Yu-Gi-Oh Cards Have Too Much Text.

[@TierZoo]

Yeah, better formatting would really go a long way. Bulletpoints and line breaks help a ton. However, I think it's also fair to say that Yugioh card effects are simply too long and complex, regardless of formatting. It's quite telling that the MTG card "Questing Beast", which is the card players meme about for having too many effects, only has a total of 48 words in its text box. Around half of the average yugioh card and a quarter of the text that Endymion has. And sure, some of the text is condensed into keywords, but even if you were to write out the rules text for each of the keywords on Questing Beast, it's still only 70 words or so, only average for a yugioh card. The other issue is, the combo-heavy nature of yugioh means each card effect often strings into another, sometimes several. If your opponent plays a search card, you not only need to read the search card, but also you need to read and understand the implications of the card they searched for, or sent to the graveyard, or banished, etc. Because of this, it can be borderline impossible for a new player to follow what an experienced player is doing during their turn. In fact in my experience with Yu-Gi-Oh, it's actually fairly common for intermediate players to beat inexperienced players simply because they inadvertently cheated and their opponent didn't catch it. Reusing a hard once-per-turn effect, searching/sending a card they actually couldn't, etc Look I'm not sayin' the game needs to be so simple that Garoozis sees main deck play but it would be nice for me, an avid cardgamer, to be able to follow what my opponent is doing with their combo even if I haven't seen it before.

[@streetzfpv]

I felt like I was reading a card reading this comment u work for konami..jk good points

[@apsamplifier]

Yeah, you nailed it here. I think it's fine for a few cards to have long effects, but it's overwhelming when so many pieces of a combo or strategy do. A common experience I've seen is a card with a fairly long effect being summoned, the opponent reading it for the first time, and then having it just get Linked away immediately anyway, triggering both its GY effect (requiring the other player to pick it up and read it again) AND the new Link Monster's effect that has to be read, and then synthesizes what they both mean together as they form a chain. All of this right before the Link monster searches or summons a NEW card from the deck, which has another long effect, and so on. I'd be alright with just boss monsters having a lot, for instance.

[@chimmyinfernape9189]

Rush duels did all the things right. They have a line for cost, one for the effect and every card has a once per turn claus automatically built in

[@TierZoo]

@@apsamplifier exactly, the fatigue sets in real quick once my opponent has dumped a full romance novel worth of text into their graveyard. But yes, I agree, ending on a single boss monster with a lot of abilities is cool; it's once of the main reasons people loved the original anime Egyptian God Cards. Knowing all of their hidden powers was part of the charm.

[@kielcaal8209]

TIER ZOO PLAYS YU GI OH! Just wanted to comment and say that is awesome

[@lovethyenemies6702]

"Ages 6 and up" LMAO Konami be lying on all their boxes

[@arkanamaster4961]

Are you saying 6 years olds can’t read lol

[@7cross288]

@@arkanamaster4961 I think their implying that the minimum age recommended being 6 is misleading as they'll likely be unable to understand the convoluted card effects.

[@arkanamaster4961]

@@7cross288 well that’s why there is a rule book included lol

[@R3in_Ch]

@@arkanamaster4961 6 y/o can understand rule book? lmao

[@arkanamaster4961]

@@R3in_Ch they can read. I did when i was kid

[@darkly7749]

This makes me glad that I play on master duel, being able to scroll through text and not having to use a microscope to read a card is rather nice.

[@Folfire]

And there are even missed opportunities in MD. There are small icons for cards that have been improperly summoned that show up in the bottom of cards, so a "visual shortcut", that in the same vein, could be applied to quickly identify cards that have GY effects, Quick Effects, etc. They could also use bold, italics or colored wording for certain things, like I wouldn't mind if, per archetype, the common text between cards could have italics, so I can just focus on the specific effect of a card.

[@thebigandlazyguy246]

@@Folfire master duel could really be a cradle for testing improvements for the game and then maybe actually implement them be it card formatting or banlist changes but all konami does with it is just disappointing players.

[@adud6764]

The numbering (1), (2), ... from the Japanese cards looks fantastic, and I have no clue why they didn't use it in the English version.

[@machina5]

It's not even the amount of text itself that's annoying, it's that it takes them so many words to say so little.

[@ShinkuGouki]

So true. They have to use so many words in order to avoid misinterpreting cards because of the game mechanics.

[@maxthebear7765]

This is so true. I read Pot of Greed 100 times over and I still don’t know what it does.

[@juliorama1772]

I like the numbers in the OCG, since you can even improve communication by saying "I activate the ① effect of Eldlich", so your opponent can quickly know what to read. An idea to further improve the HOPT would be to make the normal effects have the ①, ② etc, while the HOPT effects have ❶, ❷ etc. You could even make the summoning condition part (i.e Lu Feng) start with a Ⓢ

[@JuwanBuchanan]

Konami want these cards to do too much and that's part of the problem. In the past most effect monsters had at least 1 or 2 effects making the card text not that long, but nowadays monsters have like 3, 4, and sometimes 5 effects all wrapped into one.

[@ciboTHI]

Usually it’s only 1-3 effects, but still more text for clauses and costs etc

[@arrownoir]

Yeah, it’s kind of insane now. That’s why I stick to Masterduel.

[@diamondsanchez224]

@@arrownoir Master Duel's card pool is really similar to the TCG's and OCG's. It's only behind by a couple of sets.

[@diamondsanchez224]

Monsters usually only have 1 or 2 effects. In rare cases 3. The effects just aren't formatted, so it looks like more, but it really isn't.

[@theboy1625]

It’s always the same effects too. Special summon this, negate that, target and destroy that smh

[@loseronline17]

This is why I love the rush duel cards, the text formatting is so much better

[@yourMoonstone]

Formatting! If they had a couple bullet points, indents, SOMETHING to make parsing everything fast and easily that would help. I know people go back and forth on YGO needing keywords but it could easily change. I like how the Rush Duel cards format everything for activations and effects.

[@shadowdragon714]

kinda like the Ryko the Lightsworn. Those bullet points are so nice and i wish they appeared more often.

[@yourMoonstone]

@@shadowdragon714 Exactly! I know they're brushing up against the word count and how small the words can get but if they made a keyword that was for the hard once per turn text then that saves you a whole sentence right there

[@strangevol5264]

oh so OCG cards

[@akiraishin7141]

@@yourMoonstone agreed. Something as simple as "Defender" or "Taunt" can save an entire sentence. Yes, there are many effects that have lengthy explanations because they are more complex, but that shouldn't be the baseline for them.

[@AnRuixuan]

I've thought about keywords in Yugioh but at this point the game is too complex for keywords to really work. Effects are so nuanced and individualistic that it would be too onerous to create keywords. For example, there's "Negate" but then you'd have to specify whether it's negating effects or activations, and whether it's negating monsters, S/T, or all the above, and at that point you're basically just writing out the exact effect anyway. There's simultaneous and sequential effects, there's when vs if, mandatory vs optional, etc. It's just a mess, and current PSCT in some of these cases already acts as a sort of keyword and still doesn't simplify the text (thinking of things like "you can" to indicate optional, "then" for sequential effects, etc)

[@sormokah8229]

I agree with what you're saying about the rules text completely, but in my case the Levels have always been an issue. I've always thought it would be good if they put some sort of spacing between 4/5 and 6/7. It would make it easier to identify a card's level at a glance and it could be a more intuitive way to indicate the amount of tributes for a tribute summon.

[@apoptosisduellinks109]

Yes! I can't believe I haven't realised this before. It's why we put dots or comma's in big numbers: 10.000.000 / 10,000,000.

[@sarthakarora3212]

@@apoptosisduellinks109 no one puts dots in big number. Puting a dot changes the number

[@apoptosisduellinks109]

@@sarthakarora3212 Dutch people do So with 'we', I meant humanity in general

[@ShinkuGouki]

Very true. I'm always like "1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Okay,level 7"

[@ShinkuGouki]

@@sarthakarora3212 Never think you know everything, no matter how sure you feel.

[@7cross288]

Even if the card text was PERFECTLY clear and there was virtually no room for things to be misinterpreted the sheer amount of effects a card can have, how it can interact with other cards, and the overall speed of the game means that unless you're very familiar with the meta and/or a seasoned player(which the average player is not) by the time you are confident in ways of counterplay it may be too late.

[@PharaohofAtlantis]

Not having a line break between effects is what really gets me. I casually play Master Duel and have a hard time figuring out what is one effect or two from time to time. The first part is a quick effect, is this sentence also a quick effect? Does this effect apply at the same time I activate the first part?

[@arrownoir]

They’re trying to save as much space as possible, hence the lack of breaks. But they can rectify this in Masterduel and should.

[@Lira_orpheus]

For Master Duel you cam find a safe mod that breaks card text by effects. Maybe you should check it out.

[@azurnal7573]

PSCT

[@sallas09]

One way to potentially combine the ideas of using bullet points and better denoting once per turns would be to have the bullets themselves denote the number of activations you get. For a once per turn effect, the bullet dot is a circle with a 1 in it. And you can distinguish a SOPT from a HOPT by doing something else to the dot, like adding studs or little patterns to the outer circle to a HOPT effect. For example, Baronne de Fleur would look something like this: (1) You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it. (1) 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} 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.

[@nymesis4389]

I feel like it’s just an issue of formatting it in a more pleasing way, instead of flooding the box with text, use bullet points. And me personally I don’t really have a problem with longer card text because altering playing a deck for the first time a long card text can be boiled down to a more simple two sentences in my head. That’s just me tho, I still agree that the density of the text is a problem and should be more thinned.

[@TobikunOuO]

The OCG uses bullet points and it is much easier to read.

[@TheKaijudist]

Hard once per turn not being keyworded is criminal. It's taking up two lines on literally every card these days

[@randommaster06]

The fact that veteran players still have issues with figuring out what cards do means there's a problem. YGO is enough of a word salad as it is, Konami doesn't need to present us with a reading comprehension exam with every card.

[@luchotenks2310]

​@@TheKaijudist How about adding a black diamond with a white number 1 inside before each effect with a HOPT clause?

[@grimtester799]

You could also use COLOR CODING/SEPARATION, Italize, Bolding, Underlining, Bordering/Circling,

[@danielschott4639]

Thank you so much Paul for acknowledging the redundancy of "You can only use this effect of [insert full name of card] once per turn" at 11:00. They could place the "only" clause at start the effect rather than giving it AN ENTIRE SEPARATE SENTENCE!

[@domdude491]

It's cool I'm early. Also, I feel the card text being a lot isn't the worst thing it's just that the text is way too small and straining to read is aggravating

[@Rayquaza894]

Cardfight vanguard……

[@jgalena]

It's so wierd that they are don't update the card frame to something with a larger text box.

[@naquinn5745]

This isn't helped by the card size tbh

[@barbershopboy05]

This! The amount of memorization and the impossibility to know what was going on in a game without taking tons of time for reading, are the main reasons I left Yugioh. I wish it was different.

[@jaguarnero]

In addition to bullet points, breaking each individual effect, and simplifying card text even more (which for the most part I am sure can be done) you could even add symbols. I always thought if all monster quick effects are spell speed 2, you could add the lightning symbol that are on quick play spells instead of “(quick effect)”. You could add a spear symbol for piercing. And I’m sure there are other things you can do to simplify card text and still make it just as understandable.

[@NytoDork]

I highly agree with the (1), (2), etc change. It just feels much more natural to read through like that. It would also help a lot if YGO uses empty lines before each repeated effect in each Archetype. Using Tearlaments Merrli as example: ---------------------------------------- If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the GY. If this card is sent to the GY by card effect (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by placing Fusion Materials mentioned on it from your hand, field, and/or GY, including this card from your GY, on the bottom of the Deck in any order. You can only use each effect of "Tearlaments Merrli" once per turn. ---------------------------------------- Changing to: ---------------------------------------- (1) If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the GY. (2) If this card is sent to the GY by card effect (except during the Damage Step): You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by placing Fusion Materials mentioned on it from your hand, field, and/or GY, including this card from your GY, on the bottom of the Deck in any order. You can use the (1) and (2) effects of "Tearlaments Merrli" once per turn. ---------------------------------------- And then, if you were to read, for example, Tearlaments Shaylen, you would just have to read the (1) effect, which would just be -------------------- (1) During your Main Phase: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, send 1 monster from your hand to the GY, then, send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the GY. -------------------- --- The rest of the card is clearly the same as the Merrli in this case. The one issue might be that it requires more space on the cards, so separating lines can also work. In general archetypes often have a ton of text that once you read it on one card, you can see it on many other cards, so by clearly separating it from the unique effect of each card it would be way easier to figure out what's unique on each card.

[@ShamanElementalLord]

Finally got around to watching this video after all this time, and have to say... Really great video, as per always!! just have a few additions on top of aforementioned things in this video that i feel would really insanely help for all players!! - Colorcode the cardtexts of monsters to make clear what part is the condition, another color for cost and a final color for effect - Highlight the limitations (if any) that a card has in a certain font, or in bold, or even in ALL CAPS, aslong as it's clear (for example CAN ONLY USE ONE OF BOTH EFFECTS OF THIS CARD) I feel, this , together with the summation marks as you brought to attention, would be an insanely huge help.

[@maidenless_tarnished]

I was always confused after I saw an OCG card for the first time with the numbers why TCG didn't have them. You could have told me all day long that Endymion had only 2 effects in the TCG and I wouldn't believe, but seeing the OCG version makes so much more sense. It's probably the way sentence structure works in the different languages, but there has to be a similar method that could be used cause I honestly stopped playing yugioh cause I almost developed cataracts from having glazed eyes all the time from trying to read the cards😅

[@danymba_]

I guess the last issue (you can only activate *card name* effect once per turn) is kinda necessary cuz that'd make sense if sumome is tryna activate the same effect with more than one copy in that same turn. I dunno if there's an example of a card that may activate the same effect more than just once per turn, even with the "ya can only activate *card name* effect once per turn" if you have another copy of it on the field. But I agree with you, it's rly necessary to try reducing the text of the cards.

[@thomas5585]

That thumbnail was great. I laughed. Also, Akroma, Angel of Wrath in MTG has seven abilities explained in twelve words. It's possible to shrink text.

[@Folfire]

Yes, but many YGO players are allergic to keywords. There's this weird defense that is just excusing how bad YGO text design is, that is rarely hard to counter, because it is just dragging from the inception of the game and only now feels bad.

[@xSacrollyd]

Yeah, i haven't played MTG a lot in my life, but i always admired the use of simple keywords. When an ability is new, it gets explained in the first few sets and then its common knowledge what it means. Of course, YGO has a "little" bit different text structure with keywords and conjunctions (target, then, and if you do, also, blablabla. Also activated / permanent effects and conditions), but there are some things that could get shrinked to a Keyword or symbol ("If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict (double) piercing battle damage." -> "Inflicts (double) piercing damage." for example.).

[@wolfbrother9025]

U can list every ability in MTG on a single pendulum card

[@KevinTangYT]

Honestly, the textbox itself needs to be bigger if they're insistent on having so much text in complete sentences to give proper tab formatting. All conditions need to be left-aligned on a new row with a double space after colon to visually separate condition from effect. Personally, I think conditions should be further condensed and just remove the "When vs If". Hard OPT can be indicated *Each Once per turn* *Only one effect per turn* [Sent to GY] Search your Deck for X. [Opponent Special Summons a monster(s)] Discard 1 card; Banish that monster(s). Send this card from your hand to GY; this turn, each time your opponent Special Summons a monster(s), immediately draw 1 card

[@thebigandlazyguy246]

When vs if shouldn't even exist imo

[@jofx4051]

You and you can, your is the culprit in the card texts, taking too much text If it isnt needed, it shouldn't be written Many coined terms can actually shorten the cards such as SEARCH

[@jofx4051]

@@thebigandlazyguy246 When and if Will be existing forever cause they are 2 different things except if u just wanna check the condition Most likely you will see word 'when' if your card can respond to the condition directly and 'if' just when the conditions are met

[@WavemasterAshi]

A probable linked reason occurs to me - I remember going back to the tvtropes page about Woosleyisms (the guy who did a lot of localization work for Square) and it noted how Japanese is a more compact written language than English, so imagine a full text box in Japanese...the English text will NECESSARILY be bigger!

[@Grimsikk]

This is honestly a great watch for me because I'm working on making my own TCG, and have hit a point where my text box takes up half a card, and sometimes is full of skills and effects. I feel like I have it organized well, but this video is helping me to reassess my formatting.

[@banmonsterg.8245]

I don't know the solution but even something like abbreviated the OPT line has weird implications due to how every word matters, such as the difference between "activating" a card once per turn and "using" a card's effect once per turn

[@gekkouga-sl7lb]

One thing maybe worth noting, I read an article a few years ago about the optimal text size for our eyes to read (around 11,12 font size) which is why email, word docs default to it. Yugioh card text is a couple of sizes smaller, which is why your eyes start to glaze over it. Weirdly, Konami addressed this in around 2014/15 for cards with less text, they increased their text size. I have an Eye of Timaeus and Preparation of Rites that have HUGE text for some reason, they seemed to abandon this idea though, as later versions of these cards defaulted back to the smaller text. Seems weird that they implemented it only to remove it after such a short amount of time

[@kennethfocarino7075]

I really like the numbers that the OCG uses. The problem isn’t just the text, it’s what text is important. Most cards have 2-3 separate effects, but most of the time one or most of the effects are useless. And since it’s written in paragraph form, you have to read thru so much redundant material, and then it gets overwhelming. I’d love “1: During the battle phase…” so I can skip that shit faster. That combined with symbolizing Hard/soft opt, it’ll get a lot easier.

[@KeonVioletWilkins]

Guess the cool thing about Vanguard visual design which feels like a natural evolution of the direction Yugioh used is that since 90%+ of the card is the art and they slap the effect text box over the very bottom of the art means that they vary the text boxes according to the amount of text which makes cards more legible. A card with a short effect has a smaller box than a card with a longer one. The text size regardless of length is usually highly consistent since they don't set themselves to an uniform box template. They also threw in symbols and room for keywords early on which was great future proof design. It also opened up the room for rarities where the textbox is invisible allowing just the text over the art which is a cool way to bling out decks. Just interesting to compare and contrast between the two given Vanguard's roots started from Yugioh.

[@HopUpOutDaBed]

one thing that can't really be changed at this point, but has a huge effect is the size of the cards themselves and how much card space is dedicated to artwork. Look at something like pokemon where the cards are slightly bigger and the art takes up less than half of the space (except in the case of full arts which have the text over the art) which keeps things less crammed and more organized. Obviously this can't be changed at this point, but it's something I noticed. Yugioh, the game with the most text, ironically has the smallest cards with the least amount of space dedicated to card text.

[@whaletiger5591]

A thing that may help in addition to the formatting is a larger text box. The text box size has remained consistent throughout the history of the game, but over time the effects have become more complex and wordy (Relinquished and TER being exceptions, but effects as a whole). An additional line or two would help give lines more breathing space and increase legibility. The aesthetic of cards would definitely change, but it's just an idea to give more space for the R&D department to properly word their card effects.

[@addaine4019]

Well you talked about symbol you could use to say "negates spell/trap effect", "quick effect" ... and concluded it was difficult to relearn new symbols, but in fact you could use the smbol of quick play spells for quick effects and the symbol of the counter trap for those. Here in my example, yo u could entirely replace "(quick effedct)" by the symbol and the "if a spell or trap effect would be activated, you can negate it" by "can S/T effect [counter trap symbol]".

[@arrownoir]

Reading? That’s why I prefer the anime, your opponent reads it for you.

[@eljefe1030]

Man when I got into my first local I spent half my matches reading cards lmao

[@NewtBannner]

Good for you! Most people just let their opponents go off without learning what their cards do

[@tankopotomus]

This is dead on. All of that would help so much you read my mind on the once per turn symbol

[@kuriboh0]

When I first read about cards getting those circled numbers to seperate and refer to effects, I was ecstatic. Nowadays I'm mostly disappointed that they haven't started doing this for the TCG. Obviously, the complexity of modern cards in general is still a problem, but at least this would make cards so much more readable. Plus, it helps with communication.

[@AnIncomingBear]

Honestly there is always a whole line of space after the [Monster Type/Card Type] that they can use for like small symbols that signify once per turns and other staple qualities of an effect.

[@xSacrollyd]

11:15 - there would need to be 4 distingishable symbols. Two for "This card" and "This cards name", and then two more for "use" and "activate". Even though, i also think in the end the OCG is already doing a lot better job than the TCG. How often does someone says "It's the second effect" and then you need to try to find that damn beginning of the sentence as fast as you can and end up reading everything thrice, because you overlooked it two times... The numbering alone would be such a great addition.

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

This makes it so hard to get into. You’re not just spending an eternity reading and remembering your own cards, and your opponent’s as well. Soooooo many other card games proved you don’t need this much text to say so much or sometimes even so little.

[@niladrighosh3269]

Yugioh went from "The ultimate wizard in terms of atk & def" To novels

[@RunicSigils]

Yeah, I agree they should number/bullet them. As for the once per turn thing, I guess theoretically they could just have it say "(OPT)" for once per turn and "(SOPT)" for strict once per turn and then bullet/number those effects. And once per duel could be "(OPD)"/"(SOPD)", of course (though, I guess they could go with just SOPT/D and HOPT/D but I imagine they'd want to stay away from putting fan terminology on the cards). Then just update the rules to include what those terms mean.

[@r3zaful]

People in ocg already laughed when tcg suddenly changed perlereino effects to suffle because it will become problematic in the future.

[@r3zaful]

Changing stuff needs to be really careful, tcg already fucked gandora effects so bad it's unplayable when tcg accidentally change the effects and refuse to change it.

[@RunicSigils]

Actually, it occurred after some time to think on it that they can't do the abbreviation. It needs to remain that sentence. The game has card effects often allow you to do things that specifically name a card. Killing that sentence kills those cards so it's actually a terrible idea.

[@IdentityChrist]

Very good points. If a card read: (1) and (2) are Unique. (1) Target 1 APS card in the GY, Special Summon it. (2) (Quick Effect) If a monster in the opponent's Monster Zone activates an effect: discard 1 APS card; negate the activation and destroy it. (3) Whenever a card is set: monsters your opponent controls lose 100 ATK. That would make it far easier to *begin* to read as people do tend to subconciously give up just like you said. I do wish we had this much text on just boss monsters and not combo pieces, because it's incredibly difficult to even parse the opposing strategy when playing against it for the first time.

[@kennethfocarino7075]

Ygo is very complicated, and incredibly combo oriented. Each deck damn near has a 30 step combo, that can be interrupted but at the right moments. When I play against a new deck (played ygo on and off for almost a decade), no matter what I always lose becuase it sooo much information to learn on the spot, and it’s really easy to hand trap the wrong thing. I think it’s just the shear amount of information to sort and interact with in real time, and the text just doesn’t help. I agree with Paul on the effect numbers, at least it’ll be a easier to disqualify useless effects.

[@mistriousfrog]

Line breaks to differentiate different effects would go a massive way towards making cards feel more readable. The amount of text isn't the real problem (though there is too much of that too), it is the difficulty in parsing meaning.

[@urazoe8240]

You can only use the effect of "card name" once per turn, could simply be shortend to. All effects are once per turn. Activate "card name" once per turn. Activete only one "card name" per turn. one of my biggest problems is that to many words on the card end up not mattering. like unless its specificly adressing my opponent i dont need my card adressing me with "you can" one other thing i think would help alot, is if the would put key word in bold. Like "negate". when condition is meet, NEGATE target MONSTER EFFECT. so if i want to know if my opponents card negats, i cant quickly scan it. and since keywords are bold i can find then easy

[@anasazmi8554]

OCG also has shortcuts for the various monster types we have, so Synchro, for example, would be shortened to S (with a tiny superscript saying Synchro for clarification). Kinda like what TCG did with GY and LP. It helps save space where possible considering Synchro and Pendulum are pretty long words to repeat and also helps visual readers do mental shortcuts.

[@ProjSHiNKiROU]

The computer code I work with are much more complicated than Yu-Gi-Oh card text, but programming languages are writen with indentations, and there is syntax highlighting when programmers read/write code. For future reprints, I prefer OCG numbered effects and bold/highlights for technical terms or macroscopic effect structure so it's easy to identify the categories of the effects from glance. If I were to reprint all cards, I would change PSCT conjunctions to symbols such as ->, && to indicate they have technical meanings and they separate different effects.

[@GodKiller97]

Konami just needs to add keywords. Card text could be so much easier. That or make double-faced cards where one side has the artwork and the other side has the card text

[@Shadowbot074]

It’s like reading a book trying to understand what a card does. And the effects are hard to tell apart if it has multiple effects

[@kurokage4440]

I found an older version of Paladin of White Dragon who's card text despite being tiny nearly went over the line into the ATK and DEF

[@PricefieldPunk]

Thats what i like about Masterduel, if i were to duel in real life my opponent could just make up effects and id just trust them.

[@Alejandra-cv7rj]

I won't be surprised if Konami in the future puts digital codes on the text box of each card because how much words the cards now have.

[@kateslate3228]

Another formatting thing they could use. Use the numbers from the ocg, but in addition, have them be next to the card's type too. And then have a symbol next to each number signifying hard or soft once per turn. Like a circle next to the 1 ability is a soft OPT and a diamond is a HOPT

[@WinterShorts0]

Funny thing is, they already have a card like this in the mid-2000's: Rainbow Dragon's first printing in Tactical Evolution had bullet points on it and it described it's two effects. I guess it was technically a decision to pick between the two effects, but I don't feel it's the same as Lightning Storm where you had to pick an effect the moment you activated the card, moreso the text of "You can only use 1 "X card's name" effect once per turn, and only once that turn." Either way there's still that visual distinction that Rainbow Dragon clearly had 2 on-field effects.

[@leonardoluiz7487]

I think all suggestions you made were great. Here's one of mine: They could use bold text in some important "keywords" (such as Negate, Draw, destroy, search, summon, add, Quick eff...) so it's easier for the player to speed read to check if the opponent's cards can interact with the play you're planning to do or if you can / should interact with theirs. Let's say it's your turn and you want to know if your opponent have an interupt or negate: just look for the bold "Quick effect" and negate so you won't need to read the effects that don't apply to the situation. Then if you see a bold "negate" you can slow down and read the specifics. Just like that you can roughly know your opponent's monster have a search eff, a special summon eff and a pop much quicker even if you'll need to read the full effect to fully understand the card.

[@tarvox14]

Like you said the bullet points or number system already helps a lot, I would like them to also add keywords like magic does. So many cards have similar effect and yet they just keep writing it all Just say "piercing", its the same thing as "when this monsters attacks a monster in defense position, during damage calculation, if your monster has higher attack than the opposing monster's defense, the opponent takes damage equal to the difference."

[@princenoreally]

With the best way to read pendulum cards is that the effects in the tiny box text is the pendulum scale effects and the box text under is the card effects

[@adud6764]

Keyword do not only shorten card texts, but they also give a certain framework in which you can create cards. If you can't express a card with a couple of keywords and a short additional text, then maybe it should not be a card in the first place.

[@androiduser3895]

I've always liked the idea for (OPT) and (opt) to indicate a hard once per turn and a soft one. It saves on card text and makes it easier for people to know which is which, especially newer players.

[@DavidEllner]

You should do a video explaining Pendulum extra deck monsters, I like complex pendulum decks like D/D/D and Fusion Odd-Eyes, but when people see XYZ, Synchro, and even Fusion monsters with scales they get confused with placements and effect activation (like effects from proper summon).

[@tyllisvfx]

my solution to this : decrease art size slightly to increase text box size and font size, then use a bulleted list on it's own line to separate each effect the problem in my opinion isn't with the amount of card text but with how it's so hard to read each effect individually. also I don't think it's too late to change it since things like problem solving card text came pretty late and wasn't a problem for cards that didn't have it since every card doesn't really need to be reprinted in a new format

[@perryto7856]

They need to change the format of the cards: A small rectangular image above and then a big space for the text under, with Times New Roman 18 font XD

[@shelbyramin1376]

I just watched your video on having a hard once per turn rule change that applies to everybody. I even commented mentioning how it would provide an opportunity to create a new archetype that specializes in using abilities several times in a turn.

[@dee2273]

Formating indeed either points or breaking up the text in separate lines something to reduce the word overload when you see all that text

[@BosSoxFan15]

Keywords in Mtg are so useful just because you can slowly learn them over time when you first start playing. They are generally intuitive to their actual effect. for example. haste means the creature doesn't have summoning sickness and can immediately attack. Lifelink gives you like when it deals damage. Landfall means an effect triggers when you have a land come into play. As someone who plays a lot of mtg and some master duel it is so much easier and always has been easier to digest what new magic cards do compared to a new yugioh card.

[@louisgalarza8222]

Yeah as someone getting back into it it’s a little frustrating slowing down the duel to read

[@DaakkuuYRS]

For the Japanese it is even worst. Kanjis are super complicated in their shape, that it is almost impossible to read at that size. And for kids who can't read them it is way worse. Yugioh has Hiragana "translation" for them, but yeah, at this size it is impossible.

[@ducktail4068]

alot of cards have basically the same sort of effect like searching or destruction or some common effect. problem is, its always dragged out in so many wortheless words for it to basically mean "search a card" or "pop a card". Instead it will say Add it from your deck to your hand. It could just say "Search *insert archetype* card" and it would be obvious that its telling us to add an archetype specific card from the deck to our hand, it just saves a few words which makes a difference.

[@typical_doza]

I remember playing a match that the whole entire deck had monsters with paragraph texts. My opponent knew this and he used it to his advantage. Every time I asked what the monster does he would simple tell me to read it. Thank god I can speed read. My AP English classes came in handy.

[@Dr.Octavius2.5]

I agree completely. IO play master duel and i find myself timing out due to reading too much effects or losing because i didn't read the text right. Also, the wording can be confusing at times especially when there is numerous effects.

[@veselinjokanovic3032]

Keep up with great content Paul! I love these videos and your insights are spot on.

[@kingkaratechop3978]

This is the reason I kind of fell out of yugioh. I miss the days when cards just had a line or two of text but when every card now has 17 paragraphs explaining 8 different effects, that's just way too much to keep up with

[@Aldrickcerberus]

I normally ask what it does or a quick summary "it searches my deck" "it special summons this" ect then if they have a board I will ask effects and what they do (a big trust in them but luckily I only play locals/casual)

[@ScottrickTV]

I really like the numbers for each card effect! It would be hard to reprint all the cards with those added though.

[@iatdtv4996]

Relinquished anyone? Literally had effects that couldn't be printed on the card due to room.

[@Jcbryant123]

It'd be really nice to see some videos from you guys highlighting aspects of competitive play that you enjoy. Something with a positive tone. Every single video as of late seems to have a anti-competitive focus. And as someone who doesn't share your casual sentiments, but overall enjoy the TeamAPS guy's personalities, these theme is exhausting AF.

[@bollockjohnson6156]

They COULD stop powercreeping the game by making cards that have multiple costs/conditions, and overpowered effects. Why did we have to stray so far from "Draw 2 cards" or "Discard 1 card to destroy 1 card on the field?" At this rate by 2025 we'll have cards that come with a booklet you have to refer to when you play it!

[@tzera_rhuon]

Text boxes will just have QR codes to scan lol

[@kingkaratechop3978]

Totally agree! Like why does every card have to have 20 effects and so much text?

[@r3zaful]

Back then even in the late 1999 Canon soldier ftk exists

[@zfighter3]

I really believe we need keywords. Yugioh is way too combo heavy now. You can be forced to read multiple hundred word combos on some turns and try to understand timings for everything. People thought relinquished had too much text back in the day but now the game is being gatekept to new players by a new enemy called thousand-word restrict. Borderline impossible for me to get new players into this game when magic is more accessible on every level. Konami doesn't try to make things a nice experience for the players.

[@Jellysfrickingstuff]

Power creeping makes it necessary XD the options over time are either make the monsters have more attack points or give them crazy long effects

[@ajbXYZcool]

Or just don't power creep, introduce set rotation so you can change which type of stuff is strong in a particular season but the overall power level stays more balanced. *shrug*

[@MichaelQ1492]

I think to ease with wording, but I am unsure, is using the rush duel formating along with the numbered bullet points of the OCG. I think it would help differenciate cost and effects to minimize confusion, and the way the card is designed, you can sacrifice a bit of the art for wording if need be. Though..I also think by the way it looks, you could be sold full art cards as the entire art is still on the card, just behind the display. With how much text is on the card it is unlikely, but imagine if say in the conditions section you see " effect(s) 1&2 can be used once and only once per turn." So the condition box and the effect box can also aejust accordingly to if need be. This is all hypothetical..but it can really clean up cards like snoww

[@supershadow125]

When getting back into yugioh awhile back through duel links and master fu it took a while to get used to reading the cards and understanding the flow of the duel so I wouldn't have to read and just focus on my cards and recognize the picture and only stop and read if I'm second guessing myself. Even though it's not a card game Fire Emblem Heroes players used to mock the game for having more text than yugioh cards for characters kits, and with some characters surpassed yugioh text and became essentially unreadable for the common player lmao

[@BaeBunni]

you know what could also help that won't change much is the "effect" in the brackets by having Effect or Effects/Multi-effect sorta denote this card has more than 1 effect would also help with confusion there are only a handful of cards that Multi-effect wouldn't fit up there but It seems like another way to remove from confusion.

[@FingerboardStylez]

coloring those bullet points for effects it can do during the opponents turn would be great as well, since thats the main things Im concerned with when trying to deal with the cards.

[@Lucifer_isthereal_god]

It would definitely be better if they just marked each effect like the OCG. I know reprinting it would suck but it would help newer players. I however am totally fine I read books constantly and am constantly learning so reading card text is simple and quick for me. Until they have those old crappy wordings lmao that sht is hilarious.

[@Megidramon]

For hard vs soft once per turn effects, I feel like an acronym, like they've done with GY, would be SO GOOD. The other thing is formatting. The problem is trying to figure out which effect a player is using, so if there were a listing format, such as in Lightning Storm, it would make things much easier to read and understand.

[@Megidramon]

Using Eldlich as an example, it could be: You can only use each effect of "Eldlich the Golden Lord" OPT. -You can send this card and 1 S/T from your hand to the GY, then target 1 card on the field; send it to the GY. -If this card is in your GY: You can send 1 S/T you control to the GY; add this card to your hand, then you can S.S. 1 Zombie from your hand, and if you do, until the end of next turn, it gains 1000 A/D and cannot be destroyed by C.E.'s.

[@dyrokudobane]

With a lot of cards, it seems like the destruction on the field effect is often spread out to "if this card on the field is destroyed _by card effect, or by battle (even if not)_". Simplification goes a long way, along with the ordering - I'd think that the effects that can let a card be summoned should be at the top, when a card is summoned should be next, its effect after activation/summoning should be in the middle (whether it is mandatory or not) should go after, and any effects when it is destroyed can go at the end (or something of that sort). Bullet points would definitely help, but simply splitting up text into what it is supposed to do would be the most worthwhile - instead of just letting another effect without any breaks that has another activation case right after another. I, in fact, get really nervous about effects and I've timed out on Master Duel just because I was worried about when an effect would come up against some decks like Witchcrafter.

[@B-MC]

I would love a sketch "Old Man Plays Yugioh" where he reads slowly, draws slowly, doesnt know half the rules, plays old-school. Like yugi's grandfather but hasnt played the game in years. Frustrates the player to no end and then casually wins with exodia.

[@robert907]

I think of cards where done in a bullet point style would be easier. For example •Once per turn only can do (insert here) •when destroyed by battle •can’t be special summoned from grave. Again just an example

[@tylerharris9243]

Admittedly I only started playing yugioh when master duel came out, but I have never beat a pendulum deck. Mainly because I just try to power read them and I typically miss a part of the effect, or just misread the effect, so I never really understand what to hand trap or how to interact with the decks.

[@FentonHardyFan]

I think it would be useful to have a way of easily determining the archetype effect(s) from a specific monster’s effect. Put the archetype effect(s) first, and then have a dotted line, or start a new paragraph with the effects unique to that specific monster.

[@Commodore128]

I know comparing Yugioh to Magic is like comparing apples to oranges, but one thing I really appreciate about Magic cards is how easy to follow their effects are. They're all formatted as "Cost: Effect" or "Whenever X happens, do this" and separated in their own paragraphs. Of course, they also don't typically have the same kinds of effects as Yugioh cards anyway so these things don't exactly translate over. I like your idea of adopting the OCG formatting for multiple effects though, I always find it easier to understand some of those cards when we see the early translations online that still have the (1) and (2) effects broken up in that way. Now that I think of it, it would be nice if Quick Effects had some sort of indicator besides writing out (Quick Effect) in full too.

[@thiagoventuradesousa7275]

How delightful it is to read Endymion. It has 3 lines bigger than my thesis.

[@PsychoKern]

Why you gotta do my boy Endymion dirty like that on the thumbnail :( He just loves collecting spell counters, just like me!

[@cohenmarioman]

I remember when Relinquished was first released you needed a magnifying glass to read the whole thing haha

[@WaggishTyphlosion]

Part of it is that there's just so much empty space on the cards. I thought of a couple ideas to help reduce it. If we moved the level of the monster down to its stat line instead and formatted it something like ☆8 or ☆10 instead of having 8 or 10 stars that you have to count and it would free up some space that could be used for a larger text box. For spells and traps, you could move their card type symbol (quick-play, counter, continuous, etc.) to the card name and just get rid of the [Spell Card]/[Trap Card] part. Another idea that I had is to move the set number to the bottom instead the card or maybe even to thr side of the picture instead of just having it below the picture and taking up a line of space that could also be used for a larger text box

[@streetzfpv]

I didn't know ocg did that, it's really no reason not to number the effects or have bulletpoints or have more organized text. Some really good points Paul

[@flovibe6950]

The more text the more awesome!

[@Shugunou]

I think some more problem solving card text could work. They shortened "Graveyard" to "GY" and I think doing more of that could work. If specific types of special summoning had that instead, it could work. "FS" for Fusion Summoning, "SS" for Synchro Summoning, "XS" for XYZ Summoning, "RS" for Ritual Summoning, "PS" for Pendulum Summoning, and so on. That could save a lot of card text on certain cards. Alternatively, they could leave all of those the same and just make Special Summoning "SS" since it occurs more often. They could also some other abbreviations the OCG does like using "X" instead of "times". These could save space and be easier to read. The important thing with PSCT is that it has to be intuitive. You have to be able to guess what it means without being told. I think these changes would be able to do that.