How to: Modern Yu-Gi-Oh!
Date: 27th August 2023
Introduction
As someone who has been a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! since 2016, and recently got back into playing the TCG, I can understand how overwhelming and confusing the modern mechanics are for beginners! This guide will explain the most common mechanics and a little bit about how the modern game works.
The very basics.
Most people already know the basics of Yu-Gi-Oh! from watching the anime, so I won’t go over them here. One thing new players might not know is about deck sizes. The main deck with normal monsters, spells and traps has to have at least 40 cards and up to 60. The Extra Deck which holds all the non-normal monsters can have up to 15, but isn’t required. Most players keep their deck size to only 40 as to make it easier to be able to draw the cards they need, however, some decks benefit from having more cards!
What the hell is a special summon?
Special Summoning is a mechanic in Yu-Gi-Oh! that some beginners don’t understand. It’s like normal summoning, except it happens due to an effect and can be done an infinite amount of times per turn. The monsters in your extra deck are all special summons!
The Extra Deck Monsters
Link
Link monsters are extra deck monsters that have special points on them, and no defence. Usually, link monsters will have an effect relating to what their points point to. These cards have to be placed in the extra monster zone, unless both slots are already full.
Synchro
Synchro monsters are made with “Tuners” and “Non-Tuners”. All this means is if a card says “Tuner” on it, and another one doesn’t, you can use those as materials for a Synchro. Some synchro monsters will be tuners themselves and then can be used as materials to create even bigger and stronger monsters.
Xyz
Xyz monsters are made by overlaying. When an xyz monster is summoned it’s material is placed under it and can be removed using card effects to do certain abilities. There isn’t a limit on how many materials and xyz monster can have, and some cards will have abilities that require lots of materials to be useful.
Hand traps, negates and floodgates
This is where a lot of people don’t understand modern Yu-Gi-Oh!. I think to fully understand what I mean here, I’ll use examples. Hand traps are cards that have quick effects, usually these will be an effect negation. The most basic of these is “Effect Vieler” who’s card text reads “During your opponent's Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can send this card from your hand to the GY, then target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; negate the effects of that face-up monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn.” Which basically means: on your opponents turn, if they use a monster effect and you want to stop it, discard this card. There are a LOT of hand traps and most of their usefulness comes from the knowledge of the person using them. You can have a perfect hand of interruptions but if you trying to stop your opponents combo at the wrong points you’re just wasting resources!
Decks
One of the things I love about Yu-Gi-Oh!, which to some can be one of the most complicated and frustrating things to learn, is the wide variety of decks. Most decks will have a specific gimmick, for example, the “Madolche” deck’s gimmick is shuffling monsters from the GY back into the deck. Another example is “Live-Twin” which uses the link mechanic and can split apart their boss monster for extra damage and card removal. Pretty cool, huh? There’s tons and tons of decks to choose from, and it can be hard to find one you like and one that's actually good. The best resources to find decks are YGO Pro Deck and Master Duel Meta. Look through their lists of top performing decks and looking at their guides will give you a deep understanding of how to play the decks, and you should be able to find one that fits your unique playstyle.
How do I actually play Yu-Gi-Oh?
Here are a few ways you can play Yu-Gi-Oh:
- Grab a few friends to play with you in person/over video call after going to pick up some cards from your local game store or buying a deck from online
- Participate in a local event
- Playing Master Duel or Duel Links on PC/Mobile
- Using a free duelling website such as Dueling Book if you want a more realistic TCG playing experience.
Each one of these has their own pros and cons, which I won't get into here, but most players do all of these and swap around which one they focus on to keep the game exciting!
Conclusion
I hope this was helpful! Being able to share this game with others is one thing I really enjoy. If you have any additional questions leave them in my guestbook with your email and I’ll send a reply :D