Card Rulings:Silent Magician LV4

OCG Rulings

• The monster effect "Each time your opponent draws a card(s), place 1 Spell Counter on this card (max. 5)" is a Continuous Effect. (Even if your opponent draws during the Damage Step, apply the effect to place a Spell Counter on this card.)

• Even if your opponent draws multiple cards due to the effect of "Pot of Greed", etc., the number of Spell Counters placed is 1.

• The monster effect "This card gains 500 ATK for each Spell Counter on it." is a Continuous Effect. (If the number of Spell Counters placed on this card changes, its stat also increases immediately.)

• The monster effect "During the Standby Phase of your next turn after the 5th Spell Counter is placed on this card: You can send this face-up card with 5 Spell Counters on it to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Silent Magician LV8" from your hand or Deck." is a Trigger Effect. (It does not target. Sending the "Silent Magician LV4" with 5 Spell Counters on it to the Graveyard is a cost to activate this effect.)

• The effect of "Silent Magician LV4" that Special Summons "Silent Magician LV8" can only be activated after its controller has placed the fifth Spell Counter on it. Therefore, if you activate "Dark World Dealings" so that your opponent draws a card and you place the fifth Spell Counter on your "Silent Magician LV4", but during my opponent's next Standby Phase they activate "Enemy Controller" and take control of "Silent Magician LV4", your opponent cannot activate the effect of "Silent Magician LV4" after they take control of it. When the effect of "Enemy Controller" stops applying and you regain control of "Silent Magician LV4", you can activate the effect of "Silent Magician LV4" during your next Standby Phase.

Mentions in Other Rulings

• Dark Sanctuary: If the effect of an opponent's "Dark Sanctuary" is activated in response to the attack of your "Silent Magician LV4", but "Silent Magician LV4" is changed to face-down Defense Position by the effect of "Book of Moon", it is no longer considered an attacking monster. When resolving the effect of "Dark Sanctuary", the coin toss is performed, but even if the result is Heads, the attack cannot be negated and no damage is inflicted to your opponent.

• Silent Paladin: When resolving the effect of "Silent Paladin" that negates the activation of a Spell Card (such as "Mind Control" targeting a "Silent Magician LV4"), even if "Silent Paladin" is in face-down Defense Position, the effect resolves normally.

"LV" Rulings

Previously Official Rulings

• If a level monster fulfills its condition to Special Summon the next-highest level (for example, if "Armed Dragon LV5" destroys a monster as a result of battle), and the level monster is then flipped face-down, or removed from play permanently, or sent to the Graveyard and then Special Summoned from the Graveyard, then its condition is reset and it is no longer considered to have met the condition to level up to the next level.

• If you don’t have "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" in your hand or Deck, you cannot send "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4" to the Graveyard to activate its effect.

• "If Banisher of the Light" ^[sic] is in play, you cannot send "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 4" to the Graveyard, so you cannot activate its effect.

• You don’t have to send "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 4" to the Graveyard if you don’t want to, even if it destroyed a monster as a result of battle. But if you activate its effect by sending it to the Graveyard, you must Special Summon "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 6" if possible.

Mentions in Other Rulings

• Divine Wrath: You can activate "Divine Wrath" when a "LV" monster is sent to the Graveyard to Special Summon the next level version (an Ignition Effect), and "Divine Wrath" will negate that effect, even though it cannot destroy the "LV" monster because it is already in the Graveyard.

• Level Down!?: You can use “Level Down!?” on a “Neo-Spacian Dark Panther” that is copying an LV Monster. But since it is no longer copying the LV Monster after it has been returned to the Deck, no monster will be Special Summoned.

• Level Modulation: An “LV” monster that normally cannot be Special Summoned except by the method in its text CANNOT be Special Summoned from the Graveyard with “Level Modulation” unless it has been previously Special Summoned by the correct procedure. The “ignore the Summoning conditions” text allows for these monsters to be Special Summoned only after they have been properly Summoned by their own effect. This applies to “Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8”, “Armed Dragon LV7”, “Silent Swordsman LV7”, “Silent Magician LV8”, and “Winged Kuriboh LV10”.

• Neo-Spacian Dark Panther: If you target an “LV” monster, you could Tribute the “Neo-Spacian Dark Panther” to activate the Spell Card “Level Up!”. It will be in the Graveyard when “Level Up!” resolves, so it will no longer have the copied effect, so there is no monster name to reference and therefore the effect disappears.