Yu-Gi-Oh has an audience problem.

Does Konami really know the average yugioh player? Paul discusses the differing types of yugioh players and how Konami should market to them.
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[@PKSparkxxDH]

You hit the nail on the head. There is no real "casual" mode with Yugioh. Every time I play, it feels so serious. I would love to know an environment exists where I can bring S-Force or Ogdoadics. But for that to happen, Konami needs to be honest about the state of the game. But they've shown that they will maintain that this game is available to competitive and casual at the same time. Until their philosophy changes, nothing else will.

[@Efgand0894]

Same reason why I can't play MD anymore, it's like you are forced to be a competitve tryhard

[@Darkslayer289]

​@@Efgand0894I still play Master Duel, but I keep facing the same decks a majority of the time. When I encounter something different or casual, I get excited. Kinda sad I cheer for something unique instead of the run-of-the-mill meta deck.

[@LightshaverConstellation]

It's why I don't like dueling vs 95% of my friends in modern yugioh because I feel I have to tryhard unless I know what they want to use and have something in my pool of similar strength. While playing ranked, I pretty much know what I am getting into, but casual is a little more stressful for me unfortunately.

[@cuttlefish6839]

​​@@Darkslayer289I generally enjoy competitive card games but Maxx c has made me quit MD. Won't go back till either they ban the card or offer a tcg format with it gone.

[@Dr.Frogerston]

Honestly, it would help tremendously if you could do your dailes in casual mode. Also, alternative formats in casual mode/duel rooms(/maybe ranked?) would be great.

[@adamwhaley1819]

Yu-Gi-Oh has gotten to the point where it’s so competitive I don’t even enjoy thinking of playing a casual deck because it just feels like there’s no point, even in a local setting.

[@Alex-Omega]

And youre right with that actually. Play Meta or stick with friends who also play casuals, Its really like that

[@bigchungus1852]

Honestly you’re right cause I go to my locals every week and I try to play to the best of my ability with the decks I choose to play; Runick, Plunder Patroll and HERO builds. I find myself not having fun cause I either get destroyed by a deck that’s considered meta (Rescue Ace, Unchained, Purrely, etc) or I get handtrapped to death There’s gotta be a midground format that isn’t 2010 Edison format

[@SorenFE93]

Honestly, I think it really depends on your locals. I play a lot of casual decks to the best of my ability and tend to do alright (though do use a couple hand traps). Now don't get me wrong, we've got a few meta players (one guy playing Branded/Chimera/Horus for example) and..it's competitive, yes, but it's pretty chill. I've seen a wide variety of decks. Some meta some janky and we all have a good time. And even some of the more lower tier decks have put our BCH player on the backfoot. Again, it's not going to be every locals, it's just what happened to be with mine. I honestly lucked out.

[@SorenFE93]

Granted, have I taken 1st place ever? No, but I will usually win at least 1 match and that's alright with me lol.

[@masterflamewing234]

I still dont see the fun in going and wasting your time knowingly being ok with the fact you wont win a single time.@@SorenFE93

[@trulysavage9979]

Kinda related story: I was selling a deck core on fb marketplace to get rid of some cards (Sky striker) and a woman messaged me asking if that core was a good way to get into yugioh so she can play with her son and I immediately told her NO buy the speed duel battle city box and call it a day. It amazes me how little guidance there are for people like that who want to casually get into the game.

[@timtam2400]

There's a veritable laundry list of how Yu-Gi-Oh could be handled to draw in and retain an audience. The main problem, as you stated, is Konami seems extremely reluctant to take steps to better market the game and catch interest.

[@sammead7911]

Yeah I agree my kids love it and play it but that’s literally just because I am into it and have been since I was a kid

[@waiyon1951]

It also hurts interest when new archetypes are unnecessarily expensive to build like centurion and new players may be more likely to want to try those out instead of course mainly tcg i think ocg has it too just they do have budget options for new cards.

[@daviddent5662]

It's not even reluctance. When they lost Studio Gallop this caused them to outsource and made new animes harder. Then Kazuki's death ended the flow of good new ideas. It's twofold problem: Yugioh breeds sweats and the loss of good resources combined with Konami deluding themselves into thinking they'll stay on top forever by being evil and lazy ...it's a bad thing all around.

[@Dualities]

What they need to do is bring back YuGiOH Classic. Master Duel feels unbalanced. 5 summons a turn, harpie duster to clear all traps... its not fun. they need a classic gamemode at least

[@jeanpitre5789]

You're talking about a company that's primarily in the market of casino games that ACQUIRED Yugioh (they did not own the rights initially). They NEVER intended to do any of the work. To them Yugioh was a simply a turnkey operation, similar to other quick merchandising turnarounds. In the 90s and 2000s this was COMMON PRACTICE because even if your toy or game went out of fashion after 2 or 3 years, that's still millions you made off a fad. Well the fad is still going and Konami is no more involved today as they were in the beginning. Yugioh doesn't have an audience problem, it has a KONAMI problem. The best thing that can happen to yugioh is it gets bought out or sold, but neither will happen. The greedy pigs at Konami would rather sit on it until it's value tanks and ceases to exist than to let another company potentially make more money out of than they ever could.

[@sativaburns6705]

There's got to be a middle ground between normal summon/set pass and watching someone play with themselves for 20 minutes until they win solitaire and lock the opponent out of playing.

[@clemfire1772]

Edison format

[@MatthewStiles1]

There is. It's called Edison.

[@sativaburns6705]

Tell Konami, I play master duel.

[@Shemegory]

It was called Duel Links, I generally love modern yugioh but it's insane they went past xyz in Duel links.

[@YURTZYN42]

Edison. That or bring back TD colossus who shuts down Solitaire play and forces interaction. TDs were such a healthy tier 0 deck cuz they shut down polarizing decks that just want to play 1player mode.

[@YongTre100]

For me my problem is i see two camps, ultra meta latest cards 100s of dollar decks, and people who use like just normal monsters from the og anime and simple spells. For me i just enjoy what archetypes i want, but when playing with either group its frustrating either feeling like i cant do anything and its all negated or it being where they summon some random monster and then i have a 3000 atk monster and i just win. Also the optimal length for a game i find is around 8-10 turns (4-5 each, long enough to be fun and engaging bot so long that its exhausting)

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

Had a guy in masterduel summon mist archfiend and set mirror force and magic cylinder. I felt so bad when I twin twistered and otked him with numeron dragon/draglubion combo. I felt like I was beating up my past self lol

[@apsamplifier]

_Old Man Yells at Cloud_

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

Old man yells at card

[@DickDarkie]

Consarnit!👴

[@ryanhorton607]

So what I'm hearing is .. perhaps there should be, some sort of school... An academy, if you will lol and that might help gather the players of various degrees of skill and depth of the game without making them feel excluded from the entirety of the game ... 🤔🤔🤔

[@duyknguyen]

Dont be discouraged, Paul, you're still doing it right!! I just come across A greatest take from a non-yugioh player but 1 TCG lover in general. That is Yugioh is ACTUALLY in top 5 most "Fun" and "Casual" TCG ever, but not in the Top 5 "Competitive" TCG which have MTG, Pokemon.. where balanced and decision-making come first (Edison might). If we are actually looking the Yugioh as the only TCG that you can do "All The Things In The World" your ways, then It's actually pretty fun!! and that plus Edison/ Rush Duel and all other draft formats for battling w friends 🎉 Casual and Fun are subjective ("Why is FTK bad but Exodia is cool?" dilemma) but if we're looking at that way I think it's most fair for Yugioh since they don't have resource for "fair" card level to measure like mana anyway ❤ P.S: It's from "Maindeck" youtube top 5 videos btw

[@qinop]

Agreed but You're not that old

[@jasonpapagiannis5924]

As someone who played 2018-2021, I tried getting back into it earlier this year and felt like I was starting from 0 all over again. I can't imagine people taking a longer break from even older formats

[@daviddent5662]

I'm back from 2005-2008 and I adapted but I still get irritated that Yugioh keeps rapidly just evolving into locking the board, cheezing off the opponent during their turn and the like. That said I do love playing Infinitrack Pure and Earth Machine Machina, Scareclaw and even recently Mikanko. Though I'll have a soft spot in my heart for my janky little pals like Magnets, Deskbot and Pure Fiends/cosplay decks. I hate that we're losing this in Duel Links who was at least a little bastion for it but I feel just between Live Twins and Ancient Warriors that's kind of over.

[@Rain593]

I "retired" during DRuler/Spellbook format right before the babies got banned (so... summer/fall 2013). I came back with Master Duel, and honestly... it didn't feel all that different than it did back then (as someone that played Synchrocentric and Laval Quasar). The only thing that took me a lil bit was Links but I got used to everything pretty quick (even built Rikka Sunavalon in paper and played it at locals (don't recommend tbh, deck plays like writing a Quantum Physics thesis)).

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

I'm back in it from 2016. I mainly use meme decks like skull servants. I'm trying to learn each of the structure decks in master duel even though they aren't viable. Through talent and luck alone I did get to plat 1 with dragonmaids. Right now I'm running a gate guardian kashtira deck that isn't in its final form yet but theres a suprising amount of synergy. Another fun deck is fluffals, nobody knows what they do and everyone pops toy box because they don't wanna read lol. I don't get frustrated when I lose though, it just teaches me new decks to try out. A lot of people aren't like me though and will give up. Currently building a summoned skull deck to suprise people with, never underestimate the old cards!

[@edgardiaz690]

Playing from like 05-15, I came back and wow. I stuck to Edison and goat. I got a career and the cards having been reprinted is so awesome!

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

I remember someone once told me events should use holograms like in the anime to make it more fun to watch. Sounds fun until you realize you'd just see like 20 random cyberse monsters get linked off in a combo to make 3 omni negates lol. It'd be funny to watch for sure.

[@jmurray1110]

They should try something like that Like take a duel from a national or something and animate it like it was from the anime get voice actors and call out the effect more so there’s a way for the casuals looking in to better understand ot Might incentive them to make a show with actually good decks and test the formula of anime competition

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

@jmurray1110 allright turn one he opens with snake eye poplar and looks like the opponent has no hand traps (goes full combo). Turn two the former regional champ activates dark ruler no more and uses called by the grave to remove banish promethean princess from the grave. What will he do now? Bonfire special summon snake eyes poplar and goes full combo. Wow folks! I'm on the edge of my seat! Will snake eyes win? Or will snake eyes win? Stay tuned to find out.

[@jmurray1110]

@@andrewlikesmetal1095 preferably they would try to pick a variety of decks and the closer match’s for entertainment purposes to keep some of that anime back and forth but yes occasionally this would happen But either way would you rather watch a paper version of the amt h or one where you can see the monsters actually exist This would have been really cool for tear format though given how interesting the mirror is

[@SelfReassuringTitle]

I think this is sort of related to the casual versus competitive debate, where Konami still needs to do more to serve both types of players

[@waiyon1951]

I also think it can help if they make new archetypes from the builder set be more accessible. Since you know new products should also try to attract new players so new archetypes should attract new and old, cant really do that when the deck core for new archetpes can be somewhere around the $400 ish range excluding staples and the ED.

[@Protect_all_ljf3forms]

Konami makes plenty of casual deck archetypes. Problem is the power gap between a meta and a casual deck even in same year/month of release is ever getting larger

[@SelfReassuringTitle]

@@Protect_all_ljf3forms that’s right, Konami is really good about making product for casuals but unlike Pokémon and MTG there aren’t “casual-only” locals/events - Pokémon will often have open play locals instead of Swiss tournaments

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

Yugioh is only played by ycs players.

[@lavalord96]

I think the casual environment, aka the base game, is the MOST important part of any game with a competitive scene. Casual should come first, and by EXTENSION, entertainment should come first. The competitive part is BORN form the casual space, it does NOT make the game itself. People are drawn to a game for the game, because it looks entertaining, not JUST for the competitive part. I refrain from using the "f" word (fun, because its subjective) but they should be focusing on entertainment over anything else first, and then build on it so the game can keep itself going. I'm always a guy who will value sensationalism over anything else FIRST. If I find the food at my local burger joint good, I'll keep coming back, I won't however be constantly coming back for overpriced rich people food that I can't even afford, I don't need that stuff, I just need a good burger, some normal salad, a large soda, etc. In other words... "If it's not fun, why bother?" - Reggie

[@randomprotag9329]

there is a slight * to this the game needs to be a competively designed game thats played casually, with out that you get design choices which are anti comp. look at magics early card where 1 mana for 3 of an effect worked for casual but not competive.

[@lavalord96]

@@randomprotag9329Don't get me wrong, I'm of course not saying to COMPLETELY ignore competitive; Like if there is a card that is blatantly overpowered and causes people to not have fun while playing then yeah, I'd see why they'd remove it from their pool of cards. I'm just saying that a game shouldn't rely soley on the fact that it's "made" for competitive mode. Games like overwatch 1 WERE competitive, but in a slightly different way; It made you competitive in a casual sense because it encouraged you to work with your team properly to get that win with your team and feel accomplished. It had a ranked mode and a casual mode from what I remember. Take a game like team fortress 2; the Tf2 devs made the mistake of SOLEY catering towards the competitive scene and it ended up damaging the casual experience, and nobody plays on their competitive servers anymore.

[@Hwa_206]

Real

[@Loves2spooch123]

My way of getting back into yugioh was buying legacy of the duelist on steam and just playing single player. I had a lot of fun.

[@MaexxLoL]

That's how I came back. Now I'm registered for a big event in January, ready to compete with my branded chimeras xD

[@animegx45]

Sadly, I'm thinking it's too late to port over the Rush Duel cards, which is a shame since it was basically a hard reset of the game as a whole. But that could've been a niche audience. Then again, speed duels is a niche audience. Weird how all of Yugioh is made up of niche audiences.

[@Danny_Stylez]

He said he has been thinking about yugioh but im like ain’t he always thinking about yugioh on this channel 😂😂😁 good topic Paul keep it up

[@apsamplifier]

You right LMAO

[@Danny_Stylez]

@@apsamplifier lol I’m just joking Paul all love my brotha 😂😂but tell when I’m telling lies

[@WalkthroughBuddy]

Always was a casual player and still am. I found this to be very insightful and did ask a good question about who is yugiohs target audience. Yugioh is a WAY different beast now then it was when I and others got into it but for me i try to just enjoy the game my way and find new ways to make it fun for myself and my friends. Keep up the good work Paul.

[@ancientmb23]

I feel this so much!

[@MrLegion501st]

I quit MD, I am slowly quitting advanced, standard, modern Yugioh, whatever you want to call it. I am having more fun playing Pokémon and the local community is more friendly than the YGO community is, and as Pokémon is way cheaper to play than YGO, you can have an actual meta Pokémon deck for the price of a single YGO card, so there is not too much gap between casual and competitive. Recently, a guy came into the store to promote goat format, he doesn't want to play the modern game, I enter the game and I am having a lot of fun like I haven't had in years in modern YGO. The modern game has got too serious (and expensive) that almost all this year I went to the store only to see friends but not actually playing because for me, it is not fun as it used to be. I don't feel like quitting the game, I am finishing my Cyber Dragon deck (that now I am fucked because Duality sky rocketed in price) and playing Earth Machine but it is not the same for me like it was about 4 - 5 years ago.

[@SUPERLINKX2]

Same here, I ended up switching to Lorcana, the Disney tcg. It plays similar to Magic. I have also been wanting to dabble in pokemon but im already too deep In lorcana atm Lol

[@andimjustalex]

I really like the speed duel boxes, but i still hope that we'll get more draftable products like the return of battle packs some day.

[@sayrux8897]

maybe if they animate the [Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG structures] would help a bit its showing recent meta/rogue deck, and explaining some staple

[@ThatOneWeirdFlex]

I wish Konami would officially support Time Wizard formats like WOTC has done with Commander. A financially supported Edison format run and supported by Konami would be an amazing step in the right direction, since it allows old anime fans to get into the game without starting with the insane S/T cards in G.O.A.T and the insanely powerful cards from after TenguPlant format, while still letting players who only know modern Yugioh to play formats from some of the most fun time periods in Yugioh History. A Series like History of Yugioh would be great as a way to introduce players into whatever point in the timeline they left without having to dive in headfirst to modern Yugioh.

[@ry2950]

I've actually startrd playing the "Yugioh Tag Force " seires again via emulator, and it has been some of the most fun I've been having with the franchise. Plenty of CPU opponents that are playing with various decks so I don't feel like I need to meta game in a game that is locked in a more nostalgic era. Dueling with and against characters from the anime brings me back to a time where I would watch GX or 5DS and imagine what would be like to be in them. I only bring this up because if Konami released another PVE single player based Yugioh game I would buy it in a heartbeat. Even if it is limited to a certain era or format. Master Duel is too meta oriented/competitive for me, and frankly I'm not really good enough at Yugioh to find enjoyment out of it. Legacy of the Duelist is incredible, but it feels like it is missing something important like exploration or orginal content. Long story short. Wish Konami would release more single player video games, and Yugioh Tag Force has scratched an itch I had for years.

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

Ahh monarchs and heros. The good ol days. Also make sure you get that golden egg sandwitch for your partner. Chaz is the best partner with armed dragon bar none.

[@axelt6312]

Tag force are the best YUGIOH game, glad you found out about them

[@quentin52]

The physical card game just doesn't bring in new players like other TCG's do. This has been a issue for a few years and is only getting worse with advent of new tcg's that actually have people wanting to play them leading to a shrink in an already declining playerbase for the physical TCG.

[@Zanji1234]

and the fun part: most player really don't care

[@spencerl.9859]

As someone who played YGO as a kid and now plays MTG commander casually, modern YGO feels completely impenetrable as an outsider. I want to play the game, but I don't understand the meta and don't want to play in a competitive format.

[@Madanth0ny]

@@spencerl.9859I’m right there with you man every year I pick up duel links or mater duel I want to build a physical deck again but there’s just so much going on it only last like 2 months and give you…I stick to sacred cards and reseif of destruction that’s my speed

[@redcastlefan]

I think its cuz we keep letting a vocal minority steer the community whichever way they want. Even us the avg non-competitive players end up having to fall in line cuz everyone else is optimizing regardless of skill level/competitive seriousness and so even if youre playing for fun you'll still feel the urge to optimize your deck. I shouldnt feel the need to care that my dark magician deck "sucks" against their optimized excel spreadsheet nerd deck.

[@Kintaku]

I think creating excitement around the new archetypes through some form of anime or manga is a really good idea. Even if the content is entirely lore. I’m a “Yugi-boomer” in the sense that I rejoined the game after almost 20 years. And after playing the game and giving the more meta decks a chance, I’ve found a lot to like about modern YuGiOh. The problem is that there’s a huge learning curve and if you don’t have something to be excited about, you won’t keep banging your head into a wall to learn it.

[@devonmantle6127]

Started playing edison on db rated after thinking id hate older slower yu-gi-oh but I am really enjoying it. I think if Konami supported these older formats that would help newer players as there are a lot of nostalgic cards like mirrorforce and bottomless and the game is easier to grasp to start with but still has a whole lot of nuance to it. But they refuse to support these older formats and instead made rush duels which I dont understand.

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

Rush is ok but drawing 5 cards every turn just makes it seem like a back and forth slugfest. Every deck kind of feels similar. You churn out weak monsters to get a big boi on the field and thats about it. Kind of boring tbh

[@agentlemanknight411]

100% agree about having more content about modern archetypes. Anytime I dig into the Branded lore, or World Legacy, or Visas Starfrost, or Duel Terminal, there's just so much crazy stuff going on and interesting characters, yet it's never had anywhere near as much attention. Imagine any of those big storylines getting an anime of its own, that would be awesome! Even a lot of smaller archetypes have potential: Vendreads might not be good but man the lore is so cool, for example. Great video as always!

[@bobb5492]

a visas starfrost//hearts anime would be fuckkin liiiiiiit

[@johndexterzarate6663]

....Þe downside is þose decks always does meta warping bs þat brings in more powercreep.

[@streetgamer3452]

Branded has gotten a lot of attention though

[@Ekatkid]

It’s such a shame that the lore for some of their best archetypes is so underrepresented in the west, I love the branded lore so much that I can look past the obnoxiousness of the deck in the Tcg and proudly say that it is one of my favorite decks, if branded, or the world chalice line, or even visas edgefrost storyline was made into a manga/anime/ just more widely available these decks would make WAVES among the more casual players, I’d love to see ecclesia and fallen of albaz cosplayers that would be so neat!

[@streetgamer3452]

The lore is very well known. People love the branded lore even in the west, they just don’t like the deck

[@Ekatkid]

@@streetgamer3452 it is still pretty niche compared to the wider yugioh community as a whole. And the fact that it has to be collected and interpreted by KZbinrs is a reason why

[@iVirtuall]

"i've been thinking alot about yugioh" Me too paul i think all of us are

[@housedelarouxmotion]

The simple answer is that competitive play is niche. Jesse Kotton is a literally who for anime-watchers.

[@elin111]

Marketing the game with nothing but Yugi and Kaiba is gonna bait and switch a lot of people who are gonna feel cheated and falsely advertised to when they realize no one plays Blue Eyes.

[@Matthew-bm7xh]

Literally print rush duel since it solves every problem

[@apsamplifier]

Right.

[@Chris_Tootoo]

Instead of draft Konami can start releasing ‘Historic’ packs/structure decks that simulate old formats. Selling ‘Goat’ packs can bring older players back into the game and actually spend money on a format that was more slower and methodicalz

[@yurisei6732]

They're already doing this a bit in the egyptian god structure decks, and the structure deck that introduced Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon never stopped being printed, you can still see that in a lot of toy and game shops. However, there isn't the ecosystem to support this kind of play.

[@apeescape9648]

the issue is that if you haven't been playing in the last decade or whatever, you're just missing a loooooooot of game knowledge. you're too far gone; its possible to learn but its not gonna be fun getting wiped every game, and you still won't understand why you're losing. they just need simpler formats

[@NotBer]

I think it would help if they would do something to Standard/Modern formats in MTG.

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

Main issue honestly is that alot of people dont like your game Too many summons Negates Or whatever Less and less people play master duel just look at steam charts.

[@apeescape9648]

@@DragonBallsolosyourverse i don’t play ygu, haven’t in like 15 years. i just like to watch. my comment is basically saying why myself and any other new comer probably won’t be playing it

[@FaolanKitekaze]

With how universally beloved the albaz lore is, I don't know why there's not been an official presentation of the story from Konami. Look at what shows like Arcane and Cyberpunk Edgerunners for their games. The template is there, Konami just has to execute

[@toadfan64]

Skull Servant comedy series

[@FaolanKitekaze]

Goofy skeleton family on vacation shorts would slap

[@officergamerpro]

Maybe a new format designed around actually getting new people to join us and "Yugiboomers" to comeback would help. I do have a few ideas, but I'm open to others. - We could do a tribute summon alongside a normal summon. - We could normal set a flip monster alongside a normal summon. - Special summoning would be limited to 5 times per turn. - Ritual Monsters could have a rule where once they hit the graveyard, they immediately go face-up to the top of the extra deck, like pendulums. - Once per turn each player can special summon a Normal Monster and that summon wouldn't count towards that 5 special summon limit, maybe both players get points each turn in which they spend to special summon the Normal Monsters, the higher the level, the more points needed to get the normal monster out. Also, I'm aware there would be huge balancing problems, so it would need its own dedicated banlist as well. A format that is more "classic feeling" if you will.

[@appleplates]

I hope Konami sees this video. I am the quintessential Yugi-boomer who’s completely overwhelmed by the modern game, but I heavily got back into the older formats of the TCG with the 25th Anniversary reprints this year (I wish Konami would reprint more old sets actually). I’ve also played the Rush Duel game on Switch and personally found that much more enjoyable than the modern TCG. That’s not to take anything away from people who enjoy the modern TCG, but it would be nice to have the option of physical Rush Duel in the west as well for people like me.

[@ancientmb23]

Isn't Rush Duel fun? I loved it! Agree with everything else you said.

[@mairain6443]

I agree 100%. I'm a yugi-boomer who plays charmers, have done since they released and still play it with friends who play super old decks. I have no interest in standard format but don't begrudge those who do. Rush is so much fun, it gives you that old school yugioh feeling again, but speeds it up. have you tried the Japanese GO RUSH game on switch? (you just need a JP account and its a free download) I can't read Japanese but found a list of all the cards and just memorised their effects by card art, it's really fun to play and has a much larger card pool.

[@panblu]

I also wish rush would come physically to the west too I wanna play it

[@ancientmb23]

@@panblu oh me too!

[@panblu]

@@ancientmb23 I can’t wait for duel links to put out more cards out for it

[@josephparkhurst1431]

I tried to watch the YCS coverage as a newish player, I've made it to master rank in MD and feel like I'm not bad at the game but coverage is so unintelligible. Most of the time the decks are different than master duel decks in major ways, there is no explanation of what cards actually do because yugioh is too fast paced for the explanation. If i wanted to learn a deck well i need to spend like +15 hours practicing it and seeing it played at a reasonable speed. Its the reason i enjoy these types of videos and dislike game play videos. Yugioh is soooooo hard to know what decks are doing. It makes wathcign coverage and fast pace gameplay kinda terrible in my opinion

[@ancientmb23]

Agree here as well. Especially with the new meta cards. I don't know what they do. I haven't gotten them yet. They could at least explain them.

[@nathanczajka1837]

i dont know why they dont just put mics on the players so you can hear what they are saying. it would be so much easier to follow then

[@mrstealcar4702]

Just focus on the cost of the card to activate its effects and what they actually do. Most decks are gonna have a goal to summon big monsters for an otk so its not too hard to follow if you focus on the summoning mechanics.

[@bobb5492]

i feel that. I just lost to runick for the first time playing it at locals last week. deckout first game. prevented it second, but still lost. what a lame-ass win condition.

[@BGLoscar]

YCS is high-level Yu-Gi-Oh. It just makes sense that you can not follow right off the bat. That is OK, and it is just normal. On average, you can not know or even understand what they are playing overnight. Same principle when you are watching a non YCS feature match. TCG is different from Master Duel. Just because you can click a glowing card, hit yes or no, or get some rank in MD, doesn't mean to say that you are already knowledgeable in TCG. You need lots of research and actual TCG experience to keep up. Try to go to your local OTS, or if you can not or do not want to go outside, try TCG simulators instead of MD and play with your friends.

[@swordsman1_messer]

Having become reinvested via Master Duel and picking up from there, I think your assessment is correct; it’s clear that Konami is having an issue trying to capture both spectrums of the audience. It might be high time to encourage more alternative format events and exhibitions on the regional level. You don’t really see the fun crowds beyond online circles or your LGS.

[@Spurgte]

I might start getting into rush duels First turns take soo long its not fun at all to watch combos

[@katzukiritokiriguya2096]

I've played Yu-Gi-Oh for a long time as someone that has had a break in-between summoning mechanics, meta is hard to grasp coming from someone who loved Galaxy eyes and CyberDragon. A lot of the time I've only ever seen Yu-Gi-Oh as a two "Formatted" game type it's either meta or casual not both.

[@StonedDragons]

Galaxy-Eyes is pretty good now with the new support, just made a 60 card tri-brigade branded deck rage quit because I decided I didn't want to see their mirrorjade, ever, thanks to galaxy 100.

[@katzukiritokiriguya2096]

I didn't know it had gotten new support are some of its "major issues" resolved yet?

[@StonedDragons]

@@katzukiritokiriguya2096 Yeah, one card that when summoned gives an additional normal summon and additionally summons itself once-per round from GY (a nice level 8) and another that when dumped to GY searches a spell along with another level 4 that when summoned brings back any galaxy or photon from the GY and can make its level 4... new level 4 xyz that searches and can make a special summons level 4 or 8 as well as boosting all attacks by 500. Add to that numbers last hope which is a spell that allows you to special summon from GY and immediately xyz. So it isn't very hard to end on a board of Photon Galaxy Dragon (new level 4 xyz), Photon blast dragon (now protecting itself with that 500 boost), galaxy X, Photon Lord and Hope Harbinger, potentially ripping from their extra deck in the process and doing it again on their turn with Galaxy 100. Only to consistently OTK with C62 on your next turn which has a nasty towers effect.

[@raven_knight_076]

@@katzukiritokiriguya2096 it's really solid, new cards help consistency quite a bit, and you can set up some solid turn 1 boards with disruption and protection, and the deck still does it's whole thing of "punch really fucking hard" quite well.

[@katzukiritokiriguya2096]

@@raven_knight_076 sick, I'll have to buy those

[@goldenphoenix527]

As someone who falls more into the "nostalgia" camp, I've had a lot of fun by building a Yu-Gi-Oh cube. For anyone who may not know, a cube is essentially a custom-made "draft" environment for a card game. The player who builds it will select the cards which go in the cube and, when players sit down to play it, the cards will be shuffled together and dealt out in packs of cards. Each player will then take a card from the pack they were dealt and pass the remainder to the next player. This process repeats until enough cards have been drafted for each player to build a deck with the cards they picked. When I built my Yu-Gi-Oh cube, I gave myself the restriction that every card had to have been printed in Yu-Gi-Oh's first calendar year of being printed in the west. And it's been a lot of fun-- all the cards us Yugi-boomers are nostalgic for wind up running the show. One of my buddies has managed to force a Maha Vailo based deck several times and loves it. I usually wind up grabbing all of the strongest high-attack 4-star monsters, like Goblin Attack Force, Jirai Gumo, and Mechanicalchaser. Another friend managed to put enough defense-mode monsters in a row to stop me from running over him and completely lock me out of attacking with a copy of Toll. If you're looking for a way to re-experience a particular feeling in Yu-Gi-Oh again, I can't recommend cubing enough (there's also nothing stopping you from trying this with newer cards, either-- though you need to be aware that drafting with archetypes is going to wind up with diluted decks, rather than decks which are more all-in on those archetypes).

[@SmileySadFaceHD]

The biggest problem I found was the complexity. I got back through Master Duel and I was really enjoying the game, I even built physical deck to play. But I just could not keep track of everything without the game prompts, you have to keep track of so many cards both yours and your opponents at the same time. I think that happens to a lot of people that really like the game but it is too complex to play without assistance.

[@jonanderirureta8331]

They need to make more anime. Albaz Lore or Sky Striker or Visas Lore or Diabellestar Lore, something to attract the public to the game. Most of Yugioh players learned how to play after watching the anime.

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

It'd be cool if they had a show where each episode is centered on the lore of an archetype. Like show us what visas actually does. All I know is he's a dude with a cool arm in fancy clothes that really likes special summoning himself.

[@snowqueen549]

At least they experience that with OCG though. In Japan , Manga medium is far more mainstream than anime which is why they have "OCG structure" , manga about a bunch of kid playing new archetype deck and "OCG story" where it about story of card archetype.

[@yurisei6732]

They'd also have to bring the costs of these sorts of archetypes down a ton though. Diabellstar's cool n' all but it's going to cost you £70+ for just that one card, let alone the rest of the deck. And if the costs were lowered, they'd just be incentivised to powercreep these cards out anyway. The only way Yugioh can work is if Konami gives up a huge portion of its profits from the game.

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

@yurisei6732 I wish they printed commons for everything. Pokemon tcg proves that the collectors will still seek the ultimately rare stuff and it actually benefits their profit margin because more people can play. If there were affordable commons people would play more, if they go to their card shop to play they will buy more product. Konami is just lazy and doesn't want to print more cards than they feel they have to, even if it means pricing people out of the game.

[@yurisei6732]

@@andrewlikesmetal1095 That's not laziness, it's greed. It doesn't take them any effort to add a few more entries to the commons list on their spreadsheet, but if they did that then people would buy less product because instead of every competitive player buying a case to get the secrets they need, now only the collectors are buying the cases.

[@NewtBannner]

Konami really fumbled the bag on capitalizing on the Branded Lore, the branded lore has kind of taken over the anime in a sense but in a smaller scale.

[@MrLeemurman]

I wonder what it would be like to bring the game back to it's original pace. You could obviously make new cards be more like them, but what do you do with the current cards? Would you errata/limit them to hell? Maybe make new formats "Pre-Quarter Century" and "Post-Quarter Century"

[@Carlos.Rivera]

Most people will migrate to OG format and those cards will be eradicated

[@elijahdavila3684]

I think they could build off of Speed Duel and keep it as a separate format from modern YGO. Print new cards for the SD powerlevel, support it with regular real booster sets and do store-level events and promotions.

[@JesterQueenAnne]

The game would probably die if that happened, back then the game only survived because of the popularity of the anime. I get people are nostalgic for it, but in the DM-GX era the game really sucked, and its pacing was a big part of the issue.

[@johndexterzarate6663]

....Just ban all lore cards. Its most in þat category where most powerful cards resides. Albaz lore alone has þe most bs cards like bystials, icejade, swordsoul & sprights. And it needs no explanation on what Visas did for years.

[@streetgamer3452]

People would more likely just stay in the current format because people genuinely do like the modern Yugioh and also it’s hard to change after being in this modern time after so long

[@brucwayn6403]

Modern yugioh audience is very simple Digital players , Collectors, Meta only, Non Meta only, everybody else Unlike mtg yugioh only has 1 recognized format( physical) so its a very simple and straightforward marketing method As far as non tcg goes i have no clue i havent watched the show since 5ds ended and idk if theyve made a newer movie since DSoD

[@pyunker11]

I quit the main game for speed duels and it has been such a refreshing experience. Most players are excited to see what decks can do (outside of the teir zero decks we're cursed with). I think that the modern player base has forgotten how to deck build and have a little more personality and fun with the game.

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

I like it because there's no maxx c. Fluffals are a beastly otk deck for pvp. Super consistent with a 20 card deck. You go full combo like 70 percent of games

[@RovanzTCG]

Great vid, they need to clarify their target audience. YCS Bologna coverage was a step in the right direction.

[@platinumkujo9226]

Honestly the fact that some duels feel “tense” or too “serious” is what’s driving me away. Like I just play for fun and people be trippin. Over sensitive community. I got into yogioh again since playing as a kid to make genuine friends and have fun duels but that seems like a fantasy these days. Something needs to change. We definitely need a more chill format and not feel like I’m in ranked in every locals. Or maybe I should just accept that this game isn’t for me. Idk. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

[@galzo]

I appreciate you taking the criticism this well! Thankfully I feel like I can keep my criticism respectful so I know you weren't hurt by what I posted or hopefully didn't take it personally. I'm glad to see someone like you recognizing that there is a big problem. I agree with almost everything you said in this video, and I appreciate you taking the time to address this

[@TheCursedOni]

yugioh irl you have to be rich just to get a good deck to win.If your poor, then your shit out of luck, no matter how good you are.yugioh games,The game is fine besides it making you have to face people online for gems, etc.They should add in npc like the gameboy games had.Also,the game was made for kids, but its mostly adults that play it.

[@HumanoidCableDreads]

Video games were originally made for children but adults play them now, so what?

[@TheCursedOni]

@@HumanoidCableDreads Games are made for all ages.Not just kids. 😂

[@VictorTAnderson]

There’s never a time to NOT think about Yugioh

[@Trey50Daniel]

Yu-Gi-Oh could learn a lot from Pokemon's Path to the Peak show which showed a player learning to play competitively but also showcasing some original Pokemon that OG Pokemon fans might remember. Yu-Gi-Oh structures, which only the OCG has gotten so far is apparently an equivalent but for some reason Konami won't release it in the West.

[@doge6384]

I completely agree. Path the the Peak actually made me want to learn how to play the Pokemon TCG because its a relatable story that any new player could get behind

[@Birbbato]

It's very disheartening to try and get help for building an archetype you like and constantly being told "That's trash" "Build X instead" or to just run the archetype you like as an engine and then run staple extra deck cards. Like I just wanna play my favorite archetype with some handtraps man. Not Accesscode talker/Zeus.dec.

[@r3zaful]

Then play and try improve it using your method. I can make nouvelle works at highest level so do you.

[@Birbbato]

I've been playing pure Prank-Kids on Master Duel and it's been a blast having opponents not understand what they do.@@r3zaful

[@BGLoscar]

Why are you letting other people stop you from playing what you like? That is the bigger question. How hard is it to pick a deck that you want and play it ( if you have the resources)? Can you not make a decision for yourself? Play what you want if that is what makes you happy.

[@Birbbato]

@@BGLoscar Um, what? Why are you so hostile lol.

[@BGLoscar]

@@Birbbato Haha I am just giving you that boost in confidence. It sounds like you have no confidence in yourself because you are letting others dictate what deck you want or need to play. Play what you want!

[@elladrinn4318]

case and point for a casual game (i play casually) on master duel, i spent so long on turn 2 (my standby phase on my 1st turn) waiting for a Labyrinthe deck to let me play i ended up walking down to local convenience store and back (around 20 mins) and they were still going. i hate people who surrender (if your gonna lose then lose in a way you still get rewards, like finishing the match) so i went to make a sandwich. i then timed out because i hadnt noticed they had finished. its games like these that make me want to play old school yu-gi-oh. so much more fun and engaging to play. duel links was a good platform for that until the last couple years where it has gone full competitive mode now (i have played since it first came out - as a free-to-play player because i dont spend money on gacha's) and i can easily say, all of my friends refuse to play yu-gi-oh on masters or duel links because they dont have fun anymore. i watched my local matches and it turned into a rock-paper-scissors wins (the person going 2nd always lost) how is that fun when the other person just sits there for 15 minutes? some of them brought books to read during it how bad is that?

[@andrewlikesmetal1095]

Run 3 evenly matched and lab will forfeit 9 times out of 10 when it resolves. Also fun to super poly their stuff into a starving venom drag. I like to hard punish them for wasting my time juggling furniture between their hand field and gy for 5 mins on my turn. Red reboot to set up for otk is also funny.

[@BigManWithNoRide]

The EU YCS streams have it down(Time Wizard Games, Showing off combo list, Quiz Games) I never understood why NA YCS streams they never do the same and they fill in the blank time with "Guess a card, or B-Roll of crowd"

[@JuwanBuchanan]

Yugioh is too complicated and complex for a elementary and middle school kid to get into. Konami has nobody to blame but themselves. Kids these days do not have time or the attention span to learn this crap when they could be doing something else like making TikTok videos or playing Call of Duty.

[@timihari]

Yeah, it's too complicated for kids. But blame themselves for what? Making tons of money? They know very well who their target audience is, adults can spend a lot more on cards than kids.

[@yusheitslv100]

How old was the latam player that topped with branded?

[@Carlos.Rivera]

The bump up the age, from 7+ to 9+

[@hermit3043]

​@@timihari That is short-sighted. What happened to comics when they failed to capture the attention of children? As a general rule, marketing toward children tends to be more lucrative regardless.

[@timihari]

@@hermit3043 Usually that's true, but this is a card game with no guaranteed pulls. Which is why people spend thousands of dollars on it. And children can't afford that. Also, most children don't care about card/board games these days, they're all on their phones on tiktok or something.

[@SuperAmazingBotDeath]

Pleasure to see you other bro at the Anime Con this past weekend!!!

[@LordLucariosLair]

This is why I'm starting from the first set and working my way up; to get back into it.

[@WhatIsGoinOnPeople]

The impass is that nostalgia is profitable but new competitive sets are equally if not more profitable. Just look how quickly new meta sets sell out and how expensive resale is. I think the reasonable “fix” is to continue retraining nostalgic decks and archetypes to make them highly competitive as a way to get the casuals into the competitive format and profit of both nostalgia and competition. It looks like that’s the way they’re going with recent sets like Illusion, Phantom Nightmare, Maze of Guardians, Age of Overlord, Divine-Beast (even tho it was no where near enough to be meta), Signer Dragons, etc.

[@speedgamerdts85]

As someone who just recently got back into Yu-Gi-Oh, something i’ve noticed is that it feels like a lot of the more dedicated and hardcore players of the game seem to absolutely hate the anime. They hate the decks, the cards, the people who play anime decks, and they just hate or just leave if someone quotes the show. Like…people, you all know where the game comes from right?

[@GG_Nowa]

After a point the anime left the geist of influence but also some installments like zexal and a good chunk of arc v sucked. But for every crystal beast that was enjoyed for being a fun deck to Vs because it's control style you have blue eyes which is famous still now for bricking itself so there's a good chance that game you're winning against no resistance

[@treasureyez]

Very interesting video, especially on the reactions to "casual" content during YCS streams. The only card game I currently play is Digimon, but I find trading card games naturally interesting and like to watch content about any of them. I tried watching YCS and honestly couldn't follow a single thing that was happening, and never felt like the casters were making an effort to make it intelligible to newer audiences. On the flipside, from watching Pokemon regionals I was able to learn how most of the current meta decks and cards work due to excellent explanations from the casters, and I'm at the point where I can follow what's happening during a match fairly confidently. They even have content for beginners covering topics like resource management and how specific meta decks work playing between rounds. I'm not sure if I have space for another card game in my life, but watching Pokemon regionals streams constantly has me thinking about starting to play Pokemon. The idea that streams of competitive events -- which are, essentially, advertising -- shouldn't be accessible to less familiar audiences is baffling to me. There's no reason they can't serve multiple types of audiences at all skill levels.

[@tinfoilslacks3750]

Here's the thing, the casters can't make what's happening digestible for viewers and the uninitiated, because explaining each action would take several times longer than actually performing the action. They'd be explaining the significance of a starter and the player would be several extenders in.

[@TURBO1000YuGiOh]

8:29 Permanent Ranked 2004 format in Master Duel! 🙏

[@lucianferrell9816]

Great video Paul and I think this addresses some of the bigger issues with the IP right now. For context I just decided to get back into Yugioh a few weeks ago on a whim. The jump from 5Ds Yu-Gi-Oh to master duel and Sky Strikers last year to NOW trying to understand the game is a wall of information and knowledge. This is something that discourages any new TCG player or even players trying to return on the premise of nostalgia. I'm loving my dive BUT I'm a very competitive TCG player and most can not attribute that trait to themselves. I think the biggest issues addressed in the video are Casual vs. Competitive and the amount of materials involving the IP. Casual vs. competitive will always be an issue when selling to a large audience. Yu-Gi-Oh has one major flaw/difference from a lot of TCGs where the core of the player base is casual (IE. Magic), but Yu-Gi-Oh is a vastly more competitive environment. I think this has done good to propel the game into its own style and niche and is why many people love it now BUT it alienates the players who generally try a game more casually. Lastly the amount of media released for Yu-Gi-Oh is somewhat of a travesty. The use of the show and materials is great but to know we have content that explains archtypes and gives whole worlds of story, debately better than the anime, yet is inaccessible because assumably Konami doesn't think it would sell or something (I assume). Things like this hurt because I know plenty of people who just love to be involved in the world of a franchise with any additional content they can get. The master duel guides, or whatever they are called, are some of my favourite things about Yu-Gi-Oh now because they add SO much context to cards I love. Overall these are some thoghts to share. Really enjoyed the video and would love another!

[@skormfuse]

I still would love to them to do a standard format, and have current competitive the Advanced format. -have it's own banlist that stacks atop the existing one -Maybe a wait period before new sets become legal in Standard like until after a banlist has routed out some obvious issue cards. -No side decks so it's more casual friendly for both time and set up. -maybe smaller extra decks like 10 basically just to limit the tool box a little from the competitive having a answer for everything. -Simplify some rules like removal of miss timing -maybe even some friendly rule changes like maybe a mulligan as especially kids play less consistent decks, or maybe one normal summon per main phase. But that is just what I want to see, make a standard simplified version of modern yugioh without going full caveman or completely making a new game like rush or speed duels.

[@HumanoidCableDreads]

They do, locals is standard and YCS is advanced. I go to locals all the time and people rarely play meta.

[@skormfuse]

@@HumanoidCableDreads while Locals is a lower level of skill in general all it does is allow the few that do play meta decks to dominate in a way isn't possible in a lower skill format. Or players having to enforce homebrewed rules for that specific group Like just because lower skilled players exist doesn't mean the game supports them, you see this with various competitive games. That if competitive is the only supported format you reach a point where lower skilled players don't want to play because they could run into a skilled player that gives them no chance. This is why more casual modes and formats need to exist and be supported. This is why many of the most popular games in the world have extremely casual modes and it's the ones they support the most it just makes sense if they want a healthy product.

[@Alucardorbit]

Been playing off and on since MRD released. I took a decade off, or so. Tried to keep up with the meta via KZbin, all the years I was actively playing. But I gotta say, it’s hard to watch when you’re not actively practicing. Recently picked up the game, now that I have a job I can afford to play. Wins are very rewarding when you see the lines of play. But I find it so hard to recommend this game to my friends.

[@saigaryuu7565]

Honestly i am Yugi boomer but i dont hate modern format with heavy combo like that,even i am casual side. The problem i have is,sometime i cant really understand what card they play,what effect the card because current format way faster compared on the past. Its the same in OCG Structure manga,one page they ready face each other and the next page they already full board,what happen ? Glad author write the combo in last page each chapter 😅😅😅 Back to topic,i prefer video anime duel BUT with new cards,there JP channel about this,last time i see they stream Shun with Raidraptor vs Kite with Galaxy Eyes,and they used new support for each type and they explain effect each cards even though i dont still understand what they because Japanese but i still enjoyed

[@tomarnold2409]

@APSamplifier I sit down with my friends every few weeks and play some casual games of yugioh between 6/8 of us. Im definitely a “yugi-boomer” like you said, I have and prefer the older more nostalgic decks so I often lose to newer decks my mates have (the sweatier mates that is) I completely agree with what you’re saying. I’d never consider going to a locals to compete with the modern era, but if Konami were to introduce the GOAT format into official events I think that would be a great way to get both crowds in. I love TCG’s regardless and having recently got into Yu-Gi-Oh the past few months, your channel and content has been really helpful and inspiring to watch so thank you for that :)

[@apsamplifier]

Thanks! Konami really needs to embrace alternative formats more. There are so many people who'd participate!

[@GreatgoatonFire]

Honestly, this is on Konami for not keeping any coherence between the game as played in the anime and the games as played in real life.

[@validity7256]

They should push more edison and goat format on stream that would be more interesting to og fans. Mirror force is pretty good in both

[@rgfang3359]

I always figured that "the anime side" and flavor the whole purpose of Speed Duel, and the lowered complexity the purpose of both Speed (physical at least) and Rush Duel I just think they just need to promote both of them at those sort of events at a similar level so that people have a space for those sort of experiences to occur

[@JonNuclear]

100% correct on the fact that casual players have no home in the core game. I love playing competitively and traveling for tournaments but sometimes I just want to chill and play a shitty deck I find fun and even with my friends who play or at the different locals I go to there are very few people who have any interest in play anything that is not purely meta. I've also seen across a dozen different locals and multiple regionals and YCS's that even when people bring rouge strategies they will often get hate from other players for not playing meta and either "wasting their time/practice" if the meta player wins or "adding too much variance to the event" if the meta player losses.

[@r3zaful]

5:35 they don't do that in ocg structure and understand that a duel can less than 3 turns, literally majority in ocg structure manga are last around 3-5 turns.

[@thefourthsannin8180]

I definitely agree with the lore aspect of grabbing people's attention. I built Endymion, Witchcrafters, Dogmatika and Branded all because of the lore that they have.

[@ZomebieKiller]

Amp, if I may. I am 25 years old and grew up watching Yugi go at it with so many different battles with "basic" cards and enjoyed seeing the god cards come out and see their power. I broke up with my ex early on this year and never explored much of the things I enjoyed. My close friends showed me Master Duel and I was excited to duel again after 20+ years. I come to find XYZ, Links, and Synchro monsters. Not a guide in sight. I liked the Blue eyes cards as a kid and got a few (learned what TCG player was quickly). Only to find out that Blue eyes gets beat in 1 turn know. And the game is pretty much decided in the first 2 turns. I am learning to play competitive and picking up cards here and there. I enjoy going to my local card shop and get a pack here and there. being REAL, you have to be going above and beyond just to play. My girlfriend and I have each a couple of decks we use ehre for fun but sadly wont go to locals because of the money needing to be spent, and research done, and it seems like so much to just enjoy a card game. Each check I spend a little to make my Fire kings deck and make that my 1 deck I might one day take to locals. Thank you Amp for your time (if you even read this) I have become a huge fan of your content and will be subbing. I also just watched your most recent video touching on this subject a bit more. Congrats on the WANTED pull ! I'll buy it off you !

[@djjenkins3224]

My LGS had problems with this as well but now does this thing where when they have comps they'll have signs on the door to let people know if you have a modern deck you'll only play people with modern decks and vice versa it got to the point people that brought modern decks had no one to play against. And since they did that comps have been extremely full and fun hopefully konami adapts to something similar.

[@elijahdavila3684]

I love the idea of Yu-Gi-Oh but modern YGO is not the kind of gameplay I want or enjoy. I honestly want that more anime/middle school type of experience with back and forth, regular traps that matter and more than a couple turns of gameplay. Speed and Rush Duels are kind of like that but they each have their own issues. Speed Duel is basically what im wanting but its barely supported and very stuck in the DM/GX era. Rush is pretty fun but it has no phsyical game in english. If I could get my own solution, it would be for Konami to truly support Speed Duel with regular releases of real booster sets that include new cards tuned to the Speed Duel power level and not just reprints. Along with store-level events and promotion. I think it could easily be the more casual option alongside regular modern yugioh.

[@kaidencr]

While this is definitely Konami's fault I don't think they *have* to be the ones to solve it. They probably should be, but it's important to remember that MTGs Commander Format is player made/led and is still managed separately from WOtC though in closer collaberation with them. Pokemon too has the Gym Leader Challenge format that is fan created and maintained but has been receiving official support from TPCi with side events happening at our Regionals (It's different than YGO regionals I think they're closer to YCS?) Both those formats work around a type/colour lock so idk how that would interact with YuGiOh.

[@benbogosh4057]

Thanks for making this video dude, its nice to see someone prominent in the community making a video like this. I agree that theres a good middle ground of more casual then regular play but higher tier combos then what the yugiboomers want. Every once in awhile Ill go against someone in master duel whos playing that way (which is basically how I play) and the games are always really good and exciting. Then I spend the next hour trying to find a game where someone doesnt take a 10-15 minute first turn 🤣

[@panakon366]

I wish Konami would relese more lore about the most recent archetypes. I think the biggest disconnect between old school and newer yu gi oh is that cards used to have personality around them and people played what it seemed cool to them. Now cards might as well have a blank white square as art, and that such a shame because the art has evolved and in some cases evan a story can be told while playing a deck but that lost to 99.9% of players and that's totally Konami's fault. For me this is the biggest problme, not power creep, not text bloat and other stuff but the fact that people don't emotionally connect with the decks they play.

[@nicholasgonzalez4021]

I got back to yugioh this year and one thing that I didn’t expect in TCG was ruling of time and life. I’m going to be more busy in 2024 so I won’t be able to play locals as much. But, it was a blessing in disguise leaving this month since I was done when I tied an initial round due to life. First round, my opponent combos for 20-30 minutes. My turn I am able to break majority of the board and have back and forth. I take the game by turn 4. Yet we have 3 minutes left in the complete set. (Best two out of three) I have one round up. He burns me for damage. I go in my turn and I try to go to battle phase knowing I can inflict more damage than him but since I did after judge called time it was illegal and can try to burn him in main phase. Yet I have seen other players there play their whole turn out to inflict damage. Yet when it came to me, it switched to only allowing for the phase. It wasn’t even the judge who decided it but other players there and the judge did not make any assertive decision. We agreed on a tie and then I decided to drop and leave since what was the point.

[@MrSonicDoctor]

You're spitting right now. In Master Duel they're celebrating another anniversary for the game by handing out alt art for the God cards and gave them amazing animations. How do they cement this... by making another Duelist Cup and not a Legend anthology where the God cards can at least see play.

[@closer4214]

spot on, as far as master duels, it would be a lot to ask but if there was a timeline line feature like, someone selects "legend of Blue eyes" then only duels that can be had would only use cards from the box set, but say going into a later one like magic ruler all cards up to magic ruler would be in play and of of course the forbiddin list would also adjust to that time period, that way any era of yugioh that was enjoyed in the past a person can kinda go back to that format and enjoy it from where ever they are or picking up from

[@richarddrost5737]

I think that aside from bringing more accessability for cards Konami can't do much. Konami makes the cardboard, we choose how we play with it. Ygo players are inherently competetive players, even the casual game modes they come up with are just competetive formats but older. MTGs main casual format, Commander, is a Community made format, with their own banlist team and everything, it gives you the chance to just play what you want and also to just rule 0 whatever you feel like would be more fun in the group, that + the fact that magic games take waaaaaaay more time to complete gives the game far more casual viability. I remember having a 2v2 Commander game that took 2 hours and while playing we were just talking, drinking and having fun. Ygo is made to have fast, intense matches that you have to be fully on for to play, and people usually say "Oh but back in the day it was slower", yes it was but then i also got someone playing a flute bringing out 3 Blue eyes and smacking me for 9000 in one turn, The game has always had fast playstyles be more dominant. With that also comes that Ygo has a big Availability and Pricing issue. Ygos pricing is based on "Is the card important in the archetype + Is it shiny = price" and then these expensive cards stay expensive and Konami keeps printing "Strong" cards at high rarity. In Mtg pricing works very different, it's basically "Is the card generically strong = price + Rarity (a genarically good common is still gonna be cheap and a generically good mythic is gonna be expensive) but, WotC prints the more generic staples a lot, almost every set has a sol ring for example, if it wasn't so readily available it would also have been a 60+ card probably. Right now buying a rogue deck isn't gonna be much cheaper then buying a meta tier 1 deck cause the pricing is just insane, so people only buy the viable cards since it is the only thing worth spending the money on. TLDR: Players need to let go of the competetive game modes and Konami need to start printing cards at lower rarity so actually playing a rogue deck is viable.

[@four-en-tee]

There's a lot of factors that contribute to this audience problem. 1) There are no casual-friendly alternative formats. Yugioh needs its own sort of "EDH/Commander" type format that's fun and competitive but isn't as sweaty as its standard format. Generally, this could be achieved if your homebrew format supports 3+ players since it'd be harder to build a metagame. This is something i've personally been working on for over a year now, and i'll have more details to share once the rules are more ironed out. I also still need to prepare a list of legal deck masters so that the game doesn't become a horrid mess like Konami's official deck master format, which is going to require a lot of extensive testing. 2) Konami doesn't do enough to market the Post-VRAINS OCG/TCG. This is mostly due to the fact that Konami banked their anime efforts into Rush Duel and have divided what resources can be realistically poured into the OCG/TCG. I figure the goal with this was to get the community to jump onto the new game (similar to Cardfight Vanguard and its 2 reboots), but the problem is that Yugioh has been going on for 25 years now. We're not just going to drop the game unless Konami officially stops supporting it like what Bushiroad does with their games, and doing so would probably kill this game overnight (especially since Konami has refused to import Rush Duels, and even then you will have a large portion of players who won't make the jump to Rush Duels because of the threat of a future reboot). What's really frustrating is that there's ways that Konami can promote the modern game to a wider audience, and we've seen what that can look like with the OCG Stories manga. As much as people give Sky Strikers shit, its the sort of thing people have been asking for forever when they say they want a Duel Terminal anime or a World Legacy anime or recently a Branded anime. 3) There's a massive knowledge gap between seasoned players and new/returning players. You could argue that this may not be as big a problem as i'm making it out to be (newer players like Nova Aokami who got into this game through Master Duel have done an excellent job of learning the ins and outs of this game), but you pretty much have to have an associates degree in cardpool knowledge in order to navigate your way through this game at least somewhat competently. Like, the only reason i stuck with this game long enough to get to my current skill level when i joined in 2021 was because A: I was simping for Evil Twins, and B: I found out that I'm pretty good at building decks from scratch (that's not to say i don't study decks online, but I like to build from the ground up since its a lot more fulfilling). For the average player who engages in numerous other hobbies outside of Yugioh and isn't suffering from brain worms like me, they're not going to have the time or energy to commit to learning 20+ years of cards. I could roll up tomorrow with some wacky Kozmo brew, and 2/3rds of the people at my nearest locals wouldn't know wtf i'm playing while the rest would ask if i'm insane.

[@AlphaDal-if9vv]

I probably could get back into yugioh with more modern decks. A friend got me back into it during the 2012-2014 format, I had to learn about synchros and xyz, but I had fun with the game. I also don’t mind deck building and modifying decks with banlists in mind, in fact deck building was the funnest part for me, but I stopped playing at my local card shop, around 2015/2016 due to an injury that put me out of work for a while, that and it eventually closed down . I was so focused on my recovery/health during that time period though so I never learned pendulums or links. Personally for me I’m the most nostalgic for old school yugioh as that era has the most memories and charm for me, but I definitely enjoyed the game and summoning mechanics up till the point I injured myself. Now when I look at the modern format, I’m just like yeah I could probably learn it but, I don’t really want too. I think I’ve just settled into comfortability with the eras I do know haha.

[@dusancookiewolf3024]

The funniest part about the video is that Paul is doing a mister beast pose. MMMMMMMMMISTER PAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUL

[@Disappointed_Philosoraptor]

I actually like modern archetypes and cards. What I dislike is the power level modern decks are at due to power creep. An old 2010 format would be boring to me. What I want is modern cards and decks, but with a power ceiling reduced to a place where games are not decided at the moment you see your opening hand/ath the moment the first effect is activated and either gets handtrapped, losing you the match, or resolves, resulting in you building a board with more interactions than the opponent has cards. Imagine a yugioh format, without floodgates, without FTK's, without OTK except for if the entire deck is built around the sole purpose of performing it, without invincible boards but also without all the ridiculous blowout cards we got for the sole purpose of breaking the aforementioned and otherwise invicible boards, where individual games go for 3-5 turns from both players. I can't be alone in this, right?

[@streetgamer3452]

Those formats have never existed though and it’s hard to make it not happen without butchering like 50-60% of the card pool

[@Disappointed_Philosoraptor]

@@streetgamer3452 so let's butcher 50-60% of the card pool for this format then, it's not as big a task as it sounds. Version 1 would ban all obvious problem cards, then we look at how peopel break the format and expand the banlist from there. Every other card game achieves this to at least some degree with set roation or similar features, I see no reason why yugioh shouldn't at least attempt something similar as an experiment.

[@streetgamer3452]

@@Disappointed_Philosoraptor then by the end you’re just gonna ban everything because as you said “people break the format and expand the banlist” people, no matter what, will figure out how to break the format. Even when the game first came out they did. Every other card game achieves this only because they had set rotation from the beginning and even then they have a ton of problems. Magics normal format is dog water, vanguards entire community hardly exist, pokemon is the only one that truly thrives off this and even then it’s got decks that are hella toxic and terrible

[@Disappointed_Philosoraptor]

@@streetgamer3452 To say that such a strategy will result in "by the end you’re just gonna ban everything" is an assertion without any proof. The format I have in mind has one goal: A format where the common turn 1 and 2 end boards and responses to these boards do not usually close out matches, thus allowing the average match to progress into turns 3 and beyond, giving both players a realistic chance to decide the match based on skill and strategy. For your claim to have any weight, you'd need to show that pursuit of this goal will somehow lead to "everything" getting banned. And the only way to figure that out is to create such a format and see if it works. Since previous formats did work liek that, there is no reason to assume it is not possible with modern cards. Other card games also only tell their own story, the state of the Magic standard format doesn't offer any kind of inference regarding yugioh.

[@nilesrodriguez4343]

I bought 3 structure decks to play with my friends, then I realized I was playing Yu-Gi-Oh because I don't have any friends. TCG is completely unplayable IMO. Master Duel SHOULD be the future of this game...

[@nathanczajka1837]

go to a local game store and play some games there and make some friends

[@Feast_]

7:30 -ish I'm a Yugiboomer, I picked up Starter Deck Yugi and played until before Xyz came out I came back in 2019 because of 2 things: your Yugioh then VS now video, and Yugioh Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution. Honestly, I find the game so so so much more fun now then before. All these long elaborate combos brought me back, and I'm still playing combo today

[@bobb5492]

i got back into ygo this past summer after 20 years since i was 14 or so. Was pissed, complained, learned it, win sometimes. still gonna complain. lol

[@ADeadlyFerret]

I played until 2014. Its too competitive. Everyone has a pro decklist. The moment I gave up was when a 7 year old kid with an exact copy of a pro's deck spent 5 minutes on turn 1 to set up and nuke me. In a Saturday casual local tournament. Every game after that felt like a sweat fest.

[@LCDigital92]

I feel like I’m kinda stuck in between. I want to play more casual Yugiboomer playground Yugioh but am reluctantly playing more modern at the most casual level because that’s basically my only option. I just play Duel Links with a Tenyi (+dragons) deck because that’s basically the closest I can get to my 2006 dragon deck without it getting too modern for me. It’s not particularly fun for me and I prefer the Yugiboomer dragon deck I was playing before, but I kinda “have to” play something more modern and Tenyi is the compromise. I’d like to play irl in a more casual playground format, but I don’t have anyone to play with and the players at my LGSs only play Advanced modern.

[@KovoN]

Man I'd love to see an entire official lore regarding the Albaz story. Even the fan compilation and interpretation of the story on Reddit really got me hooked to all the different archetypes in that story (Dogmatikka, Swordsouls, Despia, Tri-Brigade etc). For a period of time, I built decks because they were from that story, not because they were meta. I'm sure I wasn't the only one, and will not be the only one either. An official story centering the archetypes will definitely draw in players.

[@Neobelmont1]

my friend got me back into yu-gi-oh with his own set of rules which in turn, got me interested in buying the battle city speed duel box, great to get back into it,but I am not going to act like I understand the new meta or want to, it's just out of hand honestly, and I'm happy playing with friends now adays. But at the sametime I'm like what can be done to balance it out. It's a hard position indeed.

[@kevink6681]

I'm at the point where I don't go to locals anymore. My brother and a couple friends play and we each have a few decks each. So when we duel the loser swaps their deck out after each duel. If you win 3 duels in a row with your deck the winner swaps their deck out, which helps to get different match ups and keep things fun. Plus no side deck

[@trollinggaming9903]

True. So many cards is the meta right now are never seen in the anime. As someone that learned to play the game via watching the anime series. I only knew cards I've seen from Duel Monsers up to ZeXal. Don't even know how Pendulum summoning or link monsters work. That's until Master Duel comes in. It can be the bridge between anime and casuals and the competitive side of Yu-Gi-Oh. Though it's not enough, it's a good start for us to be familiar with the games played competitively. Just hope that Komoney will help bridge the world of Yugiboomers and the competitve world like introducing new platforms or new anime with these new cards or something.

[@jasonbrumley5453]

I remember a few years ago my friends and I were feeling nostalgic and wanted to play yugioh again after not playing since we were kids so we bought some cards. We were completely lost, it felt like a completely different game. I wish there were like a casual or classic tier where you don't have to keep up with all the crazy new rules. The modern game doesn't seem welcoming to returning players so I can't imagine being a new player

[@UTgohan]

Started playing from 2003-2011, took a break got back in in 2019 with sky strikers, I realized yugioh was not yugioh anymore.

[@brcienpartin5462]

I've been thinking a lot about how I would resculpt the tcg market in general. I think Yu-Gi-Oh's biggest strength is how personal and different decks are. The fighting game style has been brought up a lot lately, and I wholeheartedly agree, but the fact that archetypes play by such different rules is a big strength to me. I would actually like to see Yugioh lean further into that, but I think keywords would help. WHen 30-40 words are dedicated to the archetype gimmick, card texts get 100+ fast. If I had control over the whole tcg design space, I would cut out keywords from magic and introduce them to yugioh. Push Yugioh to be a fighting parry counter reposte game where each deck feels so unique and plays to your personality.

[@BlackwingVayu77]

as someone who competed quite heavily uup until a little after xyz summoning came out, i just recently bought cards to get as close to my old deck as possible so just hoping i dont get completely owned when i play lol. the new meta is a bit overwhelming especially when it comes to just learning it all. eventually however i probably will. clearly konami isnt getting new players from the animes anymore so theyre probably heavily trying to market to older players and reel them in. Probably wont work unless notable decks from the past become competitive/meta

[@JohnnyCProduction]

I can’t into modern yugioh because I’m not into the gameplay flow. I like a slower build up similar to other card games. The long turns just don’t immerse me or allow me to feel like I’m actually playing a game. Having to read a lot of small text as well is overwhelming for me, especially on a very small card. I also don’t have a lot of time now to learn complex combos and game mechanics since I have a lot of priorities and responsibilities. Speed duels is what I play now whenever I play with friends. I want to play Edison, just need to get the cards for a deck so looking forward someday in trying that.

[@PyckledNyk]

As someone who is getting back into the game after leaving in 2008 or so, I love how much stuff there is now. I love learning about the different card interactions and how they work and what cards do what. There is a lot of complexity to this game, and maybe some other games are better, but none of them hit like YuGiOh. I think that is the inherent issue for a lot of returning players; they’re more interested in feeling nostalgia than actually learning the game. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the whole point of a game is competition and becoming better. That may not interest people who just want the nostalgia, but that’s just the nature of competitive games.