Cards that target should be considered targeting.

[Josh Gawdelpus]

Crazy how cards can literally let you target which cards are affected by its effect, but it's not considered targeting because it doesn't say target. It makes sense something like dark hole or torrential don't 'target' since it's indiscriminate/random/not a specified choice. Yet, somehow something like trisula doesn't 'target' despite literally targeting which cards to affect. Yes, I know that card says 'can', so you don't have to, but in the case that you DO decide to, you are targeting which cards are banished.

[Ryoga]

My card doesn't target, it chooses.

[Josh Gawdelpus]

Originally posted by Ryoga:

My card doesn't target, it chooses.

you as the player are choosing which card to target with the cards effect. I understand a lot of yu-gi-oh cards are very semantic. I'm trying to express how unintuitive it is. Because functionally 'choosing' and 'targeting' are the same in this context. Also, in the case of trishula, it would neither be 'choosing' nor 'targeting' but 'canning'.

[Merilirem]

Originally posted by Josh Gawdelpus:

Originally posted by Ryoga:

My card doesn't target, it chooses.

you as the player are choosing which card to target with the cards effect. I understand a lot of yu-gi-oh cards are very semantic. I'm trying to express how unintuitive it is. Because functionally 'choosing' and 'targeting' are the same in this context. Also, in the case of trishula, it would neither be 'choosing' nor 'targeting' but 'canning'.

Think of it like shooting without using the little laser you see in movies. You don't target first. You just fire at something.

Yes it is strange but it boils down to text being read literally rather than being a game rule. Its looking for the word target, not cards that fit a card type or effects that fall under a type of effect known as targeting effects.

[Raven]

This is why PSCT exists. You might *LOGICALLY* say that an effect is targeting, but if it doesn't say it targets, it doesn't. If it does say it, it does. Regardless of how you want to rationalize why/how something targets, if the card doesn't say it, it does not. That is very much intentional, and is an important distinction in card interactions.

This is one of those things that you can debate all day and probably make a lot of sense, but the reality is BKSS rulings have always been a thing, and this is just a universal fix to them so we don't need to get haunted by them on a card by card basis. We just accept how it works...because konami says so.

[Papa Shekels]

Target is a keyword. Targeting by default chooses which cards are affected, but choosing is not targeting. Square vs. rectangle kind of deal

[srn347]

Actually, targeting isn't always choosing. There are cards like magic cylinder which say "When a monster declares an attack: target the attacking monster" or something similar.