DMRules

Rules Of Duel Monsters
II. I. Rules
Deck-Building Rules
- Your Deck must consists of at least 40 cards.
- You may have a Side-Deck* consisting of exactly 15 cards.
- You may only have up to 3 of the same card in your Deck (including your Side-Deck).
- For a list of restricted cards, refer to the Official Banned & Restricted Cards list.

Side Deck
- The 15-card Side-Deck is not used during the game, but you may substitute cards between your Deck and Side-Deck in a 1-for-1 exchange in between duels.

[Victory Conditions]
A Player is immediately declared the Winner when either one of the following conditions are met:
1) The Player reduces his opponent's Life Points (LP) to zero.
2) The Opponent do not have cards to draw from his Deck when he is required to (ie. deck-out).
3) The Player collects all 5 parts of the "Sealed Exodia" set in his Hand.
4) The Player completes all 5 parts of the "Ouija Board" on the Field.

(Field Layout)
1. Monster Card Zone: These slots are for placing Monsters cards which you summon into play. (Max: 5)
2. Magic/Trap Zone: These slots are for playing/setting Magic & Trap cards. (Max: 5)
3. Field Card Zone: Any Field Magic played will be placed in this slot.
4. Fusion Deck: If your deck contain Fusion Monsters, place them faced-down here for use during the game.
5. Deck: Your draw Deck.
6. Graveyard: All discards, belonging to the player, are sent to his own Graveyard.

II. Game Play
Starting the Game
1. Both players determine who goes first.
2. Both players draw a starting hand of 5 cards and begin with 8000 Life Points (LP).
3. The starting player begins the game with his Draw Phase.

III. Turn Flow Chart

1. Draw Phase
- Draw 1 card from your Deck.

2. Standby Phase
- The effects of certain cards are activated during the Standby Phase.
Be sure to take note of such cards & resolve their abilities during this phase.

3. Main Phase (1)
During this Phase, you may perform the following actions in any order as you like.
- Summon 1 Monster into play. *Only once per Turn*
- Change the modes of your Monsters (from Attack to Defense & vice versa). *Only once per Turn for each Monster.*
- Play Magic/Trap cards.
- Set Magic/Trap cards on the field.

4. Battle Phase*
- During this Phase, each Monster in Attack Mode can attack once.
- The player gets to assign a target for each attacking Monster.
- If the opponent does not have any Monsters, the player may attack him & inflict direct damage.
- Refer to below for more details on the Battle Phase.
*Note: The player who goes first cannot attack on his first Turn.

5. Main Phase (2)
After the Battle Phase, you return to the Main Phase again.
*You may perform all the same actions as described previously in Main Phase (1).
The only thing to take note here is that Monsters that has attacked during the Battle Phase cannot change mode, even if they have not done so for the current Turn.
6. End Phase
- The player declares that he has finished with his turn and reaches the End Phase.
- During this Phase, if the player has a hand size of more than 6 cards, he has to discard his cards down to 6 cards or less.
- Once everything is done, the player's turn is over and his opponent gets to take his turn (beginning with the Draw Phase).

*This process will repeat itself until one player defeats the other.*
IV. Battle Phase (Battle Steps)

1. Start Step
- The player declares to enter the Battle Phase.
2. Battle Step
- Select a Monster to attack with.
- Select a target for the attack.
*If at anytime during this Step, there is a change in the number of Monsters that your opponent controls or new Monsters are brought into play (due to Magic/Trap or other effects), this interruption will cause the Battle Step to reset (ie. return to the beginning of the Battle Step). This means that you get to select an attacker (which hasn't attacked yet, or it can be the one that was interrupted) and assign its target again.
3. Damage Step*
- If target is in reverse, flip it face-up.
- Resolve the damage.
- Resolve any Effects.
*Note: During this Step, no Effects/Magic/Traps can be activated unless otherwise stated.
4. End Step
- The player declares the end of his Battle Phase.
*After this, he proceeds on to Main Phase (2).