This week, we’ll focus our attention on the trickier Vehicroids, so that we can clear up any misunderstandings about their abilities.

“Once per turn, if this card would be destroyed as a result of battle, it is not destroyed. (Damage calculation is applied normally).”

Gyroid isn’t daunted by defeat. But even though it’s always willing to battle on, it only gets one more chance from its effect. This effect will activate even if Gyroid was flipped due to battle. Because it is face-up after being flipped, its effect will be active and will save it from being destroyed. Now this works great in regular monster battles, but when you encounter the likes of Sasuke Samurai, you’ll run into trouble.

Monsters like Sasuke Samurai, with its “severing” effect, will not cause the attacked face-down monster to flip. If the face-down monster happens to be Gyroid, its effect will not be able to save it from destruction, because it was destroyed while it was face-down. Thus, its effect was not active and could not save it from Sasuke Samurai.

Gyroid’s effect also has another benefit: you can reset it and use it again in the same battle phase. How, you ask? By using a card like Call of the Haunted to special summon it back into play during the battle phase. With one Gyroid and one Call of the Haunted, you could successfully protect yourself from four attacks. Gyroid would be attacked once without being destroyed, attacked twice and then destroyed, special summoned back to the field with Call of the Haunted, attacked a third time without being destroyed, then attacked a fourth and final time.

One important note to remember is that you cannot decide to ignore Gyroid’s effect and allow Gyroid to be destroyed when its effect should protect it. The effect is not optional, so if it has not yet used the ability to protect itself, it will do so when it loses the next battle.

“If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, destroy the monster with this card's effect without applying damage calculation.”

Monsters that have the ability to destroy defense position monsters without the need for damage calculation is not an uncommon effect in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Each monster with this ability handles it in its own way, based on its text, and Drillroid is no exception to this rule.

Drillroid’s effect activates right before you would compare the attacker and defender and determine the damage calculation. If Drillroid attacks a face-up defense position monster, you will have a fairly easy time. However, if the attacked monster is in face-down defense position, then things get a bit more complicated.

You must first flip the face-down defense position monster face up and reveal which monster it is. After doing this, Drillroid’s effect activates and it will destroy the defense position monster. But the act of flipping the face-down monster face-up can activate any of that monster’s flip effects. If you were to attack the opponent’s face-down defense position Magician of Faith, its effect will still activate. Keep this in mind when you’re playing with Drillroid.

“At the time this card is selected as an attack target by your opponent’s monster, the controller of this card can activate Trap Card(s) from their hand.”

When a player declares a battle with a monster, he or she decides which of his or her monsters will attack and which opposing monster it will attack. After the player has made a choice, the battle phase enters a brief period of time where cards that are activated in response to an attack can be used, such as Mirror Force and Dimension Wall.

This is the same time period that Jetroid’s effect uses. When your opponent declares an attack and selects your face-up Jetroid, Jetroid’s effect allows you the ability to play trap cards from your hand. You’re only given this one brief period of time to use the trap cards from your hand, but the tactical advantage that you can create is what makes it all worthwhile.

Suppose you have Mirror Force in your hand. Normally, you would have to set Mirror Force in order to use its effect during your opponent’s turn. But if you have a face-up Jetroid on your side of the field, you may not have to. When your opponent declares that his or her monster will attack your Jetroid, Jetroid’s effect gives you the chance to activate that Mirror Force from your hand!

Jaden uses Elemental Hero Sparkman to attack Syrus’s face up Jetroid. After Jaden declares his attack against Jetroid, Jetroid’s effect turns on and says “All right, that monster just declared that it’s attacking me! Let’s show it what I’m made of.”

Now Syrus has the ability to activate trap cards from his hand. He activates the trap card Sakuretsu Armor. It will destroy Jaden’s attacking monster, Elemental Hero Sparkman.

You’ll notice that the text says “Trap Card(s).” This means that you can actually use more than one trap card in the same chain. For example, when my opponent attacks my Jetroid, I could activate Jar of Greed from my hand, and I could then also chain Ring of Destruction to destroy the opponent’s monster.

Also, keep in mind that this effect is only good for the single chain opportunity that’s used to respond to the attack declaration. After this chain has fully resolved, it will no longer be possible to activate other trap cards from your hand.

Jaden may have lost his Elemental Hero Sparkman, but he’s determined to take down the Jetroid. He Normal Summons Elemental Hero Avian and equips it with Axe of Despair to push its ATK to 2000. He then attacks Jetroid.

Jetroid again sees its chance to prove itself, allowing Syrus to activate Widespread Ruin from his hand. But this time, Jaden is prepared, responding to Widespread Ruin with Seven Tools of the Bandit.

Syrus doesn’t have any counter traps to respond with, so the chain is resolved. With the resolution of the chain, the time window to respond to the attack is ended. It’s now too late for Syrus to activate any more trap cards from his hand.

One final note—Jetroid’s effect is only active if it is face-up when your opponent declares that he or she is attacking it. If it’s attacked while it is face-down, you will never get a chance to utilize its effect, because when Jetroid is flipped face-up, you’ll have already lost the window for its effect. Remember that the chance to respond to the declaration of an attack happens during the battle step, and only during the battle step.

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