Most Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Structure Decks contain a copy of the Official Rulebook, which we update from time to time.

The next update will be in the Cyber Dragon Revolution Structure Deck, which comes out February 7, 2014. But the new rulebook is available online, right now! You can get an electronic version of the rulebook here.

Here’s a list of what’s updated in the latest version:



Fusion Monsters (page 16)

Rather than define what Fusion Summoning is on every card that lets you Fusion Summon, we’ve just migrated the definition of Fusion Summons into the rulebook. Spelling out how exactly to Fusion Summon is great when you’re just dealing with the standard Polymerization card, but once you get into more elaborate cards like Super Polymerization, it starts to get a little more clunky. (And then there’s Power Bond…)

The new text of cards like Poly & Super Poly just say this:

Polymerization:
Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or your side of the field as Fusion Materials.

Super Polymerization:
Discard 1 card; Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from either side of the field as Fusion Materials.

The card specifics will still tell you what to use, and from where, but the basic idea of what a Fusion Summon is is just explained in the Rulebook.

For a better contrast of old and new, here’s old Power Bond:
Send, from your hand or your side of the field to the Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on a Machine-Type Fusion Monster Card, then Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, and it gains ATK equal to its original ATK. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.)

Compare that to the new Power Bond:
Fusion Summon 1 Machine-Type Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or your side of the field as Fusion Materials, and it gains ATK equal to its original ATK.

Again, the text deals with the important stuff: WHO you summon, WHERE the materials need to be & go to, and WHAT else happens. The nitty gritty of “what’s a fusion summon?” is deferred to the Rulebook.



The revised Rulebook section also deals with the frequently asked question of what happens with something like Macro Cosmos, which causes your Fusion Materials to be banished instead of winding up in the Graveyard. (Yes, your Fusion Summon still happens. )

Oh, we also changed the rulebook from saying you Fusion Summon “with the Spell Card Polymerization” to saying you Fusion Summon “with a Summoning card like Polymerization”. Since, of course, there are now many ways to Fusion Summon.



Glossary – Equip Card (page 47):

This is a rules change to streamline what you can do to monsters that have been turned into Equip Cards.

Here’s the new section, in full. Pay special attention to the parts in red:

In addition to Equip Spell Cards, sometimes Trap Cards or Monster Cards can become equipped to a monster. Equipped Traps remain Trap Cards, but equipped monsters are considered to be Equip Spells. The term “Equip Card” includes all 3 kinds (standard Equip Spells, equipped Traps, and equipped monsters). If a Monster Card is equipped to another monster, it remains equipped to that monster and cannot be moved to a different target, even by card effects that would normally be able to do so. EXCEPTION: Union monsters equipped by their own effects can be moved by appropriate card effects.



Glossary – Send to the Graveyard (page 49):

We’ve added an exception to the end of this definition. Normally, we loathe exceptions, but when we do need them, we like to have them listed in the Rulebook:

A card can be sent to the Graveyard in various ways. Destroying a card, discarding, and Tributing a monster are all actions that send a card to the Graveyard, and will normally activate “When this card is sent to the Graveyard…” Trigger Effects. EXCEPTION: When a banished card is moved to the Graveyard, it is not considered to be “sent to the Graveyard”.



Glossary – Excavate (page 48):

Excavate is a new term that is very important to the upcoming “Sylvan” monsters in Legacy of the Valiant. Here’s the definition of Excavate:

When a card says to “excavate” cards from your Deck, you reveal those cards to both players. Then, before you do anything else, apply the instructions from the card effect that excavated them. Cards that are being excavated are still treated as being in the Deck until sent elsewhere by the card instructions.



IMPORTANT: Note that “excavate” and “reveal” are not always the same thing. Some cards will “reveal” cards but not “excavate” them. Noble Knight Borz is a good example of this.

Unless a card specifically refers to “excavating”, then it doesn’t excavate. Until the Sylvans come out in a couple months, the number of excavate cards is very small. A handful of older cards will be revised to “excavate”, but only a half-dozen or so. All of these revised cards will be reprinted in upcoming items like War of the Giants: Round 2, Star Pack 2014, and Astral Pack 4.

In any case, cards that excavate will always say where from, what you do with the excavated cards, and where they go. So the basic definition of “what is excavate?” is that it’s just a specific term like any other. When you excavate, do what the card says. If a card does something when excavated (like many Sylvan cards do), just follow the instructions when it is excavated by a card that specifically states that it excavates.