How to play

The goal

Both duelists start with 8,000 Life Points. Bring your opponent to 0 and you win. There are three ways to get there.

Life PointsBring them to 0 with attacks and card effects.

Deck outA duelist who has to draw from an empty deck loses.

ExodiaHold all five pieces of Exodia in your hand and you win on the spot.

The field

The classic playmat, the way the original game played. Five zones for monsters, five for spells and traps, and your piles at the sides. There are no Extra Monster Zones.

• The Graveyard is face up. Both duelists can read it at any time.
• The Extra Deck holds your Fusion Monsters. Only you can look at yours.
• One Field Spell can be active at a time.

The turn

You open with 5 cards. Every turn starts with a draw, the very first one included. The duelist who goes first can't attack on that first turn.

Summoning monsters

• Normal Summon or Set once a turn. Level 1 to 4 monsters come out for free. Level 5 and 6 need 1 tribute, level 7 and up need 2: you send your own monsters to the Graveyard to pay.
• Flip Summon turns a face-down monster face up in Attack Position. It doesn't use your Normal Summon.
• Special Summons come from card effects, and you can make as many as your cards allow.
• Fusion uses Polymerization to send the listed monsters to the Graveyard and bring a Fusion Monster out of the Extra Deck. Ritual Monsters need their Ritual Spell and tributes whose levels add up to the requirement.

Battle

Each face-up Attack Position monster can attack once per Battle Phase. A monster summoned this turn can attack too; a monster in Defense Position can't.

VS

2500 ATK2400 ATK

Attack against attack: the lower ATK is destroyed and its duelist takes the difference, 100. Equal ATK destroys both, with no damage.

VS

2400 ATK2000 DEF

Attack against defense: 2400 beats 2000, so the defender is destroyed, but no damage goes through.

→

3000 ATKempty field

No monsters to block: a direct attack takes the full 3,000 from their Life Points.

Attack into a higher DEF and your attacker isn't destroyed, but you take the difference.

Spells and traps

Spells are played from your hand on your turn, or set first and used later. Traps must be set first and can only be used from your opponent's next turn on.

• Normal spells and traps resolve, then go to the Graveyard. Continuous ones stay on the field while their effect lasts.
• Equip Spells attach to a monster. Field Spells sit in the Field Zone and change the whole field.
• Quick-Play Spells can be used on your opponent's turn once they're set. Ritual Spells perform a Ritual Summon.
• Counter Traps are the fastest cards in the game.

Chains

When a card is activated, the other duelist can answer with one fast enough. That builds a chain, and a chain resolves backwards: the last card played happens first.

CHAIN 1 · THEM

CHAIN 2 · YOU

You attack, they flip Mirror Force, and you answer with Mystical Space Typhoon. Chain 2 resolves first and destroys Mirror Force, so chain 1 does nothing.

Building a deck

• You build with cards you own, and the banlist caps come first. Copies count by card name, so two printings of the same card share one limit.
• The Side Deck lets you swap cards between games of a best of 3.
• Starter copies you were given can duel, but they can't be sold, traded or put on the line in Stakes.

Format and banlist

We play the Goat format: the rules and card pool of the classic era, before Synchros. The banlist follows one idea: limit, don't forbid. Strong classics stay playable at one copy, and only cards that lock a game or loop forever on their own are forbidden.

Ranked and Stakes

Duels against the computer and against friends don't move your rating. Ranked does, and it comes in two kinds.

• Points: 10 for a ranked win and 3 for a loss, up to 60 a day. A match counts once it reaches 5 turns and 3 minutes. The most points earned in the last seven days decide who takes the Championship's seats.
• The Stakes pick: only copies the loser can actually give are offered. If the winner doesn't choose within 10 minutes, the rarest one is taken, and until then the loser can't sell those cards or start another duel.
• Leaving isn't a way out. Drop from a ranked match and you have a short window to reconnect, or you forfeit the match. In Stakes, a forfeit still hands the winner their pick.
• Matchmaking only: you can't choose your ranked opponent, and the same two duelists aren't paired again for 30 minutes.