Titus' Guide to Yu-Gi-Oh

Hey guys, another post from me, Titus. Today I bring you news of great excitement. I have very recently expanded my Yu-Gi-Oh deck.

I’ve had a deck for years and years and years but I had no one to play it with. Within the last year I have taught Valhalla to play and now I play at school in any spare time. Well, last week it was my birthday and my awesome work colleagues, when my cousin came in to the store looking for a present for me, directed her to the Yu-Gi-Oh cards. The exchange went something like this:

“Hi. I’m the cousin of one of your colleagues. It is his Birthday and I need a present for him.” My colleagues all pointed at this tin of Yu-Gi-Oh cards that I have been going on about for weeks. In fact about a month ago my manager put me in charge of the trading card section because he had no idea what it was. Anyway, the point is I now have an even more awe-inspiring deck (Valhalla refuses to fight me because I keep defeating him).

I thought it would be exciting to explain to you how the game works and so you can have some fun with it too.

First of all you need to know the origin of the game. You all remember Pokemon? Digimon? Well this is similar in the sense that the player fights battles using cards which represent monsters he/she controls, sometimes using trap cards and spells cards to aid or revive your monsters, sometimes even to destroy your opponents, sending them to the graveyard.

The Layout is simple (beginners, I suggest using a mat). You are allowed 5 monsters on the field at one time, this includes attack position and defence position and you can have 5 spell or trap cards face down on the field at one time. You have a deck zone, a field zone, for field cards, a graveyard and an extra deck zone.

There are different types of summoning for a monster. Normal summoning is simply placing a card from your hand in attack or defence position. Special summoning is done using a card effect, the card must be placed in face up defence or attack mode unless the card specifies otherwise. Synchro summoning means that you must add the levels of a tuner monster an a non tuner monster to summon one that is the exact same level and finally fusion summoning requires a card that allows it e.g Polymerization.

Monster levels

Levels are represented by the stars under the name on the right hand side of the card.

Level 1-4 monsters require no special summon unless specified.

Level 5-6 monsters require a tribute of one monster from your field.

Level 7 + monsters require a two monster tribute from your field.

Monster types

Blue - Ritual Monster. Summoned by a ritual spell card eg Black Luster Soldier requires Black Luster Ritual

White - Synchro Monster. Kept in the Extra deck and can only be summoned by synchro summoning from deck.

Orange - Effect Monster, specified in description at bottom.

Yellow - Normal Monster. No effect.

Purple - Fusion Monster. Kept in Extra deck and usually can only be summoned through fusion summon, specified on card in description.

Gemini Monster – Once already on the field you use your normal summon turn to re summon them. It will have an effect as long as it is on the field.

Tuner Monster – Allows for synchro summoning.

Spell and Trap Cards

There are many types of spell card. You can play as many as you want per turn.

Normal Spell – placed in spell/trap card zone and can only be played during your turn.

Field Spell – placed in Field card zone can only be played during your turn until destroyed.

Equip Spell – (pretty self explanatory) played from spell/trap card zone, equipped to chosen monster, stays there until monster is destroyed.

Quick Play Spells – Goes in spell/trap card zone or can be used during your turn from your hand. Cannot be used the same turn it is set. Can be used as a trap fro opposition. It stays on field unless specified otherwise.

Ritual Spells – (also pretty self explanatory, also pre-mentioned) specific cards used to summon specific monsters. Can only summon a monster from hand unless specified otherwise. Normally requires tribute.

Continuous Spells – played from spell/trap card zone. Stays on field until specified otherwise.

Normal Trap – Goes to graveyard once used.

Counter Trap – Goes to graveyard once used. Nothing can be chained to it except another trap.

Continuous Trap – Stays on field until destroyed.

Quick Guide to Battle

Phases

Standby – for cards that activate specifically in standby phase.

Draw – Solely for your once per turn mandatory draw.

Main – summon, set, activate cards.

Battle – Any attack position monsters on your side of the field may attack.

Main 2 – Same as ‘Main’.

End – You declare that you end your turn.

Damage

Attacking attack monster

If the attack of your attacking monster is greater than the opponents that is being attacked then the opponent takes the remaining points as Life Point Damage and the monster is usually destroyed.

If the attack of your attacking monster is equal to the opponents that is being attacked then both monsters are destroyed.

Attacking a defence monster

If the attack of your attacking monster is equal to that of the opponents defence then neither monster is destroyed.

If the attack of your attacking monster is greater than that of the opponents defence, the defence monster is destroyed and no damage is taken.

I’ve spent many hours playing this game and I rate I give it GGGGGGGG (8/10 gamer points) because It’s only as good as your imagination (I have a pretty awesome imagination).

GOOD LUCK and have fun!

Weekend specials

The following post is brought to you by Titus Proxima. As Titus is away, I have had to post it for him. It would have been up on Thursday, but we had some issues that prevented it. As we missed Thursday, we'll be giving you a weekend special. This Saturday post has been fully written by Titus, and tomorrow's post will be written by me and will be an update on one of the many games I play.

Hey guys, we’re a little short on time today so we will try and make this quick but exciting.

Today we want to tell you all about something we are greatly fond of, this would be ‘Castles and Crusades’, a table-top RPG which has demanded many hours of our ill-managed study time.

‘Castles and Crusades’ was introduced to me, Titus Proxima, by Valhalla who in turn was introduced to it by his Uncle who, in-fact, knows the creator (pretty exciting stuff).

It involves all the best bits of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ but with all the added awesomeness.

I will begin its description the way I was introduced to it.

We excitedly gathered around a table in the school library, Valhalla, my-self and our friend and gaming companion, Kate. All grinning enthusiastically down at an A4 sized sheet of yellow paper whilst our friendly librarian looked on with amusement gleaming in her practiced eyes. Valhalla chuckled knowingly whilst my-self and Kate jigged with ignorant eagerness.

Valhalla swiped up the paper and stalked to his bag from which he drew books and papers and dice. And our excitement ever increased. Joining us, once more, at the table, Valhalla commanded us ‘sit’, and, as any self-respecting gamer does, we sat. Hands on the table, leaning forward as a child does to their story teller (which is what the GM basically is) we plunged into a whole new world of adventure and battle.

We began by creating our Avatars(at this point I feel the need to suggest listening to The Guild ‘Do you want to date my Avatar?’ it’s the most awesome song), I was a hobbit and my friend a mixture of god and elf. First we had to create our stats. We rolled countless dice to reach a point where we had 6 numbers which we assigned to 6 attributes depending on our class and race. I chose to have high Charisma, this meant that I was very persuasive and if I took my hood off people fainted at the sight of my beauty. My Wisdom was average as was my Intelligence, My dexterity somewhat low (I tried to keep it as real as possible) and my Strength was pretty good as was my constitution meaning that I had a good resistance to poison and was able to heal quickly.

We begun our story in The Severed Head Inn (Valhalla is very creative when it comes to naming places, there was another Inn called The Kings Cleavage, don’t ask why) where we encountered a hooded figure who was going on a quest and needed our help.

Our job was to investigate a Wizard who had been killing villagers and raising them from the dead to create an un-dead army for himself. Throughout our quest Valhalla ordered us to call him things like ‘Almighty GM’ or ‘Godly one’, licking GM’s shoes is the only sure way to be ressed when killed as GM decides when monsters attack, when prizes are received, and what exists or doesn’t. Bribes are acceptable to some GM’s (I suggest chocolate, or small gifts or favours) but remember the GM could change his/her mind at any moment.

From this point on Valhalla relentlessly attacked us with hoards of un-dead creatures, from skeleton warriors (fairly easy to kill) to hell hounds (not so easy to kill). But we prevailed despite the odds and with our guide we went to defeat the evil wizard and gain victory over evil.

Not long after this we decided to request permission to begin a C&C club at lunchtimes. It drew more than expected but soon we had a good sized group of regulars whom we tortured and messed with on a weekly basis.