Missing the Timing - An in-depth explanation why Yu-Gi-Oh! relates to busses

Missing the Timing - An in-depth explanation why Yu-Gi-Oh! relates to busses


Warning: Following article may make Gustos and some more sorts of decks unattractive for new players :/

I'll open this article with a practical example.



Player A controls Gusto Falco and Dandylion; proceeds to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian, using Falco and Dandylion as Synchro Material monsters.
Neither player disagreed to the summon, the Synchro Summon is successful - Dandylion's effect activates; Gusto Falco misses the timing.

Now, first things first, Gusto Falco did NOT miss the timing because Dandylion's effect activated. Do never proclaim a missed timing due to another effect activating at the same time as one other.

To further investigate this, let's have a look at Gusto Falco's card text.

Code:

When
 this face-up card on the field is sent to the Graveyard, except by
battle: You can Special Summon 1 "Gusto" monster from your Deck in
face-down Defense Position.

I will refer to this sort of
effects as "When...: You can" effects throughout my article, from now
on. These effects may miss their timing when the LAST CHAIN LINK
resolving in a chain or the LAST ACTION that happened wasn't their
trigger requirements being met.
In above scenario I mentioned, Gusto Falco was being sent to the graveyard to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian. But, as you may already presume, Gusto Falco being sent to the graveyard wasn't the last thing that happened. It was T.G. Hyper Librarian being summoned.

Before
I will elaborate why Yu-Gi-Oh! relates to busses, I will explain the
other 3 types of trigger effects, just so that you get a overview over
when an effect may miss timing and when it may not miss the timing.
I
will also provide you with enough examples for further reference.
[Note: If the card text of a card is not provided in PSCT
(Problem-Solving Card Text; you should totally read my article on that),
I will note it in a small note. #Noteception]


1.) "When...: You can" - already explained above.
Examples: Geartown, Gusto Falco, Elemental HERO The Shining, Yubel, etc.


2.)
"When..:" - non-optional "When...:" effects; not followed by "You can".
These effects are mandatory and can therefore never miss their timing.
Examples: Darklord Asmodeus, Dandylion, etc.


3.)
"If...: You can" - optional "If...: You can" effects are also never
able to miss their timing. They wait for the current chain to resolve
and will not be able to miss their timing. These effects are also
optional or non-mandatory.
Examples: Scrap Beast (no PSCT), etc.

4.)
"If..:" - non-optional "If...:" effects. These effects are also
mandatory, like "When...:" effects. May never miss their timing due to
them being mandatory.
Examples: Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, Snoww, Unlight of Dark World, etc.

Now, to elaborate why YGO! relates to busses...

Imagine
this following situation: You're waiting for a certain bus to arrive.
It's a very special bus and will only depart once, so you have to give
your best to not miss the bus.

Now,
you've been waiting for quite some time for that bus to arrive, and
just as it arrives, a bully appears, that bully has been waiting for you
to try and enter that bus. Yes, he has been waiting.
Don't ask why.

Anyways,
now that your bus is finally here, that bully grabs you and throws you
to the ground. You're surprised, obviously, and are too shocked to
realize that you're being grabbed, so the bully proceeds to throw you
out of his way.
You fall down, you break your leg and can't get back up.

The bully enters the bus and drives away.

What does this have to do with missing the timing? Go back to our original scenario again, and think. You're Gusto Falco and T.G. Hyper Librarian the bully.
Sounds illogical? It is, but it helps people imagine missing the timing.

Yeah, this is why busses relate to YGO! :/

Let's
carry on... Now that you know how these trigger effects works, I will
explain how to make powerful "When...: You can" effects (like Elemental HERO The Shining, Yubel, etc.) miss timing.

Another virtual scenario is booted, you control a Darklord Asmodeus and a set Torrential Tribute, together with Mystical Space Typhoon. Your opponent controls Elemental HERO The Shining, Yubel and Gusto Falco and has a set Mirror Force. I like Mirror Force, and all other cards mentioned here are cards mentioned in the Point 1.
You Normal Summon any monster, let's just say Dandylion. You activate Mystical Space Typhoon in response to the summon, target your opponent's set Mirror Force and chain Torrential Tribute to your own Mystical Space Typhoon - yes, this is possible since it is still the Summon Response Window.
In the Summon Response Window, there may only be 1 chain, but cards that react to the summon of a card (like Torrential Tribute) mustn't directly respond to the summon since a card may also have a Trigger Effect that activates upon summon.

Here we are, let's resolve the chain: Torrential Tribute resolves, all monsters on the field are destroyed. Then, Mystical Space Typhoon resolves and destroys Mirror Force.
Now, since the last thing that happened wasn't your opponent's monsters being destroyed, but his Mirror Force being destroyed, all of his monsters miss timing.
But
since your monster's effects are all mandatory, all of your monster's
effect will trigger. In this case, you will summon 4 Tokens.

Another virtual example: Your opponent controls Elemental HERO The Shining/any other card with an optional "When...: You can" effect that would activate when it is destroyed/leaves the field.
You activate Soul Taker from your hand, target Elemental HERO The Shining and destroy it. Then, after you destroyed it, your opponent gains 1000 LP and Elemental HERO The Shining successfully missed its timing.

Why? Because the last action that happened was your opponent gaining 1000 LP, not Elemental HERO The Shining being destroyed.

Same goes for Field Spells, although a bit more complicated to comprehend.

When
a Field Spell is activated while another Field Spell exists on the
field, and the newly activated Field Spell is destroyed in any way
before it successfully resolved, the old Field Spell is not destroyed.
If you control Geartown and you activate a new Geartown, Geartown #1 (the older one) will also miss timing, since the last action was you activating Geartown, not it being destroyed.
However, if your opponent instead activated a new Field Spell card, your Geartown wouldn't miss timing because the last action was the new Field Spell resolving and thus your Geartown being destroyed. Nothing happens after that.

Thanks for reading :3