When Crush Card Virus is activated, Sangan is tribute to pay its cost. Sangan’s effect would like to activate at this time, but it cannot chain to Crush Card Virus. Instead its effect will wait until after Crush Card Virus finishes resolving, starting another chain.

Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect is chained to Crush Card Virus. Assuming it has enough ATK and DEF, it will negate the Crush Card Virus. Next, Sangan’s effect starts a new chain. Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect is chained to Sangan, and assuming it has enough ATK and DEF, it will negate Sangan’s effect too.

Light and Darkness Dragon—Disk Commander

"My opponent has Threatening Roar and Torrential Tribute face down. I have two monsters on the field, Limit Reverse set, and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander in the Graveyard. I tribute my two monsters to summon Light and Darkness Dragon. My opponent activates Threatening Roar. Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect activates to negate it. My opponent chains Torrential Tribute. I chain Limit Reverse targeting Disk Commander.

"No further effects are added, so the chain resolves like this:

"Now here’s where things get a little confusing. Since Disk Commander's draw effect is mandatory, it (along with Light and Darkness Dragon’s destruction effect) starts a new chain, with Disk Commander’s effect as Chain Link 1 and Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect as Chain Link 2, targeting Disk Commander, so things go like this:

Chain Link 2: Light and Darkness Dragon destroys everything and revives Disk Commander.

Chain Link 1: Here's the problem—do I get to draw two cards here off of the first activation of Disk Commander’s effect since it came back to the field? I know its effect still resolves if it left the field for some reason because the summon wasn’t negated nor was the effect, but do I get to draw two cards here as well as when Disk Commander’s effect activates after this chain is complete?

This submitter understood the initial chain’s construction very well. When Light and Darkness Dragon was tribute summoned, the opponent didn’t have to immediately respond to the summon with Torrential Tribute. It was perfectly fine of him or her to respond with Threatening Roar first, to which Light and Darkness Dragon had no choice but to respond. Since this chain is being used to respond to the summon of Light and Darkness Dragon, any card or effect on this chain can respond to the summon. This allows Torrential Tribute to be chained to Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect. Limit Reverse could then be chained to Torrential Tribute.

He did make a mistake in his analysis of the chain’s resolution though. Torrential Tribute destroys the Light and Darkness Dragon and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander when it resolves. When an effect is chained to Light and Darkness Dragon’s effect that destroys it or flips it face down, its negation effect disappears. This means that Threatening Roar is not negated. This is a popular method of dealing with the Light and Darkness Dragon, while simultaneously recuperating the first effect that you almost lost.

When the second chain resolves, our player does indeed draw two cards with Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. Nothing prevents that player from doing so. Its effect certainly isn’t negated, and no one has said that Disk Commander needs to survive to properly resolve his effect.

After the second chain resolves, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander starts yet another chain, allowing his owner to draw another two cards. That player gets to draw a total of four cards from this entire exchange. (Any guess why Disk Commander is Forbidden?)

Voltanis and Bountiful Artemis

"My opponent activates Monster Reborn, targeting a monster in my graveyard. I chain Dark Bribe to negate it. My opponent chains his own Dark Bribe to which I respond with the other Bribe. My Dark Bribe negates his, and we both draw (the opponent draws from Dark Bribe, myself from Bountiful Artemis).

"Now, here's my question. I declare that I'm going to use Voltanis the Adjudicator’s effect. Do I summon it in the middle of the chain (as the text would lead you to believe) or do I wait until the chain has completely resolved?"

Ah, yes . . . Voltanis the Adjudicator. I hated this card for a very long time, because its rulings never really explained what it did or how it did it. It seemed like a card we could have fun with, if we understood what it did. We were at a relative loss for a while, until Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord was released. Van’Dalgyon filled in the gaps for Voltanis, and now both cards are much easier to explain.

Voltanis the Adjudicator’s effect is activated after the chain in which you activated a counter trap card finishes resolving. This means that every effect on the chain is resolved before you ever say that you want to activate Voltanis’s effect. In the provided question, Voltanis’s effect would start a new chain after Monster Reborn resolves . . . or in this case, fails to resolve.

You don’t immediately place Voltanis the Adjudicator onto the field. Instead, you reveal it from your hand and tribute every monster you control. In the provided question, the submitter would tribute the Bountiful Artemis because it is the only monster he has. Voltanis isn’t special summoned until its effect resolves.

When Voltanis is special summoned by its effect, if you tributed any Fairies you can choose to activate Voltanis’s final effect. This starts yet another chain, but it does not select any targets. You don’t tell your opponent what cards you will destroy until Voltanis’s effect is completed, so if your opponent wants to respond he or she will have to guess at what you will destroy. In the submitted question, our submitter tributed a Fairy-type monster, so he can destroy one card the opponent controls. Given that Monster Reborn was negated and Dark Bribe is in the graveyard, the remaining choice is Spirit Reaper.

Stardust Dragon’s card negating effect is a quick effect, which operates at spell speed 2. Counter trap cards are spell speed 3. According to the rules for chains, spell speed 2 effects cannot be chained to a spell speed 3 effect (their spell speed isn’t high enough).  It is not possible for Stardust Dragon to negate a counter trap card.

Until next time, send all comments and questions to Curtis@Metagame.com!

—Curtis Schultz