Ik everuonr knows what this is, but u may not know some things. Special summoning is ANY i repeat ANY summon EXEPT FLIP,TRUBUITE,NORMAL SUMMON. RITUAL SUMMONING, PENDULUM SUMMONING, XYZ SUMMONING, SYNCHRO SUMMONING, FUSION SUMMONING are all special summons. Thus special summoning is a very key part of meta. These special summoned monsters dnt need to have monsters trubuited as they are special summoned, they dont take up u r normal summon/set like trubuite summons do. Some monsters can only be special summoned if something is in u r grave or if u met certain conditions, these monsters may not be normal summoned or set. For example, phonton thrasher can be special summoned if u dont control a monster(these cards summons arent feild effs thus. skill drain cannot negate it). These are known as nomi and semi-nomi monsters. Some ppl may call special summon an ss. Well u might be thinking how do u stop these special summoning. luckily i have a few cards who can stop these summons.
can stop special summon
vanity emitness
the barrier statue monsters(respective attrubuite can be summoned)
bottomless trap hole(if more than 1500 atk)
solem warning
black horn of heaven
time-space trap hole(only if hand or extra which is usally the places they special summon for)