish him!” and the attackers come a-runnin’. Assuming Light and Darkness Dragon’s ATK and DEF are somewhere between 500 and 1000, it still has a bit of gas left in it to negate the activation of one more spell, trap, or monster card effect. This makes protecting the Dragon in its weaker state a bit taxing. However, if you know your Dragon is going to lose the fight, you might as well get something out of it.
You can activate the defense spell or trap card (perhaps something like Mirror Force), and when you do, Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect activates and places itself onto the chain as chain link 2. If you just let things resolve, Light and Darkness Dragon will wipe out Mirror Force and you will end up looking quite foolish, but we have learned that you can chain further effects to Light and Darkness Dragon and it won’t stand in their way. At this point, any effect you can activate that will flip the Light and Darkness Dragon face down or destroy it will allow your Mirror Force to resolve properly. You have a few options to choose from here, but Generation Shift is one that I enjoy.
I liked using Generation Shift to destroy Crystal Beasts, so I could place them into my spell and trap card zone while also searching my deck for another copy. Light and Darkness Dragon isn’t exactly the easiest monster to search for, and if you plan on using more than one copy, it would be nice to know that you can get it when you need it. By chaining Generation Shift in our example, it will destroy Light and Darkness Dragon and let you search for another copy from your deck. Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect disappears and won’t negate Mirror Force, and whatever monster thought it could pick on Light and Darkness Dragon won’t be around long enough to regret the decision.
Book of Moon can flip Light and Darkness Dragon face down, resetting its ATK and DEF to their original values. With 2400 DEF, Light and Darkness Dragon can take a beating from most monsters you might expect to run into, and getting flipped face down makes its effect disappear so it won’t negate the Mirror Force. You can also use effects that tribute Light and Darkness Dragon, but tributing the Light and Darkness Dragon will not “destroy” it, so its third effect won’t activate. Getting the third effect really is a better option, if you can manage it in the situation.
Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.