monster recovery questions

[feral dustball]

1. can i activate monster recovery if i have no card in my hand other than monster recovery, or must i have a hand as per the card text?

2. can i activate monster recovery if i have no monster on the field?

3. if my opponent plays a non-targeting spell card (such as fissure, hammer shot etc) and i use monster recovery to get back the monster that would have been destroyed by said card, what happens to my opponent's card effect? is my opponent's card simply destroyed, or does its effect apply to whatever other card is on the field? (ie for fissure, the monster with the NEXT lowest atk is destroyed).

4. if my opponent plays a targeting spell card on one of my monsters (such as "mask of the accursed") and i chain monster recovery to get my monster back, what happens to my opponent's card effect?

thanks!

 

[babyarm]

1. Since having a hand isn't a cost of activating the card (like it is with Serial Spell), you wouldn't have to have a hand, but you also wouldn't draw any cards from Monster Recovery's effect.

2. No.

3. Monster Recovery resolves first (assuming nothing else is added to the chain), then the non-targeting spell cards resolves. Since those cards look for highest/lowest attack on resolution, they will choose which card is destroyed from the cards currently on the field.

4. The card will resolve with no effect, since it's target is no longer on the field.

 

[feral dustball]

thanks for your help babyarm. i can see what you mean with answers 2, 3 and 4 - but i'm still a little confused about question 1.

with cards such as "book of life", where two effects are stated (in that case "special summon 1 zombie from my graveyard and remove one of my opponent's monsters from play") or "dark cat with white tail" ("return one of my monsters and two of my opponent's monsters to their owner's hands"), i'm not allowed to activate the card unless i can meet BOTH requirements. so for book of life, for example, i can't activate this card if my opponent has no cards in their graveyard - even though for me, removing an opponent's card from play is not a "cost".

firstly, why is this then different with monster recovery? why in this case am i allowed to choose to activate only part of the effect? the specific card text for this card states...

"Unite 1 of your own monsters on your side of the field and your hand with your Deck and then shuffle it. Draw the same number of cards that were in your hand from the Deck. (You cannot activate this card if you have your opponent's card in your hand.)

secondly, you said that if i didn't have a hand and i played monster recovery, i wouldn't be able to draw any cards from my deck. however, monster recovery states to draw the same number of cards from my deck that were in my hand - surely then i would be drawing ONE card for the monster i put back?....or is the card meaning the cards that were in my hand BEFORE i brought the monster back? or is the monster counted for "cards in my hand"?

thanks,
dustyball.

 

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

It never goes to your hand, the monster goes straight to the deck.

Also in some situations 0 is indeed a number (thunder Dragon can move 0 thunder dragons to the hand for example, Penguin Soldier can return 0 monsters to the hand)