Urgent Tuning

[Maruno]

So I happened to glimpse "Urgent Tuning", and I noticed it's a card effect that Summons a monster (Synchro Summon, to be precise). I also noticed that one of the OCG rulings claims the Summon (not the card effect) can be negated by "Solemn Judgment", but only if it's on Chain Link 1.

So how's that work? "Solemn Judgment" can't negate the Summon of a monster caused by a card (it negates the card itself instead).

The ruling implies that "Urgent Tuning" does not actually Summon anything; it instead sets up a case whereby the player is allowed to perform a Synchro Summon immediately after the card resolves, even if that Summon would occur in the middle of a Chain (even "Voltanis the Adjudicator" et al. were fixed such that their effects start a new Chain afterwards, rather than actually occurring between Chain Links immediately after their triggers - as far as I'm aware).

So what's going on here?

Yes, I realise this is an OGC ruling I'm looking at, but I want to know what happens if "Urgent Tuning" is played at Chain Link 2 or higher anyway, and how "Solemn Judgment" comes into it.

 

[Entropy]

As near as I can find, you perform a Synchro Summon immediately after resolving "Urgent Tuning". "Urgent Tuning" itself does not Summon anything. In this way, it works kind of, sort of like "Last Will" or "Last Turn".

Apparently, it is because the text says to "Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster". This means that you perform a Synchro Summon as per game mechanics, not by a card effect. Thus, through some uncertain logic, you have to wait until "Urgent Tuning" finishes resolving before you can perform the Synchro Summon. (I suppose that the win condition of "Exodia the Forbidden One" is similar - although there are still major differences between the two, so I am not sure if the comparison is valid.)

If you activate "Urgent Tuning" as Chain Link 2 or higher, then you Synchro Summon in between Chain Links. In this case, you are still resolving a Chain when the Synchro Summon occurs, so cards (including "Solemn Judgment") cannot be activated. It is more like "Bountiful Artemis" than "Voltanis the Adjudicator".

The scary thing is, by this logic, you can use "Horn of Heaven" on a Normal Summon by "Ultimate Offering". Officially, in the OCG, Konami has not said anything either way about this yet, though. However, unofficial sources like the JERP agree, that "Horn of Heaven" can negate such a Normal Summon.

 

[Maruno]

That's... that's genius!

It explains that once-thought stupid "(This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.)" text you find all over alternate Fusion cards. If you assume that a Fusion/Synchro Summon cannot ever be done by a card effect, but that any other Special Summons can, then it makes sense! The wording is no longer redundant!

...Although I would tend to, with "Urgent Tuning"-like effects, say "Immediately after this card resolves, Synchro Summon..." rather than rely upon the aforementioned unspoken game mechanic. Just to make it clear.

...Wait, hang on. Why Fusion Summons? The Fusion Summoning card is "Polymerization", which performs said Summon during its resolution (but oddly enough doesn't actually say it's a Fusion Summon anywhere on it). So if "Polymerization" has no trouble Fusion Summoning during its resolution, why should any other Fusion cards? Why should they have the (once again) redundant text?

Not so genius after all. And we should then change the above mechanic to be "card effects cannot perform a Summon you can do naturally (e.g. Normal/Tribute/Set/Synchro); they can only set up an opportunity for you to perform these Summons naturally". In the case of "Urgent Tuning", said opportunity comes immediately.

The problem with this is that it's utter guesswork. We can't readily take "Urgent Tuning" as an example of how "Ultimate Offering" works, because they're different kinds of Summons (even if they're both natural ones). Indeed, the TCG rulings state the Normal Summon happens during the resolution of the effect of "Ultimate Offering", not immediately after it (probably - I'm sure the words could be twisted around).

So we narrow the mechanic down to apply just to Synchro Summons, which might as well just be a "special case" thing rather than a mechanic. Basically, a card rewording or two would be more suitable than inventing a new rule to the game.



"Doesn't anyone actually know the rules to this game?"

 

[Deathjester]

That "treated as a Fusion Summon" part isn't redundant, I think. That's just to let the player know that those cards do initially summon those monsters the correct way so you know you can Special Summon them from the Graveyard or Different Dimension after they've been destroyed, assuming they're not nomi monsters.

Polymerization is used in the rulebook's explanation for Fusion Summoning, so that's probably why they never changed the text to specifically say that it Fusion Summons.

 

[Maruno]

I say it is redundant, because you can more easily say, "Fusion Summon a monster that lists...". Y'know, use it like: "Special Summon a WIND monster from somewhere".

I'd love to know if there's actually a reason why they've never used "Fusion Summon" as a verb, despite the number of cards that do so (note that "Ritual Summon" is made a verb on several cards). "Urgent Tuning" may possibly hint at a reason, but there's still a long and treacherous road between here and there.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Because, despite the fact that it might make things more clear for end users, Konami is loathe to actually do erratas for the TCG. There's some problematic cards that they tackled a lot, no doubt. But the process seems to cause them actual physical pain. It always seems they do erratas to the bare minimum of what is required.

 

[Entropy]

Yeah, Fusion Summons are out - "Power Bond", "Miracle Fusion", "Fusion Gate" and "Dragon's Mirror" are all listed as Summoning the monster by their effects, not by game mechanics or anything. The difference is that a Fusion Summon is defined as the Special Summon of a Fusion Monster by "Polymerization", which means that Fusion Summoning is always by a card effect.

Wait, which cards said 'Fusion Summon by "Polymerization"' again? A quick search through Netrep shows that all there are no such cards. I guess they were errata'd?

The problem with this is that it's utter guesswork. We can't readily take "Urgent Tuning" as an example of how "Ultimate Offering" works, because they're different kinds of Summons (even if they're both natural ones). Indeed, the TCG rulings state the Normal Summon happens during the resolution of the effect of "Ultimate Offering", not immediately after it (probably - I'm sure the words could be twisted around).

So we narrow the mechanic down to apply just to Synchro Summons, which might as well just be a "special case" thing rather than a mechanic. Basically, a card rewording or two would be more suitable than inventing a new rule to the game.

Well, the JERP lists that "Ultimate Offering" works this way, even though the JERP hasn't been updated since POTD - before Synchro Monsters existed.

There's also Flip Summons which are done entirely by game mechanics, but I don't believe that there is any effect which Flip Summons?

"Doesn't anyone actually know the rules to this game?"

There was this one guy, but he went insane and was eaten by Cthulu. Make sense, if you think about it.