Atomic Firefly - AST-024
1*, Light/Insect, 100/200

When this face-up card on the field attacks or is attacked and it is destroyed as a result of battle, the player who destroyed it takes 1000 points of damage.

I'm not sure why it says "the player who destroyed it". Does that mean if I attack with it to ram it into something bigger, I take the 1000 effect damage, and not my opponent?

No, it just means that if you ram it and suicide it your opponent will recieve damage, if your opponent attacks it and destroys it he will receive damage.

Just gotta remember the rules...

The card text is very correct on the card mechanics; "Atomic Firefly" has to be face-up BEFORE the attack is declared.

"Atomic Firefly"'s effect activates in the Graveyard when "Atomic Firefly" is sent to the Graveyard at the end of the attack, so "Skill Drain" will not negate its effect.

You can use "Barrel Behind the Door" against "Atomic Firefly"'s effect.

That makes the difference of this card being a great card, and a bad card.

If my opponent takes the damage no matter who's battle phase, then why didn't they word it (or RE-word it in it's re-release) to state "when this card is destroyed as a result of battle while face-up..." like they have for other cards? I find it's wording ambiguous. "the player who destroyed it" can also mean the person who forced it to be destroyed.

HDI: The rulings don't state who takes damage when it's suicided, and it's text is vague. That's why I'm posting here.

Given the wording of the card itself, I would have to say that it does look at who got it destroyed in the first place...the wording does make it hard to understand and rules don't really state anything either.

I guess if you ram it into something bigger, your opponent takes the 1000 points of damage, because it is their monster that destroyed it.

If they took control of it and rammed it into your monster and the Firefly died, you would take the damage because your monster destroyed it.

Well, that is more vague and since all monsters are face-up when destroyed as a result of battle, it needed to be more accurate.

the rulings do explain why the card's text is worded that way. indirectly

"Atomic Firefly"'s effect activates in the Graveyard when "Atomic Firefly" is sent to the Graveyard at the end of the attack, so "Skill Drain" will not negate its effect.

if the text just said, when it is destroyed in battle your opponent takes 1000 damage, then it would always be the owner's opponent because it activates in the owners graveyard.

the text is worded that way so that if your opponent has control of your firefly and it gets destroyed in battle that the controller's opponent takes the damage instead of the owner's opponent.

phiefer3: That makes alot of sense! I'm gonna go on that ruling, and burn my opponent more often now...

Now.. why doesn't Atomic Firefly STATE "... and sent to the graveyard..." instead of it being in it's rulings section?

Apprentice Magician - MFC-066
2*, Dark/Spellcaster, 400/800

When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned, put 1 Spell Counter on a face-up card on the field that you can put a Spell Counter on. If this card is destroyed in battle, you can select 1 Level 2 or lower Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck and Special Summon it to the field in face-down Defense Position.

Apprentice Magician doesn't say "... and sent to the graveyard..." , and the rulings state that it doesn't activate in the graveyard like the elemental searchers. It activates on the field, avoiding the graveyard. So, you'd think Atomic firefly would be the same, huh?

At least Atomic firefly works the way I wanted it to.

If the text said that, the effect would occur on the field, and it would be negated by Skill Drain, since it would happen right after Damage Calculation, and before "Send to Graveyard".

not necesarily, since its actual text says

When this face-up card on the field attacks or is attacked and it is destroyed as a result of battle, the player who destroyed it takes 1000 points of damage.

the only change i mentioned was changing "the player who destroyed it" to "the opponent"

based on its actual text skill drain should negate it, but the ruling says it activates in the graveyard.

and the fact that it activates in the graveyard would have caused the term "opponent" to always mean the owner's opponent.

but since it says the player who destroyed it instead, that would mean that if it was under the control of the opponent (of the owner) and destroyed by its owner's monster, it would damage the owner since he is the player that destroyed it.

so the odd text is to more clearly determine who takes the damage since the term opponent doesn't work with graveyard effects.

According to the text, "Atomic Firefly" should work like "Apprentice Magician" - the problem is most likely translation issues.

Yep...should reprint it like like that too...merely saying "When this face-up card is destroyed as a result of battle..." like Fox Fire. Maybe then, not so much confusion.

no, they should have it say "destroyed and sent to the graveyard as a result of battle" so that it doesn't look like apprentice magician.

and they could possibly reword that part about the player who destroyed it as "do 1000 points of damage to the player who controller of the monster that destroyed this monster." so that people know what it really means by the player who destroyed it.