Since the limiting of Mystical Space Typhoon to one copy per deck, Emergency Provisions has begun to see more play. Most often, it is used to eliminate an active Mirage of Nightmare, thus preventing the player from having to discard. It does, however, have other uses that involve its primary function—life gain. Many duelists took up the idea of using Emergency Provisions for that reason, but had little actual experience using it properly.
This week’s article will educate you on the mechanics of Emergency Provisions. It will also begin a brand new series of articles for Metagame.com titled “The Duelist Academy.”
Each week, I will examine various mechanics within the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and explain cards that cause confusion. The updates to the Yu-Gi-Oh! FAQ were effective, but they didn’t provide detailed explanations for the rulings. It simply isn’t possible to do that in an FAQ and still keep it concise, so I’ll step in and provide details and examples that will further clarify rulings.
As a Net Rep on the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Judge List, I often answer questions about cards such as Emergency Provisions, and I know that if a card cause problems for judges, it’s bound to cause issues for players. I hope that I can be of assistance to all with these articles.
Emergency Provisions : The Basics
Emergency Provisions ’s primary function is to send away spell and trap cards you control to increase your life points.
When you activate this card (flip it face-up or play it face-up from your hand), the first thing you have to do is pay the activation cost. For Emergency Provisions, the cost of activation is sending spell or trap cards on your side of the field to the graveyard. You can send any spell or trap cards on your side of the field, so if you have two spell cards and two trap cards (not including Emergency Provisions), you could send one of each, one or both spells and no traps, one or both traps and no spells, any three cards, or all four cards. Notice the line, “this card is excluded” in the text. This means that you cannot send Emergency Provisions to the graveyard to pay for its own cost.
After you have paid the cost for activating Emergency Provisions, its effect is put onto the chain and your opponent is given a chance to respond. When the chain resolves, Emergency Provisions increases your life points by the number of cards you used to pay the cost multiplied by 1000. For example, you will gain 2000 life points if you pay the cost with two cards.
Setting Up
One of the most common mistakes I see inexperienced players make with Emergency Provisions is thinking that it targets. Recall that Emergency Provisions does not target the spell and trap cards you send to the graveyard. It actually sends them to the graveyard as part of its activation cost. Therefore, if you wish to use the effect of the spell and/or trap cards you send to the graveyard, you need to activate them before activating Emergency Provisions. Normally, this is done in the form of a chain.
Example: One-for-One
Boman has a set trap card, Jar of Greed. He wants to activate Emergency Provisions and send Jar of Greed to the graveyard to gain 1000 life points, but he also wants to make sure he gets the Jar’s effect. If he activates Emergency Provisions now and sends the trap card to the graveyard, he will not get a chance to use its effect, because the trap card will already be in the graveyard before he can add to the chain.
The best thing for Boman to do is to use Jar of Greed in a chain, followed by Emergency Provisions.
Jar of Greed à Emergency Provisions
By placing Jar of Greed at the beginning of the chain, Bowman can send it to the graveyard to pay the cost of Emergency Provisions and still receive the benefit of its effect. First, Emergency Provisions resolves and increases his life points by 1000. Then, Jar of Greed resolves and allows him to draw one card from his deck.
Example: Two Traps
Let’s say Boman has two trap cards, Jar of Greed and Reckless Greed. He also has Emergency Provisions and wants to gain life points with its effect. If he uses Emergency Provisions and sends both trap cards to the graveyard, they will be in his graveyard before he can activate them. To solve this, they must be activated first in the chain.
Jar of Greed à Reckless Greed à Emergency Provisions
Using this chain, Boman can send Jar of Greed and Reckless Greed to the graveyard to pay Emergency Provisions’s activation cost and still gain the benefits of their effects. Emergency Provisions resolves first, increasing his life points by 2000. Next, Reckless Greed resolves, and he draws two cards from his deck. Finally, Jar of Greed resolves, and he draws one more card from his deck.
Example: Some Serious Chaining
Now, let’s really throw a chain out there. Let’s say Boman has Pot of Greed, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Emergency Provisions in his hand, and Jar of Greed and Waboku set from a previous turn. Boman has four potential cards to send to the graveyard as payment for Emergency Provisions, which would give him a total gain of 4000 life points. If Boman wants to get the full benefit of each card’s effect, and also get the life point gain, he will need to assemble his chain carefully.
Pot of Greed should be the first play. As a spell speed 1, it demands this. From here, Boman has spell speed 2 cards that can easily be chained to one another in any order he desires. Emergency Provisions gets activated at the end of the chain, with Pot of Greed, Mystical Space Typhoon, Waboku, and Jar of Greed going to the graveyard to pay its cost.
Pot of Greed à Waboku à Mystical Space Typhoon à Jar of Greed à Emergency Provisions
A lot is going on in this chain, so let me break down the resolution. Emergency Provisions resolves first, increasing Boman’s life points by 4000. Next, Jar of Greed resolves, and Boman draws one card from his deck. Then, Mystical Space Typhoon resolves, destroying the spell/trap card it targeted. Waboku resolves next, followed by Pot of Greed.
Emergency Provisions Issues
Continuous Cards
This doesn’t work so well with every kind of spell and trap card. Continuous spell and trap cards like Messenger of Peace, Wall of Revealing Light, and Gravity Bind need to remain face-up on the field in order to keep their effects active. If you send them to the graveyard with Emergency Provisions, their effects will disappear. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use them to pay Emergency Provisions’s cost—you just won’t benefit as much.
Two Emergency Provisions
Sometimes you’ll find yourself with two Emergency Provisions, and you’ll want to use them both. This is where you can run into a problem. If two Emergency Provisions are all you’ve got, you won’t be able to activate them both because you’d have to send one to the graveyard as the cost to activate the other.
In order to activate both, you must have an additional spell or trap card on the field that you can send to the graveyard for an activation cost. The first Emergency Provisions sends the third card as a cost, and then the second Emergency Provisions can send the first Emergency Provisions to the graveyard for its cost.
Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted
Both Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted have issues with Emergency Provisions. Premature Burial, if played correctly, can actually work well with Emergency Provisions, but Call of the Haunted will not.
One problem you may encounter involves activating Emergency Provisions in a chain with the activation of Premature Burial and/or Call of the Haunted. Each card requires a continued field presence to maintain their respective effects. If they are destroyed or removed from the field before resolving, their effects will disappear and you’ll get nothing from them.
Example: In Chain With Premature Burial
Suppose Boman activates Premature Burial. His opponent responds with Mystical Space Typhoon and targets his Premature Burial for destruction. Boman knows that when Mystical Space Typhoon resolves, it will destroy his Premature Burial and he won’t get his monster. However, he thinks that because Emergency Provisions only sends the card and does not destroy it, he can use Emergency Provisions to save the monster he will special summon. So, he activates Emergency Provisions and sends Premature Burial to the graveyard as the cost of activation.
Premature Burial à Mystical Space Typhoon à Emergency Provisions
In some situations, Boman’s thoughts would be accurate, but not in this one. In this situation, Premature Burial has not yet resolved, and it needs to remain in play in order to special summon the selected monster. Emergency Provisions removed it from the field before it could resolve, and thus, its effect will not resolve. The most Boman can accomplish in this case is to gain 1000 life points and waste his opponent’s Mystical Space Typhoon.
Now, let’s say that Premature Burial had already resolved and special summoned its monster. Boman has a set Emergency Provisions in his spell and trap zone. His opponent begins the turn and draws a Mystical Space Typhoon. The opponent decides to activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Boman’s Premature Burial, knowing that it will destroy the equipped monster, as well. Boman knows this too, and in an effort to save his monster, he activates Emergency Provisions, paying the activation cost with Premature Burial.
Mystical Space Typhoon à Emergency Provisions
By doing this, Boman accomplishes two things—he gains 1000 life points and he saves his monster from destruction. Emergency Provisions does not destroy the cards it sends to the graveyard, so it is safe to send an already resolved Premature Burial to the graveyard and still retain the equipped monster.