Phase Structure

You move through the phases of your turn in the order shown below. You can only do certain things during each phase.

This is the first phase. The player whose turn it is (the "turn player") draws 1 card from the top of the Deck. A player with no cards left in their Deck and unable to draw loses the Duel. After you draw, Trap Cards or Quick-Play Magic Cards can be activated before proceeding to the Standby Phase.

Main Action in this phase: Draw 1 card.
Possible Other Actions: Activate Trap Cards, Quick-Play Magic Cards, etc.

If a card says to do certain things in the Standby Phase, do them now.

Main Action in this phase: Resolve cards effects that happen in this phase.
Possible Other Actions: Activate Trap Cards, Quick-Play Magic Cards, etc.

This is when you play most of your cards: you can Normal Summon, Set, or change the battle position of a monster, activate a card's effect, and Set Magic and Trap Cards. These actions can be done in any order you want, but some actions have restrictions.

There is no limit to the number of times you can Flip Summon or Special Summon during a turn, but you can only Normal Summon or Set a monster (including a Tribute Summon) once per turn (including during your Main Phase 2).

If you Quick Summon a monster during a player's turn, the turn player cannot Normal Summon or Set a monster later in the turn.

This includes Flip Summoning a monster, or changing the position of a face-up monster to face-up Attack or Defense Position. You can do this manually once per turn for each monster on the field. However, you cannot manually change the battle position of a monster that was placed onto the field this turn by the turn player. Also, even if you have not changed a monster's battle position this turn, you cannot change it in Main Phase 2 if the monster attacked during the Battle Phase.

You can activate Magic Cards and Trap Cards, or the effects of Magic, Trap, or Effect Monster Cards as many times as you want during this phase, as long as you keep paying any costs involved.

You can Set Magic & Trap Cards during this phase. You can have up to 5 Magic & Trap Cards on the field at a time, including both Set cards and already active cards (but not including the Field Card Zone).

Now it's time to battle with your Monster Cards! You do not have to conduct a Battle Phase every turn. Even if you have a monster of the field, you can choose whether to enter the Battle Phase, or to proceed to the End Phase, depending on your situation.

If you conducted your Battle Phase, your turn moves to Main Phase 2 afterwards. The actions a player can perform in this phase are the same as in Main Phase 1. However, if the player already did something in Main Phase 1 that has a limit to the number of times it can be done, the number of times it was done in Main Phase 1 still counts towards the limit in Main Phase 2. You can activate and Set Magic & Trap Cards, or Summon or Set a monster (if you didn't do that in Main Phase 1) based on your situation after the Battle Phase. Use this phase to prepare for the opponent's turn.

Possible actions in this phase:

• Summon or Set a Monster.
• Change your Monsters' Battle Positions.
• Activate a Card or Effect.
• Set Magic Cards & Trap Cards.

Announce the end of your turn, and if there are any cards which say "... during the End Phase..." in their text, resolve those effects in this phase. If you have more than 6 cards in your hand at the end of this phase, select and discard cards to the Graveyard until you only have 6 cards in your hand.

Actions in this phase: Resolve card effects which activate in this phase, discard if you have more than 6 cards in your hand.
Possible other actions in this phase: Activate Trap Cards and Quick-play Magic Cards.