Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

Cards are laid out in the following manner:

• Main deck: The player's main deck is placed here face-down, and can consist of 40 to 60 cards. Normal, effect, ritual, and pendulum monsters can be stored here. Spell and trap cards are also stored here.
• Extra deck: The player's extra deck is placed here face-down, if they have one, and may have 15 cards consisting of Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Link monster cards. Pendulum monsters are placed face-up here when they would otherwise be sent from the field to the Graveyard.
• Graveyard (GY): A zone where cards are sent when they are discarded or destroyed, such as used spell/trap cards which were used or monsters that are tributed or destroyed in battle.
• Main monster zones: A field of five spaces where monster cards are placed when successfully Summoned. Prior to the addition of Link monsters, any kind of monster could be placed there at any time. After Link monsters were introduced, monsters from the extra deck could only be Special Summoned from the extra deck to the extra monster zone, or a main monster zone a Link monster points to, up until the rule change for April 2020 onward, where only link monsters and pendulum monsters from the extra deck follow this restriction.
• Extra monster zones: Introduced with Link monsters, this is a zone where monsters from the extra deck can be Summoned. An extra monster zone is not a part of either player's field until they Summon a monster to the extra monster zone.
• Spell/trap zones: Five spaces in which either spell or trap cards can be placed. The leftmost and rightmost spell/trap zones can optionally be treated as "pendulum zones" by placing pendulum monsters there, allowing players to use pendulum effects and perform pendulum summons.
  • The pendulum zones originally were at the left and right sides of the main monster and spell/trap zones when introduced with the Arc-V era, but were integrated into the leftmost and rightmost spell/trap zones during the VRAINS era.
• Field zone: A zone where field spell cards are placed.
• Cards that are "banished" by card effects are placed outside of the game in a pile.

Each player's turn contains six phases that take place in the following order:

• Draw phase: The turn player draws one card from their deck.[10]
• Standby phase: No specific action occurs, but it exists for card effects and maintenance costs that activate or resolve during this specific phase.[10]
• Main phase 1: The turn player may Normal Summon or Set a monster, activate cards and effects that they control, change the battle position of a monster (provided it was not summoned this turn), and Set Spells or Traps face-down.[10]
• Battle phase: The turn player may choose to attack their opponent using any monsters on their field in Attack Position. Depending on the position of opposing monster, the attacking monster's ATK points are taken into account against the opposing monster's ATK or DEF points. If both monsters are in Attack Position, the monster with fewer ATK points is destroyed and its owner takes life point damage equal the difference between both monster's ATK points (if both monsters have equal ATK points, they are both destroyed and no damage is taken, unless both of their ATK points are 0, in which case neither is destroyed). If the opposing monster is in Defense Position and has fewer DEF points than the attacking monster's ATK points, it is destroyed and the owner takes no damage. However, if its DEF point is higher, the attacker takes life point damage equal to the difference between the two values. If the defending player has no monsters defending them, a Direct Attack can be performed, with the defending player receiving life point damage equal to the attacking monster's ATK points. The turn player can choose to not enter the battle phase and instead go to the end phase.[10]
• Main phase 2: The player may do all the same actions that are available during main phase 1, though they cannot repeat certain actions already taken in main phase 1 (such as Normal Summoning) or change the battle position of a monster that has already been summoned, attacked, or had their battle position changed during the same turn.[10]
• End phase: This phase also exists for card effects and maintenance costs that activate or resolve during this specific phase. Once this phase is resolved, the player ends their turn.[10]

The player who begins the game does not draw during the draw phase and cannot enter the battle phase during their first turn.[10]

Gameplay revolves around three types of cards: monster, spell, and trap cards. monster cards are monsters used to attack and defend against the opposing player, mainly for the purpose of damaging an opponent's life points. Spells, which can either be played from the hand or set for later use, provide various effects such as altering a monster's strength, drawing additional cards, or removing an opponent's cards from the field. Traps are cards that are set on the field in advance and activated in later turns when certain conditions are made, such as when an opponent targets a player's monster.

With some exceptions, a typical monster cards possesses ATK and DEF points which determine its attack and defense power in battles, a level represented by stars, with more powerful monsters typically possessing higher levels, an attribute that certain effects may react to, and a description listing the monster's types and any effects or summoning conditions they may possess. monsters are summoned to the field through three main categories of summoning; normal, tribute, and special. Once during a player's main phase, players can choose to normal summon a level 4 or lower normal or effect monster from their hand in face-up attack position or face-down defense position, or tribute summon a level 5 or higher monster by tributing one or more monsters already on the field. Special summons are performed by utilising card effects or fulfilling the conditions of other summoning methods, such as those used to summon cards from the extra deck, and can be performed as many times as possible if the conditions are met.

The game currently features the following types of monster.

• Normal (yellow): A monster with no effects of its own, instead having a flavour text. Stored in the main deck and can be normal, tribute, or special summoned.
• Effect (orange): A monster that possesses at least one effect. Can be summoned in the same manner as normal monsters.
• Ritual (blue): Stored in the main deck, these monsters can typically only be special summoned by using a ritual spell card and tributing required monsters listed in its instructions.
• Fusion (purple): Stored in the extra deck, these monsters are summoned by utilising cards with a "fusion" effect, such as polymerization, and tributing monsters listed in the monster's description.
• Synchro (white): Stored in the extra deck, these monsters are summoned by tributing from the field a tuner-type monster and one or more non-tuner-type monsters whose levels equal the level of the synchro monster being summoned.
• Xyz (black): Stored in the extra deck, these monsters possess ranks as opposed to levels, and require two or more monsters whose level is the same as the xyz monster's rank. These monsters become the xyz monster's "overlay units", which can then be sent to the GY to activate effects.
• Pendulum (green gradient): Variations of other monster types which, if sent from the field to the GY, are placed face up in the extra deck instead. Pendulum monsters can be placed in pendulum zones in the leftmost and rightmost spell/trap zones, where they can utilise pendulum effects. When both pendulum zones contain pendulum monsters with differently valued "pendulum scales", players can perform a pendulum summon during the main phase to summon multiple monsters from the hand and face-up pendulum monsters from the extra deck whose levels lie between the two pendulum scale values.
• Link (dark blue): Stored in the extra deck, link monsters have link values instead of levels and can only be played in attack position. These are summoned by tributing one or more monsters on the field that meets the summon requirements, with link monsters able to be used as multiple tributes depending on its link value. Link monsters feature arrows which, when pointed towards other zones on the field, allows additional link monsters to be summoned outside of the extra monster zone. Link monsters may also possess effects that can be used when another card is a linked zone.
• Token (grey): A low-level monster that can only be summoned through card effects. These cards do not exist outside of the field and are removed from play upon leaving. While official token monster cards do exist, players can use other objects such as coins to represent token monsters.

Spell cards, green, are magical spells with a variety of effects, such as reviving destroyed monsters. They can be played from the hand during a player's turn or placed faced down for activation on a later turn. There are six types of Spell Card:

• Normal: A spell that can only be activated during the player's main phase.
• Quick Play: A spell that can be activated from the hand at any time during the player's turn, or can be set and activated during an opponent's turn. However, they cannot be activated the turn they are set.
• Continuous: A spell with a continuous effect that remains until conditions are met or it is destroyed.
• Equip: A spell that is equipped to a monster, providing it with support effects. It is removed if the monsters leaves the field or is set face-down, or the card is destroyed.
• Field: A spell that is placed in a player's field spell zone, which affects the entire field. Each player can only have one field spell in play at a time.
• Ritual: A spell that is required to summon a ritual monster.

Trap cards, dark pink, have to be set on a player's field face-down and can only be activated after the turn they were set has passed, including the opponent's turn. (Quick play spells, when set, have the same rule.) They are generally used to stop or counter the opponent's moves, and come in three varieties.

• Normal: A standard trap that is discarded once its effect resolves.
• Continuous: A trap that remains on the field until destroyed or its conditions are met.
• Counter: A trap that is activated in response to the activation of other cards.[10]

A chain is a stack of card effects activated one after the other. It exists for the management of multiple card effects.[10]

A chain is created when the effects of more than one card are activated at the same time, or when a player activates an effect after a card is played, but before the card impacts the game.

If the effect of a card is activated, the opponent always has the possibility to reply with an effect of their own cards, thus creating a chain.

• If your opponent replied with an effect, you can choose to reply back and add another effect to the chain.
• If your opponent chooses not to reply, you can add a second effect and create a chain off of the activation of your own card.

Each player can then continue to add effects to the chain. The chain ends when the players wish to not play any more cards. Should this happen, the chain is resolved: the resolution is performed in reverse order of play, starting with the effect of the most recently played card.[10]

It is advised to not resolve card effects before ensuring that a chain had not been created.

You play Raigeki (a normal spell destroying all of the opponent's monsters). As a reply to your Raigeki, your opponent plays Destruction Jammer (a counter trap that negates the destruction of a monster by discarding a card) to negate the effects of Raigeki, thus placing Destruction Jammer in chain block 1. You then play Solemn Judgement (a counter trap that negates a monster summon and/or the activation of a spell or trap, but at the cost of half of the player's LP) as chain block 2 to negate Destruction Jammer's effect. Your opponent decides not to reply to Solemn Judgement, thus the chain is resolved starting with the highest chain block, which achieves this result:

1. Solemn Judgement is activated: you pay half of your LP, and the effect of destruction jammer is negated.
2. Destruction Jammer should have been resolved and negate the effect of Raigeki, but solemn Judgement prevents the effect from resolving.
3. Raigeki is then activated, and all of the opponent's monsters are destroyed.

A chain can only be created by replying with the activation of a card effect. Summoning or tributing a monster, changing position or paying a cost do not represent valid effects. Thus, it is not possible to reply to a chain with these effects.[10]

As in all other trading card games, booster packs are the primary avenue of card distribution. In Konami's distribution areas, five or nine random cards are found in each booster pack depending on the set and each set contains around one hundred different cards. However, in Upper Deck's areas, early booster packs contained a random assortment of nine cards (rarity and value varies), with the whole set ranging around one hundred and thirty cards. To catch up with the Japanese meta game, two or more original sets were combined into one. Now, more recent Upper Deck sets have simply duplicated the original set. Some booster sets are reprinted/reissued (e.g. Dark Beginnings Volume 1 and 2). This type of set usually contains a larger number of cards (around 200 to 250), and they contain twelve cards along with one tip card rather than the normal five or nine. Since the release of Tactical Evolution in 2007, all booster packs that have a Holographic/Ghost Rare card, will also contain a rare. Current sets have 100 different cards per set. There are also special booster packs that are given to those who attend a tournament. These sets change each time there is a different tournament and have fewer cards than a typical booster pack. There are eight Tournament Packs, eight Champion Packs, and 10 Turbo Packs.

Duelist packs are similar to booster packs, albeit are focused around the types of cards used by characters in the various anime series. Cards in each pack are reduced from nine to five.

Some cards in the TCG have been released by other means, such as inclusion in video games, movies, and Shonen Jump Magazine issues. These cards often are exclusive and have a special type of rarity or are never-before-seen to the public. Occasionally, cards like Elemental Hero Stratos and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon have been re-released as revisions.