Negating Summons: What does it all mean? (Part1)

Hi everyone, welcome the first of my many blogs on yu-gi-oh. I have been playing yu-gi-oh for some time now, and i realized that many people on dueling network do not know when they can negate a summon. This article aims to clear up any confusion that people have on when and what cards they can use to negate a summon.

To understand what summons can and cannot be negated,
we need an understanding on three things:

• When can I chain to an effect
• How is the monster being summoned
• What is my card trying to tell me

The first point is really important and you need to understand it if you want to be a professional yu-gi-oh player. Many people think they can chain to any effect that activates on the field. However, this is not always the case. Some cards like Banisher Of The Radiance and Mist Valley Falcon do not use the chain when their effects come into play. This means that at any point of time, you cannot chain to their effects. Cards like Herald Of Orange Light cannot be used to chain to their effects. Reason? These cards do not use the chain. That's just it...

There are two types of summons, a normal summon and a special summon. All normal summons are inherent summons. A special summon however, can further be sub-divided into two groups:

1. A built-in summon: These summons do not start a chain. These include synchro, fusion and xyz summons. Cards that do not have a semi-colon or colon in their summoning text are cards that do not start a chain when they are special summoned.
2. Effects that summon: These monsters start a chain when they are being summoned. Cards with a semi-colon or colon in their summoning text are cards that start a chain when they are special summoned. An example of this is Gorz The Emissary Of Darkness.

 "When you take damage from a card your opponent controls: You can special summon this card from your hand" 

Note the colon(:) in the summoning text. Gorz start a chain when his effect activates and his effect can be chained to. This is why the first point of knowing when you can chain to an effect is so important as we shall see later on.

Now to our last point. What is your card trying to tell you? Cards that negate summon like Solemn Judgement, Black Horn Of Heaven and Thunder King Rai-Oh can only negate a built-in summon. Yes! That means they cannot negate the summon of Gorz The Emissary Of Darkness since Gorz starts a chain when he is  being summoned. However, cards like Solemn Warning have two parts to its card text:

"When a monster would be Summoned, OR when a Spell Card, Trap Card or Effect Monster's effect is activated that includes an effect that Special Summons a monster(s): Pay 2000 Life Points; negate the Summon OR activation, and destroy that card."  

The first part(in blue) talks about inherent and built-in summons, while the second part(in purple) talks about effects that summon! So yes! Solemn warning can negate the activation of cards like Gorz The Emissiary Of Darkness and Battle Fader while cards like Solemn Judgement cant because Solemn Warning card text allows it to do so.

Now for a quick quiz: Can Herald Of Orange Light be used to negate the activation of Gorz The Emissary Of Darkness and destroy it? Hint:(Can Gorz activation be chained to?)


Now that we have a brief knowledge of all these yu-gi-oh tech talk, we can look at how Solemn Warning affect these cards: Water Hazard, Call Of The Mummy and Valhalla, Hall Of The Fallen in the next part of our negating summon series.