Basic Rulings

Photon Streak Bouncer which getting popular in OCG environment

Hey, guys! A lot of players having ruling problems but they have no idea how to solve it, thus they will request help from the judge. Anyway, judges may not be totally available for answering the ruling questions. As a result, I will re-introduce some of basic knowledge that you guys might need to use during the tournament so that you guys can refer it whenever the judges are unavailable and understand why under certain circumstances you can or can't activate the card effect.

1st of all, what is cost? A cost is you need to paid/sacrifice something(monster, life point, hand card and etc) before the card effect can be activate and you can't gained back the cost/sacrifice that you have made if the card activation is negated. If you unable to pay the cost, then you are not allow to activate the card's effect. Eg, you have only 2 cards in your deck and you have Charge of the Light Brigade on your hand, you cannot activate it even though you knew your deck have level 4 or below Lightsworn monster due to you are unable to pay the cost. Cards that need cost to activate its effect: Card Car D, Rescue Rabbit, Summoner Monk and etc.

2nd, how to differentiate an effect that will only activate in the graveyard or elsewhere? An effect that will only activate in graveyard will have the GRAVEYARD term in the effect description as "When this card is sent to the graveyard" / "If this card is sent to the graveyard" / "Send this card to the graveyard" or etc. If the card unable to send to the graveyard then its effect will not be activate. Eg, Dandylion, Sangan, XX-Saber Darksoul and etc. If the card effect is without the Graveyard term in the effect description then its effect can be activate once its condition has been fulfilled no matter it is in the banish zone, hand, deck or graveyard(Only for Trigger Effect). Example, most of the Hieratic monster, Reborn Tengu, Dark Magician of Chaos and etc.

3rd, how to differentiate an effect is mandatory or optional effect? An mandatory effect will have the term of MUST or without the term of CAN in the effect description. Eg, Reborn Tengu, Light and Darkness Dragon, Elemental HERO - Absolute Zero and etc. An optional effect will have the term of CAN in the effect description. Eg, Dark Armed Dragon, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, Trishula, Ice Barrier Dragon and etc. Monster that have optional effect may MISS its TIMING to activate its effect in certain cases. The occurrence of MISS TIMING will be further explained later on.

4th, how to differentiate an effect is Ignition, Quick, Trigger, Flip and Continuous monster effect? Ignition, Trigger and Flip monster effect is Spell Speed 1 while Quick monster effect is Spell Speed 2 and Continuous monster effect did not have any activation timing because it will apply once the monster is face-up on the field. Most of the ignition monster effect will have the term of ONCE PER TURN in the effect description. Eg, most of the Inzektor monster, Road Warrior, Chaos Sorcerer and etc. Quick monster effect is effect that can be activate in either in player's turn. Eg, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, Number 25: Fullmetal Photoglide - Focus Force, Effect Veiler and etc.

Trigger monster effect is effect that CAN ONLY ACTIVATE after it has FULFILLED CERTAIN CONDITIONS such as "When this card is summoned" / "When this card is discarded" / "If this card is sent to graveyard" and etc. Example, Trishula, Ice Barrier Dragon, Mystic Tomato, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Dragon and etc. Flip monster effect is effect that have the term of FLIP at the initial of effect description. Eg, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Penguin Soldier, Night Assailant and etc. Continuous monster effect is effect that do not have activation timing thus you cannot chain with Divine Wrath to negate its effect and it will be applied as long as the card is face-up on the field. Eg, The End of Anubis, Revived King Ha-Des, Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and etc.

5th, when does miss timing occur? Miss timing will only occur when the card effect is an optional effect or there is card effect still resolving. Eg, you have Lightpulsar Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon on the field, your opponent activate Card Destruction and throw all his Dark World monster which consists of 2 Grapha, 1 Snoww and 1 Beige. Your opponent arrange the chain link in this order: (1) Beige (2) Snoww (3) Grapha A (4) Grapha B. When the chain link is resolving, Grapha B will destroy REDMD then Grapha A will destroy Lightpulsar Dragon. Once Lightpulsar Dragon has been destroyed and has reach the graveyard, its effect can be trigger. However, Lightpulsar Dragon's 2nd effect can't be activate in this case due to there are other chain link that have not be resolved which is the effect of Snoww and Beige.

If the case is not as I mentioned in list number 5 then it is named Unable to Resolve. Eg. you activate Heavy Storm while your opponent have 2 back row and opponent chain it with Starlight Road; you chain it with MST and target it to Heavy Storm. In this case, Heavy Storm will be destroyed and sent to the graveyard due to MST effect then Starlight Road will negate the effect of Heavy Storm but due to Heavy Storm is already in the graveyard thus Starlight Road cannot destroy Heavy Storm. As a result, Stardust Dragon will not be special summoned from the Extra deck due to Starlight Road cannot destroy the Heavy Storm. In the end, effect of Heavy Storm is cancel and this is named as Unable to Resolve.

*Note, a card in the graveyard or deck cannot be destroy by card effect therefore you would never heard of card in the graveyard or deck can be destroy by card effect such as Divine Wrath, War Chariot and etc.

6th, what is negate? Negate is a term where you will stop a card effect from applying. If the negation have the effect description as "negate the activation of card" then the negation will cause the card seems like never activate before/no longer on the field. As a result, cards such as Stardust Dragon can't stop the negation effect of a card if the effect will be followed by destruction of the card. Example, you have a Shooting Quasar Dragon on the field while your opponent have a Stardust Dragon on his/her field. Your opponent activate Smashing Ground and you decided to activate Quasar Dragon effect to negate the activation of Smashing Ground. In this case, your opponent cannot negate Quasar Dragon effect with Stardust Dragon effect because Smashing Ground is no longer consider on the field/activate before.

7th, most of the card effect that can negate the activation of a monster effect will only apply for monster effect that is activate on the field. Example, Photon Streak Bouncer, Effect Veiler, Number 25: Fullmetal Photoglide - Focus Force and etc. If the monster effect is activate from the banish zone or graveyard, then the monster effect will not be negated even though cards like Effect Veiler's effect has been applied on the monster. Eg of card effect that will be negated if effect of Effect Veiler has been applied on it, Card Car D, Stardust Dragon(1st effect), Rescue Rabbit and etc. Besides that, if a card effect description will only activate when it is Tributed and did not mentioned where its effect will be activated, thus its effect will be resolved even though it is in banish zone or graveyard. Eg Hieratic, Card Car D, Exiled Force and etc.

8th, what is the difference between Return and Special Summon? Return means the card is put back to the field(consider as already on the field before this) and it will not trigger the condition for activating card such as Torrential Tribute and etc. Special Summon means the card just reach the field recently(never exist on the field before) and this may trigger the condition for activating card such as Torrential Tribute, Deep Dark Trap Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole and etc. Eg of card that have return in card effect description, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, D.D. Sprite(2nd effect), Dimensionhole and etc. Eg of card that have special summon in card effect description, Drill Warrior(2nd effect), Shooting Star Dragon(3rd effect), Red Nova Dragon(3rd effect) and etc.

Note, for the case of Drill Warrior, when it is special summon to your field on your next Standby Phase and you got monster in your graveyard, your opponent cannot activate Torrential Tribute, BTH, Deep Dark Trap Hole and etc due to your opponent will miss his/her timing for activate such kind of card. This case is happen due to its effect is resolve separately but not simultaneously. 1st, it will be special summoned to the field 1st then you only resolve its effect for adding a monster card from your graveyard to your hand. As a result, miss timing is occur because an effect is resolving now.

9th, what is the difference between discard and send to graveyard? Generally, discard is same as send to graveyard but send to graveyard is not same as discard. Discard is used to describe the action where you would send your card(s) from hand to the graveyard while Send to Graveyard is used to describe the action where your card(s) is send from your hand, field, banish zone or deck to the graveyard. As a result, there is a huge differences between this two terms. Eg of card effect that will activate when it is discard, most of the Dark World monster(s), Fabled monster(s), Dark World Dealing and etc.

10th, what is the difference between WHEN and IF? Most of the time the optional monster effect with WHEN in their effect description can caused Miss Timing while most of the time optional monster effect with IF in the effect description will not caused Miss Timing. Eg of optional monster with WHEN in the effect description, Lightpulsar Dragon(3rd effect), Peten the Dark Clown, Botanical Girl and etc. Eg of optional monster effect with IF in the effect description, Eclipse Wyvern(2nd effect), Doppel Warrior, Tuningware and etc.

Furthermore, many players including me thought that Night Shot is an upgrade version of MST. But after I refer to its latest ruling, the card that targeted by Night Shot effect can be activated on the same chain if you have activate another card to chain with the activation of Night Shot. Example, you activate Night Shot and target an opponent's trap card but your opponent got another trap beside the targeted trap then he/she can activate the other trap and then follow by activate the targeted trap. I Hope you guys will note this ruling well.

Apart from that, I gonna introduce a new Xyz monster that just released in OCG and I think this is a good tech card to against most of the Xyz-based deck. Drum Djinn Tenten Tempo is a good card that can be used to against the effect of Utopia from activate while increasing your Djinn Xyz monster atk point.

Drum Djinn Tenten Tempo

Rank 3

[Fiend/Xyz/Effect]

Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card to target 1 Xyz monster your opponent controls; detach 1 Xyz material from that target and all face-up "Djinn" Xyz monster you currently control gain 500 atk.

With this card, you can detach a face-down or face-up Xyz monster's Xyz material and gain 500 atk for all "Djinn" Xyz monster that you currently control. In this case, face-down Djinn Xyz monster may even gain 500 atk due to this card's effect. As a result, you may perform OTK with this card plus other Djinn Xyz monster.

Okay, that's all I wanna share with you guys today. Thanks for your time for reading my article and wish you guys have a nice day. Please stay tuned for my next post.