The Difference Between, Attack Declaration and Damage Step

Okay, so people have been having trouble with the Damage Step. I will help you understand the difference between Attack Declaration and the Damage Step.

Attack Declaration:

So this is when the turn player chooses the monster he is attacking with and the target of the attack. Pretty much self explanatory huh?

Well during this "Sub-step" you may activate cards like Mirror Force and Magic Cylinders. And if you are still confused, I'll go into more detail. During the Declaration you (either attacker or defender) can activate any Speed Spell 2 card. These are:
- Quick spells
- Normal Traps
- Continuous Traps
- And some Monster Effects

No for the main part of this topic

The Damage Step:

Here is where you (attacking or defending) can respond with cards such as honest. Therefore, if you are attacking with honest in hand, Magic cylinders CANNOT be activated, so therefore you don't have to worry about 5000+ effect damage YAY!

Cards that can be used during this "sub-step" are cards having DIRECT relation to a monsters ATK Power and DEF Power.

For example:

Player A is attacking with Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Player B has Five Headed Dragon. Player B makes no response against Blue-Eyes' attack.

This gives Player A a chance to use Honest in hand with no troubles. Therefore giving Blue-Eyes a 5000 ATK boost, destroying FHD and inflicting 3000 damage to Player B.

Learning when is the best time to use a card is hard….it can be a pain, but, it is some of the best knowledge to have in a duel.

Say you have a monster equipped with United We Stand. You cannot activate Scapegoat or Stray Lambs during the Damage Step because it has NO DIRECT relationship with the ATK Power of the equipped monster. It may increase it's Attack Power yes, but it has no Direct Relation to the ATK of your monster.

You could activate Lambs or Scapegoat during Attack Declaration, but since the number of monsters on your side of the field, if it was your opponents Battle Phase, a replay would occur.

Replay:

This is a moment in the Attack Declaration when the number of monsters on the defending side increases or decreases due to a cards effect. A Replay allows the attacker to continue or stop the attack of a monster. But keep in mind, this is still considered as a monster "Declaring Attack" therefore it cannot attack a monster if you choose to stop the attack.

That is my first Lesson....
I hope this helped.

This might be good for people to look at as well.


                                           
Start Step ---> Battle Step ---> Damage Step ---> Battle Step ---> End Step

ummm.....


you forgot damage calculation before end step....

which is actually where the flip effects are used

XD stupid Man Eater Bug said it kills my monster before battle PFT!

You're right I forgot to put that in, maybe this would be easier for people to look instead xD

in the instance Damage Step = Damage Calculation?

Damage step= Substep 1: Start of the Damage Step
Substep 2: Flipping the face-down monster face-up
Substep 3: Before damage calculation
Substep 4: During damage calculation
Substep 5: Battle damage - after damage calculation
Substep 6: Resolve effects
Substep 7: End of the Damage Step - monsters destroyed by battle are sent to
the graveyard

{AlphaPack} Skies wrote:

in the instance Damage Step = Damage Calculation?

Well, i'm pretty sure this is from the rulebook so yeah..

Damage calculation is the sub-step of the damage step, so its in the damage step as illustrated by Jack so yeah.

Thank you Phoenix.

o.o Didn't know it was so in-depth

It looks it, but obviously when playing it isn't half as complicated as it looks xD

You also forgot to mention that spell speed 3 cards (counter traps) can also be activated in damage step.... but there are some exceptions such as solemn judgment.

most counters aren't used.....but Negate Attack is XD

actually.... Judgement/Warning can be used.... in the case an effect summons a monster.... like that.... Mecha Phantom Beast thingy..... it summons tokens when it attacks.....

What was it? oh wait... thats declaration......ummmm

Judgement on EFFECTs.... Judgement is banned....... *cough*

yes it is banned but still, you cant judgment a gorz or trag and that dmg step

YOU CAN'T??

oh.... Warning and Judgement are the same really..... Except judgement got banned cos it could negate almost ANYTHING!

and you can negate Gorz, token effect, killing gorz in the process..... IDK about trag....

since it is in hand.....like cyber Dragon (but different time)....

IDK how the hell does it work??

UGH.... Mind Fuck!

{AlphaPack} Skies wrote:

YOU CAN'T??

oh.... Warning and Judgement are the same really..... Except judgement got banned cos it could negate almost ANYTHING!

and you can negate Gorz, token effect, killing gorz in the process..... IDK about trag....

since it is in hand.....like cyber Dragon (but different time)....

IDK how the hell does it work??

UGH.... Mind Fuck!

Solemn Warning can negate Gorz's effect of special summoning a token and by doing this destroy it as well, but Solemn Judgment can not be used on things like Gorz, Trag and fader.

;-;

fader is declaration....

so is swift and the other ones.....

they state, "When an opponents monster declares a (direct) attack..." etc etc

thats declaration

Judgment only works on inherent special summon, but things like Gorz and Fader happen in resolution to another card, however Warning works on them because they are special summons.

You cant solemn judgment gorz or trag, but you can solemn warning them, because with judgment the ruling is you have to negate the initial effect, not something that happens later in the chain, like their summon for example. thats why warning works, because it can negate the effect that summons them. judgment cant

so warning can stop all?

Judgement is fucked.....

Okay then XD