If you could go back in time, what changes would you make to each summoning mechanic with the benefit of hindsight?

The various special summoning mechanics are the most unique feature of Yugioh, but sometimes it becomes too apparent that the additional summoning mechanics were first designed as a gimmick for the anime.

If any, what changes would you make to the fundamental mechanics of the various summoning mechanics with the knowledge that comes from seeing how they have been used in the game over the years?

Here is my take:

1. More prominence is given to tribute summoning.
  • Monsters Level 5 and above list what specific materials must be tributed in order to summon them just like Link monsters.
  • Tribute monsters will be designed to fulfill the same role as Ritual monsters do in the current game, which is being boss monsters in the main deck.
2. Fusion and ritual monsters are merged into a single category, with rituals going the the ED as well and fusions being defined as a subset of ritual monsters.
  • Fusions are poorly defined nowadays beyond being purple ED monsters, considering how many of them do not use a fusion spell or aren’t even a combination of two monsters.
  • The only reason rituals ended up in the main deck is because the extra deck hadn’t been invented yet. In the DM anime/manga they originally appeared out of thin air just like fusions.
  • Ritual monsters will now be defined as “extra deck monsters that must be summoned with a dedicated card effect for summoning that monster”.
  • Fusions will be defined as ritual monsters that require specific named monsters as material or Contact Fusions.
3. Synchro and Xyz stay the same.
4. Links and Pendulums are combined into a single mechanic.
Link Summoning:
  • Links are extra deck monsters that are super easy to summon and can be recursively used as material to summon more powerful monsters, combining all the benefits of Xyz and Synchro, but with the downside that they can only be summoned to zones that are linked.
  • There is no extra monster zone. Instead, all Pendulums are half-Spell (or half-Trap, this mechanic allows for Trap Pendulums) Link monsters that start in the main deck and can be played as Spells or Traps to provide the initial Linked zone.
  • Link monsters otherwise function the same as they currently do.
Pendulum Monsters basically function as "Link Spells":
  • Pendulums are treated fully as if they are Spells/Traps until they are destroyed in the S/T zone, at which point they go into the Extra Deck, where you can then summon them the same way you would summon any Link monster. When a Pendulum monster is summoned as a monster and then destroyed in the Monster Zone, it goes to the graveyard same as any other monster. There is no recursion of the “face up Extra Deck”.
  • Some Pendulum Monsters can be Link-0, meaning they are free to summon as long as you have an open link zone. However, remember that Pendulums in the deck and hand are treated completely as Spells/Traps so you cannot summon them until they get destroyed and go to the ED.
  • Pendulums in the GY are likewise treated as S/T cards and are not affected by effects that involve monsters in general when in the GY, however, if an effect specifically mentions Link monsters, then that effect does work on Pendulums as well. E.g. you can’t Monster Reborn a Pendulum.
Pendulum Summoning:
  • Pendulums no longer have scale ratings, instead, their ‘scale number’ is just their Link Rating.
  • There is no longer a designated pendulum zone. However, in order for there to be an active pendulum, you need two pendulums in your S/T zone with at least one space between them.
  • You can only have two pendulums active at a time. If you would activate a third, the pendulum that would end up being in the middle of the two other pendulums will be destroyed by game mechanics, the same way as when you place a field spell on top of another field spell.
  • There is no such thing as “Pendulum Summoning”. Instead, having an active Pendulum just increases the number of normal summons you are allowed to perform each turn by the difference between the link ratings of the pendulum scales.
  • Extra Linking is now about forming a complete co-Link between your pendulum scales, consisting of at least 3 monsters in your monster zones (this is what gives a motivation to place your pendulum scales in any position other than ‘slot 2’ and ‘slot 4’ (out of slots 1,2,3,4,5 in your S/T zone) as depending what the specific arrows are on your pendulums and your link monsters, you may have to do so in order to form an Extra Link).
  • The purpose of Extra Linking is that it gives you unlimited Normal Summons, i.e. having Pendulums up lets you normal summon like in Rush Duel.