HowTo Network emblem How To: Gaming THE HOW TO CO. — EDITION 10
A tall lit doorway at the end of a dark carved stone corridor, cold blue light spilling across the floor

● DOOR 01 · YU-GI-OH! — LEARN TO DUEL

GETTING STARTED turn one, slowed right down.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is the fastest game in cards, and nobody explains the slow part. What a turn is actually made of, the one summon you only get once, and a first deck you built yourself.

▸ THE SHAPE OF A TURN

A turn is six phases deep — and the two Main Phases are where you actually build.

Every turn walks the same six steps in the same order, whoever is playing. Draw, a beat to settle, the first Main Phase, the Battle Phase, the second Main Phase, and out. Learn the shape once and you stop guessing when you're allowed to do things — which is most of what makes a new duelist freeze.

01 DRAW 02 STANDBY 03 MAIN PHASE 1 BUILD HERE START BATTLE DAMAGE END 04 BATTLE ITS OWN FOUR STEPS 05 MAIN PHASE 2 IF YOU FOUGHT 06 END PHASE DOWN TO SIX ▸ SIX STEPS DOWN — THEN IT IS THEIR TURN THE LIT TREADS ARE THE TWO YOU FILL
01 DRAW 02 STANDBY 03 MAIN 1 BUILD HERE START BATTLE DAMAGE END 04 BATTLE ITS OWN FOUR STEPS 05 MAIN 2 IF YOU FOUGHT 06 END DOWN TO SIX ▸ SIX STEPS DOWN — THEN IT IS THEIR TURN THE LIT TREADS ARE THE TWO YOU FILL

◆ TURN ONE IS NOT LIKE THE REST

Whoever goes first doesn't draw, and can't attack. Their whole turn is a setup turn — which is exactly why the player going first spends it building a board.

◆ MAIN PHASE 2 IS CONDITIONAL

You reach it by going to the Battle Phase and coming back out. Skip the fight and the turn goes straight from Main Phase 1 to the End Phase.

◆ YOU ARE NEVER FULLY IDLE

Even on someone else's turn, a Set Trap or Quick-Play Spell — and certain effects you activate from your hand — can answer. Phases tell you when you lead, not when you're allowed to act.

Three ways in.

READ THE TURN · BUILD THE DECK · READ THE CARD

A duel field marked out in glowing blue outlines across a dark stone floor, receding into mist

01 HOW A DUEL FLOWS

How a Turn Actually Flows.

The six phases, in the order they happen, with the parts that trip everyone up.

  • ▸What you may do in each phase
  • ▸Why the first turn is different
  • ▸When your opponent gets to answer
◆ GUIDE COMING SOON
Three stacks of blank cards on dark slate beside a brass ruler — one tall square block behind, two smaller cream stacks in front

02 YOUR FIRST DECK

Your First Deck, Without Netdecking.

Forty cards you chose, that do one thing well — and that you understand every line of.

  • ▸Why forty and not sixty
  • ▸Picking one plan and cutting the rest
  • ▸What belongs in the Extra Deck
◆ GUIDE COMING SOON
A thick gilt-edged block of cards on rough dark slate, lit blue from the left, a jeweller's loupe beside it

03 READING A CARD

Reading a Card's Type and Attribute.

The frame colour, the two words under the name, and the numbers in the corner — in that order.

  • ▸What the frame colour tells you first
  • ▸Type and attribute, and why cards name them
  • ▸Reading a card that reads you back
◆ GUIDE COMING SOON
A hand setting a single card face down on a stone surface, blue light glowing out from beneath it

▸ THE FIRST HOUR

Everybody freezes on turn one. Not because the rules are hard — because nobody tells you which parts of the turn are actually yours.

▸ THE ONE LIMIT NOBODY TELLS YOU

You get one Normal Summon a turn. Everything else on a board got there another way.

Once per turn you may Normal Summon a monster from your hand — or set it face down instead. That's the whole allowance, and it does not refresh. So when you watch someone put five monsters on the table before you've had a turn, only one of them was a Normal Summon. The rest arrived by Special Summon, and the rules put no limit on how many of those a turn can hold.

That single asymmetry is why modern Yu-Gi-Oh! looks the way it does. Every deck is really a machine for turning one Normal Summon into a board full of Special Summons — and every card that stops you does it by breaking the chain early. Which is the whole of door two.

◆ SETTING A MONSTER FACE DOWN USES THE SAME ONE ALLOWANCE.

NORMAL SUMMON

ONE PER TURN · FROM HAND

Once. Face up in attack, or face down in defence. Use it and it's gone until your next turn.

SPECIAL SUMMON

NO LIMIT AS OFTEN AS CARDS ALLOW

Not a free action — a card has to say you may. But nothing in the rules limits how many times a turn one can happen.

Two players facing each other across a game-shop table at night, a row of cards between them under a brass pendant lamp

▸ FROM THE ARCHIVIST · IAN

"Your first deck should be forty cards you can explain. Not forty cards somebody won a tournament with. If you can't say what a card is doing in there, it isn't doing anything."

MORE FROM IAN

Before your first duel

WHILE YOU LEARN THE TURN
Sleeves, a deck box and two soft cloths laid out on dark slate IAN · ESSAY● LIVE Store Cards So They Outlive You Sleeves, humidity and the slow damage nobody sees happening. Do this on day one and you never think about it again. READ THE ESSAY POPPY · ESSAY● LIVE Win Game Night Without Making Enemies READ IAN · ESSAY● LIVE Trade Up Without Burning Friends READ

▸ WHY THESE THREENone of them teach you to duel. They teach you the habits that decide whether the cards you're about to buy are still worth anything in a year.

The how-to guides

Written for a first duel, not a tournament table. Three guides, in the order you'll actually want them.

◆ READ THE CARD FIRST. EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS PAGE ASSUMES YOU CAN.

ROUTE 01 · LEARN

Everything you need before your first duel.

◆How to Read a Yu-Gi-Oh! CardSOON ◆How to Build Your First Yu-Gi-Oh! DeckSOON ◆How to Play Your First Turn Without FreezingSOON

▸ WHERE TO NEXT

You know the turn. Now the fight.

▸ DOOR 02 Decks & Strategy One Normal Summon becomes a board. How the combo turn builds, and how to break it. ENTER ▸ DOOR 03 Sets & Chase Cards Which sets carry the chase, what a rarity actually is, and what a pull really costs. ENTER ▸ BACK TO THE CHAPTER Yu-Gi-Oh! The chain, the six common attributes, and the three doors into the fastest game in cards. ENTER
Pull Rate ▸ PULL RATE · THE COMPANION BOARD Buying your first box? Pull Rate shows what a Yu-Gi-Oh! set actually delivers — before you spend anything on it. CHECK THE BOARD