13/07/2012

Useful Rulings and Game Mechanics #4: Self-Generated Rulings

I've created the page with all of the post of Useful Rulings and Game Mechanics, read it, be sure to know everything that's in there before reading this. You can enter the page from the link above or in the page list, right above the post list.

Self-Generated Rulings, What does it mean? How could know this help?

With "Self-Generated" I mean that you yourself generate the ruling for the situation you need. To say it bluntly, you won't always have the ruling for the specific situation you are in, so you'd need to generate a ruling based on what you already know.
To do this 3 things are needed:
-Know a good number of rulings, mainly the one of the most played cards, but you'd need rulings of less played cards, like if we are going to think about Hopper (that's a special case, we'll talk about it later), we'd need Drill Warrior (a known card) but even Overpowering Eye to compare them and see differences and similarities;
-Know the basing of yugioh but taken to an higher level, know the phases of the turn, but even sub-steps, know chains, but even spell speed, and so on, and to do this, you can read the other articles, I linked them at the start of the post;
-Impartiality, if you're going to generate a ruling by yourself, you'd need to be impartial, since if you're looking for a true ruling that could affect your next games, you'd need to consider only the cards, and not that those cards are yours, and the other are of your opponent, since you would more likely judge you winning that situation, and if you do so, you'll lost the game because of a misplay from this.

Of course there are judges in official tournaments, but calling them will make your opponent suspect that you're doing something. Of course if you're not certain of your ruling, it's better to call a judge, but if you can avoid that, why not?

Once per turn: You can equip 1 "Inzektor" monster from your hand or Graveyard to this card. While this card is equipped to a monster, that monster's Level is increased by 4. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can send this Equip Card to the Graveyard; the monster it was equipped to can attack your opponent directly this turn. Other monsters cannot attack the turn you activate this effect.

Let's see the example I said earlier, Inzektor Hopper on first turn. It is still an unofficial ruling, so you'd need to ask the Head Judge about his opinion on that ruling, and what he believes will matter for all the tournament, so be sure to ask before.
Hopper says that you can un-equip him from a monster to make him attack directly this turn, while forbidding other monsters to attack, but what if we want to use his effect on first turn?
Let's see similar rulings, Overpowering Eye, says that you can't activate it if the monster you're selecting can't attack, so during first turn or while targeted with fiendish chain, doesn't really matter. Overpowering Eye is a Spell Card, though, and we all know that Spells and Traps work differently from monsters, but it is still to be taken into consideration.
Now let's see another monster with pretty much the same effect, Drill Warrior, his effect says that you can halve his ATK (as a cost) to permit him attack directly.
All of them say "can", not must, so the monster won't be obligated to attack directly, can decide not to attack or to attack normally another monster.
What's different? I consider them a question of costs and field/hand/graveyard/deck/banished zone differences. Basically, if a card is used without changing anything, except itself being sent to the grave, it couldn't be used. However, that's not precise, more than a card, it is applied to spell and trap card, like Dark Hole with no monsters (sorry, know the link to dark hole wasn't needed, but it's my policy, in these post I need to link every card I name at least once).
That's all, it was fast solving this. However different Judges have different opinions, be sure to ask before start playing.

Want another example?
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by banishing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monsters from your Graveyard. You can Special Summon this card (from your Graveyard) by sending 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monsters from your hand to the Graveyard. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Level 5 or higher DARK Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.

I believe that everyone who follows new sets of card before they reach their own country noticed this, Lightpulsar Dragon initially had an "If...You can" effect, making it never losing the timing. An easy FTK loop was generated from this, Toon Cannon Soldier, Lightpulsar Dragon and Red-Eyes Metal Darkness Dragon (REDMD).
Just, Normal summon Toon cannon soldier, SS Lightpulsar someway, it's ok even if it is with REDMD, eff toon, send redmd if you have one on your field, inflict damages, then send lightpulsar, inflict damages, SS REDMD, use REDMD's effect to SS Lightpulsar, rinse and repeat.

However this doesn't, luckily, work anymore. They changed the text, before the card was out, into a "When...You can" effect, making it losing the timing, but why? Why does it lose the timing?
Let's see toon cannon soldier's rulings, or, better, his text and deduct everything.
This card cannot attack during the turn that it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned. When "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. If "Toon World" is on your side of the field and your opponent does not control a Toon Monster, this card can attack your opponent's Life Points directly. Tribute 1 monster on your side of the field to inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points.

As you can see, then, tributing is a cost, so it would be like this:
Cannon's effect, tribute, resolve the chain, do damages. Lightpulsar lost the timing because of tributing him wasn't last thing to happen.

So, be sure to know this post perfectly, it helps a lot. New cards with no official rulings, yet, unexplored situations, searching for a loop and don't know if it works or not, just know this and it will solve pretty much everything.

I believe this was one of the most useful post I ever did, lol.
Well, Stay Tuned, I think I've got one more argument to talk about, I think I'll write t tomorrow.

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