You can activate Normal Spell Cards anytime during your Main Phases. After the activation, a Normal Spell Card is considered to be destroyed. It remains on the field until the chain fully resolved. Even a chain with 1 link is a chain. You can also set a Normal Spell Card and flip it face-up manually in the same turn.

Quick-Play Spell Cards can be activated from your hand during all Phases of your turn. An exception is the Damage Step, where only specific Quick-Play Spell Cards can be activated. Also, Quick-Play Spell Cards cannot be activated the same turn they were set on the field. Quick-Play Spell Cards CANNOT be activated from your hand during your opponents turn.

There is a card zone especially for Field Spell Cards for each player. There can only be one active Field Spell Card on the field. Still, it is possible to have one Field Spell Card set and one active or both set, because set Field Spell Cards are not active cards. A face-up Field Spell Card is only destroyed through another Field Spell Cards when a new face-up Field Spell Card enters the field. We differentiate between:

a) If a player controls a Field Spell Card and wants to activate a new one, the old one is immedately destroyed, even if the new Field Spell Card gets negated.

b) This is different to the situation when a player controls a face-up Field Spell Card and the opponent wants to activate his own Field Spell Card. The old Field Spell Card is to be sent to the graveyard when the new Field Spell Card has resolved (= is active). If the new Field Spell Card would be negated or destroyed through a chained "Mystical Space Typhoon", the old Field Spell Card will not be destroyed. The destruction of a Field Spell Card through another one does not count as destroyed by a card effect, but destroed by a game mechanic.

All Trap Cards have to be set first and cannot be activated in the turn they were set. Beginning with the next Draw Phase, you can activate the Trap Card as long as it meets it activation requirements.

Counter Trap Cards are the only card type that has spell speed 3. Generally, this type of card can only be activated directly to a certain event. Some Counter Trap Cards refer to the Game State and don't need to be activated directly.

Example:

Player A attacks with Cyber Dragon directly. Player B reacts with Negate Attack, to which player A wants to activate Solemn Judgement to negate the Counter Trap Card.

• Now, Player B can activate anoter "Negate Attack" because the Game State is still referring to the Attack.

Cards with permanent characteristics remain on the field until they are destroyed by their own or other card's effects. To this type of card count Continous Spell Cards, Equip Spell Cards, Field Spell Cards and Continous Trap Cards. In addition, there are cards that do not have continous Symbols but still remain on the field, e.g. "Blast With Chain". Cards with permanent characteristics loose their effect as soon as they are no more on the field. The effects of Contionous Trap Cards can only be activated once in the chain where the Trap Card is flipped face-up.

Example:

Player A activates "Call of the Haunted" and targets "Sangan". Player B flips his "Royal Oppression" face-up and activates its effect by paying 800 Life Points. Player A chains "Emergency Teleport".

• Player B cannot chain "Royal Oppression" because "Royal Oppression" was just flipped face-up during this chain.

You can reduce your opponent's Life Points by damage or by decreasing his Life Points to 0. When the Life Points of a player are reduced to 0 during a chain, he loses the game immediately.

Example:

Player A has 1000 Life Points and there are 2 Effect Monsters on the field. He activates "Poison of the Old Man" to get 1200 Life Points, and Player B chains "Ceasefire".

• The chain resolves backwards, meaning that "Ceasefire" resolves first.
• The effect of "Ceasefire" does 1000 effect damage to player A's Life Points.
• Player A's Life Points are reduced to 0, so player B wins the game.

The chain doesn't continue to resolve when a player's life points are reduced to 0 after a chain link resolved. The game is finished.

It is possible to win a game or Match via card effects and conditions.

Example:

• The effect of "Final Countdown" declares you to be the winner of the game after 20 turns.
• Player A attacks with "Victory Dragon" and reduces his opponents life points to 0. Because of "Victory Dragon's" effect, he not only wins the game, but also the Match.
• The effect of "Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes" declares you to be the winner when 3 Hyper-Venom Counter are placed on this card.

Advanced Example:

When you have all 5 parts of "Exodia" in your hand after a chain link completely resolved, you are the winner of this game.

A player has 4 parts of "Exodia" in his hand and activates "Allure of Darkness".

• When the player draws the missing part of "Exodia" with the 2 cards, he isn't declared the winner yet, as the chain link is still resolving.
• The player first has to banish a DARK attribute monster. If he has no DARK attribute monsters apart from the parts of "Exodia", he has to banish a part of "Exodia" and the game continues as normal.

As soon as a player has to draw a card and cannot, he looses the Duel. For this, you have to differ between "drawing" and "adding" a card. An explanation of the difference of these two words is to be found later in this document.

Examples:

"Morphing Jar" is flipped face-up and there is only 1 card remaining in the deck.

• The player loses the game as he cannot draw as many cards as the effect of "Morphing Jar" tells him.

A player has no cards in his deck when he wants to draw in his Draw Phase.

• The player loses the game.

Both players may always concede their current Duel or Match.

Example:

A player has only 100 Life Points left and is directly attacked by "Victory Dragon". He cannot prevent the attack.

• The player may concede the game before his Life Points are reduced to 0 so that he will not loose the whole Match due to "Victory Dragon's" effect.

It can happen at tournaments that Matches aren't finished in the given time. If this happens, the winner is decided through the End of Round Prodcedure. You will find a chapter specifically explaining this procedure in this document.

It also can happen that someone loses a Duel or Match due to the decision of a judge after this player caused an infraction or violated rules. During the course of this document, you will read more about this.

A Duel or Match may result in a Draw. When both players' Life Points are reduced to 0 at the same time, or if both players deckout themselves at the same time, the game ends in a Draw. A Draw counts as 0:0, therefore, Draws cannot decide the winner of a Match. Also, a Match may end in a Draw at specific tournaments by Tournament Guidelines. You will read about this during the course of this document.

Examples for a Draw through Game Mechanics:

Both players have only 1000 Life Points remaining. "Ring of Destruction" is activated, targeting "Sangan".

• Both players lose 1000 Life Points through the effect of "Ring of Destruction". Their Life Points are reduced to 0 at the same time. The game ends in a Draw.

A player meets all conditions for "Self-Destruct Button" and activates it.

• The Life Points of both players are reduced to 0 at the same time, the game ends in a Draw.

Both players have less than 5 cards in their decks remaining. "Morphing Jar" is flipped face-up.

• Both players cannot draw the whole 5 cards, the game ends in a draw. It does not matter if one player has more cards left in the deck than the other as long as they are less than 5.