User:Falzar FZ/Misc

Game Mechanics

 * Send ≠ Discard - Sending Goldd with Hand Destruction will not Trigger its effect.
 * Discard = Send - Discarding Ojamagic with Card Destruction will Trigger its effect.


 * Send ≠ Destroy - Sending a card to the Graveyard with Dark End Dragon cannot be negated by Stardust Dragon
 * Destroy = Send - Destroying Sangan with Dark Hole will Trigger its effect.


 * Cost ≠ Effect - Discarding Goldd for the cost of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast will not Trigger its effect.
 * Effect ≠ Cost


 * Condition ≠ Effect - Skill Drain cannot negated True Conditions
 * Effect ≠ Condition - Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude only Activates the Effects of cards. It does not Activate the Card, so Costs and Activation Conditions are ignored.


 * Negate ≠ Destroy - If Light and Darkness Dragon negates Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress her whole effect will be negated, but she will not be destroyed. Lyla can activate her effect again.
 * Destroy ≠ Negate - If you chain Mystical Space Typhoon to Dark Hole, it will not negate it. Dark Hole will still destroy all monsters on the field. If you chain Mystical Space Typhoon to a Continuous Spell/Trap Card, Mystical Space Typhoon will not negate it, the Continuous Card will just resolve without effect only because Continuous Cards must remain face-up on the field to properly resolve per Game Mechanics.


 * Lose LPs ≠ Effect Damage - The Immortal of Thunder/Jirai Gumo will still make a player lose LPs if Prime Material Dragon/Rainbow Life is active, and Barrel Behind the Door/Spell of Pain cannot be activated against them.


 * Level ≠ Rank - Advance Draw cannot be used on Exceed Monsters regardless of their Rank.
 * Rank ≠ Level - Exceed Monsters will not be affected by Gravity Bind regardless of their Rank.

Summons

 * Summon ≠ Special Summon - If a player Normal Summons/Flip Summons Gene-Warped Warwolf, Thunder King Rai-Oh's effect cannot be used to Negate the Summon.
 * Special Summon = Summon - If you Special Summon Cyber Dragon, Torrential Tribute can be activated.


 * Tribute Summon/Tribute Set = Normal Summon/Set - If you Tribute Summon Caius, you cannot Normal Summon again in the same turn.
 * Normal Summon/Set = Tribute Summon/Tribute Set - If you Tribute Summon Caius, Trap Hole can be used against it.
 * Normal Summon/Set ≠ Tribute Summon/Tribute Set - If you Normal Summoned Caius without a Tribute (by Star Blast), Caius' effect cannot be activated because it was not Normal Summoned with a Tribute.


 * Flip Summon ≠ Normal Summon - Black Whirlwind will not Trigger if you Flip Summon a Blackwing.
 * Normal Summon ≠ Flip Summon - If you Flip Summon Morphing Jar, you can still Normal Summon in the same turn; and vice-versa.


 * Special Summon ≠ Synchro Summon - If you Special Summon, Stardust Dragon with Starlight Road, it cannot be revived because it was not Properly Synchro Summoned.
 * Synchro Summon = Special Summon - If you Synchro Summon, you can activate Solemn Warning to negate the Special Summon.


 * Return ≠ Summon - If you Return a monster with Future Visions/D.D. Sprite/Paradox Fusion, cards such as Torrential Tribute/Bottomless Trap Hole cannot be used.


 * Special Summon face-down = Special Summon = Summon - Torrential Tribute can be activated after The Shallow Grave resolves.


 * Ok, I think you get the idea, so here's the Hierarchy of Summons/Sets:
 * Summon
 * Normal Summon
 * Tribute Summon
 * Gemini Summon
 * Flip Summon
 * Special Summon (always in face-up ATK/DEF mode; unless stated otherwise)
 * Ritual Summon
 * Fusion Summon
 * Contact Fusion
 * Synchro Summon
 * Exceed Summon
 * Special Summon face-down (this one is also considered to be a Set)
 * Set
 * Tribute Set
 * Return

Summon Negation & Negating Effects that Special Summon

 * If a monster's Summon was Negated, then it's effects are never applied.
 * You can use Solemn Judgment to Negate the Normal Summon of Jinzo, since its Summon was Negated, its effect never applies.
 * If you used Solemn Judgment to Negate the Normal Summon of Marauding Captain, then it is not considered to be Normal Summoned, so its effect to Special Summon another monster never even activates.
 * If you Negate the Synchro Summon of a Synchro Monster, then Tuningware isn't considered to be sent to the Graveyard for any purpose, so its effect does not activate.
 * If you Negate the Tribute Summon of a Monster where the Tributed monster was Zolga, then Zolga isn't considered to be sent to the Graveyard for any purpose, so its effect does not activate.

Summon Negation vs. Negating Effects that Special Summon

 * Solemn Judgment/Horn of Heaven/Thunder King Rai-Oh


 * These only negate the Game Mechanic known as an Inherent Special Summon; they do NOT negate card effects. Unless stated otherwise on the card, they can also negate Flip Summons and Normal Summons.
 * Inherent Special Summons are Special Summons that are carried out through a Summoning Condition or a Game Mechanic that Special Summons monsters (e.g. Synchro Summon, Exceed Summon, 'Contact Fusions'). These Special Summons do not activate an effect and thus, do not start or use a chain.
 * Inherent Summons through Summoning Conditions include cards such as Cyber Dragon, The Tricky, Trap Eater, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos and Dark Armed Dragon.
 * As stated above, these CANNOT negate card effects. So it CANNOT negate:
 * Cards that Special Summons after resolving its effect, e.g. Ritual Spell Cards, Polymerization, Miracle Fusion, Gorz, Tragoedia, Giant Rat, Pyramid Turtle, Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, etc.
 * They cannot 'Negate the Summon' of these cards because the Special Summons is considered to be already Successful after resolving its effect, so the time window for negating the Summon has been closed.
 * (note that Solemn Judgment can stop cards like Monster Reborn only because Solemn Judgment can negate the activation of Spell and Trap cards as well; not just Special Summons)


 * Solemn Warning/Royal Oppression


 * Like it says on the cards, these can negate both Inherent Summons and as well as "Effects that Special Summon"
 * The can negate anything that the above cards (Solemn Judgment/Horn of Heaven/Thunder King Rai-Oh) card negate; and as well as card effects that Special Summon.
 * Because of this, these can also negate the cards that Special Summons after resolving its effect.
 * (note that Solemn Warning can stop Giant Rat because Solemn Warning is a Counter Trap, so it can be used in the Damage Step; whereas Royal Oppression cannot stop Giant Rat only because Royal Oppression cannot be used in the Damage Step)

Targetting

 * A very good guide and a list can be found at The Big Grand List of Things that Target.


 * As a general rule:


 * Equips: Target
 * Costs: Do not target
 * Effects that does things to the hand, Deck or Extra Deck do not target. So Gigaplant, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Star Blast, Charge of the Light Brigade, Foolish Burial do not target at all.
 * Counter Trap Cards: Do not target (except for Negate Attack).


 * Cards that are often mistaken:


 * Counters themselves do not target, but the Effect's of the cards do if you need to select which monster to put the counter on (an example for A-counters can be found here).
 * Negation effects do not target. This includes Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, Stardust Dragon, Solemn Judgment, Prime Material Dragon.
 * The traps which affect 1 monster generally targets. This includes Draining Shield, Sakuretsu Armor, Trap Hole and Magic Cylinder. This is because these are mistranslated, the OCG card says the monster is targetted.
 * Bottomless Trap Hole: Does not target. "Destroy and remove from play the monster(s) ."
 * Necro Gardna: Does not Target. You don't really select the monster your opponent controls.
 * Cards which destroy 'up to' or 'equal to' a number of other cards do not target, as the cards to be destroyed are selected on resolution of the effect. This includes Saber Slash, Flip Flop Frog, Fortune Lady Wind
 * Cards like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, Ally of Justice Catastor, D.D. Warrior Lady and Drillroid do not target.
 * Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow and Honest do not target.
 * Smashing Ground: does not target. You don't choose the monster being destroyed.
 * Magical Dimension: Whole effect does not target, including the destroy 1 monster part. "Tribute 1 monster and Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand. Then, you can destroy 1 monster on the field."
 * Patrician of Darkness: Although it says "selects the targets", the effect does not target. It's a continuous effect, not trigger, and you're selecting the attack target, not the target of an effect.
 * Inferno Reckless Summon: Does Not Target. You don't really select anything.
 * Ancient Fairy Dragon: The effect to destroy a Field Spell does not target. If there are 2 Field Spell Cards on the field (remember they can be set) the effect of "Ancient Fairy Dragon" will destroy both of them, so you don't choose anything. Yes, badly worded effect, I know, but that was from official rulings.
 * Creature Swap: Does not target. The monsters are selected during resolution of the effect. " Each player selects 1 monster they control..."
 * Future Visions: The first effect apparently targets. "When a monster is Normal Summoned, remove from play that monster."

Continuous/Lingering Negation Effects

 * Card effects ALWAYS activate and resolve in the EXACT SAME place, regardless of where the card ends up. The actual card does not have anything to do with where the effect resolves.
 * If an effect activates on the field, it will always resolve on the field, even if it was Tributed as a cost, like in the case of Exiled Force, Lonefire Blossom and Mystic Piper.
 * Honest's effect activates in the hand and resolves in the hand, even though it was Sent to the Graveyard as a cost to activate its effect.
 * Skill Drain has no effect on monsters that Tribute themselves as a cost, because Skill Drain only negates the effect of the monster if the actual card is still face-up on the field during resolution of the effect.
 * Forbidden Chalice/Debris Dragon will not negate effects that activate and resolve in the Graveyard, such as Sangan/Dandylion because their effects activate and resolve in the Graveyard.
 * Debris Dragon will negate Lonefire Blossom because its effect activates and resolves on the field. If Forbidden Chalice is used on Exiled Force, then in a new chain, Exiled Force is activated, Exiled Force will be negated for the same reason.

Book of Moon / Compulsory Evacuation Device / Bottomless Trap Hole vs. Monster Effects
Generally, flipping the monster face-down or removing it from the field WILL NOT stop the effect resolving (e.g. It will NOT stop the effect of Green Gadget and Junk Synchron; and it will not stop Prioritised Ignition effects of monsters like Gale and Gigaplant).

However it WILL stop cards like:
 * Zombie Master (due to a specific ruling [If you activate "Zombie Master" effect, and an effect is chained that removes "Zombie Master" from the field or flips it face-down, the effect disappears and you cannot Special Summon the targeted monster.] This ruling is made in the TCG because the OCG card says so on the card)
 * Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress (she needs to be able to switch into defense mode on resolution. [You can change this card from face-up Attack Position to face-up Defense Position and destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card your opponent controls.])
 * Alchemist of Black Spells (he needs to be able to switch into defense mode on resolution. [you can change this face-up Attack Position card you control to face-up Defense Position and place a Spell Counter on a face-up card you control that you can place a Spell Counter on.])

Then there's a few 'obvious' ones (Dark Crusader, Elemental Hero Prisma), whose resolutions try to affect the monster itself, so could not affect it if it is turned face-down - i.e. Prisma can't change his name if he's face-down, Dark Crusader can't gain ATK.

Book of Moon vs. Summon Response Cards

 * Book of Moon will stop Black Whirlwind, Bottomless Trap Hole and Trap Hole because they can't read the ATK points. Book of Moon will not stop Torrential Tribute.
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device will just 'save' the monster you returned to your hand from being destroyed, Trap Hole will resolve without effect; Bottomless Trap Hole will destroy and remove what's left (if any) and if that's the only monster then it will resolve without effect; Torrential Tribute will still destroy all other remaining monsters on the field.

Card Property Resets (Book of Moon/Interdimensional Matter Transporter)

 * Flipping a monster face-down (Book of Moon), removing a monster from the field (Interdimensional Matter Transporter) or Destroying it and reviving it again, will reset things including:
 * The ATK/DEF of monsters which set their ATK/DEF when they are Summoned, such as Evil Hero Dark Gaia and Beast King Barbaros.
 * The Level of monsters, such as Fortune Lady Dark.
 * Any counters on the monster will be removed.
 * A Gemini Monster that has been Gemini Summoned will not be considered to be Gemini Summoned after being flipped face-down.
 * Any Equip Spell Cards attached to the monster will be destroyed by Game Mechanics because there is no valid target for them Equip Card.

Prevention vs. Negation

 * Preventing Activations ≠ Negating Effects.


 * Archlord Kristya/Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo/Jowgen the Spiritualist prevents Special Summons from happening at all. They prevent you from even beginning to attempt a Special Summon in the first place, so you can't even begin to Tribute them as a Cost to Special Summon Lava Golem; and you cannot Tribute Archlord Kristya for the effect of Athena. You also cannot use them as Synchro Material Monsters or Exceed Material Monsters. You cannot activate Polymerization if they are face-up on the field.
 * Jinzo prevents Trap Cards from being activated the moment it is Successfully Summoned (Summon was not Negated). So Bottomless Trap Hole/Torrential Tribute cannot be activated. While it is face-up on the field, neither player can activate Trap Cards.
 * Royal Decree only negates the effects of Trap Cards. It does not prevent activation of effects. You may activate Compulsory Evacuation Device while Royal Decree is face-up, but it will be negated when it resolves.
 * Skill Drain only negates the effects of Monsters if they are face-up on the field during resolution of the effect. So you may activate the effect of Gale, but it will be negated if it is still face-up on the field on resolution. If you activate the effect of Card Trooper, the Cost of sending cards to the Graveyard will still be paid, but it will not gain any ATK points during resolution of the effect.

Activating a Card vs. Activating an Effect

 * Activating a Card ≠ Activating an Effect of a card
 * Activation of a Card refers to the initial flip face-up of a card, or the initial face-up placement of a card onto the field from the Hand.
 * Activation of an Effect of a card refers to the card effect that starts a Chain Link itself.


 * Magical Citadel of Endymion will only gain a counter after the activation of a card. So will only gain a Spell Counter during the Activation of the Card Spell Absorption, but will not gain a Spell Counter during the Activation of the Effect of Spell Absorption.
 * Gladiator Beast Heraklinos - "negate the activation of a [Spell or Trap Card ] and destroy it."
 * Dark Bribe - "Negate the activation of an opponent's [Spell or Trap Card ] and destroy it."
 * Herald of Perfection - "When your opponent activates a [Spell Card ], [Trap Card ], or [Effect Monster's effect ], you can send 1 Fairy-Type monster from your hand to the Graveyard to negate the activation and destroy that card."
 * Stardust Dragon and its other forms are a bit different. They are different because they have been mistranslated. Unlike Herald of Perfection and similar cards, it's supposed to be able to negate activation of effects, not just cards. The lore should be something like "negate the activation of a [Spell Card 's effect ], [Trap Card 's effect ], or [Effect Monster's effect ] that destroys a card(s)". It can be used to negate both the Activation of a Card, and the Activation of the Effect of a card; but only if it would destroy something at the time. So it can be used to negate the Activation of the Effect of Ancient Forest after the Battle Phase, but it cannot be used to negate the Activation of the Card because it doesn't destroy at that time. Stardust Dragon can be used against the Activation of the Card Dark Hole.

Spell and Trap Card Targets/Affects

 * Spell and Trap Cards cannot affect themselves. So Mystical Space Typhoon and other similar Spell and Trap Cards (such as Double Cyclone, Mystical Space Typhoon, Icarus Attack and Gravel Cane) all cannot select themselves as a Target.
 * Heavy Storm and Malevolent Catastrophe do not destroy themselves, Crystal Abundance does not send itself to the Graveyard and Giant Trunade does not return itself to the hand.
 * Blasting Fuse will destroy itself BKSS.
 * This does not apply to monsters. Black Rose Dragon will destroy herself.

Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure vs. Cost and Effect

 * You can activate Iron Chain Dragon, Foolish Burial and Future Fusion while Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure is on the field. The cards will be removed from play instead. It works because sending the monsters is part of the effect.
 * You cannot activate Honest and Rescue Cat while Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure is on the field because sending the monster to the Graveyard is part of the Cost; and if you cannot Pay the Cost, you cannot activate the effect.
 * You cannot declare an attack if both Macro Cosmos/Dimensional Fissure and Gravekeeper's Servant is on the field because you cannot fulfill the Cost of Sending the card to the Graveyard in order to attack.
 * "Once per turn" conditions, so if Chaos Sorcerer was Summoned in a previous turn, and during this turn you used its effect once. If you flip it face-down and Flip Summon it, you can either use its effect once again or you can attack with it.
 * You can Flip Summon a monster that has been flipped face-down by Book of Moon if the monster was not Summoned on the same turn, did not declare an attack, and if the monster has not had its Battle Position changed manually before in the same turn.

Activation of an Unresolvable Card

 * If you know that a card cannot resolve properly, you are not allowed to activate it in the first place.


 * You are expected to know the contents of your deck, and to look at your hand, field, graveyard & removed zone if you're unsure about what is remaining in your deck; so in a tournament, if you do illegally activate, then you will be penalised (the severity depends on the house rules). In a friendly duel, you can probably 'rewind' back to the time before you activated the card, with the permission of your opponent.
 * You are not allowed to activate Terraforming if you don't have any Field Spell Cards in your deck.
 * You are not allowed to activate Lightning Vortex and Discard for Cost, if there are no face-up monsters on your opponent's side of the field.
 * Ojamagic has no actual resolvable effect if you manually activate it. So you are now allowed to Activate the Card at all.
 * Magician's Circle cannot be activated if you don't have a Spellcaster to Special Summon in your deck; but it can be activated if you do have a valid Spellcaster in your deck, but the opponent has no valid Spellcaster in their Deck. This is because you are not expected to know the contents of your opponent's deck, then during resolution, it will resolve as best as it can, so you can Special Summon a Spellcaster and your opponent will not; then your opponent must allow you to look through their deck to verify that there really were no valid monsters.
 * Vylon Sigma has an Optional Trigger Effect, if you choose to activate it while you have no valid cards in your deck, you may be penalised in a tournament.
 * Sangan has a Mandatory Trigger Effect, since you don't choose to activate it or not, and the fact that it is Mandatory, you will not be penalised, but it will automatically activate. So if you don't have a valid target, you must allow your opponent to look through your deck to verify that you really don't have a valid cards.

But the card doesn't say...

 * Lonefire Blossom says Tribute, but it doesn't say from where - Then it implies that you must Tribute your own monsters. You must always Tribute your own cards, unless it specifically says otherwise, like in the case of Lava Golem.
 * Dark Armed Dragon doesn't say Special Summon from where - It is implied that Nomi monsters can only be Special Summoned from your Hand to your side of the field. The only times when this does not apply is when the card specifically says otherwise.
 * Gladiator Beast Heraklinos doesn't say "Once per turn" so can I use it more than 'Once per turn'? - This is one of the few cases where the answer is 'Yes'. Since this is a Quick Effect that doesn't say "Once per turn", yes as long as you can pay the cost and as long as the activation timing is correct (e.g. You cannot chain to a Spell Speed 2 card to Spell Speed 3 Counter Traps)
 * Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Black Brutdrago just says when they are destroyed, but it doesn't say from where - Since Solemn Judgment says that it destroys and that Grandmaster/Brutdrago does not say from where, then if you Negate the Special Summon and Destroy it, then they will activate.

Archetypes

 * If a card says it can search for an X-Saber card, then you can search for X-Saber Airbellum and XX-Saber Darksoul.
 * If a card says it can search for an XX-Saber card, then it can only search for cards like XX-Saber Darksoul; it cannot search for X-Saber Airbellum because it does not have 'XX-Saber' in its name.


 * Ojamuscle (En) and おジャマッスル (Ojamassuru) (Jp): English Rulings say it's an Ojama Card, they ignored the English Name and based it on the Japanese Name.
 * Frog the Jam (En) and Kaerusuraimu (Jp): To be a Frog, the Jap name must have (ガエル) (Gaeru) (Jp). Since it says Kaeru, it's not a Frog, they ignored the English Name and based it on the Japanese Name again. Instead of a ruling this time, they put the line "except Frog the Jam" if an effect refers to a Frog in English cards.
 * Summary: Ignore the English name or any other translation. Only look at the Japanese Name.

Specific Cards

 * In Progress

A/D Changer
A/D Changer can only:
 * face-up Attack --> face-up Defense
 * face-up Defense --> face-up Attack
 * face-down Attack (from Darkness Approaches) --> face-down Defense
 * face-down Defense --> face-up Attack (think of it as, Game Mechanics flips the card face-up for this one)

A/D Changer cannot:
 * face-down Defense --> face-down Attack (because face-down Attack is not a 'legal position' by default; Only a card that specifically says you can have it can do that, e.g. Darkness Approaches)
 * face-up Attack --> face-down Defense

Hierarchy of Answers

 * 1) Anything said by Konami (including their Rulebook and Rulings and anything BKSS) (except for typos, but we have Sic tags on them to identify them on our Rulings Pages.)
 * 2) Sourced Rulings on our Rulings Pages (Although they are constantly being watched, you may want to check the history to be sure it was not vandalised.) (We only allow exact quotes of Official Rulings in the Rulings pages.)
 * 3) Answers given by Official Judges that can prove that they are High Level Official Judges
 * 4) Unsourced Rulings on our Rulings Pages that were not added by a random user (see the page history of that page) (It's probably an old UDE ruling, but feel free to ask for it to be verified on its 'Card Rulings talk' page)
 * 5) Answers which contain direct proof (such as a link to an Official Ruling)
 * 6) Answers given by knowledgeable members who have a record of rarely getting it wrong (To be absolutely sure, you should wait a while to see if anyone objects to the answer given)
 * 7) Answers extrapolated video games (Newest game only)
 * 8) Answers by RC-1 Certified people
 * 9) Answers by regular members
 * 10) Unsourced Rulings on our Rulings Pages that were added by a random user (see the page history of that page) (please say something on the 'Card Rulings talk' page so we know that we need verify if it can be kept)
 * 11) Answers which make no sense and cannot be sourced/proven when asked to do so
 * 12) Answers by people (new members) who claim they are judges but {refuses to}/{cannot} prove it when asked to
 * 13) Answers by trolls who vandalise the Rulings pages
 * 14) Rulings extrapolated from the TV show (anime)

The Mathematics of Yu-Gi-Oh!

 * Similar to the formulae that Bastion Misawa runs through when improving his decks, except it works; in terms of consistency improvement.
 * These numbers apply to normal gameplay, where proper shuffling techniques are used to thoroughly randomise the deck, and without cheating/stacking.


 * {x} = Number of copies of the card in your deck
 * {y} = Number of cards drawn (opening hand = 6)
 * {z} = Number of cards in your deck
 * (1-(COMBIN(({z}-{x});{y}))/(COMBIN({z}; {y})))*100
 * 15.00% - The chance of opening with 1 exact card.
 * 28.08% - The chance of opening with at least 1 of 2 exact cards.
 * 39.43% - The chance of opening with at least 1 copy of a card you run 3 of.
 * 49.25% - The chance of opening with at least 1 of 4 target cards.
 * 57.71% - The chance of opening with at least 1 of 5 target cards.
 * 64.96% - The chance of opening with at least 1 of 6 target cards.


 * I never figured out the formula for these ones; if you know it, please post it on the talk page.
 * 5.4% - The chance of opening with at least 2 copies of the same card you run 3 of.
 * 14% - The chance of opening with a 2-card combo of 2 different cards you run in 3s.
 * 15% - The chance of opening with at least 2 of 5 target cards.
 * 1.9% - The chance of opening with 2 exact cards.


 * 0.00000151973836% = 1/658008 = 1/{40!/(35!*5!)} - The chance of opening with Exodia in a 40 card deck.