Ruling Effects vs Normal Effects

Hi guys, decided to make this post since i found too many people have been starting to use the term "Ruling Effect" too easily and all over the place, while there are some who obviously still dont know it exists.

"Ruling Effect" generally refers to effects which do not belong to any of the usual categories (E.g. Trigger, activated, etc), and these "Ruling Effect"s USUALLY cannot be negated, regardless of skill drain, forbidden chalice. However, there are exceptions that exists. (For further readup on technicalities on the Japanese capable people, you may look here. I will also try and throw out a few examples for each ruling effect

Example of "Ruling Effect"s include....

1. Changing of card name
Legendary Ocean - Atlantis
Harpy Lady SB
- The above cards involve the changing of name for the card, such as Atlantis/Harpy SB, which they are ruling effects, such that you can only play 3 copies of that card / the original card with that name in your deck. So therefore, you can only play a total of 3 copies of either Atlantis or Sea in any ratio. You cannot play 2 Atlantis & 2 Sea in the same deck. All cards under this genre cannot be negated using Skill Drain / Forbidden Chalice, etc

2. Only 1 copy of this card on yours / both sides of the field
Amazoness Tiger
Guardian of Order
Sin Blue Eyes White Dragon
- Above cards have a restriction that only 1 copy of the same card may be face up on the field at any same time. You may set a 2nd copy face down / 1st copy is face down and you summon 1 face up, but should the face down copy get turned face up, it will be immediately destroyed due to the ruling effect. As before, ruling effects under this genre also cannot be negated using Skill Drain and similar cards

3. Placement when leave field
Crystal Beast
Archlord Krystia
Dark Magician of Chaos
- Above cards involve where they will go to when they leave the field. So for cards like Krystia, will always go back to top deck, or Dark Magician of Chaos will always be removed from game, regardless of skill drain or similar cards. Then Crystal beasts as long as conditions are met will also always go to M/T zone.
PS: Note that not all cards fits into this category, and Worm Yagan is one of them! (I hope the guy who said it reads this...)
Reason: The special summoning of Yagan is an activated effect, and the remove from game bit is part of that activated effect. Therefore, if you book of moon Yagan then destroy it, it will no longer get removed from game, since it will get refreshed because it is NOT a ruling effect. Theres lots of cards with similar effects, so if in doubt everyone, best to refer to your judge (As long as they are not fake faggot ones), or go online and check for official rulings

4. Match win instead of duel win
Victory Dragon
- As the card which once ever brought alot of interest and finally resulted in a ban, it is interesting to note that the effect for a match win instead of duel win is considered as a ruling effect, probably because it happens as an end game thing. However! If skill drain is there when Victory Dragon does the finishing blow, its effect gets negated and it becomes a duel win only instead.

5. Special Win conditions
Exodia
Destiny Board
- These cards involve specific win conditions, which are even mentioned in the YGO rule books themselves. Obviously skill drain, divine wrath does crap against them

6. Specific Synchro Targets
Saviour Dragon
Quick Synchron
BF-Breeze
- The above card effects regarding being able to synchro for a specific type of monsters are a ruling effect, and are not negated by skilldrain/shura/synchron explorer or whatever you can think of. They can still only summon the specific targets that are written on the card text.
PS: Some people compare Breeze to Vayu and say that since Vayu can synchro for random stuff so Breeze can too. To all these people, take your vayu, look at it closely, and see what part of it states it can only synchro for BF monsters. (The part which it mentions BF synchro monsters is regarding its special summon effect and has nothing to do with using Vayu as a synchro material while it is on the field)

There are loads more types to ruling effects, since they are, as per my above explanation, meant to be the category for any random effect which do fit in the usual areas. However, as per the Worm Yagan, some effects may look similar but do not fit in here as well, so... Anywayz, I hope this post has been useful for all. Continue checking here for more info and have fun playing people!