TheYu-Gi-Oh! TCGis one of the most iconic card games to grow up with. Not only were there cards and toys for the game, but you also had a cool anime to introduce it. As Yugi goes to save his grandpa’s soul, he battles countless foes with their own gimmicks and monsters. Taking a trip back to the past with Time Wizard unlocks some hidden memories.
Looking back, odds are you never played Yu-Gi-Oh! by following the actual rules. You probably picked up a starter deck based on your favorite character from the anime and made up the rules as you went. Welcome to the playground, because it’s time to duel.
10No Tributes Needed To Summon Monsters
Summon Your Most Powerful Monsters
If there’s one thing players loved while growing up, it was just spamming monsters. One tribute, two tributes, that felt really slow to a kid back then. With the anime’s first season not using the Tribute Summon method, why not just play the monsters?
In the playground, if you had a monster in your hand, you could just slap it down. Does it require tributes? Is it a Fusion Monster? How about a Ritual Monster? None of that mattered. If you draw it, it’s good to go.
9Your Entire Deck Is The Hand
Just Pull Out Your Best Card And Ante Up
Yugi always seemed to pull exactly the cards he needed to win. Trying to do the same with yourstarter deckcould be quite challenging. This is why many kids growing up had the playground rule, where you could simply use any card at any time you needed it.
That’s right, the entire deck is now your hand. If you have a card in the deck, you can immediately use it. Suddenly, that deck made up of forgettable monsters can instantly bring out their powerhouses.
8Trap Cards During Your Turn
Why Wait? Use It Now!
There are so many useful Trap cards that came out during the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Cards like Trap Hole and Solemn Judgment could do some real damage to your opponent’s plays. Of course, following the rules of Trap cards was a different story.
Many younger Yu-Gi-Oh! players would use Traps in the same way as Spells. This was ages before the first official hand traps and totally against the rules of the game. We didn’t care, though, if it meant getting closer to victory.
7The Flavor Text Counts As A Monster’s Power
Blue-Eyes Is Invincible
If you watchedthe Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, then you know how cool the Blue-Eyes White Dragon could be, or how the Dark Magician has control of all magic. In reality, these are just some pretty cool vanilla monsters.
Like all monsters of their kind, they don’t have effects. Instead, they have flavor text. Blue-Eyes states that it is virtually indestructible. So even if your opponent uses a Raigeki to destroy all your monsters, Blue-Eyes survives. Why? Because the card flavor text says it’s indestructible.
6Polymerization Can Fuse Anything
Just Stack The Cards On Top Of Each Other
No, Polymerization can’t just fuse any monster together, even if the anime makes it look like it can. While the Fusion deck holds any of your possible options for Polymerization, the playground had a different way of handling the mechanic.
Rather than combining two cards on a materials list, the playground merely required two monsters to stack onto each other. With their stats added together and their names combined
5No Card Limits
Infinite Cards All The Time
One of the most common playground rules for Yu-Gi-Oh! is the absence of abanlist. We just played with whatever cards we had in hand, whether they were banned or not. Even standard regulations didn’t mean much. Who is to stop you from running five copies of Pot of Greed?
Hand limits didn’t mean much either. At any point, you could end up with ten cards in your hands without discarding any. While you’re at it, why not run a 100-card deck? The bigger your deck, the more powerful it becomes.
4If The Anime Says It, Then It’s True
Using Anime Logic To Win A Duel
Mirror Force can’t actually damage your opponent’s life points. Obelisk the Tormentor can’t gain infinite attack points by tributing two monsters. Castle of Dark Illusions doesn’t stop your opponent from seeing your board. That is, unless you’re using anime rules.
If the anime says it works, then you can just mention it while using the cards, even if this means using your hands to cover up what monsters you’re playing. It’s just another way we all grew up interacting with the TV series and our real-life cards.
3Activating Spells During Your Opponent’s Turn
Spells Are Not Blockers
Quick-Play Spells were barely existent in the very early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but the anime often had Yugi block an opponent using a Spell. He did so by either setting the Spell as a Trap or simply playing it from the hand during his opponent’s turn.
Of course, we all copied this kind of behavior, leading to numerous illegal plays. This kind of ruling usually came up whenever we wanted to have more exciting duels. Playing by the rules? That’s boring. How about we just shoot spells back and forth?
2Attributes Work Like Pokemon
Fire Beats Water
The early Yu-Gi-Oh! anime treated attributes and monster types the same way Pokemon did. With Pokemon being even more popular, it would be easy for us to mistake the attribute system as working in the same way.
This is why we simply assumed Water monsters could beat Fire monsters regardless of stats. Monsters that can fly would also have an advantage against those that don’t, as they could evade attacks by flying up in the air. It would then become one of those playground rules you would often see being utilized.
1If Your Hand Is Empty, Draw Five More Cards
The Game Has To Continue Somehow
Playing Yu-Gi-Oh! can leave your hand empty if you’re just throwing every Spell, Trap, and Monster card you draw into. As kids, we didn’t know anything about playing strategically to keep our hands full. If our hand ever got empty, we just drew five cards to keep the game going.
That’s pretty much where every playground rule comes from. It’s the need to keep the game going by whatever means possible, and playing during your opponent’s turn. How will you play if you have no cards to use? The answer is simple: reload your hand.
