Pay

Pay
Japanese	払（はら）う
Japanese (romanized)	Harau
English	Pay
Other names French: Payer German: Bezahlen Italian: Pagare Korean: 지불한다 Spanish: Pagar

To pay (Japanese: 払（はら）う Harau; Chinese: 支付 Zhīfù) is to give up Life Points for a card effect or cost. In most cases, paying Life Points is a cost; however, "Gishki Photomirror" and "Number 44: Sky Pegasus" causes the player and allows the opponent to pay Life Points for an effect, respectively.

"Spell Economics" allows the player to activate Spell Cards that normally require Life Points to be paid as a cost, such as "Dimension Fusion" and "Brain Control", without paying those Life Points.

Paying Life Points is distinct from taking damage. Whereas if a player takes damage that reduces their Life Points to 0 they lose the duel, if paying Life Points would reduce their Life Points to 0, they instead cannot perform the action that requires that payment.

If a player cannot or does not pay for the maintenance cost of a card, such as "Terrorking Archfiend", then that card is destroyed (but not by a card effect); if a card forces the opponent to also pay a maintenance cost, such as "Battle-Scarred", if the opponent cannot pay the Maintenance Cost and the controller of the target can, the opponent's Life Points remain unchanged, but the controller has to pay and it is not destroyed.

"Destructive Draw" is the exception to both the aforementioned rules. If its controller cannot pay its maintenance cost, instead that player's Life Points become 0.

See also: Pay Life Points for cost and Pay Life Points for effect.

Example

300px