Getting back into Yu-Gi-Oh!
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Two years ago I got introduced to the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. This was around the time when the closed beta for Magic: The Gathering Arena was preparing for their second online beta test. Being able to play MTGA that early spiked my interest in the game as it familiarized me with the current rules and interactions that you could do. Now you're probably wondering why I'm talking about MTG when the title says Yu-Gi-Oh!, right? Let's get into that.
I played the Yu-Gi-Oh card game when it made its inception in pop culture via the anime series back in around 2003. I never got into it outside of playing against some friends and stopped buying packs and decks in after about a year. I played a few of the video games that followed after the popularity of the anime, be it the digital versions of the actual card game or those weird spin-offs that happened to carry the brand name. The last game I played was Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force GX for Sony's PSP.
Despite me playing a number of these games, I would say that I never really learned how to properly play a trading card game. The concept of having consistency in a deck and keeping it as optimal as it could never crossed my mind. I'd always just stuff in either my favorite or at the very least where what I considered to be "good cards" into a deck that exceeded the minimum amount and at most instances hit the max limit of cards that a deck could have and just duel every NPC I could find. Jump to modern-day me, where-in my early MTG career started off in a very similar way to my Yu-Gi-Oh play style, I've since learned the mentality that goes into deck-building, learning the card pool, the various deck archetypes, the meta, the competitive aspect, etc. It made me think of how I used to play back in the day and made me want to see how jank my old deck was and of course, wondered if it stood any chance against any of the current day decks.
Having nearly all of my old cards, I dug them up shortly after I got the MTG bug. I then looked up what was going on with the current-day Yu-Gi-Oh meta as there have been a metric ton of rule changes since I last played. This was also around the time when Link Monsters and the new Extra Monster Zone were just introduced. All these changes were very intimidating and made me consider not jumping into another card game.
Without diving into Yu-Gi-Oh but still having a passing interest in it, I'd watch a few clips of either the anime or videos of people playing with the cards, I came across this Youtube series by a user named Nyhmnim called "Sealed Only Yu-Gi-Oh" where the goal was to see how far he can get up the competitive ladder but with the catch being that he can only acquire cards though official sealed product. No trading or buying of individual cards from aftermarket retailers. Still not completely understanding how the current flow of the game works, I was more enamored by the production quality and the concept of the show. The Sealed Only challenge trended among the Yu-Gi-Oh content creators who would put their own spin into it and also see how far they'd get.
After seeing all these videos on Yu-Gi-Oh, I finally ended up buying a few of the paper products myself, and after also acquiring a new phone that can actually play games on it, I've also been playing a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links on it lately. While the formats of the proper trading card game and the “Speed Duel” format used in Duel Links differ in some aspects, the base rules are still the same. And after bringing the knowledge and experience I've learned from MTG, it has definitely changed my approach to the game. I surely don't have the strongest deck around and clearly have a lot to learn given the 20 years worth of cards that I've missed, I would say that the deck I'm using now is leagues above what I had back in the day. The biggest hook for me is being able to combo off as early as my first turn and summon a strong monster to dish out the beat down to my opponent or make a massive comeback from near defeat in a way like what you'd see the characters pull off in the anime. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is definitely something I'd recommend to any fan of the franchise new or old. I'm now heavily considering getting Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist Link Evolution on the Nintendo Switch.
Here are the deck lists for the decks featured in the videos above.
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