“I sure hope he isn’t hungry.”—Marauding Captain

Behold King Tiger Wanghu, the enemy of the little guy. While head judging at the most recent Arizona Regional tournament, I noticed that this card has crept into play as a counter to any deck that runs weaker monsters, like the Burn deck. Wanghu can devour smaller monsters before they get a chance to cause much harm.

But King Tiger Wanghu certainly isn’t free of problems. The timing of the card’s effect and how the card interacts with the effects of summoned monsters can be quite confusing. This week, we’re going on the prowl with Wanghu.

Feeding Time

“As long as this card remains face-up on the field, all monsters with an ATK equal to 1400 or less that are Normal Summoned or Special Summoned (excluding Flip Summon) are automatically destroyed.”

The first thing to remember is that King Tiger Wanghu’s effect doesn’t affect monsters that are already face up on the field when Wanghu is put into play. Wanghu only affects monsters that are normal summoned or special summoned while the Beast is face up on the field.

When a monster with 1400 ATK or less is successfully normal summoned or special summoned, King Tiger Wanghu’s effect will automatically activate. Wanghu’s effect uses the chain and can be responded to with other card effects.

Notice that the effect excludes flip summoned monsters. That means your opponent can avoid the dangers of King Tiger Wanghu by setting monsters and then flip summoning them during a later turn. Light of Intervention may be worth running with King Tiger Wanghu to combat this strategy.

You need to pay attention to one more important detail—Wanghu’s effect impacts all monsters that meet the criteria, meaning that your own monsters can be destroyed by King Tiger Wanghu if their ATK values are too low when they are summoned. You must be careful when playing Wanghu in your deck.

Example: Divine Wrath the Big Cat

Let’s say that Tike controls a face-up copy of King Tiger Wanghu. His opponent, Greg, normal summons Raging Flame Sprite. Because Raging Flame Sprite’s ATK is 100, the effect of Tike’s King Tiger Wanghu is activated. Greg responds to the effect by activating Divine Wrath. The trap negates Wanghu’s effect and destroys the Beast, saving Greg’s Raging Flame Sprite.

King Tiger Wanghu’s effect doesn’t negate the summoning of a monster. Wanghu’s effect responds to a successful normal or special summon, so if the summoned monster has a mandatory effect that activates when the monster is successfully summoned, that effect will activate.

Example: Dark Jeroid vs. Wanghu

Let’s say that Tike has a face-up copy of King Tiger Wanghu. His opponent, Anna, begins her first main phase by normal summoning Dark Jeroid. Both monsters’ effects activate and form a chain, with Dark Jeroid’s effect going on the chain first. Anna chooses to target King Tiger Wanghu. When the chain resolves, King Tiger Wanghu’s effect will destroy Dark Jeroid, and Dark Jeroid’s effect will reduce Wanghu’s ATK by 800 points.

You may have noticed the official FAQ ruling that if Exiled Force is summoned while King Tiger Wanghu is face up on the field, the Warrior will be destroyed without activating its effect. Exiled Force’s controller doesn’t get a chance to activate the card’s ignition effect. A chain is automatically started by King Tiger Wanghu, robbing Exiled Force of any chance to respond. Monsters like Cannon Soldier, Magical Scientist, and Jowgen the Spiritualist will also fall prey to King Tiger Wanghu when they are summoned, because they don’t get a chance to use their ignition effects either.

Destruction or Safety?

When figuring out whether a summoned monster should be destroyed, keep in mind that the monster’s ATK must be 1400 or less when it is normal or special summoned. Any other modifiers that exist on the field must be taken into account when making this assessment.

For example, field spell cards like A Legendary Ocean can alter the summoned monster’s ATK and make the monster too strong for Wanghu’s effect to destroy. Mother Grizzly would usually be destroyed by King Tiger Wanghu’s effect when it’s normal summoned, but with A Legendary Ocean, the Grizzly’s ATK value doesn’t qualify it for destruction.

This works in reverse as well. If a monster that normally has an ATK greater than 1400 is weakened when it’s summoned, that card may be vulnerable to King Tiger Wanghu’s effect. For example, if I have King Tiger Wanghu and Milus Radiant face up on my side of the field, and then my opponent normal summons Harpie’s Brother, the Harpie’s ATK would drop from 1800 to 1400 at the time of the summon. Therefore, King Tiger Wanghu’s effect would be able to destroy the Winged Beast.

The Onslaught

Thus far, we’ve covered examples in which only one monster at a time has been summoned. Let’s say we have a situation where multiple monsters are summoned simultaneously, and each of them has an ATK of 1400 or less. What do we do then?

The answer is simple. King Tiger Wanghu’s effect will destroy all of the monsters even if King Tiger Wanghu was special summoned at the exact same time.

I realize that this might be a bit of a surprise, so let me elaborate with examples.

Example: Scapegoat—It’s What’s for Dinner

Let’s say that Tike attacks his opponent, William, with King Tiger Wanghu. William has no monsters to protect him from the attack, so in an effort to protect himself, he uses Scapegoat. For a brief moment, William’s plan works, because a replay occurs. But it doesn’t last long, as the sheep tokens that were special summoned have 0 ATK. King Tiger Wanghu’s effect activates and destroys all four of the sheep tokens. Tike then declares another attack with Wanghu and goes right back after William.

Example: Everything Goes Downhill

Let’s say that Tike and his Big Cat deck are taking on an Exodia deck. Tike’s opponent, Jen, is a crafty player, and Tike has a hard time while dueling her. During one of Tike’s turns, he sets Cyber Jar in the hope of using its effect to get some Exodia pieces onto the field. On his next turn, Tike flip summons Cyber Jar, destroying all of the monsters on the field and starting the special summoning process. Jen gets a copy of Sangan and Spirit Reaper, while Tike gets King Tiger Wanghu. Jen chooses to special summon both of her monsters in attack position, and Tike special summons King Tiger Wanghu in attack position as well. That’s when Tike realizes that he’s made a mistake.

What did he do wrong? Because King Tiger Wanghu was special summoned at the same time as Sangan, Wanghu’s effect activated and destroyed Sangan. Because of that, Jen got another piece of Exodia—perhaps the last one she needed.

Until next week, remember to feed your tiger.

Send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.