Card Effect Rulings

I've been playing quite a bit with people who read a card, decide it's amazing, put it in their deck, then realize after someone explains to them what the card actually does why the card is a common.
 I am making this article to help you understand how your card effects work so that you can understand how those complicated rulings work. I will use generic terminology and follow with specific examples.

Activate Effects (ACT) - Activate effects can only be used in the main phase. Unless stated otherwise, they can be used as many times in one turn as you can pay the cost for the effect.

Example - Sleygal Dagger's counterblast 1, gain 2000 power if you have 4 or more Gold Paladin rear guards. You can activate this effect as many times as you have unflipped damage, so long as you have 4 other Gold Paladin rear guards.

NOTE - Activate effects are instantaneous. This means that all effects resolve immediately.
Example - Dark Lord of the Abyss has a Limit Break effect. The effect is, counterblast 2, Soul Charge 2, Dark Lord of the Abyss gains 1000 power for every card in your soul until the end of this turn. All power increases occur instantaneously, even if you gain more soul later that turn (even using Dark Lord's effect a second time). This means that if you have 8 soul, activate Dark Lord's effect (costs always occur first) then you will gain 10000 for the turn and nothing will change it. Activating the effect again will give you 12000 more, but won't increase the 10000 you already received, which brings Dark Lord to 33000 for the turn.

NOTE - Activate effects may have continuous effects.
Knight of Fury, Agravain is one of the few examples of a card that has an activate ability that is continuous. Agravain, upon megablasting, gains 1000 power for each of your Gold Paladin rear guards. If this effect was not continuous, then Agravain would always have power equal to how how many Rear-guards he had when he activated the megablast. Since it is continuous, any alterations to the amount of Gold Paladins on the field have an instantaneous effect on Agravain's power.  Thus, if the Agravain player has 4 rear guards out, Agravain is 14000.  If you retire one of his rear guards, he drops to 13000.

When This Unit... Effects - These effects are ruled the same way as Activate effects. They occur the instant the action triggers the effect and each effect only occurs once per trigger.  If multiple triggers for the effect occur simultaneously, they all are resolved one at a time.

When a unit enters soul - Cards like Doreen the Thruster get 3000 power every time a unit enters your soul during the main phase.  This means that if two cards enter the soul at the same time, it counts as one card entering soul two times and you get the 3000 power twice.  Additionally, with this ruling, if you superior ride a new Vanguard on top of your current Vanguard, that counts as a unit entering soul and triggers the power up effect.

When this unit attacks/boosts - This effect occurs the moment you rest a unit for battle and BEFORE the drive check. I will brush on the examples that people typically get confused on.

If you have less cards in your hand - If you attack with Charging Chariot Knight as a vanguard and you have 4 cards to your opponent's 5, even if you drive check and he guards, Charging Chariot Knight still gains 3000 as his effect occurred before the drive check and guarding steps.

If you have 4 or more cards in your hand - This applies to Milk. Her effect is when she boosts, if you have 4 or more cards in hand, she gains 4000. This means that if you have 3 cards and do a drive check to put you at 4 cards in hand, Milk is still only 6000. Amaterasu does gain the 4000, but that is because her effect is continuous, and not when she attacks.

Limit Break - If your Limit Break effect occurs when you attack and you get a heal trigger, usually you retain limit break effects.  This is because most limit break effects are "When this unit attacks" or activated abilities, which when paid, last until the end of the turn. The only Limit Break unit that loses its effect mid-battle would be Great Daiyuusha (so far). Keep in mind that after battle effects like Spectral Duke Dragon's cannot be activated if you lose Limit Break during your drive check (and healing is non-optional).

When This Unit Hits - If you have an effect that says this, all you need to keep in mind is that the attack has to be successful and that your drive check has already occurred. I've seen people think that you can rest all of your units with Laurel's effect (which requires the Vanguard to hit) and stand some of those RG's with stands on the drive check.  Since you have to rest the units after the drive check, you can't swing with any units other than your Vanguard unless you get Stands on the second drive check.

Continuous effects - Self-explanatory. These are always in effect as long as the condition of the effect is met.

If any specific questions regarding rulings are brought up, I can answer them.

Why Overguarding is Key

This is the single most common play mistake I see experienced players do. Yesterday, I was playing against an OTT deck that had 15 cards in hand. I was at five damage with little-to-no means of surviving the next turn. Now, typically, people will not throw all effects of all triggers onto their vanguard, so guarding to the point where they need two triggers is a great way to conserve your own hand most of the time. But, if your opponent has absolutely no chance to win and you give them an opportunity by saying, "Two to pass", you yourself have just admitted to the chance of them winning. My opponent was at 4 damage, I do my first drive check and get a Draw Trigger, I give the power to my vanguard (since if I don't win now, I won't win), draw, second drive check. I get a critical and win. All my opponent had to do to secure victory was drop another draw trigger. Come on, guys. Don't let this be you at nationals. Don't throw this hard. Keep your guaranteed victories guaranteed and overguard when it is needed.

I am the Great Morikawa!

The tale of the Great Morikawa! Today I decided to do that one thing I always said I was going to do but never actually took the initiative to do: Build a Morikawa deck. There are a few rules for building and playing such a deck. The first rule: Your deck must consist of at least two clans. Second rule: You can only have a vanilla 6k starter, 8 vanilla grade 1's and 8 vanilla grade 2's. That means you will have exactly 17 grade 3's. Third rule: Any cards that aren't grade 3's that you draw you must put back into the deck with your mulligan.

With those rules established, I decided to go the route he used in the show. I combined Dragon Monk, Goku and Juggernaut Maximum. Granted, Goku needs Kagero grade 3's and I ran Seifried for the Spike Brothers section. I ended up with 8 Kagero and 9 Spike Brothers grade 3's. My triggers were split in half. 8 crit from Kagero, and 4 heal/4 crit from Spike Brothers.
The ultimate challenge: Victory!

The first match I played with this deck was my only victory. It began with me getting 3 grade 3's and two grade 2's. I placed the weak grade 2's back into my deck. The Great Morikawa only cares about power! I happen to receive a critical trigger and a grade 2 back from my mulligan. Turn one happens and I go first. I miss my ride phase. Next turn my opponent leads off by hitting me for one damage. Next turn happens and I hit my grade 1. The Great Morikawa swings and deals one damage. Next turn my opponent misses his grade 3 ride. That fool, it's the most important one! I take one more damage. It is my turn and Morikawa gets another Bahr! With my 8k boosting my MVP 10k, I deal one more damage! Morikawa is ahead of the game. Next turn my opponent hits his grade 3 and places another down. He also calls a grade one into his front row. He swings twice, but I get a critical trigger and only take two damage.

Here it is, I have 4 damage to my opponent's two damage. I make the call. FINAL TURN!
I ride General Seifried and call two Juggernaut Maximum. Bahr is a puny grade 1 that weakens my avatar, Juggernaut Maximum. I call a Cheer Girl, Maryland over him to reinforce my lineup. I soulblast and strike with my Juggs, dealing two damage and evening up the score. The moment of truth happened, I needed to deal two more damage to my opponent, so I strike with General Seifried! My opponent calls out, "No guard!" First check! I get Tahr! Yes it's a critical trig- Wait! I cannot use it! It is a Kagero trigger. Second Drive check... General Seifried. I activate Seifried's skill, calling Seifried and attack once more! My opponent (who really wanted me to win) says, "No guard!" He reveals no trigger, and the game is mine! The Great Morikawa is victorious!

Boosting and You

There seems to be a lot of confusion about boosting, boosting effects, and how they resolve.  I figured I'd take the opportunity to resolve all of this confusion for those that aren't certain about how this works.

In order to boost with a unit, you rest both the unit that is boosting and the attacker.  The order in which you rest them is attacker first, then booster.  At this point if any "When this unit boosts..." or "When this unit attacks..." effects are activated, you resolve them.  If both units each have one of these skills, you choose the order they resolve.

Example - Pellinore being boosted by Little Battler, Tron in the Vanguard circle.  Tron's skill gives the unit it is boosting +4000 power if you have more rear guards than your opponent.  Pellinore moves two rear guards back to the deck to give 5000 power to two units.  If you activate Tron's skill first, then Pellinore's, even if you now have less rear guards than your opponent, you keep the +4000 power from Tron's effect.  Source.  You can also choose to move Tron back to the deck and Pellinore would keep the +4000 power, but that would be stupid since you would lose Tron's 6000 base power.  Don't do that.

Now, boosting take place across the duration of the attack.  There are two situations which make this relevant.  The first is in the event that you're playing Nova Grapplers.  They have a booster called Dancing Wolf.  Dancing Wolf's skill is "When this unit stands, he gains +3000 power until the end of the turn."  That effect sounds simple enough, but one of the most complicated rulings was, "What happens if I drive check a Stand Trigger while Dancing Wolf is boosting my Vanguard?  Does my Vanguard get the bonus 3000 power?"  The answer is yes.  Source.  This means that boosting is a continuous effect and the power of the booster is constantly being applied to the Vanguard throughout the attack step.  This brings up the final point, when does the attack step end?  The answer is after all "When this unit's attack hits" or "When this unit boosts and the attack that this unit boosted hits" effects resolve.

Final example.  Spring Breeze Messenger and Player of the Holy Bow, Vivianne.  Spring Breeze's effect is, "When an attack hits that this unit boosted, counterblast one, move this unit to soul, search the top three cards of your deck for one Gold Paladin and call it to a RC at rest".  Vivianne's skill is "When this unit's attack hits, and it is boosted by a Gold Paladin, you may look at the top card of your deck.  If it is a Gold Paladin, you may call it to an open RC".  One of the more confusing rulings is, if I hit with an attack, how can I resolve these effects to get both superior calls?  The answer is that you must resolve Vivianne's effect first in order to get both calls.  This goes back to the boosting being continuous while you are resolving effects.  If you resolve Spring Breeze's effect first, it gets moved to the soul.  This means that Vivianne will no longer have a unit boosting it so it can't resolve its effect since it requires a boost.  Source

I hope that this helps everyone out.  I know that boosting can be confusing at first because the rule book makes it seem like boosting is applied before the drive check and then the boosting is already counted.  Unfortunately, Bushiroad made this process a little more convoluted than it should have been.

Galahad Rush (Conjurer Mithril)

Grade 0's Drangal
4x Alabaster Owl (Crit)
4x Bringer of Good Luck, Epona (Crit)
4x Margal (Draw)
4x Yggdrasil Maiden, Elaine (Heal)

Grade 1's
4x Knight of Tribulation, Galahad
4x Little Sage, Marron
4x Lake Maiden, Lien
4x Flash Shield, Isuelt

Grade 2's
4x Conjurer Mithril
4x Knight of Tribulations, Galahad
3x Knight of Determination, Lamorak
2x Blaster Blade

Grade 3's
4x Knight of Godly Speeds, Galahad

This deck focuses on a heavy field presence early game with a potential 11k Vanguard late game.  This deck can potentially thin you of non-triggers fairly quickly between Galahads searching for more Galahads and Conjurer Mithril calling a grade 1 or 2 off the top of the deck.  It has Margal to help build soul for Galahad.  This list is by no means set in stone.  Borgal would make an excellent addition to the deck to make Mithril swing for 16k.  Since almost 60% of your deck can be called by Conjurer Mithril, you are very likely to be able to get a large field presence and maintain some hand presence.  The consistency of successfully making it to grade 3 also gives it a 1-up on other rush decks.  It does have the weakness of not having as much raw power as the clan is capable of, but hopefully you can generate enough early pressure with the rush to compensate.

Royal Novas (How the Alfred Stole Christmas)

Grade 0's - Lionet Heat (One turn 21k Mr. Invincible)
4x Red Lightning (Damage unflip)
4x Shining Lady
4x Epona
4x Alabaster Owl

Grade 1's
4x Marron
4x Claydoll Mechanic (Damage unflip)
3x Twin-Blader
3x Lionmane Stallion (Boosts Alfred for 10k)

Grade 2's
4x Blaster Blade Spirit (Call with Alfred and CB1 a bunch of times to retire stuff)
4x Hungry Dumpty (Damage unflip)
3x Gallatin

Grade 3's
4x Alfred (CB 3 to call Blaster Blade Spirit/Lionmane to make him 20k as RG)
4x Mr. Invincible (Damage unflip, soul charge one for Lionmane Stallion every turn)

This deck is really lulzy and trollzy. If you can manage to get Mr. Invincible as VG and Alfred in the RG, then once you have four damage, you can call a Blaster Blade Spirit for three counterblasts, retire a unit with another counterblast, then the following turn you soul charge unflipping a damage, and then call a Claydoll or Dumpty (using BBS to intercept to open the spaces) and then wait one more turn and do it again, then call another BBS. Pretty much every other turn you can straight up grab a card from the deck. O_O Playtested it and it's consistent in hitting triggers (Same as Kageroyals) and all you need is one Alfred to secure your field set-up. I'd say it's about an 8/10 when you hit your setup, which for a mixed deck is pretty awesome.  When you miss it though, it drops to like a 3/10.  xD

Trollin' With Benedick

Grade 0's - Officer Cadet, Erikk

4x Mothership Intelligence (Crit)
4x Battleship Intelligence (Crit)
4x Supersonic Sailor (Crit)
4x Medical Officer of the Rainbow Elixir (Heal)

Grade 1's

4x Battle Siren, Nepherli
4x Tear Knight, Theo
4x Emerald Shield, Paschal
2x Flash Signal Light, Penguin Soldier

Grade 2's
4x Tear Knight, Lazarus
4x Coral Assault
3x Tactical Veteran Commander

Grade 3's
4x Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom
2x Vital Anchor, David
2x Water General of Wave-Like Spirals, Benedict

Set 11 Version:

Grade 0's - Champion Brave Shooter

4x Mothership Intelligence (Crit)
4x Battleship Intelligence (Crit)
4x Supersonic Sailor (Crit)
4x Medical Officer of the Rainbow Elixir (Heal)/Jet Ski Rider (Crit)

Grade 1's

4x Battle Siren, Nepherli
4x Tear Knight, Theo
4x Emerald Shield, Paschal
2x Flash Signal Light, Penguin Soldier

Grade 2's
4x Tear Knight, Lazarus
4x Twin-Strike Brave Shooter
3x Tactical Veteran Commander

Grade 3's
3x Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom
3x Blue Soaring Dragon, Transcore Dragon
2x Water General of Wave-Like Spirals, Benedict

This deck focuses on giving bonus power to Benedict with Nepherli.  If you place two Nepherlis on the field, that makes Benedict swing for 16k, stand himself, and swing for 11k.  Naturally, one of those (I recommend the second swing) will also be boosted.  You swing Vanguard first with this deck and apply the bonus power of all power (and if the attack was blocked, the bonus critical) to Benedict.  In the previous Nepherli example, this makes Benedict swing for 21k 2 crit and 22k 2 crit in the same turn when only hitting a single critical trigger.  Pretty legitimate pressure.  David is there to make 21k rows and to use counterblasts, since the deck is light on them.  Glory Maelstrom is a better late game card than Tri-Stringer since he can negate perfect guards, and Tri-stinger doesn't have much synergy since it needs to attack third to unflip.  Tactical Veteran Commander inflicts one damage to you to enable Glory's Ultimate Break and increase your odds of healing while shuffling triggers back into the deck.