Drake's Teachings

[Ryze]

Welcome to your first lesson. This lesson will revolve around chains and chaining. These two mechanics are the most prevalent of the entire game, with always at least one in every duel.

CHAINS

Chains are used to keep track of the order in which a series of effects have activated, and when all effects that any of the players care to use are activated, the last one to be activated resolves first, then the one before that is resolved, and so on. Let me give you an example.


Player A activates mystical space typhoon and targets one facedown card Player B controls. Player B chains to the activation of mystical space typhoon using the face down that was targeted, which happens to be a call of the haunted and targets a LightPulsar Dragon in his graveyard . Player A chains yet another Mystical Space Typhoon to the activation of Call of the Haunted, and targets the other facedown card that Player B controls.


Ok, stop. Lets look at this situation now. Now, the thing to keep in mind here is that each effect that was activated puts another link on the chain, so the first mystical space typhoon would be chain link 1, the Call of the haunted is chain link 2, and the second Mystical Space Typhoon is chain Link 3. What happens next? Simple!


Player A's Mystical Space Typhoon, as the third and last link in the chain, is the one to resolve first.The other facedown gets destroyed, and then Call of the Haunted resolves next, summoning One LightPulsar Dragon from Player B's
graveyard. Finally, The first Mystical Space Typhoon resolves and destroys the Call of the Haunted, which in turn destroys Light Pulsar Dragon with it's effect (It's important to note that call of the haunted's effect to destroy
the monster it summoned DOES NOT start a chain, and therefore cannot be chained to.)

Now after that, Lightpulsar Dragon's effect would activate upon it's death, and yada yada, but the main point here is, you follow the chain backwards when there are no more activated effects to be added to it, resolving each and every effect until you hit chain link 1. After chain link 1 resolves, the chain has resolved in it's entirety, and the game state returns to being open(You'll learn more about things like the game state as you progress).


CHAINING:



The important thing to know when it come to chaining is pretty easy to remember. That thing is Spell Speed. Spell Speed is applied to all effects, regardless of being spell, trap, or monster ability. There are three different spell speeds. The first one is Spell Speed 1. Spell Speed 1 is applied to all normal, field, ritual, continuous and equip spells, almost all monster abilities, and ignition-like effects. It is the slowest spell speed out there, and does not have the ability to chain to other effect activations, even if they are also spell speed 1. Now for the second. Spell Speed 2 is faster then spell speed 1. It can chain to other spell speed 2 effect activations as well as Spell Speed 1 effect activations. Spell Speed 2 is applied to all quick-play spells, all normal and continuous trap cards upon their activation, and the quick-effect abilities of some monsters, such as Effect Veiler and Junk Gardna. The third, and fastest spell speed in the game is Spell Speed 3. Spell Speed 3 is applied only to counter trap cards. Spell Speed 3 effect activations cannot be chained to, unless it is by the effect of yet another spell speed 3 effect activation. Keep in mind that Mandatory effects take priority over optional effects and can cause those effects to miss timing. More on this in the next lesson.