The Quandry...
Ever wonder why in the world you can use Cannon Soldier for its own effect?
Ever get burned by your opponent who uses a Winged Minion while Skill Drain is on the field to push their Slate Warrior over your Cyber Dragon?
Why the heck does Spirit Reaper STILL live when its flipped face down by Book of Moon?!
All of these answers can be answered, and more importantly, taken advantage of, by understanding the nuances that go into activating, resolving, and the location of a card effects in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh.
Back to the basics...
When you first start getting into the fundamentals of the game, you learn that monsters with effects only work while they are face up on the field. Jinzo holds no sway over the field if he's face down. Dark Ruler Ha Des can't reach out from beyond the grave to give effect negating abilities to his fellow fiends on the field. Similarly, continuous effects will override other effects that are on the field. A Needle Worm flipped face up from battle will not get to thin our your opponents deck if Skill Drain is on the field. This goes a long way to get you through a lot of those initial duels: you see a condition face up on the field, and you prevent it or remove it altogether.
Next comes the chain...
We are ALL familiar with the battles that ensued when Mystical Space Typhoon and Imperial Order decided to butt heads. This also demonstrated a very important mechanic of the game: activation vs. resolution of cards. If Imperial Order is activated, its effect doesn't immediately come into play. Your opponent has the opportunity to chain to this event and potentially disrupt the outcome or negate it altogether. Only when you reach the point of resolution can you perform the acts listed on the card (if available).
If the Turn Player activates Imperial Order and the Opponent chains Mystical Space Typhoon to the activation, MST will resolve first, destroying IO before its continuous effect has a chance to resolve properly. Continuous trap cards must remain on the field in order for their effects to apply. The resolution of Imperial Order never takes place.
When you swap the order around, you get a drastically different effect. If the Turn Player activates Mystical Space Typhoon and the Opponent chains Imperial Order, IO will resolve first now creating a state where the effects of spell cards are negated. MST will attempt to resolve, but have its effect negated, and thus go to the graveyard.
Another common example is when the Turn Player activates a Spell Card (say Lightning Vortex), and the Opponent chains Mystical Space Typhoon to this card, thinking they will prevent their monsters from being destroyed. The Opponent thinks that because Lightning Vortex isn't on the field during the resolution of its effect that it can't go through. This is not the case. Mystical Space Typhoon in no way negates the activation of a spell or trap card, it simply destroys the card. The effect is still allowed to resolve as usual.
You see this begin to play out in a lot of your more intense duels. Your opponent tribute summons Mobius the Frost Monarch and targets the two trap cards you have set on the field. However, since this is only the activation of Mobius' effect, all cards are still open on the field for activation. One of the cards Mobius has targeted is your Bottomless Trap Hole. You are free to activate it in a chain to Mobius' effect. When all is said and done, Mobius will still have destroyed two trap cards, but you will have been able to use one of them to remove Mobius' from the field too.
These examples open the door to the bigger picture. The effect of a card isn't always tied directly to the card itself.
Finding the Disconnect...
From here an important discovery is made. The effect of a card isn't always dependent upon the physical location or state of the card itself. It simply needs to be activated in an appropriate manner and have the ability to resolve properly. When you grasp this concept, you realize that the effect of the card is loosely coupled with the card it belongs to. The effect of the card can be activated while the card is on the field, but the card may be in the graveyard by the time the effect is resolved. However, the effect did not go to the graveyard with the card, it remains where it was activated. Using this information and combining it with the fact that when a card's effect is activated it doesn't immediately resolve due to the chain process, you realize that new tactics and options become available to your dueling that might not have been considered before.
Let's look at the examples we listed above:
Cannon Soldier: We now realize that the resolution of Cannon Soldier's effect is not dependent upon it remaining on the field. Assuming that nothing is done to negate the activation, you can activate Cannon Soldier's effect, using Cannon Soldier itself as the tribute cost, and do an additional 500 life points of damage to your opponent.
Winged Minion vs. Skill Drain: We now realize that Skill Drain can only prevent the effects of monsters that are face up on the field during the point of resolving their effect. It does nothing to prevent or negate the activation of its effect. We can activate Minion's effect, tributing itself as a cost and have it resolve properly because during resolution Winged Minion is in the graveyard, free from the Pipe Darin.
Spirit Reaper vs. Book of Moon: Potentially the most perplexing of all. Spirit Reaper's effect only work while it is face up on the field. The conditions around its "self destruction" effect check itself during a successful activation and successful resolution of an effect. Remember, we have to resolve an effect fully first before going to the next effect. Book of Moon has targeted Spirit Reaper at activation and during resolution it flips Spirit Reaper face down. By this point, Spirit Reaper no longer has its ability to self destruct because it is face down.
The Skinny
Probably the best example of using this concept to its fullest is through the Good Goblin Housekeeping / Emergency Provisions combo. For those of you not familar with these cards, here are their details:
Good Goblin Housekeeping
Normal Trap
Draw a number of cards from your Deck equal to the number of "Good Goblin Housekeeping" cards in your Graveyard +1, select 1 card from your hand, and return it to the bottom of your Deck.
Emergency Provisions
Quick-Play Spell
Send Spell or Trap Cards on your side of the field to the Graveyard except this card. Increase your Life Points by 1000 points for each card sent to the Graveyard.
By themselves, these cards don't seem all that friendly for each other. Good Goblin Housekeeping slowly gives you more drawing power, but you have to get multiple cards into the graveyard for the draw to be beneficial. The first time you activate Good Goblin Housekeeping you will not gain any cards since one is drawn and one is placed at the bottom of the deck. The second time you will actually gain 1 card since you was able to draw two cards. Emergency Provisions will provide a significant lifepoint boost, but you lose some potential spell and trap cards to use against your opponent.
However, remember the disconnect and reanalyze these cards. Good Goblin Housekeeping doesn't start counting cards until its effect resolves. Additionally, remember that once a card is activated, it doesn't matter where the physical card is during its resolution because the effect remains where it was activated. Lastly, remember that when chains are built, they resolve in reverse order and the order they resolve could augment the conditions that were present when they were activated.
Now the lightbulb goes off and you plan accordingly. You set two Good Goblin Housekeepings and an Emergency Provisions and wait for a turn. The next chance that becomes available you act. You activate Good Goblin Housekeeping, chain the second Good Goblin Housekeeping to it, and finally chain Emergency Provisions to the two cards, sending both of them to the graveyard as a cost to activate Emergency Provisions. Now resolve the chain in reverse order.
Emergency Provisions is first and since you sent the two Good Goblin Housekeepings to the graveyard, you gain 2000 life points.
Next comes Good Goblin Housekeeping. Remember that Good Goblin Housekeeping was sent to the graveyard as a cost for Emergency Provisions, but its effect was not. The effect doesn't require the card to remain on the field in order to resolve. Good Goblin Housekeeping checks the graveyard and notices that there are 2 Good Goblin Housekeeping cards there, allowing you to draw 3 cards and put one at the bottom of the deck.
The other Good Goblin Housekeeping resolves and you draw another 3 cards and put one at the bottom of the deck. You have now netted 4 cards when previously you could have only netted 2! In addition, you have 2000 extra lifepoints to go with it!
Now get out there and duel...
Hopefully this new understanding of the mechanic opens up new doors to your dueling. Take a second during your next duel and remember about activation vs resolution and the disconnect between the card effect and the physical location of the card.
As always with Yu-Gi-Oh, this information gives you a template that will work with MOST cards out there. There are always exceptions to the norm that can twist things up. Don't be surprised if a few cards slip through the crack when trying things out with the disconnect.
Hopefully new avenues of strategy will open up in your own deck, or you'll discover some new cards that can take your deck to the next level.
Ever wonder why in the world you can use Cannon Soldier for its own effect?
Ever get burned by your opponent who uses a Winged Minion while Skill Drain is on the field to push their Slate Warrior over your Cyber Dragon?
Why the heck does Spirit Reaper STILL live when its flipped face down by Book of Moon?!
All of these answers can be answered, and more importantly, taken advantage of, by understanding the nuances that go into activating, resolving, and the location of a card effects in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh.
Back to the basics...
When you first start getting into the fundamentals of the game, you learn that monsters with effects only work while they are face up on the field. Jinzo holds no sway over the field if he's face down. Dark Ruler Ha Des can't reach out from beyond the grave to give effect negating abilities to his fellow fiends on the field. Similarly, continuous effects will override other effects that are on the field. A Needle Worm flipped face up from battle will not get to thin our your opponents deck if Skill Drain is on the field. This goes a long way to get you through a lot of those initial duels: you see a condition face up on the field, and you prevent it or remove it altogether.
Next comes the chain...
We are ALL familiar with the battles that ensued when Mystical Space Typhoon and Imperial Order decided to butt heads. This also demonstrated a very important mechanic of the game: activation vs. resolution of cards. If Imperial Order is activated, its effect doesn't immediately come into play. Your opponent has the opportunity to chain to this event and potentially disrupt the outcome or negate it altogether. Only when you reach the point of resolution can you perform the acts listed on the card (if available).
If the Turn Player activates Imperial Order and the Opponent chains Mystical Space Typhoon to the activation, MST will resolve first, destroying IO before its continuous effect has a chance to resolve properly. Continuous trap cards must remain on the field in order for their effects to apply. The resolution of Imperial Order never takes place.
When you swap the order around, you get a drastically different effect. If the Turn Player activates Mystical Space Typhoon and the Opponent chains Imperial Order, IO will resolve first now creating a state where the effects of spell cards are negated. MST will attempt to resolve, but have its effect negated, and thus go to the graveyard.
Another common example is when the Turn Player activates a Spell Card (say Lightning Vortex), and the Opponent chains Mystical Space Typhoon to this card, thinking they will prevent their monsters from being destroyed. The Opponent thinks that because Lightning Vortex isn't on the field during the resolution of its effect that it can't go through. This is not the case. Mystical Space Typhoon in no way negates the activation of a spell or trap card, it simply destroys the card. The effect is still allowed to resolve as usual.
You see this begin to play out in a lot of your more intense duels. Your opponent tribute summons Mobius the Frost Monarch and targets the two trap cards you have set on the field. However, since this is only the activation of Mobius' effect, all cards are still open on the field for activation. One of the cards Mobius has targeted is your Bottomless Trap Hole. You are free to activate it in a chain to Mobius' effect. When all is said and done, Mobius will still have destroyed two trap cards, but you will have been able to use one of them to remove Mobius' from the field too.
These examples open the door to the bigger picture. The effect of a card isn't always tied directly to the card itself.
Finding the Disconnect...
From here an important discovery is made. The effect of a card isn't always dependent upon the physical location or state of the card itself. It simply needs to be activated in an appropriate manner and have the ability to resolve properly. When you grasp this concept, you realize that the effect of the card is loosely coupled with the card it belongs to. The effect of the card can be activated while the card is on the field, but the card may be in the graveyard by the time the effect is resolved. However, the effect did not go to the graveyard with the card, it remains where it was activated. Using this information and combining it with the fact that when a card's effect is activated it doesn't immediately resolve due to the chain process, you realize that new tactics and options become available to your dueling that might not have been considered before.
Let's look at the examples we listed above:
Cannon Soldier: We now realize that the resolution of Cannon Soldier's effect is not dependent upon it remaining on the field. Assuming that nothing is done to negate the activation, you can activate Cannon Soldier's effect, using Cannon Soldier itself as the tribute cost, and do an additional 500 life points of damage to your opponent.
Winged Minion vs. Skill Drain: We now realize that Skill Drain can only prevent the effects of monsters that are face up on the field during the point of resolving their effect. It does nothing to prevent or negate the activation of its effect. We can activate Minion's effect, tributing itself as a cost and have it resolve properly because during resolution Winged Minion is in the graveyard, free from the Pipe Darin.
Spirit Reaper vs. Book of Moon: Potentially the most perplexing of all. Spirit Reaper's effect only work while it is face up on the field. The conditions around its "self destruction" effect check itself during a successful activation and successful resolution of an effect. Remember, we have to resolve an effect fully first before going to the next effect. Book of Moon has targeted Spirit Reaper at activation and during resolution it flips Spirit Reaper face down. By this point, Spirit Reaper no longer has its ability to self destruct because it is face down.
The Skinny
Probably the best example of using this concept to its fullest is through the Good Goblin Housekeeping / Emergency Provisions combo. For those of you not familar with these cards, here are their details:
Good Goblin Housekeeping
Normal Trap
Draw a number of cards from your Deck equal to the number of "Good Goblin Housekeeping" cards in your Graveyard +1, select 1 card from your hand, and return it to the bottom of your Deck.
Emergency Provisions
Quick-Play Spell
Send Spell or Trap Cards on your side of the field to the Graveyard except this card. Increase your Life Points by 1000 points for each card sent to the Graveyard.
By themselves, these cards don't seem all that friendly for each other. Good Goblin Housekeeping slowly gives you more drawing power, but you have to get multiple cards into the graveyard for the draw to be beneficial. The first time you activate Good Goblin Housekeeping you will not gain any cards since one is drawn and one is placed at the bottom of the deck. The second time you will actually gain 1 card since you was able to draw two cards. Emergency Provisions will provide a significant lifepoint boost, but you lose some potential spell and trap cards to use against your opponent.
However, remember the disconnect and reanalyze these cards. Good Goblin Housekeeping doesn't start counting cards until its effect resolves. Additionally, remember that once a card is activated, it doesn't matter where the physical card is during its resolution because the effect remains where it was activated. Lastly, remember that when chains are built, they resolve in reverse order and the order they resolve could augment the conditions that were present when they were activated.
Now the lightbulb goes off and you plan accordingly. You set two Good Goblin Housekeepings and an Emergency Provisions and wait for a turn. The next chance that becomes available you act. You activate Good Goblin Housekeeping, chain the second Good Goblin Housekeeping to it, and finally chain Emergency Provisions to the two cards, sending both of them to the graveyard as a cost to activate Emergency Provisions. Now resolve the chain in reverse order.
Emergency Provisions is first and since you sent the two Good Goblin Housekeepings to the graveyard, you gain 2000 life points.
Next comes Good Goblin Housekeeping. Remember that Good Goblin Housekeeping was sent to the graveyard as a cost for Emergency Provisions, but its effect was not. The effect doesn't require the card to remain on the field in order to resolve. Good Goblin Housekeeping checks the graveyard and notices that there are 2 Good Goblin Housekeeping cards there, allowing you to draw 3 cards and put one at the bottom of the deck.
The other Good Goblin Housekeeping resolves and you draw another 3 cards and put one at the bottom of the deck. You have now netted 4 cards when previously you could have only netted 2! In addition, you have 2000 extra lifepoints to go with it!
Now get out there and duel...
Hopefully this new understanding of the mechanic opens up new doors to your dueling. Take a second during your next duel and remember about activation vs resolution and the disconnect between the card effect and the physical location of the card.
As always with Yu-Gi-Oh, this information gives you a template that will work with MOST cards out there. There are always exceptions to the norm that can twist things up. Don't be surprised if a few cards slip through the crack when trying things out with the disconnect.
Hopefully new avenues of strategy will open up in your own deck, or you'll discover some new cards that can take your deck to the next level.