If you were a kid in the late 90s or early 2000s, you’ve probably heard of Yu-Gi-Oh. It’s a popular card game that spawned an animated TV show and manga series.
The card game consists of monster, spell, and trap cards. Players have a Main Deck with between 40 and 60 cards. There’s also an Extra Deck that contains zero to 15 special monsters.
Cards
The cards used in Yu-Gi-Oh are an integral part of the game, and understanding their rules is essential to a player’s success. Each card features a picture, which represents a monster or other object. It also includes the card’s name, attack points and defense points. In addition, each card has a text box that lists its effects and how to employ them.
The game’s core cards include a main deck and an extra deck. The main deck typically contains 40 to 60 cards, while the extra deck contains zero to 15 special monsters, such as Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Link monsters. These cards can be special summoned by using a monster card with a Fusion effect, or by tributing required monsters listed in the instructions.
The game also uses spell and trap cards to boost monsters, weaken opponents’ monsters, and give players advantages in battle. In addition, players must use counters to keep track of turns and power levels. A calculator is also useful for keeping track of LP (life points), which can quickly change amidst a duel.
Rules
Players must abide by the standard rules of play. Cards must be shuffled and cut before play begins, and they must honor the flow of action as prescribed by the game’s scenario setups. There are a few exceptions, but most of these are to prevent cheating.
During their turns, players show their hand to each other so that they can’t manipulate their opponent’s turn by secretly playing something under the table. This “respect play” rule has been a big part of the game’s success and popularity.
Each monster has an attack and defence stat, as well as a name and card text. This text can tell the monster’s type, and the type can matter when it comes to battling (attacks against an equal-typed monster destroy that monster). The player also has five spaces for spell and trap cards. These can be’set’ (face-down) or activated (face-up). The player keeps their extra deck, which contains zero to 15 special monsters that have ‘fusion’,’synchro’ or ‘xyz’ in their card text.
Strategy
Like any yugioh card game requires skill and strategy. In order to win, players must destroy all of their opponent’s monsters and be the first to reduce both player’s life points to zero. To do this, players use a variety of Monster, Spell, and Trap Cards.
Each player has a main deck, an extra deck, and a field zone. The main deck can hold up to 60 cards, while the extra deck contains Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum monsters. The field zone is reserved for Field Spell Cards and the Graveyard, which is where discarded spell/trap cards go.
Each player is also allowed to have up to six cards in their hand. However, cards that can reduce the number of cards in a player’s hand can dramatically change the course of a duel. One such card is the Hieroglyph Lithograph, a normal trap that increases a player’s hand size limit to seven for the remainder of the duel.
Origins
Followed in the footsteps of Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh became one of the world’s most recognizable trading card games with a wildly popular anime series and all manner of merchandising. It all started with a manga that appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump, the famed anthology that also gave rise to Dragon Ball and One Piece.
Takahashi’s original story revolved around a young schoolboy getting possessed by an ancient Egyptian pharaoh and duels with various antagonists over all kinds of different games. Originally called Magic and Wizards, it was later renamed Duel Monsters, which better reflected the actual card game that the franchise would become.
Konami formally released its version of the game in February 1999, and it has remained the centerpiece of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise ever since. Different companies handle the game’s administration in different regions, but all of them are well established and known to their respective markets. Upper Deck Entertainment administers the Official Card Game in North America, while Konami handles it in Asia and the rest of the world.
