Parent's Yu Gi Oh! FAQ

1. Yu Gi Oh is pretty much a boy thing, mostly because it's perfectly crafted to feed most boys' instinctual attraction to power (as demonstrated by frequent interests in army, police, firemen, trains, race cars, etc.) At any tournament, there is perhaps one girl competing for every 40 boys.
2. Especially with effect monsters, magic, and traps, it causes boys to do a lot of critical reading. If they don't understand the often-subtle language and rules of the cards, they will not be competitive players. Reading level should challenge most boys up to 10 years old. Here's what one academic says.
3. Because of the complexity of the game, it forces players to do a great deal of analysis and strategic thinking. They have to do this to construct their decks, and also while dueling.
4. Based on my attendance at tournaments in the Washington DC metro area, dueling is a relatively wholesome activity. Even in marginal neighborhoods, the younger children who attend are obviously bright, and they are reasonably well behaved even when parents are absent. Challenged teens do occasionally play, but they are unusual.
5. You can get started in the game pretty cheaply, with a "Starter Deck", but your boy will always be wanting more cards, and you'll pay about $.40 per card for them in "Booster Packs" (about 9 cards in a sealed packet, for $3 to $5 per packet. There will be several different types of booster packs available at any store that carries them. A boy with some experience will want a particular pack, in hopes of getting the cards he wants in that series.
6. Any set of cards will be fine for playing with fellow novices, who generally don't fully understand the 37 pages of detailed rules, anyway. Younger boys may get interested from watching Yu Gi Oh! television shows, and will eagerly want the cards demonstrated in the shows they've seen.

If you reward good behavior, you can buy 1000 common cards for $28, and then dole out 10 random cards at a time as rewards for reading, eating, chores, or other good behavior.

Tournaments

1. If your boy masters the rules for the game, you could take him to a local tournament. He'll find this a real thrill (heart-pounding and scary, probably). The children he'll compete with there will generally have huge card collections, nearly complete knowledge of the rules, somewhat or highly competitive decks, and an understanding of play tactics that virtually guarantees your novice son will be crushed. To make matters worse, they'll likely descend on your son's cards and want to trade junk for the few valuable cards your son may have acquired in the booster packs people have bought for him. It's like trading a shiny penny for the old, well-worn quarter.
2. Tips: While trading cards is one of the most interesting aspects of the game, and teaches a variety of skills, you should probably limit trading until your son has played in a least a few tournaments and has a better appreciation of what is valuable. In general, holographic foil cards are worth $.25 - $2 each, silver foil lettering cards are worth $.05 - $.25, and others are worth $.01 each; however, there are many exceptions. Many parents are shocked to discover that the cards they've spent $50 on are characterized by 10-year-old experts as "junk" or "worthless".
3. Deck construction and advanced rules. To compete, your son will need to construct a deck whose cards work well with each other. Tournament competitive deck card listings can be found on-line. Note that the best decks cost hundreds of dollars to assemble, and require a very sophisticated understanding of the rules and card combinations. From my limited experience, it's probably better to focus on a theme deck, such as a water deck, a dragon deck, etc. These will cost less and be simpler for a novice to play.

This site is sponsored by BoysCanRead.com. We offer a super-cheap way to buy cards for your son (assuming he's a fairly new player). Just $20 for one thousands Yu Gi Oh! Cards.