All questions about Priority come here first...

[helpoemer316]

Priority

By Michael Palmer

It's come to my attention that many of the questions being asked on our forums here at netrep.net have been the same questions regarding priority and specific monsters and how they interact. First, I'll say the golden rule that no one seems to understand as of right now. A monster does not have priority! YOU THE PLAYER HAVE PRIORITY!!! Some people just don't understand that so the first thing we always say while answering questions is "This monster doesn't have priority, no monster has priority. The player has the priority." So make sure you rephrase your questions before posting them if you ever ask about a monster's priority.

With that pushed aside, I thought up a few situations with certain monsters that you could use their effects with while using YOUR priority:

Player A summons Tribe-Infecting Virus to the field.
Player B responds with Trap Hole.
Player A uses Tribe's effect to destroy all monsters of a specific type on the field.
Player B's Trap Hole then resolves destroying Tribe-Infecting Virus.

Reason: The reason you can do this is because when Trap Hole is activated, Tribe's effect is already present on the field. With that in mind Tribe can use it's effect at least once before being destroyed because it is active on the field. This is the same reason why you can't Trap Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole, or Torrential Tribue a Jinzo, because Jinzo's effect is active as soon as it hits the field, not after the activation of these traps.

Player A summons Magicial Scientist.
Player B activates Ring of Destruction.
Player A activates Scientist's face up effect and pays 1000 Life Points and special summons a Fusion monster.
Player B's Ring of Destruction then resolves destroying Scientist and dealing 300 points of damage to both players.

Reason: Basically see the same as TIV. A rule of thumb is that whenever a person summons a monster, it's effect is face up on the field, unless other wise negated by another card, such as an already face up Skill Drain. Remember if Skill Drain is face up and active before you summon a monster with a face up effect, that effect is negated as soon as it's summoned, since Skill Drain was active before the summon it's effect would in sense of the term, have priority over the summoned monster, but remember what I said, cards don't have priority, people do. It's should be common sense that an effect that was already in play before a monster was summoned or another card was played would resolve before that cards effect would.

Player A tribute summons Mobius The Frost Monarch and targets two spell/trap cards on the field.
Player B responds with Torrential Tribute.
Player A's Mobius The Frost Monarch resolves since it's effect is activated as soon as hits the field and the targetted spell or trap cards that were targetted upon summoning are destroyed. If Torrential Tribute is one of these targetted cards, it does not negate Torrential Tribute.
Player B's Torrential Tribute then resolves destroying all of the monsters on the field, including Mobius The Frost Monarch.

Reason: This one should be apparent, the effect activates as soon as it's summoned, and this means that as soon as Mobius hits the field, the player controlling Mobius gets to select up to two targets with it's effect. Then Player B has the right to respond with a trap after the selection is made. Mobius's effect would resolve as normal and than the trap card activated in response to him will resolve as normal.

Here's a tad bit different of a situation...

Player A's D.D. Warrior Lady attacks Player B's Face Down Card.
Player B flips their Face Down Card and reveals their own D.D. Warrior Lady.
Damage Calculation is reached and Player A takes 100 points of damage for running into D.D.'s 1600 defense with a 1500 ATK.
The question being is who gets the choice to remove first?

This one is quite simple, the turn player would have first choice on whether or not to remove. Player A would be the person to make the first choice on this, if they choose not remove, than it goes to Player B who has the choice now with their D.D. Warrior Lady. If they choose to remove than both monsters are removed from play. If not, than nothing happens and both monsters stay on the field, Player B's in face up defense position and Player A's in face up attack position.

That's enough for cards you would have "priority" with. It should be a little more evident that cards with normal face up effects would have their effect active on the field before any trap can be activated in response to the summon (not chained to the summon since another Golden Rule is that summons have no spell speed, which means for you new guys, they're non-chainable).

CARDS THAT A PLAYER HAS NO PRIORITY WITH!!!

If you read the above, you'll notice that that means that what is coming next is cards that you have no priority over to activate certain effects they control. First I'll talk about the one card that almost everyone wants to confuse it would seem.

Player A summons Breaker The Magical Warrior
Player B activates Bottomless Trap Hole
Player A chooses to use priority... but wait, what does that mean!?

Explanation: Breaker's effect is very tricky and some people don't understand how it's tricky. Breaker basically almost has two effects. The first is the addition of the counter, without this counter you cannot activate the secondary effect, so it's essential. The face up effect of Breaker as soon as it's summoned is the addition of the counter, not it's "breaking" effect itself. So the only priority you have when an opponent responds to the summon of your Breaker is whether or not to add the counter or not. By the time you would have the ability or opportunity to remove that counter, Breaker would no longer be on the field due to the responded trap card. Many confuse this card as a card that would have the ability to use your prioity with and use the effect, but you can't.


I really see no reason to go any further in detail with other cards. Anyone who has a good understanding of the game should be able to read this and make sense of it and be able to tell what you can use priority with and what you cannot use it with. It's a game mechanic in Yu-Gi-Oh! that many people become confused with and it'll be more evident how to use it as the game progresses, but for now, if you're confused with any other cards, you may respond to this post with any questions that you may have and myself and others will try and help you out with your problems.

 

[densetsu_x]

Priority

By Michael Palmer

** Snip **

Very well done. 1 issue arises here though:

Player A tribute summons Mobius The Frost Monarch and targets two spell/trap cards on the field.
Player B responds with Torrential Tribute.
Player A's Mobius The Frost Monarch resolves since it's effect is activated as soon as hits the field and the targetted spell or trap cards that were targetted upon summoning are destroyed. If Torrential Tribute is one of these targetted cards, it does not negate Torrential Tribute.
Player B's Torrential Tribute then resolves destroying all of the monsters on the field, including Mobius The Frost Monarch.

Reason: This one should be apparent, the effect activates as soon as it's summoned, and this means that as soon as Mobius hits the field, the player controlling Mobius gets to select up to two targets with it's effect. Then Player B has the right to respond with a trap after the selection is made. Mobius's effect would resolve as normal and than the trap card activated in response to him will resolve as normal.

2 things actually I'd ask about.

First: This is something I'd need to mail the mailing list about because as I've been debating on the Mobius thread, because his effect mentions the word "can", this would imply that the effect is optional and not automatic. this would further be backed up by what's mentioned in the FAQ:

"¢ If "Mobius the Frost Monarch" is Tribute Summoned by the effect of "Ultimate Offering" in the middle of a chain (and is not the last step of the chain to resolve), then you have missed the timing on his effect and you cannot activate his effect to destroy 2 Spell or Trap Cards.

Second: Since Mobius' effect is not continuous, in your example the opponent should just simply be able to chain the activation of "Torrential Tribute" to Mobius' effect so that would resolve first, destroying all monsters followed by the 2 S/T cards being destroyed.

These were my understandings about it.

Also, semi-related. As the opponent, can't I simply ask if the turn player wishes to activate the effect of the monster he just summoned (if an automatic effect doesn't activate like with the case of Breaker) and if he says no, then wouldn't I have the chance to respond accordingly and it would be too late for the turn player to then change his mind and activate the effect

(Example: Turn player special summons "Chaos Emperor Dragon". I ask if he wishes to blow up the field, he says no. So I decide to activate "Bottomless Trap Hole" and remove CED from play. I would say since I asked it would be too late for him to change his mind. Now I know on the flip side if he summons CED and I just overreact and drop BTH on him, he can then say "wait, I was planning on activating the effect" because he does in fact have the priority to do so in which case he activates, I BTH, then in resolvution, CED is removed from the field, and then everything else is sent to the graveyard).

- Andrew

 

[Dlanaan]

To respond mostly to densetsu, Torrential would resolve first followed by Mobius' effect.
In regards to activated effects, it is generally better as the opponent to ask your opponent if he or she will be activating/using an effect rather than activating a Trap in response to the summon and having the other player claim 'priority'.
If you do 'jump the gun' so to speak, the end result will be a minor replay. Your trap will be considered illegally activated and turned face down again to allow the player summoning the monster to activate the effect. Then if you wish to activate your Trap Card, you may do so, putting it on a link above the effect of the monster's. Your effect will resolve first followed by the monster's.
Using Mobius and Torrential Tribute as an example (note that Mobius is a weird monster to use for priority. I will use Cannon Soldier in a second):

Mobius is Tribute Summoned by Player 1. At this point, the player controlling Mobius may target up to 2 S/Ts and should be allowed to make this choice before Player 2 is allowed to respond. If Player 2 activates Torrential Tribute without giving Player 1 the choice, then Player 2's Torrential Tribute will go face-down again and wait until Player 1 is done making his/her decision (Mobius is a trigger effect, so needs to be dealt with first anyways). Once the decision is made, Player 2 may activate Torrential Tribute. The chain will then resolve with Torrential Tribute resolving destroying all monsters on the field. Mobius' effect will then resolve destroying any of the targeted S/Ts that are still on the field.

Now for Cannon Soldier and Torrential Tribute (a better example for Priority):
Cannon Soldier is Normal Summoned by Player 1. Player 2 doesn't give Player 1 a chance to do anything and activates Torrential Tribute. Player 1 states he wanted to use Cannon Soldier's effect, so Torrential Tribute was illegally activated and is turned face-down again. Player 1 Tributes the appropriate monster and now Player 2 has the option of activating Torrential Tribute or not. If, on the other hand, Player 2 had asked (and I usually find this to be the best procedure) if Player 1 was going to use the effect of Cannon Soldier and Player 1 said no, then Player 2 could activate Torrential Tribute and Player 1 would not be able to do anything to prevent it (at least in regards to Cannon Soldier). If Player 1 does use the effect of Cannon Soldier and Player 2 does use Torrential Tribute, regardless of the issue of Priority or not, Cannon Soldier will go as link 1 on the chain with Torrential Tribute going as link 2. Link 2 will resolve first, destroying all monsters on the field. Link 1 will then resolve, inflicting the 500 LP damage (keep in mind the Tributed monster will already be off the field as the cost of activating Link 1's effect).

 

[irnbrudrinker]

I have a question about priority I was sitting on until the essay on priority was published but this now appears to be a good place to ask.

Can I use my priority to do something else other than activate newly summoned monsters effect.
I.e.
I have catapult Turtle on the field. I decide to summon Giant Orc. My opponent quickly replys with Torrentual Tribute. Can I use my priority to activate Catapult Turtle and tribute Giant Orc before Torrentual Tribute activates.

 

[densetsu_x]

I would say no because the opponent does have the right to respond to the summon. It would look something like this:

a) Turn Player successfully summons a monster. Turn player has the right to activate the monster's effect.
b) The opposing player then has the right to activate an effect in response to the summon or in chain to the activation of the monster's effect.

So if the turn player summons something and doesn't use the effect and decides instead he wants to offer it to "Catapult Turtle", the opposing player could also call for a mini-replay since he wasn't given the chance to respond first.

- Andrew

 

[helpoemer316]

Well, densetsu, you're partially right here, but mistaken with the whole sense of priority in the matter.

A player has priority to activate any effect in response to an effect controlled by an opponent as long as it's legal to play.

In this case with Giant Orc being summoned and Torrential Tribute being activated in response. The player who summoned Giant Orc would have the option to activate any effect that they have at their disposal before the resolution part of the chain. In this case, the player would be allowed to sacrifice Giant Orc to Catapult Turtle and deal 1100 points of damage to their opponent, than Torrential Tribute resolves destroying every monster on the field.

Priority isn't limited to any monster that was just summoned, but basically an effect that player may control, with the exception of spell speed 1 spell cards. Priority passing has been a part of the game forever, just no one realized it. You have always asked your opponent if they wished to respond to something when you do something, or at least you should have. When you do this, you're passing priority to your opponent, after they either respond or don't respond, then priority is passed back to the other player to respond with something, that's essentially how it works.

It's kinda like Initiative in VS, in fact, exactly like it. When you pass Initiative, it's your opponent's turn to act, when Plot Twist and other cards activated in VS, you pass priority to your opponent afterwards to respond with something of their own, if they do than the chain forms, and it's your turn to add to the chain if you wish, if you choose not than the chain reaches the resolve step, just like in Yu-Gi-Oh!.

 

[Maester Bacman]

A player has priority to activate any effect in response to an effect controlled by an opponent as long as it's legal to play.

In this case with Giant Orc being summoned and Torrential Tribute being activated in response.

In this case, the player would be allowed to sacrifice Giant Orc to Catapult Turtle and deal 1100 points of damage to their opponent, than Torrential Tribute resolves destroying every monster on the field.

Priority isn't limited to any monster that was just summoned, but basically an effect that player may control, with the exception of spell speed 1 spell cards.

This is just incredible. :-o If I get what you said, all my concepts about priority have changed.

A question, if you don't mind. When we are talking about these successful summons for the use of priority, are we including summons by cards like Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted and Monster Reborn? If that were the case, the use of priority couldn't be possible in the middle of a chain.

 

[helpoemer316]

If they're chaining to Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, or Monster Reborn, in most cases it'd be a spell speed 3 trap anyways, so you wouldn't be able to respond with any priority, you can't chain a counter trap with anything but another counter trap. As far as...

Player A activates Call of the Haunted, player B chains Waboku, there is no problem with priority here, it's a simple chain and shouldn't be confused.

How I think you're confused is special summons, remember, these are like normal summons in the case that in all instances that I can think off the top of my mind, if a card is special summoned, it's always been the last activity in the chain and is after the resolution part of the chain at that.

In this case, if you Premature Burial your Tribe and after the chain resolves bringing Tribe the field, they decide to activate a new chain with Bottomless Trap Hole, this is a legal chain and you can activate your turn player priority with Tribe's effect and activate it before it's removed.

There is no interruption of a chain there. One chain had just completely resolved and another chain was just formed.

 

[Dlanaan]

In this case with Giant Orc being summoned and Torrential Tribute being activated in response.  The player who summoned Giant Orc would have the option to activate any effect that they have at their disposal before the resolution part of the chain.  In this case, the player would be allowed to sacrifice Giant Orc to Catapult Turtle and deal 1100 points of damage to their opponent, than Torrential Tribute resolves destroying every monster on the field.

Actually, the last I heard, this is not possible. You are not allowed to activate an effect that does not come from the monster you just summoned (at least from what I have read/heard before... still waiting on that priority essay). So if you were to summon Giant Orc, you would not be able to activate Catapult Turtle's effect immediately. Your opponent would get the first chance to respond to an effect since Giant Orc itself has no effects to activate. This is similar to not being allowed to activate Torrential Tribute yourself before giving your opponent a chance to respond to your summon first.

Now, this is again based solely what I have read/heard and there are still a lot of conflicting ideas going on about priority. This may be incorrect and I realize it seems illogical, but sometimes in this game that is the way it works.

 

[helpoemer316]

Well based on the simple passing of priority principles, it would seem to be possible. I do know that it seems impossible becuase it would seem as if your chaining a spell speed 1 ability to a spell speed 2 trap. But Catapult Turtle's effect is on the field and active as well as any other effect would be at the time of that traps activation. Now tell me, how much sense does it actually make to say "Well, you can activate Tribe's effect when you summon him in response to Bottomless Trap Hole because his effect is active on the field." And than say "But you can't activate this monsters effect even though it's active on the field as well." There is no difference in either circumstance in my eyes, the player just chooses to use their priority to activate another effect instead of the effect of the monster they just summoned, a player is not limited to just one ability within the proposed chain, but if a trap like that or such is activated, they're allowed to respond themselves with any effect that could possibly be activated, including Catapult Turtle's effect.

Now, granted, I have been wrong on some things in the past, but I don't see how much sense could be driven into not allow such a thing considering the whole bases of priority isn't that you can activate only specific effects but that that players are able to respond to other card effects within a sort of chain environment.

 

[jucko]

What happens if my opponent summons chaos emperor dragon and uses its effect.
I activate book of moon to flip it face-down.
Will the effect resolve?


modified:

Another question:

What happens if my opponent summons chaos emperor dragon and uses its effect.
Then I activate horn of heaven or solemn judgment.
Will the effect still resolve?

 

[somewan]

What happenes if my opponent summons chaos emperor dragon and uses ists effect.
I aktivate book of moon to flip it face-down.
Will the effect resolve?

Yes. And Book of Moon will count as a card for CED's effect.

 

[Deathjester]

Explanation: Breaker's effect is very tricky and some people don't understand how it's tricky.  Breaker basically almost has two effects.  The first is the addition of the counter, without this counter you cannot activate the secondary effect, so it's essential.  The face up effect of Breaker as soon as it's summoned is the addition of the counter, not it's "breaking" effect itself.  So the only priority you have when an opponent responds to the summon of your Breaker is whether or not to add the counter or not.  By the time you would have the ability or opportunity to remove that counter, Breaker would no longer be on the field due to the responded trap card.  Many confuse this card as a card that would have the ability to use your prioity with and use the effect, but you can't.

One little mistake in that. If, say, Ring of Destruction is activated on Breaker after it's summoned, the damage will be 1600 since the placing of the counter has not resolved. If I'm not mistaken, whenever you have priority to use a card effect, it's because the effect is optional. Since the placing of the counter on Breaker is automatic rather than optional, you don't have priority to place it before the opponent resolves an effect.

 

[jucko]

You cannot chain to a summon!!!!!!

Deathjester has allready modified it. Now its correct.

 

[helpoemer316]

No one has said in this entire thread that you could chain to a summon, =/.

To Deathjester: This is true. My understand has always been that the reason the counter is never added is because Ring would resolve before the counter become added to Breaker. Like you, I originally thought that the counter was just never added (hense meaning you can't remove what's not there). But looking at other cards with similar effects that do get their effects, I've come to the conclusion that the counter is in fact added. *Shrugs* It's one of those cases where it doesn't happen, in any case, the end result is always the same, when I get asked how much someone takes after ringing a Breaker after it's summon I say "1600"(unless it's way after the summon, I'm meaning directly after the summon it's activated).

But this also brings to the idea that summons have no spell speeds and you can't chain to a summon, if this is the case, that means regardless of what is activated in response to Breaker's summon, he is still gonna get his counter directly after the summon. Because you can't chain to the summon, however here's an interesting question... can you chain to the addition of the counter? Maybe this is the case that UDE and Konami are explaining to us poorly. Maybe it's the fact that Ring would be considered chained to the activation of the addition of the counter and then resolving before the addition of the counter? See, it's always a confusing bit of work really when you try to digest it, it's always easier to either look at it in the point of view I said, or just not worry about it at all and if someone asks you "Why does it do this?" just say "Because Konami said so!"

 

[anthonyj]

I do remember reading that you could chain to the "effect" of Breaker getting his counter and that is why Ring would only be 1600 as Ring resolves first before the Counter is added. That is really the only way that makes sense. Otherwise it would look like this:
Player A summons Breaker
Player B does not negate the summon
Breaker's effect adds spell counter
Player B does not chain to the effect
Breaker's effect resolves and he is now 1900 and may activate his secondary effect to destroy one spell/trap.
So you would have to Ring in a chain with the addition of the spell counter or miss your chance to prevent him from destroying a spell/trap with his second effect (if he so chooses).

 

[helpoemer316]

Well, the sense of priority shifting is that you are asking the other player if they wish to respond, that's always been the point behind it and that's always been what essentially "priority" has been.

With this point in mind.  Why wouldn't you be able to activate an effect in response to your opponent's card activation?

Why don't you explain to me in depth and concisely why you can say... activate Tribe's effect if you summon it and it's responded to with Bottomless Trap Hole, but you can't activate another effect that's already f/u on the field as well, in fact, another spell speed 1 effect just the same as Tribe-Infecting Virus, it makes very little sense on why you couldn't.  Until I can see a very good reason why you can't, or I just see, "You can't!" from someone who actually has the say in everything, I'm sticking with my answer and my thought process in it all.

 

[helpoemer316]

I'll be doing an update to this essay and re-posting it within the week. I'll add any new information we've discussed here as well as any other cards that may interact with "priority". Also any mistakes I may have made will also be addressed in a re-write.

 

[djp952]

Why don't you explain to me in depth and concisely why you can say... activate Tribe's effect if you summon it and it's responded to with Bottomless Trap Hole, but you can't activate another effect that's already f/u on the field as well, in fact, another spell speed 1 effect just the same as Tribe-Infecting Virus, it makes very little sense on why you couldn't.  Until I can see a very good reason why you can't, or I just see, "You can't!" from someone who actually has the say in everything, I'm sticking with my answer and my thought process in it all.

Maybe I misunderstand the meaning of the question, but this seems fairly cut and dry.  [Here I go missing the point again, folks - pay attention!  Nope, didn't read all the other posts first!]

The sample chain posted by seidel is indeed illegal.  "Torrential Tribute" will resolve, destroying all monsters on the field before priority shifts back to player A.  Neither "Catapult Turtle" nor "Giant Orc" are on the field anymore.

Now in the other example, you've got a timing / mechanics issue as well.  When "Tribe-Infecting Virus" is summoned, you can either use your priority to activate it's effect, or pass priority to your opponent.  In either case, the opponent may either chain to Tribe's effect (if priority was used), or respond to Tribe's summon (if priority was passed) with "Bottomless Trap Hole".  Once that takes place, the turn player cannot activate another Spell Speed 1 monster effect until the chain with "Bottomless Trap Hole" resolves completely. 

Basically, you either use it or lose it.  You cannot activate 2 Spell Speed 1 effects at the same time without your opponent being able to respond/chain, and once you're in a chain, you can't use Spell Speed 1 effects until you regain turn player priority again.

========================================

edit: Maybe I did miss the point.  Are you talking about a situation such as this?

Player A has "Barrel Dragon" on the field
Player B has a "Bottomless Trap Hole" set
Player A Summons "Tribe-Infecting Virus"

If the question really is ... can Player A activate "Barrel Dragon's" effect before the opponent can activate "Bottomless Trap Hole" against "Tribe-Infecting Virus", then I agree and say "Yes, player A has not passed priority yet and can activate "Barrel Dragon's" effect".  He just can't do both Tribe and Barrel before the opponent gets to play his/her BTH. (which must go in a chain with "Barrel Dragon's" effect in this situation)

 

[helpoemer316]

I discussed it with Seidle on MSN, the conclusion we came across was that he agreed with me and just wants me to re-write everything to explain it easier.

I'm doing that sometime later this week, no worries Mike, you don't have to go all drawn out with another explanation, lol.