Advanced Gameplay FAQ: Activate, Chain, Resolve!

To activate a Spell/Trap Card is to play it on the field face-up, either from your hand or flipping it face-up after it was Set, and usually you declare that you want to apply its effect if it has any. Trap Cards and Quick-Play Spell Cards cannot be activated during the same turn they were Set.
To activate an effect is to declare that you want to apply it. This goes for Flip, Trigger, Ignition and Quick Effect of Effect Monsters and also for Trigger-like, Ignition-like or Quick-like Effect of Spell/Trap Cards. Effects can be activated not just when the card is face-up on the field, but also in the hand, Graveyard, Banished Zone, Main and Extra Deck, depending on what the card says.

Note that "activating a card" is different from "activating the effect of a card." For example, some effects - like "Magic Jammer" and "Skilled Dark Magician" - only apply when a Spell Card is activated, but do not apply when the "effect" of a Spell Card is activated.

Any activated card or effect must have a Spell Speed. You cannot activate a card effect which has lower Spell Speed than the effect on the Chain Link before it. Effects which do not have Spell Speeds are never activated; and never start any Chain Link.

You cannot activate a card effect that its condition didn't meet, knowing that it cannot resolve properly. For example, you cannot activate "Lightning Vortex" knowing that your opponent controls no face-up monsters to destroy.

You cannot activate a card effect in the middle of the resolution of another activated card effect, or during an action that did not finish yet. Only cards like "Bait Doll" can make that permissible to its targets.

Chains are a way to order the resolution of multiple card effects.

Chains are used when the effects of more than one card are activated at once, or when an effect is activated in response to the activation of another effect. Each response is placed in a new "Chain Link", and the Chain then resolves in the opposite order to which it was activated in.

Chain Rules
Only cards/effects that can be activated can form a Chain.

The first activation is Chain Link 1. The next is Chain Link 2, and so on. Every time a new Chain Link is made, they are stacked up in the order that the cards/effects are activated.

New Chain Links can only be created in response to the immediately previous Chain Link.
Effects can only be placed as a Chain Link 2 or higher if it has an equal or greater Spell Speed than the one on the Chain Link before it.

Spell Speed 1 effects cannot be placed as a Chain Link 2 or higher, except for Flip, Trigger and Trigger-like effects if they activated simultaneously; in this case, they must be placed on the Chain first before using Fast Effects (see SEGOC).

After placing all Spell Speed 1 effects on the Chain, or after a Fast Effect activation, the last player who activated his card/effect must give his opponent the chance to respond with another card/effect of their own.

Both players continue to add Chain Links to the Chain until they both wish to add nothing else.

Card effects cannot be resolved until both players decline to start or add to a Chain.
Once the Chain is completed, the outcome is resolved starting with the most recent card/effect to be activated at the top of the Chain and proceeding down to Chain Link 1.

Here is one such example:
Player 1 plays "Raigeki" (Chain Link 1)
Player 2 responds with "Magic Jammer", activating it in response to "Raigeki" (Chain Link 2)
Player 1 responds with "Seven Tools of the Bandit" (Chain Link 3)
The Chain is resolved in reverse activation order, starting with the last card that was activated.
(Chain Link 3) Player 1's "Seven Tools of the Bandit" negates Player 2's "Magic Jammer".
(Chain Link 2) The effect of "Magic Jammer" does not apply.
(Chain Link 1) The effect of "Raigeki" takes place, destroying all monsters on Player 2's side of the field.
The chain ends with all three cards activated going to the Graveyard.

Starting a chain
Usually, the turn player has the right to start any Chain at any time during his or her turn. However, this right will pass to the opponent if:
-The turn player doesn't wish to take any actions while the game state is close.
-The turn player wants to move to the next Step/Phase.
-The opponent has a Flip, Trigger or Trigger-like Effect (this effect activation must placed on the Chain first before placing any other card effects; see SEGOC).

Any actions that do not possess a Spell Speed cannot be chained to. Therefore, those actions can only be responded to.

Example: Player 1 Summons a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", then in response Player 1 activates "Rush Recklessly", targeting "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". The Summon is still the last action with no Spell Speed to have resolved on the field, and Player 2 can still respond with "Trap Hole" by chaining it to "Rush Recklessly".

To resolve an effect is to apply it. After resolving, and after the whole Chain (if created) has resolved, activated cards will be sent to the Graveyard via game mechanics; unless it is a Continuous, Field, or Equip Card; or it has an effect which keeps it on the field such as "Swords of Revealing Light" or move it to other place like "Bait Doll".

The effects of cards always activate and resolve in the same place. The location of the card does not have anything to do with where the effect resolves.

i.g. If "Effect Veiler" is negating a card such as "Exiled Force", and then "Exiled Force" activates its effect while Tributing itself as the cost, the effect which is always on the field will be negated when it resolves.

If "Destiny HERO - Malicious" is banished as a cost to activate its effect, the effect which is always in the Graveyard will be negated with "Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror" when it resolves.