Missing the timing.

Note: I don’t think anyone has posted an article on missing the timing here – But if someone did, please forgive me because I searched but didn’t find one post here.

I have seen that many duelists on dueling network, high rated and low rated, do not properly follow the rule of missing the timing and I myself admit that I have let this rule slide in duels. However, though this is an important rule and is part of the game procedure and it must be mastered if you ever want to call yourself a “pro”. Missing the Timing is actually a difficult ruling to understand, so if you still do not understand after reading this, feel free to post your questions here.

Mandatory Trigger Effects
Sometimes a trigger effect will state this: “When this condition happens”, “activate this effect”. This means that as long as the condition is met, such as sangan being sent from the field to the graveyard, the effect will activate. These effect are mandatory and automatically activate when the condition is met, you don not choose whether you use the effect or not. Reborn Tengu and Sangan are prime examples of mandatory trigger effects.

Optional Trigger Effects
Sometimes a trigger effect will state this: “When this condition happens”, “you can activate this effect”. In this case, you are only allowed to activate the effect when the condition being met was the last thing to happen in the game. You must chose to activate these effects on your own, they will not automatically activate like mandatory trigger effects do. It is possible to miss the timing with Optional Trigger Effects. Unlike Mandatory Trigger effects, an Optional Trigger Effect "misses the timing" if something else happens immediately after the effect or if something else is still resolving after the condition is being met. Examples of cards with optional trigger effects are: Elemental Hero – The Shining, Peten the Dark Clown, and Dimensional Alchemist.

Note: Some times a trigger effect will say "if this condition happens" "you can", In this case, the effect is optional but will never miss the timing. As long as the condition is met, you can activate the effect.

Example~


Read his effect. You can see that you have a choice (note the “when this happens” you can” activate this effect.) to activate his effect. This shows that he has an optional trigger effect and will miss the timing if his condition being met is not the last thing to happen.

Now I shall give you examples of missing the timing actually happening.

Example 1 ~
- You Tribute your face up Peten The Dark Clown to summon Jinzo
- At this point, you must choose wheter you will activate Clown's effect or not, but you can not interrupt the summon.
- You normal summon Jinzo.
- Your opponent has a chance to respond to your summon
- Jinzo has been successfully summoned.

The last thing to happen in the above situation was Jinzo’s summon; therefore Clown misses the timing for his effect. This not only applies with tribute summoning, but it also apples when you synchro summon, ritual summon, and fusion summon.

Example 2 ~
- You control a face up elemental hero the shining
- You activate smashing ground to destroy your opponent’s face up monster
- Your opponent chains Raigeki Break
- The chain resolves backwards
- Raigeki Break Resolves and your elemental hero the shining is destroyed.
- You now chose whether you want to activate Shining’s effect or not, but you can not interrupt the current chain.
- Your smashing ground resolves and destroys your opponent’s monster

During the resolution of the above chain, your smashing ground resolves immediately after your opponent’s raigeki break, and the chain full resolves. The shinning met his condition to activate his effect, but he can’t interrupt the current chain and had no chance to activate; therefore he misses the timing.

Well, I believe that is about it. It was short but, I think I clearly explained the rules of missing the timing. If you have any question remaining, feel free to post them here. Comments and criticism are also welcome.

Not a single word about if trigger...

http://forum.duelingnetwork.com/t2754p50-ruling-faq-clearing-up-the-most-confusable-rulings

actually there is a mention of this there...

But since you put in the effort I'm not going to touch the topic...

Szadek wrote:Not a single word about if trigger...

I did mention the "if" trigger. The "if" trigger never misses the timing, and this article is about missing the timing so thats why I didn't say much about the "if" trigger. But I said this which should be enough -

Note: Some times a trigger effect will say "if this condition happens" "you can". In this case, the effect is optional but will never miss the timing. As long as the condition is met, you can activate the effect.

i think i read about this on the sticky

Alchemist effect doesn't activate when tributed but only when destroyed

You're right. I'll just edit out Alchemist and put Peten The Dark Clown for that example.