Powercreep in Yugioh | Power of the Elements Was a Mistake

[@BlackRose-rp7kv]

It feels just like yesterday people were ripping their hair out over adamancipator virtual world and lyrilusc

[@FrancisCabatit]

You're right 🤣😂

[@Angels-Haven]

yesterday can be today if you play master duel! adamancipator still OP

[@nagatouzumaki4047]

now the new deck is snake eyes

[@four-en-tee]

We can officially say now that Zoodiac isn't the best deck anymore. All it took was making That Grass Looks Greener its own archetype.

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

Well, that and the fact that Salams, Prank Kids, Sky Strikers, and Dragons can do the same thing that Zoodiacs did, but with links.

[@andrepayne4349]

Full power Zoodiac was never really the best, unless you're talking about specific formats. PePe was a much better deck, especially the OCG version. Currently the best deck of all time would definitely be Adamancipator from 2020, not Tearlament. Halq+Linkross was much worse than Tear.

[@shawnjavery]

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 zoo was better than all of them, just because the amount of shenanigans you could do with 3 rat has increased over the years. Tear is the only one really worth considering imo because it just does so much.

[@PoKeKidMPK1]

the best deck which could rival ocg pepe was tcg yang zing zodiac true king dino... and no one played it yet had diagram hit and only true dracos take presedence at times where they still didnt matter, or got hit, but only became further viable way post rate and macr as a sky striker and set rotation gimmick of all things...

[@thefirstsurvivor]

Mill 5 what can go wrong

[@Powerman293]

I think the Tear Era of Yugioh is really interesting design wise. I think Konami has heard enough people both casual and competitive about turns exclusively being either board building or board breaking and that dynamic not feeling fun when you're sitting there for 10 minutes waiting for a specific choke point to use your hand trap on. So their solution is to just make decks that play on both turns. Problem is, Tear is one of a very few amount of new decks that can do this and is frustrating to play against with any other deck designed with the old paradigm. Compare Tear to the other archetype in POTE, Spright. Spright still very much plays the traditional Post Modern Yugioh game of board building with a decent amount of interaction on your turn. Just without as many obvious choke points. The closest thing Tear has to choke points are the fuses of mills. But those are hardly "choke points" compared to what decks have had in the past. A combined lack of restrictions with a new design paradigm with barely any decks that play like this and the result is this disaster of a Tier 0 format.

[@Zetact_]

I think part of it has to do with their banlist priority. Even if we discount the "the banlist is designed to push new products" idea, the general structure of Konami's banlists is "if it isn't an obvious and clearly unfair strategy then don't hit it" which is a totally fine mentality to take with regards to game design but at the same time it is not as good for this type of game, at least not if they want to cast a wide net. Appeal to a casual audience is important - and I don't mean just people who want to play anime decks or random mishmashes, casual can include people who want to play a deck for how it appeals to their tastes in play style, art, lore, etc. even if it isn't optimized for competitive play. But with power creep, most of those decks can't even get a CHANCE to play. It might be worth if not expressly doing it in the main game, at least testing out a more aggressive banlist that has the goal of simply making as many decks as practical into a playable state. It seems like it would be a more viable model since while huge power creep does sell more cards among the existing hardcore audience who NEEDS to pick up the latest sets to keep up, generally that's not a good strategy for long-term health of a game and insane power creep is often a symptom of a game in its death knells, desperate to squeeze as much out of the remaining player base as possible. Yugioh is actually insulated from such a thing because it's way larger than most card games but it is important to keep in mind that at the VERY least it's limiting its potential for growth if every new player is immediately hit with "There's maybe five decks that you can actually play, out of the over ten thousand cards, and the game will effectively be decided by the end of the first turn."

[@macarongblack3694]

Good breakdown! Tear is great for the game and feel amazing to play but ppl are upset that their favourite decks can't keep up with tears resource management game. imo it's better than having to play thru 8 negates when going secondb

[@Powerman293]

@@macarongblack3694 I mean Tear isn't a zillion omninegates but I'd argue they are equally as unfun to play against as those kinds of boards anyways.

[@shawnjavery]

Tear's problem for me is that the deck has too many ways to mill and gets too much value out of it. Just by gy effects they have 3 fusion summons, a monster that summons itself and fills up the gy even more, a trap add from deck, a trap add from the gy, a monster add from deck, a monster add from banish, and that's just the cards that are played. On top of all of that there's cards like rukalos and kaliedo heart that trade with opponents cards very favorable and the deck is juat a nightmare to play against. Through in the ishizu cards and suddenly they have unbeatable hands that much often.

[@macarongblack3694]

@@Powerman293 true but i think Kit's ban was overkill, think Scheiren and Reino to 1 (and Unicorn & Fenrir to 1) are big enough hits to the deck's consistency, if not then it would warrant for harsher ban

[@Yog-shi]

It may only be a rough approximation that we can quibble over later, but setting the main topic of powercreep aside, I just really appreciate you even attempted to make an Eras of yugioh chart. Common talk seems to be that classic just means goat and modern is post duelist alliance, which continuously becomes a longer stretch of time. So one term is way too narrow, and the other too broad

[@secretlyaslug2325]

I really enjoyed the chart too. I would argue that tele-dad belongs in the middle era. As the introduction of Synchros did a lot to raise the ceiling of DAD and is a more definitive change in the game than Synchro Cat being a vague approximation of power creep.

[@randommaster06]

I can't wait until Lightning Storm and Graceful Charity get merged into an Extra Deck monster that's also a quick effect kaiju.

[@doublereel-real]

Kaijus by design cannot be quick effects since they are inherent summons.

[@randommaster06]

@@doublereel-real Konami makes the rules, they can change them. They've done it many times before. They could literally just say you can do it on the card, too.

[@doublereel-real]

@@randommaster06 You could make a card that reads "Tribute x monsters from either field; do something, this effect cannot be responded to" but that would veer more into the territory of super poly rather than kaiju. My point is that kaiju monsters don't create a chain when they are summoned meanwhile super poly effects do, but can't be responded to (yet, after all konami might just change the rules and make them respondable in the future).

[@randommaster06]

@@doublereel-real I agree that would be better, I was just saying Konami can do whatever they want since they make and own the game.

[@Zayelion]

That timeline of eras of Yugioh is really well researched, I love it. I've always referred to those times as "gatekeeper archetypes", Gladiator, Qliphort, Inzektors, Goki, and possibly now tear or Sprites. The thing is, Konami did not roll these changes to the format back. We will have to wait and see.

[@calumbishop7082]

So, right now the focus in the Japan is on the still Japanese Rush Duel (the centrepiece of the current anime and its immediate predecessor). "Master Duel" as its known, is not the priority for Konami in Japan. It's not surprising they got sloppy with power creep in the main game. The future is uncertain, we've had three years of Master Rule 5, traditionally it would be around this point we would get a new Master Rule to shake the game up, maybe even get another new mechanic. But because there is no Master Rule anime on the horizon, it's not clear what the direction the game is going in or if there will even be a Master Rule 6. We should find more out at JumpFesta in a few days what the immediate future of the game is. Until then we have to deal with Power of the Elements's power creep.

[@thezestylime0989]

as someone who checked out of the game around windup format and came back about half a year ago, I think modern yugioh has its advantages and disadvantages. it's a lot faster paced, as in more happens a turn, not that turns are faster. you can certainly do more now that you could back in the day. a larger variety of decks and strategies are avaliable. I will say tho, I enjoy edison format so much. the slower pace of the game and the variety of decks that can be played, as well as more of an emphasis on combat. and that's the real crime of modern yugioh. the battle phase is pointless outside of putting up 8000 damage. because unless something is wrong, you rarely want to go into the battle phase if your opponent controls cards. and that's a shame to me.

[@Blackreapxr]

Edison is great just really wish more people play. Easy format to fall back into when the main game is shit like it is now

[@ChadKing69]

Edison and Goat Format are more fun than Advanced

[@noahbarnes5761]

Well said

[@ThatOneWeirdFlex]

Turns are longer but games are faster. Any idea why that might be? Time rules? Nah. Must be a skill issue because you didn't open the exact amount of interaction plus combo starters to keep me from popping off and keeping you from adding to hand and locking you out of your Extra Deck.

[@Videoguygamer]

Having Tears being able to summon anything other than fusions is very powercrept, especially considering Branded Fusion has that restriction and is somewhat recent. I think the spright restriction is fair, but probably should have been on Sprind and Elf so other decks couldnt abuse it. Kashtira Fenrir and Unicorn blew my mind with how generic they are and how Fenrir can search itself!

[@jurtyt4514]

Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! is something else. I ain’t coming back until they give us the new Worms the fans deserve.

[@jeremiahbennett3004]

Nah real ones want Pyro support

[@jurtyt4514]

@@jeremiahbennett3004 you make a good point sir, but idk how realistic that is. They clearly forgot about pyro.

[@ajayusspiritus6955]

@@jurtyt4514 there might be a chance, but only one, the fire attribute duelist pack like the other attributes they have done leaving only fire and light to make

[@streetgamer3452]

Imma need some ally of justice support ngl support.

[@rundyftw]

F**k yeah! Give us the worms Konami you cowards!

[@streetgamer3452]

I like the decks that where introduced in the set but omg they just didn’t care about balancing for creep. Like tear as a deck is fun but as an overall power I hate it so much

[@crobisbobis]

Konamy hit every Tear and Ishizu realizing the Strongest deck EVER can`t be allowed to exist.

[@FMedeiros1994]

I also want to say: this is great content. I started following you around the first "all archetypes tier list" video and I love this kind of discussion about the current design challenges and where the game as a whole is heading.

[@nerfirelia8235]

What's crazy is that over the last year and a half we've had the current tier one deck be immediately powercrept out of the game within just a couple sets of coming out. Swordsoul and Branded didn't even have time to get hit on the banlist before they were powercrept out of the game.

[@UmDevoto]

Swordsoul was strong but they were extremely fragile and branded its not good, till this day i want to know why braned is good. Jade is amazing as a card anything else on the deck is not

[@deruneldembal5048]

@@UmDevoto u are telling me branded fusion is not good 😂😂. Bro i dont think the deck is insane either. But it definetly has its place

[@Setsunascarletstorm24]

One of my biggest beef with modern Yugioh is: a lot of decks that seem to have interesting playstyles and interactions (like Vaylantz cards doing with the moving cards) tend to be shafted because their end product isn’t strong enough and consistent enough for modern day Yugioh.

[@619ver1]

Yeah, sadly thats one of the biggest issues with Yugioh. Basically from a single glance at a card you can see which archetype is MEANT to be meta. Given that Yugioh mostly has only one supported format, running anything but the meta is kinda pointless :/

[@vipersniperpiper6093]

@@619ver1 Alongside with the community just hating anything that isn’t meta and always bitching when someone does something that’s not the most optimal thing possible. It just gets harder to enjoy the game casually,at least,it feels like it is. It might get to the point,where the game might not be as fun if you aren’t a competitive player. But that’s just from what I seen so far about this.

[@totalwartimelapses6359]

​@@vipersniperpiper6093 That's just plain false, in whatever forum you're going through, be it Facebook groups or Yu-Gi-Oh subreddits, playing jank and non meta is always praised and loved You constantly see people calling each other based for not playing meta Meta players constantly get shit on for being "unfun" and sweaty or whatever I myself am not a meta player but the meta-players hate is very childish, just let people play however they want

[@totalwartimelapses6359]

This isn't limited to modern Yu-Gi-Oh In GX practically all packs had 90% of their cards shafted because none of them were better than the already existing DM staples and Invasion of Chaos cards There has always been cards or even groups of cards that get shafted because they're not good enough, that's the reality of ANY card game of any era, not just modern Yu-Gi-Oh

[@vipersniperpiper6093]

@@totalwartimelapses6359 How many people play competitively in the community versus casually? I have rarely seen some of the shit your saying.

[@averagejoe9229]

Konami, you already figured out how to balance cheating out your fusion summons with branded fusion restricting you. Why is Tearlaments not also restricted when using their effects? They dropped the ball hard.

[@5.99USD]

This is why I only play old formats like Edison and hat now. The current game is a train wreck due to the obscene power creep and it basically needs a hard reset at this point.

[@goblinslayer1115]

You know the OCG banlist was healthy, when synchrons participated in a tournament! Konami just needs to either: 1. Stop making new broken archetypes 2. Not make really generic cards 3. Give new support to older archetypes to compete with the new more powerful decks

[@joshcruzat3112]

Nah, keep that new shit coming but definitely give older archetypes more gas and better support cards. Give me my Gladiator Beast Reinoheart bay-bee

[@Protect_all_ljf3forms]

But those 3 sell product. They don’t actually want us mixing new and old together. Full power drytron was just an amalgamation of a joke boss and two ok archetypes created out of the experimentation. They want us to by new ever broken cards.

[@ashikjaman1940]

4. Ban Maxx C

[@renaldyhaen]

@@Protect_all_ljf3forms If Konami really needs all of those 3, I feel no hope for YGO player's creativity. We have something called attribute, type, and arctype as lock and keep the balance of the games. Most broken decks usually come from decks that abuse generic cards. . Konami really needs something to play around (at least) type and attribute, besides DARK, LIGHT, and Dragon because they already have too many good cards.

[@pandahero9464]

@@ashikjaman1940 cope harder

[@Sandals396]

You bring up an interesting point with the design philosophy I just hope they can figure out how to balance the game with this new philosophy of "generic juice". These past couple of formats have been some of the most fun I've had in this game in a very long time and if the game changes from unbreakable pseudoftk to an irl version of LoR where the only difference between turns is who's getting to attack I'd be all for it.

[@FMedeiros1994]

Honestly? 2021 and 2022 were the most fun I've had with yugioh in a long, loooong time. Hopefully this new powercreep era can continue to refine on the design principles that are currently established and keep things under control. Who knows, maybe this new ocg banlist is a sign that Konami is learning what works and what don't.

[@four-en-tee]

Trust me, we're going to get more powercreep eventually. Its just that Konami likes to introduce new flavors of powercreep each time it happens. But yeah, i'm glad they've more or less reset the format recently in the OCG. If the TCG follows suit and also bans cards like Borreload Savage Dragon and Dragoon (since Mystic Mine is banned) along with Scythe, and limit floodgates like Gozen Match and Rivalry, we should see a more diverse and fair format sprout from that.

[@dcscorch969]

@@four-en-tee dragoon is not a problem card lol

[@ashikjaman1940]

@@dcscorch969 I'm still shocked that people are mad at bigger Mechaba

[@macarongblack3694]

@@four-en-tee borreload savage dragon? Alright mate

[@Tenebris8444]

@@four-en-tee ok ur opinions are shit at this point. Savage isnt an issue, it's super easy to bait just like with any omni negat that's once per turn. What's next apollousa hard to beat?

[@GreenHam77]

1:35 Seeing this list makes me want to see you do a breakdown of how you identify, separate, name, and view each of these formats. It really fascinates me just seeing how people break down the history of such a long, constantly evolving game.

[@windwaker0rules]

Yugioh is a fun way to watch how game developers try and power creep the previous sets without rotation. Its actually impressive how the game designers can make the power level go up so much, i wonder where they go from here. Do they make decks that negate from the deck? Do the buddyfight thing where all cards just get infinite power and it turns into some weird duel masters gameplay where you need a deck that summons monster in the back row and you can't take damage until you take out 5 monsters that end the battle phase when they are moved from the backrow and its unnegatable? Whatever it is Konami sure is creative if it means making more money.

[@ertawanderer1062]

I think that the best way to handle tear is an Errata that summoning requires banishment instead of sending to the bottom of the deck. That way they're resources are limited they can't just go all out or they have a good chance of decking themselves out. They'd still be an amazing Mill engine for everything that likes stuff in the graveyard but they wouldn't have a endless resource Loop

[@awildsylveon9896]

That tear list with 3 graceful charity is going to haunt my nightmares for weeks.

[@nolanb9466]

next banlist just needs to murder top decks, then any future archetypes need hard restrictions to lock you into a summoning mechanic. then, if any past decks start to become too strong generically, hit those too. basically, slowly even out the game so most new deck are more or on par powerful than past ones, but not any more or less powerful than the new strategies that are released with them in their set.

[@LATownsRS]

I think you put it best when you said we were due for power creep, so right now we can either go back by nerfing everything or just keep going and let old decks die. I think the past year had so much power creep that we didnt fully grasp it until it finally hit us, even when we knew what was going to happen based on the OCG.

[@antman7673]

Just looking at the cards, the powercreep was very obvious to me. I am following the card reveals and spright, bystial and tear were outliers in power. When generic archetype are made of cards, that all would be the stars in other archetypes, those cards elevate each other to unseen powerlevel.

[@eddiehalling9383]

I kinda want to imagine tear was the final spike in the coffin in a while for power creep, we have gotten so many good archtypes these two years. And they all should be viable. They are not beacuse of tear and spright, ss, tri, branded they barely got the time they deserved

[@jayduel7897]

Old top tier decks: I just draw these two particular cards in order to combo,plus anything else for extra stuff. Today Yu-Gi-Oh: I drew any monster or spell in my archtype I have full combo Also yes, we should be moving in the direction of powerful archetype cards with restrictions.

[@KyunaCookies]

Make the big power cards in each deck hardlock

[@redheadphones6]

How can it get even faster? I know I'm a yugi-boomer, playing back in the Yugi-Kaiba era through XYZ (Pendulum broke me...), then checking out for years at a time, but it's hard to imagine the game any faster. Decks are literally designated as 'going first' or 'going second' with most duels decided basically by turn 3. Are we really going to hit a point where games are decided before the first turn is up? Like unless you drew the specific hand trap you need to counter play, you win or lose in the first two turns? Not that I don't enjoy going first and having a 5 minute turn building a board and trying to bait out hand traps, but I honestly can't believe the game could speed up any more. Wonder how that will affect new players too. I played Master Duel for a couple of months (Managed Plat 1 with a pure Noble Knight deck lol), and everyone I introduced the game to dropped within a week because they kept getting Ash Blossomed. Almost wonder if we're over due for hitting the reset button. The new era of power creep is either going to be incredibly interesting or incredibly dull. Super curious to see how it pans out.

[@thezestylime0989]

I hate to break it to you but ftks have existed for a long time. even back in DM magical scientist ftk was meta viable. there was basically an entire year where the format was firewall dragon ftks. while I do hope we get more decks and strategies around the power level of say, mathmech, predaplant, swordsoul, etc... and less tear or floodgate/infinite negate setups, its inevitably going to ramp up again

[@redheadphones6]

@@thezestylime0989 Of course FTK's have always existed, I remember Cyber-Stein and Magical Scientist lol. However, they were also very specific decks that usually got a hard ban on the problem cards. They were outliers that would usually get addressed (albeit usually with a unnecessarily long delay from Konami). With the game today though, many 'Tier 0' decks can finish a duel in 2-3 turns consistently. Hell, many of the decks in his tier 1-4 can pull that off now. The amount of quick kills and games ending before turn 3 is significantly higher now than it was when FTK's were really outliers in earlier formats unless your opponent bricked hard. That's part of why I'm curious how much faster we can even go. Duels consistently end by turn 3-4 now, are we really going to hit a time when most duels by turn 2? Turn 1? It's gonna be interesting, and I'm curious how Konami will address it, if at all.

[@andrepayne4349]

@@redheadphones6 Games have already been consistently ending on turns 1-2 for some years now.

[@cadasshada9732]

I think people are mistaking interactive with just hijacking your turn...only way tear is interactive is in a mirror match otherwise they hijack your turn and pre break your board during your turn...

[@CanadianLannister]

This video is probably the best meta-anaylsis (and I mean analytically) that I've ever seen and I love banlist theory videos. I think I agree with a lot of your insights on the history and rhythm of the game and really appreciated you gathering the info and graphizing it in such a clean way. For some reason I feel like Tear, Kashtari and Bystial were all planned years in advance. The folks that work at the card design level at Konami have lived and breathed Yugi's journey for 20 years. If you don't believe me, listen to Mchale's commentary during matches and his little tibbits of what they actually do at Konami. They do actually test cards and with people who have played competitively in the past. They're extremely well aware of what they're doing to the game and it's one thing I find so intriguing about the game theory behind yugioh. So if they're aware how early did they start planning out things like Links that released in 2017? At that point the anime was still generating a lot of the card design so some form of artistic expression was having a sway. For some reason all of this fascinates me deeply and it's crazy how much of the card design process has been kept a secret from the player base, especially since the end of classic yugioh and when Konami stopped doing things like providing banlist explanations. Maybe in twenty years once people start retiring they'll begin talking about why they decided to make Zoos or how they came to the decision of the MR5 change which almost admitted Pends were broken on release in MR4 and 5 had nerfed Synchro, XYZ and fusions a little too much. Or maybe there's sources out there already I'm not aware of that give light on Konami's card design? If someone is, feel free to link them. I'd appreciate the info.

[@four-en-tee]

What i'm curious about is whether or not we'll get a near exact format in the TCG after a nuclear banlist. The TCG really needs to follow suit with the OCG on this one in terms of how Tearlaments and Kashtira are hit.

[@ashikjaman1940]

Same with Master Duel, especially since MD already has a precedent for preemptively banning cards

[@Tenebris8444]

U ok with maxx c being at 3 then?

[@four-en-tee]

@@Tenebris8444 I said "near" exact for a reason. We also need to start hitting shit based on Mine's ban since that was keeping other cards in check. Borreload Savage Dragon should be banned, no one likes a multi omni-negate board.

[@Tenebris8444]

@@four-en-tee clearly you aren't a player with that much knowledge. A multi omni negate monster in this game tend to be the fairest thing ever made. They all end up being Hard once per turn's and are easy to counter if you know what you're doing. Cards like Needle fiber or cards that easily bring the omni negates out are the issue. Don't cry abt omni negates when shit like tear and kashtira exist. Get over the fact that a tier list exists and if you're deck is whack, it's whack period.

[@ark3355]

Kash are bascially fucking dead in the OCG too, so thats nice

[@CrashHeelin]

And this is why I refer to these levels as tier -1. Borderline unsalvagable if left unchecked I miss the arc-v era archetypal metas a bit more, but I then remembered Pepe format and now I don’t know how this game is going to last if the powercreep levels become even higher. Hell, the recent tcg list re-enabled an ftk deck to compete (even though it isn’t seeing much play) and left another one alone And despite how much this game has evolved, I somewhat feel that we might suddenly start seeing a power overflow if the greedy developer aren’t willing to level off the ceiling - these unfun formats can sometimes cause players to abandon until it gets better, or leave forever.

[@Gustavomazu]

this kind of analysis is very informative and refreshing. thank you for your content!

[@ark3355]

I also love that this video and the comment section is actually what is currently happening in YGO not those "omg I hate new stuff put 1 monster better, current ygo is just negate festa GYAA"

[@yofyo]

you have such great visual aids that help somebody uninitiated like me understand EXACTLY what you are talking about. I really look forward to your videos :)

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

Nice video and I agree I think Tears and Bystials are a concept gone to far. Full combo on your opponents turn encourages time wasting to the extent burn strategies are almost mandatory for game 3.

[@Sketch_XR]

I'd argue the "NEW" era of YGO began back around 2020 once Halq combos that ended on Savage/ Herald/ Appollousa started becoming staple in every deck (whether it was an Aurorodon combo or a Linkcross combo).

[@UmDevoto]

If apollousa go...the world will be happy again

[@JacobKendrick]

I think the turning point there would be MR5, but i dont think the game played much differently pre and post SESL it was just more combo intensive. Danger thundra for example played pretty much the same as adamancipator, d link or infernoble. Tear on the other hand plays so different to how everything else was played before it, along with bystials and stuff like runic. Just ways to play the game that have never really been seen before and I think that's the point he's making

[@HunterStiles651]

I disagree. There's a very real difference in the kinds of strategies you see back in those days vs Izhizu Tear. Before it was "Any 1 engine card in your deck is full combo and then you play 15 hand traps to back up said combo". Now it's "Our turn" like the Communist Bugs Bunny meme. Any time you do anything your opponent summons a monster, mills 10 cards, Fusion Summons 70 monsters, then flips the table over and shoots you.

[@Zurenza]

I think as a few other's have said, when I started back in Duelist Alliance and Tribe Force's format(My personal favorite format.) the game was way different than it is now but in a lot of way's, especially compared to the atrocities present in Link Era yugioh(where i quit.)it's a bit better. Right now, with konami frequently pumping out Legacy Support for older archetypes that often bring them back to a playable status. A lot of things have been added as well that we didn't have back in even 2016 let alone 2014. Like the myriad of hand traps with different use cases, board breaker's like Droplet and Dark Ruler no More. And several different generic monster, cards and extra deck options that have helped decks crawl out from the shadow's of "Meta". I feel like right now, despite it being "Tear Zero." format, there have been, in the last 2 year's, more decks playable than ever before and i think that's kinda cool. I think that what konami needs to do to "Fix" power creep is just fully embrace the fast pace of the game and add mechanics to the core game that help alleviate and accentuate it. For example, an idea i saw was that at the beginning of the duel the player going first will pick 1 card to start the game with, then reveal it to their opponent and draw 4. Likewise the person going Second can add 1 card, reveal it and draw 4. What this does is create a mind game of trying to show your opponent the least amount of info possible while getting the best card possible or fixing a dead hand. It could add a huge layer of counterplay to combo and strategy that currently isn't present. If you don't draw an out, you lose, that's how the game is sometimes and that really sucks because it means you can just lose the second you roll the die.

[@princeanime7408]

Konamy accedentally created Tearlaments 3 years too soon and have come to regret it. Imagine if Zoodiac whit Zuus existed during Dragon Ruler format ... we wouldnt have HAD a Dragon Ruler format.

[@capolot]

I remember that format. Basically the first person that could summon dracosac won the duel lol. Lots of good decks back then

[@VORTEX___]

Having played from 2005-2011 as well, I cannot agree on placing DADReturn and TeleDAD in the classic bracket. Phantom Darkness was a set that was as crazy as power of the elements, if not even crazier. Also crush card virus was extremely powerful at around that time.

[@andreatorriglia8010]

saying that we should expect the game to get faster is like asking us to imagine something faster than light

[@MoldMonkey93]

Zoodiac was already over with when I faced someone using full power zoo vs my branded-lunalights and made him look like a joke.

[@Beraka114]

The only thing that power of the element do right is,it's proof it's not all about powerfull end board with infinite negate and hand trap but with just a ton of interaction during opponents turn

[@ashikjaman1940]

I'd say it brought the focus back to resource management rather than shitting out your entire extra deck like Pendulum, Dragon Link, or Halqifibrax Turbo did. Of course, it did so by making decks that are way better at it than anything previously, but still

[@deruneldembal5048]

@@ashikjaman1940 u can shit out like half of tears extra in urs and ur opponents bro

[@ashikjaman1940]

@@deruneldembal5048 if you don't recur them and not overextend then that's a good way to get smacked upside the head by Dark Ruler my guy

[@deruneldembal5048]

@@ashikjaman1940 😂. First of all no one uses dark ruler. Also u can shit out a lot with even not getting hurt so much by dark ruler: u have sulliek plus tear mon on board and havnis in hand. Plays around ruler very well ( also field spell another interrupt). Or u just have cryme :)

[@ZafrasF]

Modern yu-gi-oh knows how to attract new players. First you get bored watching your opponent play his turn then you get to watch him again playing cards in your turn, you as a scrub play 2-3 combos and pass turn to him where he plays his turn again and then you lose. Fun and interactive.

[@travisdinham6084]

Thank fk OCG ripped apart that cancer of a deck

[@tomerator]

And the fact that we have to wait a bullshit 9 months for this to happen in the TCG is absurd

[@nickyessir7105]

You put my thoughts about POTE into words perfectly.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

POTE made Rikka playable and Earth decks love Vernusylphs ):

[@alucardygo4239]

Great video; very insightful and informative 🎉

[@EcclesiaSS]

I'm convinced tear will be the new Pepe in the way that there won't be a stronger deck than it at full power for at least another 3-5 years

[@KFC-Warrior]

Great video. Really interesting perspective.

[@CommanderWar64]

I agree. Tears and Sprights would be very interesting if we had a Standard rotating format. If it rotates every 2 ish years: No Dweller, ReDoer or old Rank 2s.

[@Head0.25s]

It reminds me of the Throne of Eldraine era in MTG

[@celtic1842]

I still feel like the game going into more archetypes made the power creep way worse. Because you could always just began a handful of staple cards and your room like that doesn't have to be that powerful. But when it comes to archetypes you just have to keep printing more and more powerful cards. I don't know it just feels like that.

[@thomasbitmail7937]

No banlist YGO waht an idea ☠️ Anyway, i liked this video a lot. Also awakened some nostalgia along the way. Just looking back at the era of YGO and when i started playing. DUEA/Nekroz is still my fav. format to this day.

[@soulstarved4116]

In terms of Vaylantz, they're not very good. Right now, they're just Apolousa turbo and can otk pretty easily, given you survive with your scales. While they do special summon a lot, the issue with the deck is that they lock you out of summoning anything else from your hand or deck. You are strictly limited to Extra for any versatility. Their boss monster is actually pretty good. It interrupts, revives, and enables your engine. However, the field spells are really bad because your opponent can use them too. Not only to remove your monsters but to revive the ones taken out by your boss monster. The field spells are necessary to summon the big Vaylantz consistently. Your best bet is to destroy them after use with Beyond the Pendulum. As for scales, they don't have an in archetype high scale besides for their boss, which you won't be able to scale turn one. So you need to use other pendulum monsters. The martial arts spirits are the best choice because they are 9 and bounce back to hand. Their gimmick is crippling, while their effects are good, they're not good enough to require two cards to use one effect. Not to mention, you can easily lock yourself out of effects by placing things in the wrong spot or having too many monsters on field. Which is why high link rated monsters synergize well with this deck. This deck does not use its Normal which means you can do what you want with that. I like tribute summoning Sloth who could be used as a mistake if you can't summon him. I think this deck needs Electrumite to be considered playable. You need to see a constant cycle of your Vaylantz monsters, and Electrumite enables that.

[@GalliwYGO]

This was good asf liked and subbed

[@不只是谁所无名找小二]

5:51 ok, this made me laugh more than i am willing to admit

[@Short_Bloom]

I remember MBT mentioning that he really liked this format because the Ishizu Tear mirror is really fun since both players are always playing no matter who's turn it is. No floodgates, no 10 minute board building, no locking the opponent out of the game. The problem is that Tear has so much interaction with the opponent at every stage of the game that that trait of the deck might as well be a floodgate in and of itself. Tear locks people out of the game by virtue of the sheer amount of things it can do. I'd be okay with this format if more decks could do what Tear could do. But as it stands it just isn't very fun...

[@arrownoir]

There’s nothing fun about the opponent comboing off on your turn.

[@Short_Bloom]

@@arrownoir I agree. That's what I meant. If every deck could do it then it wouldn't be an issue, it would just be how the game worked. But that isn't the case right now.

[@fukou_da]

>no floodgates What is Abyss Dweller?

[@JacobKendrick]

@@arrownoir It's no fun if your deck can't interact while they're playing. Yugioh has been in a 10 minute build a board, open the board wipe or lose format for too long. Tear is a highly interactive deck, its rarely the case in the mirror where either player can sit back and wait for a while. The issue is its not fun for anyone not on tear or a deck designed to beat tear

[@antdogcat6910]

0:52 The no-banlist was held in China, not Vietnam.The image was all in Chinese.

[@MonkeyFightTCG]

A bit embarrassing the person I got it from told me it was from a Vietnamese shop that hosted the event. I should have double checked it.

[@calingligore]

Next we’ll have deck traps in the game

[@emred4653]

HAT format was my favourite after that game started to get way faster and floodgate-y

[@jonanderirureta8331]

Powercreep can't keep happening infinitely. Could you imagine a deck that makes Tear obsolete? Konami must stop with this selling tactics and embrace rotation like Magic or we will have extremely dumb stuff like quick effect inherent summon from deck.

[@douggeary8502]

The powercreed is just consistently seeming to go exponentially which is something that needs to slow tf down.

[@timfaulkner5010]

6:34 Vaylantz (Valiants) are my favourite deck of all time, they’re top tier don’t question it I’m totally not biased here. ;) But seriously they probably don’t rate high on a tier list, but I encourage to learn them; they’re weird but not as complicated as they first seem, and they’re so fun to play imo.

[@ViperineHero]

very interesting way of thinking about yugioh Ilike your point of view

[@anakinsmith4770]

yes hand traps may slow meta decks to an example but 9/10 completely destroy anything of a lower level

[@silentobserver888]

I miss modern and post modern yugioh. Particularly duelist alliance format and eternal format.

[@sun332s7]

current YGO is honestly really fun. As someone who played meta and causal and jank bank stuff there’s so many options and ways to build now.

[@brendalee1215]

Konami keeps introducing broken cards that get slap to hell once Konami milked all the money from them, this isn't healthy for the game

[@ravdeepbagri1313]

Yugioh players love power creep, so this will probably be remembered as a very good time in the game. I imagine in the future every deck will be an ftk. Yugioh has always had ftks so It's always been a one turn game, but the design will be interaction with the ftk elements. You'll essentially be playing multiple entire games during your opponents first turn to stop their ftk, then do yours during their turn. You could have formats where there are 12 viable ftk decks legal.

[@keidozzz2445]

cringe comment

[@ark3355]

eh..... not even true...

[@eclipse3479]

I think tear was fine before the ishizu cards came out, now they just play during your turn and setup a board that u have to break even tho your trying to build one lmao. If they ban the ishizu stuff and limit havnis i think the deck is definitely still really good, but not as broken as it is now

[@meathir4921]

Tear is actually an interesting direction for the game to go, but they and the Bystials are the only cards that work that way.

[@UmDevoto]

@Sugatara exactly

[@ThatOneWeirdFlex]

A lot of this problem could be solved if Yugioh had a set rotation like Magic. A lot of the staple cards get reprinted either every set or every other set. It keeps card price low and let's them design a few good cards at a time to prevent a massive amount of powercreep in a small amount of time.

[@joshcruzat3112]

I'm gonna keep it a buck fifty. I'd rather take a POTE than any of the link FTKs, the Adamancipator/Eldlich shit in COVID, and even all the Adventure/Scythe locking BS earier in 2022. Yes, Tearlament needed to be hit alongside upcoming Kashtira and even its junior brother spright., but lets be real my man is off the sauce if he thinks that Tear was the "jumping the shark moment" when 'oh but adventure has a /cost' am i right guys?'". Ishizu Tearlament is a tough deck to pilot requiring folks to be playing the second the game starts if its the mirror. The problem is that more decks need to be like Tearlament and not just one, not the fact Tear can do it. Even pre DUSA/Secret Forces people were and are still trying to have their deck do what again? Lock the other player out going second with a big ass board or floodgate bullshit. I hope moving forward that Konami makes more decks like Tear and give older decks the in archytype firepower to do the same, and not revert back to the 'ok power level' pre POTE which was some dude jacking off for 5-10 minutes hoping to put up a billion ass negates. Edit: I do agree with him one hundred percent tho that I like the power level of the game I hope I don't come off as harsh just tired of a lot of the fanbase going "I hate Tear, I want my deck to be meta by [insert way to lock out the other player on turn one]"

[@huynghiepdu]

Hold up, there's a tornement in Vietnam? I live in VN and nobody talk about it.

[@palatasikuntheyoutubecomme2046]

I’d say that “Post-modern” yugioh just started in 2017 with Zoo/Spyral. Since then there has just been the standard 1.5-2.5 year cycle of alternating between an OP format and a super stale format

[@isidoreaerys8745]

They banned Kitkallos??? I was building a Tearlaments deck for my first time playing in real life and haven’t even gotten to use it yet :(

[@salmon1329]

Only in ocg bro, doesnt necessarily mean tcg will ever ban it, it is only a hint

[@hungerxhunger2548]

Dam this video is great dude

[@otterfire4712]

We didn't power creep the game, Konami did. Thought we should make this clear.

[@reinuseslisp8547]

1 month later and Tearlaments somehow survived the OCG 2023 January ban list and are back as Tier 1.

[@Matatoskr]

I was playimg penguins the other day. And even if i draw tbe starters theres still so much work to do. Compared to the newer archertypes and their starters. Its all free. Draw it and u gwt going. And most starters give u more than just fetching power. It really shows how konami chooses what they want to be powerful

[@AlexESR71]

it is broken compared to current yugioh, but in a couple years, decks will do what tears do at bare minimum. That's just where yugioh is heading to.

[@chrishall2594]

Spright isn't even that broken in the tcg lol. Would be a tier 1 format on its own

[@Wombat0987]

Wondering why spyral was missed off the top decks list

[@xaviersalazar4492]

Can't wait for my bystial to come in

[@victorleppas3067]

Something I just hate now, how many decklist have small engines like Adventure, Bystial, tri-brigade etc... in them or 12-15 handtraps it is insane how it can be hard to have pure decklist Use them is logic and boost decks... But when you just want your deck without 60+ more bucks or just to play with friends without 1/3 your deck beeing handtraps who drop your consistancy and can just stop a T0 to play it become a nightmare... I have nothing agaist handtraps just about her spam

[@delta3244]

I should begin this comment by clarifying something: I like every argument in this video. I think every one of them is well-structured, uses a good, sensible set of premises, and correctly uses those premises to derive conclusions. This is a well argued piece, and goes a long way towards justifying the statement that "Power of the Elements was a mistake." But of course, I would not be using this language if I agreed with you. In fact... I have the exact opposite opinion. This is a good time for me to mention that I am speaking as a spectator, albeit one who would enjoy playing the game. I do not believe my arguments are weakened at all by my lack of personal involvement, but it is still something I should make clear up front. Oh, and apologies for the quantity of text. I had a fair amount to say, and have no skill in being succinct, but even _then,_ this is more than I expected to type. For the past few years that I've been watching and learning about this game, I've come to realize that in theory, this game should be my favorite out of all TCGs. The fact that it may as well lack an inherent resource system has forced cards to place restrictions on their own use, which has had the effect of making the game often very complicated, providing significant depth along the way (at least in theory). I like that complexity; I like complicated games, even if they don't have any need to be as complicated as they are. Furthermore, the pace of play is very interesting to me. I like the fact that games take very few turns, and that turns can take a very long time with potential for many interactions between players per turn. But I've had a problem with this game for the entirety of the time I've been watching it, which can be summarized as "some cards do too much." Essentially, my problem is with cards like DPE, Baronne de Fleur, Apollousa, and most floodgates,* when they are good enough to form effective endboards. The reason I have a problem with them is because, while they do often embody the complexity of Yugioh quite well by having many effects that often have neat synergies with other cards or provide them with interesting, different use cases, or in the case of floodgates have narrowly** targeted effects they... don't *play* complicatedly. When they're _that_ good, they just sit on the board, are used in often obvious ways, and win. Or they lose to DRNM/FD, another pair of cards I dislike for similar reasons (they have a ton of effect text and are technically complicated... so that they can be the most straightforward to play "no to the opponent's board" cards imaginable). Again, I only dislike the cards mentioned when they are good enough to form or break endboards essentially on their own; if they aren't _that_ good, their complexity tends to show more than their simplicity. A way to summarize the way I've felt about the game is to say that, while I liked the complexity in getting to endboards, I've never liked them. I've rarely liked seeing them broken either. While yes, this is primarily a complaint of 'yugiboomers,' there is some validity to the claim that boards ended up being a bunch of negates/other interactions that stifled play and just... ultimately weren't that interesting to me, even though they were certainly fair and beatable. Ultimately, I guess my problem was never with the end cards themselves, but instead was with the fact that those cards and their direct counters became the center of the game, and that it wasn't uncommon for a game to be decided on the back of those cards alone. Past turn one, complexity of interactions seemed to go down as far as I could see, because decks had trouble playing through what was on board. And ultimately, that is why I like PotE and _especially_ Tearlaments from it. While maintaining the complexity that I hold so dear, Tearlaments is a deck so strong, so resilient, that individual negates and destructions don't mean much to it. They take those cards that I have had problems with in the past, and make them legitimately interesting parts of the game. They combat other decks not by stifling them, but by interacting with them frequently and trying to slow them down until they run out of resources, which I _by far_ prefer over play patterns from the last few years. (I know that some will say that the amount of interactions makes Tears stifling - fair. But I'd say that what I mean by saying "Tears don't stifle other decks" becomes extremely clear the moment it plays a deck that can potentially play through everything - though this unfortunately ~only describes Tears atm). Furthermore, last and least/as a bonus, the fact that they can combo on turn 1 does a fair amount to reduce the strength of going first which reduces the amount that the match-opening coin flip matters. What I want to see from this game is for new decks with the power of Tearlaments to be printed, or old decks brought up to that level. I do not ever want to see turn 1 setups have the strength to stop the opponent without significant decision making again. Regarding lack of restrictions? Good. I like that. I like the fact that Tears try to make themselves not too splashable by their strength being dependent on the density of the archetype within the deck. One of the fun things about this game is that, in theory, anything can be mixed with anything else if you can find some connecting synergy - this being essentially the reason that weird decades-old cards occasionally find homes in modern competition - but restrictions get in the way of that. I like that restrictions help prevent generic pile deck #57 from existing. I love harsh/specific restrictions on strong extra deck monster materials, forcing specific main deck inclusions. But I prefer if maindeck cards find ways to prevent themselves from being excessively splashable that are not having the text "hey, for all intents and purposes you are not allowed to play this card unless your deck looks like ... with 7 free slots and a couple permitted choices on which 5-card engine you run." Kashtira - I like these. They add to the ways in which decks can get the 10+ meaningful/interesting interactions per turn I want to see. I will acknowledge that with future releases, I may start to regard these as being too strong for how generic they are. Bystials - should come as no surprise that I like these cards. They can play on the opponent's turn, which I've already said I like. Besides, D/D Crow's my favorite handtrap - I just think it's a fun card - and these cards are good modern interpretations of it to my eyes. To summarize, using your language, I like this new age of yugioh, and am not sad to see the last leave if this is what is to replace it. I believe there is a lot of potential for this age to reduce variance w/out forcing the same cards to always come up at the same times - Tears sets the blueprint for that by being so consistently strong while not consistently getting the same cards in the same order in hand and GY. I believe this age will reduce the impact of past problem cards (by my definition of "cards that do too much" in a particular sense), make it possible to play around them, and thereby make those past problems into really cool parts of the game. I believe it is capable of doing that without introducing new uninteresting cards. I like what all this means for competitive play. * I may as well mention that the fact that "I dislike most floodgates" is noteworthy, because I am normally attracted to all of the strats that frustrate people. I will play zoners; I will set traps, I will not allow you within striking distance of me, and I _will_ be happy about it! And yes, this does translate to me generally liking control/prison decks in TCGs. But Yugioh's floodgates somehow manage to make me not have fun with it anymore. ** ultimately, my biggest problem with floodgates is twofold, the one relevant to this is that they aren't as narrow as I want them to be. "I don't want to win games by playing a single card" on principle, even if that strategy ultimately isn't reliable enough to be good and so is 'fair.' If you're curious about the other reason... why are so many of them continuous traps? Floodgates are supposed to be proactive control pieces. _Why are they doubling as reactive control pieces?_ Floodgates are a lot more fun to me if they don't start by _surprising_ the opponent with a negate/send-to-GY! (I should note that I don't universally hate the idea of proactive control pieces doubling as reactive, but I want either for it to take effort to make them so or for them to be substantially worse than counterspell)

[@AllBeganwithBBS]

I'm just saying, give me a handtrap that prevents cards from returning to the deck the same way Lancea prevents cards from being banished. If any and all GY decks suffer from Tear's utter dominance, I say we manufacture something that strictly kills it as retribution.

[@MonkeyFightTCG]

I actually really like that idea for a handtrap. It would be a really cool side deck option.

[@YGOHermit]

We need compensation when cards are banned. I mean its their fault that they didn't think before releasing this shit.

[@aka_Ingmar]

I can't even fathom how this game will get even faster

[@arrownoir]

They need to go back to the drawing board and stop the power creep.

[@cladiosanchez6865]

This is why we need a MR 6 with a special summon limit. 5 per turn.

[@pandahero9464]

This is literally "Tell me you don't have enough money to buy nibiru without telling me"

[@brycehayashi]

Beautiful

[@Lorens4444]

The fewer drawbacks we have, the more room for creativity. XD

[@MonkeyFightTCG]

Yes, but actually no. It certainly helps some players build better and more unique decks, but it also ends up pushing a ton of other strategies out of the game. Like how during tearlament format most previously rogue decks were unable to compete without an anti tear gimmick.

[@Lorens4444]

@MonkeyFight TCG Oh, I had a lot of fun with Tearlament - Chaos, Time Thief, PK, Orcust, Dragon Link, Shaddoll, Crusadia... the things you could do with them were incredible. XD

[@f1r3hunt3rz5]

If Yugi was real, he would probably have a heart attack looking at the power creep in today's game.

[@HunterStiles651]

Nah. If Yugi were real he'd somehow find a way to win worlds with Dark Magician during Tear Format.

[@MonkeyFightTCG]

I activate Dark magicians of dimension shifter. Which of course is an insane fusion monster that works for this specifc situation, never before shown in the show.

[@OoXLR8oO]

1:35 Why is Spyral not on this list?

[@willsuperchouchen5320]

They could just release new support for others arketypes and use the banlist to make the ge even

[@NinjaXFiles]

Imagine if the archetypes were played as intended instead of being exploited by other cards all the time. Konami loves encouraging decks like this.