During recent episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, we have seen the real emergence of Chazz’s spirit as a duelist. With the threat of the Shadow Riders and his brothers’ attempted take-over of Duel Academy, Chazz has been driven to reach new levels of greatness in his game. The Chazz Princeton Duelist Pack is reflective of Chazz’s evolution as a duelist, featuring cards from several of his deck formats.
This week, we’ll examine several more new cards that are found only in the Chazz Princeton Duelist Pack: Armed Dragon LV10, Magical Mallet, Ring of Defense, and The Grave of Enkindling. You may recognize some of them from previous duels that Chazz has faced, and perhaps you’ve wondered how you can handle them in real-life situations. With a bit of analysis, you won’t have any trouble.
Armed for Battle
For reference, the text of Armed Dragon LV10 reads, “This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing 1 "Armed Dragon LV7" on your side of the field. By sending 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard, destroy all face-up monsters on your opponent's side of the field.”
The first thing you will notice about Armed Dragon LV10 is that it doesn’t “level up” in a manner similar to the previous “LV” monsters. In fact, it isn’t even possible to use Level Up! at all. Going from Armed Dragon LV7 to Armed Dragon LV10 has one method and one method only—you need to tribute an Armed Dragon LV7 you control.
With Armed Dragon LV10 comes a mighty large monster with an effect that’s capable of clearing your opponent’s field in a hurry, but it effect only applies to your opponent’s face-up monsters. Any face-down monsters they have will be safe from harm. You will need to remember this when facing an opponent that favors Book of Moon.
This effect will cost you one card from your hand to activate, but unlike the other Armed Dragons, Armed Dragon LV10 isn’t picky about which card is given up. What can you do with Armed Dragon LV10 by using the cards in Chazz’s Duelist Pack?
Paying the cost for Armed Dragon LV10’s effect is made easy with Ojamagic. Ojamagic will net you one copy of each Ojama monster, which you can then use during later turns to destroy any other monsters your opponent happens to summon. You can also use the same trick that Chazz used in his School Duel against Jaden. By equipping Armed Dragon LV10 with Armed Changer, it will be easier to compensate for the cost you spend every time you activate its effect. Armed Dragon LV10 is stronger than most monsters you will encounter, and can easily smash for Armed Changer’s effect.
Not Just for Whacking Moles
Next we have Magical Mallet, a spell that made its television debut when Jaden faced Chazz’s VWXYZ – Dragon Catapult Cannon. “Add any number of cards from your hand to the Deck and shuffle it. Then draw the same number of cards you added to the Deck.”
When you activate Magical Mallet, make sure you don’t tell your opponent how many cards you will be returning to your deck. This isn’t decided until you actually resolve the effect. When you resolve Magical Mallet, choose any number of cards from your hand and shuffle them into your deck. The number of cards you shuffle into your deck will determine how many cards you draw after you’re done shuffling.
And what about Magical Mallet itself? It won’t be in your hand any more because you’ve activated it, so it will go to the graveyard after you’ve drawn your cards. This was something that was different on the show, so make sure you help your younger players understand that they cannot shuffle the activated Magical Mallet back into their deck.
Next we have the Ring of Defense spell card, first made famous by Seto Kaiba and now by Chazz Princeton. Ring of Defense says, “You can only activate this card in response to the activation of a Trap Card effect that inflicts damage. Make the effect damage of that Trap Card 0.”
While Ring of Defense may eliminate the damage that a trap card would have inflicted, it will not stop any other effects the trap card has. For many trap cards that inflict damage, this won’t be an issue, but this is very important to remember with cards like Ring of Destruction and Chthonian Blast. While it may stop the effect damage that either card was going to inflict, it will not stop those cards from destroying a monster. With a trap card like Magic Cylinder, Ring of Defense will save your life points from harm, but it will not prevent your monster’s attack from being negated.
Ring of Defense is also picky about when it can be activated. If you plan on using your Ring of Defense, you must activate it in response to the trap card that will inflict damage. If you try to stop the trap card using another card’s effect, it will no longer be possible to use your Ring of Defense. You have to decide which is more important.
Some players may wonder why you’d use Ring of Defense when you could use Barrel Behind the Door instead. Barrel Behind the Door is a trap card and requires a bit of preparation time. A quick-play spell, like Ring of Defense, can be activated from your hand at any point during your turn, making it a good option for a quick defense against traps that want to harm your life points. Chazz likes to set his in preparation for Ring of Destruction that he’ll use during his opponent’s turn, and you can also do this.
The Grave of Enkindling
Our final card for today is The Grave of Enkindling. “You can only activate this card when a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle and sent to the Graveyard. You and your opponent each select 1 monster from your respective Graveyards and Special Summon them in Defense Position. Neither monster Special Summoned by this card's effect can change its battle position while it is face-up on the field, except with a card effect.”
The specific timing of The Grave of Enkindling requires you to activate it at the end of the damage step, similar to cards like Hero Signal. This specific timing window prevents many common responses from being activated. Cards like Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute that would normally respond to a special summon are rendered useless by this timing window.
Sometimes your destroyed monster will have an effect, like Sangan or Mystic Tomato. In this situation you can still activate The Grave of Enkindling, only this time you will chain it to the destroyed monster’s effect, just like with Hero Signal. Due to this chain’s formation, The Grave of Enkindling will resolve before the effect of your Sangan or Mystic Tomato.
Now you get to special summon a monster from your graveyard, but your opponent gets to special summon a monster from his or her graveyard as well. After both monsters are brought onto the field, The Grave of Enkindling places a condition upon them that prevents them from having their battle position changed manually. On the other hand, card effects are quite capable of changing the affected monsters’ battle positions. For example, Final Attack Orders could be used to place both monsters into attack position.
Since both players are required to special summon a monster when the effect resolves, both players must have a legal monster in their graveyards, or The Grave of Enkindling can’t be activated. This means both players must have at least one monster that they’re allowed to special summon. For example, if a player has only Tyrant Dragon in their graveyard and they don’t have any Dragon-type monsters on their side of the field, Tyrant Dragon would not be a legal monster. A Fusion monster that’s special summoned by Cyber-Stein would also not be a legal monster.
It also means that Armed Dragon LV7 and Armed Dragon LV10 would not be legal targets for the effect of The Grave of Enkindling. You will need to use Level Modulation if you want to special summon them from your graveyard, so realizing this, you could choose to special summon Armed Dragon LV3 instead. During your standby phase, it could be “leveled up” to Armed Dragon LV5, a monster that will be free from the restriction that Armed Dragon LV3 had placed upon it by The Grave of Enkindling. You can also use The Grave of Enkindling to special summon monsters like Y-Dragon Head and W-Wing Catapult. If you use their effects to equip them on a monster you control, they will be freed from the restriction that’s applied by The Grave of Enkindling.
One final trick to remember—by using Book of Moon or Tsukuyomi, you can flip the affected monster face down. By flipping it face down, you will free it from the condition applied by The Grave of Enkindling, allowing it to be flip summoned. Monsters like Stealth Bird that have their own ability to flip face down will work just as well.