View source for Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)/Tropes A-N

Due to the large amount of examples in the main page, it was split into subpages.

This page contains examples from [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game]], tropes A to N.
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*[[Achilles' Heel]]: Some cards have deliberate weaknesses to keep things interesting and/or keep them from becoming too powerful.
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Earthbound_Immortal Earthbound Immortals] are all very strong, unable to be attacked and can attack the opponent directly, but automatically destroy themselves if there's no Field Spell card on the field.
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cloudian Cloudians] must remain in attack position or they also destroy themselves.
*[[Action Girl]]: Several. There are lady warriors, witches, demons, spirits, fairies... and each of them can kick just as much ass as the male cards, or in some cases even more!
*[[Alien Invasion]]:
**The point of the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Alien Alien] monsters.
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Worm#Duel_Terminal_Story Worms] are this in the first part of the Duel Terminal storyline.
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Graydle Graydles] are another examples, which combines both the "grey" and "parasite" types together.
*[[Amazonian Beauty]] [[Amazon Brigade|Brigade]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Amazoness Amazoness] archetype. Loads of scantily-clad, athletic, muscular warrior women.
*[[An Ice Person]]: The "Ice Barrier" archetype and related cards.
*[[Another Dimension]]: The D.D. (Different Dimension) cards.
*[[Antimatter]]: [[Word of God]] is that the Xyz monsters are made up of this.
*[[Artificial Stupidity]]: The gimmick of the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Karakuri Karakuri] archetype is that they must attack if able (even if it would get them killed) and always shift into defense when attacked (even when their DEF is lower, and they would survive if they counterattacked).
*[[Attack Reflector]]:
**Available in [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reflect_Bounder monster] or [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mirror_Force trap].
**There's also [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Attack_Reflector_Unit Attack Reflector Unit], which trades in [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyber_Dragon Cyber Dragon] for [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyber_Barrier_Dragon Cyber Barrier Dragon].
*[[Awesome but Impractical]]: Has its own subpage [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)/Awesome but Impractical|here]].
*[[Awesome McCoolname]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super-Nimble_Mega_Hamster Super-Nimble Mega Hamster].
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Darkness_Metal_Dragon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon]
*[[Awesome Yet Practical]]: As a rule of thumb, if a deck had ever dipped into the tournament scene and succeeded, then it automatically becomes a valid example by default. As for individual cards:
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Beast_King_Barbaros Beast King Barbaros], a 3000 ATK monster that can wipe out all opposing cards if you Tribute Summon it with three tributes instead of the normal two. What makes it awesomely ''practical'' is that it can also be Summoned from the hand at 1900 ATK (the standard ATK margin for "very strong Level 4 monsters") with no Tribute, so it's never useless in the hand if you have no Tribute fodder, many other high-Level monsters. Its ATK will also "reset" to 3000 if its effect on the field is negated (e.g. with [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skill_Drain Skill Drain]) so you could potentially drop a 3000 ATK monster on the field with no Tributes. Better yet, instead of Skill Drain, equip it with the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Axe_of_Fools Axe of Fools], so in addition to giving it 1000 ATK, it will also negate the effect, and thus giving you a 4000 ATK monster with only two cards.
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Thunder_King_Rai-Oh Thunder King Rai-Oh]. It can Tribute itself to negate a Special Summon, disallows player to add cards from their Decks to their hands outside of drawing, shutting down searchers like Sangan, and it has 1900 ATK, enough to run over almost anything that aren't boss monsters. It's also a level 4, has no Summon restrictions, and is LIGHT-Attribute to support decks that utilize them (such as Chaos).
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/HERO HERO] super-archetype had become this in later years of the game, thanks to them being given cross-archetype supports between all the different HEROs. Depending on the build, they can play aggro, lockdown, control, or even good ol' Fusion beatdown. On the competitive side, they even had their time in the spotlight from the late 2000's to mid 2010's, with [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Stratos Elemental HERO Stratos], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_Diamond_Dude Destiny HERO Diamond Dude] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Masked_HERO_Dark_Law Masked HERO Dark Law] being famous monster names in the card game's metagame history.
*[[Badass Adorable]]: Several Fairy cards. For example, see [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dancing_Fairy Dancing Fairy.] Take a good long look at that picture and then [[Cute Bruiser|move down to its stats]].
*[[Badass Grandpa]]: For example, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Grandmaster_of_the_Six_Samurai Grandmaster of the Six Samurai].
*[[Badass Normal]]: Literally with Normal monsters like [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Alexandrite_Dragon Alexandrite Dragon] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gene-Warped_Warwolf Gene-Warped Warwolf] for breaking the "Level 4 or lower monsters with 2000 ATK or more getting a negative effect" rule, and of course we can't forget to mention [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Blue-Eyes_White_Dragon these] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Black_Dragon three] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131031013640/http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician guys], the former being this game's best example for having the highest ATK of all Normal Monsters.
*[[Barrier Warrior]]:
**Big Shield Gardna, Mid Shield Gardna, Shield Warrior… Okay, pretty much anything with the word "shield" in its name. Millennium Shield is a Warrior-type… and a literal shield.
**And, of course, there are many monsters that can't be destroyed by battle, like [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Marshmallon Marshmallon], so they're essentially a pseudo-unbreakable shield.
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Total_Defense_Shogun Total Defense Shogun] is probably the best example, as it's the first of two cards stated to be able to attack while in Defense Position.
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai Superheavy Samurai] takes Total Defense Shogun to its logical extreme, being ''[[Up to Eleven|an entire archetype]]'' of monsters that are able to attack in Defense Position
**Some monsters cannot be targeted for attacks if there is a certain other monster on the field, or keep the opponent from attacking monsters of certain types (Solar Flare Dragon, Marauding Captain, Morphtronic Magnen) while it's on the field. Getting two or more of the specific card(s) can block nearly all potential attacks.
*[[Battle Royale With Cheese]]: All the rules only ever reference two players, but slight modifications have been made (primarily thanks to the Tag Force games) to allow 2 vs 2 games typically called Tag Duels.
*[[Big Damn Heroes]]:
**Some cards have effects that emulate this trope. For example, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gorz_the_Emissary_of_Darkness Gorz the Emissary of Darkness] is Special Summoned when you take damage while having nothing on your field, and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Starlight_Road Starlight Road] negates the destruction of two or more cards and Special Summons a Stardust Dragon from you Extra Deck. Not surprisingly, both cards were part of the [[Metagame]] during their heyday for that exact reason.
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Constellar Constellars] are a group of holy space knights that descended into the Planet to help all the tribes defeat the [[The Corruption|corrupted Evilswarm monsters]] that are destroying the Duel Terminal world.
*[[Black Magician Girl]]: [[Trope Namer]], known in English as the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician_Girl Dark Magician Girl].
*[[Black Knight]]:
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO Destiny HEROes] and their manga counterpart [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vision_HERO Vision HEROes].
**Also [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Black_Luster_Soldier Black Luster Soldier] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Black_Luster_Soldier_(archetype) related cards].
*[[Blind Idiot Translation]]: Frequent on the early cards, many of which seem to have been translated by people who had absolutely ''no'' idea what they were doing. Among the most obvious examples is [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dunames_Dark_Witch Dunames Dark Witch], which is a ''[[Non-Indicative Name|LIGHT-Attribute Fairy.]]'' Its original Japanese name is actually "Dynamis Valkyria". Seeing that [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Witch another similar card] got the same treatment, it's easy to see the root of this mistake. They seem to have noticed this later, and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Valkyria similarly-named cards] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magician's_Valkyria in the future] got the proper translation (except [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Contract_with_the_Witch Dark Contract with the Witch], but that's most likely because it's supposed to pay homage to the early translation).
*[[Blow You Away]]:
**A vast number of cards that deal with destroying other Spell or Trap cards happen to be named after wind effects, like [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mystical_Space_Typhoon "Mystical Space Typhoon"], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heavy_Storm "Heavy Storm"], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dust_Tornado "Dust Tornado"], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wild_Tornado "Wild Tornado"], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Twister "Twister"], and so on, as are two of the most popular "bounce" cards, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Giant_Trunade Giant Trunade] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20131101002954/http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raiza_the_Storm_Monarch Raiza the Storm Monarch].
**There are archetypes that has this theme, examples are the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Harpie Harpies] and the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gusto Gusto].
*[[Boring but Practical]]:
**Normal Monsters, at least in the early days of the game. They have no effects but often have good combat stats, and there's a lot of support for them, including lots of ways to Summon them from the Graveyard, so decks based around them focus on brute force rather than anything fancy. However, as the game shifts more and more toward Effect Monsters, Normal Monster beatdown decks got left in the dust, and later decks that utilize Normal Monsters tend to use them as parts of specific engines rather than focus on them specifically.
**Gadgets for a long time plays on this. The goal of the deck is to make the game as simple as possible by playing one-for-one destruction cards, using the Gadgets' self-replenishing effect gain advantage. Such deck can be really boring to play with (or against) but can be really effective when played correctly.
*[[Bottomless Pits]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Trap_Hole Bottomless Trap Hole].
*[[Bowdlerize]]:
**In Japan, the Fairy-Type is actually the Angel-Type (Tenshi-zoku) and the Fiend-Type is actually the Demon-Type (Akuma-zoku).
**The Archfiends are known in Japan as Daemons (Dēmon).
**Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time brought us the Sin archetype, known internationally as Malefic monsters. "Sin" was written in English on the Japanese cards, with furigana as a pronunciation guide; further, there is no explicit "Si" sound in Japanese, and "Shi" is a usual stand-in, so the furigana guide was written as "Shin" - [[Word of God]] takes this as an intentional pun between "Sin" and "Shin", a Kanji denoting "Truth". The pun was unfortunately [[Lost in Translation]].
**Many cards in the OCG that portray nudity, religion, guns, blood, [[Big Breasts, Big Deal|bustiness]], etc. were modified in the TCG release. Modified cards are listed [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/List_of_modified_cards here].
**Generally, if you see a card with "Des" as part of the name (Except for Dark Ruler Ha Des), chances are that it was "Death" in the OCG.
*[[Brought Down to Badass]]: A 3000 ATK monster with no effects is still a 3000 ATK monster; nothing to sneeze at. Skill Drain also happens to negate any ''negative'' effects the card may have, too, so a surprising amount of monsters actually benefit from Skill Drain.
*[[Brought Down to Normal]]: Almost literally; the Continuous Trap Skill Drain negates the effects of all monsters on the field.
*[[Bullet Seed]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Seed_Cannon Seed Cannon] gains counters every time a Plant is Summoned (and Plants are fairly good at swarming); sending the card to the Graveyard damages the opponent the more counters are on it.
*[[Butt Monkey]]: 
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Goblin_Attack_Force Goblin Attack Force] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Goblin_of_Greed Goblin of Greed] in the art of some of the other cards.
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama Ojamas], usually in the artwork of ''their own'' cards.
**Local [[Mad Scientist]] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kozaky Kozaky] also had his fair share of moments, some even crossing to [[Black Comedy]].
*[[Buffy-Speak]]: There's a card named [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Interplanetarypurplythorny_Dragon Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon]. Later, [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Interplanetarypurplythorny_Beast Interplanetarypurplythorny Beast] follows suit.
*[[Captain Ersatz]]:
**Does [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Battlestorm Battlestorm] [[F-Zero|look familiar]]?
**There are not [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zombyra_the_Dark one], but [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO_Necroshade two] for [[Spawn]]. The first one is an indirect example, because it's based on a fictional superhero comic from the manga, that was based on Spawn. The second one was directly based on Spawn himself.
*[[Cast from Hit Points|Cast From Hit Points]]: Many cards require a payment of LP to activate. 
**Nearly taken to an extreme with Toon World; the entirety of its text is "Pay 1000 Life Points to activate this card." That's it. Sure, now you can summon your Toon Monsters <ref>some don't need it to be in the field to be…well, on the field</ref>, but other than that, it just kinda sits there waiting to be destroyed.
**This is practically one half the Psychic-Type's main gimmick (the other half being Banishing), with frequent payments to either fire off or maintain their effects. To balance this out, a good amount of their support cards involve healing and/or making use lost LP.
**Some cards, like the Archfiend archetype from ''Dark Crisis'', require a constant LP payment to keep them on the field. A payment ''that is not optional''.
*[[Cherry Tapping]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sparks Sparks] does a measly 200 damage to the opponent— that's it. Most video games in the franchise actually reward you with a bonus if you ever manage to finish off the opponent using the Spell. They give a similar bonus if you manage to finish off the opponent with a [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skull_Servant Skull Servant], but at least you can give Skull Servant some good Equip Spell Cards to boost its power.
*[[Chess Motifs]]:
**The first [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Archfiend Archfiend] monsters released in the ''Dark Crisis'' pack. Their top support card is [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Checkmate Checkmate].
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Puppet_King Puppet King] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Puppet_Queen Puppet Queen] are literal examples.
*[[Collectible Card Game]]: But of course.
*[[Colorful Theme Naming]]: The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_World Dark World] archetype. Complete with an Overlord called [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Reign-Beaux,_Overlord_of_Dark_World Reign-Beaux].
*[[Combining Mecha]]:
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/A-to-Z A-to-Z] series, which culminates into either [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/VWXYZ-Dragon_Catapult_Cannon VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon] or [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/A-to-Z-Dragon_Buster_Cannon A-to-Z-Dragon Buster Cannon] depending on which parts were gathered; each parts can also combine into specialized Fusions; [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/ABC-Dragon_Buster ABC-Dragon Buster], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/VW-Tiger_Catapult VW-Tiger Catapult], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/XY-Dragon_Cannon XY-Dragon Cannon], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/XZ-Tank_Cannon XZ-Tank Cannon], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/YZ-Tank_Dragon YZ-Tank Dragon] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/XYZ-Dragon_Cannon XYZ-Dragon Cannon]. Later support for one of their users in the anime also added an alternative layer of combination with the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon Armed Dragon] archetype, resulting in [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_Catapult_Cannon Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon].
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magnet_Warrior Magnet Warriors], which culminates into either [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Valkyrion_the_Magna_Warrior Valkyrion the Magna Warrior] (using the regular Magnet Warriors) or [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Berserkion_the_Electromagna_Warrior Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior] (using the Electromagnet Warriors); both combinations can then combine even further into [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Imperion_Magnum_the_Superconductive_Battlebot Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot].
**Using [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Commander_Covington Commander Covington], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Soldier Machina Soldier], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Sniper Sniper] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Defender Defender] can merge into [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Force Machina Force]. Under the influence of [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Unauthorized_Bootup_Device Unauthorized Bootup Device] (although not needed for the actual card), their [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Possesstorage Machina Possesstorage], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Unclaspare Unclaspare] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Resavenger Resavenger] can merge into [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Ruinforce Machina Ruinforce]. An alternative combination not related to the previous two consists of [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Gearframe Machina Gearframe], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Fortress Fortress], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Cannon Cannon] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Peacekeeper Peacekeeper], which results in [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Machina_Megaform Machina Megaform].
**In reference to retro classic TV [[Super Sentai]]/[[Power Rangers]], the Super Quantal Mechs [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantal_Mech_Beast_Magnaliger Magnaliger], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantal_Mech_Beast_Aeroboros Aeroboros] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantal_Mech_Beast_Grampulse Grampulse] can combine into [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantal_Mech_King_Great_Magnus Super Quantal Mech King Great Magnus]. As per the tradition, once the [[Sixth Ranger]] joined the group, their own mech [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Super_Quantal_Mech_Beast_Lusterrex Lusterrex] can also combine with the rest into [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Neo_Super_Quantal_Mech_King_Blaster_Magna Neo Super Quantal Mech King Blaster Magna].
*[[Contest Winner Cameo]]: [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fan-Made_Cards Quite a few cards] are designed by fans.
*[[Continuity Drift]]: Early cards with banishing (then "remove from play") effects, such as [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bazoo_the_Soul_Eater Bazoo the Soul Eater] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kycoo_the_Ghost_Destroyer Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer], implied that monsters removed from play had their souls obliterated. Within a year, cards started using the flavor that those monsters are actually sent to another dimension with the Different Dimension (D.D.) series.
*[[The Corruption]]:
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evilswarm Evilswarm] is based around monsters corrupted by the lswarm virus.
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Warrior_Dai_Grepher Warrior Dai Grepher] is corrupted into [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Grepher Dark Grepher] and then further into the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius Dark Lucius series].
*[[Crazy Prepared]]: "Toolbox" is a type of deck that specializes on searching monsters with many unique (and sometimes situational) effects directly from the Deck or Graveyard to counter your opponent. For example, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gladiator_Beast Gladiator Beasts] can "[[Fan Nickname|Tag Out]]" after a battle and bring any other Gladiator Beast from the Deck, and Koa'ki Meirus can use [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koa%27ki_Meiru_Urnight some] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Iron_Core_Specimen_Lab cards] to get any monster they want, including a quartet that [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koa'ki_Meiru_Overload can] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koa'ki_Meiru_Guardian literally] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koa'ki_Meiru_Wall stop] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Koa'ki_Meiru_Sandman anything].
*[[Creation Sequence]]: Depicted in [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Terraforming Terraforming].
*[[Crippling Overspecialization]]:
**Some cards exist simply to counter other, very specific cards. [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Anti_Raigeki Anti Raigeki] exists only to counteract [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Raigeki Raigeki], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/White_Hole White Hole] only exists to counteract [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Hole Dark Hole], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Jar_Robber Jar Robber] only exists to counteract [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Pot_of_Greed Pot of Greed], and both [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Call_of_Darkness Call of Darkness] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Call_of_the_Grave Call of the Grave] exist only to counter [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Monster_Reborn Monster Reborn]. When the problem cards were banned, these cards became worthless; and if the problem cards were unbanned, that was a sign that they were no longer problem cards, and thus these cards keep becoming worthless.
**However, not all specializations are crippling; for example, "G.B. Hunter," designed to lock down a Gladiator Beast deck, still has enough DEF to serve as a desperate defense.
**The Allies of Justice appear to be an entire archetype based around overspecialization. Their effects almost exclusively revolve around the opponent's monsters being LIGHT-attribute or face-down. If they're not facing something with those criteria, they're in a lot of trouble. Note that the Worms are all LIGHT-attribute monsters with a lot of flip effects, meaning the Allies of Justice were designed to just fight this one enemy and nothing else.
*[[Crossover Cosmology]]: There are cards based on Egyptian, Japanese, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Chinese, Indian, Incan and Norse mythology, among many others.
*[[Cute Is Evil]]: Several Fiend-Type or DARK-Attribute cards can be this.
*[[Cute Monster Girl]]: A few, but probably the best example is [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Tour_Guide_From_the_Underworld Tour Guide from the Underworld], because she's, you know, a ''demon''.
*[[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]: A major part of Gagagigo's story, before being redeemed by an old friend.
*[[Dark Is Evil]]: The DARK attribute has the greatest portion of evil-seeming monsters. However...
*[[Dark Is Not Evil]]: 
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zombyra_the_Dark Zombyra] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/A_Hero_Emerges the Dark], the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO Destiny HEROs], and the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician_(archetype) Dark Magician family] are all heroic monsters.
**[[Word of God]] says that all [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_World Dark World] monsters are [[Noble Demon|noble and good]], they just ''look'' hideous and evil. This is in contrast to their anime role, which pitted them as regular villains in the Duel Monsters Spirit World. [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_World_Brainwashing Dark World Brainwashing] suggests that there's something more going on behind the scenes, most likely an internal split in ideology, a [[Face Heel Turn]] moment, or a case of [[Blue and Orange Morality]].
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ally_of_Justice Allies of Justice] are all DARK, in spite of being, you know, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|allied with justice.]]
*[[Deader Than Dead]]: Banished cards generally won't be seen again for the rest of the duel unless your deck is specifically designed to recycle them.
*[[Death or Glory Attack]]: Meta-version: the Spell Card [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Power_Bond Power Bond] often inflicts such hefty damage on its user that when used, so most prefer to end the game on the turn it's used. There's the tangentially-related [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Limiter_Removal Limiter Removal], which destroys all monsters it affects at the end of the turn. Naturally, the two are often combined with powerful cards such as [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cyber_End_Dragon Cyber End Dragon] or [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ultimate_Ancient_Gear_Golem Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem], betting on them to either crush the opponent in a single turn or suffer duel-costing damage when it fails.
*[[Death World]]:
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Venom_Swamp Venom Swamp] Field Spell will slowly kill ''everything'' on the field except the native [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Venom Venom] monsters.
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Zombie_World Zombie World] causes everything to count as Zombies (even in the Graveyards!), so it could be called an Undeath World.
*[[Dem Bones]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skull_Servant Skull Servant] and related cards, along with numerous other Zombie-Types.
*[[Department of Redundancy Department]]: The "Ninjitsu Art" cards and Thunder King Rai-Oh. "Ninjitsu" means "Ninja Art" and "Rai-Oh" means "Thunder King".
*[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Some monsters' relative ATK scores aren't exactly what you'd expect. For example, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Genesis_Star_God%2C_Sophia the supreme god of the Duel Terminal planet] can be literally punched out by [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Roaring_Express_Train_Rocket_Arrow a train] or [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Master_of_Oz a giant koala]<ref>of course, said god's effect makes actually getting out said train or giant koala an uphill battle</ref>.
*[[Difficult but Awesome]]: The Koa'ki Meiru monsters all have high attack power and incredibly useful anti-meta effects and support cards. What makes them difficult to use is that they all destroy themselves at the end of the turn if you don't discard the Iron Core card or reveal a card in your hand that's the same type as the monster on the field (and there are many different types of Koa'ki Meiru monsters!). It's difficult to have more than just one Koa'ki Meiru out on the field at any given time, though they can still be quite effective if you splash them into another deck full of the same monster type as them so they don't self-destruct.
**It gets worse: the Iron Core itself is completely useless, but is required to use powerful Spell or Traps, so sooner or later you're bound to have to decide between a monster or keeping a way to use your Spell or Trap. Even worse, a few of those need the Core in your ''Graveyard'' instead, so if you're using ''those'', you could end up with no ways to use the ones that need them in your hand.
**All of the above problems are partially addressed by the way the TCG's releases have approached the Rock-Type Koa'ki Meiru monsters. The OCG, at most, has 3 Koa'ki Meiru for each Type, which makes it slightly difficult to try to use a Koa'ki-monster-heavy deck yet avoid the nigh-uselessness of the Core itself. One thing the OCG did bring to the table early was Boulder - a recruiter that never needs to be maintained via core or card-revealing. That, combined with the trend set by Guardian and Sandman in terms of activation negation, led to what may be the most significant thing Koa'ki Meiru has right now - a means of game control via stopping activations. The TCG continued that trend by releasing another maintenance free Koa'ki (Prototype), and another activation-stopping Koa'ki (Wall). This leaves the Rock-Type branch with five members on this side of the Pacific - all of which either help control the game or give you resources.
**Another ideology to use with the Ko'aki Meiru monsters is to throw them into decks among their own types. Bergzak gets excellent mileage among Warrior decks.
**Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes requires a lot of set-up; a reptile-based deck, a card like "Damage = Reptile" to easily summon its predecessor Vennominion, a pre-set "Rise of the Snake Deity" to summon Vennominaga when Vennominion gets destroyed, a card to destroy Vennominion and perhaps a use of "Snake Rain" to flood your Graveyard with Reptiles to boost Vennominaga's attack. Once all that is said and done, however, Vennominaga is virtually unstoppable since it is ''completely'' immune to all card effects, and it needs only to damage the opponent three times for an instant win. The only hope the opponent has is to either summon a monster that Vennominaga can't overpower, or to find a way to get those reptiles out of the graveyard (such as with "Zombie World" or "Soul Release").
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sophia_the_Creator Sophia the Creator] is considered this for having harsh summoning requirement of banishing one Fusion, one Ritual, one Synchro and one Xyz on the field. However, once it hits the field, ''all other cards on the field, graveyard and hand are banished except itself''. Not to mention its summon and effect cannot be negated.
*[[Dinosaurs Are Dragons]]:
**Generally averted. The two have been completely separate categories since the very beginning.
**Played straight with a the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evol Evol] series: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evoltile Reptiles] evolve [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evolsaur Dinosaurs] that further evolve into [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evolzar Dragons].
*[[Disability Superpower]]: The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Infernity Infernity] archetype is a variation of this trope. Typically, not having cards in your hand would be considered a bad thing, as it would require you to constantly draw the cards you need from the top of your deck with no backup plan, but Infernities actually benefit from this situation, which the player needs to constantly be in to use most of their powerful effects.
*[[Discard and Draw]]: Many cards use discarding as part of a cost for an effect (eg. [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magic_Jammer Magic Jammer], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Lightning_Vortex Lightning Vortex], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_Draw Destiny Draw] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hand_Destruction Hand Destruction]) or the effect itself (eg.[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Graceful_Charity Graceful Charity] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_World_Dealings Dark World Dealings]).
*[[Eldritch Abomination]]:
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Worm_Zero Worm Zero] and its corrupted form, [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evilswarm_Azathoth Evilswarm Azathoth].
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Treacherous_Gofer Treacherous Gofer], who is also a [[Shout-Out]] to a [[Gradius|certain shooting game]].
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Horror_Gangi%27el Cosmic Horror Gangi'el] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Fortress_Gol'gar Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar].
*[[Elemental Powers]]: The idea behind monster Attributes, and the specialty of certain archetypes like the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Charmer Charmers] or the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Elemental_HERO Elemental HEROes].
*[[The End of the World as We Know It]]:
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/End_of_the_World A Ritual Spell.]
**Also caused in the Duel Terminal verse by [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Trishula,_Dragon_of_the_Ice_Barrier Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier], which plunged the world into an ice age upon release. And now, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Verz_Ouroboros it's] [[Oh Crap|back]].
*[[Equippable Ally]]: The Dragon-Type [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dragunity Dragunities] are this, as well as [[Attack Animal|Attack Animals]].
*[[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]: The Zombie-Types monsters, of course.
*[[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Penguin Penguin] archetype.
*[[Precious Puppies]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Outstanding_Dog_Marron Outstanding Dog Marron]
*[[Evil Twin]]:
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_counterparts Dark Counterparts].
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Malefic Malefic] monsters.
**The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evil★Twin Evil★Twin] archetype is an aversion, as the archetype's name doesn't refer to the phrase as used by this trope, but instead refers to the twin phantom thieves [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ki-sikil Ki-sikil] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Lil-la Lil-la].
*[[Evil Versus Evil]]: There is a war between [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Ruler_Ha_Des Dark Ruler Ha Des] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_King_of_the_Abyss Dark King of the Abyss]. Ha Des tricked Dark King out of his throne with [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Demotion Demotion]. Dark King got his revenge and killed Ha Des, but was himself killed later by the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Revived_King_Ha_Des Revived Ruler Ha Des].
*[[Evil Weapon]]: [[Word of God]] says the Equip Spell [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wicked-Breaking_Flamberge_-_Baou Wicked-Breaking Flamberge - Baou] holds the dark power of [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Guardian_Baou Baou], its Guardian spirit. When [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Warrior_Dai_Grepher Warrior Dai Grepher] later wields it, he is overcome by the dark energy. He becomes [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sakuretsu_Armor a rampaging monster], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV4 transforming more] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV6 and more] until, at the height of his mutation, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Lucius_LV8 he was completely unrecognizable as his former self].
*[[Evolutionary Levels]]:
**Pretty much any monster with LV in its name. Their main shtick being weak cards replacing themselves with stronger and stronger versions of themselves.
**The Evol archetype also plays around this concept.
*[[Exact Words]]: The effect wordings are (in)famous for this. Some examples:
**An interesting side-effect of Equip Spell Cards that give Piercing, is that you can inflict damage to your opponent by equipping them to your opponent's monsters. When your opponent attacks one of your Defense Position monsters with an ATK greater than your monsters DEF, they will take the difference. After all, even though it's ''your'' opponent's monster, it's your Spell Card, and thus it's your opponent — not ''you'' — who takes the extra damage, due to the wording on the cards.
**Some continuous effects have linkage to another monster cards such as [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Future_Fusion Future Fusion] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Call_of_the_Haunted Call of the Haunted]. However, when the monster is removed from field other than being destroyed, the continuous effect remains on the field meaninglessly.
**Due to the complexity of deciphering certain card effects, both the OCG and TCG later established rigid wordings for card effects that reinforce this trope, down to the usage of words such as "when", "then", "or", and even symbols like colons and semicolons. While it might take a while to get used to as new players, it prevents cards from being vague and keeps effect formulations uniform across the thousands of cards in the game.
*[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Infinite_Cards Infinite Cards]
*[[Exact Time to Failure]]: Once you activate the "Final Countdown" card, your opponent has exactly 10 of their turns to beat you or you win.
*[[Explosive Overclocking]]: The theme of the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Overworked Overworked] card.
*[[Eyes Do Not Belong There]]: A couple, including but not limited to [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Big_Eye Big Eye], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Thousand-Eyes_Restrict Thousand-Eyes Restrict], and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hundred_Eyes_Dragon Hundred Eyes Dragon].
*[[Fallen Angel]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Darklord Darklords].
*[[Family-Friendly Firearms]]:
**Many OCG cards with realistic guns in the art had them replaced with lasers, fanciful guns, or even knives, with varying success.
*[[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]]: Famous mythologies, local folktales, references to other fantasy works, completely original creations, you name it; there's a high chance that at least an element from them is referenced in this game.
*[[Feathered Fiend]]: A number of winged monsters, but the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Blackwing Blackwings] stand out.
*[[Flaming Sword]]: A lot, but a classic example is wielded by the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flame_Swordsman Flame Swordsman].
*[[Fragile Speedster]]: Some decks focus on getting out monsters as quick as possible, [[Zerg Rush|swarming the field]]. To balance this out, they tend to not have very high ATK power.
*[[Frogs and Toads]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Frog These fellas.] The Frog archetype is usually [[Weak but Skilled]]; they are mostly-all low-level monsters with sub-par attack, but have ''devastating'' support effects, like [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Des_Croaking Des Croaking] which blows away all cards controlled by the opponent, or [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Toadally_Awesome Toadally Awesome] which can casually negate effects.
*[[Fusion Dance]]: Fusion was a gameplay feature since the early days of the game, with many themes specializing around it. Some famous examples include the Elemental HERO, [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gem-Knight Gem-Knight] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shaddoll Shaddoll] archetypes.
*[[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]:
**Many cards have slightly different effects between the anime and the physical card game; what would be a game-breaker might be [[Nerf|Nerfed]] when it becomes real, or vice-versa. Sometimes the rules are a little different as well; Summoning monsters in face-down Defense Position rarely happens in the anime, but is a basic knowledge and main gimmick of a number of decks in real life.
**As for a more direct example, Normal monsters. Take [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Maiden_of_the_Moonlight Maiden of the Moonlight] for example. ''Powers beyond mortal comprehension'', huh? That 1500 ATK certainly says otherwise! Sure there are ''some'' examples where it fits, like the famous Blue-Eyes White Dragon (it has the highest ATK among Normal Monsters), but the "flavor text vs. real life" segregation is just ridiculous for the most part. In fact, this is what made [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shapesnatch Shapesnatch] such a [[Memetic Badass]] on the TCG side.
*[[Gang of Critters]]: Can be seen in [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Law_of_the_Normal here] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Big_March_of_Animals here].
*[[Giant Germs]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Giant_Germ Giant Germ] card.
*[[Gladiator Games]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gladiator_Beast Gladiator Beasts], a set of monsters that are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], and has the gimmick of [[Switch-Out Move|"tagging out"]] with each other after a battle. Bonus points for Konami [[Shown Their Work|showing their work]] by using ''real'' gladiator types, equipments and battle tactics for most of the cards, as well as real-life legendary Roman figures for the namesakes of the more powerful monsters of the theme.
*[[Glass Cannon]]:
**The Lightsworns were designed as this with a combo of [[Fragile Speedster]]. Most of their monsters are quite powerful, and a good Lightsworn deck will probably win very quickly... or not win at all. This is because almost all of them send cards straight from your deck to the Graveyard at the end of the turn, meaning your deck will burn itself out after a while.
**There's also quite a few monsters that have high ATK but pathetic DEF. The mighty [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rainbow_Dragon Rainbow Dragon] has 4000 ATK and 0 DEF, for example. Similarly, the Steelswarm monsters all have 0 DEF. If a clever player runs cards that can switch battle position or the ATK/DEF stats, or outright nuke low-DEF monsters, these monsters are toast.
*[[God Save Us From the Queen]]:
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ruin,_Queen_of_Oblivion Ruin, Queen of Oblivion] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ruin_&_Demise related cards].
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Allure_Queen Allure Queens] are classic examples.
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Queen_of_Thorns Queen of Thorns] if you run anything other than Plants.
*[[Gotta Catch Em All]]: This is practically impossible in real life (unless you're insanely rich and have a lot of spare time on your hands, and even then [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Tyler_the_Great_Warrior Tyler the Great Warrior] is truly one-of-a-kind). However, it's ''quite'' possible if you're playing any of the various ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' video games that are released every couple years.
*[[Gratuitous English]]: At this point, the OCG probably has more cards and booster packs with English than Japanese names.
*[[Gratuitous Japanese]]: In the first few booster packs, UDE's policy was that [[Keep It Foreign|cards with English names would have their names translated into Japanese]]. They've since stopped, but the old policy left us with iconic classic card names such as [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Jigen_Bakudan Jigen Bakudan].
*[[Harping on About Harpies]]: The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Harpie_Lady Harpie Lady] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Harpie related monsters].
*[[Hermaphrodite]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yubel Yubel]
*[[Holy Hand Grenade]]: A good amount of LIGHT monsters are this.
*[[Humongous Mecha]]: Many of the Machine monsters, especially some of their Fusions.
*[[Instant Win Condition]]: Several, listed on the [[Useful Notes]] page.
*[[In the End You Are on Your Own]]: Regardless of what the TV series would have you believe, friends don't mean much in a standard 1-on-1 game. Averted in team plays and Tag Duels, naturally.
*[[Invulnerable Knuckles]]: An important gameplay ''aversion.'' If your monster attacks an opponent's Defense Position monster, and the defender has more DEF than the attacker has ATK, the attacker's side takes damage; think of it like punching a brick wall with your fist and getting hurt. This is one of the reasons why monsters can be Set or Special Summoned in face-down Defense Posotion; the attacker doesn't know what he's in for. Some decks can be built around this, with hi-DEF monsters that flip themselves back down and the Spell [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shifting_Shadows Shifting Shadows] in play that lets you randomize the positions of your face-down monsters.
*[[Henshin Hero]]: The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Masked_HERO Masked HERO] archetype, whose gimmick involves having your monster "transform" into a Masked HERO with the same Attribute as it, mainly through the Spell [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mask_Change Mask Change].
*[[Kill'Em All]]: Some cards are able to wipe out everything on both sides of the playing field (or just all cards on the opposing side). A couple of cards take it even further by also wiping out every card in the players' hands.
*[[Kill Sat]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Satellite_Cannon Satellite Cannon].
*[[Knight Templar]]: The [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vylon Vylons] are so focused on creating a world of [[Perfect Pacifist People]] that they are willing to make a [[World of Silence]] to accomplish it (although to be fair, they were under the [[The Corruption|lswarm virus]] at the time, which twisted and cranked the unified desire of their hivemind into the extremes).
*[[Kraken and Leviathan]]:
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fiend_Kraken Fiend Kraken] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Skull_Kraken Skull Kraken].
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Levia-Dragon_-_Daedalus Levia-Dragon - Daedalus] and its evolved form [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ocean_Dragon_Lord_-_Neo-Daedalus Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus]
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evigishki_Gustkraken Evigishiki Gustkraken] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Evigishki_Levianima Evigishki Levianima]. Bonus points for also being a pair in-universe.
*[[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Some cards have compulsory attack effects, the most famous probably being [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Berserk_Gorilla Berserk Gorilla].
*[[Leet Speak]]: There's a card called [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mind_Haxorz Mind Haxorz]. No, really.
*[[Lethal Joke Item]]: There's a good number of these. Some notable examples:
**The Ojamas are a bunch of weak monsters with 0 ATK and humorous artworks, but a number of their support cards allow them to turn the table on the enemy by [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Trio locking] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Knight them] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_King down], [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Delta_Hurricane!! destroying their things] and mounting a [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Country surprise] [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ojama_Emperor counterattack].
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gift_Card Gift Card] grants your opponent a whopping ''3000'' LP, but if you combo that with [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bad_Reaction_to_Simochi Bad Reaction to Simochi] or [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Darklord_Nurse_Reficule Darklord Nurse Reficule], you've just dealt a ''serious'' blow to your opponent.
**[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Grinder_Golem Grinder Golem] had proven not once, but twice that it's more than meets the eye. As context, Grinder Golem is a 3000 ATK monster that can be Special Summoned to your opponent's field. When it does, it gives you 2 Tokens with 0 ATK.
***The first of its danger combo is with [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Inferno_Tempest Inferno Tempest] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/D.D._Dynamite D.D. Dynamite]. Ramming one of the Tokens Summoned by its own effect toward Grinder Golem instantly count toward Inferno Tempest's activation requirement, enabling you to use a Spell that banishes all monsters in both player's decks and Graveyards. Then you can activate D.D. Dynamite, which damages the opponent by 300 for each of their banished cards. While the combo is very situational and unreliable (it requires 3 unsearchable cards a game state good enough for Dynamite), it can put a huge dent into your opponent on the right timing.
***The second, and more serious combo comes with the Link era. Link Summon are generally more generic than other Extra Deck Special Summon methods, and thus the two Tokens Summoned by Golem can lead to chaotic chains of Link-laddering involving [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Akashic_Magician Akashic Magician] that usually end in a board full of nasty Link Monsters, including but not limited to [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Saryuja_Skull_Dread Saryuja Skull Dread] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Firewall_Dragon Firewall Dragon]. For this very reason, Grinder Golem had been Forbidden from ''both'' the OCG and TCG tournament environments.
*[[Light Is Good]]: Most monsters of the LIGHT attribute seem to be heroic, but...
**[[Light Is Not Good]]: seems to be the theme of the Arcana Force monsters and most of the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Worm Worm] Archetype.
**The Vylons are an interesting example. In the story they teamed up with the Lavals, Gishki, Gusto, and Gem-Knights in order to beat back the Steelswarms. This ultimately leads to [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vylon_Disigma Vylon Disigma] defeating them. But as it turns out, those sets were only working together to beat the Steelswarms and prior to that were also fighting each other. The Vylons wish for a perfect existence for everyone, but they now see that's impossible. So they've decided to use Disigma to kill em all.
*[[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]]: Quite ''many'' cards are this, which kind of diminishes its value a bit; but there some among these that really are worthy of its title, examples are cards that are actually sold separately in one big deluxe package: ''Shinato of A Higher Plane'' was this at first. Other examples are Special Summons hyped in the [[Animated Adaptation]] and [[The Movie]], expect to only get them in special events or packed with another product of the franchise (usually a [[Video Game]]).
*[[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
*[[Loophole Abuse]]: Many older cards are worded in such a way to allow this as the game and its strategies have progressed and evolved in ways the card game back then couldn't have foreseen. For example, Mind Control lets you take control of an opponent's monster, but it can't attack or be Tributed. When it was first released it didn't have a lot of uses, mostly just Fusion (which was rarely used) and getting a monster out of the way. Then came Synchros and Xyz, which state their summoning methods don't actually count as Tributing...and so it was Mind Control is now Limited.
**Two old school revival cards have this. Premature Burial states that when it is destroyed, the monster it revived is destroyed. Its effect says nothing about the monster dying if the card is just removed from the field, most famously by returning it to the hand to be played again. Call of the Haunted meanwhile says that when the monster it summoned is destroyed the card itself also goes, but as with Premature Burial it doesn't go if the monster is removed from the field, leaving Call of the Haunted face-up and useless, unless you have something like Scrap Dragon. Be sure to pay attention to if a card specifically says ''removed from the field'' or ''destroyed'', it makes a huge difference.
**Specific wording means everything. Oh, you say your card has an effect that triggers when discarded? Does it say it has to specifically be from the deck or hand? Does it specify it has to be discarded ''to the graveyard''? Does it say it has to be discarded due to an opponent's card effect? Does it matter if it's discarded for a cost or by an effect?
**One of the reasons why Dandylion is so useful. It doesn't matter how it hits the grave. Sent from the hand or the deck? No problem. Here's your two fluff tokens.
*[[Luck-Based Mission]]: No matter how you build it, running an Arcana Force deck inevitably turns into this.
**Also, Lightsworns. Lightsworn cards send cards from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard, and abuse this with plenty of monsters whose effects activate in Graveyard. Of course, many key cards, including the [[Game Breaker]] Judgment Dragon need to be in the hand to use. Running Lightsworns is just hoping you get the right cards in your Graveyard and the rest in your hand. Just as Arcana Force, you can try to build them to get around this, but most of the time it's better not to.
**Tour Guide From the Underworld summons a second monster when she comes into play, with lots of limitations on what you can do with it. But, of course, it doesn't forbid you from using the monster with mechanics that were added to the game ''later'', like XYZ summons...
*[[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Millennium_Shield Millennium Shield]. Big Shield Gardna too, considering his pose.
*[[Luck Manipulation Mechanic]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Second_Coin_Toss Second Coin Toss], and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dice_Re-Roll Dice Re-Roll].
*[[Lunacy]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mystical_Moon Mystical Moon]. It powers up Beast-Warrior-type monsters.
*[[Made of Explodium]]: Scrap monsters are always either being destroyed by their own effects or the effects of their support cards. Fortunately, their secondary effects usually kick in after this, allowing you to recycle other Scrap cards.
*[[Mad Scientist]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kozaky Kozaky] and the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magical_Scientist Magical Scientist]. Some card artworks suggest that these two are actually best buds.
* [[Magical Girl]]: While Dark Magician Girl was the original example of this Trope in the game, Konami has been going a little nuts with the Trope since 2019, introducing entire archetypes of Magical Girls; notable groups include Cyber Girls, Armoages, Trapix, Charmers, Dragonmaids, Lunalights, Fairy Tails, Trickstars, Windwitches, Exorsisters, and Witchcrafters.
*[[Magical Land]]: Well, it's only advertised as a [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Magical_Citadel_of_Endymion citadel], but if you look, it houses an entire little kingdom/village inside the magical barrier.
**Arguably, the entire monster world would count, as it's the home of all sorts of fantastic creatures.
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Secret_Village_of_the_Spellcasters Secret Village Of The Spellcasters].
*[[Magic Knight]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Breaker_the_Magical_Warrior Breaker the Magical Warrior], ''[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Magician_Knight Dark Magician Knight]'' and the ''[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Paladin Dark Paladin].''
*[[Magikarp Power]]: A lot of the LV monsters are weak in their initial forms but replace themselves with much, ''much'' stronger versions. One of the biggest Magikarps in the game is Winged Kuriboh, who, on its own, simply prevents you from taking damage for a turn. There's a card that can replace it with a "Winged Kuriboh Level 10", which makes every monster your opponent has on the field explode and damage them equal to the total ATK of the monsters destroyed, usually more than enough to finish them off and win the Duel.
**There are also cards that slowly build up power over time - they gather tokens, so many turns need to pass, etc - with strong effects that trigger once they're charged up.
**As a meta example, a lot of old weak archetypes (Gravekeepers, Batterymen, Frogs) will often receive new support cards in sets released years later that suddenly make them much more viable.
**The Ojama own this trope. As if Ojama Delta Hurricane!, which obliterates your opponent's hand and field but requires the three Ojama brothers as an activation condition, weren't enough, the more recent additions to the family, Red and Blue, can mass-summon fellow Ojamas from the hand and tutor Ojama cards from the deck respectively. Last but not least, Ojama Country can summon Ojamas from the grave and flips the attack and defense of all monsters on the field. Run with Ojama King and other [[Stone Wall]] monsters and...
*[[Magma Man]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Lava_Golem Lava Golem]
*[[Man-Eating Plant]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Man-Eating_Plant Literally], but note that it is considerably less frightening than your usual [[Man-Eating Plant]] because it only has 800 attack points; on the other hand, we have [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gigaplant the Gigaplant].
*[[Married to the Job]]: Poor poor [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kozaky Kozaky]...
*[[Mask of Power]]: Not too many, but enough to count as [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Masks an archetype].
*[[Matryoshka Object|Matryoshka Card]]: Tomato Matryoshka allows you to summon another Tomato Matryoshka from your hand or deck when it's Normal Summoned.
*[[Meaningful Name]]: Earthbound Immortals. Yeah, they're really '''Earth'''bound (as in bound to the ''Field'' Spell!).
*[[Mechanical Evolution]]: Machine King. Its youngest form is labeled as being from the year ''3000 BC!'' Interestingly, the chronologically earlier forms seem to have been created as an afterthought.
*[[Mechanical Monster]]: Many machines resemble living creatures, like the Cyber Dragon line. On the flip side of things are the Scrap monsters, which clearly ''look'' mechanical but technically count as just about everything except machines--insects, beasts, dragons and so on.
*[[Metagame]]: Try to run a deck ''without'' cards like ''Heavy Storm'', ''Lightning Vortex'', or defensive traps such as ''Scrap-Iron Scarecrow'' and ''Mirror Force'' and count the time until someone says you ''can't'' run a deck without them.
**The Forbidden/Limited lists that change every 6 months tend to both reflect and change the Metagame.
*[[Metaplot]]: There was an attempt to have one for a while, based on the artwork of the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gagagigo_(series) Gagagigo], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Inpachi Inpachi], Goblin cards, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Trivia:Royal_Writ_of_Taxation Royal] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Royal_Cards Cards], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Different_Dimension Different] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Trivia:Warrior_Lady_of_the_Wasteland Dimension] cards, as well as various monsters appearing in the art of other cards. The lack of flavor text on most cards meant that any story that might have been present was completely lost. More recent cards still reference each other in the artwork, but there doesn't seem to be any attempt to build a coherent plot. A fair chunk of [[Fanfic]] is devoted to spinning a coherent story out of the various references.
**The new Duel Terminal arcade game's card archetypes seem to have this going for them, as evidenced by a few cards both within [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ally_Mind the] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ally_of_Justice_Clausolas Duel] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mist_Valley_Thunder_Lord Terminal] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Battle_of_the_Elements outside] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Worm_Call it]. <ref>That stuff Mist Valley Thunder Lord is holding? They're the broken pieces of a [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ally_of_Justice_Catastor Catastor].</ref>
**World Chalice and its related archetypes form a very long and very complex story. How long and complex? The very short and abridged version takes six minutes to explain, the full version can take an ''hour''.
*[[Meteor of Doom|Meteor Of]] <s>Doom</s> [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Meteor_of_Destruction Destruction]
*[[Mighty Glacier]]: Some decks require a lot of set-up before you can bring out the big offensive guns. One example is the Destiny HEROs, who are almost all defensive monsters that help the player increase their hand and field presence. This is because their two trump card monsters, Plasma and Dogma, require three Tributes to summon (but are so powerful they can really hamstring the opponent once finally out).
*[[Mind Control]]: One of the main features of the Aliens is infecting opposing cards with A-counters (called "A-cells" in lore) which they can then take control of. Mind control effects are often limited in some way, so if you can avoid destroying your stolen monsters, [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight|they might come back to you]].
**There is [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Brain_Control Brain Control] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mind_Control Mind Control].
***There was also once [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Change_of_Heart Change of Heart], but it's now forbidden.
*[[Monster Clown]]: A literal example! Mystic Clown... Dream Clown... Crass Clown... Saggi The Dark Clown... as you might have guessed none of these guys are very pleasent. Luckily, most clown cards are fairly weak or have no effects. Most.
*[[Mook Maker]]: Anything that generates Tokens regularly, like "Goka, the Pyre of Malice".
*[[Mushroom Man]]: There are cards specifically named Mushroom Man #1 and #2.
*[[Mutual Kill]]: Both monsters are destroyed when they have the same ATK and attack each other.
*[[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]: A number of the new Psychic types from Extreme Victory practically exist to be sent to the graveyard. (Namely [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Serene_Psychic_Witch Serene Psychic Witch], [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Silent_Psychic_Wizard Silent Psychic Wizard], and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hushed_Psychic_Cleric Hushed Psychic Cleric]. [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Overmind_Archfiend Overmind Archfiend] also has this going for it, although it's powerful in it's own right.
*[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: There's a list on the Trivia page.
*[[Negate Your Own Sacrifice]]: The popular Stardust Dragon can sacrifice itself to prevent some other card on the field from being destroyed, but it can also bring itself back every turn it does this.
*[[Nerf|Nerfed]]: A really big Nerf occurred when Synchro monsters were introduced. The "Fusion Deck" became the "Extra Deck," and instead of having an unlimited number of Fusion monsters in it (barring the "no more than three with the same name" rule) players were now limited to 15 cards (Synchro or Fusion monsters). This is because Synchro monsters are generally unspecific as to how they can be summoned and it would be too game-breaking to allow an unlimited number of them in there, but this was a ''major'' blow to Elemental HERO decks (and only HERO decks), since there are way more than 15 different possible Elemental HERO fusion combinations. 
**Since they can't re-write the rules as written on a card once it's been issued, sometimes Konami will limit how many of certain powerful cards you're allowed to have in your deck, sometimes just 2, 1, or none at all. These "limited/forbidden" lists change every six months as new cards are introduced that change the balance of the game.
**Erratas have actually been issued for some particularly notorious cards. Most of these are wording reworks with no rules impact or corrections to errors in translation, as Konami prefers to print worse versions as separate cards, but some cards that are otherwise ''so'' broken they would eternally be banned have had their effects changed. Of particular note is [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Chaos_Emperor_Dragon_-_Envoy_of_the_End Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End] and [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Makyura_the_Destructor Makyura the Destructor] being two notable ones that would have never left the ban list without it.
*[[Never Say "Die"]]: Any monster with the word "Death" in its name has it changed to "Des" as a deliberate transliteration, hence "Death Frog" is "Des Frog" (and "Death Koala" is "Des Koala").
*[[New Season, New Name]]: After [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|''5D's'']] cards began appearing in the game, "5D's" was added to the name of the game in the box logo and in some other places. The same for [[Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal|''Zexal'']] and ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V|ARC-V]]''. Since the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS|VRAINS]]'' era however, the branding returned to the general ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' logo, with only products directly relating to the appropriate anime getting said anime's respective logo.
*[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Quite a few cards can be used to Special Summon a more powerful monster upon the death of the first. For example, Rise of the Snake Deity can be used upon the death of Vennominon, the King of Snakes to summon Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes which gets 500 ATK for each Reptile in the graveyard, can't be the target of abilities, can come back from the dead with the sacrifice of a Reptile from the graveyard and causes an instant victory in 3 attacks.
**Yubel is probably the best example: If you attack it, then ''you'' take damage instead and Yubel itself survives. If you destroy it, then it becomes stronger. The only way to destroy it is... [[Sheathe Your Sword|waiting]]: Yubel needs a sacrifice each turn to stay alive, and being destroyed this way won't bring up its stronger forms. Unless, of course, your opponent abuses the many reusable Tribute fodders in the game; then you're screwed.
**The [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Meklord Meklord] archetype is considered this if you are playing a synchro deck.
**Also, Berserk Dragon can only be summoned by a spell card that can only be used if one of your Level 8+ monsters is destroyed.
*[[Ninja]]: A whole lot of them, in fact. A trio of them even serve as a [[Shout-Out]] to Konami's popular video game series ''Ganbare Goemon''
**In Recent Packs, Ebisu has been added as "Masked Ninja Ebisu", which means you can now have the Main 4 characters from ''Ganbare Goemon''
*[[Non-Human Undead]]: Quite a few, including the recent variants of legacy cards (i. e. Summoned Skull -> Archfiend Zombie Skull, Red Eyes Black Dragon -> Red Eyes Zombie Dragon, etc.).
*[[Not Quite Dead]]: Numerous cards allow other cards to return from the Graveyard (either to the field or the player's hand), though not so much that [[Death Is Cheap]]. In fact most Zombie monsters have effects like this.
*[[Nothing Is Scarier]]: [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Thing_in_the_Crater The Thing in the Crater] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dweller_in_the_Depths Dweller in the Depths].
**[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Shiny_Black_%22C%22 Shiny Black "C"] and [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Maxx_%22C%22 Maxx "C"].
*[[Not the Intended Use]]: A number of instances. For example, Barrel Behind the Door was initially meant to bounce back damage done to you by effects. It works just as well bouncing non-cost damage from your cards to your opponent.
**One of the most interesting examples is [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/G.B._Hunter G.B. Hunter]. As the name says, it was designed to defeat Gladiator Beasts, which return to the Deck to activate their effects. Turns out, she's great at preventing ''your'' monsters from returning to the Deck ''or'' Extra Deck. Monsters like, say, the [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Majestic_Star_Dragon Majestic] [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Majestic_Red_Dragon Synchros], any Elemental Hero Fusion Monster with Neos in its name, or, ironically, [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gladiator_Beast_Octavius Gladiator Beast Octavius].
*[[Nuke'Em]]: Shown in the artwork of [http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Final_Destiny Final Destiny.] Not to mention it is one of the very few cards that lets you wipe out the whole field.
*[[Numerical Theme Naming]]: The Karakuri archetype. In Japan, their names are actually numbers: "Karakuri Soldier Nisamu," for example, is written with the kanji 弐参六 (236). In the US, the dual nature of their names is retained by translating the kanji as both a ''model'' number and the actual reading thereof (or a variation); e.g. "Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 'Nisamu'".

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Split Trope Lists]]