History Main / NewRulesAsThePlotDemands

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has several; the most notable are:
** [[strike:[[BeamMeUpScotty Aim for the]]]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcwNYgBsFg "Pikachu! The horn!"]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBm18o4c-I Thunder Armor]]

* {{Carnies}} have a term called an ''alibi'', which is when someone who has apparently won a game of chance is told about a previously undisclosed rule, in order to be able to deny giving them a prize. A common example is stating that the player crossed an invisible "foul line."

* The most infamous example comes from an early episode (which can be seen in episode 10 of the "Abridged Series"), where Yugi uses a monster called Catapult Turtle to launch a fusion monster, Gaia the Dragon Champion, at another monster, Panik's Castle of Dark Illusions. This destroys the Dragon Champion on impact, causing Yugi to lose most of his lifepoints and the castle's flotation-ring to fall off, but seemingly doesn't destroy the castle... until Yugi mentions that the Castle is now being held up by Yugi's Swords of Revealing Light. Yugi ends his turn, ending the effect of [=SoRL=], thus causing the destruction of the Castle... and all of Panik's monsters, which were underneath and, due to Panik's Chaos Sheild, couldn't get out of the way in time. If these things had been real, physical creatures engaged in a battle, this would be reasonably creative and entirely valid. But they're just tokens in a card game, [[MagicAIsMagicA subject to the rules thereof]], and Yugi's trick has ''absolutely no basis in the rules'' ([[RuleOfCool but it looked cool]]). The real card game hadn't yet been made when this episode was written, but unless the writers thought the real card game would somehow simulate Newtonian physics, [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief it still doesn't make much sense]].
** Note that this trope was previously known as "The Catapult Turtle Flying Castle Gambit".

** Just to cut good ol' Yugi some slack, even though through other means, Yugi still won that fight. Catapult Turtle's effect is that it can Tribute a monster to do damage to his life points equal to half the attack of the tributed monster. Seeing as it was Gaia the Dragon Champion with attack well over 2000, and max LP in season one were 2000, he still would've won.
* In his duel with Mako, Yugi calls an attack on "Full Moon". Three major problems with that. First, "Full Moon" is Yugi's own card and is on his side of the battlefield. Second, it's a magic card, not a creature. Third, he's trying to ''stab the '''fucking moon''' with a sword''. Yet not only does this somehow work, it dramatically alters the battlefield, causing the ACTUAL tide (not a card effect) to go out [[FridgeLogic lower than it was before he summoned the moon]], and ''beaching Mako's sea monsters''.
* Weevil's great moth is randomly given the ability to deduct 100 attack points from his opponent every SECOND, an ability which does not come up ever again.
* Also, the weirdness of the Mirror Force in the Weevil vs. Yugi match, in the Duelist Kingdom. That came up in a part of the game when Yugi used the Mirror Force to destroy all of Weevils' monster that were on field. Ignoring the real card effect and just observing the anime, the card took a very random amount of life points (1445, to be exact) from Weevil without any sort of explanation. He just sorta... lost life points as the writers wanted it. And of course, the Mirror Force never inflicted direct damage in any other occasion of the anime, neither in the Duelist Kingdom nor in any other arc.
** Wrong actually, it does happen a couple more times, but only in the Duelist Kingdom arc. During Yugi's duel with Pegasus, when he uses it to destroy his Toon monsters, his Life Points drop from 2000 to 600 as a result.
** A similar effect happens when Joey uses his Time Wizard's effect to destroy Rex Raptor's Red Eyes Black Dragon, taking away all of Rex's remaining life points in the process.
*** If you calculate it in the example in Yugi-Pegasus duel, the (weird) rule was that for every destroyed monster, you lose the difference between the reflected attack and the destroyed monsters attack points as if the monster with the reflected attack would attack all monster of your opponent.
** In the duel against Weevil their problem was that Weevil would have been dead, if they had been consistent. So they just excluded one monster. Exact calculations can be seen in the yugioh Wiki on wikia.
* [[HandWave There was a least an attempt to justify all the rules weirdness in the Duelist Kingdom saga.]] At the start of the tournament, Pegasus announces that his tournament will incorporate "new rules", all of which he promptly refuses to disclose, because "what fun would that be"? Of course this has its own bizarre side effects, such as Weevil getting accused by Yugi of cheating for simply ''finding out what the rules are''.
** Well, if part of the ''tournament'' rules is supposed to be "there are new rules for the game, but you'll have to figure them out for yourselves as you play", then yes, nabbing a (probably stolen) copy of said new rules to gain an advantage over everybody else ''would'' qualify as 'cheating'.
* Mystical Elf was able to give Yugi's Blue-Eyes White Dragon a power boost equal to her ATK power (1100 at the time, thanks to a power-up). The reason for it? The holographic projection of the monster had been chanting a mystical chant for several turns, a chant which allowed her to use a spell (none of this is on her card, by the way; ME is a Normal Monster, which aren't even supposed to HAVE effects. In her future appearances, this effect completely fails to appear. Just a Duelist Kingdom thing, apparently). Several video games integrate this effect in, however.
* The Multiply card is apparently so badly designed it can divide by zero, creating a [[ZergRush wall of infinite kuribos]] that spawn ''in real time'' with disregard for monster space.
* One card has extra abilities not written on the card. You cannot use them if you're playing a game with just the cards, as it's intended to be played. Literally, the only way they are ever used is through AppliedPhlebotinum and magic. The best way to look at it is that this is a lot like rules not written in the rulebook, or players on a team in positions which do not exist, or a cookbook with lists of ingredients without how to prepare them.
** Quick, start speaking in a foreign language so the card can be released from the shiny thing! First one who does so gets to control it, too, no matter who summoned it.
* It often doesn't seem to matter whether a card has its abilities written on it or not anyway, as time and time again characters claim to be completely in the dark about the abilities of a creature an opponent has just summoned, sometimes even making suicidal game decisions as a result.
** Slightly more justified in the dub, since there is no text on the cards, so reading the opponents card to find out what it does is impossible. Though this itself [[VoodooShark prompts certain questions...]]

** The best example of that is the Yami/Kaiba duel in the Duelist Kingdom arc. Yami Yugi uses a spell card to fuse one of ''his'' monsters into Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (already a fused monster). Oddly enough, it's played straight and subverted at the same time; by design (the monster Yugi selected was undead) the forced fusion has a ''negative'' effect on BEUD, lowering its attack by 1200 per turn. And despite the fact that they're fused, each of the three heads on Kaiba's monster can be attacked and revived separately, restoring that head to full attack. [[FlatWhat What.]]
*** Reviving individual heads could be justified in that it was reviving the material monster, which is a perfectly legal move in the real card game, and that the machine simply chose to depict it as reviving a singular head. However it [[FridgeLogic begs why Kaiba didnt just do it in the first place]].
* Then there are the [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands random power-ups/immunities]] that certain monster types get for single duels, like Mai's Harpie Ladies randomly getting a combat advantage during her first duel against Joey, or Bandit Keith's Machine monsters becoming [[AntiMagic immune to magic-based attacks]] just to add dramatic tension in his duel against Joey. This crap largely went away by the time Battle City rolled around, however.
** At least the time when Mystical Elf was immune to a card that made the Harpy Lady change all of the opponent's monsters into attack mode made logical sense, even if not in the rules at all. The elf's a female.
** The power boosts during the field-tournament portion of the Duelist Kingdom arc can be attributed to a "field power bonus" of 30%, and it all depended where you were and whether your monsters were suited to fight in this kind of environment. (The real-world game has some earlier cards similar to this, which would increase the ATK power of certain types of monsters, and the artwork is based on different natural environments.)

* Even after season 1 there are still egregious examples: One of the Winged Dragon of Ra's effects is you can convert your life points into attack points for Ra. Whenever Evil Marik does this he fuses himself with his monster (it's a Shadow Game, so the monsters are real. Or something.) When Marik duels Yugi, Yugi comes close to destroying Ra while Marik is fused with it, and Marik saves himself by playing De-Fusion, which ''un-fuses the two and gives Marik all his life points back.'' Up until now, De-Fusion has only ever worked on Fusion Monsters - ''not aesthetic fusions''.
** The Winged Dragon of Ra was basically the Orichalcos of seasons 2 and 3. Pretty much every duel involving it had some new weird rule of the Winged Dragon of Ra suddenly get introduced right then. When Odien tries using it, he gets struck by lightning ''by its hologram'' because he's not an actual tombkeeper, and apparently only those related to the tombkeeper/Egyptian pharaoh days can use it. Then, ''in the very next duel'', Mai (who is even less related to the tombkeeper/Egyptian stuff than Odien) plays it without getting struck by lightning or anything weird like that. However, she can't use it because apparently the duelist has to ''speak a really long phrase written on the card in some ancient language''. Marik speaks the phrase, and it immediately joins his side in the duel. These are just the first two duels with it.
*** Marik gave Odion a fake Ra, not the the real one... which didn't help.
* Jinzo isn't killed by Time Wizard's effect because ''it's immune to rust''. What cards other than Time Wizard ''cause'' rust anyway?
** ...Makiu, the Magical Mist? It caused Keith's monsters to rust up when Yugi dueled him.
** Ironically, in the manga (which tends to be way worse when it comes to this trope), this particular bit of rule-screwing doesn't happen; Time Wizard and Thousand Dragon are never summoned to the field, and Joey actually wins the duel against Espa Roba by having Baby Dragon attack the guy directly.
* The duel between Joey and Mako during the Battle City tournament. Joey had set up a trap card called "Chasm of Spikes" which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and would destroy the opponent's attacking monster while dealing damange to his life points. When Mako attacked with his "Flying Fish" monster (again ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin) Joey activated his trap but, much to his [[OhCrap surprise]], ''the monster flew over the chasm and hit him anyway''. Mako then proceeded to ''chastise him for not being able to anticipate such an obvious detail''. Nevermind the "Flying Fish" is a normal monster (i.e. no effects) and Chasm of Spikes just says "opponents monster", with no "non-WIND Attribute." or similar clause...
** Granted, this only occurs in the manga. The anime's result is different, though it has it's own problems, such as Flying Fish somehow surviving Torrential Tribute and Mako using the Umi card to raise the Water level on the field above the height of Joey's Fairy Box, which causes Alligator Sword to nearly suffocate and force it to abandon Fairy Box (negating that card's effect).
*** The Field Spell Card Umi also conceals Mako's monsters in a manner similar to the infamous "Castle of Dark Illusions". What's worst, Mako ''deliberately covers'' his Duel Disk with his other arm in order to ''completely block'' Joey's view of his side of the field.
* Yugi and Joey's duel with the Paradox Brothers (In this case done to give the villain an advantage), they fusion summon Black Skull Dragon only to find out the Labyrinth (Which itself resulted in a change of rules) is a no flying zone. Not only is this not mentioned or implied, but it is not mentioned after this either.
** The Labyrinth itself is an example. Clearly based off the normal monster Labyrinth Wall(a StoneWall that has an ATK of 0, but a DEF of 3000), it seems to be played more or less as a Field Magic card. However, that might explain why Yugi/Joey didn't just order Black Skull Dragon to [[DungeonBypass destroy the Labyrinth]].

* Mystical Elf was able to give Yugi's Blue-Eyes White Dragon a power boost equal to her ATK power (1100 at the time, thanks to a power-up). The reason for it? The holographic projection of the monster had been chanting a mystical chant for several turns, a chant which allowed her to use a spell (none of this is on her card, by the way; ME is a Normal Monster, which aren't even supposed to HAVE effects. In her future appearences, this effect completely fails to appear. Just a Duelist Kingdom thing, apparently).
** In two of the video games, ''The Sacred Cards'' and ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh Reshef Of Destruction}}'', Mystical Elf is an Effect Monster which can power up the Blue Eyes.
*** I think in Duelist of The Roses it has a similar effect. (Pumps up light monsters by 800 or something.)
** Mystical Elf got another such effect later in the season, when she was declared immune to a Spell card that forced monsters into Attack Mode. The reason - she was a female monster, and the spell only worked on males.

** The real game card was modified to accompany that limitation, and is one of the best token engines in the game.
* Let's not even get started on the Seal Of Orichalcos, which would require about 5 cards worth of text space to explain the rules if was actually made.
** A watered down version of this card does exist. Saying that it has one-point font is an understatement.
** It's also not available for general purchase, and probably not actually usable.
*** Specifically, the Wikia states that there are only 15 copies of the actual card in existence, which were used by (former) US distributor Upper Deck Entertainment for their "Duel The Master" event. The card was reportedly said by UDE as having a Spell Speed (as in how fast it technically activates and what can counter it) of ''4''. To put that in perspective, the game's most powerful tool for this sort of thing - counter traps, traps [[AntiMagic specifically designed to negate activations and summons]], only have a Spell Speed of 3. [[GameBreaker That means that an actual game mechanic taken to]] BeyondTheImpossible [[GameBreaker levels makes it unable to be negated. Period.]]
**** The wikia also states that the ''actual'' card text contains the immortal line [[SeriousBusiness "The soul of whichever Duelist loses this Duel is forfeit to the winner."]] Fantastic.

** Slighty more justified in the dub, since there is no text on the cards, so reading the opponents card to find out what it does is impossible. Though this itself [[VoodooShark prompts certain questions...]]

** The best example of that is the Yami/Kaiba duel in the Duelist Kingdom arc. Yami Yugi uses a spell card to fuse one of ''his'' monsters into Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (already a fused monster). Oddly enough, it's played straight and subverted at the same time; by design (the monster Yugi selected was undead) the forced fusion has a ''negative'' effect on BEUD, lowering its attack by 1200 per turn. And despite the fact that they're fused, each of the three heads on Kaiba's monster can be attacked and revived seperately, restoring that head to full attack. [[FlatWhat What.]]

** The Winged Dragon of Ra was basically the Orichalcos of seasons 2 and 3. Pretty much every duel involving it had some new weird rule of the Winged Dragon of Ra suddenly get introduced right then. When Odien tries using it, he gets struck by lightning ''by its hologram'' because he's not an actual tombkeeper, and apparently only those related to the tombkeeper/Egyptian pharoah days can use it. Then, ''in the very next duel'', Mai (who is even less related to the tombkeeper/Egyptian stuff than Odien) plays it without getting struck by lightning or anything weird like that. However, she can't use it because apparently the duelist has to ''speak a really long phrase written on the card in some ancient language''. Marik speaks the phrase, and it immediately joins his side in the duel. These are just the first two duels with it.

* Want to know what do Kaiba's XYZ-Dragon Cannon and Mai's Harpy Lady Sisters have in common? Despite being single monster cards, both of them can be tributed by their respective owners in order to summon a god card (without having any kind of effect that allows them to count as the three required sacrifices) because the pictures in each one depict three creatures.

* The sequel series ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' isn't immune to this either. However, some of the examples are justified in that the real card was made after the episode aired in Japan, and the effects were changed for the real version. In some cases (Elemental Hero Bubbleman, for example), the anime effect is still used in future episodes. In other cases (such as Future Fusion), the anime starts using the real-world effect after the card's OCG release. This series also starts using the real-world rules more consistently, the only magic cards played during the opponent's turn are quick-plays, for example. On the other hand, things like replays are inconsistently used.
** Let's not forget the instance in the final episode of Judai attempting to play a Quick-Play Spell IN THE MIDDLE OF RESOLVING ANOTHER EFFECT. Then, Yugi actually takes this stupidity [[UpToEleven even farther into ridicule]] by chaining to Judai's improperly-timed card. Wow.
* A recurring problem with rules in the three Yugioh anime is the concept of a chain. Despite being mentioned in the filler arc, chains do not really occur; instead, characters simply play as many cards as they can before the holographic effect reaches them.
* [[YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]] is not immune to them either. The Earthbound Gopds have effects that they cannot be attacked. So the other players just try and attack them directly, which the Dark Signers always manage to negate. Instead of, you know, just point out that they're not allowed to do that.

* The sequel series ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' isn't immune to this either. However, some of the examples are justified in that the real card was made after the episode aired in Japan, and the effects were changed for the real version. In some cases (Skyscraper, for example), the anime effect is still used in future episodes. In other cases (such as Future Fusion), the anime starts using the real-world effect after the card's OCG release. This series also starts using the real-world rules more consistently, the only magic cards played during the opponent's turn are quick-plays, for example. On the other hand, things like replays are inconsistently used.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has several; the most notable are:
** [[strike:[[BeamMeUpScotty Aim for the]]]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcwNYgBsFg "Pikachu! The horn!"]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBm18o4c-I Thunder Armor]]

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has several; the most notable are:
** [[strike:[[BeamMeUpScotty Aim for the]]]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcwNYgBsFg "Pikachu! The horn!"]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBm18o4c-I Thunder Armor]]

* Let's not forget [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} Zombie]] [[FanNickname Boy's]] "Call of the Haunted" card, a slightly less powerful version of "Monster Reborn" in real life. In the game? ''Brings about a ZombieApocalypse by way of resurrecting EVERY card in his Graveyard as a zombie-type.'' Oh, and they [[GameBreaker ''keep coming back when they're killed, and get a 10% boost to their attack every time they resurrect.'']]

** In two of the video games, The Sacred Cards and Reshef of Destruction, Mystical Elf is an Effect Monster which can power up the Blue Eyes.

* Surprisingly, ''{{Yu Gi Oh 5Ds}}'' manages to avert this most of the time, with most of the anime-only cards making actual sense. This is coming from an anime where card games are played on motorcycles.

** It's worse when you know the actual rules and run into a bunch of kids who tried to pick it up from the show... At least Yu-Gi-Oh! ''sorta'' learned its lesson after the second season...

* Want to know what do Kaiba's XYZ-Dragon Cannon and Mai's Harpy Lady Sisters have in common? Both of them can be tributed by their respective owners in order to summon a god card (despite not having any kind of effect that allows them to count as the three required sacrifices) because the pictures in each card depict three creatures.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has several; the most notable are:
** [[strike:[[BeamMeUpScotty Aim for the]]]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcwNYgBsFg "Pikachu! The horn!"]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBm18o4c-I Thunder Armor]]

* Even the spin-off series ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' isn't immune to this sort of shenanigans; in episode 130, when Judai summons Elemental Hero Neos with Elemental Hero Necro-darkman's effect, this is counted as a special summon so he could bring out Elemental Hero Chaos Neos. Then in episode 133, when Judai's opponent has a spell on the field that would destroy any monster he special summoned, the same combo is treated as a normal summon. Screw the rules, they mold themselves around whatever Judai needs at a given moment!
** For whatever little it's worth, the OCG effect sides with the latter episode.
* Surprisingly, ''YuGiOh5Ds'' manages to avert this most of the time, with most of the anime-only cards making actual sense. This is coming from an anime where card games are played on motorcycles.

* In the duel between Yugi and Pandora, the latter uses a magic card to inflict direct damage to the former, which would've zero'd Yugi's life points, therefore granting him the victory. But he doesn't win, because Yugi's Dark Magician, who was on the field, blocks the direct damage through... [[PowerOfFriendship the power of friendship]]. Yes, he's Mahad's soul, but this isn't a Shadow Game and this move doesn't make any sense by any logic (the [=4Kids=] version, interestingly, fixed this by giving the magic card a couple of extra effects to explain the happening).

* In the duel between Yugi and Pandora, the latter uses a magic card to inflict direct damage to the former, which would've zero'd Yugi's life points, therefore granting him the victory. But he doesn't win, because Yugi's Dark Magician, who was on the field, blocks the direct damage through... {{PowerOfFriendship the power of friendship}}. Yes, he's Mahad's soul, but this isn't a Shadow Game and this move doesn't make any sense by any logic (the [=4Kids=] version, interestingly, fixed this by giving the magic card a couple of extra effects to explain the happening).

* Freeform Polymerization. Characters on the show have this bizarre ability to take ANY creatures in play, merge them together and creature a cool new creature which they name by whim. FridgeLogic asks where the new cards come from.

*** Since we're on the Marik vs. Mai duel we may as well mention the second's Harpy Lady Sisters. Despite being a ''single'' monster card it counted as ''three'' sacrifices for the summon of the aforementioned God.

* Even the spin-off series {{Yu-Gi-OhGX}} isn't immune to this sort of shenanigans; in episode 130, when Judai summons Elemental Hero Neos with Elemental Hero Necro-darkman's effect, this is counted as a special summon so he could bring out Elemental Hero Chaos Neos. Then in episode 133, when Judai's opponent has a spell on the field that would destroy any monster he special summoned, the same combo is treated as a normal summon. Screw the rules, they mold themselves around whatever Judai needs at a given moment!

* Surprisingly, YuGiOh5Ds manages to avert this most of the time, with most of the anime-only cards making actual sense. This is coming from an anime where card games are played on motorcycles.