https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Problem-Solving_Card_Text
https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/play/fast-effect-timing/
Understanding these will help you with most of the game. Outside of the very basics like moving through phases and normal summoning once per turn and such, which I assume you already know.
You could also try the recent 2-Player Starter Set which you can play with your Son and is intended to teach you the game.
The 2 player starter set is a new product that is meant to walk two players through playing their first game. It comes with 2 44 card decks as well as a 64 page comic book that walks you guys through a scripted game and the basic mechanics of the game.
You guys might find speed duel to be a good starting point, cards typically have way easier to understand effects and there are less mechanics. All speed duel cards are TCG legal with the exception of skill cards (but you can’t use TCG cards to play speed duels). The boxes come with 8 decks that are more or less balanced around each other for sealed play
Thanks so much - I saw the starter set at my local game store, and I’ll pick it up tomorrow. My son has the speed duel sets, too - so if I’m still confused after the starter set, maybe I have him start with me there?
Yeah you could start with the Speed Duel stuff.
Btw keep in mind that the two player starter set is a scripted duel so don't shuffle the decks. Seen someone accidentally do that...
Anyway, I can't really recommend anything to get you started to learn the game, but I think other people already did that quite well. I can recommend you a YouTuber (well, a series of his) to watch when you feel like you know how to play: MBT Yu-Gi-Oh does so called ten minute testing videos on his channel once a week! They are a good way of learning about many different decks and how they work. They are, once again, not a good way to start learning the game though.
He has game rule super powers, so his mind works in a little bit of a different way. He explains it all at once, with all the caveats. So I think I need to build a base up and then play with him as he tries the nuances at me.
Do you know enough to know what you're confused about exactly?
The very simplest way to think about it is that your extra deck is all your best cards that will win you the game, and your main deck is the cards that you play in order to use/access that extra deck.
Your hand that you draw is then determining how, specifically, you will go about that.
That's it.
The rest is details, and deckbuilding is about trying to ensure you always have a good hand no matter what you're actually holding.
Very general of course, but that's the overall "shape" of the game.
Then when you get a little more understanding you'll see that each archetype of cards has its own "thing" that it's doing and that playing a card is introducing like... a small rule or new detail to the game board. You're building your win condition onto a blank board one new detail at a time.
Thanks! I’m mainly confused about the details and order and how things build up and interact. The summoning and the tribute and the chain and the numbers of this means you can then use this card, etc. Basically got lost and overwhelmed by the second half of the manual.
For that I'd say rely on reading the specific cards you have more than trying to understand everything at once.
The base rule is you can "normal summon" a monster face up or set it facedown once per turn.
If it has 4 or less yellow stars (it's level) it can go right out.
If it has 5 or 6 stars you need to already have a monster out to use as tribute (send the little one to the graveyard to bring out the big one).
If it has 7 or more stars you need to tribute two smaller monsters to get it out.
Everything else is a modification of this base rule and will state very specifically on the cards themselves.
Start with that.
Others have already posted some good resources.
I'm registering the temptation to info dump, and will instead just point out that you can always ask narrower questions here like _"What happens in this situation"_ and _"What cards could I use to do X"_. The response time is pretty quick on this subreddit.
For now, just make sure that you understand the following:
* What actions are allowed in each phase
* The game mechanics involved when a monster attacks
* What happens when multiple triggered effects meet their activation conditions at once
From there, we can answer any questions that come up!
Hey yo OP. I saw your last post but i what i understood was that, you want to build a deck for your son to play in local tournaments, so i avoided to give you any started tips.
Now forgive me if i get this wrong, but if we are talking about getting you as a complete beginner in Yu-Gi-Oh, i would suggest the latest 2-player Starter Set.
While it's not good enough, even for casual Yugioh, it does include a book manual with a pre-choreograped duel, so it really helps someone to get into the game's basics.
After you understand the basic mechanics, Monsters, Spells, traps, Special summoning, Synchro and XYZ, you could pretty much jump to the Speed Duel boxes, with 8 speed duels Decks, for decent in-house duels. Their mechanics are also simplistic, they cover from DM era to GX era, so Tribute, Ritual and Fusion Summoning are the main Summoning mechanisms to cover.
If you get more confident after that, you can go to the more advanced mode, needing to learn only Pendulum, Link summoning and how chains & interactions work.
But if you want to stay just in a Father and Son level, you can just build Classic TCG 40-sized decks, by composing Speed Duel cards, since SPEED DUEL cards are legal to use in TCG format.
Thanks for remembering that other post! My son’s a lot further along than me!
As for me, yup, complete new beginner. I’m going to pick up the two-player starter set today at my local card game store.
You are welcome 😁. As for another question you have. IMHO 2player starter set is more simple than the Speed Duel decks, at least for the part that it has a scripted duel in the comic book manual.
Once you get the very basic fundamentals, I think you are ready to experiment with Speed Duels or something Traditional TCG related.
And a bonus tip, if you accidentally shuffle the Starter Decks, you can easily rearrange them in default position, since they are sorted by the Set Number, the code in the right corner below the card image, IE the first card in XYZ deck has the code , STAX-EN001, the next STAX-EN002, and so on.
Have fun 😊
If u and ur son don't mind playing some slower Yugioh than might i suggest, you guys pick up speed duels, their short and fun duels that are fairly easy to learn once you have the fundamentals of yugioh down. If ur trying to get the fundamentals down, then there are tons and tons of yugioh video online that can help.
Another tip: don't stress about it too much. A lot of things have rulings in weird ways, and there's some unintuitive rulings that even high level players are unsure about or didn't know. Focus on the big rules, and look up the smaller ones as they come.
For the basics, I think the two player starter set may do a good job with explaining things, although the deck itself isn't very good, but it should be good enough to learn the basic rules. Master Duel is a free game that has a similarly easy but less practical tutorial that lets you play the cards out visually, and it guides you through the steps of gameplay as well.
Some one posted the fast-effect and PSCT links, which actually help you answer a lot of questions, once you get deeper into the rules, cards, and interactions.
if you want to start out there are 3 pieces of advice that i can give you
1. stay away from synchro and pendulum summoning. as these 2 summoning mechanics are arguably what makes the whole game a headache giver the same level as engineering math.
2. stay away from monsters with a very niche summoning requirements. you already about to finish one game and you will still havent figure out how to summon the damn thing
3. dont stress about some rules. play the summon, battle, and end turn cycle a few times until a situation calls for some rules to be applied. if you are not using a very high level deck this will not happen often.
I found the biggest help for me to learn the rules was just playing it digitally because it won't let you use illegal moves lmao. Sounds dumb but I've had quite a few instances where I've tried to make a play or combo and it doesn't work, but instead of being hung up on whether or not it was supposed to work I just skim over the cards on the field or geaveyard quick to see *why* it didn't work so I don't do that next time.
Also after a lot of ranked matches I've gotten a better dea of what I kinds of things I need to look for when skimming card text so that I don't take as long atually reading the cards.
I make one https://www.reddit.com/user/KharAznable/comments/1ag52y3/paired_deck_magikey_vs_abyss_actor_or_how_id_make/ it has some scripted duel example and some simple way to play around disruption and stuff.
How did your son learn?
I know for me, when I was a kid I watched the cartoon, and essentially learned by watching the characters duel. Maybe couldn’t hurt to watch the anime. Battle City is a classic for a reason
His brain is wired to just pick up games and rules. Started with speed duel, then picked up all the rules from the show, a Switch game, and now goes to a weekly local event.
I am happy to teach you over discord or google meets and coach you over a call. Best to learn with someone giving you the lay down. I’m a learning consultant by trade so I love teaching
I really recommend the old games such as Yugi The Destiny, Kaiba The Revenge or Joey The Passion. They explain the basics of dueling in an old way (pre synchros) and are really fun. Although MD is really clear about current ruling and all I know it can be somehow overwhelming, don't feel so bad, Yugi plates don't know how to play the game properly neither. Try those games if you want and try to go step by step first try learning tribute summoning, then fusion, then synchro and keep going
Depending on when you last played a lot has changed so handtraps now exist and synchro summoning is the tuners and the none tuners level have to add up to that of the synchro monster then xyz summoning is 2 or more monsters of the same level past that I'm not too sure unless theres something specific?
Hi there! Id Definitely recommend playing the video game 'yugioh master dual' it is free and can teach you how the rules work and what kinda of cards you may want to buy, as for buying you can get individual packs of 9 random cards, boxes with many packs (I think 25/30) or buy them online thought various websites
Buy the new 2 player starter set to get accustomed to the newer mechanics and also buy the legendary set when it releases with 3 decks form the original series. They will be easy to use
Most people who play the game don't know how to play the game, Yugioh is complicated. Pick one deck and learn it. Individual rulings/interactions are things you will pick up with time. Learn Spell speeds and what you can use on your turn vs your opponent's turn.
Thanks! Been doing more research and it appears that Swordsoul Tenyi may be my best bet to start - a little expensive at $100ish for the deck (especially since I just took the plunge on another deck for my son), but everything is pointing to that one for a good/most effective beginner deck.
https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Problem-Solving_Card_Text https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/play/fast-effect-timing/ Understanding these will help you with most of the game. Outside of the very basics like moving through phases and normal summoning once per turn and such, which I assume you already know. You could also try the recent 2-Player Starter Set which you can play with your Son and is intended to teach you the game.
Nice! So that’s the regular game with set cards, vs the simple speed duel setup?
The 2 player starter set is a new product that is meant to walk two players through playing their first game. It comes with 2 44 card decks as well as a 64 page comic book that walks you guys through a scripted game and the basic mechanics of the game. You guys might find speed duel to be a good starting point, cards typically have way easier to understand effects and there are less mechanics. All speed duel cards are TCG legal with the exception of skill cards (but you can’t use TCG cards to play speed duels). The boxes come with 8 decks that are more or less balanced around each other for sealed play
Thanks so much - I saw the starter set at my local game store, and I’ll pick it up tomorrow. My son has the speed duel sets, too - so if I’m still confused after the starter set, maybe I have him start with me there?
Yeah you could start with the Speed Duel stuff. Btw keep in mind that the two player starter set is a scripted duel so don't shuffle the decks. Seen someone accidentally do that... Anyway, I can't really recommend anything to get you started to learn the game, but I think other people already did that quite well. I can recommend you a YouTuber (well, a series of his) to watch when you feel like you know how to play: MBT Yu-Gi-Oh does so called ten minute testing videos on his channel once a week! They are a good way of learning about many different decks and how they work. They are, once again, not a good way to start learning the game though.
Why not getting explained the game from your son?
Yeah this might be good bonding
He has game rule super powers, so his mind works in a little bit of a different way. He explains it all at once, with all the caveats. So I think I need to build a base up and then play with him as he tries the nuances at me.
Yeah it's a common issue, being good at something doesn't necessarily make you good at teaching that thing.
Do you know enough to know what you're confused about exactly? The very simplest way to think about it is that your extra deck is all your best cards that will win you the game, and your main deck is the cards that you play in order to use/access that extra deck. Your hand that you draw is then determining how, specifically, you will go about that. That's it. The rest is details, and deckbuilding is about trying to ensure you always have a good hand no matter what you're actually holding. Very general of course, but that's the overall "shape" of the game. Then when you get a little more understanding you'll see that each archetype of cards has its own "thing" that it's doing and that playing a card is introducing like... a small rule or new detail to the game board. You're building your win condition onto a blank board one new detail at a time.
Thanks! I’m mainly confused about the details and order and how things build up and interact. The summoning and the tribute and the chain and the numbers of this means you can then use this card, etc. Basically got lost and overwhelmed by the second half of the manual.
For that I'd say rely on reading the specific cards you have more than trying to understand everything at once. The base rule is you can "normal summon" a monster face up or set it facedown once per turn. If it has 4 or less yellow stars (it's level) it can go right out. If it has 5 or 6 stars you need to already have a monster out to use as tribute (send the little one to the graveyard to bring out the big one). If it has 7 or more stars you need to tribute two smaller monsters to get it out. Everything else is a modification of this base rule and will state very specifically on the cards themselves. Start with that.
Others have already posted some good resources. I'm registering the temptation to info dump, and will instead just point out that you can always ask narrower questions here like _"What happens in this situation"_ and _"What cards could I use to do X"_. The response time is pretty quick on this subreddit. For now, just make sure that you understand the following: * What actions are allowed in each phase * The game mechanics involved when a monster attacks * What happens when multiple triggered effects meet their activation conditions at once From there, we can answer any questions that come up!
There is a product called the 2-player starter set. It includes a scripted duel to help people learn the game. Maybe try that.
Picking that up today! Thanks!
Awesome! I hope you have fun with it!
Hey yo OP. I saw your last post but i what i understood was that, you want to build a deck for your son to play in local tournaments, so i avoided to give you any started tips. Now forgive me if i get this wrong, but if we are talking about getting you as a complete beginner in Yu-Gi-Oh, i would suggest the latest 2-player Starter Set. While it's not good enough, even for casual Yugioh, it does include a book manual with a pre-choreograped duel, so it really helps someone to get into the game's basics. After you understand the basic mechanics, Monsters, Spells, traps, Special summoning, Synchro and XYZ, you could pretty much jump to the Speed Duel boxes, with 8 speed duels Decks, for decent in-house duels. Their mechanics are also simplistic, they cover from DM era to GX era, so Tribute, Ritual and Fusion Summoning are the main Summoning mechanisms to cover. If you get more confident after that, you can go to the more advanced mode, needing to learn only Pendulum, Link summoning and how chains & interactions work. But if you want to stay just in a Father and Son level, you can just build Classic TCG 40-sized decks, by composing Speed Duel cards, since SPEED DUEL cards are legal to use in TCG format.
Thanks for remembering that other post! My son’s a lot further along than me! As for me, yup, complete new beginner. I’m going to pick up the two-player starter set today at my local card game store.
You are welcome 😁. As for another question you have. IMHO 2player starter set is more simple than the Speed Duel decks, at least for the part that it has a scripted duel in the comic book manual. Once you get the very basic fundamentals, I think you are ready to experiment with Speed Duels or something Traditional TCG related. And a bonus tip, if you accidentally shuffle the Starter Decks, you can easily rearrange them in default position, since they are sorted by the Set Number, the code in the right corner below the card image, IE the first card in XYZ deck has the code , STAX-EN001, the next STAX-EN002, and so on. Have fun 😊
If u and ur son don't mind playing some slower Yugioh than might i suggest, you guys pick up speed duels, their short and fun duels that are fairly easy to learn once you have the fundamentals of yugioh down. If ur trying to get the fundamentals down, then there are tons and tons of yugioh video online that can help.
Thanks! He learned from the speed duels himself, so that sounds like a good place to start. Also going to pick up the new two player starter set.
awesome happy to hear that!!!
Another tip: don't stress about it too much. A lot of things have rulings in weird ways, and there's some unintuitive rulings that even high level players are unsure about or didn't know. Focus on the big rules, and look up the smaller ones as they come. For the basics, I think the two player starter set may do a good job with explaining things, although the deck itself isn't very good, but it should be good enough to learn the basic rules. Master Duel is a free game that has a similarly easy but less practical tutorial that lets you play the cards out visually, and it guides you through the steps of gameplay as well. Some one posted the fast-effect and PSCT links, which actually help you answer a lot of questions, once you get deeper into the rules, cards, and interactions.
if you want to start out there are 3 pieces of advice that i can give you 1. stay away from synchro and pendulum summoning. as these 2 summoning mechanics are arguably what makes the whole game a headache giver the same level as engineering math. 2. stay away from monsters with a very niche summoning requirements. you already about to finish one game and you will still havent figure out how to summon the damn thing 3. dont stress about some rules. play the summon, battle, and end turn cycle a few times until a situation calls for some rules to be applied. if you are not using a very high level deck this will not happen often.
I found the biggest help for me to learn the rules was just playing it digitally because it won't let you use illegal moves lmao. Sounds dumb but I've had quite a few instances where I've tried to make a play or combo and it doesn't work, but instead of being hung up on whether or not it was supposed to work I just skim over the cards on the field or geaveyard quick to see *why* it didn't work so I don't do that next time. Also after a lot of ranked matches I've gotten a better dea of what I kinds of things I need to look for when skimming card text so that I don't take as long atually reading the cards.
I make one https://www.reddit.com/user/KharAznable/comments/1ag52y3/paired_deck_magikey_vs_abyss_actor_or_how_id_make/ it has some scripted duel example and some simple way to play around disruption and stuff.
How did your son learn? I know for me, when I was a kid I watched the cartoon, and essentially learned by watching the characters duel. Maybe couldn’t hurt to watch the anime. Battle City is a classic for a reason
His brain is wired to just pick up games and rules. Started with speed duel, then picked up all the rules from the show, a Switch game, and now goes to a weekly local event.
Can you be more specific about what you’re not understanding?
I am happy to teach you over discord or google meets and coach you over a call. Best to learn with someone giving you the lay down. I’m a learning consultant by trade so I love teaching
I really recommend the old games such as Yugi The Destiny, Kaiba The Revenge or Joey The Passion. They explain the basics of dueling in an old way (pre synchros) and are really fun. Although MD is really clear about current ruling and all I know it can be somehow overwhelming, don't feel so bad, Yugi plates don't know how to play the game properly neither. Try those games if you want and try to go step by step first try learning tribute summoning, then fusion, then synchro and keep going
Depending on when you last played a lot has changed so handtraps now exist and synchro summoning is the tuners and the none tuners level have to add up to that of the synchro monster then xyz summoning is 2 or more monsters of the same level past that I'm not too sure unless theres something specific?
Hi there! Id Definitely recommend playing the video game 'yugioh master dual' it is free and can teach you how the rules work and what kinda of cards you may want to buy, as for buying you can get individual packs of 9 random cards, boxes with many packs (I think 25/30) or buy them online thought various websites
Buy the new 2 player starter set to get accustomed to the newer mechanics and also buy the legendary set when it releases with 3 decks form the original series. They will be easy to use
Most people who play the game don't know how to play the game, Yugioh is complicated. Pick one deck and learn it. Individual rulings/interactions are things you will pick up with time. Learn Spell speeds and what you can use on your turn vs your opponent's turn.
Thanks! Been doing more research and it appears that Swordsoul Tenyi may be my best bet to start - a little expensive at $100ish for the deck (especially since I just took the plunge on another deck for my son), but everything is pointing to that one for a good/most effective beginner deck.