Well, you’ve already seen some killer cards from my Metagame.com cohorts, so I’ll give you one more to play around with. This gem, like the others, is from Tactical Evolution: the newest booster set for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, soon to be appearing at your local Sneak Preview event. Say hello to one of the newest continuous traps to be added to the game . . . Damage = Reptile.

Damage = Reptile

Once per turn, when you take Battle Damage from a battle involving a Reptile-Type monster, you can Special Summon 1 Reptile-Type monster from your Deck with ATK less than or equal to the Battle Damage you took.

Despite its name being one of the most awesome mathematical equations ever (show that to your algebra teacher), I get much more excited when I look at the effect text. I’ll do some simple analysis of what restrictions are put on it, and then get to the many cool things you can do with the effect.

First off, this thing’s effect can only be used once per turn. So yes, it is cool to have Damage = Reptile at your disposal, but you can’t throw a chain of monsters into your graveyard by continually attacking something with more ATK. (Yes, you might not want to do that anyway, but I wouldn’t be a very good deckbuilder if I didn’t acknowledge the corner cases like that.)

Second, you need to take damage from a battle involving a Reptile-type monster to use this effect. Some degree of forethought is required here. One cool thing about this text is that it also allows your opponent to do something like use Brain Control on one of your Reptiles and attack you directly. You’ll take damage, but because the battle involved a Reptile-type monster, you’re getting another guy out from your deck. Alternatively, you can summon a monster (let’s say Ancient Lizard Warrior) and either attack with it into a stronger monster (say Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth) or let it be attacked by something bigger. Your opponent will take a chunk out of your life points, but that chunk will metamorphose into a Reptile.

Another cool feat you can perform with Damage = Reptiles is simply using it to keep a constant stream of monsters on the field. You can summon any Reptile you like, and even if it’s destroyed, you can get another one out—giving you food for more powerful and higher-level monsters, or just letting you keep a monster on the field.

Damage = Reptile is particularly cool because of the math behind it. One opposing monster (say Zaborg the Thunder Monarch) attacks another monster with an ATK of 1900 (say Granadora). The damage you take will be greater than or equal to the attack of a third monster—say Balloon Lizard for this scenario (the numbers are convenient here). Whenever Zaborg swings at the 1900, you get out a 500 ATK monster, or a 400 ATK monster, or whatever else you have with 500 or less ATK. And the damage from your 500 ATK (or less) monster attacking or being attacked by the Zaborg will always be equal to or greater than the ATK of the original monster (in this case Granadora).

What does this mean (besides that you’ll pass math because you have Yu-Gi-Oh! to help you study)? This means that, for example, you can continuously cycle through monsters like Granadora and Gagagigo and monsters with lower ATK, like Balloon Lizard or Gigobyte. You can also use it as a free copy of Damage Condenser (remind me to build a deck around that one) for every single Reptile you have in your deck. Pretty potent stuff. This lets you get out any of the monsters from Strike of Neos that nuke the field of monsters, like Raging Earth or Radiant Spirit.

I have a feeling that I’m forgetting something extra . . . something extraterrestrial. Yup, this is one of the best support cards for the Alien monsters! Damage = Reptile lets you do tricky things like sacrifice your Alien Warrior to a Cyber Dragon, and then summon your own Alien Psychic from your deck so the Cyber Dragon can’t attack! This creates a super-easy lock that keeps your opponent from messing up your plans! Even if your monsters are destroyed in battle, you’ll just put another one out. That’s the beauty of math.

Oh, and if you have multiple copies of the card in play, the effects accumulate. This means that the card will, in doubles, give you a nigh-unstoppable field of regenerating lizards that turn into a massive resource—whether it be monsters on your field or monsters in your graveyard . . . or just special summoning a lot of guys to beat your opponent senseless.

Of course, I still feel a bit wrong giving you only the one card to dote over, so in true combo spirit, I asked our editors to help me out and give me a second card. And in true geek spirit, I sent them the request in Vulcan. After hiring a translator, they answered with something that will entice you into reading next week’s previews. Why’s that? Well, I’ll just let you read the text of Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes. Sounds cool, doesn’t he? It gets even more interesting: you see, Vennominon is a Level 8 Dark Reptile monster . . . with 0 ATK and 0 DEF.

This card cannot be Special Summoned by another Effect Monster’s effect. This card is unaffected by “Venom Swamp.” This card gains 500 ATK for each Reptile-Type monster in your Graveyard. When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can remove from play 1 other Reptile-Type monster from your Graveyard to Special Summon this card.

Just so we are clear on this, Damage = Reptile will give you a graveyard full of Reptiles to use, and then—to make things better—it will special summon Vennominon for you. What this means is that you can easily turn a few Reptiles (and there are plenty of good ones to use) into a lot of Reptiles, and then turn them into this monstrosity with 0 ATK.

“Hey, wait up,” you say. “He boosts his own ATK, and . . . Oh. OH! I want copies of this card. Like, in the plurality sense.” You have very good thought processes: all those Reptiles stacking up in your graveyard will contribute to Vennominon’s ATK, making him startlingly huge in a very short time . . . and if he should somehow die in battle, not only will you be able to summon him from the graveyard to use him again, but if you took any damage, you’ll be able to create a royal double. That’s right: since this monster’s ATK is 0, any damage you take will give you another copy, letting you multiply Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes by two!

Another cool thing is the interaction between this card and popular monsters with high DEF, like Gravekeeper’s Spy. Did you just send one of your poor Reptiles into a mean 2000 DEF monster? No problem. The amount of damage you took, however miniscule, still triggers Damage = Reptile and still gets you a mean monster that will grow into something very large. Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes is a brutal finisher for this kind of deck, allowing you to build around him or add him as a complement to a theme built around Damage = Reptile. His ATK will climb pretty high if you wait long enough. With just six Reptiles (or five uses of Damage = Reptile before bringing him out), he is a 3000 ATK monstrosity that doesn’t need tributing or even spending an in-hand card to hit the field. Two paragraphs is not enough to describe how incredibly awesome this guy is.

“But Matthew,” you say, “what’s ‘Venom Swamp?’” Well, I don’t think it would be fair if I got to preview every awesome card in the set, so unfortunately you’ll have to wait on that one.

In summary, Damage = Reptiles + Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes is a function of awesome times incredible. Take notes: you will be quizzed on this.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exciting preview! And if you really liked Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes and Damage = Reptile, I recommend that you check in next Thursday so I can show you more cool things about Tactical Evolution. I promise that I won’t make any more bad math jokes. You’d like the article anyway—assuming, you know, that you like cards with the words “you win the game” on them.