Basic FAQ: Winning, Losing, & Drawing a Duel

Victory conditions refer to the various ways a player can win a Duel.

Normal Victory Conditions

These are the typical ways to win in the game's mechanics.

Your opponent's Life Points are reduced to 0.

Your opponent has no cards in his/her Main Deck when he/she is required to draw a card.

Your opponent surrenders.

Most major tournament duels are timed. If time runs out and the Duel has not ended, the player with more Life Points wins. If Life Points are tied at this point, "Sudden Death" ensues; when the first change in Life Points happens, the player with more is deemed the Winner.

Special Victory Conditions

These cards allow you to win the duel through their effects.

Exodia the Forbidden One: If your hand contains this card along with "Left Arm of the Forbidden One", "Right Arm of the Forbidden One", "Left Leg of the Forbidden One" and "Right Leg of the Forbidden One", you win the Duel.

Destiny Board: If this card places "Spirit Message "I"", "Spirit Message "N"", "Spirit Message "A"" and "Spirit Message "L"" all on your side of the field in that order through its effect, you win the Duel. "Destiny Board" can place one "Spirit Message" card from your hand or Deck at the end of each of your opponent's turns.

Final Countdown: Once this card is activated by paying 2000 Life Points, you win the Duel in 20 turns.

Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes: If this card has three Hyper-Venom Counters on it, you win the Duel. "Vennominaga" gains a Hyper-Venom Counter every time it inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points.

Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord: If five different "Forbidden One" cards are in your Graveyard that were sent there by the this card's effect, you win the Duel. "Exodius" sends monsters from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard every time it attacks.

The Creator God of Light, Horakhty: If this card is Summoned, you win the Duel. The only way to Summon "Horakhty" is by Tributing monsters whose original (printed) names are "Slifer the Sky Dragon", "Obelisk the Tormentor" and "The Winged Dragon of Ra", meaning that you cannot use cards like "Phantom of Chaos" to copy any card names. The Summon of "Horakhty" cannot be negated, so cards like "Solemn Judgment", "Solemn Warning", etc. are useless against it.

Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo: If this has three Destiny Counters on it, you win the Duel. "Leo" can gain a Destiny Counter once per turn by detaching an Xyz Material, but in order to do so, you must control no Spells or Traps (except Field Spells) and must skip that turn's Battle Phase.

Last Turn: When you activate this card, you choose one monster you control, and all other cards on the field and in both players' hands are sent to the Graveyard. Your opponent then Special Summons a monster from their Deck. A special Battle Phase occurs in which the two monsters battle and Battle Damage is ignored. The player whose monster remains alone on the field at the End Phase of this turn wins the Duel. This card is currently Forbidden in the Advanced Format.

Match Winners: If a Match Winner attacks your opponent directly and makes their Life Points 0 by the Battle Damage it inflicted, you win the entire Match instead of just the Duel. All Match Winners printed are Illegal, except for "Victory Dragon", which is instead Forbidden in the Advanced Format.

Deuce: If you damage your opponent two times in a row after activating this card, you win the Duel. This is an anime-only card.

Altering Victory Conditions

Divine Serpent: While you control this face-up card, you cannot lose the Duel. This is an anime-only card.

Relay Soul, and Zero Gate of the Void: When successfully activated, these cards permanently replace all of the opponent's Victory Conditions with the sole Victory Condition of destroying a particular monster on the field. This also means that if the monster later leaves the field without being destroyed, the opponent will have no way to win the Duel, apart from the player voluntarily surrendering. Relay Soul is an anime-only card, while Zero Gate of the Void is a manga-only card.

Infernity Zero: While this card is face-up on the field, it removes the opponent's Victory Condition of being able to win if the player's Life Points become 0. This card exists only in the anime and in the video game Tag Force 6.

Other

Yata-Garasu: In most video games, if a player successfully inflicts Battle Damage to their opponent with "Yata-Garasu" while the opponent controls no cards and has no cards in their hand, the opponent will automatically be forced to surrender the Duel during their next Main Phase, because of "Yata-Garasu"'s lockdown effect. This automatic surrender applies to human players as well as CPU players, and occurs even if, for example, the controller of "Yata-Garasu" had no cards left in their Deck and would have lost had their opponent not surrendered.