Why Learning Yu-Gi-Oh is So Hard

[@fanboy9472]

they should make a sandbox mode on master duel where you can test rulings so you can see how your deck works

[@aggressiveavocado]

it's called solo mode lol

[@sallas09]

@@aggressiveavocado They mean a mode where you can freely manipulate the cards you have access to so you can perfectly create and test any interaction you want. Like, the mode starts with just your deck; no hand, no GY. You can freely search/draw any card at any time. Pick up and move cards around however you want. And if you go to play a card or activate its effect, the autosim kicks in and plays out the scenario correctly. That way you dont have to start and restart the first Monarch solo duel every time you don't draw the hand you want to test.

[@vo1ce147]

And that's why we have fan simulators like omega and edopro

[@matiaspereyra9392]

@@vo1ce147 you wouldn't believe the amount of people that don't know any of them, that's why maybe it should be on the first party sim and not HAVE to be handled by the community exclusively

[@grodon909]

​@@vo1ce147I dunno, I feel like it makes more sense for the official app to have it, rather than a 3rd party

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

Common perception of Yugioh being difficult because of Synchro, Fusion & Xyz is really damaging conversation. It is complicated because of Spell Speeds, Damage Step Rulings, Missing the Timing, SEGOC, Chain Blocking, Priority, etc. There's also a list of exceptions and the only time a player learns these are in practice with a massive middle finger to their face telling them their combo doesn't work like that. Being punished for experimentation is deterimental to learning.

[@spookyspookat5038]

Problem is, nobody seems to know how to teach the basics of the game and then slowly progress though the Summoning mechanics and rulings. It only seems hard to learn yugioh when you try to learn absolutely everything about the game and not the basic beginner rules.

[@huntersnyder4358]

If only there were a concept popularized online by veterans in the hobby about going through individual sets as the game progressively goes from only having 5 effect monsters to slowly creeping toward longer and longer effects. Offering not just knowledge of rulings and how to play the game, but also what kinds of cards exist that you may not have been aware of otherwise.

[@KimoKeine]

As a new player from MTG, this is correct at least for me. summoning types were easy to learn, looping synchros or spamming XYZ wasn't hard, it was MISSING THE TIMING on some card I tried out. I had to figure things out in solo mode.

[@xRawrC00kiex]

If a lot of weird rulings rely on precedent because the player’s have to spend time arguing over ambiguous text and weird card interactions then that’s a bit too much. Basically just law school at that point

[@najawin8348]

@@KimoKeine Also the fact that "failing to find" doesn't exist, or that some rulings are literally just "Konami says so". (eg, Dangers under Droll)

[@jirehjirehjirehjireh]

The main learning curve of Yugioh is that in order to counter a specific deck correctly, you basically have to learn that deck deep enough that you could play it yourself. It’s why someone with a rogue deck who’s played for 5+ years will usually beat a player who’s on tier 1 but only played for ~1 year.

[@nightmare674]

Yup. My current deck is stronger than my friend's decks but I tend to do bad in locals since everyone knows it, so they know how to counter and defeat it. On the other hand, one of my friends used his Melodious deck and he actually had beaten a lot of people because they understimate him and most people don't know anything about it.

[@pedrofelipefreitas2666]

That's... Not true? You might lose to a tier 2 deck if yours is tier 1, but winning against a rogue deck is not a problem, you can likely just remove/negate everything they do, and if you can't it's very unlikely they have the power to knock you out, because if they were consistent, resilient and powerful they wouldn't be rogue.

[@jirehjirehjirehjireh]

@@pedrofelipefreitas2666 When I say rogue I'm not referring to bottom tier stuff like U.A. or Red-Eyes. There are many decks below tier 2 that were top tier just 1-2 years ago, yet can still see competitive play when piloted by a veteran player. Sunavalon and Prank-Kid were considered rogue at best in their respective times, before they were piloted by high skill players who used their more extensive game knowledge to leverage over more proven decks.

[@agunemon]

The older games had "duel puzzles" that give you a scenario some have multiple answers but most have 1 right answer and this teaches how to optimize the sequence if effects as well as teaching nuances of the rules.

[@marinhaalternativa3829]

gba gx was my favorite

[@Aleexsoyyo]

@@marinhaalternativa3829 same!!!!

[@TheRealDangerFrank]

Learning to play Yugioh is like learning English as a second language. People are looking for logic were there is none all rules seem random and you just have to memorize it.

[@torbenmeyercobourgrailfan9315]

Actually it is more like first year law..

[@pedrofelipefreitas2666]

As someone who is both ESL and learned ygo recently (2021), i can tell you english is way less coherent rule-wise than ygo lol

[@EricGoingCrazy]

This, for example the pronuciation of words, in vocals changes just randomly

[@tumage8592]

In language terms its more like latin where there are a Ton of more rules but 1/3 of the words are special cases that may or may not follow special rules or you just have to know how they specifically work

[@ClaudioVarone3299]

What? Lol

[@Zetact_]

I believe that a game with an actually fun and rewarding campaign mode is an unexplored way to learn the game. Even way back in the day the simplest way to learn the game was with something like Eternal Duelist Soul or Nightmare Troubador or Tag Force and the reason why those games were so good is because they gave you a few gimmies really early in the game that you can roll over if you don't really know what you're doing but then by the time you get to the endgame you're dealing with some really creative and sometimes even meta staple decks. And the incentive wasn't necessarily just "you're learning the game" like a Tutorial mode but more "You're seeing the next part of the story." The "you get a brief tutorial of the basics and then some Solo Mode gates that you probably don't even really pay attention to and then online play" is basically like the if Devil May Cry games said, "You can play on Human difficulty, or Dante Must Die, and there is no in between to build up your knowledge, skill and confidence."

[@phearunos5201]

This is good. They kind of have the right idea with solo mode, but it should go further for teaching the game itself in addition to showing different archetypes.

[@Keisuki]

Nightmare Troubadour is the only reason I've been able to get this far at all. Those games were really good for learning back in the day, because you build up the complexity of your deck over time. I don't think anything like that will really work for modern Yugioh though, the game is just fundamentally different.

[@ItsPForPea]

@@KeisukiNah, it does work. ...just that the campaign will have to be 50+ hours starting from the earliest days to the current meta

[@Keisuki]

@@ItsPForPea I'm down!

[@luminous3558]

@@Keisuki It works, the current meta isn't that complex and the biggest hurdle is new players starting from absolute 0 knowledge. Just slowly getting them a basic understanding of how Yugioh interacts with itself is really good. A lot of current yugioh is just older yugioh but the cards do what 2-3 cards did back then, so if you understand all the effects individually then you can understand the new card.

[@HeavyMetalMouse]

As a player firmly entrenched in the Magic: the Gathering scene, and accustomed to its flavor of lawyer-like rules, the differences here feel really sharp. When I say M:tG is lawyer-like, it's because the Comprehensive Rules and the Oracle, the combined repository of all definitive rules knowledge in the game, are laid out like a legal text, and with some effort, even the most tangled rules question can be teased through using only official sources (with only a very few unfortunate exceptions). The game has a very specific language of tap symbols, colons, When/Whenever's, If/Instead's, and If You Do's that, once you're used to, is designed to always work the same way. When an obscure combination of rules causes some novel interaction in a game, usually the people looking at the cards will go "Oh, I see how that works, all the individual pieces make sense, I just never thought about how they might interact that way." When you say YGO is lawyer-like, I imagine an Ace Attorney court of Objection! and Gotcha! and "Hold it!", where secret information is brought in from outside the matter that you couldn't possibly have found looking only at 'official' sources, and it changes everything about how you understand how a card or interaction works, and where something that says it does a thing really really doesn't do that thing at all, despite saying it does, because it Misses the Timing, or does/doesn't target properly, despite that not being at all clear on the card itself. When an obscure combination of rules causes some novel interaction in a game of YGO, the thing I hear most often is swearing, exactly for the reason this video suggests: you can tell me all day that I 'should have looked it up', but where and how, pray tell, am I supposed to look it up, when there is no good official source that everyone comes back to and can agree is the central source? How do I know this card targets, despite not saying the word target on it, but that other one doesn't target, despite saying that it does? Why is it that a card can say it does something, with no other card saying that thing can't happen, but the card still not do what it says because it uses the wrong word between when/if and so it misses its chance to do it? Magic is a complicated game, with a lot of rules, but at the end of the day, all those rules have a unified purpose - to try and make the cards do what they say they do as cleanly as possible, and resolve any conflicts that come up in the most consistent way they can. Compared to that, the complexity of YuGiOh feels like a chaotic, ad-hoc framework, where the cards doing what they say is secondary to some other, inscrutable goal.

[@r3zaful]

Literally pull my phone mid duel for interaction lmao.

[@mikhailgilgur3636]

Good response, lol

[@XandiG]

They're both lawyer-like rules, you just know MTG's rules better. Missing the timing, while a dumb concept, is covered by those same "very specific language" of When's and If's (and Also, After That, Then, If You Do.) Cards that target are cards that use the exact word "target" in the text - and after Problem Solving Card Text (PSCT), the only cards that do target but don't specify that they target are cards from 2011 or earlier that haven't been reprinted yet.

[@Eemi_Seppala]

@@XandiG But as it was stated in the video: it would be nice to have some place where you can look up or study these laws and rules. So yes, it's safe to assume HeavyMetalMouse knows mtg rulings better since those are more accessible and not nearly as card reliant as in ygo.

[@RoflCannon6]

@@XandiGnah it’s not that he knows MTG’s rules better, it’s that MTG does a better job of defining its rules and interactions than Yugioh does. You can teach someone how to play Magic in less than an hour, hell maybe even less than 30 minutes, and they’re good to go from there. Try to teach someone how to play yugioh and you’ll be there for the whole day and even then, they probably won’t fully grasp it. Especially if you are teaching them in person with good old fashion cardboard. You’ll basically be piloting their deck for them as they sit in the back seat and try to figure out what the heck you’re doing.

[@kylianos3907]

In my experience learning how to play against archetypes is a lot easier IRL than in simulators. People across the table tend to be very helpful if you just ask them what you did wrong or where you should interrupt them. (After the round of course)

[@LibertyMonk]

Well, sure, playing against friendly experts is way better than anonymous jerks. But there's a huge accessibility barrier to finding nice people to play with, and building a physical deck.

[@JesterQueenAnne]

​@@LibertyMonkyou can find friendly people online and play in Dueling Book, since it's a manual simulator it does a good job simulating paper Yugioh. It's usually my go to when deck building and testing with a friend.

[@Dinosaurman34]

It gets to a point in yugioh where a lot of the questions of how to use cards (new or old) with weird restrictions comes down to intuition and experience based on similar cards you’ve encountered or played in the past. Which does lead to a lot of misuse and questions as to whether it’s a requirement or a cost.

[@MothFable]

Grew up on Pokémon, tried yugioh, got confused, swapped to magic. I enjoy magic a lot more, and I enjoy how ( at least to me) the depth comes less from a card being a book and more several cards doing interesting things together.

[@blastchaos4286]

The depth in Yugioh isn't in the card text, reading the cards is an entry level skill.

[@kirbymamado4797]

Magic is a thousan times better than YuGiOh But, entering yugioh, at least where i live, is much much easier. The community here is small, and the cost of a simple deck to play is enormous. Even the structures are expensive against ygo For example, you could buy 3 fire king structures decks (30$) and another ~50$ in staples and an engine, and there you go, a pretty cheap but good deck to play in locals Magic is more complicated and expensive on that. At least by now, i just play magic on arena but ygo in locals

[@tam8498]

The funny thing is that even reverse engineering in master duel only works to a certain extent, as some ruling mistakes have been found. For example, Master duel lets you activate monster gate while iblee is on your side of the field. There's also the whole "who activates the effect?" in the triple tactics and chimera guardian scenario; in master duel nobody activates the effect. So I would recommend trying it in fan-made simulators AND asking several judges over over multiple discord servers as well as consulting the OCG database. And before anyone jumps in saying "fAnMaDe sImUlAtOrS ArE UnReLiAbLe" note that I emphasized "AND asking several judges"

[@MrMaddog994]

Some of these may be discrepancies due to different rulings in different territories since ocg has different ruling’s compared to tcg sometimes. Although idk about the iblee

[@tam8498]

@@MrMaddog994 This is true, but the ones I mentioned have relevant rulings in the ocg database and master duel contradicts them, but hopefully it's been updated since I last checked?

[@themoonlitduelist7395]

just ask the ruling zone

[@francisharkins]

Don't forget issues that go against the cards themselves in MD. Such as Danger! where your OPPONENT is supposed to pick the card at random. Instead Danger! Is picked by the user which allows for easy specific picking of either the Danger! For an extra body or a draw 1. I prefer Master Duel over TCG though to be honest. There is so much rule sharking at locals. Plus its more affordable compared to the TCG second market.

[@r3zaful]

​@@tam8498 ocg rulings When resolving "Monster Gate", if the effect of "Vanity's Emptiness" is being applied, since you cannot Special Summon any monster, no card is excavated from the Deck. (Cards are not sent to the Graveyard and no monster is Special Summoned.) When resolving "Reasoning", if the effect of "Vanity's Emptiness" is being applied, since you cannot Special Summon any monster, no card is excavated from the Deck. (Cards are not sent to the Graveyard and no monster is Special Summoned.) Yes you can activate as long as these criteria met 1. There's a card in your deck that You can normal summon or even under vanity fiend. 2. No cards like constelar diamond on the field Iblee doesn't stop you from activating it.

[@NARFNra]

One of the funnier things is that there actually is a YGO rulebook like how MTG has one, just it's only made in Japan. It's called The Perfect Rulebook. That said, even its existence doesn't make it easy to look up stuff like the difference between random phrasings... I think one of the things that makes YGO so hard is that you don't know what's going to lose you a game a lot of the time until it's too late to do anything about it. Like, sitting on Compulse too long and opponent makes a Trap negate, and then you just can't interact anymore and it's the end of the game. It hurts doubly worse when you don't recognize the situation for it and it happens again... and vs a completely novel deck you might have no idea when it's going to happen. There's a lot of situations like that. Of course, I think this is less troublesome in older formats where not being able to interact for one turn doesn't instantly lose you the game all the time...

[@snowboundwhale6860]

Indeed, the game can change very abruptly to a "I simply lose" position out of seemingly nowhere if you didn't already know the line, and there's also plenty of examples where firing off your interaction "early" will lose you the game as well because they can play through it at those points. Unfamiliar decks are often something you don't entirely learn how to deal with until after the game's already over, up until then it's just trying to make do with what you've already seen and what you know that could lead to.

[@fernandobanda5734]

Yu-Gi-Oh! has a rules document in Japan? NO WAY. Why don't we get that?

[@HenshinFanatic]

​@@fernandobanda5734 because "f you filthy gaijin" is practically Konami's mantra.

[@mrosskne]

How did you guys learn to play without a rulebook?

[@NARFNra]

@@mrosskne It wasn't very easy. I used the official tools like Duel Links and made a ton of mistakes all the time + looked up ruling videos out of curiosity. I basically just kept getting owned by interactions I didn't realize functioned that way and trying to remember stuff so I didn't lose the same way over time. It's a little frustrating lol. The closest thing to a reliable source is looking up, like, wiki pages with translations of rulings, which is kind of sad.

[@starjadiancloneinvestigato1772]

yu-gi-oh desperately needs an officially supported old school method like edison or goats BUT the game grows from there, like how runescape made osrs

[@TheMasterBlaze]

Card Activations and Effect Activations are frustratingly 2 differnet things. You learn this very quickly with specific card negations like Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion.

[@bigO26]

Well yes, it literally says the difference in the name

[@cahyovarella496]

@@bigO26 new players don't even know the term "card activations". Activate "Card Name" and Activate the effect of "Card Name" are pretty similar looking.

[@someguy7448]

@@bigO26 The main point is that newer players will think they are one and the same because some cards, as you probably know, do stay on the field. However when the card's text is used, it's not exactly activating the card, you're activating it's effect which is a concept that games like magic, Pokemon TCG and Vanguard (afaik on this one) don't really use.

[@cephalosjr.1835]

@@someguy7448 Magic actually does recognize a difference between activating a card and activating a card effect! In Magic, the equivalent of activating a card is casting a spell. This moves the card you cast from wherever it is to a zone called the stack, where players can affect it with spells and abilities before it resolves. (The stack resolves in FILO order, like a Chain does.) Meanwhile, the equivalent of activating a card effect is activating an activated or triggered ability. This puts the ability on the stack, but does not move the card to the stack. Like in Yugioh, activated and triggered abilities are different from spells, and cards that say “counter target spell” will fail to affect activated and triggered abilities. (Like how a card that says “Spell Card” only works with Spell Cards and not Spell effects unless it also says “Spell effect” or says “Spell Card or effect”.)

[@waltercardcollector]

I 100% agree. In most other TCGs, they have what they call the "comprehensive rules" which is a document you can download from the website that has every single rule in it, so you can use it to find the solution to any situation that comes up in your game. But I've never ever been able to find an official one for Yugioh! Having something like this would make clearing up distinctions between differently worded cards so easy compared to having to ask on forums or search through three different wikis.

[@mrosskne]

How do people learn to play the game without a rulebook?

[@thebonderman8811]

​@@mrossknethe community mostly. Solo mode doesnt help much at all besides basics. Its the discords and youtubers who make in depth guides and tutorials to the game, and even after watching them I still cant build a deck without help lol

[@mrosskne]

@@thebonderman8811 Ok, but where did those people learn the game if there is no rules document for them to reference?

[@andremarques1088]

​​@@mrossknemy dude, most of the people watched the Anime, when they were kids, me included, that must answer your question. Also playing in school with other kids.

[@mrosskne]

@@andremarques1088 lol

[@ericsoloconc]

The best part of yugi rulings is that, because of it, I ended trying and loving MTG because now I could understand what I was playing. :D

[@Grayewick]

because MTG is idiot-proof. take it however you will

[@randomprotag9329]

@@Grayewick you joke but the MTG rule book is so good that it handles the most complicated with ease. even the people trying to make unrulable situations have a hard time.

[@GrapeCheckerBoard]

For anyone wondering, you can indeed activate Simorgh Onslaught from your hand and then use its graveyard effect in the same turn. That’s how it works in Duel Links, at least.

[@Sterl500]

And if your curious about the why, here's the reason. When a Spell/Trap card says that "you can only activate 'card name' once per turn" it is referring solely to the act of placing that card face up on the field from your hand or flipping one that is face down on the field to face up. This is what is known as "activating a spell/trap card", and this particular restriction is more complicated than the same one listed on a monster card due to the one-time nature of most spells and traps. When you activate a spell or trap's effect any other time, it is referred to as "activating a spell effect or trap effect". In this case, the restriction on Simorgh Onslaught does not apply to the GY effect due to this separation. As far as I know there's not really a distinction made in the rule book, so this kind of mechanic is one you really only learn when it comes up and someone has to explain it to you.

[@kamizakip3820]

I find that playing Yugioh in English is extremely difficult(English is my first language) but playing in Japanese is so much easier due to how the effects are written out. Im an avid ocg player irl that only uses casual decks to have fun with friends but when master duel came, all of us had lots of difficulties playing it as reading the English effects was confusing. I have an easier time reading English but more often than not, I would just check the Japanese text to understand how cards work lol

[@SakuraAvalon]

The sad thing is, Yu-Gi-Oh! guide book is the players. And you know how reliable that is. As a veteran of the game, I understood immediately how Onslaught worked, but I can see the confusion of a new player.

[@StarboyXL9]

This video helped me understand why I found it so effortless to learn Yugioh while others struggle: I'm literally just out-reading them at a million miles an hour.

[@midas2323]

Yeah I literally didn't get that I was just... actually reading. They say yugioh players don't read but I did so I started winning.

[@jirehjirehjirehjireh]

@@midas2323It’s genuinely shocking how much easier it is to understand a game state and potential win conditions when you simply read card effects in full. Even YCS topping players fail to just finish reading sentences.

[@midas2323]

@@jirehjirehjirehjireh people talk about "secret effects" like my brother in Christ read the card 😭

[@dungcheff7470]

​@@midas2323isn't it a joke? 😂

[@redace4821]

​@@midas2323Not reading is basically a joke. People just lazy. There is however, people who actually don't bother reading the card, well now than that just a them problem.

[@shadou1234567]

I am sorry but the fighting game analogy works perfectly. Just... anime fighters? Try blazblue for exemple, that has so many knowledge check characters. A dancer that deals more chip damage that being hit is actually a better strategy(if you have no barrier), a atack on titan kid that hard punishes you for spaming air tech. The lowest HP character having a healing mechanic if he hits you making him rush down hard. A samurai that deals more damage on counter hit that has a parry so he slow down the match a lot. This all i can kinda translate on yugioh cards that : punish you hard for targeting them, mill oponents that want you to max C them, decks that want to go second to counter your board but sucks going first. I really think matchups in fighting games are similar to yugioh on the knowledge check depending on the game you playing. Of course other fighting games have this too. Guilty gear and dragon ball also have knowledge check mechanics but i think the stuff is... you learn how your character/deck works as you slowly learns how your oponent one work. If its a common character you might learn how to bait and punish much more easily, but if its a character you never seen before he might be either trash or a god playing an unpopular pick. Rogue Madolche rise up!

[@monkfishy6348]

Activating a Spell/Trap [card], is the act of placing it (or flipping it) face up on the field. This is different to activating a Spell/Trap [effect]. This is why cards that negate the activation of Spell/Trap [cards], can't also negate Spell/Trap [effects], e.g Simorgh Onslaught's GY effect. Or why effects that trigger when a Trap [card] is activated, e.g Traptrix Sera, don't activate when a Trap [effect] is activated in the GY. But I agree. In general rulings are stupidly difficult to find. One I tried to find recently was, "If I activate a card which forces the [opponent] to send a card from the field, is the card they send considered to be 'leaving the field by the opponent's card'?!" I know the game distinguishes between acting upon the opponent who then acts (or can't) upon a card and acting upon cards directly. So I wasn't sure and still aren't.

[@emilianoflcn]

If the card forces player action it isn't by card or card effect. So in your example no, it doesn't trigger the " by opponents card" effect

[@someguy7448]

@@emilianoflcn Actually, it does trigger; monkfish's card states that it sends a card from the field and the opponent's card doesn't state either by battle or by card effect, it just states "card", therefore it is a catch-all term that basically makes the card say "whatever the fuck happens to get me off the field, if it resolves and I leave, my effect will trigger, regardless of how it was acheived." HOWEVER, that only applies if it gets sent to the banish pile or GY, and NOT back the Extra Deck or Deck. If it's sent back to deck or ED, the effect cannot and WILL NOT RESOLVE BY ANY MEANS. For example, Mirrorjade has that same style of effect, where if it leaves the field by an opponent's card, doesn't matter if by battle or by card effect, the second it does, it triggers, activates, but doesn't apply it's effect until the End Phase.

[@baileydombroskie3046]

Well I learnt this ruling sorta thru a deck i played lots long time ago, cyber angels. This was b4 they got the newest support. I learnt how this works thru dakini. She does not effect or target the card, she forces the opp to send there monster to the GY. It's considered a game action I believe. I tested it by using her effect while my buddy had only ancient gear howitzer. Howitzer went bye bye.

[@rubedog961]

reminds me of the first time I encountered Evenly Matched, and foolishly chose my Ultimate Falcon to be banished, thinking it would remain on the field because of it's immunity to opponent's card effects

[@lil_villian5124]

Advanced dueling computer: "After analyzing the duel monsters rulebook, I concluded that no card game could be so unnecessarily complicated, therefore I wiped the rules from my memory" Kaiba: "Even the most advanced computer in the world can't figure out this game!" Mokuba: "What a digital dummy!"

[@randommaster06]

Like many other aspects of this game, Konami has put the burden of teaching new players on the fans rather than do anything themselves.

[@Kirabetas]

I'll always use this as an example to why Yu-Gi-Oh! needs help with rulings that most normal people wouldn't gather from just looking at the card: "Pot of Avarice" Target 5 monsters in your GY; shuffle all 5 into the Deck, then draw 2 cards. You'd think this card allows you to activate it on a single card in your deck, because this effect would allow you to fill your deck back up from 1 card to 6. But because there isn't the word 'and' before the word 'then,' these two things happen in tandem, but trigger at the same time, and as such, it cannot be activated.

[@SirBroadsword]

This alone is enough to make Yu-Gi-Oh not worth playing. That is so dumb I can't even begin to elucidate how dumb it is.

[@Kirabetas]

@@SirBroadsword I still believe Yu-Gi-Oh! is worth playing, but the game has needed some changes. Better card layouts, keywords, and the like are needed, but with how long the game has existed in it's state, I don't think they can ever change that.

[@shein360]

I wish there was an advanced rulebook. I don't understand timing at all. I get spell speeds but monster effects confuse me. How are they faster than a counter trap? I don't get it. How do I know what ones are faster?

[@WakoDoodle]

This is why I use an exodia deck for master duel ranking. It requires less though besides "draw cards, get 5 exodia." and if I lose, it isn't the deck or skill, just bad rng or luck. Plus Exodia is one of the few decks that wins in it's own rules that cannot be negated when activated. It's lazy yeah, but it's less of a headache.

[@baileydombroskie3046]

After watching this vid a few times I think I just figured out and realized wat simorgh onslaught OPT clause means. K so when u activate a normal spell u r activating a card, not an effect. When u activate a spell that is in GY or already on field then u r activating a spell effect. Simorgh onslaught says in its last sentence “you can only activate 1 “simorgh onslaught” per turn.” This clause is referring to the card itself, not the effects of the card with its name. This means that u can only activate itself once per turn but the effects that r not apart of activating it as a card do not count. All this means is the 1st effect, that is the effect u use when u activate the card, is under a HOPT restriction, while the 2nd effect that u activate from GY is not subject to any per turn clauses. That is how I interpret it. If I am wrong in any way pls correct me in a reply.

[@YukiFubuki.]

you are correct, cards can only be activated from the hand (except monster, they never activate as a “card”) anywhere else is simply activating the effect(s) of the card

[@ponyhorse291]

One of the best ways to explain stuff like "I can't do this thing when I feel like I should" with cards like Rivalry of Warlords is "If you can't fully do an action , you can't begin to try it". Another example that catches people off guard is Lumina, Lightsworn Druid. - What does the monster do? Discards 1 card then targets a lightsworn in gy to special summon. - What is the question? If Lumina discards a card, which can be chosen to be special summoned, why can't I use the effect if I have no targets in gy? - Why is it a question? Because of how it is worded, Lumina can technically target the same card you discarded if it is a lightsworn monster. - What is the answer? Because you can't fully resolve an effect, with the current gamestate, you can't try to activate it.

[@sebay4654]

And DDD is my actual favourite in Yu-Gi-Oh to play

[@shiaakatsuki7865]

Suddenly, it makes sense why there would be an entire school just to teach a card game. On that topic, here is a possible question on the middle school grad test if Duel Academy actually taught Modern YGO: Your opponent has a Continuous Spell A activated, which has a SOPT effect to burn for 500 LP whenever your opponent activates a Spell Card. (The effect of A hasn't been activated this turn.) You have an activated Field Spell B is a floodgate for your opponent's S/T effect activation. You then activate a Field Spell C that has a search effect. Can your opponent activate the burn effect of Continuous Spell A in response to the activation of your Field Spell C? Elaborate your answer.

[@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece]

So far the best reasoning for why it is what it is. Is: "The cards where designed in Japanese and the translation is clunky if we are being generous." Because everything else just boils down to: "It's unclear for the sake of increasing the barrier of entry." Which I find very unlikely. The first one absolutely makes sense seeing they way YGO evolved. It's a game based on an anime. Yes, that anime is based on a manga, but read the first few books of that manga and you will get it. It's not about the card game until Konami sold the cards after the anime. And after that the manga shifted drastically in theme as it got dragged after the card game. That took off because of the anime and printing money via trading cards. And about 15 years ago the card game slowly power crept its way into actually feeling like the anime. Now sets cycle like Dragonball escalation. Whoever gets a new transformation is now playable. At the beginning like all other games they had no clue how to balance their game. (Pokemon rewrote their entire system on how to use Trainer cards and magic just banished the old cards to the shadow realm, I mean legacy.) So even the first set has cards broken beyond any semblance of sense. Like Pot of Greed (how about shrinking effective decks size by 1? At the cost of sometimes drawing 2 cards instead of 1. Oh wait, that's also good).

[@cephalosjr.1835]

The reason the card text is so difficult is because it’s intended to completely clarify how to perform every effect when paired with a rulebook…a rulebook we haven’t got.

[@kevinlee5753]

I got out in 2008 and got back in around late 2021 and it took me a year before I was finally ready to start playing competitively. I didn't really find it too difficult to learn especially since so many KZbin channels like the duel logs actually teach it very well. I went from not knowing about these new mechanics too playing in tear format 😂

[@Joe-xx2ri]

keep doing what you're doing man. ngl i was surprised when i saw the sub count. thought there would be more

[@leafninja-fox5713]

To be fair, while I 100% agree with what you said. I ironically never understand why I get so destroyed in fighting games, I've always thought the metaphor for yugioh was pretty accurate. I like yugioh for the fact it's my 'complicated game' of choice, since I do not have the skill of good reflexes, but can have the 'skill of the mind' sort to speak.

[@zaneassefa7711]

Cards like "there can only be one" have caused the most judge call in my playtime. Its so complicated that there is a whole site for the rulings of such cards

[@draconicmeta846]

I 100% agree with your takes, however, I also have to add that since Yugioh is such a complex game playing in-person events such as locals helps a lot often times players are willing to help out other players I understand that this sort of defeats the purpose of learning the game on your own which is why I agree with the video, but as of now your best option would probably be to ask questions at your local tournaments to players and judges alike. If this proves to be a challenge you can also use duelingbook which should help a lot more as playing on ranked judges can be called at any given time. If you need as well I can try to assist, I am an RC-Level 1 judge so I know how majority of interactions work with each other. Hope this helps out anyone

[@louistech112]

Ygo is a game that you either was young and grew with it and learned or your new and will never fully grasp .

[@Bigdude0444]

I play Duel Links personally. As for how to learn, I say just play. No better way to absorb information than hands on experience through trial and error. Especially in a video game form of the card game. It knows the rules and all of the possible interactions so you just have to figure them out for the cards you like/want to use.

[@SarielPriv]

For future reference if anyone wants, an activation is generally when you put the card on your field. Basically it’s like saying “Card Activation”, not to be confused with “Effect Activation.” Putting something like Cursed Eldland (the Eldlich continuous spell) on the board ACTIVATES the spell and since it’s continuous it stays there, but afterwards in an open game state after the activation resolves you have to declare the EFFECT to search. For example, if you activate the Cursed Eldland spell you can use Solemn Judgment to negate the ACTIVATION, but if it resolves and they activate the EFFECT, solemn judgment doesn’t work since it only negates ACTIVATIONS. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss targets a card on the field and negates it’s EFFECTS, not ACTIVATIONS. Another practical example with “can only activate once per turn”: Ash Blossom on Branded Fusion? No more Branded Fusion for the turn, since Ash negates the EFFECT. Solemn Judgment on Branded Fusion? If they have another Branded Fusion, they can activate it again since the Solemn Judgment negates ACTIVATIONS and any card whose activation was negated successfully does not count towards “can only activate 1 once per turn”. However, “can only USE this effect once per turn” does not care if the effect or activation was negated, you cannot use it again. Probably the most confusing one since USE and ACTIVATE are used differently

[@SarielPriv]

And oh yeah, it’s considered an effect and not an activation for spell/traps if they’re not literally being placed on the field, generally speaking. So for the OP on the Simorgh card, yes you can activate the card and use the graveyard effect in the same turn. You can only activate the card once per turn, but the graveyard effect can be used multiple times since that effect has no restrictions

[@redace4821]

Yep, using Branded Fusion under Lost versus Ash is also my go to example to explain Card Activation and Effects activation.

[@IC-23]

For simorgh onslaught it should be fairly easy. You should only be able to activate it from hand once per turn but you should be able to use it's effect in GY since you sre activating an effect of simorgh onslaught, not simorgh onslaught itself

[@YukiFubuki.]

yup, only spell and traps activate as cards from hand while activating the effects of spell/trap and monster do not count as activating the card itself but their effects

[@Binzob]

Still overly difficult to understand especially for new players.

[@carpedm9846]

But also "I am not activating the card, Im activating the effect of the card, unlike when I first activated its effect by activating the card" is gibberish for new players. Its like explaining "nono, Evenly Matched makes you, the player, banish the cards, so it gets rid of immune monsters as well, because the card isnt effecting the monster, its effecting the player"

[@emilianoflcn]

​​@@carpedm9846Also, since you can't face-down banish tokens it means you're forced to keep the token

[@bzibubabbzibubab420]

They need to implement training mode or something so you can test your combo with undo button

[@DekuLord]

You forgot the existential nightmare that is card evaluation. If I say there's a card whose effect is "Send one Level 2 light machine from your deck to your graveyard" as a new player you have no way of knowing whether that card is absolute dogshit or the linchpin of a tier 0 deck, because its effect is reliant on the abilities of the cards it affects. In Yugioh pretty much every card is like this making it a nightmare for new players to try and evaluate cards since they don't have any knowledge of the card pool.

[@MaxLC69]

When i teach someone yugioh i now always start with speed duels and no extra deck except fusions I can get someone to roughly understand and play the game in less than 2 hours using this method (then its just about teaching an additional summoning method the next time i meet that person)

[@nagitokomaeda5977]

great video! can't wait for josh to react to it

[@ketzalo7005]

this video was aboslutely great, I agree as a YGO player that came back to the game with Master Duel, please, keep the good content coming, hope your channel blows as crazy.

[@Bio_liquid0]

Yugioh is probably hard to learn from scratch so my following anecdote probably doesnt hold up; i didnt play a lot as a kid. It was mostly playground shenans with random cards id own. It wasnt until the end of highschool that i got back into it after learning about Madolche. I never went to locals but i always played with it on EDO. All i knew was how to get out the Queen and swing for.... about 5k dmg before passing. Fast forward to Master Duel i had recreated that very same deck only to learn about Maxx C, Ash Blossom, and other really oprresive archetypes that shut me down. From there learning Yugioh has been fun. Trying different archetypes i never knew about and passively learning about being able to cover your effects with other effects in a chain (chain blocking). Imo i dont feel yugioh is all that hard to learn its gaining the desire to learn it is where the difficulty lies. My solution ive used to teach my friends was to treat the game as a fighting game and told them to pick an archetype and we'd duel a few times while answering any questions or entertain any ideas that sprung up.

[@mintagenart]

There are ways to speed read through cards. Look for quick effects on your turn, hotp with great effects to consider disrupting, trigger effects and cost. If the game just taught people what to look for when reading, people would have an easier time parsing the game. Also some rulings that come up often like destruction vs negation, and missing the timing.

[@Tony4You]

This is an insanely well made video! I'm here before you blow up!

[@redisthewaytogo4373]

Quick explanation, you can only activate 1 spell "Simorgh Onslaght" per turn, BUT you can activate both of its effects that same turn. So you can use it to add 2 simorgh monsters with different attributes, AND reduce the levels of 1 when the spell card hits the graveyard. It's SUPER easy to learn how the wording works. There's typically cards that'll let you know that you can only activate an effect per turn and only 1 effect, meaning you can only activate 1 of two effects. If it doesn't state that, then you can in fact use both. There's also cards that will let you know that you can only activate their effects if a turn has passed. Wandering wild king is a great example of this. "During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY". It's all in the writing mate, that's why most people say "As long as you know how to read, you know how to play"

[@BlueCardGanks592]

So the difference is “Activate this card” vs “Activate this card’s effect”? Still a terrible way to phrase it. In MTG it would be Cast vs Activate which gives a intuitive difference

[@redisthewaytogo4373]

@@BlueCardGanks592 terrible yeah, but he’s still making a valid point. It’s not easy learning yugioh, but it is definitely fun. For me at least. There’s tons of cards and tons of archetypes. Including mono-type decks like water that have insane synergy with diff archetypes. I’m just here to help others understand card effects.

[@robo-raven2157]

they literally just need to translate that one site that judges use to check rulings. It has a lot of reliable info, yet it's only in japanese.

[@Squarcialupi]

Surely those rulings are only for OCG, and therefore doesn't apply to the TCG or master duel.

[@FakeDadRealFriend]

@@SquarcialupiYou're half right. Master Duel uses OCG rulings, NOT TCG. So it would at least apply to Master Duel

[@wolfboy414_lac]

The sad part is that there is not really a TCG rulings source. It's pretty much exactly "what official Konami judges say at events", while the OCG gets an entire digital library of rulings, FAQs, and general tips.

[@Felnal]

@@Squarcialupi While the TCG does have its own rulings, the OCG rulings are the default for any card/interaction that hasn't received an official TCG ruling.

[@HazeEmry]

I dropped dota for about 5 years at this point. Still remember every little nuance and it still makes me happy. Thanks for this video. I didn't need ruling helps or points to further push the fact that the mechanics in ygo is convoluted but I'm glad I watched

[@steeveedragoon]

Usually when I learn a new meta deck, it's either because I want to play it, or I just learn about what it does on the fly. Not saying that the second method is particularly great, but it works for me well enough. I play such a wide variety of strategies anyways, I feel like I have a decent enough time figuring out what the chokepoints of different decks are. In a complete contrast to the statement I just made, I need to learn the unchained matchup more, as it doesn't really have any chokepoints. Honestly, I fear the moment that they start running shifter, as it counters the decks 2 biggest counters, Bystial druiswurm and Abyss dweller. Sure, the tradeoff can be a bit harsh, but I feel like it's preferable to not being able to play under dweller at all, or losing something to druiswurm.

[@1314Bn]

I wish the physical yu gi oh rush duel card game came to the west.

[@anacreon212]

I have actually thought about it but yugioh could actually be converted pretty easily to a keyword style format since we(the community) kind of use keywords to describe card effects already. We will call cards a "towers" or a "Farfa" or this is a "Rota" or this is a "stratos" , etc. we are basically using older cards' effects to describe other cards. Using this we can easily make effects far easier to understand or read. for example the searcher effects basically boil down to 4 categories Foolish effect (dump from deck to grave) E-tele effect (summon from deck) Rota effect(add from deck to hand) gold sarc effect(a foolish but for banishing instead) Using a real card i will use baronne de fleur 1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters Once per turn: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it. Once while face-up on the field, when a card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. You can only use the previous effect of "Baronne de Fleur" once per turn. Once per turn, during the Standby Phase: You can target 1 Level 9 or lower monster in your GY; return this card to the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon that monster. 1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters - SOPT: Target: Pop on field - HOPT: Once While face up: Quick-effect: Omni Negate. - SOPT: During Stand by Phase: Tag-out: level 9 or lower in GY. This is kind of a rough draft of a key word system. the first part is soft once per turn, or hard once per turn. If its not there then its not once per turn. next would be the costs or restrictions, next would be if the effect is mandatory or not which if it is a mandatory effect the keyword mandaty could be used, or the mandatry could be just a seperate sectioned off portion of the card.

[@laurenregnier3710]

I wish it was simplified . I grew up with the original cards from Duel Monsters and GX . 😊

[@Jonatan7BR]

I think Yugioh really needs a comprehensive rulebook (a rulebook with every single rule of the game written in details and publicly accessible) so we can actually know how the game works without having to ask judges/forums or trying to infer the rulings from whatever interactions happen on Master Duel or Duel Links. Like... every single card game I know besides Yugioh has that kind of rulebook.

[@randomprotag9329]

magic used to not have one untill rulings were an issue at an tourneyment so a rulebook that was designed to be able to easily rule everything was created.

[@jayohen5918]

Looking up card rulings definitely kills the fun sometimes especially when both players think something should work differently.

[@JorgeSanchez-zk6zw]

5:06 Yeaaaa... As an experienced YGO player, I can see ehy this is hard to even search for info. This is because "Activation" is an action separate from "Activation of an effect", so you might search for 1 term without realising this are 2 separate thing. Wall of text incomming for the explanation: Activating a Spell/Trap is the action of "placing it face up on the a Spell/Trap Zone". After activation, you get to resolve the effect of the card. But using any effect of said card that doesn't involve the action of "placing it face up on the a Spell/Trap Zone" means is just an effect of the card that you activate, or said in the rules therminology: "Activating the effect of a Spell/Trap". Which is completly different from Ativating THE card itself. This means: If you can have 2 Simorgh Onslaught in hand, and 1 in grave. You can Activate only 1 of the 2 CARDS from hand, but once it resolves and is in the grave, you can activate the EFFECT of both Onslaught from grave, since it's an activation of an EFFECT and not the CARD itself. This is why Spell/Trap negation effects are worded like this: "when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap CARD or EFFECT". So, you can negate the activation (action of placing it on the field) or effect (any effect that doesn't involve placing it on the field). Example: F.A. Dawn Dragster. On the contrary: Cards that do not specify they negate the activation of a spell/trap effect, can't be used to stop let's say Simorgh Onslaught's graveyard effect. Example: Solemn Judgment. Yes, Solemn Judgment can't say no to the activation of a S/T effect. Only the placing of the card on the field. This means is you have Solemn set and you opponent has let's say The Gates of Dark World, and your ooponent banishes a fiend from grave to pay the cost of the gate, you can't chain Solemn, this is the activation of an effect, not the card itself. The complete oposite from Simorgh Onslaught is Soul Servant: If you have 3 Soul Servants in hand, you can activate all 3 (placing them face up in the S/T zone, then resolving it's inmediate effect). Once in grave, you can only activate only 1 of Soul Servant's Graveyard Effect.

[@Isserlyn]

As someone who's been playing the tcg for years, couldn't agree more, especially on the rulings part For example with my favorite archetype, Evilswarm, we have a monster, Evilswarm Castor, that has some nutty rulings Castor having the following effect: "During the turn this card was Normal Summoned, you can Normal Summon 1 "lswarm" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.)" At first glance, something like Effect Veiler or Infinite Impermanence should prevent the additional normal summon... they do not, as Castor sets a condition on the player that gives them the additional normal, only way to prevent said additional normal is to, on his summon, negate his normal summon itself, or before he steps foot on board, something like Skill Drain is ALREADY face up, meaning you can't go "on summon, Skill Drain" as we still get the additional summon anyways

[@identitytheft7305]

BTW onslaught can use both effects as you only activate it once for the first effect and the second one doesn’t say “then activate this effect” after the cost so you can use both effects but only one copy of it can be used in a turn

[@LeAndre_McCoy]

4:50 Here, what you need to do is break down the card text like you would a math problem. You're wondering if you can use both effects in the same turn, when the text says you can only activate this card once per turn. So what you're looking for is "what is an 'activation' in yugioh" "Activate" is a key word. It does mean what it does in the dictionary, but it is a yugioh phrase. Spell Cards and Trap Cards are "Activated" when they're put face up on the field, unless stated otherwise by an effect. Spells and Traps activate the moment they are put face up on the field. If they use an effect while already face up or while they're not on the field, the effect is being Activated, but the card is not. So you can't put the card on the field twice in the same turn, but you can use both effects

[@sharktos3218]

5:19 Don't take it for certain, but from my knowledge, activating a spell is only when you place it on the board. Using it in the grave is activating the effect of the card.

[@thebigcheese1905]

While I do agree with the video's point on needing better tutorialization for Yu-Gi-Oh, I think that's only the tip of the iceberg. I tried and failed to get into Master Duel, not because I had issues understanding the rules (having played in the past) but, because I was tired of spending more time reading and understanding my opponent's cards than actually playing the game. While long card text is part of the issue, the bigger issue for me was that most cards have multiple abilities and activation restrictions that need to be tracked. This would be fine if it was only a couple cards per deck, but it's not. Even the "Simorgh Onslaught" in the video has a play effect, a GY effect and a once-per-turn restriction. The lack of formatting and spacing on the tiny card text doesn't help the situation, either. Gameplay aside, the complexity and unreadability of the cards is as much a barrier to entry as understanding the rules and knowing meta staples like Maxx C. Yu-Gi-Oh has a lot of cool archetypes and combos, but its difficult to get to the fun part when understanding them requires reading an essay and remembering 2+ effects for each card.

[@JesterQueenAnne]

I disagree with that being an issue with the game... reading is just what the game is about. That's what the people who like it like it for. There is an entry barrier that could be solved for sure, but at some point the problem stops being that entry barrier and begins to be that this game is just not your cup of tea.

[@thebigcheese1905]

@@JesterQueenAnne I also enjoy reading cards but, as mentioned above, Yu-Gi-Oh's card text is unnecessary difficult to read. Certainly, a player can get used to it, but that doesn't mean that it's not an issue. Formatting changes could be made to improve readability without affecting gameplay. It's kind of crazy that Yu-Gi-Oh has barely updated its card UI since the first cards while Pokemon and MTG have done so multiple times to improve card readability.

[@pedrofelipefreitas2666]

That's why playing YGO for more than 1h is not something I'd advise. You'll just go "fuck it, i won't read that" and punt games for no reason because of it. As time passes and you become familiar with decks this isn't really an issue anymore. The good part of playing meta is that you're 90% of the time you're only gonna find 3 or 5 decks and you can easily lookup the crucial cards/plays to stop. If you (successfully) ash the branded fusion branded players will probably just surrender.

[@bigbigx2250]

I think master duel is a major problem in teaching people how to play yugioh; master duel and most simulators for that matter handle so many things automatically the player doesn't have to learn what's going on and why it's going on. Dueling book is the only place I think people should learn to play since being forced to do everything manually (and the ability to call judges) will make you learn the rules

[@renaldyhaen]

[@SuperNickid]

@KeyYGO: You must have seen the tutorial video when they said link summoing you used monster as a tributed, which was incorrect, when you link summoned you are not using a monster as a tributed you are using it as link matterial, this is why monster with the effect that says cannot be tributed while face-up for everythink like summoner monk, can still be used as link matterial, synchro matterial, fusion matterial, Xyz matterial, while it is face-up on the field. Some of them only ristrict specific tributed, for example sheep token cannot be used as tributed for a tributed summoned, that referers to the normal summoned of a high level monster, so that mean you can tributed for a ritual summoned, however the turn you play scapgoat you are restricted from summoning except for norma set, this is why it is better to set the scapgoat spell card, and play it during the end phase of your opponent turn, so the summoning restriction expired when the opponent turn end. Also ritual monster are in your main deck not Extra deck. Even thought link monster are the collor of ritual monster they are not ritual monster they are link monster and this is why they go in the extra deck.

[@DieselFishPujmik]

I play casual yugioh with my friend and every time there comes a new situation where we aren't sure how something works, what activates first, what doesn't activate, what is a cost and what is an effect, can this work on that etc. And when I google that specific situation, or similar one, I usually don't find an answer

[@phearunos5201]

You're not wrong. The game needs a lawyer-like knowledge of rulings & precedents & interpretations, but does a terrible job of teaching them or even having a resource for you to find them for yourself. For your card question, activating a card and activating an effect aren't necessarily the same thing. Activating spells/traps is when you play/flip them on the field. If they have any effects that activate anywhere else, that is just activating those effects, but doesn't count as activating the card itself. So yes, you can activate both thkse effects in 1 turn because 1 happens when you activate the card and the other is an effect you can activate from the graveyard. Also, Problem Solving Card Text, or PSCT, does a decent job of making card effects easier to understand. Knowing the gist of it makes reading new cards not as much of a hassle.

[@liviousgameplay1755]

For the Simorgh part, I looked up "Does activating a card in grave count as a card yugioh?" and I got the answer I needed (It does not, I think). The I realized I needed to know that a Card is different from an Effect, and that I was looking for that distinction for the effect in the graveyard. In the middle of a game, I would probably think "some opt cards say, except the turn this card is sent to the GY" and thought that because this didn't have that line, I would be good.... so in either case I would have to know a different arbitrary ruling/card text that applied to this situation. And I'm not even sure I'm right. Whenever I look for rulings while deck building, I can only guess until I get into a game and try it. That's crazy.

[@darkdragon6]

Official judge here That is correct. Onslaught's restriction is tied only to activating the card itself, not the effect, so it only counts either physically playing it from your hand or flipping it face-up from being set. An important thing to remember: Yugioh card effects are extremely literal. If a card says it does something, it does exactly that, no more, no less. The card text format used current (Problem-Solving Card Text, or PSCT) is meant to reduce the need for rulings from judges or Konami on how a card works, so the majority of the time, reading a card will tell you how it works, provided you know how words are defined and how effect text is formatted (there's a Konami blog post about this, and most fan sites have sections about psct). The only real times Konami has to make rulings are either: the effect has weird interactions in specific circumstances that require it to not work exactly as worded, the effect does things in a way that might not seem to match with how it's worded (lingering effects are good for this), and "ruling nightmares", which are cards with such convoluted or counterintuitive effects that they often need dedicated pages for their rulings (Last Turn is a fun one. Pole Position actually has a ruling due to the sheer number of infinite loops it causes that force it to be destroyed in any situation where it is involved in a loop) Also, graveyard effects are another bit of silliness. For spells/traps, their graveyard effects are activated as the normal spell speed of their card type, meaning a counter trap's graveyard effect is activated like a normal trap (you can't respond to other counter traps with it), and quick-play spells are activated as normal spells in the graveyard (so you have to use them on your turn, and can't chain them to other effects)

[@AustinStephan]

1:05 always love a Unabonber reference. RIP uncle Ted

[@GitsuneG]

6:04 Yea, here is a solution. Play Vanguard. No really, there are there tcg that use wording simple and easy, Konami need to change the text for everyone to read because 90% of card games think reading is hard.

[@GodzillaFreak]

Hey at least you actually mentioned the rule book

[@ThisGuyTV]

Btw to answer your question it says you can only activate “card name” once per turn. Not use 1 effect once per turn. That means you can use both effects in a simultaneous chain. But not one then resolve, do something else then resolve and go back. You must do both

[@nightmare674]

The traptrix mention reminds me that monsters that are inmune to trap cards are still affected by Evenly Matched because TECHNICALLY, you aren't affecting your opponent monsters with it but forcing your opponent to take an action instead. Also, when your opponent negates the effect of a monster on your field, and you responde in a way to send that monster to the graveyard first, then the effect isn't negated because TECHNICALLY, the monster wasn't on the field when it resolved. And there's hundreds of those examples that aren't written on a official guide, so yeah, yugioh is a game of technicalities

[@duyknguyen]

Awesome concept for new yugioh players to understand and Master Duel to improve 🎉 Tutorial on common cards like Ash, Maxx C or teaching how to use boardbreaker like Lightning storm are gold. Going second tutorial would reduce New player getting destroyed after completing tutorial and heading straight to rank or casual mode 😅

[@rafi...___]

yeah, introduce staples for new player. so that new player can play at decent level in modern format. or give new player a semi competetive deck. by doing so, they can learn the complicated stuff like damage step, spell speed, types of interuption, etc

[@yuseifudo6075]

I still can't believe that i heva never heard of Yu-Gi-Oh before but my first deck ever was Endymion

[@beastfire7300]

My problem with yugioh is its the most limiting card game when it comes to deck building. Because the deck building really just comes down to, pick an archetype, and you're done. Maybe throw in some hand traps or a splash archetype. But that's really it

[@MrJuan_Vzla]

Yeah, that makes it boring to me. There are cards that can shut down entire archetypes, also to stay competitive you need to wait years for support that would not help much.

[@pedrofelipefreitas2666]

On the other hand, the level of synergy between cards in the same archetype allows for crazy setups/interactions. Like using mirror jade to send rindbrumm, quem to summon cartesia, cartesia to summon a fusion monster with mirrojade as material, rindbrumm to summon albaz and use albaz's effect to summon another mirrorjade.

[@DanteCrowlley]

I played at the no rules to GX only, I did got to play duel links, the fan game n that new pc game, but I won't come back since it's not even a card game anymore, it's an RTS

[@aovroxie3346]

I mean tbh the game is more balanced around the actual physical game play. Yes you have these long card text, but when half of it are just simply task worded very long it becomes much easier. When you sit down in a local and you play against branded and he activates branded fusion and you ask: "What does it do?" Your opponent will probably response with: "I will now fusion summon using monster from hand, field or deck, but i have to use albaz". And even if you have no idea what the deck does, most of the times it becomes very clear what your opponent does and what you should probably stop. For example, stopping every kind of add, send or special summon from the deck can be considered good most of the times or if you see they summon a lot of fusion monsters you realise very quickly that the dbarrier in your side deck becomes a lot better. But from a md perspective is becomes a lot harder, because you have to read everything and then decide if you want to ash that which becomes rly tiring in the long run, instead of your opponent just simply explaining long texts in ez words for you. You also don't rly know when to use interaction when you see a deck for the first time

[@alejandrom.]

5:15 yes, you can. And no, the effect in GY doesn't count as an activation. An activation and an effect are 2 different things. That's why continuous spells or traps with Ignition effects, like Branded Regained or Branded Beast, can have its activation negated by other cards that negate activation, like Solemn Judgment. BUT, once that these cards are successfully activated, when one player activate their EFFECTS on the field you cannot negate that effect with Solemn Judgment, because it's an effect. That's why some cards read as "when a card OR effect is activated..." because those are 2 different things.

[@utfrts39sk]

Activating a card is playing it initially face-up on the field (usually from your hand or face-down on your field, in the case of traps). For "Simorgh Onslaught" what "You can only activate 1 Simorgh Onslaught per turn." in the end means, is that you can only play 1 from your hand or field. Activating its secondary effect though is NOT the same as activating the card on the field (because... well... it's not face-up on the field), meaning if you have 3 "Simorgh Onslaught" in your GY you can use all 3 in the same turn. You can also play the card initially from your hand, let it resolve so it goes to the GY and then activate its GY effect. As another example of this, take "Solemn Judgment". It can negate the initial activation of any card, but it cannot negate the EFFECTS of any card, meaning that if your effect is not tied to the card's initial activation, "Judgment" cannot be used against it. So you play "Kozmotown" from your hand? The opponent can activate "Solemn Judgment", negate and destroy it. "Kozmotown" is already face-up on the field and you activate its effect to reshuffle the "Kozmos" in your hand? '"Solemn" does nothing.

[@thedragonlady5044]

I am what you youngn's would call a 'YuGiOh Boomer'. I played the game when it came out and it was super simple to learn back then, I even became a judge. I did leave the game in 2004 but returned in 2018, I had a lot of catching up to do, but I was able to pick it back up and get pretty far in a local competitive scene. But the reason I was able to do so well was thanks to my previous experience of the game and it's mechanics, so learning the new stuff wasn't so bad... but I am NOT going to try and be a judge again... holy moly can one word make a difference! While I have been 90% correct on on rulings at my locals, I am not confident enough to make judgements on high-stakes games. So while I did have an edge on returning to the game, I really feel for the new comers who are learning. Seeing a deck go full combo can be very intimidating.

[@hey-key-eh-key]

Only 800 subs... This is criminal and I'm subbing rn

[@frankieyuen9363]

the best way to figure out how a card works is by asking or searching in the judges lounge a fb group where all the judges are to answer ruling questions

[@DottorNapoli]

How to learn Yu-Gi-Oh : Headbanging untill it works

[@berserksaiyan8620]

For some reason I found that first son being taught tear mirrors funny

[@死神あらし]

If you know Japanese, you can actually go to the Yu-Gi-Oh card database and search for the card that you have doubts on There's a Q&A section where it tells you how to resolve cards and what will happen when certain situation occurs (unless it's a bugged card like pole position) Pretty useful if you're bad at the game or just wanna know some rulings

[@stevezes]

I just want to point out that those rulings do not apply to the TCG.

[@redace4821]

​@@stevezesSome probably do but then those ruling are probably available in English.

[@randomprotag9329]

@@redace4821 TCG judges are not supposed to officially refer to them for official games. casual games might use them cause there's no rulebook to refer to for stuff that typically needs a ruling.

[@TSPiano]

Regarding onslaught, as you mentioned its not user friendly, but the first effect is an effect that you activate by actually activating the card andvthe second effect is an effect where you activate the effe t of the card, and not activate the card itself, so it can be used as many times pwr turn.

[@FNils-bc5sb]

Perfect comment Space to ask it then. I play phantom knight rank up ( the one you ban for ranking up ) wich says once it is resolved you cannot special summon for the rest of this turn exception XYZ monstres. But Sometimes on EdoPro i just cannot activate it, where is the problem. Second question, cloak’s effect is to ad to the hand any pk card but i can select only monsters, and brigandine, why plz

[@sangoblue9508]

you can activate noth effects of simorgh thing spell cause it means activate the card so if u use the effect in grave it counts as activating the effect not the card

[@jps_user20]

About the ruling database, OCG had one, and it had an english language as an option Problem is they use "Ruling comparison" instead of direct ruling, so you still need an official judge to make sure ( on paper play, on MD it's just "yes" )

[@randomprotag9329]

also those are not official Konomi rulings, they are unoffical rulings made by judges so nobody is told most actual definite rulings. a major difference is yugioh judges guess based on a ruling that anouther judge guessed while magic judges can get the rule book and using that explain why a ruling is ruled that way with out any guessing or comparing to a anouther ruling.

[@9clawtiger]

I obve heard Yugioh described as the "MvC3 of card games" and i havent been able the unsee it.

[@Rigter9029]

I remember the good old days of pre synchro summon, man those were the days

[@hastamanasti]

For rulings i usually look up the card name and rulings, the rulings section for the card on the yugioh wikia should come up

[@alessandropereira4976]

2:50 As a DDD player, I agree 100%. Idk what I’m doing 90% of the time and have fucked up my own board state multiple times. But I’m getting the hang of it(I hope so)

[@conradicalized]

"hand trap cheat sheet" except it covers all playable archetypes and their game plans and their ideal board setups and the ways they can interact with you on your turn and the ways you can get around their various board setups [this cheat sheet is 400 pages long]

[@Jay2Stoney]

Currently me i love Yu-Gi-Oh but it's like trying to learn a new language these combos and stuff it's so confusing. I miss being able to put magic card and monster card down battle and end turn. Now you gotta sit through 5 mins of combos and you end up losing before you even comprehend what just happened

[@quintessenceoflife7870]

I'll be honest, when I was younger I liked yugioh but couldn't play as my simple minded brain couldn't understand everything again due to me being young. In turn I instead picked up and learned Magic the Gathering. The keywords it has had helped with learning it when I was younger and couldn't process everything. Now that I'm older I have repicked up yugioh on master duel and am doing fairly well only have played for a few months and I'm doing well with a Bystial Dragon Link deck which is one of the more complicated combo decks.

[@DxShadow7]

I have been playing a branded despia deck I picked up after getting dominated by them. I netdecked it, made changes and have played nothing but (for ladder climbing). I ran into the One Bad Day deck and learned that nadir servant and Psy-frame stops deck outs while branded beast stopped damage