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Big Game Changes
6.6.05, by GSAttack

Kevin Tewart, Lead Game Designer at Upper Deck, was in Japan recently where he and the folks at Konami discussed a number of issues with the rulings which resulted in some changes here and abroad. Below is a list of changes to general rulings and some specific card rulings, all of which are effective on June 6, 2005 and also appear on the Official Yu-Gi-Oh! Website.

The next week or so will bring additional updates, changes and reversals which most likely will be made effective the following Monday.

Battle Position Changes

This one is self-explanatory, so here it is:

From: Kevin Tewart (Lead Game Designer at Upper Deck)

"A Monster Card's battle position in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME can be changed in one of two ways:

1. A "manual" change. This is when you use your once-per-turn battle position change on a monster, during your Main Phase 1 or 2, to change it from attack position to defense position or vice versa. This includes a Flip Summon. There are some restrictions on when you can do this (see below).

2. A change because of a card effect. Examples: "Enemy Controller", "Zero Gravity", "Guardian Sphinx", "Book of Moon" and "Tsukuyomi".

A "manual" change can only be performed during your Main Phase 1 or 2. There are 3 exceptions that will prevent you from "manually" changing a monster's battle position:
Exception #1: You cannot "manually" change the battle position of a monster if it declared an attack that turn (even if the attack was negated or a replay occurred).

Exception #2: You cannot "manually" change the battle position of a monster if it was Summoned or Set that turn by the turn player.

Exception #3: You cannot "manually" change the battle position of a monster if its battle position was already changed "manually" that turn (including if it was Flip Summoned).

Please note that:
You CAN always change the battle position of a monster with a card effect, even if any of the above exceptions prevent you from changing its battle position "manually".

You CAN change the battle position of a monster "manually" if its battle position was changed by a card effect previously that turn (as long as none of the 3 exceptions exist). Example: You activate "Book of Moon" and flip a monster into face-down Defense Position. Then you can Flip Summon it that same turn, as long as none of the 3 exceptions exist.

You CAN change the battle position of a monster "manually" if it was Summoned or Set, but not by the turn player. Example: "Cyber Jar" Summons a monster on the opponent's side of the field, and the turn player uses "Change of Heart" to take control of it, then Flip Summons it that same turn. This is a legal play (as long as none of the 3 exceptions exist).

You CAN change the battle position of a monster "manually" if it was returned to the field because of "Dimensionhole", because it does not Summon the monster (as long as none of the 3 exceptions exists)."

Monster Tokens:

The following is a clarification on what exactly a Monster Token is and how it is to be treated during game play:

From: Dan Scheidegger (Jr. Game Designer at Upper Deck)

"Some cards will tell you to Special Summon Monster Tokens. A Token is a representation of a monster card. You should use a coin or similar marker that can be placed in 2 different positions for Attack or Defense Position. (Heads and Tails on a coin).

Monster Tokens are placed in Monster Card Zones, and are treated as Monsters and Cards for all effects. If destroyed, Tokens are simply taken off the field. They are not removed from play. If a card effect returns a Token to the hand, to the Deck, or would remove a Token from play, it is just taken off the field instead.

A Monster Token is always face-up, and cannot be turned face-down, even by a card effect."

Unaffected by Spell Cards

In this section and the next, clarification is given for cards that are not affected by Spell Cards and cards that have optional effects. It is important to pay close attention to how you tell which cards fall into either of these categories.

From: Kevin Tewart (Lead Game Designer at Upper Deck)

"Some monsters are "unaffected by Spell Cards". The more complete meaning of this is: "unaffected by the effects of Spell Cards while this monster is face-up on the field".

These monsters can still be used to pay costs for Spell Cards (like "Level Up!" or "Mystik Wok"). They can be revived with "Monster Reborn" or "Premature Burial".

If a monster is unaffected by Spell Cards, that only applies to the monster. It does not apply to a player. For example, if "Snatch Steal" is equipped to a monster that is unaffected by Spell Cards, control of the monster will not switch but the opponent will still gain 1000 Life Points during each of their Standby Phases. Nor does it apply to something like "Metallizing Parasite - Lunatite", which would still be destroyed instead of the equipped monster, even if the monster itself was unaffected by Spell Cards.

If a monster is unaffected by Spell Cards, that extends to any attacks the monster makes. A monster unaffected by Spell Cards can attack while "Swords of Revealing Light" is active, and its controller will not have to pay for "Toll" or "Gravekeeper's Servant" in order to attack with it. It can also ignore the effects of "The Dark Door" or "Vengeful Bog Spirit".

Spell Card effects can still be applied to monsters that are unaffected by Spell Cards, but their effects will simply disappear. It's like there's a force field surrounding the monster, protecting it from the Spell Card's effect. However, the Spell Card still "sees" the monster and may attempt to apply its effect on the monster.

Example 1: A player has "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" on the field and the opponent activates "Fissure". The effect of "Fissure" looks for the lowest ATK monster, and attempts to destroy "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6", but that monster is unaffected by Spell Cards and isn't destroyed, and the effect of "Fissure" just disappears. Fissure does not try to "skip" "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6" and try to destroy "Blue-Eyes" instead.

Example 2: The opponent controls "Silent Swordsman LV5" and "Gemini Elf". The turn player controls a "Sheep Token" and activates "Creature Swap". When "Creature Swap" resolves, the turn player selects his "Sheep Token" to give to the opponent. The opponent can select "Silent Swordsman LV5" for the effect of "Creature Swap". However, since that monster is unaffected by Spell Cards, the force field around him nullifies the effect of "Creature Swap", and no monsters change sides. (Note that this is very different from monsters that cannot change sides, like "Mataza the Zapper" or "Blindly Loyal Goblin". These monsters cannot be selected for "Creature Swap" and another monster must be selected instead.)"

Missing the Timing

From: Kevin Tewart (Lead Game Designer at Upper Deck)

"Sometimes a Trigger Effect says that "when" a condition happens, you "can" activate its effect. In this case, you are only allowed to activate the effect when the condition being met was the last thing to happen in the game (activating cards & effects that haven't resolved yet doesn't count).

If the triggering condition happened for an optional Trigger Effect, but something else has happened after that, then you have "missed the timing" and you cannot activate it. For example, this can happen if the optional Trigger Effect monster was Tributed for a Tribute Summon or to activate a card effect, or if the triggering condition happened in a chain and wasn't Chain Link 1, or if another card effect or game effect has happened since then. The triggering condition has to be the very last thing that happened in order for a "when" you "can" optional Trigger Effect to activate.

Note that Trigger Effects can be found on Spell & Trap Cards as well as Monster Cards.

For some good specific examples of "missing the timing", see the rulings for "Pinch Hopper", "Butterfly Dagger - Elma", "Heart of the Underdog", "Peten the Dark Clown", or "Dark Magician of Chaos"."

Specific Card Rulings

From: Dan Scheidegger (Jr. Game Designer at Upper Deck)

Berserk Gorilla
If you control "Berserk Gorilla" you must enter your Battle Phase, even if "Gravity Bind" is active on the field, preventing it from attacking.

Creator Incarnate
Hand of Nephthys
Kaibaman
Red-Eyes B. Chick
[Reversal of Old Rulings]
Ignition Effects on monsters cannot be activated while the Effect Monster is face-down. So these face-down monsters cannot be Tributed for their own effects.

D. D. Warrior Lady
[Reversal of Old Rulings]
When your "D. D. Warrior Lady" attacks your opponent's "Fiber Jar", if you activate her effect then "Fiber Jar" is Step 1 of the chain, because it is mandatory, and "D. D. Warrior Lady" is Step 2 of the chain because it is an optional effect. "D. D. Warrior Lady" removes from play both monsters, and then resolve the effect of "Fiber Jar". "D. D. Warrior Lady" and "Fiber Jar" are not shuffled into the Deck.

When your "D. D. Warrior Lady" attacks "Wall of Illusion", if you activate her effect then "Wall of Illusion" is Step 1 of the chain, because it is mandatory, and "D. D. Warrior Lady" is Step 2 of the chain because it is an optional effect. The effect of "D. D. Warrior Lady" removes from play both monsters, then the effect of "Wall of Illusion" disappears, since the attacking monster is no longer on the field.

Dark Magician of Chaos
[Reversal of Old Ruling]
If "Dark Magician of Chaos" is Special Summoned in the middle of a chain (if it is not the last effect in the chain to resolve), the timing will not be correct for its Optional Trigger Effect, so you do NOT return a Spell Card from your Graveyard to your hand.

Desert Sunlight
If you have a face-down Flip Effect monster, you can activate "Desert Sunlight", chain "Book of Moon" targeting your monster even though it is still face-down, and chain another "Desert Sunlight". When the chain resolves, you will flip the monster up, then down, then back up. The Flip Effect activates twice, and they wait to create a new chain after the current one resolves. For example, if the Flip Effect monster is "Morphing Jar", its effect will activate twice in a chain, as Chain Link 1 and Chain Link 2, they resolve in reverse order, and both players will discard and draw 5 cards, then discard and draw 5 cards again.

Last Turn
Comment by GSAttack

"Some cards leave behind effects that resolve after the card itself has resolved and left the field. An early example of this is "Change of Heart" which first takes control of a monster during resolution. After "Change of Heart" leaves the field, an additional effect resolves during the End Phase of that same turn which checks to see if the Monster Card is still on the field and returns the Monster Card to the previous controller. Another card known for this type of effect is "Limiter Removal", but the most infamous of all these cards is "Last Turn"."

The rulings for this card are too long to include here, so they can be found at the Official Yu-Gi-Oh! Website at:

http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/yugioh/en/faq_card_rulings.aspx?first=L&last=O

Level Limit - Area B
[Reversal of Old Ruling]
If you Summon "Spell Canceller" while "Level Limit - Area B" is on the field, "Spell Canceller" negates its effect and is not changed to Defense Position.

Mind Control
The effect of "Mind Control" that prevents the targeted monster from attacking or being Tributed lasts until the End Phase of the turn "Mind Control" was activated, even if the monster is flipped face-down before the End Phase. If the monster targeted with this card is flipped face-down, it will still return to the original owner's side of the field during the End Phase.

Mirror Wall
If "Mirror Wall" is already face-up on the field when a monster declares an attack, "Mirror Wall" reduces the ATK of the attacking monster by half when the attack is declared.

If "Mirror Wall" is activated during an attack (including during the Damage Step), then it reduces the ATK of the attacking monster when "Mirror Wall" resolves. (Even though "Mirror Wall" normally reduces the attack by half when the attack is declared, it will still reduce the attack by half if you activate it after the attack is declared.)

If "Mirror Wall" halves the ATK of a monster, it remains halved as long as "Mirror Wall" remains face-up on the field. If "Mirror Wall" is removed from the field, the ATK of the monsters is restored.

If a monster attacks twice (over 2 turns, or if “Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning” attacks twice in a row, etc.), its ATK is still only reduced by half once. So “Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning” will have 1500 ATK for both of its attacks, for example.

If you have 2 copies of "Mirror Wall", and a monster attacks, its ATK is one-quarter. So “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” would have 750 ATK, for example. If 1 of the "Mirror Wall" copies leaves play, then the ATK is increased to half (if both copies leave play, the ATK is restored to full.)

You can activate "Mirror Wall" during the Damage Step before damage calculation.

The effect of "Mirror Wall" does not target.

"Reverse Trap" will have no effect on "Mirror Wall".

Nightmare Wheel
If a face-down monster targeted by the effect of "Nightmare Wheel" is rearranged by the effect of "Wandering Mummy" or "Shifting Shadows", the monster's controller must honestly announce which monster is the target of "Nightmare Wheel".

Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
You cannot target a face-up non-Continuous, non-Equip Spell or Trap Card. This is because they are already "considered to be destroyed" once they are activated (even though they are not sent to the Graveyard until the chain resolves). If you target a face-down Spell or Trap Card, the opponent can activate it as a chain. If it is not Continuous, it will not be returned to the top of the Deck. It will be placed in the Graveyard after the chain resolves, as normal.

You can activate "Phoenix Wing Wind Blast" and target a face-up "Swords of Revealing Light" because it destroys itself by its own effect, instead of being destroyed when activate like most Normal Spell Cards.

Primal Seed
The required card only needs to be face-up on the field. It does not need to be a Monster Card, so if "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning" is equipped to "Relinquished", you can activate "Primal Seed".

Royal Oppression
The effects of face-up Trap Cards cannot be activated during the Damage Step, so this card's effect cannot negate the Special Summoning of a monster by the effect of "Mystic Tomato" or a "Cyber Jar" flipped face-up by an attack.

Thousand Knives
The required card only needs to be face-up on the field. It does not need to be a Monster Card, so if "Dark Magician" is equipped to your "Relinquished", you can activate "Thousand Knives".