Gemini Monsters got players talking before Tactical Evolution’s Sneak Preview event. They took a new twist on the mechanics of summoning monsters and used it to create monsters that were worthy of attention. As with any new class of monsters, there are questions to be answered and mechanics that should be understood.
Change of Identity
Every Gemini Monster has the following text:
“This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it be treated as an Effect Monster with this effect:”
The first line of text alters the basic identity of the Gemini Monster while it is face up on the field or in the graveyard, and it is not applied at any other time. A Gemini Monster will be an effect monster card while it is in your hand, deck, or removed-from-play area. You need to remember this because it will affect what kind of effects you can use with your Gemini Monsters, both positively and negatively.
Any effect that interacts with normal monsters while they are in your hand or your deck will not help you with your Gemini Monster deck. You won’t be able to reveal them for Heart of the Underdog or special summon the high-level Gemini Monsters with Ancient Rules. You also can’t plan to send any Gemini Monsters from your deck to your graveyard to satisfy Advanced Ritual Art. In each case, the Gemini Monster is an effect monster card and doesn’t satisfy the desired effects.
Once the Gemini Monster is summoned to the field, flipped face up, or placed into the graveyard, its identity shifts to that of a normal monster card. It is in these regions that you will focus your normal monster support, because they are the only areas that count. Fortunately, we have a good selection of cards to choose from in this regard. Tactical Evolution provides us with a few good cards that can easily be mixed with cards from previous sets to flesh out a good combination of normal monster-supporting effects. As long as the normal monster support cards involve normal monsters on your side of the field or your graveyard, you’re all set.
Support Base
Ancient Sanctuary and Strike of Neos gave us trap cards specifically intended to special summon normal monsters from our graveyard. Each trap card special summons its intended target in a different battle position, so the choices you make with each card will be dictated by card situations on the field and what monster you have available in your graveyard. Part of running successful Gemini Monsters involves taking advantage of special summons whenever possible, because you normally only get to normal summon one monster per turn.
Symbols of Duty proves to be a more versatile form of revival for monsters both you and your opponent have in the graveyard, but it requires sending one of your normal monsters to your graveyard to pay the cost. When you want to replace one Gemini Monster in its normal monster card state with a bigger or more useful alternative, Symbols of Duty will be your best friend. After doing so, you can use Dark Factory of Mass Production to bring it right back into your hand with a bit of company.
The vast majority of normal monster card support interacts with normal monsters while they are already face up on the field. One of the oldest available is Non-Spellcasting Area from Magician’s Force. Non-Spellcasting Area gives any face-up non-effect monster immunity from the effects of spell cards, which can certainly be helpful in quelling the ranks of Smashing Ground, Enemy Controller, Brain Control, and Shrink. Non-Spellcasting Area will provide this blanket of protection as long as the Gemini Monsters remain in their normal monster state, but converting them into effect monsters will remove their protective barrier. Non-Spellcasting Area tends to interfere with other spell-based normal monster support, so you will need to decide if it will work for your strategy.
Non-Spellcasting Area isn’t limited exclusively to normal monsters. Any monster card that does not have an effect falls under its protective barrier. This includes Ritual monsters and Fusion monsters, but only those that do not have effects. For example, the Ritual monster Hungry Burger is a Fusion monster that does not have an effect, so it would be protected. Its text tells you what is used to Ritual summon it, but that is all. Fusion monsters like Flame Swordsman are equally protected because they also do not have an effect. They have text that tells you what Fusion material monsters are used to Fusion summon the Fusion monster, but they do not have effects and are thus not effect monsters. Fusion and Ritual monsters will usually include the word “effect” in their type to tell you that the monster is an effect monster.
The trap card Justi-Break can work really well while your Gemini Monster in its normal monster form, but not when it takes on its effect monster form. The results of Justi-Break and its usefulness are readily apparent until you consider how this will affect your decision to turn on the effect of your Gemini Monster. Justi-Break is also a threat to any face-down monsters on the field, which can be a mixed blessing. Ultimately, Justi-Break’s use will be based on the situation on the field. If the gains outweigh the losses, then it will make sense to activate Justi-Break.
When the time comes to enable the effects of our Gemini Monsters, what process do we follow? Just what happens when we normal summon a monster we already have on the field? Next week, we will explore this mechanic and its interactions with other effects. Until then, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.