PLAY'S · Reference · 14 Sep 2026

Where PLAY'S differs from the paper game

PLAY'S is not a port. It shares the card pool's history and most of its rules, but several things were changed on purpose — and one of them changes how every deck is built.

Useful in both directions: for paper players trying the app, and for anyone reading Japanese paper coverage and wondering whether it applies.

The one that matters most

Civilizations are checked, not spent

PaperEach card you play consumes mana of the civilizations it needs. Two Fire cards in a turn means paying Fire twice. PLAY'SOne card of a civilization in your mana zone unlocks that civilization entirely. Having a single Fire card there lets you play any number of Fire cards that turn, provided you have the total mana.

This is the deepest change in the game. Multicolour decks that would be unplayable on paper work here, because the colour requirement is a yes-or-no check rather than a running cost. What it does to deckbuilding.

Two caps that do not exist on paper

Seven cards in the battle zone

PaperNo limit. PLAY'SSeven, counting creatures, Cross Gear and Draghearts together. When full you cannot summon, and anything an effect tries to put into play goes to the graveyard instead.

Evolution creatures are the exception worth knowing: they stack onto a creature already there, so they can be played into a full board.

Ten cards in hand

PaperNo limit. PLAY'STen. Draw past it and the excess is discarded as it arrives.

You never read your own deck

Searching is capped and partly random

PaperLook through the whole deck and take what you want. PLAY'SYou are shown up to three distinct cards that meet the condition, drawn at random from those that qualify, and you choose one. The larger version, Super Search, shows five.

Most paper search effects — and mana or graveyard recovery too — were converted into this when they came across. It exists to keep turns short.

It is usually a clean tutor and occasionally not. Few decks run six or more different cards meeting the same condition, so in practice you generally see what you were after. But the ceiling is real, and a card that reads like a guaranteed search on paper is not one here.

The cards themselves are edited

Text is rewritten, in both directions

Cards are not transcribed from paper. Weak ones are strengthened and strong ones are cut back, and abilities are sometimes added or moved — an effect that triggered on attack in paper may trigger on arrival here.

A card's reputation in paper does not transfer. Something that was never played on paper can be central here, and the reverse happens just as often.

There are cards that exist only here

PLAY'S prints originals with no paper equivalent, including cards that are currently format-defining. If you cannot find a card in a paper database, that may be why.

And a separate restriction list

Paper's Hall of Fame does not govern PLAY'S. The app maintains its own, and can do something paper cannot: rather than restricting a card, it can rewrite it and leave it at four copies. Both lists are in the glossary.

What does carry over

Most of it. The turn structure, shields going to the defender's hand, Shield Trigger, blocking as a keyword, summoning sickness, the forty-card deck and the four-copy limit are all the same game. The basics are here, and the construction rules here.

So a paper player is not starting over. The rules will feel familiar; the card evaluations will not.

Reading Japanese coverage

デュエプレ ≠ デュエマ

the two are covered separately, by different sites, and the terms are not interchangeable

Japanese sources are strict about this, and it is worth matching them. デュエプレ means this game; デュエマ means paper. A card guide, a tier list or a ruling written for one may simply not apply to the other — not because it is outdated, but because it is about a different game.

Sources

The mana civilization rule, the ten-card hand limit, the seven-card battle zone limit and the fact that card abilities are revised: Kamigame's page comparing PLAY'S with the paper game.
Evolution creatures being playable into a full board: the same source's rules guide.
Search and Super Search showing three and five distinct cards respectively: the official PLAY'S card-rules FAQ. That most paper search effects were converted into this, and that the reason was turn length: the Duel Masters Wiki entry on the mechanic.
That paper card evaluations do not transfer: a Japanese analysis comparing current PLAY'S decks against their paper counterparts, which concludes the two are separate games.
The separate restriction list and its ability to rewrite rather than restrict: the official PLAY'S announcements for it.

Rules are described here in plain English rather than reproduced. Card names follow the community English patch where it has one.

Updated 15 September Added searching. It was missing from the first version, which was an odd gap — it touches more individual cards than any of the other differences here, because so many paper effects were rewritten into it.