Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel – All Card Types and How They Work

Need a refresher? haven’t played since GX aired? don’t worry I’m going to break down each of the card types and extra deck monsters giving them a full explanation of what they can do and how they are summoned.

This guide will cover

• Effect
• Fusion
• Syncro
• Xyz
• Pendulum
• Link

Ritual, Normal, and most Effect monsters are still the same as you remember them as well as fusion, however, Fusion monsters have changed a bit since last time, let’s dive in, shall we?

Effects

For the most part Effect monsters still, work the same as before as well as flipped however monsters also have quick effects that work like traps, an example being Maiden with Eyes of Blue her effect can be activated when attacked or targeted by a spell/trap (your spells can also trigger this effect) however because it has to be targeted, spells like Dark Hole or Raigeki won’t trigger it since it destroys all monsters and doesn’t target a specific monster or zone.

Flip effect monsters have been re-printed to include it as (we’ll use Magician of Faith as an example) [Spellcaster/Flip/Effect] and these changes are applied to IRL as well but older flip effects can still be used.

another common effect type is summoning types similar to the LV monsters except for these types of monsters need to be summoned that way and cannot be tribute summoned or special summoned by any other means.

Let’s use Blue Eyes Alternative White Dragon as an example of this summoning requirement, as you can see the player must have a regular Blue Eyes White Dragon in order to special summon it to the field from the hand as long as they reveal it. Yes BEAWD also has its own special effect on top of the summoning requirement but in most cases, these types of monsters will usually have an effect to go with it, unlike Wall Shadow which completely nerfs Shadow Ghouls effect entirely.

Fusion

Fusion Monsters back in the day weren’t all that good in terms of summoning conditions or even effects that seemed situational, now most fusion monsters either have a good effect, high attack, or both.

Some Fusion monsters don’t even require specific monsters anymore as shown, some fusions still require at least 1 specific monster rather it be by name or by series (D/D, Hero, Blue-Eyes, etc.), and as said before these fusion monsters are more than for show.

Did You Know?

The Extra Deck limit is 15 cards with the rule of 3 still in effect, so a fusion-based deck is possible to do even to the point of your deck as all sorts of type fusion monsters like Ignition Beast Volcannon loaded into your extra deck plus Fusion Gate can make for a deadly combination.

Syncro

Syncro Summoning was first introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, This is probably the point most old school players dropped off at. The means to summon these new monsters is quite simple actually and is a simple game of math with exact equations, basically to Syncro summon you to need at least 2 things a Tuner monster and a non-Tuner monster (refer to Maiden with Eyes of Blue for a tuner example), this however also needs to have their levels equal out to the level of the Syncro monster.

As shown above, are two examples of Syncro Summoning one using a specific tuner monster while the other does not require a specific tuner.

Taking Junk Warrior as an example the Tuner monster Junk Syncron is a level 3 tuner with the effect to special summon a level 2 warrior from the GY and Syncro Summoning works like a special to summon and for Syncro summoning you must have the monsters used for it on the field. Once your monsters are on the field you can conduct the Syncro Summon to bring out Junk Warrior all in the span of 1 turn if you let a level 2 warrior get destroyed prior to summoning Junk Syncron.

Xyz

Xyz (Eck-see-s) Summoning is very similar to Syncro summoning and the Materials used must be on the field however they MUST be the same level in order to Xyz Summon. One thing to note about Xyz monsters and that they don’t use Levels, they use Ranks so cards that specify say summoning monsters from the GY totaling so-and-so level wouldn’t allow you to bring back out your Xyz monster.

Above is one of the many numbered Xyz monsters and one thing to note when summoning an Xyz monster is that you don’t put the monsters used for it in the GY you instead place them under the Xyz monster as those are its materials and as shown above Utopia has an effect that requires you to “detach 1 material” and some Xyz monsters will allow you to add more than 2 monsters in it. some Xyz will require 3 monsters of the same level in order to summon, however the more materials the more useful the effect will be not all Xyz monsters require detaching, some Xyz monsters have passive effects that only trigger depending on how many materials it has.

I still remember being shocked that Xyz monsters use ranks and not levels when attempting to Four-Starred Ladybug of Doom Pegasus’ Pearl Gemstone Knight in Millennium Duels… i thought those were busted until…

Pendulum

Pendulum monsters are hybrid cards acting both as monsters and Continuous Spell cards. In order to explain it better, it’s best to show a card and explain it afterward.

Card Layout

This what the layout of Pendulum monsters are, now the first thing your asking is “why are there 2 flavor text boxes” and second being “what are those icons on the side of the top box” The top box is the Pendulum Effect that only works in the Pendulum zones (used to be their own dedicated zones but got moved to being the far left and far right spell/trap zone) and the icon with numbers is this cards Pendulum Scale.

Pendulum monsters can be placed in the pendulum zone regardless of their level so while Odd-Eyes here is a level 7 you could still play it in a Pendulum zone to utilize its Pendulum effect. Yes, there can also be normal Pendulum monsters that have no field effect but a Pendulum effect.

If a pendulum monster is destroyed they aren’t sent to the GY instead they are placed face-up on the Extra Deck of which they can be brought back out via Pendulum Summoning.

The Pendulum Scale

So those numbers and Icons you saw represent the Pendulum scale alone this means nothing but if paired with another number like 8 then the scale would look like this if Odd-Eyes was used to set one side

4>[][][]<8

When the Scale is set then you can conduct a Pendulum summon which allows you to summon as many monsters whose level is within the Pendulum Scale from your hand and Extra Deck (face up pendulum monsters only) if done right you could easily summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon turn 1 if lucky.

When I first heard about how this worked I about freaked as the idea of summoning basically your entire hand in a single turn felt a beat broken failing to realize players can do that anyways with anything if played right so how little I was wrong.

Link

Link monsters are very different from the rest of the card types, they work like Syncro and Xyz with the only thing you need is monsters or monsters of a specific type in order to Link Summon. Link Monsters can only go in the Extra Monster zone above the regular monster zones, no you cannot use both slots however you can use either or.

Card Layout

The first thing you’ll be wondering is where the level is, why is defense replaced with Link, and why are there arrows around the card art?

The Level is essentially the Link rating at the bottom which is determined by the number of Arrows lit up. In order to Link Summon Decode Talker, you’ll need 3 Effect monsters in total, and yes Link monsters can also apply to this as well.

The Arrows do two different things, they tell what zones are affected by the effect of the monster and they also tell where your next Link Summon can go, yes Link monsters go from the Extra Monster zone to wherever the arrows point to so long as it’s on your side of the field and are careful cause your opponent can Link off your Link Monster as well so do keep that in mind.

Link monsters while they lack in ATK at times their effects can back them up, that’s not to say there are some Link Monsters out there that have no effect and only 1000 ATK.

How it changed the card placement

Once links were introduced all games featuring them onward would allow players to place their monsters, spells/traps in any of their respective Zones. The Extra Monster Zone isn’t exclusive to Link Monsters, any Extra Deck monster can be placed there giving you a total of 6 monster zones to work with.