Forum:Tributing a face down monster......

.....just when i think i have this game completly figured out >_>... Okay.. To my understanding "face down monsters do not have attributes." And you have to first flip the card face up before you activate type, attribute, or level specific spells/traps. But it turns out thats somewhat not true??.. For example, take the card "icarus attack" you have to tribute a winged beast monster to active it.. Now the rulings say this card can be used to tribute a face down winged beast... Now im confused, how tf is this possible when facedown cards have no attributes. And what about monsters where you have to tribute a specific type. Is this possible if the monster is faced down?? How am i supposed to know when i can and when i cant. Please explain this to me. X1991omega (talk • contribs) 06:56, December 12, 2017 (UTC)

You're right, it’s not intuitive, and I can't explain it well so much as "that's the way it is".

• Any card that targets a monster with a specific property will never work on face-down monsters. Also, cards that require a certain card as an activation condition cannot be activated while you have a face-down monster whose original name meets that requirement. eg "Dark Magic Attack"
• When Tributing (for a Summon or card effect) or performing a Fusion Summon (or contact fusion) face-down monsters are treated as having all their properties only during that action.

One way to think about it is "if I did this action, will the card that met the requirements become public knowledge?" Tributing a face-down "Double Coston" for the Tribute Summon of "Dark Magician" is legal as the opponent will see "Double Coston" in the graveyard. The same is true for a Winged Beast tributed for "Icarus Attack". It is worth knowing, some cards that tribute a monster do specify a face-up monster. In the case of the self destruction of a "Burning Abyss" monster, a face-down BA will not prevent the destruction as that face-down Monster is staying face-down and is not public knowledge (even if that card was previously face-up). A card that said "target 1 x monster you control; this turn it cannot be destroyed by battle." could not target a face-down x card as immediately after that activation, it would not be possible for the opponent to know the properties of that card. The oddball is a contact fusion that shuffles materials into the Deck such a shame "Neos" and "Gladiator Beast" fusions, in which case a face-down material is still useable BUT YOU MUST REVEAL the face-down material(s) before shuffling them back. I hope this helps. Regards, GoldenDragonRider (talk • contribs) 10:33, December 12, 2017 (UTC)