Terra-Cotta Tributes

The card in question is a field spell card called Mausoleum of the Emperor. Its effect is quite simple, but it can be difficult to master.

Both players can Normal Summon or Set monsters without Tribute, by paying 1000 Life Points times the number of monsters needed.

Of course we can all do the math, but here’s a quick refresher course:

Level 5 or 6 monster = 1000 life points, no tribute

Level 7 monster or higher = 2000 life points, no tribute

Note that this effect is a normal summon or set, not a tribute summon or set. Anything that needs to be tribute summoned to get its effect will not work with this card!

Since this is a field spell card, it remains on the field until it is removed or replaced. It also means that your opponent can use the effect. However, your average opponent these days plays with so few tribute monsters that this is hardly a problem. Let’s look at the tribute monsters that a typical opponent might be able to bring out by using your copy of Mausoleum of the Emperor.

Zaborg the Thunder Monarch: Won’t get its effect.

Mobius the Frost Monarch: Ditto. No effect.

Cyber Dragon: Paying 1000 life points to normal summon Cyber Dragon hardly seems worthwhile for your opponent.

Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and its ilk: See Cyber Dragon, above.

Chaos Sorcerer: It can’t be normal summoned at all!

Jinzo: Ah, Jinzo. This can actually play into your hands—but more about that later.

As you can see, even though Mausoleum is a field spell card, your opponent is unlikely to get any benefit from it. So we can safely ignore that little side effect.

However, the fact that it’s a field spell card does allow you to use Terraforming to fish it out of your deck! With two or three copies each of Terraforming and Mausoleum of the Emperor, you’re pretty much guaranteed to always have it in play. Additional leftover copies can be used to discard for all those great tribute monster effects you’ll have available, like Cybernetic Magician.

Lightning Speed

By using Terraforming to get Mausoleum of the Emperor, you can get off to a lightning fast start with your tribute monsters. (That’s right, I just said “lightning fast” and “tribute monsters” in the same sentence! I bet you’ve never heard that before. This kind of brilliance is only available in my class.)

Just imagine some of these scenarios.

Opening #1: On your first turn, play Mausoleum of the Emperor. Pay 1000 life points to set Guardian Sphinx. Now you have a huge defender sitting in the sand that you can flip summon next turn to return all your opponent’s monsters to his or her hand.

Opening #2: On your first turn, play Mausoleum of the Emperor. Pay 1000 life points to summon Dark Ruler Ha Des. Destroy the opponent’s Sangan, Mystic Tomato, or another “standard first-turn play” monster, and negate its effect. There’s no searching for your opponent with Dark Ruler around!

Keep the Pressure On

By eliminating the need to tribute monsters, you can keep summoning huge and powerful tribute monsters every single turn, keeping the pressure up with enormous ATK strength and some really incredible card effects. Your opponent’s defenses will crumble and he or she will not be able to replenish them fast enough before your onslaught.

Yes, yes, I can hear you already. “Oh, but, Dr. Vowler, what about my life points?” It’s like you have the spirit of Marik whispering in your ear saying not to be so reckless.

Fear not!

Here’s the secret strategy: if you dominate the field during the entire duel, why do your life points matter?* Your opponent isn’t going to get past your monsters. You don’t really have to worry until you’re in the neighborhood of 3000 life points or less.

Also, you can always play with non-tribute monsters like Nimble Momonga to fill up your life points. And don’t forget about Solemn Wishes and Emergency Provisions. In most decks, these are defensive cards to keep you in the game, but Mausoleum of the Emperor turns those life points into offensive power instead.

In the comparative life point game, you’ll surely come out ahead. You might pay 2000 life points to get out Guardian Sphinx and Dark Ruler Ha Des, but your opponent will lose 4000 or more life points as early as your second turn, plus he or she will be staring down two incredibly strong monsters and a re-usable effect that will clear out all of his or her monsters every turn.

Are you starting to get excited? (I hope so, since I’m quite an excellent teacher, thank you.) But this is only the beginning.

Spell & Trap Card Lock

Besides their incredibly high stats, tribute monsters have some of the best effects in the game.

You can use Mausoleum of the Emperor to summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6, who is immune to spell cards. Follow it up with Jinzo. When your opponent plays Smashing Ground, it will hone in on Horus and try to destroy it, but Horus will be unaffected. This combo renders the most commonly used monster removal completely useless! Smashing Ground, Sakuretsu Armor, and Mirror Force will be dead draws for your opponent once you have these two monsters on the field, and all it will cost you is 2000 life points.

Once Horus destroys a monster, you can even level it up to Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 from your deck, and now your opponent can’t activate Lightning Vortex, Snatch Steal, or even Graceful Charity without your permission. The only remaining threat to Horus or Jinzo would be monster effects like D. D. Warrior Lady. Fortunately, you have Dark Ruler Ha Des waiting in the shadows to eliminate such threats.

(Remember how I glossed over your opponent’s Jinzo at the start of this article? You might want to seriously consider a trapless Mausoleum deck. With Jinzo so easy to summon for both players, you might was to seriously think about removing potentially useless traps from the deck to add more tribute monsters and life point boosters.)

Even More Combos

The possibilities of Mausoleum of the Emperor can unlock a treasure trove of unused cards. You can spend 2000 life points to summon The Creator and have monster recursion from your graveyard every turn.

Remember Tyrant Dragon? It’s immune to targeted trap cards and can attack again after your opponent’s field is cleared.

Theme decks work well with this card since signature monsters tend to be of high level. Freed the Matchless General gives huge versatility to a Warrior deck, and what Spellcaster deck would leave out Dark Magician, Dark Magician of Chaos, or Dark Magician Girl? And there’s always Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi to dump your opponent’s entire hand.

Surprise!

The best part of all of this is the surprise factor. Who’s going to be expecting you to pop out Invader of Darkness or Gilford the Legend? And if your opponent foolishly uses your Mausoleum’s effect, “just because I can,” do nothing to discourage him or her! If he or she wants to pay 1000 life points to normal summon Cyber Dragon or Zaborg, by all means, let him or her go ahead. You have much, much bigger monsters in your deck.

I hope you’ve all learned something. Please prepare your Mausoleum of the Emperor exam decks by next week.

Class dismissed.

Be sure and stay out of the range of Ring of Destruction, though.