Priority Article
by Krishna

Thanks for checking out this article on Priority. If you're reading this, you more than likely have had troubles in the past with the rulings on priority. The reason I am writing this article is not just to inform you, the reader, on how the rules of Priority work in this great game, but also to help instill the rules in myself, since it has taken me so long to learn about them.

First I want to bring up a thing that might confuse you a little. If you have played any form of the Konami video game, wether if be from GBA, or Nintendo DS, forget EVERYTHING you have learned from it. Priority in the real world is a bit more complicated than in the video game. I learned this the hard way.

Let's ask a few questions so we know what we want to know.
First of all, just what is Priority? And when do you have it?

YGO Rule book Version 06
The turn player always has priority to activate a card first in each phase or step of their turn. This is called the turn player's "Priority" .

As long as the Turn player has Priority, the opponent cannot activate cards first, except for effects that activate automatically, like Trigger or Flip effects.

Thinking back to the video games, or in KCVDS, we know that the phases seem to move automatically. But did you know that realistically, a phase does NOT end until both players say so? For example, if it is my turn I enter my draw phase. I draw a card, and then with priority I can choose to activate any card at this time before my opponent can. For example, if I drew Mystical Space Typhoon, and my opponent has a card on the field that can only be activated during the standby phase, you can use MST to destroy it before you reach your standby phase, and therefore saving you from the card.

Likewise, if your opponent has a Face Down MST on the field, and you have a card that activates during the standby phase, then they can activate MST after you draw, and decide to pass priority.

One very important thing to remember that the video games can confuse you with: Passing Priority, and ending a phase are not the same thing. Often duelists will say, for the sake of speeding things up, "I end my turn", directly after they attack, without going into their Main Phase 2. So... do they go into their Main Phase 2? When it comes to the Battle Phase, and MP2, you don't have to enter them unless a card needs to, such as Berserk Gorilla. In the words of Maruno from the forum City of Gamers Online, "Saying you don't want to do anything else, and saying you want to end a Phase/step, are two different things."

To quote the rulebook,

"When the Turn player 'uses Priority to activate a card' or 'passes Priority', Priority is automatically passed to the opponent. A player must pass Priority when moving on to the next phase or step. If these rules were Obeyed strictly, you would always declare that you're giving up Priority before the end of every phase and step, and ask your opponent if they wish to play a card. However, for ease of play, announcing the end of your phases or steps implies giving up priority. Therefore, when announcing the end of a phase, your opponent can just say 'Before the end of your phase, I activate this card' and use a card. This means the opponent used the priority you (implicitly) gave up".

Likewise you need to remember that, unlike the video game, things are not Automatically done. Just because you enter your End Phase does not mean that your turn is over. During your end phase, just like in any other phase of your turn, card effects resolve, or can be activated. Many people see this when MST is activated during the End Phase by the Next Turn Player (or NTP for short) when the Turn Player (TP) sets a Spell or Trap Card, and "ends their turn." In situations like this the TP has given up Priority to the opponent by saying "I end my Turn" and the opponent gains the priority that was passed.

Ok, now here's another important thing to remember that has confused a lot of people in the past. You may ask yourself "Which cards have priority?" And by that you might mean, "Which cards can I activate before my opponent has a chance to respond?"

Remember, CARDS DO NOT HAVE PRIORITY!!! It is the players who retain priority at all times, and for the sake of who has it, it's always the Turn Player, except when they have passed it.

I'm sure many of you know that when you summon Exiled Force you can activate his effect right away before your opponent can do something to it. But did you know that you can also activate any other ignition/trigger effect you own at this time? It's true!

For example, TP has a face down Torrential Tribute and the opponent has a face down Trap Hole. TP Summons Exiled Force... and NTP assumes that TP is going to use his effect to destroy his monster. Well, NTP has to wait for TP to pass priority before he can activate his Trap Hole. By this time TP has already activated Torrential Tribute. So now NTP would still be able to activate Trap Hole, but that is pointless.

Here's another scenario. You already have Exiled Force on the field, and you summon Chiron the Mage. Both cards have ignition effect that you can activate with priority. But, just because you summoned Chiron does not mean you have to activate his effect, you could very well activate Exiled Force's effect instead by retaining priority.

It seems complicated... and it is! Whoever said YGO was a children's card game?

There are a few cards out there, however, that seem to have the ability to steal the opponent's priority from them. And they are basically any card that "negate" the summoning of a monster.

Solem Judgement for instance can negate the summon of a monster and destroy it, so if your opponent summons an Ignition Effect monster, like Chiron the Mage or Exiled Force, they can use SJ to rob the them of the chance to activate their effects.

The reason for this is because there is secretly another step in the process. Remember the text of those pesky Monarchs that says "When this card is Tribute Summoned Successfully" ? Well a monster is only considered to be summoned successfully if its summon was not negated by a card effect. Now, the funny thing is, a Turn Player can still retain Priority to activate their own Solemn Judgement in response to their own summon, but there aren't very many reasons out there for you to want to do that.

It gets confusing here because if you want to retain priorty with Chiron, you discard a card to activate his effect, but if your opponent is going to play SJ on him, they need to activate it before you discard, so they need to be watching you. But if you were to wait for your opponent to activate a SJ trap card, they might think you're passing priority on to them. So just be careful about this sort of thing.

Here's another thing that is important to remember. When you activate a card, you LOSE priority. That's right, so when you activate a card like Royal Decree to negate an opponent's trap that they have activated, you must wait for them to say that they choose not to respond before you can go ahead and activate another card of your own. At that time you have regained priority and can do anything that is legal to do, including activate any trap you have on the field before it can be negated by Royal Decree.

So far we've learned that:

• A turn player has Priority to activate a card or effect first.
• After a card's activation, and at the end of each phase or step, Priority passes to the opponent.
• A phase does not end until both players agree it does.