Turning the field into a hellish playground for demons!
"As long as the Field Spell Card 'Pandemonium - Den of Demons' is face-up in the Field Zone, any monster with 'Demon' in its name that requires Life Points to maintain its presence—those costs can be ignored!"
Demon of Thunder – Skeletal Fiend, essentially a powered-up version of Summoned Skull, not only gains a powerful "chance-based immunity to targeting effects," but also normally requires a payment of 500 Life Points during its controller's Standby Phase to remain on the field.
"Battle Phase! Teleporting Demon, attack that face-down monster!"
Now that Skeletal Fiend's drawback was taken care of, Titan immediately ordered his purple demon to launch an attack at Yuye's face-down monster.
"The defending monster is Elemental HERO Clayman. Its DEF is the same as the ATK of your Teleporting Demon—2000 points. So this attack is pretty much useless."
Looking at the Clayman that flipped face-up after being attacked, Yuye casually informed his opponent of its DEF.
"Then I'll let my stronger monster, Skeletal Fiend, attack instead! Demonic Lightning Strike!"
Golden lightning erupted from the wide skeletal claws of Skeletal Fiend, striking straight at the lone Clayman on Yuye's field. Just as the golden bolt was about to destroy Clayman, the latter suddenly changed from a crouching defensive posture, swiftly dodging the incoming strike. Under the shocked gazes of Titan and his Skeletal Fiend, Clayman dashed forward and lunged at the fiend with open arms.
"BOOM!!"
A massive explosion forced Titan to raise his arm to shield his eyes. When the smoke cleared, what greeted him was the now-empty right side of his field—Skeletal Fiend was gone! At the same time, his Life Points had dropped by 800.
(Titan: 4000 LP → 3200 LP)
"That was Clay Charge, a Trap Card specifically for Clayman. It activates when Clayman is chosen as an attack target. It destroys both Clayman and the attacking monster, and inflicts 800 damage to your Life Points."
After briefly explaining what had just happened, Yuye noticed Titan still looking utterly confused. As if remembering something, Yuye continued:
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention—Clay Charge doesn't target. That's why Skeletal Fiend's 'chance-based targeting immunity' didn't activate."
In the Demon-themed archetype, the majority of monsters share a common effect:
When a monster becomes the target of an opponent's card effect, its controller rolls a die. If the result matches the conditions written on the card, that effect is negated and the source card is destroyed.
This mechanic is widely referred to by duelists as "chance-based targeting immunity."
Unfortunately, it clashed with Clay Charge, a non-targeting Trap Card—rendering Skeletal Fiend completely ineffective and sending it straight to the Graveyard before it could do anything. (Author's note)
"Tch... then I activate the effect of the Field Spell Pandemonium! When a monster with 'Demon' in its name is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by a card effect (not by battle), I can add a 'Demon' monster from my Deck to my hand, as long as its Level is lower than that of the destroyed monster."
Skeletal Fiend is Level 6, so he can add a "Demon" monster of Level 1 to 5 to his hand.
"According to this effect, I add the Level 4 Demon Queen of the Scorching Flames to my hand."
As the Duel Disk auto-searched and ejected the card from the Main Deck, Titan reached out and took it. Once the system finished shuffling the Deck, he exchanged the last two cards in his left hand for this newly drawn Queen Demon card, then inserted them one by one into his Spell/Trap Card zones.
"I set two cards face-down and end my turn."
"My turn—draw!"
Yuye glanced at the card in his hand and, without hesitation, slapped it onto the Monster Zone of his Duel Disk.
"I summon Elemental HERO Sparkman in Attack Position, then go straight into my Battle Phase!"
The workhorse elder brother of the HERO quartet—Sparkman—appeared on the field. Without performing any additional actions in Main Phase 1, Yuye immediately declared his intent to enter the Battle Phase.
"Wait! Before you enter the Battle Phase, I activate this face-down card!"
Seeing Yuye about to attack his only monster, Teleporting Demon, Titan quickly interrupted and pressed the activation button on his Trap Card.
"Trap Card – Nightmare Demon Horde! According to this card's effect, I Tribute my Teleporting Demon to Special Summon three Nightmare Demon Tokens to your side of the field!"
Three demons resembling stick figures with flowing blue hair—or rather, blue ghost fire—suddenly appeared on Yuye's field. With a glance, their details became clear:
(Nightmare Demon Tokens ×3 – Fiend-Type / DARK / Level 6 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 2000)
"These Attack Position Nightmare Demon Tokens may have a high 2000 ATK, but as the cost of receiving them for free, whenever one is destroyed, you'll take 800 damage per token!"
Nightmare Demon Horde was a Trap Card Titan who had spent a hefty sum on the black market. What attracted him to it was not just its ability to Special Summon three "Nightmare Demon Tokens" to the opponent's field, effectively blocking them from summoning other monsters, but also the secondary effect: when those tokens are destroyed, the opponent takes 800 damage for each one.
And if paired with a certain other card… heh.
Thinking this, Titan glanced down at another face-down card near his feet. This combo had played a decisive role in many of his past Duels! After all, if all three tokens were destroyed, it would deal a total of 2400 damage, giving him an overwhelming Life Point advantage.
After hearing Titan explain the card effect, Yuye looked at the three Nightmare Demon Tokens on his field. His eyes gradually began to gleam with interest—so brightly that the three tokens instinctively huddled together, trembling as they sensed something bad was about to happen.
"Continue the battle! Sparkman, direct attack Titan!"
With Teleporting Demon tributed as a cost for Nightmare Demon Horde, Titan's Monster Zone was now empty, leaving him defenseless against Sparkman's direct attack.
"This is exactly what I was waiting for!"
Hearing Yuye's full attack declaration, Titan grinned and laughed as he activated his other face-down card:
"Trap Card – Mirror Force! Destroy all of your opponent's Attack Position monsters! And at the same time, you'll suffer 2400 damage from the destruction of those Nightmare Demon Tokens!"
That's right—the combo he had prepared was Nightmare Demon Horde + Mirror Force!
Destroying all of the opponent's Attack Position monsters, and simultaneously dealing 2400 damage from the tokens' destruction! A perfect combo chain!
"Heh! Sore wa dō kana?"
(Heh! Are you sure about that?)
Tugging at the brim of his cap, Yuye let out a cold chuckle and said:
"Honestly, that combo is pretty clever. But… did you ever think about what would happen if just one of those two card effects got negated?"
"W-What do you mean…?"
Yuye's words stirred a deep sense of foreboding in Titan's heart—especially since Mirror Force had yet to destroy any of Yuye's monsters. That ominous feeling only grew stronger.
"What I mean is——"
Author's Note:
In the real OCG, whether Clay Charge targets is still under ruling revision. Situations like "If only one monster is destroyed, does the damage still apply?" or "If only one monster remains at resolution, does the effect still resolve?"—are also under review.
In this story, I've defined Clay Charge as a non-targeting effect. Once Clayman is confirmed as the original and the opposing attacking monster is still on the field without any immunity, both will be destroyed and sent to the Graveyard at resolution. Moreover, as long as Clayman is successfully destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, even if the opponent's monster survives, the 800 damage is still inflicted.