THE MASTER DUEL PROBLEM

[@spacejam4523]

Duelist A or Duelist B is the most fun I’ve ever had on master duel. Watching two idiots summon a weird boss monster or pull off an insane Chaos Seed FTK always has me laughing until I’m in shambles.

[@Shiftinggers]

All fine and dandy until Bishbaalkin hits the board and DistantCoder gets Vietnam Flashbacks

[@MansMan42069]

​@@Shiftinggers"STAAAWWWWW-PUHH!" - DistantCoder

[@atamisirli3620]

@@Shiftinggers "why is the this keep happening?! stoooop dude stooooop!"

[@Merilirem]

Infinite Chaos Seed is my fave gimmicky niche card combo.

[@johnlucas2838]

Waste of time to spectate.

[@MrMeeTurDoom]

I think the biggest difference between MD and OCD/TCG is that you have to know what each card does and how it properly works. With MD the game tells you when you can use card effects and when you cannot. With paper yugioh it’s up to you to know when you can use card and not cause an illegal play. You have to know what effects are applied correctly with your cards and your opponent. Sure this sort of thing comes with time but with how different each format works it’s extremely difficult to do so.

[@nivernjohn7986]

It's like having a calculator vs doing maths in your head. Yeah it's good to know how these things manually, but realistically it's not needed in today's age. You can focus your time and effort on other things.

[@carterburgess2337]

For me, I don't have much interest in the paper game because of the price. I know that the cost for decks decreases significantly after you acquire staples, and watching Pak's series about playing with the new traptrix was certainly enticing, but I can play any of master duel's top most competitive decks for free whenever I want. I don't need to shill out hundreds of dollars to establish a baseline of staples that I can then use from then on because I got those staples online for free. It's part of why I stopped playing duel links in favor of master duel, and it's part of why I played master duel over other games like vanguard zero. It's so easy to build any deck, and even though I enjoy the experience of playing the physical game, the online simulator is good enough.

[@Flameville]

You explained my reasoning better than I ever could lol

[@sobbles6242]

Im surprised you also didnt talk about the price, master duel is a really ftp friendly game if you are willing to do your dailes every day and its verry ez to craft staples with the dust you get from the bp. Meenwhile a playset of prospy still costs 120$ minimum.

[@erikfigueroa6390]

Fr. A couple of days ago i was deciding between swordsoul or spright and im just missing 120 UR. Which may be obtained on the next event lol

[@alolivulpix]

I'm trying to get my roomate into yugioh, and we've spent about a month learning gx-era cards. She's finally dipped her toes into synchros, and we bought a speed duel box the other day. It's really opened my eyes that, unless you're willing to sit through hours and hours of how to use cardboard the right way, Yugioh is actually kinda hard to get into.

[@shanehaney6040]

As someone who’s made attempts to introduce friends who play other TCG’s to Yugioh, nothing quite tops the look of fear I get whenever I show them Modern Yugioh Cards. I’ve said it before, we’re all playing a Children’s Card Game that’s been designed specifically for Lawyers.

[@alolivulpix]

@@shanehaney6040 "Card game for lawyers" is exactly what my friend said the other day, when I was offhandedly talking about the difference between discarding, sending to the grave, destroying in the hand, etc. I gotta admit she's right.

[@ryanjohndavies4092]

I think it really helps to start off in a different format then slowly bring someone up. GX is a good start as it's when effects really started being relevant along with the Extra Deck.

[@sun332s7]

I hope people realize this honestly just how long running TCG are. When I got back into commander for mtg it took me months to really be comfortable playing in locals and figure out the game again.

[@thatguy1116]

I haven't played since 2010 and ot's took me a week to learn everything relevent to decks i like and have a general understanding of how the meta decks work.

[@MrDeathbringer22]

The biggest problem I have with going to paper is that rules and the mass amount information on cards. If the the cards text and effects were more streamed lined it would help with essays on the cards.

[@KingBat]

I always liked how they do bullet points in the OCG. That’s something that gets lost in translation.

[@Dz73zxxx]

And now the MD has a checklist system of what effects has been activated, highlight of what effect activates, + imperm column...yea beat that paper plays. Read this from a casual/newbie perspective.

[@Kenshin11212]

@@Dz73zxxx I've been playing competitive yugioh since the DM days and I quit playing competitive basically because of that. These walls of text that make it so hard to read and comprehend the effects and how they work, especially when you're in a timed tournament. Then there's Master Duel that, with these new updates, make it so much easier to understand what the hell is going on.

[@Sh1ranu1]

Yugioh can greatly benefit from keywording

[@janzibansi9218]

As someone who also plays magic, the problem solving card text Is a huge boon. Some of the magic cards are just... Damn nearly incomprehensible. especially the german cards, despite beeing our native language, its a group effort to decipher some effects, and require knowledge of Rule 532b. Yugioh cards do not have that problem. There are at least 3 different translations for the keyword flash. "Aufblitzen", "Blitz" and "Sekundenbruchteil". And i prefer having the keyword explained on the card anyway. Escape summons a creature to the field from graveyard, unearth puts it in your hand. Noone can keep track of all that.

[@drdecidueye9461]

I think money is also a big problem. I mean, why would I spend 200 dollars on a playset of prosperity when I can use it in master duel for free? I mean, the rarity collection seems like it'll fix this somewhat, however cards like garura, accesscode, etc are still incredibly expensive, and a lot of master duel players aren't gonna make that investment when the free sim works just fine

[@Raan-Shi]

There's another problem linked to that, and it's that it will be bought out instantly and never printed again, meaning that if you miss that Rarity Collection pack, then, as a new player, you'll have to spend much more money than anyone else just because you weren't there at the time.

[@SknowingWolf]

I think another thing that's also probably really frustrating for new players aside from just handtraps, is the amount of decks that can just combo off when it's not even their turn. Floo for example, it's like, ok they had their turn, now it's my turn! Then you have the audacity to play a monster, so now that triggers ten different effects that let them tribute YOUR monster, and combo off building a bigger board while you're just sitting there like "I thought it was MY TURN???"

[@AubTome]

facts i'm new to the game i that is so frustrating..... i keep asking my screen how does this make any sense..... my opponent plays on their turn, then on my turn, only to lay cards that negate anything i was gonna play.

[@carterbowman6916]

I think an unspoken part of this is that people don’t do community activities nearly as much as they used to. All group activities across communities are down on avg, be it sports,games etc. it’s hard to invest in a game you have no one to play with.

[@KoriKeiji]

There’s also a lot of people in this comment section who are like: “I don’t play paper because while I do own a PC that allows me to play the game I have no friends and the nearest sign of a civilized settlment where I could find a card shop is at 25kms from my position, and only if I’m ready to face the impervious mountains and traverse the ferocious bears-infested forests.” Like bro I’m not saying I know the conditions you live in better than you, and of course if MD is the only accessible way for you to play YGO all the power to you. But there ain’t no way this game is not getting new players because everyone who’s interested in playing it inhabits the caves in the depths of the Marianas Trench.

[@deepseadarew6012]

@@KoriKeiji You must live in a bubble. Loneliness has been on a rise for a while now. A lot of mass shooters were terminally online incels.

[@Gantann]

@@deepseadarew6012 They're saying it can't be that EVERY person playing Master Duel is so physically isolated from any paper-playing communities they simply can't engage in playing irl despite being willing otherwise, as some commenters say is their situation, not anything about loneliness or social anxiety or etc.

[@carterbowman6916]

@@Gantann I would agree with that. I think too what your locals looks like has everything to do with how you’ll enjoy yugioh. I’m fortunate to have a really positive locals that is competitive, but the people don’t gatekeep out newer players. People will take time to help others improve and grow to run with the pack. If your scene doesn’t look like that, I can’t see how a new player would want to stick with it.

[@Gantann]

@@carterbowman6916 Same, I have a really lovely local scene where the core group basically inducted me by inviting me to their Discord server the very first time I went to check out the scene, before I even had a deck. I've heard enough locals horror stories to know bad vibes can completely kill someone's interest in the game.

[@Blackopsspartn]

I actually really enjoy master duel having its own format and banlist. Making it like a 3rd way to play. I started actually caring about Yugioh with MD and a different banlist isn’t what stops me from paper play. I like the idea that you have to learn another format. Being behind in cards isn’t great, I do like that things are coming out in a different order but it’s just slow and without communication about what’s next it’s hard to argue for. Ban maxx “C” I’d love a BO3 mode, maybe like 2 ranked ladders? Having the ability to side deck sounds extremely fun and fun to learn. Also changes how I’d think about deck building compared to BO1

[@wolfe5390]

For me, Price and Complexity is the major bar from me genuinely enjoying playing yugioh post 5D's era of any variety be it MD, OCG, TCG, or DL. I don't have the brain cells needed to be able to memorize 10,000 card effects, especially when about half of them have a full novel's worth of text and have infinite ways of interaction. 5D's was the absolute limit of what I was able to follow and enjoy as a player because at that point in time, most cards didn't require an assload of reading to understand them. Some of them certainly did, but not most. I also just don't have $100's of dollars to build a single paper deck that could very easily be ban-listed into the realm of unplayability at any given time; or even just simply become unable to compete with a changing meta whatsoever. At least if I spend money on master duel to buy cards at random and a deck or specific deck enabling UR gets banned, I can just dismantle the cards and build a new deck and it won't cost me probably even a 5th of the cost a paper deck would.

[@ChaoticMeatballTV]

I still can't complain about anything except for Maxx C in this game. After experiencing Pokemon TCG Live, y'all have no idea how good we have it...

[@FizzleIsGaming]

tcg live is way worse than the old client of pokemon tcg online… :(

[@IrrelevantOaf]

Not a big fan of that new client though. It's extremely ass. Pokemon TCG is fun though and I think fans deserve better than whatever garbage client we currently have.

[@KoriKeiji]

Maxx “C” is the absolute biggest problem with the game, though I don’t think it’s the only one. So many cards in this game are legal that SHOULD NOT BE just because of the japanese designers’ philosophy of “if we take cards away from players, they’ll feel upset because we limited their choices in deck building”.

[@isidoreaerys8745]

TCG live is better than master duel. It runs a current card pool and the battle pass makes it easy to get all the cards in a set if you play everyday. Master duel would never dream of giving players free deck cores to the meta decks when at the start of the new seasons. Yes, there’s bugs. But at least they have a player friendly mindset and aren’t a cynical cash grab with no relevance to the card game 1.5 years in the future.

[@FizzleIsGaming]

@@isidoreaerys8745 bro its a whole ahh hive not just one bug. Its so frustrating to play half the time.

[@MioAppreciator]

you realize this thumbnail pose and shirt combination also works impeccably with the title "the davekat problem" right

[@dumon4264]

I love it when I watch my opponent set up a huge board of interruptions and negations, and then they also drop maxx c in draw phase.

[@pietips4077]

THE Master Duel problem? There's only one?

[@youtube-kit9450]

Of course there's only one. Master Duel, duh.

[@resir9807]

"The Master Duel Problem" An epic novel by MBT

[@solobugg5087]

There can be only one.

[@aelspecto]

@@solobugg5087 Rivalry of problems

[@slayinderp7501]

​@@aelspectoGozens of them

[@jessetapia8734]

As someone coming back to paper after 10 years, started Master Duel a few months ago and felt like going paper. It's not as much the format change being an issue for me but cost to entry, if it wasn't for something like the Traptrix structure deck which gave me a decent deck to play at locals, I would have folded over the cost to entry barrier. I'm very hopeful things change as we're seeing with upcoming product releases.

[@bluburst]

I was honestly surprised that other people also found tear in master duel annoying to play with and against due to it inconsistency but it makes sense that while it is the best deck it is really annoying that a large majority of hands do nothing or just get interrupted causing you to lose the game before it’s really started for either player.

[@drewbabe]

people just hate whatever is the top deck because they have low tier mentality. it's the same with fighting games. doesn't matter if a game has an incredibly fun and dynamic top tier spread, there are always gonna be people who intentionally play low tiers because they have insecurities about their skill level and just want to win games from MU inexperience while being able to write off losses as just being the result of "tryhard" "tier whore" opponents. (obviously not all rogue/untiered players are like that, and almost all of us have an untiered pet deck, but you definitely know what I'm talking about. ishizu tear was at least half as fun to play as MBT made it out to be, and the people who didn't build and play it when it was at full power in MD missed out on having a lot of fun because their fragile egos needed to be protected.)

[@First-to-last]

​@@drewbabeor maybe they want to play the game without like half their deck in grave and their foe fusion summoning like it's their turn

[@duelme1234]

​​@@First-to-last i agree, but I don't think that solves the issue of "tear is busted" more than it creates non games for both sides.

[@dariuspenner2528]

@Firstlast-uj9kk playing on your opponent’s turn to some degree is normal for loads of decks. Orcust routinely went through their entire combo again on your turn using Babel back during TOSS format. Playing during your opponent’s turn is what drives player interactivity. If that sort of thing bothers you that much then you’re limiting yourself to pre-Duelist Alliance, which is the oldest half of the game. Tearlament is only annoying because it has hard to manage chain links and remembering which names have been used in paper is painful. As for the graveyard thing, the overwhelming majority of decks like having their cards in grave. Orcust, Zombie, Lightsworn, Skystriker, Runick, Labrynth, Tri-Brigade, Salamangreat, etc. all love having cards hit the grave and pretty much every deck out there has some sort of grave effect that they’d like to activate. Hell, you mill a Spright player and hit Ronintoadin or Angler and they’ll walk over to you and shake your hand for literally gifting them full combo once you pass turn, and that deck doesn’t even really love using the graveyard (hence the reason why it can play Shifter decently). Graveyard milling with shufflers and Bystials was the oppressive part. Both shufflers are now at 1 and both of the best Bystials are also at 1. So even if Tear manages to rip 1 of the 3 legal millers, the amount of oppressive ways they have of preventing you from getting advantage off them letting you mill 5 for free. If milling cards was a detrimental thing, a card like Grass wouldn’t be banned in the TCG for representing a +5 even when your mills suck and a card like Painful Choice would have a meaningful downside because you’re losing 4 potentially useful cards. Obviously that’s not the case because the graveyard is a resource for the overwhelming majority of decks nowadays so Ishizu Tear is often helping you by milling your deck if they don’t have a shuffler or Bystial to ruin your day.

[@First-to-last]

@@dariuspenner2528 I was talking about how tear can basically play like it's their own turn without you even being able to do shit even if you did draw called by.

[@DarkBrDante]

Hi sorry for the English translator :D , where I live there are stores that do card games workshops, from magic to pokemon to try to teach new players how to play and understand values ​​and such. All were a success ... except for yugioh , old players getting mad for having to explain cards and very high deck prices (yes I know that the other two also have high competitive values, more or less you have an illusion of winning with buget decks that make you try more games, different from yugioh) the workshop was closed because it was a disaster, very high difficulty, high value of decks and few funcinal buget options made people give up on the game.

[@bio-knight]

Id say its less about different rules and banlist, and rather the fact that you are moving from format you got everything free/cheap in MD to OCG/TCG where you have to spend hundreds to thousands for the same deck. Its like asking MD to join back to DL

[@celestialsun7573]

Earlier this year I decided to learn how to play YGO to surprise my partner since he loves it. I decided to learn through Master Duel as I wouldn’t need people irl to practice against and it’s super convenient to play on your phone (esp learning in secret). It took me two months of watching videos, reading posts, and practice to learn how to play ONE deck. I used to play the Pokémon TCG and it maybe, MAYBE takes 30 min to learn and play. It was INCREDIBLY frustrating as a new player to read about decent beginner friendly/budget friendly decks to realize they aren’t available in MD due to some cards just not existing. I had no idea that was a thing until I got more into it. Honestly, I came to really enjoy the game and would like to play irl sometime but the issues you point out are the exact reasons why I hesitate. And, as a new player knowing how intense this game is I cannot see myself having the confidence to play the game without the MD prompts! How upset would a more seasoned player be if I needed to constantly pause, read cards, or attempt to activate something I actually can’t? The game is so complex. On top of that, it’s expensive!

[@Silver_light77]

As someone with no intentions of ever going back to paper, all of my favorite decks keep getting ocg support and i have to wait around a year for it to show up in MD, it happened with symphonic warriors, and now i'm sitting here wating for the next infernoble wave

[@NexusSpacey]

You could always try playing on the unofficial simulators like EDOpro, YGO-Omega or Dueling Book (i know, not the best solution)

[@spicymemes7458]

Therein lies the issue. Konami wanted to use this like Duel Links as a vehicle to drive people to paper when, in my opinion, it should be ultimately replaced with Master Duel. He didn't mention cost, which is probably the biggest reason. The value of an SR/UR in Master Duel is better than paper. If something gets banned in Master Duel, you can get back the same number of craft points you put in. In paper, a card depreciates in value as soon as it's banned or reprinted, often never getting back all that you invested. Its also more convenient to load up Master Duel where the automation reduces complexity than to drive to a place and play with strangers using a deck that I know doesnt cost what I paid and people cheating, stealing, and sharking all to win some packs. Im not interested in ladder grinding, only looking for a way to relax, but some people take this game way too seriously. I do think there should be more secret packs, gem sales, and events running at all times, but if you still think the only problems with the game can be solved with a ban list, then I think you missed the point. The game has been desperately trying to run away from its MTG mimicry, and in doing so successfully, the speed, powercreep, and price tag has long since cracked for those who gave up for a good majority of players who just want to have a good time and paper is just not as economically viable anymore.

[@MerlinCross13]

He was so big on the push for "TEAR IS GREAT" bandwagon....., 150 bucks and the only really playable deck at the time. And I'm gonna have to pay out another 150 or so for the next deck. And the next one, and the next one. Fuck this, I'll sub to an MMO at that point.

[@Kegaran-0311]

@@MerlinCross13Whale activities, unless you’re talking about paper then yeah it’s stupid how much paper can cost although it’s def higher than 150 (Branded being 330 in TCG while it’s only like 20 bucks in ocg).

[@MerlinCross13]

@@Kegaran-0311 To be fair, I just looked up a random meta deck(Tear) and saw it was like 150-180 bucks though I didn't do an in-depth search or check the listing for say a date

[@Kegaran-0311]

@@MerlinCross13 That’s fair thought you were talking about MD cause spending like 150 on MD is crazy to me although, I never understood MBT’s love for Tear format maybe it just wasn’t for me.

[@DrizzleCrow]

I used to casually play card YGO before. Was bad at deck building and people at my local helped me understand the game. Sadly, lack of money and personal life got in the way and I quit (a little before ghostrick came out). Nowadays, I watch some YGO from time to time. Mostly the history of jank and some coder videos. I even created an account in duelingbook to look up old cards. Alas, I don't see myself starting to play again because of a few factors: 1- Time required to know the cards. There's so many now and even if I removed the banned ones, there's still so much. Like you said in the video, how could I know about ash blossom, circular, Nibiru and the likes unless I do hours of research before my first game? Which leads to the second factor; 2- Powercreep is too massive. As much as I'd like to restrain myself to a few archetype and decks, they're so much behind time that they just can't function against anything modern. I want to play Ghostrick, Bujin, Suship and the likes. Even if I try to be creative, I wouldn't even last to turn 3 against anything semi competent and modern now. I either play meta or just don't play. And to make it less fun, turns last so much longer now, I can go make coffee and drink it before my opponent is done with his opening turn ending with a massive board and omniclear. Which also ties in with my last reason; 3- Rules and card text are so unclear. How the heck do you guys even remember half that shit? Miss timing, if / or / and behaving differently depending on when it triggers, convoluted effects with soft / hard once per turn, doesn't activate since some other effect shenanigan in the damage calculation and whatnot. Even if I decide to put the time to learn card and bitterly adopt a modern decklist, the rules just trips you up. Heck, I never bothered to learn links nor pendulum because I just got discouraged. Anyways, imo YGO should go for the following in order to get my attention: 1. Limit card pool. Like you hinted at the end, yes having less cards to put my energy into and them all being at or around the same power level would make it easier to grasp. 2. Slow the game down. I don't want to win in 2 turns or get OTK next turn. Nor do I want to have to deal with massive boss monsters in opening turn and if I can't I just lose. Keep boss monsters strong, something you work towards over the game, but still have weakness. Win condition should allow some counter play from a smart opponent. Not be rock paper scissors and if you lose once you lose the game. 3. Make the card text more clear and streamlined. The card shouldn't have so much text you need a magnifying glass in order to read it. Not should you read the card and be like "I have no idea how to use that shit". Nor should should there be so much ambiguity about when, how, why you use an effect and you just missed timing / can't activate cause that one word used in that one way means you can't! Wall of text, I know. But had to get my 2cent out. I like YGO and have fond memories of it. I just can't bring myself to play it now because it's more work than a master degree to jump in.

[@Psyrinz_GG]

Everything presented in this video is on point. Some of my greatest frustrations with MD are that decks I'm interested in aren't in the game (Kash, Manadium, R-ACE) or the support hasn't made it in yet. (Galaxy-Eyes(yes even the PHHY stuff isn't in) I feel like the best fix is to add Time Wizard formats like Edison so new and old players can work their way up into the games complexity or that they can find the point in YGO that's just right for them. A solution I would add would be to go into the future of TCG by adding sets in MD before they appear in paper. This with the TCG banlist and BO3 would make the environment of advanced as close as possible to actual tournaments and since sets would be out first in MD Konami could get data for banlists and players can mess around with decks they're interested in before they buy them irl. I would love if we could have something like this so players could have more power in their deck investments, but Konami might hate it since it would shake up their lazy marketing strategy and it might get people to realize some cards might not be worth the hype.

[@cryomancer2768]

I think you're confused like Joseph is with the problem. Getting people to play MD ain't the problem it's getting those MD players to convert to paper play since a large chunk of the revenues come from TCG and OCG not the other way around

[@radityaerlang9206]

Master Duel being vastly different to TCG/OCG is honestly the bottleneck that keeps me from playing physical YGO. Its just a wildly different environment with Master Duel being behind for like a good ONE YEAR++ of cards really sucks when trying to transisition, I can't get a feel of the common cards as well as I could've if the Master Duel format had been the same. I only came back to YGO after MD when my previous experience was playground YGO, so even playing MD is already a huge catch up, and I'm not doing that for 2 different formats :(

[@cherrychocolate1434]

My nearest locals is about an hour away and gets together once a week, so I just don't have much impetus to jump to paper play. Ever since Master Duel came out, I've been hopping on almost every day and playing at least one duel a day, whereas paper play requires so much more effort (and gas money) than just turning on my Switch or sitting at my PC. Plus I'm also not the brightest person, so the glowing indicators on when cards activate and general automation of when I can chain effects or when I'm locked into things helps me to learn my cards a lot faster. I OWN the Traptrix structure deck IRL for collection's sake and read all the cards, but it didn't hit me how powerful the new support from that structure deck is until I started deck building in MD, and I was actively playing Traptrix in MD about a year ago. And also the fact that I can just have the card text made bigger and easier to read is... such a godsend. All of this, the convenience of an at-home, always-accessible, user-friendly simulator, on top of the price tag that some cards IRL garner compared to Master Duel's gacha and crafting system, is what is keeping me from paper play. I would rather just play Yugioh from the comfort of my couch at home, even if I dislike certain aspects of MD's format. and wish they would communicate with their playerbase more frequently.

[@skiing4everPS3]

From the perspective of someone who actively plays the current formats, my concern is more that Master Duel/TCG/OCG ALL have the fatal flaw of converging power. We are reaching a point where 1 card combos from special summoned cards are everywhere and generic. Watching Runic be used as 30 instant fusions should be telling enough, but what about the fact that Kashtera, or any other archetype that wants any relevancy, basically has to be SO GOOD in its core cards that they are literally able to be taken from their current archtype and run at only slightly less efficiency in OTHER great archetypes that have basically no innate synergy with them (Labyrinth). We've gotten to a point where we have ALMOST circled back to decks no longer being archetypes but becoming 'good stuff' piles and without neutering the ability to play off entire combos with basically no conditions (if you control another X type monster or discard an X type monster, etc etc etc) we will complete that. Archetype identity is fun. Even the hybrids of best decks in TOSS were... okay? Like Draco Striker was interesting at least, and while Danger Thunder was not interesting/fun/interactive AND was much earlier in the format (and the same with striker orcust) these decks at least had to play around restrictions to get things going and ran on incidental synergies on top of being very good. That doesn't exist and we risk losing purpose of it. Konami has contributed to it with their bullshit insistence on lore archetypes literally naming every archetype released in the last 10 months to have no issue playing with any of their other archetypes but why SHOULD deckbuilding be this wide open? Having SOME manner of restriction or synergy to play around is important, not just wondering why Kashteralament Scareclaw Runic Labrynth somehow hamfists 20 different archetypes together because of a card name.

[@Gebirges]

I do wonder how much money Konami makes with either format (TCG, OCG, MD) that perhaps they see that one clearly brings more money and want to let one bleed out, so that the other can triumph and grow over it. That's a thing shareholders should ask. Anyway, MD being behind isn't even too bad a thing. It means new cards get regulated earlier and we can enjoy a nicer format. Also MD has the option to apply erratas faster and they 100% should do that on certain cards (Snow, Silva? HopT). The game itself got a huge update and I hope more is to come soon. (Not just cosmetics and pets)

[@spacewizardpip1111]

Not to beat an old drum, but, prices and rarity bumps should have been addressed. Some of the best impact cards like Pot of Desires, Prosperity, were made into secret rares is insane. Some archetypes have their key play makers bumped to secrets if they weren’t already. If I’m not mistaken this happened with Spright Blue, it was a super in OCG but was made secret in TCG.

[@Flameville]

Yeah I’m never switching to paper simply because, I’m not paying for cards to build a deck it’s just not an experience I personally look forward to when I can just boot up master duel with the homies in the duel room and play fun decks and build off each other. Master duel is behind and the whole play these hand traps and interruptions before you can actually play your deck: is annoying.

[@IamMullet]

Excited for MBTs Rantsona arc. Cant wait for his next video "The Problem with Forced Diversity in Archetypes"

[@the_nerd_showtv5562]

The way I was re-introduced to yu-gi-oh was thank to a friend. He helped me create my first Spright deck in MD, and after some time, I was hooked. Now I'm waiting for my life to calm down a little in order to build and play my first serious physical deck. To me, Yu-Gi-Oh is not that difficult, it's just that you have a lot of mechanics to learn, but, the solo mode in MD it's good enough to learn them (they juat have to push it a little more cause the first gate are not good at all at teaching you how the game is now).

[@settratheimperishable7800]

For me, I play the TCG casually every now and again and usually play online games to get my sudden Yu-Gi-Oh fix. Partially because of the cost associated with paper and me already being into Warhammer which is an extremely expensive hobby within itself.

[@Princely_Crow]

Ive been saying this for so long, if master duel had access to the new cards id be so excited. When new product is announced its all i can think about, but knowing it will take nearly a year before i ever see it in md makes me just wish i was playing something else

[@burritosupreme]

i live somewhere where there is no paper yugioh scene at all. master duel is all i have here and i really don't like the idea of shareholders looking at it as a gateway to get people into buying physical cards.

[@ShadowHazy]

I expect Konami will have an immediate response this week. How can they let their golden boy got upset.

[@carstan62]

Good video, but I do have to say, a lot of your points felt like they described why paper players wouldn't want to play Master Duel rather than the other way around. One thing I've been saying since Master Duel launched is that the worst thing about Master Duel is YuGiOh itself. MD hasn't had a whole lot of improvements to the system itself, but it has improved, so this is even more the case than it was on launch. I just don't care anymore. The days of YGO that I truly enjoyed are so far gone that there's no point in expending time or energy into convincing people how to fix it (or even that it needs to be fixed in the first place).

[@Yous0147]

Yup, I feel the exact same way. In fact I felt this way a decade ago too, so don't think it's a recent development, it's how Konami runs its game. Constant chase card limbo to the detriment of the game, keeping it just afloat enough for it to be playable.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

The point of making your game take the format of a deck of cards should logically be to introduce variance. If every card just searches your deck for the other cards you need, or if the cards you need happen to be part of an extra deck that you access any time at-will... then what's the point in it being a card game?

[@TabbuEme]

The matchmaking in MD is weird, if I take my pet deck, I face every top meta threat in a row, if I take something meta-adjacent, I get matched against a bunch of pet-decks that I proceed to stomp and then I feel bad about it.

[@owen8838]

One point worth considering is that one simply might not be interested in paper play. I, for one, believe that playing yugioh on computer is the most optimal way, as it avoids problems such as people doing illegal plays because they forgot something or having to call a judge to solve matters. I'd rather keep playing yugioh on a PC than on a real life table

[@MissingNo_]

You hit the nail right on the fucking head. As someone who grew up and played "old school" it has been such a real fucking hard time wrapping my head around the different summoning's, and these cards that do 6 different things, combos that go on for 15 minutes, and always losing to some fucking negate I've never heard of or seen. Its really frustrating trying to play modern yugioh and getting my ass handed to me every match I play in master duel 99 percent of the time. For some reason i'm still determined to play but fuck I wish I would kept up with game the whole time, it would of made things a million times easy to grasp.

[@tpbvirusofficial6676]

One of the big things that didn't get talked about is that the TCG is friggin expensive if you want to get your staple cards and a popular meta engine. Even not considering getting a popular meta deck, it'll run you like 100-200USD for a list of a past deck and staples to go with it if not more depending on how much you need those extra copies of prosperity or whatever ultra/secret rare cards you need to play that are viable. Meanwhile its free to play on online simulators like master duel, duelingbook, etc and not spend a dime. So thats an extra filter that prevents people from getting into the paper card game.

[@Keisuki]

I got into yugioh as a kid via the Nightmare Troubadour DS game, and have never played outside of digitally, so I can't speak to in-person play. However: I've found that there are hundreds of tiny counterintuitive things in the rules of yugioh, that you're only ever going to learn by repeatedly slamming into them at high speed in real matches, and that's almost caused me to drop the game a few times, so I imagine it must be so for other new players, especially those who weren't driven by nostalgia like me. A few examples of what I mean: - Missing timing - "Destroy it" vs "Destroy that target" - XYZ materials aren't counted as being on the field, but also aren't counted as leaving the field when overlayed - Activated effects of continuous spells and traps don't work if the continuous spell or trap leaves the field, but other spells and traps are fine - Innate special summons vs effects that special summon - Chain blocking - Activated spells and traps are "marked for destruction", meaning they can't be returned to the hand or deck, but can be sent to the graveyard, banish zone, attached as XYZ material, or re-set. - XYZ monsters don't have levels, they have *ranks*, which are totally different, but loads of older cards are written assuming every monster has a level Each of these alone is fine, but together, they mean that learning the game involves losing over and over until you learn all of these mini-rules.

[@Yugifan92]

In Summary: The power level is too damn high.

[@The_Chocolate_One]

As someone that use to play paper Yugioh, I got out of the game mostly because of the cost of the cards which is dumb. Like why are shiny pieces of cardboard costing so much? I cant co-sign that on any level. It’s truly mind boggling. Hell I can’t even figure out how the TCG and OCG are so far apart from each other in terms of sets. It can not be that hard to translate some cards from Japanese to other languages when there are literally people in the world that can do that shit in a matter of minutes. As far as Master Duel, the issues presented here are valid. The fact that the client is so far behind the physical game is crazy. The lack of certain cards does diminish the game and the current meta is fairly boring but such is life sometimes. Just got to suffer through the bad to hopefully get to the good. I honestly believe that Master Duel could be a game changer if they made a multitude of overhauls but alas that probably falls on deaf ears.

[@blastmole299]

Don't forget one of the most problem for paper Yugioh, the cost, especially for TCG. Core Kash? 700$, Ash Blossom? How about 30$ (maybe more) each, oh some random deck nobody use competitively? 250$. And how about MD? Just grind and save in less than 2 months and you'll most likely get 70%+ of the cards needed for a single deck you want. For free

[@kawaiiempoleon8721]

"the biggest issue is complexity" na it's cause it costs like 500 dollars to build meta

[@NAAAAAIL]

Honestly, as someone unemployed who A.) can't afford paper and B.) wouldn't leave my house to play with other people even if I could afford it, MD is perfect. I got like 3 accounts and a bunch of different decks ranging from awful cheese to tear and spright. In paper, I would have like one deck that was good 5 years ago but I can't afford to keep up with new staples and archetypes and get relegated to being OP in my college yugioh group with people unironically running swordstalker in their deck, but get creamed anywhere else. Even if you dont buy the best staples, or play the best meta decks, a casual deck is still like upwards of $200. I wanted to make a Crusadia deck to play at my college group, shit was still like $120 even though I went for min rarity everything and didn't even include some expensive cards that I have in MD but are too much irl. Tried making a floo deck too and I was able to make a very bare bones floo deck but it was still $80 and that was without pot of prosperity, advent of adventure, or actual extra deck monsters that sometimes come up. Don't even get me started on Blue Eyes, if you want anything on a higher power level than starter deck kaiba its like 250 for all the good rank 8s and synchros. I might have a bit of yugiboomer left in me, but I REFUSE to spend that kind of money on soypog batchest blue eyes. The solution I propose: Make sets with expensive cards that have "can't be used in official play" or something. Like put in an easily accessible Accesscode Talker that would be like 30 cents on the 2nd hand market so casuals can get their hands on it but can't be used in official tournament play.

[@Luxen675]

Sick video Joseph, always love seeing you talk in length about the health and future of YGO, at the moment I took a break and started playing Pokemon TCG with my friends, but I dearly miss the complexity and interactivity that only Yugioh offers. Thanks again for the video and take care

[@Aimlesswaves.]

Indeed, complexity is the biggest one to me. I've played MtG for a long time and felt it was super easy to intuitively pick up even as a beginner. I've watched like, hundreds of hours (?) of MBT and LukeVonKarma etc. I don't know what almost any cards do besides the 50% usage rate staples.

[@drewbabe]

Before PSCT I would view this as a problem but now that we have PSCT you only have to worry about random people pulling pre-PSCT prints out that never received an update, which is so stupidly rare that it's basically not a problem. YGO is a game where the rules are mostly printed on the cards rather than in the rulebook. I know the "YGO players don't know how to read" thing is a meme but like just learn how to read lol it's actually not hard. It feels like the other TCG players are the ones who can't read since they need set rotation and simplified card effects to make sure they don't ever have to stare down more than 40 words on a card.

[@PAPP0NE]

@@drewbabe YGO TCG formatting is horrible, the fact all of the effects have no visual separation at all on the card makes them hard to read for no reason

[@TeamSprocket]

Magic is full of arcane ruling knowledge, did you just play kitchen table magic?

[@PAPP0NE]

@@TeamSprocket You are selling magic short, it has actual rules that govern the interactions, so you can check them if you are not sure, instead of hoping they released a ruling on something

[@Aimlesswaves.]

@@TeamSprocket Sure, there *can* be complex interactions, but we mostly just played cube drafts. There weren't cards like blood moon, so learning about things like layers or replacement effects wasn't that necessary, it just intuitively works almost all of the time.

[@YeahSureLetsGoSeeYamcha]

I’ve seen no mention of one of the biggest issues….ACTUAL PRIZE SUPPORT. You want me to spend 1000$ on a deck, spend the required hundreds of hours testing/theory crafting to be competitive in a large tourney, and spend a weekend playing all for a small chance to win 24 packs and a prize card .0001% of the player base is interested in buying? MtG will forever blow yugioh away on prize support alone.

[@jkid1134]

Do you remember when you imagined Master Duel could be exactly what you wanted it to be, and then you got more information, and you gave a little dejected "oh" and then maybe coped that they'd change it eventually? It was probably exactly the fact that you can't play current format TCG bo3. That was what it seemed like the point of the thing was, that's what we were already doing with yugioh simulators, that seems like the way it makes sense for this to be a parallel product to the trading cards, we had mtga in our brains as a comparison point, a billion reasons why this was the expectation. It seems to have no desire to become that thing, and what a waste it is.

[@svenrenton6554]

It's very simply two things: 1: Price. I have multiple top-tier decks on Master Duel, been Plat 1 each season and have spent 0 dollars. 2: Complexity. Yugioh isn't a hard game, but it is a complex game. It's the difference between a game being hard for being manually dexterous versus a game like chess that is hard because of the logic required. Yugioh is hard because the vast majority of players just don't understand how the game works, even at the highest level, and it's because the cards are biblical in length. The cards are obnoxiously complex and often don't interact in intuitive ways. Physically playing the game is easy. Mapping out logic paths is easy. Understanding what some random card you've never seen before does is next to impossible without playing against it multiple times.

[@TheJeffMan01]

Here’s 3 things they can do to make Masterduel better… 1. Add new game modes based on different formats. If someone wants to play a GOAT or Edison format, make a banlist for every card except the allowed GOAT or Edison cards, and make separate servers or whatever for that game mode. And make it permanent, not some 1 month event 2. Catch up to the TCG with card releases. I want to play and practice my new decks that just came out in the TCG, but I dont want to practice playing against the exact same Labyrinth or Sword Soul deck that I play against my buddy Colin all the time. I wanna play it against different people and different decks. Just catch up to the cards. 3. Much like the first one, have servers that allow Maxx C and whatever MasterDuel banlist they want to have, and have a TCG server that follows the exact same banlist and cards that the TCG has.

[@braindeadborgerboi8736]

Honestly I think the new 2 person starter deck seems like a great step in the right direction for bringing in new players. The cover cards are prime heart and zeus, 2 very modern cards. If the majority of the remaining cards are around the same level of what modern cards do, then I think it could be good. Then again another of the cards on the box art of that set was DMG, so it might still suck.

[@HapsterHap]

The Maxx C argument is 100% correct. I hate sitting down and constructing a deck for hours until I feel happy then have to hop on MD to play test for all that time to be completely invalidated because Maxx C changes the math on every card in every deck.

[@OizenX]

Paper Yugioh has had next to no support in my local area for years, and now that Im an old man with a job I'd rather just play a simulator like I've been doing my whole life. Game itself is also so riddled with problems that I want a low investment form to play it in like MD.

[@genm4827]

1. The shareholders aren't thinking about Maxx "C" because the OCG has Maxx "C", and they're just so disconnected from the West to even care beyond that. 2. This video is in English so they will never see nor care. Sadge …then again I don't want them to add set rotation, so maybe that's fine.

[@bl00by_]

Tbh I feel like most people know by now that set rotation is bad lol It's one of those poorly aged ideas MTG broud to the table where some people gaslight themselves into thinking that it's actually a good thing

[@jtalkalot19]

Yugioh has somehow survived 21 years here and like 25 in OCG here I’m really curious to see when that breaking point will be if ever.

[@JahanSoundSystem]

Stopped paper YGO in 2017 cause $$$, direction game was going, having more fun with other TCG. -> play MD cause of love/hate of YGO -> be crazy one who doesn't have problem with maxx c (love the challenge) -> MD reinforces the things I love about YGO but also the things I hate, kinda ensuring I'll never go back to paper(or the very least standard) -> MD starts adding more of the newer stuff that makes me go "no" -> N/R festival wasn't made a perma thing -> drop MD I guess my MD experience shows that I would love something like Edison format or just a less powerful/complex format of YGO. But a format like Edison doesn't give me a reason to buy new paper product. From playing other TCGs, I don't think a rotation would be a good because I feel that YGO wants to stay at its current level of complexity, so a rotation wouldn't be as much of a power reset as you would hope. Yeah problem cards/archtypes go away but the next cards are still gonna be as or more strong/more complex than the last. And a mass reboot like Vanguard did.....well apparently they had a 2nd reboot so I don't think that's gonna work. And if konami treats other formats like rush/speed duels...of which I keep forgetting are things, then they're in a hole that...I got nothing on. Shits fucked.

[@AsagiriAya]

Pricing has and will always be my problem with paper play and even worse for me who don't like to buy cards online. As of right now from a shop I've been going to regularly, A single of Solfachord cards can get up to like 20$ which was the same price as Branded Fusion for some reason and I don't even have most of the staples yet. And even with a million reprint of Maxx C and Ash they are still quite expensive. What Master Duel have been doing for me was get me to experience one of my favorite deck of all time, Tearlament cost free. I've always wanted to play Tear since POTE release here in the OCG but I'm broke and I can't do that. Also the funny part is that even with all the gap of OCG and MD card release, Ghoti is already out in full power BEFORE they even announced it as an import pack for this year. So having OCG players playing and testing the card before the actual release was an amusing sight to see how they cook the space fish.

[@L1nk2002]

As banal as it may sound, i think you missed an important point in the discussion. Master Duel is f2p, physical cards cost, a lot. And honestly, as big of a fan as i've become of yu gi oh thanks to MD, i don't have the money to buy physical cards and i'm sure i'm far from being the only one.

[@MushMunkey]

I cant stop hearing Persona OST everywhere I fucking love it.

[@DigiTism]

Master Duel is the best simulator in terms of gameplay but in terms of card release, price to play, crafting, and everything else, I’d rather just play on the fan made simulators. In person has the same price problem because Konami USA can’t stop upgrading rarities for cards they know are going to be popular/good. Kashtira when from rares to super rares to all secret rare in the TCG. (Yes I know rarities in OCG are different but the fact is OCG Yugioh is still undoubtedly very, very much cheaper to play at a local or competitive level.) It’s hard to get new players into the game if the barrier to play is very fairly “it’s too expensive” and then when you actually start playing and learn “oh… this isn’t as straight forward as I thought” of course people are going to dip forever. Master Duel does have an unrivaled OST though. It’s all just straight FIRE!!! They didn’t have to go that hard, but I’m glad they did.

[@PlaguevonKarma]

I think the combination of Master Duel's gacha economy and paper play's high price point is a massive point you missed out on. If you want to sustain yourself in both games you basically need to be a PhD. It costs so much to get a sustainable deck in both formats and I feel like most players can only afford one or the other. I haven't returned to Master Duel for exactly that reason - upgrading my deck isn't worth it.

[@cba_2442]

I think Master Duel is fine the way it is. It should be its own thing.

[@TheRevmack]

It would be great if Konami could use popular historical formats or previous master rules to allow players to select the game complexity level they feel comfortable competing at. Chess solved its issue with game complexity in a similar way. Through its rating system, chess inherently pairs you against players who share similar game understanding. The problem is, as always, money. Supporting legacy formats and getting high player counts for events doesn’t matter to Konami unless they’re raking in cash. And their main source of revenue in YGO is selling cards. And they aren’t making money off of players playing legacy formats. Konami really shot themselves in the foot with such an enthusiastic reprint policy. Why would they have any interest in running a goat or edison format event when new players can build competitive decks using years-old low rarity reprints for $50 or less? Worse still, dedicated YGO fans who like to play competitively but maybe enjoy older formats could abandon buying new sets altogether and settle into their favorite historical formats which would cost Konami even more money. Modern Yugioh is *so* difficult to understand *unless* you either dedicate an absurd amount of hours to learning interactions, misplaying, and losing A LOT which are all highly demotivating OR you get first-hand experience playing through historical formats where you can build a solid knowledge base as the complexity increases incrementally. And yeah Konami is trying to have the best of both worlds - help introduce players to incrementally increasing complexity through speed duel and make new money off of old cards, but it’s clearly not cutting it. People never will be interested in variants. They want to play *the game*. But they, understandably, want to do it in chronological order so they can eventually make sense of what the fuck is going on in the middle of a 20-minute d-link solitaire combo. Konami has been and will continue to not let that happen though because it would kill their main revenue stream in Yugioh. Game feels like it’s in the middle of its supernova, honestly

[@jmc3735]

I feel like MBT missed arguably the most important two reasons that people like myself will never play paper. 1) Cost; I won’t pay anything over $20 for cardboard that’s value can be completely destroyed by a banlist and powercreep. I have disposable income, it’s not an issue, but hundreds of dollars for Yugioh is just a bad investment. 2) The vast majority of people on the planet do not have a viable locals scene. Who would I even play against?

[@5folklore]

I feel like the game needs a refresh, a reset. My biggest gripe is the power creep and the complicated card text, simplify the text so a new player can understand how to play the cards that they want to play. New players aren't going to understand missing the timing or cards that target versus cards that don't (but in all reality do) target. I used to play the game often enough, and even I don't understand the nuances in the game anymore.

[@dp101]

I'm really surprised you didn't touch on the issue of rules complexity itself, entirely aside from card text. I've played on automated sims for about 10 years now on and off, and I still do not feel completely comfortable with knowing when I can and cannot activate an effect. Master Duel handling all that is great, and I prefer autosims, but the problem is that there's just.. no good way to learn the basic rules of the game itself. As you talked about in another video, there's no comprehensive rules like mtg has. The only ways to learn things are either a. go to locals and make a million rules errors that lead to repeated game losses, b. try to get help from the yugioh community itself which isn't likely to go well, or c. just test things repeatedly on an autosim and watch what happens and try to extrapolate from there. And this is just with basic things like "when do I get priority", not even touching on learning about missing timing for the first time, or SEGOC and its differences between Master Duel and the TCG.

[@James-ju4gj]

I miss fusion summoning my Flaming swordsman to wow the other kids at lunchtime

[@PiantaBroker]

my issue is mainly time. if we could get 2 selection packs per month instead of 1, it would give players more options instead of holding their gems for another month, and it would help catch up the current format

[@gabrielarocena3074]

We sometimes do get 2 selection packs for time to time, but the 2nd one has like 1/4 new cards and a bunch of reprints to MD compared to the usual selection packs. It would need like 3 selection pack worth of new cards a month just to slightly catch up to the TCG card releases of PHHY and CYAC products.

[@kuriboharmy]

It would make the player never save enough gems to get anything as too much FOMO can backfire too.

[@idalwave]

Yugioh is at a point in its life where the most fun way to play, in my opinion, is sealed formats like progression. My friends and I play every single day by pulling sets out of order. It leads to the most cool incidental synergies you could come up with. I think a Battle Pack style format that lets you randomize from the thousands of cards would be awesome. Have it so that it gives you a selection of 150 cards from the massive pool to build a deck and once you build something, you queue up against others in the format who also had 150 other random cards to build from. Make it so archetypal spell/traps always guarantee 1 archetypal monster in the pool so things become more playable. IIt would be huge for the game. Your deck only would only last for the session so players cant just randomize farm for a broken deck. I know myself, and probably many others, would sink so many hours on something like this as it promotes fun deck building, utilizing cards in a cool way, while still having semblances of modern play by having all the summoning mechanics still at your disposal. Maybe have a mechanic where you set 1 monster as your key card and the randomized card pool will guarantee 5-10 cards that are related to that card (ie, set Elemental HERO Stratos, and get random 5 HERO support cards from the top 20 most played HERO cards) It’s Duelist A vs Duelist B, personified.

[@al8188]

So refreshing to see someone actually reckon with the state of the game. I said something similar on TeamAPS' video- the game is hard and pretending it's not is doing no one any favors. Simulators like MD super don't work at teaching you the game because they're handling all the housekeeping: effect timing, responses, chains. The thing about yugioh is that it isn't supported by that housekeeping. It IS that housekeeping. If you're new, your cards won't light up and ask if you wanna activate when you play in paper. But that's not strictly a bad thing as long as you grab hold of it firmly and just accept it. It's unforgiving, complex, and you're going to get washed over and over while you learn. So are chess and fighting games and the soulsborne series. Those are doing great, drawing in players who are looking for challenging, granular experiences that push them. Why keep pretending yugioh is a game that is beginner friendly? It's a lot of eating your vegetables, but tons of people fucking love eating their vegetables. Market it to them.

[@ShaneCopen]

I have only played digital Yu-Gi-Oh - starting with Duel Links. Master Duel games take too long. I can play an entire match of Duel Links in the time of 1 turn in Master Duel.

[@Emkinasx95]

I've started playing when STON was the newest pack. I've been on and off, but the community in my country is very small and if I'm to play somewhat competetively, I have master duel only. My problems with it is as follows: 1. No side deck means you have to maindeck outs to EVERYTHING if you are not to autolose. This comes at the expense of half of the deck being outs, which hinders the consistency of the deck, as playmakers have to replaced with outs. 2. I just recently returned (maybe a month or two ago) and getting up to speed with the cards opponent plays is a nightmare. I played against branded million times and I still barely know what their cards do. 3. Just ban maxx c. That cards was made by the devil

[@__-be1gk]

I fucking love how corporate investors also think Master Duel fucking sucks and that Maxx C needs to be banned

[@Flameblade102]

For me, it's a combination of Yugioh's power creep/complexity over the years, price, and frankly lack of a resource system. I played yugioh ever since it started all the way thru Pendulum came out then I bowed out. The fact the game relies so much now on getting first turn advantage to set up your entire board and taking away your opponent's ability to respond to anything is what hurts the game the most. There's a reason why MtG still gets massive local scenes at game shops everywhere whereas Yugioh locals have been disappearing

[@AWPNubDiesel]

I agree with all your points, but i have some extra from the perspective of an old returning player from early 2000s (I still have my 2004 tournament edition gba cart) to master duel. First deck I made was Monarchs. The biggest issue is evaluating a card in a vacuum is basically impossible for anything that isn't a generic, and even then it can be hard. If we take a game like Slay the Spire, most cards have one line of text. The longest description I can remember off the top of my head is corpse explosion. Every big monster in Yugioh has more text, and they all have specific archetype carve outs in the text that special summon/tutor etc. Going against the danger dark solo deck was a trip, the AI played like 20+ cards before I got to take a turn. None of the other decks before that was capable of anything near that level of draw/combo power. Thankfully I drew really well and just storm forth its biggest monster, but it was nuts. Without seeing what the pile of cards does, its so hard to wrap my head around a deck profile.

[@Dw7freak]

At least Master Duel is getting updates and has a fairly stable pvp mode. Before Master Duel, the only way to play YGO digitally was the various video games, the last one being Legacy of the Duelist. That game only got updated twice, when the Switch version was released with Master Rule 4 and when the Switch version was ported with an updated, but still behind, card pool and the Master Rule 4 revision. To my knowledge, that was the only time a YGO video game ever got an update. And the first one wasn't even an update! You had to purchase the game again! And trying to play online was a nightmare the lag was so bad. Thanks to Master Duel existing, I wouldn't be surprised if we never see a new YGO video game ever again.

[@Closer2Zero]

I used to play years ago. I loved Volcanincs, for example. I was BEYOND excited to see new support drop for them. Then I remembered that to play with it id have to play in a world where all the other cards of current existence, the kind of decks my brain just cant help but shut down and my eyes glaze over at the thought of dedicating the time in my busy adult like to learn and pay attention to those cards and combos. So despite how much i love Volcanics, and how jazzed i am for new support like has been shown off- I cant bring myself to bother. It all just too much Edison with a friend is really the only time ive picked up a set of cards in the last 10+ years

[@elystork8733]

The two formats are aimed at entirely different people that seek different things from the game. The only thing they have in common is the text and pictures on the cards. For me, it is very easy to come up with reasons to not play a paper format, but I struggle to find a single selling point for it. I've been playing MD since launch so I still want to play the game, but I don't understand why I would inconvinience myself by playing it with paper.

[@Evixyn]

I do not mind loosing multiple times to learn what meta decks do as long as I can play my deck and add cards to help counter that deck so I can set my wall up. Plus I heavily love maximum C and ashly blossoms. I want to special summon golden lord, set imperial order, skill drain, and salmon judgment and two other cards and pass.

[@extonjonas6820]

I get why card releases would be different. But why did they not include best of 3? And why did they use a different ban list? These are some wierd things that I cant figure out why they were ever this way

[@democedes817]

I am a tournament chess player and chess has had similar issues with an enormous boom in online play yet only modest increases in irl players. The hoped-for demographic changes (more girls/women playing irl chess inspired by Queen’s Gambit) have not occurred either as far as I have observed. The reality is that most online chess players are content to stay online-chess is a fun video game to them and playing irl with much longer time limits has no appeal. Similarly, I play master duel as a fun (though sometimes exhausting) video game. I picked it up just to see how things have changed in the 17 years since I played and to finally stop playing league of legends. I already have other hobbies and the only way yugioh will ever fit into my life is in its online format and my guess that will be the case for most MD players. That said, those claiming MD will replace everything else really underestimate the appeal of playing irl, namely social interaction and (at this point) more money and prestige.

[@AndrewCrimefighter]

As a master duel player who has not picked up TCG I can tell you that cost is far and away the biggest barrier. It is absolutely absurd

[@lightlysaltedd]

I hate having to shell out everytime a new meta deck hits, just very unreasonable for students to spend 300+ on cardboard

[@KingShado69]

The only motive I can't go into paper play is that first I'm broke and second, there are no tournaments in Romania. I'd have to travel to Germany and even if I speak German, I'm still broke.

[@AdamChopdat]

I started master duel about a year ago and then became a tcg player a couple months ago. It's not the easiest transition, but it helps finding a locals with helpful players. Something that wasn't mentioned in the video was the price barrier, I've probably spent nearly £500 to make my dragon link deck, including extra staples and other stuff you need to play.

[@hunterbachelder3480]

We need an actual structure deck tutorial thing that has a competitive budget strategy. Including hand traps and modern features. Konami needs to acknowledge that the competitive side of the game to beginners. Catering to anime nostalgia Stan’s can be good but only if they can then take that anime nostalgia love and convert it into a competitive format.

[@taintedtoaster]

Came for the Dave Strider shirt, stayed for the Yugioh ramble.

[@ryanc915]

I have 0 interest in being a paper player. I used to go to a local place years ago back in goat format. I returned after a looong hiatus, and I love logging into MD and grinding the ladder for an hour or so and moving onto something else. It's a good fix of yugioh for me.

[@kingbushybeard6543]

Totally agree. Often times i need to practice current TCG format for regionals or what have you so ill go to DB for that which is suboptimal. I can't get that on master duel. If i could play current format on MD I would play a lot more often. Best of 3 would also improve my chances of playing MD. Maxx C is such a format warping card too. I hadn't even considered the staleness of the format for OCG players which is doubly worse for them. Its tiring for the current players, let alone anyone who would want to try to get into the game for the first time. Honestly having diverse formats based on each era of game goat, edison, etc would help new players gradually graduate to progressively more complex formats of the game. Players could then either settle at a complexity that's comfortable for them or progress to the next level. There could even be extensive guides included you could read prior to playing the new format that would teach you about new mechanics or techniques to be aware of like hand traps.

[@quintenroy]

As a returning player not having played this game since my childhood having to learn all the new summoning mechanics which I really disliked at first was a bit annoying After awhile I finally understand and like synchro xyz pendulum and link But my main problem why I dislike playing is that there are so many archetypes you have to learn to be really playing seriously like which card to negate and what can their deck do if I let them do that I really dislike playing against new archetypes or ones I haven't seen before Because so much is happening one card is already off the field before you read it all and can progress what it does

[@Elesterion]

Remember that Price is a TCG exclusive problem. Japan can play full power kashtira for like 50$ while the most budget friendly TCG version of kashtira is like 500$. I'm >slightly< exaggerating of course but it is still criminal for OCG cards to be available in commons or rares while the TCG paywalles them behind ultra rare and secret rare in packs.

[@animationtv426]

completely agree with MBT! I was saying there should be TCG and OCG format ladders in MasterDuel to draw players in it and got ridiculed on reddit

[@mical2great]

My biggest problem with yugioh is that most cards have one word out of paragraphs that change EVERYTHING about cards and u have to have knowledge beyond just playin to deal with it. As a noob who came back to duel links a couple months ago i NEVER understood why Orcust boss card could SEND cards to graveyard that i had protection for but you gotta know the diffeence between target and Send and if and When and all the other crap the makes the game 100x harder

[@Catslug]

I think some sort of official progression series-type game would go a long way to solve some of these issues. I've played my own version of prog with friends for the past few years, and it's really helped me with getting accustomed to a gradual increase in complexity instead of being thrown head first into the encyclopedias of modern cards

[@stefanhuber7357]

Yugioh today (paper yugioh) is only accessible to those who have had years to absorb how yugioh works - things like PSCT made our lives so much easier and that entire chunks of card text are copy/paste effects. But if you do not know the catalog of PSCT, catching onto a new format or learning how new cards/deck works can be absolutely daunting! Great video!

[@stefanhuber7357]

ALSO - Us old/OG players are moving to time wizard formats anyways

[@abcrx32j]

7:58 Yu-Gi-Oh is the Dark Souls of card games Btw, the reason I don't play paper Yu-Gi-Oh is that I have no store or fellow players nearby, so my main option is going online. Playing in Omega feels weird to me because I want to go with decks I could realistically afford

[@Penguforce]

Rotation is only good if you have a standard with the new sets or modern with older cards. The standard one would be less popular due to monetary means, but would stop older cards like io from existing in ycs. Another option is for konami to start printing less powerful cards and archetypes while controlling the previous ones but that maybe too much work.