Responding to Cards Placed by a Cost (Before the Effect Resolves)

A card sent, discarded, banished, detached, or Tributed as a cost moves at

activation, not during resolution. Once the activated effect is on the

Chain, that card is already in its new location, so there is a normal response

window: either player may chain a Quick Effect — including a hand trap or a

card that targets the card now in the Graveyard — before the effect resolves.

This is the same cost-vs-effect line drawn in

Targeting, Costs, and What Ash Blossom Can Negate:

PSCT text before the first semicolon is a cost. The frequent judge mistake

is the opposite of an Ash misread — here a player wrongly believes they cannot

respond because they imagine the send is happening "in the middle of resolving."

It is not; the send already happened when the effect was activated.

Worked example: Magicians' Souls + Bystial Saronir

Magicians' Souls — "You can send up to 2 Spells/Traps from your hand and/or

field to the GY; draw that many cards. If this card is in your hand: You can

send 1 Level 6 or higher Spellcaster monster from your Deck to the GY, **then

activate 1 of these effects;** ● Special Summon this card. ● Send this card to

the GY, then, you can Special Summon 1 'Dark Magician' or 1 'Dark Magician Girl'

from your GY. You can only use each effect of 'Magicians' Souls' once per turn."

Bystial Saronir — "You can target 1 LIGHT or DARK monster in either GY;

banish it, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand. **This is a

Quick Effect if your opponent controls a monster.** ..."

Scenario: your opponent activates Magicians' Souls' hand effect, sending **Dark

Magician** (a Level 6+ Spellcaster) from the Deck to the GY. The send sits before

the semicolon, so it is the cost. You control Bystial Saronir in hand, and

your opponent controls a monster.

• The Dark Magician is already in your opponent's GY the instant Magicians'

Souls is activated. The "then Special Summon" part has not resolved yet.

• Because your opponent controls a monster, Bystial Saronir's effect is a

Quick Effect. You may chain it (CL2) to Magicians' Souls (CL1).

• Saronir targets the Dark Magician (a DARK monster) in your opponent's GY and

banishes it, Special Summoning Saronir.

• When Magicians' Souls resolves, if your opponent chose the "Send this card to

the GY, then Special Summon 1 'Dark Magician' ... from your GY" branch, the

Dark Magician is gone, so that Special Summon finds no valid target for that

card. (The "Special Summon this card" branch is unaffected.)

Answer: Yes — you can banish the Dark Magician in response. The send was a

cost, not part of resolution, so the response window exists.

Missing facts that change this

• Bystial Saronir is only a Quick Effect if the opponent controls a monster.

If they do not, Saronir is not a Quick Effect and cannot be chained here.

• Saronir targets a LIGHT or DARK monster in a GY; confirm the cost-sent

monster is LIGHT or DARK (Dark Magician is DARK).

• This holds for a cost send. If the equivalent send were written as part of

the resolution (after the relevant semicolon, with no separate cost), the card

would not reach the GY until resolution and there would be no such window.

Judge calls to watch for

• Read the PSCT punctuation before answering. Send/discard/banish/detach/Tribute

before the first semicolon = cost = paid at activation = respondable.

• Do not confuse "you cannot interrupt the resolution of a single effect" with

"you cannot respond to a card a cost already moved." The first is true; the

second is the error.

Sources

• Konami PSCT cost vs. effect
• YGOProDeck/Konami DB card text for Magicians' Souls and Bystial Saronir