Images courtesy of KONAMI
One of the most daunting hurdles facing any new Yu-Gi-Oh! player is learning about all of the different ways of Summoning monsters. From Synchro Summoning to XYZ Summoning, there are a multitude of different ways to get monsters into play. This handy guide will outline all of the different Summoning methods in the game, and explain how they all work.
Normal Summoning
Normal Summoning a monster card means playing it from your hand into one of your five main monster zones. A Normal Summoned monster enters the field in face-up Attack Position. You can only Normal Summon a single monster card on your turn during either of your main phases.
Any Monster from level one to four can be Normal Summoned, unless its effect prevents this, like Rare Metal Dragon. Some cards, like Double Summon, grant you additional Normal Summons. You can’t Normal Summon monsters in face-up Defense Position, even though characters in the anime do this all the time.
Setting and Flip Summoning
Setting a monster means placing it on the field face-down in Defense Position; this uses up your Normal Summon for the turn. You can Flip Summon a monster by turning it from face-down Defense Position into face-up Attack Position. Flip Summoning a monster does not use up your Normal Summon for the turn, but you can’t do it on the same turn that you first Set a card.
Some monsters have Flip Effects, which are activated when they’re flipped face-up. Typically, a monster is flipped face-up either by you Flip Summoning it or when an opponent’s monster attacks it. Flip Effects are activated even when the monster with the effect is destroyed in battle. For example, a Man-Eater Bug will still take out an opponent’s monster even when it gets destroyed.
Tribute Summoning
A Tribute Summon is a form of Normal Summon. Tribute Summoning requires some monsters on your field to be “tributed.” This means that they’re sent to the graveyard as part of the conditions for the summon to occur. A monster that’s level five or six requires a single monster to be tributed to be played, while a monster that’s level seven or higher requires two tributes.
A Tribute Summoned monster can be played in face-up Attack Position or set in face-down Defense Position. Tribute Summoning uses up your Normal Summon for the turn.
Special Summoning
Special Summoning is an umbrella term that covers many different forms of summoning that don’t use up your Normal Summon for the turn. All of the summoning methods listed below are different forms of Special Summoning.
Cards can also be Special Summoned either through their own effect or the effect of another card. For example, playing Monster Reborn or Call of the Haunted will Special Summon a monster from the graveyard. Spirit of Flames Special Summons itself into play by banishing a FIRE monster from your graveyard, and Marauding Captain Special Summons a level four or lower monster when it’s Normal Summoned.
Ritual Summoning
Ritual Monsters have light blue frames and are included in your Main Deck. All Ritual Monsters are Special Summoned using Ritual Spell Cards, and you need to send monsters to the graveyard with a level equal to, or higher than, the Ritual Monster’s level. For example, in order to Ritual Summon Dokurorider, you must first cast Revival of Dokurorider, during your Main Phase, and then send monsters from your hand and/or field with a total level equal to or greater than six to the graveyard.
The first Ritual Monsters in the game could only be summoned using their own specific Ritual Spells, and only by sending monsters from the field or hand to the graveyard. Over time, Ritual Summoning became increasingly easy to perform. In 2007, the card Advanced Ritual Art was printed. This card enabled monsters to be Ritual Summoned by sending monsters from the deck to the graveyard, rather than needing the offerings to come from the hand or the field.
Contemporary Ritual Spell Cards like Mitsurugi Ritual are very versatile. Mitsurugi Ritual can Ritual Summon any Reptile Ritual Monster, although you’ll probably want to use it to summon Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi or Futsu no Mitama no Mitsurugi rather than Javelin Beetle. You don’t even need the Ritual Monster that you want to summon in your hand to use Mitsurugi Ritual. The card can Ritual Summon a Reptile Ritual monster from the deck, in which case monsters from the controller’s hand and field need to be used as offerings. Mitsurugi Ritual can also Ritual Summon a Reptile Ritual Monster from the hand by using monsters from the hand, field, and deck as offerings.
Fusion Summoning
Fusion Monsters are indicated by their purple frames. They aren’t included in your Main Deck; instead, they’re set aside as a part of your Extra Deck. Your Extra Deck is a face-down pile of up to 15 cards containing all of your Extra Deck monsters. Fusion Monsters are Special Summoned from the Extra Deck during the Main Phase by combining other Monsters that are used as Fusion Materials.
There are a few different ways to Fusion Summon cards. The most common is by using the card Polymerization. Polymerization allows you to use cards on your field and in your hand as Fusion Materials to summon a Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck. For example, you can Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Flame Wingman by casting Polymerization and then sending an Elemental HERO Avian and an Elemental HERO Burstinatrix from your hand or field to the graveyard.
Some archetypes have their own unique fusion spells. Gem-Knight Fusion can only be used to Fusion Summon Gem-Knight cards, but in return, it can be brought back to the hand from the graveyard by banishing a Gem-Knight from the graveyard.
Some Fusion Monsters don’t require a fusion spell to be summoned. The Gladiator Beast archetype provides plenty of examples of this. Their boss monster Gladiator Beast Beast Claudius can be Fusion Summoned, through its own effect, by shuffling five Gladiator Beast monsters from your field and/or your graveyard into your deck. There is no need to cast Polymerization.
Synchro Summoning
Synchro Monsters have a white frame, and they’re Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. To Synchro Summon a monster, you need to send a Tuner Monster plus one or more non-Tuner Monsters from your field to the graveyard. These monsters must have a combined level equal to the level of the monster that you want to Synchro Summon.
Tuner Monsters are indicated by having the word “Tuner” in their text box following their card type. Tune Warrior is an example of a Tuner. The phrase “Tuner” in its text box is the only thing indicating its role. To Synchro Summon Goyo Guardian, a level six Synchro Monster, you could use Tune Warrior alongside any level three non-Tuner Monster. Using Tune Warrior and Jerry Beans Man would do the trick. You could also use a level one and level two monster, alongside Tune Warrior, since that would also equal level six.
Some Synchro Monsters have additional requirements that need to be met in order to Synchro Summon them. For example, Revived King Ha Des requires a specific Tuner Monster, Plaguespreader Zombie, to be used.
XYZ Summoning
XYZ summoning (pronounced Ek-Seize) is another way of summoning monsters from the Extra Deck. All XYZ monsters have black frames and black “rank stars” rather than having a level. To XYZ summon a card, you must “overlay” several faceup monsters of the same level on your side of the field during your Main Phase. The number of monsters that you need to overlay, and their level, is specified by the card you’ll be XYZ summoning. For example, in order to XYZ summon King of the Feral Imps you need to overlay two level four monsters.
Overlaying a card means stacking it on top of another card. When you XYZ summon a monster, the monsters that were used to summon it are stacked together underneath it. These overlayed cards become XYZ materials and can be detached and sent to the graveyard to provide beneficial effects. For example, you can detach an XYZ material from Thunder End Dragon once per turn to destroy every other monster on the field.
XYZ monsters have a rank, indicated by the number of black star icons they have, rather than a level. This means that they’re unaffected by cards like Gravity Bind and Level Limit – Area B. The level of the monsters that must be overlayed to conduct an XYZ equals the rank of the XYZ Monster. For example, Baby Tiragon is a rank one XYZ monster, so you need to overlay level one monsters in order to XYZ Summon it.
Pendulum Summoning
Pendulum Monsters may have the strangest frames in the game. The top half of a Pendulum Monster will be one color, depending on what sort of monster it is, while the bottom half is pale green like a spell card.
The first noticeable thing about Pendulum Monsters is their additional text box, which is surrounded by red and blue numbers. These numbers are their value when they set the “Pendulum Scale.” A Pendulum Monster can be Summoned like a regular monster, or put from your hand into one of your two Pendulum Zones (the left and right most of your Spell/Trap zones). The effect of the top text box of these cards is active while they are in the Pendulum Zone. For example, Dragoncaller Magician allows you to target a face-up monster, and treat it as though it’s a Dragon until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
When you have a Pendulum Monster in each of your Pendulum Zones, the scale is set. This enables you to Special Summon any number of monsters with levels between their two values from your hand. For example, if you have Stargazer Magician (who has a value of one) and Timegazer Magician (value of eight) then you can Special Summon monsters between level two and level seven from your hand. You can do this once per turn, during either of your Main Phases.
Pendulum Monsters go either into your Extra Deck, or into your Main Deck, depending on what sort of monster they are. As a Normal Pendulum Monster, Flash Knight will get shuffled into your Main Deck. Meanwhile, the XYZ Pendulum Monster Dark Anthelion Dragon will begin the game in your Extra Deck.
When a Pendulum Monster is destroyed, whether it’s a monster in play or setting the scale in one of your two Pendulum Zones, it goes face up into your Extra Deck. Face-up Pendulum Monsters in the extra deck are summoned alongside monsters from the hand when future Pendulum Summons occur. As usual, their level must still be between the values of the two cards in your Pendulum Zones. When summoned this way, they must go into an Extra Monster Zone. They can also go into a Main Monster Zone which a Link Monster is pointing to. Speaking of Link Monsters…
Link Summoning
Link Summoning is the final summoning method currently in the game. All Link Monsters have a blue frame with a honeycomb pattern, and they begin the game in your Extra Deck. Link Monsters can be Link Summoned during their controller’s Main Phase. To Link Summon a card, you need to send “Link Materials” to your graveyard. These Link Materials should be a number of monsters from your side of the field equal to the Link Rating (displayed in the bottom right hand corner) of the card that you wish to summon.
Link Monsters may be counted as multiple Link Materials if they’re used to Link Summon another monster. If you’re attempting to Link Summon the Link-3 Decode Talker, then you can either use three Monsters of any kind as your Link Materials, or the Link-2 Proxy Dragon plus one additional monster.
Link Monsters all have arrows, which point to other Monster Zones surrounding them. The first Link Monster that you summon must be summoned into either of the two Extra Monster Zones. Future Link Monsters can be summoned into any of your zones which a Link Monster points to.
The arrows on Link Monsters also provide additional effects. Honeybot makes the monsters that it points to unable to be targeted by card effects or destroyed by battle.
Final Thoughts on Summoning Methods in Yu-Gi-Oh!
So there you have it, an explanation for every summoning method in the game so far. Many of these different summoning methods are tied to a particular series of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Synchro Summoning debuted in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DS in 2008, and this started a trend where every new series introduced a new summoning method. This lasted for 11 years, concluding with Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, the Link Summoning show, which aired its final episode in 2019. After this, the anime switched emphasis to becoming about Rush Duels, a different way of playing Yu-Gi-Oh! that uses different cards.
This may mean that we won’t see any new summoning methods, or at the very least we won’t see another new one any time soon. There’s already plenty to learn though, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
If you’re looking for more Yu-Gi-Oh! content, Card Gamer has plenty to choose from. For new players, we’ve got a guide explaining the rules, and a primer outlining how Yu-Gi-Oh! has changed over the years.
