Spell Card Spell Cards ( Japanese : カード " Mahō Kādo " , or カード " Majikku Kādo " " Magic Card " in early releases of the OCG Series 3 and in the anime ; Japanese symbol text : " Ma " or " Majikku " ) , called Magic Card in the TCG until the release of " Magician ' s Force " , are cards with green - colored borders that have various effects to alter the play of the game . Often , a Spell Card has a single effect to provide a bonus to the user or a weakness to the opponent . Unlike Trap Card s , Spell Cards have the advantage of being able to be played without having to be Set first . Spell Cards , except Quick - Play Spell Card s , may be activated during the same turn it was Set . A player may activate and Set as many Spell Cards as they wish during their turn . All Spell Cards are Spell Speed 1 ( meaning they can only be activated as Chain Link 1 ) , with the exception of Quick - Play Spell Card s which are Spell Speed 2 ( meaning they can be activated in response to Spell Speed 1 and 2 Chain Link s ) . Spell Cards , except Quick - Play Spell Cards , can only be activated during their possessor ' s Main Phase ( except " Curse of Fiend " ) ; Quick - Play Spell Cards can be activated from their possessor ' s hand during their turn , or while Set on the field during either player ' s turn . After activation , Spell Cards ( with the exception of Continuous , Field and Equip Spell Card s ) are sent to the Graveyard . Some very powerful Spell Cards have been Forbidden from Advanced Format tournament play , such as " Pot of Greed " . In many cases , Konami has released similar cards with less powerful or more restrictive effects to serve as replacements for some of these Forbidden cards . For instance , " Pot of Greed " has been replaced by the weaker " Pot of Desires " , which provides the same bonus as " Pot of Greed " but comes with a considerable activation cost ( whereas " Pot of Greed " has no activation cost at all ) . Used properly , a single Spell Card can significantly alter the game in the user ' s favor , or even cause them to win the Duel . Layout . The layout of Spell Cards is noticeably different from Monster Cards , but quite similar to that of Trap Cards ( except the border color ) . Border . The most noticeable difference between Spell Cards and Monster Cards is the border color . While most Monster Cards are yellow or orange , Spell Cards are blue - green . Card name . < br > This part of the card contains only one significant difference from Monster Cards — the Attribute symbol is replaced by a Spell symbol due to the fact that Spell ( and Trap ) Cards do not have Attributes . Card type . < br > The card type is located below the name , where the Level is normally found on Monster Cards . This piece of text indicates that the card is a Spell Card . An icon next to the " Spell Card " text inside the brackets indicates the card ' s type ( refer to the symbols above ) . Card artwork . The card artwork is also present here and shows the player a visual interpretation of the used card . The artwork of a given card may be different between its OCG and TCG printings . For example , in the case of " Monster Reborn " , its artwork is that of an ankh symbol in the OCG but was redone when it was brought over to the TCG in order to avoid religious connotations . Card text box . < br > Unlike the Monster Card text box ( which provide the monster ' s Type , ATK and DEF ) , Spell cards ' text boxes serve only one purpose - providing the card effect . Other elements . All other basic card elements can also be seen in Spells . These include the Edition text , Set Number , passcode , copyright text and the Eye of Anubis Hologram .