The Summon Negation Chain (Part II of III)
Posted 01-14-2009 at 07:33 AM by Kalani
Unofficial Guide: The Summon Negation / Response Chains - Part II
Posted On 09/03/2008 22:43:41
This is part II of the Unofficial Guide to the Summon Negation / Response chain.
In order to understand this article, please read Part I of this guide before continuuing, as this article is a continuation of (and makes frequent reference to) Part I of this guide.
The Unofficial Guide to the Summon Negation / Response Chains (Part II)
As was the case in Part I of this guide, Part II will make frequent reference to the following legal (but unrealistic) chain in order to help explain how a Summon Response Chain can be built.
• Player A Summons "Blowback Dragon"
• Player A activates the effect of "Blowback Dragon" on priority.
• Player B chains "Bottomless Trap Hole"
• Player A chains "Interdimensional Matter Transporter" targeting "Blowback Dragon"
• Player B chains "Enemy Controller", Tributing "Sangan" as its cost and targets "Blowback Dragon"
• Player A chains "Book of Moon" Targeting "Blowback Dragon"
• Player B chains "Torrential Tribute"
• Player A does not respond
• Player B chains "Call of the Haunted" targeting "Sangan".
The Summon Response Chain Explained:
Providing the summoning of the monster is not negated during the "Summon Negation Chain", the monster is now considered to have been Summoned Successfully (as is the case in our example above).
At this point, the "Timing Window" to activate "Bottomless Trap Hole", "Torrential Tribute" (and all similar cards) opens (aka: the "Summon Response Chain" begins).
However, given the fact that no "Trigger Effects" are activated which use up the Turn Players Priority, Player A retains the right to activate the first card(s) effect on this chain, and does so as follows:
• Player A activates the effect of "Blowback Dragon" on priority.
Despite the fact that Player A has activated the effect of "Blowback dragon", the "Timing Window" in which "Bottomless Trap Hole", and "Torrential Tribute" remains open until both players stop responding to the monsters summon and allow the chain to resolve.
• Player B chains "Bottomless Trap Hole"
• Player A chains "Interdimensional Matter Transporter" targeting "Blowback Dragon"
At this point in the chain, Player A is attempting to cause the effect of "Bottomless Trap Hole" to disappear as "Blowback Dragon" would no longer be on the field when "Bottomless Trap Hole" resolves.
As a result, Player B chains "Enemy Controller" in an attempt to cause the effect of "Interdimensional Matter Transporter" to likewise disappear, as "Blowback Dragon" would then be on their opponents side of the field.
• Player B chains "Enemy Controller", Tributing "Sangan" as its cost and targets "Blowback Dragon"
This triggers the mandatory Trigger effect of "Sangan", which will activate, and start a new chain after the current chain has finished resolving (see Chain Resolution below).
Player A once again responds by attempting to flip "Blowback Dragon" face down with "Book of Moon" which would cause the effect of "Enemy Controller" to also vanish.
• Player A chains "Book of Moon" Targeting "Blowback Dragon"
As both players are still responding to the summon of "Blowback Dragon", the Timing Window to activate cards like "Bottomless Trap Hole", "Torrential Tribute" and similar cards remains open. As such, Player B is legally allowed to activate the effects of "Torrential Tribute" and does so.
• Player B chains "Torrential Tribute"
• Player A does not respond
• Player B chains "Call of the Haunted" targeting "Sangan".
In other words, despite "Bottomless Trap Hole" and "Torrential Tribute" being activated as Chain Links 2 and 6 respectively, they do not "Miss the Timing" as both players are continuing to respond to the summon, and therefore the Timing Window remains open.
While I did not say it above, there are two additional steps which occur in the chain after Player B activates "Call of the Haunted", as follows:
• Player A does not respond
• Player B does not respond
At this point, the Timing Window to activate new card effects on this specific chain closes, and all card effects on the chain are now allowed to resolve.
The moment this occurs, the Timing Window to activate "Bottomless Trap Hole" and similar cards closes for that particular summon as the game state is now considered to progress beyond the summoning of that specific monster(s) (i.e the "Summon Response Chain" ends).
Although this did not happen in this example, if the following had occured, the Window in which cards can be activated during the "Summon Response Chain" closes, and neither player can respond to the summon of that specific monster:
• No Trigger Effects are activated by Player A.
• No Trigger Effects are activated by Player B.
• Player A chooses not to activate a card effect on priority.
• Player B chooses not to activate a card effect in response to the summon.
In this alternate example, neither player has initiated a card effect on the "Summon ResponseChain" and so the chain resolves with no effect. Player A cannot then choose to activate "Torrential Tribute" themselves, as the "Timing Window" has been closed, and both players would now "Miss the Timing" to activate such an effect.
