SHOULD THE OCG AND THE TCG COMBINE? - Magical Hats

ONE TRUE FORMAT! Featuring ‪@Farfa‬ , ‪@Nyhmnim‬ , and ‪@DistantCoder‬.
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#MBT #MagicalHats #EP7
Edited By: OPTML Media

[@ChaoticMeatballTV]

This has become the true MBT & Friends channel with Magical Hats being such a consistently good show. Please don't cancel this one after 10 episodes!

[@D_Empire]

This is indeed very awesome

[@Celestia282]

Watch it get canceled after 11 episodes.

[@callmekermy9946]

Now it's cancelled in 9

[@digitialkonnections9954]

I love it

[@notaraven]

I still miss his jank tank series where he plays his viewers pet decks.

[@JakeLT64]

The #1 reason to combine is so that they stop rarity bumping cards based on usage. Reminder that D.A.D. was a rare in OCG, Duality was a super etc etc.

[@yardship]

ocg is where they have the fun, tcg is how they make the money

[@xtechwolf]

That's the #1 reason for Konami to NOT combine xD

[@markchang2964]

Good point

[@mateusrp1994]

Not only its boring to know what cards are good or not 6 months in advance, its made even worse when Konami of America knows it as well and makes the good cards even more expensive.

[@Ragnamune]

I can do you one better. Kashtiratheosis: TCG=Secret Rare. OCG? COMMON!!!

[@TheRedScizor]

MBT was so happy to find Farfa shared his take

[@picochap]

I found you, Faker!

[@kevinasfxck]

@@picochap faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here

[@dragoknighte48]

@@kevinasfxck You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not e-

[@colossaldonut5190]

He sounded so vindicated I love it

[@kevinasfxck]

@@dragoknighte48 ILL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS

[@TheTicatic10]

Surprised nobody mentioned how TCG exclusive archetypes play into the argument. Imo they are THE best way of showing that tcg players like to cook while the stove is hot

[@rodrigoandrade256]

Imagine if ALL THE CARDS were world premieres

[@aringrey]

@@rodrigoandrade256 As someone who has played magic where this is the case: Its so fun you guys. Everyone rushing to try and break the new cards in the wild west of formats whenever a new set comes out is amazing.

[@mateusrp1994]

Its pretty easy to ignore the TCG exclusive archetypes when last good one was Dangers 4 years ago, and its been nothing but mediocre to garbage ones for 4 years straight, the sole exception being Plunder Patroll, and even that one spent a long time being garbage.

[@has199]

​@@mateusrp1994 beetroopers nearly and should have won a YCS

[@fosterdawson7339]

@@aringrey agreed (except for when the cards get leaked months before release”

[@Straven93]

A benefit for the TCG would be getting the OCG's rarities. Moreso in the sense of not getting fucked over by a rare getting bumped to a secret or some stupid shit like that

[@brianlauria]

this would not work. They would have to make cards more accessible as they can't hit stuff that TCG players play so much more for. Which is the difficulty as money affects the TCG banlist differently

[@ohexenwahno5652]

@@brianlauria yeah, but under the same release schedule and banlist, it would make no difference, and they wouldn't skid around a necessary ban just because the product still sells

[@Tium99]

Surprised kevin didnt talk about rules not being streamlined between the two. Like hand triggers for example. Having baleynx as Cl1 and the opponent having an opportunity to respond witb ash before you can parallel exceed or gazelle in OCG. But in TCG you can chain block that

[@bearrington2024]

1) This is probably my favorite series right now. 2) A unified game would give us OCG rarities/ratios and holy fuck our bodies are not ready. Like Im basically a boomer, but for reference, DAD was a goddamn RARE in the ocg. It was like a $5 card

[@minifeebas8911]

Or everyone gets put on tcg rarities

[@prs6448]

@@minifeebas8911 Konami would love that for sure.

[@joplin4434]

​@@minifeebas8911 they can't do that because they are not great playtesters lol they rely on ocg players to find out what is good and change the rarities, when we get tcg exclusives the rarities tend to be out of sync with power level Pot of duality wasn't a super because they felt generous, they legit didn't understand how good it was. Then we have tcg exclusives like secret warrock mountain and secret Pinpoint Landing lmao

[@mrbubbles6468]

@@joplin4434 how do we know they aren’t great playresters. Some of the OCG’s best cards have been low rarity. And some of their high end cards have been terrible. Konami has been printing draw cards forever, they know when a card is good. They did not print Duality higher because they did not want to.

[@joplin4434]

@@mrbubbles6468 that's the point. In the OCG powerlevel does not correlate to rarity. In the TCG they do but only when they are not premieres i.e. they have been played by the OCG playerbase. Let's look at TCG exclusives: Time thief redoer was a common in the same set as Super Anti-Kaiju War Machine Mecha-Thunder-King and Valkyrie Sechste were both secrets. When they got to the OCG i.e. they had been played by the TCG playerbase redoer was upped to ultra and the other two downgraded to rare. It goes both ways, with cards being more expensive when imported to the other format if they were better than konami expected. These are the same designers who thought Sea Monster of Theseus was a stronger card than Zoodiac drident, they suck at the game

[@TheRoseReaper]

This game should 100% be unified. There is no reason why we can't with the power of the internet. Synchronized releases? Absolutely. Merchandise would fly off the shelves faster than Coder can get Bishbalken FTKed if it was all synchronized.

[@shawnjavery]

If you made a card game now it should be unified 100%. But with how long its been released and the difference in culture between the ocg and tcg I don't think it really justifies the effort needed for a synchronized release.

[@MrDegan2]

​@@shawnjavery "the effort" being realising one pack in the OCG covering the current TCG exclusives they haven't had yet. Moving the product relise schedule in TCG to be slightly more aggressive and then once the realises are married up unify the ban list? Not really that much effort

[@TheRoseReaper]

@@shawnjavery with the tools Konami has available, we could have cards by the end of the year of stuff that never was printed for us and vise versa. This isn't the age without internet anymore where you have to stagnate releases

[@jamesruth100]

Having all cards be world premiers is the best situation in my opinion, but I still think that the TCG and OCG would likely have different banlists. Maybe it's the fighting game mindset in me, but I find regional banlists tailor to regional tastes and opinions. For example, the OCG consistently shows more willingness to play slower and grindier games, as well as a willingness to lean into stun tools harder than the TCG does. Scythe, protos, TD colossus, kaiser colosseum, maxx c, etc, all banned in the TCG and all legal to varying degrees in the OCG. Hell, we even have different interpretations on what cards are supposed to do, and as such we have a huge amount different rulings (though I wish they would unify this). We have fundamentally different opinions on what's gamebreaking, working as intended, or even fun to play, and honestly I think that's to be expected; no 2 cultures are ever going to have the exact same view on everything. I think a universal format can work for games if they're designed around it from the start, but I don't think there's a great way to unify them after they've diverged for _so_ long.

[@mujigant]

​@@shawnjavery It'll barely need any effort at all. If they up the TCG release schedule by like 1 month per set we'll catch up in a year.

[@ParTwo]

Something I find interesting is that even with a unified game, regional preferences over how to go about the format can still develop. Stuff like tech cards, ratios, or the popularity of certain rogue decks can vary from region to region, and tournament formats can also still differ that would influence all that. The Best of 1 vs Best of 3 discussion highlighted that for YGO. As an example I'm more familiar with, Splatoon is an example of a video game that has a competitive scene worldwide, but regional JP tournaments often play Turf War, which the rest of the world's tournaments largely ignore. As a result, the meta for Turf War ends up being a bit better developed in Japan, and that does come up on occasion like when Nintendo would host a big online tournament with a Turf War portion as a qualifier. Teams will sometimes look to JP results to see what people are doing for competitive Turf War and adapt that into their own styles.

[@LSparkzwz]

Farfa is the man of the people Seriously screw seeing new cards and having to think "ahah they're so cool see you in a few months.."

[@keefy3482]

Fr give me assault synchron already

[@NARFNra]

One of the really weird aspects of this topic is that I think it's yet another element of why Konami so poorly supports alternate formats - they technically already are majorly supporting 4, OCG, TCG, Master Duel, and Duel Links. It allows for a somewhat unusual thing that as far as I'm aware only really exists in YGO, which is where there are two very nearly modern formats that differ only in banlists and certain specifically released exclusives with a delay. I think personally that there should be only one combined format, but I also think that the difference between the two of them is so wide due to highly divisive cards like Maxx "C", and then, idk, stuff like Electrumite, that no matter which game you choose to take the banlist from you're gonna run into issues where you piss off a big section of the fanbase. I feel like at the end of the day though Konami makes money off of running the TCG differently and so has no incentive to ever change the way it does things, and will ride it right up until people stop buying cards and they have to invent some new game to print cash with lol

[@kalcyte725]

Borderline this is one of the better series yugioh wise right now. No overhyped concept, no stakes, just some content creator friends shooting the shit and giving their takes with a fun twist. Its almost like a mini podcast and its just incredibly refreshing seeing big names just chatting it out together. Also MBT just perking up as imposter is revealed was so good

[@majespectorkuro8630]

I like that in the OCG canon solider and it’s adjacent effects are banned so they don’t have several suprise canon solider FTK’s upon the release of X new card (:

[@kindlingking]

I personally like the idea of cannon soldier being a white lab mouse of yugioh - every time something becomes too good, it often devolves into a cannon soldier ftk, making it easily identifiable. Granted there are multiple ways of cards and strategies being broken beside resource generation and tutoring everything from the deck, but those have their own ways to identify them.

[@aaronlastname9259]

Predicting that Gage is the Hatposter, will edit the comment if im right or wrong. Spoilers Ahead if you started by reading the comments. Man I'd move mountains too, Farfa, cant believe you were lying through your teeth man.

[@ZeroGum]

Calling MBT, the first thing he did was call everyone out for being stinky, thats sussy.

[@doorto6152]

I think a good example to have brought up in the discussion was Dragoon. That card was delayed a whole year. By the time it was released in tcg, we had answers to it ocg lacked. Droplet and Fleur as some examples. Though this example is more in line with Coder’s take about OCG being a beta test. Not to mention the split necessitates tcg exclusives. On the plus side, we got cool archetypes like FA, UA, Beetroopers. On the bad side, we get ghoti… war rock… dream mirror… and the ugly (M.A.X. C.)

[@geek593]

Another example is Garura. People in the TCG forget how Spright was tier 0 in the OCG before Tear Zero took over. But we got Garura and suddenly Spright lost to Super Poly like almost every other deck in the format.

[@silent7159]

Halq is probably the best example. OCG had it during MR4 where it was strong but not too broken. TCG got it years later during MR5 where it was way to good

[@blitzcam]

@@geek593 Yeah, I mean really the most exciting releases for tcg is good tcg exclusives, because we get them before ocg. Since over 90% of the cards are ocg exclusives for at least 4 months until they finally get released to tcg. Basically, it's fun to get new cards quickly. But yeah it definitely changes things too when cards in certain ocg sets change to a different tcg set/product, at a different time compared to other sets, which can definitely make for different formats, which results in different ban lists.

[@geek593]

@@blitzcam I always look forward to good archetypes even if we know what they've done in the OCG because there's a very high chance someone in the TCG will break them and pull out some crazy ideas the OCG never bothered with because they're content with sometimes just winning off drawing Maxx C while not having room for sub engines because they have Maxx C and his swatters taking up 8 slots in every list.

[@doorto6152]

@@blitzcam when was the last time we got a playable tcg archetype? I only started playing Yugioh seriously with master duel. And the only playable tcg card that’s released since was the Violet upstart goblin

[@ArchangelJuicy]

1 thing i wanted them to discuss in this topic was that with the merger there would be no exclusive tcg/ocg archetypes

[@mbt808]

Honestly, I’d love if these were longer in-depth discussions.

[@lukaschin1038]

This series is so cool not only because it's just some cool content creators coming together but we're also able to see their basically unfiltered opinions

[@NovaEmpyrean]

Wow, farfa played it really well this week. This may be the first episode that I couldn't guess who the imposter is

[@Dw7freak]

I think the biggest issue between the OCG and TCG is the staggered releases and some cards just not getting released in the same sets. Even now, there's older cards still stuck in OCG limbo that never got released in the TCG. Where's my boy Bat! There's also TCG exclusives that the OCG gets later, like the F.A. and U.A. archetypes. Unless there's simultaneous releases, there's no way to have a true full world format.

[@JackieChannibal]

I had a dream last night that Amouranth was in a yugioh tournament hosted by Coder. He started getting a lot of hate, not because she was in the tournament, but because Coder told her that her match started in an hour and 1/2, but it actually started in 30 minutes. So, she ended up missing it and getting disqualified. That's all I remember

[@createrz8433]

Wh

[@Honest_Mids_Masher]

Based Coder

[@shiningdramon1]

I feel that having a unified banlist and the cards being released at the same time are two different things. Like, it is possible for TCG, OCG, and even Master Duel to have different banlists even if the cards are released at the same time. The issue is just that it requires more people to maintain 3 different banlists than a single unified banlist and that people will flock to the banlist that they consider the better one, which makes maintaining the other banlists feel not profitable for Konami to do if there aren't enough people playing with those banlists.

[@rot10ed]

I think it would be neat to import Japanese products and cards and actually be able to play with them or even get some of the ocg only stuff over here. Would be a huge plus if they bumped up the general quality to their Japanese counterparts too.

[@quickjab_r6589]

I know it was unlikely to get hit because of the timing but technically it was the second list tear got full limited, we did have the funny "limit curious and orange light" list first

[@steelblake]

Holy shit this might be Farfa's best showing yet. What the hell was that acting.

[@shanehaney6040]

-The Ban Lists Merge -We use the OCG List and Maxx C becomes Legal -A Finger on the Monkey’s Paw closes. Jokes aside, I’d be fine with a unified format. I get why it happened - product that releases on a 6 month delay kinda fucks things, especially when it get’s banned or limited before we get it, barring them starting to release stuff here sooner - but I feel like the Format Separation was, in hindsight, a mistake.

[@RamixTheRed]

I would take this trade-off immediately

[@shanehaney6040]

@@RamixTheRed Granted, I’m biased - I’d love to see Maxx C made legal, if only for a single format, just to watch literally every YugiTuber lose their shit - but the Split has basically just made it so Konami has to try and balance cards around 2 completely different formats, and it honestly feels like they’ve given up on that

[@billyjean8176]

Gateway to 3? :)

[@shanehaney6040]

@@billyjean8176 Why not? Embrace the Chaos! Or y’know, actually use the Semi-Limited List. If there’s one thing I’ll give the OCG, it’s that they actually use that List..

[@krullachief669]

@@shanehaney6040 You mean the Malicious and Pals after school club?

[@Spid3yTCG]

Wow, no one talked about how different the product release is. I like the structure of ocg packs/boxs/cool rarities/side sets like the prismatic god box. Like why can't the tcg get cool stuff?

[@shakeweller]

Because Germany, France, America and Canada are rich and Thailand is not. You can't hit Thailand with TCG marketing, they can't afford it.

[@ryuuohdeltaplus7936]

@@shakeweller Thailand and Philippines, and now Indonesia too.Countries in OCG regions aren't first world rich countries like TCG regions are.

[@BandannaBread]

In the middle of watching stuff still, but this episode did get my sort of back in on one thing that urked me with Master Duel. They are absolutely not using it to its fullest extent. With a lot of online games, you see them experimenting a lot with optional things like beta test servers. Right now, the only beta we get is just wherever the cards release first (Usually the ocg, but not always). I think it would be very beneficial for konami to implement a testing feature in master duel. Make it a limit time event where you can use unreleased beta cards in your decks for testing. They can gather data and see what people would do with them. It also allows them to do something so important that they've never been able to do before, make changes to cards whenever they want. It takes years for Konami to update cards, as is, and it's for an understandable reason. If you're using an online sim for testing though, it is much, much easier to see what issues things have, so you can change them before they are released to the public.

[@trokolisz3702]

Absolutly agree with Farfa and MBT, as a master duels player, it is just not fun being in the tearalament waitingroom, and know that any deck that i make now will have to be put on hold for 2 months before they ban tear and i can play them again. And i knoe they are coming, and we all know they will be broken (unless really hard hits from start, but then i never get to experience what playing tearalament feels like.)

[@trokolisz3702]

And master duel now is doing cool shit, like releasing ishizu before tear, so we can see how they play in other decks, and in my opinion, they are really fun, even if they put the fear for the timer in me. So you could argue you can never experience a format like this in any other way, but i still prefer playing the cards they promo after a week or two after i have seen them.

[@gabrielpelletier6202]

A synchronized format would mean it's all unsolved. We can all experiment and run in with weird bullshit. Instead of people in the TCG looking over at the OCG and being like "Oh shit, Ishizu Tear is going to destroy everything".

[@honorableintent]

It's my favorite show! Braindead Takes with MBT and Friends!

[@shanehaney6040]

I call it “4 people share 1 brain cell”, but that also works.

[@thanatosxmesiah]

MBT and friends trying to figure out who got the worse brainworm disease

[@krullachief669]

@@thanatosxmesiah The answer is always Gage.

[@colossaldonut5190]

It’ll never happen, but man if it could that’s be great. I think the big thing here is Bo1 vs Bo3, which I’m surprised didn’t come up and how that side deck element completely changes how decks play and can interact.

[@starving_princess]

you want a really tough episode? ask open ended questions. "if you were in charge of the banlist, what three key changes would you make?" "how would you shift the format to punish kashtira's playstyle with a new staple card?" "how would you take (x rogue deck) and shore up its weaknesses with new support?" "how would you modernize (duel terminal archetype)?" i wanna hear unhinged stuff like talking about a quick effect mind crush on legs or a towers that also floodgates the opponent to have only 5 summons per turn, or a super poly searcher

[@Folfire]

Coder feels its cool that OCG serves as a Beta test. The actual take would be to wish Konami had responsible design and proper play testing before release. That's the Beta test.

[@nigamnation]

literally this LOL

[@TheCardTrooper]

They do, there isn't enough of a time gap between OCG and TCG release for the OCG to be used as a testing ground. TCG releases are finalized months before the OCG counterpart even gets announced.

[@tachyon3678]

Even though knowing what’s coming is a bit boring for TCG players, TCG banlist are often times more effective when compared to OCG banlists. They get to see what works and what doesn’t. For instance, TCG only have to deal with tear for couple of month while in the OCG we have been dealing with tear and ishizu dominance for more than half a year now

[@nigamnation]

I mean, if you had a unified game, you'd surely have a unified banlist.

[@mill_ania]

This is fair, but, I guess our list feels "impotent" in comparison to TCG is because OCG get everything first, but we also did some great pre-emptive banning that allow post-Tear format to be less of a slog. We Limit Uni and Fenrir at the same time we cull Tear, for example, so post-Tear it's not just Kashtira format. Honestly, tho, I just wish the bug is gone here. Bullshit ass card.

[@PriestessPaula]

"only have to deal with tear for a few months" I mean we had snow banned, and then curious banned with orange light limited, and then our latest list so it's been a while for us too.

[@nasch3391]

TCG love to kill deck

[@DrIMPRATICAL]

I will say even thought the TCG banlist is far more effective, they leave things on the list for far longer then is really necessary Cards like Master Plan, and Drident, have been powercrept out of the OCG entirely Spyral is still a degenerate combo deck, but so is half the meta at any given time, and Zoo is just Zeus turbo

[@eldavid8774]

I think the problem everyone forgot about is that technically speaking the ocg is like the "real game" and tcg is like a subsidiary, or subgame, what i mean is that ocg is priorititized in more ways than just product releases, the prices for cards are better, they have more merchandise,better quality control, more direct communication, their events have higher production values, and just as an example rush duels exists just because yugioh is usually the second most popular card game on japan, they fell to third place on 2019 due to lower numbers of kids playing, and thats why they created rush duel in that exact year and is now the eight most popular card game there, clearly worked ,so the devs are competent and fast meanwhile we spend years malding over here over short printing, rarity increases, prices etc. and we get answers years later, i dont know what you could do about it, maybe the increase in players at events and Master duel´s profit might help show konami the west is a worthwhile investment but yeah being the least loved ,spurned child comes with baggage

[@geek593]

Realistically all of those benefits they get in the OCG are due to a more healthy TCG culture and a lot more real competition. The second Konami fucks up there are like five other games ready to take market share. TCGs in the West are islands. Playing multiple games competitively is like playing multiple MMOs here. Games are so separated in their market share that most LGSes have one main game they hard focus on. If there were real market pressure on Konami they'd have to maneuver properly or lose out on customers.

[@eldavid8774]

@@geek593 yeah the competition is allways good, maybe constant influx of new card games makes it so that they have to become more costumer friendly, seems like there is new one every month for every franchise, i am optimistic though it has become better than previous years

[@silent7159]

​@@geek593 you make a good point. The TCG market in Japan is far more competitive than in the west

[@bearrington2024]

@@silent7159 What are you talking about if you dont like yugioh you can play mtg which clearly is not in a bad spot right now.....

[@silent7159]

@@bearrington2024 I'm not sure what you mean by that? I was just saying how Yugioh has a lot of TCGs to compete with in Japan, so Konami prioritizing the OCG makes sense from a marketing standpoint.

[@derekeeeee]

The only reason i want The two to merge is so tcg can have Shuttleroid

[@nellewoodruff6337]

Lmao same. Was just about to say that

[@MasterQuestMaster]

Nobody brought up that a unified game we would mean we also can officially use the OCG ruling database without people being like „that’s OCG so it doesn’t count“

[@dracoblizzard7944]

1 year of releasing a core set every 2 months as apposed to 3 catches the TCG up to the OCG, provided they increase the density of OCG side-set imports in our side sets. From there, the TCG can to as they do with their own banlist, until at the end of the year there's just an announcement that the games are merging. There is no need to "gradually converge the banlists", it just makes sense that they can merge as soon as the formats are caught up with each other. This isn't 2002 when the game released. People have the information they need available to them. It is not that drastic of a change from "let's look at what the OCG was doing 6 months ago for our format" to "let's look at what the OCG is doing now because we now have the same format". Actually, while I was writing this, I think I figured out why this is never going to happen. Product structure (AKA money). For those who don't know, in the OCG cards are a lot easier and cheaper to get and I believe rarities cap out at super or ultra for main sets, with anything higher only being rarity upgrades which become the money cards of the set (similar to the Pokemon TCG, the higher rarity versions of cards carry sets). Due to a difference in culture, the TCG is always given products with much less value because they sell better. If the formats merged, Konami would have to excuse to not allow the use of OCG cards in TCG events, which means everyone would just be playing with cards in Japanese until they actually equalized the set structure. Pretty sure that they would never give up that much money for something not everyone even wants. Yugioh, as many similarities as they share, is not a gacha game. Hype and whales alone cannot carry the game and make it cheap for everyone else, due to the existence of the secondary market. People here in the west won't just get exited enough to buy new product, they need a reason. And making the new top cards so scarce that single copies go for $100+ is the best way to do that.

[@xolotltolox7626]

Whack how in the clip in the beginning Magical Hats is a spell when he say "you activated my trap card"

[@mangavore7426]

Farfa’s “ladder match for the custody of Master Duel” comment was so good xD Such a throwback to one of the weirdest WWE plotlines that actually worked because Eddie and Ray are both GOATs.

[@PhantomThiefXI]

i wanted it to be kevin because the beta test thing was so insane, but i know when he talks too much about his point hes not sus so i heard him keep going about it knowing he actually believes that wild

[@RamenCupBMG]

other than 100+ vanillas and cards that were collabs with real life japanese companies, there are just over 60 ocg only cards that don't have a designated tcg product. we're only 2 core sets behind, they can definitely turbo out these products or slow down the ocg releases if they wanted to combine. the only thing that would be different is the rarity structure. also the card backs for tcg and ocg have different logos. konami would just simply have to allow any card to be playable and force you to wear sleeves.

[@RunicSigils]

They do the latter anyway for the OCG. The other OCG backs are already not the same so if you use a mixture you have to use sleeves.

[@victikirby15]

The brief look of sheer panic on Gage’s face at 1:15 is so funny to me

[@TayyabTV]

One of the things that wasn't mentioned was cost of cards. In the OCG cards are wayyyy cheaper hence why we cant use them in tournaments here in the TCG (that and card stock but imo thats not the best argument). If they were merged, I would hope everyone would get the cheaper cards rather than the expensive ones.

[@Dunker401]

Honestly if this question was leaning towards products being released globally then I would absolutely be down for that. It would mean we would get the cards in the ocg rarity and we would not have obvious offensively high rarity bumps for staples and sought after cards and would actually make the game affordable to play.

[@birdmanjon]

I love how MBT immediately reacting to everyone wearing the same shirts doesn't even mean they filmed multiple episodes at once because that is 100% the type of weird thing that only he would notice

[@waluigiclinton6834]

Farfa referencing a WWE ladder match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio from 20 years ago was so out of pocket

[@maxh7085]

The amount of logistic issues with merging the two formats would make it nearly impossible. Whose ban list are we gonna follow, who will be responsible for the banlist(since TCG and OCG has very different philosophy with it), different rulings, rarities. And the payoff for Konamie would just not be worth it.

[@brianlauria]

Everyone is missing the point. The point is money. If OCG and TCG combine; you have to understand that in Japan it's easier and cheaper to access cards due to more card game competition. And Konami factor card prices in mind when doing ban-lists. Can't be as liberal at limiting stuff if in the EU we have to spend £200 on an Adventure core vs like £20 in Japan.

[@cturtle4573]

One thing I think should be considered when talking about unifying the OCG and TCG is that having different banlists means that future cards are going to be made without the other format in mind. As an example Heavymetalfoes Electrumite being legal in the OCG means that Konami RnD design all newer pendulum cards with it in mind. But because Electrumite is banned in the TCG, a card /archetype that might be considered pretty good in the OCG would be considered be unplayable in the TCG because they become way worse without Electrumite legal. Because of the difference between one card being legal or not, an entire summoning mechanic suffers heavily for it. I personally don't like the idea of being at the mercy of the OCG making cards that are good in their game but bad here, I'd rather both banlists be unified so that both games RnD teams are able to design cards without having unintended consequences for the other game.

[@iigeminiii3754]

I love this series. Can we get a MBT yugi tuber podcast please? If you know of the One Piece youtuber community, they have an annual podcast called The Reverie. Virtually every single One Piece content creator joins the streams at different points (normally the streams go at least 5 hours) so there is plenty of time for everyone to join in or drop out of the call. Also the podcast is hosted on a different channel every time, and they try to reach out to new fledgling channels and it allows the community to grow together and make for great content. This would be great for the yugioh community considering the huge personalities/egos in the space. Imagine the crazy arguments and hot takes... glorious.

[@XXGeneralzerohourXX]

One thing that also effects this is the fact ocg also have lower rarity prints of high chase cards in the same packs versus tcg where we have short prints.

[@red-eyessolares1817]

The temporary solution for not getting all the cards from the OCG is to allow OCG cards to be played in tournaments with translations. I generally just think that a unified format would allow for the game to be more structure and streamlined with unified rulings, not being region locked, and raising the ceiling for competitions.

[@Lord_Phoenix95]

Before watching any further just from the title alone I will say no unless the products are released simultaneously. Remember Pre-2013ish where we were using OCG List exclusively and shit got banned before it even came out. TCG at the moment is fine being separated from the OCG but without a combined release of products we'd be back like we were Pre-2013.

[@shaylic3795]

I do wish it was the same game. Biggest hurdle I see is attempting to reconcile rule differences and find a way for both to apply rulings consistently upon release of new cards.

[@NexusSpacey]

We'd likely get a better product / the same product as the OCG as well, meaning that card prices are globally a lot lower due to the rarities not being as frustrating as they are here

[@rocapbg9518]

While it would be cool to have them be merged you know what would happen to the ban list? Konami would just delete our ban list and replace it with the OCG one. Maxx C, That Grass, Chaos Ruler. I think I am fine with getting cards 6 months later, thank you very much.

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

The TCG doesn't often "prehit" or put problem decks in check anymore. They usually just look at the most broken releases, see if powercreep will be enough to cause a rotation shift, then outright kill a deck if it isn't and the OCG doesn't have plans to add new support for a while. And the whole "beta test" thing goes both ways, when the OCG can't figure out if something's too broken or hot garbage, the TCG gets to be the ones figure out the mess themselves, like with Dangers and Kaijus. Though part of that is the TCG wanting to put more cards in their sets instead of varied rarities to make the desirable cards(often decided by what's used the most in the OCG) that much harder to get. I'm not saying there aren't multiple R&D teams, but they probably all have to share ideas in case one group decides to add new support for an archetype the other created. And the TCG doesn't seem too inclined to errata problem cards for balance reasons that often outside of translation errors, the only reason Gandora X didn't get banned in the TCG was because its burn effect used in an FTK worked differently in the OCH, a change they refused to make so it's still banned over there. Yet when Goyo Guardian gets an errata long after it's relevant, the TCG went and changed the thing's summoning requirements anyway.

[@thepuzzycatzz4313]

These episodes need to be longer!

[@StormKidProductions]

Farfa was straight SPITTIN at the end there.

[@Scapegoat-po2ou]

The one issue with this episode is you cant really argue if OCG and TCG merging would be good or bad since it's a completely hypothetical scenario with infinite variations. Even in the discussion itself all four hosts seemed to have different ideas of what a merger would actually look like, and bounced between them in the middle of debating. For instance, they talk about cards being banned in the TCG before or just after they are released as an argument against unification, which is assuming the banlist would be unified but not the release schedules. Perhaps you should have started with a clarification on what exactly was meant by the OCG and TCG "combining" so everyone was on the same page.

[@andresarancio6696]

I am impressed with Farfa's impostoring here. Like, building a perfectly sensible arguement being extremely cynical is a perfect way of keeping face while your actual take is "I don't care it is an ideal world!! Burn the senate! Eat the rich! Unify the kingdoms under the crown of Tour Guide!"

[@sethbennedetti753]

Happy by this series is taking off.

[@PiePie453]

Good episode, very challenging

[@LegoLegend89]

Can you make magical hats in a longer, like 30 minute format with multiple topics

[@hmaw]

Just imagine having the complete player base figuring out every new release simultaneously. It would make the game so much more exciting.

[@wattsynchron]

I think having a unified format would be for the best but I just don't see like how they would do it. Like I guess they would just have to like DM era combine like all the OCG packs that haven't been released in TCG yet to get it caught up but that seems like a bad idea so maybe they would just start double releasing in TCG to eventually catch up.

[@qweschuning]

9:47 laughs in firewall dragon, laughs in scythe, laughs in soul charge, laughs in IO(rip IO though)

[@Kylora2112]

Merge, have KoA design a dozen or so cards for each set (so just like now, but they go live along with the rest of the core set), have the OCG sealed product rarities, and put Maxx "C" on special triple secret probation where it can never be unbanned. No more stupid import gaps (imagine if the TCG got Chronomaly Nebra Disc when it could have been relevant, or if we didn't have to wait years for a magazine promo card to come to the TCG). Plus it'd make the game feel a lot more...respectable? I'd love to be able to actually play decks rather than wait 6 months and forget about them.

[@GeorgeBiscuit94]

rooster wasn't actually limited on release, the tcg and ocg banlists actually split at that list's release, we actually had spirit limited and rooster at 3 that format

[@deckzonetcg8907]

Can you guys do "Should Yugioh change Rarities to match Pokemon TCG?" I love how pokemon has common versions and holo alt arts of them.

[@diahleoygo4586]

I saw the title and immediately had to watch it.

[@ryancasey9763]

i came into this as a super casual and just my knowledge was blown out by these guys. If it was me : truth, unite them both even if it takes years of work. Lie: due to tranlastion and slight word changed alot of cards (even 4%) may have arguements for diffrences in ruling. so it would be alot to have to erratae the EXACT wording/ effect of those cards

[@nerfirelia8235]

Honestly, they could even just keep the different banlists if they wanted to. Just having the same release schedule would be absolutely amazing for the TCG. No more dumb rarity bumps on the good cards so everything is more affordable and we can start experimenting with the cards right away instead of waiting 6 months to just copy the OCG.

[@CrimsoniteSP]

My hot take, yes. My reasoning is just because I like living under one unified ruling. Before I even knew what the OCG was, I used to argue "this is banned, that's limited," then my opponent would pull up the OCG ban list and it's a giant ball of confusion to newer players. And now we just have the divide of Maxx C or no Maxx C. TCG players will never play into a Maxx C. Even if the opponent is playing 35 copies of Kuriboh, the moment they play Maxx C, turn is over. And then you got Master Duel players that go, "Maxx C? Time to summon 40 monsters in a single turn!" I think it's finally time we just decide and unify the playerbase at this point.

[@theUeki49]

Coming back into yugioh over the past few years only using the console games to stay semi up to date I love hearing these takes.

[@abcrx32j]

I wouldn't mind OCG card prices in the TCG

[@blueberryboi0094]

Surprised no one mentioned how some monster effects are slightly different depending on which format is played like zeraboros

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

Joseph & Nadir 100% have the right takes. Getting to lab & theorycraft and actually be surprised by a release is infinitely more fun than having the format solved before the product even hits the shelves. The take of it being hard to sync up release schedules is honestly weaksauce.

[@Flippopotamus]

Why did the lists separate in the first place? I recall them being basically the same up until synchro era, but I could be misremembering. Or just stupid.

[@K_Gaming701]

I think they should combine the two together and with that they can focus more on releasing “emergency ban lists” more if they need to which will effect both parties involved. So if on release a card is considered to OP they can limit or ban it quickly

[@orcustyes4381]

I'm shocked no one brought up the product itself, ocg constantly gets products that we don't, be that structure decks or different promo material. Like the sky striker thing in the ocg that released the new cards. Also ocg seems to get more frequent reprints, and different rarities that we don't have. With that being said keep them separated

[@nodoz_1385]

This has been the best episode so far, these takes were all so real, but in the end I'd probably agree with Farfa on wanting to play early release stuff and not wait an eternity to get them here in the TCG.

[@carloci770]

the question would be, in a unified format, would we tcg get ocg pricing and rarities? would the game get cheaper for us or more expensive for ocg? and how would we treat the cards themselves, can we play with japanese cards even if the logo at the back is different? plus nice that farfa shared the true take, please make it mandatory at the end of each ep!

[@RunicSigils]

Ideally they would shutter all of the non-Japanese branches and just import like Digimon does so the price will definitely have to go up but in the grand scheme of things it would mean singles would be cheaper. Not only due to a lot of cards getting multiple rarities in one set in the OCG but also because card scalpers wouldn't know what they want to overprice right away due to not having months of greedy preparation.

[@Jimokc]

While Ocg did hit rooster right before it was released in tcg, this is when we got the tcg/ocg banlist split and the tcg hit Spirit instead of rooster.

[@adawoo5494]

DistantCoder: "I object to the form of the question."

[@mustafamrouweh7873]

There is one very interesting solution for this and it's to have the released sets in both regions very different in content Instead of having one world premiere release every few months make that every set in the TCG is a world premiere set with some OCG imports on top Let's say Konami announces 2 new archetypes for a new set let's call it "Rusty Road of Remembrance" so the OCG release will have one of the new archetypes and the TCG release will have the other and in the same set the OCG will get some of the TCG exclusive cards we have here and the TCG will get imports of the cards they have in the OCG that have not been imported yet and keep at till both regions are on equal footing Also this would help Konami release more desirable products into the market for example if a set was released simultaneously in both regions but each one having one of the annouced archetypes the one that was not released will be released in a structure deck so each region will have its chace cards of its new top tier meta contender with the other one that exists in the other region will be a budget friendly option to look forward to in the future And for the banlist I think they should implement more that just 2 I think every territory should have its own list in accordance with its play style and worlds should have a costume list not just the fused lists of 2 very different lists that belong to 2 different games I think this solution if implemented carefully and with patience from both Konami and the player base will help create a unified game

[@mokukiridashi]

Seeing how metas evolve in different formats is interesting.

[@DerAstrophysikerr]

I think one point that was not really discussed is the following: we get a general idea which decks are going to be good from the OCG. First of all, that means that cards from that archetype will be highly sought after and therefore more expensive, not even counting in that they also get a rarity bump. Second, we know which decks are going to dominate, but because Konami wants to sell product, in spite of knowing how broken an archetype is, they will not touch it or bring it in line in a reasonable amount of time. Tearlament format is a great example, why did it take so long for them to hit the cards? Why was Spright prematurely hit, but not Tear? These must have been conscious decisions, and they were enabled by the fact that there was a reasonable projection what the format is going to look like from the OCG. Taking away these things from Konami will disable these, in my opinion, bad practices.

[@UniGya]

I'm with Joseph, if we combined the two formats including release schedules I'd be way happier, as long as we keep Maxx "C" banned like it is in TCG land. Also I'm surprised no one caught Nadhir, he was so half hearted on his fake one

[@obiesenpai3869]

This is one of the episodes of Magical Hats of all time.

[@laslowislifeok3429]

I'm going to be the guy to say it. I think that they should combine card text specifically. there are numerous instances of cards just working entirely differently in the TCG than the OCG because some random judge decided that "this is how I think it works." like we are almost playing entirely different cards under the same name like Fusion Tag having literally Contradicting Rulings in the OCG and TCG. I think that a lot of people don't realize that these rulings are, despite how small, Keeping yugioh as a separate game. each region having their own cards (Tcg Exclusives and OCG getting stuff sometimes years earlier) and Banlist philosophies has become integral to the various ways we play but we are just playing a separate game if we don't have the same card text. we should all be playing the same game with different cards and formats.

[@__-be1gk]

I was so sure it was Coder because I genuinely thought he was grasping at trying to find the only possible argument in favor of his point without actually thinking it

[@ducky36F]

Deck building is awesome fun, so yes bring them together so we get to learn in real time

[@mercylessplayer]

Heck yes, this was a really cool reveal at the end

[@MattSinz]

There are 4 reasons we can't have a unified banlist, rarity bumps, staged releases, turniing constructed product into sealed product and Konami refusing to release specific cards in the TCG.

[@ak47dragunov]

All of these can easily be fixed (for better or worse, depending on what side of the pond you're on) under a hypothetical unified banlist.

[@orga7777]

@@ak47dragunov I remember unified banlists. Then Wind-Ups showed up. How did that go over again?

[@randomUser2121]

with your last point. I'm guessing you're referring to those really old cards that Konami never imported, like "Bat" , but if the format becomes one then you can just get an OCG copy of that card and play it, in the same way someone just brings Spanish or Italian cards to American events because those were the ones they could get access to. Yes, that means OCG exclusives would be really overpriced, but are any of them relevant enough for it to be an issue? No.

[@aaronwishard7093]

​@@orga7777 And the OCG gets it right yet the TCG refuses to. Wind Up Hunter says hello. Zenmaity is dying for the sins of hand looping that it wasn't even the part of.

[@orga7777]

@@aaronwishard7093 Zenmaity was part of the hand loop. What are you talking about? Without it you can't do it. I do agree that Hunter is the better hit, however, for every good hit the OCG has compared to the TCG, it has at least two either dumb hits or non-hits.

[@foildemon7892]

Another problem with delayed releases is that sometimes it kills the chance for certain decks to be relevant in the tcg. For example Chronically could have been rogue playable in 2013, but we didnt get Nebra Disk in the tcg for A YEAR AND A HALF!!! Thats absurd! Ship out all the damn card you owe us konomi!

[@StormCrownSr]

I think the centrist take is the best way here. Simultaneous release for cards, different banlists.

[@nnnp634]

On one hand I love that we have 2 formats, but I would also like OCG to have bigger tournaments. Player base merging would be great though, and I don't know what is the problem with that. Someone from the West coast of US is comparably far from Western Europe and East Asia and yet we see them in Europe all the time (and Europeans in US) while we never see TCG players playing in Asia or OCG in US. Remote YCS with players from all the world (under one format) would be lit as well. I don't if people just don't feel like playing alternative format or Konami not allowing it somehow, but if it is the later, community should fight for it.