What is a Pendulum Monster?

Pendulum Monsters are a unique Main Deck monster that can be played as either Monster Cards or Spell Cards. These cards can appear complex and confusing at first, but once you understand what they are and how they work, you will find that they can be a useful tool in your belt! So, what is a Pendulum Monster? How do they work? Let’s take a look together and explore this unique Yugioh! card!

Pendulum Monsters

What is a Pendulum Monster? The Yugioh! Official Rulebook describes them as “a unique kind of card that blurs the line between Monsters and Spells!” A very apt description! A Pendulum Monster is a card that can act as either a monster or a spell. The background of the card features the tan or brown background of a Monster Card on the top, and the green color of a Spell Card on the bottom. These cards can be summoned just like regular monsters in your Main Monster Zones, or they can be played as in your leftmost or rightmost Spell and Trap Zones as Spell Cards. These two outermost Spell and Trap Zones are considered Pendulum Zones when Pendulum Cards are in play in those zones.

As a Monster

When played as a monster, a Pendulum Monster acts just as any other monster. It has a Level, a Type, an Attribute, ATK/DEF, and if it is an Effect Monster, it will have its effect printed on the card. Just as any other monster, a Pendulum Monster can be Normal Summoned, Set, Tribute Summoned, etc. However, if it would leave the Field, it is not sent to the GY, it actually goes to your Extra Deck face-up. The cool thing, you can Pendulum Summon Pendulum Monsters from your face-up Extra Deck! We will examine this in detail below.

As a Spell

You can also play Pendulum Monsters as Spell Cards in your leftmost and rightmost Spell and Trap Zones. These zones are called Pendulum Zones when Pendulum Monsters are in play. When played as Spell Cards, a Pendulum Monster acts like a Continuous Spell card. Many Pendulum monsters have passive spell effect like increasing stats or effects that can be activated like Special Summoning other monsters or searching for other cards. When used in a Pendulum Zone, these cards have a Pendulum Scale. These scales come into play when performing a Pendulum Summon. Speaking of…

Pendulum Summoning

Pendulum Summoning is a unique form of Special Summoning monsters. To perform a Pendulum Summon, you must have a Pendulum Monster in both of your Pendulum Zones. Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can Special Summon as many monsters as you want from your hand that have a Level that is between your Pendulum Scales. As an Example, if you control Amazoness Golden Whip Master (Pendulum Scale 1) and Amazoness Silver Sword Master (Pendulum Scale 7), you can Pendulum Summon monsters from your hand with a Level of 2 through 6. You can even Pendulum Summon Pendulum Monsters from your face-up Extra Deck, but you can only summon them to your Extra Monster Zone or a Main Monster Zone that your Link Monster Points to.

Pendulum Archetypes

Pendulum Monsters were introduced in Yugioh! ARC-V, and since then, many Pendulum Monsters have been introduced, and even many Pendulum-focused archetypes. Some of the most popular Pendulum archetypes are listed below. Give them a try today!

• Performapal
• Performage
• Abyss Actor
• Metalfoes
• Igknight
• Odd-Eyes
• Dinomist
• Solfachord
• Superheavy Samurai
• Majespecter
• Enneacraft
• Qliphort
• Mayosenju