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Tragetting In Chains and How to Chain Effectively AW#3 Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:05 am
Niko327
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Reputation : 7If you've been playing Yugioh for even an hour, you probably know what a chain is. Well, I'm going to explain what it is anyway! Here's a scenario:
The scenario is basic and is pretty self-explanatory to most Yugioh players, but the most important almost completely ignored piece of information is something anyone who read the spoiler should take to heart:
effects ACTIVATE on a Chain forward, and proceed to RESOLVE backward.
This is key to understanding how targeting effects work and how to use them to your advantage in the game.
What is targeting? Any card effect that specifies one specific card on the field, in the graveyard, banished, or hand. A lot of these cards will literally say "Target 1 card/monster/spell/trap," but others might say "select," "add," or effects that special summon 1 monster also target.
When an effect is to target something, it does so UPON ACTIVATION, therefore when you activate monster reborn, your opponent can choose to wait until you choose your target for the special summon to decide if they want to respond to it or not. Upon activation, the monster is not summoned yet, but is targeted and ready to be, and not until Monster Reborn resolves will it be special summoned.
On a side note from targeting, here's an explanation on why certain things can't be negated due to chain resolution:
So how is this useful? It allows you to plan out your plays much much more efficiently and makes certain cards a lot stronger/weaker. For example, Bottomless Trap Hole and Book Of Moon. I remember this was one of the rulings I was the most confused on when I first heard it. If you attempt to destroy a monster with Bottomless Trap Hole, it targets the summoned monster upon activation. Your opponent then can activate Book Of Moon as Chain Link 2. Now both cards are targeting the same monster. Which resolves first? Book Of Moon of course, which will flip the summoned monster into Face-Down Defense position. As we all know, monsters that are Set do NOT have a calculated Attack or Defense, they do not have a Type or attribute or a level. They can't be used as synchro summon material or Xyz because the information needed is unknown. Same scenario here because now that the monster is Set, it's Attack points can't be calculated, therefore Bottomless Trap Hole can't determine if it's target's Attack is 1500 or higher. Bottomless fails to destroy the monster and resolves by going to the graveyard.
Here's a bit more useful tip rather than just proving how good Book Of Moon is. Safe Zone is a wonderful card this format because everyone is playing such heavy backrow, therefore everyone is playing 3 Mystical Space Typhoons. If your opponent has a boss monster on the field you can't seem to get rid of, you can use Safe Zone to get rid of it. If your opponent or you uses Mystical Space Typhoon or Heavy Storm with Safe Zone Face-down, you can Chain Safe Zone as Chain Link 2. It targets your opponent's monster, and upon resolution, it gets destroyed by M.S.T., which then destroys your opponent's monster.
If your opponent activates Monster Reborn and targets his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, you can Chain D.D. Crow as Chain Link 2 and Target the same Blue-Eyes to banish it. Crow resolves first, banishing the Blue-Eyes, and Monster Reborn loses target because Blue-Eyes is no longer in the Graveyard, one of Monster Reborn's conditions. It then proceeds to resolve by sending it to the grave. This is why you should always ask your opponent what monster they are targeting BEFORE you decide to activate your response. You might D.D. Crow and target a creature and then your opponent can declare he's targeting something else.
People tend to get mixed up with targeting and effects. Targeting is NOT a part of the effect of a card, it literally is just choosing a target for where the effect should apply. If I summon Rescue Rabbit, and my opponent activates Effect Veiler as Chain Link 1, activating Forbidden Robe as Chain Link 2 does NOT stop Effect Veiler from targeting because that happened already when Veiler was activated. Robe doesn't lose Veiler's target for Rabbit is still a face-up effect monster on his opponent's field. If I summon Rabbit and activate Robe as Chain Link 1, my opponent can STILL use Effect Veiler as Chain Link 2 because Robe has not resolved yet so it's effect is not active on Rescue Rabbit.
There are also costs to activating certain effects, for example, The Gates of Dark World. I'd advise not flipping up M.S.T. when they activate the card, but when they decide to activate the effect. This means they have to pay the cost to banish a fiend in their graveyard first, and then your M.S.T. as Chain Link 2 will resolve first and destroy Gates before it can resolve on the field (field spells cannot resolve in the grave even if the effect was activated, so it won't resolve as Chain Link 1 even though M.S.T. doesn't negate).
Play smart and play slow. Your opponent isn't allowed to play out of turn, so don't let an impatient DN player try and skip your priority to respond. When they activate a card, ask for targets if you're unsure, and Chain only when you know what you're chaining to.
- Spoiler:
You activate dark hole. Your opponent activates Dark Bribe. You then activate Solemn Judgment. What happens?
When any card or effect is activated, it automatically goes on something we call a "chain." The first card or effect that is activated while the game state is completely open (nothing is happening except thoughts) is considered Chain Link 1. If a card or effect is activated in response to the first, it becomes Chain Link 2, and if another card or effect is activated after the second, it becomes Chain Link 3, and etc., etc., until no one else wants to activate anything. Of course, we have to follow who has priority to activate a card next, but that has no relevance here so we'll skip over that.
So Dark Hole was activated first(Chain Link 1), then following Dark Bribe(Chain Link 2), and finally Solemn Judgment(Chain Link 3). So how do we resolve which happens at what time? Well, Konami has a nice ruling for us to determine that:
effects ACTIVATE on a Chain forward, and proceed to RESOLVE backward.
Dark Hole was ACTIVATED first, but has not yet resolved since a card was played in response and stacked onto the chain. The last effect to ACTIVATE is the first effect to RESOLVE, so in this simple case that everyone has figured out already, Solemn Judgment resolves first, negating Dark Bribe's activation, completely removing it from the Chain and Dark Hole then proceeds to wipe the field.
The scenario is basic and is pretty self-explanatory to most Yugioh players, but the most important almost completely ignored piece of information is something anyone who read the spoiler should take to heart:
effects ACTIVATE on a Chain forward, and proceed to RESOLVE backward.
This is key to understanding how targeting effects work and how to use them to your advantage in the game.
What is targeting? Any card effect that specifies one specific card on the field, in the graveyard, banished, or hand. A lot of these cards will literally say "Target 1 card/monster/spell/trap," but others might say "select," "add," or effects that special summon 1 monster also target.
When an effect is to target something, it does so UPON ACTIVATION, therefore when you activate monster reborn, your opponent can choose to wait until you choose your target for the special summon to decide if they want to respond to it or not. Upon activation, the monster is not summoned yet, but is targeted and ready to be, and not until Monster Reborn resolves will it be special summoned.
On a side note from targeting, here's an explanation on why certain things can't be negated due to chain resolution:
- Spoiler:
Since I just got done talking about Monster Reborn, let's use it as an example, although it's a slightly bad one. Let's say you choose to target Gorz The Emissary Of Darkness in your grave with Monster Reborn. Can you negate it with Solemn Judgment? Yes and no.
Let's remember another two rules Konami threw at us about Chains. There can only be ONE Chain at a time, and a Chain's Resolution CANNOT be interrupted or broken.
This is why the answer to Solemn Judgment negating Gorz's special summon with Monster Reborn is yes and no. Monster Reborn activates, targeting Gorz. You can now respond and negate it with Solemn Judgment, NOT because you are negating a special summon, but because you are negating the activation of a spell card. The only way to negate the special summon is for it to happen first. Upon activation, all Monster Reborn is doing is targeting Gorz. If you say okay to that, then Monster Reborn goes into the Resolution stage. For Monster Reborn to resolve completely without interruption, Gorz MUST be special summoned. During the Chain resolving, Gorz is special summoned, and Solemn Judgment can no longer negate it because that would be like a Chain trying to mash itself within another Chain.
This is why Thunder King Rai-oh, Solemn Judgment, Black Horn Of Heaven, and other summon negation cards can't negate monsters that are summoned by other card effects like Monster Reborn, Mystic Tomato, or REDMD. Their effects go on Chain Link 1 and target a monster to summon and no monster has been summoned yet. The effect resolves and cannot be interrupted on the Chain, therefore goes through. The only summons the cards listed above can negate are inherent summons. These are summons that happen by the monsters themselves or through the turn player's 1 Normal/Tribute summon or an attempt at a Synchro/Xyz/Contact Fusion summon. None of these summons start a chain and therefore no need for a resolution of a chain. BLS, Chaos Sorcerer, Grapha of the Dark World, Machina Fortress etc. are all inherent special summons.
So how is this useful? It allows you to plan out your plays much much more efficiently and makes certain cards a lot stronger/weaker. For example, Bottomless Trap Hole and Book Of Moon. I remember this was one of the rulings I was the most confused on when I first heard it. If you attempt to destroy a monster with Bottomless Trap Hole, it targets the summoned monster upon activation. Your opponent then can activate Book Of Moon as Chain Link 2. Now both cards are targeting the same monster. Which resolves first? Book Of Moon of course, which will flip the summoned monster into Face-Down Defense position. As we all know, monsters that are Set do NOT have a calculated Attack or Defense, they do not have a Type or attribute or a level. They can't be used as synchro summon material or Xyz because the information needed is unknown. Same scenario here because now that the monster is Set, it's Attack points can't be calculated, therefore Bottomless Trap Hole can't determine if it's target's Attack is 1500 or higher. Bottomless fails to destroy the monster and resolves by going to the graveyard.
Here's a bit more useful tip rather than just proving how good Book Of Moon is. Safe Zone is a wonderful card this format because everyone is playing such heavy backrow, therefore everyone is playing 3 Mystical Space Typhoons. If your opponent has a boss monster on the field you can't seem to get rid of, you can use Safe Zone to get rid of it. If your opponent or you uses Mystical Space Typhoon or Heavy Storm with Safe Zone Face-down, you can Chain Safe Zone as Chain Link 2. It targets your opponent's monster, and upon resolution, it gets destroyed by M.S.T., which then destroys your opponent's monster.
If your opponent activates Monster Reborn and targets his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, you can Chain D.D. Crow as Chain Link 2 and Target the same Blue-Eyes to banish it. Crow resolves first, banishing the Blue-Eyes, and Monster Reborn loses target because Blue-Eyes is no longer in the Graveyard, one of Monster Reborn's conditions. It then proceeds to resolve by sending it to the grave. This is why you should always ask your opponent what monster they are targeting BEFORE you decide to activate your response. You might D.D. Crow and target a creature and then your opponent can declare he's targeting something else.
People tend to get mixed up with targeting and effects. Targeting is NOT a part of the effect of a card, it literally is just choosing a target for where the effect should apply. If I summon Rescue Rabbit, and my opponent activates Effect Veiler as Chain Link 1, activating Forbidden Robe as Chain Link 2 does NOT stop Effect Veiler from targeting because that happened already when Veiler was activated. Robe doesn't lose Veiler's target for Rabbit is still a face-up effect monster on his opponent's field. If I summon Rabbit and activate Robe as Chain Link 1, my opponent can STILL use Effect Veiler as Chain Link 2 because Robe has not resolved yet so it's effect is not active on Rescue Rabbit.
There are also costs to activating certain effects, for example, The Gates of Dark World. I'd advise not flipping up M.S.T. when they activate the card, but when they decide to activate the effect. This means they have to pay the cost to banish a fiend in their graveyard first, and then your M.S.T. as Chain Link 2 will resolve first and destroy Gates before it can resolve on the field (field spells cannot resolve in the grave even if the effect was activated, so it won't resolve as Chain Link 1 even though M.S.T. doesn't negate).
Play smart and play slow. Your opponent isn't allowed to play out of turn, so don't let an impatient DN player try and skip your priority to respond. When they activate a card, ask for targets if you're unsure, and Chain only when you know what you're chaining to.
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