There's a lot of misunderstanding about trigger effects and how their effects work especially with regards to frogs.
Frogs have a "When" optional trigger effect. This means the effects need to activate at exactly the time the trigger is met. In order for this to happen they need to be the last thing to happen in a chain or event. As a result they will never get their effect when they are used for a Release (Tribute) or Synchro summon. If their destruction happens in the middle of a chain they will also not get their effects as at the time they want to activate some other effects are still resolving.
"Frogs" and Sea Lancer?
How do frogs get their effects when equipped to Sea Lancer; well it works exactly the same way as if they were monsters. There are 2 different cases for this.
In the first instance they are sent to the graveyard for Sea Lancer's effect to keep itself alive. Since Sea Lancer's effect is continuous, this happens at the resolution of the
destruction effect. If there are no effects resolving after the one which tried to destroy Sea Lancer the "Frogs" effect will work. If there are it will "miss the timing".
In the second instance the "Frogs" die because Sea Lancer is no longer on the field. In this case the frogs die at the exact moment that Sea Lancer is removed from the field. If this happens at the end of the chain they will go to the grave and start a new chain and if not they will again miss the window to activate.
So how does this translate into general play
Trigger effects come in 3 kinds:
"When" optional effects
"When" mandatory effects
"If" effects
"When" optional effects:
The card text will read:
"When" X, you
can do Y.
In order for these effects to activate the trigger needs to be the last thing to happen. If it is not, they will miss the timing to activate.
The other 2 effects never miss the timing and will simply start a new chain when the current one resolves.
- Examples of missing the timing wrote:
- Scenario 1 wrote:
Player A controls a face-up Dupe Frog. He normal summons a Swap Frog and neither player opts to negate it's summon. Upon the successful summon, Player A activates Swap Frog's effect to send a level 2 or lower Aqua type to the grave. Player B responds to this with Torrential Tribute. No other cards are activated.
The Chain builds as follows:
Chain Link 1: Swap Frog
Chain Link 2: Torrential Tribute
It resolves as follows:
Chain Link 2: Torrential Tribute destroys all monsters on the field.
Chain Link 1: Swap Frog sends a level 2 or lower Aqua type to the grave.
Dupe Frog's trigger was met when it was sent to the grave but after it was sent to the graveyard, a monster was sent to the grave via Swap Frog's effect and thus Dupe Frog missed it's window of opportunity to activate it's effect and misses it's timing.
- Scenario 2 wrote:
Player A controls 4 face down spell and traps. Player B controls a Formula Synchron, 2 Dandylion tokens and a Summoner Monk. During Player A's Main Phase he activates Mind Control on Player B's Summoner Monk. Player B responds by activating Formula Synchron's effect sending all his monsters except for 1 token to the grave to summon Black Rose Dragon. The players do not respond after that.
The Chain builds as follows:
Chain Link 1: Mind Control
Chain Link 2: Formula Synchron
The Chain resolves as follows:
Chain Link 2: Black Rose Dragon is summoned.
Chain Link 1: Mind Control's target is no longer there and the card does nothing.
Black Rose Dragon's trigger was met when it was summoned but after it was summoned, Mind Control resolved and thus Black Rose Dragon missed it's window of opportunity to activate it's effect and misses it's timing.
- Examples of NOT missing the timing wrote:
- Scenario 1 wrote:
Player A controls a face-up Sangan. He normal summons a Swap Frog and neither player opts to negate it's summon. Upon the successful summon, Player A activates Swap Frog's effect to send a level 2 or lower Aqua type to the grave. Player B responds to this with Torrential Tribute. No other cards are activated.
The Chain builds as follows:
Chain Link 1: Swap Frog
Chain Link 2: Torrential Tribute
It resolves as follows:
Chain Link 2: Torrential Tribute destroys all monsters on the field.
Chain Link 1: Swap Frog sends a level 2 or lower Aqua type to the grave.
Sangan's trigger was met when it was sent to the grave but after it was sent to the graveyard, a monster was sent to the grave via Swap Frog's effect and thus Sangan cannot activate at this point (between Chain Link 1 and Chain Link 2). But because it is a mandatory trigger effect it's effect will start a new chain after the current one resolves.
- Scenario 2 wrote:
Player A controls 4 face down spell and traps. Player B controls a Formula Synchron, 2 Dandylion tokens and a Summoner Monk. During Player A's Main Phase he activates Mind Control on Player B's Summoner Monk. Player B responds by activating Formula Synchron's effect sending all his monsters except for 1 token to the grave to summon Arcanite Magician. The players do not respond after that.
The Chain builds as follows:
Chain Link 1: Mind Control
Chain Link 2: Formula Synchron
The Chain resolves as follows:
Chain Link 2: Arcanite Magician is summoned.
Chain Link 1: Mind Control's target is no longer there and the card does nothing.
Arcanite Magician's trigger was met when it was summoned but after it was summoned, Mind Control resolved and thus Arcanite Magician cannot activate at this point (between Chain Link 1 and Chain Link 2). But because it is a mandatory trigger effect it's effect will start a new chain after the current one resolves.
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