September 2008

 

Kalani's Unofficial Guide to the Summon Negation/Response Chains (Part III)

This is Part III of the Unofficial Guide to the Summon Negation / Response Chains. In order to gain a full understanding of this guide, I strongly recommend reading Part I and Part II of this guide before continuing..


The Unofficial Guide to the Summon Negation / Response Chains (Part III)

As with Parts I and II of this guide, Part III makes use to the following legal (but unrealistic) chain.

·  Player A Summons 'Blowback Dragon'

·  Player A activates the effect of 'Blowback Dragon' on priority.

·  Player B chains 'Bottomless Trap Hole'

·  Player A chains 'Interdimensional Matter Transporter' targeting 'Blowback Dragon'

·  Player B chains 'Enemy Controller', Tributing 'Sangan' as its cost and targets 'Blowback Dragon'

·  Player A chains 'Book of Moon' Targeting 'Blowback Dragon'

·  Player B chains 'Torrential Tribute'

·  Player A does not respond

·  Player B chains 'Call of the Haunted' targeting 'Sangan'.

However, whereas Parts I and II used this chain to explain how card effects can be layered during the Summon Negation and Summon Response Chains (respectively), I will now explain how the chain in our example would resolve were it to occur in an actual duel.

Example Chain: Resolution
Now that the 'Summon Response Chain' has closed, it is time to resolve the chain.
As normal, the chain resolves backwards as follows:

Call of the Haunted >> Torrential Tribute >> Book of Moon >> Enemy Controller >> Interdimensional Matter Transporter >> Bottomless Trap Hole >> Blowback Dragon.

Chain Link 7 Resolves
'Call of the Haunted' resolves at this point, summoning 'Sangan' to Player B's side of the field.

Chain Link 6 Resolves
At this point, 'Torrential Tribute' destroys 'Sangan', 'Blowback Dragon', and all other monsters on the field excluding any that are unaffected by the effects of Traps (eg. 'Elemental Hero Wildheart' or 'Tenkibito Shien').

As 'Sangan' was destroyed and sent to the graveyard by the effects of 'Torrential Tribute' two additional effects are triggered/activated here:

• The Mandatory Trigger Effect of 'Sangan', which will start a new chain once the current chain (the 'Summon Response Chain') finishes resolving and -
• The Continuous Effect of 'Call of the Haunted'.

Chain Interruption (Continuous Effect)
Under normal situations, Chain Link 5 would now be resolved, however due to the destruction of 'Sangan', the Continuous Effect of 'Call of the Haunted' is now applied.

As a result, 'Call of the Haunted' destroys itself as its target ('Sangan') was just destroyed. Once 'Call of the Haunted' has been sent to the graveyard, the chain continues resolving as normal.

Chain Link 5 Resolves
At this point, 'Book of Moon' now attempts to Flip 'Blowback Dragon' face-down. However, as 'Blowback Dragon' is no longer face-up on the field, the effect of 'Book of Moon' disappears / resolves without effect.

Chain Link 4 Resolves
'Enemy Controller' now attempts to give control of Player A's 'Blowback Dragon' to Player B. However, as 'Blowback Dragon' is no longer face-up on Player A's side of the field, the effect of 'Enemy Controller' disappears / resolves without effect.

As was stated previously, given the fact that 'Sangan' was Tributed as the cost for activating 'Enemy Controller', its effect was Triggered.

The effect of 'Sangan' was Triggered when this card was activated, not during its resolution, however it is worth pointing out here so as to remind that its effect is still attempting to activate.

Chain Link 3 Resolves
'Interdimensional Matter Transporter' now attempts to Remove Player A's 'Blowback Dragon' from play. However, as 'Blowback Dragon' is no longer face-up on Player A's side of the field, the effect of 'Interdimensional Matter Transporter' disappears / resolves without effect.

Chain Link 2 Resolves
'Bottomless Trap Hole' now attempts to remove from play all monsters with 1500 ATK which were summoned at the exact same time as 'Blowback Dragon'.

As 'Blowback Dragon' was the only such monster, it attempts to remove 'Blowback Dragon' from play. However, as 'Blowback Dragon' is no longer face-up on Player A's side of the field, the effect of 'Bottomless Trap Hole' disappears / resolves without effect.

Chain Link 1 Resolves
'Blowback Dragon' now attempts to destroy the Spell/Trap that was targeted by its effect. Although I never stated it in my example, lets assume 'Blowback Dragon' was targeting the face-down 'Bottomless Trap Hole'.

As 'Bottomless Trap Hole' is still face-up on the field due to the fact that any time a Spell / Trap is activated, it is not sent to the graveyard until the entire chain resolves (unless it is destroyed/sent to the graveyard by another card's effect).

As a result, Player A flips 3 coins. Lets assume his results are Heads, Tails, Heads.

As a result of this coin-flip, the effect of 'Blowback Dragon' destroys the face-up 'Bottomless Trap Hole'.

Clean Up
As the current chain has now finished resolving, all face-up Spells & Traps (excluding Continuous, Equip, or Field Spells/Traps) that were activated during this chain are sent to the graveyard.

In this example, the following cards are sent to the graveyard during this step (order is irrelevant):

• Interdimensional Matter Transporter
• Book of Moon
• Enemy Controller
• Torrential Tribute

'Bottomless Trap Hole' and 'Call of the Haunted' are not sent to the graveyard at this time, as both cards were destroyed by a card effect during the resolution of the chain.

While I am very familiar with the fact that most player's send cards to the graveyard at the same time they activate it, legally they are not allowed to do this for several reasons:

• The activated card remains face-up on the field, using up 1 of the player's Spell/Trap zones until it is removed as a Cost/Effect, or at the end of the Chain. This prevents a player from activating 6, 7, or 8 Traps and/or Quick-Play Spells by simply sending the card(s) to the graveyard when they are activated and therefore, having a 'free' Spell/Trap Zone in which they could play a new card(s).
• The activated card may be counted, or otherwise affected by the effects of another card effect. For example: 'Secret Barrel' will count your opponents face-up 'Mystical Space Typhoon' or 'Graceful Charity' in addition to all other cards in their hand and on the field. In addition, your opponents set 'Dust Tornado' can target your face-up 'Mystical Space Typhoon' with the intent of letting a player set a new S/T during its resolution.

In any case, by a strict reading of the rules, sending a card to the graveyard before this point can cause you to get a minor game infraction (Proceedural error), so its a good idea to get into the practice of keeping the cards face-up on the field until the 'Clean Up' step.

New Chain
While Player A would normally be the one to start a new chain after the 'Summon Response Chain' resolves, the mandatory Trigger Effect of 'Sangan' which was triggered twice (once during the activation of 'Enemy Controller' on Chain Link 4 and one additional time when it was destroyed by 'Torrential Tribute' during Chain Link 6), and so starts a new chain (with 2 chain links) immediately after the resolution of this chain.

The reason that the effect of 'Sangan' waits until this time for its effect to activate, is due to the fact that only a Continuous Effect can interrupt the resolution of a chain. If 'Sangan's' Trigger Effect was an optional Trigger Effect, it would 'Miss the Timing' as a result of this limitation.

However, as 'Sangan's' Trigger Effect is a mandatory Trigger Effect, its activation cannot 'Miss the Timing' and waits patiently until the first legal opportunity to activate, which happens now.

• Player B activates the Mandatory Trigger effect of 'Sangan' (Chain Link 1)
• Player B activates the Mandatory Trigger Effect of 'Sangan' (Chain Link 2)
• Player A can chain as desired.
• Player B can chain as desired.

 Closing Comments: Once again I appologise about the length of this article, however given the complexity of the information involved - I hope that it has provided you with increased clarity surrounding this frequently misunderstood game play mechanic.

 

For those who have enjoyed this guide, and/or my unofficial guide to 'Royal Oppression', you would be pleased to know that I am currently working on several other guides to help explain other poorly understood game mechanics including (but not limited to) Player Priority; Negation vs. Destruction (esp. Skill Drain); the Attack Response Chain; and the Damage Step.

 

Please send all comments and criticisms to kalanijasmine@hotmail.com

 

Kalani Jasmine Vernon

Certified UDE Judge

Respected member of the official yugioh forums (http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/community/forums)