As of today, there is no more “priority” with ignition effects. You can check out the official source here. This is a big shake-up in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh and it comes just three days before YCS Chicago. I’m back this week to talk about this rule change and what it means heading into this weekend.
What Does the Change Mean?
Before today, as I’m sure most of you know, players could retain priority to activate an ignition effect. This means that I could activate my monster effect before you could do anything to my monster. I could summon Rescue Rabbit and activate its effect and remove itself from the field before you could activate your Effect Veiler. Now, with the change in the rules, you have a chance to Effect Veiler the Rescue Rabbit before I remove it from play. Before today if my opponent summoned Judgment Dragon and I had Bottomless Trap Hole, I could use Bottomless, but not before Judgment Dragon had a chance to activate his effect and destroy the field. This change does not allow for this and I would now be able to activate the Bottomless Trap Hole before my opponent could use Judgment Dragon’s effect.
What This Does NOT Mean
What this does not mean is that if your opponent activates a trigger effect like Tour Guides and you respond with Rageki Break to kill the Tour Guide that your opponent will not be able to special summon a Sangan from their deck. This is not what priority was. Your opponent will still be able to grab a Fiend from their deck if you do this. The same goes for all Monarchs.
Cards That Got Better
There are a list of cards that got better because of this rule change. They are now more effective against the top tier decks than they were before the rule change.
Effect Veiler – This should have been the first card to pop into your mind when you heard about the rule change. This card clearly got better than it ever has been before. Previously, Effect Veiler did almost nothing to the popular Rescue Rabbit deck. Now, as I mentioned above, you can Veiler their Rabbit before they have a chance to use its effect. Then the next turn you can simply attack over it. Keep in mind, you will have to activate Effect Veiler when they summon their Rescue Rabbit. You cannot wait for them to activate Rabbit’s effect as it is a cost to remove and you won’t have a target for Veiler. This is why you could not Veiler Rabbit in the past. I would expect the card to be played in 3s this weekend.
Book of Moon – Similarly to how you can Veiler a Rescue Rabbit now, you can also play Book of Moon to turn it face down before it has a chance to activate its effect.
Bottomless Trap Hole – This card certainly got better as well. Your opponent can no longer take priority to activate a monster’s effect before you have the chance to Bottomless it. This is especially relevant now that Dragons are gaining momentum. If they summon Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon or Chaos Sorcerer, you can simply Bottomless it before they can use the effect. You can also Bottomless a Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity before they can use its effect to special summon a Wind-Up from the deck.
Chain Disappearance – Chain Disappearance was already a solid card against Inzektors as it hit their Tour Guide, Hornet, Card Trooper, and Dragonfly. Now the card is solid against Rabbit decks as well since you can remove both the heart and soul of the deck, Rescue Rabbit and the Tour Guide.
Hero’s Blast/Gemini Spark – The loss of priority also gave a huge boost to Heroes. You can now interrupt power plays that were previously safe guarded by priority with your Hero’s Blast or Gemini Spark.
Forbidden Lance – This will surely act as an answer to the increase in trap cards that are now good due to the rule change. Imagine someone trying to Chain Disappearance your Rescue Rabbit and you saving it with Forbidden Lance and continuing your turn as planned.
Forbidden Chalice – As if this card wasn’t already good enough, it got better! The card works similar to Veiler and if you activate it on a Rescue Rabbit, they can pay the cost, but won’t be able to special summon two normal from the deck.
Rageki Break/Phoenix Wing-Wind Blast – These cards got better for the same disruptive reason as listed in many of the cards above.
On Skill Drain and Fiendish Chain
Both of these are continuous trap cards and can only affect monsters while they are face up on the field. If I summon Rescue Rabbit, even though I don’t have priority, and you flip Skill Drain, I can still pay the cost and remove it. Since Skill Drain only affects things on the field and Rabbit is no longer on the field, I can special summon two normal from my deck. The same goes for Fiendish Chain.
How Will This Change Affect the Decks?
Rescue Rabbit: I think people are writing this deck off a little bit more than they need to. Resolving Effect Veiler doesn’t mean that the Rabbit is off the field. Playing Effect Veiler is a -1. If they set some form of removal and used it as a 1 for 1 to keep the Rabbit alive, they can make a Laggia the following turn which is a +1. Now they have a Laggia in a simplified game state. I think that Rabbit decks can adapt to this rule change by playing more 1 for 1 removal like Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison.
Inzektors: This deck was not directly hurt by the rule change whatsoever; however, indirectly it was hurt a lot. Before this, decks were playing anywhere from 0-2 Veilers. Now with the rule change, Veiler becomes the nuts and it seems silly to not run 3 in most decks. This will be a blow to Inzektors.
Wind-Ups: Maxx “C” has seen less and less play for a while and will almost certainly continue to see even less with the increase in power of Effect Veiler. Does this mean it is time for Wind-Ups to shine? Probably not. They still have to deal with the three Effect Veilers and now I can activate a Bottomless Trap Hole on your Zenmaity before you can even use the effect.
Heroes: If any deck got better because of the change, it was Heroes. They lost absolutely nothing from it, but gained a more powerful Hero’s Blast and Gemini Spark. This deck will see tons of play this weekend.
Dragons: This deck had the most monsters that could take advantage of priority; Chaos Sorcerer, BLS, REDMD, Card Trooper, Lumina, etc. It will be interesting to see how this deck fairs this weekend, especially if Inzektors see as much play as I think they will.
Every deck is going to need to adapt to this rule change in order to do well this weekend. Ignoring something this huge will get you nowhere fast. In my opinion, I think the most played deck this weekend will be Inzektors, followed closely by Heroes, then Rabbit, then Dragons, and on down from there. I would prepare for roughly three Inzektors and three Heroes. If your deck cannot effectively play those decks for at least three rounds each, pick another deck. This is going to be an interesting weekend and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. I’ll be there and I hope you all will as well. Until next time, play hard or go home!
Patrick Hoban
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