TSHD Part 1: Kentucky Fried Crow

Well, the rulings documents will be posted later than expected, but I hate breaking promises. So let's start looking at this new set anyway. We'll start by looking at the Blackwing, and not-so-Blackwing Cards included in it. This set contains 9 Card related to the theme to some extent, which is no surprise considering that the cover Card is a big dragon with black wings.

The first Card we'll look at is Blackwing - Ghibli the Searing Wind:

When your opponent declares a direct attack, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can switch this card's original ATK and DEF until the End Phase.

Ghibli has two effects. The first effect is a Trigger Effect, which you activate at Attack Declaration, when your opponent announces a direct attack. Its the same timing that Battle Fader has. Note that you cannot activate more than one Ghibli's effect, or activate a mix of Ghibli with Battle Fader (or any other similar monster). 

The second effect is an Ignition Effect, and as such, it can only be activated during your Main Phases. After the switch, you would re-apply current ATK modifiers on top of the new value. So if you equip Axe of Despair (1000/1600), after the switch, you add 1000 ATK to the new Original ATK (2600/0). If Shrink is used on Ghibli (0/1600), after using its effect, the new Original ATK will be halved (800/0).

Next, we have Blackwing - Gust the Backblast:

If you control  no cards, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. While this card is face-up on the field, if your opponent's monster attacks a "Blackwing" monster you control, the attacking monster loses 300 ATK during the Damage Step only.

The first sentence on Gust's text is an Inherent Special Summon. You must have no Cards on your side of the Field in order to perform it. Note that you are not required to do so, and you can just Normal Summon or Set Gust as any other monster. The second sentence is a Continuous Effect, which starts applying at the Start of the Damage Step. Multiple copies of Gust are cumulative, so if you control two, the attacking monster will lose 600 ATK.

Moving on, we have Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr:

If this card is added from your Deck to your hand by the effect of a Spell, Trap, or Monster Card, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This card cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster, except for the Synchro Summon of a "Blackwing" monster.

Breeze has a Trigger Effect, and a Condition. Its Trigger Effect is optional, however, it is one of those few Optional Trigger Effects that cannot miss the timing (due to the use of the word "if" rather than "when" to indicate its trigger). If you add Breeze to the Hand in the middle of a chain, such as multiple copies of Black Whirlwind, or in the middle of a resolving effect, such as Allure of Darkness, you can start a new chain after the last effect is done resolving. You cannot activate this effect during the Damage Step.

The Condition cannot be negated by anything. It is not wise to compare it to Vayu, as Vayu is unique by itself for having a Continuous Effect rather than a Condition. It seems pretty evident that you cannot use Breeze for popular Synchros like Stardust Dragon, but a really common question is whether you can use it as a Synchro Material for Black-Winged Dragon, specially since the Japanese advertisment for the set blatantly uses it like that. But like we we'll see in a minute, Black-Winged Dragon is not a Blackwing monster, so you cannot use Breeze to Summon it.

Starting with the Spell Cards, we have Black-Winged Strafe:

Send 1 "Blackwing" monster from your hand to the Graveyard to select 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls. Send that monster to the Graveyard.

This Normal Spell Card is pretty simple. You send 1 Blackwing from your Hand to the Graveyard as a cost, and you target 1 Defense Position monster (no matter if it is face-up or face-down). When Strafe resolves, the monster is sent to the Graveyard. If Macro Cosmos or a similar Card is active, you cannot activate Strafe, as you can't pay its cost, but if you successfully activate it, and Macro Cosmos is chained, the targeted monster is simply Removed from Play.

The second, and last Spell Card is Cards for Black Feathers:

Remove from play 1 "Blackwing" monster in your hand to draw 2 cards. You cannot Special Summon during the same turn you activate this card. You can only activate 1 "Cards for Black Feathers" per turn.

Another simple Card. Removing from Play a monster is a cost. As usual, you cannot filp the restrictions around, so you cannot perform a Special Summon first and activate CfBF later. If you send this Spell Card to the Graveyard by the effect of Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude, not only you get to bypass its cost, and the ability to perform Special Summons, but also, you can activate another copy of Cards for Black Feathers, since Diamond Dude only activates the effect of the Spell Card, and not the Card itself.

Moving into the Trap Cards, we have Blackwing - Backlash:

Activate only when your opponent's monster declares a direct attack while you have 5 or more "Blackwing" monsters in your Graveyard. Destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Some sort of Mirror Force for the theme. You activate this Normal Trap Card upon Attack Declaration, and you must have 5 or more Blackwings in your Graveyard. The amount of Blackwings is only an activation requirement, so if their number is reduced in a chain, Backlash still resolves properly. Note that, unlike Mirror Force, Backlash destroys all monsters on the opponent's side of the Field, no matter their position.

The next Trap Card is Blackwing - Bombardment:

Tribute 1 "Blackwing" monster to select 1 face-up Synchro Monster you control. That Synchro Monster gains ATK equal to the Tribute monster's ATK until the End Phase.

The tribute is a cost for this Normal Trap Card. It targets a face-up Synchro Monster on your side of the Field. The first thing to mention is that this Card can be activated during the Damage Step, before Damage Calculation. If activated during the Damage Step, it won't cause a replay. And another important note is that Bombardment reffers to the current ATK of the Blackwing monster, so if you attack with Shura, activate Kalut's effect, and then activate Bombardment, your Synchro Monster will gain 3200 ATK.

The last Trap Card is Black Thunder:

Activate only when a "Blackwing" monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard. Inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each card your opponent controls.

This Normal Trap Card is activated at the End of the Damage Step. It inflicts effect damage, and the Cards are counted during its resolution. A very simple effect.

Finally, we have the cover Card for this set. The infamous Black-Winged Dragon:

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Whenever you would take damage from a card effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card instead. This card loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter on it. Once per turn, you can remove all Black Feather Counters on this card to have 1 face-up monster your opponent controls lose 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter, and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK lost by that monster because of this effect.

The first and most important ruling about this monster is that it is NOT a Blackwing monster. The hyphen on its name is more than enough to deny it that honor. You cannot use Kalut to give it more ATK, you cannot use Breeze as a Synchro Material to Summon it, and you cannot Special Summon it with Vayu's effect.

With that said, let's look at its effects:

Whenever you would take damage from a card effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card instead.

This is a Continuous Effect. It is applied in the middle of an effect that would cause you to take effect damage, and this is not optional. This effect can disrupt the resolution of some Cards like Against the Wind, which won't be able to cause you damage, and so, you won't add its target to your Hand.If BWD has its effects negated, the Counters are removed.

Onto the second effect:

This card loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter on it.

Another Continuous Effect, and this one is self-explanatory. Note that the first effect and this one are not related, so even if you lower BWD's ATK to zero, you can still place more Black Feather Counters on it.

And for the big finale, the last effect:

Once per turn, you can remove all Black Feather Counters on this card to have 1 face-up monster your opponent controls lose 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter, and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK lost by that monster because of this effect.

This is an Ignition Effect (so you activate it during your Main Phases). Removing all Black Feather Counters is a cost, and this effect targets an opponent's monster. When the effect resolves, the target will lose 700 ATK for each Counter that you removed as a cost for this effect. And then, you will inflict damage equal to the amount of ATK that the target lost. So, for example, if you remove 4 counters and target Jinzo, Jinzo is supposed to lose 2800 ATK, but it only has 2400 ATK. Its ATK will be reduced to zero, and you will inflict 2400 points of damage. Note that you cannot target a monster with zero ATK with this effect. And most importantly, this ATK loss remains as long as the target remains face-up on the Field.

Well, that's all about Blackwings in The Shining Darkness.If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail at ness00[at]gmail[dot]com.