Spell Cards | |||
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Japanese (kanji and furigana) |
魔法カード | ||
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Spell Cards (formerly known as Magic Cards until "Magician's Force") are green-colored cards that have various effects to alter the play of the game. Often, a Spell Card has a single effect to provide a bonus to the user or a weakness to the opponent. All Spells are Spell Speed 1 (with the exception of Quick-Play Spells (Spell Speed 2). You may play as many Spell Cards as you would like per turn.
Although Spell Cards are as powerful as a Trap Card, they have the advantage that they may be played the turn they are drawn without having to Set them first. A Set Spell Card may be activated the turn it is Set as well (with the exception of Quick-Play Spell Cards).
In a typical Deck, Spell Cards occupy a little less than half of the total deck size (around 12-15 cards) and collectively with Trap Cards often have a 1:1 ratio to Monster Cards.
Some very powerful Spell Cards have been banned from tournament play, like "Raigeki". Konami has released new, less-powerful replacements for some of these cards. For instance, "Raigeki" has been replaced in Advanced Format by "Lightning Vortex", which requires a discard and only destroys face-up monsters, or "Flash of the Forbidden Spell" (whose card's title is indicative of a less-powerful replacement to "Raigeki"), which requires that all five of your opponent's monster card zones be filled with monsters in order to activate.
Used properly, a single Spell Card can significantly alter the game in the user's favor. It isn't uncommon for a player to win a Duel with the use of a single Spell Card. Snatch Steal is a common example of a Spell Card that is capable of winning a Duel. (Which has also been banned from tournament play)
The name Magic Card was likely changed to Spell Card to prevent confusion with the card game Magic: The Gathering, in addition to possible trademark disputes.
Types[]
A Spell Card's type is designated by a symbol to the right of the words "Spell Card". The various Spell Card Types are:
- Normal Spell: No Symbol, however some media give them a capital N symbol. File:Normal.png
- Continuous Spell, symbolized with an "infinity" symbol. File:Continuous.png
- Equip Spell, symbolized with a "plus" symbol. File:Equip.png
- Quick-Play Spell, symbolized with a lightning bolt.
- Field Spell, symbolized with a compass. File:Field.png
- Ritual Spell, symbolized with a torch symbol. File:Ritual.png