Unknown or Little Known Card Rulings

As I stated in the previous post, Rulings are laws which govern effect. Some of these are well known. Mystical Space Typhoon for example. If MST is activated in chain to spell or trap card activation, the effect of the activated card is not negated and so MST effectively resolves meaninglessly. This is because once effects have been activated, they can only negated, so MST destroys the card but does not negate the effect. There are some card rulings that are little known and, in some cases, unknown to players. There are more advanced and complicated ones around but below are some of the basic ones. You can find the more complicated ones if you need to.

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

FLIP: Apply these effects in sequence.
● You can target 1 card on the field; destroy that target.

● Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.

At first glance, this effect doesn't seem too confusing and so you would think the ruling would be straightforward. What makes this card difficult to understand is the term "in sequence". The term implies that if you don't destroy a card, you don't get the second effect and mill three cards. That's not the case. The "You can target 1 card on the field; destroy that target" effect is optional. The reason it is optional is because you might not always destroy a card. Your opponent might have attacked your Ryko with Beelze, the only Monster they control and Beelze, as I've discussed before, can not be destroyed by card effects and so therefore is not destroyed by Ryko's effect. Another example is that you might flip summon Ryko (intending to tribute it for Celestia) and your opponent only has "The Seal of Orichalcos" active. Ryko's first effect activates, but the Seal can protect itself once per turn and so is not destroyed by Ryko's effect. The "Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard" effect is mandatory, meaning regardless of it you destroy a card or not, you still send three cards to the graveyard, so in both examples above, you would send the top three cards of your Deck to the Graveyard. If a player says you do not get both effects when you flip summon Ryko, or Ryko is flipped by an attack or card effect, they are wrong.

That was card ruling and there are thousands of them out there. Far more interesting rulings relate to situations in the game, such as the two below.

Jinzo is resurrected by Call of the Haunted

Jinzo effect- Trap Cards, and their effects on the field, cannot be activated. Negate all Trap Card effects on the field.

Call of the Haunted effect- Activate this card by targeting 1 monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in Attack Position. When this card leaves the field, destroy that target. When that target is destroyed, destroy this card.

For those who don't know, Call of the Haunted is a trap card and it is because of this that the Ruling itself slightly break the rules of the game. The ruling says "You can use Call of the Haunted to Special Summon Jinzo, from your Graveyard. After Jinzo is Special Summoned, the effect of Call of the Haunted is negated and Call of the Haunted remains on the field meaninglessly". In this way, Call of the Haunted behaves like a Monster Reborn spell card and, even if Call of the Haunted is later destroyed, Jinzo stays on the field because Call of the Haunted had its effects negated. Strangely though, the negation of the effects of Call of the Haunted don't cause Jinzo to go back to the graveyard. I'll admit, I'm not sure why it doesn't, maybe you already know why. In that case, please let me know.

Mirror Force vs. Monsters Equipped with Union Monsters (or Relinquished having a Monster equipped)

Mirror Force is a basic and it still sees some play. It's not as popular with things such Sakuretsu Armor, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, Dimensional Prison, etc, existing, but it is still used and is, in my opinion, better. Sakuretsu destroys the Monster that attacked, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow negates only one attack (though there is a way to break it and use it more than once per Battle Phase). Prison banishes the attacking Monster, but Mirror Force destroys all attack position Monsters and with today's game, most monsters will be in attack mode so you can basically clear their field go straight for their life points on your turn. Union Monsters and Relinquished don't follow that rule. Most Union Monsters say something like "if the Monster equipped with this card would be destroyed, destroy this card instead", which protects the monster from Mirror Force and the attack goes through. The same thing happens with Relinquished except when the attack goes through, Relinquished will have 0 attack points because it will no longer have a monster equipped to it.

There a lot of other rulings out there, I might do a part 2 later, but I would suggest using Jinzo and Call of the Haunted to your advantage, just make sure you use any trap cards you want/need to before you resurrect Jinzo.