Tailing is an advanced technique that can help you place Puyo on the main chain by placing it on the tail end of the chain. Compared to the head, the tail end is where the final group of Puyo pops.
The head of the chain.
The tail end of the chain.
Players tail for two reasons. The first is to be able to place pieces that would not work on the head of the chain. The second reason is because it raises the tail end of the chain and keeps the surface to build on flat and even.
Tailing is different from the Blocking Method because tailing is about understanding how Puyo will fall once the chain underneath pops.
There are multiple tailing forms in Puyo Puyo. This article aims to cover the more practical ones.
Lets start with Three Column Tails. The most common type of tail here is...
3-Column Avalanche is the idea of stacking L's, J's, and T's on top of each other.
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There are two parts to this tailing form: the base, and the "shears".
Unlike the example above, you won't be able to build just the tail in actual matches.
(Well, you can, but you will put yourself in a disadvantage by doing so.)
Instead, you want to build a base for your tail to rest on. That way, your chain will be able to flow between the transition and the tail easier.
Some examples are shown below. Note that in each chain below, at least one Puyo is sticking higher than the others.
(See also: Completing the GTR Base)
Shears are the Puyo that go on top of the base. There are three types:
Right Shears (also called Reverse Shears) have the right end is higher than the middle and left end.
Left Shears (also called Forward Shears) have the left end higher than the middle and right end. While you can use it like Right shears, Left Shears works better on a late-fold setup. This is because using Left Shears on the right side causes the fourth column to block the last two columns.
Middle Shears (also called Sandwich Shears) are T-shaped shears that have the middle part higher than the others. You can place Left, Right, and other Middle Shears on top of Middle Shears. Players who usually build Middle Shears switch to Left or Right Shears because of the awkward shape it creates.
The process for building a tail is as follows:
Here is an example:
The next queue has two Blues and two Greens.
I can place this pair on the tail.
This can't go on the tail, so it goes on the head.
This piece can go on the tail.
The best way to describe Turukame chains would be to compare it to 3-Column avalanche. Where 3-column avalanche collapses bottom-up, Turukame collapses from the middle-down.
In practice, no one builds Turukame by itself. This is because pure Turukame tails can be ruined with two lines of garbage. Instead, you are more likely to see Turukame mixed in with 3-Column Avalanche.
In the example below, the Yellow and Red Turukame is mixed in between the Blue and Green Avalanche.
You build Turukame when the piece queue makes it convenient to do so.
An example is shown below. Even though the group of Red Puyo is not complete, you can build an group of Blue Puyo on top. Then when you get a Red Puyo, you can place it on top of the group of Blue Puyo.
The group of Blue and Red Puyo form a Turukame tail. You can continue tailing by building Avalanche on top of this.
The 2-Column Avalanche can best be described as "Tailing with Stairs". If you like to build with Stairs or Sandwich forms, then this is the tailing form to learn.
You can use different forms for 2-Column Avalanche:
1-3 Stairs
2-2 Stairs
1-3 Stairs is the most common way to build 2-Column Avalanche. It is used more than 2-2 Stairs because once you use 2-2 Stairs, it stops you from tailing further.
GTR for Beginners by Stp. Fox and Andy8254 (Sections II and III): A guide that goes more detail about tailing and their bases.
Tailing by Puyo Nexus: A list of tailing forms that one could build.
This post from Puyo-Camp (JP) talks about some examples of tailing build order. An awkward translation of the post can be found here.
