Welcome to your first Lesson on How to read Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Today we will be looking closely at the difference between Colon and Semicolon. Now, why is this important, well it’s good for us to know what can we can chain to and what not, here we will be breaking it down starting off with easy cards to understand the basics and then moving on to Meta cards. Good luck, have fun, and hope you learn a little something! ‹3
https://youtu.be/zzc53QHP92c
The youtube video is based on KONAMI’s official Cards rules: https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=2947
So now first things first, all cards will be colour coded so it’s easier to follow.
Condition / COLON:
Everything in green is a Condition (everything written BEFORE the Colon). So now what we have to know about a condition is, that the condition has to be true on ACTIVATION, if your opponent chains to change this and it’s no longer TRUE….the colon doesn’t care if it went through before the chain started. Now let me show an instance that you CAN influence this.
So let’s look at Winda’s effect, the only part we are interested in is her graveyard effect.
If this card is sent to the graveyard: You can target 1 Shaddoll Spell/Trap in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.
So what is written in Green can usually NOT be affected by chaining, If my opponent chains to this, and removes Winda from my graveyard my effect will still go through. But lets say they where to chain Called by the grave….
Card Effect: Traget 1 monster in your opponents GY; Banish it, and if you do, until the end of the next turn, it effects are negated, as well as the activated effects and effects on the field of monster with the same original name.
This IS a quick effect and its soule purpose is to stop Monster effects that trigger in the grave yard, so this would be an instant were the Colon can be over written, but in general the condition ONLY has to be true ON activation after that the card doesn’t care what happens to it. However, there are cards that tell you the Condition still has to be true on resolution. Here are a few examples:
Trap: Nightmare wheel: Targeted monster MUST be on the field to activate and resolve this effect.
Fusion: Dark Paladin: This card must be face-up on the field to activate and resolve this effect.
Monster: Dark General Freed: This card must be face-up on the field to activate and resolve this effect.
As you can see these cards tell you this STILL has to be true on RESOLUTION. so please read carefully what the card condition tells you. Now let’s have a look at what you CAN chain too.
Activation Semicolon;
Were going to take Winda again as an example.
If this card is sent to the graveyard: You can target 1 Shaddoll Spell/Trap in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.
Now everything after a semicolon CAN be chained to if the timing lets you. In this case, Winda tells us we have to target a card in our graveyard, as we can see there is a ; meaning the link has opened allowing our opponent to chain, so let’s say they chain to banish the targeted card from our graveyard, well the card is NO LONGER in the GY so the effect cant resolve. There is a very fine line when it comes to timing these correctly. Card Activation tells you the position and THAT is the important part. all the keywords are in bold, what we are looking for is (where does the card have to be for the effect to resolve).
Now, this isn’t always easy to understand let’s have a look at another example.
We will be using Squamata as an example. The card says
FLIP: You can target 1 monster on the field; destroy it.
It tells us 1 monster ON the FIELD. There is a semicolon so the link opens and your opponent chains, now for example let’s say they flip the targeted monster facedown, move it to the Spell/Trap zone OR move it to our side of the field. Squamamts effect WILL STILL go through since the card is STILL on the field. This is a typical scenario that is not explained anywhere on the card all it says is on field and it means the WHOLE field, if the card were to move to the HAND, GY, DECK, BANISHED zone, the effect will NOT go through since it has been removed from the field.
Now here’s an example of a Semicolon that can NOT be chained to and this counts for all of these scenarios. (Called by is still the exception since its the card effect)
When an opponent’s monster declares a direct attack (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate the attack, then end the Battle Phase.
The card tells us to discard itself to negate the attack, what we have to understand is that EVEN though there IS a Semicolon you can NOT chain to a cost (playing life point, discarding cards and banishing) these are requirements and CANT be chained to.
If the card tells you where it’s coming from or where it’s going you CAN chain, you just CANT chain to Costs. So what I mean with this is you can use a card like Called by the Grave.
Target 1 monster in your opponent’s GY; banish it, and if you do, until the end of the next turn, its effects are negated, as well as the activated effects and effects on the field of monsters with the same original name.
Called by the Grave TARGETS 1 card in your opponent’s Grave Yard, Scarecrow told us he’s moving from the HAND to the GRAVEYARD to activate his effect. This would be the window to react, hope this wasn’t all too confusing.
Now the final part of reading card effects.
Resolution
Resolutions are everything that is written after a Colon / Semicolon
These can ALWAYS be chained to and affected by card effects.
Were going to take Winda again.
If this card is sent to the graveyard: You can target 1 Shaddoll Spell/Trap in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.
So here the last action is adding a card from our GY to our hand, it is written AFTER a Semicolon with means the link is open so our opponent can chain to this and probably will. So let’s say they chain Ghost Belle
Card effect: When a card is activated that included any of these effects (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate that activation.
- Add a card(s) from the GY to the hand, Deck, and /or Extra Deck
- Special Summon a monster Card(s) from the GY
- Banish a card(s) from the GY
If the card resolves our effect will be negated. You can of course chain to this card as well since there is a Colon / Semicolon.
A monster without Colon/Semicolon
Monsters who don’t have a colon or semicolon cant be chained to if there’s no Colon/Semicolon the link never opens so no chain can be formed.
all these monsters DONT have a Colon or Semicolon so they CANT be chained too
Drillago: if the only cards your opponent controls are face-up monsters with 1600 or more ATK, this card can attack your opponent directly
Blue eyes chaos MAX dragon: You can Ritual Summon this card with “Chaos Form”. Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Cannot be targeted, or destroyed by, your opponent’s card effect. If this card attacks a Defence Positioned monster, inflict double pricing battle damage to your opponent.
Photon Thrasher: Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) while you control no monsters. Cannot attack if you control another monster.
If you want to know how to overcome these types of monsters stay tuned for next week’s lesson where we look at how to deal with un-chainable monsters.
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