As many of you know, this is a video that I've worked on for weeks now, and I'm excited to finally show it to the public. I know it's longer than all of my other videos, but I really did try to cut as much of the blank space out of the video as possible. If you'd like to watch the video in sections, here are some timestamps for that: 0:00 - Introduction 3:33 - The Good Stuff 8:50 - Problem 1 17:21 - Problem 2 33:45 - Problem 3 40:40 - Conclusion
I’m sorry competitive DL players there’s so much wrong with this game and it’s definitely a casual game and as a note chilling in Gold allows you to see all sorts of creative decks that aren’t meta decks or degenerate decks so even if you see all these problems it still makes for a fun casual game P.S. as a note about not being able to see how far you are from next ranks there are fighting games that don’t tell you where you stand and as a fighter game player I’m used to the mystery promotion match, not to be nitpicky it’s just a thing that I noticed
Max Rochester Dunno about Mortal Kombat, but you can at least see your points in Street Fighter, you do have a good notion of when you're close to rank up or down, so... I think that's not the case?
Alice Shiki I played a lot of tekken and no one knew what the point system was until someone mined out the data themselves Like Tekken Tag 2 was just “oh hey look it’s a promotion match” that’s why I’m familiar with the unknown rank ups
Cimoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Please do a meta analysis...
Hey Cimo, i would actually be really interested to see a video similar to this with your take on duel links. I know the game itself has proven to be pretty divisive but as one of my go to yugitubers id definitely value an opinion from you on how this effects the game at large and what you think having two consecutive metas(digital and physical) running at the same time in such different formats does to the game as a whole.
Duel links is a blossom that could be a beautiful flower if Konami didn’t use gasoline as fertilizer while they flick ashes from their cigarettes on it.
God forbid if they don’t start out the duel with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. It’s mostly just annoying for me since I run Six Sam and Slash Dragon can attack over all my monsters. But I still manage. (Dual Wield is kinda bullshit sometimes XD)
@@PokemustardtheSecond that's all that I ever encounter, my sanctuary in the sky deck needs a bit of time to get to the good parts, since I need to get that field spell out and Valhalla hall of the fallen too. I usually get lucky and get both out fairly quickly, but most of the time it's too late for me since their Slash Dragon already has an equipped card, so that costs me more materials with Master Hyperion xdd Gets even better when they use Red Eyes Black Dragon Sword xddd
exactly, the closest city where I live is 1 hour trip, and I have my doubts if there are any specific store for TCG in general, probably, but would have to research a lot, and then it would be 1h one way and 1h back, 2 bus passages, and if I find someone next to play, we would both have to buy new cards often just to try out new deck, new extrategies etc, in some cases TCG in real life simply is not viable = /
As someone that can't play TCG or OCG because money and location, I'm really enjoy playing duel links without paying a single dollar. This game have a lot of problems but you can ignor them. Duel links is nice free replacement for the pizical yu gi oh and it really enjoyable
well its cool until you get good and try to get better.You just hit that brick wall and the only way around it is to join the "i spent hundreds of dollars on this deck now I have to waste my life grinding for a SLIGHT chance of coming out on top" club...which completely ruins it for me
For me it got me into Yu-Gi-Oh for the first time, used to watch the anime and play the video games, but never started collecting cards, building decks, etc. til now
While I agree that this video and his recent Duel Links stuff was extremely fair, this is the same guy who said "I got to Gold in ranked so I understand the meta quite well" Edit: Apparently I was wrong
@@Dzeeff sorry if I misremembered, I thought you did say something along the lines of when you spoke about using that Dino deck with a couple of handtraps.
I quit after awhile once i realized that you need to spend almost as much as the regular game to play a virtual one, they also turned into greedy pigs overtime slowly lowering the ability to get gems for free throughout the games life span and then making you spend alot of gems to get the new set to then ban them a month and a half later.
Duel Links definitely helped my friend and I get back into playing ygo. Its definitely a fun way to waste time and my favorite mobile game. I spend way more money on the tcg now than I do on duel links lol but that's also because I like having main phase 2 and more zones & lp
The problem with Duel Links that Konami showed today with the release of 5DS is this: Konami doesn't give a shit about it's players. Duel Links used to be an excellent, truly free-to-play game. Anyone could play their favorite decks and stood a chance in the competitive scene, all without spending money. Today, Duel Links is a competitive failure. Meta decks overrule the competitive scene. Strong cards are hidden in Main Boxes. The free gems players once could receive through leveling up or from the worlds have either been removed or reduced. It was already bad enough. And now this. 5DS world. The cards made available at the gate are almost all completely useless. Most of the gate duelists don't even have Synchro Monsters made available. The music, while not bad by any means, has lost the greatness that the previous 2 generations had. Worst of all? Stardust Dragon, the goddamn ACE CARD of the PROTAGONIST of 5DS is locked behind a massive paywall. Sure, the skill gives you 1 Stardust in your Extra Deck, but you should be able to use your ace AND have other skills to boost. Black Rose Dragon and the other ace cards of the gate duelists are also all being thrown into boxes from what I can tell. Konami has turned the game from a fun F2P game to a money-grabbing cash cow. And they probably won't change it. Kinda ruined this whole super hyped event for me. Also they turned Dark Magic Curtain from R to UR for some reason. Not a complaint, but that's weird
I completely agree with you Doug about the banlist. Its a train wreck and super poorly managed. I also want to say that no where has Konami told Duel Links players that their SRs or their URs are safe from the banlist and I think that hitting cards like princess, TTH, and others would make the game way more fun and diverse.
I disagree. I think that the same people who spent hundreds of dollars on Anki are spending money on most of the boxes and would like to see the variety in the game. Konami shouldn't make your favorite deck unplayable but they should diversify a meta that hasn't shifted since the start of summer or even before.
If Duel Links remains diverse and interesting more people will play and stick around. I haven't touched the game since the new main box because all the same decks are meta except vamps. Player retention is an important part of any game's cash flow.
BosSox I disagree 100% For starters Konami only “killed” 2 regular decks. Cyber angels and sylvans, and most would argue those were the most hated decks in this history’s existence besides degenerate decks like the bamboo ftk (which they also killed). The system works fine IMO. Decks we have multiple viable decks like vampires, spellbooks, UA, Hero, furries, and Amazoness, as well as powerful rogue decks like last gamble koaki meru and batteryman (players hit top 500 world with these decks), SSA, and hazy flames. They all play pretty differently from eachother as well. We’re an effect veiler away from a decently diverse meta. But I don’t see the issue with the banlist. Especiallly when people completely exaggerate how many decks Konami has killed, which is literally just 2 and like 2 FTKs. And the irony of hitting princess. For starters they have no problems hitting her since she isn’t a UR. Secondly hitting her would kill the deck, exactly what Doug just said he didn’t want to happen, and most people agree with. I personally think swordswoman should go instead because she gives the deck a second win condition it doesn’t need.
27:18 Hey! If you've never used poly to fuse a mammoth graveyard with a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to slowly lower it's attack then you're not a real duelist!
I have the feeling that you are one if the few if not the only yugituber who is really skilled in analysing the game/ the state of things in general. Not only can you analyse it very well but your presentation and how you express your arguments is top notch! Clear structure, well presented and researched. Who csn ask for more? Keep it up! And do not be afraid of doing longer videos like these, a few not to many to scare away your audience, but some of these can really be interesting:)
I completely agree with this, your videos are always very concise and well put together. The video essay format you do is great and it definitely keeps me coming back and digging through your back catalog. I like a lot of yugitubers, and i love a good meta analysis, or budget cards video, but i think the way you breakdown very small things that can be complicated in a way that is easy to digest really goes a long way, some of your videos on card interactions and analysis have been easy recommendations for people i know who are new to the game, between that and Cimo's how to series you guys always have me covered. Specifically the video on how face down banished cards work was actually really helpful recently for a friend of mine so thanks.
Turn one: six hundred cards drawn, three monsters with ATK 5000 on the board, continuous spells galore and my entire opening setup is wiped off the board....heart of the cards indeed.
Turn One against the Vagabond and you go first: *Literally every high level monster and maybe a spell card* Happens 80% of the time I ever face him. Fate of brick hands.
Being a competitve F2P player is horrible. Konami have continued to do a mass nerfing of Gems since July. You are forced to skip boxes till your deck can no longer stand a chance, spend money or start a new account. It's unstainable for the paying players too. I've dropped over $100 on outdated cards with no values.
Being f2p competitively in most card games is impossible. Not the yugioh tcg. Not Magic. Hearthstone, if you play it reaaaally smart with your dust, and play alot, can work. Overall you are probably in the wrong game genre.
@@phantomnite f2p player here too and I have built masked heroes, vampires, sylvans, amazoness, fur hires, blue eyes and six samurai. It is possible but it requires a lot of time and a little bit of luck.
its possible to FTP duel links, IF you have commitment on the deck you want to build and stick to the goal, if you open many packs from different boxes, you'll end up with nothing to "build" consistently
You didn't talk about it in the section of obtaining cards but I wanted to talk about reprints. The entire idea of reprints in the TCG seems to be getting expensive cards into budget players' hands after a certain period of time ( i don't play the tcg someone tell me I'm off base). The entire idea of reprints in Duel Links to me seems like filler cards for these selection boxes that primarily whales will spend a lot of money on to get a couple of new cards before they are released in a proper box. The selection boxes are really bad. They only allow a set amount of gems to be spent on them and contain a combination of new, old out dated, and relevant cards from the previous months. I think this reprint system is completely broken and dumb. My thought would be that konami should release a mini box or a main box that are only reprints. In the boxes cards that were previously UR would then be SR, SRs would be rares and you could have a new set of UR cards in the box. I think these reprint boxes should be mini boxes to fit the number of cards without being ridiculous. The reason this should happen to me is because basically any box before the Fur Hire Box and especially the Spellbook box is completely irrelevant in terms of competitive play. That being said there are plenty of competitive staple cards that could make their way into the meta or be in the meta currently such as floodgate traphole, Cosmic Cyclone, SSA, Masked Change and Forbidden Chalice just to name a few. These cards are buried in boxes that otherwise are very bad and those specific cards could eventually make their way into the hands of more budget players. A Mini box with 2 new UR cards and a bunch of competitive staple cards that are printed in lower rarity every 6 months could be really good for the game and make competitive duel links more accessible. Finally, I know that ppl will be upset that their cosmic cyclone is a UR while someone else's is just an SR so I think that konami could introduce some sort of bling factor to all the higher rarity versions of cards when they receive reprints to show in game that "hey my cosmic cyclone is an UR". I don't know what kind of shiny effect they should add but all yugioh players love having blinged out cards and decks and I think it is something that Konami does really well in the tcg, but has not expanded on at all in Duel links. If you read this entire comment for whatever reason thanks for listening to me and I apologize for any spelling errors that may have confused any of you.
What is interesting about this is that you are completely right and konami has already implemented a way to make this worthwhile with the "shiny" or "prismatic" cards. If you use these in your deck your rewards at the end of a duel are better. The issue is that the rewards suck. A simple tweak to this system to have it be based on rarity and make the rewards not you know......suck, would incentivize players who want the higher rarities to get them(and spend more money in the process) while letting budget and F2P players enjoy being competitive and play relevant strategies without having to fork over their paycheck in the process.
That is a completely viable way to make those giant ancient boxes that are basically unusable somewhat worthwhile. Even if its just a paywall blocked, 50-ish box that just gives you *hope* at getting the mandatory UR to make a deck functional Unfortunately something like that #komoney would avoid like the plague, because it is something that doesn't lower gem drops/would drive people away from spending more money on those shitty, older boxes
@@adriannaranjo4397 In the long run they are going to have to figure something out. As the game progresses powercreep is going to cycle out the old boxes so they will need to find a way to keep the older cards fresh. They are a business first and I completely understand that but keeping the game state healthy draws more people, keeping the rewards coming at a metered but continual pace keeps people playing longer and the longer people play the more money they spend. I don't know the solution but I know that Konami will need to address these issues at some point of they want to continue drawing players and keeping their base playing. A game can totally be profitable and have a Happy player base lol, it isn't easy, but it is definitely possible.
Howdy dzeeff Couldn't agree with you more about life cost 0. Favorite comeback was activating Burst Rebirth to special summon face-down Worm Victory during the battle phase, after my opponent blew-up my board with Stein/Double Gatling/Ultimate Dragon Combo. I've never felt better watching his board blow up, only to kill my opponent with a 300 attack from Apocalypse. F e e l s G o o d
This comment is a response from 37:00, in the video, the whole free to play thing. I think free to play competitive is definitely possible. I will say I've spent $200 on this game, but roughly 80% if my cards were earned through rewards or gems, I've played over 600 hours so far. Although I spent a lot of time to get my cards, there's a reason why Fur Hires are called Free Hires. They're easily the best deck, to the point that people who were in silver and gold made separate accounts to dedicate to Fur Hires and easily hit Legend in a couple hours. It was super annoying and somewhat still is, though not to the same extent. Amazons are also free to play. Most, if not all, their cards are, and were, duel drops, lv rewards and event exclusive drops. Free to play is possible, but you're going to have to dedicate an entire account, or spend a ridiculous amount of time and get lucky.
@@iamcarmelo0648 You're right, but if you play low tier, budget decks or get a bad hand, you auto lose. That and they have a possive matchup on every deck going first, and about 50/50 going second against most meta decks right now. Are furries hard to counter? No, not really. Are they really good in DL? Yes, very convincingly too, even post ban list. Free Hires is still a thing in high platinum/low legend.
Yeah the problem is that if you want to hit KOG while being free to play you have to play the meta decks. You can't buy the archtype you like, you can't waste a single gem in an old box, and your deck building is boring and unoriginal, basically being f2p and playing competitive it's doing the opposite of "building your own deck", it's like letting konami decide the 20 cards you will play with the next 3-6 seasons
Joshua Munisar fur hires used to be very hard to counter 😂😂 what are you on about dude? Negates + removal + swarm. It was considered tier 0-1 for a reason.
If you're lucky and know the cards you're looking for, it is possible to put together a great deck for free. Yes, it is hard. Yes I spent all my first gems getting Aliens.. I don't regret either 😁
What are your thoughts on 5D's being added to Duel Links? Note: I'm writing this comment before watching the video because I'm at work as I'm typing this lol. If mentioned in the video, I'll get to it as soon as I can.
+tim5fl His departure doesn't matter at all. He can stay wherever he wants and play the other fake yu-gi-oh! games again until he comes back because they are all shit.
I love this video for multiple reasons. Honestly Dzeef i think this is my favourite video of yours. To start off I started playing the TCG through Duel Links. I’m also an F2P Player on Duel Links. Everything said in this video is true but i cannot relate to the whaling part lol. Um. I’ve been playing Duel Links since day one. & in the beginning the game was flawless to me because it distributed Gems as a reward and there weren’t many boxes early on. I was a blue eyes player which was one of the only F2P competitively viable decks for a long time. Ever since about a year ago i’d say, they pushed out boxes & slowed gem acquisition by A LOT. I’m lucky to even have a masked hero deck or my other decks that i love so much. I’m a casual at heart on this game & i’ve never reached Legend or KoG’s & honestly i’ve had fun. So much fun. This game is great but i hate Konami for shitting on F2P players like me recently. The one benefit to being a F2P though is when you need one more card to complete your Masked heroes after opening packs for about 5 months & finally get your 2nd & then 3rd Anki. I jumped & screamed & everyone in my classroom looked at me, but i only get that kind if energy when i put hard work into it & honestly... that sums up a F2P duel links players life in general. Hard work with some pay off.
With Synchros coming to Duel Links and Duel Links being known for offering a home to TCG-rejects what decks do you think have some potential? I hope for Speedroids or X-Saber (not 5DS, but we got Gem-Knights relatively quick after GX).
I would like to participate on a real tcg simulator with physical rewards being shipped to your local OTS store for you to pick up. And in the purchase of special editions products or promos you get a code to exchange for dlc packs in the app simulator. Imagine the possibilities!!!
I love this video for multiple reasons. Honestly Dzeeff i think this is my favourite video of yours. To start off I started playing the TCG through Duel Links. I’m also an F2P Player on Duel Links. Everything said in this video is true but i cannot relate to the whaling part lol. Um. I’ve been playing Duel Links since day one. & in the beginning the game was flawless to me because it distributed Gems as a reward EQUALLY mind you, and there weren’t many boxes early on. I was a blue eyes player which was one of the only F2P competitively viable decks for a long time. Ever since about a year ago i’d say, they pushed out boxes & slowed gem acquisition by A LOT. I’m lucky to even have a masked hero deck or my other decks that i love so much. I’m a casual at heart on this game & i’ve never reached Legend or KoG & honestly i’ve had fun. So much fun. This game is great but i hate Konami for shitting on F2P players like me recently. The one benefit to being a F2P though is when you need one more card to complete your Masked heroes after opening packs for about 5 months & finally get your 2nd & then 3rd Anki. I jumped & screamed & everyone in my classroom looked at me, but i only get that kind of energy when i put hard work into it & honestly... that sums up a F2P duel links players life in general. Hard work with some pay off.
Kazuma Kariama OMG me too, I’m F2P since day one and I noticed that the box after box after box caused me to fall back on some amazing decks but as a company Konami works for the whales which is a damn shame but if you’ve stuck around as a F2P it also feels soooo great to just have the variety of cards that you, a player who has worked for those cards, and you’re able to adapt because you worked for it
me I was happy about getting a second Anki, but then realized Masked HEROes nowadays are worthless without 3x Elemental HERO Stratos, which was pretty much only available to spenders and is now unobtainable.
Great video! Konami should watch this and try to solve the things you pointed out. The challenges to getting cards, the straightforward OTK meta that doesn't require any kind of thinking/options, the addition of hand traps making the game less auto win and make it feel like a card game, the spellbook and vampire is definitely my favorite deck and the only rewarding deck so far, so they should go in that direction of types of cards. Removal of cheese skills like lifecost 0, trap hell, titan showdown (bug), and just the cheese skills in general. Banning UR/SR cards, being able to trade extra copies of cards, yeah everything you said was on point.
@dzeeff you should make another video like this to re evaluate the game. I’d be interested in what you think of it now with the additions and updates made since you made the vid!
The way you felt against Cyber Stein is the way I felt when I started seeing nothing but Cyber Angels in ranked. I quit back then because nothing else could even compare to that deck and I was not only having trouble gathering the required cards for it myself (And most [all?] were just LD drops, not even from boxes, I just got really bad RNG), but I also had a part of me who didn't WANT to play the deck because of how clearly broken they were. They eventually got hit, but it was too little too late for me. I've started playing again recently, though, and while it's an almost entirely different game from what it was back then, I've been enjoying it a lot. Although I don't know ANY of the current meta decks, so I don't bother with Ranked unless it's to complete some event mission or something that I REALLY want to clear. Not because "Oh no, I'm afraid of losing", but because every card has an entire novel printed on it that I don't have time to read and understand. On top of some players who apparently like to sit and wait for the voice lines to complete or something, because they spend AGES to decide something as simple as saying, "No, I don't want to activate my Raigeki Break on my own monster in response to my opponent's graveyard effect going off while they have literally no cards on the field". Like, I can't just pause the game if someone walks in to talk to me or I accidentally knock over my drink and have to scramble to get a towel... Be respectful of your opponent's time!!! 😒 But eh, guess you'll be happy, because Cyber Stein became one of the first straight-up Forbidden cards in Duel Links. Sucks too, because I was using him as a win condition for a Life Gain deck that used Fairy monsters and didn't even utilize Life Gain 0. xD I'm glad they banned him instead of nerfing the skill though, as I've been using it together with Aromages and the Winged Dragon of Ra to run an actually pretty consistent farm deck (Gain LP, dump it all into Ra, use Life Cost 0 to destroy your opponent's monster with Ra's effect for free, then attack for over 10k damage for the result screen bonus. I'm probably not the first to come up with the idea, but it's pretty swank, haha).
20:40 Exactly what I think every time I play duel Links... At least without a rela meta, if u get to choose, u have a 75% chance to get what you want...
Great video! A lot of valid points. I’d like to add that for the sales that occasionally occur in the game, the SR and UR given to players are at random from the pack, independent from what has already been purchased from the pack so most of the time you would end up with multiple copies of SR’s and UR’s that you don’t need. They should change this to allow more control for paying players. Great job! I never get sick of listening to you ranting, dude!
WOW!!!, excellent job, man!!! I really enjoy this video. Also I think we needed people like you for a pretty long time. Your skilled TCG player perspective is very useful to understand the core of the issues in the game. I wish Konami could take note of your thoughtful considerations and suggestions. Thank you taking this big effort and shared it with us!!!
Very comprehensive review, worth the time spent. One of the most important things that you missed though is that you are not allowed to choose your SEGOC chain order. The game usually does it automatically based on the what was on the field, and because of this many archetypes, such as UAs, mermails, and beat, lose out on important combos. Some common examples are constantly brought up in the subreddit.
Lifepoints are at 4000 because these are supposed to be quick duels. Nobody has time for a 15+ minutes for a single duel on a mobile game. Having only 4000 also makes lots of archetypes more viable that otherwise wouldn't be in the TCG
About the disconnect problem. Now if the player disconnects it is counted as a win for you. I have been in several situations where the other player disconnected and I won.
On the subject of “what did that ability do” if you click the button in the top right corner it’ll show you all actions you and your opponent have done, and the skill will have a description...
Rahul S. Thats sad. Its a good streamer and he built a very very good Discord where a ton of super competitive people are discussing. He also payed out over 20k dollars as prizesupport over 10 Meta Championship Series Tournaments. You should take a look if youre really interested. You can find the website on duellinksmeta.com
Watched the whole thing. I've been playing the game since launch and also partake in the tournament and team scene the Duel Links community offers. All of the things you mentioned are things the community has brought up at certain points. Those that were a part of those waves of complaints did, after voicing them, stop playing within two months or so. Those that kept playing though, did accept those elements were nonsense and it became something they pushed through in some capacity. It could be because it can get redundant to voice those, be it on those servers, reddit, etc. after doing so a couple times in a short period by multiple users. But, it becomes an elephant in the room when those problems are still there all this time later and there isn't at least some indication that players are directly addressing it. I'm glad you made this video because it perfectly summarizes every issue I have heard since launch and, given the 3 seasons you played, provides some potential perspective involving the players that I noticed come and go from Duel Links. Keep up the great content.
Spot on with all of your points, and it's why I only play casually. I try to hit Legend every season, but never sit down and grind for KoG. If I get it, cool. But this game ain't worth the salt it inevitably causes.
My biggest issue with it is just how it set up its matches/format, and thats how its set up for super fast matches. Ive played alot of other card games, and what I enjoy about them is even If you draw poorly on your opening hand, you have some peace of mind that the game wont end in 1 turn, and so you have some time to get some better draws, take steps to try and stall out the game until you can turn it around in your favor. In Duel Links if you draw a bad hand you pretty much lose. And as the quality of card increases with more box releases, that will only become more true. There might not be ABSOLUTELY nothing you can do to try and win in a bad situation, but its so much less than most other ccgs. It feels like in the other games I play, because games don't instantly end because of a bad opening hand, the better player can win the higher percent of the time. Whereas if a better hand can close out games by turn 2, the worse player can steal wins without needing to play well. Im just in the boat where If a game play promotes decision making, and if you make the right decisions that leads you to winning the game, I deem that better than just your opening hand, a random aspect, dictating who will win.
Played duel links since the very start, and honestly had the most fun playing it casually, purposely staying at gold rank. Later I started grinding rank once I had a power deck, and the game instantly became soul draining. Taking a break for a while, but will probably come back eventually just to play casual again.
About the last point : I have a solution. You know these tickets you get ? I want a UR card from an old set. Why in the world can't I trade the ticket for the card ? I'm a new player, I want to do a basic casual ritual deck, I have to buy full priced full sized box with literally 2 cards worth anything in them. Why ? Let me spend my gems on the specific cards directly, let me spend my tickets on card directly, let me trade these cards. There's no reason for this packs to still be around, they've lost all their value.
Skills are visible various ways outside of a duel but not during a battle. Main ways are next to the characters in the characters select area and the other way is under Skills in the card customize building.
Man, watching this video as a person who played the game all the way back in late 2016 - early/mid 2017 and is hopping back into the game NOW... the game used to be so different back then. It wasn’t perfect, but a lot of the issues you’ve mentioned (and a lot of issues I have with the game right now) are things that are more recent in the game, or are at least already existing problems that have been made worse by recent choices by Konami. Seeing decks like Fur Hires and cards like Treacherous Trap Hole make it into the game honestly just hurts my soul. I showed my friend who got me back into this game a lot of older meta decklists and he was astonished at just how different they were from decks now. I feel like until like Toon Kingdom back in mid 2017, there was always some sort of good balance in how the game was played and the options you had for decks... but now that just’s gone (at least to me). One of the biggest issues even back then was that Konami was releasing packs way too often and there was little breathing room for the players and the meta, and now that the power creep has been cranked up it’s only gotten worse. I could probably write an essay on how this bloody game has changed if I really wanted to lol.
Congrats on branching out to longer videos all the props to ya. For me Duel Links is something I play out of necessity. I agree with everything you said and on some things like the micro transactions I have stronger opinions on, but I'll still hard grind for gems and pay a little too much money for the game because I need to. I absolutely love deck building and playing but I have no one to play with so I go to Duel Links. I guess I'm weird but the competitive scene is just too cut throat for me and the casual scene is too chaotic and salty. Oh man is it salty...
To your point around 37:00, I'd personally fall in between on that one. Not taking people's personal opinions into account on which deck is fun or not, certain archetypes in the game are very F2P friendly. Fur Hire for example is a deck that I personally enjoyed on YGOPro once released, so I was thrilled to see it in DL, and in a Mini Box to boot. That being said, I got fairly unlucky with my pulls and spent ~7000 Gems to get the entire archetype (namely 3 Beats). That's fine, not really a big deal there. The problem is the staples. That's when the F2P things get harder. I own maybe one of each key staple aside from Cosmic Cyclone and Floodgate Trap Hole, namely because by the time I finally get one of those I've spent just as many Gems trying to get one card as I did the core of my FH deck. It's ridiculous. So it's really more of a half and half. And yes, creating multiple accounts is stupid. As a F2P player I haven't gotten to that point yet, and I've been playing on and off since launch, but it's sad that option is starting to look appealing if I want to play anything other than FH. Making some of those staples take a slot during events for like, 1000 EX Jewels or w/e, would be fantastic for F2P players. Or just reprinting things. Thankfully, I play the TCG, so I know what decks I'm willing to shell out on, so far DL has only provided me with Fur Hire, Gem Knights, and half assed Gishkis, but I'm hoping 5D's changes that (4 more days!). For people who have never played the TCG and want whatever is meta relevant though, keeping up with things can be really tough if you want to be solely F2P. Spending ~7000 on FH, then another on Amazons, another on Vamps, it's too much if you don't know what you want. Aside from that, I agree with practically everything else you've brought up. Duel Links really is a beautiful mess. I'm just hoping they can get it together. The banlist in particular would be a good place to start. Even as a FH player myself, I believe Beat should have been hit, but he gets a free pass because he's a SR. I love the game, but at the same time there's a lot of room for improvement. Thanks for the video, it was an interesting watch. Card Trader is ass, don't believe anyone who says it's good.
I'm F2P and managed to build a Dark Magician deck just after it got out of the meta, which I knew would be the case when I started building it but I just like the archetype. The problem is that, even though I managed to hit KoG with it at the time, 1-2 months later DM was creeped to oblivion. Now I have cards that I can use again when XYZs come out, assuming the app doesn't die out before that. That's the issue I see with DL whether you're F2P or a whale. You either waste too much time or money respectively, and it only lasts for a ridiculously short amount of time.
I applaud you for the amount of effort and taking this seriously.Hopefully Konami improves with version 3 and numbs down all the anoyances,cuz imo its so close to being something really special.
I think a main phase 2 would help in this game. Not only did it exist in the early amine battles too, it also helps you recover from certain incidents in the battle phase when it doesnt go out as planned, for example: - you have 3 monsters in ATK position and attack into a Wall of Disruption. With a main phase 2 you could potentially switch the other 2 monsters into defenss position. -Maybe you didnt summon a monster in Main Phase 1 and the opponent activates Treacherous Trap Hole in Battle Phase to protect himself. In Main Phase 2 you could summon a monster after your monster board got cleared -You could attack with your monsters first then use them as fusion/ritual/synchro Material in Main Phase 2 -You could use Anti Magic Arrows to ensure a safe Main Phase 2 play. - There are many effects in duellinks that would be useful for Main Phase 2 (like drawing in battle phase) and also Konami wouldnt have to change card effects specifically for duellinks like they did with Kristallbeast emerald turtle. As for the cons: I see none, besides that duellinks was always without Main Phase 2 but I dont see this as an obstacle for it
About the F2P part, I am a F2P player and y got to Legend 2 with a Destiny Hero deck with all of the Ankis and the Mask Changes and I’ve got most of the staples without spending money in the game, of course that Konami right now is giving us a very limited quantity of gems and that sucks, we don’t even have the 300 gems at level 30 with the newest characters, but even like that I find very easy to get the cards
Really enjoyed your points about the card trader. When I first signed up for duel links a few months ago, I was pretty disappointed in the card trader as a hearthstone player, it just felt so barren and depressing. The randomized selection is also very annoying if you want certain cards, like that grass looks greener.
Really good points, agreed with pretty much everything. I quit playing DL competitively after the last WCS qualifiers because after a lot of time and money invested and then a marathon three days with very little sleep I ended up just inside the top 500 in my region and therefore with virtually nothing to show for all that effort and just thought "what is the point of this?" It's such a shame because the base game (i.e. a really smooth, accessible, online dueling experience across Steam and mobile) has so much potential but unfortunately it's ruined by money-grabbing and poor decisions.
Would be cool to see a followup video to this after 2 years. Things still get OP sometimes, especially with skills, but they've mostly been keeping up with balance changes. I do enjoy it as a casual game to play in my down time at work.
I already played this game 500 days right now and still havin' fun staying in gold. Casuals like me really liked duel link because it basically "free" as long as you not spending your money in this game (trust me, your will not getting any benefit with spending money in virtual game expect for virtual item that cannot be claimed IRL anyways). And just you said dzeff, i'm the huge fans of anime. I can't ignore a yugioh game that offer actual VA in anime.
@@ikrena4701 ??? You can't actually physically use, touch, or move virtual items. You can actually use physical item. By your logic. Buying a car in a random mobile game is the same as buying a car in real life...
@@AetherKirin and what does being able to touch or move virtual objects get for you that you don't get out of virtual objects? Side note, you can totally use virtual items, just only online
@@ikrena4701 please read term of use and privacy policy in game once again. This game may be closed everytime and you'll not get any refund or compensation at all.
@@1210Al Oh that's your argument. I thought you were just generally talking about internet purchases in general. Yeah, I'm aware of the rights Konami has over the consumer. Although I still disagree, it's really no different than renting something IRL
just fyi you need to have no traps in the graveyard to activate Treacherous trap hole, so it wouldn't really make a difference if they limit it or not in the TCG, because it would just make it harder to draw but it could still only be used once per game unless the player removes traps from their graveyard by returning them to the hand or somehow from play
@@Dzeeff No. Like if you are in a duel and you hit the top right button where you can surrender from, if you just scroll up and see the skill you can see the skill you opponent activated and if you click the info button you can see what it does.
I was ranked 15000th in Duel Links the last few KC Cups I played I can confirm that the same deck can be used multiple months. I would find myself coming back to Cipher Soldier stall decks for the longest time. Even after the nerfs that deck got it was still my go to
Keep the good work man! I am a casual player and I love listening to / watching your videos while I work. You definitely opened my eyes about strategies, deck building and which cards are good and which are not, which resulted in me winning a lot of duels against my friends and looking at the game from another perspective. I dont watch your live streams, but I think that it would be cool for you to do some kind of review series about Yu-Gi-Oh games through years for Game Boy Advance, Play Station 1, 2, 3, PSP, NDS, PC, etc.
I've been playing duel links for such a long time (probably cause I'm addicted to the collecting aspect of it) But there have been SO MANY times I have a King of Games deck and paired up against the computer I still lose because they happened to draw their OTK combo on the first hand.
Really enjoyed this in depth vid. Duel Links is what really got me into playing Yu Gi Oh alot. I started out with 5Ds but it was Duel links that sealed the deal...with its flaws in all lol
I started Duel Link's about 2 weeks ago. I'm free to play. Only 2 packs I bought with Gems were Gaia Genesis and Age of Discovery because I wanted to build Mermails. Within the first week and a half playing, I have a full power Mermail Deck. I've pulled 3 Megalos, 3 Spikes, 3 Heavy Infantys, 3 Marksman, 3 Galaxy Cyclones and 3 Murray of Greeds. I also pulled good amount of U.A cards to make a U.A deck. I didn't spend a single dollar on the game. I'm surprised I was able to make the deck with ease. The game hasn't screwed me yet
I was hoping that duel links was like the actual card game ported to the phone, but I guess it was all right. It was a fantastic way of introducing me to the game, and now I'm a big fan :)
I'm impressed you've stuck with Spellbooks for three months now. I love the deck myself but I only use it for short bursts - it's the slowest deck that's actually competitive and I found that it led me to tilt earlier than Sylvans, Fur Hires, or Vampires did (and don't even get me started on the times that Silent Magician ends up as the bottom 3 cards of my deck). All in all, what keeps me interested in the game is the new experiences that new decks provide. Making the top 200 in the KC Cup is the closest I've gotten to getting burned out, but that's more because of the failings of the KC Cup system more than anything. Maybe give it another try once 5D's arrives? Seems pretty hype.
Also, I thought I wouldn't be able to last through the whole video but I was surprised when I was already at the 35:00 mark. I couldn't help but relate to all of the points you were making.
Havent seen it commented yet, so i figured i would say it. Whenever a skill is activated, you can hit the "Duel log" button in the top right and it tells you what the skill does.
@@Dzeeff i figured as much. This is the third time ive watched this. And it still poops up in my recommended. So i assume others are probably watching this for the first time now. Have you considered doing a new update to this. About 92% of the issues you covered are still just as annoying. But things have gotten a little better.
Amazing video! It was well worth the watch. You mentioned a lot of gripes I have with the game as well, and I’ve been playing it for almost two years now, as well as streaming it over on Twitch. The community is what’s keeping me still somewhat attached, and the friendships I’ve made because of the game. I hope that one day we truly see change, but I highly doubt it.
Really nice view of the game overall, one not so simple thing that i would change to make the game better is about the banlist that i saw on reddit once, since the banlist works different from the tcg, why not raise the types of limiting? Konami could implement a "semi-semi-limited" list so that the sum of the cards of the list could not surpass 3, and could go to 4,5,6 or higher, like they could put 3 essential cards of a deck on the "6 list" so instead of running 3 copies of each of the 3 cards you would have to play 6, making the deck less consistent and also allowing diversity in deck building
i like duel links and i agree the game sometimes fustrates me with me bricking on speels and traps when i have 14 monsters and 6 spells/traps and i play nearly everynight to the point of breaking to recieve little or no payoff, times like this i go and mess with my real life cards and see each card on a personal level and they help me remind myself of my love for yugioh, i even go back and watch my favorite yugioh episodes and then boom come back for some more, really i think this game pushes your tolerance to its edge and brings out the fustration inside, overall this game is well put together and is the best yugioh online gaming experience i ever played and il keep it up for as long as it takes to see how far konami takes it
Konomy has fixed some of these issues. By banning certain cards and reducing the effect damage of cards like lava Golem to 500 instead of 1000 . And reduced certain cards summoning conditions to work with the limited monster field zone. But the biggest thing to keep in mind is duel links is a speed play game. No one wants to play a 40 card deck. And 8k life points cause they take to long.
1.Matchmaking is not random 2.Certain Skills should be harder to come by 3.The meta decks should go along with how much time you've put in to level up the character your using the skill with ( there will always be meta in card games but it's become to common in duel links there's no variety since its easy to come by )
I like that we cant just join and have the decks we want how we want them without putting in some time. It slows ypu down and makes you find new cards to use that completly change how the deck plays
As someone who's sick to death of playing vs Gouki and Konami's terrible F/L list practices, Duel Links has been a great way to scratch the Ygo itch, even if it is only casually. I use to hate DL's trade system, but I've been playing the MtG Arena beta and that game doesn't even have a card trade system of any kind. Just play until you get 15 wins a day (never mind how the entire quickplay meta is red/black aggro, stompy green or turbo-fog) for your 1.5 packs-a-day average and your 1 free pack a week quest. You better pray you don't pull any excess duplicates or cards you don't even want cause they'll just sit in your digital binder collecting digital dust. I can't believe I actually found a game that was more bold-faced about pushing their fake card sales than Konami. If anyone's looking for a good online CCG to play you can do so much worse than Duel Links, especially if you want to play it casually. IMO the online CCG ranking is as follows: 1 Shadowverse (easily the most F2P friendly, imagine Hearthstone with waifus instead of RNG) 2 Duel Links (the most casual friendly, I'm excited to see what Synchro summoning will do) 3 Hearthstone (RNG cancer-fest but that great Blizzard quality and the largest community) 4 MtG Arena (least F2P friendly but well made and still in beta so there's hope, it is limited to Draft and Standard formats so don't go in hoping for Commander or Modern)
demacry you don’t seem to understand what trading is in card games. Next time say the “card trader” because there’s a MASSIVE difference between trading and the card trader in pretty much every single card game ever known to man.
Jordon Roy You don't seem to understand what common sense is and life has cruelly deprived you of your fair share of it. Take the chip off your shoulder, the stick out your butt and get over yourself. Your definition of trading is far from accurate and you're just making yourself look silly.
demacry no...no I’m not at all. If you go up to someone playing magic and say “let’s have a trade”, what exactly will they assume you mean? It’s pretty damn obvious, they will assume you mean a card for a card as that has always been the basis of trading in TRADING CARD GAMES, hence the name. So when you say “trade” when in reference to a TRADING CARD GAME am I supposed to naturally assume you mean the process in which you trade jewels and gold for a card? No because the term has been colloquially used in trading card games to mean “to trade a card for a card”. So no fuckin shit idk what you mean when you say trade system. Because trading and the card trader are entirely different things. That’s common sense, something you seem to be sorely lacking.
I just which the game had a shorter time limit to make move cause there are times when your opponent just takes a damn eternity to set a single card & even longer when they got prompted to activate a spell or trap when you do something. You don't need over 2 minutes to think of a move in due links. Some games I spend more time waiting for my opponent to set a card than I do actually playing.
My experience with duel links f2p style, joins my first multiplayer match with my scuffed cards, gets to go first, places monster down and ends turn, opponent uses tons of spell cards and special summons to have multiple monsters on the field all 3000+ attack so I knew I was fked from there.
The problem is that a lot of these problems piggyback off eachother. Fixing one problem will make other problems worse. I dont want konami limiting SR and UR cards without implementing a better disenchantment system for cards.
I agree so much w most things... my personal main problem: I want to play casual compet as a platinum/legend player but not only rank down system is terrible the loss system is horrible I after 4 wins in plat I loose one and there restart plat 4 app what happens is I wreck plat 1s for 4 games then I have a challenging duel w an ex-king of games for 5 seasons straight player and have to restart. If no card game use it or any ranked system in general I don't understand why makes the grind so much longer... anyway
The rage I feel when I see Téa knows no bounds. It seems like I never go first against Téa players and so first turn they somehow always manage a Dian Keto, some other LP gain and fucking cyber stein. The number of times I have lost to a Téa with a turn 1 Ojama King and some fuck off giant fusion monster is ridiculous.
I get not banning a pack SR/UR, but they certainly can limit/semi-limit them. That way they're still legal, but you can't abuse maximum copies. It makes sense and it's a good middle-ground to not outright banning "chase cards".
Very great video I've have seen a lot of these problems and I had given up on it for a time until recently when the synchro where back and I still haven't really return to ranking duel. But one positive that I've for the game is the free to play I've been playing for a year and half and I've never spend a dollar in the game mostly because of issues with my app store and you know I was able to build some pretty good decks like fur hire geargea spellbooks and amazoness and right now I'm building x saber and junk warrior with the new pack the only one that were really difficult to build were amazoness and mask hero (which I ended up giving up on) and also sometimes to I've too compromise some cards with some lesser ones but they still do the trick the only thing that left me a bit salted is the silent magician thing that is still behind a pay wall as of now
I play Lavals. Alot of times effects that should be activated don't. Whether that be Laval burner's special summon condition or Laval blaster's mill effect. It sucks because Laval is alot of fun to play when it works
I can say as a Duel Links player that a lot of these complaints I agree with however, since this video was released a lot of the issues were fixed or improved upon. I recommend giving it a second shot.
I play Duel Links quite a bit (casually but with a slant towards at least having a competitive deck should I want to do a little pvp), and I've never really played the TCG competitively... And I agree 100% I'm a bit of a purist and refuse to use skills
As many of you know, this is a video that I've worked on for weeks now, and I'm excited to finally show it to the public. I know it's longer than all of my other videos, but I really did try to cut as much of the blank space out of the video as possible. If you'd like to watch the video in sections, here are some timestamps for that:
0:00 - Introduction
3:33 - The Good Stuff
8:50 - Problem 1
17:21 - Problem 2
33:45 - Problem 3
40:40 - Conclusion
Just a heads up Problem 2's timestamp is connected to 3's time
Dude, Don't miss on the Yubel event! At least unlock her!
I’m sorry competitive DL players there’s so much wrong with this game and it’s definitely a casual game and as a note chilling in Gold allows you to see all sorts of creative decks that aren’t meta decks or degenerate decks so even if you see all these problems it still makes for a fun casual game
P.S. as a note about not being able to see how far you are from next ranks there are fighting games that don’t tell you where you stand and as a fighter game player I’m used to the mystery promotion match, not to be nitpicky it’s just a thing that I noticed
Max Rochester Dunno about Mortal Kombat, but you can at least see your points in Street Fighter, you do have a good notion of when you're close to rank up or down, so... I think that's not the case?
Alice Shiki
I played a lot of tekken and no one knew what the point system was until someone mined out the data themselves
Like Tekken Tag 2 was just “oh hey look it’s a promotion match” that’s why I’m familiar with the unknown rank ups
44 minutes. *Grabs Popcorn*
Cimoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Please do a meta analysis...
So true, although it was a very well put video. Didn't feel like 44 minutes to me.
Cimoooooooo share some with us poor doods
Hey Cimo, i would actually be really interested to see a video similar to this with your take on duel links. I know the game itself has proven to be pretty divisive but as one of my go to yugitubers id definitely value an opinion from you on how this effects the game at large and what you think having two consecutive metas(digital and physical) running at the same time in such different formats does to the game as a whole.
Cimoooooooo 😂
Duel links is a blossom that could be a beautiful flower if Konami didn’t use gasoline as fertilizer while they flick ashes from their cigarettes on it.
That's the most accurate thing i have ever read in my life
I couldn't help but think of Ash Blossom when reading that comment.
What, are you implying that Konami is run by self sabotaging dipshits?
@@emperorpicard7222 lol
this is too poetic for our comprehension
It feels as if people always start off with Red Eyes Fusion these days xd
God forbid if they don’t start out the duel with Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. It’s mostly just annoying for me since I run Six Sam and Slash Dragon can attack over all my monsters. But I still manage. (Dual Wield is kinda bullshit sometimes XD)
@@PokemustardtheSecond that's all that I ever encounter, my sanctuary in the sky deck needs a bit of time to get to the good parts, since I need to get that field spell out and Valhalla hall of the fallen too. I usually get lucky and get both out fairly quickly, but most of the time it's too late for me since their Slash Dragon already has an equipped card, so that costs me more materials with Master Hyperion xdd
Gets even better when they use Red Eyes Black Dragon Sword xddd
@@PokemustardtheSecond dude dual wield is the most annoying thing ever.
sorry :c
it is all i have as a okay fluent deck to go by since i cant buy cards at all
This game gave me an opportunity to play with other people
This comment says a lot about how much the yugioh community needs a GOOD oficial yugioh online simulator
You can use dueling book, it has a traditional mode if you are not into new Yu-Gi-Oh!
exactly, the closest city where I live is 1 hour trip, and I have my doubts if there are any specific store for TCG in general, probably, but would have to research a lot, and then it would be 1h one way and 1h back, 2 bus passages, and if I find someone next to play, we would both have to buy new cards often just to try out new deck, new extrategies etc, in some cases TCG in real life simply is not viable = /
I've met a lot of people online who's locals stopped hosting yugioh so they're just satisfied to have access to Duel Links.
TRUTH
As someone that can't play TCG or OCG because money and location, I'm really enjoy playing duel links without paying a single dollar. This game have a lot of problems but you can ignor them. Duel links is nice free replacement for the pizical yu gi oh and it really enjoyable
well its cool until you get good and try to get better.You just hit that brick wall and the only way around it is to join the "i spent hundreds of dollars on this deck now I have to waste my life grinding for a SLIGHT chance of coming out on top" club...which completely ruins it for me
Duel links actually got me back into yugioh. I need to build a deck irl but I have no one to play against.
For me it got me into Yu-Gi-Oh for the first time, used to watch the anime and play the video games, but never started collecting cards, building decks, etc. til now
@@cmoney163 year late but same here brotha 🙏🏾
Time to sit down and check out probably the biggest and fairest TCG Yugituber "review"; Looking forward to hearing all of your thoughts Doug!
While I agree that this video and his recent Duel Links stuff was extremely fair, this is the same guy who said "I got to Gold in ranked so I understand the meta quite well"
Edit: Apparently I was wrong
I actually said the exact opposite of that, Oscar. Go troll somewhere else lol
Oscar Walsh rekt
@@Dzeeff sorry if I misremembered, I thought you did say something along the lines of when you spoke about using that Dino deck with a couple of handtraps.
ItsBradazHD a good showing of how a tcg UA-camr can connect the bridge with duel links player
I quit after awhile once i realized that you need to spend almost as much as the regular game to play a virtual one, they also turned into greedy pigs overtime slowly lowering the ability to get gems for free throughout the games life span and then making you spend alot of gems to get the new set to then ban them a month and a half later.
Flyingfrogs ES that’s so true XD
Just quit for 3 months and come back when a Sr event comes I always get 7 Sr or like 2 S or something it's not bad it's just fun lol
Duel Links definitely helped my friend and I get back into playing ygo. Its definitely a fun way to waste time and my favorite mobile game. I spend way more money on the tcg now than I do on duel links lol but that's also because I like having main phase 2 and more zones & lp
The problem with Duel Links that Konami showed today with the release of 5DS is this: Konami doesn't give a shit about it's players.
Duel Links used to be an excellent, truly free-to-play game. Anyone could play their favorite decks and stood a chance in the competitive scene, all without spending money.
Today, Duel Links is a competitive failure. Meta decks overrule the competitive scene. Strong cards are hidden in Main Boxes. The free gems players once could receive through leveling up or from the worlds have either been removed or reduced. It was already bad enough.
And now this. 5DS world. The cards made available at the gate are almost all completely useless. Most of the gate duelists don't even have Synchro Monsters made available. The music, while not bad by any means, has lost the greatness that the previous 2 generations had.
Worst of all? Stardust Dragon, the goddamn ACE CARD of the PROTAGONIST of 5DS is locked behind a massive paywall. Sure, the skill gives you 1 Stardust in your Extra Deck, but you should be able to use your ace AND have other skills to boost. Black Rose Dragon and the other ace cards of the gate duelists are also all being thrown into boxes from what I can tell.
Konami has turned the game from a fun F2P game to a money-grabbing cash cow. And they probably won't change it. Kinda ruined this whole super hyped event for me.
Also they turned Dark Magic Curtain from R to UR for some reason. Not a complaint, but that's weird
now it's even worse. since they added ancient gear dragon as pay only super meta pay to win deck.
I mean, are you even surpised? It's Komoney
Gol D. Roger you mean reactor dragon
I completely agree with you Doug about the banlist. Its a train wreck and super poorly managed. I also want to say that no where has Konami told Duel Links players that their SRs or their URs are safe from the banlist and I think that hitting cards like princess, TTH, and others would make the game way more fun and diverse.
I disagree. I think that the same people who spent hundreds of dollars on Anki are spending money on most of the boxes and would like to see the variety in the game. Konami shouldn't make your favorite deck unplayable but they should diversify a meta that hasn't shifted since the start of summer or even before.
If Duel Links remains diverse and interesting more people will play and stick around. I haven't touched the game since the new main box because all the same decks are meta except vamps. Player retention is an important part of any game's cash flow.
BosSox I disagree 100%
For starters Konami only “killed” 2 regular decks. Cyber angels and sylvans, and most would argue those were the most hated decks in this history’s existence besides degenerate decks like the bamboo ftk (which they also killed).
The system works fine IMO. Decks we have multiple viable decks like vampires, spellbooks, UA, Hero, furries, and Amazoness, as well as powerful rogue decks like last gamble koaki meru and batteryman (players hit top 500 world with these decks), SSA, and hazy flames. They all play pretty differently from eachother as well.
We’re an effect veiler away from a decently diverse meta. But I don’t see the issue with the banlist. Especiallly when people completely exaggerate how many decks Konami has killed, which is literally just 2 and like 2 FTKs.
And the irony of hitting princess. For starters they have no problems hitting her since she isn’t a UR. Secondly hitting her would kill the deck, exactly what Doug just said he didn’t want to happen, and most people agree with. I personally think swordswoman should go instead because she gives the deck a second win condition it doesn’t need.
Synchros are coming so people may come back. I know I am.
It would be fine if they gave compensation for banning sr or ur cards.
27:18 Hey! If you've never used poly to fuse a mammoth graveyard with a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to slowly lower it's attack then you're not a real duelist!
I have the feeling that you are one if the few if not the only yugituber who is really skilled in analysing the game/ the state of things in general. Not only can you analyse it very well but your presentation and how you express your arguments is top notch!
Clear structure, well presented and researched. Who csn ask for more?
Keep it up! And do not be afraid of doing longer videos like these, a few not to many to scare away your audience, but some of these can really be interesting:)
I completely agree with this, your videos are always very concise and well put together. The video essay format you do is great and it definitely keeps me coming back and digging through your back catalog. I like a lot of yugitubers, and i love a good meta analysis, or budget cards video, but i think the way you breakdown very small things that can be complicated in a way that is easy to digest really goes a long way, some of your videos on card interactions and analysis have been easy recommendations for people i know who are new to the game, between that and Cimo's how to series you guys always have me covered. Specifically the video on how face down banished cards work was actually really helpful recently for a friend of mine so thanks.
Turn one: six hundred cards drawn, three monsters with ATK 5000 on the board, continuous spells galore and my entire opening setup is wiped off the board....heart of the cards indeed.
Turn One against the Vagabond and you go first:
*Literally every high level monster and maybe a spell card*
Happens 80% of the time I ever face him. Fate of brick hands.
Being a competitve F2P player is horrible. Konami have continued to do a mass nerfing of Gems since July. You are forced to skip boxes till your deck can no longer stand a chance, spend money or start a new account. It's unstainable for the paying players too. I've dropped over $100 on outdated cards with no values.
It's meh
Being f2p competitively in most card games is impossible. Not the yugioh tcg. Not Magic. Hearthstone, if you play it reaaaally smart with your dust, and play alot, can work. Overall you are probably in the wrong game genre.
I've survived just fine as a competitive f2p
@@phantomnite f2p player here too and I have built masked heroes, vampires, sylvans, amazoness, fur hires, blue eyes and six samurai. It is possible but it requires a lot of time and a little bit of luck.
@@giannispapakrivopoulos5455 exactly, it's possible and more fun in my opinion
Video dropped the day they announced the 5Ds update.
F
@@garedbi It's Dio :O
Bad luck
I've always wanted long form content from you dzeef
I've been waiting for this video for awhile now 🍿
wat007 big fan dude keeps us updated bro
It 43:59 minutes long
Same
its possible to FTP duel links, IF you have commitment on the deck you want to build and stick to the goal, if you open many packs from different boxes, you'll end up with nothing to "build" consistently
**Not an overused joke comment section**
Meteroxin thank you
this joke is so meta it kicked amazoness out of the tier list
The Critic loool
miss
I’d love to see you do a video on Duel Links currently since it would be really interesting to see your take on the game where it currently is.
Duel links got me into Yu-Gi-Oh to begin with. Even when I hate it, it’ll still have a place in my heart
You didn't talk about it in the section of obtaining cards but I wanted to talk about reprints. The entire idea of reprints in the TCG seems to be getting expensive cards into budget players' hands after a certain period of time ( i don't play the tcg someone tell me I'm off base). The entire idea of reprints in Duel Links to me seems like filler cards for these selection boxes that primarily whales will spend a lot of money on to get a couple of new cards before they are released in a proper box. The selection boxes are really bad. They only allow a set amount of gems to be spent on them and contain a combination of new, old out dated, and relevant cards from the previous months. I think this reprint system is completely broken and dumb.
My thought would be that konami should release a mini box or a main box that are only reprints. In the boxes cards that were previously UR would then be SR, SRs would be rares and you could have a new set of UR cards in the box. I think these reprint boxes should be mini boxes to fit the number of cards without being ridiculous. The reason this should happen to me is because basically any box before the Fur Hire Box and especially the Spellbook box is completely irrelevant in terms of competitive play. That being said there are plenty of competitive staple cards that could make their way into the meta or be in the meta currently such as floodgate traphole, Cosmic Cyclone, SSA, Masked Change and Forbidden Chalice just to name a few. These cards are buried in boxes that otherwise are very bad and those specific cards could eventually make their way into the hands of more budget players. A Mini box with 2 new UR cards and a bunch of competitive staple cards that are printed in lower rarity every 6 months could be really good for the game and make competitive duel links more accessible.
Finally, I know that ppl will be upset that their cosmic cyclone is a UR while someone else's is just an SR so I think that konami could introduce some sort of bling factor to all the higher rarity versions of cards when they receive reprints to show in game that "hey my cosmic cyclone is an UR". I don't know what kind of shiny effect they should add but all yugioh players love having blinged out cards and decks and I think it is something that Konami does really well in the tcg, but has not expanded on at all in Duel links.
If you read this entire comment for whatever reason thanks for listening to me and I apologize for any spelling errors that may have confused any of you.
What is interesting about this is that you are completely right and konami has already implemented a way to make this worthwhile with the "shiny" or "prismatic" cards. If you use these in your deck your rewards at the end of a duel are better. The issue is that the rewards suck. A simple tweak to this system to have it be based on rarity and make the rewards not you know......suck, would incentivize players who want the higher rarities to get them(and spend more money in the process) while letting budget and F2P players enjoy being competitive and play relevant strategies without having to fork over their paycheck in the process.
selection boxes are a great concept imo, just the purchase limit is crap
@@Marcusjnmc I think the concept is sound, the execution is flawed imo.
That is a completely viable way to make those giant ancient boxes that are basically unusable somewhat worthwhile. Even if its just a paywall blocked, 50-ish box that just gives you *hope* at getting the mandatory UR to make a deck functional
Unfortunately something like that #komoney would avoid like the plague, because it is something that doesn't lower gem drops/would drive people away from spending more money on those shitty, older boxes
@@adriannaranjo4397 In the long run they are going to have to figure something out. As the game progresses powercreep is going to cycle out the old boxes so they will need to find a way to keep the older cards fresh. They are a business first and I completely understand that but keeping the game state healthy draws more people, keeping the rewards coming at a metered but continual pace keeps people playing longer and the longer people play the more money they spend. I don't know the solution but I know that Konami will need to address these issues at some point of they want to continue drawing players and keeping their base playing. A game can totally be profitable and have a Happy player base lol, it isn't easy, but it is definitely possible.
Howdy dzeeff
Couldn't agree with you more about life cost 0.
Favorite comeback was activating Burst Rebirth to special summon face-down Worm Victory during the battle phase, after my opponent blew-up my board with Stein/Double Gatling/Ultimate Dragon Combo.
I've never felt better watching his board blow up, only to kill my opponent with a 300 attack from Apocalypse.
F e e l s G o o d
I feel like wna rank down just to enjoy fighting less cancerous decks
Same
This comment is a response from 37:00, in the video, the whole free to play thing. I think free to play competitive is definitely possible. I will say I've spent $200 on this game, but roughly 80% if my cards were earned through rewards or gems, I've played over 600 hours so far. Although I spent a lot of time to get my cards, there's a reason why Fur Hires are called Free Hires. They're easily the best deck, to the point that people who were in silver and gold made separate accounts to dedicate to Fur Hires and easily hit Legend in a couple hours. It was super annoying and somewhat still is, though not to the same extent. Amazons are also free to play. Most, if not all, their cards are, and were, duel drops, lv rewards and event exclusive drops. Free to play is possible, but you're going to have to dedicate an entire account, or spend a ridiculous amount of time and get lucky.
Fur aint hard to counter
@@iamcarmelo0648 You're right, but if you play low tier, budget decks or get a bad hand, you auto lose. That and they have a possive matchup on every deck going first, and about 50/50 going second against most meta decks right now. Are furries hard to counter? No, not really. Are they really good in DL? Yes, very convincingly too, even post ban list. Free Hires is still a thing in high platinum/low legend.
Yeah the problem is that if you want to hit KOG while being free to play you have to play the meta decks. You can't buy the archtype you like, you can't waste a single gem in an old box, and your deck building is boring and unoriginal, basically being f2p and playing competitive it's doing the opposite of "building your own deck", it's like letting konami decide the 20 cards you will play with the next 3-6 seasons
Joshua Munisar fur hires used to be very hard to counter 😂😂 what are you on about dude? Negates + removal + swarm. It was considered tier 0-1 for a reason.
If you're lucky and know the cards you're looking for, it is possible to put together a great deck for free.
Yes, it is hard. Yes I spent all my first gems getting Aliens.. I don't regret either 😁
What are your thoughts on 5D's being added to Duel Links?
Note: I'm writing this comment before watching the video because I'm at work as I'm typing this lol. If mentioned in the video, I'll get to it as soon as I can.
Idk, I stopped and came back after gx then left and am coming back for 5ds. I feel like theres a group of people like me that do this
tim5fl I think it’s gonna be exciting since there is gonna be another set of summoning and will take more skill
lol, Anime Impact cna leave the game whenever he want. He will change nothing to this game. He's just supporting cheaters and posts stupid rants.
+tim5fl His departure doesn't matter at all. He can stay wherever he wants and play the other fake yu-gi-oh! games again until he comes back because they are all shit.
5ds in like 5 days WOOOO!
I love this video for multiple reasons. Honestly Dzeef i think this is my favourite video of yours. To start off I started playing the TCG through Duel Links. I’m also an F2P Player on Duel Links. Everything said in this video is true but i cannot relate to the whaling part lol. Um. I’ve been playing Duel Links since day one. & in the beginning the game was flawless to me because it distributed Gems as a reward and there weren’t many boxes early on. I was a blue eyes player which was one of the only F2P competitively viable decks for a long time. Ever since about a year ago i’d say, they pushed out boxes & slowed gem acquisition by A LOT. I’m lucky to even have a masked hero deck or my other decks that i love so much. I’m a casual at heart on this game & i’ve never reached Legend or KoG’s & honestly i’ve had fun. So much fun. This game is great but i hate Konami for shitting on F2P players like me recently. The one benefit to being a F2P though is when you need one more card to complete your Masked heroes after opening packs for about 5 months & finally get your 2nd & then 3rd Anki. I jumped & screamed & everyone in my classroom looked at me, but i only get that kind if energy when i put hard work into it & honestly... that sums up a F2P duel links players life in general. Hard work with some pay off.
With Synchros coming to Duel Links and Duel Links being known for offering a home to TCG-rejects what decks do you think have some potential?
I hope for Speedroids or X-Saber (not 5DS, but we got Gem-Knights relatively quick after GX).
Spoilers Speedroids are in the game and are good
I would like to participate on a real tcg simulator with physical rewards being shipped to your local OTS store for you to pick up. And in the purchase of special editions products or promos you get a code to exchange for dlc packs in the app simulator. Imagine the possibilities!!!
I love this video for multiple reasons.
Honestly Dzeeff i think this is my favourite video of yours.
To start off I started playing the TCG through Duel Links. I’m also an F2P Player on Duel Links. Everything said in this video is true but i cannot relate to the whaling part lol. Um. I’ve been playing Duel Links since day one. & in the beginning the game was flawless to me because it distributed Gems as a reward EQUALLY mind you, and there weren’t many boxes early on. I was a blue eyes player which was one of the only F2P competitively viable decks for a long time. Ever since about a year ago i’d say, they pushed out boxes & slowed gem acquisition by A LOT. I’m lucky to even have a masked hero deck or my other decks that i love so much. I’m a casual at heart on this game & i’ve never reached Legend or KoG & honestly i’ve had fun. So much fun.
This game is great but i hate Konami for shitting on F2P players like me recently. The one benefit to being a F2P though is when you need one more card to complete your Masked heroes after opening packs for about 5 months & finally get your 2nd & then 3rd Anki. I jumped & screamed & everyone in my classroom looked at me, but i only get that kind of energy when i put hard work into it & honestly... that sums up a F2P duel links players life in general. Hard work with some pay off.
Kazuma Kariama
OMG me too, I’m F2P since day one and I noticed that the box after box after box caused me to fall back on some amazing decks but as a company Konami works for the whales which is a damn shame but if you’ve stuck around as a F2P it also feels soooo great to just have the variety of cards that you, a player who has worked for those cards, and you’re able to adapt because you worked for it
Max Rochester haha, exactly!
Hahahah i thought i was the only one to jump when i receive my third Anki and Mask change, long live f2p players
me I was happy about getting a second Anki, but then realized Masked HEROes nowadays are worthless without 3x Elemental HERO Stratos, which was pretty much only available to spenders and is now unobtainable.
Great video! Konami should watch this and try to solve the things you pointed out. The challenges to getting cards, the straightforward OTK meta that doesn't require any kind of thinking/options, the addition of hand traps making the game less auto win and make it feel like a card game, the spellbook and vampire is definitely my favorite deck and the only rewarding deck so far, so they should go in that direction of types of cards. Removal of cheese skills like lifecost 0, trap hell, titan showdown (bug), and just the cheese skills in general. Banning UR/SR cards, being able to trade extra copies of cards, yeah everything you said was on point.
I recommend duel links for new players who find yugioh complex and are scared to get into it
It's now complicated with the introduction of crystron and rb
reza wahyu is it?
@@rosewarrior706 Nope lol
this aged like milk
@dzeeff you should make another video like this to re evaluate the game. I’d be interested in what you think of it now with the additions and updates made since you made the vid!
Lol it's still the same. Just snagged kog and I'm out. The meta still has all the problems he was talking about it's just different decks now.
The way you felt against Cyber Stein is the way I felt when I started seeing nothing but Cyber Angels in ranked. I quit back then because nothing else could even compare to that deck and I was not only having trouble gathering the required cards for it myself (And most [all?] were just LD drops, not even from boxes, I just got really bad RNG), but I also had a part of me who didn't WANT to play the deck because of how clearly broken they were. They eventually got hit, but it was too little too late for me. I've started playing again recently, though, and while it's an almost entirely different game from what it was back then, I've been enjoying it a lot. Although I don't know ANY of the current meta decks, so I don't bother with Ranked unless it's to complete some event mission or something that I REALLY want to clear. Not because "Oh no, I'm afraid of losing", but because every card has an entire novel printed on it that I don't have time to read and understand. On top of some players who apparently like to sit and wait for the voice lines to complete or something, because they spend AGES to decide something as simple as saying, "No, I don't want to activate my Raigeki Break on my own monster in response to my opponent's graveyard effect going off while they have literally no cards on the field". Like, I can't just pause the game if someone walks in to talk to me or I accidentally knock over my drink and have to scramble to get a towel... Be respectful of your opponent's time!!! 😒
But eh, guess you'll be happy, because Cyber Stein became one of the first straight-up Forbidden cards in Duel Links. Sucks too, because I was using him as a win condition for a Life Gain deck that used Fairy monsters and didn't even utilize Life Gain 0. xD I'm glad they banned him instead of nerfing the skill though, as I've been using it together with Aromages and the Winged Dragon of Ra to run an actually pretty consistent farm deck (Gain LP, dump it all into Ra, use Life Cost 0 to destroy your opponent's monster with Ra's effect for free, then attack for over 10k damage for the result screen bonus. I'm probably not the first to come up with the idea, but it's pretty swank, haha).
Not a TCG channel
20:40 Exactly what I think every time I play duel Links... At least without a rela meta, if u get to choose, u have a 75% chance to get what you want...
Great video! A lot of valid points. I’d like to add that for the sales that occasionally occur in the game, the SR and UR given to players are at random from the pack, independent from what has already been purchased from the pack so most of the time you would end up with multiple copies of SR’s and UR’s that you don’t need. They should change this to allow more control for paying players. Great job! I never get sick of listening to you ranting, dude!
WOW!!!, excellent job, man!!!
I really enjoy this video. Also I think we needed people like you for a pretty long time. Your skilled TCG player perspective is very useful to understand the core of the issues in the game. I wish Konami could take note of your thoughtful considerations and suggestions.
Thank you taking this big effort and shared it with us!!!
Very comprehensive review, worth the time spent. One of the most important things that you missed though is that you are not allowed to choose your SEGOC chain order. The game usually does it automatically based on the what was on the field, and because of this many archetypes, such as UAs, mermails, and beat, lose out on important combos. Some common examples are constantly brought up in the subreddit.
0:00 - Intro
3:33 - The Good Stuff
8:50 - Problem 1
17:21 - Problem 2
33:45 - Problem 3
40:40 - Conclusion
Lifepoints are at 4000 because these are supposed to be quick duels. Nobody has time for a 15+ minutes for a single duel on a mobile game. Having only 4000 also makes lots of archetypes more viable that otherwise wouldn't be in the TCG
The short time they had the LP sit at 5000 was great. Much lower OTK potential and only added a turn or two to the game.
I play hearthstone. Games are often 15 minutes. Anyway, there's no reason you can't have multiple game modes.
About the disconnect problem. Now if the player disconnects it is counted as a win for you. I have been in several situations where the other player disconnected and I won.
U.A. Perfect Ace was added to Duel Links with the “Valhalla Calling” box
On the subject of “what did that ability do” if you click the button in the top right corner it’ll show you all actions you and your opponent have done, and the skill will have a description...
When this video was made that wasn't a feature
You're still invited in the future, if you ever want to participate in a Meta Championship Series, hosted by DuelLinksMeta.
Justin Taylor i didnt even know this was a thing till he mentioned it
Rahul S. Thats sad. Its a good streamer and he built a very very good Discord where a ton of super competitive people are discussing.
He also payed out over 20k dollars as prizesupport over 10 Meta Championship Series Tournaments.
You should take a look if youre really interested. You can find the website on duellinksmeta.com
Justin Taylor oh thanks ill look-into it
Shiny o:
:eyes:
Watched the whole thing. I've been playing the game since launch and also partake in the tournament and team scene the Duel Links community offers. All of the things you mentioned are things the community has brought up at certain points. Those that were a part of those waves of complaints did, after voicing them, stop playing within two months or so. Those that kept playing though, did accept those elements were nonsense and it became something they pushed through in some capacity. It could be because it can get redundant to voice those, be it on those servers, reddit, etc. after doing so a couple times in a short period by multiple users. But, it becomes an elephant in the room when those problems are still there all this time later and there isn't at least some indication that players are directly addressing it. I'm glad you made this video because it perfectly summarizes every issue I have heard since launch and, given the 3 seasons you played, provides some potential perspective involving the players that I noticed come and go from Duel Links. Keep up the great content.
Spot on with all of your points, and it's why I only play casually. I try to hit Legend every season, but never sit down and grind for KoG. If I get it, cool. But this game ain't worth the salt it inevitably causes.
My biggest issue with it is just how it set up its matches/format, and thats how its set up for super fast matches.
Ive played alot of other card games, and what I enjoy about them is even If you draw poorly on your opening hand, you have some peace of mind that the game wont end in 1 turn, and so you have some time to get some better draws, take steps to try and stall out the game until you can turn it around in your favor.
In Duel Links if you draw a bad hand you pretty much lose. And as the quality of card increases with more box releases, that will only become more true. There might not be ABSOLUTELY nothing you can do to try and win in a bad situation, but its so much less than most other ccgs.
It feels like in the other games I play, because games don't instantly end because of a bad opening hand, the better player can win the higher percent of the time. Whereas if a better hand can close out games by turn 2, the worse player can steal wins without needing to play well.
Im just in the boat where If a game play promotes decision making, and if you make the right decisions that leads you to winning the game, I deem that better than just your opening hand, a random aspect, dictating who will win.
A Dzeeff feature length documentary!?! I did not know I needed this.
Not a pack Links channel...
Not a Duel opening channel...
Not a Jack Links channel
Played duel links since the very start, and honestly had the most fun playing it casually, purposely staying at gold rank. Later I started grinding rank once I had a power deck, and the game instantly became soul draining. Taking a break for a while, but will probably come back eventually just to play casual again.
About the last point : I have a solution. You know these tickets you get ? I want a UR card from an old set. Why in the world can't I trade the ticket for the card ? I'm a new player, I want to do a basic casual ritual deck, I have to buy full priced full sized box with literally 2 cards worth anything in them. Why ? Let me spend my gems on the specific cards directly, let me spend my tickets on card directly, let me trade these cards. There's no reason for this packs to still be around, they've lost all their value.
Or just do a dust system like hs does
Heheheh, as a Superheavy Samurai player, they never touched Gigagloves or Ninja heheheheh
and amazingly I never spent a penny.
I need a life
Skills are visible various ways outside of a duel but not during a battle. Main ways are next to the characters in the characters select area and the other way is under Skills in the card customize building.
Man, watching this video as a person who played the game all the way back in late 2016 - early/mid 2017 and is hopping back into the game NOW... the game used to be so different back then. It wasn’t perfect, but a lot of the issues you’ve mentioned (and a lot of issues I have with the game right now) are things that are more recent in the game, or are at least already existing problems that have been made worse by recent choices by Konami. Seeing decks like Fur Hires and cards like Treacherous Trap Hole make it into the game honestly just hurts my soul. I showed my friend who got me back into this game a lot of older meta decklists and he was astonished at just how different they were from decks now. I feel like until like Toon Kingdom back in mid 2017, there was always some sort of good balance in how the game was played and the options you had for decks... but now that just’s gone (at least to me). One of the biggest issues even back then was that Konami was releasing packs way too often and there was little breathing room for the players and the meta, and now that the power creep has been cranked up it’s only gotten worse. I could probably write an essay on how this bloody game has changed if I really wanted to lol.
Congrats on branching out to longer videos all the props to ya. For me Duel Links is something I play out of necessity. I agree with everything you said and on some things like the micro transactions I have stronger opinions on, but I'll still hard grind for gems and pay a little too much money for the game because I need to. I absolutely love deck building and playing but I have no one to play with so I go to Duel Links. I guess I'm weird but the competitive scene is just too cut throat for me and the casual scene is too chaotic and salty. Oh man is it salty...
To your point around 37:00, I'd personally fall in between on that one. Not taking people's personal opinions into account on which deck is fun or not, certain archetypes in the game are very F2P friendly. Fur Hire for example is a deck that I personally enjoyed on YGOPro once released, so I was thrilled to see it in DL, and in a Mini Box to boot. That being said, I got fairly unlucky with my pulls and spent ~7000 Gems to get the entire archetype (namely 3 Beats). That's fine, not really a big deal there. The problem is the staples. That's when the F2P things get harder. I own maybe one of each key staple aside from Cosmic Cyclone and Floodgate Trap Hole, namely because by the time I finally get one of those I've spent just as many Gems trying to get one card as I did the core of my FH deck. It's ridiculous. So it's really more of a half and half. And yes, creating multiple accounts is stupid. As a F2P player I haven't gotten to that point yet, and I've been playing on and off since launch, but it's sad that option is starting to look appealing if I want to play anything other than FH. Making some of those staples take a slot during events for like, 1000 EX Jewels or w/e, would be fantastic for F2P players. Or just reprinting things. Thankfully, I play the TCG, so I know what decks I'm willing to shell out on, so far DL has only provided me with Fur Hire, Gem Knights, and half assed Gishkis, but I'm hoping 5D's changes that (4 more days!). For people who have never played the TCG and want whatever is meta relevant though, keeping up with things can be really tough if you want to be solely F2P. Spending ~7000 on FH, then another on Amazons, another on Vamps, it's too much if you don't know what you want.
Aside from that, I agree with practically everything else you've brought up. Duel Links really is a beautiful mess. I'm just hoping they can get it together. The banlist in particular would be a good place to start. Even as a FH player myself, I believe Beat should have been hit, but he gets a free pass because he's a SR. I love the game, but at the same time there's a lot of room for improvement. Thanks for the video, it was an interesting watch.
Card Trader is ass, don't believe anyone who says it's good.
I'm F2P and managed to build a Dark Magician deck just after it got out of the meta, which I knew would be the case when I started building it but I just like the archetype. The problem is that, even though I managed to hit KoG with it at the time, 1-2 months later DM was creeped to oblivion. Now I have cards that I can use again when XYZs come out, assuming the app doesn't die out before that. That's the issue I see with DL whether you're F2P or a whale. You either waste too much time or money respectively, and it only lasts for a ridiculously short amount of time.
I applaud you for the amount of effort and taking this seriously.Hopefully Konami improves with version 3 and numbs down all the anoyances,cuz imo its so close to being something really special.
I think a main phase 2 would help in this game. Not only did it exist in the early amine battles too, it also helps you recover from certain incidents in the battle phase when it doesnt go out as planned, for example:
- you have 3 monsters in ATK position and attack into a Wall of Disruption. With a main phase 2 you could potentially switch the other 2 monsters into defenss position.
-Maybe you didnt summon a monster in Main Phase 1 and the opponent activates Treacherous Trap Hole in Battle Phase to protect himself. In Main Phase 2 you could summon a monster after your monster board got cleared
-You could attack with your monsters first then use them as fusion/ritual/synchro Material in Main Phase 2
-You could use Anti Magic Arrows to ensure a safe Main Phase 2 play.
- There are many effects in duellinks that would be useful for Main Phase 2 (like drawing in battle phase) and also Konami wouldnt have to change card effects specifically for duellinks like they did with Kristallbeast emerald turtle.
As for the cons: I see none, besides that duellinks was always without Main Phase 2 but I dont see this as an obstacle for it
About the F2P part, I am a F2P player and y got to Legend 2 with a Destiny Hero deck with all of the Ankis and the Mask Changes and I’ve got most of the staples without spending money in the game, of course that Konami right now is giving us a very limited quantity of gems and that sucks, we don’t even have the 300 gems at level 30 with the newest characters, but even like that I find very easy to get the cards
Really enjoyed your points about the card trader. When I first signed up for duel links a few months ago, I was pretty disappointed in the card trader as a hearthstone player, it just felt so barren and depressing. The randomized selection is also very annoying if you want certain cards, like that grass looks greener.
28:55 that's why you play common Garnet and secret Brilliant
Hey, could you do an updated duel links video? Since it's been 2 years.
no beacuse none of his points has changed except the SR
Really good points, agreed with pretty much everything. I quit playing DL competitively after the last WCS qualifiers because after a lot of time and money invested and then a marathon three days with very little sleep I ended up just inside the top 500 in my region and therefore with virtually nothing to show for all that effort and just thought "what is the point of this?" It's such a shame because the base game (i.e. a really smooth, accessible, online dueling experience across Steam and mobile) has so much potential but unfortunately it's ruined by money-grabbing and poor decisions.
Would be cool to see a followup video to this after 2 years. Things still get OP sometimes, especially with skills, but they've mostly been keeping up with balance changes. I do enjoy it as a casual game to play in my down time at work.
I already played this game 500 days right now and still havin' fun staying in gold.
Casuals like me really liked duel link because it basically "free" as long as you not spending your money in this game (trust me, your will not getting any benefit with spending money in virtual game expect for virtual item that cannot be claimed IRL anyways).
And just you said dzeff, i'm the huge fans of anime. I can't ignore a yugioh game that offer actual VA in anime.
I mean, by that logic you're not getting any benefit when you buy things IRL either
@@ikrena4701 ???
You can't actually physically use, touch, or move virtual items.
You can actually use physical item.
By your logic. Buying a car in a random mobile game is the same as buying a car in real life...
@@AetherKirin and what does being able to touch or move virtual objects get for you that you don't get out of virtual objects? Side note, you can totally use virtual items, just only online
@@ikrena4701 please read term of use and privacy policy in game once again. This game may be closed everytime and you'll not get any refund or compensation at all.
@@1210Al Oh that's your argument. I thought you were just generally talking about internet purchases in general. Yeah, I'm aware of the rights Konami has over the consumer. Although I still disagree, it's really no different than renting something IRL
just fyi you need to have no traps in the graveyard to activate Treacherous trap hole, so it wouldn't really make a difference if they limit it or not in the TCG, because it would just make it harder to draw but it could still only be used once per game unless the player removes traps from their graveyard by returning them to the hand or somehow from play
If you just tap the button in the top right and scroll up you can hit the info button near a skill and it tells you what it does.
You mean in the deck selection, right?
@@Dzeeff No. Like if you are in a duel and you hit the top right button where you can surrender from, if you just scroll up and see the skill you can see the skill you opponent activated and if you click the info button you can see what it does.
Cool! I'm glad to hear that they updated that. This video is from two years ago lol
@@Dzeeff Lol I didn't realize. I am just glad the game is actually evolving and fixing problems though.
I was ranked 15000th in Duel Links the last few KC Cups I played
I can confirm that the same deck can be used multiple months. I would find myself coming back to Cipher Soldier stall decks for the longest time. Even after the nerfs that deck got it was still my go to
Keep the good work man! I am a casual player and I love listening to / watching your videos while I work. You definitely opened my eyes about strategies, deck building and which cards are good and which are not, which resulted in me winning a lot of duels against my friends and looking at the game from another perspective. I dont watch your live streams, but I think that it would be cool for you to do some kind of review series about Yu-Gi-Oh games through years for Game Boy Advance, Play Station 1, 2, 3, PSP, NDS, PC, etc.
Yubel in duel links is currently the bane of my existence
amazon deck, masked anki deck or just dark core, forbidden chalice
I've been playing duel links for such a long time (probably cause I'm addicted to the collecting aspect of it) But there have been SO MANY times I have a King of Games deck and paired up against the computer I still lose because they happened to draw their OTK combo on the first hand.
Really enjoyed this in depth vid. Duel Links is what really got me into playing Yu Gi Oh alot. I started out with 5Ds but it was Duel links that sealed the deal...with its flaws in all lol
I started Duel Link's about 2 weeks ago. I'm free to play. Only 2 packs I bought with Gems were Gaia Genesis and Age of Discovery because I wanted to build Mermails.
Within the first week and a half playing, I have a full power Mermail Deck. I've pulled 3 Megalos, 3 Spikes, 3 Heavy Infantys, 3 Marksman, 3 Galaxy Cyclones and 3 Murray of Greeds. I also pulled good amount of U.A cards to make a U.A deck. I didn't spend a single dollar on the game.
I'm surprised I was able to make the deck with ease. The game hasn't screwed me yet
It's cause you're new and resources are fresh. All of my DM guys are level 45, GX are 40-45, and 5Ds are 20-29 rn. Resources are scarce for me.
I was hoping that duel links was like the actual card game ported to the phone, but I guess it was all right. It was a fantastic way of introducing me to the game, and now I'm a big fan :)
I'm impressed you've stuck with Spellbooks for three months now. I love the deck myself but I only use it for short bursts - it's the slowest deck that's actually competitive and I found that it led me to tilt earlier than Sylvans, Fur Hires, or Vampires did (and don't even get me started on the times that Silent Magician ends up as the bottom 3 cards of my deck).
All in all, what keeps me interested in the game is the new experiences that new decks provide. Making the top 200 in the KC Cup is the closest I've gotten to getting burned out, but that's more because of the failings of the KC Cup system more than anything. Maybe give it another try once 5D's arrives? Seems pretty hype.
Also, I thought I wouldn't be able to last through the whole video but I was surprised when I was already at the 35:00 mark. I couldn't help but relate to all of the points you were making.
You used Sylvans? Comment reported for Hate Speech/Graphic Violence, that deck was a cancer.
Havent seen it commented yet, so i figured i would say it. Whenever a skill is activated, you can hit the "Duel log" button in the top right and it tells you what the skill does.
At the time of this video that wasn't a thing :)
@@Dzeeff i figured as much. This is the third time ive watched this. And it still poops up in my recommended. So i assume others are probably watching this for the first time now. Have you considered doing a new update to this. About 92% of the issues you covered are still just as annoying. But things have gotten a little better.
Amazing video! It was well worth the watch. You mentioned a lot of gripes I have with the game as well, and I’ve been playing it for almost two years now, as well as streaming it over on Twitch. The community is what’s keeping me still somewhat attached, and the friendships I’ve made because of the game. I hope that one day we truly see change, but I highly doubt it.
Really nice view of the game overall, one not so simple thing that i would change to make the game better is about the banlist that i saw on reddit once, since the banlist works different from the tcg, why not raise the types of limiting? Konami could implement a "semi-semi-limited" list so that the sum of the cards of the list could not surpass 3, and could go to 4,5,6 or higher, like they could put 3 essential cards of a deck on the "6 list" so instead of running 3 copies of each of the 3 cards you would have to play 6, making the deck less consistent and also allowing diversity in deck building
i like duel links and i agree the game sometimes fustrates me with me bricking on speels and traps when i have 14 monsters and 6 spells/traps and i play nearly everynight to the point of breaking to recieve little or no payoff, times like this i go and mess with my real life cards and see each card on a personal level and they help me remind myself of my love for yugioh, i even go back and watch my favorite yugioh episodes and then boom come back for some more, really i think this game pushes your tolerance to its edge and brings out the fustration inside, overall this game is well put together and is the best yugioh online gaming experience i ever played and il keep it up for as long as it takes to see how far konami takes it
Quick thought on the ban list thing, your investment in URs or SRs doesn't matter if the deck is dead anyway.
Konomy has fixed some of these issues. By banning certain cards and reducing the effect damage of cards like lava Golem to 500 instead of 1000 .
And reduced certain cards summoning conditions to work with the limited monster field zone. But the biggest thing to keep in mind is duel links is a speed play game. No one wants to play a 40 card deck. And 8k life points cause they take to long.
1.Matchmaking is not random
2.Certain Skills should be harder to come by
3.The meta decks should go along with how much time you've put in to level up the character your using the skill with ( there will always be meta in card games but it's become to common in duel links there's no variety since its easy to come by )
I like that we cant just join and have the decks we want how we want them without putting in some time. It slows ypu down and makes you find new cards to use that completly change how the deck plays
Me who didn't know fur hire was good and is building a fur hire deck because the monsters are cute 😂
As someone who's sick to death of playing vs Gouki and Konami's terrible F/L list practices, Duel Links has been a great way to scratch the Ygo itch, even if it is only casually.
I use to hate DL's trade system, but I've been playing the MtG Arena beta and that game doesn't even have a card trade system of any kind. Just play until you get 15 wins a day (never mind how the entire quickplay meta is red/black aggro, stompy green or turbo-fog) for your 1.5 packs-a-day average and your 1 free pack a week quest. You better pray you don't pull any excess duplicates or cards you don't even want cause they'll just sit in your digital binder collecting digital dust. I can't believe I actually found a game that was more bold-faced about pushing their fake card sales than Konami.
If anyone's looking for a good online CCG to play you can do so much worse than Duel Links, especially if you want to play it casually. IMO the online CCG ranking is as follows:
1 Shadowverse (easily the most F2P friendly, imagine Hearthstone with waifus instead of RNG)
2 Duel Links (the most casual friendly, I'm excited to see what Synchro summoning will do)
3 Hearthstone (RNG cancer-fest but that great Blizzard quality and the largest community)
4 MtG Arena (least F2P friendly but well made and still in beta so there's hope, it is limited to Draft and Standard formats so don't go in hoping for Commander or Modern)
demacry DL’s trade system? Idk what you’re talking about
Jordon Roy you dont understand DL's "TRADE" system? The same game with the card TRADER?
demacry you don’t seem to understand what trading is in card games. Next time say the “card trader” because there’s a MASSIVE difference between trading and the card trader in pretty much every single card game ever known to man.
Jordon Roy You don't seem to understand what common sense is and life has cruelly deprived you of your fair share of it. Take the chip off your shoulder, the stick out your butt and get over yourself. Your definition of trading is far from accurate and you're just making yourself look silly.
demacry no...no I’m not at all. If you go up to someone playing magic and say “let’s have a trade”, what exactly will they assume you mean? It’s pretty damn obvious, they will assume you mean a card for a card as that has always been the basis of trading in TRADING CARD GAMES, hence the name. So when you say “trade” when in reference to a TRADING CARD GAME am I supposed to naturally assume you mean the process in which you trade jewels and gold for a card? No because the term has been colloquially used in trading card games to mean “to trade a card for a card”. So no fuckin shit idk what you mean when you say trade system. Because trading and the card trader are entirely different things. That’s common sense, something you seem to be sorely lacking.
I just which the game had a shorter time limit to make move cause there are times when your opponent just takes a damn eternity to set a single card & even longer when they got prompted to activate a spell or trap when you do something.
You don't need over 2 minutes to think of a move in due links. Some games I spend more time waiting for my opponent to set a card than I do actually playing.
Many of these glitches and problems have been fixed. Not to say it is glitch or problem free. They do happen from time to time
My experience with duel links f2p style, joins my first multiplayer match with my scuffed cards, gets to go first, places monster down and ends turn, opponent uses tons of spell cards and special summons to have multiple monsters on the field all 3000+ attack so I knew I was fked from there.
The problem is that a lot of these problems piggyback off eachother. Fixing one problem will make other problems worse. I dont want konami limiting SR and UR cards without implementing a better disenchantment system for cards.
I love how they capture the series in this game and they reenacted on it flawlessly at least in the beginning
I agree so much w most things... my personal main problem: I want to play casual compet as a platinum/legend player but not only rank down system is terrible the loss system is horrible I after 4 wins in plat I loose one and there restart plat 4 app what happens is I wreck plat 1s for 4 games then I have a challenging duel w an ex-king of games for 5 seasons straight player and have to restart. If no card game use it or any ranked system in general I don't understand why makes the grind so much longer... anyway
The rage I feel when I see Téa knows no bounds. It seems like I never go first against Téa players and so first turn they somehow always manage a Dian Keto, some other LP gain and fucking cyber stein. The number of times I have lost to a Téa with a turn 1 Ojama King and some fuck off giant fusion monster is ridiculous.
I get not banning a pack SR/UR, but they certainly can limit/semi-limit them. That way they're still legal, but you can't abuse maximum copies. It makes sense and it's a good middle-ground to not outright banning "chase cards".
Very great video I've have seen a lot of these problems and I had given up on it for a time until recently when the synchro where back and I still haven't really return to ranking duel.
But one positive that I've for the game is the free to play I've been playing for a year and half and I've never spend a dollar in the game mostly because of issues with my app store and you know I was able to build some pretty good decks like fur hire geargea spellbooks and amazoness and right now I'm building x saber and junk warrior with the new pack the only one that were really difficult to build were amazoness and mask hero (which I ended up giving up on) and also sometimes to I've too compromise some cards with some lesser ones but they still do the trick the only thing that left me a bit salted is the silent magician thing that is still behind a pay wall as of now
I play Lavals. Alot of times effects that should be activated don't. Whether that be Laval burner's special summon condition or Laval blaster's mill effect. It sucks because Laval is alot of fun to play when it works
I can say as a Duel Links player that a lot of these complaints I agree with however, since this video was released a lot of the issues were fixed or improved upon. I recommend giving it a second shot.
I play Duel Links quite a bit (casually but with a slant towards at least having a competitive deck should I want to do a little pvp), and I've never really played the TCG competitively... And I agree 100%
I'm a bit of a purist and refuse to use skills