Battle City Rules

The Battle City Rules, known as the Super Expert Rules in the manga, were enforced by Seto Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba during the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! during the Battle City tournament. They are as follows:

• Participants must have a ranking of at least five out of eight stars (manga and original anime) or level three out of five (English dub anime) to receive a free Duel Disk, which is required to participate.
• Players must play with a Deck of at least forty cards, with at least one rare card in it.
• Players begin with 4000 Life Points.
• Players can only have up to 6 cards in his or her hand unless the card "Infinite Cards" is in play on his/her side of the field. In the manga, the hand limit is 7.
• Players have a maximum of five minutes to think during their turn.
• One Normal Summon is allowed per player per turn. Monsters can be Summoned in face-up Attack Position, face-up Defense Position or face-down Defense Position.
• Level 4 or below monsters can be Summoned during a Normal Summon.
• Level 5-6 monsters needed one Tribute in order to Normal Summon.
• Level 7-9 monsters required two Tributes to Normal Summon.
• Level 10+ monsters required three Tributes to normal summon (e.g "The Winged Dragon of Ra", Level 10).
• When a Fusion Monster is Tributed, that monster is counted as a number of monsters equal to the number of Fusion Material Monsters that were used.
• Fusion Monsters must wait one turn after they are Summoned before they can attack, though the "Quick Attack" card can be used to circumvent this. In the manga, any monster Ritual Summoned or Special Summoned from the Graveyard also cannot attack the turn it is Special Summoned.
• If a player has no monsters on their field, their opponent can attack directly.
• Each player must ante at least their rarest card and a minimum of one Locator Card in their possession. The winner of the Duel obtains their opponent's rarest card and Locator Card, as wagered.
• The contents of either player's Graveyards are not public knowledge, and an opponent may not look through their opponent's Graveyard.
• If you have to discard cards from your hand or Deck, you do not have to show them to your opponent.
• You must stick to the tournament's list of forbidden and limited cards. Cards that directly damage players or monsters, such as "Raigeki" and "Hinotama" were forbidden. Only one copy of "Monster Reborn" could be included in one's Deck.
• Certain cards that enabled players to Special Summon one specific Type of monster(s) can affect both sides of the field ("Dark Magic Curtain" and "The Flute of Summoning Dragon", for example).
• Players were not allowed to use two or more Magic Cards of the same name that increase a card's ATK points within the same turn.
• The opponent can activate a card or card effect before the turn player draws a card during their Draw Phase.
• If a monster is offered as a Tribute by the effect of another card while being attacked by an opponent's monster, the enemy's attack is negated. The Japanese version of the anime and manga calls this rule, "Sacrifice Escape".
• Replays are not an established mechanic. While a direct attack is occurring because the attacked player controls no monsters, if the attacked player adds a monster to their side of the field, that monster intercepts the attack; if a monster is targeted for an attack, but it leaves the field before damage calculation, the attack ends.
• Players can Set Field Spell Cards in their Spell & Trap Card Zones but when they activate them, they get moved to the Field Card Zone.
• Field Spell Cards can be activated during the Battle Phase.
• A non-Quick Play Spell Card can be activated during the Battle Phase.
• A Set non-Quick Play Spell Card can be activated during your opponent's turn.
• When a Spell or Trap is destroyed by a card effect, it is negated even if the card that destroyed the Spell/Trap doesn't negate its effects.
• A monster that becomes an Equip Card is treated as both a monster and an Equip Card.
• Effects that require the player and the opponent to have cards in their hand can be activated even if one of the players has no cards in their hand.
• Tokens do not take up a Monster Zone.
• When a Token is Summoned, it becomes the attack target instead.
• When a card is sent to the Graveyard, it is sent to the controller's Graveyard, not the owner's.
• In the manga, players could only control up to 5 cards of any type at a time.
• In the manga, players have certain restrictions of activating and Setting Spell and Trap Cards.
  • One can activate only 1 Spell Card from their hand per turn.
  • One can Set only 1 Spell Card per turn.
  • One can Set only 1 Trap Card per turn.