Last week, we looked over the basics of chaining to give a solid, consistent start on the subject. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be picking out a few specific topics that we covered in the basics, and then I’ll look at them more closely. Today, we’re going to take a sort of “negative” approach, and talk about the things that you can’t chain anything to. It might seem like an odd choice, but I’ve dealt with a lot of rulings lately that involved players attempting to chain when they couldn’t. Since there’s not much of a comprehensive list of when not to chain, it can be an easy mistake to make. No more! Let’s delve deeply into the fascinating world of, “what (and when) not to chain!”
There’s a basic test you can use when you’re wondering whether or not you can chain to something. Just ask yourself, “Does this have a spell speed?” If it has a spell speed, it can be part of a chain. If it doesn’t, it can’t. This is all well and good, but if you don’t know what has a spell speed, it won’t help you much. Let’s start there!
Only cards with effects have spell speeds. A normal monster does not have a spell speed, nor does a game phase, or an action performed in the game, like drawing a card, setting a spell or trap card, or summoning a monster. Plenty of players don’t realize this because they’ve picked up incorrect information or never really stopped to think about it clearly, and it can really wreak havoc on their understanding of chaining. No spell speed means no chain. Period.
How about a practical list? You can’t chain to anything that’s on the following.
An action in the game that is not an activation or resolution of another effect. These don’t have a spell speed, so nothing can be chained to them—but that doesn’t stop people from trying. Let’s put a stop to that right now. Remember . . .
You can’t chain to a summon. This is why you can’t nail Jinzo with . You can only respond to a summon. Whether it’s a single effect or the beginning of a chain, the monster is already there as a separate action, so the summoning is never part of the chain. “But wait!” someone will cry. “What about Horn of Heaven and Solemn Judgment! Those negate the summon, so they have to be chained!” It does seem like that’s the case, but that’s not how the cards actually work. These cards specifically state that they negate a certain game action. Since game actions have no spell speeds, nothing can be chained to them. It’s the effects alone that enable them to negate a summon (or in the case of Solemn Judgment, a game action). They must be activated directly in response to the action they will negate, but they are never chained to it. It doesn’t matter what kind of summon it is—a normal summon, a normal set, a flip summon, a tribute summon, a special summon, a ritual summon—you cannot chain to a summon. And, while you can chain to another card effect that initiates a summon, such as Premature Burial or Hand of Nephthys, you’re chaining to the effect that causes the summon and not to the actual summon itself.
You can’t chain to a card being set. If your opponent sets a spell or trap card in his or her end phase, you can respond to that set by activating your set Dust Tornado, but you aren’t chaining the Dust Tornado to that card, or to the action of setting it. You’re responding to it by activating a card effect.
You can’t chain to an attack. You can activate an effect in response and begin a chain, but the attack itself is not part of the chain. Even cards that negate the attack, like Magic Cylinder, are activated as a response, and not as a chain to the attack. Cards that can only be activated in response to an attack, a change in life points, etc. are just that: activated in response, and not chained. You don’t involve the actual attack when you’re resolving your chain.
You can’t chain to a change in the game phase. You can activate an effect in response to a change in the phase, once your opponent has had the chance to activate any effects he or she wishes, but you can’t say “I chain to you entering your Main Phase 1.” That’s not what you’re actually doing. Instead, if your opponent does not wish to activate anything upon entering the new phase, you say, “In response to you entering your Main Phase 1, I will activate (not chain!) this effect.” Don’t forget that your opponent gets the first chance to activate an effect when he or she moves into a new game phase, so make sure he or she doesn’t wish to do so before activating your own effects.
You can’t chain to a card being drawn. Even cards like Appropriate and Drop Off state that you activate the card when your opponent draws. Again, you don’t chain to the action: you begin a chain in response to the action.
All of these things can serve as a “jumping-off point” to initiate a chain in response when they occur, but they are never actually part of the chain itself. It might seem like a pretty fine distinction, but it’s a critical one. You respond to the action by activating an effect, you don’t chain to the action itself. That action is not going to figure in the resolution of the chain once it’s complete.
All right, now everyone knows they can’t chain to anything that doesn’t have a spell speed. However, don’t blithely assume that you can chain to anything with a spell speed either. Remember in the last article, we discussed what can and can’t be chained to what, as far as spell speed goes. You can only chain with an effect that has the same or higher spell speed. This tends to trip people up, especially when they try to chain a spell speed 2 card to a counter trap, which is spell speed 3.
In addition, you can’t chain spell speed 1 effects to anything. They can only begin a chain. You can’t chain them to a faster speed, and you can’t chain them to each other. If it’s a spell speed 1 card, you can’t chain it. That includes normal spell cards, equip spell cards, continuous spell cards, field spell cards, and all monster effects (other than multi-trigger effects). It’s as easy as that!
Finally, what spell speed are continuous effects? If you said, “Continuous effects don’t have a spell speed,” give yourself a gold Millennium star! You can’t chain to a continuous effect, because those effects are active immediately upon hitting the field. They don’t have a spell speed, and they’re never part of a chain. That’s why you can’t use Skill Drain to shut down Jinzo if Jinzo makes it onto the field first, and why you can’t summon Jinzo to try and negate Skill Drain’s effect. They’re both continuous. Whichever one makes it onto the field first will block the other, and you can’t try to chain one to the other in order to prevent it.
While erroneously trying to chain to something is usually easy to correct (as far as the game state goes), it shows a gap in understanding that leads to incorrect decisions, which can hold a player back in the standings. You don’t want to waste time involving a judge to sort out mistakes that are easy to avoid, or tip off your opponent about the cards you’ve got on your side. Every now and then people make slip-ups like trying to chain Royal Decree to Solemn Judgment, but for the most part, knowing what you can’t chain to (and why) will keep you on track.
Come back next week for even more fun with chaining. By the time this series is done, you’ll be a chaining expert, amazing all your friends while endearing yourself to judges everywhere. Sound good? Then don’t miss the rest of the series!