Yu-Gi-Oh Guide for TTS

This is a guide for anyone who wishes to play Yu-Gi-Oh! on TTS.

I have mostly copied this over from the rules I wrote for a workshop item. While I am a competitive player IRL and as such have a good working knowledge of the rules for that reason, if in doubt please see the official rules online.

This guide has information both for new players and those already familliar with the game who want tips on how to play the game on TTS.

The rules section of this guide is based on my own knowledge of the official rules in addition to the unwritten precedents which have been set by tournament judge rulings, which are therefore considered to be correct rulings.

Playing Yu-Gi-Oh on TTS

If you are already familliar with the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh, this section should offer you some tips on how to get the best out of your experience on this particular platform.

By way of introduction, I have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh for over a decade, and have been playing competitively since July 2016. I enjoy playing in real life but I am constantly reminded of what a pay-to-play game it is, since keeping at the top of the game requires constant expenditure in order to get the cards you need to be competative.

As such I enjoy playing Yu-Gi-Oh Digitally. There are a number of different places that you can do this, both officially sponsored and not so.

TTS for me is a great platform for playing Yu-Gi-oh. Its more personal than other formats since you can talk to the other players, and there is a real community of Yu-Gi-Oh players on Table Top Simulator.

Acquiring a Deck

If you want to play Yugioh you need a deck. There are a wide number of mods available which contain decks which people have mass uploaded.

However I have found the majority of these to be a poor quality and often poor build.

Some workshop items such as yugioh tables have structure and starter decks included, but again many of them are low quality images and if you want to really get your game on you want a properly constructed deck.

One enduring thing I find about this game is that each person likes a slightly different build for a given deck archetype. So in other words the best thing to do is to build your own and upload it to TTS.

This is pretty simple, but quite time intensive. There are plenty of videos on youtube which explain how to make custom decks for TTS so I won't go on about this too much.

However there are some things which I would like to add which I think are relevant specifically for Yu-Gi-Oh deck making.

I am personally a bit of stickler for high quality cards so I like to make them myself from scratch. This is admittedly a very time consuming process and each deck might take me a few hours to go from start to uploading it to TTS, although I have gotten quite efficient at the process.

I start with a really great software tool called TCG Editor which you can download here[www.tcgeditor.com]. I used to use Yugiohcardmaker.net found here[www.yugiohcardmaker.net] which is a great tool, but I found it lacking since you can't make pendullums and bullet points don't appear.

Using TCG editor and copying effect and name text accross from the wiki to save time, downloading and if necessary cropping monster portaits, I create a batch of cards and they're always of the highest quality.


I then use TTS Deck Editor to save an image of the cards, just using one instance of each card.

I resize the cards to 700 width and 1000 height before saving.


Loading up TTS I go on single player and use the custom deck tool to upload the images. Then I pull out each card and name them individually (most people don't but I like to go to every effort plus don't worry about the opponent knowing what they are when face down - it doesn't reveal the name when the card is face down). Here is why we only added one instance of each card on TTS Deck Editor, since we can name one card and copy and paste it for how many copies we need for the deck.


Finally place your main, extra and side deck (if you have one) into a deck box and save to chest and you're good to load it into the game.

For a detailed tutorial on how to build a custom deck:

Regarding Playing Format and Ettiquette

Yu-Gi-Oh has a few formats. There's the TCG for us Westerners, there's the OCG in Asia and then you might consider anime cards to be in a format of their own. Also within TCG there is the Traditional and Advanced formats. Konami update the Forbidden/Limited list from time to time for both OCG and TCG. This list contains all the cards which are either banned from use in the game, semi limited which means only 2 copies are allowed per deck, and limited which is 1. All cards unlisted here may exist in a deck with up to 3 copies. In the traditional format no cards are forbidden, only limited or semi limited.

If you want to practice the game at the proper up to date standard then use the advanced format. There's no reason why you can't play from previous ban lists or without a ban list at all.

The important thing is that both you and your opponent agree on the format that you will be dueling under, for the sake of fairness and fun.

Additionally, in the interest of fairness, try to match the quality of your deck to your opponent - at the end of the day, we all just want to have a fun duel.

For reference please see the official forbidden/limited list here.[www.yugioh-card.com]

Yu-Gi-Oh Tables

In this section I wll introduce the play mat used in yugioh matches. I will also link at the end some workshop items which provide yugioh tables to play on.

The Play Area

In yugioh the surface you play on has spaces for you main deck and extra deck and all the zones which you need in the game. Outside of the playing area you can keep things like dice, tokens, a side deck and the banished, or removed from play zone. Although the banish zone is not part of the playing area, since the cards are considered to have been removed from play, most yugiohtables on TTS have a dedicated area for banished cards for convenience.


The image above is an example of the table I normally use in TTS. I have identified the various features used in the game.

Due to the upcoming rule changes and new monster type, the field in YUGIOH is also changing see below.

Please see these links to workshop items with tables.

Firstly, including contributions by Top Bloke Gman and Holofire, The Real Teo and me.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=855561714

For the new link format of the table please see here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=872042266

For a Table accommodating 8 players
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=824702934&searchtext=yugioh+table

Getting Started

Yu-Gi-Oh is played in Games. Players can play single games or matches, where a match usually is a best of three games.

To begin the players must use a system to decide who gets to choose the play order. This is normally decided by rolling 2 D6 dice, but a coin flip can suffice. The winner of this may choose to play either first or second.

To begin the main decks are shuffled and each player must draw 5 cards.

Each player takes it in turns to play cards and effects.

The first person to play does not draw 1 card in their draw phase and cannot enter their battle phase.

The game is over when one player's Life Points are reduced to or below 0, or when a 'win condition' is in place, such as Exodia the Forbidden One or Final Countdown.

Each player is allowed 1 normal summon per turn, starts with 8000 Life Points and may Pendullum summon once per turn.

Monsters all have a Type, sub-types, a level and an attribute. Attributes include Light, Dark, Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Divine. Attributes are sometimes mentioned in effects, but otherwise serve no purpose.

Spells and Traps also have types. These are: Normal Spell/Trap, Continuous Spell/Trap, Quick-play Spell, Ritual Spell, Field Spell and Counter-trap.

Continuous spells and traps remain on the field until they are destroyed or sent from the field by some other method. These cards normally have SP1 or SP2 effects which do not count as card activations. The cards must be activated before their effect is activated.

Field Spell cards are played in the special field spell zone. Both players may have a Field Spell card active at the same time and they will both be affected by the Field Spell effect. However, many Field Spell cards have once per turn affects which can only be used by the player that controlls the card.

The other spell and trap types are described later in this guide.

Basic Rules and Turn Play

To begin with each player must have a main deck consisting of 40-60 cards. They may also have an extra deck with no more than 15 cards.

In a players turn he may summon monsters, activate effects and set spells and traps on the field.

Normal Summoning

A player is allowed to normal summon/set (face-down) one monster per turn.


If a monster is Level 5 or 6 you must tribute 1 monster you control on the field (send it to the graveyard) in order to normal summon or set.

If a monster is Level 7 or higher it requires 2 tributes.

There is no limit to the number of monsters that may be Special Summoned each turn, and there are many effects which allow monsters to be Special Summoned during the opponents turn.

Spell Speeds

Every effect has an effect type and a spell speed.

Spell speeds range from 1-3. Most effects are SP1. This includes normal spell effects and monster effects. These effects are usually ignition effects which means that the player specifically decides to activate the effect when they want, but spell speed 1 effects can only be activated during the main phases.

SP2 effects are also known as Quick-Play effects. Spell cards with a lightning bolt icon in the top right corner are SP2 and can be activated at any time or chained to the activation of another effect, or an action such as a draw or a summon.

Normal Traps are also SP2 and can be activated at any time, however Traps must be set face down in the S/T zone during the player's main phases and they cannot be activated during the turn that they are set.

Quick-play spells can also be set face down in the S/T zone during the main phases to be activated during the opponent's turn but likewise cannot be activated the turn they are set.

Some monster effects are also SP2. If an effect says "During either player's turn" or "During the Opponent's turn" then it is SP2.

Spell Speed 3 effects are rare. Only Counter Traps (indicated by a curving arrow in the top right corner) are SP3. SP3 effects can be chained to SP1 or 2 effects, or actions such as a summon. The most commonly used counter traps are the Solemn Cards i.e. Solemn Warning. Most counter cards are used to negate summons or effects and only another SP3 effect can be chained to them.

Chain Links

Chaining is a big part of Yu-Gi-Oh play. When an action like a draw or a summon occurs, or an effect is activated, either player may chain another effect as long as it is SP2 or 3. If an effect is chained, either player can then chose to chain another effect to that chain and what is known as a CHAIN is built. Each subsequent CHAIN LINK is numbered i.e. the first effect is CL1, the next is CL2 and so on.

When both players have finished chaining effects, the chain is resolved. Chains resolve backwards, which means that if there is a chain with 4 links, chain link 4 resolves first, followed by CL3, CL2 and finally CL1. This means that the further down the chain an effect is, essentially the faster it is, because it will resolve before the lower chain links.
If a player chains a SP3 effect on a chain the chain will normally end, as only SP3 effects can be chained to SP3.

To give an example: Player 1 special summons Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon (CL1), the effect of Player 2's Black Rose Moonlight Dragon is triggered and targets Crystal Wing to return to the hand (SP2 CL2), Player 1 activates the effect of Crystal Wing to negate the effect of Moonlight Dragon (SP2 CL3), Player 2 activates Solemn Strike to negate Crystal Wing's effect and destroy it (SP3 CL4). The chain resolves: Solemn Strike negates Crystal Wing and destroys it, CL3 has no effect because the effect was negated, CL2 has no effect because Crystal Wing has left the field by being destroyed in CL4.


Chains should not be underestimated, many tournament rounds are decided by exactly how the players stack a chain as the consequences can be the difference between finishing a player off this turn, or losing in the next turn.

Turn Preference & Passing Preference

In each players turn, there is a preference system to give each player a chance to activate effects. The turn player has preference, meaning that they are given the first opportunity to perform actions. If they chose not to do so, that player passes preference over to the opponent so that they can respond to things, or activate effects.

When it comes to the activation of effects, the turn player has first preference and preference is given to compulsory effects.

For example during the standby phase if both player's have effects that will activate, the turn player's compulsory effects are activated first, followed by the opponent's compulsory effects, then the turn player can choose to activate an optional effect, followed by the opponent.

Whenever the turn player declares that they are ending a phase they must give the opponent the chance to activate their effects before entering the next phase.

Turn Phases

Each turn consists of 6 distinct phases:

DRAW PHASE - The turn player draws 1 card this phase exists in the first turn, even though the first player to go does not draw a card. SP2 and 3 effects may be chained to the draw.

STANDBY PHASE - any effects that are triggered in the standby phase occur here. SP2 and 3 may be activated.

MAIN PHASE 1 - Monsters may be summoned by normal summon or set (face down), or special summon, SP1, 2 and 3 effects may be activated. Spell cards and Trap cards may be set on the field (face down)

BATTLE PHASE - The turn player may attack his opponent with any monster that is able once each unless otherwise stated. The first player to start may not enter their Battle Phase during their first turn! SP2 and 3 effects may be activated and chained to attacks.

During this phase there is a period of special conditions, called the battle step. When an attack is declared, the turn player declares which monster is attacking and its attack target. The opponent has a chance to respond to this declaration with SP2 or 3 effects.

After declaration, proceed to the damage step. If the attack target was face down, flip it face up (but keep it in the same position), resolve any FLIP effects and then proceed to damage calculation.

During damage calculation, check the ATK of the attacking monster and the ATK or DEF of the attack target, depending on which position it is in. If the attacking monster's stat is higher, the monster is destroyed and if it was in attack position, the opponent takes damage to their LP equal to the difference in ATK.

If neither monster is stronger, nothing happens. Any monster that was face down when attacked remains face up and cannot be flipped face down again except by an effect.

If the attack target's stat is higher, if it was in attack position, the attacking monster is destroyed and the turn player takes damage equal to the difference in ATK. If it was in defence position, the turn player takes damage equal to the difference between the ATK of his monster and DEF but the attacking monster is not destroyed.

After damage calculation proceed to the end of the damage step (some effects will trigger at this point).

Repeat this sequence for each attack made.

MAIN PHASE 2 - the same as main phase 1, however since this is after the battle phase, there will be no more attacks this turn.

END PHASE - after this phase, the next player will begin their turn. This phase is similair to the standby phase as no actions may be made except effects which specifically trigger in the end phase or if a player decides to activate an SP2 or 3 effect.

Normal and Special Summons

Players may usually normal summon 1 monster per turn, however some effects allow an additional normal summon.

Monsters can either be normal summoned in face-up attack position or face-down defence position.

Monsters may be special summoned and there is no limit to the number of special summons a player can make. Special Summoning howev requires a specific effect which allows such a summon. For example, the effect of monster reborn special summons a monster from the graveyard.

Any monster which does not in its effect say otherwise may be special summoned. There are however some constraining factors as well as special types of special summons.

Unless otherwise stated, a monster which is special summoned can be summoned in either face-up attack position or face-up defence position. Monsters can not usually be special summoned face-down. The position of the monster is decided by the person who is summoning the monster, which means that if one player has a way to special summon a monster onto the opponent's side of the field, he may choose which position to summon that monster. Some effects which special summon do however require the monsters which are being special summoned to be done so it a specific position, e.g. 'you can special summon one monster from your hand in face-up attack position'.

Other Types of Special Summon

Monsters are classified by type as well as by whether they have an effect or not. Non effect monsters can be known as normal monsters or vannilla monsters.

A monster's type is indicated by its card frame. A vannilla normal monster has a pale yellow or beige coloured frame. A normal effect monster has an orange coloured frame. A ritual monster has a dark blue frame. A Fusion monster has a purple frame. A Synchro monster has a white frame. An Xyz Monster has a black frame. Pendullum monsters are a special sub-type and their bottom half is blue-green like a spell card, but their top half could be any of the above colours.

Monsters have sub-types. Every monster has a sub-type, for instance 'Dragon', 'Machine', 'Zombie', etc. Some other monsters also have additional sub-types, such as Flip monsters, Union monsters, Tuner monsters or Pendullum monsters. If a monster has an effect, 'effect' is written in the sub-types space.


Normal vannilla monsters and normal effect monsters are kept in the main deck and can be normal or special summoned from the hand, deck, graveyard or while banished.

These two types of monsters are the only types which can be normal summoned and do not have to be special summoned by a specific mechanic first before they can be special summoned from the graveyard or while banished.

Ritual monsters are also kept in the main deck but they cannot be normal summoned. Instead they must be Ritual Summoned. Ritual summon is a type of special summon. In order to summon the monster, the player must have that monster in their hand and a ritual spell card. Ritual spell cards have a fire symbol in their top right corner and most ritual spell cards require monsters to be sacrificed from the field or hand in order to perform the summon, however some also allow monsters to be sacrificed from the deck or by banishing monsters from the graveyard. Normally the player must sacrifice monsters whose levels exceed the level of the Ritual monster being summoned, but in some cases the levels must exactly equal the level of the Ritual monster.

Fusion monsters, Synchro monsters and Xyz monsters are kept in the extra deck and each have a special mechanic which must first be used to summon them.

To Fusion Summon a Fusion monster, a player must have a fusion card. The most common card for fusion summons is 'Polymerization' but there are many other fusion spell cards, some which are used specifically for an archetype. A player who is fusion summoning must send fusion materials from their hand or field to the graveyard in order to fulfill the conditions of the fusion summon, and the materials required are listed on the Fusion monster. Some Fusion monsters only require a generic material, e.g. 2 normal monsters, but some are more specific and need at least one specific monster. Some Fusion spell cards also allow the player to banish materials from the graveyard or send them from the deck to the graveyard.

Some Fusion monsters have a special type of Fusion summon known as 'Contact Fusion', this does not require a fusion spell card such as polymerization. If the effect states that 'this is considered a fusion summon' then that monster has been summoned properly and can later be special summoned fromt he graveyard or while banished.

Synchro monsters do not require a spell card to summon them. Instead they require the player to have Synchro materials on the field. Normally 1 tuner monster is required and one or more non-tuner monsters. The player must send the tuner(s) and any other monsters to the graveyard so that the total level of those monsters is equal to the level of the Synchro monster they wish to summon. Some Synchro monsters are also tuners, so can be used to synchro summon other monsters and as such, some Synchro monsters require Synchro monsters as their materials. Most Synchro monsters are generic, however others specify a particular monster or monster type which must be used for the Synchro summon, e.g. 1 Dark tuner monster + 1 or more Dragon Type monster(s).

Xyz monsters similarly do not require a spell card to be summoned. Instead they require the player to have materials on the field. Xyz monsters do not have a level, but rather a rank. If an xyz monster is Rank 4, then the player must have level 4 monsters on the field to summon it. Each Xyz monster will specify how many monsters it requires as materials and whether they must be specific types of monsters. When an Xyz monster is Xyz summoned, the player overlays the materials used for the summon and places the Xyz monster on top of them. Xyz materials remain beneath the Xyz monster but are not considered to be on the field. Most Xyz monsters have an effect which requires the player to detach 1 or more materials from beneath the monster. Materials that are detached are sent to the graveyard. Some Xyz monsters can 'Rank Up'. This means that they can be summoned by using another Xyz monster as its material. In some cases the materials which are already attached to the Xyz monster material become materials on the new monster (e.g. if Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon on the field is used as a material to summon Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon [which states that it can also be summoned by using a "Galaxy-Eyes" Xyz monster on the field] and Cipher Dragon had 2 materials beneath it, Number 95 will subsequently have 3 materials beneath it when it is summoned. Ranking up Xyz monsters in this way is a good way to increase the number of times that an Xyz monster can use its effect. Additionally there are some 'Rank-up' and 'Rank-down' spell cards which allow the player to summon in this way.

Fusion, Synchro and Xyz monsters all have their own mechanic for summoning, however it is possible to Special Summon them from the Extra deck by other means. An example is Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon, which has an effect which allows you to Special Summon 1 Light Dragon type Synchro Monster from the Extra deck. However if one of these types of monster is Special Summoned in this way, ignoring its summoning mechanic, it is not considered to have been properly summoned and so if it is subsequently destroyed or banished, it may not be special summoned by an effect such as monster reborn.

Pendullum monsters are hybrid cards. They may either be played as monsters, by summoning them, or as a spell card in the Pendullum zones. All Pendullum monsters have a scale on them, this scale is expressed as a number and determines the Pendullum scale, allowing you to Pendullum summon. For instance, if you have a pendullum monster in one Pendullum zone with a scale of 3 and another in the other zone with a scale of 8, you may pendullum summon any number of monsters that are level 4, 5, 6 or 7. Pendullum summon may be done once per turn and any normal or effect monster which can be normal or special summoned regularly may be summoned this way from the hand, Pendullum monsters included. If a pendullum monster is sent from the deck or discarded from the hand to the graveyard, it will go to the graveyard. If however a pendullum monster is on the field, either in a monster zone or anywhere else on the field such as the pendullum zone and is destroyed, it will go to the top of the extra deck face up instead of the graveyard. Pendullum monsters which are face-up in the extra deck may be pendullum summoned. Pendullum summons are reated as one simultaneous summon and if they are negated, all the monsters will go to the graveyard instead of the extra deck.

Most Pendullum monsters also have a pendullum effect which may be activated while they are in the Pendullum Zone this effect is treated as a spell effect.

Some Fusion, Synchro and Xyz monsters are also Pendullum monsters. Once they have been summoned by their respective mechanic, they will go to the topof the extra deck and can be pendullum summoned back to the field.

Link Summons - New Mechanic

So the news has just come in that Yu-Gi-Oh! will be changing in a big way due to the addition of Link monsters.

The rules are a little sketchy at the moment but what I can gather so far is this:

The board has been changed. Pendulum zones are now part of the s/t zone, additionally there are 2 new zones called Extra Monster zones.

You can no longer summon monsters from the extra deck to the normal monster zones unless you have a link monster in the extra monster zone. You can summon monsters from the extra deck to the extra monster zone, but once you have summoned one into a zone, the other zone belongs to yourt opponent and you cannot use it.

If you want to summon more than one Extra Deck monster, you must summon a Link monster in the extra monster zone, then you can summon other Extra Deck monsters onto the field in zones that are linked to a Link monster.

For example:


This is a close up example of a Link monster that I have quickly made. The final thing will probalby be a little different, but this gives a good idea of what to expect.

[Callmecrazy9]

Can u post the mods you play with, especially where u find the table and scripts

[Funny, innit?]

Why would you accept such a fate and ridicule yourself by claiming the title of a competitive card game player.
Shame, really.

[Acrox Shadow]

Not sure why this guide is popular years later but might as well mention the mistake of "Normal Vanilla Monsters" and "Normal Effect Monsters" not being a thing. Those are Normal Monsters and Effect Monsters.

[Holofire]

Damn son, this guide is amazing.

[Toadally Awesome]

I give you a thumbs up for mustering the courage to write this. Also pointing out that Pendulum only needs one l(L).

Aside than that, if I were you, I'd probably include a netdecked decklist on each summon type (Something like Fluffal/Speedroid/Phantom Knight/Majespecter) for people completely new to the game to try out without fear of building a deck with older cards they may like but have 0% chance to win.