Random Topic Generator: How Link Summoning Changes the Game of Yu-Gi-Oh

Although some of you may not be into the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game, I feel as if this is a topic I need to get off my chest. I would like to take a moment to discuss the new Link Monsters, the new rules, and what it means to the overall game as a whole.

To keep things fresh, Konami, about two years ago, introduced Pendulums. A Monster-Spell hybrid, with Pendulum Scales on either side of the card, indicating what cards can be special summoned, either from your hand, or your Extra Deck, or from both places depending on what stage of the duel you’re currently in is at. By being hybrids, they came with two effects instead of the usual one. One spell effect, and one monster effect.

Pendulum monsters differed from the previous two additions, The Synchros and the XYZs, in that they weren’t Extra Deck monsters, but instead were monsters that went into your main deck. When a Pendulum monster is destroyed by battle or card effect – except under specific conditions or if it was sent to the graveyard from your hand – they wouldn’t go to the graveyard, but reside in the Extra Deck, face-up, until when Pendulum Summoned once more. They also differed from how they changed the game board slightly. Pendulum Zones were added, which are an extra Spell card zone, to put your Pendulum monsters. When a pendulum monster card is sitting in the Pendulum Zone, it’s pendulum effect is used, and when the card is sitting in the Monster Zone, the monster effect is used. If you have two monsters in both of your Pendulum Zones, and on one card, its scales read as 1, and on the other card its scales read as 8, you are able to Special Summon as many monsters as you can either from your hand or your Extra Deck whose levels fall between 1 and 8.

As soon as the Pendulum Monster cards were released, it was immediately apparent that you could swarm the field with them, and essentially giving your opponent an unfair disadvantage because they now have to try and defeat five monsters right from their first turn, and if they cannot set up a solid defence or offence, then the game goes to the one who was able to swarm the field on their first turn. Not every duel happened like that, but it had become common knowledge that Pendulums were incredibly powerful, sometimes too powerful if you’re able to pull off the right combination of cards.

When Syncrhos were first announced, it also introduced Tuners as they would be used as materials for Synchros. In order to Special Summon a Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck, you needed one non-tuner monster, and one Tuner monster, meaning you needed to populate your deck with Tuners, which also meant some very specific decks. The specificity of Tuners was no different to needing fusion materials for a Fusion Monster. Syncrhos worked well. It changed the game slightly, kept things fresh, but didn’t completely overhaul the game as much as XYZs and Pendulums would.

XYZs have, essentially, made Syncrhos redundant due to their simplistic nature when summoning. All you needed was two monsters or more monsters with the same level as the corresponding XYZ Monster, you overlay the two or more monsters, and then you can Special Summon the XYZ Monster. The overlaid monsters became XYZ Materials, which can be disconnected from the XYZ Monster to activate said monster’s effect. They also changed the game by introducing Ranks, making any effect targeting levels ineffective. They were also powerful. There are a number of unwritten rules regarding the strength of a card in relation to its level, and it appeared that there were many new unwritten rules along with the introduction of Ranks. With how easy it can be to Special Summon and XYZ Monster, given the right combination of cards, you could flood the field with three to four monsters in any given turn.

Synchros are used often, but now we have XYZ and Pendulums, it is rare you see someone with them in their Extra Deck. Nearly everyone now uses XYZ and Pendulums, because they are so easy to use and doesn’t always require specific cards. This is why Fusions are not used as often either. XYZs’ power was strong, but was swamped by that of Pendulums. With the ability to Special Summon as many monsters as you can during any one of your turns being a rule since the beginning of the game, and with so many cards allowing you to Special Summon with ease, the game has gotten rather imbalanced. It follows a predictable formula: People need to Special Summon nearly all their monsters to keep up with their opponents, and if you’re unable to pull off a very specific combination of cards, you will lose the duel, instead of having that chance of making a comeback with your next draw.

If someone plays Pendulums, there’s a high chance that you will lose, because of the two effects on one card, and the way they bounce between each other, constantly powering each other up until your Life Points inevitably hit 0. The game of Yu-Gi-Oh slowly became criticised because the steep incline of the overuse of Pendulums.

This is where Link Monsters come in. The game has changed even more drastically than before, with the introduction of two new Zones, and the moving around of the Pendulum Zones. The latter will be integrated into the Spell/Trap Card Zone, instead of being on the side, and the two new Zones will be the Extra Monster Zone. There will be two, and they will be sitting in the middle of the board. Any Extra Deck Monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck must be placed in the Extra Monster Zone, instead of the Monster Zone which has been redubbed as the Main Monster Zone.

With there being two Extra Monster Zones only, you and your opponent gets to choose one each, which means you only get to Special Summon only one Extra Deck Monster at any one time, unless you have a Link Monster in there, enabling you to Special Summon as many Syncrhos, XYZs, and Pendulums as you can. This also means, if you have no Link Monsters on the field, but you wish to Special Summon a Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck, you can only Summon one at any one time, instead of as many as you can. This trims down Pendulum’s power considerably. Also, with your two Pendulum Zones now a part of your Spell/Trap Card Zones, if you wish to place a Pendulum Monster in those zones, you only have access to three Spell/Trap Card Zones to use at your disposal. If there are no Pendulum Monsters in those zones, you are free to use those zones as a Spell/Trap Card Zone.

Whilst there have been a couple of rules released since the announcement of Link Monsters, it’s still unclear just how they work officially, until the rulebook has been updated to accommodate them. The introduction of Link Monsters has been met with strong mixed reviews. Some complain that the Pendulum Zones being moved damages the board too much, and with only being able to Summon one monster at any one time, Pendulum Summoning from the Extra Deck almost becomes redundant.

I am in favour of this change. I do believe that Pendulums have become too powerful, and need to be limited in some way. However, they won’t be made redundant as much as Synchros have been with XYZs. You can Pendulum summon as many monsters as you can from your hand, so if you have five Pendulum monsters in your hand, you can summon them all. Not only that, but you can also Pendulum summon non-pendulum monsters from your hand as well, because they both have levels, instead of Ranks or Links. If you have three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in your hand, and your pendulum scales are from 1 to 9, you can automatically special summon all three from your hand. Then you can activate Polymerization to fusion summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon from your Extra Deck, to your Extra Monster Zone. You may only have one monster on the field, but it’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, so… you’ll be fine?

This change takes away the simplistic nature the game has become and brings back the strategizing, the careful planning and setting up of your most powerful monsters. It’s probably true that Konami is using Link Monsters as a way to relinquish themselves from any mistakes made with Pendulums, but I’m OK with that.

Not only are Link Monsters bringing back the game part of Yu-Gi-Oh, they also bring a unique set of rules themselves, especially with the elimination of Def points, to be replaced with Links. The higher the number on the card, the more monsters you need to use in order to Link together to special summon the monster from the Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone. I believe this move will create plenty more interesting duels instead of predictable and overpowered ones. I believe this change will bring back those intense duels we used to have when your opponent brings out their most powerful monster. I also believe this change will bring some much needed balance to the game as a whole.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)