Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game

The ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game'', often shortened TCG, is the part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game manufactured by Konami. The TCG is played Worldwide, but mostly in North America, Europe and Australia. The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG was published in 2002, with Upper Deck Entertainment acquiring the rights to market the TCG in 2000 for USD$75,000,000 from Konami.

The TCG is printed in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as being previously printed in Portuguese prior to Cybernetic Revolution. All TCG cards are legal in countries where the game is played. For example, a German Mirror Force is playable in Great Britain and a French Dark Armed Dragon is legal to play in Switzerland; however, because all Japanese, Asian-English, Korean and Chinese cards are part of the OCG (which are not legal for Tournament play in the TCG), one could not use a Japanese Crush Card Virus, even if they have a translation of the card on hand. This is unlike the OCG where TCG cards, with the exception of exclusives, are legal in tournaments (unless the organizer does not allow the use of such cards).

Tournaments are held each year that give out prizes which are usually rare cards or exclusive game mats. Players first start out in the Regionals and advance their way to the Championships. Shonen Jump also hosts their own tournament known as the Shonen Jump Championship. There are tournaments in the OCG as well as the TCG.

Upper Deck no longer has any connection with the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and Konami has continued tournaments.

This media contains examples of:

 * Another Dimension - The Different Dimension, referred to by players as the removed-from-play zone.
 * Black Magician Girl - Well, Dark Magician Girl, but her Japanese name is the Trope Namer.
 * Bowdlerize - Many cards' artwork were changed from the originals to remove weapons, religious references, and of course blood.
 * At least one card managed to slip by at first: After The Struggle, origianlly known, in English, as "After Genocide".
 * But Not Too Evil - Fiend-types, specifically the Archfiend archetype, known as Demons in the Japanese version.
 * Cosmic Horror - The "Alien" archetype.
 * Defictionalization - One of the best-known examples ever.
 * Explosive Overclocking - Plague Wolf's ability doubles its original attack but it's destroyed at the end of the turn.
 * Family Friendly Firearms - From Don Zaloog's pistols being redesigned into daggers, to the missiles on Full Salvo being given "angry eyes", to Barrel Dragon being made to look nothing like a gun barrel.
 * Lethal Joke Character / Lethal Joke Item: Several cards on the Forbidden list do not seem very useful by themselves, but they become a Game Breaker in conjunction with other cards. An example: Butterfly Dagger - Elma. It only grants a weak 300 power boost when equipped, but it can return to your hand when in the Graveyard. Comboed with Gearfried the Iron Knight, which destroys any Equip Spell cards attached to it, it can be played infinitely, and several cards have the effects to abuse this capability for a one turn kill.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters - Literally thousands of monster cards exist, including Spell and Trap Cards that can make monsters.
 * Mad Scientist - Kozaky
 * Our Dragons Are Different - All kinds; Western, Asian, and even a couple Aztec designs.
 * Our Zombies Are Different - Just another type of monster. No brain-eaters yet, but...
 * Story Arc - Several series' of cards tell stories, Gagagigo being the most intricate of any.