Why Yu-Gi-Oh! Lost Popularity

[Yoshi]

A variety of reasons, I believe.

One of the main reasons is ban lists... Players just aren't willing to change up their decks just to suit the guidelines of tournaments, I feel.

Some more minor ones of course include Sychros and XYZs. They made Ritual Monsters inconvenient in comparison.

Unfortunately, I got into Yu-Gi-Oh! around the time Sychro Monsters came out.

I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore because of these reasons. Perhaps I'll one day buy a deck again to play for fun, though.

Anything I missed?

 

[Doctor Havoc]

Well the best deck in yugioh are nekroz which is a ritual deck
But in general Konami has been making fusion and ritual decks
A lot more popular like a lot
There are many decks that have some sort of fusion or ritual component to them, to name a few decks

Nekroz
Shadoll
Gishki
Ritual beast
Hero (masked hero primarily)
Gem knights

There's also more support for the two
And nasty combos like instant fusion plus elder noden
So actually fusion and ritual decks have never been stronger then they are now

So even with pendulums and synchros and xyz there is room for ritual monsters and fusions, all 5 have a place in the game
And many decks use at least 2 or more

As for banlist
They have brought back many cards
They are trying to reduce the list as much as they can
Limiting OP cards is fine but banning sucks
Also there have been many erratas as well
So expect more old school cards to comeback
While only the truly strong cards remain banned

 

[Son Gokū]

OCG List has NO changes today. XD

 

[Uncle Goten]

I think it began losing popularity because card games just started to become a less popular thing over the last 10 years.

 

[Professor Gohan]

A variety of reasons, I believe.

One of the main reasons is ban lists... Players just aren't willing to change up their decks just to suit the guidelines of tournaments, I feel.

Some more minor ones of course include Sychros and XYZs. They made Ritual Monsters inconvenient in comparison.

Unfortunately, I got into Yu-Gi-Oh! around the time Sychro Monsters came out.

I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore because of these reasons. Perhaps I'll one day buy a deck again to play for fun, though.

Anything I missed?

This is all definitely it. He cards get worse every year. At the beginning of a duel, I don't even think the first player can draw 6 cards anymore. I officially have up once I discovered that.

 

[Doctor Havoc]

^ well mato to be fair that was to even the game out
Before both players drew 6 but person who went first got to set up
Whoever they wanted with almost no limitations
So it was very unfair to the player going 2nd
Now it's more fair it's a trade off, do you go 2nd and get the free draw
Or go first and get the set up
One of the most fair things ever to happen to yugioh

 

[Super Saiyan Overlord1007]

I never understood the banned list. Why make OP cards if your going to ban them from tournaments? The Synchro & XYZ cards I never really liked. I loved 5D's and understand adding something new but still not at all that thrilling. I stopped playing because I didn't have any competition when I was younger. I may still watch the original Duel Monsters anime and 5Ds but that's about it.

 

[Pyro]

- The game has gotten too advanced. Too many words, clauses, cause-and-effect, erratas, etc. to keep up with or to get new players into.

- Everything you've got now is going to be irrelevant with the next ban list or introduction of the newest Konami cash cow invention (Synchros, Xyz, Pendulums). Things may balance out a bit later down the line, but for now you're stuck with outdated and slower cards.

- Way too much speed. I remember when it legitimately took at least 10 turns to end a duel, and anything before that was some kind of impressive (and relatively rare/new) OTK/FTK. Now a duel can end in the first 2-4 turns and I just don't see the fun in that. I want to enjoy the duel, not get an opening hand, play one turn, and then have my opponent proceed to wipe me out with some ridiculous 26-hit combo. Get the fuck out of here with that shit. That's why I play with old school cards.

- Card games in general aren't as popular as they were in the early-mid 2000s. YGO itself has like four shows (not including the short-lived Season 0), and a couple movies. It's not DBZ where you've got a 10 year break in between anything coming out. YGO is still going and merchandising itself. I bet if you stopped the OCG and the show completely for a decade and resumed it, you'd have a huge burst of renewed popularity, much like DBZ, but definitely not to that level.

- Nobody can top the originals. Nostalgia is a huge factor in the game. There are still a lot of players from the game's very early stages, or at least pre-Synchro/Xyz. The show hasn't done a great job of building up characters like Yugi and Kaiba. They've tried with people such as Jaden (Yugi 2.0 Bobby Sue) and Jack (I totally thought he was a Kaiba ripoff when I started watching 5Ds), but obviously they've failed.

- Prices. Nobody wants to pay $300 for a single card that's going to be reprinted next format and cost a fraction of that cost. It's idiotic.

 

[Doctor Havoc]

I agree with the game is too fast and too many effects and shit going on, it's hard to keep up

Almost everyone is missing the point of the banlist
It also serves to even the field out if everyone is using a few decks
The banlist hits them so they will be weaker and more decks will be used. Also players more of often the not find a way to break the game with some cards not Konami, Konami can be dumb and stuff
But it's not them most of the time

Also cost is an issue but to be fair decks are cheaper now then they were a few years ago

 

[Itachi]

I stopped liking it because of the continuation animes. Pretty much ruined it for me.

 

[Yoshi]

I stopped liking it because of the continuation animes. Pretty much ruined it for me.

I never watched the animes, I just played the card game.

Like the Pokemon Anime bring a commercial for the Games, the Yugioh Animes are basically just commercials for the Card Games... Although Yugioh started as a Manga.

 

[Pyro]

I agree with the game is too fast and too many effects and shit going on, it's hard to keep up

Almost everyone is missing the point of the banlist
It also serves to even the field out if everyone is using a few decks
The banlist hits them so they will be weaker and more decks will be used. Also players more of often the not find a way to break the game with some cards not Konami, Konami can be dumb and stuff
But it's not them most of the time

Also cost is an issue but to be fair decks are cheaper now then they were a few years ago

I'm fine with that. It makes sense. But Konami doesn't do a great job with it either, which you've pointed out with Stratos.

 

[Doctor Havoc]

Yeah, I'm not defending konami as good guys
Just that they're not complete idiots

The banlist itself is actually pretty good overall
They need to take out some of the old school cards or errata them
And a few cards here and there but not bad overall

What konami should do is have play testers
When making new arctypes or cards in general
So having past tourney winners from ocg and tcg
Play test some cards which would result
A good experience for the fans and limit
Some of the dumb things konami does