YGO Articles & Guides

I'll Take You With Me! - Michizure Written by magician_noir No, this article is not about "Rules Rage" or any other psychological disorder afflicting Yu-Gi-Oh! judges that might be implied by the title of this article. It's about the Trap Card Michizure which has the Japanese translation "take you with me" (courtesy of Edo).With the UDE Ban List taking effect October 1, 2004, duelists are seeking alternative ways to remove monsters from the field with the loss of Raigeki and Dark Hole from their decks in those tournaments that apply the Ban List. This article addresses the issues and rulings of one of the cards some duelists are considering and that may now see more tournament play -- Michizure. Michizure Text You can activate...

Morphing Jar #2 Written by Gary Haynes I have been asked to write up something for the site. Given the choice, I chose to donate a write-up of mine on the card Morphing Jar #2. I've had this in my archives for about as long as the card was first introduced, since just about EVERYONE has had a problem with the intricacies of the card and how the effect actually resolves step by step. The text has been updated for new monster types, but has really not changed since the day I wrote it, with the exception of elaborating and embellishing the text. There really isn't too much of a background to the card. Mainly, it came out and it was just difficult to comprehend everything that the card effect actually did when it resolved and in what...

Trick Decks: Brilliant or Brainless? Andrew J. Mueller URjustSOL Every now and then you get matched up against a deck that is so far out of the normal that you're taken by surprise and you have to actually stop and think about how to play against it, provided you even see your next turn! Most decks center around control or beatdown. This is a fact. This is where the metagame is at this point in Yu-Gi-Oh's evolution. It's refreshing to see something that, for lack of a better word, is just plain weird. I'm not talking about some odd variant of a popular deck like Beatdown, or other widely played types like Exodia or Burn. In this article, I'm going to explore a few of the odd decks and discuss why (or why not) they're playable...

Archfiends: The Low-Down Now when someone asks me about Archfiends, they generally ask me the 3 same questions: 1) Is the die-rolling effect a trigger or a continuous effect? 2) Can I Divine Wrath an Archfiend die-roll? 3) Why can't I Divine Wrath an archfiend if it has a Trigger effect? Answers: 1) The die-rolling is actually a Trigger effect. 2) No you can't. 3) Because the Trigger effect of the Archfiends (for die-rolling) occurs during the middle of the resolution of a chain. If the effect made it's own block on the current chain, then you could, but alas, it does not do any such thing. More info: 1) The Trigger effect of Desrook Archfiend can be chained to, because it does not occur during chain resolution...

Big Combo Payoff! Dueling in a Relaxed Environment Andrew J. Mueller URjustSOL Not everyone wants the pressure of dueling in the finals of a premier event like Yu-Gi-Oh! Regionals every day. I know because I've been in that hot seat. It's "OK" once in a while, but it's not the stress-free (i.e. fun) environment that attracts people to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Many duelists are tired of Chaos dominating the meta, but they don't want to play with the Pegasus Starter Deck and get creamed. Here's your answer: a Type-based deck that's easy (and CHEAP) to build, simple to run, has some powerful combos and (most importantly) can win! In this article, we're going to build a Beast-based deck. This deck is commonly called a "Beastdown", because...

Preparation for regional tournaments: Alright, now I've been to 3-4 regionals, so I know what it's like to play in them. The most important thing you can do is be prepared mentally beforehand, and prepare your deck as well. I'll start off with preparing the deck: 1) If you aren't sure about running a card, playtest it, if it doesn't work well, take it out or side deck it 2) Get other peoples' opinions on what you should put in/take out of your deck. An objective opinion is a great thing to have. 3) Playtest the crap out of your deck. This may sound extreme, but if you cannot be familiar with almost every situation that your deck can produce, then you will not do as well. 4) Play against people whose decks you know little to nothing...

Wow. The "wiht" typo. Took me some time to catch that. Typo of "determing". I knew what I was looking for this time. Okay, now this is just weird. "Beginniner". They didn't even spell it "Magician"! It was "Magican"! "Assailaint", spelled incorrectly exactly once. Of thrice. The sudden switch of old/new got me stuck for a few seconds. The mistake is "mosnter". "Deliquent". Spelled correctly, it's "delinquent". "Spirituallist" instead of "Spiritualist". Amazing. They spelled it "Night Assailaint" exactly 50% of the time. "Monser". "Oustanding". "Monsterss". "Oustanding". Note to UDE: Spell-check BEFORE you put it up. All of these can be caught by a computer spellchecker (and probably were). Or hire...

Now, I'm back with another article, today's is on Changing Control, as in monsters. There are several ways to do this, which I will get into later, but there are also a couple ways to prevent the opponent from taking control of your monster. Now, for cards that take control of opponent's monsters: Brain Jacker- This little Fiend (yes, that was a pun) has been giving us judges headaches because players, generally, cannot seem to understand why it will not activate when flipped by battle. The best example I can think of for a reason why it does not work is to give an example of one that does work: Kiseitai Effect Monster (Fiend / DARK / 2 Stars / ATK 300 / DEF 800) When your opponent's monster attacks this card in face-down...

Ah yes, targets; possibly one of the most frustrating aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh for a judge. At least in one sense; the sense that there are no clear cut rules on determining if a card targets or not. A judge can not always determine is a card is targeting or not based on the card's text, the only clear cut way to determine this, just by looking at a card's text, is if the card has written on it "specifically designate", "target", or "designate". The most basic rule of determining if a card has a targeting effect or not is if a card requires an opponent to announce its mark then the card is has a targeting effect. Another rule, which is always true, is that targets are announced at activation. The most common annoyance in relationship to...

For those of you who're new to the game or just haven't come in contact with some card groups and perhaps never heard of the cards in the group it can be difficult to know if what you're looking at is just a bog standard common or something of true value, and there's nothing worse than getting ripped off either in a purchase/sale or in a trade. So to help people out I've put together the following description of the card rarities (and rare cards) for those who can't tell the difference between them all, obviously there are other factors in determining a card's worth, things such as its condition and how desireable (supply and demand) it is also apply. Many of the older cards are less valueable now due to either being released as promos...

Field Control through QP Spell Cards Andrew J. Mueller URjustSOL The game of Yu-Gi-Oh! has progressed through many styles of game play in the last few years. Some people refer to these styles as deck-types, themes or the meta-environment. You might recognize terms such as Beatdown, Hand-control or Chaos as major themes played in the past or present. One of the major styles active in today's meta is Field Control. Field Control, to be brief, is the ability to remove monsters on your opponent's side of the field while keeping (or bringing out more) monsters on your side. This can be accomplished through Traps, Swarming (in any form), Monster effects or Spell cards. I've already discussed swarming and other control factors in other...

Everyone who has played Yu-Gi-Oh for at least a month knows what a chain is. It's basically activating one card in response to another. I'm going to start with the basics and work my way up. First off, there is a difference between activation and resolution. Activation is when you announce you are using a monster's effect or play a magic/trap card (this is when you pay for a card's effect if the effect requires payment); resolution is when that card's effect happens. When you activate a card's effect you must always ask your opponent if he/she wishes to respond before you can chain to your own card or start the resolution of that card. A chain always resolves in the reverse order of activation. Basic Chain: Activation  Player A...

3 Feb 2005 (between 1000-1030 CST) Changed rulings for the following: The following ruling for Skill Drain was changed to "Skill Drain" does not stop you from activating Ignition Effects, but it does negate their effects as long as the Effect Monster remains on the field. If you Tribute "Cannon Soldier" to itself while "Skill Drain" is active, "Cannon Soldier"'s effect is not negated because "Cannon Soldier" is in the Graveyard, but if you Tribute a different monster for "Cannon Soldier"'s effect, then the effect is negated and your opponent takes no damage. Likewise, if you activate "Winged Minion"'s effect while "Skill Drain" is active, "Winged Minion" is no longer on the field and its effect resolves. If you activate "Exiled...

What are you talking about "accurate and inaccurate"? Nothing was repealed. In fact, the Monster Gate line was already a separate paragraph according to the full change log. And then they added something to it, for clarification.