TSHD Part 10: Shining Terminal

The Shining Darkness includes a number of support Cards for some existing themes from the Duel Terminal arcade, as well as reprints of some Duel Terminal Cards that were illegal until TSHD was released. These Cards support the Ally of Justice, Genex, Ice Barrier and Worm themes. Let's take a look:

The new support Card for the Ally of Justice theme is Ally of Justice Core Destroyer:

If this card attacks or is attacked by a LIGHT monster, destroy that monster at the start of the Damage Step (without damage calculation).

As you can probably tell from its text, or even its looks, Core Destroyer works like a pocket version of Ally of Justice Catastor. It has a mandatory Trigger Effect which you activate at the start of the Damage Step if both battling monsters are face-up at the time. Damage Calculation is not applied only if you succeed in destroying the battling monster, but if Core Destroyer fails to do so (because its effect is negated, or the other monster uses a substitution effect), then Damage Calculation WILL be performed.

Then, we have a reprint of Ally of Justice Light Gazer:

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
This card gains 200 ATK for each LIGHT monster in your opponent's Graveyard.

Not much to say about this guy. It only has a Continuous Effect, which constantly recalculates the ATK bonus. A very simple effect.

Now, let's take a look at the Worm support Spell Card, Worm Call:

Once per turn, if your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters, you can Special Summon 1 Reptile-Type "Worm" monster from your hand in face-down Defense Position.

This Continuous Spell Card has an Ignition-like effect. Since the Worm monster is Summoned from the Hand, Worm Call's effect doesn't target, but you must reveal the monster when the effect resolves, before Summoning the monster (in order to verify that it is a Reptile-Type Worm monster). Being a Continuous Spell Card, it needs to remain face-up in order for its effect to resolve properly. Also, when the effect starts resolving, you must still have zero monsters, and the opponent must still control at least 1 monster.

The last original DT support Card in the set was Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier:

Reveal 3 "Ice Barrier" monsters with different names in your hand to select 1 card your opponent controls. Destroy the opponent's card and Special Summon 1 "Ice Barrier" monster from your hand.

Triangle reveals three monsters as a cost, and it targets an opponent's Card. When it resolves, you destroy the target Card, and if you succeed in doing so, you Special Summon an Ice Barrier monster from your Hand. This Special Summon doesn't target the Ice Barrier monster in your Hand, and it doesn't need to be one of the three monsters that you had previously revealed. Even if the Summon depends on the destruction, these two events are considered to be simultaneous.

The following Cards are all reprints of the Genex theme from the Duel Terminals. Let's skip Controller since it's just a boring Normal Monster and let's look at Genex Undine:

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can send 1 WATER monster  from your Deck to your Graveyard to add 1 "Genex Controller" from your Deck  to your hand.

Undine has an optional Trigger Effect that you activate upon its successful Normal Summon, so Pulling the Rug can negate its effect. Undine is very interesting in the aspect that it can send a specific monster from the Deck to the Graveyard as a cost, and it was the first Card to do so. Since it looks for a Genex Controller in the Deck, it does not target the Controller (or the WATER monster).

Next, we have Genex Searcher:

When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 "Genex" monster  with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck  in face-up  Attack Position.

Your average recruiter. It has an optional Trigger Effect that you activate at the End of the Damage Step. Boo, you are boring!

Moving on, we have Genex Neutron:

During the End Phase of the turn that this card was Normal Summoned, you can add 1 Machine-Type Tuner monster from your Deck  to your hand.

Neutron has a really convoluted effect. It's an Optional Trigger Effect that actually activates during the End Phase, not when it is Normal Summoned, so you cannot use Pulling the Rug against it. In order to be able to activate the effect, Neutron must be able to "remind" it was Normal Summoned. There are three situations in which it will "remind" this:

1) It remains face-up until the End Phase.

2) It is flipped face-down, but is flipped face-up before ending the turn.

3) It is Removed from Play temporarily and returned to the Field (by the infamous Interdimensional Matter Transporter, for example).

The key scenario in which it will "forget" that it was Normal Summoned is if you Remove it from the Field and Summon it again through other means, such as Call of the Haunted. As a final note, once again, since it looks for a Card in the Deck, it does not target.

The last monster is the Synchro Monster Hydro Genex:

"Genex Controller" + 1 or more WATER Non-Tuner monsters
When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, gain Life Points equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.

Hydro has a very simple effect. It's an mandatory Trigger Effect that activates at the End of the Damage Step. Since it activates once the monster is sent to the Graveyard, it looks at the ATK value while in the Graveyard (which most likely will be the monster's Original ATK).

That's all we have for today, but there are still a ton of The Shining Darkness Card to review! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail at ness00[at]gmail[dot]com.