Priority (Old Article/Guide)

Many people think that Priority is of the simplest part of Yu-Gi-Oh. At first learning what "prio" is, you just have the thought of:

"Ok, I'll summon Gale and I think Gale has priority so I'll call it."

Yes, this is priority since Gale's effect is an Ignition effect. But this isn't what priority is about. Priority is about the turn player being able to activate an effect before the opponent, as long as the turn player retains priority. Which is securing the turn player that his cards effect will be Chain Link 1. What does this mean? Let me tell you with some brief, in game examples.

Situation 1: Draw Phase

You have 3 cards in your hand and it is your turn. During your draw phase, you draw a card and it happens to by Mystical Space Typhoon. If you suspect your opponent's face-down trap card is a Trap Dustshoot, you can "retain priority" in the Draw Phase and activate Mystical Space Typhoon before your opponent can activate Trap Dustshoot.

That was an example of priority outside of the Main Phases. Now let me give you an example of Priority during the damage step.

Situation 2: Damage Step

Lets say your monster is Jain, Lightsworn Paladin, and your opponents monster is Cyber Dragon. It is your turn in your battle phase. You declare an attack with Jain, and ask if your opponent has a response to the attack, which would be the time that your opponent would activate a card like Dimensional Prison or Mirror Force, etc. If your opponent says "No." then you can retain your priority as the turn player and drop Honest from your hand. Now your opponent can also drop Honest, but guess who wins the battle? Jain! Why so? Well it gets deeper with Chain Links so let me explain.

Whenever you call priority it is ensured that your cards effect will have its spot on Chain Link 1. And as we already know Chain Links resolve backwards, so:

Chain Link 1 - Your Honest
Chain Link 2 - Your opponents Honest

-Chain Resolves Backwards-

Chain Link 2 Resolves - Your opponents Cyber Dragon's attack is 4200. Since he gains the attack points of Jain (+300 from Jain's effect)
Chain Link 1 Resolves - Your Jain's original attack is 2100 in this situation, but you add the new attack of Cyber Dragon, making your Jain gain 4200 attack points! With the new total of 6300.

Again, this is also outdated. Wrote this 1 year ago and I just feel like posting it here now for the benefit of the members of DA. Enjoy!

About the Honest thing, that's only if he actually chains it to your Honest. If you don't activate it during Damage Calculation, he can just wait for yours to resolve, and then drop his afterwards.

Still a helpful article bro. KIU.

^ Take a note of that Guest. Thanks for expanding that topic bro :D

KingMP94 wrote:

^ Take a note of that Guest. Thanks for expanding that topic bro :D

why do i need to take a note of that O___O i dont ever remember saying or typing anything about honest before....XD i srsly dont remember saying/typing anything about honest

KingMP94 wrote:

^ Take a note of that SoulEater. Thanks for expanding that topic bro :D

i am sorry but were you talking about me?
i do not remember having trouble with prio effects :?:

*Cough*Username-trick*cough*

XD is that what it is XD i didnt know thats as ive never have that happened to me before XD

Ahh I remember back in the day when you tried to explain this to me xD
I didn't get a single word that you said.
Nice article bra.

Evil_Bakura wrote:

About the Honest thing, that's only if he actually chains it to your Honest. If you don't activate it during Damage Calculation, he can just wait for yours to resolve, and then drop his afterwards.

Still a helpful article bro. KIU.

If you activate your honest during damage calculation (substep 4) which is where you should always activate your honest, only one chain occurs, so your opponent would not be able to activate their honest after yours has resolved.

EDIT: nevermind about my post I didn't read yours entirely, sorry.

Thanks for reading the article and I'm glad y'all are participating in discussion

Maybe you could go more in-depth on what priority actually is and different cases of priority.

Some examples:

The difference betwee retaining priority with cards ike brionac then with cards like Dark Armed Dragon.

How priority is only given for ignition effects and not for others such as trigger effects.

How a player retains priority and not the monster which the player reserves the right to retain priority in every phase until they pass it

This article has been reposted from another academy. I wrote this over a year ago. I simply don't have time to write articles. This should just give anyone the fundamental understanding of priority. If you want to continue on that subject, private message me examples, and explanations of such topic, and I will edit this article post including your section in it. You will be rewarded duel points if you are up for it

ok heres a question about prio that i have never been 100% sure about

say one person has veiler and the othe rsummons the monster well can the player ho summon the mosnter call prio before other discards veiler to discard?

i always fidured you couldnt with that but im just asking as im ot 100% sure on that @_@

mimgrim wrote:

ok heres a question about prio that i have never been 100% sure about

say one person has veiler and the othe rsummons the monster well can the player ho summon the mosnter call prio before other discards veiler to discard?

i always fidured you couldnt with that but im just asking as im ot 100% sure on that @_@

Technically yes your opponent can call priority but the thing you have to remember is that when you call priority you arn't giving yourself the ability to resolve your effect first you are giving yourself the right to place your effects first on the chain.

So whetever monster your opponent will call priority with will be placed as chain link 1 then effect veiler will be placed as chain link 2, so the chain will then resolve backward so veiler will negate the monsters effect so the monster will resolve without an effect

Exiled108 wrote:

mimgrim wrote:

ok heres a question about prio that i have never been 100% sure about

say one person has veiler and the othe rsummons the monster well can the player ho summon the mosnter call prio before other discards veiler to discard?

i always fidured you couldnt with that but im just asking as im ot 100% sure on that @_@

Technically yes your opponent can call priority but the thing you have to remember is that when you call priority you arn't giving yourself the ability to resolve your effect first you are giving yourself the right to place your effects first on the chain.

So whetever monster your opponent will call priority with will be placed as chain link 1 then effect veiler will be placed as chain link 2, so the chain will then resolve backward so veiler will negate the monsters effect so the monster will resolve without an effect

thanks thats what i though but like i said i was never 100% sure XD again thanks

mimgrim wrote:

Exiled108 wrote:

mimgrim wrote:

ok heres a question about prio that i have never been 100% sure about

say one person has veiler and the othe rsummons the monster well can the player ho summon the mosnter call prio before other discards veiler to discard?

i always fidured you couldnt with that but im just asking as im ot 100% sure on that @_@

Technically yes your opponent can call priority but the thing you have to remember is that when you call priority you arn't giving yourself the ability to resolve your effect first you are giving yourself the right to place your effects first on the chain.

So whetever monster your opponent will call priority with will be placed as chain link 1 then effect veiler will be placed as chain link 2, so the chain will then resolve backward so veiler will negate the monsters effect so the monster will resolve without an effect

thanks thats what i though but like i said i was never 100% sure XD again thanks

No problem glad I could help

Exiled108 wrote:

mimgrim wrote:

ok heres a question about prio that i have never been 100% sure about

say one person has veiler and the othe rsummons the monster well can the player ho summon the mosnter call prio before other discards veiler to discard?

i always fidured you couldnt with that but im just asking as im ot 100% sure on that @_@

Technically yes your opponent can call priority but the thing you have to remember is that when you call priority you arn't giving yourself the ability to resolve your effect first you are giving yourself the right to place your effects first on the chain.

So whetever monster your opponent will call priority with will be placed as chain link 1 then effect veiler will be placed as chain link 2, so the chain will then resolve backward so veiler will negate the monsters effect so the monster will resolve without an effect

Not necessarily. If it's Lonefire, Rescue Rabbit or monsters like it, the monster will already be removed from the field when the opposing player has a chance to activate his Veiler.