“These ladies were just dying to meet you, Kaiba-boy.”—Maximillion Pegasus

Last week, we focused our attention on the “classic” Toon monsters: Toon Mermaid, Toon Summoned Skull, Manga Ryu-Ran, and Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon.

Recently, a brand-new class of Toon monsters has emerged. Players participating in the Duelist League were rewarded with these new Toon monsters—Toon Gemini Elf and Toon Goblin Attack Force—after completing their league activities. News of the cards’ arrival traveled quickly through the player pool. These new Toon monsters were different than their older brethren and came with a completely different bag of tricks.

But how do they work? Why are they different? What makes this next generation of toons, the “next-gen” Toon monsters, any better than the classic Toon monsters from last week’s article?

This week, we’ll examine these next-gen Toon monsters: Toon Gemini Elf and Toon Goblin Attack Force.

Renegades from Toon World

Each of the next-gen Toon monsters has the following text:

“This card cannot attack during the turn that it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned.”

Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, hold on a minute. I can normal summon this monster?” Yes, you can! Even better, you don’t even need to have Toon World on the field to do so. This is a great feature that really opens up the potential of these Toon monsters, but it does take something away.

You cannot simply special summon the next-gen Toon monsters from your hand. The classic Toon monsters, like Toon Mermaid, could be special summoned from your hand when you had Toon World on your side of the field. The next-gen Toon monsters, like Toon Gemini Elf, do not have this effect.

Don’t let this stop you from using them. When combined with the classic Toon Monsters, the next-gen Toon monsters can provide a reliable backup plan when you haven’t drawn Toon World. They can even be used in non-Toon decks to take advantage of their effects.

However, there’s one big problem. These monsters cannot attack during the same turn they are summoned or flip summoned. Let’s say that you normal summon Toon Gemini Elf, and during your opponent’s following turn, he or she uses Book of Moon to turn Toon Gemini Elf into face-down defense position. When you flip summon Toon Gemini Elf during your next turn, it will not be able to attack. That makes two turns without any attacks from your Toon Gemini Elf. Not much fun, is it?

Of course, you could get around this drawback by using a card effect, like Book of Taiyou. That would be a big surprise for your opponent!


Uniting with Toon World

“When ‘Toon World’ on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. If ‘Toon World’ is on your side of the field and your opponent does not control a Toon Monster, this card can attack your opponent's Life Points directly.”

When using the classic Toon monsters, you would normally want to remove Toon World from the field so you can free those classic Toon monsters from the danger of having Toon World destroyed. However, the next-gen Toon monsters are different. Their “direct attack” effect is dependent on Toon World existing on the field. Naturally, this doesn’t apply if your opponent doesn’t have any monsters on his or her side of the field, because your next-gen Toon monster would be free to attack your opponent directly with or without Toon World in play.

Notice that the text referring to your opponent controlling Toon monsters is different than the text on the classic Toon monsters. Next-gen Toon monsters cannot attack directly if your opponent controls a face-up Toon monster, just like the classic Toon monsters. Next-gen Toon monsters, however, are not forced to battle with your opponent’s Toon monsters. If you would rather attack one of your opponent’s other monsters, you may certainly do so.

You may have noticed something else at this point—you don’t have to pay life points when these Toon monsters attack. This makes them easier on your life points and worth playing in other types of decks.


New Bag of Tricks

Toon Gemini Elf and Toon Goblin Attack Force have their own unique effects on top of their shared next-gen Toon monster effects.

Toon Gemini Elf
“When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent’s Life Points, your opponent discards 1 random card from their hand.”

You have to admit that this isn’t a bad effect for a level 4 monster with 1900 ATK, and it makes these ladies quite strong. This effect is even better when you combine Toon Gemini Elf with Toon World, allowing Toon Gemini Elf to attack directly and thus have better odds of inflicting battle damage to your opponent’s life points.

Toon Goblin Attack Force
“If this card attacks, it is changed to Defense Position at the end of the Battle Phase, and you cannot change this Battle Position until the end of your next turn.”

This effect of Toon Goblin Attack Force functions like that of Goblin Attack Force. It makes sense, since it’s a “Toon” version of the Goblins, after all.

When you take time to think about it, the effect is a bit mean. Toon Goblin Attack Force won’t be able to attack the same turn you summon, flip summon, or special summon it, and it will switch to defense position after it attacks. Unless you combine it with Toon World and attack directly, this may not work out too well . . .

 . . . of course, you could also combine Toon Goblin Attack Force with Final Attack Orders and no longer have to worry about that annoying defense position problem.

The future of Toon monsters is here. Thus far, we’ve seen Gemini Elf and Goblin Attack Force given the Toon treatment. Could there possibly be others in the future? If so, which card will be the next to receive a “toon-up”?

Until next time . . . send all comments to: Curtis@metagame.com.