2019-08-03 23:50:22 (edited by Tensoon the Kandra 2020-11-29 18:55:29)

This guide functions as a very brief introduction to the Yu-Gi-Oh! MUD. This guide will only cover the utmost basics of the MUD in order to allow new players to learn how to play the game on the allinaccess.com MUD. This will not be a complete and exhaustive duscussion of the rules, it will not teach you how to play YuGiOh, it will teach you how to interact with the MUD so that you can play the game if you already have some understanding of the game. If you don’t know anything about the game I recommend watching Cimo’s “how to play” series on youtube which will briefly explain everything you need to know on how the game works. The playlist can be found here. It includes videos on battle mechanics, different forms of summoning, turn composition and even card anatomy to teach you what each part of a card means. I included a summoning mechanic quick reference at the end of this guide as how to perform the different summons is the most common question I get asked. You can also review that section once/if you watched Cimo’s video on a particular mechanic since I use cards as depicted in the game to explain the methods of summoning. 

The only video completely new players really need to watch is the how to play yugioh in 3 minutes.  It is very brief and runs through the basics of the game.  From that point I recommend you jump into the game and use this guide to help you get used to the mechanics. 

This guide includes
Discussions on how to look at your various decks and piles
The layout of the field,
Some useful commands and terminology
Tips on getting started with deck building
Common mistakes often made by beginners when deck building
General tips when playing the first time
Summoning mechanic quick reference guide which explains:
Normal summoning
Flip summoning
Special summoning
Ritual summoning
Synchro Summoning
XYZ Summoning
Pendulum summoning
Link summoning

The Mush soundpack for the game can be downloaded from its GitHub page. For the VIP soundpack you can go here.  The VIP soundpack is hosted by Zironion and is subject to change, if the link provided here no longer works you can try contacting him in game for a new link.  Connection info is allinaccess.com port 1234.

Introduction

The aim of the game is to defeat your opponent. There are several methods of obtaining victory the most common being depleting your opponent’s 8000 life points to 0. A player also wins if his opponent runs out of cards to draw. There are several other methods of winning the game but these have to do with specific cards and the details of how to achieve the win condition will be in the card’s own text.

At the start of the Match each player draws 5 cards from their main deck of no less than 40 cards and no more than 60. The players will use these cards which consists of monsters, traps and spells to defeat their opponent.

The cards will be placed on the field as they are activated used and summoned.

The layout

The field has 6 Monster Zones and 6 Spell and trap zones. In-game the monster fields are labeled from m1 to m6 and the spell and trap zones are labeled from s1 to s6. The opponent’s monster zones are labeled from om1 to om6 and os1 to os6 for the spells and traps. See visual representation later in the guide.

Once in a match you can use the h command to look at your hand, the tab command to look at your side of the field and the tab2 command to look at your opponent’s side of the field.  The ? (question mark) command will function as your bread and butter when you start playing as it informs you of each card you can interact with and how. See example further down.

In addition to ones main deck each player has an extra deck which may contain a max of 15 cards. The extra deck consists only of monsters and each player will always be able to see and have access to their entire extra deck from the start, unlike the main deck which always remains face down and which you can only see when searching a specific card. You can use the extra command when in a match to see your extra deck.

Monster zones 1 to 5 will be used to summon monsters from the main deck (so from your hand). Monster Zone 6 will be used exclusively to summon monsters from your extra deck. It is important to also note the positioning of monster zone 6 (the extra monster zone). The first five monster zones are in a line next to each other and zone 6 is above zone 2. This is important to keep an eye on when dealing with link monsters, see below. The only monsters that can be placed in the extra  deck are link monsters, fusion monsters, XYZ monsters, synchro monsters, and Under certain circumstances pendulum monsters will also be added to the extra deck.  in game. If you have never played YuGiOh before I suggest you watch Cimo’s video on the specific type of summoning just before you try out a deck that focusses on the specific type of summoning mechanic.

The main 5 spell and trap zones are in a row right below the main 5 monster zones. The 6th spell and trap zone is to the side and is reserved for field spells.
Below is a visual representation of the field listing the zones and using a | to indicate zone borders. When looking at the representation below please note that the opponent’s side of the field is a mirror of your own, thus his zones are labeled in reverse. The opponent’s field is thus at the top and your field is at the bottom, closest to you.

|os5||os4||os3||os2||os1||
|om5||om4||om3||om2||om1|
|   || m6||   ||om6||   |
| m1|| m2|| m3|| m4|| m5|
| s1|| s2|| s3|| s4|| s5|

If you have been paying attention you would have noticed that there is no s6 or os6 on that representation. That is because the sixth spell zone, also known as the field spell zone is to the side of the others and its physical location is not truly relevant to gameplay.

So when using the ? (question mark) command letting you know what you can use would look like this:
Special summonable: h4, x1, x2, x3, x6
Activatable: s1
Settable: h3

So I would type h3 to interact with that card. The h means it is in my hand, the x in front of the special summonable monsters mean that they are in my extra deck. If you just want info on a card such as that you can type info plus the card’s location e.g. “info x6” and the card’s full pedigree will be displayed.

Other notable locations is the banished pile and the graveyard. To view the graveyard use the grave command to view your graveyard and grave2 to view your opponent’s. Use g1, g2 and og1 and og2 etc. to interact with the respective cards within you and your opponent’s respective graveyards. Monster cards will be sent to the grave when destroyed, discarded or tributed. Spells and traps will be sent to the grave once destroyed or activated unless it is a continuous spell or trap. The banish pile are cards that have been removed from play, cards can only be banished by card effect. To view your banish pile use the removed command and removed 2 for your opponents. Use r1 r2 and or1 or2 etc. to interact with these cards.

Positioning, link arrows and columns

The positioning of cards on the field become relevant when dealing with certain traps like infinite impermanence, archetypes like Mekk Knights or Magical Musketeers which rely on other cards being in the same column/ row to activate their effects. It is also extremely important when dealing with link monsters.

So for example, here follows the description of infinite impermanence:
Infinite Impermanence (Trap)
If you control no cards, you can activate this card from your hand. Target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; negate its effects (until the end of this turn), then, if this card was Set before activation and is on the field at resolution, for the rest of this turn all other Spell/Trap effects in this column are negated.

Let’s break this down. You can play this card from hand if you control no other cards. Nice effect since traps can usually only be activated once they have been on the field for a turn. This is what is commonly referred to as a hand trap. These are very rare and powerful in the current meta. The second part says that if it is activated it lets you negate the effects of one of your opponent’s monsters. So if your opponent activates a monster effect, you can activate this and stop the effect right there and then. The third part, and this is the important part for the purposes of the guide, says that if this card was placed on the field, i.e. somewhere in spell zone s1 to s5, and you activate it, it will also negate the effects of all spells and traps in the same column. This means that if your opponent activates a monster effect in his monster zone 1 (om1 to you) and you have your infinite impermanence set in your s1 and you activate it to negate the monster’s effect you will also negate all effects of all traps and spells you opponent placed in his s5 (os5 to you) because your opponent’s s5 is right across from your s1. If this does not make sense, just look at the visual representation above again. Column means the row from top to bottom. So if there is a spell in your s2, a monster in your m6, a monster in your opponent’s m4 and a spell in their s4 there are 4 cards in that column with the only open zone in that column being your m2.

Link monsters’ link arrows are also very important since they open up more zones in which further link monsters and pendulum monsters can be summoned to. Normally one can only summon a link monster or pendulum monster from the extra deck to your m6, however, if you have a link monster on field all the zones it points to can also be used to summon these monsters to.
For example:
Topologic Bomber Dragon (Monster, Effect, Dark, Cyberse)
Attack: 3000 Link rating: 4
Link Markers: bottom left, bottom, bottom right, top
2+ Effect Monsters
If another monster is Special Summoned to a zone a Link Monster points to, while this monster is on the field: Destroy all monsters in the Main Monster Zones, also your other monsters cannot attack for the rest of this turn. After damage calculation, if this card attacked an opponent's monster: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's original ATK.

Let’s break it down again. This is a link monster with a link rating of 4 (if you don’t know what that means watch Cimo’s video on link summoning). It has an attack of 3000 and it has 4 link arrows. Its arrows point to the bottom left, the bottom, to the bottom right and to the top. This means that if this monster is placed on M6 its arrows will point to your m1 (bottom left), m2 (bottom), m3 (bottom right) and om4 (top). This means that your opponent also gains an extra monster zone. However, the rest of its effect is important in this regard. If any monster is special summoned to a zone a link monster points to it will destroy all monsters on the field. All summons from the extra deck is special summoning, so if your opponent actually uses that new zone to summon an extra deck monster to all monsters in your and your opponent’s main monster zones (m1-m5) will be destroyed.
Always take care to see where your opponent's link monsters are pointing to as it might open up more zones for you to summon extra deck monsters to.  Just be careful, your opponent might have a link monster with an effect that might negatively impact you if you summon something to a zone it points to.  So, if we look at the Bomber Dragon above again, if your opponent summons it to their m6, your om6 it will be right above your m4 and its top arrow will be pointing to your m4, so if you special summon a monster to your m4 your will destroy all monsters in the main monster zones including your newly summoned monster.

Just as a side note, when you want to special summon a monster from the extra deck for the first time the prompt will ask you if you wish to summon to m6 or m7.  M7 is merely the right extra monster zone.  If you chose to summon to m7 your monster will be above your m4 instead of above your m2, in other words you would be summoning it to the spot where your opponent's m6 would normally be.  The extra monster zones are shared between players, however, you can only use one at a time. 
The only circumstance in which you can use both extra monster zones is if you manage to perform an extra link.  This means that you place your monsters in a pattern which allow you to have a monster in one extra monster zone and another monster which points directly to the other extra monster zone.  you will  then be able to summon monster to the second extra monster zone.  This would in effect bar your opponent from using his extra monster zone.  If that seems confusing to you, don't worry about it too much.  Performing an extra link is extremely difficult and is not a strategy used often.

Other commands and etiquette

Giveup: ends the match with no wins or losses recorded. Please don’t do this unless a likely winner is undecided and you REALLY have to go, or if there is an issue with the game such as a card not working properly.

Scoop – Scoop is slang in yugioh which means to concede or give up. This command instantly forfeits the game and gives your opponent the win. Since some turns could take very long when playing it is not considered rude when your opponent just scoops instead of waiting for you to kill him in the next turn. We are busy folk and we have stuff to do, so if I can see there is no way I can win this thing I will scoop. Yeah, you don’t get the satisfaction of running your opponent over with that hulking behemoth of a monster you summoned, but you get the satisfaction of knowing that your opponent was so utterly beat he did not even want to try continuing the duel.

Score – shows remaining life points, cards in deck, grave and banished pile for both players.

Watch - Use watch followed by a player's name who is dueling in order to spectate the match.  Use watch stop command to stop watching.

Useful terminology

YuGiOh has been around for so long it has developed its own slang.  What follows is a brief list of words and their meanings new players might find useful if they are reading about the game for the first time.  For a full list of commonly used terms you can go here.
Banlist - refers to the official YuGiOh forbidden and limited list which can be found here.  Since the game has been around for so long and there are constantly new cards being released the forbidden and limited list is used to balance the game.  It is essentially a list of cards that are not allowed to be used in competitive play.  The MUD strictly sticks to the list as to discourage unfair and overpowered strategies from being used.  The banlist command can also be used in game to view all the different iterations of the forbidden and limited list.

Burn - refers to reducing your opponent's life points by card effect instead of by means of attack. 

Pop - To pop a card is to destroy it by card effect.

Bounce - to return a card from the field to the hand by card effect.

Spin - To return a card from the field to the deck by card effect.

Mill - To send cards from the deck straight to the grave.

Brick - an unusable  card that does not advance your plays and when drawn into in effect prevents you from making a move.

Meta - Decks or strategies used in current competitive play.  The current meta trend is determined by the decks and strategies that are being used by the top players who compete in official competitions with the physical card game.

Rogue - Means a deck/archetype or strategy used less often, as in it does not form part of the current meta.  This does not mean that the deck is not strong, just that it does not form part of the current meta.

Deck Building

Once you get the hang of the game you are going to want to build your own deck. You are going to open up the deck editor and realise that there are over 10000 cards and immediately get discouraged. Learning how to build a proper deck is probably the hardest thing to learn when playing Yugioh. Here I will list a few resources and tips that might assist new players when building their first deck.

What is an Archetype
The first thing you might want to check out is a list of archetypes in the game. An archetype is like a theme for a deck. An archetype usually has a bunch of monsters and spells sharing a part of their name. For example, the Mekk knight archetype I mentioned before has cards like Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall and Mekk-Knight Red Moon both of which are monsters. If you want to know which cards are included in a specific archetype you can use the the YGOPro Database. Simply enter the card name in the search box. Once you found it, in its info there will be a link which tells you which archetype that card belongs to, click that link and it will show you a list of all the cards that form part of that archetype.

What works well with my archetype?
Archetypal cards are usually not enough to make up a whole deck, so generally you can always add a few traps and spells that work well with your deck. There are generic staples like monster reborn which is a decent card in just about any deck, but there might be other cards from different archetypes or even cards that don’t belong in a specific archetype that works well with your deck. If you think that your deck has a weak point, such as a particular monster you have trouble getting onto the field, or a spell you don’t draw often enough, you can look at the card tips wiki for that specific card. Just google the card’s name along with card tips yugioh and one of the results should be the card tips wiki discussing cards that work well with that specific card. You can also google deck lists for the archetype you are using to see what other cards other people are using.

General tips

Use the ? (question mark) command as often as possible. This will help you play the game as it lists each card you can interact with at any given time. This is a fantastic tool for newbies as it alerts them to when a monster in the extra deck can be brought out or when a monster’s effect can be activated from grave. It is especially helpful if you are playing a deck you don’t know very well.

Don’t add too many cards to your deck
Just because you can add more cards does not mean you have to. The fewer cards you have the more likely it will be that you will draw the cards you need. One of the biggest mistakes newbies make when deck building is adding 60 cards to their deck when they don’t need half of them. Make sure a card is good before you add it. By this I mean make sure it compliments your strategy. The more situations a card can be used in the better.
For example, look at Fairy Meteor Crush:
Fairy Meteor Crush (Spell, Equip)
If the equipped monster attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.
Piercing damage means that you inflict life point damage even when your opponent’s monster is in defense position. So, for this card to be useful:
1) your opponent has to have a defense position monster on the field
2) You have to have a monster on the field.
3) Your monster has to have higher attack than your opponent’s defense
Compare this to something like Monster reborn:
Monster Reborn (Spell)
Target 1 monster in either player's GY; Special Summon it.
So, for this card to be useful:
1) There has to be a monster in either player’s graveyard.
Monster reborn will likely always be useful where the situation in which Fairy Meteor Crush would be useful is very specific and rare to occur. Yes, Fairy Meteor Crush could win you the game under the right circumstances, but it will most likely just get in your way since it can only be used when you are already in a very advantageous position. Monster reborn could just as likely win you the game and it could be useful in a lot of other circumstances too. You could use the monster you special summoned to tribute for a larger monster or to get a monster back with a strong destruction effect whereas Fairy Meteor Crush has only one use. When looking at a card to add to your deck always make sure that the conditions under which it might be useful are not too specific.

Also don’t be fooled by the usefulness of cards that only deplete life points by means of an effect if your whole deck is not built around life point depletion effects. For example:
Magic Cylinder (Trap)
When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target the attacking monster; negate the attack, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK.
This is one of the most common cards new players add to their decks. It looks amazing at first glance. It negates an attack which is great, on top of that your opponent gets a taste of his own medicine when you use it because he will lose life points equal to the attacking monster’s attack points. However, keep in mind what I said about your cards supporting a strategy. Even though this card will bring you closer to victory, unless your opponent has a
monster that can deplete all your life points in a single turn this card will likely just cost you to lose advantage. In YuGiOh card economy is everything, the guy with the most monsters on the field usually wins. Since this card does not stop your opponent from getting more monsters, it does not remove any of your opponent’s monsters and it does not give you any more monsters it does not really generate advantage. If your opponent is ahead of you and has more monsters on the field this card would merely postpone the inevitable at best. If you put this in your deck you would be taking up a spot where a more useful card could have been placed in the deck such as a monster that would help you special summon other monsters from the hand which might disrupt your opponent’s strategy.

Always read your cards carefully and don’t blindly chain:
Chaining is when your opponent activates a card and you can chain a spell, trap or monster effect which is a quick effect to the effect they activated. For example:
Mystical Space Typhoon (Spell, Quick-Play)
Target 1 Spell/Trap on the field; destroy that target.
This card will let you destroy a spell or trap card on the field. When you set this card it will constantly ask if you want to activate it. Just because the game asks you if you want to activate it does not mean you have to. Make sure the activation is a good idea. Now I know what you are thinking, “when is destroying my opponent’s stuff a bad idea, especially if I am new and I don’t know what any of his stuff does anyway?”
Well who said you will be destroying your opponent’s cards? Read the text carefully, it says destroy a traps/spell on the field, it does not say destroy one of your opponent’s spells/traps on the field. So, if you have a trap set and your opponent’s field is empty this card’s requirements would still be met and you would still be able to activate it. When you activate a card you cannot take the action back, so if you blindly chain this card you might be forced to destroy one of your own cards. Another thing to note from the text is that it only says that you will destroy the spell or trap, you will not negate it, so if you destroy a spell or trap after your opponent has activated it said spell or trap’s effect would still activate before it is destroyed by this card.

Don’t blindly Netdeck.
Netdecking is when you copy a deck list from the internet and just play with someone else’s deck. Everyone has done this at one point or another, but it is frowned upon. Newbies love doing this because it is easier than building decks themselves. Even though that might be true, try sticking to my archetype method first. If you just google “best yugioh deck” and copy the deck list of whatever you find you will likely find a deck with a lot of fancy sounding things in it that you have no idea how to use. What makes a good player is to understand how each card in your deck interacts with the others in order to maximize consistency of strategic plays. A very simple example would be to draw foolish burial in your opening hand after building a deck you got from the internet.
Foolish Burial (Spell)
Send 1 monster from your Deck to the GY.

This is a common staple in decks that have a monster that has an effect that activates when it gets sent to the grave. So now you have this card, an essential part of the strategy, the guy who made it said if you draw this card you can win in one turn. How do you do that, what do you send to the grave? You won’t know because you did not make the deck, you are piloting someone else’s idea.

Summoning mechanics quick reference
Normal summoning

You can summon or set one monster from the hand each turn. If a monster is level 5 or higher it will require tributes to summon. The amount of tributes required depends on its level, monsters with levels higher than 4 requires 1 tribute for every two levels the monster is above level 4. So, a monster that is level 5 to 6 will require one tribute, a monster with level 7 to 8 will require e tributes etc. Note that a monster with a level higher than 4 will still only count as one tribute.

Flip summoning

This is when a monster that is set face down in defense position gets flipped face up. There is no limit to how many flip summons you may perform, however, take note that you can only flip summon a monster the turn after it was set from the hand.  To flip summon a monster in game, simply select the face down monster and use the r (reposition) command.

Special summoning

Monsters can be special summoned from the hand or deck by means of a card effect. For example:
Gold Gadget (Monster, Effect, Light, Machine)
Attack: 1700 Defense: 800 Level: 4
When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 Machine monster from your hand. If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 "Gadget" monster from your Deck, except "Gold Gadget". You can only use 1 "Gold Gadget" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
There is no limit to how many special summon you perform in a turn, however, most monsters that allow you to special summon others only allow you to use that monster’s effect once per turn. So, you can only special summon a monster using Gold Gadget’s effect once per turn, but if you have another card that can special summon out a monster you will still be able use its effect to perform the special summon.

Ritual Summoning

:
Ritual monsters have ritual spells which states the requirements to summon the specific monster. You always need the ritual monster and ritual spell in hand to perform the summon. For example:
Paladin of White Dragon (Monster, Effect, Ritual, Light, Dragon)
Attack: 1900 Defense: 1200 Level: 4
This card can only be Ritual Summoned with the Ritual Spell Card, "White Dragon Ritual". If this card attacks a face-down Defense Position monster, destroy the monster immediately with this card's effect without flipping it face-up or applying damage calculation. You can Tribute this card to Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand or your Deck. ("Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cannot attack during that turn.)

White Dragon Ritual (Spell, Ritual)
This card is used to Ritual Summon "Paladin of White Dragon". You must also Tribute monsters whose total Levels equal 4 or more from the field or your hand.

So, if you wanted to summon Paladin of white dragon you would first make sure you comply with the requirements listed on the ritual spell card, then you would activate the spell from hand or field.

Fusion summoning

Fusion monsters are kept in the extra deck. You can summon them by complying with the requirements in the monster’s card text. Usually fusion summoning is facilitated by the card called Polymerization:
Polymerization (Spell)
Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Material.
So, in order to summon a fusion monster, you would activate Polymerization and then pay the costs listed in the fusion monster's card text. Some fusion monsters require specific monsters to be tributed by Polymerization, others only require two monsters of a specific type, for example
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon (Monster, Effect, Fusion, Dark, Dragon)
Attack: 2800 Defense: 2000 Level: 8
2 DARK monsters on the field, except Tokens
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can make this card gain ATK equal to 1 opponent's Special Summoned monster, until the end of this turn. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 5 or higher monster your opponent controls; until the end of this turn, this card's name becomes that monster's original name, and replace this effect with that monster's original effects. If this Fusion Summoned card is destroyed: You can destroy all your opponent's Special Summoned monsters.

So, if you have Polymerization in hand and you have two dark monsters on the field, you can instantly bring out this monster by activating Polymerization.  Always read the requirements in the fusion monster's text carefully.  Polymerization
says that it can use materials on the field or in the hand, which suggests that even if you have one monster on the field and one in the hand, it can still activate.  However, the requirements listed in Starving Venom's effect says that both monsters have to be on the field. 
(Note: in case you are wondering what is meant by “except tokens” in this card’s effect,  in Starving Venom's card text, it is referring to tokens that can be generated by some cards that functions like monsters. The best example would be the card called Scapegoat:
Scapegoat (Spell, Quick-Play)
Special Summon 4 "Sheep Tokens" (Beast/EARTH/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position. They cannot be Tributed for a Tribute Summon. You cannot Summon other monsters the turn you activate this card (but you can Normal Set).

Synchro Summoning

To summon a synchro monster you will need a regular monster on the field as well as a tuner monster. The sum of the tuner and the normal monster’s levels has to equal the level of the synchro monster you are trying to summon. This may seem like a steep requirement, but since synchro monsters are kept in the extra deck you always have access to them and you can summon them the second you have the materials to do so, you don’t need to draw into them first. For example, if you have white rose dragon (regular level 4 effect monster) and red rose dragon (level 3 tuner monster) you can summon black rose dragon (level 7 synchro monster instantly, see cards below

White Rose Dragon (Monster, Effect, Dark, Dragon)
Attack: 1200 Defense: 1000 Level: 4
When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Rose Dragon" monster from your hand or GY, except "White Rose Dragon". You can only use each of these effects of "White Rose Dragon" once per turn.
● If you control a Dragon Tuner or Plant Tuner: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.
● If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: You can send 1 Level 4 or higher Plant monster from your Deck to the GY.

Red Rose Dragon (Monster, Effect, Tuner, Dark, Dragon)
Attack: 1000 Defense: 1800 Level: 3
If this card is sent to the GY as Synchro Material: You can Special Summon 1 "Rose Dragon" monster from your hand or Deck, except "Red Rose Dragon", then, if it was sent for the Synchro Summon of "Black Rose Dragon" or a Plant Synchro Monster, you can also add 1 "Frozen Rose" or 1 "Blooming of the Darkest Rose" from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Red Rose Dragon" once per turn.

Black Rose Dragon (Monster, Effect, Synchro, Fire, Dragon)
Attack: 2400 Defense: 1800 Level: 7
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.

So to do this in game, once you have the monster and tuner on field you can select the monster you want to synchro summon from the extra deck, if you meet all the requirements listed on the synchro monster card and you have an extra monster zone available the option to special summon the monster will be available.

XYZ Summoning

In order to summon a XYZ monster (pronounced exceez monster) you have to overlay two monsters with levels equal to that monster’s rank. The monsters you overlay (tribute/pay as cost) for that monster will be attached to it as material which you can detach to use its effect. For example:

Number 39: Utopia (Monster, Effect, Xyz, Light, Warrior)
Attack: 2500 Defense: 2000 Rank: 4
2 Level 4 monsters
When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack. When this card is targeted for an attack, while it has no Xyz Materials: Destroy this card.

So, if you have two level 4 monsters on the field you can summon Utopia from the extra deck and attach those two monsters to it as material. You can then detach the material, which will send the detached monster to the graveyard, to activate Utopia’s effect to negate an attack. To do this in game you can select the XYZ monster from the extra deck and special summon it out like you would do a synchro monster.

Pendulum summoning

Pendulum summoning requires two pendulum monsters to be placed in the spell zones. They can only be placed in your S1 and S5 zones, so if you have a spell in your S1 you cannot pendulum summon. This mechanic lets you summon multiple monsters at once. Each pendulum monster has scales which determines which level monsters you can summon with it. In order to place a pendulum monster in a spell or trap zone as opposed to normal summoning it you will see that there is an activate option when it is in your hand. Selecting the activate option will place it in a spell zone instead of summoning it.
Harmonizing Magician (Monster, Effect, Tuner, Pendulum, Dark, Spellcaster)
Attack: 0 Defense: 0 Level: 4
Pendulum scale: 8/8
Pendulum Scale = 8
[ Pendulum Effect ]
All monsters you control gain 100 ATK and DEF for each face-up "Magician" Pendulum Monster with different names in your Extra Deck.
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[ Monster Effect ]
Cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. Cannot be used as Material for a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon, unless all other Materials are "Magician" Pendulum Monsters. When this card is Pendulum Summoned from the hand: You can Special Summon 1 "Magician" Pendulum Monster from your Deck in Defense Position, except "Harmonizing Magician", but it has its effects negated, also banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of "Harmonizing Magician" once per turn.

As you can see from the card above its pendulum scale is 8. In order to pendulum summon you will need to place two pendulum monsters in S1 and S5 respectively. The two monsters will have to have different scales. Once both are placed on the field you can activate them by selecting the pendulum monster in s1 and by selecting the C command which will activate it. You will then be able to summon as many monsters from your hand as you like. You will only be able to summon monsters with levels that fall between the values of the two scales of the pendulum monsters. So, if the monster in your S1 has a scale of 1 and the monster in your s5 has a scale of 8 you will only be able to summon monsters with levels of 2 to 7.
You will also be able to summon pendulum monsters from the extra deck with the same method, once the pendulum summon is activated you will be able to choose which monsters you want to summon from your hand and which you want to summon from the extra deck. Take note that the pendulum monsters summoned from the extra deck an only be special summoned to extra monster zones or zones link monsters point to. Also note that Pendulum monsters usually have two effects, a monster effect and a pendulum effect. The monster effect is active when it is normal or special summoned to one of the monster zones and the pendulum effect is active when it is placed in one of the spell zones. Pendulum summoning is considered to be special summoning.

Link summoning

Like synchro and XYZ monsters link monsters can be summoned from the extra deck immediately when its requirements are met. Each link monster has a link rating. The link rating determines how many of your monsters needs to be sent to the graveyard, from the field, as cost for it to be summoned with each monster sent to the grave counting 1 towards the link rating. For example
Decode Talker (Monster, Effect, Dark, Cyberse)
Attack: 2300 Link rating: 3
Link Markers: bottom left, bottom right, top
2+ Effect Monsters
Gains 500 ATK for each monster it points to. When your opponent activates a card or effect that targets a card(s) you control (Quick Effect): You can Tribute 1 monster this card points to; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

Decode Talker has a link rating of three. Under normal circumstances this would mean that he requires 3 monsters in order to be summoned. However, he requires 2+ effect monsters. This means that if you have another link monster with a link rating of 2 as well as any other effect monster you only need those two monsters to summon Decode Talker. This stacking of levels only works with link monsters. To summon a link monster you just select it and special summon from the extra deck once the requirements to get it on the field is met.
Borreload Dragon (Monster, Effect, Dark, Dragon)
Attack: 3000 Link rating: 4
Link Markers: right, bottom left, bottom right, left
3+ Effect Monsters
Neither player can target this card with monster effects. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 face-up monster on the field; it loses 500 ATK/DEF. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to this effect's activation. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks an opponent's monster: You can place that opponent's monster in a zone this card points to and take control of it, but send it to the GY during the End Phase of the next turn.

Borreload Dragon has a link rating of 4, so this mean that you should be able to use Decode Talker above, which is a link 3 monster, in addition to any other monster in your main monster zone for a total of 4 as tribute fodder to summon him. However, look at the card again, it explicitly states three plus effect monsters. That means that even though you can get a total of link rating 4 with a Decode Talker and another monster it would not meet the requirements for Borreload Dragon. Always make sure to read the cards properly.

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