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How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1

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How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 Empty How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1




This is, as the title states, part of a series of blog posts about how Yu-Gi-Oh! is played. This first post will be about a typical turn in Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as setting up the game.

Before the game starts
You must, obviously, have an opponent. Both you and your opponent must have a 40-60 card deck - officially the Main Deck, but most cards even just call it the "Deck", and we will here. Optional but typically beneficial is an "Extra Deck" that can store up to 15 Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monsters - special types of monsters with special conditions to be played. We'll get to them later. If you're playing in real life, you may need coins, dice, or other cards to act as "Tokens" - special monsters summoned through a card effect.

Before each duel, you must shuffle your deck. Any way of shuffling is fine, so long as it is actually shuffling and you aren't stacking the deck. Also you have to decide who goes first; this is perhaps most easily done through rock-paper-scissors (and is done that way on DN and pretty much all official Yu-Gi-Oh video games). When the duel starts, you draw five cards from your Deck. Then whoever goes first starts with the

Draw Phase
This is the first thing to happen every turn: the player whose turn it is draws a card. It isn't, however, the first thing to happen in a Duel - as of now, the player who goes first does not draw a card during the initial Draw Phase. It still happens, for whatever it's worth. As a note, all effects that don't state otherwise must activate cannot activate before the turn player draws a card.

Standby Phase
Most of the time, all the Standby Phase does is exist. There are, however, some cards who trigger their effects during it - whether it's something you must do to keep it on the field or something else. After all Standby Phase effects resolve, you move into the...

Main Phase 1
The Main Phase is where you actually use the cards you have. During it, you may:

  • Normal Summon OR Set one monster. (Some cards increase this limit, but otherwise, once you try to Normal Summon or Set a monster, you can't do it for the rest of the turn.)
  • Activate Spell Cards or Trap Cards that were Set during your last turn.
  • Set Trap Cards or Quick-Play Spell Cards to ruin your opponent's day later

Do you not know what any of that stuff means? Well, we'll get to it later in detail. Although one thing we'll get into right now: Summons.

Normal Summons are the basic type of Summon. To Normal Summon a monster, you just place it from your hand onto the field in face-up Attack Position (vertically). (Positions will be covered right in the next section.) The Set is the counterpart to a Normal Summon; you just place it face-down on the field in Defense Position (horizontally). The turn after you Set a monster, you can Flip Summon it in Attack Position. (A Flip Summon is its own separate type of Summon; you can Normal Summon and Flip Summon in the same turn.) If a monster has 5 or more How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 18px-CG_Star.svg (seen below its name and above its picture)(the technical term is "Level"; if a monster has 5 How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 18px-CG_Star.svgs, it's Level 5), you need to Tribute (send to the Graveyard; think of it as the discard pile if you've played the Pokémon TCG) one monster you already Summoned. If it has 7 or more How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 18px-CG_Star.svg, you have to Tribute one additional monster. This is called a Tribute Summon; a Tribute summon is exactly the same as a Normal Summon, so all cards that affect Normal Summons also affect Tribute Summons, though the reverse is not true.


Special Summons are, typically, Summons via card effects. (There are Special Summons not done through card effects, and some card effects let you Normal Summon again.) Monsters Special Summoned do not need to have Tributes offered up if they have 5 or more How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 18px-CG_Star.svgs, but usually there's some requirement that must be fulfilled in order to Special Summon. For example, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning requires you to banish (basically: sending to another Graveyard) 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your Graveyard. You can Special Summon as many times as you want during a turn, unless a card effect prevents you from doing so.

Now that you summoned all of your monsters and are ready to go, let's enter how most players win!

Battle Phase
Each player starts with 8000 Life Points (LP). When a player has 0 LP (you cannot have an LP score lower than 0), he or she loses.

This is typically how you'll deplete your opponent's LP.

Like drawing, on the first turn of the duel, the player conducting the turn cannot enter the Battle Phase. You do not have to enter the Battle Phase. There's four main parts to the Battle Phase:

The Start Step. You say "hey I'm entering the Battle Phase". Last chance for effects that activate during the Main Phase to be applied.
The Battle Step. Your monsters can declare an attack right now. You have to declare the target of the attack; one of your opponent's monsters, or, if they have no monsters or a card effect allows it, your opponent themselves! A single Chain (Trap Cards/Quick-Play Spell Cards and responses to those) can be made during this step.
The Damage Step. In this step, only effects that raise/lower ATK and DEF (the numerical values at the bottom of a monster's text box) and those that can respond to them can be activated. This is where which monster is destroyed is determined, as well as the damage dealt:

  • If the target is in Attack Position: The monster with lower ATK is destroyed, and damage is dealt to its controller equal to the difference in ATK. If they have the same ATK, both are destroyed (unless their ATKs are 0; they're just that pathetic).
  • If the target is in Defense Position: If the target's DEF is higher, the attacker takes damage equal to the difference, but nothing's destroyed. If the target's DEF is lower, it's destroyed, but no damage is dealt unless the monster can deal Piercing damage; then damage is equal to the difference between ATK and DEF.
  • If the target is the opponent: Deal damage equal to the monster's ATK. This is what's known as a direct attack, and cards will refer to it as such.

Loop between the Battle Step and the Damage Step as much as needed. Each monster can typically attack once per turn.
The End Step. End of the Battle Phase. Nothing remarkable happens.

Main Phase 2
Everything you can do in the Main Phase 1 can be done here. This does not include Normal Summoning/Setting a monster if you already did so.

End Phase
Basically the Standby Phase; nothing happens unless a card effect says it should. It's also the last phase of your turn; next up is your opponent's turn, where they do everything you just did. Loop until end of duel.

The duel ends when:

  • One player's Life Points reaches zero. That player loses.
  • A player cannot draw when s/he needs to, during either the Draw Phase or through a card effect. The player that is required to draw loses.
  • An alternate, card-based victory condition is fulfilled. The player who fulfills the victory condition wins.

The loser of the duel gets to decide who goes first for the next duel in the series.

Aaaaaaaand that's it for now. Next time: monsters! Yay!


Last edited by Lief Katano on 29th September 2021, 8:57 pm; edited 2 times in total
Lief Katano
Lief Katano

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How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh: Part 1 :: Comments

Princess

Post 11th June 2015, 12:29 am by Princess

I applaud you for creating a guide. This will definitely come in handy should a new member be interested in dueling with the rest of the Pit Stop.

Clap, Clap For You! Clap, Clap For You! Clap, Clap For You!


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