Why wasn't Lava Golem allowed to attack on my turn?

Question

During a duel¹, my opponent summoned in my field a monster card known as Lava Golem.

When was my turn, I entered in Battle Phase and I go to attack with Lava Golem, but I couldn't.

Here is the description of the card:

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) to your opponent's side of the field by Tributing 2 monsters they control. You cannot Normal Summon/Set the turn you Special Summon this card. During each of your Standby Phases: Take 1000 damage.

I'm wondering, why is not possible attack with Lava Golem. In the linked source and in a quick Google search there's not mention about why such restriction exist in this monster.

---

¹ I was playing the game version known as Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 5.

Answer 1

It's been a while since I played Yu-Gi-Oh, and I haven't played with this card, but if you read it, it says it summons it to your opponent's side of the battlefield. Since your opponent is the one who summoned it, it goes to your side of the battlefield. Since your opponent graciously decided to give you this monster, you should be able to legally attack with it.

Of course, it does 1,000 damage to you every turn, so... hopefully you kill him fast. When it says "you take 1,000" damage, that's not "you the person who summoned him" it's "you the person who controls him", which right now is you.

Since this is an online rendering of the game, one can only assume that either 1) we have both misinterpreted the rules or 2) there is a flaw in their game logic that needs to be reported.

Answer 2

While the entire board state wasn't provided, it seems likely that another card was applying a "Cannot attack" effect to Lava Golem, either directly by a card like such as Swords of Revealing Light or Threatening Roar, or indirectly via cards like Dark Door (which limits you to attacking with a single monster per turn) or Command Knight (who says it can't be attacked if you control other monsters - controlling two Command Knights cause their effects to apply and prevent both of them from being attacked!). The Card Tips page of the Yu-Gi-Oh wikia for this card provides multiple suggestions for how this could be accomplished.

This is a common strategy to use with this card to mitigate the fact that the owner of it has provided a very large creature to their opponent. From experience, the developers of the Yu-Gi-Oh video games would usually only include Lava Golem in a deck that contains many of these strategies as part of a burn deck (one that uses Effect Damage to try and win, such as with Lava Golem's last effect) and/or a stall deck (one that tries to prevent the opponent from doing anything for several turns until another win condition completes, such as Final Countdown).

Looking through some of the characters that were available in Tag Force 5, you were likely dueling Maia / Mary Ann. She uses Final Countdown decks in both Tag Force 4 and 5, and while no deck lists are provided for Tag Force 5, her first two decks in Tag Force 4 featured Lava Golem and multiple cards that prevent attacks.

Answer 3

This is might be a bug. In the normal card game, this is unambigious - there is no rule saying it can't attack, and if it's in your battle zone you're the controller so you get to attack.

If you look at the known card rulings you'll see that apparently no one ever needed a ruling on whether or not it can attack; Presumably because it was obvious it can. The reason your opponent can play this card is because it allows them to destroy two of your monsters without triggering destruction effects, and also costs you 1k LP each turn.

Also on the wikia, you can find card tips suggesting you disable the golem from attacking after summoning (e.g. using Swords of Light), further suggesting that it is, in fact, meant to be able to attack.

Summarize: Card takes makes no indication that monster can't attack. No known rulings saying otherwise. Go ahead, report this as a bug.

---

PS: it only might be a bug. I have not played Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 5 specifically, and some of the Yu-Gi-Oh! videogames use different rules than the published card game. It probably is though.

Answer 4

The person that controls the lava golem is the one that chooses to attack with it or not.

A friend of mine told me when I got into yugioh, Lava Golem is a good card to get rid of your opponent's monsters and deal 1000 damage to them every one of their standby phases. Just make sure you find a way to defend yourself against it first because you are giving them a monster that can attack with 3000 attack.

Answer 5

Under normal circumstances in the physical game, the controller of a Lava Golem can use it to attack. This is why, when I summon one to my opponent's side, I make sure I can prevent it from attacking with cards such as Darkworld Shackles, Shadow Spell, Nightmare Wheel, etc. or just have a Scrap-Iron Scarecrow and hope he/she doesn't summon Jinzo or something of that nature.