The “C” line of Insects are monsters that pop out of nowhere whenever monsters are being Summoned to the field. The “C” monsters have been mainstays of competitive play for years: Maxx “C” has been a part of tournament-winning Decks for years and is currently on the Limited List. Flying “C” flies into Duelists’ Side Decks whenever an Xyz Summon-heavy strategy becomes popular, and Retaliating “C” became the pick of choice when Spell-based Special Summoning (like Ritual Summoning a Nekroz monster) was all over the place. No matter when type of monster lineup your opponent has, there’s an Insect that can stop it. Now, in Extreme Force, a new kind of Insect will infest the field: introducing Contact “C”!

Contact “C” is a Level 6 EARTH Insect with 1500 ATK and 2200 DEF. That 1500 ATK is perfect since it’s the highest ATK that still makes it searchable with Retaliating “C”’s and Sangan’s effects. When your opponent Normal or Special Summons a monster, you can Special Summon this Insect from your hand to your opponent’s field in face-up Defense Position. It shares Flying “C”’s activation condition, but while Flying “C” outright stops only Xyz Summoning, Contact “C” forces your opponent to use Contact “C” as a Material for a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz or Link Summon. This doesn’t have the same absolute stopping power as Flying “C”, but in most situations, your opponent will be forced to make a change of plans in order to work around Contact “C”.

For a Fusion Summon, there’s only a small number of Fusion Monsters can use Contact “C” as a Fusion Material. For Synchro Summons, because Contact “C” is Level 6, this makes Synchro Summoning a Level 6 or lower monster impossible without a way of changing Contact “C”’s Level. Likewise, an Xyz Summon requires 2 or more monsters with the same Level, so Xyz Summoning any Monster that isn’t Rank 6 is likewise impossible. The only real way of getting Contact “C” off the field with an Extra Deck Summon is via Link Summoning. This may not sound bad at first because Link 1 monsters exist, but at the moment, all of them require a Normal Monster (which Contact “C” is not) or a Normal Summoned/Set monster (which this card isn’t) and of the Link 2 monsters available, very few are able to use Contact “C” as a Material. While most players using Link Monsters will use have access to Decode Talker, it’s a Link 3 monster which means that your opponent will need to send 2 of their other monsters away with Contact “C” in order to Summon Decode Talker. If your opponent had a sequence of play in mind, losing two of their monsters may put a stop to that. Or, if they don’t have any Link Monsters to Summon using Contact “C”, your opponent has to completely stop their sequence entirely, or waste a powerful removal effect like Dark Hole to continue.

If your opponent can’t use Contact “C” as a Material and remove it from their field, you can use a few tricks to keep it around. For instance, using Akashic Magician from Circuit Break, you can bounce the Contact “C” you Summoned to your opponent’s field back to your own hand (provided you put it in the correct Main Monster Zone to start with), or you can use Storming Mirror Force which would return your Contact “C” to your hand and any other Attack Position monsters your opponent controlled would go back to their hand. Your opponent could still Summon those monsters later, but knowing you have Contact “C” in your hand, they won’t be able to do what they need in order to win, but you can continue your gameplay uninterrupted!

You can get Contact “C” from Extreme Force, in stores now!