Clarification Contradiction

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

The ruling:

"¢ If "Shadowslayer" attacks a face-up Attack Position monster, and the opponent activates "Book of Moon" so that his only monster on the field is now in Defense Position, the attack of "Shadowslayer" on the monster still resolves. No replay occurs.


The clarification:
A replay is triggered when an attack has been declared, and then during the attack a potential attack target appears or disappears.


The example:
Example #4 of a replay:
Player A controls "Injection Fairy Lily" equipped with "Shooting Star Bow - Ceal", which allows it to attack directly. "Injection Fairy Lily" declares an attack against the opponent's Life Points, but the opponent responds with "Dust Tornado" and destroys the "Shooting Star Bow - Ceal". Because "Injection Fairy Lily" can no longer attack directly, a potential attack target (the opponent) disappears, and a replay occurs.


The contadiction:
So if the player is an attack taget, then when book of mooning the monster when attacking with shadowslayer, shouldn't it be a new attack target appeared and a replay is triggered?

 

[Fraggy]

I believe the Ruling on replays is slightly wrong.

They should have wording structured saying potential attack targets that apppear being are monsters only.

Please correct me if im wrong, its my first ruling i have attempted on these forums.

 

[Digital Jedi]

The ruling:

"¢ If "Shadowslayer" attacks a face-up Attack Position monster, and the opponent activates "Book of Moon" so that his only monster on the field is now in Defense Position, the attack of "Shadowslayer" on the monster still resolves. No replay occurs.


The clarification:
A replay is triggered when an attack has been declared, and then during the attack a potential attack target appears or Disappears.


The example:
Example #4 of a replay:
Player A controls "Injection Fairy Lily" equipped with "Shooting Star Bow - Ceal", which allows it to attack directly. "Injection Fairy Lily" declares an attack against the opponent's Life Points, but the opponent responds with "Dust Tornado" and destroys the "Shooting Star Bow - Ceal". Because "Injection Fairy Lily" can no longer attack directly, a potential attack target (the opponent) Disappears, and a replay occurs.


The contadiction:
So if the player is an attack taget, then when Book of Mooning the monster when attacking with Shadowslayer, shouldn't it be a new attack target appeared and a replay is triggered?

In the case of Shadowslayer? No.

Well for one thing, Shadowslayer's ability to attack an opponent directly is optional (provided all the opponent's monsters are in Defense Position.) "You can attack ... directly", not "you must attack ... directly." And for another, making an opponent an attack target wouldn't trigger a replay, anyway. Replays only trigger when the number of monsters change. The number of monsters hasn't changed in this example.

Otherwise everytime I activate Astral Barriers effect or if I flip Absolute End in responce to an attack a replay would trigger.

But in Injection's case, her attack target was no longer legal. Since she no longer has an Appropriate attack target, a replay has to occur. But this time its because the attack is not legal, not because the number of targets changed. You can't attack an opponent directly for no reason. Destroying Star Bow takes away your reason.

 

[masterwoo0]

I think if the text were more along the lines of saying that "If the only monster(s) on the opponent's side of the field are defense position monsters, this card must attack directly" is probably the only way to trigger a replay in this case.

Also, using Shooting Star Bow - Ceal is basically saying the same thing as Shadowslayer, the player "CAN" attack directly, but doesnt have to, so it really depends on the intitial target when using the "CAN" aspect of the effect.

If I choose to attack directly and the condition for that attack is prevented, then I cannot complete the attack and must, a) choose another legal target, b) halt my attack if there is no longer a legal target available.

The other case of course would be if I choose to attack a monster, and the target changes position, but otherwise remains on the field, it is still the only target, so the attack must continue because the initial declaration was to attack a monster and the condition to attack directly was not fulfilled allowing for a direct attack to cause a choice when the declaration was made.

So, if the only monster is a face-down defense position monster, and the initial attack declaration is for Shadowslayer to attack directly and somehow the monster is flipped face-up into attack position, then Shadowslayer MUST choose another legal target, or choose not to attack, since he now has a new target and can no longer attack directly.

 

[Digital Jedi]

So making an opponent an attack target won't trigger a replay.

Taking away an opponent as a legal attack target, will.

Makes sense to me.