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Step 1
Prepare your deck by first making sure there are no more than three copies of the same card in your deck. Your deck should contain a minimum of 40 cards. You can also have a 15 card side deck that is separate from your 40 card deck. During a duel, you can exchange a card in your normal deck for a card from your 15 card deck to suit your strategy. Shuffle your deck before you begin your first duel with an opponent. Also, before beginning, make an agreement with opponents about whether the winner is allowed to keep specific cards from the loser.
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Step 2
Decide who draws first by flipping a coin. If it's a repeating duel, the loser of the previous game draws first. Each player must draw five cards from his deck.
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Step 3
Lay down a card in the field card zone, monster card zone, fusion deck zone, magic and trap card zone, or deck zone. Place cards that have lost a battle into the graveyard zone.
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Step 4
Start your card battles by reading the instruction on your field cards. Once the opposing player has laid down her card against yours, the players will able to determine if the card is powerful enough to beat the other player's card by reading what both cards say. For example, a card may explicitly say that your thunder attack beats your opponent's wind attack. However, most field cards have similar strengths, so players have to advance the battle by using their other types---like the monster or magic cards---of special cards from one of the zones.
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Step 5
Continue battling until your opponent runs out of cards in his deck or until he has zero points. A player with a smaller number of cards could still win but having more cards does put you at an advantage. It's up the players how they want their battles to end.
