While playing Yu-Gi-Oh! (via Duel Links), my opponent had Lady Assailant of Flames face down. Its text reads as follows:
FLIP: Remove 3 cards from the top of your Deck from play to inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points.
I attacked it face down, which required it to flip face up. However, I attacked it with Element Saurus that had its negating effect active (I've bolded it below):
This monster gets the following effect(s) while there is a monster(s) with the following Attribute(s) on the field:
● FIRE: This card gains 500 ATK.
● EARTH: Negate the effect of an Effect Monster that this card destroyed by battle.
The end result was the following:
- Element Saurus declares an attack
- Lady Assailant of Flames flips
- The top three cards from my opponent's deck are removed from play (i.e. banished)
- The animation plays for an effect being negated and no Life Point damage is dealt
- Lady Assailant of Flames is destroyed
I was really surprised that Step 3 happened, and I would have expected that to be negated too (I would have expected it to not remove the cards nor inflict damage). Why does negating Lady Assailant of Flames' effect still require banishing cards?