At last week’s local tournament, a situation came up in the Top 4 where I gave a ruling that made one of the players not very happy. He actually ended up losing because of it. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good sport about it, and we all laughed about it later, but it was an odd ruling- although one I found quite funny. It was Madolche Queen Tiaramisu vs. Battleguard Howling.

The Madolche player activated Tiaramisu’s effect, returning two “Madolche” cards from his Graveyard to his deck, letting him also return two of his opponent’s cards to the deck, one of which was a Warrior-Type monster. His opponent tried to activate Battleguard Howling. I saw this happen and stepped in. Battleguard Howling activates when a Warrior-Type monster you control is targeted by an opponent’s monster effect or attack by targeting 1 face-up opposing monster. It inflicts damage to your opponent equal to the original ATK of that target, and returns that same target to the hand if the damage was successful. However, Madolche Queen Tiaramisu’s effect only targets two “Madolche” cards in the Graveyard; it does NOT target the opponent’s cards that are returned to the deck.

I’ve mentioned targeting on this blog on several occasions, but I’ve never really discussed what it is or how it works. Today, I dive into that.

What IS targeting? As a noun (a person, place or thing), it is “a person, object or place selected as the aim of an attack.” As a verb (an action), it means to “select as an object of attention or attack.” Both definitions work in the appropriate context in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

When dealing with attacks, you first declare your attack with a monster, then you select the monster it will battle. This is called “targeting for an attack”. An “attack target” is the monster chosen to be attacked. Pretty simple and straightforward.

Targeting with card effects is trickier to understand. Many older cards that target still have not been reprinted. Even with newer cards, targeting is often a concept that escapes many good duelists. Older cards will use the term “select” if they have not been reprinted with Problem-Solving Card Text. But any card printed or reprinted after the release of Xyz Monsters will use the word “target”.

So how does targeting work with card effects? It’s actually an activation condition, similar to a Cost. When you first activate the card or effect, you play the card face-up on the field, or announce that you are activating its effect if it’s already face-up (though some effects activate in other locations). Then you fulfill its conditions. Targeting and costs are always listed toward the beginning of the effect, and end in a semicolon (this thing ; ). Once the card’s Costs have been payed (if any) and its targets declared (if any), your opponent (and then you if they pass) is allowed to Chain to that effect with their own cards. Players repeat these steps for any card or effect that is activated.

Declare activation of the card or effect Follow activation conditions (paying Costs and declaring targets), if any Opponent is given the opportunity to Chain to the effect (though they may pass to you)

Once you and your opponent have BOTH passed on adding to the Chain, you resolve that Chain. This means that you carry out the actual effects of each card on the Chain, starting with the LAST card activated. So if three cards were all placed on the same Chain, you start with Chain Link 3 and work your way down to the first card played (Chain Link 1). If a card targeted something, resolution of the effect is when that target is affected.

Madolche Queen Tiaramisu is a bit of an odd duck. She possesses an effect that both targets and does NOT target. Let me explain: To activate her effect, you must detach 1 Xyz Material from her (that’s the Cost), then target 1 or 2 cards in your Graveyard that have “Madolche” in their names. When Tiaramisu’s effect resolves, any of those targets that are still in the Graveyard are shuffled into your deck (if you targeted two cards but one is banished by D.D. Crow, the remaining target still returns to your deck), then it shuffles up to the same number of cards (once again, a minimum of 1; this means if your opponent has an empty field, you cannot activate Tiaramisu’s effect, since returning opponent’s cards to the deck is mandatory (does not contain the words “you can”)).

The cards you choose to return from your opponent’s field to the deck, however, are NOT being targeted. The reason why is simple: Tiaramisu’s effect doesn’t tell you to choose those cards when it tells you to choose the “Madolche” cards in your Graveyard. What this means is that you choose those opposing cards when Tiaramisu’s effect resolves.

Since that Warrior-Type monster was chosen during the resolution of an effect and not at that effect’s activation, it was not “targeted”. And because it wasn’t targeted, Battleguard Howling could not have been activated. A ruling I found quite funny, mostly because it reminded me of Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

Let me divert into a short history lesson. Before the advent of PSCT, knowing whether or not a card targeted was a bit difficult to figure out. When Trishula was released in January, 2011, it caused a LOT of confusion because it appeared to target. But it didn’t target at all, and the reason why was hilarious to me. The card to be banished from the hand is chosen at random, but cards cannot be “targeted at random”, so that card has to be chosen when Trishula’s effect resolves, not when it activates. What made it funny was that the other two cards had to be chosen at the same time as the card from the hand, so Trishula didn’t target THEM either. Even if you didn’t want to banish a card from the hand, it didn’t matter. No matter how many cards you wanted to banish, you had to choose during the effect’s resolution. Meaning your opponent had to second guess you if you had more than just three cards to banish, something I found very funny indeed.

Targeting has always been a rather tricky beast, but PSCT finally tamed it. You can read a more detailed explanation of targeting here.

As always, I hope this article was helpful and enlightening. Keep dueling, folks. Until next time!