Many do not know how to determine the type of effect a monster uses. The following chapter explains the characteristics of the different monster effects and how you can determine the Spell Speed of a Monster Effect.

Ignition Effects are Spell Speed 1.
You can only activate Ignition Effects during your Main Phase. Oftentimes, the activation of an Ignition Effect requires to pay costs.
As long as there is no restriction on the number of times an Ignition Effect can be used, an Ignition Effect can be activated as often as you want to. You can only activate Ignition effects of face-up monsters that you currently control on your side of the field.
Inherent Summons have oftentimes costs to activate ( e.g.: "Pay X Life Points", "Remove a Counter to..", "tribute a monster to..", "discard a card from your hand to...", "roll a 6-sided dice to..", "Once per turn...")

Examples:

Player A wants to activate the effect of "Snipe Hunter".

• The effect is activated by paying the costs and declaring a target.
• The effect may be activated again by discarding another card.

Player A activates the effect of "Blowback Dragon".

• During this turn, "Blowback Dragon" is sent to the graveyard.
• He is special summoned with "Monster Reborn" afterwards.
• Although "Blowback Dragon" activated his effect this turn already, he does not count as 'the same card' that previously activated the effect because he was resetted. For this reason, the effect can be activated once again. (More about resetting in the chapter about the 'Card Rests'.)

Some examples for monsters with Ignition Effects:

• "Destiny Hero - Plasma" (the equip effect)
• "Abyss Soldier"
• "Dark Armed Dragon"
• "Phantom of Chaos"

Continuous Effect do not posses any Spell Speed. They are immediately active when the Monster successfully enters the field.

If a monster with a Continuous Effect is Special Summoned through the effect of another card, the effect is active immediately after the resolve of the summoning card/effect (Important!: That means a Continuous Effect can even get active within a resolving chain!)
Continuous Effects are counted in as long as the monster is face-up on the field. Set monsters have NO effect (more about this in the chapter about set monsters).
You can recognize Continuous Effects oftentimes trough this text: "As long as this card is on the field..."

Examples:

Player A summons "Jinzo".

• As soon as "Jinzo" is face-up on the field, his Continuous Effect gets active and negates all effects of Trap Cards and prevents new Trap Cards to activate.

Player A has a face-down "Jinzo", player B activates "Acid Trap Hole" and targets the face-down "Jinzo".

• "Jinzo" is flipped by "Acid Trap Hole".
• The Continuous Effect of "Jinzo" gets active AFTER the complete resolve of "Acid Trap Hole".
• Although "Jinzo" is face-up on the field during the resolve of "Acid Trap Hole", the Trap Card is not negated.
• The effect of "Acid Trap Hole" resolves normally and destroys "Jinzo".

Furter Example:

Player A activates "Waboku". Player B chains "Escape from the Dark Dimension" and targets his banished "Jinzo".

• The chain is resolved backwards. Therefore, "Escape from the Dark Dimension" resolves first.
• As soon as the effect of a card that Special Summons a monster with Continuous Effect resolved completely, the Continuous Effect gets active.
• "Jinzo's" effect is active BEFORE "Waboku" resolves.
• "Jinzo" negates the effect of "Waboku".

Continuous Effects that become active during the resolve of a chain have the characteristic to be active right after a chain link. The only exception are effects that modify the ATK/DEF of a monster. Effects that modify ATK/DEF are active immediately, even during a resolving chain link.

Example:

Player A plays "Acid Trap Hole" on the set monster of player B. The monster is flipped, it is "Enraged Muka Muka".

• The Continuous Effect of "Enraged Muka Muka" becomes active directly during the resolve of the effect.
• Because Player B has 4 cards in his hand, the DEF of the monster is 2200 DEF.
• The effect of "Acid Trap Hole" continues to resolve. Because the DEF is now over 2000, "Enraged Muka Muka" gets destroyed.

Some Continuous Effects seem to be Trigger Effects on the first glance. It is important to know that such effects do NOT use the chain. They react to a specific event and are immediately active.

Example:

The opponent's "Spirit Reaper" is changed to face-up Attack Position by player B's "Enemy Controller".

• After the effect of "Enemy Controller" resolved, "Spirit Reaper" destroys itself immediately by its Continuous Effect.

Flip Effects have Spell Speed 1.
Flip Effects ALWAYS activate when the monster is flipped face-up, regardless if this happens by an Effect or a Flip Summon and regardless if the effect is optional or mandatory. A Flip Effect HAS TO be followed unless the card text of the Monster specifically says otherwise (e.g. "FLIP: You can ..."

If a monster with a Flip Effect is flipped face-up by an attack, the Flip Effect activates and resolves during the Damage Step.

Examples:

Player A flipps his "Man-Eater Bug". It's the only monster on the field.

• Because the text does not say you CAN activate the effect, you MUST activate and resolve the effect. "Man-Eater Bug" has to target itself for the effect.
• "Man-Eater Bug" destroys itself by its own effect.

Player A has a set "Crystal Seer". Player B attacks it and has a face-down "Skill Drain".

• "Crystal Seer" is flipped face-up by the attack during the Damage Step.
• The Flip Effect of "Crystal Seer" is resolved during the Damage Step.
• Because "Skill Drain" CANNOT be activated in the Damage Step, it CANNOT be chained to the Flip Effect of "Crystal Seer".

Quick Effects have Spell Speed 2. They were formerly called "Multi-Trigger Effects".
For this reason, you can chain them to other effects with Spell Speed 1 or 2, even during your opponent's turn! Quick Effects can also be mandatory. If a card text says that the effect can be activated during your opponent's Battle Phase, it means oftentimes that the Monster has a Quick Effect.

A Quick Effect can never miss the timing, therefore the first action is at most times the activation of a certain card. The Quick Effect may then be chained to this effect (on this way, it is not possible to miss the timing!).
It is also possible that Quick Effects go simultaneous on chain. (See chapter "Quick Effects in SEGOC").
There are 2 ways to determine if a monster has a Quick Effect:

• 1. Possibility: The effect can/must be chained to the activation of a card or an effect. Examples are "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8" or "Light and Darkness Dragon".
• 2. Possibility: The effect text says that the effect can be used in the opponent's turn. Examples are "Strike Ninja", "Kuriboh" or "D.D. Crow".

Sometimes it may also be important to check the rulings to see which effect type a monster has.

All Trigger Effects have Spell Speed 1.
Trigger Effects can be divided into 2 categories, optional and mandatory Trigger Effects. Optional Trigger Effects allow you to decide if you want to activate the effect or not.
Mandatory Trigger Effects do not let you choose - they always activate when they meet their Trigger. Trigger Effects have their name for the reason, that they react (trigger) to something specific. In contrast to Ignition Effects, you cannot simply activate Trigger Effects during your Main Phase.

Some Examples to what different Trigger Effect might trigger:

• Being in a specific Phase. ("D.D. Survivor")
• A monster is sent from the field to the graveyard. ("Sangan")
• A monster is Tribute Summoned. ("Raiza the Storm Monarc")
• A monster is destroyed as a result of battle. ("Wroughtveiler")
• A card becomes discarded. ("Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World")
• A (certain) card is drawn. ("Destiny Hero - Dasher")
• A monster is attacked. (first effect of "Cyber Valley")
• A monster had battled. ("Legendary Jujitsu-Master")
• Doing Battle Damage. ("Spirit Reaper")
• Doing Damage to the Life Points. ("Gellenduo")
• A Counter Trap resolved. ("Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord")

As soon as an effect triggers (can react to something), the effect activates or can be activated and therefore goes onto the chain.

Some detailed examples to the "Must-Effects", meaning mandatory Trigger Effects:

A attacks B's "Lengendary Jujitsu-Master".

• The effect of "Lengendary Jujitsu-Master" triggers to the done battle.
• The Trigger Effect of "Lengendary Jujitsu-Master" activates automatically.
• A's monster is sent back to the top of his owner's deck. This effect cannot be prevented by the player, it is mandatory.

"X-Saber Airbellum" does Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points.

• The effect of "X-Saber Airbellum" triggers to the Battle Damage and therefore activates.
• The effect resolves and a hand card is discarded.

Optional Trigger Effect CAN be activated when a certain event (the Trigger) happens.
This event may generally even occur during a resolving chain. Therefore, optional Trigger Effects can miss the Activation Timing. Between the event and the decision of the player to use the effect, there may not be any other action. If during the resolve of a chain the event happens but you are still in the resolve of a chain, you CANNOT activate an Optional Trigger Effect. Therefore, the event that triggers the Trigger Effect has ALWAYS to be the LAST ACTION that happened when a chain resolved.

Examples:

Player A Tribute Summons "Zaborg the Thunder Monarch". Player B controls a face-down "Jinzo Returner".

• Player A targets the face-down "Jinzo Returner" with the effect of "Zaborg the Thunder Monarch".
• No player wants to chain, therefore "Jinzo Returner" is destroyed by "Zaborg the Thunder Monarch" and sent to the graveyard.
• The last action that happened when this chain resolved was that "Jinzo Returner" entered the graveyard.
• Therefore, Player B can now Special Summon a "Jinzo" from his graveyard with "Jinzo Returner".

You activate "Heavy Storm", and your opponent chains "Escape from the Dark Dimension", targeting a banished "Dark Magician of Chaos".

• As no player wants to chain, the chain resolves.
• First, Escape from the Dark Dimension" special summons "Dark Magician of Chaos".
• Now, the Trigger for "Dark Magician of Chaos" is met, but we are still in the resolve of a chain! The chain has to be further resolved. Therefore, the effect of "Dark Magician of Chaos" CANNOT be reminded nor activated at this time.
• "Heavy Storm" resolves and destroys all Spell and Trap Cards.
• Because the last thing to happen is not the summon of "Dark Magician of Chaos", but the destroying of the cards, "Dark Magician of Chaos" misses its Activation Timing.

We see in this example that the Timing of an Optional Trigger Effect can be missed. Only if the last thing to happen is the summon of "Dark Magician of Chaos" during the resolve of a chain, you can activate its effect.

You discard "Peten, the Dark Clown" from your hand to activate the effect of "Snipe Hunter".

• Because costs have to be paid in order to activate an effect, you FIRST discard "Peten, the Dark Clown" from your hand, before the effect starts a chain.
• Therefore, the last thing to happen during the resolve of this chain is not that "Peten, the Dark Clown" enters the graveyard. This is the reason why you cannot activate its effect.

This is the same with other monsters that have an optional Trigger Effect.

Examples for monsters with optional Trigger Effects are:

• "Dark Magician of Chaos"
• "Jinzo Returner"
• "Treeborn Frog"
• "Hydrogeddon"