Triggered Effects are normally denoted by their Timing as to when they are put on standby. Triggered [Main], [Your Turn], [Opponent's Turn], and [All Turns] effects that are denoted by "when X occurs" in the text. The [Your Turn], [Opponent's Turn], and [All Turns] effects that do not have a trigger condition are treated as Continuous or Passive Effects and not Triggered Effects.
Trigger Conditions[]
Non-Triggered Timings[]
Triggered effects that are marked as [Main], [Your Turn], [Opponent's Turn], or [All Turns] effects are read in this manner:
{Timing}{Per Turn Condition} {Trigger Condition}, {Activation Condition}, {Optional} {Effect}For example, with [BT1-086 Rosemon].
{Timing: [Opponent's Turn]} {Trigger Condition: When an opponent's Digimon attacks a player}, {Activation Condition: if this Digimon is suspended}, {Effect: suspend 1 of your opponent's Digimon.}
Rosemon has "When an opponent's Digimon attacks a player" as its Trigger Condition and "if this Digimon is suspended" as its Activaton Condition.
Another example is [BT6-044 Dynasmon]'s [All Turns] effect.
{Timing: [All Turns]} {Trigger Condition: When a card is removed from your security stack}, {Activation Condition: if your security is three or less}, {Effect: ＜Recovery +1 (Deck)＞.}
So Dynasmon has a trigger condition of "when a card is removed from your security stack", and an activation condition ", if your security is three or less,".
Triggered Timings[]
All other triggered effects with different timings are structured in this layout, where {Timing} is their Trigger Condition:
{Timing}{Per Turn Condition} {Activation or Additional Trigger Condition}, {Optional} {Effect}For example, with [BT1-003 Upamon].
{Timing: [When Attacking]}{Per Turn Condition: [Once Per Turn]} {Activation Condition: If your opponent has a Digimon with no digivolution cards in play}, {Effect: trigger ＜Draw 1＞.}
An example of an additional trigger condition is [BT3-058 BanchoStingmon].
{Timing: [When Attacking]} {Additional Trigger Condition: When you attack an opponent's Digimon that has 12000 DP or more}, {Effect: [When Attacking] When this Digimon attacks one of your opponent's Digimon with 12000 DP or more, this Digimon gets +7000 DP and ＜Security Attack +2＞ for the turn.}
In this case, the condition is checked at the timing.
Identifying Action and Game State Conditions[]
On the wiki, all effects referring to an action that occurred are designated with "when" and all effects reffering to the current game state are designated "if". Some cards in English have swapped the two around, but left no clear differentiator. As such, this is the most effective method to differentiate the two, as it requires the least amount of changes to all cards. Examples of cards that have mixed "when" and "if" are:
- ＜Blitz＞
- ＜Evade＞
- [BT3-058 BanchoStingmon]
- [BT3-004 Minomon]
- [BT5-071 Guilmon]
- [ST3-09 Angewomon]
- [BT5-086 Omnimon]
Determining the Difference in Japanese[]
In Japanese card text, effects that check back on an action that previously occurred are written in past tense, and effects that check on the board state are written clearly to refer to the board state.
The reason this was not used when altering the text on English cards is because numerous cards have altered the Grammatical Tense and it would be difficult to change all of them. (e.g. [When Attacking] is past tense in Japanese)
Interruptive Effects[]
There is no official term for this. This is a fan-term used to describe a particular type of Triggered Effect. However, the detailed rulebook specifically lists these effects as acting differently and how to differentiate them.
Interruptive Effects are a particular type of Triggered Effect that follow special rules in Effect Resolution. These are differentiated simply by having "when... would" in its trigger condition as well. For example, [BT2-082 Diaboromon] has "When this Digimon would be deleted in battle" as its trigger condition making it an interruptive effect. The same can be shown of ＜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) which has "When one of your other black Digimon would be deleted by an opponent's effect" as its trigger condition.
If you are wishing to learn how these effects interact see Interruptive Effects instead.
Determining the Difference in Japanese[]
In Japanese, interruptive effects are purely differentiated by whether the trigger condition is written in past tense or present tense. All interruptive trigger conditions are written in present tense.
Note, in English some interruptive trigger conditions have been translated in this manner but it is not a viable method of determining interruptive effects as there exist past tense trigger conditions have been translated as present tense (e.g. [When Attacking] or "when your Digimon attacks"), particularly those to do with attacking. It's important to note, that many cards before BT-09: Booster X Record fail to follow the Detailed Rulebook standard in English, and some have also been translated to "when [action]-ing" or translated in a completely incorrect manner (e.g. [BT7-063 DarkKnightmon] which is neither present tense "-ing" nor "would" and in past tense).