This week, we continue our look at special summoning monsters with more situations involving the "Contact Fusion." I have received some reader mailings that I think should be shared with everyone involving points discussed last week.

What Is a Contact Fusion?

"Contact Fusion" is an unofficial term used to describe Fusion monsters special summoned from the Fusion deck without using Polymerization or a similar card effect.

This is actually the opposite of what I was trying to convey in last week’s article. These monsters are special summoned in a way that is exactly the kind of thing Solemn Judgment would want to negate. These monsters have their own "inherent" special summon effect that does not start a chain. The monsters you return to the deck or remove from play are analogous to tributes offered when tribute summoning a high-level monster.

Example: I’m not your buddy, Gyzarus!

Player A has Gladiator Beast Bestiari face up on the field and Gladiator Beast Darius in his hand. Player B has Solemn Judgment set in her spell and trap card zone. Player A normal summons Gladiator Beast Darius.

Player B states that she will activate Solemn Judgment to negate the special summon of Gyzarus. Gyzarus is placed into the graveyard and Player A’s turn continues.

Gladiator Beast Gyzarus has an effect that you can use to destroy up to two cards on the field, but this effect will not activate if Gyzarus’ special summon is negated. Gyzarus needs to be successfully special summoned in order to activate its effect, and that doesn’t happen when its summon is negated by Solemn Judgment.

This differs from cards like Bottomless Trap Hole. Bottomless, Torrential Tribute, and other similar cards can only be activated when a monster is successfully summoned. Since they don’t negate the summon, you may have to deal with the effect of the summoned monster. If the monster’s effect activates when it is summoned, their effect will activate and resolve as normal.

Player A has Gladiator Beast Bestiari face up on his side of the field, with Gladiator Beast Darius, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation, and Gladiator Beast Andal in his hand. Player B has Spirit Reaper in face-down defense position and Bottomless Trap Hole set in her spell and trap card zone.

Player A normal summons Gladiator Beast Darius. Player B says that she has no response, feeling fairly certain she knows what is coming next. Player A declares that he will special summon Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, returning Bestiari and Darius to his deck. He takes Gladiator Beast Gyzarus from his Fusion deck and places it onto his monster card zone in attack position.

Both players have effects they can activate at this time. Player A can activate Gladiator Beast Gyzarus’ effect and Player B can activate Bottomless Trap Hole. Assuming that both players want to activate these effects, they will form a chain. Gyzarus’ effect is chain link 1 and Bottomless Trap Hole is chain link 2. When the chain resolves, Gyzarus is destroyed and removed from play, followed by the destruction of Spirit Reaper and Bottomless Trap Hole.

At this point, Player A can surprise Player B by activating D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation, discarding Gladiator Beast Andal and selecting Gladiator Beast Gyzarus as his target. Since Gyzarus was special summoned from the Fusion deck by using the method written in its text, it can now be special summoned from the removed-from-play pile or the graveyard. If Player B had more cards to destroy, Player A would be able to go after them with Gyzarus’ effect, because Gyzarus’ effect can be activated any time it is special summoned.

"I run a ‘Sacred Quick-Play’ deck using Marauding Captain and Hand of Nephthys for a quick Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. When I use the Captain and Hand together, can the special summon of the Phoenix be negated by Solemn Judgment?"

In this situation, we have a player who is using the effect of Hand of Nephthys to special summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from his deck. In this situation there is only one monster that Solemn Judgment can go after: Marauding Captain.

When Marauding Captain is normal summoned, Solemn Judgment can be used to negate the summon and thus prevent the Captain’s effect from activating. If neither player does so, the summon is successful and Marauding Captain’s effect can be activated. This is where Solemn Judgment runs into trouble, because it does not have the ability to negate monster card effects.

When Hand of Nephthys is special summoned, Solemn Judgment cannot be activated because Hand of Nephthys was special summoned with Marauding Captain’s effect. When this player tributes Hand of Nephthys and Marauding Captain to special summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys from his or her deck, Solemn Judgment is out of luck again.

What if Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is destroyed by a card effect? Its text says that it should be special summoned from the graveyard during your next standby phase. This might seem like an "inherent" special summon, but it isn’t. It is a trigger effect that starts a chain, and because of this, it isn’t possible to use Solemn Judgment or Horn of Heaven. Our old buddy Vampire Lord (now living the quiet life in a Transylvanian retirement community) and Revival Jam (still pending FDA approval) are both equally capable of slipping under the watchful eye of Solemn Judgment for the same reason.