Can I play Yu-Gi-Oh! with only level 5 or higher cards?

Question

I only have level 5 or higher cards. I am not sure if I can build a deck and play with only such cards. Is it possible or recommended thing to do?

Answer 1

Is it possible or recommended thing to do?

Possible yes. You can build your deck with the kind of cards you want. If that means a preference for lvl. 5 or higher monsters it's ok, as long as you respect the current banlist and card limits.

Recommended... perhaps not. Why? Because by only having lvl. 5 or higher monsters the only way to summon them would be by Special Summon or by Tribute Summon... as you have no lvl. 4 or lower monsters that you can Normal Summon without tribute, Tribute summoning your lvl 5+ monsters would be near impossible.

You would have to rely on strategies revolving cards like Cost Down or Ancient Rules to be able to summon your lvl. 5+ monsters without having to tribute... but that may not be the most efficient strategy to follow (of course, there could be an efficient strategy, but not easy to find).

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However, there is an alternative that involves the use of house-rules: Specify the combat rules to be similar to the ones used on Duelist Kingdom Tournament as seen on the Anime. You can select only the ones you prefer, but the one that would solve your query would be, emphasis mine:

Players could Summon monsters of any Level, without offering Tribute. This meant monsters such as "Dark Magician" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" could be Summoned immediately.

Of course, this would not be valid on official games or tournaments, but surely can work out if you are up to consider house rules.

Answer 2

You could, but I probable wouldn't reccomend it.

You would need to depend on cards to special summon your cards, or normal summon without tributing. If you're serious about this, here are some cards you might want to get:

• Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen. If you control no monsters, you can special summon one Fairy monster from your hand (once per turn) This card would only be useful if you use fairy cards.

• Phantom Knights Traps. Most traps in the "Phantom Knights" Archtype have a similar effect like "While your opponent declares a direct attack while this card is in your GY: Special Summon this . . . (An example would be "The Phantom Knights of Shadow Veil". You could then use these cards for summoning from the extra deck.

• Polymerization. You can Fusion Summon with cards in your hand, which can be useful, but you can only have 3 copies of one card.

• Destiny HERO - Malicious. You can banish this card from your GY: Special Summon one "Destiny HERO - Malicious from your deck. This is useful, but it's semi-limited.

• Clock Tower Prison. This card can prevent you from taking battle damage, after you have 4 Clock Counters on this card, which you get during your opponent's standby phase or using "Eternal Dread". It's second effect, special summoning Destiny HERO - Dreadmaster when destroyed is not useful, unless you actually have it. Teeraforming would be good to get this card.

• Pendulumn Cards. You can pendulmn summon with them, without needing tributes to pendulumn summon higher monsters.

Answer 3

Of course you can play with them, as long as you have a way to get them on the board.

Traditionally, you tribute a monster already on the board to get out a 5 or 6 star monster. Some cards let you special summon cards from your hand or graveyard, for example Alector. As long as you have a way to get your cards out, you're good to go.