Introducing Pendulum Monsters!
From the very first episode of the classic TV series when Yugi drew the final piece of Exodia, the Forbidden One and annihilated Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes White Dragons, epic come-from-behind victories have been a permanent fixture of Yu-Gi-Oh! In fact, from Yugi, to Jaden, to Yusei, to Yuma, the coolest moments for every protagonist in every Yu-Gi-Oh! animated series have been their greatest comebacks.
The same goes for real life Duels as well. Our best memories of Dueling aren’t the times when we’ve completely overwhelmed and crushed our opponents. It’s the Duels that swing back and a forth over and over and only end when we, backed into a corner, turn things around with an incredible draw or brilliant combo to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat! And starting this Friday, July 11th, we’re introducing a new kind of card that takes all these things that you love about Dueling and gives them physical form!
They’re called Pendulum Monster Cards, and they make all the monsters you currently play with even better than they already are! So what exactly are Pendulum Monster Cards, and what can they do for you? Read on to find out!
Pendulum Monsters Adapt to Your Needs
The first thing you’ll notice is that Pendulum Monster Cards have the card frame of both a Monster Card and a Spell Card. That’s because they can be played as either a Monster Card or a Spell Card depending on what you need at the moment! They also have a pair of text boxes as well, the regular one that tells you what the monster does when it’s a monster, and another one above it that tells you what it does when it’s a Spell Card.
That’s super useful because as a Duel goes on and on, you might find yourself in need of more monsters, or you might find that you need a good Spell to turn the tides. While you’d normally need to play 2 different cards in your Deck to fill these needs and then draw the right card at the right time, 1 Pendulum Monster Card can serve both purposes and leave you more room in your Deck to play more of your favorite cards! Playing Pendulum Monster Cards as Pendulum Spells doesn’t even take up Spell & Trap Card Zones, so you can still use all your favorite Spells and Traps without worrying about running out of Zones. What’s even better, is that playing a Pendulum Spell isn’t a one-shot ability like Normal Spell Cards – they stay on the field as Spell Cards and their effects continue to apply as long as they’re on the field!
You might be wondering how Pendulum Spells can both stay on the field AND not use any Spell & Trap Card Zones. The answer is right here!
As you can see, there are now 2 new Zones on the field called Pendulum Zones! This is where you play your Pendulum Monster Cards as Spell Cards, and where they’ll remain unless another card effect removes them, which brings us to…
Pendulum Monster Cards Can’t Be Completely Destroyed
Whenever a Pendulum Monster in one of your Monster Card Zones, or a Pendulum Spell Card in one of your Pendulum Zones would be sent to the Graveyard, no matter what the reason, it’s placed face-up in your Extra Deck instead of in the Graveyard. Whether your Pendulum Monsters and Spells on the field are destroyed, Tributed, used as Fusion or Synchro Material, or just about anything else you can think of, they’ll go to your Extra Deck instead of your Graveyard, no matter how many cards you currently have in your Extra Deck!
Your Extra Deck then becomes a staging area for the triumphant return of all your fallen Pendulum Monster Cards in your time of greatest need, and you can Summon them all back to the field because…
Pendulum Monster Cards Let You Perform the Mighty Pendulum Summon!
Pendulum Summoning is a new ability you can use once per turn during one of your Main Phases. When you Pendulum Summon, you can Special Summon as many monsters as you want from your hand, and as many Pendulum Monster Cards as you want from your Extra Deck provided the following two things are true:
- You have a card in each of your Pendulum Zones.
- The Levels of the monsters you want to Summon are in between the Pendulum Scales of the cards in your Pendulum Zones.
The Pendulum Scale of a Pendulum Monster is the number beneath the blue and red arrows. When you Pendulum Summon, the Levels of the monsters you Summon need to fall in between those two Pendulum Scales. So say you have these two Pendulum Monsters in your Pendulum Zones…
…then you can Pendulum Summon monsters that are Level 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 from your hand or that are face-up in your Extra Deck! Pendulum Summoning gives you the ability to instantly turn a Duel in your favor, though playing that many monsters at once can be quite risky too! Of course, you can mitigate some of the risk of Pendulum Summoning by playing with more Pendulum Monsters – if you Summon a lot of Pendulum Monsters, then even if they’re all destroyed by something like Torrential Tribute you’ll be able to try again next turn by Pendulum Summoning them from your Extra Deck. As long as you can keep cards in your Pendulum Zones, you’ll never be completely out of a Duel, and they can even help you to Summon your best monsters! You can find a video tutorial of Pendulum Summoning here.
Timegazer Magician and Stargazer Magician are just the first two of many Pendulum Monster Cards to come, and you can find them in Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown starting this Friday, July 11th. Think of them as an advance guard. The first full wave of Pendulum Monster Cards will arrive in Duelist Alliance on August 15th and will include 6 new Pendulum Monsters. The 5th generation of Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters is here!