Yu-Gi-Oh! Grand Format (Updated to Power of the Duelist)

[dragon_chairman]

Several months ago, a campaign known as Project R was initiated to gain support from various yugioh players and judges across North America and beyond. Thanks to feedback and data collected over several months from many supporters, a new third format was developed. In order to convince Konami to take a serious look at this format, a major tournament event is in the works that will feature this new format. The event will be held in New York City, aimed for July of 2007. Here is the new format and a detailed explanation of the format underneath it. By the way, most players have trouble understanding how the format works at first glance so reading the explanation underneath it is highly recommended. Feel free to take your time discussing this format, and by the way - this is not a joke.

Please keep in mind that this format is designed for special events and the creation of a third division, not to replace the Advanced Format.

For more information, you can go to the Project R web site. (Since this is a first post, the site address can not be given here but Google "Grand Format" and yugioh and you should eventually find it.)
(P.S. The official web site for the big tournament is taking longer than expected to set up. In the meantime please enjoy the incredibly well-constructed tag team rules, multi-player rules and Shadow Dice game supplement on the site.)

Yu-Gi-Oh! – Grand Format (Updated to Power of the Duelist)
Written by Johnny Tek
Special thanks go to all the players and judges who contributed data and feedback during the development of this format.

***Only up to 3 Limited Cards and up to 5 Semi-Limited Cards are allowed in the Deck and Side Deck combined. (For a maximum total of 8 restricted cards in the Deck and Side Deck combined, not including Forbidden Cards.) In addition, copies of 1 card from the Forbidden Cards may be used if special conditions are fulfilled in the construction of the Deck and Side Deck combined.
***Ritual Monsters can be Ritual Summoned (using the appropriate Ritual Spell Card) from the hand, Deck, or Graveyard. A Ritual Monster can not be offered as a Tribute for its own Ritual Summon.
***Monsters can be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position as well as Attack Position.

*Forbidden Cards* –You cannot use these cards in your Deck and Side Deck combined unless special conditions are fulfilled. Copies of only 1 card from the Forbidden Cards List can be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. (Ex. If Dark Hole is used, then Last Turn can’t be used)

- Apprentice Magician (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined monsters that are not Spellcaster-Type monsters.)
- Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Black Ptera (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include allowing a player to conduct extra Sets or Normal Summons or to conduct an unlimited number of Special Summons from hand.) (ex. "Ultimate Offering")
- Butterfly Dagger - Elma (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include destroying Equip Spell Cards when they are equipped to a monster.) (ex. "Gearfried the Iron Knight")
- Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. In addition, cards with "Dark World" included in their card names can not be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Cyber Dragon (Up to 3 copies may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Dark Hole (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Delinquent Duo (1 copy may be used if no more than 1 Limited Card is used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Exchange of the Spirit (1 copy may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include picking up cards from the Deck and/or removing cards in the Graveyard from play.) (ex. "Magical Merchant")
- Exodia the Forbidden One (Up to 3 copies may be used if Semi-Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. In addition, you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include moving one or more cards from your Deck, Graveyard, or cards removed from play to your hand other than by drawing.) (ex. "Backup Soldier")
- Fiber Jar (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Heart of the Underdog (1 copy may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with ATK values equaling 1800 or more.)
- Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 8 (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include negating the activation and/or effects of Trap Cards.) (ex. "Royal Decree")
- Imperial Order (1 copy may be used if no more than 1 Limited Card is used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Last Turn (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include the negation or prevention of Special Summons.) (ex. "Jowgen the Spiritualist")
- Magical Scientist (Up to 3 copies may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. In addition, you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that include Tributing monsters to inflict Direct Damage to Life Points or Tributing monsters to increase Life Points.) (ex. "Catapult Turtle")
- Manticore of Darkness (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that would activate when a monster is Special Summoned from the Graveyard.) (ex. "Card of Safe Return")
- Mirage of Nightmare (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. In addition, cards with "Dark World" included in their card names can not be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Painful Choice (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Pot of Greed (1 copy may be used if no more than 1 Limited Card is used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Protector of the Sanctuary (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined cards with effects that would remove cards from an opponent’s hand.) (ex. Card Destruction)
- Raigeki (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Skill Drain (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined Level 4 or lower Effect Monsters with ATK values equaling 1900 or more.) (ex. "Goblin Attack Force")
- Wall of Revealing Light (1 copy may be used if Limited Cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)
- Warrior Lady of the Wasteland (Up to 3 copies may be used but you can not use in the Deck and Side Deck combined monsters that are not Warrior-Type monsters.)
- Yata-Garasu (1 copy may be used if Limited cards are not used in the Deck and Side Deck combined.)


*Limited Cards* – Only 1 copy of each card can be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. Only up to 3 cards total in the Deck and Side Deck combined may be Limited cards. (Ex. 1 Call of the Haunted + 1 Gravity Bind + 1 Ring of Destruction = Maximum Total of 3 Limited Cards)

Call of the Haunted
Card Destruction
Change of Heart
Chaos Sorceror
Crush Card Virus
Cyber Jar
Cyber Stein
D. D. Borderline
Deck Devastation Virus
Demise, King of Armageddon
Fairy Box
Graceful Charity
Grand Convergence
Gravity Bind
Guardian Sphinx
Harpie’s Feather Duster
Heart of Clear Water
Heavy Storm
Jinzo
Last Will
Level Limit – Area B
Lightning Vortex
Limiter Removal
Magician of Faith
Makyura the Destructor
Mask of Darkness
Messenger of Peace
Mirror Force
Monster Reborn
Morphing Jar
Morphing Jar #2
Night Assailant
Ordeal of a Traveler
Pot of Avarice
Premature Burial
Relinquished
Return from the Different Dimension
Ring of Destruction
Royal Decree
Sangan
Sinister Serpent
Snatch Steal
Stumbling
Swords of Revealing Light
The Dark Door
Torrential Tribute
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Twin-Headed Behemoth
United We Stand
Witch of the Black Forest


*Semi-Limited Cards* – Only up to 2 copies of each card can be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. Only up to 5 cards total in the Deck and Side Deck combined may be Semi-Limited cards. (Ex. 2 Acid Trap Hole + 2 Book of Moon + 1 Creature Swap = Maximum Total of 5 Semi-Limited Cards)

Acid Trap Hole
Airknight Parshath
Ancient Lamp
Astral Barrier
Autonomous Action Unit
Blowback Dragon
Book of Moon
Bottomless Shifting Sand
Bottomless Trap Hole
Brain Control
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Call of the Mummy
Ceasefire
Chiron the Mage
Command Knight
Compulsory Evacuation Device
Confiscation
Creature Swap
Cyber Gymnast
D. D. Assailant
D. D. Survivor
D. D. Warrior
D. D. Warrior Lady
Dark Catapulter
Dark Magician of Chaos
Dark Master - Zorc
Dark Mimic LV 1
Dark Necrofear
Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
Des Lacooda
Dimension Wall
Doom Dozer
Drop Off
Dust Tornado
Enemy Controller
Exiled Force
Fissure
Flying Kamakiri #1
Future Fusion
Giant Rat
Giant Trunade
Granmarg the Rock Monarch
Hammer Shot
Hand of Nepthys
Howling Insect
Hyper Hammerhead
Injection Fairy Lily
Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu
Kelbek
Lava Golem
Legendary Jiujitsu Master
Mage Power
Magic Cylinder
Magic Drain
Magical Arm Shield
Magical Merchant
Man Eater Bug
Marauding Captain
Masked Dragon
Mataza the Zapper
Mausoleum of the Emperor
Medusa Worm
Megamorph
Metamorphosis
Mirror Wall
Mobius the Frost Monarch
Mother Grizzly
Mysterious Guard
Mystic Tomato
Mystical Space Typhoon
Negate Attack
Newdoria
Nightmare’s Steel Cage
Ninjitsu Art of Decoy
Nobleman of Crossout
Old Vindictive Magician
Penguin Soldier
Pyramid Turtle
Raigeki Break
Reflect Bounder
Rivalry of Warlords
Robbin Goblin
Ruin, Queen of Oblivion
Sakuretsu Armor
Scapegoat
Seven Tools of the Bandit
Shinato, King of a Higher Plane
Shining Angel
Shrink
Skelengel
Smashing Ground
Solemn Judgement
Spatial Collapse
Spell Canceller
Spirit Barrier
Spirit Reaper
Swarm of Locusts
Swarm of Scarabs
Swords of Concealing Light
The Forceful Sentry
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
Threatening Roar
Thunder of Ruler
Time Seal
Trap Hole
Treeborn Frog
Tsukuyomi
UFO Turtle
UFOroid
Waboku
Wall of Illusion
Wave Motion Cannon
Widespread Ruin
Windstorm of Etaqua
Yomi Ship
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
Zero Gravity


Explanation of Grand Format

Since some players who are used to playing by simple restriction guidelines in the Traditional and Advanced Formats will find understanding Grand Format a bit of a headache beyond the first few lines of text, here is an explanation of the design of Grand Format.
Grand Format is designed for use by experienced Yu-Gi-Oh! players in High-Level Tournament Events. It is not meant to replace the Advanced Format system. Both the Traditional and Advanced Format systems are actually necessary in order to learn the fundamentals of Deck-building and game mechanics and becoming familiar with card versatility. Grand Format then provides players with the challenge of using everything they learned in the previous two Formats to develop their own personal strategies and playing styles on a level discouraged in the previous two Formats.
Grand Format is designed to eliminate the practicality of copying other Decks as well as eliminating the concept of a "Deck Staple" altogether. As a result, players are forced to come up with original card combinations and Deck strategies, many of which would be improbable if not impossible to execute successfully in the previous two Formats.
The main feature of Grand Format is the total capacity restriction on restricted cards. Only up to three Limited Cards (one copy each) and up to five Semi-Limited Cards (up to two copies each) may be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. Since this total capacity restriction counts the number of copies for the Semi-Limited Cards (two copies of one card counts as two cards towards the limit of five), the total combined capacity restriction is eight restricted cards in the Deck and Side Deck combined. (This opens up a lot of space in the Deck and Side Deck combined for innovation and originality.)
As a result, a player must choose his/her restricted cards based on whether they work well in combination with each other as well as the other cards in his/her Deck and Side Deck combined instead of whether they simply work well. This prevents any one card from appearing in every competitive Deck and Side Deck combined, eliminating the concept of a "Deck Staple". (Unless the entire global population of Yu-Gi-Oh! players adopt the same brainwave pattern.)
Another result of the total capacity restriction is that card playability for many different cards had to be re-evaluated. With less Monster Card removal being used, activating card effects that affect ATK and DEF values, playing monsters with difficult summoning conditions, and Tribute or Fusion Summoning with two or more monsters become viable game play tactics. With less Spell/Trap Card removal being used, Field Spell Cards, Equip Spell Cards, Continuous Spell Cards, and Continuous Trap Cards are now likely to stay on the field long enough for full use to be made of them.
In order to address the changes in card playability, the list of restricted cards for Grand Format had to be based completely on game play mechanics and card interactions. Even though this makes the list of cards considerably longer than those of the previous two Formats, the list also becomes much more stable. Cards on the list are very unlikely to move from where they are and any change in the format would most likely be the addition of a few cards with each booster set so most Deck strategies in the Format would not be affected.
Some players may argue that the restriction list for Grand Format will shrink the card pool. However, there is less than 9% of cards available worldwide on the list (with over 2,000 cards not restricted) and players are now able to make competitive use of cards that were not competitive in the previous two Formats. As a result, the effective card pool is actually much larger in Grand Format than in both the Traditional and Advanced Formats combined.
In order to maximize the efficiency of the card restriction in Grand Format, the Forbidden Cards List was transformed into a "metagame buffer system". Use of Forbidden Cards can be made possible through fulfilling special conditions in the Deck and Side Deck combined. These special conditions prevent card combinations that are too powerful (ex. Last Turn and Jowgen the Spiritualist) and balance the competitive natures of the most powerful cards. (ex. Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End can not be used with Limited Cards.) In addition, copies of only one card from the Forbidden Cards can be used in the Deck and Side Deck combined. (That means that both "Envoys" will not be appearing in the same Deck and Side Deck combined as in Traditional.)
If any "broken combos" or "broken power" cards appear, the restriction system in Grand Format is designed to "fix" them without eliminating the use of them altogether.
Ritual Monsters become much more useful in Grand Format. With the appropriate Ritual Spell Card in hand, a player can Ritual Summon his/her Ritual Monster from hand, Deck, or Graveyard. Since the actual card text on a Ritual Monster or Spell Card does not specify that a Ritual Monster has to be in a player’s hand to be Ritual Summoned, this does not create any card text conflicts. As a result, use of Ritual Monsters may be seen in competitive game play using Grand Format.
Monsters can be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position in Grand Format. This allows for immediate use of certain card effects and creates a strategic option that will make players think more carefully about monster placement. For example, an opponent Normal Summons a Normal Monster in face-up Defense Position with a DEF of 0 and Sets one Spell/Trap Card face down on his/her side of the field. Did the opponent Set a card whose effect will trigger when you designate his/her monster for battle? Is the opponent bluffing? Psychological Dueling takes on a whole new level.
Any player that can construct a Deck and Side Deck combined using Grand Format shows skill and patience. Any player that can construct a competitive Deck and Side Deck combined using Grand Format shows mastery.
It takes more effort, but the only way to achieve the full experience of Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is through Grand Format.
Players are reminded that Decks using Grand Format will generally not play as well against Decks using Traditional or Advanced Formats. Players are also reminded that unless one has actually played with a Grand Format Deck against at least several other Grand Format Decks, it is not possible to make a respectable assessment of Grand Format.

[Kuragari]

hmm... i think ill try that format