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YuGiOh: How to become an Aspiring Duelist

YuGiOh logo

 "Life consist not in holding good cards, but in playing those who hold well."
- Josh Billings
 

Are you familiar with Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler and SetoKaiba? They are the first coolest YuGiOh duelist in the world. Did it ever come to your mind to be one of them?

Playing YuGiOh always comes with many emotions like; feeling nervous, pleasure, and disappointment. In every victory there is joy and happiness; in every defeat always carries a lesson. In dueling, intelligence is important in every moves, strategies and decision you are going to make.

Deck of cards

Duelists are using YuGiOh trading cards which are categorized basically by; Monster cards, Spell cards, and Trap cards. And in advance categories there are; Fusion monsters, Synchro monsters, and the latest XYZ monsters.

(from left to right) Monster card, Spell card, Trap card

(from left to right) Fusion monster, Synchro monster, XYZ monster

Want to become a great YuGiOh duelist? Then, you should know first how to play and win a duel. First, observe and study how the game circulate. Learn how to use each of your cards properly. "Attack!," "Activate!," "Effect!," "Draw!," "Destroy!." These words that we usually hear from YuGiOh anime series are the basic moves that a player can do while dueling. In reality, players do not shout or even speak, because players can understand each other automatically.

Here are some easy steps on how to play YuGiOh.

Each player's deck must be shuffled by their corresponding opponent for play. Then decide who goes first by flipping a coin, playing rock-paper-scissors or roll a die. 

Ways of knowing who'll goes first

Then, draw five cards from your main deck. If you go first you have a total of 6 cards in hand and your opponent will gain his 6^th card on his turn.

actual drawing of cards

Start playing your cards by placing those cards in corresponding locations.

actual positioning of cards on its corresponding position

Your deck goes in the right side of second row, with the extra deck zone (where you can place fusion, synchro, and XYZ monsters) at the left side of the row. At the top rows, field card zone is on the left side and the graveyard (for discarded cards) is on the right side. The middle five slots for the top row are for monster cards and the bottom row are for spell and trap cards. 

actual duel

On your turn, you need first to draw a card from your deck. Then do “stand-by phase”, the phase that you can think of what you need to do in the whole turn. Then take “main phase 1”, the phase where you can summon monsters, use spell cards and trap cards (these cards cannot be use in the same turn as they put down). After that, you are now ready for battling.

In “battle phase” you can attack your opponent’s monsters using your monster cards and calculate the damage and life points (Life points are the health/life of your opponent, begin at 8000).

After battling, you can now proceed to your “main phase 2”, the phase where you can do the same thing at your “main phase 1”. Then after that, you can now enter to your “end phase”, and then your opponent will take their turn.

Now, here is a video interview with one of the students in Bachelor in Communication Research, Liam Camba, who know how to play YuGiOh. He will tell us about his own experiences in playing YuGiOh. 

 

Playing YuGiOh can be in lined with Defence of the Acient (DOTA), Special Force (SF), Counter Strike and other cyber games by which interest most youth nowadays. Being engaged with this kind of habits is fine as long as you know how to prioritize things around you.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

You don't need to be one of the greatest to be good at something. Have fun. Just enjoy the game, then you will find more learning and happiness.


Disclaimer: For academic purposes only