Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon

Subject: Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:18 pm

Hi everyone

I'm here today to teach you about Pendulum Summons. What are they, what can they do, how can they be stopped AND how do they work? That, and many more questions will be answered in this lesson.

The Field

Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon Info_pendulum_zone

Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon Info_pendulum_zone

The 2 field zones that are marked, are called the Pendulum Zones. There is a Blue Pendulum Zone and a Red Pendulum Zone. You might think that isn't important, but it just might be in the future.

Let's see why.

Pendulum Monster

A Pendulum Monster is a combination of 2 cards. A Monster and a Spell Card. This is obviously why it has 2 colours.

This also means you can play a Pendulum Monster in 2 ways. You can just Summon it like a Monster Card, in any of the 5 Monster Card Zones; or you can activate it as a Spell Card in either one of the Pendulum Zones (being the Blue one or the Red one).

What you can also see, is that a Pendulum Monsters has 2 seperate parts of effects, and also those Pendulum Marks, both left and right.

These Pendulum Marks are called Scales. There is a Blue Scale and a Red Scale. These Scales are important together with the Field.
When you activate a Pendulum Monster as a Spell Card, you count the Blue Scale if you placed the card in the Blue Pendulum Zone, and you count the Red Scale if you activate the Card in the Red Pendulum Zone.

Spoiler:

Remark: As of now, we don't have monsters with a different Blue/Red Scale, but in the future that might actually be done.

2 Effects?

A Pendulum Monster has 2 kind of effects. 1 which is active, while the card is in the Pendulum Zone, and 1 which is active while it is in the Monster Card Zone. (When the Pendulum Monster is also a Normal Monster (no effect), it will just have a card lore in the second effect box.)

The effect in between it's Pendulum Scales is the effect that the card gets while being in the Pendulum Zone.

The other card text is the effect that it has while being a monster. (If the monster in question is a Normal Monster, it obviously won't have a secondary effect.)

Pendulum Summon

Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon Pendulum_Summon_Chart

Game Mechanic Lesson: Pendulum Summon Pendulum_Summon_Chart

As you can see in the upper most picture, you can see both Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician been placed in the Pendulum Zones.

Stargazer has Scale 1, and Timegazer has Scale 8 (If you think you can't see it, just click on their names, in the previous sentence. They'll link you to the picture.), which makes it so, you can Special Summon a bunch of Level 2 to 7 Monsters.

Those Monsters have to be Summoned from your Hand and/or, if they are Pendulum Monsters, from your Extra Deck. This proces seems hard, but it's actually pretty simple. You can easily see this in this video:

You can perform 1 Pendulum Summon per turn.

Remember: All these monsters are summoned at the same time, and the Summon itself counts as an Inherent Summon, which means it isn't chainable. (Can't use Maxx "C" as a chain against it for example.)

Examples of Countering the Pendulum Summon

Solemn Warning: This card is the best anwer for a Pendulum Summon. All the Monsters that were Summoned go to the Graveyard, and are counted not to have touched the Field.
Thunder King Rai-Oh: You can only use his effect to Negate the Summon if the Opponent uses his Pendulum Summon to Summon 1 Monster. If the opponent Summons more than 1, Thunder King can't be activated.
Black Horn of Heaven: Same ruling as with Thunder King Rai-Oh
Bottomless Trap Hole: Banish all monsters with 1500 ATK or more that are Pendulum Summoned.
Torrential Tribute: Destroys all Monsters on the Field, on the moment of the Summon.
Deep Dark Trap Hole: This card Banishes all the Level 5 or above Special Summoned Monsters (really good against Qliphort).

Game Mechanics

There are some Game Mechanic Rules that always have to be followed. Make sure to remember them.

You cannot set a Pendulum Monster in the Pendulum Zone. They can only be activated Face-Up, and will remain that way, untill they are removed from the field.
A Pendulum Card that leaves the field and goes to the Graveyard, is send to the Extra Deck instead. It goes Face-Up on the Top of you Extra Deck.

This counts for: Tribute, Synchro Material, Fusion Material, Destroyed by Battle or by Effect and even when Send to the Graveyard. So not for Xyz Material.
You cannot move a Pendulum Card from the Monster Card Zone to the Pendulum Zone, or vica versa.
You cannot send a Pendulum Card from your Pendulum Zone to the Graveyard to activate another one. (They aren't Field Spells).
Each player can only perform 1 Pendulum Summon per turn.

These Mechanics can be exploited to counter Pendulums in general. Here are some examples.

Anti-Spell Fragrance: Since Pendulum Cards can't be set in the Pendulum Zone, and they count as a Spell while being activated like this, people can't activate Pendulum Cards at all when Fragrance is on the field.
Macro Cosmos: This is a harsh one to explain, but I'll do my best.
Both Macro Cosmos and Pendulum Cards Game Mechanics say "When cards are send to the Graveyard, move them ... instead".
Basically Macro wants to Banish them, and the Pendulums want to go to the Extra Deck.
Now, there is a rule in Yugioh, that if there is doubt thanks to 2 similar effects between card effects and game mechanics, the Card's Effect takes effect over the Game Mechanic.

In this case, Macro Cosmos will win, and the Pendulums are Banished instead of being send to the Extra Deck.
Dimensional Fissure: Same ruling as with Macro Cosmos, BUT the Pendulum Cards that are in the Pendulum Zone are treated as Spell Cards. They'll go to the Extra Deck when they are destroyed.
Banisher of the Radiance: Same ruling as with Macro Cosmos.
Mystical Space Typhoon: When the Pendulum Card is activated in the Pendulum Zone, and you chain Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it, the Pendulum Card will count as never touched the field. This results into the Pendulum Card going to the Graveyard.
Solemn Warning: When a Pendulum Summon is performed and Solemn Warning is activated, all the Monsters are send to the Graveyard, since they never touched the field.

That was the lesson on Pendulum Summons. There is no set Homework on it for now. I hope you guys learned something thanks to this, and I love to hear your tips and questions about this lesson.