Our first batch of 2007 Collector’s Tins gave us quite a surprise with Destiny Hero - Plasma. Aster’s finishing move from the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is quite useful, but to get the most from it, you will want to know all of its inner workings.
Plasma Transfusion
For reference, here is the text for Destiny Hero - Plasma:
“This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing 3 monsters you control. Once per turn, select your opponent’s monster and equip it to this card (you can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card). This card gains ATK equal to half of the ATK of the equipped monster. While this card is face-up on the field, negate all the effects of face-up monster your opponent controls.”
Destiny Hero - Plasma falls into the severely restricted “cannot be special summoned except by” category of monsters. While this does limit its engagements on the field, you’ll find that its effects can make up the difference.
To get Destiny Hero - Plasma into play, you will need to tribute three monsters you control during either of your main phases. You are free to tribute any monster you want, as long as the monster doesn’t prevent you from doing so. While Destiny Hero - Dogma demanded at least one “Destiny Hero” as a tribute, Destiny Hero - Plasma is free to mix in with just about anyone. Number one on its list are the Sheep Tokens from Scapegoat. You can tribute them because this is a special summon and not a tribute summon.
Destiny Hero - Plasma’s first effect is like the effect of Relinquished from way back in Magic Ruler. Once per turn, during one of your main phases, you can activate this ignition effect to absorb one of your opponent’s monsters, equipping it as an equip card onto Destiny Hero - Plasma. It may sound like this effect is mandatory, but it is not. It just uses an older wording style similar to that of Relinquished.
Per its listed effect, Plasma can only be equipped with one monster at a time. While you have a monster equipped to Plasma through its effect, you are not allowed to activate the effect to try and absorb another monster. You also can’t just “blow up” the monster you have equipped to Plasma simply because it has become inconvenient. Plasma does not have a way to voluntarily destroy the equipped monster on its own. You will need to use other card effects or game mechanics to remove the equipped monster.
Example: Equip Switch
Marisol has Destiny Hero - Plasma equipped with her opponent’s Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive she absorbed during her previous turn. Her opponent has a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and she would like to absorb it with Plasma’s effect, but first she needs to do something about the Dekoichi she already has equipped to Plasma.
Marisol has Giant Trunade and Book of Moon in her hand. Each card gives her a way to remove the monster she has equipped to her Destiny Hero - Plasma and thus enable her to absorb the Blue-Eyes. Marisol can use Giant Trunade to remove the equipped Dekoichi and return it to its owner’s hand, but doing so means giving back a monster to her opponent. However, if the direct attack that follows will end the duel, there is certainly no reason to hold back.
Marisol can use Book of Moon to flip Destiny Hero - Plasma into face-down defense position, and upon doing so, the equipped Dekoichi will be destroyed because it cannot remain equipped to a face-down monster. Marisol gets rid of the equipped monster, but now her Plasma is face down and she needs to get it face up. She doesn’t have any card effects that will help her, but fortunately her Plasma was summoned during a previous turn. Getting flipped face down by a card effect does not prohibit her from performing a flip summon with Plasma, which will put it in attack position and primed to absorb.
The Living Vampire?
The ATK Destiny Hero - Plasma gains is equal to half of the ATK value printed on the absorbed monster card. Monsters with effects that modify their original ATK values will lose this ability while absorbed (reverting to whatever ATK value is printed on their card), and monsters with ATK values of “?” are treated as 0. As with Relinquished, the effects of absorbed monsters are inactive and thus are incapable of altering their ATK values. Usually this question arises when a player absorbs Jinzo and wants to know if it still negates trap cards (it doesn’t).
What about face-down monsters? If you choose to absorb one of them, you will not gain any ATK because the monster will be equipped face down. You do get control of it and this does allow you to peek at what it is, but it isn’t possible to “flip it up” or try to “activate” the monster. In this situation, you are simply removing a threat or a blocker.
Destiny Hero - Plasma’s final effect is essentially a one-sided Skill Drain that negates only the effects of your opponent’s face-up effect monsters on the field. What it can and cannot negate is dependent upon the nature of the effects it runs up against and where they activate. Like Skill Drain, Plasma also does not prevent monsters from activating their effects.
This is a continuous effect, applied while Destiny Hero - Plasma remains face up on your side of the field. The negation will be applied during any phase or step. For example, when Destiny Hero - Plasma goes on the offensive against a face-down flip-effect monster and causes its effect to activate, Plasma will negate the flip effect when it attempts to resolve in the damage step. If your opponent tribute summons Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, the effect will activate and a target will be selected, but Plasma will negate the effect when it tries to resolve.
Be forewarned: if your opponent activates the ignition effect of a monster and somehow removes it from the field before its effect resolves, he or she can retain the effect of the monster without losing it to negation. Many ignition-effect monsters, such as Snipe Hunter and Cannon Soldier, don’t really care if they remain on the field after activating their effect. This isn’t something that happens often, but as a Skill Drain avoidance trick, it’s well worth remembering.
Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.