Power Creep is out of Control

[@scorpioncox8978]

At this point in time, the statement where handtraps were meant to be a bandaid has just aged like milk as the bandaid has long since fallen off and the wound has only gotten worse. There is no reason why decks should have more non engine than your actual archetype and have that as the standard for modern play. Handtraps have just worsen the power creep and unless something major changes, it’ll only get worse from here.

[@jarom1144]

It does seem like Konami is trying to change directions in terms of power. Slowly. Still a lot of non-engine but Konami is starting to make archtypes that have a much lower power ceiling. Josh has talked about this on his channel a bit. Hopefully the next step for Konami is to make the engine requirements larger over time, while also keeping the ceiling lower.

[@bocodamondo]

once they started creating cards secifically with the intention of not losing to one or two handtrap, thats how we get annoying crap like 1 card combos that do waaay too much and now they keep making more handtraps to stop those 1 card combos from going off, its an endless circle of powercreep

[@Over9000Chainz]

They design decks like this now. I play Edison but I built millennium Exodia to play with my coworkers who play modern, and even something as (relatively) low powered as that has a complete full engine with spells, traps, and monsters, and actually has so few good playable cards that it’s begging to be filled with non-engine. It’s actually crazy

[@fusionxtras]

At some point it may loop around to being like og yugioh where it's just a pile of good monsters again lol

[@JustSomeGuyLass]

If you don't hand trap the over tuned meta decks that Konami prints, whoever wins the coin flip will just combo off for 10 minutes, uninterrupted, and then set up a board that prevents the person going second from playing. Can you really say that game state is more fun than having hand traps? At least with hand traps you can do something if you lose the coin flip instead of being a hostage to your opponents long combo

[@dreadgear9683]

my problem with hand traps is how it results in 14-20 cards of the deck being that, hand traps. The deck building is so limited that there is very little place for creativity.

[@Raphael4722]

In the early days of yugioh, half of every competitive deck was staples. Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, Monster Reborn, Trap Dustshoot, Torrential Tribute, Sangan, etc. It's not like there was so much more creativity. And you can still choose between a hand trap approach or a board breaker approach. Or you can play a deck like Runick where the engine itself acts as a board breaker.

[@rangingaway92]

Difference is Nostalgia. Everyone loves pot of greed, who TF wants to play Fuwalos. I'd rather unban those cards and ban all the handtraps. YGO was a "you do something, I do something game" not a "I play solitaire and you watch me" kind of game.

[@LemonCookies]

you have all these insane cards. crazy archtypes, then they make pack filler archtypes and cards that are so bad with wild drawbacks and conditions on them.

[@thorscape3879]

​@@rangingaway92RML FTK, Frog FTK, Expedia FTK, Scientist FTK, Last Turn, Stein OTK. Yeah, I too remember a time when solitaire decks didn't exist.

[@rangingaway92]

At this point, the game is unfixable unless you ruin decades of Nostalgia. Neither is this type of game design, printing ridiculously unfair cards, one up each year. *make a new format, Stone Age YGO, and very slowly and meticulously add cards to it. Not with the intent to milk fans, but to give many fans a chance to play officially and publicly. The meta will still form, but it will be based on cards with many answers, not just cards that do everything. I want to lose to Dark Magician, not his 60th form with trillion effects* It's anyone's guess what happens next, these are just my 2 cents. The game went Warp 10 while everyone wants the game as they remember it from the anime. Not this. What's even more sad, Konami has thousands of dumb fun interesting cards with medium difficulty and interesting combos. But those are used as pack filler, not the main thing. Cuz, you have to pull that *ULTRA-GIGA-MEGA-GOLD-SUPER-RARE* I'm bored of that type of game design. It's not fun. And collector-wise, you collect useless cardboard that they ban on a whim.

[@Burn2themall]

It's made especially bad when Komoney decided to print the new hand traps in the highest rarity possible trying to force more products to be bought when really it hurts the player base more than it helps Cause every rarity collection I see more people playing cause people finally get access to the cards that they've been needing since like the start of the year

[@majidoujaa5592]

hand traps started as a solution where if you let your opponent play without interruption turn one, they will either ftk you or make an unbreakable board. after the introduction of viable hand traps, there is a back and forth where you can interact turn 1 and even if you have an incomplete board, you can survive through hand traps next turn. simple enough. the issue is konami got too greedy wanting the next batch of cards to continuously be the greatest thing since sex where a single card leads to full combo playing through multiple interactions with hand, field and grave effects that trigger in the same turn that lead to them being a starter, extender, and endboard piece all at once. giving you more room for handtraps, and to counter that, more oppressive hand traps needed to be made. it's a vicious cycle

[@dudono1744]

Veiler was literally made to stop a FTK in the anime and basically never showed up in the anime after that.

[@Rurike]

I remember back when decks had like built in meaningfful strengths and weaknesses. Only certain decks could rack up the damage to kill in one turn, or only some decks had ways means of keeping gas for a followup turn 3 or 4. But now days just seems not only are those much less rare but the dominant factor is how well they play around the best handtraps and how much non engine they can squeeze out. Kinda rough

[@dudono1744]

But a clear weakness will be exploited.

[@ItsReallyColdOutside]

​@@dudono1744 That's the point

[@dudono1744]

@@ItsReallyColdOutside I mean that a deck with a big weakness would need something crazy going for it to be competitive.

[@rangingaway92]

Every deck is 12-20 of the same answers, only the cards aren't fun to play with or against. They just EF'D it up overcomplicating and destroying the Nostalgia cards for bs do everything cards. I'd rather like if decks play 4 different cards, not just one Ash, it does everything, great.

[@ItsReallyColdOutside]

@@dudono1744 oh yeah misunderstood completely the comment. Nowadays decks have weakness to stuff like shifter but yes, they don't posses any inherit weakness like the inability to OTK for example.

[@Mr_Ozone]

Very similarly, I play Machina (which has almost NO slots for non-engine) and it's at a point where i'll try to play on Master Duel or at locals and it's like "Oh, my Redeployment got Ashed? Ok, i'll just summon my Gearframe or Unclaspare. Oh, it got Impermed? Ok, i'll just go fuck myself, then." or they'll Shifter my Fortress when I discard Citadel and just like that, my deck doesn't function. They feel like such an unhealthy cards justified under the guise of "Oh, well I NEED this if I want to compete, and if your deck can't play through 3 disruption, then just play something else cause it'll never be good enough". My rogue decks don't even get the CHANCE anymore, I get stopped before I even start. Like getting sucker punched as soon as I get in the ring.

[@rangingaway92]

Literally my point, you're going in with a deck you love VS a deck that's made soulless, just to survive the crazy meta. Decks either FTK or scoop.

[@Mr_Ozone]

@@rangingaway92 I was playing U.A. against Labrynth the other day, and you can REALLY feel the generational difference between these decks. It's pretty much an unwinnable matchup without the perfect non-engine. Labrynth just gets back all of its resources, and U.A. loses gas after turn 3 and can't put enough damage out to keep getting over Lady. If any of my field spells get ashed then it's over cause U.A. barely has any search power. Which is a shame cause I LOVE U.A., I think it has such a unique playstyle, but all decks were not created equal. At least Machina has good search power and damage. I don't wanna fill half my Machina or U.A. deck with a bunch of handtraps and non-engine, it loses its identity and consistency, but if I wanna survive that's what I gotta do. So now I just separate my decks between "tournament" and "non-tournament", and tbh I have like maybe 3 or 4 "tournament" decks out of the dozens I own. They're just not as appealing to me

[@Bastion70]

I just returned to the game but i've been following and playing the solo mode on Master Duel. I saw the Danger monsters recently and fell in love with them as i love Cryptids and the paranormal and all that and i always liked the Dark World monsters and they go well together. Yes many will complain about their abilities but thats not why i love the Dangers if they were good and had other abilities i'd still love them. And even when their abilities aren't a sure fire thing like lots of other decks are like Tempai and Kashtira. But i love the cards and i bond with them yes i've been following since the Duel Monsters anime and believe in the heart of the cards duel spirits stuff. Just something that makes me happy. But it just seems i can either play a deck i dont want to use because i dont connect with the cards which has always been an issue for me. But with the deck i have i finally feel like i have my cards i've always looked for.

[@Ryan_Wiseman]

There was a reason hand traps were viable for long period of times, because toxic deck engines needed as many cards as possible to pop, so they were less likely to run a deck so reliant on hand traps. Now, these toxic decks use these hand traps offensively because their deck can pop with seeing as few engine cards as possible. They've managed to make a deck not impacted much by all hand traps you use, while also making it where you can't play the game. I just wanna play a fun Fallen of Albaz deck, not have to pick a Tier 0 deck to survive my opponents first turn. The toxic players got exactly what they want, and that is "I can only play and you have zero recourse about it". With the release of these new engines, we've now reached a point where there aren't any viable going second decks, because the toxic player will just spam as many hand traps while they've popped to something unbreakable

[@FaolanKitekaze]

I really like chimera, and it can be one of those decks that can have a really good end board through multiple interruptions. But it can also just lose to a single ash or imperm and it feels terrible when it does. Meanwhile the top decks pretty much play through all interruptions and still go full combo. The disparity between tier 1 and everything else feels really bad

[@Raphael4722]

Some Chimera hands _can_ play through Ash/Imperm. And it would be toxic if a deck that can floodgate you out of spells and traps was too powerful.

[@FaolanKitekaze]

@Raphael4722 I said it can play through interruptions, but not always. Also it doesn't floodgate traps, only spells

[@hultraspitfire2151]

Hi, RR one trick here, I wanted to say, yes situation is horrendous when it comes to hand trap. We have developed techs and deckbuilding choices but it always feels like comparing hands and guessing how the opponent will stop us. To give you an idea of how bad things are we have cut Maxx C and replaced it with droll bc it didn't do enough in some builds and we fold to it harder than a leaf in the wind(except Kali yuga versions). Others are all in on hand traps, resulting in a meta deck without the meta engine and relying on our opponents to be so missinformed that it makes up the difference... Even if revolution force and raider's wing are godsend in the face of imperm and veiler, even if some set ups can play around bystials and multiple backrow whipe, it is such a uphill battle that anyone without a personal attachment to the deck shouldn't even try it.

[@HeadHunter417]

Sword soul back so long ago. Had it down on what a balanced deck should be. Swordsoul was good, but outside protos, noone ever would say it was busted. It didn't have space for a lot of non. Engine, because it had to play cards like tenyi to round itself out. You had good cards that could go first and second but nothing was ever overbearing.

[@antonbrown17]

There was a period of like 8 months between 2021 & 2022 when several of the best decks were strong but not overbearing, stuff like Tri-Brigaide, Swordsoul, Virtual World (Tri-Brigaide is borderline cuz Revolt is basically return from the different dimension but wasnt too too crazy). But then Power of the Elements kinda changed that forever, we haven't had a balanced tier 1 deck since lol

[@frig7014]

@@antonbrown17 revolt is kinda fair tho cause the rest of the tri-brigade cards don't do much outside of being bodies for making links that you in turn couldn't link climb with unless they were tri-type. The restriction was good enough and only really problematic in its link cheating because of how strong Simorgh for barrier statue was. Honestly they could get back simorgh now too without the barrier statue.

[@antonbrown17]

@@frig7014 Revolt was always borderline for me because in theory it's just a single banish off Shurig but in practice it's the effect of a banned card to give Tri-Brigaide a whole lot of recursion by 2021 standards. But you're right even at the time, it was generally fair for those reasons, Simorgh could probably come back

[@dhanyl2725]

Tbf I've abandoned hope the moment they printed maxx c 2.0s (multcharmy cards) instead of banning maxx c where it's available

[@dudono1744]

Given how controversial Maxx C is, it makes sense to try to fix it. And tbh, Purulia and Nyarus are pretty interesting and can be played around to a degree. Fuwalos, on the other hand, is complete bs due to hitting the extra which straight up cannot be played around. They'd just need a few tweaks : • Discard 1 to activate, especially Purulia. This would make them riskier to use. • Shuffle random cards during end phase equal to the number you drew minus the number your opponent controls, so using other handtraps actually hurts your hand size. They'd still be really strong, but much more manageable.

[@HaphazardousWaste]

I think the issue is not just with modern deck building and hand-trap design, but also with archetypal design. So many modern archetypes can generate so much off of so little. Modern decks now have like five 1-card starters which is why they can easily navigate interruptions, and why only so many engine cards are required. There is so little reliance on normal summoning and so few summoning conditions, such as field presence, for monsters to bring themselves out, opponents are basically forced to run cards that create that restriction, like shifter or d-barrier. Otherwise, they have to resort to blowout cards on their turn like lightning storm, or droplet, to just level the field so they can begin their plays. Cost also really doesn't mean COST anymore as it is pretty much non-existent and there is very little downsides with effects. Before it was a good means of forcing players to maintain resources, otherwise they could overextend and pay the price, but now we don't really see that. Everything is basically free advantage and even if it is interrupted, a lot of modern monsters now have second effects that can go off that are equally as useful, which makes it easy for players to just pivot and continue their plays as if they weren't even interrupted. To give an example, one of my favorite decks to play is Earth Machine, but I know this deck will never be competitive because the deck, in my opinion, is "too fair." So many of their effects are great but have certain drawbacks to their payoff. There are many cards that have to tribute a monster to special summon, or discard to search, or require certain costs or conditions on the field or in grave be met to special summon themselves. You don't see that with a lot of modern decks. So I think that if power creep is to be controlled, Konami will have to put the modern decks in check and, going forward, design archetypes that can play well, but aren't just straight gas.

[@miguelyanezlorenzo5037]

The thing with YGO design in the last years is that it has had a significant change in philosophy. Before, non-engine cards that were universally appliable to decks and unequivocably strong got either banned or limited. But since the bug got the ban hammer, their solution to rotate out those pieces of non-engine seems to be to powercreep them. We're quickly approaching a singularity point were over half of most top decks will be non-engine, and at that point the identity of every deck just becomes the same bland handtrap soup with some named engine attached instead of the other way around.

[@Raphael4722]

Nonsense. Staples have always been a thing in yugioh. All the top decks feel distinctly different from each other. If you feel they're all the same, it's probably because you're spectating rather than playing.

[@miguelyanezlorenzo5037]

@Raphael4722 I have well over 600 hours on MD, so I'd say I am playing the game quite a bit. And I'm not saying they currently feel the same, but rather that at the rate the amount of non-engine in decks has been increasing we may reach a point were decks will be more non-engine staples than archetypes. And my point still stands, generic staples that everyone used were hit, which led to archetypes many times having their own in-archetype alternatives. MST was limited for years. Despite the overwhelming use rate, modern staples like Ash haven't.

[@swagmoneymafia]

Played a LOT in toss format, quit for a while and played a little bit when swordsoul was meta a couple years later... Quit for a while and returning to the post-POTE meta it doesnt even feel like the same game. Its crazy how much stronger decks have become in like 2 years.

[@antonbrown17]

The creep in the last two years has been nuts. I think Swordsoul might be the last "fair" Tier 1 deck we'll see for a long time

[@thorscape3879]

My real problem is that the past calendar year has seen support for Snake-Eye lore cards in every single set, but some archetypes like Centurion has spent the same amount of time developing the ability to be playable. Beyond its debut in Valliant Smashers it has seen support in 4 sets: Infinite Forbidden, Rage of the Abyss, Legacy of Destruction, and one single card in the 2024 tins. Of these four sets three of them came out in the second half of 2024. Mementotlan and Vaalmonica saw similar treatment. The product release is far more eggregious than anything else to me.

[@xmangle5382]

and also taking a look at Ryzeal you can predict that the game from here on will be 10-15 engines and the rest on techs, any deck that can't do that might as well be called unplayable

[@KurayamiGGEZ]

I've been saying that "Power Creep is out of Control" before it was cool to say.

[@aquaenjoyer1612]

i 100% agree. the problem with handtraps in my opinion is not the hardtraps themself, its the one card combos and craz stuff those one card combos can end on. like he said, imagine getting maxx ed x 2, u pass, get hit with duster, reigeki, chain droplet, u have no more interaction and they have 2 cards in hand "surely they cant kill me with just 2 cards"... activate sangan summoning, gg. i think konami needs to tone down the one card combos A LOT and maybe look at deck designs that are fun and dont just consist of stuffing your deck full of handtraps and hoping u draw your 15 one card starters. look at tear, look st unchained, look at even runick (not stun), all those need to play a lot of engine (tear to mill actually good cards, unchained to see monsters and traps/spells and runick to see runick spells). its actually so sad that konami stopped printing havneses or buttlers or even that r-ace monster that summons another r-ace monster. playing on turn 0 is such a cool thing to do and pull off, but why would u go minus 3 with lab for a pop when u can just fill those slots with 3 handtraps.

[@hgborgards2]

The worst part about Impulse (and the reason i wouldnt mind seeing it on the banlist) is that if your deck is earth wind or light you are basically out of the format, that was such a dumb idea for such a powerful effect to the point that its not even funny, its like being in a Maxx C format but your deck cant use Maxx C

[@Raphael4722]

I remember months ago speculating that the Dominus traps are "nerfed" versions of Ash they're releasing because they want to ban Ash. Turns out Impulse is better than Ash lmao.

[@PapajusLtu]

@@Raphael4722 that's because Dominus Purge was a nerfed version of ash. Don't see how Impulse can be said to be nerfed ash when it's effect is just out of hand Ceasar with basically no cost or restriction (not to mention it locks for the rest of the duel and only if from hand)

[@halowaffle25]

6:16 The 1-2 punch of losing to shifter and having 12 slots for non-engine *at most* is what made me drop my favorite deck of all time, Earth Machine, just after Tear format. I tried experimenting with other decks for a while, but I've since stopped playing in paper. It seems like the midrange style of decks I enjoy just can't exist alongside the metagame anymore.

[@Did_No_Wrong]

The Dominus cards are pretty much the point things got outta hand. I get turn 2 players needed some tools to help against turn 1 but giving them straight up negates with basically no strings attached wasnt how they should have done it. Their are so many handtraps in meta now people score a deck on how many they can play through. If it can't play through at least 3 its a bad deck now which is so insane.

[@CyrusIsnt]

Tear was

[@antonbrown17]

I'm hoping they would ban/limit some of the existing hand traps as new ones released to even things out a bit. They still can, but until they do, it really is wild that there are like 6 separate types of disruption your opponent can have that are all concealed in the hand

[@Moman1898]

Idk why we're complaining about decks being able to play around hand traps. One second people are complaining that yugioh games feel too similar because everyone just uses their spreadsheet combo. So when hand traps force a yugioh player to deviate from the combo and execute an alternate strategy you would think thats a good thing. But no, people find a way to complain about that too. He even admits it in this video where fire king players have anti-shifter lines and certain lower power lines they use when faced with the mulcharmys but somehow thats a bad thing? Kind of just sounds like we're complaining to complain

[@Someone-lg6di]

Hand traps were the first problem. Used to slow down the game when it was going so fast it meant the only good decks were decks that played through them in adition power creep from komoney made hand traps even worse for playing around them

[@calciums175]

@@Someone-lg6di Hand traps weren't the first problem. The first problem were these solitare combos making it so that if you don't go first, you're probably screwed because your opponent spent 3 minutes setting up a full field with negates against anything you could do on turn 2.

[@themoonlitduelist7395]

ah...i see the problem, the 1 card combos are the prob since you can cram so much into it to stop your opponent make it 2/3 or even 4 and it would be fine

[@danielsmith5032]

The fact they needed to make hand traps was the problem. Decks got so fast and hard to break that they needed to print that

[@rangingaway92]

Game is a counterspell heaven. And that's exactly why I quit MTG years ago, where every deck would splash blue for counterspells and black for discard. It feels like YGO took the worst part of MTG and made it even more broken, since there's no mana and combos just fly turn 1. YGO has many fun archetypes that Konami either breaks them to meta glory, sells a ton for short prints and then bans them or are so underpowered they're barely casual.

[@Liliana_the_ghost_cat]

What MTG format were you playing?

[@rangingaway92]

Did standard until Ravnica, extended and vintage mostly. Started playing around Odyssey block. I don't play commander.

[@Liliana_the_ghost_cat]

@@rangingaway92 I didn't play back then so I don't have any opinions about those formats

[@user-nl5re1th8p]

​@@Liliana_the_ghost_catso... don't comment? Why would you add that you have nothing to add...

[@Liliana_the_ghost_cat]

@@user-nl5re1th8p Because I already commented once to ask a question, so it would feel weird if I got an answer and just never replied.

[@antonbrown17]

2:42 it's hard to say imperm is uninteractable when a lot of decks these days are getting/already have quick play spells or effects that remove the monster (Mask Change for HEROs, Chimera fusion, Red unchained dog). Which i guess is a subtle form of powercreep in itself actually

[@khananiel-joshuashimunov4561]

Meanwhile here I am, not being able to bring myself to cut an engine card because it's so dang cool, so alas, only one ash in a sixty card deck.

[@theearthenstar1355]

As a Blue Eyes player this resonates with me a lot. Its the meme of a deck famous for bricking. Ive been playing it for years. There are times its gained ground and hopefully it will this February but its card design suffers from lack of searchable support as well as having to run most of the essential cards which are a lot. not a lot of room for non engine cards unless you sub engines which leads to it not being a "true" architype deck. this is fine for some people but ive heard other players complain about how not running architype specific decks is wierd. Its not bad but if the whole meta pivots around using a few specific engines it doesnt leave a lot of room for diversity and you get tier 1 and 0s as well as just amalgamations of a bunch of things. not necessarily bad but when its literally "the meta" most of what people are playing it is. That is all comounded when the very cards designed to break the boards of meta decks are used in them and make it even harder to play somethig not "brokeN" that doesnt have an out to everything or is impermeable to most things. like its said in the video a lot of times theres no way to come back on a meta deck with all the outs and negates in the world. The new Blue Eyes cards out next year help with cards being more searchable and being able to make quicker, less step and harder to stop combos but we still have to see if its as consistant and "competative" "broken" to survive whatever the meta will be at the time.

[@GlacierMoonDragon]

The only fix I could see for modern YGO currently is to change how the banlist works. Bans, Limits, Semis do work kinda, but that doesn't really help when a new archetype get released that powercreeps the older archetypes.

[@Raphael4722]

That's deliberate on Konami's part. They mostly use the banlist to force players to buy new product.

[@mostdefinitely7536]

These cards are not really meant to be countered. They’re meant to challenge the player to accomplish their deck strategy or adapt their strategy under compromised conditions

[@dudono1744]

Then, why not explicitly say they can't be countered ?

[@WhatsUrName0o7]

We NEED TO INCREASE THE POWER CREEP. FULL STEAM AHEAD KONAMI. I want Link Spells and Skills and double sided cards with 3 effects on each side and deck traps and main deck monsters with built in special summon from deck clauses and effects that pull cards from outside the game and phase long lingering effects and ways to take additional phases and turns and combos so long that turn 1 takes 45 minutes and Yugioh is forced to become a best of one game. I know you will do this eventually Konami because you are irrationally afraid of set rotation so you will keep escalating the nuclear arms race until only an advanced sentient ai can handle playing this game. KEEP GOING DONT STOP!

[@WhatsUrName0o7]

I’m not joking btw this would be hilarious if the game evolved to this point

[@CyrusIsnt]

Tear was the big turning point played on your turn and just conjured interuption and had hand grave and field effects to interact with you. A simple mill could add more peoblems

[@D0ct0rD0ng]

At this rate the game will be looking like current YuGiOh Duel Links skills, where you can just add certain cards you need to your hand or play monsters straight from your hand/deck/grave/banish/Extra Deck without your opponent being able to interact with them at all.

[@rubyknights5885]

“Half the time when they resolve against you, you feel like you have no say in the argument” My dude I imagine that’s kind of the case when an effect resolves on any monster or spell card that’s why there’s a step in between the activation and the resolve

[@refinant6298]

Yeah, but there's a big difference between "Negate by something tangible and visible" and "negate by something you know everyone has but couldn't see and didn't know it was in their hand." I can read the effect and have a better idea of what's gonna happen and plan better against the former while I can't against the latter and have to hope the first bait works, then pray they misplay or didn't draw it if it doesn't.

[@antonbrown17]

​@@refinant6298not only that but some of these cards legitimately have almost 0 counterplay options. Like if I'm playing a deck that needs the GY and get hit with turn 1 shifter, the only was to stop it is herald of orange light (that only specific decks can play), called by or Psy frame gamma (which are both limited in TCG). I've functionally just lost the game to a single card I had very little chance of stopping

[@gigadon120]

The problem with the creep is that it was slammed out in 1 year

[@tjwtf28]

lmao sure thing bud

[@digitalduken9973]

@@tjwtf28 It's so minor compared to now but back then the definition of powercreep was mechanicalchaser outbeating la jinn.

[@Zmon3595]

Yeah if they had just kept power creep in check the best decks would be around the same power as Nekroz.

[@darkjak565]

To be honest, I dont mind handtraps and I dont mind the "games" they can create, despite the obvious caveat that Fuwaloos and crew are pushed. The thing that concerns me is the obvious card design to go "around" hand traps. Set instead of search seems extremely intentional and it sucks to see something just "get a pass" for some of the most relevant hand traps. Sure, design the game around the existence of hand traps, alright. But then don't make a deck that shoots to tier 1-0 immediately because it just won the designer lottery and got to ignore said hand traps.

[@TitanTeck]

The answer it incredibly simple print boss monster that have good protection with non negate interactions similar to what they did for melodious

[@_thebigsteve]

I play Tenpai with handtraps and I would kill to have a format where we are back to max 9-12 handtraps and even deal with floodgates as opposed to 24 handtrap pile 1 card starter metas. I have no odea why anyone prefers these types of metas as opposed to diverse ones.

[@renaldyhaen]

Why doesn’t Konami just create fairer decks? Because they can’t. They’ve been making overpowered decks for so long that many players have quit, leaving only two types of players: those with Stockholm Syndrome and those who only care about winning in the easiest way possible. These players essentially want a pay-to-win (P2W) game but refuse to acknowledge it as such because it would shatter the illusion that they’re "skillful" just for playing overpowered cards. You can see this in how the majority of players criticize or mock Konami whenever a deck with a "fair" design gets announced. If you set aside the top META decks, Konami actually does create some interesting, fairer decks. I’ve noticed they’ve been making more balanced cards over the years, but those efforts are completely overshadowed by the 1-2 overpowered decks dominating the format, rendering the fair decks almost unplayable. I’d love to see Konami focus more on balanced cards or introduce an alternative format with a lower power level. Personally, I enjoy playing low-power decks like Pure Vaalmonica, Chimera Fusion, or Shining Sarcophagus. I’d even like to explore lower-tier decks like S-Force or Dual Avatar in a peaceful, more balanced environment. But the reality is that Yugioh has become a P2W game. Konami intentionally mixes broken decks with weaker ones in the same format to highlight the "value" of powerful cards. They ensure that even less skilled players can win easily if they use expensive META decks, creating the illusion of value. In modern Yugioh, the perceived worth of a card-and its price-comes down to how much it helps you win.

[@FakeHeroFang]

I mean, they can and do create balanced decks. The problem is that the balanced decks are seen as bad/rogue tier, and the only way they see play usually is with shifter/floodgates. The rest of the format has to be knocked down a peg, but that clearly is not happening.

[@renaldyhaen]

@@FakeHeroFang I’ve already talked about this. Those so-called "bad decks" aren’t inherently bad-they just become unplayable because certain decks are way too overpowered. If we remove these broken decks without replacing them with others of similar power, I believe a lot more decks would become viable in a balanced, fair environment. The floodgates in these weaker decks exist as an "unnecessary evil" to create openings or opportunities to play. Without them, these decks would stand no chance against modern META decks, even if the opponent isn’t particularly skilled. However, if you analyze some lower-power events in Master Duel, you’ll notice that Konami often bans many META cards *and* floodgates. This allows weaker decks to shine and compete without relying on floodgates to stay relevant. People love to claim it’s impossible to create a "good format," but that’s nonsense-it’s entirely possible. The real question is whether the players are ready for it. As I mentioned before, too many players in this game currently enjoy the benefits of P2W mechanics but refuse to acknowledge it. If the player base isn’t ready to embrace a fairer system, Konami will never take the risk of making such a major change.

[@nashcifer5666]

I find it funny that my favorite Deck, Vaalmonican ( a Pendulum Deck), was released alongside Centur-ion and Momento. Vaalmonican has the best game play design out of the 2 and is the most well designed simple Pendulum Deck of all time that plays fair compared to the other 2 decks, but to quot a certain German "It doesn't matter if a Deck is well designed if it isn't good". These "weeker" and fair Decks aren't bad they're just in an environment where everything else is unfair. Look at Starry Knights...

[@richardwalker2881]

Not only that, we live in a game where there is no rotation, I mean, 1 of thee best omninegates & 1 of thee best board wipes are from the 5ds anime, which is around 2005, which is around close to 20 years ago, HOW

[@MasterDecoy1W]

The game design needs to start utilizing resources. If your plays are free, then your interaction has to be free. That's a vicious cycle.

[@arthuryupendragon9725]

We got 1 hantrap in every box Konami released. The jellyfish, Solemn Strike without paying 2000 and be set first, and the Ash that is not a monster. Playing under all of them is such a frustrating sensation. When they threw at you 4 hp and they can win because it's a 1 card combo is really sad, it hurts. In Master Duel is the same without the Dominus but Maxx C legal is something else, playing against Tenpai doesn't make me feel mad or something, just sad. Sad how the game I loved turned like this since AGOV, and POTE. 27 handtraps and the rest is archetype. I hope the game will be cured soon.

[@webe9008]

I still can't belive konami made impulse after releasing the most fun and functionnal TCG exclusive achetype. they did my boys mimighoul dirty

[@mikepartridge6396]

Quick effect negates are the problem, breaking boards is next to impossible without droplet nowadays. We need to go back to setting up boards with tangled protections making breaking possible and more like unraveling a knot puzzle. Instead of this stupid "count the negates x, count the interactions in your hand y, is x > y? If it is you may as well scoop.

[@tsukamesuccess7332]

most of the quick effect negates are banned though? no deck is making more than 1 right now

[@Telados]

Unbreakable boards wouldn't even need to be a thing if OTK's weren't so common

[@ctromsky5729]

​@@Teladoslack of summoning sickness is a big problem in Yu-Gi-Oh it's true

[@Telados]

@@ctromsky5729 If summoning sickness was a thing, we would have plenty of rush style monster cards

[@thebigcheese1905]

@@ctromsky5729 Nah, other TCGs do just fine without summoning sickness. The issue here stems from most decks ability to easily create a board with enough ATK to OTK an opponent, even through any monsters in the way. This has lead to the need to the need to completely disrupt your opponent before combat, since a deck like tenpai can do 30k damage off of a single monster.

[@danielsmith5032]

If they stopped making generic XYZ’s and Links that any archetype could get into that has 2 negates + a pop, and 4 card effects that trigger when in the graveyard

[@dudono1744]

I think that handtraps should have a clause similar to nib where you can't activate them as soon as your opponent does something. Because it feels bad when your opponent just shotguns handtraps on your shit deck.

[@arrownoir]

Printing more Maxx C is not the way to go.

[@delllee4915]

7:42 The answer is quite simple. Draw the out lol 😂😂😂

[@cyruscesar2818]

Power Creep= Just tell your opponent No bro...

[@verycalmgamer4090]

Its game design, power creep by extension. The game has bad game design. Its feels bad to lose, feels bad to win sometimes too.

[@anvuhoang124]

This whole game evolve from a manga where the mc invented new rules every chapter to win in the most ridiculous way. Surely the game is badly designed from the start. The only thing they are good at since forever is create interesting card design and mechanic that hooked you up for like, 8-10 duels idk. We have hand loops, ftk, skip turn since ages. The game is just born unhealthy. Remember the time they release ash while 99% of decks those days lose to a single ash? Yeah, dont ask me why the game is badly designed

[@Boggarthh]

Finally, someone is talking about it.

[@funz6491]

I agree, even as someone who LOVES modern yu-gi-oh, purrely not having enough engine to not brick pisses me off so much, bro all I want is more engine, especially the Impulse is annoying af, Ritual Beast literally became unplayable bc of it, and no dominus is SO bad it's not even funny

[@funz6491]

Like they couldn't have made it ash blossom 2, no, they HAD to make it solemn strike from the hand

[@deadlineuniverse3189]

Don’t get him wrong, each of the top cards does have counterplay….its just unrealistic to “ just deck the fuwalos player”, “bounce the imperm target” “summon chaos hunter after shifter resolves or tech in gren maju”….its just fluffing unrealistic to * be capable to* do one of those things in with a normal deck, never mind all of them.

[@YakubTheWise]

Time wizard format really is only way to consistently enjoy the game lol

[@elcalich33sehead]

Raidraptor is totally a GY-reliant deck.

[@Gucci.Clone253]

The game needs more shavaras, havnis, lab Furniture, bystial cards etc typa cards. I'm fine with turn 0 plays from your opponent but man do I wish it would be stuff that advances their decks strategy

[@absoul112]

Okay what's with the knife?

[@gaiusoctavius6107]

Luckily Ryzeal and Maliss are both pretty fair. I think Ryz is boring as fuck but it’s not oppressive

[@ZackeroniAndCheese]

Hoping Speed Duel ending means another shot at a yugioh reboot (not Rush). I prefer beatdown yugioh over handtrap gaming.

[@polocatfan]

fuwalos is a meme. people will figure out it sucks in due time.

[@premejon8300]

@ around 8:30 is where I felt your take went from reasonable to crybaby. Nobody likes shifter! But nobody likes an infinite GY recursion loop where if I destroy a single monster on ur board u go +3 EVERY turn. The issue is decks shouldn’t have access to infinite recursion plays. The sentiments u made with diabelle and wanted/original was spot on. So it’s almost contradictory to admit the engines are too broken then complain about non engine. Shifter is arguably a needed evil in the game until Konami decides that the GY should not be a 2nd hand. And tbh they never will because Floo and Kash design philosophy extended the fucking BANISHMENT to be a 3rd Hand! 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

[@diegourbina5083]

Raidraptor also loses hard to Yubel. Not even fiendsmith yubel just the regular version and that deck and the FS version were the best deck for a minute.

[@Steezowl]

You should start talk about Ryzeal it's here less than 2 weeks

[@user-nl5re1th8p]

Game needs to be fundamentally torn down and rebuilt We know that won't happen unless you all stop spending money. Addicts.

[@aligd7040]

One Card combos lead to this horse shit. If meta decks can estabilish an multi layered interruptive board with 1 card we get such a shitshow of a game. There is no reason to play 2 card combos if i can archieve similar with less deck space and bricks and add fucking 21 non engine in the deck.

[@Pkey995]

From neji to hinata where tf is your hair bruh T.T still cute

[@yamiangelous]

I state it here Alot of the power creep isn't because of the bug. It's because of ash blossom. Ban that and you could drastically lower the power level of decks without much issue. Meanwhile the bug? All it needs is 1 simple rules fixing and that's what counts as a special summon you stop making everything a special summon and suddenly the bug isn't a issue Because why is maxxc the blanket 'special summon' but the other bugs specify what summon mechanic it's in response to... Just MR or errata rule 'special summoning' to be cheating out of the deck, or something like instant fusion. But I'd you synchro, xyz, link summon....it's not a 'special' summon it's a summon of said mechanic. Bam! Suddenly the bug isn't so oppressive But you know what stays oppressive Ash blossom. So many decks die because they can't play off a ash.

[@SimplyXera]

Ishizhu Tearlaments solves all your concerns here :)))

[@CyrusIsnt]

Is this a bunch of clips? Or just unscripted rammblings? I dont disagree, but you are throwing a lot on the table without giving a clear idea. Its like you are brain storming. Rather then present a thought out idea

[@YashaSkaven]

Yu-Gi-Oh bad unironically tbh

[@Cashew]

2 views in 1 minute? Dude fell off

[@Young_space]

Crap intro