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Light and Darkness Dragon (LaDD)
Level: 8
Type: Dragon
Attribute: Light
(+ Dark because of effect)Attack: 2800
Defense: 2400
Effect:This card cannot be Special Summoned. While this card is face up on the field its attribute is also treated as DARK. When a Spell or Trap card is activated or the effect of an effect monster is activated, that activation is negated and this card loses 500 ATK and DEF. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, select 1 monster in your Graveyard. Then destroy all cards on your control and Special Summon that monster. Now I will go into detail about the effects of LaDD:
This card cannot be Special Summoned.
Simple enough. You can only Normal Summon this guy- no Premature Burial, A Hero Emerges, etc.
While this card is face up on the field its attribute is also treated as DARK.
Also simple. Just remember that this is Dark AND Light on the field. In the deck, Grave, hand, it's just a Light monster.
When a Spell or Trap card is activated or the effect of an Effect Monster is activated, that activation is negated and this card loses 500 ATK and DEF.
Now here is where things get complicated. Seriously. Now when a Spell, Trap or Monster effect ACTIVATES, whether it’s on yours or your opponent’s side of the field, this monster’s effect kicks in and starts a chain. (If you don’t know what a chain is, look it up in your rulebook or go
HERE.) As the chain resolves the card that tried to activate is negated and LaDD loses 500 ATK and DEF. LaDD’s effect is NOT optional and will work without your consent or care for your well-being.
cry LaDD’s effect will only WORK if it has ATK and DEF to spare. So once its DEF reaches 400 after four negations, even though it will have 800 ATK, it can no longer negate effects. However, it will still try to activate its effect and start a chain and end up failing. Why am I telling you this? Well maybe this will be good for you if you have cards like Chain Strike or others that work with chains. And it’ll make you sound intelligent if you know stuff like this. It can start negating again if you increase the deficient stat, whether it’s with something temporary like Castle Walls or permanent like equip-cards. But there is the much more promising option of flipping it face down via Book of Moon or any similar card. Once its flipped face up again, its stats will return to normal. (While face down it can’t negate any cards, just fyi.)
LaDD’s range of negation includes cards on the field, hand, graveyard and out of play. The effect must be activated in order for this card to negate it. So if you have a card with a continuous effect like Jinzo or Protector of the Sanctuary, their effects don’t activate and won’t be negated; they just… work. And since LaDD only negates cards, they won’t be negated and destroyed. So if your opponent has a card like Ultimate Offering and activates its effect, it will be negated. But they can activate it again and your Dragon has no choice but to negate it… that is until its ATK and DEF stats get too low for it to work and effects will be able to activate. If a Spell or Trap is negated, it’s just sent to the graveyard after negation. Monsters that activate upon summoning like the Monarchs or can just activate are negated and the monster remains on the field.
This is something a little bit extra but really important for you to understand. A lot of people don’t understand this but, when a card is negated, the cost is not negated. Cards ask you to pay Life Points (LP), discard a card from your hand, tributed one monster on your side of the field, etc. are “costs”. If you activate, lets say, Exiled Force effect and tribute it to destroy a monster. The tributing part is the cost. If the card is negated with Divine Wrath or LaDD, the effect doesn’t work and you’ve just wasted a monster. If you're not sure about which cards have costs, check out the
YGO! official website.
Getting into more complicated details this card’s effect activates only once- “But BK, I though it worked until its stats were too low?!” Well let me finish my sentence- the negation effect activates
once per chain. So what does this mean? Simply that any cards chained after LaDD’s negation effect
will work.
3nodding This card doesn’t have the ability to negate more than once in a chain. I can’t exactly explain why, but that’s just how it is. I’ll go into more detail about the fun and troublesome things you can do with this simple detail later.
When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, select 1 Monster in your Graveyard. Then Destroy all cards on your control, and Special Summon that Monster.
This last effect is pretty simple but there are a few key things to remember. LaDD doesn’t have to be destroyed on the field to activate this effect. It can be destroyed in your hand by Crush Card Virus for example. So no matter where (hand, field, etc.) or how (result of battle or card effect) it is “destroyed” the effect will begin. Fist you must choose a monster in your grave to special summon (and you can’t pick LaDD because it can’t be Special Summoned). Now all cards on your side of the field are destroyed and the selected monster is Special Summoned. The destruction side-effect will occur even if you don’t have a monster you can Special Summon or you just can’t perform Special Summons. Plus, you can’t choose a monster on your side of the field to Special Summon because the destruction effect occurs after you pick a monster in your Grave. If LaDD is sent to the Grave by a tribute, discard, etc. its effect won’t activate. Always be aware that LaDD could potentially wipe your field clean before just slapping cards down. Oh! I almost forgot, if your opponent chains this effect with Disappear or The Transmigration Prophecy or uses any other effect to remove the monster you want to Special Summon from the Graveyard, the monster will not be Special Summoned and all of your cards on your field will still be destroyed.
Extra Info, etc.
And that’s the basic jist of Light and Darkness. Now to take advantage of this card… well taking advantage of card effects is always fun but LaDD makes it more fun.
There is no way to get around the “can’t Special Summon” effect so forget about that. The Dark attribute effect can have other potentials, but the most potent one, I think, is to fuel it for a Crush Card Virus once its ATK stats are 800 and it can no longer negate effects. Or you can activate Deck Devastation Virus as a chain to LaDD.
The negation aspect can be taken advantage of by both you and your opponent. Your opponent can activate one card, LaDD will negate it and then chain with another card to destroy LaDD. Ex: LaDD attacks. Opponent activates Widespread Ruin. LaDD chains to negate the effect. Opponent chains and activates Sakuretsu Armor (bye-bye LaDD…). I should also mention that once LaDD is destroyed, the first card it tried to negate will not be negated. So if you have any other monsters in attack mode, Widespread would destroy one of them as the chain resolves. But just because a scenario like this can happen doesn’t mean you can’t perform your own tricks! Here’s a list of other cool things to do with our dragon:
- Book of Moon LaDD face down to dodge danger and rest its ATK and DEF stats!
- When LaDD is out of DEF to spare and your opponent thinks it’s alright to activate a card, LaDD will still try to negate the card. Chain LaDD with Castle Walls or anything similar to give it that extra boost to negate!
- Skill Drain LaDD to have a 2800 ATK beatstick! Its effect that activates upon destruction will still work! (Hopefully that’s a good think for you.)
- Foolish Burial-ize big monsters like Blue-Eyes or Dark Magician of Chaos. When LaDD kicks the bucket you can at least ensure you have a deadly monster to back it up.
- Use cards like Dark Coffin and the Wicked Statue-card-thing (I forget the exact name) and use their effects when LaDD gets destroyed and destroys them.
- Make LaDD a part of your negation deck! Include Jinzo, Royal Decree, Horus LV8, and more!
A deck centered on LaDD or utilizing it should be wary about your own card effects activating without their consent (Sangan, flip-effect monsters, etc.). You’re going to want cards you want to Special Summon from the Graveyard like Destiny Hero- Disk Commander. At the very least, LaDD can be that card to exhaust your opponent or crush them. If you find yourself facing this card, you suddenly become very aware of your cards and their effects and how to deplete or chain LaDD to remove this imposing threat. Maybe they can swiftly use whip up two cards to take it down. Well look at it this way, those two cards could have been used on something else and cost you more of the game. So don’t worry a lot, LaDD will get you some mileage before it done its job… that is unless he’s Forced Back, Solemn Judgment-ed, Divine Wrath-ed… well these cards are major set backs for it, but no card is without its weakness!
Overall Rating for Light and Darkness Dragon: 8.65/10
This card can lock your opponent down at the right times and win the game for you. It can also be a set back for you since most of your effects won’t get through, but with the right field set up, this won’t be too much of a problem. The Special Summon ability can set off at unexpected moments, but with some luck and the right cards, you can take full advantage of this and keep the game moving in your favor.
