This card was probably the most argued card in the entire Millenium set on the Spellfire Mailing List when it first came out.

The WOV (Wealthy Oriental Vassal) is a card every player needs to be aware of, and have a strategy to deal with it. When the WOV is in play, only cards with first edition on the back can be played, banning cards from 2nd through 4th editions, and all on-line boosters (since they are considered no edition).

This is the opposite number of the Poor Oriental Lord (20/DU-chase), which is a first edition card that prevents all other cards printed as first edition. As both cards allow the other to be played, the provision added was that if both are in play, both are sent to Limbo.

Each player rolls for his card, so it is unknown which one will come back first, and how long before they beam each other away again. Both WOV and POL (Poor Oriental Lord) strategies can work, but are weak against the other.

The best way to plan for both possibilities for a deck using neither of these cards is to mix your realms and champions between editions, as Mike "Ogre" Heubbe did in the finals of the 2002 World Championship against a deck using WOV and a deck using POL.

If you don't have a way to play the WOV against POL, you need a way to kill the WOV before you get locked. Because the WOV is immune to events, prefered methods include spells (such as Wish (46/FR)), psionics (like Drain Will (75/DU)), blood abilities (like Death Field (81/DU)), or allies (like Assassins (252/1st)).

Either way, be ready to deal with this card in some way. It has forever changed tournament setting.