How to Play Yu-Gi-Oh!: A Beginner's Guide

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a two-player card game where each Duelist uses a deck of Monster, Spell, and Trap Cards to reduce their opponent's Life Points (LP) from 8000 to 0. This guide covers everything a new player needs: what you need to play, how the field is laid out, how to win, and how a turn is structured.

What You Need to Duel

• A Main Deck of 40-60 cards. You can include up to 3 copies of any single card across your Main Deck, Extra Deck, and Side Deck combined. Keeping close to the 40-card minimum makes it easier to draw your best cards when you need them.
• An Extra Deck of 0-15 cards. This holds your Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Link Monsters, which are summoned during the game using special methods. Extra Deck cards do not count toward the 40-card minimum.
• A Side Deck of 0-15 cards. A separate set of cards used to adjust your deck between games in a match. After each game you may swap Side Deck cards in and out, as long as your Main Deck stays at 40+ and your deck sizes stay legal.

Some cards also call for a coin, a six-sided die, or counters (beads, paper clips, or any small marker), and Monster Tokens to represent monsters created by card effects.

The Field

Each player controls their own side of the field, made up of these zones:

• Main Monster Zone: holds up to 5 monsters, in face-up Attack Position, face-up Defense Position, or face-down Defense Position.
• Spell & Trap Zone: holds up to 5 Spell and Trap Cards.
• Field Zone: holds 1 Field Spell Card (it does not count toward the Spell & Trap limit).
• Extra Monster Zone: where monsters summoned from the Extra Deck normally go. Each player typically uses only 1.
• Deck Zone and Extra Deck Zone: your face-down Main Deck and Extra Deck.
• Graveyard (GY): where destroyed and used cards go, face-up. Its contents are public knowledge for both players.

How to Win

A single game is called a Duel. Duels are usually played as a best-of-three Match. You win a Duel if any of the following happens:

• You reduce your opponent's LP to 0.
• Your opponent cannot draw a card when required to.
• A card's effect declares you the winner.

If both players reach 0 LP at the same time, the Duel is a draw.

Turn Structure

Each turn moves through six phases in order:

1. Draw Phase: The turn player draws 1 card. (The player who goes first does not draw on their very first turn.)
2. Standby Phase: Resolve any effects or costs that happen during this phase.
3. Main Phase 1: Where you play most of your cards: Normal Summon or Set a monster, change battle positions, activate effects, and Set Spell/Trap Cards. You may Normal Summon or Set only once per turn, but you can Special Summon as many times as the cards allow.
4. Battle Phase: Attack with your monsters. (The first player cannot conduct a Battle Phase on their first turn.)
5. Main Phase 2: A second main phase after battle, with the same actions as Main Phase 1, minus anything you have already used your once-per-turn allowance on.
6. End Phase: End your turn. If you have more than 6 cards in hand, discard down to 6.

Setting Up a Game

Shuffle your deck (your opponent may also cut it), place your decks in their zones, reveal Side Deck counts, then use rock-paper-scissors or a coin flip to decide who goes first. Each player draws an opening hand of 5 cards, and the first player begins.

Next Steps

Once you have the basics down, dig into the details with our other rules guides:

• Card Types Explained: every kind of Monster, Spell, and Trap Card.
• Summoning in Yu-Gi-Oh!: every way to put a monster on the field.
• Battles, Chains & Spell Speed: combat and how competing effects resolve.
• Glossary: the key terms you will see on cards.

Ready to put it into practice? Browse our step-by-step combo guides.