Monster Cards

WHAT IS A MONSTER CARD?

Monster Cards are used to battle and defeat your opponent. Battles between Monster Cards are the foundation of any Duel.There are many kinds of Monster Cards. This game is more than a simple slugfest, so monsters with high Attack and Defense Points will not be enough. There are also monsters with strong special effects even though their ATK and DEF points are low. Therefore, your success in a Duel depends on how skillfully you can make use of the different kinds of cards. Let’s take a look at the different kinds of monsters.

NORMAL MONSTERS
These are basic Monsters. Cards without special abilities. Many Normal Monsters have higher Attack Points and Defense Points than Effect Monsters, instead of having special abilities.

EFFECT MONSTERS
An Effect Monster is a monster that has special abilities. The effects of these monsters are split into 5 categories:

• Flip Effect
• Continuous Effect
• Ignition Effect
• Trigger Effect
• Quick Effect



Flip Effect
This is an effect that is activated when a face-down card is flipped face-up. This can happen when it is Flip Summoned, attacked while face-down, or flipped face-up by a card effect. These effects start with the word “FLIP:” on the card. When you have a face-down monster, your opponent must be wary because they don’t know if it has a Flip Effect or not.

Example: FLIP: Draw 1 card.

Continuous Effect
This effect is active while the Effect Monster Card is face-up on the field. The effect starts when the face-up monster appears on the field, and ends once that monster is gone or is no longer face-up; there is no trigger for its activation. These monsters are most useful if you have a strategy to protect them while they are on the field.

Example: Monsters with 2000 or less ATK cannot
declare an attack.

Ignition Effect
You use this type of effect just by declaring its activation during your Main Phase. (See Turn Structure, page 28.) There are some Ignition Effects that have a cost to activate, like discarding cards from your hand, Tributing a monster, or paying Life Points. Because you can choose when to activate this type of effect, it’s easy to create combos with them.

Example: You can Tribute this card to target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target.

Trigger Effect
These effects are activated at specific times, such as “during the Standby Phase” or “when this monster is destroyed.” These cards can make for some great combos, but it’s easier for your opponent to predict what will happen, so they might try to stop you.

Example: When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 card on the field; destroy that target.

Quick Effect
These are special monster effects that you can activate even during your opponent's turn. These types of effects have a Spell Speed of 2, even though all other monster effects have a Spell Speed of 1. (See Spell Speed) Since it’s difficult for your opponent to predict these cards, they can give them an unexpected surprise.
(Formerly called Multi-Trigger Effects.)

Example: You can activate this effect during either player's turn.