Judgment of the Pharaoh – Monday, June 1, 2026

Welcome and well met, Duelists. 

Let’s talk about something that makes me very happy. 

Let’s talk about joining your local tournament!

People enjoy Yu-Gi-Oh! in many ways: some ways are electronic, others are analog. As I’m involved in both, I’m always glad to see people trying our game in a way they’ve not yet tried.

Duel Links and Master Duel are particularly effective at catching the eye of Duelists on the go – but on occasion, we’ll see a treat where someone seeks to join us for in-person paper gameplay at dedicated events.

The player who wrote this comment and question on r/Yugioh101 has paid excellent attention so far, so I think they’re already well set to enjoy their time.

Paying attention to player behavior at televised events is a great way to prepare for paper play in-person at local shops like Official Tournament Stores. This player is here to learn, and that mindset serves everyone well.

So, this article is written with that player’s questions in mind: at some points, I may even address them directly.

The answers they seek may benefit others, too. By writing this article, I can use my website as a platform and try to help more people with this info simultaneously.

I believe good communication is the best foundation upon which good times can be built. It’s extremely important, especially at pivotal times like when you’re just starting or at times of high stakes on stage. Let me share a picture of an example from the recent YCS Columbus.

Sometimes those stage lights are very bright, but we’ll be making sure everyone’s comfortable anyway. It’s a delight having people on stage with us, and reassurance and comfort are top priorities – good communication is the key. The players who shared the stage with me above did a good job communicating well and communicating politely during their televised match, and that’s essential to everyone having a good time. (Side note for Sam and Rico: I enjoyed sharing the stage with you and hope to do so again in the future.)

Good communication and good etiquette go hand in hand: With both, you’ll help everyone have a good time.

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The first thing I want you to think of is that everyone there is there to have a good time for themselves. Momentary confusion may occur, but I believe no one’s there to spoil anyone else’s time there on purpose.

The goal we are all trying to get to is “Both I myself and other people have a good time.” We reliably attain that goal: otherwise, our game wouldn’t have survived a quarter century and counting.

Going in with a generally positive attitude about yourself and about the motives of the other people there can be very useful – it can nudge you into seeing strangers as “new friends we’ve just not met yet”, and this hobby’s purpose from the player perspective is to bring people together for sharing good times.

Event policy bears this sort of calm attitude, too: paper play just plain works better with a good attitude.

Given your comment, I believe you’ve already got the good attitude part down. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be asking about etiquette. So, I think you should be glad that you thought to check in about this. Your asking about this speaks well to your character.

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Next, keep in mind that paper tournaments are well-structured things, even at the local level.

We have policy documents that guide how things should be handled, so that everyone can know ahead of time what to expect. Those policies will go into detail over things you’ll need to do to ensure the tournament goes well for everyone. They’re going to serve as an underpinning of best practices for both communication and etiquette.

A critical part of paper play is that everyone there – players, judges, event staff, and venue staff – must do their part to ensure it goes well.

One example thing you can do to follow policy and observe etiquette is to use card sleeves. Players who have only played at home with friends might not know that card sleeves can be critical: They can make sure your cards stay in good condition and remain indistinguishable from one another while face down. Policy needs your cards to be indistinguishable, and coming to your tournament with everything already properly sleeved will help you make sure the tournament can start on time and help your opponents trust that your Deck is randomized. Proper sleeving is just one example of doing your part.

The policy documents, as of the date, time, and location wherein I am writing this article, are best found at https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/events/organizedplay/ for users in the Americas who speak English. (Any users seeking the documents in other languages are welcome to reach out to me: I would be happy to help you find them.)

At the moment of writing, the documents available to me (in English) are:

Effective Date	Document	Language
Sept 5, 2025	Official KDE-US Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Tournament Policy Ver. 2.5	English
Sept 5, 2025	Official KDE-US Tournament Infractions and Penalties Policy Ver. 2.3	English
Mar 24, 2021	Remote Duel Best Practice Guide	English
Feb 25, 2022	Official KDE-US Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Tournament Policy COVID-19 Addendum	English
Mar 11, 2022	Official KDE-US Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Tournament Policy Speed Duel Addendum	English
Mar 11, 2022	Official KDE-US Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Tournament Policy Remote Duel Addendum	English

For your local event, I believe the [Tournament Policy Ver. 2.5] and [Tournament Infractions and Penalties Policy Ver. 2.3] would be the most urgent reads, if possible.

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After that, my next advice is: clarity is the king, effort is the emperor, and honor is holy.

For example, let’s say you’re left-handed, so policy would allow you to place your Graveyard where your Field Zone is normally located, and allow you to place your Main Deck where your Extra Deck is normally located.

Your opponent might not know that, so if you set up your (left-handed mirrored) layout, and your opponent shows they are confused, being ready to explain resolves that confusion and shows respect to your opponent at the same time. That’s etiquette – providing clarity to someone is a form of showing care for them.

Let’s say you’re playing a card that has a rarely seen function, like Prohibition or Psi-Blocker. Learning what interactions you can, when your cards are cards that someone else might not have seen before, is itself a sign that you’ve chosen to sacrifice your time and effort TO learn. That’s etiquette! Knowing your deck well is a sign of valuing your opponent’s time and yours.

Let’s say you’re now at the shop and getting ready. You will help the tournament staff get your tournament started properly by creating a KONAMI ID account at https://my.konami.net, obtaining a Konami Card Game ID number by either possessing a physical ID card or downloading Yu-Gi-Oh! NEURON, and then binding your KONAMI Card Game ID number to your KONAMI ID account. My team has already prepared another article covering these topics: [TCG] How to Link the Yu-Gi-Oh! Neuron App to Your Konami Card Game Network. Put forth this effort, and you’re once again showing etiquette!

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Next, let’s talk about something specific you wanted me to cover.

At most tournaments, each round is almost always handled in Matches, and each Match has more than one Duel. This is where “bo3” comes in: the Match is often thought of as “best of 3 Duels”, though there can be more than 3 Duels if any of the Duels result in a Draw. So, it’ll be best if we cover Matches as a topic.

In a Match, a single Duel’s result can be a Duel Win, Duel Loss, or Duel Draw. Duel Losses are the only result that has an actual influence on the Match: Duel Draws are just “no one won, and no one lost”, and Duel Wins are just “someone else lost this one, but I did not.”

All players who lose 2 Duels of a Match lose that Match. Once you have fewer than 2 players remaining who have not lost the Match, the Match is over, and the 1 remaining non-lost player (if any) is the Match Winner. Take note of that “(if any)” I wrote there. It’s important. Sometimes, if players break tournament policies, they may receive penalties that cause them to reach 2 Duel Losses simultaneously; in those cases, they all lose the Match.

Match results determine your placement in the tournament: Duel results are only used to determine the result of the Match they belong to. At the largest tournaments, you will be provided a Match result slip to mark and certify the Match’s result for our Scorekeepers.

Because you mentioned your Side Deck, I’ll cover that next, but to cover it best, we also need to talk about something else at the same time: the exact order of steps you should take before any Duel begins.

Your Side Deck is a separate collection of 0 to 15 cards that you may use between Duels of a Match to change the contents of your Main and/or Extra Deck and thus customize your strategy for future Duels of that Match. The number of cards in your Side Deck must always stay the same throughout your Match, so cards will only ever be swapped one-for-one. 

Let’s discuss the preparation steps.

Step 0 changes depending on where we are in our Match.

• Before the first Duel of a Match, Step 0 is to politely and kindly greet your opponent. Introduce yourself and thank them for joining you.
• Between Duels of a Match, Step 0 is to decide whether or not you will use your Side Deck to change the contents of your Main and/or Extra Deck before the next Duel, and if so, to make those changes.

Step 1 is to randomize your Main Deck, and then have your opponent also randomize your Main Deck.

Step 2 is to place your randomized Main Deck in the Main Deck Zone and your Extra Deck in the Extra Deck Zone.

Step 3 is to have both players count out their Side Decks face down and record how many cards are in those Side Decks. We do this before the first Duel to create a record of how many cards should always be there, and we do this before later Duels to make sure no mistakes have been made by moving around too many or too few cards.

Step 4 is to decide who will take the first turn. This also changes depending on how the Match has gone.

• After a player wins a Duel, their opponent will choose who goes first in the next Duel.
• Before the first Duel of a Match, and after a Duel ends with the result of a DRAW or a DOUBLE LOSS, players will randomly determine who decides who goes first. The rulebook suggests rock-paper-scissors or a coin flip, but any random method is acceptable here. (One other common method has players roll a six-sided die and have the player who rolls higher make the decision.)

Note the specific order of steps: no one should say who is going first until Step 4.

This means that *no one is allowed to communicate who is going first while Side Decks are being used, because Side Decks must be used before decks are randomized, and decks are randomized before we decide who is going first.*

(You might not know why I’m insisting: policies are very big on preventing players from behaving in specific ways, and revealing private information when you’re not supposed to is taken seriously enough that sometimes people can end up Disqualified or Suspended for it. So, no saying who goes first before Step 4, ok?)

After the Match is complete, take your Match’s result slip, check the checkbox next to the Match Winner’s name (or the Double Loss checkbox if both players lost the Match), sign the result slip in the signature box next to your own name, hand the result slip to your opponent for them to also sign it, then restore your Side Deck to its original state (from before the Match began). If there is a Match Winner, it is the Match Winner’s responsibility to deliver the result slip to the Scorekeepers. If both players lost the Match, both players must deliver the slip together.

Heeding these directions by the book will help keep things running smoothly, and heeding them politely makes for good etiquette. Keep the basic rulebook handy for things like this, too: at the time of writing, you may find it at https://img.yugioh-card.com/en/downloads/rulebook/SD_RuleBook_EN_10.pdf.

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Lastly, what do you do if you are confused about something, or you disagree with your opponent about something, or you’re not sure about what you’re allowed to do? There’s a way to handle such politely.

That’s where professionals like me come in. KONAMI Digital Entertainment maintains a Judge Program, and Tournament Organizers hire members of that program to do a job: we are to be a resource at events, from your local tournament all the way up to the World Championship, and at every event in between.

You must be comfortable speaking with us about your questions or issues; otherwise, we won’t be able to help.

While you’re not in the middle of a Match, call us over to you, or approach us with your question.

If you’re in the middle of a Match, do not leave your table: instead, raise your hand, call out “Judge”, and keep your hand raised until one of us arrives. When we arrive, we will note how much time is left on the round clock, and ask for the players to explain what help they need, starting with the turn player. After the turn player speaks, their opponent will be given a chance to add to what was said, or to dispute any claims made. Once we consider the situation and render our judgment, we will note the time taken, and if it took longer than 1 minute, we will give your match a time extension equal to the number of full minutes taken.

If you disagree with or are unsure about the judgment given, and the judge who gave it is not your tournament’s Head Judge or Assistant Head Judge, you may appeal that judgment, and the tournament’s Head Judge or Assistant Head Judge will be summoned to your table and repeat the process. The ruling given in the appeal process will be final.

At Tier 1 tournaments, like regular tournaments at your local hobby shop, judges on the tournament staff are not required to be members of the Judge Program, but membership is highly encouraged.

At all tournaments beyond Tier 1, judges on the tournament staff must be members of the Judge Program. These higher tournaments include (but are not limited to) OTS Championships at Official Tournament Stores, Regional Qualifiers at various venues across countries, Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events, World Championship Qualifiers, and more. 

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Thank you for reading.

I’ve made a dedicated forum channel on my YGOrganization’s Discord server, and I’ve named it Judgment of the Pharaoh. Use that specific channel to suggest your desired topics for future Judgment of the Pharaoh articles, and to show your support for others’ suggested desired topics.

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Production Sidenotes:
Article work began on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Article created to meet the needs of a well-placed thread on r/Yugioh101.