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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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Before diving into today’s former binder choice, I’d like to go over a few things. After all, some large Yu-Gi-Oh! events took place in just a few short weeks! One of the most exciting happenings was the Flaming Eternity Sneak Preview weekend, which was a real blast. I judged a smaller event near San Diego that was held the day before the larger event in downtown San Diego (which, unfortunately, I couldn’t attend). The duelists who attended the smaller event had fun playing with the new Flaming Eternity booster set. Many duelists of all ages enjoyed the open dueling as well as the Sealed flights.
 I’d like to remind you that I’d love to hear stories about your local Sneak Preview events. If you saw any interesting twists in a Sealed flight, or you pulled a few copies of Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys in a Booster draft, send me an email. The most shocking thing that I saw in any of the Sealed events was a player who managed to pull four copies of Good Goblin Housekeeping—talk about consistency in the Sealed format!
Speaking of Good Goblin Housekeeping, this new trap card is one of many additions to the Forbidden and Limited lists in the Advanced format. My favorite trap card in Flaming Eternity is now restricted to two copies per deck, and some people have been asking why this is the case. You’ll also notice that today’s featured card, Emergency Provisions, is semi-limited as well. I’d go into further detail about the new Forbidden and Limited list, but Jason did a great job covering it a few weeks ago, so my coverage is hardly necessary. I’ll merely comment on the list with the following dialogue.
Strike Ninja: Gah! Ow! It hurts so badly!
Dark Magician of Chaos: Oh, no! What is it, Master Ninja?
Strike Ninja: My heart! It hurts! It’s so painful . . . it must be a mirage. It’s nothing more than a big jar of illusions.
Dark Magician of Chaos: Funny that you should mention those words—all three of your best cards are now forbidden from play.
Strike Ninja: What? My reign is ending? Invader! Do something!
Invader of Darkness: . . . meh.
Strike Ninja was my deck of choice before the new list came out, but now it’s time to move on. One day, the master of the Ninjitsu art of vanishing will reappear, but it looks like the Ninja needs some time alone for a while.
Let’s begin this week’s analysis. The quick-play spell Emergency Provisions has been underrated since its release almost two years ago in the Legacy of Darkness set. This spell is one of the best ways to keep the cards drawn with Mirage of Nightmare, so Emergency Provisions started seeing more play once Mystical Space Typhoon was limited. However, now that Mirage of Nightmare is forbidden in the Advanced format, you might wonder why Emergency Provisions is semi-limited. Is a little gain in life points really that good? Many people think that Emergency Provisions is a relatively minor card without the Mirage of Nightmare combo, but there are more combos with Emergency Provisions than meet the eye. Today’s article will reveal a few of these dastardly combos.
The Basic Breakdown
Whether you call it a basic breakdown or a perfect breakdown of how the spell works, Curtis Schultz gave a great analysis of Emergency Provisions in his article series, The Duelist Academy. However, I’ll summarize a few key points that you’ll need to remember when you’re looking through today’s combos.
—Sending cards to the graveyard through the effect of Emergency Provisions is a cost.
—Cards that were activated earlier in the chain will still resolve, even if they were sent to the graveyard by Emergency Provisions.
—You gain life points when the spell resolves.
—Other than during the damage step, in response to counter traps, or while Invader of Darkness is laughing at you, you can play Emergency Provisions from your hand at any point during your turn.
The combos are what make this quick-play spell worthy of deeper analysis. Let’s get to it!
Combos and Counters
 Normally, you’d find the combos listed here first, followed by the counters. Because the usefulness of Emergency Provisions comes from its cost more than its effect in most cases, countering the card is rather difficult. One of the best and only options is to have Invader of Darkness face up on the field, but not even the Invader can stop the Emergency Provisions player all the time. The only other way to deal with Emergency Provisions is to get rid of spells and traps on your opponent’s side of the field before your opponent can use this quick-play card.
Keep in mind that while gaining life points may help a deck based on life points payment, such as Dimension Fusion, the life-point gain will likely just show an opponent one or two more cards in a particular duel. Save your negation and removal tricks for stuff that can destroy your cards, not your opponent’s. In other words, when you see this quick-play spell in action, you’re better off grinning and bearing the combo.
Why is Emergency Provisions semi-limited to two copies per deck? Here’s the answer: the spell forms a powerful combo involving multiple copies of the newly released trap card Good Goblin Housekeeping. Once you activate Good Goblin Housekeeping, you can send the trap to the graveyard with Emergency Provisions. You gain 1000 life points, and once the trap resolves, you draw a minimum of two cards for the trap’s effect. This is because Good Goblin Housekeeping checks for copies of itself in the graveyard only when its effect resolves. Since you just sent that activated copy of Good Goblin Housekeeping to your graveyard with today’s quick-play combo favorite, you’ll draw an extra card for the newly buried copy of the deck-thinning trap.
This combo is even more powerful when you send multiple activated copies of Good Goblin Housekeeping to the graveyard in the same chain. For example, let’s say that you send two activated copies of the trap off the field with Emergency Provisions. For each resolving copy in your graveyard, you’ll draw three cards and return one from your hand to the bottom of your deck. When the chain finishes, you’ll see six new cards from your deck. This sort of card advantage is insane in a duel and it makes decks much more consistent.
Now, imagine that you’re sending three activated copies of Good Goblin Housekeeping to the graveyard in the same chain. In this scenario, you draw twelve new cards and return only three, so you get to keep a total of nine new cards. Konami decided to nip this combo in the bud before we could abuse it in the U.S., but never fear—having two of each card still lets you see lots of cards in your deck. I’ll note that Good Goblin Housekeeping by itself is useful in any kind of Level Up! deck, because you can return certain monsters that can be special summoned from your deck anyway.
How would you like to turn your mass-negation traps like Skill Drain and Royal Decree into one-shot removal abilities, letting you access your monster effects and traps later? Or perhaps you’d like to stall with a card like Level Limit – Area B, until you have a situation where you can attack for the win with a high-level heavy hitter. Emergency Provisions allows you to use continuous traps and spells without letting them affect your decisions when it’s inconvenient. During your opponent’s turn, you can hold off some attacks with Gravity Bind, or you can negate D. D. Warrior Lady’s effect with Skill Drain. However, once your turn rolls around, or once you have the cards you need to get the upper hand, you can activate Emergency Provisions to remove all limiting continuous effects then let your opponent have it with the cards you’ve been waiting to use.
 Two of my favorite cards to use with Emergency Provisions are Skill Drain and Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6. Your opponent loses the use of their risky monster effects (like the one on Tribe-Infecting Virus) and will most likely assume that a spell can put the reign of Horus to an end. Chain to your opponent’s spell card with Emergency Provisions and remove your pesky Skill Drain from the field, while regaining the life points that you spent to activate it. When your opponent’s spell card tries to resolve, Horus’s continuous effect will protect the Dragon from the spell!
Cards such as Toon World and Different Dimension Gate have negative results when they are destroyed. You can counter your opponent’s spell or trap destruction with Emergency Provisions to remove a card before it would be destroyed by your opponent. This strategy could save any face-up Toon monsters you have, or it could permanently lock out an opponent’s monster that was removed by Different Dimension Gate. Toon World and Different Dimension Gate also have combo potential with the equally underestimated Giant Trunade. However, while the quick-play spell speed of Emergency Provisions can save your combos in a pinch, you can only use Giant Trunade during your main phases.
Likewise, Emergency Provisions can save a monster that is equipped with Premature Burial, Re-Fusion, or Fulfillment of the Contract. A monster that’s equipped with one of these cards is in danger of being removed from the field if that equip spell is destroyed—Emergency Provisions can remove the equip spell card before an opponent destroys it. You’ll also regain the life points that you spent to activate these cards.
The simplest use of Emergency Provisions is to remove cards from your side of the field before they can be destroyed. As an added incentive, your life points will get a boost. Life-point gain is a highly underrated tactic in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Increasing your life points can ensure that you’ll see an extra turn or two, and extra turns might make all the difference in turning a duel or even a match in your favor.
Final Thoughts
While the card has little practical usefulness by itself, playing Emergency Provisions is a versatile and effective way to gain life points. The spell is also the focal point or backup plan for a variety of combos and strategies. Whether you’re removing your Royal Decree or getting rid of a monster equipped to your Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Emergency Provisions has the potential to be played in many different combos. The spell is worth a second look in tournament play.
Next week’s feature is going to knock your socks right out of the ballpark. The featured card will make me come up with a few puns that you’ll grow to love . . . hopefully. Come back next week for my analysis of Ultimate Baseball Kid!
Got any questions, comments, or requests for cards that you’d like to see featured in Bill and Tom’s Binder? Got a success story about one of the cards discussed in this column? I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a line at Mrosenberg@metagame.com, and I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Until next time, remember that a monster is only as good as the one that’s across from it. Well, maybe not . . . but you can always decide whether a monster is good with a little Emergency Provisions havoc, right? |
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