“Now do you understand?”
“Oh yeah I . . . no, not really.”
“Then why have you been nodding your head, you moron!?”
“Well, I figured if I did you’d stop talking.”

—Chazz and Jaden

When I began writing these Light and Darkness Dragon articles, I don’t think I really prepared myself for the response I would receive. For the last three weeks, I have received some (okay, a lot . . . well, a lot a lot) of follow-up questions. Some involved aspects of the card that needed a bit more detail and others involved situations that hadn’t come up before players got their hands on the Dragon.

This week, I answer some of those questions. We have a Shonen Jump Championship right around the corner, so do pay attention. These may come in handy.

One Ferocious Dragon

Our first question proved to be a popular one.

“Can Double Coston be used as a single tribute (since he counts for two) to summon LADD because it’s both Light and Dark? Or is it only Dark on the field and graveyard, and not while summoning?”

Light and Darkness Dragon’s first effect says, “While this card is face-up on the field its Attribute is also treated as DARK.” This effect is only true while the Dragon is face up on the field and is not applied at any other time. When the Dragon is in your hand or in your graveyard, it will only be treated as a Light attribute monster. This behavior affects what cards will and won’t interact with it.

Double Coston cannot count as two tributes on its own, because Light and Darkness Dragon won’t become a Dark monster until it is successfully summoned. Zombies work well with the Dragon because they are so easily special summoned, so it isn’t strange to see the two combined together. You just cannot combine them for the purpose of using Double Coston’s effect.

Dude—You’re Gettin’ a Dragon!

Our next question involves the now legendary Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude.

“What would happen with Diamond Dude’s effect if Diamond Dude sent Destiny Draw to the graveyard during my last turn, and afterward Light and Darkness Dragon is summoned. Can it negate the Destiny Draw when I use its effect in my next turn?”

Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude wields an interesting power over normal spell cards that changes how some of them work. When Diamond Dude puts a normal spell card into your graveyard, you get to activate his effect during the main phase of your following turn. When your next turn comes around and you take advantage of the normal spell card, it activates in an odd sort of way, almost entirely unique to Diamond Dude.

The normal spell card doesn’t technically “activate” like a normal spell card usually would. Instead, only the effect of the normal spell card activates. The distinction allows the normal spell card to ignore activation requirements or activation restrictions. It doesn’t even have to pay any activation costs. This leaves Light and Darkness Dragon in a bad position. Since the normal spell card doesn’t “activate,” Light and Darkness Dragon cannot negate it and will not even respond. In our situation above, Destiny Draw will not be negated. Light and Darkness Dragon will negate the activation of Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude’s effect when he attempts to send a card from the top of his controller’s deck to that player’s graveyard. This trick might work before Light and Darkness Dragon is put into play, but it doesn’t work for long.

My Dragon Negates

Our next questions involve more detail on Light and Darkness Dragon’s second effect.

“If Light and Darkness Dragon is face up on the field and I activate Level Limit - Area B, what would happen to the Level Limit?”

Light and Darkness Dragon doesn’t destroy the cards it negates, but when the negated card is a spell or trap card, it will not remain on the field meaninglessly. Whenever the Dragon negates a continuous spell or trap card’s activation, the spell or trap card is sent to the graveyard. This is also true for equip spell cards, field spell cards, and any trap card that tries to become an equip card or a monster card. So the Dragon negates Level Limit - Area B’s activation and sends it into the graveyard.

Normal spell cards like Swords of Revealing Light and Nightmare’s Steelcage will be placed into the graveyard as well. They don’t receive any special treatment.

“What about effects that activate in the damage step? Does the Dragon negate the effects of monsters like Old Vindictive Magician or Mystic Tomato? Or even something like Shrink?”

Light and Darkness Dragon’s second effect will activate in the damage step when a spell, trap, or effect of an effect monster activates. If you attack with Light and Darkness Dragon and your opponent uses Shrink on it during the damage calculation, the Dragon will negate its activation and lose 500 ATK and DEF. If the monster Light and Darkness Dragon battles has a flip effect, like Old Vindictive Magician, the Dragon will negate it when it activates after damage calculation. Mystic Tomato will be negated as well.

Light and Darkness Dragon doesn’t care where a monster is when its effect activates, nor does it care where the monster is going. If you have Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest in your hand, its effect can be negated. If you have a Gladiator Beast that returns itself to its owner’s deck, the Dragon will still negate it. The Dragon won’t destroy the card, but it will negate the activation of its effect. Green Baboon would remain in your hand and the Gladiator Beast would remain in its owner’s deck.

The Dragon is Chained—But I Still Don’t Feel Safe

Our next questions focus on how Light and Darkness Dragon places itself onto the chain.

“I was dueling this guy, and he played Light and Darkness Dragon. Next turn, he sets a monster. I summon Hydrogeddon and attack his face-down monster. Well, it was Nimble Momonga, so Hydrogeddon activates and so does Nimble. Who gets out first? Because if Hydrogeddon activates first, then Nimble should be the only monster that gets the go-ahead . . .”

In this situation, we have two effects that activate in response to the same event: Nimble Momonga going to the graveyard after being destroyed in battle. Nimble Momonga has a mandatory trigger effect and Hydrogeddon has an optional trigger effect. Following the rules of simultaneous activations, the mandatory trigger effect is placed onto the chain first, followed by the optional trigger effect.

Nimble Momonga à Hydrogeddon

Light and Darkness Dragon sees two monster effects activate and it wants in on the action, but because these effects activated simultaneously, it can only negate the effect that is highest on the chain. Hydrogeddon becomes the Dragon’s unfortunate victim and the activation of its effect is negated. Nimble Momonga resolves and increases its owner’s life points while also special summoning more copies of Nimble Momonga if its owner so desires.

Our next question involves timing mechanics.

“If I have two Sakuretsu Armor cards face down and I activate one in response to the declaration of an attack from my opponent’s Light and Darkness Dragon (LaDD), then LaDD's second effect would activate to try and negate my Sakuretsu Armor. Can I now chain my other Sakuretsu Armor as link 3 so that LaDD would be destroyed? Basically, do I miss the timing for my second Sakuretsu Armor or not?”

This submitter recognized that Light and Darkness Dragon’s second effect only activates once per chain, so by activating another card effect, he could successfully side-step negation and take the Dragon out. His only concern is the specific timing requirement of Sakuretsu Armor that says it can only be activated when the opponent’s monster declares an attack.

When an attack is declared by a monster, you may activate multiple card effects that can only be activated when a monster declares an attack. The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG FAQ has a few examples, with chains involving Magic Cylinder and Mirror Force. The chain that begins in this example responds to the declaration of an attack from Light and Darkness Dragon, so any card that activates in response to the attack declaration can be activated, no matter where it lies on the chain link.

The second copy of Sakuretsu Armor resolves first and destroys Light and Darkness Dragon. Light and Darkness Dragon is removed from the field and its third effect wants to activate, but it has to wait because the chain still has one more chain link to resolve . . . not that it matters much in this case. The first copy of Sakuretsu Armor isn’t negated, but its target has been removed from the field so it won’t do anything anyway.

Light and Darkness Dragon’s third effect now begins a new chain. Our submitter had better hope things don’t get worse, because his responses are gone now.

The following question involves two copies of Light and Darkness Dragon.

“If there are two Light and Darkness Dragon cards on the field and I activate Enemy Controller to switch one to defense, will they both target the Enemy Controller or will one target Enemy Controller and the other target the one trying to negate Enemy Controller?”

The Light and Darkness Dragon cards ignore the second effect of themselves and each other. Whenever a spell, trap, or effect of an effect monster is activated while two or more copies of Light and Darkness Dragon are face up on the field, they will all pounce on the activated card and ignore each other entirely. Their effects are still placed onto a chain, but only the very last Dragon on the chain will successfully negate the activated card.

Enemy Controller à LaDD #1 à LaDD #2

The second Light and Darkness Dragon (LaDD #2) will negate the activation of Enemy Controller and lose 500 ATK and DEF. The first Dragon on the chain (LaDD #1) will do nothing because Enemy Controller has already been negated. It won’t lose any ATK or DEF.

How do you determine which Dragon should be placed highest on the chain? You must follow the principles of chain building and compare who controls the Dragons. If you control both Dragons, it will be entirely up to you. If you control one Dragon and your opponent controls the other, it will depend on who the turn player is because that duelist’s Dragon will be placed on the chain first. If your opponent controls both Dragons, he or she decides which goes highest on the chain.

Some Sort of Abzorbaloff

Our final question deals with the second and third effects of Light and Darkness Dragon while it is being treated as an equip card.

“My Light and Darkness Dragon is equipped to Cyberdark Dragon. Would Light and Darkness Dragon's second effect still work? Also, about the last effect, it should work when Cyberdark Dragon is destroyed in battle, right?”

Monster cards being treated as equip cards due to the effects of Relinquished, Cyberdark Dragon, etc. do not apply their effects. While Light and Darkness Dragon is “absorbed” by Cyberdark Dragon, its second effect is not applied. It serves only to increase the ATK of the Cyberdark Dragon.

The third effect of Light and Darkness Dragon will still activate when the equipped Dragon is destroyed, with Cyberdark Dragon’s effect or some other source. The third effect is resilient and will activate any time Light and Darkness Dragon is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, completely ignoring the Dragon’s position at the time it was destroyed. This is why the Dragon doesn’t really care that much about Crush Card Virus. It just finds someone else to do its work instead.

Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com.