Intro to Link Summoning Featuring Dinowrestlers

Intro to Link Summoning and Link Climbing

Feat. Dinosaurs/ Dinowrestlers

1200+ word article.

(In April 2023, I burnt out from being a teacher and applied to be a YGOPROdeck writer for some scratch cash for hobby writing. I sent a few articles and remember getting good feedback but then got ghosted. It didn't matter much anyways because even if I had gotten hired, my new job overwhelmed me to have little time to play YuGiOh or keep up with product)

I found this lesson article written hastily in a week for that position on my pc and decided to upload it here. 

Introduction

Link Monsters are some of the most versatile Extra Deck monsters in the YuGiOh trading card game, capable of being summoned using generic material. Link monsters can also add more strategy to a player’s extra deck and helping a player get out of a situation with no other meaningful plays. With their inclusion, players are also encouraged to consider which zones to place monsters, spells, and traps.

However, Link Monsters are arguably trickier to summon in contrast with their previous Extra Deck monster types: Fusions, Synchros, and XYZ with regards to Link Zones and Link Ratings. With the latest Wild Survivor Set bringing Dinosaurs back to the forefront, and seeing many players at my locals get into the game with the Traptrix structure deck, I wanted to write an introduction on how to Link Summon, using the Dinosaur archetype as an example and to see how the Dinosaur archetype link climbs with the new card support!

Link Summoning Basics

Link Summoning is most often performed by using Monsters a player controls as Link Material for a Link Monster. During their Main Phase, if the game state is open, the turn player can Link Summon a Link Monster from their Extra Deck by sending face-up monsters they control that correspond to the Link Monster’s summoning requirements equal Link Monster’s Link Rating to the Graveyard as Link Materials. The Link Monster is Summoned in either an Extra Monster Zone or a Main Monster Zone that a Link Monster on the field points to in face-up Attack Position.

Link Ratings are defined by the number on the Bottom Right, in the place where most monsters have a defense point number. The Link Rating is formed by the addition of Link Monster ratings and non-link Monsters used for the summon. For instance, the Link Monster Saryuja Skull Dread has a Link rating of 4 and has the Link Material requirement of “2+ monsters with different names”.  So, you could use a 4 monsters, a Link 3 and any other monster, two Link 2’s, etc. Another way to think of this is a non-link monster can be thought of as a Link 1 material.

Link Monsters are unique in that they are monsters that have no defense and can only be in face-up Attack Position, a condition that no other monster type has. Thus, cards that force monsters to be in defense position such as Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir or Scareclaw Tri-Heart have no effect on Link Monsters.

Link Arrows

Link Arrows are important as they give positions for which other Link Monsters can be summoned. However, more importantly, Link Monster often have abilities that correspond to the place where their arrows point.

Link Monsters are Summoned in either an Extra Monster Zone or a Main Monster Zone that a Link Monster on the field points to in face-up Attack Position. A player can only use one Extra Monster Zone. However, a player can claim both extra monster zones if their link monsters point to both monster zones, which is a very impressive feat. Unlike other extra deck monster types, which are free to be placed anywhere on your board, Link Monsters must be summoned to a zone a Link Monster Points to, otherwise they must be in the extra monster zones. As such, a player must be careful which zones they summon to. For instance, if a player fusion summoned a monster with a spell and placed that monster in the extra monster zone, and had no other link monsters, that player cannot link summon unless they use that fusion summoned monster as material.

Link Arrows are important because many Link Monster have special varying based on their Link Arrows. For instance, the Link 3 monster card Transcendonsarus Exaraptor has Link Arrows Pointing Up, Left, and Right. Its ability states that if a face-up Dinosaur monster(s) this points to is destroyed by battle or sent to the GY: You can draw one card. So, in the case of a dinosaur deck, a player could be encouraged to use the cards Lost World or Dogoroan, the Mad Flame Kaiju to summon a dinosaur in a zone that will point on the Link 3 monster will point to and destroy it later.

As a bit of trivia, upon release, players were not allowed to summon any Extra Deck monsters outside the two Extra Monster Zones unless linked. As such, link summoning on release was wedged into the game, and many players disliked the mechanic. Decks had to shoehorn link summoning into their deck. Alternatively, many tournament players used decks that did not utilize the extra deck at all such as Monarchs or True Dracos or used decks that banished Extra Deck monster such as True King Dinos.

Link Archetypes/ Strategies

Link Monsters are arguably the most versatile extra deck monster, requiring none of the specific monster levels that Synchros and XYZ require nor the Specific monsters that Fusions require. In addition, Link Monster have a host of generic support such as Knightmares, which can be used for spot removal, or Charmers. In addition, with boss monsters such as Appaloosa Bow of the Goddess and Accesscode Talkers, Link monsters are great for many decks that can produce many creatures in one turn. In addition, the classic sideboard card Dimensional Barrier does not prevent Link Monsters from being summoned from the extra deck and provides an alternate series of deck types against these duels. Duelists are encouraged to experiment with extra deck archetypes.

Several Archetypes revolve around Link Summoning multiple times to climb to more and more powerful monster. As such, the term Link Climbing became slang for using another Link Monster as material. Some classic decks include Salamgreats, Sky Strikers, @Ignister. Dinosaurs have their own specific archetype: Dinowrestlers, but most meta Dino decks splash generic Link Support for their strategy. As such, Duelists are encouraged to experiment with several rations of their monsters alongside other extra deck archetypes.

For this example, many Dinosaur Decks run many generic and niche Link cards to support this strategy. Link monsters are also great for extending plays or setting up future players. For instance, Dinosaur decks often use card Animadorned Archosaur to search for Double Evolution Pill. In order to achieve the requirements of a non-dinosaur monster for Pill, a player can link away Animadorned Archosaur with Linkuriboh, a Link 1 that can stall the game but also achieve the second monster necessary for pill. 

As a general guide, Link Decks would be advised to count their summons up to 4 in case of a Nibiru hand trap, which can be catastrophic against a Link Deck. If a player summons 5 or more monsters during their turn, Nibiru can be activated to tribute all monsters on the field. Against Link monster, this will end with each Link Monsters being tributed for 0 def. As such, players are advised to stop at 4 or end with a monster negate such as Apolloussa, Bow of the Goddess.

I hope this guide helped introduce you to the Link Summoning. While I had originally wanted to describe Link Monsters in Dinosaur decks, I was surprised to discover their rich and jaded history. I started the game a little confused with Link Monsters and Link scales, so I hope this guide makes players less confused and more intrigued. Today, I always manage to splash a few link monsters into most of my decks with their sheer versatility. I’m always excited to see more Link monsters being released into the game!