Madolche Puddingcess - When does it activate?

In the upcoming set (Return of the Duelist), we’re introduced to a lot of new archetypes. One of them is called Madolche, which combines names of dessert with titles. The key card of the Madolche is Madolche Puddingcess.

Now I’ve noticed there’s a lot of discussion about her effect. What’s the effect, you ask? Well, let’s look at the TCG card provided to us.

*Looks very closely.* Yeah, err… right. Blurry text, huh…

So until there’s a decent TCG picture available of Puddingcess, we’re stuck with the interpretation of the OCG text. That text goes as follows:

“When this card is destroyed by your opponent and sent to the Graveyard: Shuffle it into the Deck. If there are no monsters in your Graveyard, this card gains 800 ATK and DEF. When this card battles an opponent's monster: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy it.”

The problem?

What seems to be the problem, you ask? Well, there are a few words missing in this card effect; a few VERY crucial words. The effect does NOT state WHEN the destruction effect occurs.

• Is it upon attack declaration (like the suicide effect of Utopia)?
• Is it before damage calculation (like Ally of Justice Catastor or Neo-Spacian Grand Mole)?
• Or is it after damage calculation (like D.D. Warrior Lady)?

The end results of these three possibilities are very different. Consider the following situation: You control a Caius the Shadow Monarch in face-up attack position, a set Spirit Reaper and a faced-down MST. Your opponent controls a Puddingcess and has no monsters in the grave.

The result would be the following, depending on the 3 given situations:

1. Your field would be empty and you would’ve taken 1800 damage. Your opponent would laugh at you with his puddingcess at his side. Virtually, this would mean this card is Raigeki incarnated.
2. Your opponent can attack either Caius or the set Reaper. The opponent could choose which card to destroy. If he chooses Caius, he does not take battle damage. Puddingcess will survive.
3. Your opponent can declare an attack on either the set Reaper or Caius. If he chooses Caius (for whatever spooky reason), the opponent will take 600 damage and Puddingcess will be destroyed. but after damage calculation, you can destroy either Caius, or one of the set cards.

Clearly, the end result varies a lot, from Puddingcess being destroyed by battle to Puddingcess being the only card left on the field. No wonder there’s a lot of discussion going on about her.

So what IS the right effect?

If you chose situation 3, you are correct (you get a free pudding from the puddingcess).

The destruction effect is activated AFTER damage calculation, similar to the effect of D.D. Warrior Lady.

If you chose situation 1, you’re either ignorant or foolish. There’s no way Konami would allow a walking Raigeki run on the field.

Reasoning

It took me a while to find a reliable source, but I found it somewhere on the DuelingNetwork forum. They stated that there was a similar line in the text of D.D. Warrior Lady & that of Puddingcess. So, I went and looked for the two OCG cards and compared them!

The original OCG text of D.D. Warrior lady states:

When this card battles another monster, after Damage Calculation you can remove the opponent's monster and this card from play.

Notice the similar part (aside that they're both blondes)? Yes, it IS: "When this card battles another monster".

Konami realized this wording would make this card annoyingly confusing and decided to fill in the following: ", after damage calculation".

Since this situation is repeating itself today with Princess Pudding, they will (normally) add those same three words on this card. But you’ll have to wait until after the sneak peek to see the fully corrected TCG text.

Until that time, we’re stuck with a blurry text and an interpretation of the OCG-text.

Seriously, what DOES it say?

V out.