This... This I approve of

This... This I approve of
After taking my occasional blogger scroll, I found this.

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=3111

Wow Kevin, I approve of this. I've not been fond of the TCG rewording so far, but this certainly redeemed it for me. More experienced players will understand why you can't Black Horn of Heaven a Monster Reborn or the monster it summons. However, you would not believe how many times I've had to explain this to people. I've even gotten into some pretty bad arguments with people who don't know this ruling (an they're a judge).

But personal arguments aside, I am so glad that Konami made this obvious to the less educated of the Yu-Gi-Oh! community. For those who don't know this ruling, I'll lay it out here.

Black Horn of Heaven
Trap / Counter
Negate the Special Summon of 1 of your opponent's monsters and destroy it.


Reborn Tengu
Level 4 / WIND
Beast-Warrior / Effect
When this card is removed from the field, Special Summon 1 "Reborn Tengu" from your Deck.
ATK 1700 DEF 600

You cannot negate the summon of a Reborn Tengu through the effect of BHoH. When Reborn Tengu leaves the field, it automatically starts a chain. Even if neither player wishes to respond, Reborn Tengu starts a chain as chain link 1.

The chain then resolves. The effect of the previous Reborn Tengu summons another one. BHoH cannot activate at this time. The chain is still resolving, so no card effects can activate.

After the entire chain resolves (which happens to only be 1 link), all appropriate cards are sent to the Graveyard. In this case, nothing is sent there. This step of chain resolution always happens, even if no cards are to be sent to the Graveyard. After this happens, the chain is complete.

After the chain resolves, Reborn Tengu has already been summoned successfully during chain resolution. BHoH cannot activate at this time. Trying to activate BHoH now would be like trying to activate it 5 turns after the monster has been summoned. You missed any opportunity to activate BHoH.

There are 3 common misconceptions that people have with this ruling.

1.) You CANNOT negate the effect of [Reborn Tengu] with Black Horn of Heaven


People believe that they can negate the effect of a "Summon by effect" card like Reborn Tengu. This is incorrect. Nowhere on BHoH does it say it can negate effects. This literally means that it can't negate effects. Unless a card says it can do something, it can't. Due to the nature of BHoH's effect, BHoH can only ever be Chain Link 1.

2.) Solemn Warning CAN negate the effect of [Reborn Tengu]


Again, this ties in directly with the wording of Solemn Warning.

Solemn Warning
Trap / Counter
Pay 2000 Life Points. Negate the Summon of a monster OR the activation of a Spell Card, Trap Card, or Effect Monster's effect that includes an effect that Special Summons a Monster(s), and destroy that card.


This is why you can chain Solemn Warning to the effect of Reborn Tengu. The ruling that prevents cards from activating during resolution still applies here. The highlighted text is not decorative, it serves a purpose. BHoH does not have that line of text, meaning BHoH cannot be used in the same way.

3.) Bottomless Trap Hole


Someone once pointed this out to me. BTH does not negate anything. As a rule, negation has to be directly applied to what is to be negated. BTH instead responds to a summon. BTH is activated after the chain that summons a monster, not during or before. Consequently, you can use BTH against the Special Summon of a Reborn Tengu.

A few other things


Special Summons are normally categorized into to categories: Inherent Special Summons and Special Summons by Effect. Inherent Special Summons are built in to the card.

Inherent Special Summons include:
- Monsters like Cyber Dragon
- Synchro Summons
- Exceed Summons
- Some Fusion Summons (like Gladiator Beast Gyzarus)

Inherent summons can be negated by cards like BHoH since they don't start chains.

Special Summons by Effect include
- Monsters like Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
- All Ritual Summons
- Most Fusion Summons
- All summons not done by the card being summoned, e.g. Monster Reborn

Summons never start chains. The only difference is that the summons are occurring during a resolving chain. It's not the summon starting the chain, it's the effect that special summons. For the above reasons, this sort of summon is immune to BHoH.


So let's summarize today's lesson:
- Summons do not start chains
- Cards cannot be activated during resolving chains
- Card negation must be applied directly to the desired target
- There are two categories of summon: "Inherent" and "By Effect"
- Cards like Black Horn of Heaven can only negate Inherent summons

I'm sure Redshift would be proud (cookie if you know what I'm referring to). Hopefully I didn't butcher that too badly and the information was clear. As always, leave a comment with any questions and rate and whatnot.