Vidz Vidz: Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG logo
Players	1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, free-for-all (unofficial) 1 to 4 players
Age range	6 and up
Setup time	approx. 2–3 minutes
Playing time	approx. 5–30 minutes per game (depending on variables), 40 minutes per match
Random chance	Medium
Skill(s) required	Card playing Arithmetic Strategy Statistical Analysis Concentration Patience Logic Common sense Reading

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (遊☆戯☆王オフィシャルカードゲーム, Yū☆Gi☆Ō Ofisharu Kādo Gēmu?, Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game) is a Japanese collectible card game developed and published by Konami. It is based on the fictional game of Duel Monsters created by manga artist Kazuki Takahashi, which is the main plot device during the majority of his popular manga franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and its various anime adaptations and spinoff series. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game was first launched by Konami in 1999. It was named the top selling trading card game in the world by Guinness World Records on July 7, 2009, having sold over 22 billion cards worldwide.The trading card game continues to gain popularity as it is played around the world, mostly in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia.

Prior to December 2008, Konami's trading cards were distributed in territories outside of Asia by The Upper Deck Company.

In December 2008, Konami filed a lawsuit against Upper Deck alleging that it had distributed unauthentic Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards made without Konami's authorization.Upper Deck also sued Konami alleging breach of contract and slander. A few months later, a federal court in Los Angeles issued an injunction preventing Upper Deck from acting as the authorized distributor and requiring it to remove the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG from Upper Deck's website. In December 2009, the court decided that Upper Deck was liable for counterfeiting Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards, and it dismissed Upper Deck's countersuit against Konami. Konami currently serves as the manufacturer and distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG; it runs Regional and National tournaments and continues to release new Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG card products.

General Gameplay
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a strategic trading card game in which players draw cards from their respective decks and take turns playing cards onto "the field". Each player custom-builds his or her own deck, which can contain up to three copies of certain cards other cards such as monster reborn, card destruction,and etc must be pinned to 1. deck must contain a minimum of 40 cards but cannot exceed 60 cards which is the maximum. Players may also create an "Extra Deck" containing up to 15 cards that may only be used in certain situations. Each player starts with 8000 "life points", and the usual win condition is the reduction of the opponent's Life Points to zero. This is typically achieved by using "monster" cards to attack the opponent's monsters and inflict damage and/or then attack his or her life points directly. The other two card types are "Spells" and "Traps", which have nearly an endless variety of functions. For example, these cards' effects may "destroy" an opponent's monster , negate the effects of an opponent's card, or retrieve a specific card from one's own deck, to name just a few. Most monster cards also have effects, in addition to their previously-mentioned ability to attack. Card effects are the driving force for the creation of innumerable strategies and play styles.

Each player's turn contains six phases (although some are technicalities and skipped in most situations): Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1, Battle Phase, Main Phase 2, and End Phase. During the Draw Phase, the turn player draws one card from his or her deck. The Standby phase exists only for card effects that occur at the beginning of the player's turn (e.g. maintenance costs for certain card effects) and is otherwise skipped. During each of the Main Phases, the player may "summon" a monster (once per turn, not counting other monsters summoned by card effects), manipulate monsters that are already in play, use Spell and Trap cards, and set cards face-down. During the Battle Phase, the player may attack the opponent's monsters (or his or her Life Points directly, if the opponent has no monsters in play) once with each of his or her own monsters, while the opponent may attempt to defend with his or her own Traps, Spells, or monster effects. The End Phase (like the Standby Phase) exists only for card effects that occur at the end of the player's turn, and is otherwise skipped. Play continues until a win condition is met. A player typically wins by reducing the opponent's Life Points to zero, but will also win if the opponent is unable to draw a card (i.e. has no cards left in his or her deck) or if a player successfully meets the conditions of a card that grants an automatic win (an uncommon strategy due to the relative ease with which a competitive opponent can prevent it).

Card types

Monster Cards

Attacking with monster cards is the main means by which a player reduces the opponent's Life Points to zero. These cards are also used defensively, since the opponent's monsters cannot attack your Life Points directly as long as you have monsters in play. Furthermore, most monsters cards have their own effects (just like Spell and Trap cards), and can be manipulated by other cards. Before discussing their many functions and varieties, we will outline the common components of all monster cards.

ATK and DEF points: These are short for 'attack' and 'defense', and determine the result of a battle between two monster cards (see more about attacking below). When a monster is involved in a battle while in Attack Position (whether attacking or being attacked), only its ATK points are applied and its DEF points are ignored. The reverse is also true: when a monster is attacked while in Defense Position, only its DEF points are applied and its ATK points are ignored. Monsters summoned in Defense position are placed face down unless otherwise stated (for example, monsters that are special summoned from the Extra Deck in Defense position are summoned face up), and remain face down until it is targeted by an opponent's monster or changed into Attack position. This is known as flip summoning, which can activate effects in certain monsters. During the Main Phases of each turn, players can choose to change the position of their monsters, provided they have not been summoned in the same turn and have not declared an attack.

Level/Rank: This is indicated by the number of Level Stars shown under the monster card's name, and a higher level usually corresponds to higher ATK and DEF points. Recall that a player may summon one monster card per turn, in addition to those summoned by card effects. A monster card of level 4 or lower can be simply placed onto the field, or normal summoned. However, a monster card of level 5 or higher requires that the player first send one monster already in play to the Graveyard (the discard pile) before it can be summoned—a maneuver called tribute summoning. Furthermore, monster cards of level 7 or higher require two tributes in order to be tribute summoned. Note that tribute requirements do not apply to monster cards summoned by card effects (even their own); these special summons do not require any tributes, regardless of the level of the summoned monster card. In the case of Xyz Monsters their rank is indicated by black and yellow stars located on the left side of the card so card effects that apply towards a monster's level doesn't hold true for Xyz Monsters.

Attribute: A monster card will have either a light, dark, earth, wind, fire, water, and divine attribute. This is indicated by an icon at the upper-right corner of the card. A monster card's attribute has no inherent significance (that is, a water-attribute monster has no advantage over a fire-attribute one), but is relevant in the context of other cards' effects (e.g. the Spell card Umiiruka adds 500 ATK points and subtracts 400 to their DEF points to all water-attribute monsters).

Type: Unlike the mere seven possible attributes, there are 22 different types which may apply to a monster card (Dragon, Spellcaster, Zombie, Warrior, Beast-Warrior, Beast, Winged Beast, Fiend, Fairy, Insect, Dinosaur, Reptile, Fish, Sea Serpent, Machine, Thunder, Aqua, Pyro , Rock, Plant, Psychic, and Divine-Beast). All monster cards have one type . This is indicated in text form just above the card text. Like attributes, a monster card's type has no inherent significance and becomes relevant in the context of other cards' effects.

Monster Categories

There are several categories of monster cards, which are color-coded and vary in the methods by which they are summoned. Generally, the monsters with more difficult summoning methods will have higher ATK points and better card effects. Normal and Effect monsters can be Normal Summoned, Tribute Summoned or Special Summoned by card effects. All other types of cards need to Special Summoned by fulfilling the summoning requirements detailed below. Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Monsters are stored in an Extra Deck separate from the Main Deck. These cards may be resummoned from the graveyard provided they have been successfully summoned beforehand, though if they are returned to the Extra Deck, the player will need to refulfill the summoning requirements to summon them again.

There are several types of monsters, which differ mainly in the methods by which they are summoned:

1. Normal (通常, Tsūjō^?) (yellow): A standard monster that can be Normal or Tribute Summoned from the hand once per turn, as well as Special Summoned under certain conditions. Normal monsters typically do not have effects of their own, instead bearing a description of the monster in its card description.
2. Effect (効果, Kōka^?) (orange): Similar to Normal monsters in the manner that they can be summoned, Effect monsters have a special effect listed in its card description which can be used under its given conditions. Several of the other monster types listed below may also possess effects.
3. Fusion (融合, Yūgō^?) (purple): A monster that is summoned from the Extra Deck by using a card with a Fusion effect, such as 'Polymerization', and tributing monster cards depicted in the Fusion monster's description from the hand or field.; Example: Using the 'Polymerization' spell card and tributing 'Elemental Hero Avian' and 'Elemental Hero Burstinatrix' allows the player to specially summon 'Elemental Hero Flame Wingman.'
4. Ritual (儀式, Gishiki^?) (blue): A monster that is summoned from the hand or deck by using a Ritual Spell card and tributing monster cards from the hand and/or field according to the card's instructions, whose summed level must not be less than that of the Ritual Monster you wish to summon.; Example: Using the 'Black Luster Ritual' spell card and tributing monsters from the field and/or hand whose total levels equal Lv 8 or more allows player to special summon 'Black Luster Soldier' (Lv 8 Ritual Monster).
5. Synchro (シンクロ, Shinkuro^?) (white): Introduced with the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime series. A monster that is summoned from the Extra Deck by tributing a 'Tuner' type monster with one or more non-Tuner monsters from the field, whose total levels equal the level of the Synchro Monster you wish to summon. With some exceptions, this usually does not require specific monsters.; Example: Sending 'Junk Synchron' (Lv 3 Tuner Monster) and 'Speed Warrior' (Lv 2) to the graveyard allows player to special summon 'Junk Warrior' (Lv 5 Synchro Monster).
6. Xyz (エクシーズ, Ekushīzu^?, pronounced 'ek-seez') (black): Introduced with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime series. Xyz Monsters are summoned from the Extra Deck by 'overlaying' two or more monsters (the number is in the card's effect text) with the same level relevant to the Rank of the Xyz Monster the player wishes to summon. Material monsters are not sent to the graveyard but instead become 'Xyz Material', which are placed underneath the Xyz Monster in the Monster Zone. Xyz Material can be sent to the graveyard in order to activate an Xyz Monster's effects. Unlike other monsters, Xyz monsters don't have levels and thus they are unaffected by cards involving a monster's level and cannot be used for Ritual or Synchro Summoning.; Example: Overlaying two Lv 4 monsters allows player to special summon the 'No. 39 Utopia' (Rank 4).
7. Token (grey): A low-powered monster summoned that can only be summoned through a card effect. These are typically used for defense or tribute purposes. Tokens may be used for Ritual or Synchro Summoning, but not for Xyz Summoning.

Attacking

As mentioned briefly in several above sections, attacking is a critical role of monster cards. It is the primary means by which a player reduces the opponent's Life Points. Only monster cards in Attack Position (placed in a vertical orientation) can attack, and each such monster card can attack once per turn during the Battle Phase.

When a monster card "declares an attack", one of the opponent's monsters is selected as the target. At this time, the ATK points of the attacking monster are compared with the relevant ATK or DEF points of the opponent's targeted monster (depending on whether it is in Attack Position or Defense Position). The monster card with the lower points is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. Subsequently, the victorious monster may have the attack points of the defeated monster subtracted from the pool of that monster's attack points. If the destroyed monster card was in Attack Position, then its owner will lose Life Points equal to the difference between the two monsters' points. For example, if Mystic Tomato (which has 1400 ATK and 1100 DEF) attacks an opponent's Sangan (1000 ATK and 600 DEF) in Attack Position, then the opponent's Sangan is destroyed and he or she loses 400 Life Points. However, the owner will not lose Life Points if his or her monster card was in Defense Position. In the previous example, if Sangan had been in Defense Position (placed in a horizontal orientation), then it would still be destroyed by an attacking Mystic Tomato but its owner would not lose Life Points.However, If the Defensive Points of a Card (for this example the card Mystic Elf, which has 800 ATK and 2000 DEF) is higher than the ATK points of the attacking Card, the owner of the attacking card will lose life point to the difference of each number (If Mystic Tomato attacked the Mystic Elf in Defense mode, the owner of Mystic Tomato would lose 600 life points), but the attacking monster is not destroyed. No Cards are destroyed after the end of a attack subject to a card effect (like D.D Warriors effect which removes both this card and the attacking card from play)

In this way, monster cards in Defense Position protect their owner's Life Points. On the other hand, only monster cards in Attack Position can declare attacks, and their positions cannot be manipulated afterward.

If the opponent has no monster cards in play, then an attacking monster may target the opponent's Life Points directly. This causes the full amount of that monster's ATK points to be deducted from the opponent's Life Points. A very general strategy is to use card effects (those of monster, Spell, and Trap cards) to eliminate the opponent's monsters, so that a player's own monsters can attack the opponent's Life Points directly.

Spell Cards

These are cards that can be played either from the hand, or set on the field for later use. They can either power up your monsters attack/defense, destroy other cards, increase life points, etc. It is important to have a good balance of these in your deck. Spells come in 6 forms.

1. Normal: Sent to the grave after the effect resolves.
2. Quick Play (appears as a lightning bolt): Can be set to be activated during your opponents turn as well as your own, or played during your own turn outside of the main phases. However, you cannot activate a quick-play spell on the same turn that you set it on the field.
3. Continuous (appears as a $\infty$ ): Remain on the field after activation until they are removed or destroyed.
4. Equip (appears as a plus): Attach to a monster to alter its stats, or provide an effect. If the equipped monster leaves the field, it loses Equip Spells.
5. Field (appears as a compass): Played in a special field card zone, which provides an effect that takes place over the entire duel while active. Only one field card can be active in the duel at a time; if a player plays a field spell while one is already in play, the first field spell is destroyed.
6. Ritual (appears as a flame): Used to summon ritual monsters.

Trap Cards

Cards that are activated in response to certain situations, most often when an opponent activates an effect or attacks. They are set face down on the field and cannot be activated on the turn they were placed down unless there is a card effect that says it could be activated the turn the trap card is set. Some are used to destroy an attacking monster, negate battle damage, or possibly redirect damage back to the opponent, though, these effects may differ. There are three types of trap cards:

1. Normal traps: They cannot be activated during either player's turn if it was set that turn. Certain normal traps turn into equip cards but are still considered normal trap cards.
2. Continuous trap cards (appears with a $\infty$ ): Their effect stays in play until its destruction circumstances are fulfilled.
3. Counter trap cards (appears with a curved arrow): No cards except other Counter traps can be played after a Counter trap has been activated.

Spell Speed

Card effects all have certain speeds. This determines when they can be played and which effect can be "chained" to another.

Spell Speed 1 cards can ordinarily only be played during the turn of the player who controls the card. Comprises Spell cards (excluding Quick Play) and Monster Effects (excluding Quick Effect Monster cards)
Spell Speed 2 cards can be played in any turn, and can be activated in response to either Spell Speed 1 or 2. Comprises Quick Play spells and Normal/Continuous traps and Quick Effect Monster Cards.
Spell Speed 3 cards are only Counter trap cards. They can be activated in response to either Spell Speed 1, 2, or 3.

Formats

Tournament play

Tournaments are often hosted either by players or by card shops. In addition, Upper Deck (now no longer part of Yu-Gi-Oh's Organized Play), Konami, and Shonen Jump have all organized numerous tournament systems in their respective areas. These tournaments attract hundreds of players to compete for prizes such as rare promotional cards.

There are two styles of tournament play called "Formats;" each format has its own rules and some restrictions on what cards are allowed to be used during events.

Advanced Format

The Advanced Format is used in all sanctioned tournaments (with the exception of certain Pegasus League formats). This format follows all the normal rules of the game, but also places a complete ban on certain cards that are deemed too advantageous for tournament play. These cards are on a special list called the Forbidden, or Banned List. There are also certain cards that are Limited or Semi-Limited to only being allowed 1 or 2 of those cards in a deck and side deck combined, respectively. This list is updated every six months(September 1, March 1) and is followed in all tournaments that use this format.

Traditional Format

Traditional format is sometimes used in Pegasus League play and is never used in Official Tournaments and reflects the state of the game without banned cards. Cards that are banned in Advanced are limited to one copy per deck in this format.

Rating Systems

The trading card game formerly incorporated worldwide rankings, but since Konami canceled organized play, the ratings were obsolete. Konami has developed a new rating system called "COSSY," (Konami Card Game Official Tournament Support System.)

Sealed Format

With the introduction of the Battle Pack: Epic Dawn, Konami has announced the introduction of drafting tournaments.

Casual play

Casual players typically agree to follow an unofficial variant of the rules, such as multiple player duel (where three or more duelists play every-man-for-themselves) and use of the Egyptian God Cards (promotional cards from the anime/manga adaptation, which are illegal in official tournaments with the exception of their legal card forms. These have recently been reprinted into legal versions, however the original promotional cards remain illegal.) For these unofficial variants of the game, the rules, such as what cards are legal or not, are agreed upon ahead of time. However, very recently, official Tag (team) Duel rules have been introduced into the main game, advertised in the form of Tag Force 2 and Championship 2008.

Product information

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards are available in Starter Decks, Structure Decks, booster packs, collectible tins, and occasionally as promotional cards.

Booster Packs: As in all other Trading Card Games, booster packs are the primary avenue of card distribution. In Konami's distribution areas, five or nine random cards are found in each booster pack depending on the set. , and each set contains around 100 different cards. However, in Upper Deck's areas, early booster packs contained a random assortment of nine cards (rarity and value varies). apon set and pack ,edition ect... with the whole set ranging around 130 cards. To catch up with the Japanese meta game, two or more original sets were combined into one. Now, more recent Upper Deck sets have simply duplicated the original set. Some booster sets are reprinted/reissued (e.g. Dark Beginnings Volume 1 and 2). This type of set usually contains a larger amount of cards (around 200 to 250), and they contain twelve cards along with one tip card rather than the normal five or nine. Recently, since the Release of Tactical Evolution, all booster packs that have a Holographic/Ghost Rare card, will also contain a rare, meaning if you receive a Holofoil card in a pack you will still receive 1 Rare card and 7 Common cards. Current sets have 100 different cards per set. There are also special booster packs that are given to those who attend a tournament. These sets change each time there is a different tournament and have fewer cards than a typical booster pack. There are eight Tournament Packs, eight Champion Packs, and 10 Turbo Packs.

Duelist Packs: Duelist packs are similar to booster packs, albeit are focused around the types of cards used by characters in the various anime series.

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

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

Nearly every card has a unique 7–9 digit code printed on it. When that code is entered into one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! video games that accept it, a digital copy of that card is 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 two 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 do not 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 do not have any codes at all are Labyrinth Wall (and its sister card, "Wall Shadow,") Gate Guardian and its "pieces," Sanga of the Thunder, Kazejin, and Suijin.

There are also Duel Terminal cards. (Prefixed by DT in cards.) These are used in a Duel Terminal machine, which are at various locations around the country. In these machines, you can lay down a Duel Terminal card, and the machine will scan it in so you can play with it. These cards are also compatible with a Duel Scanner peripheral for the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Duel Transer for the Nintendo Wii.

Controversy

Due to the inspirations for some of the cards, such as ancient mythology and Japanese folklore, the card game was a potential target for religious advocacy groups.Perhaps to alleviate their concerns, the English names of the cards were not always given a direct translation, instead opting for a name less controversial. For example, the "Black Magician" in the original Japanese was changed to the "Dark Magician" in English, which reduced its association with black magic and the card "Trial of Hell" was changed to "Trial of Nightmare". However, this has caused some problems with the naming of certain cards, such as Archfiends (Demons in Japan), who (before the advent of Dark Crisis) all had unique names in the English version. Thus they had to be reclassified as Archfiends to meet the new standard. In addition the use of Christian themes have also been censored out of the international edition of Yu-Gi-Oh.

Professional Play

The game is supposed to be for kids but from experience I have noticed Professional Play is done mostly by people ranging from high school age and up. Maybe they have a better grasp of the game or maybe it's just they've been playing it for years and want a better challenge. We all have our reasons for playing and history with the game. The game has many rules and concepts I would never have understood as a kid in the detail I do now and I've been playing since it came out in the US.

Professional Play has many players who see the game so differently from casual players that they can take any deck idea and top with it. I have someone like that on my team. No not me, I only wish I could do that. Professional Play can also make you a lot of money. We went to a Tournament once in Philly and because of tolls we didn't expect on the way there we ran out of gas money to get home we made money by selling cards and made enough to get home plus we almost topped and got invites to Nationals. We were late so we had to take a couple of losses.

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game