Competitive vs Casual Yu-Gi-Oh is a Stupid Debate

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[@gaaraofthefunk265]

Some competitive players: "Fine. I'll use my casual deck!" *plays fourth best deck in that current meta*

[@woolum123456789]

So my mystic mine stall burn wouldn't be casually friendly lololol, I like to watch the world burn sometimes lol

[@dmarcco]

😂😂😂

[@mielkavra]

Play Dragon Rulers

[@myeternalsin]

I have a friend who literally cannot play a deck if it isn't competitive. In our group we play stupid stuff like Gol'Gar Deck or Laval, mean while he will only play Drytron and is salty we won't play with him. I dont like sitting on the other end of the table to a "break my board" and the second I do anything it gets ash'ed or something stupid. Shits not fun, I like dumb fun decks. I appreciate competitive YGO but lord knows I refuse to play it anymore.

[@chickensofried]

Tell him to find a casual deck he likes. Gotta find common ground.

[@myeternalsin]

@@chickensofried been there done that, he has no interest in it so he can just sit on the side lines and watch us beat each other up with Gate Guardian crap vs Gol’Gar

[@toadaux4691]

@@myeternalsin That's the way to be man. Don't tolerate jerks, had a guy in our group like that and we just stopped including him cause he drained the fun out of it. Last I heard nowadays he's a mega gross neckbeard who still lives with his parents and has never had a job. Basically the warcraft guy from South Park mixed with Cartman cause he treats his mom like a msid. Don't know if it applies to your situation but as you grow older you learn you gotta cut out toxicity in your life, even if that toxicity is someone you were friends with for years.

[@sebastianreyes4839]

Casual decks are way better. Fucking staples ruin the game. Cards like Ash and Nibiru or impertinence I don’t understand how hand traps are not banned. It diminishes regular trap cards

[@P4brotagonist]

@@sebastianreyes4839 Monster effects already diminished regular traps. Hand traps had to be made because otherwise, someone would have an insane unstoppable board and the person going second could never put down their traps to use them.

[@Random1nesss]

I play whatever I like. whether it's Competitive or not

[@52STLULU]

Same here bro

[@lostmytaco8024]

Honestly thats the best way to play

[@jorieboy11]

Same

[@DengekiVR]

yep

[@UltiMulti_Games]

I was going to comment, but this sums up my thoughts

[@TrinityCrossed]

Casual is just having fun without committing to spending much

[@RamenCupBMG]

kinda? you can play competitive on DB for free. and even though you have every card available, lots of people still play casually on db.

[@sebastianreyes4839]

I’ve spend a lot i still have the competitive stuff but casual is more loyal to the original game i think and not always looking to which cars is gonna be broke so i can make that deck and wait for a recipe

[@anesseameer]

I spend money on yugioh but i try to get old format cards becasue im old school for example i got my hands on the joey yugi kaiba and Pegasus starter decks and yugi legendary decks which is fun and entertaining

[@Deathbane_123]

The game can expensive casually as well. It all just depends on what rarity you’re playing. I like Ultimate Insects lvl 0-7, but their ulti printings would be several hundred for first Ed near mint playsets (currently trying to find them 😂).

[@Aceshot-uu7yx]

A lot of casual decks can cost a lot and some competitive decks can be 30+ bucks.

[@robledosarhento1567]

Tbh, the "competitive" people are just annoying when they complain that core set X or side set X is garbage because its not meta defining, or when support for archetype X does not make it Tier-2 or Tier-1. Like, do these people think that Konami should pander to competitive players all the time?

[@eddysegafan6655]

I know what you mean...like ppl can appreciate whatever aspect of this game they like. But it comes to a point, like Paul alluded to in the video, where one majority of opinions rules out any other possibilities...because that majority says so. For instance, I was rolling my eyes throughout the entirety of Cimo's ranking video where he ranks each core yugioh tcg set and ranks some sets lower solely on the idea that they never "shifted the meta game". Sure, i get it I've been to some regionals too and I used to be excited to wait for the next banlist to (change things up & put decks in check) but there comes a point where one side vastly seems to overwhelm the narrative of saying anything different; otherwise you wind up being labeled the lesser loser in the supposed friendly community. Odd.

[@HiroofDeath]

Those are the same people who rage once you win against them with your rogue deck and go like "how is that possible, i cant loose to a non meta deck. I am superior because i play tier 1."

[@erysecret]

Yu-Jo Friendship was a really nice choice for the thumbnail!

[@KevinXmusic]

I'm definitely a casual, because I mostly just love playing my favourite anime decks based on characters I love from the shows, so that's why i play Heroes, Cyber Dragons, Lunalights, Frightfurs, Raidraptors, and casual Salamangreats. Competitive Yugioh is just too fast and complex for me and I don't find it fun, but more power to the people who do find it fun, that's awesome. I'm more competitive in Vanguard, which is my main game, but I'll always love Yugioh as a game and as a franchise and it's always fun to go back to with my friends.

[@caveman7854]

Try running a toon deck! I’ve been having fun on master duel lately pretending I’m Pegasus with slightly updated cards (toon kingdom, etc)

[@kevinhyden5028]

@@caveman7854 that’s awesome bro. Always one of my personal favs.

[@Squibbly_Squelch]

No Joey 40-card Normal Monster Beatdown?

[@effbeeaitch]

Think you summed it up perfectly, it's all about who you're playing with. It's selfish to demand that a competitive player deliberately make their deck worse for the sake of your own enjoyment, but it's also important that a player knows when to switch off and enjoy the game on a non-competitive level.

[@Nopulu]

It's also selfish to bring a meta tier 1 deck around a bunch of people you know don't take the game as seriously. You're ruining the game for them to enjoy it yourself

[@dragonjames4500]

I once had someone say stop saying the name's of my cards which I enjoy doing.

[@Scorialimit]

I activate "don't tell me how to have fun nerd" It let's me have fun playing how I want, and cannot be negated

[@nedmusic1494]

I'd troll them 😂

[@Paulter100]

Isnt that just good communication? did he happened to explain why he wanted you to stop?

[@woolum123456789]

Some players expect you to know what's going on without words, I normally open with a ice breaker/joke and that'll make most people drop thier guard and be more open to having conversation/ communication throught the match.

[@nedmusic1494]

@@Paulter100 It's not good communication when it's something as trivial as saying a card's name. They trash. 💯

[@thatman666]

If it weren't for competitive, I would've never learned about card terms (Rota, Hard Once per turn, Garnets) and how to properly build a Deck with consistency.

[@animaamin3]

Why should we choose sides? We're all players and all people. Let's just have fun doing it, whatever style you prefer, and yes, some of us play both ways

[@chrisshorten4406]

Totally agree.

[@deanoor9391]

That's just how the community is which is stupid thinking

[@nightmareside808]

Yeah. This thing even carried out in DL. In forum or YT comment I always found some "competitive" player who always complaining when I use a rogue over their competitive deck. When you have been played YUGIOH long enough you already know what's META or challenging to play, and sometimes you want a challenging duel to test your overall strategy

[@chrisshorten4406]

@@nightmareside808 I know right? Just today, I was using my Abyss Actor deck against an extremely toxic guy using a Blue-Eyes deck. He basically spent the latter half of the match insulting my deck choice. That attitude just makes me disappointed in the elitist side of the community.

[@leonsgaming8123]

Same here.

[@cybervader3582]

I guess I'm a casual lmao, I play anime and older decks because I like to have fun (well try to) when I play

[@HorseshitDetectionAgency]

'anime decks'

[@salcuzzy]

Hey Paul, loved the video! So here's my whole take on the competitive vs casual debate, like you said it's dumb. But I do think part of the reason why the debate and the war is going on is the lack of space and events in the more major YCS and larger scale events for more casual styles of play. Like you touched on in the video, you wouldn't recommend a casual player entering a YCS event with a casual deck and I totally get why. Costs money to enter and the more competitive players take that stuff seriously. But i do think having those larger scale events as a place solely for competitive play is a missed opportunity for Yugioh as a whole since it sort of reinforces the divide between casual and competitive where locals have a weekly casual tournament and YCS is for competitive only. So how would I fix it? At those big YCS events in addition to the usual events with the meta game add some more casual friendly events and tournaments. Here are a few ideas I've had for some more casual friendly events (some of which are Team APS inspired!): 1. Structure Deck Showdowns. Konami releases a good variety of structure decks throughout the year (maybe like 10 at the beginning of the year and then another new 1 with each event) and it's a literal pick up a structure deck and duel tournament. 2. Sealed Play/Battle Pack/Draft Tournament. Like you all on APS have done, have konami release a sealed play/draft box and have a tournament where you buy/get given with your entry to said tournament a draft box and build a deck to duel. 3. Anime Character Archtype Deck Tournament. Have a tournament where you create decks and duel in a tournament based on anime characters and their main archtypes like Blue Eyes, Dark Magician, Red Eyes, Elemental Heroes, etc. and 4. Non-Meta Archtype Tournament. Have a tournament based around non-meta (but also non-anime) archtypes like the ones you mentioned you like to play in the video. I think adding these events would help the community come together for a few reasons. 1st off, like you mentioned not everyone follows the meta, but still likes yugioh. these events would be a great way for them to get more involved in the game without having to get into the meta. 2nd, budget/money. not everyone has hundreds to thousands of dollars to build a meta deck and i believe these events would be much more budget friendly (starter decks cost like 10-15 bucks and iirc those battle pack draft boxes originally retailed for like 30 bucks). And 3rd it gets both casual and competitive players in the same location without being at each others' throats since we're all doing our own events and having a good time. Anyway, i apologize for the wall of text response, but i feel like this is something Yugioh has been struggling with and i feel like this could be a potential fix to it.

[@robertocalisto7895]

I only put Ash in my deck because she's cute

[@scaredyarchive213]

these arguments alwayse feel like its a side taken on the playground when we all were very young and petty and people just havent bothered thinking about it again after picking there side

[@shanelewis777]

My experience is when dealing with most competitive player's, they have the attitude in which even outside of yugioh i wouldn't associate with.

[@michaelfletcher684]

casual players can have equally bad attitudes to deal with, its not a mutually exclusive trait, boths sides do it, and its not fair to the people on either side that it happens to that dont do it

[@otakotako2601]

it's just yugioh player in general ngl

[@Deathbane_123]

@@otakotako2601 That’s a pretty big claim. Can’t say I’d agree with you on that one.

[@shanelewis777]

@@michaelfletcher684 You obviously didn't read my post. I said in my experience it was mainly competitive player's who had a crap attitude. I never said it was exclusively competitive player's. Between, those hyper competitive toxic player's and convoluted gameplay/rulings. It's know wonder why Yugioh has a problem keeping new player's.

[@yuy2375]

@@shanelewis777 we shd really build a deck to kiII these kind of players(i wont even call them duelists), and play yami no game with them

[@sirpotatolord2219]

I think no matter where you fall (casual or competitive) it's going to be very difficult to wrap your brain around playing the other way, a competitive player is going to have a hard time not optimizing their deck with the best cards because that's how their brain has been trained to play, while a casual player will have a harder time playing competitive because they just want to enjoy playing the game and not watching some dude go off for five minutes and otk. the trick is to practice empathy, try to remember where your playing and who your playing against, maybe even keep a for fun deck and a competitive deck seperate of eachother for when your playing one or the other.

[@mr2oxking]

I’m purely casual but I’m more so a character deck larper, they aren’t OP but unexpectedly good when I don’t brick

[@SorenFE93]

That's me with pure Valkyries. I originally did Valkyrie Parshath, but I just loved Ziegfried's deck so when I could, I made a pure Valkyrie deck and..it's been a hell of a lot of fun. I do get the bricking though lol.

[@mr2oxking]

@@zanetrusdale3040 when are harpies going to get a fusion monster and rank 7 xyz monster it’s the only thing I need to truly make my harpie deck pure

[@ion062088]

This video was really great. I'm a casual for sure and really love gimmicks and pure archetype decks. But I'm just considered a filthy casual since my city's community is super elitist and competitive. I need to find casuals in my city in my age group(I'm in my 30s) 🤣

[@coletonmarino1310]

Yeah good luck finding someone your age.

[@Deathbane_123]

@@coletonmarino1310 You act like it’s impossible 😂. I’ve known people in their 40-50’s to play this children’s card game.

[@rapidretrovenue563]

Ayyyyy I'm 31 LuL

[@YugiohHotpack]

Love your outlook and positivity on the game! So many people take it way too serious sometimes and ruin the growth and fun of the game for more casual players.

[@williamlanagan3528]

I'm so thankful my locals is full of competitive people that are also just really nice people to be around. There are a few super casual people that are always showing up despite how competitive it is.

[@barryjennings9375]

We need more of this community wide!

[@ianthefifth7790]

A lesson I learned playing this game is that if 'your own original deck idea' was competitively viable, someone else would have likely thought of it before you, and built it already, and can play it better than you can, but it's still really fun to try and push the limits of what's standard. When I was in high school, I built an anti meta deck that got me into local top cuts a few times, but I was still a bad player, and it was still a bad deck. I just knew what its strength was, and a lot of people's side decks weren't prepared for it. I wanted to be competitive but I didn't have the resources or the correct mindset for it. Now I am more competitive and I do play meta decks, and do well at tournaments, but playing fun decks IS way more fun I cannot lie. I do love fun decks, and old formats too, which is an important part of the game I think.

[@raynorcampbell1807]

Gotta thank you guys your videos actually got me back into playing again. I been having fun rejoining the community. Still trying to get use to hand traps lol. Keep up the good work 💪.

[@getfitgaming8056]

I just got started. This helps. Can't wait for in person events to start up again

[@NewtBannner]

I love how Paul makes this whole video on how it’s okay to be different and all the casual elitists start coming out to say that hand traps and staple are wrong 😂

[@battouxai4064]

I’m getting back into YGO after not playing the last 10 years. Right now I’m making a 2021 Dark Paladin list to keep my signature deck alive. Maybe next I’ll make a competitive meta deck but for now, I guess I’m casual

[@coletonmarino1310]

Haven’t heard of dark paladin in years.

[@bryanyap3888]

play red eyes dragun with it, requires dark magician as materials and is fusion

[@battouxai4064]

@@bryanyap3888 yup already on the list lol

[@cyberbyte3186]

Nicely put 👏 I'm in a similar place where our group is primarily casual players, but some of us do want to push our game to higher levels. We keep casual/fun decks for the group and tend to play our high tier decks on Edo. We equally enjoy both tiers of play and ultimately we want all parties involved to enjoy the game, no matter what the tier of play. It can be frustrating seeing all the toxicity and animosity amongst the casual and competitive players online and its nice to know there are people out there with a similar open mindset. Gives me hope that the two communities can improve on their attitudes to one another and be allowed to have fun at whatever level of play, without the being subject to nasty attitudes. So yeah, awesome video Paul 😁

[@brycebeagle3647]

I'm somewhere in the middle. Everyone enjoys winning but also having fun. I'm not a win hard but nobody wants to lose every game lol.

[@JT5555]

true. no one LIKES to lose,but you also gonna be mature enough to take a loss once in awhile. if you only have fun if you win,then why play a game where there is a chance you'll lose?

[@Dragooon_WBBA_01]

@@JT5555 How can I say off to end that note 📝 Because There are those who do have different Agenda and Perspectives overall (nothing further or less about it) 🤷🤷.

[@raysandrarexxia941]

I like having fun, which is a bad take to a lot of people :(

[@JT5555]

if you're not having fun while playing a game,you're playing it wrong.

[@eggsack]

I agree 👍

[@johnwalker1058]

I'm personally the type of YGO fan who is in this mainly for my love of the anime and the lore behind it. Collecting the cards and dueling with them is just an extension of that for me, a way to make the anime feel more real and come alive and to immerse myself in it. Because of that, my main criterion for choosing certain cards to work with and what kinds of decks I try to build or play with revolve around certain archetypes that I personally happen to like, e.g. Magicians, Blue Eyes, Elemental heroes, Cyber Dragons, etc., regardless of how competitively viable they may or may not be.

[@AlchemistKai]

All my friends call me a competitive tryhard but i swear to all that is holy I just play how I know how. Granted the decks I build are stronger than average but that’s because I have nothing but time and unlike them I READ the cards.

[@joebradburnii]

I jumped in to a locals with a $20 fur hire deck. I was stomped by adventurer engine and branded in all four games. This was a locals on Saturday night. I had two separate bits of advice. “Fur hires suck, try playing this or that for $300.” And “Fur hires are cool, I feel bad about that game. Try looking into different ways of closing out the game. If you can come in on Friday’s there are less competitive people who play on those days. Here, try using these in your deck.” That guy then gave me a copy of utopia, utopia double, time thief redoer and double or nothing. There can be some shorty annoying competitive people and cool ones.

[@Deathbane_123]

Easy moral of the story. Love what you play and play what you love. Don’t treat somebody different based on what they play. To do so just makes you lesser of a person.

[@coletonmarino1310]

I’m a competitive player, but I prefer rogue decks. My main being phantom knights. I try to optimize every deck i play, or to be as competitive as possible. Hand traps and stuff included. Fight me.

[@Deathbane_123]

No shame in that. The only issue to be found is when one side claims the other shouldn’t exist. Both a casual and competitive scene are essential for a game to be healthy. Also, PK was one of my first decks so I definitely approve 👏🏻.

[@coletonmarino1310]

@@Deathbane_123 Thanks for being understanding. UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE.

[@MrFurettoFurbetto]

Me and my brother play a lot and we have fairly decent decks, not necessarily competitive or super powerful but they can do scary stuff at times, and we literally let each other almost always play our turn and see what happens and its so much fun to me because there are some games that we pull every tool from both our decks to win and the end becomes unexpected and it feels like a final boss fight, we literally have games with 150 LP comebacks and stuff like that and it's so cool

[@chucotownchino2803]

your take is how I like to play. when it's just friendly I have a deck or 2 for that, but if I go to like a competition or whatever then I throw in hand traps and all that

[@alpermimoglu5855]

I want to be competitive but i don't have the means to get a competitive deck

[@GHMetallica37]

I mean there are cheaper options, most of the time they’re control decks or structures like dinos, zombies, or shaddolls. Madolches and prank kids are really good and fairly cheap combo decks too

[@alpermimoglu5855]

@@GHMetallica37 i was on invoked shaddoll but i have never won with it and i just got bored summoning aliester so i didn't play any remote events for 4 months playing that deck made me depressed i recently built heroes my og archetype and got more depressed on how bad it was i used to play salads but the current list is too monki filp for my liking

[@RamenCupBMG]

play on dueling book. it's free.

[@alpermimoglu5855]

@@RamenCupBMG db sucks and is full of racists plus play on edo but it doesn't make me feel good after facing stiker allot of times

[@michaelfletcher684]

@@alpermimoglu5855 a good sim for doing competitive is the new ygo omega. its in the open beta still, but it has a neat ranked mode feature and its just an all around nice simulator to use

[@DimkaSulegnaa]

tbh i never really paid attention to competitive or yugitubers for that matter until i lost my sight years ago. I find videos talking about the new cards, brief talks about the competitive and stuff like that really interesting. Was never a fan of following/playing the meta but learning about it was still interesting. I’ve always been one for playing something you like over the meta. At a time I was one of those people that got annoyed with people that only played the meta but that had worn away with listening to vids talking about the meta here and there. and just remember the last thing i did ygo based was making a deck with dark magician and buster blader work in link evolution. Yeah obviously it sucked but it was fun when i used it when playing with a friend even with the bricking

[@evanbanjo]

If Konami actually went out of their way to foster more ways to play (officially) than just Advanced Format, this argument could very well end. This is not an argument that comes in Magic the Gathering often because there are such a diverse amount of ways to play the game - Commander, Standard, Modern, Draft, and many many many more. I urge anyone on either side of this argument to look into Trinity Format, or maybe start brainstorming new formats.

[@Darkslayer289]

I had some ideas for alternate formats. You got the Master Rule format, self explanatory. Then we have the DM and DM eternal format. DM is basically GOAT, but DM eternal is similar to DM with support of monsters from this era such as Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes, Gaia, Summoned Skull, Red-Eyes, etc. You do that for each era of the anime. That's how I'd do it.

[@evanbanjo]

@@Darkslayer289 I like where you are going with that, but it definitely needs a bit more structure. It’s a great start :) I would like to try a Standard format for YuGiOh, just to see. Let’s say anything released during the current Series main sets, as well as the previous Series main sets - so right now that would include Code of the Duelist through Battle of Chaos. Trinity, in YuGiOh, is defined by it’s half-point and point list, which acts as their balancing method as well as a hard limit of 3 summons of non-effect monsters per turn. Modern, in Magic, is defined by any card released in a main set from 7th edition onward.

[@courtneycrumb7285]

I used to get angry at the "meta sheep", but i've now come to understand the feeling of accomplishment people get from these kind of things. And the only reasons i was mad is because A) I was like, 11. And B) I just couldn't play anything, and it was very frustrating to my kid brain.

[@LocalChamp]

Definitely with you on this. I've played top tier decks like True Draco, Altergeist, Trickstar at YCS and even NAWCQ. I have no problem playing a good deck. However in general I simply don't like the archetype or playstyle etc of those decks. So in general at locals or regionals I'll play something I enjoy more, knowing I'm making a conscious decision to play something inferior. I also don't complain about people playing top tier, and I do try to make those subpar decks I play as good as possible against the meta. Some of them could even be considered rogue decks on some level. I know you made the video with TCC comparing YGO & MTG and this is something I think MTG does better. In general there's almost always a viable deck of many different "playstyle archetypes" in MTG in most formats. However in YGO there usually seems to be less variety in styles of decks, yes there might be 10 decks that are viable but if 7/10 of those make similar setups or "unbreakable boards" it feels the same.

[@brycebeagle3647]

Paul's ideas on this are exactly mine. Hints why I love this channel so much! Great honest content. :)

[@keio4456]

Competitive card games feels like anime tho. There's tournament arcs, training arcs, and things like that. The fun in competitive card games is not about the card game at all.

[@Earthbound524]

I am in the middle ground where I try to make these casual/rogue decks as best as possible since it's a lot of fun trying out new strategies and finding tech cards that can alter the way a deck operates

[@HvPsnlitenw4991]

People should check out both scenes. Build decks around your fave monsters and themes and add and subtract cards to make them the best decks they can be. If it’s all about winning, that’s coo. If it’s all about bringing out Gate Guardian, that should also be coo. I tend to wanna figure out how to bring out Gate Guardian the most efficient way and how to use it the best way I could (now that’s IF I want to use Gate Guardian. In reality, I just can’t use a card that’s harder to bring out than an Egyptian God or Blue Eyes ultimate dragon and it’s ultimately just a 3750 ATK beatstick... maybe if it had its anime effects... and it’s 2,000X easier to summon and has a protection effect)

[@NightShade701]

I love how tier decks. I'm building deskbots and love them. Hope they get some more extra deck support.

[@nemo0036]

I'm kinda both. I LOVE Rogue, but I'll try to push a rogue deck to its fullest within my budget.

[@SyaoranLiKun14]

I like a healthy mix of both. Like when i played i often liked the obscure decks because most of the meta people never heard of my deck. Best feeling in the world is the handshake , and then i play my first card and they ask can i read? Metas important to learn to get a good grasp of the game but it is not always the most fun option. Anyway I don’t play anymore but i still enjoy your videos mate.

[@CadmonAlima]

I keep hearing that the big events have the super compeditive decks, but the locals were I'm at have basically all compeditive decks. Lose once or twice at the big ones and I got to have pretty easy going duels against players that aren't too weak or strong.

[@yagokain4189]

"You are stuck in 2010" Me whos still playing yugioh tag force 3: :(

[@leonsgaming8123]

I love the Yu-Gi-Oh games on DS and psp. I'm currently playing Arc-V Special. I love the card shop in the game. They added in actual ocg sets to the shop

[@yagokain4189]

@@leonsgaming8123 Yeah i know, i actually wanted to play that game aswell, but the fan translation was really...weird. I love yugioh abridged, but i dont really like when someone tries to imitate it in an official game.

[@BmanTheChamp]

If I had to label what I am, I guess I'd say I'm a competitively casual player. I don't play in tournaments but in my group I want to be the best. I just play what I like, and the thing I want the most is to have a really mentally challenging duel, something that forces me to think outside the box, really getting me to use my brain, and when I come up with something new I've never done before, and win, that's hella rewarding. Even if I lose, I still come away feeling like I had fun because myself and my opponent went all out.

[@WolfJarl]

"Ass Blassum, no joy." My two cents on anything YGO related.

[@demetriusshuler1391]

I think you're totally right. I fall under super casual because I really enjoy creating and playing with anime themed character decks because I want to feel like those yugioh characters on tv truthfully. My channel is dedicated to that level of Yugioh. But I also know all the rules to yugioh its just with anime role playing it makes me feel good to play in a way that's simple and not complicated.

[@evilmidget]

I really identify with you. I loved trying to build a competitive deck in the video games, but was never able to IRL for various reasons (one of the biggest being the unwillingness to throughly invest in cards). I quit competitive play because it was proving to be very stress inducing, and self inflicted stress at that and considering what Pendelums did to the game, I'm happier for it. Now, I am happier just playing casually and sticking to playing online. As long as I have at least ONE FRIEND I can play with, I'm not giving up playing any time soon

[@TheShadowcomet]

I would say i would really only play Decks that i like, sometimes they are meta like Dragon Link or Salamangreat ( full power back then) but i really love also the Rose dragon/ Plant deck or Speedroid/Windwitch or pure Amazement( without Prosperity). It highly depends if i like the designs or the general gameplan. But i can also understand the ones which play highly competive. I just wish some cards would not be so expensive, it would help if Konami would handle the distribution like in the OGC or in general the products, they can do it.

[@dwaynew2186]

Hey Paul and his loyal viewership & subscribers. I'd like to point out the "Elephant in the room" meaning the obvious. Yu-Gi-Oh TCG is a game where in part, you duel. Dueling is by definition a competition. If you play at an intermediate or advanced level, you are still in a competition, hence you are a competitive player. Nobody wants to loose but that's all part of the game. We buy, trade, build and duel & we repeat the same process until a deck is to our liking. I'd like to consider myself a bit of a vanity card player meaning I build decks because I like the art and then the challenge of making them playable and winnable. I enjoy the back and forth with my competition. To each their own. Let's not add another division between us through Yu-Gi-Oh; the world does enough of that. Let us use this as it was meant to be, a device to bring people together in a world of fantasy where even the weakest person can be powerful for a moment in time.

[@B33b3]

I mean if you want to be super technical sure. But within literally every gaming community it's defined as Casual and Competitive. Also, I've met a lot of people that literally do not care about winning, in fact a buddy of mine will build decks or play games with no intent to ever actually try to win, just be obnoxious because that's what he finds fun. So no, not everybody cares about winning and losing. Of course you can be casual-competitive but an actual "competitive" player is simply someone that actively goes to competitive events regularly.

[@dwaynew2186]

@@B33b3 Ok dude obviously you didn't read what I wrote because you are commenting on something I didn't say but ok. My point has nothing to do with winning or loosing. Maybe read it in it's entirety before commenting. Being part of a competition makes you a competitor, period. Advanced level or intermediate is the only difference. Either way we all compete, it's called duels. Some just enjoy the game in other ways that don't always include FTK & OTK deck set-ups. Some like myself play for the nostalgia.

[@B33b3]

@@dwaynew2186 "Yu-Gi-Oh TCG is a game where in part, you duel. Dueling is by definition a competition. If you play at an intermediate or advanced level, you are still in a competition, hence you are a competitive player. Nobody wants to loose but that's all part of the game." You gave an assumption that playing automatically makes you a "competitor" and that people inherently play to win, which simply isn't true. Then you go to say, "Let's not add another division between us through Yu-Gi-Oh" with the implication of separating players between "casual" and "competitive" players, despite that being used in every game. So I pointed out that Competitive has a distinctive meaning in this case.

[@bl00by_]

The thing which annoys me about casule players is that some of them don't know simple rulings like how to chain properly or what the difference between a soft or a hard once per turn is. I mean if you want to play the game atleast learn the basic rulings of the game. It's okay if you don't know how the damage step works, but atleast know the simpler rulings of the game.

[@virulenthunter3017]

While I agree with you that everyone should know the rulings and mechanics, unfortunately it's not that simple. With how many mechanics there are and phases, then you have card effects that people are required to remember bu the wording when or how they are activated, spell speeds and a lot of other things that go into the game it's not surprising that people don't remember or misunderstand how some of the rulings work, in this game it's easy to make a mistake or miss timing on a certain effect.

[@gabilon1667]

I’m for the most part, a “Filthy casual” so to speak 😂. I’ve gone to my local card shop and others to play games for many years. It’s great to just play with a variety of people. However, it’s always been a goal of mine to enter one competitive tournament. Just to experience it. Even if it means I get demolished 🤣

[@JT5555]

i ALMOST entered a tournament,once but all the entry requirements were too much of a pain in the ass so i changed my mind.XD

[@lunacurtis5444]

Competitive vs casual is a different planet. The goal of competitive almost just feels like "one of you can't play (flip coin to find out who)

[@peterinstalive1372]

The best player at the local shop where I live would always bring multiple decks at different tiers. If he was playing with casuals he would just pull out a tier 2 deck and still win lol

[@Osborne4Life]

As someone who recently got into the Digimon TCG, I’m making the rule to myself that I’m only allowed to get starter decks and, at max, two booster boxes of each set released. I was raised with the mindset of making due with what we have. I get good cards, or I get bad ones. Either way, I make due with the decks I can build with them. Going into this game without the intention of becoming the best player in the world helps too.

[@ericwilki207]

Bro I just got into Digimon and I can totally agree, I just built shinegreymon but I waited till the card was only 6 bucks lol even tho it’s not top tier anymore it still slaps at times, but yeah I’m with you get what you get and make the best of it, plus that green starter is actually good 😎

[@peterstory4840]

I’m alright being more casual than competitive because that is for me

[@slifersdisciple3504]

One off the challenges I loved is making something playable :D Vennominaga eventually will be one of them. But until that time Chronomally and Aliens :D

[@GutsxCasca]

Competitive is really time consuming, coming from someone that used to play ranked in League. You gotta learn deck profiles, learn about new cards, what synergies well and test hands.

[@josephtate5315]

I am like you Paul more competitive in the winter when I can't spend my weekend golfing but overall I am casual because I like certain decks and archetypes, for instance currently play Salads and Inzektor Mine

[@leroysims4393]

I've found that what i really enjoy about the game is the actual designs of the decks, unfortunatelly some decks are way better than others or you get the strategies where to even complete get really expensive because the cards are exploited in other strategies then thier own

[@fudabi7850]

If I want to win, I play my favorite and most invested into deck I have. If I want to have fun with a chance of winning, I play all other decks which don’t really run any hand traps and infinite imps, like DM’s and Blue Eyes :)

[@dragonqueenniisan4122]

I got into competitive yugioh during the height of Dragon Ruler Format. And all I had was a bunch of common six samurai cards, and I made them work. I didnt have the synchro monster or anything. The strongest card in my extra deck was Utopia Ray V and Victory. All my cards where commons too. My deck was like, $20 at best, and I ran over those Drulers really hard. Between my deck being all warrior monsters for Rivalry of Warlords and my favorite win con for my deck, The A. Forces, I was able to generally beat down most enemies by making myself a bunch of hammers.

[@mr2oxking]

All I want is to have fun with my version of the character decks without being harassed online by these meta predators

[@tomblanchett6334]

Loving the conteent its inspired me to get back into the game, its been a while so deffo casual for me rule of cool is how im building decks!! Also its anime style decks that makes it easier to get going!

[@four-en-tee]

I just like to make strong decks, regardless of whether they follow the meta or not. Like, i play Magician of Chaos and Evil Twins. Non-Meta is pretty much up my alley.

[@KamID2580]

Anyone know where they got the orange and blue YGO wallpaper on the wall?

[@elliotgreen3203]

I like getting structure decks and playing them dinos example special editions can also help make cool decks

[@Citizen_Nappa23]

I'm in-between I'm a competitive casual player, I like to see what cards can be used to make older decks more consistent. I like to tinker around and make rogue strategies not commonly used. What I think that would be cool is if there were casual tournaments (cards that can only be used from a certain point) or even draft tournaments would be nice. I don't go to current tournaments because I'm not a fan of the current meta, what I like to do is get together with friends and we do draft tournaments or casual ones based on when a specific set came out. And we ban the most OP cards, have an agreed upon banlist. That way it's fun for everyone

[@YamiVT]

I'm totally inbetween. I've found both extremes are equally toxic and I stay away from both. One guy at my locals bullies kid to win, another one has written on his sleeves and tries to cheat with his T.G. deck every time he can.

[@juropol1s]

I play casually, and whilst I can still enjoy the game when each player has 1 balanced negate or less on the field per turn, having over 1 negate in casual Yu-Gi-Oh! just isn’t fun. I still have ptsd of taking my extremely casual cyber dragon deck (I’m talking cybernetic fusion support, Cyber network etc) to a card game shop with my friend where some guy a fair bit older than me spotted us playing and asked if he could have a duel after with one of us so I agreed. I chose to go second in case I got lucky and drew cyber dragon. I then proceeded to have the guy playing weather painters make a 5 negate board whilst telling me ‘oh you just have to destroy my 4 continuous spells, and I only have 5 negates to stop you destroying them’. Like what do you want me to do.

[@joshawott_27]

I'm just returning to the game after roughly 10 years. I bought the Battle City Speed Duel box for a bit of nostalgic fun with the family, which led to me remembering how much I enjoyed the game, and buying copies of the Spirit Charmers structure deck. I know it's not a competitive deck, but I've liked those cards since I was a kid, so I thought why not? By sheer coincidence, one of my older brother's fans gave him their Thunder Dragon deck, and... well, I got OTK'd 🤣. I'm happy trying to just optimise my Charmer deck right now, and once I feel that I'm done there, I guess we'll see if I want to build something else more fun, or even a semi-competitive archetype. I'm not sure if I'll move into competitive yet, as I already play Pokémon (both TCG and VGC) - at least prior to COVID. The lack of a local card store doesn't help, but I guess time will tell.

[@MrPonytron]

I'm definitely a more casual/middle player. One of my best friends got me into the game almost a year ago and made me acustom Norse Gods deck and a Cyber Dragon deck that I added a couple XYZ monsters to. My friend's a lot more on the competitive side. He says he tries to go easy on me, but,it doesn't seem like it. Especially when he brings out his Neo Spacian deck with Air Hummingbird increasing his life points every turn. It's a little bit of a pain and I only beat him once

[@Ookami20]

This is a good video to try and bring us together I love you Paul everything you said about both sides is true admittedly. You’re just a really cool guy and I wish I could duel you and Team APS thank you for all the content on both channels 👌🏽🃏🔥

[@scampbell7633]

I have competitive and casual decks for whichever I want to play and I think both are fun to play in their own ways. I think a well timed hand trap is just as fun as pulling off a janky combo in a casual deck

[@photonxdragon6086]

About every deck has value, and just needs to be unlocked by the right person. I believe in playing the decks you have fun with, and you should always aim to improve that deck as much as you can, hopefully without spending your life savings on it. Trying to make and play decks like Umbral Horror, Utopia, & Gren Maju are fun imo cause I am trying to make something not very great into something good. Comp decks can also be fun too. It's all up to whether you have fun, not if you have the strongest deck.

[@leonsgaming8123]

Yes you can be both casual and competitive at the same time. I use whatever deck I think is fun but make it to the best way I can make it. I play to have fun but also try to win at the same time. I'll let the opponent hit my LP to 0 unless I have actually no moves on my turn but won't scoop on their turns. The best I went at locals was 2 different parts. I ended up going 5-0 on prelims but lost in Top 8 and my 2nd best was going to 3rd place. I don't use Handtraps except like Effect Veiler but that's as far as I go. I mainly stick to trap cards. I also do pure decks as well with a couple of tech cards though to give it the extra boost but don't go to crazy. I stopped with the tournament scene around the starts of VRAINS but that's cause most players I knew stopped with them because they didn't understand the whole Link Summon mechanic

[@thephilosophyminor]

I’m in the middle. I like to play fun casual decks online but with powerful staples that can help me break boards or stop the opponent

[@djbioxic4023]

This is why I love Orcust so much. It has a very competitive history, and it's still powerful and can go off, however it doesn't end on a "break my board" state. It is very interactive yet strong, and is possible to beat if you play smartly.

[@rebber1717]

As a duel links player i dont know how is the meta game but in duel links when you first get the game you get soo much gems that you can build a meta deck of the start and be competitive but you can use fun decks and still get like 5 winstreak even if youre not playing meta almost every deck is good in ladder

[@chrisdobson4597]

Former duel links player here. You get like 1000 gems when you start that's barely enough to get 1 UR out of a main box. A good deck in duel links costs well over 100$ unless you want to grind for literally months

[@rebber1717]

@@chrisdobson4597 buddy you get 4000 k gems now

[@rebber1717]

@@chrisdobson4597 plus you get 500 gems every new box and now you can get 4 sr and ur dream tickets to get whatever card you want/need and you can also go to tour guide and do misions for gems and you get soo much if you didnt spend the 4k gems that you get for free you get 10k gems

[@JacobKendrick]

@@chrisdobson4597 This isn't true, just opening the game gives you like 4k gems let alone the early stages and early character level ups give you thousands of gems

[@rebber1717]

@@JacobKendrick and is that a bad thing by any means ?

[@jedimastu]

I think the majority of the community is in that middle ground. Allot of people play in circles of friends, but play well and know the rules. Many of us have decks that would perform in regionals/ locals but dont even play competitive

[@FabioSuave]

i'm casual in the sense that i don't enjoy the idea of simply using the best cards with the highest win rate. what if i dont like the the art of the monsters or the function of the deck? that's why i get tired of competitive pokemon sometimes, because there's basically a correct formula on how to win so why use anything else. i love to play with my favorites whether they're meta or not.

[@matamorosboy8677]

I just play what looks cool and generally don’t know what I’m doing when I’m building decks

[@trevcon3]

Bro this is how I literally feel about duel links cuz I haven't got a king of games and I only get to the 2 stage of kc cup but usually never get top 3 I've gotten to legend level 3 in the past

[@ProdigalBeard]

Yeah I was all about the meta in Duel Links and winning was cool but I wasn't having fun. Been making more theme decks irl and in duel links and not doing as well but still having fun

[@heskidprodigy]

Hey Paul, second comment here. Would you entertain the idea of a video discussing what a Konami supported format/side event where only Anime Character theme decks are applicable. Competition between casual decks, and as Konami continues to support legacy strategies, this could be a fair meta game. Cyber Dragon, Dark Magician, Odd-eyes, Synchron, E heroes, all have vast archetypal card pools, for example. There would be Variety between players but the cap of power hits somewhere between casual and competitive.

[@Vic_Chaos_]

+Illy Suburban I would argue that's basically Speed Dueling, but Speed Duels only have the original series characters and I hope it stays that way.

[@Firedoomcaster]

Lol. I love how a yugi-boomer is considered to be from 2010… my first tournaments were way back in 2003… though I did come top after the first round which all of my older tournament friends were super excited about (because it NEVER happened) and they got the organisers to print the ranking list out for me to keep for posterity. I lost the tournament eventually, but I’ll never forget how crazy proud all of my 15-20 year old yugi-friends were of little 12 year old me at the time.

[@WhoEatsZombieBrains]

i still dont even know how to play with xyz monsters properly and im loving collecting all over again and playing some casual duels with my girl

[@ems6706]

I find them just small boxes to lock yourself into. Like I try to recreate top decks from different formats if I enjoy the play experience of those formats and I play janky low tier decks I enjoy. Usually both those options are pretty cheap as well. Like Yu Gi Oh is what you make it and trying to define the "proper" way to play is just gatekeepy nonsense outside of the proper context of course. Like going to a Regional is going to attract people who like that just like going to unranked boards on Dueling Book who like that. Just enjoy yourself and the game is gonna be fun no matter how you play it.

[@SparkpawGaming]

Please remember comments. Casual = for fun. Competitive = for fun. I play competitively for fun. Remember, both sides are having fun even if you don't think of competitive or casual as "fun"!

[@jaysonmccloneypercussion2334]

This topic right here is one reason why I stopped playing yugioh. I tried getting back in the a couple of years ago and went to a local playing a blue eyes deck and people were being disrespectful because I was playing a rogue deck. After that night I left this game alone. Now I play magic which has a variety of formats for both competitive and casual players. And magic even has it to where you can play casually/competitive.

[@FlyingPhoenix813]

Me, my bro his friend, and his friends two siblings and son play as yugioh is intended. Any card is allowed, and let me tell you it's fun. We play all against each other, it's a free for all or we team up 2vs2 or 3vs3. One time we had a single duel going for an hour and a half! It was the longest game we played but it was auction packed. It was a lot of back and forth...what caused this was cyber/fiber jar.

[@trevorwallace7360]

I think there could be a place for competitive yu gi oh and casual yu gi oh and that both could have tournaments and fan bases. For instance what if a tournament played OG rules where the only monsters allowed in the extra deck were Fusions and all cards were limited to 1 per deck while competitive had a place of their own. What sucks is that for me I can't even play master duel without getting annihilated by some try hard on the first or second turn of the game even when I'm just trying to play for fun. Also I live in a small town where the fan base isn't so strong so even when I meet like minded players they have already been scorned by the competitive community in the same way as me and have already started to conform to playing whatever popular floodgate, negate, handtrap, or hand loop cards they can get their hands on just so they can keep up with other players in the community.

[@koorssgamer]

I think the problem is that, since this games are still young, and still a niche, it still didn't got to a point where you can clearly divide the pro player, the semi-pro player and the amateur player. We already have that in sports, like soccer or basketball, where you don't have a problem between a NBA player and a neighborhood about how the game should be played. Nonetheless, I think we (games in general) can learn a little bit with traditional sports about how to separate competitive play and casual play

[@montyturner6511]

I agree here. I feel like both sides should get along and enjoy the game.