There's always one of you. 😂 Tell someone you don't like magic and they can't resist asking "Well, which format did you play? Because there's blah blah blah blah blah etc." @@gigantomastiaCuddler
You guys made something special enough to make it this long! I meant what I said, truly one of the deepest and most rewarding TCG systems on the market. It's a string of good management decisions away from charging up the list - it just needs to stop checking a 2 every few forms 😂
Crazy that Digimon and One Piece aren't on this list with One Piece taking over high level events and Digimon just being consistent and fun even in bad metas because they finally do ban stuff. Also both have great support and prizing where you can actually make a living off of One Piece if you are good enough.
Yeah the 3 Digimon players in every local are surely worth it, same for it's pricing and tournaments... OP had a good start but fell off so badly. No wonder they're not on the list, only the IP carrys them...
@j.w.213 You have no clue what you are talking about. Every locals near me for OP is basically full every week. Digimon fell off but how it's going now loads of people are going back to it. Be a hater idc but at least get your facts straight.
@@j.w.213 dude i know nothing about card games but a whole one piece themed card store just opened near me. Either really dumb business decision or its on the rise - i can't say.
Does competitive just mean balanced...? Because I would argue that ygo has a much higher degree of difficulty, allows for A LOT more strategization, and obviously allows for more customization of your deck. I can see he's basically just judging how the company's that make the game handle the game instead of the game itself now that I've heard the criteria
Flesh and Blood at its highest level is poetry in motion. Honestly the biggest knock against it is it's such a good competitive TCG to the detriment of anyone not trying to grind haha
EXACTLY! And I'm excited to highlight the difference between these games and some GREAT games that I feel fit a casual, non-grinder mindset better in next week's video!
I'm an older player who played a lot of competitive mtg in the early 2000s that got back into the tcg world through fab. One thing I really appreciate about the community is that while it can be very competitive, the community is generally very chill and friendly. Even at large tournaments like Nationals and pro tour events.
Hell yeah 😎 FaB is the best competitive game currently in the TCG Space anyone that has attended any events local or worldwide would see how high the skill floor is for winning. It rewards commitment and it feels likes the lowest variance based TCG I agree with it being #1 Pokémon in second actually shocked me but I’m not that familiar with the scene but it does feel off
@@JackOropeza right? I live in germany and there's not a single FaB local within 150 kilometres and I live in a big city with many big citys surrounding us. Everyone stuck with MtG after testing this game, ain't no one gonna pay 1k€ and above for a deck that get's nullified after a certain time.
I played 4 out of those 5 games and FaB is definitely number one from my perspective. Other games can go on the same level, but this TCG doesnt really lack much at the moment. Edit: forgot I tried all except one from this list.
Pokemon has been the most refreshing competitive card game I've ever played. First of all the game is accessible everywhere and the community by far the most welcoming. The game is a combination of skill and luck in a way that it feels fair but also not frustrating. I don't get angry over a loss on pokemon with the ony exception of the random 5 mulligans or having all your important pieces on your prize pool, which neother are super common to begin with. It is nice to have a game that feels competitive but you dont leave the tournament lght headed or severly migrained. What i find bizzare is the abscence of YGO. I used to be a YGO player and honestly even though i had no fun anymore, it is the absolute game to go competitive on and easiest one to live from. The skill ceiling is overwhelming and because of that it can be very frustrating. Unlike in pokemon where skill gets you only this far, yugioh has this thing that a minor rulling knowledge you may have might change the whole game around, deckbuilding is intence due to side deck. I was only capable at winning regionals, but the guys at ycs and wcs felt like they were on a different world when playing the game. YGO also has a shit ton of money in it so that's another good reason for competitive players.
Very curious about yours and other's opinions on the Dragon Ball Super Card Game. Seems pretty balanced and skill based and not super expensive in regards to making a competitive deck. I also like when old sets aren't rotated out making old collections useless.
DBS is a solid game! I've followed it since launch, and we've done content for it in the past. Just like every TCG, there's definitely skill involved, but I don't feel the lines are quite as open as they are in a few games on this list, and the prizing isn't quite as solid as some other games. Games that rely entirely on promo cards for prizing have the issues of value of prize being weighted on when the event takes place (if several events award the same special promos, the earlier winners can usually sell for more than the later ones), and forcing players to have to choose between keeping their trophy cards or selling them to recoup their investment in travel, etc. For those reasons, games that award cash prizes in addition to promotional cards will usually feel more rewarding to win as highly competitive players can accrue trophies while keeping their costs down or actually making money for all the time they spend on it. Additionally, I personally feel that games that use rotation systems tend to be stronger competitive games. While it's common to say that rotation makes old collections useless, in practice these games tend to maintain a stronger playerbase because the rotation keeps the game accessible to new players by making it less intimidating (and sometimes less expensive) to jump in. Games that rotate will create formats where older cards can be used, and if they successfully maintain a strong playerbase, those formats will have playable events as well. The four games on the list that are old enough to do this all have formats where cards they've rotated - or, in the case of FAB, retired due to Living Legend status - are allowed to be played, and those formats have dedicated players who play them. Rotation also allows more control over power creep in a game, which generally helps balance be kept. DBS is a game that has seen some very large power creep - and especially complexity creep - from its earliest days, which rotation could have helped avoid. The announcement of DBS Fusion World is actually a direct response to that, because Bandai doesn't ever like using rotation - so they made a new, approachable game for new players to get into instead, with the hope that some players will play Fusion World online or in person and might want to try Masters as well. But it's tough to say exactly what impact Fusion World will have on Masters, which is probably the last point that makes it difficult for me to put on here. DBS is in a flux-state right now as we wait to see what impact the release of FW and the online FW client has on the game, so it's tough for me to nail it down as a Top 5 game!
Kinda happy seeing pokemon mentioned. While i dont currently play the game, i have to say it has the most impressive competitive play scene i seen thus far. Not only there are a lot of tournaments to compete in for regionals and nationals,, but every single of them feels like something grand. Its very impressive to watch
The fact that you didn't mention Dragonball super masters is wild. Been around for 7 years, highly competitive, challenging and rewarding and set bandai up to be able to release all their other games from digimon to union arena. Hope it makes the list eventually.
I’m a competitive Cardfight Vanguard player I also do Shadowverse evolve for competition as for any on the list I used to do universes and always did magic casually the rest I don’t really know too much about tbh
Hmm, id probably have put Battle spirit saga above Grand archive. Battle spirits I think has a larger player base currently and more support in terms of tournament scene/prize money, I think people are overlooking the depth of mechanics/skill in that game too. GA is a great game though, hope it continues to grow and find success.
I do enjoy BSS as well! Out of Bandai's games, that's the game that appears to be gearing towards competitive players the most. I think right now it competes for those 4-5th place spots along with a few other games - for me personally, I'm just waiting to see how it moves forward after its first year. Unlike GA, Bandai is quite tight lipped about what's in the works, and we've seen them throw a LOT of money at the game in the first year. While that's awesome for prize pools, that type of strategy is always riskier and we've seen games in the past (the best example is original Vs System TCG) completely sputter out after they bank everything on massive cash prizes to get people interested in the game. That's not entirely what Bandai is doing, so I am hopeful they'll turn it around, but we have to see how their product prices recover in Set 3 and beyond (esp with the Eva collab, etc) because if LGSes aren't stocking it due to perceived low value, that's a concern for sure. GA won it for me over BSS not because of any particular snapshot of the playerbase, but because the plans and systems they have in place are very good things for competitive players in general, specifically things like the Omnidex ranking system and Proxia's Vault. To contrast with Bandai's strategy, GA started with lower prizing and used sales of Supporter Pack 1 at various cons over the year to fund higher cash pools, and upped them when it was something they could afford. While BSS offered more, GA offers a plan that appears to be sustainable, and I have to take that into account to help avoid accidentally recommending something that *could* (I hope not) become a sort of rug-pull down the line. Hope that makes sense, thanks for the comment!
Appreciate the comment! I especially think there are a lot of people who write off competitive Pokemon without having much experience with it. Much deeper game than people are willing to give it credit for.
Great list, I think I’d agree with all of the rankings (except I don’t know much about Universus, so can’t really comment on that one). But, I do expect Grand Archive to move higher on the list in a couple of years, just needs to establish itself and get some history to it to show it’ll be a stable game
Serious question? Does MTG still have a competitive scene? All I see is people playing Commander and more Commander. FNM has turned into all Commander at the many LGS I frequent. I was interested in seeing where you would put the Bushiroad games. Bushiroad has the infrastructure for several big world wide tournament series however there ineptness running events outside of Japan tarnishes them badly.
Mtg sure does have a competitive scene still, but you aren't wrong that Commander drives a lot of the game now. In years past it was easily #1, but it's hard to rank it there now because of that. However, Wizards has been attempting to revive it after the pandemic by bringing back Regionals. As I mention, the greatest boon is the on-ramp to the Pro Tour via Arena/MODO. That alongside some of the biggest cash pools for major events pushes it to its spot on the list. And yeah, you're spot on with Bushiroad. CFVG is an excellent game, Shadowverse too, but they don't make it easy outside of Japan to get in on the competitive circuit. IMO, they offer some of the worst prizing for their high end events of any TCG publisher on the market, and from my experience stores have a difficult time even getting in on their store champ level events. They also aren't doing any real player-focused innovation in the space - pretty much every game I listed has gone out of their way to innovate in the competitive space but Bushi (and Bandai, too) are generally content to just put events on the schedule and have players attend. So that's in part why I didn't feel like either company fit on here, even though I like their games!
@MaindeckGames , huh I didn't know the PT was back. The Bushiroad issue is really complicated. Tbh onboarding for stores for competitive play is really easy. The hard part is convincing stores to do it. Once that is done that is where the sh*t show begins. Bushi is really bad about providing the prize support they promise or honoring the rewards they give out. For example my friend had a bye card awarded for a shop challenge and Bushiroad wouldn't honor it despite the player showing them the signed card because his name wasn't on a list. In my case I'm owed two 100.00+ promos for winning spring shop challenges. I'll never see them. Weiss as a game though is great for tournaments. Blow outs are pretty rare. Newer players can go to a bcs and have a fun experience. I've been running and playing Weiss tournaments since 2012 so I'm biased a tad though lol. I think the collector value of our prize cards make up for the lack of cash prizes a bit, but I can see where they would be frowned on from the outside looking in.
I loved to play FAB, but while the LL-System sounds good in theory, it killed the game for me. Every Format up to Uprising had 1 single S Tier Deck (mostly Runeblades) that killed everything, won every Top Tournament and rotated out in a couple of months so the Leader became LL and all the cards in the Deck were unplayable. That and the crazy cost of the decks back then sadly killed this amazing game for me..
Well it had some heroes that have been "bonkers" but currently it's at a crazy balanced spot. You can play almost anything - seriously. And the expensive staples will be playable at some point again. Regular deck cards for the class are not expensive at all and the staples will most likely just be played by the replacing hero. It just takes some months if you are unlucky but then play another class for that time. having 2 Classes in FaB is the sweetspot anyway.
Digimon TCG should be on there! Hope you will be able to try it one day since after playing nearly every cardgame out there, I must say it is outstandingly good
I have played it! Bandai usually doesn't excel in some of the areas I consider important for someone looking to play a TCG competitively. Nothing wrong with the game, necessarily!
Although these are all solid choices, I'm surprised One Piece isn't on here. It's probably right behind Flesh and Blood in terms of overall popularity and has a booming competitive scene, way more so than Universus and Grand Archive. And I say this as someone who doesn't even play One Piece or like the game that much.
One Piece has a booming scene for sure, and I did list it highly on my full tier list. I totally respect the game and it's one of the hottest TCGs on the market right now. That said, Bandai games miss the mark IMO on a few elements of organized play. The TCG+ app, which is required to use for events, is actually one of the worst pieces of TCG software out there, and you can find lots of stories of people being turned away for events they've registered for on the app because of miscommunications about the required use of the app. Bandai's OP support at the local level is frustrating as well, requiring stores to sign up for events and order product and tournament kits many months in advance, making it difficult for many stores to get quick support for a new scene or adapt to a changing local market. Additionally, their use of unique cards rather than alt arts in promo support is not what I consider a very player-friendly method of incentivizing tournament play, though that alone doesn't knock it out of the list - UniVersus is the other game on the list that does the same thing, but I consider some other elements of that game better for a TCG player looking for a robust competitive experience. Bandai also doesn't do Cash prizes for any of their games except Battle Spirits Saga, and I think that's a critical factor for a player looking to compete at the high level frequently. Every game on the list has done cash prize support, though UniVersus has dropped it recently and I'd consider it important for them to bring back to maintain their position on the list. I also find games that are lagging behind another part of the world to be lacking a bit in deck builder expression. While unique metas can develop, often competitive players who want to explore their own ideas will find a lot of the metagame already mapped out months ago by players across the world. I think an important part of a TCG metagame in terms of both its narrative and ability to test the skill of deck builders is having enough to discover and explore during the 3-4 months that a set is new. Finally, and I understand there would be some contention on this, but I consider some of the games listed to have deeper competitive play potential - for example, games like Grand Archive, UniVersus, and Flesh and Blood use mechanics that allow for much less guided turns with greater degrees of freedom in plays in every turn. In turn, those feel like games where there is a wider and deeper decision tree and where players have more opportunity for skill expression than some games not on the list. So those are some of the factors that prevent me from ranking One Piece on the list! If I were weighting this list primarily on the popularity of competitive events, it would just be the 5 most popular games - MTG, YGO, Pokemon, FAB, and then probably One Piece. But while some of those games made it on the list, I don't think they necessarily provide a better competitive experience for a serious competitive TCG player - though, of course, everyone's tastes may vary on that! Thanks for the comment, hope that makes a little sense!
i’m a die-hard MTG supporter (mainly modern) and i agree with its placement. wotc has made some goofy choices lately. but i just can’t escape how much damn fun it is. i expected f&b at the top and it deserves it. it’s resilience through the pandemic is a testament to how good it is. i haven’t played it much, but i certainly do enjoy it.
even tho prizing in yugioh is not very good i would still at least rank it somewhere on here, i believe its the game that has the largest amount of players enter thier biggest and most prestigous tournaments, however still a decent list :)
I haven’t played the one piece tcg a lot but I really liked it. Is there anyone who has more experience with the game who would recommend it as a competitive game?
One Piece is a GREAT game, but the reason it's not on the list is mostly due to difficulties actually playing the game competitively. Events sell out quickly, the Bandai+ app is among the worst TCG apps in the market, and there are a few horror stories of tournament organization out there already despite the game's young age. That said, if you are ready to fight to get event entries and are OK dealing with that - I would say absolutely go for it if the game appeals to you on theme/mechanics. It's certainly a rising star in the TCG industry right now, I just wish Bandai could figure out more of the follow through!
Yugioh easily has the highest skill ceiling. It only has the competitive format. People literally always criticise it for being hard to get into and how complicated it is.
Nice! Your list isn't that different than mine. I'd love to put GA first, but I have to give them some time to prove everything they are saying. Obviously we are huge fans of the game here but it would have felt a bit...biased for me to throw it all the way at 1 so early!
If you have a local community open to try a different game which is really cheap and have a high skill ceiling I suggest Netrunner, the game has been kept alive by a group of players and had the world championship this year in Barcelona with 200+players.
Just speaking objectively, kinda crazy yugioh is not on this list considering it has arguably the biggest if not the second biggest active competitive scene in all of TCGs. Now speaking subjectively, I will say that the prize support is for the most part incredibly underwhelming. However, regardless if you're talking just straight competition, Yu-Gi-oH is WAY up there with the best of them
The games with the most players will have the most active scenes - but that doesn't always mean they are doing the best job providing for their players. Check out some of the things the games on this list do - couldn't YGO improve their competitive support by copying some of those ideas? I think YGO is a great and skillful game, but I think it has room to improve HOW it supports its competitive players.
Out of these 5 I'd probably pick up Pokemon. There was a second that I thought I wanted to get into FaB but then I realized I didn't really like FaB lol. The main game I have actually played competitively in is Digimon, but I'm not sure I'd put it in the top 5 just because of how fast the game ends these days - it almost seems more like a "who drew the better opening hand" game when most decks are combo decks that need the pieces in a specific order.
I'm really surprised to see Pokemon but not Yugioh on this list. Is pokemon a better competitive game than yugioh? From what I've heard, pokemon is mostly about casual play and collectors.
Appreciate the detail attentiveness that went into this video. Respect your perspective and outlook, but No DBS, seems like you described it 5 times in every number. Grand archive seems like a game you got me interested in and the ability to use proxy in competitive events makes it stand out, but no place sell it same with Fab...which i looked into but enjoy dbs a lot more and knocks the first criteria out of the park vs any other game imo.
Yeah, there's definitely going to be both some personal taste as well as location bias that will go into everyone's picks! Appreciate your point of view also! DBS definitely has plenty of skill, and I'm curious to see how they approach differentiating Masters and Fusion World!
Honestly was surprised to see Pokemon on the list and so high🤔 everything else is pretty agreeable. I'd be interested to see if One piece will creep into the top 5 one day.
Pokemon's point accumulation system is good enough that SWU is using (a modified version of) it. I'm surprised more TCGs don't! And I can't stress that access to competitive play for a variety of age demographics is a strength that no other game is matching. For some people/demographics, including parents who want to include their kids, it's a no-brainer game to pick when the kid can not only pick it up, but go to on a trip with their parents and play the game with them against opponents at a similar developmental stage. I think there's certainly some negatives for the game, but those strengths are just unique enough to push it up there, in my mind!
this may not be a "TCG" per say. but i will no one in this world can convince me that Legends of Runeterra is BY FAR the best competitive Card game to ever exist, not a songle card gane even comes close. Collectors are ruining the market for the competitive players and companies need to understand that the difference between the two. Riot games have the best philosophy when it comes to creating competitive games. And its truly a shame that no company can even come close to comparison.
As a Universus player you hit the nail on the head. Maybe THE most rewarding and fun card game engines I've ever played, a game that SHOULD be more recognized, but keeps shooting itself in the foot. Hopefully the future is bright with all the recent changes happening!
I used to love Magic but I can't play it anymore with how much the company has changed. I tried Digimon didn't super like it. Pokemon my friends started playing but I don't know there is something about the game I just don't super like. Maybe I need to play more. One Piece TCG seems good I need to get in more games. Lorcana is big in my area but I haven't played it. I want to play Flesh and Blood the most, but hasn't really taken off around here yet.
Fair list, but I would have added Digimon over UFS, but that's just me. That being said, why not Digimon 2020 TCG? Its been strong since 2020 and maintains a consistent fanbase, while also having a very extensive tournament season. Furthermore, why not any of the other Bandai IPs? I know Bandai pressed (and apparently failing) at BSS, but One Piece seems to be strong. DBS is available still, but I've seen local communities dry up.
Bandai games are complicated for this list, IMO. The reliance on promo cards and no cash (outside of BSS, which has its own problems as you mentioned) as prizing can skew the value of events based on when one can participate in them, and always puts the onus on the player to decide to "cash out" or hold on to their keepsake trophy. All five of the games on the list use cash prizing in addition to promos - though UVS now seems to have pulled back on that, which is a detriment IMO. I also think they historically have had issues with development/balance in all of their games, and often a little slow to respond or respond somewhat ineffectively to metagame problems. The unfortunate issue is often their development problems are caused by a power creep and tempo creep that moves the speed of the game faster and faster each year, which I think is a less robust competitive experience. You'll also note that a lot of these complaints I think can be levied against YGO, so it's off the list for similar reasons. That said, I agree that Digimon and probably OP are the closest to making it on the list, and if Bandai would start some more player-focused initiatives like some of the clever things GA is doing, it would be enough to potentially push them onto it. But there are other games coming next year - like Star Wars Unlimited - that are already making some very strong promises about how they are treating Competitive Play, so the bar is only going to go up from here. Games on this list already will need to step it up (looking at UVS for sure) to stay on it for me.
Magic is...very different than it used to be. It's still got a lot of appeal for a lot of people, but these days the TCGs that are smaller than it (most of them) have sort of taken on the essence of what made Magic special back then. The game is still good, but the culture is very different.
As someone who used to be a Magic fanboy I agree with your take on PokemonTCG. I think PokemonTCG is a better game than MagicTCG in 2024. PokemonTCG has better gameplay, better artwork, better tournament scene, no universes beyond immersion breaking cards, better price-point, I could go on for a while. MagicTCG has too much baggage. Also my hot-take MagicTCG has too many formats that all are kinda-ok-but-bad-for-different-reasons, instead of one or two formats that are properly curated and kick-ass.
Was hoping for a surprise DBS, GA, or FAB first place finish over Magic, which I surprisingly got, but then Pokemon is #2 when your first criteria is skill and another criteria is how does the company treat its players with organized play and milking, etc. Sooooo ummm. Not sure what to make of that. I just skipped over the Magic and Pokemon portions of the video. A miss for me. Still love your other videos.
Having played plenty of competitive games of it myself - there's a surprising amount of skill in Pokemon as well. I do explain why they are ranked there during those sections :) The biggest thing to keep in mind is that my criteria are not ranked or weighted, and some games will overperform in some criteria which can make up for underperforming in others. Thanks for watching this and my other content - I don't hate on (almost) any TCG here, I prefer playing a range of "smaller" TCGs but when I do a video like this, I have to give credit where I think it's due!
Dragon Ball Masters fit all your criteria and should be in your TOP 3, especially over Universus and Grand Archive. I would also put easily MtG over FaB, and I play both.
Bruh. Pokemon being ranked the number two most competitive tcg is wild. The competitive scene is great but the game itself is so simple and too luck based to be labelled as more competitive than others
TCGs are simply broken at the very core when it comes to competitive integrity. You just can't have a "gacha" level of monetization for the one and only "mechanic"(cards) and try to claim competitiveness. It's just mind boggling how a company can say "yeah, we love fair and square competition, where the best player wins!" and then artificially inflate the price of a $0.3 card to tens or hundreds of dollars. If they cared about letting people compete fair and square. They could simply sell a "competition" version of every single card for production cost + slight profit, you can still have the "real" cards that are rare and artificially inflated, but you also let people stand on equal footing day 1. The fact they don't do that is proof that the whole game and its competitiveness is nothing but a tool to keep people pulling more and more and enriching the economy that benefits none but the producers.
Pokemon over magic is joke bro. I mean you say, magic delves unto collect in recent times. Literally 80% of the people who purchase pokemon just collect and never play.
That 20% is more people than 100%of the magic the gathering community You forgot it is the most easily affordable card game and also noob friendly It is made for all demographics
Yu-Gi-Oh! Should be on the list because I am always quoting the show, when I am playing Magic. Only one TCG has the King of Games. I also really enjoy the feel of shuffling a Yu-Gi-Oh! deck. As for Flesh and blood, it's more like Flesh & Barf. I could not watch it, nor did I enjoy trying to play it.
Grand Archive is very interesting;) also i love the anime art FAB got most beautiful cards from all tcg, and their foiled versions are just day and night vs others.
For a number of reasons, I didn't feel like it met my criteria quite as well as other games on the list! Competitive YGO is SUPER skill intensive and an excellent game to play, but I only had 5 spots and I feel like there are aspects of other games that beat it out!
The land system for MTG means the game basically plays itself. Very few interesting decisions or opportunity costs to consider when playing the game. Maybe sequencing is something to consider occasionally, but on average even pokemon has more difficult sequencing because MTG is generally board/hand focused, whereas in pokemon you often have to consider how the entire game will play out. Most of the skill expression in mtg is just in tweaking existing archetypes for the meta, and not in the actual gameplay. Would rate it 5th at best for this reason, and pokemon 4th. FaB is definitely no. 1, no contest. UFS focuses on bigger pop-off moments than FaB, making games feel a bit more random, and less reliant on consistently good play turn by turn, so it gets 2nd.
I appreciate the recognition of Pokemon's skill, which I think a lot of people don't! As a very long time MTG player, I do think a little more credit could be given as there definitely are plenty of sequencing and decision making moments (lots of opportunity to make the opponent "screw up" blocks or attacks, esp. by having or *bluffing* tricks), but your overall take (that the land system reduces degrees of freedom in decision-making) isn't inherently wrong. It's nice that such a system makes it easier for players of different experience levels to compete, but as you imply, that's not exactly the point of this list! I think your analysis of FAB and UVS's differences is spot on, and a lot of people miss how similar those two games are. I think some people will simply have taste for one or the other, but I couldn't put UVS at 2 because the company is being a little indecisive about how they operate their competitive prizing, and they are being very, very slow about showing their location and schedule for competitive events. Those are areas where all the games above UVS here are much better, and knowing how and when to compete in a game is critical to being able to play it competitively!
MtG 3rd for various bad reasons, pkmn 2nd even tho they did as bad as MtG did to their competitive scene AND collectors... FaB is nowhere to be played in the most dense regions in germany, absolute flop this game over here.
Yugioh is easily the most skillful and has the highest skill ceiling. This is because of it having the most complicated and diverse game mechanics, extra deck, cards having multiple effects enabling multiple interactions, it is most interactive because you can interact during opponents turn, it has no rotations(for 25 years, so largest vard pool) and no limiting resource systems. It is one of the most played tcg in the world and has online simulators so its the most logical choice for most competitive game. All other things are irrelevant when choosing "the most competitive tcg". Same people who say Yugioh is "too complicated" and "too hard" are the ones who don't put it as the most competitive game lol.
no, yu gi oh sucks specially at competitive level the logic behind this game is "don't let your opponent to do anything", there's no fun in this, and "competitive" doesn't mean the game shouldn't be fun "fun" is the most important aspect of any games, regardless of singleplayer, multiplayer, casual or competitive, but konami cares more about making money than making a good game yu gi oh can be fun if played with friends that you know they don't play any toxic deck, but the video literally talks about competitive tcgs, not tcgs that can be fun if you only play with friends or in playground
@@LuxeBabe22 there's nothing wrong about wanting a faster game, but "don't let the opponent to play anything" is just toxic, and no good game should allow it
I played competitive YGO several times - near launch, around the XYZ era, just a bit before Pendulums dropped, and most recently when Master Duel launched. I also play Speed Duels today still. :) I'm not a hater! But, to me, it didn't meet the criteria as well as some of the other games for *this* list!
I played competitive yugioh for a long time. Lack of good prize support has always been a major problem. Konami has also always had a hard time making fun, balanced formats. And their banlist decisions were also often… odd. The game feels more motivated to simply make money than foster an actually good competitive scene
4 of the games listed also have a wide variety of formats, and a different set of 4 support Limited play at different levels. That's not the only criteria, and YGO fell off the list for me personally because it didn't meet some of the other criteria as well as the games I listed!
Austin Powers is unironically the most skillful TCG I’ve ever played.
This is the take the world needs right now
what have you played in Magic?
There's always one of you. 😂 Tell someone you don't like magic and they can't resist asking "Well, which format did you play? Because there's blah blah blah blah blah etc." @@gigantomastiaCuddler
Yeah baby
As a member of the original Sabertooth games staff for UFS. I'm glad you gave this game its recognition.
You guys made something special enough to make it this long! I meant what I said, truly one of the deepest and most rewarding TCG systems on the market. It's a string of good management decisions away from charging up the list - it just needs to stop checking a 2 every few forms 😂
I was a Tournament organizer for UFS from back then. Thank you for making such a great game.
FaB is freakin GREAT! VERY fun game, very competitive, AMAZING 'scene', tons of Events and a BRIGHT future ahead!
💪💪💪
😂 this aged poorly
Crazy that Digimon and One Piece aren't on this list with One Piece taking over high level events and Digimon just being consistent and fun even in bad metas because they finally do ban stuff. Also both have great support and prizing where you can actually make a living off of One Piece if you are good enough.
Yeah the 3 Digimon players in every local are surely worth it, same for it's pricing and tournaments...
OP had a good start but fell off so badly.
No wonder they're not on the list, only the IP carrys them...
@j.w.213 You have no clue what you are talking about. Every locals near me for OP is basically full every week. Digimon fell off but how it's going now loads of people are going back to it. Be a hater idc but at least get your facts straight.
@@j.w.213 dude i know nothing about card games but a whole one piece themed card store just opened near me. Either really dumb business decision or its on the rise - i can't say.
Digimon is a consistent performer there is a reason bandai made there newest project tied to it
As a yugioh player, Yu-Gi-Oh not making this list makes perfect sense and i respect you for its lack of inclusion regardless of its popularity.
Yu-Gi-Oh barely meets half of the criteria laid out at the beginning of the video! And I love Yu-Gi-Oh!
Does competitive just mean balanced...? Because I would argue that ygo has a much higher degree of difficulty, allows for A LOT more strategization, and obviously allows for more customization of your deck.
I can see he's basically just judging how the company's that make the game handle the game instead of the game itself now that I've heard the criteria
for me yugioh was so good until they released link cards. Pendulum was trash too but it didnt change that much.
@@shisuna4030agree and its kinda funny. Links were meant to slow down the game. Instead they are the reason the game is unbearable fast now.
I tried to get u to it… I gave up it’s either you get to play or you don’t get to play … it hurts
Play MTG, GA and FAB! FAB is definitely my go to!
Flesh and Blood at its highest level is poetry in motion. Honestly the biggest knock against it is it's such a good competitive TCG to the detriment of anyone not trying to grind haha
EXACTLY! And I'm excited to highlight the difference between these games and some GREAT games that I feel fit a casual, non-grinder mindset better in next week's video!
Clash is a really good non-official format for FAB that is casual, cheap and really fun
@@MaindeckGames
@@Gr8Dane_FABClash is probably the best format I’ve tried for the game
I'm an older player who played a lot of competitive mtg in the early 2000s that got back into the tcg world through fab. One thing I really appreciate about the community is that while it can be very competitive, the community is generally very chill and friendly. Even at large tournaments like Nationals and pro tour events.
I’d have added a “End Goal” category because perks, titles and fame is also a reason to play
Easily the Austin Powers game! Give us that gameplay!!
Hell yeah 😎 FaB is the best competitive game currently in the TCG Space anyone that has attended any events local or worldwide would see how high the skill floor is for winning. It rewards commitment and it feels likes the lowest variance based TCG I agree with it being #1 Pokémon in second actually shocked me but I’m not that familiar with the scene but it does feel off
😂 dude that take is hilarious
@@JackOropeza right? I live in germany and there's not a single FaB local within 150 kilometres and I live in a big city with many big citys surrounding us.
Everyone stuck with MtG after testing this game, ain't no one gonna pay 1k€ and above for a deck that get's nullified after a certain time.
How about a list of the best dead CCGs?
explain. how are dead games good?
@@j.w.213Legends of runeterra is the best card game out there and it not even a competition. Game is sadly dying due to lack of monetization sadly.
I played 4 out of those 5 games and FaB is definitely number one from my perspective. Other games can go on the same level, but this TCG doesnt really lack much at the moment.
Edit: forgot I tried all except one from this list.
Pokemon has been the most refreshing competitive card game I've ever played. First of all the game is accessible everywhere and the community by far the most welcoming. The game is a combination of skill and luck in a way that it feels fair but also not frustrating. I don't get angry over a loss on pokemon with the ony exception of the random 5 mulligans or having all your important pieces on your prize pool, which neother are super common to begin with. It is nice to have a game that feels competitive but you dont leave the tournament lght headed or severly migrained.
What i find bizzare is the abscence of YGO. I used to be a YGO player and honestly even though i had no fun anymore, it is the absolute game to go competitive on and easiest one to live from. The skill ceiling is overwhelming and because of that it can be very frustrating. Unlike in pokemon where skill gets you only this far, yugioh has this thing that a minor rulling knowledge you may have might change the whole game around, deckbuilding is intence due to side deck. I was only capable at winning regionals, but the guys at ycs and wcs felt like they were on a different world when playing the game. YGO also has a shit ton of money in it so that's another good reason for competitive players.
Very curious about yours and other's opinions on the Dragon Ball Super Card Game. Seems pretty balanced and skill based and not super expensive in regards to making a competitive deck. I also like when old sets aren't rotated out making old collections useless.
DBS is a solid game! I've followed it since launch, and we've done content for it in the past. Just like every TCG, there's definitely skill involved, but I don't feel the lines are quite as open as they are in a few games on this list, and the prizing isn't quite as solid as some other games. Games that rely entirely on promo cards for prizing have the issues of value of prize being weighted on when the event takes place (if several events award the same special promos, the earlier winners can usually sell for more than the later ones), and forcing players to have to choose between keeping their trophy cards or selling them to recoup their investment in travel, etc. For those reasons, games that award cash prizes in addition to promotional cards will usually feel more rewarding to win as highly competitive players can accrue trophies while keeping their costs down or actually making money for all the time they spend on it.
Additionally, I personally feel that games that use rotation systems tend to be stronger competitive games. While it's common to say that rotation makes old collections useless, in practice these games tend to maintain a stronger playerbase because the rotation keeps the game accessible to new players by making it less intimidating (and sometimes less expensive) to jump in. Games that rotate will create formats where older cards can be used, and if they successfully maintain a strong playerbase, those formats will have playable events as well. The four games on the list that are old enough to do this all have formats where cards they've rotated - or, in the case of FAB, retired due to Living Legend status - are allowed to be played, and those formats have dedicated players who play them.
Rotation also allows more control over power creep in a game, which generally helps balance be kept. DBS is a game that has seen some very large power creep - and especially complexity creep - from its earliest days, which rotation could have helped avoid. The announcement of DBS Fusion World is actually a direct response to that, because Bandai doesn't ever like using rotation - so they made a new, approachable game for new players to get into instead, with the hope that some players will play Fusion World online or in person and might want to try Masters as well. But it's tough to say exactly what impact Fusion World will have on Masters, which is probably the last point that makes it difficult for me to put on here. DBS is in a flux-state right now as we wait to see what impact the release of FW and the online FW client has on the game, so it's tough for me to nail it down as a Top 5 game!
Played DBS today at a convention together with star wars unlimited and I really liked DBS as well
Kinda happy seeing pokemon mentioned.
While i dont currently play the game, i have to say it has the most impressive competitive play scene i seen thus far.
Not only there are a lot of tournaments to compete in for regionals and nationals,, but every single of them feels like something grand.
Its very impressive to watch
Yea if the judge doesn't like your pronouns you get DQd real professional
Seem like you have never actually played a proper tcg tournament
The fact that you didn't mention Dragonball super masters is wild. Been around for 7 years, highly competitive, challenging and rewarding and set bandai up to be able to release all their other games from digimon to union arena. Hope it makes the list eventually.
the 3 ppl playing it would agree
I’m a competitive Cardfight Vanguard player I also do Shadowverse evolve for competition as for any on the list I used to do universes and always did magic casually the rest I don’t really know too much about tbh
Hmm, id probably have put Battle spirit saga above Grand archive. Battle spirits I think has a larger player base currently and more support in terms of tournament scene/prize money, I think people are overlooking the depth of mechanics/skill in that game too. GA is a great game though, hope it continues to grow and find success.
I do enjoy BSS as well! Out of Bandai's games, that's the game that appears to be gearing towards competitive players the most. I think right now it competes for those 4-5th place spots along with a few other games - for me personally, I'm just waiting to see how it moves forward after its first year. Unlike GA, Bandai is quite tight lipped about what's in the works, and we've seen them throw a LOT of money at the game in the first year. While that's awesome for prize pools, that type of strategy is always riskier and we've seen games in the past (the best example is original Vs System TCG) completely sputter out after they bank everything on massive cash prizes to get people interested in the game. That's not entirely what Bandai is doing, so I am hopeful they'll turn it around, but we have to see how their product prices recover in Set 3 and beyond (esp with the Eva collab, etc) because if LGSes aren't stocking it due to perceived low value, that's a concern for sure.
GA won it for me over BSS not because of any particular snapshot of the playerbase, but because the plans and systems they have in place are very good things for competitive players in general, specifically things like the Omnidex ranking system and Proxia's Vault. To contrast with Bandai's strategy, GA started with lower prizing and used sales of Supporter Pack 1 at various cons over the year to fund higher cash pools, and upped them when it was something they could afford. While BSS offered more, GA offers a plan that appears to be sustainable, and I have to take that into account to help avoid accidentally recommending something that *could* (I hope not) become a sort of rug-pull down the line. Hope that makes sense, thanks for the comment!
@@MaindeckGameswell said
Yo, im just happy to see UVS on the list. If you guys haven't tried it yet, you're missing out.
I think this list is fantastic and most people who disagree are biased or haven’t played all of these.
Appreciate the comment! I especially think there are a lot of people who write off competitive Pokemon without having much experience with it. Much deeper game than people are willing to give it credit for.
@@MaindeckGames absolutely! And it has one of the best support systems for tournaments, prizing, etc.
Many people really call Pokemon magic the gathering like
They are really stupid to say that
Great list, I think I’d agree with all of the rankings (except I don’t know much about Universus, so can’t really comment on that one). But, I do expect Grand Archive to move higher on the list in a couple of years, just needs to establish itself and get some history to it to show it’ll be a stable game
doubt
I would put One Piece in Grand Archive’s spot. That game is huge and has a great competitive scene.
Serious question? Does MTG still have a competitive scene? All I see is people playing Commander and more Commander. FNM has turned into all Commander at the many LGS I frequent.
I was interested in seeing where you would put the Bushiroad games. Bushiroad has the infrastructure for several big world wide tournament series however there ineptness running events outside of Japan tarnishes them badly.
Mtg sure does have a competitive scene still, but you aren't wrong that Commander drives a lot of the game now. In years past it was easily #1, but it's hard to rank it there now because of that. However, Wizards has been attempting to revive it after the pandemic by bringing back Regionals. As I mention, the greatest boon is the on-ramp to the Pro Tour via Arena/MODO. That alongside some of the biggest cash pools for major events pushes it to its spot on the list.
And yeah, you're spot on with Bushiroad. CFVG is an excellent game, Shadowverse too, but they don't make it easy outside of Japan to get in on the competitive circuit. IMO, they offer some of the worst prizing for their high end events of any TCG publisher on the market, and from my experience stores have a difficult time even getting in on their store champ level events. They also aren't doing any real player-focused innovation in the space - pretty much every game I listed has gone out of their way to innovate in the competitive space but Bushi (and Bandai, too) are generally content to just put events on the schedule and have players attend. So that's in part why I didn't feel like either company fit on here, even though I like their games!
@MaindeckGames , huh I didn't know the PT was back.
The Bushiroad issue is really complicated. Tbh onboarding for stores for competitive play is really easy. The hard part is convincing stores to do it. Once that is done that is where the sh*t show begins. Bushi is really bad about providing the prize support they promise or honoring the rewards they give out. For example my friend had a bye card awarded for a shop challenge and Bushiroad wouldn't honor it despite the player showing them the signed card because his name wasn't on a list. In my case I'm owed two 100.00+ promos for winning spring shop challenges. I'll never see them.
Weiss as a game though is great for tournaments. Blow outs are pretty rare. Newer players can go to a bcs and have a fun experience.
I've been running and playing Weiss tournaments since 2012 so I'm biased a tad though lol. I think the collector value of our prize cards make up for the lack of cash prizes a bit, but I can see where they would be frowned on from the outside looking in.
I loved to play FAB, but while the LL-System sounds good in theory, it killed the game for me. Every Format up to Uprising had 1 single S Tier Deck (mostly Runeblades) that killed everything, won every Top Tournament and rotated out in a couple of months so the Leader became LL and all the cards in the Deck were unplayable. That and the crazy cost of the decks back then sadly killed this amazing game for me..
Try checking it again, the game is now on the best foot possible balance wise, lots of different decks are getting wins.
Well it had some heroes that have been "bonkers" but currently it's at a crazy balanced spot. You can play almost anything - seriously. And the expensive staples will be playable at some point again. Regular deck cards for the class are not expensive at all and the staples will most likely just be played by the replacing hero. It just takes some months if you are unlucky but then play another class for that time. having 2 Classes in FaB is the sweetspot anyway.
Great video Dan, really great hearing your takes.
Thanks so much!! Glad you enjoyed!
I wish uvs was popular where im at, i wanted to play ufs but i was alone. Literally the only person in my area who even knew what the game was
The Austin Powers disrespect is unacceptable 😤😤
Throw me a frickin' bone here!
Uh, why isn’t wixoss on this list?
Cause nobody knows what that is
Digimon TCG should be on there! Hope you will be able to try it one day since after playing nearly every cardgame out there, I must say it is outstandingly good
I have played it! Bandai usually doesn't excel in some of the areas I consider important for someone looking to play a TCG competitively. Nothing wrong with the game, necessarily!
flesh and blood big reward for skill.
Although these are all solid choices, I'm surprised One Piece isn't on here. It's probably right behind Flesh and Blood in terms of overall popularity and has a booming competitive scene, way more so than Universus and Grand Archive. And I say this as someone who doesn't even play One Piece or like the game that much.
One Piece has a booming scene for sure, and I did list it highly on my full tier list. I totally respect the game and it's one of the hottest TCGs on the market right now.
That said, Bandai games miss the mark IMO on a few elements of organized play. The TCG+ app, which is required to use for events, is actually one of the worst pieces of TCG software out there, and you can find lots of stories of people being turned away for events they've registered for on the app because of miscommunications about the required use of the app. Bandai's OP support at the local level is frustrating as well, requiring stores to sign up for events and order product and tournament kits many months in advance, making it difficult for many stores to get quick support for a new scene or adapt to a changing local market.
Additionally, their use of unique cards rather than alt arts in promo support is not what I consider a very player-friendly method of incentivizing tournament play, though that alone doesn't knock it out of the list - UniVersus is the other game on the list that does the same thing, but I consider some other elements of that game better for a TCG player looking for a robust competitive experience. Bandai also doesn't do Cash prizes for any of their games except Battle Spirits Saga, and I think that's a critical factor for a player looking to compete at the high level frequently. Every game on the list has done cash prize support, though UniVersus has dropped it recently and I'd consider it important for them to bring back to maintain their position on the list.
I also find games that are lagging behind another part of the world to be lacking a bit in deck builder expression. While unique metas can develop, often competitive players who want to explore their own ideas will find a lot of the metagame already mapped out months ago by players across the world. I think an important part of a TCG metagame in terms of both its narrative and ability to test the skill of deck builders is having enough to discover and explore during the 3-4 months that a set is new.
Finally, and I understand there would be some contention on this, but I consider some of the games listed to have deeper competitive play potential - for example, games like Grand Archive, UniVersus, and Flesh and Blood use mechanics that allow for much less guided turns with greater degrees of freedom in plays in every turn. In turn, those feel like games where there is a wider and deeper decision tree and where players have more opportunity for skill expression than some games not on the list.
So those are some of the factors that prevent me from ranking One Piece on the list! If I were weighting this list primarily on the popularity of competitive events, it would just be the 5 most popular games - MTG, YGO, Pokemon, FAB, and then probably One Piece. But while some of those games made it on the list, I don't think they necessarily provide a better competitive experience for a serious competitive TCG player - though, of course, everyone's tastes may vary on that!
Thanks for the comment, hope that makes a little sense!
Good vid! Pretty much agree with all of it
i’m a die-hard MTG supporter (mainly modern) and i agree with its placement. wotc has made some goofy choices lately. but i just can’t escape how much damn fun it is. i expected f&b at the top and it deserves it. it’s resilience through the pandemic is a testament to how good it is. i haven’t played it much, but i certainly do enjoy it.
Yep, I don't even play FAB regularly but it's effort in the competitive arena has to be properly recognized!
@@MaindeckGames astro turf
Great stuff, Dan
even tho prizing in yugioh is not very good i would still at least rank it somewhere on here, i believe its the game that has the largest amount of players enter thier biggest and most prestigous tournaments, however still a decent list :)
I haven’t played the one piece tcg a lot but I really liked it. Is there anyone who has more experience with the game who would recommend it as a competitive game?
One Piece is a GREAT game, but the reason it's not on the list is mostly due to difficulties actually playing the game competitively. Events sell out quickly, the Bandai+ app is among the worst TCG apps in the market, and there are a few horror stories of tournament organization out there already despite the game's young age. That said, if you are ready to fight to get event entries and are OK dealing with that - I would say absolutely go for it if the game appeals to you on theme/mechanics. It's certainly a rising star in the TCG industry right now, I just wish Bandai could figure out more of the follow through!
Im surprised One Piece hasnt been mentioned. That game is like the 4th biggest game after just over a year.
Grand archive is best game 🥰
Mine are :
#1 Yu-Gi-Oh
#2 duel masters
#3 Digimon hyper Colosseum
#4 hearthstone
#5 Digimon tcg
Yugioh easily has the highest skill ceiling. It only has the competitive format. People literally always criticise it for being hard to get into and how complicated it is.
no kaiba, it's just power creep things, you need to spend a lot of time just to read the cards, but less complex than mtg,pokemon or flesh and blood.
Magic will always be on top! =)
1. GA
2. FaB
3. Magic
4. One Peice
5. Pkmn
6. Shadowverse
7.Digimon
8. Shadow Era
9. DBS
10. Akora TCG
Nice! Your list isn't that different than mine. I'd love to put GA first, but I have to give them some time to prove everything they are saying. Obviously we are huge fans of the game here but it would have felt a bit...biased for me to throw it all the way at 1 so early!
They win on gameplay alone, the game feels more creative than any other game atm , just limited card pool @@MaindeckGames
Yeah, I mean I feel that way too. It's my favorite game right now for sure!
0. Ygo
If you have a local community open to try a different game which is really cheap and have a high skill ceiling I suggest Netrunner, the game has been kept alive by a group of players and had the world championship this year in Barcelona with 200+players.
i personally think OP should be in top 4 as the popularity is ever growing...
Agreed. And it will soon be top 3. It just has too many things going for it.
Pokémon only had about 3 Meta Decks at any given time.
Just speaking objectively, kinda crazy yugioh is not on this list considering it has arguably the biggest if not the second biggest active competitive scene in all of TCGs. Now speaking subjectively, I will say that the prize support is for the most part incredibly underwhelming. However, regardless if you're talking just straight competition, Yu-Gi-oH is WAY up there with the best of them
The games with the most players will have the most active scenes - but that doesn't always mean they are doing the best job providing for their players. Check out some of the things the games on this list do - couldn't YGO improve their competitive support by copying some of those ideas? I think YGO is a great and skillful game, but I think it has room to improve HOW it supports its competitive players.
Why wasn't Digimon listed?
Out of these 5 I'd probably pick up Pokemon. There was a second that I thought I wanted to get into FaB but then I realized I didn't really like FaB lol. The main game I have actually played competitively in is Digimon, but I'm not sure I'd put it in the top 5 just because of how fast the game ends these days - it almost seems more like a "who drew the better opening hand" game when most decks are combo decks that need the pieces in a specific order.
I'm really surprised to see Pokemon but not Yugioh on this list. Is pokemon a better competitive game than yugioh? From what I've heard, pokemon is mostly about casual play and collectors.
Sorry man but Yugioh has been power crept to insane levels, sitting and watching the other player for 15 minutes while doing nothing is awful lol
I'm sorry, Austin Powers TCG?!.... HOW DID I MISS THAT?!
Appreciate the detail attentiveness that went into this video. Respect your perspective and outlook, but No DBS, seems like you described it 5 times in every number. Grand archive seems like a game you got me interested in and the ability to use proxy in competitive events makes it stand out, but no place sell it same with Fab...which i looked into but enjoy dbs a lot more and knocks the first criteria out of the park vs any other game imo.
Yeah, there's definitely going to be both some personal taste as well as location bias that will go into everyone's picks! Appreciate your point of view also! DBS definitely has plenty of skill, and I'm curious to see how they approach differentiating Masters and Fusion World!
Honestly was surprised to see Pokemon on the list and so high🤔 everything else is pretty agreeable. I'd be interested to see if One piece will creep into the top 5 one day.
Pokemon's point accumulation system is good enough that SWU is using (a modified version of) it. I'm surprised more TCGs don't! And I can't stress that access to competitive play for a variety of age demographics is a strength that no other game is matching. For some people/demographics, including parents who want to include their kids, it's a no-brainer game to pick when the kid can not only pick it up, but go to on a trip with their parents and play the game with them against opponents at a similar developmental stage.
I think there's certainly some negatives for the game, but those strengths are just unique enough to push it up there, in my mind!
this may not be a "TCG" per say. but i will no one in this world can convince me that Legends of Runeterra is BY FAR the best competitive Card game to ever exist, not a songle card gane even comes close. Collectors are ruining the market for the competitive players and companies need to understand that the difference between the two. Riot games have the best philosophy when it comes to creating competitive games. And its truly a shame that no company can even come close to comparison.
As a Universus player you hit the nail on the head. Maybe THE most rewarding and fun card game engines I've ever played, a game that SHOULD be more recognized, but keeps shooting itself in the foot. Hopefully the future is bright with all the recent changes happening!
I really hope so! They're always so close to getting there. But a 400 player Nats tournament was nice way to kick off their new era!
How come you hardly mention The One Piece TCG on your channel?
Still wondering why Digimon isn't mentioned here 👀
I've been loving Shadowverse Evolve
I used to love Magic but I can't play it anymore with how much the company has changed.
I tried Digimon didn't super like it.
Pokemon my friends started playing but I don't know there is something about the game I just don't super like. Maybe I need to play more.
One Piece TCG seems good I need to get in more games.
Lorcana is big in my area but I haven't played it.
I want to play Flesh and Blood the most, but hasn't really taken off around here yet.
Yo my dude….How is One Piece not on this list?
Fair list, but I would have added Digimon over UFS, but that's just me. That being said, why not Digimon 2020 TCG? Its been strong since 2020 and maintains a consistent fanbase, while also having a very extensive tournament season. Furthermore, why not any of the other Bandai IPs? I know Bandai pressed (and apparently failing) at BSS, but One Piece seems to be strong. DBS is available still, but I've seen local communities dry up.
Bandai games are complicated for this list, IMO. The reliance on promo cards and no cash (outside of BSS, which has its own problems as you mentioned) as prizing can skew the value of events based on when one can participate in them, and always puts the onus on the player to decide to "cash out" or hold on to their keepsake trophy. All five of the games on the list use cash prizing in addition to promos - though UVS now seems to have pulled back on that, which is a detriment IMO. I also think they historically have had issues with development/balance in all of their games, and often a little slow to respond or respond somewhat ineffectively to metagame problems. The unfortunate issue is often their development problems are caused by a power creep and tempo creep that moves the speed of the game faster and faster each year, which I think is a less robust competitive experience. You'll also note that a lot of these complaints I think can be levied against YGO, so it's off the list for similar reasons.
That said, I agree that Digimon and probably OP are the closest to making it on the list, and if Bandai would start some more player-focused initiatives like some of the clever things GA is doing, it would be enough to potentially push them onto it. But there are other games coming next year - like Star Wars Unlimited - that are already making some very strong promises about how they are treating Competitive Play, so the bar is only going to go up from here. Games on this list already will need to step it up (looking at UVS for sure) to stay on it for me.
FLESH AND BLOOD NO. 1
😂😂😂 Giving FaB the numbers 1 spot is hilarious work. We definitely know who paid for this video. 😂😂😂 Flesh and Blood 😂
problem with magic is the current state of standard and modern vs 5 years ago. its in such a bad spot
Magic is starting to lose its luster
Bro have you heard, they doing a marvels collab! Hype!
Magic is...very different than it used to be. It's still got a lot of appeal for a lot of people, but these days the TCGs that are smaller than it (most of them) have sort of taken on the essence of what made Magic special back then. The game is still good, but the culture is very different.
I agree and play most of these but I am sure you are going to get a lot of flag for not including others lol
Yep, bring it on!!! 😂
As someone who used to be a Magic fanboy I agree with your take on PokemonTCG. I think PokemonTCG is a better game than MagicTCG in 2024. PokemonTCG has better gameplay, better artwork, better tournament scene, no universes beyond immersion breaking cards, better price-point, I could go on for a while. MagicTCG has too much baggage. Also my hot-take MagicTCG has too many formats that all are kinda-ok-but-bad-for-different-reasons, instead of one or two formats that are properly curated and kick-ass.
Was hoping for a surprise DBS, GA, or FAB first place finish over Magic, which I surprisingly got, but then Pokemon is #2 when your first criteria is skill and another criteria is how does the company treat its players with organized play and milking, etc. Sooooo ummm. Not sure what to make of that. I just skipped over the Magic and Pokemon portions of the video. A miss for me. Still love your other videos.
Having played plenty of competitive games of it myself - there's a surprising amount of skill in Pokemon as well. I do explain why they are ranked there during those sections :)
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that my criteria are not ranked or weighted, and some games will overperform in some criteria which can make up for underperforming in others.
Thanks for watching this and my other content - I don't hate on (almost) any TCG here, I prefer playing a range of "smaller" TCGs but when I do a video like this, I have to give credit where I think it's due!
Dragon Ball Masters fit all your criteria and should be in your TOP 3, especially over Universus and Grand Archive. I would also put easily MtG over FaB, and I play both.
Surprised yugioh didn’t make it
UVS mentioned!!!
Bruh. Pokemon being ranked the number two most competitive tcg is wild. The competitive scene is great but the game itself is so simple and too luck based to be labelled as more competitive than others
TCGs are simply broken at the very core when it comes to competitive integrity. You just can't have a "gacha" level of monetization for the one and only "mechanic"(cards) and try to claim competitiveness.
It's just mind boggling how a company can say "yeah, we love fair and square competition, where the best player wins!" and then artificially inflate the price of a $0.3 card to tens or hundreds of dollars.
If they cared about letting people compete fair and square. They could simply sell a "competition" version of every single card for production cost + slight profit, you can still have the "real" cards that are rare and artificially inflated, but you also let people stand on equal footing day 1.
The fact they don't do that is proof that the whole game and its competitiveness is nothing but a tool to keep people pulling more and more and enriching the economy that benefits none but the producers.
Pokemon over magic is joke bro.
I mean you say, magic delves unto collect in recent times. Literally 80% of the people who purchase pokemon just collect and never play.
That 20% is more people than 100%of the magic the gathering community
You forgot it is the most easily affordable card game and also noob friendly
It is made for all demographics
Flesh and blood! 👊💪
I wish Grand Archive was near me
Yu-Gi-Oh! Should be on the list because I am always quoting the show, when I am playing Magic. Only one TCG has the King of Games. I also really enjoy the feel of shuffling a Yu-Gi-Oh! deck. As for Flesh and blood, it's more like Flesh & Barf. I could not watch it, nor did I enjoy trying to play it.
Grand Archive is very interesting;) also i love the anime art
FAB got most beautiful cards from all tcg, and their foiled versions are just day and night vs others.
DIGIMON
VanquishersTCG
YU GI OH ????????? what about Yu Gi Oh ????
For a number of reasons, I didn't feel like it met my criteria quite as well as other games on the list! Competitive YGO is SUPER skill intensive and an excellent game to play, but I only had 5 spots and I feel like there are aspects of other games that beat it out!
i respect that bro@@MaindeckGames
@@MaindeckGames oh you mean skill issue?
Yeah, i guess
FIRST!
The land system for MTG means the game basically plays itself. Very few interesting decisions or opportunity costs to consider when playing the game. Maybe sequencing is something to consider occasionally, but on average even pokemon has more difficult sequencing because MTG is generally board/hand focused, whereas in pokemon you often have to consider how the entire game will play out. Most of the skill expression in mtg is just in tweaking existing archetypes for the meta, and not in the actual gameplay. Would rate it 5th at best for this reason, and pokemon 4th. FaB is definitely no. 1, no contest. UFS focuses on bigger pop-off moments than FaB, making games feel a bit more random, and less reliant on consistently good play turn by turn, so it gets 2nd.
I appreciate the recognition of Pokemon's skill, which I think a lot of people don't! As a very long time MTG player, I do think a little more credit could be given as there definitely are plenty of sequencing and decision making moments (lots of opportunity to make the opponent "screw up" blocks or attacks, esp. by having or *bluffing* tricks), but your overall take (that the land system reduces degrees of freedom in decision-making) isn't inherently wrong. It's nice that such a system makes it easier for players of different experience levels to compete, but as you imply, that's not exactly the point of this list!
I think your analysis of FAB and UVS's differences is spot on, and a lot of people miss how similar those two games are. I think some people will simply have taste for one or the other, but I couldn't put UVS at 2 because the company is being a little indecisive about how they operate their competitive prizing, and they are being very, very slow about showing their location and schedule for competitive events. Those are areas where all the games above UVS here are much better, and knowing how and when to compete in a game is critical to being able to play it competitively!
MtG 3rd for various bad reasons, pkmn 2nd even tho they did as bad as MtG did to their competitive scene AND collectors...
FaB is nowhere to be played in the most dense regions in germany, absolute flop this game over here.
Is Pokémon fun competitively?
Certainly many players feel that way!
Not including yugioh in this is criminal
Lock me up!
Yugioh is easily the most skillful and has the highest skill ceiling. This is because of it having the most complicated and diverse game mechanics, extra deck, cards having multiple effects enabling multiple interactions, it is most interactive because you can interact during opponents turn, it has no rotations(for 25 years, so largest vard pool) and no limiting resource systems. It is one of the most played tcg in the world and has online simulators so its the most logical choice for most competitive game. All other things are irrelevant when choosing "the most competitive tcg".
Same people who say Yugioh is "too complicated" and "too hard" are the ones who don't put it as the most competitive game lol.
As a yugioh player. Cope
no, yu gi oh sucks specially at competitive level
the logic behind this game is "don't let your opponent to do anything", there's no fun in this, and "competitive" doesn't mean the game shouldn't be fun
"fun" is the most important aspect of any games, regardless of singleplayer, multiplayer, casual or competitive, but konami cares more about making money than making a good game
yu gi oh can be fun if played with friends that you know they don't play any toxic deck, but the video literally talks about competitive tcgs, not tcgs that can be fun if you only play with friends or in playground
@@vonakakkola nah I’d rather not let my opponent play and have 3 turn games then hour long magic matches. Different preferences 🤷
@@LuxeBabe22 there's nothing wrong about wanting a faster game, but "don't let the opponent to play anything" is just toxic, and no good game should allow it
@@vonakakkola I like being toxic so I think it’s a good game
one piece 😭
How is yugioh not number 1?
A non GA video 😮
...sort of!! 😂😂
Shout out to GA
First!!!
Your list is missing YuGiOh. But ofcourse you’d hate on it as an MTG player.
I played competitive YGO several times - near launch, around the XYZ era, just a bit before Pendulums dropped, and most recently when Master Duel launched. I also play Speed Duels today still. :) I'm not a hater! But, to me, it didn't meet the criteria as well as some of the other games for *this* list!
I played competitive yugioh for a long time. Lack of good prize support has always been a major problem. Konami has also always had a hard time making fun, balanced formats. And their banlist decisions were also often… odd. The game feels more motivated to simply make money than foster an actually good competitive scene
Yu-Gi-Oh's prize support is objectively lacking. It shouldn't sniff this list. Dan is spot on
Not including Yugioh is crazy. They have so many different ways to play the game.
4 of the games listed also have a wide variety of formats, and a different set of 4 support Limited play at different levels. That's not the only criteria, and YGO fell off the list for me personally because it didn't meet some of the other criteria as well as the games I listed!
Yugioh should be in the top 5 worst card games