Picture
Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format
  • Home
  • New to Goats?
    • What is Goat Format?
    • Why Should I Play?
    • Getting Into Goat Format
  • How to Play
    • Rules/Game Mechanics
    • Card Pool & Ban List
    • Rules & Policies >
      • Individual Rulings
      • Ruling Notices
    • Play Online
  • Decks
    • Tier List
    • Goat Control
    • Thunder Dragon Chaos
    • Chaos Control
    • Anti-Meta Warriors
    • Reasoning Gate Combo
    • Burn
    • Chaos Recruiter
    • Empty Jar
    • Flip Control
    • Rogue Deck Spotlight
  • Strategy
    • Beginner Strategy
    • Advanced Strategy
    • Card of the Week
    • Talking Goats
    • Duel Reviews
  • Tournaments
    • Tournament Info
    • World Championships >
      • 2021
      • 2020
    • Tournament Coverage (Modern) >
      • Goat Format Championships
      • SJC Freeroll
      • Other Tournaments
    • Tournament Coverage (Historic) >
      • SJC Indianapolis
      • SJC Seattle
      • US Nationals
      • SJC Charlotte
      • SJC New Jersey
    • Ranked Play
  • Store & Support
    • Store

Rules/Game Mechanics

11/10/2018

13 Comments

 
If you play current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, learning the rules of Goat Format will not be difficult. Believe it or not, the vast majority of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s rules have not changed at all over the years. The differences that do exist are in many cases quite subtle. They are listed below. It's important to note here that if a rule is not explicitly listed here is being different in goat format, you can assume that it works the exact same way as it does in the current format. For specific card rulings, see our Individual Rulings page.
​

Goat Format Rule #1: Start With 6

​Unlike in current Yu-Gi-Oh!, the player who goes first will draw a card at the start of their first draw phase. This means that they will initially have 6 cards in their starting hand.
​

Goat Format Rule #2: Unlimited Fusion Deck and Main Deck

​Before synchros were introduced to the game, the extra deck was called the fusion deck, and it could contain as many cards as you wanted! For online dueling simulators that restrict you to only 15 cards, use the following convention: Add the 15 fusions that you think you will be most likely to use, and then if you happen to need one that you didn't add, simply use a different fusion as a proxy.

Example: You activate Snatch Steal on your opponent's Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast, and use Metamorphosis on it, with the intention of summoning a King Dragun. But you did not put King Dragun in your 15-card fusion deck. You inform your opponent of this fact, special summon a Darkfire Dragon from your fusion deck instead, and say, "This Darkfire Dragon will represent a King Dragun." You then send your opponent a link to King Dragun's text so that they know what it does.

Additionally, in Goat Format, the main deck was allowed to be unlimited as well. One person even took a 1000+ card deck to a national tournament! Unfortunately however, most online dueling simulators will not allow more than 60 cards to be placed into a deck, and there is no easy work-around.
​

Goat Format Rule #3: One Field Spell to Rule Them All

It is not possible for both players to control a face-up active field spell. If the activation of a field spell resolves while the opponent controls a face-up field spell, the previous field spell is destroyed. It's worth noting that (in both goat format and current format) field spells must be face-up to resolve.

Example 1: Player A controls a face-up Necrovalley. Player B activates A Legendary Ocean. Player A has no response, and Necrovalley is destroyed.
Example 2: Player A control a face-up Necrovalley. Player B sets A Legendary Ocean face-down. Player A's Necrovalley will remain face-up on the field.
Example 3: Player A controls a face-up Necrovalley. Player B activates A Legendary Ocean. Player A chains Mystical Space Typhoon, targeting A Legendary Ocean. Player B has no response. A Legendary Ocean was destroyed, so it does not resolve, and Necrovalley will remain face-up on the field.
​

Goat Format Rule #4: Priority for Ignition Effects

Priority is often misunderstood by newer Goat Format players, but it's actually not very complicated. The current format rules on what Konami calls "fast effect timing" and "open and closed gamestates" are found by clicking here. This is the same mechanic as what people in 2005 called "priority." Believe it or not, with one exception, everything that you will find on Konami's chart is the same in Goat Format.

In current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, when a chain or summon has finished resolving, the turn player can activate a "fast effect" (spell speed 2 or higher) before the opponent can. In Goat Format, when a chain or summon has finished resolving, the turn player can activate a "fast effect" or a monster's ignition effect before the opponent is allowed to respond. This change does not affect how trigger effects work.

Example 1: Player A summons Tribe-Infecting Virus. Player A can activate the effect of Tribe-Infecting Virus before player B can activate Book of Moon.
Example 2: Player A controls a face-up Cannon Soldier and summons Sangan. Player A can activate the effect of Cannon Soldier, tributing Sangan, before player B can activate Torrential Tribute.
Example 3: Player A summons Breaker the Magical Warrior, and its trigger effect to add a spell counter is activated. Player B may chain Ring of Destruction to destroy Breaker the Magical and deal 1600 damage before player A can use Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy a spell/trap card. However, if he has no response to Breaker the Magical Warrior's trigger effect, then the chain will resolve, and player A can activate an ignition effect (such as Breaker the Magical Warrior's ignition effect to destroy a spell/trap card) before player B can activate his Ring of Destruction.

For more detail on this frequently misunderstood game mechanic, see: 6 Facts That You Should Know About Priority.
​

Goat Format Rule #5: Replaying Attacks

In Yu-Gi-Oh!, a replay occurs when the number of the opponent's monsters changes during the battle step of the turn player. The attacking monster may then decide to attack the same monster, a different monster, or not attack at all. In current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, this replay mechanic is considered to be a "redirection" of the same attack, whereas in Goat Format, play rewinds back to the beginning of the battle step where the attack may be re-declared. This means that if the attacking player decides not to attack at all with the monster involved in the replay, it may attack again later in the battle phase.

Example 1: Player A controls an Airknight Parshath and a D.D. Warrior Lady. He declares a direct attack with Airknight Parshath, and player B activates Call of the Haunted, special summoning Dark Magician. A replay occurs, and player A attacks Dark Magician with D.D. Warrior Lady, using its effect. Then Airknight Parshath attacks directly.
Example 2: Player A attacks directly with D.D. Warrior Lady. Player B activates Call of the Haunted, special summoning Sangan. A replay occurs, and player A has D.D. Warrior Lady attack Sangan. Player B activates Sakuretsu Armor to destroy D.D. Warrior Lady.
​

Goat Format Rule #6: Continuous Traps with Ignition-Like Effects

​Unlike in current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, continuous traps with ignition-like effects cannot be flipped faceup and use their ignition-like effects at the same time. They must be flipped face-up "preemptively" so to speak. This is best demonstrated by example.

Example 1: Player A activates Scapegoat while player B controls a facedown Royal Oppression. If player B activates his set Royal Oppression as a chain to Scapegoat, he would not be able to also negate the activation of Scapegoat with Royal Oppression's ignition-like effect. Royal Oppression must already be faceup before Scapegoat is activated in order for Royal Oppression's ignition-like effect to be used.
Example 2: Player A tribute summons Mobius the Frost Monarch and uses its effect to target player B's face-down Skull Lair. Player B could activate his set Skull Lair as a chain to Mobius the Frost Monarch's effect, but he could not use Skull Lair's ignition-like effect to destroy Mobius the Frost Monarch at the same time. Skull Lair must have already been face-up before Mobius the Frost Monarch was summoned in order for its ignition-like effect to be chained to Mobius the Frost Monarch's effect.
​

Goat Format Rule #7: Verifying Hands and Decks

Effects that require hands or decks to be revealed in order to ensure that they have resolved correctly must always be carried out, even if knowledge of the games rules or forbidden/limited list already provide you with enough information to verify that they have resolved correctly.

Example 1: Player A activates Mind Crush, naming D.D. Warrior Lady. Player B discards D.D. Warrior Lady from his hand. Even though D.D. Warrior Lady is limited to 1, player B must still reveal his hand to verify that Mind Crush has resolved correctly.
Example 2: Nobleman of Extermination is activated and banishes Sakuretsu Armor. Both players banish a total of 3 copies of Sakuretsu Armor from their deck. They still must reveal their decks to each other to verify that Nobleman of Extermination has resolved correctly.

However, it's worth noting that tournament policy at the time stated that the purpose of checking decks was not to memorize the entire contents of the opponent's deck and was to be conducted in a quick fashion to not interrupt the flow of the game. When playing Goat Format online, players are able to screenshot each other's decks in order to gain perfect information without anyone knowing, violating the spirit of the rule regarding deck verification. Because of this, when playing online, it has become standard conduct to not verify each other's decks for cards such as Nobleman of Crossout and Nobleman of Extermination. Instead, to ensure that these cards have resolved correctly, players can simply use the replays at the end of the match.
​

Goat Format Rule #8: Failure to Find

​Cards that search the deck can be used without any legal options. The one weird exception to this rule is The Agent of Creation - Venus, whose effect still requires Mystical Shine Balls in the deck to be used.

Example 1: Player A discards Thunder Dragon to search his deck for more copies of Thunder Dragon, even though he knows that he has none. The deck is still shuffled afterwards.
Example 2: Player A activates Reinforcement of the Army and finds that his deck contains no warrior monsters. The deck is shuffled, and Reinforcement of the Army is placed in the graveyard.
​

Goat Format Rule #9: One Chain Per Damage Sub-Step

​In current Yu-Gi-Oh!, an unlimited number of chains can be activated during the damage step, in the "before damage calculation" window. In goat format, only one chain can be formed during this time. This comes up incredibly rarely, as there are only few viable cards in goat format that can be activated in the damage step in the first place.

Example: Player A has his X-Head Cannon attack player B's Airknight Parshath. In the damage step, player A activates Limiter Removal. Player B chains Solemn Judgment. The chain resolves, and X-Head Cannon will be destroyed in battle before player A has the opportunity to activate another Limiter Removal.
​

Goat Format Rule #10: Game & Match Draws

This can be a confusing topic for some people, because the rulebook that was distributed at the time during Goat Format actually contained incorrect information about draws that was not applied in tournaments that were ran during this time.

Although the rulebook stated that a match could end in a draw (e.g. 1 win + 1 loss + 1 draw = 1 match draw), this was not applied at tournaments, as it was literally impossible to enter a match draw into the tournament software. Matches must always be played until one player has won 2 duels.

Goat Format Rule #11: Trigger Recognition

In Goat Format, triggers can be recognized as being met in the middle of a chain, whereas in current format Yu-Gi-Oh! this is generally not the case. Tricks involving moving monsters to a different location to prevent them from triggering will not work in Goat Format. However, like in current Yu-Gi-Oh!, trigger effects cannot be met while the monster is in the deck.

Example 1: Player A activates Compulsory Evacuation Device, targeting Player B's set Magician of Faith. Player B chains Desert Sunlight. Desert Sunlight resolves, reveals the Magician of Faith, which the gamestate now recognizes as being triggered. Compulsory Evacuation Devices returns the Magician of Faith to Player B's hand. A new chain is formed with Magician of Faith's effect as chain link 1.
Example 2: Player A activates Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, targeting Player B's set Magician of Faith. Player B chains Desert Sunlight. Desert Sunlight resolves, reveals the Magician of Faith, which the gamestate now recognizes as being triggered. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast returns the Magician of Faith to the top of Player B's deck. Magician of Faith's effect is not activated, because monster effects cannot be activated in the deck.
​

Goat Format Rule #12: Monsters Equipping Monsters

In the goat format, if a monster like Relinquished or Thousand-Eyes Restrict tries to equip an opponent's monster to itself, and an effect is chained that causes Relinquished/Thousand-Eyes Restrict to be removed from the field or flipped facedown, the opponent keeps their monster (it is not sent to the graveyard). On the contrary, in current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, the monster would in fact be sent to the graveyard.

Example 1: Player A activates the effect of Thousand-Eyes Restrict, targeting Player B's Dark Magician. Player B chains Book of Moon, targeting Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Book of Moon resolves, flipping Thousand-Eyes Restrict facedown. Then Thousand-Eyes Restrict resolves without effect, and Player B keeps their Dark Magician.
Example 2: Player A activates the effect of Relinquished, targeting Player B's set monster. Player B chains Raigeki Break, targeting Relinquished. Raigeki Break resolves, destroying Relinquished. Then Relinquished resolves without effect, and Player B keeps their set monster.

Goat Format Rule #13: Changed Control and Battle Positions

In current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, the battle position of a monster can never be changed during the turn that it was summoned. In Goat Format, there is one weird exception to this rule. If you take control of one of your opponent's monsters, you will always be entitled to your manual battle position even if it was just summoned that turn.

Example 1: Player B activates Scapegoat during Player A's turn. Player A activates Snatch Steal on one of the sheep tokens and switches it to attack mode.
​Example 2: Player A activates The Shallow Grave, and Player B special summons Magician of Faith facedown. Player A activates Mind Control on Magician of Faith and flip summons it.
​

Goat Format Rule #14: 0 ATK vs 0 ATK

In current format Yu-Gi-Oh!, when two attack position monsters with 0 attack points battle each other, neither one is destroyed. On the contrary, in Goat Format, both monsters are destroyed in battle. This, however, comes up very rarely.
13 Comments
Bryan Ha
12/16/2018 11:37:26 am

Hello,

What ruling do we use for traps such as Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute in Damage? Example, Player A attacks PlayerB’s Mystic Tomato. player B activates Mystic Tomato and Special Summons Spirit Reaper. Does Player A have the ability to activate his Face Down Torrential Tribute to wipe the field? I know this was an old ruling that did not get changed until 2006 I think? But just wondering if this applies in any online tournaments.

Reply
GoatFormat.com - ACP
12/16/2018 11:48:40 am

Note the underlined text that says, "If a rule is not explicitly listed here is being different in goat format, you can assume that it works the exact same way as it does in the current format." Torrential Tribute cannot be used in the damage step in Goat Format, nor has it ever been ruled that it can.

This is also evident if you view our Individual Rulings section and search for Torrential Tribute: https://www.goatformat.com/home/individual-rulings

"Torrential Tribute" cannot be activated during the Damage Step. This prohibits "Torrential Tribute" from being used against monsters Special Summoned by "Mystic Tomato", "Giant Rat", "Nimble Momonga", "Masked Dragon", and other such cards that Special Summon a monster when destroyed as a result of battle, as well as "Cyber Jar" or "Morphing Jar #2" that is flipped face-up by an attack.

Reply
mario link
2/21/2019 02:15:48 pm

Hey, thank you for these rulings, question, if i were to translate this page over to spanish (for the sake of the spanish speaking community that plays goat) would you be able to include it here or an option to toggle to spanish and of course credit me, not asking for any payment or compensation just credit and my community really really needs this lol.

Reply
Jazz link
2/27/2019 08:12:16 pm

This rule should be taken down as it contradicts anecdotes from players who played at the time, as well as all the feature matches from US Nationals:(http://kperovic.com/metagame/yugioh0347.html?tabid=61&EventId=74)

"Goat Format Rule #7: Verifying Hands and Decks
Effects that require hands or decks to be revealed in order to ensure that they have resolved correctly must always be carried out, even if knowledge of the games rules or forbidden/limited list already provide you with enough information to verify that they have resolved correctly."

Reply
Mindlash
3/5/2019 06:40:48 pm

So after a long break I am getting back to Yugioh. Goat format sounds interesting. Am I correct that the rulebook 5.0 is used here?

Thanks for your reply in advance and have a nice day!

Greetings Chris

Reply
Max K
6/28/2019 08:20:46 am

I want to mention something about rule 10, drawing games. I played a deck that had no win condition, only seeking to rush out self-destruct button, just to screw with people. The tournament organizers had to call Konami because the system would not allow them to enter draws as a conclusion, and Konami's ruling was that a match, 3 games, where the end of each match was a draw, was considered a 0/0/0 loss for both players.

It really held up the tournament for a while and I was told if I entered with that deck again I would be instantly disqualified, but it was still a good time.

Reply
anyu
11/29/2019 11:43:34 am

Rule 14 was never a thing if I play goat format I'm not using rules that never existed period. Also some of these rules like the field center rule, I feel would be more interesting if we went by the current rulings making strategy's more interesting if both players could have field cards up.

Reply
anyu
11/29/2019 11:46:24 am

*field spell zone rules*

Reply
Simon
12/30/2019 01:03:02 pm

Can you premature burial a fusion monster that was summoned by metamorphosis? On the wiki an outdated rulling says you can't use the card because it was not summoned properly. I just assumed this outdated rulling was correct durring GOAT format.

Reply
CelticsPhan
2/28/2020 03:17:09 pm

that's the correct ruling for goat format and current. You also can't prem a Chaos Sorcerer unless it was properly special summoned to the field

Reply
AstralShade1
3/13/2020 05:59:43 am

The Rule about draw like card destruction that can be active even if a player cannot draw the same number of cards discarted, unlike curret format

Also what about Priority
Trigger Effect like King Tiger vs Exiled force cannot actived prior in this case, also priority applies with cards like call or prema ? At resolution of a card which cards have priority to active before the monster can active
And the timing so if a monster is returned with dimension fusion so example DMOC effect actived, can a monster actived priority for its effecr? And what about priority when 2 or more monster are summon at the same time?

Reply
Anon
6/16/2020 03:59:14 pm

Does rule 11 apply to priority effects as well? For example player 1 summons a chaos sorcerer and uses its effects declaring priority, player 2 chains phoenix wing wind blast targeting chaos sorcerer in response. would chaos sorcerers effect resolve to banish target if he has been put back into the deck by the phoenix wing wind blast?

Reply
A
11/20/2020 06:28:01 pm

Ruling #12 is actually completely incorrect, and whoever wrote it has no concept of how effects, negation, and equip cards work.

Player A activates Thousand-Eyes Restrict's effect as cl1 and targets Player B's monster. Player B activates Book of Moon as cl2 and targets TER. Chains resolve in reverse order. BoM's effect resolves, flipping TER face-down. Here's where you made an illegal ruling:

Now TER's effect must resolve because it has not been negated. An effect only resolves without effect, if it has been negated. Player B's monster is now treated as an equip spell card and targets TER. Equip cards constantly target the monster they are equipped to. If the equipped monster is no longer face-up on the field, or is no longer a valid target, the equip card is immediately destroyed. This is clearly printed in the 2005 rulebook. Since TER is no longer face-up on the field at the time of resolution, Player B's monster is sent to the GY by game mechanic.

The way equip cards work has not changed since 1999 OCG. Yes, Upper Deck Entertainment had their own judges and issued their own rulings at TCG tournaments. But guess what? UDE was wrong. There are several cases where their rulings were in conflict with Konami's back in 2005, which is when goat format took place, and thus UDE's rulings must be considered illegal. There is plenty of evidence that proves this, which can be found in OCG rulebooks, rulings, and video games from the era. And guess what else? UDE rulings have since been deemed unofficial by Konami. So now you are making illegal rulings.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Categories

    Announcements
    Card of the Week
    Duel Reviews
    Hall of Fame
    Rogue Deck Spotlight
    ​Rulings
    Strategy: Advanced
    Strategy: Beginner
    Talking Goats
    Tournament Coverage

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2015
  • Home
  • New to Goats?
    • What is Goat Format?
    • Why Should I Play?
    • Getting Into Goat Format
  • How to Play
    • Rules/Game Mechanics
    • Card Pool & Ban List
    • Rules & Policies >
      • Individual Rulings
      • Ruling Notices
    • Play Online
  • Decks
    • Tier List
    • Goat Control
    • Thunder Dragon Chaos
    • Chaos Control
    • Anti-Meta Warriors
    • Reasoning Gate Combo
    • Burn
    • Chaos Recruiter
    • Empty Jar
    • Flip Control
    • Rogue Deck Spotlight
  • Strategy
    • Beginner Strategy
    • Advanced Strategy
    • Card of the Week
    • Talking Goats
    • Duel Reviews
  • Tournaments
    • Tournament Info
    • World Championships >
      • 2021
      • 2020
    • Tournament Coverage (Modern) >
      • Goat Format Championships
      • SJC Freeroll
      • Other Tournaments
    • Tournament Coverage (Historic) >
      • SJC Indianapolis
      • SJC Seattle
      • US Nationals
      • SJC Charlotte
      • SJC New Jersey
    • Ranked Play
  • Store & Support
    • Store