How it works#
- Place a Pendulum Monster in each of your two Pendulum Zones. Each carries a Pendulum Scale number.
- Once per turn you may Pendulum Summon. You summon any number of monsters at once, from your hand and from your face-up Extra Deck.
- Every monster summoned must have a Level strictly between the two scales — a 1 and an 8 allow Levels 2 through 7, not 1 or 8 themselves.
- Pendulum Monsters destroyed while face-up on the field go face-up to the Extra Deck rather than to the graveyard, making them available to Pendulum Summon again.
The face-up Extra Deck is public information. Both players can see exactly what a Pendulum player is holding in reserve.
Worked example#
You set scales of 1 and 8, and hold two Level 4 monsters and a Level 7.
One Pendulum Summon puts all three on the board simultaneously, because every one of them sits between 1 and 8. A Level 8 in the same hand would stay put — the scales exclude their own numbers.
Common misconceptions#
Can Ash Blossom or Nibiru stop a Pendulum Summon?#
Ash Blossom cannot. A Pendulum Summon is an inherent summon performed by the rules, not an activated effect, so there is nothing for an effect-negating hand trap to respond to.
Nibiru is different: it counts Special Summons, and a Pendulum Summon of three monsters counts as three. It can absolutely be triggered by Pendulum Summoning.
The distinction is what makes Pendulum decks resilient against the standard hand trap suite, and it is regularly misplayed in both directions.
Do the monsters arrive one at a time?#
No. Every monster in a Pendulum Summon arrives simultaneously. Effects that trigger on being summoned all trigger together and are placed on the same chain.
Do Pendulum Monsters always go to the Extra Deck?#
Only when destroyed while face-up on the field, or when a face-up Pendulum Monster would go from the field to the graveyard. Ones sent from the hand or Deck to the graveyard go to the graveyard normally, as do those banished.
Does Pendulum Summoning use your Normal Summon?#
No. They are separate allowances. You may Normal Summon and Pendulum Summon in the same turn.
Interactions and rulings#
- If a Pendulum Zone card is destroyed, it goes face-up to the Extra Deck like any other face-up Pendulum card.
- Pendulum Monsters summoned from the face-up Extra Deck are still restricted to an Extra Monster Zone or a Main Monster Zone a Link Monster's arrow points at — the April 2020 revision lifted this restriction for Fusion, Synchro and Xyz, but not for Pendulum. Pendulum Monsters summoned from the hand in the same Pendulum Summon have no such restriction.
- Because all summons happen at once, a single Torrential Tribute answers the entire board.
