To find the previous ruleset for Effect Resolution you can go to Effect Resolution/Old
Effect Resolution in the Digimon Card Game is most commonly done and based around Triggered Effects and the way they resolve. However, other effects also have their own rules for resolution. The Effect Resolution pages mostly cover Triggered Effects, this page also covers the remaining effects and the rules for activating/performing them.
Page Terminology[]
Trigger[]
When an effect meets its trigger condition, it is "triggered" by marking it as "Pending Activation". Effects are only "triggered" after the current effect or action being performed has finished.
Effects can only trigger once in response to its trigger condition happening multiple times at the same time. (e.g. an effect that deletes 2 Digimon at the same time) However, it's possible for an effect to trigger multiple times after an effect or action has completed if the trigger conditions were met at different times (e.g. an effect deleting a Digimon as a cost and deleting an opponent's Digimon afterwards).
Trigger Conditions are commonly differentiated by "when", "on", or "at".
Activate[]
When an effect is declared by a player, it can be activated to remove its status as "pending activation". Activating an effect involves applying the effect of an effect. Players cannot activate effects at the same time, and the turn player has priority when activating effects that triggered at the same time. Activation Conditions are commonly differentiated by "if".
Rules Processing[]
This is an unofficial term, but is used to refer to timing at which Rules Mechanics are processed.
Rules Processing typically occurs straight after effects have been triggered (but not activated). It does not happen during the application of an effect but afterwards. The two actions that typically take place in this step are:
- Send to the trash any Level 2 Digi-Eggs on the field.
- Delete all Digimon with 0 DP on the field.
- Send to the trash any Option cards in the Battle Area
Due to the fact that effects triggered by rules processing are triggered later than effects triggered by the application of an effect, those effects will activate before the effects triggered by the application of an effect.
Reading an Effect[]
Effect Types[]
Main Effects[]
[Main] effects are used during the Main Phase and cannot be used in response to any other effects.
If a [Main] effect is structured with a trigger condition, it is treated as a triggered effect instead.
Triggered Effects[]
Triggered effects follow a procedure in which effects are triggered (誘発), become pending activation (発揮待ち ), and finally activate?, 発揮) or fail to activate. A player will only interact with these effects in the final step (activating or failing to activate ({{{2}}}?), triggering effects and becoming pending are done automatically by the game. These are the most common effects in the game, and how the Effect Resolution system is based around.
You can find the procedure and examples on how these effects resolve in the Triggered Effects page.
Interruptive Effects[]
There is no official term for this. This is a fan-term used to describe a particular type of Triggered Effect.
Interrupted Effects are a type of Triggered Effect that don't follow the above process. These effects are commonly denoted by having "would" in their trigger condition. Examples include, ＜Decoy＞ (When your other Digimon would be deleted by an opponent's effect, you may delete this Digimon to prevent 1 of those Digimon's deletion), the [All Turns] effects of [BT2-082 Diaboromon], [BT7-063 DarkKnightmon] and [BT5-086 Omnimon], and the [Your Turn] effect given by [BT7-055 Ebonwumon].
These effects can be triggered in the middle of an effect and activate immediately without waiting for the current effect or action to finish. If applying these effects would trigger any non-interruptive activated effects, then those effects would wait until the initial interrupted effect or action has finished.
Continuous/Passive Effects[]
There is no official term for this. This is a fan-term used to describe effects that do not fall into the category of Activated or Main effects.
There are effects that do not have a trigger condition, and are not [Main] effects that the player activates. An example is [BT3-057 MegaGargomon]'s [Your Turn]. Effects of this type will typically be [Your Turn], [All Turns], or [Opponent's Turn] effects that do not include a trigger condition.
These effects are continuously applied and their conditions continuous checked during all stages of the game, including in the middle of an effect. These effects do not "activate" or require a player to declare their use.