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Ritual Spell Card

Ritual Icon
Ritual Icon

Japanese

() (しき) () (ほう) カード

Japanese (ruby)

ぎしきまほうカード

Japanese (base text)

儀式魔法カード

Japanese (romanized)

Gishiki Mahō Kādo

Japanese (translated)

Ritual Magic Card

English

Ritual Spell Card
Formerly: Ritual Magic Card

Lists

Ritual Spell Cards (Japanese: () (しき) () (ほう) カード Gishiki Mahō Kādo), known as Ritual Magic Cards in the TCG prior to Magician's Force and the OCG, are a type of Spell Card used to Ritual Summon Ritual Monsters.

Ritual Spell Cards typically require the following conditions to be met in order to be activated:

  • A free Spell & Trap Zone to activate the Ritual Spell Card in, if the Ritual Spell Card is not already Set.
  • The corresponding Ritual Monster in your hand. Or in the stated zone, if any, and stated otherwise.
  • Monsters in your hand and/or on your side of the field whose total Levels are at least the Level of the Ritual Monster. (Some Ritual Spell Cards require the total Levels to be exactly equal to the Level of the Ritual Monster.)
  • A free Monster Zone into which to Summon the Ritual Monster, or at least one monster on the field that you are planning to Tribute for the Ritual Summon.

Playing style[]

Ritual Spell Cards tend to be demanding to use, due to their highly specific activation requirements and heavy cost, and for that reason they are arguably the least used type of Spell Cards. To make up for these design flaws, they contain numerous generic support cards to search them, such as Pre-Preparation of Rites, Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, and Herald of the Arc Light.

Historically, "Advanced Ritual Art" was often used over other Ritual Spell Cards due to its ability to use monsters from the Main Deck instead of the field or hand. While the aforementioned generic support cards have made it less necessary, decks like Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon OTK still utilise it for its synergy with Normal Monsters.

Some Ritual Spell Cards, such as those for "Divine Grace - Northwemko" and "Garlandolf, King of Destruction", "Ritual of Grace" and "Ritual of Destruction" respectively, have secondary effects that can be activated by banishing the Ritual Spell Card from the Graveyard. Gishki Aquamirror infamously allowed itself to be returned to the deck to recover a Gishki Ritual Monster from the graveyard, allowing for GishKill FTK to become possible; this would lead to the introduction of the "hard" once per turn restriction on modern cards. When the Nekroz archetype was released, graveyard effects on Ritual Spells became a staple in their design, with each of the Nekroz Ritual Spells having the ability to banish themselves and a Nekroz Ritual Monster to get another Ritual Spell.

The "Impcantation", "Gishki" and "Nekroz" archetypes support Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spell Cards in general. In addition, the "Djinn of Rituals" series of monsters supports Ritual Spell Cards by being able to banish themselves from the Graveyard in place of or in addition to the monsters required by the Ritual Spell Card.

Example[]

BlackLusterRitual-YGLD-EN-C-1E

Trivia[]

  • "Forbidden Arts of the Gishki" is the only Ritual Spell Card that allows its controller to Tribute the opponent's monsters.
  • "Gishki Photomirror" is the only Ritual Spell Card that requires its controller to pay Life Points instead of Tributing monsters.
  • "Nekroz Kaleidoscope" is the only Ritual Spell Card that can Ritual Summon multiple Ritual Monsters simultaneously.
  • "Machine Angel Absolute Ritual" is the only Ritual Spell that allows the player to return Fairy and Warrior monsters from the Graveyard to the deck in place of Tributes.
  • In some early video games, Ritual Spell Cards were colored blue like Ritual Monsters in the OCG/TCG, instead of the usual green.
  • There are multiple Traps that function as Ritual Spells, altough they are not called "Ritual Traps"; examples are "Renewal of the World" and "Vendread Reunion".
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