Digimon has a Problem, and so does every other Card Game

Good Day Tamers, Duelists, planeswalkers pirates and so many more, i'm AgitoSwiftly and like many other's i've noticed how a lot of card games are struggling to lure in new unsuspecting victims to this wonderful world of Cardboard most of us here are involved in, now I would like to take a moment to say, every card game in this video I have had some involvement with in terms of past or present expect One Piece, no hate I already Sim for one Bandai card game.
As I may have...borrowed some of the images used in today's video I would like to thank them for their continued hard work.
/ abrandnewmac
/ @goonsquadtcg
/ thefleeee
/ rahulreddy
/ pakofficialtcg
/ @paktcg
/ cimoooooooo
/ @cimoooooooo
00:00 Intro
00:30 Digimon
00:45 The Pandemic's Curse
01:21 It's The Kid's Fault!
03:45 The Cult Of Pokemon
05:38 Magic that Creepy Uncle in the Card Shop
08:45 Yugioh, Konami's Inability
13:15 One Piece, You'll find it in the hearts of others
13:53 Cherish it.

[@WoodyREC]

Digimon TCGs biggest problem is how overlooked / underrated it is - such a fun game!

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Digimon is honestly one of the better tcgs I've played. The original director knew what they were doing

[@mastematcg]

Both their competitive and casual plays are fun, many homage to the source media while make it playable is insane There's a hiccup on recent set, but they take the blame and risk it for better gameplay environtment

[@richardshiflett5181]

It needs an online version as it's very intimidating to play

[@oakapigang2944]

I dropped bt3 heard power creep is bad so I can't play like once a month and be comp

[@Oku_yappin]

It needs a digital platform and a series centered around the tcg. Webtoons series confirmed 💯

[@kevinski-tcg]

These games are definitely a hard sell to the younger crowd. I’m a grown ass adult and Yugioh seems more complicated than my day job ☹️

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

As a machine technician, I'm 90% sure a yugioh combo has more parts to it than a full recoding of one of my machines

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

Lorcana, magic, and pokemon feel easier to learn but good lord ygo is just impossible for me

[@dudono1744]

@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming 10-15 effects involved on average.

[@ChazBlanks]

Yugioh for even us players now is complicated

[@kevinski-tcg]

I'm always tempted to try again, and I keep a deck or two relatively up to date. But man, I just don't think I can untangle all the micro-interactions and out there rulings.@@ChazBlanks

[@Mekaizer]

The problem with Digimon is Bandai and Toei xD For some reason both companies hate them and try to kill digimon, I remember when one piece tcg came out and they left out digimon tcg, by a miracle digimon survived, also let's not forget that for some reason digimon has difficulty leaving digimon adventure and has not managed make a new series that invites the new generation of children to be interested (outside of Japan of course)... oh and it doesn't have any good current and accessible games for children

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

first point 100% right, two company's pulling on Digimon like a stuffed teddy slowly watching the stitching and stuffing fall out (also trying to content create around Digimon is awkward because they hit for most things i'm surprised this video didn't get slapped tbf), Digimon basically gave them the capital to make One Piece, One Piece gave them the capital to do Union Arena but OP is just growing like an avalanche, Adventure's reboot was just marketing for the card game, with Lib coming out as a Card game comic i do hope we get more designs and idea's from it down the line, World did get re-released for the switch last year (Switches are aimed at families or children i say this while mine is staring at me not been touched for months), not that i''d was the latest world game was child friendly or interesting to children, we know the last story game has been in development hell for half a decade at this point and could really do with giving us maybe a World 1 or 3 remake/remaster for the switch, but i do think Digimon isn't really going to lure in a lot of new fans unless we get an anime that is dubbed and brought to *insert childrens channel* to actually boost it to the outside world

[@DigiTism]

I think there’s a third category of people as well: Players who are trying to find a cheaper game. I grew up on Digimon but wasn’t really invested in playing Digimon. Not being able to play locally during the pandemic really didn’t impact me much. It was when I got tired of Konami’s printing tactics and how they treat the TCG as a cash cow compared to the OCG. That’s when I got tired of spending $500-$900 simply to have a competitive deck. I saw a few Digimon deck profiles because of KZbin’s algorithm and decided to see how the game was played. I was interested in starting but didn’t really commit until a while later after seeing how cheap the game is.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

tbf, that was the 2nd category of people, a lot of people tried to reset with Digimon which in turn made it super expensive because bandai prints its first few sets in small batches to play it safe and then, well its a nightmare, the game for the most part is one of the more cheaper competitively cheaper card games and was well designed and would recommended anyone to get into, one day i will have that how to play series finalized

[@historyking9984]

Konami’s also wasted the opportunity of the hype of master duel . They made the game where its ban list wasn’t the same as either the tcg or ocg so anyone who got introduced to the game through that couldn’t translate that to the real game making few new players. They made rush duels a new format but only put it in the ocg never releasing it in America .

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Speed Duels came out before Rush duel's announcement and i'd presume Konami of America didn't want to have to fight itself for money, this is why separate parts of companies really need to talk to each other and could have saved money and boosted it at the same time, Master Duel came out to fast, it needed a full card list and then depending on the region you was playing in should have picked the ban list for you (yes i know this makes it a non world wide game and Joshua Schmidt might not be our true EU saviour but still)

[@AdaptiveReasoning]

I've tried getting my kids into the Digimon and Pokemon card games, and they like it conceptually, but they'd rather play a videogame or watch a TV show instead. There's not really anywhere for them to play with other kids. The card shops have players that are 20somethings and up.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

that is the hard part about getting younger players into the game, having somewhere for them and just them to play can be really difficult as most LGSs tend to have event or tournaments on from 3pm onwards, if you do live close to an LGS it might be worth asking if they have an afternoon in the week that you could hold children's only events for (even if it's just an hour a week it's still getting them out of the house)

[@sladevalen2120]

I think if the pokemon companyade a new tcg game it would be able to get some of the younger audience interested. The original tcg game on the gameboy is what taught me the game as a kid and what prompted me to teach my friends at school the real way to play.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

@@sladevalen2120 with Pokemon only really having 1 format Pokemon does reset the March after any new games release but if Pokemon or Nintendo was to release a new TCG it would have to be a Different IP and i don't think people want a Nintendo Lorcana game (although a Smash card game might be cool)

[@Linkirby]

I swear i hate when they say it as X-Y-Z its pronunced XYZ(Excces)

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Oh, I know how it's announced. I just like spelling it out because it annoys people

[@GrievelornTCG]

I tried watching through but I think I got lost in how this video was structured. Is the main point that just all card games are dying?

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

So the point of the video is that card games aren't really sold to the younger generations anymore and the term "Children's Card Games" hasn't really been an honest phase since LittleKuribo made that joke 18 years ago, most Card Games are doing fine, but the card game Hobby itself might be dying off in the next 30-50 years

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

So many stores are closed down now. Half the tabletop stores around here closed in the past five years, and I literally live within 30 minutes of both WotC and Pokemon itnl HQ. I want more card games to thrive. I’ll say kids have still gotten into magic around here, because DRAFTING is exciting. And a lot of kids play pokemon, well, because pokemon. We got a whole store dedicated to pokemon, and it holds events and has programs and “camps” to introduce it. Community access is the core, the heart of the medium thriving in my experience. I’d love more easy games to get into, and more draft games so they can feel exciting and fair

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Definitely, community is the heart of a scene, as well as how the game goes down in your area, I know a lot of people who have had or have awful locals and only go because its the only outlet they have (be it awful pricing practices, other players been the worst the world has to offer or hours away which isn't the shops fault but I can understand why someone has to really want to go if they are doing a 3 hour round trip)

[@SuperChucknorrisman]

I agree, I think that card shops don't try to interact with the younger community enough. I think if they target families that would help with the next generations of players. My idea would be maybe have a how to play night with parents learning the game with their kids and playing against each other.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

My locals do this for pokemon, which I helped run for the first 8 weeks while the owner got used to pokemon. It's great having a room full of smiles, but most of them have just been dropped off by their mums, and dad's like its a cresh for 2 hours

[@A88mph]

If I made a card game, I'd sell it "Munchkin-style" Each booster set would have full playsets of EVERY card, and cost about $40. No more random packs: just you and your skill.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

As long as there were a few different types of decks to play, I could honestly see it being able to work just depends how long you'd want to support the game and how you'd keep it going

[@rokmare]

Ever heard of LCG

[@TCG9777]

Dude chose to speak in fast-forward lol

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Them kids like that 1.5x speed baby

[@TCG9777]

@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming :D

[@mor4439]

As an ADD zoomer, the RNG element of TCGs is arguably why I love them so much with my game of choice being Vanguard

[@traplover6357]

We just need another Hearthstone for the next decade to revitalize this genre of hobbies. So many people who never played a trading card game have played Hearthstone imo.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I know a few have tried in the past decade or so, but Hearthstone really is a one of a kind

[@skaven969]

it's true, universes beyond has brought in so many new players

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Got my bag of money for Final Fantasy ready to go!

[@sladevalen2120]

I wish digimon tcg had an online version. A group of my friends and i all got precons towards the tail end of covid and would play and enjoy it. Now that weve moved apart after college i have no way to play it with them anymore, where as other card games we enjoy we can boot up our computers and get some games in.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

You can play over webcam, I know it's not the same, but at least you can spend time with your friends, BSS just got a Web based client announced so hopefully Digimon might be next or soon, as the story of Liberators is based around playing on a sim

[@Oku_yappin]

Tbh playing over webcam is odd. Plus I would like to see more card games create four playe formats​@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming

[@EmeralBookwise]

Trading card games aren't likely to ever die entirely, just contract and wane as all things do, but still always with the possibility of a resurgence.

[@Joy_inc]

i think this is a really bad take, the issue isnt "kids dont like card games because of socail media" its just niche and most people arent into it, ergo most children arent into them

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Literally, what I said, you just missed the point that children can just do more, and youtube is literally a dump of information they can freely absorb

[@fybso3057]

Ive been playing the ninjao card game with a 9 year old with adhd and i can tell you, when a kid is REALLY interessted, they will be sitting down and learn and play. I feel like pokemon and digimon card games are a bit too difficult to learn for like 5-8 year olds

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

There's been multiple 5 year old children that have won the pokemon World championships, and not to take away from the 9 year old but there's different forms of ADHD and I have two children who are night and day with their ADHD unfortunately for their old dad I'm not getting any games in soon :(

[@tylerpesek1091]

I still like Yugioh, I just hate seeing all the meta players every second on Master Duel.

[@MeowWBO]

There's a lot of great information here, but typically you want to pause when you finish a sentence. This video is really hard to watch with random pauses in the middle of sentences and runons. Had to turn on subtitles.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I'll be honest, the subs probably didn't help either. I've seen some of the predictive subtitles in the past. xD This was my first time doing an easy style video, and I think I improved in the next one (why so many card games like hand rip effects) Thank you for the constructive feedback, and I do hope you enjoyed it.

[@Gorn21]

Well considering how much we spend on card games its defenetly not for kids its just not in their budget even if digimon is fairly cheap compared to some other but even digimon has become more expensive over the last year.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I do agree that digimon is pushing back on prices, Ex1-2-3-4 didn't really do much in terms of shaking up the game, so a lot of stores reduced their Ex5 numbers, and that set as we know is a monster, BT14 has become like BT11 while BT15 has basically had tonshift it's value from Apoc to SRs like Levia x

[@allanturmaine5496]

If each card played Subway Surfers clips as you read it, we might stand a chance.

[@historyking9984]

A huge problem with Yugioh is Konami and it being a Japanese company. They’re not going to allow cash prizes in the game making competitive less viable . The games split into two different games the txt and ocg with different ban list and rulings differently so you can’t have a true world tournament for the game . Cards in the tcg that are 100 can be $20 or $15 in the ocg. They have multiple rarities and it’s been shown by the rarity collection that it’s possible and players in the tcg want that. The OCG also gets cards months in advance and better quality cards. If Konami just had one game where cards came in multiple rarities and didn’t favor the ocg so much more the game would be so much better

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Actually, the reason why Yugioh is so poorly rewarded competitively is because of its creator, Kazuo Takahashi, as he didn't want people to gamble, and yes the current best deck in the tcg was a mear fraction in the ocg, that's mostly because the people working on the game in the ocg actually care about people been able to play this game and its why most of the staple cards get that multiple rarity treatment they do in the OCG, while Konami of America is just trying to harvest your wallets, they've never officially said this but most companies aren't as open to calling their customer pay pigs like Hasbro. Unfortunately, like the magic community the yugioh community keeps buying into the problem making it less likely that Konami would be willing to chage their ways, look at back in the day with how often staples got reprinted multiple times in a year if not a format, Yugioh has a Konami of America problem

[@twilightkingtron4388]

Was that guy cheating under the table on the one piece clip? 😅

[@AldricSaint]

He was then he pulled his shirt, so if you see this guy and he pulls his shirt call a judge 😂

[@Oku_yappin]

First card game i learned was vanguard because the anime did an amazing job of explaining the rules. Unlike other tcg animes e.g ( Wixoss, yugioh, bakugan(2019) e.t.c

[@Oku_yappin]

Your not wrong. When i was 4 my sister and I would Create our own cards from paper. I was not interested on learning to play card games. They seemed to complicated

[@chrisgrudge6964]

As someone who hasn’t seen your other videos (I see you’re a digimon KZbinr) it would have been great if you mentioned digimon in your analysis (plus it’s in your title, that’s a bit click baity) I’ve been getting back into digimon media so I’d love to hear more about it.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I tend to do a lot of news on this channel so drop back in every now and again, i'm also casting for Raid'n'Trade tomorrow on their twitch channel if you have some spare time tomorrow, this video wasn't really about Digimon and really about the hobby as a whole and i didn't really see where i could add anything for Digimon other then how Bandai has pushed it to the side because OP has done so much better then they would have thought.

[@chrisgrudge6964]

@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming how does digimon current popularity stack up with yugioh?

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

In terms of players, I'd say there's probably about a tenth of the player base, in terms of franchise they are both beloved

[@ProfessorMoai]

Nice man! What about Flesh and Blood?

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I actually have some history with Flesh and Blood but never got into the game. I might make a shorts series on it (probably about 5 minutes of entertainment). I hear it's doing well, at least better than metazoo

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon are doing well for me

[@KryselITG]

Its okay everyone, just play Vanguard. Flip yellow or OT and you win 😂

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

it scared Konami once

[@Krazy893]

I thought the title said "digimon has a card game, so does every other card game"😂as if its just somehow slamming digimon

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Digimon is tripping over itself with all the bits of cardboard xD

[@geoffnaggie961]

Pokemon competitive is a nightmare lol

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I haven't had a chance to jump back into Competitive personally but I've been keeping my eye on a few channels and watching events when I can, and Pokemon looks like its doing pretty good (in before the Aces tank pokemon)

[@PreviewAvailable]

I'm not at all convinced ygo has the same price issues that mtg has.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Yugioh has been fairly expensive these past few years with this latest format just pushing out the chips

[@redskarr]

I don't think card games are dying in the slightest, digimon isn't dying either. Not every TCG needs to sell out venues or perform so well that you can't get stock to play locally. Digimon is in a very healthy place.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Tbf I can't see 30-50 years into the future these day Gen Alpha's and their skibity toilets

[@fernandomaxis6550]

I get your points though i see it differently. Kids dont care because the animes for these products are terrible and watered down with baby designs and filler stories. The card games are too competitive. both the adults and companies need to ban most of the annoying unhealthy practices being used in duels or card design. Then there's the obvious, there's more out there to play on a child's phone compared to kids of the 90s. Why wouldn't they enjoy more games when cards are 10 dollars for a single pack of a few cards.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

i had a conversation with my wife a few weeks back that our children don't get that saturday morning cartoon weekly event we used to and that was a really fun start to our weekend, times are changing/have changed which is partly what this video is about, now if the new Digimon Comic had a good weekly anime to go along with it

[@schuylerschmadtke1250]

Rush tbh is fun but doesnt feel like the simpler form of Yugioh an ex player like me who fell off due to complexity creep but doesnt want only time wizard formats to play

[@Evixyn]

I played master duel when it released and it was so much to learn that i wanted to be competitive without being competitive and so I played a control flood gate deck that does the samething that these twenty combo decks can do in five minutes. Then Konami limited / banned majority of the floodgate cards and I stopped playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

[@valutaatoaofunknownelement197]

Not gonna lie, that's pretty brave of you to run anti-meta floodgate control. I imagine many people would near-immediately throw hands as soon as you began playing the floodgates.

[@Yous0147]

It's not about children today lacking attention span or being fundamentally different from when millenials were kids, rather it's that most of the big card games just don't hold any significant value compared to how much they demand of you in terms of both funding and time. Millenials have nostalgia for these things and the capital to pay, beyond that they've grown up with the "excentricities" and just bad aspects of card games and gotten used to them. Children today don't have that nostalgia or loyalty, and they have much better choice in terms of better way to spend their time without getting ripped off or pulled into a chase card "suckers" market, which a lot of card games tend to revolve around, and I say this as someone who likes TCG's in concept. The way card games are made, monetized and distributed is just stuck in the past and whatever innovation you find is just to its detriment to squeeze out any funding from the adults of today instead of establishing a future where card games could've been a central social hub for people to interact and revolve around. It's no wonder kids are uninterested.

[@AmineL-es3dk]

I love card games

[@wookimania]

Digimon has multiple problems. Ban/restriction list is out of wack when most of the problems happen in Japan, secondary market in LGS aren't as strong or none existed, support for certain decks are too reliant in promos or future support (1-3 cards sometimes) months away, and a couple of other things.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I do agree on both fronts, I've even made a few videos about the promo problem, but I hear that it is a Bandai problem at its core, with how good the secondary market places can be having a good LGS supply isn't as much of an issue like it was 20 years ago

[@StellaEFZ]

Secondary market sure can be bad, but the banlist? They're some of the best out there man, what are you even talking about The game is very balanced and every tournament out there reflects that with varied top cuts, in all levels As for support, 100%, I'm still waiting for darkknightmon support

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

the ban list in itself is fine and for the most part kept the game in check, Digimon's meta game has always been fairly fluid, now us sharing the ban list has come to annoy a lot of people who have paid for boxes to then be unable to play decks at full strength which then led to imbalances because the game was then designed to counter act the over performing colour that had already been dealt with (Green in the 1.5 format which then pushed Yellow into dominance for over 6 months, then everyone who brought into BT10 to play Xros Hearts and it got limited before it was able to be played competitively) i would argue for Apoc been taken to soon but that card was written like the final antagantis to Adventure, perfectly thematic but absolutely over tuned for the card game

[@richardshiflett5181]

Well, they're aiming for tcg/ocg to be Sync by 2025

[@richardshiflett5181]

Also, digimon banlist is way better than one piece that's so scared to ban or limit busted cards

[@mikigzaielart]

Awesome video! But you talk very fast which makes it a bit hard to follow...atleast for me 😅

[@sandythamtono2081]

Well its not just TCG Toys also arent targetted for kids anymore Theyre selling for an expensive price And only mid age or older men buy and collect toys now 😂😂 Kids play phone games or console game now

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

True, my 7 year old rarely wants toys (if he sees something interesting, he might ask for it), but my 12 year old hasn't asked for a toy since he was probably 9.

[@MrWallow7]

Keyforge does not have any of these problems

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I haven't kept up with the keyforge since its first couple sets, but if it's still able to hit "powerful" cards and turn off a deck, that also sounds kinda awful, but as I said I haven't looked at keyforge in years

[@MrWallow7]

@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming well yeah the randomized element is still there, there is still a sort of financial barrier to entry in order to compete at higher levels, but sealed formats are making a huge comeback, and while it is true that you can always pull an OP deck, your skill as a pilot will always be tested

[@idonotmakevidsyet]

I still don't understand what the point of this video is about. Telling us issues we already know about and then saying nothing should change is confusing.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

The point is card games aren't dying, card games just aren't for children like they were in yester years (besides magic thats always been for teenagers and young adults and now old men) and that the games people always moan are dying aren't it's just less people are walking into a lgs and asking if they can come play, then explaining why the big three rarely have the "we are dying" issue Pokemon is a cult Magic is for lonely people Yugioh is for the narcissistic One Piece is full of pirates

[@drago939393]

I'm sorry but I feel like you need to take a step back and reassess how you structure your video(s) and scripts. This felt quite disjointed. Also, I know it's not easy, but the actual speaking cadence and clarity need a lot of practice, I genuinely struggled to follow along at real time, which is a first for someone who watches YT at 2.0 speed lol.

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Appreciate the feedback. The script is two parts, Why Digimon was able to find a niche/children who aren't into card games, and then what the big are doing to keep people interested. I'm not sure what yugioh is doing, especially with everything going down this past week

[@avehd4413]

One piece is still in the new hype phase it’ll go by the wayside just like dragon ball super. Best new card game is probably flesh and blood

[@timdim3333]

Its really hard to understand you sometimes , try talking a bit slower please

[@hipstersephiroth3722]

For God so loved the world he gaved his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3:16

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Our Lord and Saviour Kefka won't be pleased if he hasn't condemned us all

[@Chiisaru]

wow, what a waste of time

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

Thank you for wasting your time with me and the other 6 people who threw their time into the algorithm. *evil laugh*

[@steveng6721]

Seriously, total nothingburger. Dunno when or why I subbed here

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

I'm glad your life is so meaningless that you watch metaphors on life through card games

[@steveng6721]

@@AgitoSwiftlyGaming stop making shitty clickbait videos about nothing? Idk you do you I guess

[@AgitoSwiftlyGaming]

There is no clickbait in the video. Maybe I'll make one just for you where I talk to you like a 3 year old because the other adults seem to understand the video and the message