I enter alot of tournaments and you want to know the one thing i always find missing in most of them. The actual skill of playing this game. These days players that actually duel with skill stand no chance against the decks of these ages. Mainly because you cant get a hit on any duelist on DN using decks like them. If you think about it the YuGiOh world is falling down a steep slope of players that actually know how to play this game and have been playing it for years. With todays decks my brother who has never played a day in his life could easily hop on DN, netdeck I dont know lets say fire kings and BAM he wins like 8 straight and the only time he will lose is when he duels another deck like his. Not taking anything away from the player who everyone is net decking it from i mean in order to think of combos and a list like that you have some skill but i guess thats why everyone and there sister has your deck. Anyway when you enter a tournament what are they top 3 decks you see. I myself duel alot of FireFist/King decks and the occasional Elemental Dragon deck. Most of the time I do fine because i have certain decks that can counter them for the most part but alot of the time im stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one knows how to make there own decks these days. Ive grown so used to seeing the same decks on DN that ive thought about going to the suggestions box on the DN forums and saying why dont the admins just netdeck a bunch of tier one decks every format and just give people the option between them because in the end thats what happens to over half the players on there anyway. All of them are like i want to win at all costs but in my opinion a skilled win is alot better than a cheap win. I dueled this person about 10 minutes ago and the first question i asked them was what site did your deck come from and want to know the response i got. I got " Oh i got it from Shriek" i asked what shriek was and they explained it as an OCG deck site that has a bunch of OCG decklists already planned out and been tested. THIS WAS IN A DN TOURNY. At least this person could admit it was netdecked how many of you have asked where they got there obviously netdecked decks and gotten the response oh I built it. I call them out on it when i get that and i tell them that i dueled the exact list 2 matches ago because i probably did. The skill of players these days has dropped by tonssssss. I know everyone that reads this is going to be like hey i play with skill and that maybe but admit it everyone at least once has netdecked or gotten a skeleton from a deck i mean come on we are all curious and want that easy win i mean here i netdecked this one https://i.imgur.com/YaUkwcG.png. I never use this deck but still its netdecked but thats the only deck that is netdecked in my list. I have like 10 decks on DN. Its ok for ideas and stuff but when your taking the deck just to have a deck and win with it to my eyes its cheating but when they have the nerve to tell you they built it i mean hell i could post a deck up online and garuntee if it was good enough someone would take it ide duel it and theyd tell me they made it. The point is this game has been on a down fall ever since the beginning of the 5Ds era maybe the middle of it but still its only going to get worse from here. Heres my advice buckle up and prepare yourselves because ill tell you one thing this ride is only going to get worse and worse and we all ride it wheather it be for fun or competition we do it together so if we have to duel together please duel with skill and dont use someone elses deck. This is my weekly rant.

You're wrong on many points here, but also right on others. Let me explain.

Hmm, so... skill. Yu-Gi-Oh requires way less skill nowadays, and is mostly based on luck. As people say, Sack > all. No one can do anything about that, though. I kind of do agree with you, but you're also wrong on that point. Skilled players can easily beat another player that's using the same deck unless they get sacked badly or open in the worst way possible (which is pretty rare with Mermails/Firefist). Your brother might be able to just go on DN and netdeck a Fire King deck but I highly doubt he will get 8 wins in a row because that deck is pretty bad against the meta nowadays. If he netdecked a Mono Mermail deck, for example, 8 wins would be pretty easy to get in a row, but that's just against 100-300 rating players. I'd really like to see your brother go against someone with a rating of 1500+ on his first day on DN, using the same deck. Netdecking doesn't mean you have no skills, it's just a way for people to get ideas of fluent decks they like to win with. Then again, the first times you'll be using said deck, you'll suck at it because you won't know how to use it. But with time you will start mastering that deck and keep winning with it while playing against decks with a tier lower or equal to your deck's tier (e.g. Mono Mermail tier 1, it can kill anything in TCG, Even Macro Rabbit). Every deck has it's weaknesses though, and those can be easily exploited by skilled players (which also know how to side in matches, btw). Most decklists don't come with a side deck, so a lot of players have to make one themselves. Although luck is ALWAYS a factor in Yu-Gi-Oh, my point is that skilled players can almost always easily win against less skilled ones, even if they're using a crappier deck. I'm talking about my personal experience, since I've been playing Yu-Gi-Oh for about 11 years now (since late 2002), and I've been playing competitively online since 2008. Also remember I'm only talking of TCG here, that's why I didn't mention Elemental Dragons, Prophecy, etc.

Usually, the most skilled players netdeck a deck, get used to it, then change it according to their preferences and playstyle, along with making a side deck that looks appropriate to them. Everyone that has player Yu-Gi-Oh for more than 1 year has netdecked a deck at least once. Hell, if you're willing to call "Netdeck" every single deck idea you've seen, then go ahead. There are some people who call you a noob because you're using an overused deck, and they're 100% sure you netdecked it, although they have no proof or source. Netdecking for the skilled players is just a way of getting an idea of a better deck to use. You don't necessarily have to copy every card on it and play with said deck. Sure you can test how it works, and what it does, but you'll eventually end up changing it a lot, with time. I have over 120 decks, and probably half of them are netdecked. I never took credit for making one of those netdecked decks, and I'm never gonna take credit for making Mono Mermail, although I netdecked Billy Brake's build and played with it a little bit on rated, fell in love with it, then made my own build of it. That's called getting IDEAS for decks and it's not netdecking. I currently constantly win war duels with it and I'm pretty happy. Does that mean I have no skill? You judge, based on my war record and the teams I've been on. I'm not gonna go around and say I'm the best player on DN, because it isn't true at all, however, I'm gonna say I can easily beat people in mirror matches with most decks. That doesn't mean I never lose, hell no. When two players of equal skill duel eachother, almost everything is based on luck. By "equal skill", I mean knowing the same rulings, having the same optimal plays, etc... (because all that is purely opinionated). Skill IS a huge factor in Yu-Gi-Oh, just not right now. And it hasn't been for the past 3 formats. The game hasn't been going downside since the 5D's era. It actually was pretty interesting back then. It's been going downside since lots broken cards came out (Rescue Cat and Judgment Dragon were two big ones around the 5D's era, but the game was still way more enjoyable than now), and that's after Xyz came out. Sometime after Plant Synchro and a little before Wind-Ups (the hand loop was broken). That's around 4 formats ago. Konami's been using a pretty stupid logic since then: balance the game by making more broken cards, and get more money out of it. That's how Wind-Ups, Inzektors, Chaos Dragons, Rescue Rabbit, Atlanteans/Mermails, Elemental Dragons and the infamous Spellbook Judgment Day were made. And here we are now, in a format based mostly on luck and broken cards.
That's pretty much the story of Ygo after ZeXal. I also stated my opinion about netdecking, so that's done.

If you want to duel sometime just shoot me a PM on DN, I'll be glad to.

YGO never required skill, except during the beginning~mid era of 5D's. (for that time) crazy combos and infinite possibilitys and if you are using your brain (yes, that one was vital), you could swarm the field with synchros - just with 1-2 monster cards in total on the field/hand.

Yu-Gi-Oh! until GX: very simple;
strongest ATK wins, if not the case, Chaos Control wins.
some loops were discovered, like elma+gearfried or yata+emperor, so against standart decks, such loops were almost a guaranteed win.

structure decks came out near the end of that era, basic but actually with a interesting and unique strategy other than just mindlessly attacking.

GX until 5D's: a little bit trickier, 'cuz you have to come up with new staples, since most of them are now banned;

tbh, i never really was into YGO by that time, but what i know, there was no extra deck limit back then and e-heros were probably the dominating decks, exploiting unlimited extra deck space.

also, even more strucktured decks came out, for a little bit extra "your fav-monster-type"-fan service.

5D's era before quasar:

not much to say, it's my fav era, alot possibilitys and strategies. brainpower was the dominating playstyle. (no, not meaning psychics, tho they were released by that time, i mean the actual player's brain lol)
exploits and the discovery that really old cards with (before 5D's) tough negative side-effects were broken when combined with synchros, (such as mind control for example) were actually pretty smart countered by konami (upper deck back then?) with their banlists.

end of 5D's era/start of XYZ ~ now:

let me ask a perfectly legit question:
WHAT
WERE
THEY
THINKING
?



well that's my opinion and experience of the topic skill&YGO. i never was an active tourney player, more into casual play with friends and strangers.

For those who follow the TL;DR mindset:

Syrufit wrote:Sack > all.
Konami's been using a pretty stupid logic since then: balance the game by making more broken cards, and get more money out of it. That's how Wind-Ups, Inzektors, Chaos Dragons, Rescue Rabbit, Atlanteans/Mermails, Elemental Dragons and the infamous Spellbook Judgment Day were made. And here we are now, in a format based mostly on luck and broken cards.

Anyway, my opinion on skill in YGO is that Konami uses no form of logic in making their cards, other than to make them more broken than the cards before.
Skill in YGO is helpful when you're in a pinch and need to think up a combo to get yourself out of a sackfest (and even then sometimes it doesn't work), but overall I agree with Sy: Konami makes decks that sack, and sack > all.
Therefore, you buy the sacking deck, you win all (or at least the vast majority) of your duels.

Skill CAN be a large factor in yugioh, but I agree, it really isn't right now with decks like mono mermail, spellbooks, and E-Dragons. The basic deck structures are, well... basic. They don't normally play cards to interrupt your opponent anymore, simply play cards that let you OTK as fast as possible. The matches now aren't about who is the better player, it's about who can pull off their OTK before their opponent does.

I think everyone can agree the 5D's era was when Yugioh was at its finest. Archetypes were a new and refreshing idea, synchros were simple to get out, but not too simple or overpowered to complete ruin the game, and deck combinations were endless. Plants with tour guide and tengu, combinations of archetypes like dragunity and mist valley, blackwings and lightsworn, etc. Also to mention Gladiator Beasts were around that era (2009 maybe???), and in my opinion I think that was one of the most unique and original playstyles Konami ever came up with and ever will.

Skill does still play a bit of a factor though. I still in this format play Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts against meta on DN, and I manage to win a few games against spellbook, fire fists, macro rabbit, and once an E-Dragon player simply because they were inexperienced. Sure, they played the combos of their own decks, but they didn't know mine, nor were they conscious of overextending, not wasting resources for silly things, etc. If you can play with a certain level of skill, the game is still fun, but it does aggravate me to play in rated because I hate playing against E-Dragons and Spellbooks simply because they're sooooo sacky and I'm obviously the better player yet I still lose because their deck is simply way too powerful compared to my 5D era decks.

Oh yeah, and I do think the whole archetype idea is going a bit too far. It was cool for the first year or two, but now EVERYTHING is an archetype that comes out, which leaves very little room for creativity and mashing of cards into an original deck. Since the archetype cards are getting soooo specific to supporting their own archetype with their effects, its way too hard to use new cards to splash into combinations to form an original deck idea. It's really sad, making decks used to be one of my favorite things (like sy, I have over 100 decks, possibly 200), but deck making is boring and a waste of time now since the new cards don't really allow any kind of creativity.

+1 @ Niko

It just feels like the game is going to die soon.
It just seems like Konami is reaping the money from making god-awfully broken decks, then, god forbid, they would shut down the game after everyone quits from the broken decks and move on to another project.
I mean every format it just keeps getting worse and worse; Shi en at 3 sacking like hell, then Wind-up's hand-looping, then Inzektors, then Chaos Dragons, and now EDragons and Spellbooks?
It makes you wonder what's next, but at the same time you don't want to know.

well, they (konami) said, they wanna target a younger audience by releasing cards which are easy to use aka xyz.

but something went horribly wrong and now we have an exploitable mess of a game, kinda like in the good old 2000LP/no direct attacks/no tributing days. :P

at least back then it was humorously exploitable- nowadays it's just painful to watch.

you know how i deal with tier0?

1. demand a rematch after inevitable loss.
2. use monster-only gallis-FTK/chaos/synchro. (idk how you call that werid mess of a deck)
3. pray to whoever you believe in.
4. draw gallis, koa'ki meiru doom and genex ally birdman at the very first turn.
5. ???????
6. profit. (well if you can get any profit out of that tier0 user's ragequit)

imagine dat face. even if i didn't pull of a FTK...this deck got enough monsters in it to stall or even win otherwise...40 monsters...you always draw something useful, and if not, you stall with faders/marshmellows.

btw...why is not even one of those 3 cards for that FTK banned yet???

I loled at the top comment :ysosrs: . But I guess the game did go in full circle a bit. Went from a mess, then fixed, to don't know WHAT the heck 5D's was, then back to the mess. But, my theory is that they need to create a bunch of anti meta cards, then with the amount of anti meta, people wont run them as much :@yep: . probably wont work, but eh, I tried.