MIND CRUSH!!!

I did not make this video. Yu-Gi-Oh! © Kazuki Takahashi

Nostalgia FTK! Serious, I can't count the number of times I thought of Yami Yugi mind crushing the his opponents every time I see the actual card. That aside today I'll be discussing a fairly straightforward yet often overlooked ruling regarding the titular card.

Now first let's look at Mind Crush's effect:

Declare 1 card name. If that card is in your opponent's hand, they must discard all copies of it in their hand. If it is not, you randomly discard 1 card.

Fairly simple, no?

Now previously the following rules applied for Mind Crush:

• You cannot activate "Mind Crush" if you have no hand. Both players must have at least 1 card in hand in order to activate "Mind Crush".
• You declare the card name when you activate "Mind Crush".
• If the opponent doesn't have the named card, you can check their hand to confirm.
• If the opponent discards the named card, you do not check their hand to verify. (Judge List Ruling)

Unfortunately that last ruling poses a little problem. Say if you were to activate Mind Crush and you opponent had multiple copies of the declared card in hand, since they only need to reveal their hand is they claim to have held zero copies your opponent could theoretically discard only one copy and make it look like they they drew into the other copies later in the duel. Now not all players would cheat like this, but in the competitive scene this could pose a major issue as in the case with certain Infernity players setting monsters in their Spell and Trap Card Zones to be able to pull off their handless combos.

Because of this Konami has recently issued a ruling reversal for Mind Crush.

"If the maximum legally allowed number of copies of the declared card cannot be verified as public knowledge, you may ask your opponent to verify their hand."

This cards should be shown quickly so as not to interrupt the flow of the duel and the opponent should never handle the cards. The intent of this ruling is to show that an effect has been successfully completed, not to reveal private information to an opponent or allow him to take extensive time strategizing over it.

What does this mean exactly? Let's look at some examples.

Example 1: You activate Mind Crush and declare Call of the Haunted. Your opponent responds by chaining their Call of the Haunted targeting the Sangan in his/her Graveyard. Since Call of the Haunted is currently limited, your opponent can not legally own more than one copy and does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 2: You activate Mind Crush and declare Call of the Haunted. Your opponent discards one Call of the Haunted. Since Call of the Haunted is currently limited, your opponent can not legally own more than one copy and does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 3: You activate Mind Crush and declare Honest. Your opponent, who had previous used a copy of Honest earlier in the duel, discards his/her second copy. Since Honest is semi-limited and your opponent can not legally own more than two copies it, he/she does not need to confirm his/her hand.

Example 4: You activate Mind Crush and declare Honest. Your opponent discards one Honest. Since Honest is semi-limited and there were previously no other Honest(s) in his/her Graveyard, you are allowed to verify their hand for the presence of another copy of Honest.

I hope that makes sense to everyone.

Remember players, the game ends with you.