Yu-Gi-Oh! » Rulings Q&A

Hi, I wanted to know if I understand correctly. I have an Invoked Oceanus in the EMZ and my opponent attempts to use Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage! while they have a Sky Striker Ace - Zero on board. Would they be able to send the Zero for the Linkage? I thought that you couldn't because Oceanus makes it so monsters go the banish instead so "send 1 other card you control the GY" wouldn't be able to happen. My opponent argues that because Oceanus says "instead", that it could still resolve and just banishes the Zero instead.

Linkage doesn't have a cost, so the activation itself is legal. They can even choose to attempt to send Zero with the effect, but since Zero will be banished, the rest of Linkage resolves without effect. Key is the "and if you do" conjunction. The card checks whether or not a card was successfully put into the GY with the effect and since the answer is No, the rest of the effect won't happen.