English is Essential

There is a reason why the government forces students to take English until university (in North America). This is because the language must be completely understood so you don't sound stupid. English is essential in regards to writing an essay, reading a book, or playing Yu-Gi-Oh in North America.

Over my 18 month span of playing this game competitively there have been instances where people have bothered me simply because they cannot understand what the text of a card implies. If your opponent activates Bottomless Trap Hole on your Stardust Dragon during the end phase and you tribute it to negate the hole, the dragon immediately returns before the turn officially ends. This is one of the oldest examples that I encountered and it occured multiple times. I shook my head everytime that happened. There were also the people who thought Black Rose Dragon can destroy everything except itself when successfully summoned. Again I shook my head.

Either people don't read their cards or people don't understand the English language. Illiterate people are a serious inconvenience to this game because they waste pointless time during a match trying to understand a card they thought they understood. Then they call a judge which causes that person to humiliate him/herself further when the judge rules against that particular illiterate person. This makes me shake my head at that person. This happened at my latest regionals and as I stated already, I shook my head at this poor fool and then defeated him.

What inspired me to create this post today was an argument about Effect Veiler. A friend of mine who is a judge believes that Veiler negates a monster's effect but at the end phase if that monster's effect can activate during the end phase (Judgment Dragon and Kinka-byo are examples) it will activate. However other judges aad duelsts are believing that Effect Veiler negates a monster's effect until the end of the turn and no end phase effects will activate if the monster was targeted by Veiler that turn.

This is the text of Effect Veiler from it's most recent release in the Yusei Duelist Pack: "During your opponent's Main Phase, you can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard to select 1 face-up Effect Monster your opponent controls. Negate the effect(s) of that monster until the End Phase." The most important word in the text is "until". "Until" the end phase that monster's effect(s) are negated. This includes everything up to the end of Main Phase 2. Once the End Phase begins, Veiler wears off according to the English language.

I'm going to compare the wording of this card to the wording of Trap Stun: "Negate the effects of all other Trap Cards on the field during this turn". The wording for this card implies that traps cannot be activated until the next player's Draw Phase begins. If Effect Veiler was meant to be this way the text would be worded something like this: "Negate the effect(s) of that monster 'during this turn' or 'until the end of the turn'." Veiler was not originally worded to negate the End Phase effects of monsters.

I will now compare Effect Veiler's text to an extremely possible real-life scenario. At my Locals there is a player I hate with a passion more than any other player in Belleville: His name is Bobby. Let's say, for example, I am going to continuously punch Bobby until all his teeth fall out. Once again, the key word is "until". Once I have successfully accomplished the task of punching his teeth out I will stop because I'm only going to punch him "until" all his teeth fall out (although Belleville people would agree with me if I said I should punch him more than that...).

So for everyone out there who believes Effect Veiler negates monster effects until the end of the turn and not the End Phase, I would advise a thorough re-reading of the card. If people believe Effect Veiler should negate monster effects during the End Phase then hope for an errata of Effect Veiler.

Speaking of Effect Veiler misunderstandings, I have had people ask me if you can target an opponent's Veiler with your Veiler... The misfortunate thing is that I've had to answer this question multiple times... First of all, you can only activate a Veiler during your opponent's Main Phase and secondly Veiler has to target a face-up monster on the field.

I will admit I have been wrong about a card text once or twice if the card is not clear or if I've seen other intelligent players do the same incorrect action. No one is perfect but the lesson of today's post is this: If you don't understand the English Language then don't play Yu-Gi-Oh!!

Mario