Apollousa v Dark Ruler No More

[Bernu Sandor]

Hi all,

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I had this interaction come up yesterday and want to clarify how it would work:

Apollousa states that when it is link summoned its "original attack" becomes 800 times the number of monsters used for its summon. Dark ruler no more negates all monster effects on the field. So the question is, how much attack does Apollousa have after it is negated by a card like Dark Ruler?

I would think that it would still be (n)800, since that's its original attack now and its effect is to lower its attack by 800 for each negate. Especially confusing is the fact that the card is printed with a "?" so if its effects are negated what number would "?" represent.

All the best

[DuskWill]

To be precise, Apollousa states that "The original ATK of this card becomes 800 x the number of Link Materials used for its Link Summon.". It's not applied at the summon, being a continuous effect instead, akin to Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.

As for the ruling issue, since we appear to lack distinct rulings for Apollousa, we have to make use of analogy with existing ones. Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is a nice example, as it has quite a similar ATK effect. Following it's rulings (https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Card_Rul ... ess_Dragon) we see that:

If "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon" is affected by "Skill Drain", then "Chimeratech Fortress Dragon" will have 0 ATK, even if "Skill Drain" is later removed.

Through that, I conclude that the same will happen to Apollousa.

Cards with ? ATK and effects like these tend to be confusing, but they end up being fragile because of those rulings, lacking proper ATK values and, so far, no support for monsters with such undefined ATK (well, there is one, but Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate doesn't assist them, rather using them as a cost). I just hope your duel wasn't affected or defined much by that ruling situation.

[Shugunou]

Any card that has ? ATK or DEF has the value at 0 when no effect that changes the value applies. This is the case for Holactie which has ? ATK/DEF but no effect to change this. The time before its effect is applied causing a victory has its ATK/DEF at 0. Most people believe that the victory is immediate but it remains for some time, just not long enough for the game state to update.