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The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on Duel Monsters which appears as the main plot device in the popular Japanese manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the two Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series, which are Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! series and NAS's Yu-Gi-Oh! series (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Asia). In its fictional contexts, the game is sometimes referred to as Magic and Wizards or M&W in the original Japanese manga.

The card game is known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Official Card Game (sometimes shortened as "OCG") in Asian countries where Konami releases the game. The game is known as the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game in countries where Upper Deck Entertainment distributes the game. It is inspired by the game in the manga and anime series, however the rules are adhered to more strictly and are comparatively more consistent and balanced than the game represented in its fictional contexts.

Each player is allotted a certain number of Life Points (Both players usually start with 8000 Life Points), and the main objective of the game is to reduce an opponent's Life Points to zero, or win by alternate means. Like many other trading card games, Duel Monsters is a game mainly for two players to compete head-to-head, although there are unofficial variations of the rules thought up by fans that allow the play of three or more players.

There are also video games based on the card game, with minor differences between it and the collectible card game, and the video games generally give away copies of rare and/or powerful cards (usually three of them) with the game.

Publication History

Beginning as a manga in Japan in 1996, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has since grown to an immensely successful global brand, spawning two manga series (split into three parts in the English translations), three anime series, and four movies, alongside a real-life version of the card game featured in the story, video games and toys.

Editions

In Japan, there are two editions of the game: the earlier Carddas version, and the better-known Konami version, the latter of which being the one played worldwide. Some cards are exclusive to the Konami version, and some cards are exclusive to the Bandai edition.

Only three boosters had been released for the Carddas version before the license of the card game was sold to Konami later. The game was popular, although it used a simplified and modified version of the gaming rules used in the manga, and corresponds less to the manga compared with Konami's versions of the game. In the Carddas version, some of the cards were not re-released to Japanese audiences after the Bandai edition ended distribution. This included cards that did nothing more than describe characters from Toei's anime series.

Game play

When the game first appears in the manga, both players are described as wizards summoning powerful creatures and attacking your opponent's life points to get them down to zero.

Cards

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards are divided into three categories: Monster Cards, Spell (or Magic) Cards, and Trap Cards.

Monster Cards
Monster Cards are the basic cards a player uses to attack the opponent, or defend from the opponent's attack. Monster Cards can be divided into four categories:
  • Normal Monster Cards — Identified by its background color yellow. These are the most basic type of Monster Cards.
  • Fusion Monster Cards — Identified by its background color violet. These are monsters summoned by combining two or more monsters using the Spell Card "Polymerization", "Fusion Gate", "Power Bond", "Miracle Fusion", "Future Fusion", "Overload Fusion", "Vehicroid Connection Zone", or "Dragon's Mirror". They can also be Special Summoned through the effects of cards like "Magical Scientist", "Metamorphosis", "Cyber-Stein" or "Summoner of Illusions".(These summons aren't usually considered Fusion Summons.) This type of monsters is not put into the main deck. Instead, they are put into a special pile called the "Fusion Deck".
  • Ritual Monster Cards — Identified by its background color blue. When these monsters are in a player's hand, they can only be summoned by using their own unique Ritual Spell Cards to offer monsters which fulfill certain conditions as Tributes.
  • Effect Monster Cards — Identified by its background color orange. These are monsters with special abilities (effects). Some Fusion Monsters and Ritual Monsters also have effects (such as Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Relinquished), and they can be treated as Effect Monsters as well (specifically, Fusion/Effect and Ritual/Effect). The color of the card is always the color corresponding to the first card type in the list.

Throughout time, the Effect Monsters further included different sub-classes:

  • Flip Effect Monster - These monsters' effects can only be activated if the monster is flipped from face down to face up (the effect may be instant, but may be delayed as well). All Flip Effect Monsters have "FLIP:" in front of the effect. Note: you can only flip a monster from face down defense position to face up attack and you can't flip monsters into face up defense position. The only way for a monster to be flipped into defense position is by it being attacked or flipped by a card effect.
  • Toon Monster - The names of these monsters are the same as those of some other cards, except with a word Toon included in its name (Manga Ryu Ran is an exception). A toon monster bears the same Level, Attack and Defense statistics as those of the normal versions (example: Toon Summoned Skull and the normal Summoned Skull both have 2500 ATK and 1200 DEF, and both are level 6). The first Toon monsters printed can only be played if the Spell Card Toon World is in play, but now recent Toon monsters can be played without it, though Toon World still affects them. One main feature of Toon monsters is that they cannot attack on the same turn they are summoned, that is, after they are summoned, they must wait for the next turn to attack. (Toon Dark Magician Girl is an exception to the rule.) However, with Toon World, Toon monsters can attack a player's Life Points directly unless the opponent also have Toon monsters, in which case those Toon monsters must be attacked first.
  • Spirit Monster - These monsters are especially unique in that under normal condition, after these monsters are summoned or flipped face-up, they are returned to their owner's hand at the end of that turn (unless Spiritual Energy Settling Machine is in play). Also, they cannot be special summoned. Yata-Garasu was basically the most popular Spirit card before it got banned in official tournaments. With the current Ban/Restriction List, Tsukuyomi is the most commonly-used Spirit monster.
  • Union Monster - These monsters can work either as mere monster cards, or as equip cards to specific monster cards (example being Pitch Black Dragon for Dark Blade). Union monsters can only be equipped with one other monster at anytime. When a monster equipped with a Union monster is destroyed as a result of battle, the Union monster is destroyed instead, thus saving the equipped monster. Union monsters, used as equip spell cards, become vulnerable to effects that can destroy spell cards, this can sometimes prove to be a disaster especially to Aitsu/Koitsu or Soitsu/Doitsu monsters. The most notable Union Monsters are W-Wing Catapult, Y-Dragon Head and Z-Metal Tank, of the VWXYZ monsters.

Spell Cards

Identified by its background color green, Spell Cards (previously named Magic cards) have a wide variety of usage, from supporting your side to weakening the opposite's side. They can only be activated during the turn of the player who plays it (except Quick-play Spell Cards, which can also be activated during the opponent's turn). Spell Cards are divided into six types:

  • Normal Spell Cards — Identified by having no symbol next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". These are the most basic type of Spell Cards. ) next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". These are cards that can be "equipped" to a monster to modify its condition, and are destroyed once the equipped monster leaves the field or is flipped face-down. next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". These are cards that alter the conditions on both sides of the game. Only 1 active Field Spell Card can exist on the field at any time; when a new one is activated, the old one is destroyed immediately. They also have a special position on the field, therefore not contributing to the 5 Magic/Trap card limit. next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". These are cards used for summoning a Ritual Monster. next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". These are cards that, once activated, stay on the field, and their effects continue until they are removed from the field. Some of these cards have a cost to keep them played, when the cost is not met, the card is destroyed. next to the words "SPELL CARD" or "MAGIC CARD". This is a special type of Spell Cards which can be played at almost anytime and can be played from your hand as well.
Normal Spell cards and Quickplay Spell cards have a one-time only effect, and are sent to the Graveyard after resolution except when stated otherwise in the card's effect, e.g. Swords of Revealing Light.

Trap Cards
As their names imply, Trap Cards are cards that work like a trap. They can only be activated by first setting them on the field in your turn, and then waiting until next turn (the opponent's turn). Because of this, they usually have effects that are supposed to "trap" the opponent when certain conditions are fulfilled. Identified by its background color purple, Trap Cards are divided into three types:
  • Normal Trap Cards — Identified by having no symbol next to the words "TRAP CARD". These are the most basic type of Trap Cards. next to the words "TRAP CARD". They are basically the same as Continuous Spell Card, except having the properties of a Normal Trap Card. next to the words "TRAP CARD". These types of cards are used to "counter" something, such as the summoning of monsters, and the activations of card effects.
All Trap Cards (except Continuous Traps) have a one-time only effect, and are sent to the Graveyard after resolution except when stated on the card itself, e.g. Blast With Chain.

Advanced/Traditional Formats
In order to prevent a certain deck demographic from becoming too prevalent in the game, Konami has set up a list of cards that will be limited and/or semi-limited in a player's deck. Limited cards are restricted to one copy per deck, while semi-limited cards are restricted to two per deck (if a card is neither restricted or semi-restricted, a player may keep three copies of one card in their deck). Over time, however, the need to further restrict overused powerful cards arose, and a new list, the Forbidden list, was made. Cards on this list cannot be placed in a player's deck at all. While this proved welcome to so-called 'elite' duelists and was a boon to professional tournaments, more casual players (especially in places outside of Asia) were soon disgruntled over the change, prompting Upper Deck to create two different formats for the game: the Advanced format, which utilized the Banned list, and the Traditional format, which did not. The usefulness of these two formats are ambiguous, however, as most higher-level Konami and Upper Deck-sanctioned TCG tournaments strictly adhere to the Advanced format (In the OCG environment, Traditional Format doesn't exist). In addition, there are more and more duelists who do not play the game casually, thus there're questions arosed for the need for a Traditional format. The lists are updated every 6 months, to account for new cards and the changing demographic of the game.

As of October 1st, 2005, the Forbidden/Restriction List for the Advanced Format differed between the OCG (generally played in Asia) and the TCG (played in the rest of the world). Upper Deck officials stated the reason for the change was due to "vastly different metagame in the areas". However, the list simply banned and restricted more cards, and did not have a list that caters to the different metagames. This claim that the lists cater to their respective regions was further debunked with the release of the April 1st, 2006 TCG banned list, which does not differ from the current OCG banned list at all. However, the new list was accepted at the insistence of Konami in order to prevent confusion at the World Championships, and Upper Deck has begun polling TCG duelists for their opinion on the list to bring to Konami, supposedly to try and convince them to allow the lists to be different.

The TCG Advanced and Traditional Format lists can be viewed here. The OCG ban list can be viewed here.

Product information

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards are available in Starter Decks, Structure Decks, Booster Packs, and occasionally, as Promotional Cards. All cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game / Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game have their own unique ID's which the cards in that set are numbered with. (For example, the Luster Dragon #2 card from the Legacy of Darkness booster pack has the number LOD-050, where the LOD is the ID for the Legacy of Darkness set.)

Starting with the Soul of the Duelist series of products, the ID scheme identifies the language of the card. For example, the US version of Mystic Swordsman LV4 has an ID of SOD-EN012 where the EN identifies it as an English card. This system make it easier to identify cards from different countries worldwide (JP for Japan, etc).

In addition to this, almost every card ever printed (in both the TCG and OCG) has an 8-digit code in its bottom left corner. The same code is used for different copies of the same card. Although this immediately appeared useless to players of the game, two main uses have been introduced among fans. First, many of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Video Games have incorporated a password feature, in which players can input the 8-digit code in order to obtain the corresponding card in the game itself (However, this system is often abused by players using online lists to obtain extremely rare cards in-game). Secondly, the codes are used as one of the many methods to determine who makes the first move in a duel, judging by the last two-digits of the code. There has been much conversation among fans as to the extent that these codes could be used for in the future.

Booster Pack

Booster Packs, like all other Trading Card Games, are the main way to distribute cards. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, each booster packs contains 5 cards (OCG) or 9 cards (TCG). The number of cards in a normal booster set ranged from 50-60 cards for OCG, and can go up to around 130 cards in some old booster sets in TCG (Since it's 2 OCG sets combined into one). More recent TCG sets have stopped the "combination" routine, and now simply duplicate the original OCG set. In additional, some booster sets are reprint / reissue sets, such as the Dark Beginning series (Known as Beginner's Edition in OCG) or OCG-exclusive Duelist Legacy series. Those sets usually contains a much bigger amount of cards (Around 200-250). Also, in both Dark Beginning and Dark Revelation series, 12 cards are in a pack (plus one tip card) instead of normal 5 or 9.

Starter Decks and Structure Decks

The starter decks are released for new players to get hang of the most basic gameplay and mechanics. They are named after various characters from the second animated series. Each US starter deck contains 50 or 40 distinct cards, a game mat, and a rule book. They are extremely weak, and are designed to teach players the basic rules.

Character Starter Decks
There are currently five starter decks available in the US:

Character Structure Decks
The are also eight character-based structure decks released in Japan. These are different from the U.S. Starter decks as in that they contain different cards than their U.S. counterparts and are also called structure decks instead of starter decks. These decks tend to be more powerful than the starter decks, and have been notable among fans as being "playable from the box". The codes for the Structure Decks are:
  • Yugi Structure Deck (YU): features Dark Magician Girl, the Dark Magician family, and other cards that's used by Yugi in early part of Battle City arc of the anime.
  • Jonouchi ("Joey") Structure Deck (JY): features Jinzo, Red Eyes Black Dragon, some luck chance cards, and other cards that were used by Jonouchi in early Battle City arc.
  • Kaiba Structure Deck (KA): features the Vampire Lord, Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blue Eyes White Dragon (3 in the deck), and other cards used by Kaiba in early Battle City arc of anime.
  • Pegasus Structure Deck (PE): features cards that is use by Pegasus in the Duelist Kingdom arc of the anime. Some examples are "toon" monsters and Relinquished.
  • Yugi Volume 2 Structure Deck (SY2): features cards use by Yugi in later Battle City arc in the anime. Some examples are Black Paladin and Dimensional Magic.
  • Kaiba Volume 2 Structure Deck (SK2): features cards use by Kaiba in later Battle City arc in the anime. Some examples are XYZ Dragon Cannon and Shrink.
  • Jonouchi ("Joey") Volume 2 Structure Deck (SJ2): features cards use by Jonouchi in later Battle City arc in the anime. Some examples are Gilford the Lightning and Foolish Burial.
  • Marik Structure Deck (SDM): features cards use by Marik in Battle City arc in the anime. Some examples are Lava Golem, Magic Shard Excavation, and Unholy Calamity.

Evolution Starter Decks
The Yugi and Kaiba Starter Decks have been re-released with slightly different cards since their initial release in the U.S., and the second set is known as the Evolution series. It is generally thought that the Evolution series improved the respective deck of each character, and they are more readily available than the initial release. The codes for the Evolution Series decks are:
  • Yugi Evolution Starter Deck (SYE): contains the ritual monster Black Luster Soldier, the ritual spell card "Black Luster Ritual", and "Dark Magician" (LOB artwork)
  • Kaiba Evolution Starter Deck (SKE): includes a Kaiser Sea Horse card in order to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon more easily, along with the continuous trap card "Shadow Spell" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" (LOB artwork)

Type Structure Decks
The type Structure decks have been released containing 40 cards each. These decks do not follow the theme of being based on a character from the show. Instead they are based on a specific creature type or attribute. The main purposes is to help new players start the game with stronger cards and combos. These decks may also contain multiple copies of same named cards and common versions of hard to find cards, essentially making these decks more powerful even without modifications.

In addition, all decks include an instruction booklets contain tips on how to use the deck's current goal (for example, The Fury of the Deep Structure Deck explains how to use Gravity Bind and A Legendary Ocean as a combo to allow 4-Star monsters to attack), and how to expand on that goal with new cards. Each Structure Deck also contains 1 or more cards that can only be found by buying that deck. The codes for the structure deck, and what they are based on, are:

Tournament Boosters

Collector Tins

  • 2002 Collector Tins - Includes 2 packs each of Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Metal Raiders, along with 1 pack of Spell Ruler and one of the following 6 Variant cards:
    • Dark Magician
    • Summoned Skull
    • Blue-Eyes White Dragon
    • Lord of D.
    • Red Eyes B. Dragon
    • B. Skull Dragon
  • 2003 Collector Tins - Includes 1 pack each of Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Metal Raiders, Spell Ruler, Pharaoh's Servant, and Labyrinth of Nightmare, along with one of the following 6 Variant cards:
    • Jinzo
    • Gearfried the Iron Knight
    • XYZ Dragon Cannon
    • Buster Blader
    • Blue-Eyes White Dragon
    • Dark Magician
  • 2004 Collector Tins - Includes 1 pack each of Dark Crisis, Magician's Force, Pharaonic Guardian, Invasion of Chaos, and Ancient Sanctuary, along with one of the following 6 Variant cards:
    • Blade Knight
    • Insect Queen
    • Command Knight
    • Total Defense Shogun
    • Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight
    • Obnoxious Celtic Guard
  • 2005 Collector Tins - Includes 1 pack each of Dark Beginnings 1, Dark Revelation Volume 1, Soul of the Duelist, Rise of Destiny, and Flaming Eternity, along one of the following 6 Variant cards:
    • Exarion Universe
    • Vorse Raider
    • Rocket Warrior
    • Panther Warrior
    • Gilford the Lightning
    • Dark Magician Girl (alternate art)
  • 2006 Collector Tins- Includes 1 pack of each of Shadow of Infinity, Elemental Energy, Enemy of Justice and 2 packs of Cybernetic Revolution. Only 1 tin was confirmed.
    • Cyber Dragon

Promo Cards

Many promotional Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards have been released in special packs, with video games and with magazines. Even McDonald's had a set of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards that came with meals.

List of promotional Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards

Rare Cards

Most cards are "common", but some cards are "rare". There are different official levels of rareness :

  • Rare (R): The name of the card is printed in silver foil. There is about one in every pack (except when you get a rarer card). OCG packs are not guaranteed to have a Rare card, unlike their TCG counterparts.
  • Super Rare (SR): The illustrations on these cards are printed with a holographic foil background. 1 Super Rare comes in every 6 packs on average and in almost every Structure Deck.
  • Ultra Rare Cards (UR): The name of the card is printed in gold foil. The illustrations on these cards are printed with a holographic foil background. 1 Ultra Rare comes in every 12 packs (for all sets from Legend of Blue-Eyes up through Ancient Sanctuary, and the Dark Beginnings/Dark Revelations reprint sets) or 24 packs (from all sets starting from Soul of the Duelst up through current releases, barring the Dark Beginnings and Dark Revelations reprint sets.)
  • Ultimate Rare (UTR) Cards: The name of the card is printed in gold foil. The illustrations borders, and card type buttons (and star level buttons for monsters) on these cards are printed with a holographic foil background. They also have a relief effect due to them being embossed. There are alternate UTR versions of every Rare/Super Rare/Ultra Rare in the sets after Ancient Sanctuary (starting with Soul of the Duelist) through to Enemy of Justice.
  • Secret Rare Cards (SCR): The name of the card is printed in holographic silver foil. These cards feature a sparkling holographic illustration ("polarizing silver"). This is used primarily for promos (ex. tins & video games) but are also in all sets from Legend of Blue-Eyes up through Ancient Sanctuary. On average, there was 1 in every 36 packs of those sets.
  • Parallel Rare (PR): The name of the card is printed in gold foil. The illustrations and borders on these cards are printed with a holographic foil background. Called Parallel Rare because they often have a counterpart card of the same name with a different rarity. These are found in the TCG only through sanctioned Upper Deck Hobby League events.

The rarity of cards effects their value substantially. Rare cards are usually a few dollars, Super and Ultra 8 or 9 dollars and 12 to 15 dollars (respectively), and others increase value very substantially. An Ultimate Rare version of a card may affect the original value of a card from between about 5 dollars to 40 dollars. A 1st edition mark may also increase value.

Using physical cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! video games

Nearly every card has a unique 8-digit code printed on it. When that code is entered into one of the myriad Yu-Gi-Oh! video games which accept said codes, a digital copy of that card will be added to the player's virtual cards. Thus, players can port their real-world decks into the games.

Some cards do not have this code. For example, all but 2 copies of Japanese Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon cards say "Replica" where the code should be (They are considered replicas of the other two that were given as prizes in a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament in Tokyo).
Some cards don't have anything at all. For example, the Shadow Ghoul monster card from the English Metal Raiders and Dark Beginning 2 booster sets has no code number, as opposed to being a replica card. Some other examples of cards that don't have any codes at all are Labyrinth Wall, Sanga of the Thunder, Cosmo Queen, and Tremendous Fire, along with many Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spell cards. It is still unknown why they don't have any codes. Fusion cards don't have codes because Fusion Cards are often created with different monsters than the ones needed (i.e. in Forbidden Memories, Bean Soldier and Zombie monster makes Wood Remains, and Wood Remains and Plant monster make Pumpking King of the Ghosts), thus you must find different combos to make certain monsters.

Some cards have the same code as other cards. The Japanese Five God Dragon (F.G.D) has the same code as the English Illusionist Faceless Mage.

Common Terminology

  • OCG: Initials for Yu-Gi-Oh Official Card Game. Sometimes known as the "Japanese" version of the game as it's released by Konami. It's mainly played in Asia.
  • TCG: Initials for Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. This version of the game is released by Upper Deck. Played mostly in the "western world", such as Europe and America.
  • Advantage: To have the upper hand over the opponent. Generally broken up into different 'categories' (hand advantage, field advantage, etc.) and ratios of card advantage vs. card disadvantage (for instance, a 1:1 advantage will lose you 1 card, but either gain you 1 card, or destroy 1 card of your opponent's side of the field or hand). The higher the advantage over the disadvantage, the better the card is. This generally also includes the card being played (as - once it's played - it is no longer in your hand/field and, thus, cannot be part of your card advantage), though some duelists argue against this, believing counting the card being used as part of the disadvantage to be ludicrous (as you cannot use its effect if you don't play it). Curiously, Life Points aren't generally talked about when duelists talk about advantage; most duelists believe that the number of cards you have to play (eg. the number of options you have at any one time) to be more important than the number of Life Points you have.
  • Ante: A rule sometimes used in a duel that states that each player must put up a card, and the loser of the duel must forfeit their card to the winner. Usage of this rule is always outlawed in tournaments (except for some unsanctioned "unofficial" tournaments).
  • Bomb/Blow: Slang term used for Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy Of The End's Ignition effect. Also used for Exiled Force's Ignition effect. In essence, any card effect that causes the monster to 'self-destruct' and remove itself from the field in order to achieve some kind of devastating effect to the opponent.
  • Broken: A card that is so overpowered that is changes the basic point of the game. Broken cards are usually hated by everyone who doesn't have a copy, and also by many people that do. Most broken cards can create a win almost effortlessly, and as such are limited or forbidden quickly.
  • Bug: Refers to Man Eater Bug or Noble Man Eater Bug, though it could be used for any card in general with a similar effect as Man Eater Bug.
  • Bye: When a player automatically advances in a tournament because there are an odd number of players in the round.
  • Chain: The order of resolution of effects of Monster, Spell, and Trap cards, goes in LIFO (Last In, First Out) or FILO (First In, Last Out), meaning that the last card to be activated in a chain will be the first to resolve, and vice-versa.
  • Combo: When two or more cards are played in series in order to achieve some final goal.
  • Cookie Cutter: Used to describe any deck that is copied extensively due to its popularity and ease of creation, usually a copy of top tournament decks posted on the internet. Also known as 'netdecking', as many of the Cookie Cutter decks are believed to have been spawned from those of the top winners of important tournaments, whose rating and winning deck are traditionally placed on the tournament's website for public viewing. Often used in a derogetory sense. First placed on the Chaos Deck, which many duelists believed brought the Banned List into play.
  • Counters/Spell Counter: An "object" that would be placed onto a card that usually acts as a "marker" to show some sort of numerical value of an effect. They usually don't do anything by themselves, however some cards' effects are dictated by how many counters are attached to and/or removed from a monster. Some counters also act as a buffer for a card, being removed in the card's place should the card it's attached to be destroyed under certain circumstances. Spell Counters are just a special type of counter, usually attached one by one on to an appropriate monster when either player activates a Spell card.
  • Deck Out: A term used when a player runs out of cards in their deck and cannot draw any more when required. A player loses when they are required to draw a card from their deck, but there are less cards left in the deck than they are required to draw.
  • Deck-thinning: A term used to describe a technique of using cards which let the player to take out 'useless' cards to get the cards they want more quickly. One main reason of the naming is that many of such cards simply allow the player to draw one card, thus it is just simply replacing the single card with drawing effect with just one new card, which may looks pointless at first. However, since there is a limit of a minimum number of cards in one deck (which is 40), this makes those card seemingly non-existent, somewhat reducing the number of cards in one deck and, thus, theoretically improving the odds of drawing what you need next turn.
  • Duel: A single round where there is either one winner and one loser or a draw. In the case of Match Play, or a Match, this is only part of the game.
  • Errata: Changes in card text that were not made in time for the first release of a card or to reflect current rulings. They are posted on the official website of the distributor of the cards, Upper Deck.
  • Match: A series of duels, usually best two out of three.
  • Lockdown: To prevent certain types of cards from being played, or preventing attacking, drawing, etc. Common Lockdown cards include Royal Decree, Imperial Order, Gravity Bind. Lockdown decks are often combined with Stall and Burn decks. This term can also be applied to locking opponent via preventing them to drawing card. This ranged from Yata Lock, named after the Spirit monster Yata-Garusu and its ability to prevent opponent drawing cards, or some other, like Tsuku Lock, which involved the combo of Tsukuyomi, Mask of Darkness, and Time Seal. A variation to this is the Jackal Lock, in which a player uses a card combo to bounce specific cards back to the top of the opponent's deck, preventing them from drawing any new cards and, thus, rendering them unable to counter the lock (term derived from the monster Mystical Knight of Jackal, which was the first monster to have this variation based on it).
  • NOMI: A term used to describe a special sub-type of special-summon only monsters. Unlike normal special summon only monsters, which must be summoned by their own effect first before they can be summoned by another card effect, NOMI monsters cannot be summoned in any way but their own effect. One can tell between a normal Special Summon-only monster and a NOMI monster by how their summoning requirements are written: a normal Special Summon-only monster reads "This card can only be Special Summoned by...", whereas a NOMI monster reads "This card cannot be Special Summoned except by..." However, there are a few cards that have come out that supersede this restriction, allowing for the monster to be summoned from the graveyard, 'ignoring any Summoning Requirements'. Level Modulation is an example. This term was coined by UDE Yu-Gi-Oh R&D Leader Kevin Tewart. On some Japanese cards , such as Armed Dragon LV10, the Sacred Beast cards etc., they state that the are special summon only monsters. But in English, they are stated as NOMI monsters.
  • Piercing/Trample: A card effect that allows an attacking monster that attacks a defense-position monster with lesser stats to deal battle damage to the opponent equal to the difference between the ATK and DEF of the monsters battling. "Trample" was a term borrowed from The Gathering. Piercing is the term used by Upper Deck. A few of the cards most famous for this type of effect are Fairy Meteor Crush, Big Bang Shot, Cyber End Dragon, Spear Dragon, Gravekeeper Spear Soldier, and Airknight Parshath.
  • Mirror Match: When both players that are dueling have the same basic deck type. Example: 2 Return Decks facing each other in the final round of a tournament.
  • Pull: To acquire from a pack, i.e. pull a Luster Dragon #2 from an LOD Pack.
  • Recycling: "Technique" that involves cards that allow players to reuse cards in the Graveyard. Commonly used recycling cards include 'Magician of Faith', 'Mask of Darkness', 'A Feather of the Phoenix', and others. Also known as recursion.
  • Remove(d) from game (RFG): Originally, cards that were removed from the game could not be played again during the rest of the game. However, that was changed when various cards were introduced with effects that could bring cards back into the game from this "zone", or gain a power increase or other ability, depending on the number of cards in this "zone". Cards well-known for interacting with this play mechanic are D.D. Warrior Lady, D.D. Assaillant, Dimension Fusion, Soul Release, Gren Maju Da Eisa, Helios the Primordial Sun, and Return from Different Dimension.
  • Searcher: Also known as tutor or recruiter, a card that allows a player to search their deck for a specified card. Usually, these cards search for a specific Type or Attribute monster with an Attack or Defense equal to or lower than a specified amount (for instance, Mystic Tomato searches for a Dark monster with 1500 Attack or less), but can also search for cards of a particular name, sub-Type (Toon, Union, etc.), etc. These cards are considered valuable in a deck, not only because of their speed of thinning one's deck, but also because it allows a player to get exactly what he/she needs at the time, without having to rely on luck of the draw.
  • Spell Speed: A way of categorizing card effect priority in Yu-Gi-Oh:
    • Spell Speed 1: The slowest of the Spell Speeds, consists of all non-Quick Play Spell and non-Multi Trigger Monster effect cards. Can not chain to any Spell Speed, including its own. These spells or abilities can only be played in the Main Phase of the current player's turn by the current player.
    • Spell Speed 2: The middle-ground of the Spell Speeds, consists of Multi-Trigger Monster effects, Quick-Play Spell cards, and all non-Counter-Trap cards. They can chain to both their own Spell Speed and Spell Speed 1 effects. Spell Speed 2 and 3 cards can be played during any part of either player's turn, though usually, Spell Speed 2 effects cannot be played during the Damage Step of either player's battle phase (bar specified exceptions, such as card effects that alter a monster's ATK/DEF, or specifically designate that they activate during the Damage Step). Spell speed two cards cannot be countered with lesser spell speeds.
    • Spell Speed 3: The fastest of the Spell Speeds, consists only of Counter-Trap cards. Can chain to any and all Spell Speeds. Cannot be countered by a lesser spell speed.
  • Splash: To arbitrarily add a card into a deck, even if it might not fit the theme or strategy. Usually done to 'test out' how well the card works in the deck, and to see if any further adjusting is required. The term "splash" is also commonly used in VS System.
  • Staple: A card whose effect is useful enough to arguably be used in every type of deck. Most staple cards are found on the Restriction list, and several former staples have been Banned. It is often debated for weeks whether a new card (like Pot of Avarice or Treeborn Frog) is truly a staple, especially when that new card replaces an old staple with the same effect.
  • Tech: A type of card that is placed in one's deck (or side deck) to handle a particular threat.
  • Token: A card that is a representation of a monster card that is not physically a "card" in a deck. They can only be played via other cards' effect (i.e. Scapegoat), and they would not return to deck, go to Graveyard, etc. if they would be destroyed; they would just be "removed from play" and cease to exist (not to confused with term "removed from game").
  • Toolbox: A deck built around being able to seek out the exact card you need for any situation. Most common are Warrior Toolboxes (based around Reinforcement of the Army) and Spellcaster Toolboxes (Based around Apprentice Magician).
  • Top-Decking: When a player (or both players) have no cards in their hands and have little to no cards on the field, thus having to rely on the "luck of the draw" to get what they need.

Common Deck Types

Some players use a variety of strategies in one deck while others feel more comfortable with a deck that is based around particular cards or an overall strategy. Here are some examples of these deck types.

  • Aggro Deck: A deck built similarly to a beatdown deck (Aggro is short for Aggressive), except Aggro deck usually involves more "strategy" / tech cards to get more card advantage. A variant of Aggro deck is D.D. removal deck, which uses aggro tech cards and the D.D. monster family (D.D. Assailant, D.D. Survivor, D.D. Warrior, and D.D. Warrior Lady) that remove monsters from game to gain field advantage. An example of this is Warrior Toolbox, which utilizes the aggressive strategy of a beatdown deck, but uses certain tech cards (such as "Reinforcement of the Army") and cards to get them out to respond to almost any threat that the opponent unleashes, thus preventing the main beatdown strategy from being shut down.
  • Beatdown Deck: A deck composed of mainly strong monsters, that is meant to literally beat down the opponent's Life Points and monsters. This type of deck has nearly disappated, as the increase in terms of involvement in strategy often make beatdown deck more like an Aggro deck.
  • Burn Deck: A deck whose main strategy is to use cards that damages the opponent's Life Points by an effect. It can be sub-divided into 2 categories - Aggro-Burn and Stall-Burn. Aggro-Burn uses a more aggressive way to damage opponent. Stall-Burn mainly stalls with cards such as "Level Limit - Area B" and "Gravity Bind" while trying to damage opponent with cards like "Lava Golem" and "Wave-Motion Cannon." This term derived from Red direct-damage cards from The Gathering.
  • Chaos Deck: A deck that centers on the "Chaos Monsters", "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning," (which is known as "Chaos" because of its Japanese direct translation: "Chaos Soldier - Messenger of Creation,") "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End", and sometimes "Chaos Sorcerer" and "Dark Magician of Chaos." Players used to criticize this type of deck as being "cookie-cutter", due to the fact that it was used by nearly every competitive player for several months, and for the fact that nearly every competitive player had the same deck with the same cards. After the Sept. 1 (OCG) / Oct. 1 (TCG) ban list, this type of deck mostly changed its focus to "Chaos Sorcerer" since "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning" was banned as well.
  • Chaos Control: This deck type combined both elements of chaos with control, as it used the "Chaos Monsters" with a control strategy to totally bring chaos to the field and control your opponent. It usually had Yata-Garasu with hand disrupters to lock your opponent from drawing. This deck made the environment luck-based, as victory was bestowed upon the person who drew the best cards first. As this Deck type was arguably the most powerful and overused type of Deck in competitive play, it is possible that this Deck archetype led to the creation of the ban list. Although this Deck type has been watered down, it has spawned variants such as "Chaos Return", which relies on "Return from the Different Dimension", and "Chaos Swap", which relies on Creature Swap, that are frequently seen in the tournament scene.
  • Character Deck: A typical deck used by big fans of the anime, they usually comprise of cards used by the user's favorite character (like Yugi Mutou), or the monster that the character plays the most (like Dark Magician). These decks are often criticized by more experienced players as being solely a newbie's deck, as they are more often played by younger kids and, as a result, usually contain EVERY card available that the favored character or monster used, regardless of strategy or synergy. However, competitive decks of this type can be made, depending on how much support the monster or character has for their deck, and how inventive the player is with finding replacements for non-released support.
  • Control Deck: A Deck type that aims to disrupt the opponent's plan and control their options. There are many variants to Control decks. One of the common variant is Gadget Control, which maintains hand advantage with Green/Red/Yellow Gadget, and another common variant is Tomato Control. Tomato Control is a "Recruiter Deck" that uses Mystic Tomato to search for two of most common hand-disruptors, Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper.
  • Deck-depleting deck or Deck Destruction Deck: A type of Deck which discards cards from the opponent's Deck, or make the opponent draw, to cause the opponent to deck-out. An example of some cards would be Morphing Jar, Morphing Jar #2, Cyber Jar, and Needle Worm.
  • Exodia Deck: A deck class that revolves around gathering the five pieces of Exodia into one's hand to win the duel. Exodia consists of five cards: Left Leg of the Forbidden One, Right Leg of the Forbidden One, Left Arm of the Forbidden One, Right Arm of the Forbidden One, and Exodia the Forbidden One. When all five of these cards are assembled in your hand at any one time, you win the current duel automatically. A typical Exodia deck consists primarily of cards that allow additional drawing (a technique called deck-thinning) and/or searching the deck for low ATK or DEF monsters, and cards used to stall the opponent until all five Exodia pieces have been collected. A classic strategy for this deck type is Royal Magical library, Gearfried the Iron Knight and a Butterfly dagger Elma, consistantly use these cards and it is only a matter of time before the entire set of Exodia is in your hand; however, this combo cannot be used anymore since Butterfly Dagger - Elma has been banned.
  • Gadget Deck/Gadget Control: An extremely popular deck-type in the OCG environment. This type of deck involves the use of the "Gadget Set" (which has only been released in OCG as of now) for consistent hand/field advantage, along with 1-for-1 Monster removal cards (such as Earth Crush/Smashing Ground and Bottomless Trap Hole) to maintain field control. This deck type is often critized as the new "cookie-cutter" in the OCG environment.
  • Goat Control: A deck type that is based on controlling opponent via the card Scapegoat. The most common deck used is Chaos-Goat-Meta deck, which uses Scapegoat tokens and Metamorphosis to summon Thousand-Eyes Restrict (mainly to stall the game) while trying to win with cards in Chaos Decks such as Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of Beginning. The deck also uses Tsukuyomi to further abuse Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Magician of Faith. After the Sept. 1 2005 (OCG) and Oct. 1 2005 (TCG) ban list, this deck type was basically "nerfed" as Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Metamorphosis, and Scapegoat were all restricted. Furthermore, Magician of Faith is semi-restricted in TCG as well (it's only semi-restricted in the OCG after March 1st 2006).
  • M.M.P.T./M.P.T.: A rising deck type. The terms is an acronym for Magician Merchant Pot Turbo (or simply as Merchant Pot Turbo). The basic idea of the deck is using Magical Merchant, Thunder Dragon, Nimble Momonga/Giant Germ, and Mystic Tomato, etc. to fill the Graveyard with monsters in order to activate Pot of Avarice to gain card advantage; lastly using cards like Chaos Sorcerer to finish the game off. After the March 1st 2006 OCG restriction list, however, this type of deck is considered to be "dead" with the restriction of the main card: Pot of Avarice.
  • One Turn Kill/First Turn Kill (OTK/FTK) deck: A deck that can end the game in one turn, usually based on some combo, i.e. Cata-Sci and Last Turn-Jowgen. The name "First Turn Kill" comes from the fact that the deck can sometimes end the game during the first turn. First Turn Kill decks can also make use of Winged Kuriboh Lv10, or Cyber End Dragon/Power Bond. Other combo decks, such as one that involves Ring of Destruction/Barrel Behind the Door are also common, although Ring of Destruction is now banned from play. Last Turn can also be used in such Variations like "The Last Wilds", which uses Elemental Hero Wildheart for backup. This seems to be the card type most targeted by Konami and Upper Deck in both versions of the Ban list, with many of the key cards in the decks banned or restricted to the point where they become essentially "dead".
  • RFG-Monarch: A Deck type since the booster "Enemy of Justice" is released. This Deck-type abuses the ability of D.D. Scout Plane and D.D. Survivor to revive when they are removed, and the continuous S/T cards Dimensional Rift and Macrocosmos to remove them from play. After the ressurrection of the two D.D. monsters, tribute them for the monarch monsters. This deck can currently counter most deck strategies due to the abuse of removing cards from the game.
  • Royal Chaos: Is a Deck, that is now commonly used, to combat the currrent Return Decks (Bazoo, Chaos, Strike, Macro), by instead of using the basic traps, this deck packs 2-3 Royal Decrees and usual any 2 combination of Torential Tribute, Mirror Force, and Call of the Haunted (first 2 being most popular). Although this deck has not won an major tourney in the US, it however has won a national in Europe and placed 2nd in many events like SJC Atlanta, and at the 2006 US Nationals
  • Stall Deck: A stall deck is a deck that uses cards to basically stall the game for either a win by reducing the opponent's Life Points to zero via effects, decking out the opponent, or special winning conditions. A varient of a stall deck is the new "Clockwork Control" which uses the field magic card Clock Tower Prison. You reduce any Battle Damage you take to zero with Clock Tower Prison while it has four Clock Counters, and use an assortment of different cards to prevent deck out and protect Clock Tower Prison.
  • Swarm Deck: Decks that rely on summoning many monsters quickly are called Swarm decks. This type of deck either involves some combo (i.e. Proto Cyber Dragon + Inferno Reckless Summon) or mere quickness (i.e. Warrior Swarm deck).
  • Soul Control: A deck type that relied heavily on getting opponent's monster as tribute in a tribute summon (i.e. Soul Exchange and Brain Control). The most common build of Soul Control involves the Monarch monsters, since their effect can only be activated when they're tribute summoned, and their effects can guarantee some sort of advantage. This deck has morphed in the Official Card Game into the Yomi-Emperor or Yomi-Lion-Emperor deck.
  • Water/Aqua Deck This deck is a category all on it's own, with the ability to do anything the deck builder/user puts into it. This type of deck usually uses the card "A Legendary Ocean", normally, and uses the ability of it combined with the effects of other water monsters to either stall the opponents out until the deck user can clear the field and hit their LP directly, or uses certain cards to return cards to the opponents' hand, leaving their LP wide open. In either effect, this deck is mostly meant for direct attacks. The IOC/SD4/DR2 card "Levia-Dragon Daedalus" is a common sight in this type of deck, as well as level 5 Water monsters that can take advantage of "A Legendary Ocean's" ability to drop down the level of all Water cards on the field and in one's hand by one, thus allowing normally Tribute-summoned monsters to be summoned without a tribute, and level 4 monsters to attack under level-based stalling cards such as "Level Limit - Area B".
  • Yomi-Emperor / Yomi-Lion-Emperor Deck: OCG deck types (Currently) that "abuses" the fast tribute power brought by Treeborn Frog with either Emperor/Monarch monsters or sometimes with other monsters that required tributes as well Dark Ruler Ha-Des, Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, and Dark Magician of Chaos. Some variant uses Dandelion and Metal Reflect Slime as a sort of "backup" to Treeborn Frog. This type of deck is somewhat weakened after the restriction of both Treeborn Frog and Dandelion in March 1st, 2006 OCG Ban/Restriction list.

Controversy

Many cards have been released in Japan near the beginning of the Yu-Gi-Oh's growth, yet they have not been released elsewhere. Whether or not there is any justification for the dueling community's critical view of Konami's communications with Upper Deck (the TCG's card distributer) is totally unfounded seeing how they are finally making available most of the cards already available in Japan to all other countries for a more "rounded" gaming atmosphere. Whereas card rarity used to make the game known as a "rich man's game", the past two years (2005-2006) has seen the reprinting of almost all majorly played cards, making great deck-making options cheaply available to all who are interested in playing.

Another issue is card editing, which occurs when Konami translates a card for use in the TCG, often with an edited picture (example: Don Zaloog's TCG picture depicts him holding swords, when the OCG version shows him holding guns instead). Edited art often removes guns (sometimes changing them to "laser/space guns"), pentagrams, hexagrams, cleavage, blood, halos, horns, crosses, or completely changes the picture for the TCG with new artwork (examples: Tragedy, Ultimate Offering, Monster Reborn). Purists have also been complaining that many card names are changed for the TCG, even though they feel it is not necessary (example: "Thunder Bolt" from the OCG was renamed "Raigeki" for the TCG). They feel that Konami does not correctly translate cards (examples: Buster Rancher and Fusioh Richie) most of the time, though, upon further research, most card names do reflect the original OCG name. It can be noted, but never proven, that Konami doesn't translate card's effects properly. If one looks at websites that translate Japanese cards, they may notice that cards like the Elemental Hero Fusions, Armed Dragon LV10 and 7 and many others are translated, in English, as special summon-only monsters, but in the TCG, they are NOMI monsters (see the terminology section for details about NOMIs). This not only can disappoint people anticipating these cards, it can give the cards lower ratings and make them not as playable as they would have been otherwise. Upper Deck employees often cite the reason for name changes and art edits as being Konami's belief that it needs to make the game appropriate for children outside of Japan.

A recent controversy involved a rumored second promotional deal between Upper Deck and McDonalds. Reportedly, due to a production error in one of UDE's Southern Californian facilities, cards from this promotional deal were accidentally placed in some Elemental Energy packs, thus allowing a few lucky duelists to get a sneak peak into what would be in the new promo pack. As the promotional deal has never been officially announced, it's unknown how this foul-up will impact it.

Notable players

External links

Collectible card games | Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

Yu-Gi-Oh! Ruilkaartspel | 遊戲王集換紙牌遊戲

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game".

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