I Crush Your Little Head!

Here we have one current favorite battling with a previous favorite.

Scenario: Crush, Crush, Crush-Crush

Emma has Advanced Ritual Art and two Ritual monsters in her hand: Demise, King of Armageddon and the upcoming Magician of Black Chaos from the Premium Pack booster. Her opponent Geri has Mind Crush set on her side of the field, one card in her hand, and three set monsters.

Emma activates Advanced Ritual Art and says that she will Ritual summon Demise, King of Armageddon. Geri responds by activating Mind Crush, declaring Demise, King of Armageddon.

Thus far nothing seems too out of the ordinary, but our friend Emma made an error and it certainly doesn’t help her position. Anytime you play with Advanced Ritual Art, you need to remember that you never say what Ritual monster you intend to Ritual summon until you actually resolve the effect! Don’t go giving away your surprises for no reason. Sure, some players will say, “You know who it’s going to be . . .” and they might be right. You never know for sure though, because someone like me might come along and pull out a Dark Master - Zorc.

At least until I get my hands on an Ojama Ritual monster.

Our chain is comprised of two simple steps: Mind Crush followed by Advanced Ritual Art. Mind Crush resolves first, and Emma must discard every copy of Demise, King of Armageddon from her hand into the graveyard. Emma only has the one copy, so she takes it from her hand and ditches it to the graveyard. The world has been saved!

Or has it? Emma still gets to resolve her Advanced Ritual Art, and it so happens she still has a Ritual monster remaining in her hand: the long-awaited Magician of Black Chaos. Emma may have lost Demise, but that doesn’t mean she can’t Ritual summon the Magician instead, so that’s exactly what she’s going to do. She reveals her Magician of Black Chaos to Geri and then selects her normal monsters from her deck, sending them to the graveyard to Ritual summon her Magician.

Emma would most likely have been happier with Demise on the field. Let this scenario be fair warning to her for future duels.

It All Comes Down

Our next scenario involves a pair of guest stars from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

Scenario: Crashing Down

Jesse is holding out quite well with his Crystal Beasts. He has Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise, and Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger face up on his side of the field. In his spell and trap zone he has Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle and Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle in their “Crystallized” state. Jesse also has Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins active in his field spell card zone and four cards in his hand.

Bastion is undaunted. Sure, he’s seen Jesse go head-to-head with Jaden, but Jaden lacks the planning and careful strategy to deal with monsters that just won’t go away. Bastion has made some preparations, and as luck would have it he has drawn the card he needs to put Jesse in his place. Bastion has Oxygeddon and two copies of Hydrogeddon face up on his side of the field, with three cards in his hand and one set trap card—the very card he intends to use to wreck Jesse’s entire strategy: Bubble Crash.

Bastion activates his Bubble Crash. What happens now?

Bubble Crash is an interesting card, although not often useful in regular affairs. It can only be activated when either player (or both players) has a combined total of six or more cards between his or her hand and side of the field. This doesn’t happen often, and is usually the result of stall tactics from one (or both) players. The Crystal Beasts, however, find themselves susceptible because they have a tendency to stick around longer than one would normally expect.

When Bubble Crash resolves, it constricts each player’s hand and field to a combined total of five cards. Each player is forced to send cards to his or her graveyard until the combined total of five is reached, but this decision process is left to the individual player. Jesse currently has ten cards combined between his hand and his side of the field. Bastion has seven. Fortunately for Bastion, his Bubble Crash removes itself from the equation, leaving him with a working total of six cards instead.

Bastion’s decision process is rather simple. He only has to choose one card from his field or hand and send it to the graveyard. The decision is entirely his to make, as long as he leaves Bubble Crash out of it. When resolving its effect, the card itself is not counted among those on the field nor can it be sent to the graveyard to help reach the five-card combined total. It is only a witness to the devastation that follows.

But Jesse is in a bind. He has to take his combined total of ten cards and reduce it to five. This means he will have to bid farewell to a combined total of five cards, chosen from his hand and/or his side of the field. Given the situation, he certainly has a lot of options (although not all of them are pleasant). Jesse could rid himself of both “Crystallized” Crystal Beasts, but that still leaves three cards to meet the required five total. Perhaps one of his monsters should take the fall?

Jesse needs to keep in mind that his Crystal Beast monsters are not destroyed by Bubble Crash, because Bubble Crash does not destroy cards. No Crystal Beast monster Jesse sent to the graveyard has a shot at becoming “Crystallized.” It’s just gone. Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins is also vulnerable for the same reason. Anything goes . . . and pretty much everything’s got to go. Jesse will have to choose carefully.

Jesse can choose to keep all four cards in his hand, but doing so means that he can only keep one card on the field. If he decides to keep all three monsters he has on the field, he will have to make tough choices between his hand and the remaining cards he has out, because he would only be able to keep two cards from among them. This is certainly not a good position to be in.