Occasionally I receive questions involving field spell cards that make clear the knowledge gap amongst our fellow players. It doesn’t surprise me that this occurs, because field spell cards are not often played. You really only see them when a deck has a very specific purpose for including them. A field spell card is not something you would casually throw into just any deck and expect to serve any real purpose.
Our understanding of field spell cards has broadened over the past six years, both in respect to their base mechanics and in response to newer card effects. Today we will go through a general overview of the field spell cards and also examine some of the trickier situations that have been dealt with over time.
In the Beginning
Field spell cards have one specific location where they can be played: the field spell card zone. It doesn’t matter if you intend to activate the field spell card or set it. Either way, you will be placing it into the field spell card zone. Newer players can become accustomed to setting every spell or trap card on the spell and trap card zone, and thus when faced with the decision to set a field spell card, they may mistakenly place it where it does not belong.
Only one field spell can be active at a time. This means that two face-up field spell cards cannot remain on the field simultaneously. When a new field spell card is activated, the old one is destroyed. This can come across as sounding instantaneous, but it is not applied that way. When a new field spell card is activated, the previous field spell card remains on the field until the new card resolves. This gives the player with the older field spell card a chance to protect his or her field spell by negating or destroying the newer one.
Example: Ancient Ruins
Jessie has three “Crystal Beast” monsters on his spell and trap card zone being treated as continuous spell cards. He also has Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle and Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus face up on his monster card zone and Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins on his field spell card zone.
His opponent Jaden activates his own field spell card, Skyscraper 2 - Hero City.
Jessie has two choices: he can allow Hero City to resolve and lose his Rainbow Ruins in the process, or he can use the third effect of Rainbow Ruins to negate and destroy Jaden’s Hero City and thus save his own field spell card. Negating the activation of Skyscraper 2 - Hero City protects Jessie’s Rainbow Ruins, and the Hero City will not be able to apply its effects or properly secure its position on the field.
Some players may think, “But Jessie’s Rainbow Ruins cannot be destroyed by card effects while Jessie has ‘Crystallized’ Crystal Beasts.” These players have not yet realized that the Rainbow Ruins is going to be destroyed by the game mechanic that destroys the old field spell card if a new one is activated. Rainbow Ruins is tough, but it’s not that tough.
Can I Just Destroy?
In Jessie’s example, he negated the activation of Skyscraper 2 - Hero City and thus saved his [Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins], but what would happen if he only had two Crystal Beasts on his spell and trap card zone? He wouldn’t be able to use the third effect of the Rainbow Ruins to save his field spell card and would need something else. Suppose he had a set Dust Tornado. Would it be able to help him?
Dust Tornado can and would destroy the Skyscraper 2 - Hero City if it were chained, but would this really be enough to protect the Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins? After all, Dust Tornado doesn’t negate the activation or effect of cards it destroys, and allowing a field spell card to resolve would normally mean losing the Rainbow Ruins. Fortunately for Jessie, field spell cards share a weakness we’ve seen with continuous and equip spell cards: they must remain on the field in order to resolve and apply their effects. Dust Tornado disrupts this fairly easily. By destroying the Skyscraper 2 - Hero City before it can resolve, the effect of Hero City disappears and the card does not resolve. Rainbow Ruins is thus allowed to remain, because its rival field spell card failed to resolve and could not apply itself to the field.
Now, this doesn’t mean you can simply negate a field spell card’s effect and expect the same results. You might think that chaining a card like Imperial Order or getting Spell Canceller onto the field would be enough to save the first field spell card, but you’d be mistaken. Using cards such as these only serves to negate the effect when it resolves, but they do nothing to prevent the card from resolving to the field and attempting to apply its effects. Premature destruction or the negation of the field spell card’s activation is the best approach.
What if your opponent has an active field spell card, but you decide to just set your field spell card instead of activating it? In this case, the old field spell card remains active because the new field spell card is only being set and is not yet activated. When one player has a face-down field spell card and the other has an active field spell card, there is no conflict.
Terraforming
The rules change when we decide that we would rather get rid of the field spell card we currently have and replace it with a new one. If you have an active or set field spell card in your field spell card zone, you can replace it with a new one if you so choose. In order to do so, you will be forced to give up the field spell card you currently control as a penalty—sort of like tributing a monster you control to tribute summon a high-level monster. If things go wrong, don’t expect any reimbursement.
Example: Tidal Surge
Yolen has Umiiruka face up on his field spell card zone. In his hand, he has A Legendary Ocean and Giga Gagagigo.
Yolen activates A Legendary Ocean from his hand, placing the Umiiruka into his graveyard and the Ocean onto his field spell card zone. His opponent responds by activating Magic Jammer.
Yolen had to give up Umiiruka just to get A Legendary Ocean into play. To make matters worse, his opponent responded with Magic Jammer, which will negate the Ocean. With no ability to respond, A Legendary Ocean is negated and destroyed, but nothing takes its place. Umiiruka has already been lost. It was a risk Yolen was willing to take because he wanted to summon that Giga Gagagigo and it was just his misfortune that things went bad.
Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com