Question about Chain Blocking

[WhitemageSerenia]

Ok, so I already know a little bit about chain blocking, such as if your opponent has a Dark Cavalry on the field "When a card that targets is activated, you can discard a card to negate/destroy that card" So if I target it with Dark Magical Circle, it can negate that, unless for example, I then trigger my Magician's Rod from the graveyard and tribute a spellcaster, as that'll Chain Block the cavalry. BUT I've been running into an issue lately where my opponent is still able to activate cards like Void Trap Hole, and Chaos Hunter from the hand even after setting up the chain block with rod. I'm not sure if maybe there's something I'm not understanding, or if its a bug or even a cheat that's allowing them to do so. But both Chaos Hunter and Void Trap Hole are "WHEN" effects. So... they can be chain blocked, but... it doesn't work for some reason.

For example, My opponent summons Shiranui Squire, then summons Spectral sword, I have Magician's Rod in the graveyard, Dark Magical Circle face up, and a set Magician's Navigation. I chain Magician's Navigation to the Spectral Sword summon, I special summon Dark Magician + another spell caster (either Dark Magician, Magician of Dark Illusion, and/or Kycoo) triggering my circle to banish the spectral sword, then I trigger my magician's rod effect in the grave yard to add rod back to my hand. That should chain block right? But then my opponent activates Chaos Hunter in hand to stop my banish. Chaos Hunter says "When your opponent special summons a monster, you can special summon this card from your hand" but the last thing to resolve was NOT me special summoning so... How did that happen?

I've also had this happen without using the rod's effect in the graveyard, and to my understanding, since void trap hole and chaos hunter are WHEN effects, then just simply activating my Dark Magical Circle should be enough to chain block, since void trap hole and chaos hunter are WHEN effects? Right?

[Soda]

Hi, Official TCG Judge here:

You have a small misunderstanding of chain blocking. Chain blocking only works when SEGOC (Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain). During SEGOC, you choose your chain order, however DL does it all automatically. Chain blocking is only effective when the next card trying to add itself to the chain is unable to do so since it requires something previous in the chain. In your example of summoning a DM, activating Circle: targeting X monster ; CL 1, chain Rod: target Y monster; CL 2, you are still in the summoning window. It doesn't matter what your cards are doing, you still just special summoned a monster(s), which is both Void Trap Hole and Chaos Hunter's trigger.

Things that would be chain blocked are things like Skull Meister, which require an activation in grave to trigger, say you use a GY eff and chain an on field effect, Skull Meister can't respond since the last thing in the chain was the field effect. Remember this only works with SEGOC. Your opponent always gets a chance to respond before you get to make a bunch of chain links.

Edit:

You can think of it as a window for activation and triggers. When you SS a monster, you're in the SS window. If you activate an effect, you're in that effect's activation window.