Yu-Gi-Oh! Rulings You Should Know: Once Per Turn Effects 

Recently, a friend of mine picked up Yugioh competitively and I'm the one teaching him about the dos and don'ts. I have to say, even if these types of videos don't concern me as a veteran, they are by far the best way to teach someone new to the game. My friend loves you already, keep up the good stuff Doug.

I really, really need a video explaining spell speeds and priority. Its so confusing and it would be awesome if you could make it clearer.

I’ve never met a single person who sends 1-2 cards off of Dante

Man I used to get in arguments with my friend in primary school because he thought he could just discard cards at will whenever he wanted, trying to explain the Use vs Activate point would've started a genuine fist fight.

Great video Dzeeff! I knew the difference between Soft and Hard once per turns but I wasn't 100% sure of use/activate. Thank you!

This video indirectly reminded me of another ruling I've talked to a few people about recently, which they found confusing; the difference between cards that are *always* treated as having a different name vs cards that are only treated that way under certain circumstances, and how that effects the number of copies you can use of certain cards in the deck building process. It's probably not something that's widespread since I'm just going off my own anecdotal situations, but I was surprised to find people who had never heard of this ruling today since I used to encounter it a lot as a big fan of the Harpie archetype (where several of the cards are treated as "Harpie Lady" at all times, even while building the deck).

Liking this video for 3 reasons 1. Dzeeff 2. We have a whole section devoted to my boy Dante and the rest of my beloved BA 3. Dzeeff is the best teacher of YGO I’ve ever seen . Cimo is also good at explaining but something about how Dzeeff explains things it always just sticks and I find myself referencing his videos like a montage in my brain mid duel

Konami was clearly smoking crack when making Firewall Dragon and SPYRAL Quick Fix

hey dzeef, could you perhaps elaborate on the concept of spell speed and chain linking in a future video? thanks!

This reminds me of the hilarious once per turn from exeggcute from the PTCG, where it can put itself from the discard pile to the hand...but it was a soft once per turn so you could just cycle discarding it infinitely

The anime set me up for failure when it came to understanding this simple concept, back in my noob days. In his debut anime duel, Akaba Reiji opened two copies of "Dark contract with the gate". He promptly activated both of them, and used both to search monsters, leading me to believe it was a soft once per turn effect. When I attempted to emulate this play, I was informed it was illegal, although it took a long time before someone finally told me that "if the card's name is listed, it's a HOPT"... which would have helped clear everything up. Until that point, I kinda thought the difference between the two was completely arbitrary.

Thank you for explaining the difference between “use” and “activate”. I know a lot of people, including myself, who needed this

Great video homie! I always appreciate these types of videos being a casually competitive player that enjoys playing casually yet also goes to regionals for the competitive atmosphere

The analogy with Pokémon (appropriate since your icon is a Spheal) since the ruling of "hard" vs "soft" once per turn does not just apply to Yu-gi-oh. In Pokémon we have an Exeggcute with the ability Propagation that states: Once per turn, if this card is in your discard pile (Pokémon's equivalent of the Yu-gi-oh graveyard), you may put this card into your hand. (Should remind us of a certain card in Yu-gi-oh whose effect is the exact same.) It does *NOT* say: "You may only use one Propagation ability per turn." That is, it's a soft once per turn; once it gets back to the hand its ability simply resets itself, meaning if you use repeated card effects that discard cards (in Pokémon's case, something like Ultra Balls and Zoroark GX Trades) all of which target this card, it activates over and over again.

Honestly I never thought about the difference between use and activate. Makes sense tho

So.... "use" triggers "activate" triggers "effect", and each one of those stages can be negated separately?

Doug i always heavily appreciate videos like this. When i got back into yugioh the beginning of this last semester in college, i really didn't want to do much besides just play my old deck. But as i watch your videos it really made me not only want to get better at yugioh but also actually try to make a competitive deck (leaning towards altergeist at the moment) and start to go into locals and then eventually (hopefully) into regional. Your videos has played a huge part in that and i have nothing but thanks for that. So please keep doing what you are doing because you are one of the best on this side of youtube. videos like this are great for veterans that need a refresher and new players alike.

So, I was already familiar with the difference of soft and hard once per turns, but the use and activation portion of the video blew my mind. Thanks for the good content as always.

Another thing to mention (since you brought it up) is that if a card is flipped facedown and then face up you can not only activate its soft opt effects again, but the game does not remember how that card got there. A dante flipped facedown and then back up (via book of moon or eclipse or whatever) you can not only use its mill effect again, but its effect will not be negated by nekroz of unicore or instantly destroyed by shaddoll construct (RIP) because that Dante, albeit an XYZ monster, according to the game was NOT special summoned nor was it a monster from the extra deck.

Just imagine how busted BA would be if they had soft once per turn effs. It’s already a great deck

There was one ruling problem i had to ask a competitive friend over and over again to understand it, but it might be really important or interesting for your community... How to miss timing

idk if there's exceptions to this somehow, but generally, I've found this to be quite intuitive because a soft once-per-turn restricts that MONSTER from using the effect more than once, where as a hard once-per-turn directly specifies that it is the EFFECT that is limited.

This is a video you should absolutely turn into a series. Things like this and chain links and rulings are why I’m afraid to dive hard into the game competitively. Great video as always Doug. You put everything in as simple of terms as possible.

I knew how to differentiate hard and soft once per turn effects, but I never even noticed that some cards say "use" while others say "activate". Thanks for pointing it out, I don't think I would've ever figured it out by myself, and now I see how important this difference is. 👍

I already knew about hard vs soft opt, and "use" vs "activate", but this is a very good video for teaching people these concepts!

I finally have a video I can send to people who keep asking me questions about once per turn stuff now. Thanks dezeff. Saving me lots of typing

I would say lonefire is the best example of a soft once per turn, so often it gets used 2 or three times in a row even though it's once per turn

That a card with a once per turn like designated with "activated" can be played again if it was negated the first time is very strange to me. By that logic, wouldn't you also be able to normal summon a second time if the first one was negated? You can only summon normally once per turn, but if the summon is negated...

The real question is How to know if you know how to play yuhi oh?? Because i know chain, spell spees, missing the timing, steps of battle phase, once per turn effect But still i dont know if i know all the rules Because i still learn new rules But after doing alot of research Iam duel links play so the game works by itself and when something happen that i dont understand I search for it For example i recently know that "leave the field" means banish, return to the hand, go to gy, go to extra deck but not return to the main deck, i read this rule from official book but there is alot of rules that are not found in the book like missing the timimg, steps of battle phase or like face down monaters dont have name or level or anything but although that you can use theme for fusion Or tribute a specific attribute face down monaters, these are the only 2 exceptions because konami said so. So what is the proper way to learn yugi oh without doing alot of research what is the best sours to get the rules?

Glad you covered use vs activate as well. Konami has generally shifted towards just using "use" so understanding of some mid-zexal cards is getting confused. I wouldn't say dante has two soft once per turns: it only has one OPT effect, the other is just a regular trigger effect.

Make this a series, I garuntee it will pay in dividends

I believe the "Once per turn" phrasing is always used only for Ignition effects, whereas the others can apply to Trigger effects. Since that is the case, Dante has only 1 OPT effect, and the other effects are just regular Trigger effects.

We need more "Explenation of the rulings" videos like this. A lot of players still don't understand how to play the game.

Thanks for this, Doug! I'm teaching new players, and having videos like this makes that very smooth.

Dzeeff, I loved this video! Wish you could do more video in the rulings series. Thanks for the great content :)

Thank you for explaining! As a returning player, I find your videos very informative and fun to watch! Keep it up

This video can actually help ppl who are confused with this ruling when playing Wind-Ups

i knew most of the diferences, but i did not knew dark bribe negated the activation so you can activate again. I guess thats why people say it is worse then you might think

Impressive explanation like always Dzeef, thanks! Next video you should explain the timing of negating effect and activation and also any follow up cards that can miss their timing. Im a bit confused on that.

Alot of people I play against tend to not understand what kind of summons you can and cant use Solemn Strike against. It's very understandable though since it's not really surface level knowledge. So itd be really cool Dzeeff to have a video explaining how negation works and when you do and dont miss the timing to activate negation effects.

Aye this was so helpful. Like I was always confused with why Spyral tough was could be activated multiple times.

thank you for clarafing, I had thought that was the difference between use and activate but I had not been sure. I can say that I hate effects that put once per turn at the end of the text; I am more likely to over look it when placed there.

This was a really really useful video. Explained in a really straightforward way.

There is also Once per Chain per card and Once per Chain per name

great video, thank you! Question, in terms of "once per term" effects, does this mean I can activate/use these effects on both my turn and my opponent's turn? Or must the card explicitly state so? Also, if this effect states "(quick effect):" does this mean the effect can be used/activated on both player's turn?

If it states the card's name, it's a catch all. If it doesn't, it's referring to just that copy of the card.

hey Doug thanks a bunch for this video. the use/activate thing really helps with some weird situations I've come across since my deck is all hard once per turn effect but half say use and others say activate

dzeef trying to tease me with multiple cir got me drooling staring at my burning abyss deck.

This is actually a super useful video! More of these please!!!

this was really helpful. specifically the use vs activation

I learned this the hard way, trying to use Sky palace Gangaridai and realizes that even if I made two, the effect can only go off once. And when I made two Gustav Max, I could activate both of them. Yeah, good thing I was playing against AI because... I wanted to learn to play and not just go in and get wrecked not knowing what one is even supposed to do.

Great video, content like this is why I like you Doug 😀. Keep up the great work. Can we get some more ruling videos please, maybe the next video on effects during the damage step e.g ghost ogre Vs BLS.

Can you do a video about the ruling of the Battle phase and its parts? Also, How do I know when a quick spell or trap card can be activate during the damage step?

I didn't know the " 'use' vs 'activate' ", really helpfull, thanks

Thank you for a good video sir. It always helps to have players who know more about rulings.

You should make a video on chain links and choosing the order in which you place your own effects

why do some say "only once per turn and only once that turn," if "once per turn," alown is kind of signifies that ?

Whoof almost closed out of the video at dark bribe and probably would have let a second desires go through if I ashed it glad I finished it

Hey Dzeeff! I recently started to get back into yugioh and was looking through my old cards and wondered why some of them arent getting as much play in these formats because they would seem to be very good in this era of link summoning and special summoning. Cards like Ground Collapse that restrict monster zones makes link summoning difficult for your opponent to pull off it seems like a card that a lot of people would use basically making it impossible to get off Knightmare combos and whatnot. I also wonder why cards like Gold Sarc are favored or used over Different Dimension Capsule, where it seems like they both accomplish the same thing except capsule guarantees protection because it cant be interacted with by your opponent either. People also usually side deck cards like Shared Ride when there seems to be a much better card thats been around much longer in Appropriate that lets you draw 2 cards instead of 1 each time your opponent draws outside their draw phase. Alternatively, why arent cards like Forced Requisition used in decks like the Danger! archetype forcing your opponent to discard their own hand as well? Night Assailant has been limited for a long while but it seems that theres no point in it being banned anymore because 1.) Its too slow 2.) No one uses flip summon cards anymore. Why has it not been removed from the ban list? What edits would you make to the ban list? Non-Aggression Area is another card Im very surprised isnt used more, especially when OTKs are the norm. Not letting your opponent normal, set, or special summon (their next turn) at the cost of 1 discard just seems all too powerful in todays game. Last but not least King Tiger Wanghu seems to a good answer to a lot of opponents opening plays. Cards that special summon themselves when your opponent doesnt have monsters are usually weak and general search from the deck cards usually have low attack, Wanghu seems like a card that disrupts plays from the get go. I know its a lot and maybe some of your viewers could answer but I'd be interested to hear what you have to say. Thanks!

Very useful at my locals it seems to be a confusion on use vs activate

Once per turn per card and Once per turn per name.

Ah that explains a lot. So in a nutshell if sn effect once per turn says add one cyberse monster but doesn’t say the name pf the card then it’s a soft once per turn but if it does then it’s a hard once per turn.

Holy Shit. When did Yugioh become so complicated?

I don't really understand it: So opt effect are there to prevent loops or limit a card's strength. Then why didn't firewall have an opt effect? It's a generic link monster in the extradeck that can special summoned in almost every deck that can special summon infinitely times per turn. Why does Firewall have that effect while far weaker cards have that limitation. From your video, I don't understand why firewall is designed that way?

Not sure if it’s a good idea to call Dante’s second effect a ”soft once per turn effect”.

Very helpful Video. I was always confused about unizombie.

Driking game: 1 shot every time Dzeef says "Once per turn".

So as long you have 2 or 3 on the field before you activate effect, you can use it 2x or 3

Could you do your next video on the damage step, and what cards work at that time?

neat more ruling I was able to catch up on the rules except pendulum like how many can you in your ed or if I use them for discard do they go to the ed or grave

Great video. Not super applicable to me as a veteran player, but a great resource to direct beginners or confused players to. Hope it does well!

back when i played yugioh i was shocked at just how complex alot of the advanced rulings are. It really isnt a game any one can just pick up and play, atleast not if you dont want to break any rules. Its a childrens cardgame, yet it feels like you need to spend hours carefully reading through everycards rulings list on yugiohwiki. Ironic as its marketed as 6+, most countries dont teach children to read before the age of 7 and most children dont have a good reading comprehension before the age of 8-9. Littlekuriboh said it best "childrens cardgame played by adults". There were just so many things than my friend and i were doing wrong for the longest time. One in particular was that i had to read on yugiohwiki was that if you chained MST onto a opponent MST it dosnt acctually negate the destruction of your card, you just waste your MST. Another thing that i did wrong alot was that i didnt know that it was the turn player who had initiative to activate effects first during any of the game phases and the other player could only activatre effects in response, or if one phase was going to end, then you had the optioon to active a trap or QP-spell. And dont get me started on the whole convoluted mess of monster effects. Spending hours reading through the difference between the differences off "instant effects", "continuous effects", "trigger effects", "quick effects", monster effects that activate in the GY but still resolve even if the effect monster had its effect negated on the field (ie stardust dragon). I find it hard to beleive that even the best players in the world execute chainlinks in a proper way either. That was the most hard-to-keep track of thing especially as a casual player. Thats probably why they seemed to have stopped producing cards with chainlink effects. Those cards were straight-up convoluted and impossible to activate.

This helps quite a bit. Thanks

Great explanations. Nice video :)

Great video explaining the difference.

Thanks, this was very helpful!

This is so helpful, thank youu!!

@dzeef I have a question What "your opponent cant activates cards or effects" actually means Iam duel links player And that effect is found in u a mighty slugger When he attacks your opponent cant activates cards or effects until the end of damage step What i thing it means that the opponent cant activates card or click yes to active effect but if there is an effect that work by itself it does work For example if slugger attack and mirror wall was already face up his attack will be halved My question is why when alugger attacks cipher solider, cipher soliser's effect doeant activate??? Cipher solider say if this card battles a warrior type monster thia card gain 2000 attk so why it doesn't activated?

I've been playing Yugioh for 3 years and I actually learned something out of this

This is very useful education. Thanks 👌🏼

Very helpful video. Thanks!

What I noticed is that the "soft" once per turn effects mention their once per turn in the beginning of the effect, but I'm not sure if that has any relevancy or is just a coincidence

Love this, so informative and so good!

Dzeeff used a Gold Rare Dante for the example so the milling was indeed an effect.

Can you please make a video about card chains?I don't even know what a chain is.

Ah finally a video to link dueling book scrubs to.

Alluding to this video I picked up a fluffal deck yesterday and out of curiosity can fluffal penguin use the special summon effect multiple times if I use a different copy of the card?

Drink every time Dzeeff say " once per turn".

Very helpful video. Thank you so much for teaching me something new

What if a Once Per Duel effect was negated but the effect didnt specifically said the monster, spell, trap card name. Will u be able to use the effect again?

Now explain "once per duel" effect. Does it make a difference if it has the name like twin headed behemoth or bacon saver, or not?

excellent video! I was really wondering about this issue

Good video, that helped. Just so you know the word "malebranche" is pronounced malebranke, ke like in Kevin

So if a card is flipped face-down then it counts as a new card right? So if its a soft opt its effect can be activated again? If so how does this work with cards that flip themselves face down once per turn, such as Geargiarmor, Des Lacooda, and most Ghostricks?

i actually had a judge ruling wrong against me cuz of the use/activate difference. someone negated the activation of union hangar and so i attempted to activate another 1 since it isnt a use but activate condition, yet the judge ruled otherwise. i was still new to the game and decided not to appeal to the head judge, which to this day i am still salty about :X

So would invoked mechaba be a soft or hard once per turn

Can someone make a video about borrel load dragon and borrel sword dragons effects that you can't chain to the quick eff and can still chain to the 2nd eff something about the wording I can't explain like ancient fairy dragon when you don't special and activate the 2nd eff and still enter battle phase to att

Could you make a video about timing? I've always had a hard time with how Quick Effects, Traps, and Spells miss or hit timing while reacting to other activation.

Dude your vids are awesome and informative

Yeah, I got this question in my head after I tried to negate the activation of "Cyber Emergency" and my opponent discarded a card and used it again. If I negated the activation, then he can use it again. I can't believe I didn't know that. LOL