The title of the upcoming sixth television anime of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series isYu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. The anime will be broadcasted in the spring of 2017. The official website of the anime recently revealed the visuals and design for the anime.
The main character in this anime is Yūsaku Fujiki. He is a duelist who can potentially be a hacker because of his cool and sharp mind. He has the ability to quickly judge any kind of situation he is in, and he can tell what a person is thinking about whenever he talks to them.
When he enters the VR (virtual reality) space, he transforms from his school uniform and rides a board while dueling. In the VR space, “Playmaker” is his handle, and his ace monster, “Decode Talker”, is a warrior-type that wields a giant sword.
The site also revealed what they labeled a “mysterious creature”.
“Let’s take one step forward and try it!” is the theme of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. On the contrary, the main character hates standing out, and so he avoids that in his school. But as the story goes on, Yūsaku Fujiki meets more people through his duels and takes those steps forward.
Link Summoning and Link Monsters
According to V-Jump magazine, the new summoning method introduced in the anime and in the TCG will be called Link Summoning. To do Link Summoning, you’ll need to send Materials to the graveyard equal to the Link Number. Each Link Monster’s card has its own Link Number that can be found in the bottom right corner of the card.
You can also do Link Summoning from your Extra Deck by sending the same number of monsters that meet the material requirements written in the card’s effect, whose total numbers equal to the Link Number, from the field to the Graveyard.
Decrease Materials by Using Link Monsters
Link Monsters are treated as the same number of materials as its Link Number, however, to use them you must match the requirements written on the card.
Decode Talker’s effect helps put Link Summoning into focus and easier to understand. Here’s Decode Talker’s effect:
- Decode Talker
- DARK Cybers-Type Link Effect Monster
- LINK 3
- ATK 2300
- Materials: 2 or more Effect Monster
- (1) This card gains 500 ATK for each monster Linked to it.
- (2) When an opponent’s card effect that targets a card you control is activated: You can Tribute 1 of your monsters Linked to this card; negate that activation, and if you do, destroy it.
So for Decode Talker, you can use three normal Effect Monsters to summon it (similar to XYZ summons) or you can use an Effect Monster that is a Link 2 monster and one normal Effect Monster to summon Decode Talker. This means that each monster has a Link Number of one unless otherwise specified.
Remember that before summoning, Link Monsters have no defense points and cannot change their battle positions, even by card effects, so you’ll be taking damage from monsters who have higher attack points once they are attacked.
Also, take note of the arrows on the card. These arrows will signify which monsters will be linked to it and who will get affected by the Link Monster’s effect.
Extra Monster Zone and Pendulum Zone
Another change to the rules is how the duel field is used, especially with Pendulum Monsters. The duel field will have an extra monster zone added and when a Duel begins, the Extra Monster Zone does not belong to either duelist.
When a player Special Summons a monster to one of them, that Zone then becomes treated as an extra field of that player. Duelists will find ways to own that extra monster card zone first.
Note that an Extra Deck Monster can only be summoned to the Extra Monster Zone, but if you summon a Link Monster to one of the Extra Monster Zones first, you can utilize it to its maximum potential. Details are still unclear and incomplete for how this summoning goes out, but more information will likely come in a few weeks as we get closer to the premiere of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.
Monsters summoned from the Extra Deck (Synchro, Fusion, XYZ and Link) can only be summoned onto this Extra Monster Zone. The usual Monster Card Zone will no longer be used for these special type of monsters.
The Pendulum Zones will not be separated from the Spell Card or Trap Card Zone but will now be a part of it. You can still use them to set the Pendulum Scales, but once you do, you can’t use them for Spells or Traps, limiting that zone to only three cards.
The fifth and ongoing anime in the franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, premiered in Japan in April 2014. The series premiered on television in Canada in August 2015, and premiered in the United States on the Nicktoons channel in February 2016. Crunchyroll began streaming the series worldwide outside of Asia in November 2016.