Why Yu-Gi-Oh's 'Magic' Cards became 'Spell' Cards

[@UnimpressedCat]

Never forget "Dark Spellian"

[@r3zaful]

Go dark spellian girl! Dark burning spell! Dark spell attack!

[@Ramsey276one]

Dark SPELLic Attack! XD

[@Hynotama]

I distinctly recall fake cards, when I was little, that had “Dark Magic Master”, Sound attribute and “magic user” type. Edit: it’s way worse! I just found it on google and it was called “Black Devil Master”.

[@Ramsey276one]

@@Hynotama SOUND attribute?! XD

[@Hynotama]

@@Ramsey276one oh yeah! The early 2000s were… creative. Especially for those of us who live in shit hole countries, where even fake yugioh cards were rare. I also remember those cards using “cemetery” instead of graveyard and “ceremony” instead of ritual.

[@tcoren1]

According to yugipedia, in the OCG the cards also changed their name, from "majikku" to "mahou", which is probably for the same reason as the TCG change imo. Mind you the cards still use the same kanji (which is typically read "mahou", for the record), but just changed the furigana - the little kana on top of the kanji telling you how to pronounce it

[@Ramsey276one]

Yeah, I know Moon Yagami. XD

[@darkcerabrate]

Some kids on the playground argued that magic and spell cards were different so de-spell wouldn't work in both -.-

[@Zetact_]

For practical purposes I think it's generally better for something like a TCG to have as few syllables in common words as possible. It's why "effect" sounds better than "ability" and why "Xyz" sounds better than "X-Y-Z." While "Polymerization" was something that you may think sounds cool on a few individual cards, the TCG quickly realized that the overly complicated six-syllable word was too clunky to keep using when more Fusion-related cards would be printed so they pivoted to "Fusion." Most player jargon will eventually cut down on the size of official terminology anyway so if you really want people to use a specific term then making it fewer syllables by default is better. For the dub writers while they often use non-official terminology I think that hearing the GX dub also shows benefits the anime gets to using "Spell card" since it gives a better level of versatility to a line. On top of it just not overlapping with another card game, which especially at the time would be helpful. It's common in Japanese card games but having game-specific terms for what are fairly ubiquitous mechanics. Like using "Call" instead of "Summon" or using "Rest" instead of "Tap." Though it can be taken too far especially if the terms you use aren't self-explanatory, like you'll rarely see many good instances of using fancy terms for "deck" and "hand." that isn't obvious enough. seems to help make the game stick in a player's head more. Really it's a change that may have been forced or may have been incidental but in either case it's one that people running the game probably sit down and looked at a list of benefits and asked, "Huh, we really should have done this from the jump." It might seem like a really weird thing to fixate on but making these sort of micro-adjustments would really add up if they weren't taken into consideration.

[@tcoren1]

Poly is not called polymerization in the OCG, which solely dictates which cards are fusion and which are polymerization as those are separate "archtypes" in both versions. I agree with the rest

[@Zetact_]

@@tcoren1 Most of the time the OCG uses "融合" and while the reading sometimes is "Yuugou" and sometimes is "Fusion" for specific cards that involve Fusion cards it doesn't really care. If the localization was paranoid about the OCG pulling a Noble Arms again and making a card that only interacts with one of the two phrases, to get consistent localization would result in things like "Branded Polymerization", "Polymerization Cancel" or "Polymerization Deployment". That's the point I think I was trying to make, that for some cards "Polymerization" works fine but it's generally clunky so the TCG usually just replaces it with "Fusion" and most fans probably would refer to the spell as a whole to be "Fusion spells" usually would use "Poly" when referring to the original spell specifically.

[@Hollowcrisis]

USELESS WALL OF TEXT, GO!

[@jmurray1110]

Though this can backfire I don’t remember which exactly but one TCG had an issue with its communication when it came to its siecufuc use of the word burn In most cases burn means low damage to the opponent potentially over many turns but in this one it mean removed from play when destroyed

[@retana6135]

As a lawyer I have to say that it is impossible for the name to generate any kind of legal infringement, it would be as if no one could call another work of fiction with numbers because someone already invented the sequels. Maybe the fear is often justified because a legal battle can leave the company without money or take away their time due to precautionary measures (such as having the product delayed until the legal trial is completed).

[@tcoren1]

The story goes that supposedly yugioh tried to trademark like "magic cards" and this caused magic to fire back at them and yugioh ended up relenting

[@AutumnHaunted]

6:07 Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.

[@akiradkcn]

Just wait until we have the Gathering card

[@akmalfakhruddin7285]

i checked yugipedia and theres not yet gathering card and only duel links skill with gathering in its name.

[@O6i]

The only magic card i still have from my childhood that i still use today is limiter removal in my earth machine deck 😊

[@Lucario1121]

I still call spell cards in Yu-Gi-Oh "magic" cards, never really bothered to try and unlearn that to be honest

[@imbadatygo73]

I like the zombies vs. plants background music.

[@CarbonMalite]

I miss Reborn the Monster

[@ImmacHn]

I have cards that say Magic Card

[@valjester8342]

"I draw 3 additional cards from my de-" NO YOU DO NOT ITS TWO, ITS ALWAYS BEEN TWO CARDS (I didnt know what to comment for the algorythm, keep up the good work key)

[@MABfan11]

i would love to see someone take a deck magic (spell) cards in their deck to a YCS

[@primexample8912]

I still call them magic cards..

[@littleboy3459]

I speak chinese and seeing kanji knowing what the chinese pronounciation is always throws me off haha. 魔法 is pronounced similarly to japanese as mo (more without an r) and fa (fall without the LL) But yeah I always assumed as a kid that it waa changed to spell because of confusion wirh magic the gathering and if i saw any of my friends with "magic" cards i'd try to trade cards for them because i understood that they were more rare, even if just worthless commons

[@RrraverCrow]

>starts talking about Konami Japan >plays music from Liyue, which is based on China

[@darkglass3011]

Magic the Gathering pulled a Fine Bros and copyrighted the word.

[@nickyheart]

GENSHIN MUSIC DETECTED!!

[@nickyheart]

good video btw ^^ was enjoyable

[@matthewlugo2417]

Its simple lol mtg finally cracked down on yugioh