Synchro Dorm Lesson 1: Basics of Cards

by **RogueShadow** Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:41 pm

Synchro Lesson 1
Reading cards and how they show some of the fundamental rules of the game

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Hey kids. Today I’m going to teach you the basics of synchro summoning and reading your cards. “....but Mr.Rogue, we already know how to read our cards and synchro summon.” Sit down and don’t interrupt my class Guest .

Now I'm not going to start at 100% the basics, so instead we will start with reading some cards (exciting I know) which can tell us a lot about the fundamental rules of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
(If anyone finds any problems with this notify Jack ASAP so he can fix it)

Starting off we will have a look at the card "Black Rose Dragon", as it covers the majority of the points I want to make.

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Her effect:
1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.

You can easily tell what her effects do from reading them, but she is a very complicated card which we can talk about a lot by analyzing her effects in detail (which I will do at the end).

The main thing when reading a card is to know what parts of a card effect are what.

The 4 things you might find in a card effect are:
Activation Requirements
Costs
The Effect
Additional Information

Each effect on the card is a sentence, whenever you see a "." that indicates the end of that effect and the next part of the text will be a new effect.

Activation Requirements
Activation Requirements tell you when you can use a card effect. For example "Once per turn" or "When this card is Normal Summoned".
You can tell where these are on cards as they are the part of an effect before a ":".
You can only use card effects when the Activation Requirement has been met.

Costs
Costs are things you must pay before using a card effect. For example "You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls;".
You can tell where these are on cards as they are part of an effect before a ";".
You can not attempt to use a card effect if you can not pay the Cost.
(Note: you have to exactly be able to pay a Cost for the card to work. For example if a Cost states that you have to put something in your Graveyard, it has to go there (e.g. you can't pay the Cost to send something to the Graveyard if Macro Cosmos is on the field).
(Note: Costs occur before you use a card, this means if you want to Activate Mystical Space Typhoon from your hand you can't pay its Cost ("Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field;") by target Mystical Space Typhoon as it is not on the field to target yet).
(Note: Costs cannot be negated and you can still pay them even if the card's effect is negated by something like Fiendish Chain).

(Note: card effects will only start a chain if they have an Activation Requirement and/or a Cost in them).

The Effect
This part of the effect is what the effect actually does.
(Note: unlike Costs you don't need to pay them exactly, so if Macro Cosmos is on the field, you can still use an effect that states "Graveyard").
(Note: you cannot activate a card if the effect would do nothing (e.g. You can't activate Dark Hole if there are no monsters on the field)).

Additional Information
These are things like the "1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monster" part of Black Rose Dragon. Things that aren't actually effects, but are in the cards effect.
This also show up on Synchros and Fusions, where it tells you how they can be synchro summoned and what fusion materials you need to use respectively.

One of the things you can learn from reading cards is how an effect will occur from words like "and".

These conjoining words are part of something called "Problem Solving Card Text" (or PSCT for short) and help you work out different parts of a card will resolve.

There are 4 of these conjunctions:
Then
And
And if you do
Also

(Note: when I say effect I am not talking about just the effect part of a card effect, Costs can also have these words in them).
Then
When you see this on a card the part of the effect before "Then" happens first then the effect after it. If you cannot do the first part of the effect, you do non of the effect. If you can not do the second part of the effect you can still do the first part of the effect.

And
When you see this on a card the part of the effect before and after "And" happen at the same time (although when resolving the effect you would do the part before the and first and the part after the and second even though game state wise both occur at the same time). You cannot use either of the parts of the effect if both parts cannot occur.

And if you do
When you see this on a card the part of the effect before and after "And if you do" happen at the same time. If you cannot do the first part of the effect, you do non of the effect. If you can not do the second part of the effect you can still do the first part of the effect.

Also
When you see this on a card the part of the effect before and after "Also" happen at the same time. If you cannot do the first part of the effect you can still do the second part of the effect. If you can not do the second part of the effect you can still do the first part of the effect.

To help us learn these I will use effects from different synchro monsters.

Black Rose Dragon
1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monster
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.

Starting off with the "and if you do". If you cannot change the monster's battle position (e.g. the target was removed from the field or there is a face-up “Level Limit Area B” on the field), the targeted monsters attack does not become 0. On the other hand, if you couldn't target a defense position monster your opponent controls (e.g. this card is currently under the effect of your opponent's "Safe Zone"), you would not be able to change a monster to attack position even if you could. Both of these effects would occur at the same time.
With the "then" part, if you couldn't do part of the first conjunction then you cannot target a defense position monster your opponent controls.

(https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=4514#more-4514)

Optional effects are ones that you "can" do; whereas, Mandatory effects are ones you must do (ones that don't say can).

The main place this makes a difference is in Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain (or SEGOC for short).

The idea of SEGOC is so you know where card effects would go on chain if multiple "Trigger" effects would occur at the same time.
For example both my opponent and I controlled monsters with an Optional effect and a monster with a Mandatory effect that activate when destroyed and all of these monsters were destroyed at the same time. How do we form the chain?

To answer this we must know SEGOC, the rules of this are:
(where they go on chain ordered from lowest chain link to highest)
Turn Player Mandatory effects
Turn Player Optional effects
Non-Turn Player Mandatory effects
Non-Turn Player Optional effects

If 2 or more cards of the same type of effect controlled by the same player occurs the player whose cards they are decide which chain link they go on.

If 2 card effects would trigger on the same chain, but the Activation Requirement of the 1 card occured was met before the other one (for example a "then" effect on a card would cause 2 effects to occur), the card whose Activation Requirement was met first would be the lower chain link.
(Note: this only applies to TCG. So If you are using OCG rules (if you are playing at worlds or something for example) if a situation like that occurs you would follow the rule above it instead).

Meaning in our example if both my opponent and I control 1 monster with an Optional and Mandatory effect, it is my turn and say I used Dark Hole to destroy all the monsters.
The chain would be formed as follows:
CL1 My monster with a Mandatory effect
CL2 My monster with an Optional effect
CL3 My opponent's monster with a Mandatory effect
CL4 My opponent's monster with an Optional effect

I also want to explain the final rule of SEGOC using the card Sinister Shadow Games.

Its effect:
Send 1 "Shaddoll" card from your Deck to the Graveyard, then you can change any number of face-down Defense Position "Shaddoll" monsters you control to face-up Defense Position.

As we can see from the PSCT the monster will be sent to the Graveyard and then the monster will be flipped. This will normally cause 2 trigger effects to activate. In this case the monster sent to the Graveyard will be Chain Link 1 and the monster that got flipped will be Chain Link 2.

(https://ygorganization.com/learnrulingspart3/)

Another part of PSCT is the use of "if" and "when" and how they apply to Optional effects ("you can"). These will show up in the Activation Requirements of cards.

To illustrate the difference between them, I will use these Activation Requirements and show how they work under a certain situation:
If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can...
When this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can...

Say for example we add these as the start of another effect to our effect from before. That card destroys itself which would normally (unless something banishes it) would cause it to go to the Graveyard, which you would assume would be enough for these Activation Requirements to be met. This is not the case, the effect after the Activation Requirement would only work in this case if the Activation Requirement starts with "if".
The reason for this is that "when... you can..." requires the card being sent to the graveyard as the last thing to occur, while "if... you can..." doesn't care about that.
As you can see from the conjunctions used in our effect the card will be destroyed and then your opponent would discard 1 card from their hand, meaning that the card going to the Graveyard wasn't the last thing that happened.

(Note: This is unofficially referred to as "Missing the Timing").

(https://www.reddit.com/r/yugioh/comments/1dlaqv/an_explanation_to_missing_the_timing_and_what_it/)

We can also learn what type of effects a card effect is by looking at the card.

There are 8 types of card effects:
Ignition
Trigger
Quick
Continuous
Condition
Summon
Maintenance Cost
Unclassified

Ignition
Ignition effects are spell speed 1 effects that you have to manually activate.

e.g. Black Rose Dragon
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.

Trigger
Trigger effects are spell speed 1 effects that occur when something happening causes an Activation Requirement to be met, such as a monster being sent to the graveyard. Will say "when" or "if" in the Activation Requirement.

e.g. Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can target cards on the field, up to the number of different original Attributes of the Wyrm-Type monsters used for the Synchro Summon of this card; shuffle them into the Deck. Once per turn: You can target 1 card you control and 1 Level 4 or lower monster in your Graveyard; destroy that card on the field, and if you do, Special Summon that other monster from the Graveyard.

Quick
Quick effects are spell speed 2 effects that are denoted by "during either player's turn" on the card.

e.g. Formula Synchron
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can draw 1 card. During your opponent's Main Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon using this card you control (this is a Quick Effect).

Continuous
Continuous effects are ones that don't start a chain.

e.g. Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons
Cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. When you take damage from an attack involving this card, or from an opponent's card effect: This card gains ATK equal to the damage you took.

Condition
Conditions are things along the line of "This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect". Conditions cannot be negated.

e.g. Ancient Fairy Dragon
Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. Once per turn: You can destroy as many Field Spell Cards on the field as possible, and if you do, gain 1000 LP, then you can add 1 Field Spell Card from your Deck to your

Maintenance Cost
Costs that are required to keep a card on the field. These cannot be negated.

e.g. Imperial Order (Couldn’t find a synchro for this one)
Negate all Spell Card effects on the field. During each of your Standby Phases, pay 700 Life Points or destroy this card

Unclassified
Anything that isn't one of these effect types. (http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Unclassified_Effect) (https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=4956 Not totally related, but an intressting read nevertheless (which might lead to you learning a new ruling).)

Now that we have learned all of this, back to Black Rose Dragon.

Her effect again:
1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.Battle Phase. If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 "Burning Abyss" card in your Graveyard, except this card; add it to your hand.

Starting off we can see that to Synchro summon her you use 1 tuner and 1 or more non-tuner monsters.

You can see she has 2 different effects.

The first effect is a trigger effect, meaning that an activation requirement has to be met before the effect can be activated. The effect allows you to destroy all the cards on the field when the card is successfully synchro summoned. This is a trigger effect because the effect needs an activation requirement to be met before activation.

Her second effect has an Activation Requirement and a Cost. The Activation Requirement is "Once per Turn", meaning the requirement has been met if it is your turn and you haven't used this effect of Black Rose already this turn. The Cost is to banish 1 Plant-type monster from your graveyard then target a face-up defense position card your opponent controls. The Cost has some PSCT in it, "then", meaning the banishing a monster happens first, then you target the face-up defense position monster. When you have payed the Cost the targeted monster is changed to attack position and its attack becomes 0. This is an ignition effect, as you have to manually activate it.

So as you can see you can learn a lot of information about the rules of the card just by knowing the background knowledge provided in this lesson and by knowing how to read the card effect properly.

Hopefully this helps you understand synchro summoning. In future posts you will be learning more about synchro summoning and even some nifty tricks and trades for the summoning method. Below I have posted some homework for you. I am going to require that the homework at least be attempted before you can take your final exam, and they must be attempted in order. “Mr. Rogue, what happens if we miss a homework?” Good question Guest , if you don’t do your homework you will not be able to pass your major and take up another one under our other wonderful and knowledgeable teachers.

Your homework for this lesson is to Synchro Summon using a tuner and a non-tuner monster. You must do this 5 times and send me the screenshots of your synchro summon. Have fun synchro summoning!