Demystifying Rulings, Part 9: The Damage Step

[Stardog]

The Damage Step is an incredibly mysterious and complicated area of rulings.


First of all, I want to say that the Damage Step is tough to understand. We’ll break it down and go through it slowly, but you’ll need to be concentrating as you read.

The next thing I want to say is that the TCG’s Damage Step is different in several key ways to the OCG Damage Step (which is actually a lot nicer). This article will go through the TCG Damage Step.

Before we begin, we recall that only certain fast effects can be used during the Damage Step, as summarized in the last post. The fast effects that are definitely usable are direct ATK/DEF modifiers, Counter Traps, Monster Effects that negate activations, and things that explicitly say, or imply, that they activate during the Damage Step.

Now we’re going to go through the substeps in detail. We’re going to need an example, so let’s suppose our opponent’s monster is attacking our Set Penguin Soldier:
FLIP: You can target up to 2 monsters on the field; return those targets to the hand.

Start of the Damage Step
This is the beginning of the actual battle! Many effects activate here, including the effect of El Shaddoll Construct:
At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles a Special Summoned monster: Destroy that monster.

Note that this substep comes before:

Flip face-down monsters face-up
This substep’s name is self-explanatory. In our example, Penguin Soldier would be flipped face-up at this point.

However, Penguin Soldier’s Flip Effect doesn’t activate yet! This is one of the first odd things about the Damage Step.

Before Damage Calculation
Several card effects mention that they activate here. This is also the general point in which ATK/DEF modifiers are used. For example, now is a good time for Forbidden Chalice, targeting Penguin Soldier:
Target 1 face-up monster on the field; until the end of this turn, that target gains 400 ATK, but its effects are negated.

Multiple Chains can be created in succession here, until both players are done modifying ATK and DEF.

During Damage Calculation
This is a special part of the Damage Step in which only certain ATK/DEF modifiers can be activated.

Effects that specify that they apply during damage calculation can activate here. If an ATK/DEF modifier specifies Damage Step in its text, it can be activated up to and including during damage calculation.

So the effect of Honest can be activated now:
During either player’s Damage Step, when a LIGHT monster you control battles: You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard; that monster gains ATK equal to the ATK of the opponent’s monster it is battling, until the end of this turn.

If it doesn’t specify Damage Step in its text (and it’s not compulsory to activate), it can be used up to ‘before damage calculation’ only.

So Forbidden Chalice cannot be activated during this substep.

Hence if you have a card like Honest, you can wait for your opponent to activate any regular ATK/DEF modifiers before damage calculation, and then use Honest during damage calculation.

There can only be one Chain in this substep (in general). This leads to some Honest-ly interesting interactions. Recall from Fast Effect Timing that the turn player has the right to activate a fast effect before the opponent, so if both players control LIGHT monsters and have Honest in hand, the turn player has the right to activate Honest first:

Chain Link 1: Turn Player’s Honest

The opponent could now Chain with Honest. But from its card text, we see that Honest adds ATK based on the opponent’s monster’s ATK when its effect resolves:

Chain Link 2: opponent’s Honest

Let’s say the turn player’s monster has 1000 ATK, and the opponent’s has 2000:

Resolve the Chain:
Chain Link 2 resolves: The opponent’s monster gains 1000 ATK, putting it at 3000
Chain Link 1 resolves: The turn player’s monster gains 3000 ATK, putting it at 4000

We can see from this example that the first Honest is always going to win. And since the turn player can always drop the first Honest, the opponent is in trouble if the turn player does so.

*Damage Calculation*
This isn’t really a substep, per se. This is the point in time where the monsters actually clash. Now is where you physically calculate the damage: you compare the ATK/DEF of the battling monsters (whatever they’re at now) and determine which, if any, are destroyed by battle, as well as how much battle damage is to be dealt.

If either battling monster has been destroyed at some point in the Damage Step before now (eg. because of El Shaddoll Construct), then the Damage Step would end before getting to this point. A replay would not occur though – recall that those can only occur during the Battle Step.

After Damage Calculation
Here’s where we start to deal with the aftermath of the battle. From this point, since the battle is over, direct ATK/DEF modifiers can no longer be used. So, for example, Forbidden Chalice cannot be used from here on.

If a monster was destroyed by the battle, it is now ‘marked for destruction’ (more on this later).

Battle damage is inflicted now as well. One Chain can form in response to the damage being inflicted, such as the effect of “Tragoedia”:
When you take Battle Damage: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.

Recall that things like Bottomless Trap Hole cannot be activated during the Damage Step, so it could not be used upon a Tragoedia’s Summon. Recall also that there’s an exception to the rules of SEGOC regarding Special Summoning multiple monsters from the hand in one Chain, which can be found in more detail here. Roughly speaking, it means that you cannot activate the effects of two Tragoedia at once.

After the Chain in response to the battle damage resolves (if any), the effects triggered by the monster being flipped face-up (if any) finally activate now. So the effect of our Penguin Soldier would activate now.

The effects of monsters that activate after damage calculation also activate in this substep. The effect of D.D. Warrior Lady is a good example:
After damage calculation, when this card battles an opponent’s monster: You can banish that monster, also banish this card.

These effects activate either in the Chain with battle damage, or the Chain with flip effects. You’ll need to check individual card rulings to see which it is.

D.D. Warrior Lady’s effect activates in the Chain with flip effects. So if it attacked our Penguin Soldier, their effects, if activated, would form a Chain according to the rules of SEGOC:

Chain Link 1: D.D. Warrior Lady
Chain Link 2: Penguin Soldier

I mentioned ‘marked for destruction’ earlier. This is perhaps the weirdest element of rulings we’ve encountered so far. A monster that is ‘marked for destruction’ is still on the field, but the game recognises it’s about to be destroyed and sent to the Graveyard.

What does this mean? One consequence is that even if our Penguin Soldier is destroyed by the battle, it is still on the field at this point until the next substep (unless it gets removed from the field by some other effect before then).

This is why Gorz, Emissary of Darkness could not be Special Summoned if the player’s monster, his last card on their side of the field, is destroyed by battle:
When you take damage from a card in your opponent’s possession: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. You must control no cards to activate and to resolve this effect.

Another consequence of being ‘marked for destruction’ is that Penguin Soldier cannot affect or target itself with its own effect anymore (that is, it can’t return itself to the hand). Other cards cannot return it to the hand/Deck either. But they can still destroy or banish it, or negate its effect.

So in the example above, assume D.D. Warrior Lady has destroyed Penguin Soldier by battle. Penguin Soldier is now marked for destruction, so it can’t target itself for its own effect (a. In addition, if D.D. Warrior Lady activates its effect, it will be able to banish Penguin Soldier despite the latter being ‘marked for destruction’ (which is what you expect D.D. Warrior Lady to do, after all).

End of the Damage Step
At this point, we finally send any monsters actually destroyed by the battle (ie. that were ‘marked for destruction’) to the Graveyard (if they’re still on the field). Effects that are triggered by this would now activate, such as that of Mermail – Abysslinde:
If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 “Mermail” monster from your Deck, except “Mermail Abysslinde”.  

Or the effect of Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla:
Once per turn, when this card destroys an opponent’s monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: You can Set 1 “Fire Formation” Spell Card directly from your Deck.

As usual, effects that mention they activate in this substep, ie. ‘at the end of the Damage Step’, activate here.

Recall from Fast Effect Timing that the game does not progress until everything is done activating. So if Abysslinde Special Summons something like Mermail Abysspike, the Trigger Effect of the latter will still be activating in this substep (and Bottomless Trap Hole still cannot be used):
When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can discard 1 WATER monster to the Graveyard; add 1 Level 3 WATER monster from your Deck to your hand.

After that, we’re finally done with the battle! We then return to the Battle Step, where the turn player can declare a new attack. But if he does, he’d have to go through all of this again…

Miscellaneous Notes
There are several cards that prevent cards and effects being activated during the Damage Step. One such example is Armades, Keeper of Boundaries:
If this card attacks or is attacked, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Confusingly, the ‘end of the Damage Step’ being referred to here is not the substep mentioned above. It means that the effect applies for the whole Damage Step. So, for example, if Armades kills Abysslinde, then the effect of Abysslinde could not activate.