Beginner's Guide to Yugioh
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Yugioh is game that has been played for a very long time. It's a game that has given great memories to people from a sizable age group and continues to do so. From it's beginnings to it's current state, the game has evolved and advanced, time and time again.
It's great to see a game continually evolve to see how far it can go but unfortunately it can be quite overwhelming to get into or get back into because of this.
Hopefully this guide can clear things up and help you out. For beginners all the way to the best, I believe this guide can help everyone. Also there is sometime nice at the bottom for even the best Yu-gi-oh players but you can skip to whichever section helps you the most.
This guide will be updated because no one, no even Mr.Quality knows everything about Yugioh because it's constantly updating. Don't feel bad and keep trying till you get things right. Take a break if you need to time to time.
Basics
The goal of Yugioh is to win using the strategy your deck does best or the strategy you may become forced to use due to a powerful opponent.
There are multiple win conditions but the most common is to decrease your opponent's life points to zero. You initially start with 8000 life points in Master Duel.
In order to decrease your opponent's life points you usually summon Monsters which all have a select number of attack points and defense points and attack your opponent's monsters or if they don't have any monsters on the field; the player themselves (not physically). Certain monsters also have effects that can do a whole bunch of things; they can even lower your opponent's life points when they are activated and resolved.
Deck Building
All Main Decks must consist of 40 to 60 cards, with no more than 3 cards of the same name, but you usually want not 41 cards, not 53 cards, but rather either 40 cards or either 60 cards in your deck for consistency.
Most people will want 40 cards. You can use a combination of spells/traps and monsters to suit whichever playstyle you wish.
40
60
Extra Deck
All Extra Decks can consist of 0-15 cards with no more than 3 cards of the same name. You not need to use an extra deck but most people like using an extra deck and putting 15 extra deck monsters they like for variety.
Your opponent can use the amount of extra deck cards you have against you but it is difficult for them to do and rare when they successfully do it.
15
Limited and Forbidden
Both the Main Deck and Extra Deck must not consist of more 3 cards with the same name and must also not consist of more than the current limited number of amount placed on certain cards.
Some cards can also just not be used and they are Forbidden due to their usually tremendous power.
Summoning and Special Summoning
Monsters and Monster Zones
There are 5 main monsters zone to summon/set up to 5 monsters in them as well 2 extra monster Zones that were added. (We will go into extra monster zones later)
Placing a card face-down means the same the thing as setting it. You can only set monsters face down in defense position.
You can only normal summon or set 1 monster per turn to a main monster zone if it is not an extra deck monster. You can Special Summon any number of monsters if the monsters conditions for special summoning it are met, unless there is an effect stopping it on the field. You can add the amount of times you can normal summon as well.
Attacking
You can only attack with the monsters on your field in attack position (unless explicitly stated) and must attack monsters on your opponent's field (unless explicitly stated) before being able to attack your opponent directly. You must declare that you are go into your battle phase before battling/attacking. The player who went first cannot attack or go into the battle phase on the first turn of the duel.
Once you choose to attack an opponent's monster their monster will flipped up, if it is set, to confirm it's attack and defense points.
If you attack an opponent's monster with more defense than your attack you will lose life points however your monster will not be destroyed (unless explicitly stated).
If you attack an opponent's monster who is in attack position who has less attack than your monster; your opponent's monster will be destroyed and sent to your opponent's graveyard (unless explicitly stated) and they will lose life points equal to the difference between your monster's attack points and theirs.
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In this example La Jinn has 1800 attack points while Hayabusa Knight has 1000 attack points.
La Jinn will destroy Hayabusa and deal 800 life points of damage.
In this example La Jinn has 1800 attack points and is attacking a monster in defense position.
You know a monster is in defense position when it is horizontal instead of vertical like La Jinn.
Guardragon Justicia has 2100 defense points, La Jinn cannot destroy it and you will take 300 points of damage (2100-1800 = 300) if you try attacking it.
If your opponent had placed their monster in defense position and your monster had higher attack than that monsters defense points, the opponent's monster will still be destroyed and sent to the graveyard but they will not lose any life points.
For example if you attack your opponents monster who is in Attack position that has 1000 attack with your 1800 attack monster you will deal 800 damage to them and their monster will be destroyed. It is quite logical and you should get a knack for it after doing it a few times.
If you attack your opponent directly you will go to real life jail, however if you attack directly in the card game you will decrease their life points by the number of attack points your monster has. (unless explicitly stated)
Graveyard/Banishment Zones
The graveyard is the place where monsters go when they are destroyed by battle or card effect (usually).
They can also be banished (this is also sometimes called removed from play) and sent to the banishment zone (or sometimes called removed from play zone), if you or your opponent uses an effect that banishes or uses a monster that has an effect that banishes a card.
Spells / Traps
There are 5 Spell/Trap Card Zones to place face down (set) or use face up as well as 1 field spell zone for each player.
You can use spells and traps that can inflict damage upon using and resolving their effects, or use them to destroy your opponent's monster or summon a monster or whole bunch of other things.
Spells can only be used on your turn if there is an open Spell/Trap Zone while Traps can only be used the following turn they are set (Unless explicitly stated). Quick-Play Spells can be used on your turn and if you choose to set them they can also be used the following turn they are set.
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Once a spell or trap has been used it goes to the graveyard (unless explicitly stated) unless it is a Continuous Spell or Continuous Trap.
Continuous Spells/Traps are just like they say they can be used Continuously as explicitly their effect says.
Field Spells are basically spell cards with effects that usually help archetypes.
Archetypes are cards that follow a common theme such as blue-eyes, blue-eyes monsters try to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon. There is a field spell regarding blue-eyes cards but it's not very good. Usually they are pretty strong though.
Main Phase and other Phases
There are 5 or maybe 6 phases in Yugioh but you only really use 1-3 most of the time since 2 are automatic and the end phase isn't really a phase, also you don't always go into your battle phase or Main Phase 2. You can skip some things this section because playing the game will help you understand far easier but this section can clarify some things.
The phases are the Draw Phase, The Standby Phase, The Main Phase, The Battle Phase, The Main Phase 2 and Lastly don't know if it counts but the End Phase.
The Draw Phase and The Standby Phase are automatic for the Turn Player. They are there so your opponent can decide whether they want to play an effect, if they can, after you draw or go into the standby phase.
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Every Turn after the 1st players turn, both players will draw a card for themselves during their draw phase. To clarify it's only the turn player who draws not the opponent as well. This means the player going second gets to use an additional card because going first can have very nice advantages but at the same time going second with an additional card can have its advantages as well.
After the Draw Phase, it's the Standby Phase which is automatic and just is there to allow your opponent or maybe even yourself to use effects that can occur.
After the Standby Phase it's the Main Phase where things actually happen. During the Main Phase you do most of your actions like summoning a monster, activating a spell or setting cards.
After the Main Phase you can choose to go into the Battle Phase if you feel like you can do some damage to your opponent.
During the Battle Phase you cannot summon monsters (unless explicitly stated on a monster) or activate spells or traps unless you have a quick-play spell in your hand or a quick-play spell or any trap card that was set for at least 1 prior turn. Your opponent can also activate quick-play spells and any traps that were set the turn before yours.
Mostly the battle phase is about attacking with your monsters and your opponent activating any traps that they can so your monsters cannot attack or worse.
If you went into the battle phase, you can choose to go into the Main Phase 2 which will end your battle phase for the turn. The Main Phase 2 is just like the Main Phase 1 and you can do everything that you could have done during the Main Phase 1 but you cannot go into your Battle Phase again after it.
You must declare your end phase after the Main Phase 2 in 99% of scenarios.
Your end phase is a simple declaration and once you declare it you cannot go back unless your opponent activates certain effects.
Your opponent is given the chance to activate effects once you declare your end phase should they not your turn is ended and all the phases begin again but this time for your opponent.
Updates
All Summoning methods will have a section dedicated to it so you can go to see which one you are unsure of.
The summoning methods added are below:
Ritual Summoning.
Fusion Summoning.
Synchro Summoning.
XYZ Summoning.
Pendulum Summoning.
Link Summoning.
Other updates are:
The possibility to use a Field Spell in addition to the 5 Spell/Trap Zones was added to the game.
The possibility to use 2 Extra Monster Zones was added to the game.
The possibility to use an Extra Deck which includes Pre-Selected Extra Deck Cards was added to the game.
Pendulum Cards as Spells in the Spell/Trap Card zones was added to the game.
I'll go over everything so don't worry too much if you don't understand everything.
Tribute Summoning
Tribute Summoning has been around for the longest and is a classic summoning method.
Unfortunately it is not the best any more but it still can be used and can make it to the top.
The cool thing about Yugioh is anything can make it to the top with enough luck however there are similarities that will be in the top.
Tribute Summoning's advantages are mostly based on the new support cards that make it so your opponent cannot summon from the Extra Deck which we will talk more about later.
Certain cards that favor tribute summoning make it so your opponent cannot summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon from their Extra Deck or any card at all.
Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is actually not strong compared some newer Extra Deck monsters but that's why tribute summoning cards that block the extra deck can be very strong.
How to Tribute Summon
In order to tribute summon a level 6 monster you need to tribute 1 monster on the field.
In order to tribute summon a level 7 or above monster you need to tribute 2 monsters on the field.
In order to tribute summon, you need to offer tributes usually in the form of monsters on the field. Meaning you must have the monsters on the field prior to tribute summoning (unless explicitly stated). This also eats your normal summon for the turn.
Most monsters follow these rules but there are some that don't.
Levels 5 and 6 require 1 tribute. Levels 7 and above require 2 tributes.
God Cards also called Divine-Beast Monsters require 3 tributes.
Remember some monsters can count for more than 1 tribute if stated.
In order to tribute summon a divine-beast monster you need to tribute 3 monsters on the field.
Ritual Summoning
Ritual Summoning is also a very classic summoning method however it was always quite hard to pull off and even now it continues to be unless you dedicate your deck to doing so.
How to Ritual Summon
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In order to ritual summon a monster you need it's specific or general ritual spell (in this case "Machine Angel Ritual") and a tribute from your hand or field as well as the ritual monster all in your hand. You also need to abide by whatever the ritual spell says.
In this example you have the ritual monster, the ritual spell and a tribute the same level as the monster so that's the 3 cards needed but 3 cards is still a lot.
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In this example you have to use 4 cards in your hand because you need your tributes to equal the level 10 monster.
4 cards better be worth the monster you are summoning.
In order to Ritual Summon you need usually 3 or more cards. You need the ritual monster in your hand, the ritual spell in your hand, and the tributes that equal or exceed the level of the ritual monster. (unless explicitly stated)
Because it requires so many cards unless the ritual monster is very strong with it's effects, ritual summoning is costly, risky and difficult to do.
There are archetypes (An archetype is a set of cards with a similar theme and name in yugioh such as Blue-Eyes) dedicated to ritual summoning, namely one is called Drytron that drastically improved ritual summoning and another called Megalith which uses ritual monsters to ritual summon instead of needing a ritual spell.
Both archetypes do well and Drytron is even at the top but besides those 2 most people don't ritual summon very much due to it's tendency to brick a hand.
Bricking and Seaching
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Bricking means you cannot do anything because you drew cards you cannot activate or summon.
All ritual decks uses searching in order to not brick because they want to find the cards they need in order to ritual summon.
Searching is exactly what is says it means using a card that searches another card in order to improve consistency.
An example of this is using Preparation of the rites to add any ritual monster card you want.
Synchro Summoning
Synchro Summoning is one of the first unique summoning methods that summons a monster from the extra deck and in the anime they drive motorcycles while synchro summoning but you shouldn't use motorcycles while playing Yu-gi-oh unfortunately. Still it is a cool enough summoning method without them.
How to Synchro Summon
Level 4 tuner
Level 4
Level 8
One of the cool things about Yu-Gi-Oh is that a lot of things for absolutely no reason at all can make an awesome dragon.
In order to Synchro Summon you need a tuner and a non-tuner; a card will explicitly say whether it is a tuner or not.
A tuner is a special monster that might or might not have effects but you can still use it in conjunction with a non-tuner in order to special summon a Synchro monster.
Add the levels of the tuner and non-tuner together and you can summon any card of the sum of the levels from your extra deck as long as it's requirements are met.
You need to put cards in your extra deck in order to special summon them and you can put up to 15 cards. Try not to forget to put the card in your extra deck before trying to summon it.
General and Non-General Extra Deck Monsters
Some cards are general cards meaning they don't require any additional requirements but some cards do require your tuner or non-tuner to be a specific card, card type or card attribute. Some cards also require more than 1 non-tuner and/or tuner.
Some cards can also make regular cards tuners.
It's best to keep some general Synchro cards in your deck because if you have a non-tuner and tuner that adds to it's level, you can summon it in any deck you wish.
Filtering to find Tuners
It's kind of hard to find which cards are tuners so always filter your search for tuners if you want to find one. This will show you all cards that are tuners.
Fusion Summoning
Fusion Summoning is another method that summons a card from the Extra Deck.
How to Fusion Summon
By using the Fusion Spell Power Bond, you can use fusion materials in your hand or field in order to fusion summon the card the fusion materials pertain to, in this case, Cyber Twin Dragon. It will say on the card you Fusion Summoning which materials you need.
In order to Fusion Summon you always need 2 or more cards unless you manage to draw or add extremely powerful cards that fusion summons from the deck.
You need 1 fusion material, another corresponding fusion material and 1 fusion spell or effect monster that allows you fusion summon.
Once again there are fusion spells that are so powerful that they bypass everything and either fusion summon from the deck and some fusion spells that make an average monster appear extremely easy. Both usually have some restrictions and because they are so powerful and only use 1 card, they are usually limited cards or even forbidden.
Limited cards are cards that cannot be placed at 3 in your deck and forbidden cards cannot be placed at all in your deck.
XYZ Summoning
XYZ summoning is another method that summons a card from the extra deck. It is pronounced XZ summoning by saying the letters X Z for some reason but call it whatever you want. I XZ summon is what they say in the anime.
You overlay 2 cards or more cards of the same level together which means you put them on top of each other in the physical game. In Master Duel, it does that for you, you just select your extra deck when you have 2 monsters of the same level on the field and a XYZ monster applicable to summon in your extra deck.
How to XYZ Summon
Level 4 and another level 4 can overlay together in order to make the rank 4 below.
You will have 2 materials on this rank 4 because you overlayed 2 cards together.
In order to XYZ summon you almost always initially need 2 or more monsters of the same level on the field in order to summon a XYZ monster in your extra deck of the same rank.
Monster levels are the stars a monsters has. Monster levels don't really gauge how strong a monster is because some monsters hide how strong they are. A level 1 monster can be stronger than a level 12 monster. Same thing with ranks.
Meaning if you have 2 level 4 monsters, you can summon 1 rank 4 monster.
Levels and ranks are different and if there is a card on the field that prevents level 4 monsters from attacking it will not stop any ranked monster from attacking even rank 4.
XYZ Monster Materials
Bagooska requires 1 material during your Standby Phase in order to stay on the field because he is tired of everyone and demands contribution.
After you XYZ summon a monster your monster will have materials based on how monsters you used to XYZ summon it. If you used 2 monsters it will have 2 materials if you used 3 it will have 3 and so forth.
By detaching 1 material from your monster, you can usually access one of your monsters effects and some monsters need to have materials to have their only effect or ability be used.
Some XYZ monsters can even summon another XYZ monster if the requirements for that monster have been met. Sometimes the requirement is just the monster on the field itself. These XYZ monsters are usually limited or forbidden because of how easy they are to summon.
If they are not so easy to summon, some decks try to become based around them to summon to make it easier because some XYZ monsters are very strong.
It's perhaps better using the weakest monsters you have to link summon.
Link Summoning
Link Summoning is another method that summons monsters from the extra deck and is the most modern and easiest way to special summon a monster. I will discuss Pendulum summoning after link summoning because it's important to understand link summoning first.
How to Link Summon
You can use any 3 monsters to link summon a general monster you have in your extra deck.
In order to link summon, you need any number of any appropriate monsters to link summon any monster of the link rating you wish.
In order to link summon a link 1 monster all you need is 1 appropriate monster. That's it.
You need 2 monsters to summon a link 2 monster, 3 for a link 3 and so forth. All of this not considering using link monsters to link summon.
A link monster has link rating equal to it's red arrows and it's link rating can be used in order to special summon more link monsters. If a link monster has a link rating of 2 and you want link summon a link 3 monster you only need 1 more monster to link summon a link 3. Note you cannot use a link 2 monster by itself in order to link summon another link 2 monster.
Restrictions
Link monsters actually have a few restrictions because they are so easy to summon and most link 1 monsters are not general so you can't summon link 1s all the time.
Link monsters must always be in attack position and cannot be changed to defense position.
The first link monster (of any link rating) you summon must always go to the extra monster zone or point to an opponent's monsters arrows. In order to summon and keep more than 1 link monster on the field, you need to have the second link monster be pointed at by the first link monster you summoned and the 3rd must be pointed at by either the first or second link monster you summoned and so forth and so forth.
Co-Linking and Extra Link
In order to co-link 2 monsters together you need to have those 2 link monster's arrows point at each other.
If you manage to have at least co-linked 4 link monsters on the field on the correct monster zones, your fifth link monster can make all your monsters extra linked by being placed on the second extra monster zone.
Note all of the monsters must become co-linked for an extra link meaning you in almost all scenarios need to have arrows pointing up and right for the monster left of the center monster and arrows pointing up and left for the monster right of the center monster.
This will make it so your opponent cannot link summon without removing one of your extra monster zone link monsters. This is very difficult to do however and rarely happens.
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Pendulum Summoning
Pendulum summoning is a unique summoning method with multiple facets to it. It is perhaps the most difficult summoning method for most people. But you only really need to know the basics and you'll eventually learn everything else.
Pendulum summoning can special summon both from the main deck and extra deck.
How to Pendulum Summon
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Scale 3
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Scale 7
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The scales of your pendulum zones become 3 and 7 if you have the above 2 cards in your pendulum zones. The scales are the blue and red diamonds, they are almost always the same number so even if you put one pendulum card on the leftmost zone it will have the same scale as if you had put it in the rightmost zone.
Because all 4 of these monsters have levels in between 3 and 7, you can special summon all of them if they are in your hand and you have the 2 above monsters in your pendulum zones.
The 2 above pendulum cards are actually very good even if you don't pendulum summon as well and can be used in almost every deck.
Pendulum Rules
If you yourself destroyed a pendulum card or your opponent did, your pendulum card goes into your extra deck not your graveyard.
The same is true if you used your pendulum card on the field to link summon, fusion summon, tribute summon, ritual summon but not XYZ summon.
XYZ monster materials always goes to the graveyard. (unless there is another card on the field which says otherwise)
Remember you can only have 15 cards in your extra deck but this is exclusive of any pendulum cards. You can have any number of Pendulum cards face up in your extra deck.
How to Pendulum Summon from the extra deck
Extra Deck
17
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You can pendulum summon 1 monster from your extra deck into the extra monster zone, if that card is in between the pendulum scales of the cards in your pendulum zones.
This is why it is a good idea to destroy your own pendulum cards sometimes to get them into the extra deck. (Remember you still need your 2 cards in your pendulum zones though)
You can pendulum summon any number of monsters from your extra deck into the monster zones a link monster points to.
You can pendulum summon from both monsters from your face up extra deck and hand at the same time however you can only pendulum summon once per turn.
In depth
In order to Pendulum summon you need to have 2 pendulum monsters in both your pendulum zones (Pendulum zones are the leftmost and rightmost spell/trap zones so try to not set your spells/traps in those zones).
You need one with a lower scale and another with a higher scale in order to special monsters from your hand and/or pendulum monsters that can be special summoned from the extra deck of a level in between those scales.
Simply put should you have a low scale monster of scale 1 and another monster of scale 8 in your pendulum zones, you can special summon any number of monster from your hand of levels in between those scales so monsters of level 2-7 without paying tributes AND if you have pendulum monsters in your extra deck of levels in between those scales you can special summon them to the monster zones a link monster is pointing to or the extra monster zone if it is not taken.
Not only this you have access to a Pendulum monster's Pendulum effects in your Pendulum monster zones just by them being there.
Focus on the first part for beginners all you need is a low level scale monster and high level scale monster to summon any number of monsters of levels in between those scales from your hand.
Pendulum Effects
Pendulum monsters also have Pendulum effects and can use only their Pendulum effects when in the Pendulum Zones. A lot of times Pendulum monsters also have regular effects that they can only use when on the main monster zone.
Not only this Pendulum monsters do not go to the graveyard when they are destroyed by battle or card effect (unless of course there is a card that sends card to be banished instead on the field) but rather the extra deck and you can special summon them again if you have pendulum monsters in your pendulum zones.
Pendulum summon cards are extremely strong for these reasons but require a lot of reading.
Pendulum summoning usually leads to all other summoning methods and is quite versatile for this reason. Definitely look into Pendulum summoning in order to increase your variety of cards you use.
Best Tips
Congratulations you have learned all summoning methods for now and now can focus on the Best Tips before needing to understand advanced topics.
I wrote that I would be giving some good knowledge away for most players even advanced ones, so here it is.
The perhaps most important thing to understand in Yugioh is to manipulate probability in a different way but kind of similar way the main character of the First Yugioh did.
The Yugioh Formula
The way to do this by using simple math that I'm not so good with actually haha but still am able to do.
Simple math dictates if you have 10 cards of the same effect in your 40 card deck or very similar effect then you will almost always be able to use that effect due to the chance of starting your duel with that card.
Because you have 10 cards in 40 card deck of a similar effect the chance of drawing that effect is 1/4, 40 divided by 10 is 4 and because you draw 5 cards no matter whose goes first, initially, you have a very high chance of using the effect that you wish.
Simple math dictates that if you have a 1/4 chance of doing something and you have been give the opportunity 4 times to do so, you should have at least been able to do that thing you wanted once by then. If you have been given 5 opportunities it's an even higher chance. (Still not guaranteed but that's life)
