Yu-Gi-Oh! - The Card Game
Created | Updated Jun 18, 2003
Yu-Gi-Oh! has appeared in a large number of guises, including a popular manga series (its original form), a smash-hit animé series, a line of video games, some shoddy action figures, and even, apotheotically, a card game. This entry is about the card game.
A Game in Brief
The true rules of Yu-Gi-Oh! are quite dissimilar to those initially seen in the animé series. Fans of the series will notice that these rules much more closely correspond with the Battle City Rules, though there are some differences. Each monster card has a level, indicated by a series of stars at the top - for example, a monster with four stars is classed as level 4. A level five or six monster requires the player to sacrifice one monster in order to summon it; for levels seven and higher, two sacrifices are required.
A player's turn begins with him * drawing a card from his deck, an act which is usually followed by placing one or more cards on the 'field' i.e. putting them on the play surface and thus bringing them into the current Duel (see later). The player will then usually attack the other player's monsters and, after any magic and trap cards have been brought into effect and damage calculated, it is the other player's turn. The Duel is over when one player's Life Points reach zero.
The Game Mat
Yu-Gi-Oh! is played on a special game mat, supplied with every starter deck. It consists of two rows of seven multicoloured rectangles, each of which serves a different function. The top middle five rectangles are labelled 'Monster Card Zone,' and, as you have no doubt already guessed, this is where the monster cards are placed. Flanking these are two more, a green rectangle on the left hand side and a grey one on the right. These are labelled 'Field Card Zone' and 'Graveyard' respectively.
Directly underneath the Monster Card Zone is a series of five blue-green rectangles labelled 'Magic + Trap Card Zone,' where all magic and trap cards are played. These are flanked by a purple rectangle labelled 'Fusion Deck Zone' and a brown one labelled 'Deck Zone' (directly under the Graveyard). It is possible to play without the game mat, provided the players simply remember where each zone is.
The Cards
There are three types of cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Monster Cards, Magic Cards, and Trap Cards.
Monster Cards
A player may play (or 'summon') one monster each turn, unless magic or trap cards are involved. This simply consists of placing the card in a vacant space in the Monster Card Zone, in either attack position (face up and vertical) or defence position (face down and horizontal). A monster placed in defence mode like this is not technically summoned, it is merely 'set.' It s only said to be summoned when it is flipped into face up attack mode. Each monster has a separate attack and defence score; in general, the higher the total, the higher the level of the monster, and thus the greater the sacrifice needed to summon it.
Many low level monsters have 'effects,' or special abilities. There are five types of these: Flip, Continuous, Cost, Trigger, and Multi-Trigger. Flip effects occur when a card is flipped from face down to face up position, either by switching from defence to attack mode, by being attacked by your opponent, or by the effects of certain magic or trap cards. Continuous effects remain in play as long as a monster remains face up on the field. Cost effects require you discard your hand or pay life points in order to activate them. Trigger effects require you to perform some action to activate them, such as destroying a powerful opponent monster. Multi-trigger effects can be activated even if it is your opponent's turn. There are a wide variety of effects, such as automatically destroying one of your opponent's monsters, doing extra damage, regaining life points, etc.
There are six different 'attributes' under which all monsters fall: EARTH, WIND, FIRE, WATER, LIGHT, and DARK. There are also twenty different types: Beast, Warrior, Beast-Warrior, Winged Beast, Pyro, Thunder, Fish, Aqua, Sea Serpent, Reptile, Fiend, Fairy, Dinosaur, Zombie, Machine, Plant, Rock, Insect, Spellcaster, and Dragon. The types and attributes make little difference, though there are some magic and trap cards which only affect monsters of certain attributes or types, and some which only affect specific monsters.
Fusion, Ritual, and Toon Monsters
Fusion monsters are created by using the magic card 'Polymerization,' having two or more specific monsters on the field or in your hand, and another one in the Fusion Deck Zone. The way it works is, there are certain monster with a /fusion after their types. These monsters are placed in the Fusion Deck Zone before the Duel starts. They also have the names of a couple of monsters underneath. If you then have both (or all three, in some cases) of these monsters in your hand or on the field as well as Polymerization, you can activate the magic card and send all cards involved to the Graveyard, with the exception of the new fusion monster, which is now placed on the field. If a fusion monster is destroyed, it goes to the Graveyard; if returned to its owners hand, it instead goes back to the Fusion Deck Zone and can only be summoned again by another use of Polymerization. Fusion monsters can be insanely powerful.
Toon monsters are cartoony versions of the regular monsters. They can only be summoned if the magic card 'Toon World' is on the field, and the activation of this card requires the sacrifice of 1,000 life points. Toon monsters cannot attack on the same turn they are summoned. Each time they attack, the user loses 500 life points. If Toon World is destroyed, so are they. The good news is that they can attack Life Points directly (see below) if the opponent has no Toon monsters of his own on the field; if he does, the player's own Toon monsters must attack the opponent's Toons.
Ritual monsters are summoned by the use of special ritual magic cards. These often require a sacrifice of monsters of sufficiently high levels. Ritual monsters can be extremely powerful, or have lethal effects.
Magic and Trap Cards.
These are cards used to bring about many varied special effects. They fall into seven categories: standard, equip, continuous, counter, quick-play, field, and ritual. You can play as many of these as you want in a turn. Some allow the player to summon extra monsters in a turn. Magic cards may either be played face-up, activating their effect immediately, or face-down, saving their effect for later, or simply not letting your opponent know what it is. Trap cards must always be played face down, and are generally activated when your opponent attacks or summons a monster.
Standard: Once activated, these cards are discarded to the Graveyard. They have a variety of effects, and are often very powerful.
Equip: These increase or decrease a monster's attack and/or defence, and remain on the field as long as the monster. A player can even equip their opponent's monsters, but they can never have more than five magic and trap cards in total in play at any one time.
Continuous: These cards remain in effect until a player plays another card that has the specific power to disable it, such as the magic card 'Remove Trap,' which confusingly has the effect of disabling one trap card on the field. There is often a cost of some sort required t maintain such a card.
Counter: These are played to counteract summoning or the effects of other magic and trap cards, immediately after thay are played.
Quick-Play: These are magic cards which can be activated during a battle phase as well as a main phase, and may be played as normal trap cards.
Field: When played, these are placed in the Field Card Zone and do not take up space in the Magic and Trap Card Zone. There may only be one field magic card in play at a time. One of these will boos the attack and defence of any of a group of specific monster types, described on the card.
Ritual: These are used to summon Ritual monsters (see above)
A Typical Turn
Draw Phase: The player draws one card from their deck, which is placed on the Deck Zone. Each player starts the Duel with five cards in their hand.
Standby Phase: The player takes damage to life points and other penalties and benefits while in this phase.
Main Phase: Magic and Trap cards are laid out and a monster may be summoned. Most magic cards are played at this stage. Monsters may have their positions changed between attack and defence modes once per turn .
Battle Phase: Combat is resolved (see below). Once a monster attacks, it cannot be switched to defence mode in the same turn.
End Phase: If your hand contains more than six cards, discard any extras. Announce the end of your turn. It is now your opponent's turn.
Combat
Each player starts with 8,000 Life Points. The winner of the game is the first player to win a Match, which consists of three Duels, at the end of which the person with the most wins is declared the winner. A Duel is conducted in the preceding manner, with players taking alternate turns until one player loses all their life points. Life points are lost in the following manner.
Every monster in attack mode may normally attack once per turn, though some may attack multiple times due to effects or certain magic or trap cards. When attacking a monster in attack mode, the monster with the lower attack strength will be destroyed (sent to the graveyard, on the appropriately marked space on the game mat) and the loser loses the difference in life points. For example, if Harpie's Brother (1,800 attack) attacked Overdrive (1,600 attack), Overdrive would be destroyed and the player who played it would lose 200 life points. However, if the player who played Overdrive activated the trap card 'Reinforcements,' adding 500 to Overdrive's attack points, Harpie's Brother would be destroyed and the player who played it would lose 300 life points. If both attack strengths are the same, then both monsters are destroyed and neither player loses life points.
If attacking a monster in defence mode, the attacker's attack is compared to the defender's defence. If attack is higher, the defender is destroyed but there is no loss of life points. If defence is higher, the attacker loses the difference in life points but his monster is not destroyed. If attack is equal to defence, there is no loss of monsters or life points.
If all a player's monsters are destroyed but the attacker still has monsters left that have yet to attack, he may attack his opponent's life points directly, deducting from them the attack score of his attacking monster.
Starter Decks and Booster Packs
There are four starter decks: Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, and Pegasus. Each one contains fifty cards, a rule book, and a game mat. There are some cards which can only be rotten in starter decks. Beginners are not recommended to but the Pegasus deck, as it contains a lot of effect monsters and magic and trap cards which are difficult to use correctly.
Additionally, a player's deck my be bolstered by the purchase of booster packs. There are currently 6 to choose from in Europe: Legend of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Magic Ruler, Pharaoh's Servant, Metal Raiders, Labyrinth of Nightmare, and Legacy of Darkness * . Each booster pack contains a selection of 9 different cards, and each series has its own cards. These cards are available from most good gaming, comic, and toy shops and several extremely dodgy ones. Prices are variable. One word of warning, though: the cards are selling like wildfire, but this is because of the animé series rather than the game itself. It's an enjoyable game, but you would be hard pressed to find someone who actually plays it, as opposed to just collecting the cards.
