Game Mechanics: Spell Speed

Admin Posts : 126 Join date : 2014-08-24

Spell Speed (Japanese: スペルスピード Superusupīdo) refers to how "fast" a card effect resolves after activation. Despite their name, they are not restricted to the effects of Spell Cards, but rather apply to any card effect that can activate. There are 3 Spell Speeds:

Spell Speed 1
Spoiler:
Spell Cards (except Quick-Play Spell Cards), Ignition Effects and Ignition-like Effects can only be used by the turn player during an open game state in the Main Phase, unless otherwise stated on the card itself (such as "Curse of Fiend").
Spell Speed 1 effects cannot be Chained to the activation of another card or effect.
For example, when you activate "Storm", you cannot then Chain "Pot of Greed" to draw cards before using "Storm" effect, since "Pot of Greed" is a Normal Spell Card, and is therefore Spell Speed 1.
If multiple Trigger Effects or Trigger-like Effects are triggered at the same time, they follow the rules of "Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain". This is the only time a Spell Speed 1 effect can be Chain Link 2 or higher.
For example, if two "Mystic Tomatoes" battle, they are both destroyed by battle, and both their effects activate simultaneously.

Ignition and Ignition-like Effects:
Ignition Monster Effects (Japanese: 起動効果 Kidō Kōka) are Spell Speed 1 effects that require a manual activation by the card's controller during their own Main Phase 1 or 2 (except "Red-Eyes Wyvern", "Daigusto Eguls", "Alchemic Magician", "Speed Warrior", "Splendid Rose", "General Gantala of the Ice Barrier", "Justice of Prophecy", and "Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon"). This type of effect used to be called a Cost Effect in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which was slightly confusing because not all of those monsters had a cost.

Similar to Ignition Monster Effects, some Spell Cards have an Ignition-like Effect which requires a manual activation by the card's controller during their Main Phase 1 or 2.

Activating the card "Fusion Gate" (placement onto the field or flip face-up) does not Special Summon monsters, so at that time, neither "Royal Oppression" nor "Solemn Warning" can be activated as a response.

Activating the Ignition-like Effect is not considered to be activating a card, so if you then activate the Ignition-like effect of "Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen", "Royal Oppression" can be used to negate the effect, but "Solemn Warning" cannot. This is because the effect of "Royal Oppression" states that it can negate the activation of effects, but "Solemn Warning" can only be used to negate the activation of a card.

Trigger and Trigger-like effects
Trigger Effects (Japanese: 誘発効果 Yūhatsu Kōka) activate whenever a certain condition on the Field, the nature of play, or the progress of the turn, is met.

Trigger effects are considered to be Spell Speed 1, but that doesn't mean you can activate them when ever you want, only when the condition has been met. If Compulsory Trigger Effects or Optional Trigger Effects (that do not miss the timing) trigger at a time when they cannot be activated, such as if there exists a current chain, each effect that was triggered will start a new chain at the next opportunity afterwards that they can start a chain. For simultaneous activations, the order these effects are added to the start of the new chain follow the rulings for when Simultaneous Effects Go On the Chain (TCG currently handles the ordering differently than OCG.)

The effect of "Zaborg the Thunder Monarch" is triggered when it is Tribute Summoned, and the effect requires it to destroy 1 monster on the field.

Optional Trigger Effects are effects that don't happen automatically when the trigger condition is fulfilled, the controlling player decides whether to activate it or not. These effects involve cards like "Mystic Tomato", "Peten the Dark Clown", or "Dark Magician of Chaos". With "When... you can..." Optional Trigger Effects it is possible to Miss the Timing. However, with Optional Trigger Effects, like ones with the structure, "If... you can...", the effect can be activated at the first possible opportunity to activate cards and effects after the trigger condition was met (skipping over any chain opportunities that forbid that particular effect from activating at that time, such as the Summon Negation Window.)

When two Optional Trigger Effects try to activate at the same time such as two copies of "Mystic Tomato" destroy each other in battle, neither will miss the timing, as the last thing to happen was both being sent to the Graveyard. Both of the effects trigger at the same time, and form a Chain. The Turn Player's effect becomes Chain Link 1, and the opponent's effect becomes Chain Link 2.

Only the activation of an Optional Trigger Effect can miss the timing. In other words, as long as the effect is activated, the resolution will never miss the timing. So two monsters will be summoned in the above example.

Compulsory Trigger Effects are effects that must resolve, and are not Optional.

Identifying Trigger Effects can be done, for cards made after PSCT change, by looking for a timing related condition, followed by a colon " : ". Some of these cards are not necessarily Trigger Effects, such as Ignition effects that are usually in the form "Once per turn: You can..." or "During your Main Phase: You can..." If you are not sure what type of effect(s) a card has, the information can be looked up. Note that cards like Obelisk the Tormentor with PSCT have the word "When" but don't have a colon. Instead, these usually denote conditions.

Similar to Trigger Monster Effects, some Spell and Trap Cards have a Trigger-like Effect which activate whenever a certain condition on the field, the nature of play, or the progress of the turn, is met. These will also follow SEGOC if two or more effects trigger at the same time.

Trigger-like Effects will form a chain, even if it is from a Continuous Spell or Trap Card.

Caution: Effects preceded by "When this card resolves: " or "When this card is activated: " are not Trigger-like effects, but card effects that is applied during the resolving of that card's activation.

Spell Speed 2
Spoiler:
Spell Speed 2 cards are also called "Fast Effects" and can be Chained against Spell Speed 1 or other Spell Speed 2 cards but cannot chain to Spell Speed 3.

Quick Effect and Quick-like effect
A Quick Effect (Japanese: 誘発即時効果 Yūhatsu Sokuji Kōka), formerly known as a Multi-Trigger Effect, is a type of monster effect that is Spell Speed 2 (and is the only type of Spell Speed 2 monster effect).

It is the only type of monster effect that can be activated in Summon negation window, and the only one that can be Chained to another activation (excluding SEGOC). As such, monsters effects that negate activations or Summons are all Quick Effects.

Under the Problem-Solving Card Text, Quick Effects are normally noted by "During either player's/your opponent's [turn/Phase/Step]:". Some Quick Effects are specifically noted as such in the card text, such as "Necro Gardna". For cards without Problem-Solving Card Text, Quick Effects are denoted by text which indicates the same timing as the PSCT standard, or only noted in rulings.

Unless otherwise specified (e.g. "Light and Darkness Dragon"), Quick Effects may be activated as many times in a Chain as possible.

When you activate (flip face-up) a Continuous Trap Card that has a Quick-like effect, you can choose to activate that effect; in this case, the Quick-like effect does not create an additional Chain Link. You simply state if you will also activate the effect of the Continuous Trap Card at the same time you activate the card itself. If the Continuous Trap Card is already face-up on the field, you can activate it in a new chain, or chain its effect to another card, similar to Quick Effects of monsters. Quick-like Effects can be activated during either player's turn.

Spell Speed 3
Spoiler:
Spell Speed 3 can chain against any other Spell Speed but only another Spell Speed 3 can chain to it. (Example: You can chain Dark Bribe to Solemn Warning, but you can't chain MST to it.)

When a card effect activates on a Chain, only effects with an equal or greater Spell Speed can respond to it. However, Spell Speed 1 effects cannot be used in response to another Spell Speed 1 effect. The only time two Spell Speed 1 effects can exist on the same Chain (and the only time Spell Speed 1 effects can be anything higher than Chain Link 1) is if both effects activate at exactly the same time due to some external factor; see Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain for more explanation.

Summoning a monster and declaring an attack are not card effects and do not "activate", therefore they do not have a Spell Speed and do not start a Chain. If an card like "Bottomless Trap Hole" or "Mirror Force" is used in response to such an action, that card will be considered Chain Link 1.

Sources:

Spoiler:

Posts : 38 Join date : 2014-08-27 Age : 32

This is a great resource to have. And a very common problem for less experienced duelists to ask about. Nice write up.

Admin Posts : 126 Join date : 2014-08-24

No need to thank me. Its all straight from the wikia source. I just made a convenient article with all the info for those who need reference.

If you want, you can use this as your lesson for the week.

Posts : 38 Join date : 2014-08-27 Age : 32

nah. I'll write up something on missing timing. It's just as useful, and a good refresher for me

Admin Posts : 126 Join date : 2014-08-24

Works for me. Hope to see it posted up today

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