Subject: Duel Monsters: Anime Rules--The Mighty Mollusk

Hello once again. Just when you'd thought I was gone,
The Mighty Mollusk returns. I still have to update the
Deck Archetypes article, but first, something a bit
more creative.
Now, a lot of people probably don't really care, but
some people like to play by the show's rules. It's
faster and usually easier, especially for fans of big
monsters (BEWD, Dark Magician, etc). But a lot of
debates arise from this, because there's no set of
official anime rules. So, here's my shot at making
some. Enjoy.

General Rules:

Each Player begins with 2000 life points.

All restrictions remain the same (1 Raigeki, 1 Monster
Reborn, etc.).

You may choose to skip your turn if you wish. If you
do so, you still draw a card, but nothing more.

The following cards may NOT be used: Direct Damage
(Tremendous Fire, Ookazi, etc.), Princess of Tsurugi,
Just Desserts, and Soul Exchange.

If near an obvious type of field (a lake, an open
field, etc), imagine that that's the playing field
(unless a field magic card is in play).

Monster Rules:

Monsters may be summoned in face-up defense mode.

Flip Effects are optional.

No monster may attack lifepoints directly, unless it's
part of an effect (Jinzo #7, Queen's Double, etc).

If multiple monsters are on the field, the last one
summoned must attack first.

No tributes are required for level 5 and higher
summons.

Any fusion monster with an attack of 2000 or less
(except for Thousand-Eyes Restrict) may be included in
the main deck. All others must be summoned via
Polymerization.

All monsters with special summoning requirements (Gate Guardian, 
Harpie Lady Sisters, rituals, etc) must still be summoned via their 
requirement. These monsters may be set aside from the main deck and 
played when the requirement is fulfilled.

The effect of the Gate Guardian peices is to be used
as a Waboku effect, but can be used once each turn. GG
retains this effect.

Toons may NOT attack directly. They also do not
require a lifepoint payment to attack. However, for
the sake of fairness, they CAN still be attacked by
normal monsters, and they ARE all still destroyed if
Toon World leaves play.

If all five peices of Exodia are in hand, you may play
it as a monster. It will fill all five monster zones,
attacks all of your opponent's monsters at once, and
has stats of 12,000/10,000, as per the first episode
of the show. You may also simply declare the automatic
victory (since, realistically, it amounts to the same
thing). If played as a monster, destroying one peice
of Exodia will destroy them all.

Magic/Trap Rules:

Any cards with lifepoint payment requirements (Mirror
Wall, Messenger of Peace, etc) lose the requirement.
However, Solemn Judgement is excluded from this,
you'll still have to pay half of your life points to
activate it.

If Swords of Revealing Light is in play, monsters
summoned afterwards are excluded from its effects.

Toon World does not require a lifepoint payment to
activate.



There's still quite a few wrinkles to work out of
this.....for one thing, monsters that have different
effects in the show, like Jirai Gumo. Anyone with any suggestions, 
drop me a line. Be sure to include some kind of obvious term related 
to YuGiOh, or I might mistake it for junk mail. And please, no cursing, 
that just makes my finger twitch to the Delete button without even reading 
it.

Coming Soon from The Mighty Mollusk: An updated Deck
Archetype article. Also considering writing up a set
of rules for multiplayer YuGiOh (as in, more than two players--for 
players of Magic: The Gathering, think chaos games).

As always: Good Luck, Happy Dueling, and May the Heart
of the Cards Be With You. (Or for Barrel Dragon and
Time Wizard fans, the Heart of the Coins.)

The Mighty Mollusk
themightymollusk@yahoo.com