The Yu-Gi-Oh Market Has NEVER Been THIS BAD!

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Video Edited By: ‪@Swolelax‬
#yugioh #masterduel #tcg

[@DistantCoder]

Thanks for watching the video! For those wondering why i haven't been posting much lately, it's because I'm working on some new/different kinds of videos for the channel! Highlights will be back soon but currently i'm trying some new things and i'm sure you guys will love it! Thanks for the support as always

[@robodude246]

Hi DistantCoder, I am an Australian yu gi oh player who wants to share my experience; related with this video. Where I live we have two locals, one twenty minutes and one forty minutes away, which both play on a Saturday. I go to the 20 minute one, we average 4-5 people every week and I get 1st-2nd place quite often. (I know, it's not that hard at 4-5 average). We only get 3 rounds and for that we get 5 packs for 1st place. You might say "thats not bad 5 of the latest ots packs", well... we only get 1 ots per player and we only have ots 22. One of the problems with yugioh in Australia is our how often we get our products. We have 3 main distributors that deliver to Australian locals they deliver us euro print, which comes from the opposite side of the world (europe) taking stops on they way. They take forever, the delay the product has feels like its been 4 months by now, we dont even have the set with the centurion cards yet. We play cards that were good in duellist nexus because that's all we have left. it feels like you have to build a deck from just buying what product is left. this is why we get one ots pack, so it lasts and it feels everyone has that chance to pull an ulti it happens like every 6 months or so which is a problem. this is some of my experience with aussie yugioh. Please others share your experiences as well.

[@wow-effect]

I like the editing

[@cwill102able]

Looking forward to the irl yugioh content

[@user-hg9lx7cg7y]

We are waiting coder l hope it well be a something that l like And l kind of missed your videos in the last couple weeks

[@Schmaglow]

The only real solution is to vote with our wallets (but we don't have a direct link to konami so that will mostly just hurt shops until they halt buying product to continue up the chain)

[@Farfa]

If you're homeless, just buy a house.

[@DistantCoder]

omg we've solved it

[@nickypool415]

What if I'm homo? @Farfa

[@rngsus69]

Fax my brother! Spit your shit indeed!

[@truesdale7388]

Exactly!

[@mecurseyoumimikyu4701]

So your saying if you don't have a deck buy a structure deck? 😂

[@trizard1186]

All I'm going to say is if most of the players can't afford to play they will spend money on other card games and leave yugioh causing a loss of money at the end

[@havok9001]

same im on government assistance that pay me once a month & i spend around $800 to $1000 that be like $450 rent, around $400 to $500 in bills & around $200 to $300 at Costco..... what i have bit of i make sure i have some for my medical stuff like pills if it not cover or so

[@anakinsmith4770]

build one of the 100s of other decks or version of the top decks. decks like nordic, rikka, marincess these decks topped because players wanted to play strategies outside the best and make them work it's possible with most decks people just give up.

[@FrostReave]

Konami keeps jumping on short term profits not understanding its hurting their long term profits.

[@O_PedrinhoXD]

the funny thing is that i see this the most in brazil, here the usual TCG player much rather play Pokemon or Magic Commander because every new yugioh engine costs as much as a fucking motorcycle

[@thescentleman8810]

@@havok9001bud you can’t afford any hobby then? Surely your main concern right now shouldn’t be card prices. It should be making a liveable wage.

[@sheesh5904]

Paying 700 dollars for a playset of cards that will likely get hit within the next 3-4 months is definitely the purchase of all time

[@rastafari2k3]

That's my biggest problem. Like, there's a lot of cheap hobbies out there. But even the more expensive ones, like golf... buying clubs can pretty much be a 10 year investment. Here it will last you a couple of months, sometimes weeks if you're unlucky with the banlist

[@ErosIRL]

Yeah that’s my biggest thing. Power creep and banlists ensure that you will never see that 1200 ever again

[@sheesh5904]

@@rastafari2k3 I play guitar as a hobby, my guitar costed less than a playset of WANTED sinful spoils, once a year I have to take it in for a setup which costs less than a single copy of bonfire. I think things have gotten pretty ridiculous when I can purchase and maintain an instrument for several years and have it be half of the cost of even a rogue deck.

[@joemarais7683]

⁠@@rastafari2k3but the argument with the golf, or the bowling, or anything that requires a place, is that it is still more expensive than yugioh over time since you need to pay to play every time, rather than yugioh’s pay to play once (in theory). But this point still sucks since yugioh is probably only cheaper as a hobby in formats where everyone uses the same 20 cards for years with whatever engine as the other 20 cards, and that kind of format would be arguably worse than a tier 0 format.

[@mattyorshin]

And you got idiots who justify these prices. It's insane

[@TheDeadGunslinger]

it cost Konami roughly $0.40 to print any single foil card.

[@davidadamovic1950]

Print, yes. Paying designers, transport, marketing of a card... Not so

[@Mr.WarwickBot]

I would stretch to say that .40 a card would be a bit much. Even with logistics, and design I highly doubt each card cost them more than like .10 they are making stupid money and are not satisfied, they would kidnap your child and hold it for ransom. Don’t get it twisted, until we take a stand, they will stand on your neck.

[@blizzard18]

@@davidadamovic1950 even if all of the things the you mention are doubling konami's cost to 1$ per card (and they are not, those cards weigh nothing), that's light years away from 100$ per card

[@egggge4752]

And here is the thing... if they made the good cards come in an addition rare or common rarity... I WOULD BE MORE WILLING TO BUY SEALED PRODUCT and not singletons over the secondary market. You know what would make sets sell better? If you had a realistic chance of pulling meta cards that way EVERYBODY would buy product.

[@loserdogygo]

this would sell product. There be more people buying sealed but less people buying LOTS of sealed

[@arnaudlafay3465]

You mean like DUNE ? Making 3 decks top Ycs contenders without a single card needed above ultra? The least loved and least selling core set of 2023? I hate it as I like affordable staples and AGOV singles prices are completely crazy but it’s sadly what happened, cheap cards don’t make sets selling.

[@user-vr5uw6gd6f]

And yet the ocg is profitable enough for komoney to keep it around

[@TheMrNickP]

@@arnaudlafay3465legit the first person iv seen say it, thank you brave wanderer for your wise words and making me feel like I may not be schizophrenic.

[@GuessWhatHappened1]

​@@loserdogygopeople would buy singles

[@johan3116]

Week worth of groceries? More like 2 months in brazil

[@17-MASY]

‏‪7:25

[@Malister23]

I agree with almost everything except the staples being justified for costing a lot. Rarity collection showed and is continuing to do so that expensive cards coming in low rarity stay low and their highest rarities continue to stay high and some are even climbing right now thanks to the meta shift that's coming. In disclosure we need cards printed in more accessible rarities near the date the card is released to the format not a year or two down the line.

[@gooeybowser9332]

Truly do not understand what the argument is supposed to be for Konami to not just do this more consistently. Like it’s literally a win win for everyone. Collectors and vendors get to scalp and price gouge the fuck out of high rarity staples, and everyone else gets to actually play the fucking game.

[@Jaddas]

I hate staples being so expensive almost more than archtypes. If there are like 2 archtypes in the meta rn and they are too price, i can ply a different deck and still do well. If littleknight or Thrust are expensive, no matter what i will be priced out of the game. Its also really hard to sell people on yugioh thanks to that. Budget decks are still sometimes reaching pricepoints of 200+, simply because cards like ash push the price.

[@Mr_Ozone]

@@Jaddas I just built ABC Dragon Buster and some of the most expensive cards were the staples but they were still only 2.50 - 4.00 each for Ash and Impermanence (Except for Clara & Rushka which is 11$ even though it was 1$ like 3 months ago). But i think that's a perfect middle ground price, staples like these shouldn't cost more than 5$ each so the casuals like us can still play. If generic cards like Bonfire, the negates, or the extra deck staples get too expensive then it's a bad time for everybody. The only expensive cards should be the collectors cards like Ghost Rares etc.

[@cjramos1158]

Ash was reprinted in a structure deck and still costs 30 dollars is insane

[@zantbanitor1638]

As long as people are paying the prices, they'll keep selling at those prices.

[@egggge4752]

As soon as the resellers drop the price because of low demand people would start buying those cards again which would drive up the price again. Thats just how an economy with scarcity works. The problem is that konami outside of japan artificially creates scarcity by making certain cards very rare. Here is a shocking thing to consider: There are fewer tcg legal s:p little knights in existance than people who would like to play it. Thats why the price is so high. Btw they dont reprint sets. Meaning they produce like a million tcg booster boxes for one set and that was it. If there are only 10.000 s:p little knights in there... to bad for person number 10.001 who wants to play it.

[@ZombieReese]

Who is the "they" that are selling these cards? Think about it. It's a player problem caused by players.

[@Bonifatus]

⁠@@egggge4752and then the price gets too high and people stop buying it, eventually the price reaches an equilibrium where it remains stable absent outside forces. These cards aren’t destined to be priced so highly, they’re priced so highly because people have decided they’re willing to pay that price. Resellers might buy an initial wave when the price drops, but they won’t keep buying at that price if they can’t flip it to somebody at a better price, eventually they’ll eat the loss and the price will fall.

[@custybox1569]

I sold my my s.p little night for $125 on TCG player lol yesterday.

[@johnnickfanaccount3492]

Well konami doesn't sell cards directly lol the resellers do

[@MadMunky20k]

Yeah, T.G. players needing a grand to get to Rocket Salamander as consistently as possible is ridiculous.

[@mostafaahmed9430]

Nah bruno would be dissappointed I'm gonna play it pure idc

[@wbrodie55]

​@mostafaahmed9430 what you said. it ain't even that hard to search him as is. The people paying these prices are just as big of a problem as the people setting them.

[@fogblades6811]

I honestly think the worst parts of tcgs is the market for cards. I always hated the idea of cards exceeding past $50.

[@Doc_117]

Womp womp find a new hobby or make more money. That’s not a valid excuse look at all other TCG. Prices will surpass $50 doesn’t matter what game you play.

[@fogblades6811]

@@Doc_117 Since you wanna get smart with me, I suppose you should actually do what you preach and look at other card games. Depending on what deck you play, you can actually compete in Shadowverse Evolve for less than 100 bucks. Even expensive cards have exponentially cheaper variations of the card in question, save for maybe Leader cards, but that's only optional. Way to make YGO and yourself look good, pay-piggie.

[@Doc_117]

@@fogblades6811 you still yapping? Get a raise my guy

[@penguinsage2959]

​@Doc_117 almost as if when players of your card game can't afford to keep buying sets, they move on isn't an issue for the long-term

[@SinTransphobicTrigger]

​@fogblades6811 this dude sounds like he doesn't even enjoy playing at his locals because he's always playing the best thing and is on autopilot, and when he does lose, he throws a tantrum. I PAID I SHOULDN'T LOSE IT SHOULDN'T BE AN OPTION FOR ME TO LOSE! Nobody enjoys playing with this guy and very likely this behavior and previous comments translates to his personality

[@KyriaTheMystic]

A deck should never cost the average American citizen's ENTIRE MONTHS RENT or GROCERIES to play. That's fucking insane.

[@Sigmaairav]

Completely agree

[@SknowingWolf]

Exactly this. People can say "it's a luxury" but like, so what? Is it crazy to say that maybe we shouldn't have to go "hmmm It looks like I'll be able to enjoy my casual hobby this month if I just uh.... STARVE"??? People deserve to enjoy things without going bankrupt.

[@Cybertech134]

@@SknowingWolf It's not a "casual hobby" if you feel the need to have the most COMPETITIVE cards. You don't "deserve" to have meta cards just because you feel like you do.

[@SknowingWolf]

@@Cybertech134 I'll say again, people should have reasonable access to the decks they want to play. Period. I don't get why that's such a strange take for you. And I feel like you're zeroed in too much on the idea of playing casually. Even casual players should be able to play whatever deck they want. It's not a matter of "have to have" it. If they wanna play a certain deck, why shouldn't they? It's a fuckin card game. There's literally no reason to gatekeep anybody, whether they wanna play casually or maybe eventually they want to go more competitive.

[@Cybertech134]

@@SknowingWolfAnd I'll say again: just because you say "people should have", doesn't make it true. Wanting something and deserving something are not the same thing and more often than not are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

[@Shiny_Plume]

I always hated the argument “well it used to be this way in a different format so it’s not as bad now” as if that’s an argument that justifies something being expensive 20 years later.

[@Doc_117]

It has not change. Dino rabbit format was probably worst than now. 3 tour guide was $450 3 rabbits $300-$450 alone. Dualities were $150 for a play set need I continue. You were rolling in with a $2 K deck with the lowest rarity version too. I was broke as teenager and you know what I did I grew up left the game after nekroz format made adult money came back and learn some economics 101 and when to sell my bulk to fund some of cards or buy cards for my meta decks when I knew the time was right to buy.

[@glitchedoom]

"Things used to be terrible back then so it's ok to still be terrible now!" Scary how often people also apply this mindset to things much more important than a card game as well.

[@Frame206a]

OCG player here, just to point out, Rarities for main sets comes out like this Supers also come as Secrets and Ultras also both come as Ultis and Secrets (and there's 1 ultra that can also be a ghost rare) every holo can be a quarter century rare i forgot the ratios of ultra and supers per box maybe around 3 and 7 respectively there's always 1 Ulti per box then 1 secret or 1 QCR (you won't get both QCR and secret in the same box)

[@Bmanritchie]

For main sets, 2 secret (1 out of 12 packs), 3 ultras (1 of 8 packs), and the rest are super rares. TCG Konami boosters have terrible ratios.

[@DistantCoder]

Thank you for the clarification!

[@egnimaticnobody]

Dont boxes have a lower cost in the ocg than in the tcg

[@babrad]

​@@egnimaticnobodythey do, but they have less cards so we pay the 20 card difference in sets as premium for common/supers and if we combine it with the larger pool of foils after stopping Rares we get a lot of bulk instead of usable cards that are typically in Ultra/Secret slots.

[@invertbrid]

​@@babradnailed it, TCG literally put more junks into the set and raise price lol. On the top of insane rarity bump and no multiple rarities except QCR / starlight (which hard to get anyway so they wont lower the price of original card), in the end we got way way worse product than OCG, despite having more cards in the set.....ofc minus RC.

[@Rossco1010]

I think the easiest solution is printing more cards in sets at both higher rarities and lower rarities just like the OCG or Pokemon. I've been building decks and the amount of times I now choose the higher rarity version of the card because I like it that way is high, but thats choosing to pay 3$ for a card over 0.50$ for a card. A card like S:P little knight should have a lower rarity print, and a special high rarity alt art or something that actually goes for 100-150$, with the lower rarity being 15-25$. Not just QCS rares being the high ones, have mid level super rares be actual cards you want, not just the Ultras and secret rares, and have super rares be printed as just rares or commons more often. Give alternate printing in the first set so collectors and those that want to bling out their favourite cards can, but people who just need it can get the cheap version. We know theres people that would choose the higher rarity 40$ Diabellstar over a 4$ rare version, but those two versions should exist.

[@peekay120]

I think the simple fact of the matter is that what its going to take for konami to stop screwing over the tcg with blatant rarity gouging is a boycott, plain and simple. Now obviously, the chances of that happening are essentially zero, but I believe that a mass boycott, particularly of official tournaments, but also when it comes to buying product, is the only thing that is going to get konami's attention

[@rougetierduelist2497]

I legit have stopped going to locals and buying packs for this reason. It sucks but I just do my testing online with randoms now

[@iXSIKOBOIXi]

That only hurts the LGS' though. They pay Konami for the product and then we end up boycotting them, not Konami. Konami has made their money.

[@invertbrid]

​​@@iXSIKOBOIXiits indeed hurting LGS a bit, tho if ppl mass boycott 1-2 sets already, LGS def goin at huge minus. And after that good chance they won't even buy YGO products from konami anymore. So in the end boycott indeed works. But yes LGS will take a hit for 1-2 sets.

[@gianfrala9485]

The problem with this is your local games stores will suffer more than konami its a fck'ed system

[@peekay120]

@@invertbrid To take it even further, Card shops should be participating in the boycott too, not just players, that way they arent even buying the product, so Konami doesnt make their money at all

[@detectivefrost1921]

Thank you for calling out konami's predatory behaviour, it's extremely obvious but some people still haven't realized

[@Jolfgard]

thing is, this is Coder. Konami does not like Coder. This could be enough to get him banned from events.

[@thomaskey9688]

What about vendor predatory behaviour? Konami doesnt force them to jack up prices from 80 to 120

[@Jolfgard]

@@thomaskey9688 80 to 120 for what? If you are talking certain singles, then yes, Konami is the problem by drastically cutting the supply of Ultras etc..

[@detectivefrost1921]

@@thomaskey9688 of course, no one is forcing the vendors to make cards cost 80-120, but ask yourself how many boxes they went through to unbox a single copy of bonfire? so they can pay konami 70euro per box (not guaranteed to get anything good) but when they try to make a slight portion of their money back, we go around to put the blame onto members of the community rather than the multi-billionaires who are trying to squeeze every last cent of our middle-class paychecks? pleasee, man, it's not even an argument

[@meliorbutterfly]

noooo shit

[@EinSilverRose]

On the note of Konami using the banlist to force players to use some cards: Limiting TCBOO, Gozen Match and Rivalry of the Warlords also falls under this umbrella. Konami doesn't want the WANTED engine to be shut down that easily. Keep this in mind when Dimension Shifter is place on the banlist.

[@randomprotag9329]

to give konami leniency. that might not just be the wanted engine shut down, it might be not wanting more stuff in addition easily shut down.

[@josefl.2053]

I mean, TCBOO, Gozen Match, and Rivalry are just genuinely unhealthy cards that support an unfun playstyle, or at best, only one player has fun while the other is floodgated out of the game before it even starts. Same reason why Azathot, ZEXAL, and Arise-heart deserve to be banned. Floodgates that are way too easy to set up and just shut down the game for one player if they have the "out".

[@sinnohan2225]

I bought the Diabellstar package hoping to play Snake-Eye since I love that archetype’s art, then the price for Bonfire broke me. I’m not willing to pay $300-400 for 3 sets in a row. After Bonfire, I feel that Populus and the link 4 fire will both be secret rares. It’s crazy that it’s much more affordable to buy a playset of every VS card (~$210), than it is to buy just a quarter of the generic fire support cards that I’d need to play Snake-Eye. VS has 7 ultras from a terrible set! I’m going to end up playing Ghoti, Floo, or VS until April.

[@Kiviluvu]

The best way to play bonfire on a budget is to go to Google images, print out an image of it then put it in a sleeve and hope your opponent won't snitch on you

[@RADRyan5Ds]

Thing is when prices are this inflated it is hard to even defend investing to play competitively into the game. Cards get hit at random time frames all the time. Dumping 700$ for something for it to be hit 3 months down the line is insane. Prices need to be kept in check by having things come in multiple rarities. Collectors will still have their chase cards and money cards, the players will have their cheap versions to play. I can get a hell of a lot of something else spending my money on something else like an MMO for example, and at a far less egregious price. This is also not by fault the rarity system but also how narrow-minded the TCG ban list is. Just taking the recent one for example, I was going to get back into paper YGO by playing a Cyberse pile, but they banned Circular for no reason. The OCG does a lot better job at keeping several decks open to play through their Forbidden/Limited list, and Master Duel does it better too. So the scope is a lot more complex than just the rarities system in this game but also the money-driven Forbidden/Limited list that goes with it. The OCG and MD do not forget they are a game, but the TCG does. Also I hate that people call it a "luxury". This game was widely accessible in it's early stages and only got worse and worse, TeleDAD being the first real hard inception of it. I had no problems playing anything as a high-schooler up to that point, even with Card Trooper/Mali/Raiza being relatively expensive for their time. It's not even the fact that real life pricing is pricing you out of playing YGO, it is that it is legitimately just getting too expensive, period. This is also why the game pulls in almost no new players as well.

[@SknowingWolf]

Yeah the luxury argument is silly from people. Like why should we have to go broke just to enjoy a simple hobby? If I wanna sit down with some friends or fellow hobbyists once a week or month to enjoy a simple game, it shouldn't have to be a major financial investment.

[@Cybertech134]

@@SknowingWolfYou don't need to go broke to enjoy it though. If you are gonna "sit down with some friends or fellow hobbyists once a week or month to enjoy a simple game", then the issue of not being able to afford the most competitive meta cards shouldn't even be a relevant issue to you. Confused as to why this is even an issue for most people.

[@SknowingWolf]

@@Cybertech134 I mean it's really simple. Decks should be accessible regardless of competitive status. Like sure more competitive strategies are obviously likely to always cost more no matter what, don't think anybody has an issue with that, but NO DECK should be prohibitively expensive, and Konami could easily take steps to remedy the situation, bring in new players, and keep old players, and make money while making just about everybody happy, but they don't, and fans are validly unhappy with that.

[@Cybertech134]

@@SknowingWolf "Decks should be accessible regardless of competitive status" According to...? You? It has never been like this and getting all up in your feelings and saying it should be the way you say it should be is just retarded. I bet you're one of the neo-commie shitwits who think houses and food should be free, too.

[@judge489]

I will say, just to clarify, this IS becoming a problem in MTG. Multi-Format Staples like Sheoldred the Apocalypse and Orcish Bowmaster are getting pretty pricey, even with the premium versions that are supposed to drive down the price. Other factors like the "Commander Tax" and changing rarities to Mythic for reprints has mad cards much more expensive than say, pre-covid

[@MeggaBOTT]

I was just about to say the exact same thing, with the exact same examples 😂

[@KyhronLuna]

MTG has always had a staples tax so to speak but it's still no where near as bad as YGO. Magic has a higher copies limit and its consistently cheaper to get a full playset of 4 than it is 1 or 2 of some of these YGO cards. And that's not even discussing how much Magic is propping up WotC right now

[@shrompf]

@@KyhronLuna in comparison mtg is on average more expensive to get into (on a competitive level) but much cheaper to stay in a format than yugioh. In mtg you can Play a deck for 1+ years no problem, but in ygo you are most likely forced to change decks every few months.

[@jamesvanhelsing6331]

And that is why I only play pauper or artisan edh nowadays. I can't afford any other format anymore.

[@KyhronLuna]

@@shrompf It's not even more expensive though. A full competitive Yawgmoth deck including sideboard is in the range of $900-1000 maybe a bit more depending on the list but the generic list price is in that range. That entire deck which is a T1 meta threat is cheaper than the 9 card core you need for a Fire deck in YGO that'll get power crept or banned within 3-6 months.

[@naut7845]

The biggest issue is that the only cards worth a shit are usually SR or UR with all the common and rare cards being pack filler or super niche combo pieces that require SR or UR cards to actually do something. It’s like Konami’s living under a rock and doesn’t see that they’re causing the issue. They need to change how they structure their merchandise so these things aren’t as rare.

[@joesecord3066]

I think the best way to avoid this is by using proxies at a locals level. Let people who only play at locals have fun with the new cards still, and those who are competitive and go to the big events invest in the more expensive cardboard

[@Cybertech134]

This isn't MTG; you can't just use proxies wherever you want.

[@joesecord3066]

@@Cybertech134 why can't we?

[@eeveemaster8902]

@@joesecord3066 Proxys course problems with challenge

[@skrrr6936]

because locals are hosted by konamis guideline

[@joesecord3066]

@skrrr6936 I don't think that matters all that much. Konami doesn't have representatives at every LGS making sure these policies are being followed. If the community of players became more accepting of the use of proxies, this policy would eventually change.

[@block3d881]

I think the fact that you have to spend hundreds of dollars to EVEN compete is crazy (Or have a great chance). I enjoy a meta where tier two or off meta decks cost little but still have a decent chance if the pilot is good or plays well! What's more, what I hate about this is not that the price is almost 4 digits, but many players feel forced to play TONS of floodgates to compete.

[@MaliEndz]

You can build a runick variant for like 150 and do fine, swordsoul for $50

[@block3d881]

@MaliEndz Very True! Not saying it's impossible to do well in locals or even some bigger events (which is great). However, in a video recently by Josh Schmidt there was a 34% (or something along those lines) of fire decks toping. Showing a clear power difference between a fire deck like Fire King and a Runic Plunder variant or something along those lines.

[@reddragon6174]

I mean I play a Cubic deck and it can win against a lot of meta matchups, it only cost maybe $150 to actually build it where the most expensive cards were my 2 Super Polys

[@block3d881]

@reddragon6174 I have never played Cubic but it's cool that you are doing well with it! I think it's possible to do well with any deck! But similar to Tearlament format, there can still be decks that win, but there is a clear power difference. I am not saying that Fire king is the same as Tearlaments (especiallyin power level), but it's a similar concept.

[@ThatOneWeirdFlex]

​@@MaliEndznot true. Swordsoul is still a bit pricey for budget. Main Deck engine is over $60 but it shouldn't go over $110.

[@Kazzman90]

This is a great video. It’s part of why I just stick to buying the structure decks at 3 and just buy end of year Tins. I play more Master Duel now than TCG because I got tired of spending so much to chase the best cards.

[@LunaThunder]

Fun fact: in old sets konami did do the different reraties for the same cards :)

[@victortinoco5207]

Up to Ancient Sanctuary they did Rarity Bump, but there were only 2 Secrets per set. So you had 50% chance of pulling the one you wanted.

[@Mighty-Eight]

I remember when Pot of Greed was a rare when it first came out. It was almost accessible for everyone and when structure decks come out, for the most part it was there as a common so that EVERYONE can have it. I never play Meta because of this idiocy of Card prices.

[@AdHocWholius]

On Ash Blossom, it has been a staple for years now, but it also got the Sol Ring treatment alongside other handtraps with consistent common reprints in structure decks. Konami CAN print staples at lower rarities in the TCG, and have done so before, but the rarity system in TCG is so enormously manipulative with short prints of secrets rares that it's just exorbitantly expensive to do so.

[@exiavaganza]

And when the overpriced staple is finally reprinted, it's already been powercreeped by another staple way more powerful than the reprinted one (and probably limited too)

[@Ak4ntor]

As a person that played normal summon aleister when it came out, dropped off and wanting to come back to paper play, this speaks so much for me. I am fine with spending a bit more on staples that are good in multiple decks. I did that for aleister etc. But seeing how building a seasonal deck that will likely (also as said in the vid) get shut down guns blazing 1-2 sets from now to sell the next product paying that much money feels stupid. Coming from a mainly masterduel player nowadays it also doesnt help that i get to play all these decks in MD without spending a single penny and ive build 5 meta decks over the course of that game (and multiple multiple meme, rogue and fun decks). It instantly killed any motivation for me to even start trying to play paper again.

[@Christian-rv4cy]

Im absolutely in LOVE with this video essay style-esque video format

[@acemistdragon8624]

I do find this to be something that is needed to be solved as the moment someone wastes like $500-$1000 is almost always going to hurt in some way. ($700 for 3-8 cards is just a no for me and I think for most others as well)

[@Timikator]

I decided to sell all my expensive staples for this reason (sp, 2 chaos angel even if I play lab, typhon and so on)

[@plantseason290]

Dont forget the scalpers that exist. TomBox openly admitted on twitter to buying and holding 26 copies of Flamberge Dragon, till they got expensive to sell. He encouraged people to do this also. Konami makes thing's scarce enough as is and scalpers like him make it worse.

[@otterfire4712]

I had started looking into how OCG and TCG boxes after learning about Revolution Synchron being printed as a rare in the OCG and bumped to Secret Rare in the TCG. OCG card prints and rarity work like this. Cards in a set will be designated to be printed as one of the four following rarities; common, rare, super rare, and ultra rare (there is normal rare which is a super short printed common card, usually not that relevant in the meta game). In Duelist Nexus, Revolution Synchron was printed as a rare in the OCG. Secret rares are higher rarity variants of cards whose base rarity is super and ultra rare in the OCG, secret rare isn't its own rarity in the OCG like it is in the TCG. Also note, TCG has had two major shifts in their pack system, once in 2016 and again in 2020. The first major change made packs contain 9 cards (7 commons, 1 rare, and 1 super rare or better). In 2020, TCG Konami removed the rare print entirely, leaving packs as 8 commons and 1 super rare or better. Now this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if the number of different cards printed in a set reflected this dominance of commons. 75% of a set should be printed as a common, however TCG Konami doesn't do this. Instead, they shift rarities around and maintain the 50% commons in the set, leading to boxes containing 3-5 copies of each common. With 24 packs in a box, you're getting exactly 24 super rares or better (breakdown is about 17 super rares, 4 ultras and about 3 secret rares or better). So a box contains 192 commons and only 24 super rare or better. Looking at OCG Boxes, packs contain 5 cards, 3-4 commons and 1-2 rare or higher. Boxes contain 30 packs and you still yield about 24 super rare or higher cards, additionally, you'll get about 30 rares. Breaking it down, you get about 100 commons, and 50 rare or better in a box. Funny enough, Soulburning Volcano is one of the few sets TCG Konami maintains the pack design philosophy of an OCG set and it was heavily panned for being too niche, cards in the set were fairly reasonable in price (albeit low due to the low demand from the niche three archetypes that the set supports). My only complaints with the set is that there aren't any secret rares or higher and that they chose to reprint Volcanic Eruption just to include an errata stating that it is not an actual Volcanic card. When it comes to secondary market prices, sure some cards can be more expensive due to the demand. I would like to say that generic staples shouldn't be printed at higher rarity. Players will still buy up the set so that they can have multiple playsets and casual/budget players can still buy a couple packs and expect to get something of relative value to include in their decks. Most other games have had staples printed at common or rare level still see years of play and retain a value equal to that of its base pack. Prime example of this is Senzu Bean from Dragon Ball Super, card was a meta staple for years and retained a $4 price tag per copy for the longest time. It's an equivalent to Ash Blossom except for the part about its debut printing, Senzu Bean was a common. As it is, I seldom buy direct product from Yu-Gi-Oh, if I do it'll be something I support like Soulburning Volcano or Rarity Collection, not Age of Overlord. I may not compete at a regional or YCS level but I intend to bring a challenge to those who run Diabellstar engines, paying only a fraction to beat them.

[@masterflamewing234]

And that’s when you’re going to get steamrolled because you didn’t pay to win. Lol

[@otterfire4712]

@@masterflamewing234 Eh, it's more like a coin flip. Even casual decks can be quite lethal if they have the right cards. Additionally, their unfamiliarity with what my deck does gives me an advantage as they're less likely to correctly hit the choke points while I'm more likely to thanks to having more experience dealing with those expensive decks.

[@Jolfgard]

What HEAVILY confuses me is that the prices for Pokemon cards have been going down for two years or so, while the prices of Yu-Gi-Oh cards just peaked.

[@Cybertech134]

This shouldn't "HEAVILY" confuse you when you look at how people primarily interact with both games.

[@JayceCH.]

Thats cus of shitty influencers.

[@Elfking94]

So for bonfire, its basically what pryos needed 20 years ago. And 100 bucks a copy. Wtf. This should have literally been with the 4rth structure deck

[@Corey91666]

My Tip. Dont play fire decks. I agree though that this is ridiculous. Also big problem is that we know about cards way before they release. In consequence people test and rate cards before their print and add a little hype and speculation and boom you face insane presales. In that matter. Dont buy presales.

[@Oxnypognip]

I really feel that bit about wanting to run these kinds of cards in rogue decks to make them playable. I had that problem when the first wave of Kashtira came out. I’ve been playing Armed Dragon Thunder since BLVO and until that point you’d be making the Lv10s and going into trains, but Kash changed the entire idea to rank 7 spam. Only problem was the price. Fenrir was at one point over $100 AUD, and Unicorn hit $40-50 AUD. And of course, nobody was trading/selling them anyway because Arise-Heart was just around the corner. While it was nowhere near as much as it is now, compared to the Tearlaments format just before it where key parts of the deck were as low rarity as common, it was just so unrealistic for me to spend so much money to fill out my janky little pet deck. I even only just finished my playset of Fenrir last week, and my first copy of Baronne was a super from rarity collection! And all this to go 2:2 at locals! You shouldn’t have to wait over a year to get a cheaper copy of a card

[@Yunglex313]

The issue mainly stems back to Konami. They have a reasoning for the single rarity system in the TCG, if I recall was that the install base of the TCG being much smaller than other card games in the west, and SIGNIFICANTLY, smaller than the install base of the OCG, which we already know is huge because they have local level tournaments that draw upwards of 100 people weekly. The logic is they have less players, so they gotta milk those players for as much they can. I think this is a fallacy, because if the cards were more accessible, you not only have more players trying to play at a competitive level, you also have more players buying cards at a casual level so they can just play with friends. Another issue with Konami is they have little to no community support. There is no community management team on twitter nor they do surveys and what not to get a grasp of what their player base wants, at least not in TCG. EU is getting better about this as they work with a lot of personalities and content creators to commentate for tournament streams, but they need to do more, especially when you look at tournament streams in American territories (US, Canada, and South America). They have whole ass Yugitubers on their payroll, yet no one to gather data for what they could do to better their game. That's crazy.

[@bonjouritsready]

Japanese company screws western audience, imagine my shock (can’t wait for the weeb apologists)

[@r3zaful]

​@@bonjouritsreadyim sorry but basically all asian companies are always prioritize their local customers. Nexon, konami bandai, mihoyo, capcom, smilegate all of them from korea to china will always centered around their own region, you have to accept that it will be always the rule, youre going to be 2nd class.

[@papahlamidas]

If you add all the inflation 1000 is almost equal with 250 in the day. This is your money devalued by the government by over printing it. Its like the Cards in YuGiOh. Our money is like MST in common.

[@animeknight99]

It's kinda expected for cards to be expensive time to time. I haven't played Paper Yu-Gi-Oh since 2013 because I knew it was going to cost money over time

[@KyhronLuna]

There's expensive then there's insanity. YGO is long past expensive. I could make a top of the line Modern deck for Magic at the same price point as the 9 card core Coder was talking about. Or I could build a top Pokemon deck for the cost of a couple Bonfires.

[@Nephalem2002]

@@KyhronLunaplus any Magic Deck will outlive any Yugioh Deck

[@Thee9thAaroniero]

When I played TCG: went to a regional playing PD Magicians without Heavy metals foes even though everyone else did but I still performed well. In fact it felt better that I didn’t have the best card in the deck and still did decent. As someone who plays in the OCG now, I think since cards are a lot cheaper people are okay if Konami destroys decks on the list since they didn’t lose that much money anyways.

[@rendevoir4736]

A model like the OCG would be amazing. Commons for players, HYPER ULTRA SHINY ELECTRIC BOOGALOO rares for whales. Or the pokemon model. You can buy the Worlds winning decks for 50 bucks. Or the Magic model. Multiple sanctioned formats and the stores support them. Pauper is all commons and a winning deck costs about 100 bucks, commander is 100 card singleton with multiple power and cost levels, pioneer is like 6-7 years worth of sets with its own banlist, penny dreadful as the name implies, allows cards that cost only a penny (mostly an mtg online format where cards are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper). The worst part is that you pay like 500 bucks for an engine in yugioh, and it will get powercrept sooner or later, making it a very risky investment if you end up not doing well with it to justify its price. Hell, even in-store events like Goat format, reaper, edison, fire/water, hat, T.O.S.S, you name it. Older formats are not only fun, but also cheap. We know that Konami will never do official main events in these older formats, but hey, stores can, and it would engage the return of so many players who left the game due to being money gated out of the game, or left behind due to the exponential increasing complexity, and so on.

[@hamster6216]

Cardboard game shouldn't even considered as luxury game/hobby, the cost of making it isn't even more than $5 per card. Or look at pokemon TCG, or even ours (Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG), this is just the company's problem with their business model, and some people defend because they making profit from it.

[@Zieldak]

All Konami does is hurt accessibility to competetive TCG, especially with MD being around. The pack opening experience is already so much better than in the TCG itself, be it free or paid, not to mention the card crafting system. The TCG does sometimes include multiple rarities in a single set, for example Tactical Master has Droll & Lock Bird in a whopping 3 rarities or Cosmic Cyclone in 2, but they're usually normal rares or collector rares aside from commons, or the Rarity Collections, but they're just too expensive for a casual player to even consider buying. I also really hate how they tend to put a single common staple in otherwise meh structure decks, to drive sales. On the other hand, I really love how rares in Speed Duel boxes and miniboxes are handled. Sure them boxes have a ton of meh cards (which release doesn't?) and I'm not exactly a fan of the pricing, but I think the rares in them are handled just right. You get the common, and have a chance to get an additional copy as a secret rare. It just works. It'd be good for card prices too. Konami would get their money cuz people obviously like them secret rares, the market would get flooded with commons which is good for availability, and them rares could be as expensive or even more expensive as they're right now, if more cards of the box had a chance to come in a box as a rare. It's kinda funny when there are rares and secret rares that are worth pennies because they're guaranteed in structure decks or special sets like Legendary Decks II, yet common prints are rarer than them or just don't exist yet. I call them poor man's rares, cuz they're pretty much that lmao I did feel scammed when I got a secret rare Kazejin and Suijin in the same Midterm Paradox box, but not Sanga of the Thunder, they really should have made an exception for these three and always put them in the same pack.

[@turtle-bot3049]

The thing that I find crazy about not switching to the multiple rarities system is that konami would sell a lot more product directly than they currently do. People are refusing to buy sealed because the odds are so horrible for actually breaking even, let alone making your money back. However people would be buying boxes/packs a lot more frequently of they knew the was a reasonable chance to get a $5 common/rare or a $10 super from each pack as well as the chance to "win big" off pulling a super or qcr/starlight. So much of the money that gets spent on the secondary market currently could be going to konami instead if they changed their rarity system to be like the ocg.

[@peacechan4500]

It's genuinely wild to me that Konami wants the money to flow to the second hands not themselves.

[@Laflamme78]

Not how it works. Konami makes money by selling product to distributors, not players. Shortprints get them more revenue as those sets need to be ordered my by distributors so resellers can have the product to sell. Konami is making bank whether we buy or not. Things won't change until the distributors stop making money off of it.

[@turtle-bot3049]

@@Laflamme78 even then, more sealed product being sold by distro means more product that distro orders from konami to keep it in stock to keep selling more of it (because they also want to make more money). Which is still more money in konami's pockets.

[@Laflamme78]

@@turtle-bot3049 The problem is the distributors basically force sellers to take everything. If they want to get the good sets on time, then they gotta get a minimum amount of the shit sets. The unfortunate truth is the only way to fix it is for stores to stop selling Yu-GI-Oh, making the distributors order less due to less demand, but by then the mass exodus of sellers would probably outright kill the game. It's a problem that Konami can 100% fix if they are proactive and switch to a OCG style system, but they have no incentives to do that right now.

[@RazielTheUnborn]

​@@Laflamme78Distributors don't really make money on a lot of yugioh product to the point they will skip sets that Konami makes. They usually sell boxes at break even or a lose which seems to be what's contributing to the starting price of some of these cards.

[@Andrewrules3]

This has been the norm for so many years. Those of us who played in TeleDaD or Lightsworn back in 07-2011 with 250 dollar DaD's or 500 US for Crush Card. Not to mention Mali, allure of darkness all before their reprints. Does this make it right that it continues to this day, no. But if they make things in multiple rarities like in the OCG, sales will go down so bad. Konami is a business, not a charity organization. Goal is to make money, not be your friend. The game has been massive and its population has not decreased at all over the years. Every YCS seems to have a bigger turnout then the previous. Will Konami ever change the rarity system? Probably not. The only way players will get a change if it is a MASS exodus from events and such. But most of the players will continue playing the game no matter what so there will probably never be a change.

[@hultraspitfire2151]

To be honnest, even for a "luxury thing" this is ridicoulous, I have been flying RC planes for more than 10 years now and my main plane+controler costed me 300 bucks, total! if you add the batteries (that need to be replaced every couple of year) I haven't broken the 700 in 10 years for that plane, sure for me it's not a competitive hobby but to think that A GOD DAMN FLYING RC AIRPLANE is half the price of a yu gi oh engine is behond me! And the worst part is that even for some competitive RC planes we can stay under the 1K treshold, how the hell are 9 pieces of paper that will be banned in 3 month more expensive than a tournament ready RC airplane that you can fly for life LOL. (it depends on the cathegory your competing in, of course. But some cathegories, like indoor 3D, have planes at just about 150dollars/euros) who would cost the most? 100+ years of worlwide technology or 9 paper cards xD To me those cards shouldn't exceed 25 bucks for the staples and engine cards should be at most 5 Dollars/Euros. Sure if you have the extra shiny version of the card you can climb to god knows where but you shouldn't be forced to go through a poverty check to not get brutalized at locals. Other than that I agree with the points being made, good stuff(and sorry for my poor english, I'm still learning)

[@kaitoglueboy]

Konami shows no signs of not printing cards at high rarities cause they want the secondary market to continue with the insane price points. Like you said for the Banlist it’s another reason I left Yugioh, for an example Digimon JUST limited in advance one of the cards that they know is going to be expensive like $90 that you need 4 of, they limited this 1 card to 1 and told the player base that it was banned because they care about the card game being healthy. Konami cares about what goes into their pockets.

[@TohruChu]

This has been my biggest barrier when it comes to coming back to paper Yugioh, its hard to justify an entry price that yugioh has compared to many other card games where you can buy and build meta decks (at low rarity) for around $100. I fully agree cards should retain value on the 2nd hand market, but there needs to be some kind of easier accessibility to the game.

[@harkyz4439]

Wich card game bro ?

[@TheForeverRanger]

@@harkyz4439 Pokemon

[@JudojugsVtuber]

Literally any card game outside of exactly Pokemon and MTG.@@harkyz4439

[@TohruChu]

Digimon? Pokemon? @@harkyz4439

[@invertbrid]

​@@harkyz4439pokemon definitely

[@andymaldonado7687]

I say if you want to play Yugioh you don’t have to play meta, also wait for reprints. I play at a local casual level and it doesn’t brake the bank. (Even though I can afford it) Been playing since game inception but never payed more than $40 dollars on a single card! I play for fun and I win more often than not because I try to get better at deck building on a budget!

[@ZarathisXIII]

I really wanted to use the Sinister Spoils engine with one of my fire decks but the price surge on release just killed it for me, I mean I waited till Barrone got re-printed before I even added it to my deck as I felt $80 was too much. Same with Centur-Ion that I wanted to try but these prices feel like they are getting out of control.

[@cherrycreamsoda4253]

the thing that sucks is that I love playing diabellstar snake eye on ygomega and i do wanna play it on paper, but it's just too expensive. as a casual player, it sucks that cards are this expensive because i just can't justify dropping that much $$ for cards.

[@flackenstien]

I think sellers are selling for too much, and players are buying for too much. I would like to see some chase cards also come in Rare.. would solve the above issue. A note about Konami being predatory and Pokemon/Magic not having the same issue.. well Yugioh doesn't sell a $1000 set that MIGHT get you an UNPLAYABLE card like Magic did. Pokemon also preys on addicted collectors, they don't care about the actual playerbase, so they print multiple rarities.. this lets people play competitively for cheaper, but that isn't the target audience.

[@hexginnkgo]

Only a few years ago I played YGO TCG semi-competitively. I didn't go to locals all of the time but I built and kept my decks adjusted to the format and ban lists. Over time I started to see all of my initial investments to make competitively viable decks tank within months generally because of reprints. Which in theory is great for the casual audience who wants to be able to try out many of the strong meta decks later in the year if they are the majority of players that have to buy cards as cheap as possible. You can build a ton of historic decks for dirt cheap now but are they meta relevant? Generally no. Then you get to the staples like Coder mentioned and while I can see his point in that cards that are used in every deck and have multiple printings should stay at the same price, 20-40 dollars per staple card is insane. Ash Blossom has been printed 18 times in the TCG and only in the past two years has it dropped below 10 dollars. It had printings in structure decks that paid for the value of the deck itself. That's a problem. If a card is practically an instant include in every deck something that you have to run a playset of shouldn't be more than 1-2 dollars. Take Magic as an example. Limited formats for Magic do have a higher price point per deck because they have to stay meta relevant during their window of availability so the best cards will only have so long to be good, effectively being automatically banned within a year never to be seen in rotation again unlike YGO where the meta shifts or a ban to one aspect of a deck changes but doesn't mean you can't attempt to still make said deck. You get out of the limited formats in MTG and into Legacy, Modern or the most popular format, Commander (EDH) and you can make very expensive decks sure but the staples for nearly every Commander deck, near automatic inclusions are almost never over 1-3 dollars. The money in Magic comes from the flavor of your deck, not the staples that fit with any decks identity. The same should go for YGO but those prices are even more absurd. This also isn't to say that Magic is perfect. Getting into the really competitive aspects of all the formats there become high end staples that fetch very, very high prices. A lot of it has to do with the speculative market and how much sellers think they can gouge from people more than the value of the actual card. Staples shouldn't make it hard for you to afford a deck. Decks that have to play Imperms, Ash Blossoms, Droll, Droplets, Nibirus and like, getting all of those in a deck eats up more than a quarter to half of your deck space, zero identifiable archetypes to it, just what you need to run to be meta relevant and all of that will likely cost you over 100 dollars buying as cheap as possible. There is an inherent problem with YGO's prices and it might honestly start with the price of staples. Yes, staples have gone way down in the past few years but it wasn't that long ago you couldn't get 3 Ash's for less than 120. Just 3 cards. That you HAVE to run in EVERY deck. Half of your deck is expensive for staple cards and the other half is a fortune to be an actual deck. That's nuts.

[@banditologic6168]

Yup. I'm in Alberta, the closest locals to me is either an hour North, or two and a half hours South. None inbetween. Awesome.

[@thepotato513]

The closest locals to me is about 1.5 hours away and they have maybe one event a week, and the only events that get really good turnout are prereleases. If I weren't having a lot of fun playing the game with my friends, there would be no reason for me to ever buy cards because trying to make it to every event simply doesn't work

[@davidarreguin6339]

Then when/ if you decide to buy or you pull say something like s:p. Like using that against your casual friends feels like shit lol

[@ShadowCrescent]

Honestly, that is why I'm playing Lab this format. Yea, Transaction Rollback is climbing up there too, but the deck was already really good without it. So, I can just side step it. Along with the fact that the whole core outside of Arias and BWL are very cheap and imho come in a better printing in the Mega Tins. It is the move imho for those that want something still good, but also budget friendly.

[@Yunglex313]

I don't even seeing Transaction Rollback staying as high as it is. The only competitive deck that will be playing it is Labrynth because Traptrix is powercrept out of competitive ladder so unless people really want to play Labrynth over all the fire decks, the price won't stay high for long...hell Cardmarket as the card for only 40 Euro presale versus TCGPlayer's 90 dollars.

[@king_acceler8755]

I picked up lab too, honestly once people start actually opening product next week rollback's probably gonna drop in price significantly. With bonfire, once phni comes out next month there are like 4 different decks that want to play it, but rollback's really only played in lab and super cope tearlament builds.

[@bulbapig441]

I’m playing it for big mommy milkers

[@MoeEpsilon]

It's budget friendly and can steal games, which means Labyrinth will be hit next banlist. Can't have fun at those kinds of prices.

[@draconicepic4124]

This video is the definition of why I'll never pick up the physical card game. There are plenty of hobbies out there significantly less expensive than Yu-Gi-Oh. As someone who is an avid gamer, when I see the cost of Yu-Gi-Oh now days, I think, "Nope, I'm not getting enough value out of the card game to make up the cost." Spending $500+ dollars on cards that will be dead in the water in a season is a horrible value since all it takes is one banlist to make cards unplayable and crash the value of the cards. I can't help but expect Bonfire to get limited like RotA. At this point, they are just milking the player base for as much money as the can before the player base flips their shit. If Konami isn't going to respect the us, I see no reason to respect them.

[@Cybertech134]

So, because you have to pay more money to play the shiny new flavor of the month meta pick, that's why you don't pick up the physical card game? The fact that you think you HAVE to play this stuff is the problem.

[@rosefire1012]

The best solution for it is for Konomi to make 2nd Company that sell cards to consumers with serial number that differs from the packs. that don’t sell rarity like quarter centuries just a base card. Which will not effect rare cards that are price at hundreds of dollars. Making the base cards at a dollar per card making it like 55 dollar for a compete deck. Helping player access to card that were not available to them due to price. This will also increased the amount of yugioh players return or joining with smaller amount to pay to play. Also helps Konami see what decks players are using other than the META. That way they can make more support for other decks people are using for fun. What are your thought on this?

[@mortis8188]

If we had the multiple rarity system that the OCG has opening sealed product would be so much better as well if people had the guarantee that they would get the cards they wanted they would be more willing to buy sealed produc. Instead we are sitting here buying one copy of S:P for over 100€ because that's the only way to reliably get the card.

[@dannylongfellow]

I personally think that staple cards that every deck needs to play shouldn't even be as expensive as they are, all that does is add a barrier of entry to anyone who wants to get into the game. Needing to spend 150+ on staples for someone who just wants to try out a more competitive build of their pet deck is just not reasonable for a lot of people.

[@MrScottishDEMON]

Its always been this bad, you're only just now waking up to it

[@LunarWing6214]

In the end there is only one way to get Konami to notice. Stop buying packs. Hurt their bottom line. Voice your opinion. Play different decks. If your a local shop or running a local tourney, make a custom band list and don't allow the tier 0 engine . Nothing will change unless people voices are heard and you MAKE them notice. The best thing they could do is give us the same rarity printing that the OCG has.

[@Dreycoh]

This was a great video with great views all around. Realistically this situation can help both Konami and the players if Konami is willing to listen to us.

[@philbuttler3427]

They are not.

[@Dreycoh]

@@philbuttler3427 they won’t, but like I said the only realistic way this game is going to survive is by Konami listening to players before we leave for cheaper and fresher card games.

[@lionhartcaelum6833]

I can literally buy 3 meta decks along with a crap ton of meta staples in pokemon tcg for the price of the diabellestar package

[@Hasanex]

DistantCoder no longer distant But these prices sure are

[@Arogoto]

Damn the video quality has been up so much keep up the hard work man

[@four-en-tee]

Just putting this out there now for when prices finally stabilize (i really hope we get reprints soon): you can feasibly run 2 Wanted and 2 Diabellstar just fine in most decks. Its my preferred ratio in Runick lists since i tend to jam a ton of packages in that deck. Hell, i even have 1 Albaz for going second in there since Incredible Ecclesia can SS Albaz. He's basically my out to Naturia Beast, lol. GRANTED, you don't even have to play Diabellstar in Runick. Its just one of many options available to you since Runick is basically a pile deck like Eldlich or Dragon Link at this point. Like, if you want to play a tier 1 budget deck this format, Runick is basically your go to. There's also Lab ig, but you're gonna have to memorize a million rulings for Rollback. Runick's just less boring to pilot, and it can facilitate a ton of different packages so its hard to side against beyond spell floodgates like Anti-Spell. I personally play a micro sized Nouvelles package since the level 4 ritual is a GY shuffler (plus i can play the funny Burger), and Dogmatika works really well with it too and is basically the foundation of my deck's strategy. It just has a ton of different moving pieces, which really pleases my ADD riddled brain.

[@spobendonis3993]

Just normalize proxies, then konami has to be more reasonable about card prices

[@defectivesickle5643]

This is the same energy as "Simply gather a revolution"

[@Geo-ok1nw]

You can play proxies all day long at home

[@invertbrid]

Lul even copy OCG products entirely have much more sense than allowing proxy in official events

[@nikokoutsoulis3357]

I know it would lead to loss of money for Konami but than again it could also lead them to make more money in the long run but, they should just make it just as they have it in the ocg. We should be able to even play their cards over here and visa versa. You want to have a foil out deck amazing pay for it but if you just want to play the deck without spending all the money you should be able to do so too.

[@gerbygerbs7705]

The issue with playing ocg and tcg cards mixed is the difference in manufacturing makes the cards feel different making something like stacking more prevalent or at least ba worry in players heads.

[@nikokoutsoulis3357]

​@@gerbygerbs7705 I'm sure when you're shuffling your deck that is also sleeved you wouldn't be able to feel the difference lol. If that's the case than other tcg games would be doing the same as Konomi, never heard of that problem in mtg.

[@Gorerend]

Thats the majority reason why im glad i just play Digi now lol, at most your expensive cards are the boss monsters that seldom break 30 dollars for the regular arts and dont usually hold for too long if they do with a few exceptions that are splashable components (Shinegrey Ruin Mode, DeathX for example) and that the prices of the cards are mainly held by their Alternate arts. Like ive made a few decks for peeps out of extras parts ive had and the most expensive (was the top meta deck) was still only 210 for the whole thing, and in the same breath ive made fully built out decks with a few alts for less than 30 bucks (cheapest was 17 dollars)

[@gubigubigubigubi]

I think honestly unless goverments step in and say this predatory stuff shoudn't be allowed in a product that is rated for 6 year olds, we are just going to keep seeing them do this. The competitive player base of this game does not care if prices are 100+ dollars a copy for cards. As we have seen they will buy it no matter what.

[@jarlili1946]

My issue is the banlist. Like buying 4-$500 of cards to have 1 card banned and your deck is unplayable is the worst thing ever. Imagine buying 60-70$ game for them to shut down the servers at a random time

[@RobRuckus65]

Then the prices for those cards you bought plummet because they are unplayable so you can't even sell them and get your money back.

[@invertbrid]

Indeed. If ur game is way way cheaper like OCG, if ur deck banned, maybe u still be at least more ok about it as u dont lose whole lot of money in general.

[@TQDT]

My Problems with that game right now are the communication between Konami and their Playerbase is nonexistent or very little and The Pricing.The Pricing Problem is very difficult to change because it just work the way it always do for Konami.But there should be Communication because that would help.

[@r3zaful]

Go play ocg, we are welcoming you to play at duelist cup singapore, Indonesia, taiwan or Malaysia.

[@TQDT]

I played in Vietnam,OCG is chllig and so but the problem is still and always will be Maxx C for me :)

[@r3zaful]

​​@@TQDTkonami asia has been promoting bo1 in both 1vs1 and 3vs3 atm, its Clear that the game direction and design is going to be based bo1 from here onwards, especially during asia final and ycsj japan was held using bo1. Tcg players would be absolutely screwed if they keep the current dueling format, because konami will design more archetypal that made for bo1 and more maxx c proof archetypes from here, tcg will collapse sooner or latter because they are going playing cards that wasnt designed for their format in the first place, better jump to ocg than playing on sinking ship.

[@invertbrid]

​@@r3zafulthats interesting thought. But how TCG will collapse because deck is maxx C proof while they dont have maxx C legal? And how much decks designed with BO1 in mind affect BO3 format, in negative sense? Just curious.

[@VexR6]

Theres another issue from where i play YGO, In Australia we are very behind on OTS either we get very limited amounts or whats happening at the current momment we dont have any and we arnt even up to date on OTS packs. We just got OTS 22 a couple weeks ago even tho 23 is out and soon 24. This game is getting out of hand in terms of product and its not fair on both current and new players. I agree with all your points in the video man, keep up the vids.

[@HIllowder]

I just collect some stuff at this point, i refuse to pay almost 500 for a play set of secret rares. half the time a reprint comes around the card gets hit on the ban list as well which is awful

[@E.F.T.0]

And the worst part is Konami despises people playing good decks and is actually enjoying the game so all of us are gonna spend our monthly salaries on a couple cards that inevitably in like 2-3 months will be limited or banned

[@Repenter0]

Allow X proxies per deck at tournaments. Basically abandon official events for private ones for that the proxies continue flow. It will have a dramatic impact on card values for things like Little Knight which would just end up proxied to hell by almost everyone. This would force Konami to adapt to a situation where any "little knight situation" would just be answered by proxies instead of insane prices/gatekeeping which could get them to change their model to be more inline with the OCG, or perhaps go even further to be more inline with Pokemon. If you don't like proxies just instead have it be OCG cards are legal. They are official yugioh cards, lets fucking play them. You either destroy the OCG card market and upset their domestic audience which will actually get more results than non-Japanese people being upset or again you force Konami to adapt to the situation and produce a more "consumer friendly" set design inline with their OCG releases, Pokemon, etc. At the end of the day thats what it comes down to, you need to actually pull a power move on Konami. You need to make private tournaments without Konami involved that pay out actual prizes/money that allow proxies, OCG cards, something/anything so not only are these tournaments more hyped they are also infinitely more accessible to people as a result.

[@nigamnation]

I would be down for this, but you need people to host these private tournaments. I don't know who would. I'd love for content creators to get involved, but that's very unlikely.

[@Bonifatus]

You can’t use OCG cards because they’re a different material, it makes card marking theoretically possible. Proxies would either have similar issues if you allowed ORICAs or would be an avenue to cheating if not policed intensively if you allowed people to use a substitute card. You could do it, but do you want to run that?

[@nigamnation]

@@Bonifatus ocg cards are theoretically markable because they're different material, but you can use both OCG and TCG cards in the same deck at worlds? Come on, that whole "they're different thickness" shit is such an excuse. Either that, or konami allows card marking at the most prestigious tournament of the year. Pick one

[@pierrechampagne5687]

hobbies are expensive when they give you more then cardboard to hold

[@flayrons5296]

The game might not be that expensive if you are a rogue or a casual player, but if you re a competitive player it feels absurd. This is especially weird in yugioh where compared to magic or pokemon, tournament winning prices are not that significant. You can still play the game competitively as a rogue player and if you re really good you might top big events but it does not concern a majority of the community. I think konami is just greedy and i hope they'll regret it one day.

[@Xiu83]

A thousand bucks, just for some cardboard 😂

[@Sigmaairav]

ikr? it's totally asinine to shell out that kind of cash for paper with pictures and words on it

[@MrTmb64]

Nah fam, a deck shouldn't even cost more than 50$. A hobby isn't yugioh. A hobby is playing card games. Shit's wild, and rich guys coping with the absurd amount of money they've put towards cardboard by brainwashing themselves into thinking this shit is ok is wild

[@MaliEndz]

It is a hobby and hobbies cost money more often than not

[@Sigmaairav]

@@MaliEndz everything costs money, even the right to live and breathe air and drink water. Nothing justifies price gouging, especially in a children's card game. No hobby should be gatekept by the obscenely rich. All hobbies imo should be available to all people of all income brackets, not exclusively the upper-middle class and the top 1%

[@MaliEndz]

@@Sigmaairav you don’t even need to be rich , just having an income and a budget is enough. And you need to identify meta trends early or else yes you will need to pay a premium for good cards. Could have sinful and snake eyes engine under $200. Now its 500, horus you could’ve gotten for 95-120, now it’s almost 200. SP for $70 was a steal compared to the $120 it is now

[@MaliEndz]

@@Sigmaairav have to approach it as stocks and investment as well as a hobby

[@invertbrid]

Agree. Maybe $50 is way too cheap tho but yea like pokemon and digimon around $100 is ideal imo

[@amethonys2798]

What bothers me is we have "multiple rarity" sets from just this year. Even IGNORING Rarity Collection, the core sets all had QCRs of of UR+ cards. If you wanted a blinged out Epurrely Noir you could get one, but the rest of the "plebians" could get the basic UR for like.....$3.

[@aaronmorgan5860]

I'm not sure when Konami will fix this issue. Players will need to create more Rogue decks if they want to compete. Plan, buy, Budget, and compare all the best Rogue options before buying your staples. For most Rogue decks the only new cards you may need are S:P Little Knight and Super Starslayer. A lot of good cards have been reprinted before Age of Overlord. Unlike Dragon Ruler or Tele-Dad formats we have more decks to choose from.

[@thuggishdingus]

Just play Master Duel, she'll only cost 30 UR Dust here

[@zavesmith99]

i was looking up runick's to actually come back to the game, and wanted to grab S:P (not even knowing its meta relavency) just cuz it feels really nice to use a random volcanic + runick fusion into I:P then S:P on opponent's turn, only to see that price tag and think ill just stick with edopro esp seeing how rarely i play with friends anyways

[@Rmeister333]

Another big issue that drives these prices up is the many (underwhelming) releases in Yu-Gi-Oh. With so many sets having a relatively low EV with only a couple good cards, the prices will naturally be going up. It would be much better for both shops and players to not have product release every 3 weeks

[@ikillyomama]

I cannot stress enough that this is a huuuuuuuuge problem. There's only so many cards people actually want, we don't need sets that are 95% pack filler every 3 weeks. Every set basically costs the same at distro, so there's a minimum value that they need to be able to extract from that set and if theres only 2 cards people want in that set guess what's going to be crazy expensive.

[@randommaster06]

Another aspect is Yugioh's (relatively) small casual consumer base. There's not many people opening product for anything but competitive cards, so there's very little supply entering the market aside from what vendors open to sell.

[@Sparda51]

I was excited to play this format because it seemed fun and wanted to play Infernoble as they fire deck of choice but they ban isolde then I was like fine I’ll play fire king it’s fun, then everything is so outrageously expensive I think I’m taking a break until aroma and ritual beast come out and hope those cards aren’t insanely expensive.

[@christianvisperas7438]

I really have been writing this whenever price discussions have been the main topic. My locals has been composed of Middle schoolers and High schoolers, who barely have any sort of income or money. They get their allowance sure but that’s not enough to buy a fully competitive deck. They get scraps from here and there and it’s a God send whenever there’s a good structure deck (Albaz and Traptrix has been a great boon). What these kids do that none of the adults do was to show up every week barring exam weeks or end of the semester. For Yugioh to survive in the future, it needs a sustainable amount of possible people that would like to invest in the hobby and participate in it every week; namely kids. It’s been ridiculous and a total pity whenever a kid is matched up with a blinged out deck. If anything I would like to see these kids get better at the game and potentially be the solid foundation later on when the adults have lost interest or needs newer playerbase. This current model of single rarity may have worked in the past. I wouldn’t really count the 25th Century Rare as rarity variety because it doesn’t really alleviate any prices. I just wish that we have the same rarity that the OCG has.

[@ownagemester]

I will always continue to say this about Yu-Gi-Oh. It's cardboard that Konami wont even credit the artist on. It aint worth a month of rent. I will continue to play simulators.

[@glassman345]

As many problems as there are with Magic, it is really nice that the best cards from newest normal sets really only get up to $30 and a lot of the time and some times cards can have 6 or more different styles in the same sets. We get stuff like rare/rare foil, extended art/EA foil, and alt art/AA foil. It’s a very nice practice that helps prices a bit

[@eternalspitfire9064]

My locals is legit an hour away from me. I sadly work the day they do locals so I only really get to go once a month. And even then its a time crunch to be able to get there, play and make it back to where I work so I can get there on time. It is a smaller locals and Im lucky enough to be able to do well there each time I go (consistently win or place second/third when Im there) so I can get product. But obviously other players arent as lucky.

[@deltagodangel]

Idk if this happened before but I think this format could see a rise in creative and new strategies since most people can't afford this engine and that'd be super cool to see

[@AngryAyrab]

Tele-DAD? Have we forgotten about dragon rulers?

[@Cybertech134]

Zoomers too young to remember anything

[@Gwinnmusic]

I think it's also very important to note that TCG prices are all universal, yet the income in certain regions varies a lot. For example, for many Americans (or some other countries) $1000 may only be just a weekly income, but for many other countries even in Eastern Europe, South America etc. $1000 would be approximately the amount of money they earn in a MONTH, if not in TWO MONTHS. This inequality is the reason why many regions decided to adapt to other formats, and with Asian-English finally being on the rise, you can expect these regions to simply import those MUCH cheaper products and follow that format.

[@minabasejderha5972]

It is too expensive right now. I agree. I'm not sure I agree that staple cards sbould be the expensive ones though, as that makes the already steep barrier to entry to start playing the game even higher, and I think the lack of new blood is a huge problem in the long run. That said, I'm fine with a deck having expensive cards, but I would maybe distinquish between different parts of an engine. I think the starters should be at a low and relatively accessible rarity (in VS, think Raizen and Mad Love) extenders should be at medium rarity (Rock and Stake your Soul), and your bombs should be at high rarity (Caesar and Borger). This does two important things. 1) it makes sets draftable, whichbprovides incentive to buy sealed product instead of singles, and 2) it provides an on-ramp to buying the cards. The first few cards are easy to get, which gets you excited and invested, the next few are a bit more, and only the last third of the core is a real hit. And a year later, in the mega tin, you reprint it shifting down the rarities, with extenders at low, bombs at mid, and starters at high. This means the tins are less draftable, but they aren't draftable anyway. And all of this is doable without doing multiple rarities (which I would certainly support). (Real quick, just a slight correction regarding Magic and Pokemon, one of the big reasons their multiple rarities strategy does well is that it prints cards with multiple alt arts at once, not just in foil and no foil. To be honest, lots of MtG players dislike foils because they warp really quickly.)

In México you hardly get an OTS pack. Not because of stores, the provider doesn't send enough

[@hotdodge65]

Just got back into yugioh and heard about the lightsworn support and started buying edison stuff at first (still not cheap for low rarity) and then found a tear list and realized why I left the game for pokemon 😅 still bought them unfortunately but once im done with the game selling the staples all over again to put towards a house.

[@nathanburton5024]

I live in Australia and prices here are ridiculous, not only are prices here higher due to our dollar being like $1.50 to $1 US, we also have less supply, so venders bump up prises because cards are harder to get, and if you want to buy from the US you’re gonna pay $20+ shipping anyway. I’ve been trying to get Kashtira Fenrir’s to play Scareclaw but instead of the $25 it costs in the US, here it still costs $65 a copy, or buy for US price but pay $20 shipping which is basically the same price anyway