Tribute
Tribute, known as Release and formerly Sacrifice in the OCG and Sacrifice in the anime, is usually a way of voluntarily sending a card from your side of the field to the Graveyard, often used to activate a card effect or perform a Summon. When you Tribute a card it is not considered destroyed. Some examples include:
- Monsters being Tributed for a Tribute Summon.
- "Exiled Force" Tributing itself in order to activate its effect to destroy one monster on the field.
- Ritual Monsters requiring their corresponding Ritual Spell Card and a Tribute of Monster Cards whose total Level is greater than or equal to the Level of the Ritual Monster in order for it to be summoned to the field.
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An example of a Ritual Spell Card that requires a total amount of Level star monster(s) to be Summoned onto the field
Unless the card specifically states that you can Tribute your opponent's monsters like "Soul Exchange" or "Lava Golem", a player can only Tribute monsters on their side of the field.
When Tributing for a card effect, the Tribute(s) are considered Costs, which means players cannot respond to the Tributes with card effects, since paying a Cost has no Spell Speed. This also means that Tributes occur before the activation of the effect that they are being Tributed for.
While Tributing a monster for a Tribute Summon is not technically considered a Cost, the Tributed monster still leaves the field before a player can respond to the action.
