What is Light and Darkness Dragon?
Light and Darkness Dragon (I will call it LaDD in this article) is probably one of the cards with the most complicated rulings in YGO. This guy is, in fact, probably even more complicated to understand than Shrink. LaDD was first released in OCG in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Volume 1 manga as a promotional card, then quickly escalated to be one of the most complicated cards in the game. Let's get deeper into the matter.

Why is Light and Darkness Dragon so complicated?
First of all, the card text can be overly confusing for some people. You have to exactly know every single ruling about this card to clearly understand what it does. But always remember one thing: LaDD can ONLY negate effects that start a chain. Now, let's examine the fundamental and confusing parts of it's card text clearly:

While face-up on the field, this card is also DARK-Attribute.

This part is not that confusing but it has some interesting mechanics. For example, while Gozen Match is face-up on the field, you CAN summon LaDD, but it will be instantly sent to the graveyard by Gozen Match because it will be treated as DARK while face-up on the field. And, the most interesting part of it is, it won't get it's last effect. LaDD wasn't destroyed, it was simply sent to the graveyard due to having 2 attributes at the same time. You will NOT get to Special Summon a monster from your graveyard. That's the only relevant mechanic on top of my mind right now, but remember it's only treated as a DARK monster while face-up on the field, so you can't tribute it for cards like Deck Devastation Virus, or banish it from the graveyard to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning after banishing another LIGHT monster.

Once per Chain, during either player's turn, when a Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect is activated: This card loses exactly 500 ATK and DEF and that activation is negated.

This is pretty tricky. The once per chain condition on LaDD is there because if it could activate multiple times in the same chain, it would just keep negating it's own effect and cause an infinite chain. That's right, an infinite chain. Why? Because it doesn't lose ATK/DEF as a cost, and also becuse this is a mandatory effect. Mandatory effects activate in either case if the condition is met. For example, Atlantean Marksman's effect will activate if discarded by a WATER monster even if there are no face-down cards on your opponent's side of the field, and it will start a chain. But, back to LaDD. As I said before, it can only activate once per chain, if it doesn't lose ATK and DEF, the card cannot be negated and vice-versa. Let's make another example. Let's imply there are 2 LaDDs on your field at the same time. You activate Dark Hole. Which one of the LaDDs will negate Dark Hole? This is fairly hard to explain... let's start with mentioning that BOTH LaDDs will chain to Dark Hole at the same time, and BOTH will try to negate it. The rest depends on how the chain is organized. In this case, you can choose which LaDD to put at Chain Link 2, and that one LaDD will be the one to lose ATK and DEF and negate Dark Hole. The LaDD at Chain Link 3 will attempt to negate Dark Hole but it will NOT be able to, because it's not responding directly to it, thus making it's own effect vanish. As I said before, losing ATK/DEF is not a cost, so the values remain unchanged.
If, for example, you controlled a LaDD, and your opponent another one, your LaDD will HAVE to be Chain Link 2 mandatorily, due to SEGOC (Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain), and will be the one to negate Dark Hole, thus to lose ATK/DEF. Your opponent's LaDD ATK/DEF values will remain unchanged due to the ruling I mentioned above. See what I mean with it being tricky?
Another commonly misconcepted part of this effect is that LaDD negates the ACTIVATION of the card. So if, for example, you use a Pot of Duality and LaDD negates it, you can use another Pot of Duality, or if you did not use another one, you can Special Summon in that turn. One more thing: LaDD only negates the activation of the card/monster effect, it doesn't destroy said card. But that's something we all should know. Although, if for example, you used a Field Spell and LaDD negated it, that field spell is sent to the graveyard, but it's not destroyed. Same goes with continuous Spells/Traps. Monster Effects are different though. If LaDD negates a monster effect, the monster will remain on the field. Now, since we got that out of the way, let's proceed to the next part of the card text.

When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 monster in your Graveyard (if possible); destroy all cards you control, also Special Summon that monster (if any).

This is another tricky part of it's effect. Let's start with mentioning that this effect doesn't activate if LaDD is SENT to the Graveyard without being destroyed. This is a mandatory effect that NEEDS to activate even if there are no targets to Special Summon. That's right, all of your cards will be destroyed even if you can't special summon anything from your graveyard. This can be a pretty big downside of having your LaDD destroyed and with no useful monsters in your Graveyard. This effect is negated by Soul Drain because it activates in the Graveyard. Also, this effect activates even if LaDD is not face-up on the field when it's destroyed. So cards like Solemn Judgment/Solemn Warning will trigger it. There's not much else to say about it, just remember what I mentioned above.

Damn that's a lot of rulings! Are those all of the LaDD rulings?
Of course not. There are many more more rulings regarding LaDD, and most of them are specific for each card. Although you should be fine if you remember most of the stuff I mentioned in this article. If you want to read more LaDD rulings, check this page.

So LaDD is way more complicated than this?!
Unfortunately, yes... a wall of text isn't enough to explain each and every single one of it's mechanics, because they're countless. Most of the time you can figure stuff out with common sense, but other times you need to check the Wikia page, because let's face it: common sense isn't common in Yu-Gi-Oh!

Well, damn this took forever. I believe that's all for this article, if you have any more questions please feel free to post and ask. Thanks for reading!

~Self Proclaimed LaDD Chain Master

Interesting article Syrufit, this would help me when one person tells me info. About Light and Darkness dragon he makes up xD. Thanks sy, amazing article.

bump , very good article and straight to the point.
Like it how you explained it in a simple language so even begginers will get it.
Morale of the story dont play 2 LaDD , ever...


Are the rulings guilty why the card isnt played anymore by newcomers.....maybe :whattheshaft: