_These dual identities, they struggle for control_ _Two personalities, inhabiting one's soul!_ 🎶

I miss the interaction. I once battled a young lady with a FrightFur deck. It was the best! The match lasted about 45 minutes! It was back and forth, extra deck monster selection, banish, Link…it was the best match! These are the type of duels I miss.

My average interaction with players over the last 22 years has been they don't like being told they cannot play the game, but will actively try their hardest to prevent you from playing the game. This is paired with crying and rants about being blown out by sacky one ofs or silver bullets to their decks. Everyone is okay with telling others no, while hating being told no.

Slower games are fine to me, like as long as im not getting OTK'D i tend to be chill even if the duel becomes a slugfest or me trying to fight defensively while thinking of a strategy

I don't think this is a double standard. "slowing the game down" doesn't mean "more decks that slow the game down", it means "fewer decks and cards that push the game faster". A fast game being pulled back by slow decks isn't the same thing as a slow game. It's a hollow slowness; when a game is only made slow by decks that set a speed limit, the game is only slow when it involves those decks - every duel not involving them is unaffected. And bear in mind that because most decks aren't control decks, and most control decks aren't good enough at setting a speed limit to actually slow the game down, the vast majority of yugioh is still being played full speed ahead. What people want is for the whole game to play slower, by making the peak cards less peak, which in turn would allow the control decks to feel less oppressive. We want traps to be naturally relevant, not just forced into relevancy by trap-focused archetypes. We want combos to naturally build up over several turns of accumulating pieces, not stumbled by having several forced false starts. For the record, the reason traptrix don't get hate isn't because it's low power, it's because not too many people are playing it. Control decks become hated when people see them too often. Also, traptrix are cute, everyone likes looking at them.

Yugioh players want to play, but never let the opponent play. That is why Max C is "powerful". Technically the card does nothing to prevent you from keep playing...

At the end of the day, most people probably find the most fun duels they've had are when there's a good amount of back-and-forth. Floodgates and Turn 1 negate-heavy boards prevent this, especially in a BO1 format like Master Duel where you can't side in the outs to these. However, I think this is a more fundamental problem of not having deck tiers. If both decks (and players) are at about the same power level (and skill level), they will invariably have that back-and-forth, floodgates or not.

For me it’s only being completely blown out, everything else is annoying but a part of modern (which is why I don’t tend to play too much right now personally). A personal example is I play pendulums and getting blown out by Dimensional Barrier just feels terrible and there are a ton of examples like that. Like if I’m not even allowed to put cards on the table why did I even bother going to the shop/event to play? (Exactly why I don’t play much modern)

You'd see this double standard in Warhammer Fantasy too. Players would complain about their opponent having too many wizards with scrolls and how they couldn't cast all their spells. Then they'd turn around and whine when they can't completely shut down their opponents magic phase. You get this is any competitive game.

For me, Yu-gi-oh was about two people playing cards and finding out, who came out on top. Now? Either I crush everything the other person has with my first hand or get my playmat handed to me. By the second turn. Thats not Yu-gi-oh. That's the wild west. It's just a different game.

My issue with stun is that the 1 for 1 or 1 for 2 interactions are perfectly fine when there aren’t floodgates limiting my other cards, making the “decision” of how and what to 1 for 1 less of a choice and more of a no brainer The same applies to the unbreakable board decks that put up 4-5 disruptions going 1st. Even if those disruptions are 1 for 1s they have enough of them to use one on every relevant card I have, making how to use disruptions less a decision and more “every time they do something, respond”. Same issue, just different ways of getting there

It got so fast that it feels like 15min slow motion.

Combo Players upset with Control/Stun is just hypocritical. When you complain about a Combo Deck the "Defense" the players use is "Well you should have built your deck with this Hand Trap or other Out". Then immediately they turn around and throw out a complaint "You Floodgating me means I have to play this Spell Trap Removal Out in my Deck and it ruins my consistency!" DistantCoder is a famous example I use(No hate on the guy, but he proves the point). His videos started with OTK Plays. Or when he plays a Stun Deck he screams at the screen "GET SHIT ON! JUST DRAW THE OUT BRO!" but then when HE is the one getting OTK'd or Stunned he screams "This is Bullshit! I shouldnt have to be forced into a situation of Just Draw the Out!". People would build a Negate Board and Hand Trap players to Oblivion and back but Ra forbid someone activates the field spell Mystic Mine.

most players don't want to interact with each other, they want to combo off without interactions THEN interact against their opponents plays.

I don't think the issue is so much with floodgates, but rather current archetype design tends to benefit from certain floodgates. Like Floo can play D Shifter with 0 drawback. Even my Train deck can play 3 skill drain and just shrug it off. Just feels like another form of powercreep to me

Players hate decks that often have infinite recursion, simple as.

When my opponent takes their fucking turn and play half their fucking deck There is no double standards that is a serious problem.

I feel as if it’s more so a problem of decks not needing a bit of time to get going but I understand that in modern yugioh those decks are considered slow, I feel like if the format slows down to a similar speed to edison format’s speed it would be better for the game’s overall health.

Ok so traps are pink. Fusions are purple.

I don’t mind combo decks, it’s when my opponent takes 10 mins to do that combo lol

I don't think runick and labyrinth are good examples of this double standard. For runick, it's not just one for one trades, they also banish cards from your deck. This isn't fun or interactive for two reasons. The first is being "banished out" is objectively worse than being milled out, since more cards have interactions in grave than being banished. The second applies to both banish and mill: the more interchangeable in-archetype and staple generic 3-ofs your decks plays, the better your deck will fair against rubick. Meanwhile, unless you're some niche rogue like weather painters, most decks that aren't top tier will simply have a crucial combo piece or clever tech choice 1-of banished before they get an opportunity to even consider using it. Even if it's slow, it isn't enjoyable gameplay. Labyrinth is similar, but for different reasons. It breaks how trap cards are meant to be played, not as individual strong cards like imperm, red reboot, and evenly matched, but as a whole archetype. That really is just not fun to play against since it takes cards that were printed to be balanced around how you have to use them no sooner than turn 2, AND they are practically bricks in your hand going second, to simply frequently not have those downsides, enabling effects that were never meant to be accessible so soon into the duel. They are both different and relatively slower decks, but they also do things that effectively gatekeep a more diverse format due to their methods of interacting with an opponent, such that in order for that opponent to win, they need a deck that has effectively disposable cards and plays since they have both consistency through starters and follow up. Anyway, long comment, but those are my thoughts.

My friends and I specifically play rogue decks to get this kind of feeling. Pure Toons vs. Pure Frightfur feels so fun.

The issue is, yugioh has become every deck is a control deck now. Also turns take way too long, we traded longer games amd multiple turns for 15 to 20 minute turns, and if you dont deaw your 1 out to thier hyper board you just lose, or having decks that take 15 min turn then pass to you and THEY take another 10 minutes on your turn. Its not fun

I don't think it's hypocrisy - I think it's that, even if players can't articulate a problem, they can feel it. I certainly can't. The closest I can get is this: it feels bad to be locked out a game, either because your opponent has accelerated to light speed before your turn has even started or because you can't play a card without being told "no." It doesn't feel good to be told "no" - that's not a healthy interaction. It's necessary, with the speed the game goes at! But that's part of the problem. An essential part of the game doesn't feel good. What I like are those games with a lot of back-and-forth - where both players get to establish their strategies and exchange plays. That CAN happen in modern Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it's vanishingly rare. The high speed introduces a lot more variance; in my experience, a difference in tempo turn one quickly accelerates to an uncloseable gap.

It amazes me how upset players get when under skill drain while endlessly summoning monsters.

What i honestly don't get about the dislike of control decks is that pretty much most of the more powerful combo decks out there are still doing the same thing of preventing you from playing the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. It just takes longer to set up, but it's still the basic premise of going first, using a one card combo to search/draw/summon all the cards you need to set up a massive board of 5 negates with two or three hand traps. It's why i don't get the Maxx C hate. Yes, i know why the card SHOULD be banned, but all it does it let you draw cards at the same time your opponent is also essentially drawing cards or searching for every single card they need. The easiest way to win at Yu-Gi-Oh is to stop your opponent from playing, whether that's via 10-minute solitaire long combos or one trap card that stops effects. But man it's more fun to try and get over decks like Runick or Labrynth or Sky Striker or Mikanko than watching non-stop combos.

Of course there's a double standard. People have been trained to expect the games to be extremely fast. When something else comes up and it's strong they get outraged now because it doesn't fit the usual speed

Personally I like what swordsoul does it’s a deck that does either turn well, can set up powerful end boards but isn’t unbeatable and you need to predict your opponent to determine which level 10 will best counter there plan of suits best with your hand Or alternatively a midrange deck that may take a few turns to squire resources but can go insane one turn 3 or 5 so I also play a zombie pile

The funny argument I've heard a while back was combo is just a fast pace control deck. Negates are mini-floodgates. In the end, your effect will not go through. I think it's interesting seeing a control deck ignore floodgates that are supposed to affect both players, like Altergeist activating monster effects on the field while Skill Drain and Altergeist Protocol is active.

The best way I can describe it, is that it shouldn’t fee IMPOSSIBLE to play. Going 2nd, drawing a 6th card, but your opponent has 4 negates on field, and three hand traps at the ready just makes you wonder why you bothered to wait through this turn. A good back and forth would be more like “wow that’s a good board, tough to beat. If I play things right, I might have a trick or two that could change things around”. Instead it’s, “during your standby, effect, effect, effect. Hand loop, aaaand banishing one from extra deck of my choice.” Etc etc

'People don't want to be interrupted until they're ready'. You mean, like they would want a game that ramps up? Such as the intended play pattern of Lands/Resource card systems? Yeah, control hate in YGO is a double standard, because honestly a lot of the end results are very similar to the combo decks. But I'm the kind of person who'd argue mostly yugioh decks are more alike to each other than any other game, so the hate seems really arbitrary.

The thumbnail of the video looks like you're wearing a Pip-Boy

My very first tournament was actually a regional. I played eldlich control and I did better than I thought I would’ve in my first competitive setting. I got a free win because an opponent didn’t show, I beat one player who I cannot remember what they were playing but the best game of that tournament was actually a loss for me but I went up against labrynth and we only had 12 minutes left of the 45 after game one. It was all interaction and it was very educational and enjoyable for us both!

I like Speed duel. But Speed duel with anime characters decks only. I do not like to make every deck x3 best cards, endless combos and stuff like that. Just casual 1 of cards that characters used in anime. And Skill cards are there just to push the game in anime like plays. I just wish that yugioh had some format like that. Casual anime duels or tournament with starter decks. Or konami should make balansed decks (8 or 16) diffrent strategy and players are allowed to use some of those decks to play in tournament. Or retuen of old formats ut with new ban list. Like GOAT format but bann diffrent cards, trying stuff like that.

In my experience as a former Yugioh player the biggest issue is that most Yugioh players just want to play their game, rather than interact with their opponent in any meaningful way. And that goes beyond floodgates. Back when Mystic Mine was everywhere so many players still refused to play spell based spell/trap removal and then went on to cry about how unfair Mystic Mine is. As far as I can tell that's still the case with any floodgate that isn't a monster.

I'm not a fan of lingering and continuous floodgates. Especially in Master Duel where it's more difficult to counter.

All modern decks are to an extent control decks, especially right now when 12 to 20 cards in your deck are control cards in the form of hand traps. I think trap/stun decks that get hated on have the added “feel bad” elements of lingering floodgates and that people don’t main deck answers to backrow in general. Also for those decks to be good, or playable at all, they need to be very strong by default to compete with the sheer advantage a single card can create in a combo deck.

You can just do a dice roll to tell who wins now

Players hate floodgates too. Yet will not hesitate to play them to win, but cry if they lose to them, I'm like if a card is legal, I know I can face it, and don't lose sleep on it, but most hate a lot and things similar to it they except if it benefits them.

I know there's GOAT but back when I really played I'd say Edison was the GOAT. Like how the ban list was, all archetypes felt balanced, you really did have a back and forth. Now a days you just combo off, negate your opponent out of playing, and then OTK next turn if you went first. If you went second you just board break then OTK. And if you can't OTK you just set up an end board where you can negate your opponent and then finish them off. Modern does have a back and forth but there's just way too many negates. Like back then book of moon was a really great card, now a days link monsters just makes it useless and there's book of eclipse.

Played a duel recently (granted it was in Duel Links, but still) had a spell caster deck vs someone with a dino/dragon deck. Game lasted for about 30ish turns. Neither could break the other's defenses. My cards chipped at his life points and brought him down to 2200. I stayed at 4000 the entire time, but everytime I'd get one of my ace monsters out he would find a way to wreck it. And yet, both of us just had the perfect draws because whenever he'd knock one of my monsters out I'd have a way to revive or special summon something. In the end I won by default (his deck ran out, first), but while I don't enjoy winning by running the opponent out it was a fantastic duel. Even if I had lost that constant back and forth, no one being able to gain a massive advantage, 1 fight after another, each turn where 1 misplay would cause you to throw the match, no massive combos...it was glorious!

racing against the clock VS myself in Master Duel ranked to win before I time out with 30 seconds on the clock as a person with ADHD trying to also read cards to optimize is so FUN when both decks in a match play indiscriminately regardless of whose turn it is. Theres a bit much in terms of response windows with average decks now.

Time for me to finally look into Runick and Labyrinth.

Very interesting topic, I always found myself enjoying grindy games the most, either 2 control decks or smth like pure mekk knight vs control. I feel like these types of games bring a whole new set of gameplay decisions with them, that are typically lost in a 2 or 3 turn game.

I feel this dude has covered every topic possible and now it’s just deceptive titles to cover the fact

Being an old school player what I miss is the idea that you built a deck with a few combos in mind, to take advantage of how the duel unfolds, but nowadays all decks seem to run one specific strategy, so if that gets shit down you’ve lost.

I think the reality is players just don't like being told "No" or formats where you get constantly told no whether that be the combo player setting up unlimited negates or the control player flipping a bunch of floodgates. That's yugio's biggest problem. Every relevant card either prevents the other player from being allowed to play, sets up the card that stops them from playing or is an out to the opponent telling you no all game.

I think the problem begins when 1 card just kills entire decks, just because it has an effect that locks those decks out of an entire mechanic for the whole turn. On the other hand though, combo decks often use very generic extra deck monsters as extenders or interruptions. The extra deck monsters could be fixed by just making them less generic. For example at Baronne, just make it require Fleur Synchron. At Halqifibrax, make it require 1 or 2 Crystrons, that way also Combo decks would have to rely on their Archetypal cards more and Control decks would have a more fair chance without floodgates then.

I recently have been loving the dinomorphia deck play style. Yeah rextrum does floodgate but it forces you to be smart with your traps or you just die.

For me personally I think I like the mid range interactive 1 for 1 decks. What I mean by that is decks that have card that pop 1 or bounce 1 are usually the most fun decks to play against, it's when yugioh turns into chess for me that I love it so much. It takes skill to bait your opp's 1 for 1 and equal skill to know when to pop and what are the choke points while playing around protective cards like sharvara or kirin. Good examples of this decks are: Lab, unchained, pure fire kings, pure rescue ace, salamangreat, orcust, swordsoul, vanquish souls and many more. The bad examples are decks like snake eyes that have the same amount of engine as a very low to the ground mid range deck but do more than most combo decks. Pure combo decks and ftks that feel like they will win every time they win the dice roll are what I feel like most people hate. Examples are drytron, gimmick puppet, super heavy samurai etc And of course the last category is the stun. If your purple card does more than 1 for 1, or 2 for 2 or is a floodgate or even worse, a lingering floodgate, then yes it takes 0 skill. If flipping the card in draw phase makes a very slight difference than flipping it in response to an opp's action, then there's no skill expression. There's legitimately no decision making needed to flip skill drain in eldlich. Your opp either has an answer or doesn't. The reason these decks have not been topping is because decks have been getting tools to deal with them, and ofc because they suck going 2nd. But not topping is definitely not because the decks require skill. Finally, people hate runick cause of the banish and seemingly free overwhelming + and draw power. People get annoyed when you banish their 1 of engine requirement. Same reason people hate kashtira. Yugioh players spend a lot of time min maxing their deck and making cuts to boost consistency, then they get punished by runick or kash for building their deck correctly which is the frustrating part. Also runick seems to just draw 6 for doing nothing. No other deck has that ability. It doesn't matter if they don't have their bp since they will have 10 cards in hand and will outgrind any other deck by banishing their key pieces. I think people also hate on runick for always dodging the banlist, and for hugin's ability to protect floodgates mid chain.

I always like playing rogue during free tourneys at locals and my best matches would be against others who play rogue or anime decks. Like playing against this new guy with Blue Eyes Deck, it was very fun for the back and forth. He plays Red Dragon Archfiend and Salamangreat now, but it's great to see non meta players who can just have fun

I think its the stun factor, especially for Runick. You usually see the floodgates because they're trying to deck you out, and while its not a flood gate in the traditional sense, when your cards all get banished before you can use them, that's the hate I've seen at locals. "Oh you banished all my responses/my starter/that card I needed to search for my combo." Unfortunately the banish mill is the deck's core mechanic, so even if you play combo runick, you still might banish your opponent's best answers or combo pieces and that's a a nontraditional way of floodgating. With Lab I think it's how powerful some traps are and the fact that they can use them at any time usually. Lab can turn traps into effectively handtraps and you'll see stuff like Lightning Storm or Harpiesl's Feather Duster result in more advantage for the player who got their backrow blown out. Traptrix isn't hated on like Lab because they're limited to the Trap Holes in terms of like searchability and consistency, but my Lab opponent can grab any trap card in the game and that's nowhere near equivalent to knowing I have to play around a Trap Hole Nightmare or Gravedigger's Trap Hole.

I think the biggest problem is how many decks have multiple one card starters. You can put multiple cards into getting to a position where you're able to try to play and then they play one card and they have their whole field back. Cards also have rediculously high attack on certain monsters that are already really oppressive.

Love these discussion videos. Keep it up Paul.

People dont like stun decks because YUGIOH is about showing off and not letting your opponent play. All other card games are pretty ok with it, its just combo players have been babied for years and stun is constantly nerfed to sell new products. The bigger misconception is that longer combo = more skill, no memorizing a combo is very easy as well. Its arguably harder to play multiple turns out.

2:20 Combo players also end on floodgates Protos, colossus, vfd, ariseheart are examples

You know whats the most fun i had with cardboard lately? A three way EDH game where i was rolling dice all the way i borrowed a Mr House gambler deck. Watching one of my friends copy after copy after copy make dragons. And one of the other guys "pillowfort" himself with a Brash Taunter, give each other player a 5/1 elemental to hit each other with and i turned Mothman into a elk in another game. But when I play YuGiOh. If its against a "control" deck. It feels like im playing against a control/blue X player who drew all their counterspells and removal spells and sits on a stack/tax piece. I like Eldlich. But I splashed the gold boy as an engine piece in Zombies/Shiranui. I like Labrynth when im not just playing against or with floodgates. And the mirror match gets intense if you know how it goes. (Anyone remember when it was the Labyrinth event?) If best of one YGO forces a "if i can't play. Nobody can." Strategy because if I let someone cook I have no chance of playing the game at all. What the heck am i gonna do then?

I hate saying this because there's no way to put it without it sounding like an insult, but the reality I've seen is that many yugioh players just act like manchildren in terms of losing and will very often look for any excuse possible for why it's not their fault that they lost or why they are still the better player despite losing. This kind of deck hate is one of the most prominent examples of such excuses. I have seen so, so many people complain about losing to some deck they claim is unfair or not fun even if their own deck would have done something very similar had it been given the chance. The fact is that yugioh is a competitive 1v1 zero sum game, and that necessarily means that for one person to win the other must lose. So even from the very beginning, play styles have always required some combination of pushing your win condition while stopping your opponent's win condition. Many people can accept this and play it out as a game, but some just can't seem to accept when they don't get to do what they want

ygo players will always complain about whatever deck is preventing them from winning. as long as both players are allowed equal opportunity to interact and have access to cards, i dont mind what deck is strong right now.

Rangaraika+Rikka+Traptrix = Midrange control that has access to becoming full combo or control but it's a VERY complicated deck.

The reason we don’t hate on traptrix is because the monsters aren’t 3k atk beaters ALONG with control .

A few days ago I dueled a guy in master duel that had a runick deck. First thing he did was activate a trap card that negates attack from any non synchro monster and I just sit there looking how my opponent negated any card that could let me out of that situation. Honestly it sucked because it was like 5 turns of me desperately trying to escape an unwinnable situation. At least labyrinth or snake eyes give the illusion that I have a fair duel.

Got back into yugioh after 10 years away. My first opponent took 15 minutes on his first turn in the first round. After he realized I was playing a structure deck he was like "shit dude I'm so sorry"😂. I bought a $10 starter deck for one piece and got to interact and play against against multiple top tier decks at the local tournament. I lost but I at least got to play and interact and have fun. One piece is back n forth, with multiple turns to be had. Yugioh is so beyond what I ever thought it could be. It's sad. 😢

With how the game is structured you can’t have everyone agree and be happy. It’s literally impossible.

People hate both Labryinth and Runick because: 1. They play during your turn and it feels like you’re getting punished just for playing the game, and 2. They break basic game mechanics of the game that cards are normally balanced around (you have to wait 1 turn for traps and you need to set quick-plays instead of using them from the hand during the opponent’s turn). When the best strategy against Runick is waiting to draw the out because playing any card gives them potential targets to banish more of your deck, you know that it’s an archetype that was badly designed. People want the back and forth struggle of monsters battling etc without it being completely one sided. A game where both players get to play and where their choices (both in plays and deck building) matter.

Hate when people act about lab and even floodgates are worse that making a field filled with negates.

I've had way more trouble against Traptricks than I've had with Labrynth.

I love when people hate on runick saying its not interactive like bro every single runick card is the DEFINITION of interaction

The thing about Runick is the claus that every single freaking card in the deck essentially is infinite. Going against it you are like, "Ok you are out of resources now right?" and the runick deck is like, "shuffle every used card this turn into the deck and draw that many cards." There really isn't a double standard because the problem with modern Yugioh is consistency with top teir decks has gotten to the point of homogeneity. Runick is just another deck where essentially every single card in it is 1 card full combo slap 5 to 8 recyclable negates on the board. It just takes longer for its win-con because its a mill.

What I think the player bass really wants but won't say is that we really want the deck we use and the game to play and feel like the TV show. A feel of a good back and forth.

Personally I love stun and control based decks cause combo decks typcally end up with a lot of negates anyways with a more controlling style of play it makes you have to think more about your form of interaction. There's some cards like anti-spell fragrance that i don't think should even be printed, but people typically can work around royal decree, rivaly of warlords, and sometimes there can only be one. Main floodgates I feel like should be allowed are summon limit and kaiser collosseum since they are just based around summoning only a couple of times. Most decks are just a big combo so I like having to think about how I interact with my opponent.

I feel like my only problem with Sword Soul and Labryinth and whatever the new Meta is of the day, is that its more EVERY person I am playing seems to have the same deck. That is a bit boring but as I always say "you do you". I am mainly a master duel player and love making random decks to just have fun even if I lose 😅

I'm not the only one getting distracted by the framed Blue-Eyes sitting on the floor, right?

I feel that an issue could be potentially the stat lines of the monsters. A great example of a control card are the evolzars; they have amazing negating effects, but their stats are below average for their rank. Another would be herald of perfection. It has an amazing negate effect, but its only defensive and needs something else to push for damage. Maybe thats why traptricks aren't as hated, they have high defensive and low attack so they don't have raw strength and a "best of both worlds" scenario. Maybe if the monsters that say no follow this role, it could make things more managable. Like, if borreload savage had 2000 atk and 3000 defense and the attack bonus just helps it average out its attack to be managbly high instead of being above average. Maybe those can work out

3:42 I think its the mentality of “There’s too many strategies that tried to stop you from playing yugioh”. It’s a miserable experience to have to sit there and be locked out by stun strategies or heavy combos with 5+ negates. I personally dont consider a win a win for either player if they won via non interactive dueling. I prefer to beat over my opponents strategy with my own which is something you dont often see anymore. Lost are the days of bosses vs bosses in battle, I’ve seen a lot of matches where its just who can lock who out of their full combo first and its not as fun.

A big problem with combo decks is that they end on boards full of omni-negates, so at the end of the turn, whats the difference between that and a control deck like Eldlitch? The difference, imo, is that the combo deck sends like 10+ minutes of my life to the shadow realm, and I actually get to play vs a slower control deck.

Hey Paul! Thanks for the videos!!! ❤

I actually really like labrynth (when played without floodates), i really appreciate the back and forth game play so i really enjoy stuff like tearlaments and madolche. I think the thing people take issue with against runnick is more your deck getting destroyed then the field interaction, if it was just that i wouldn't mind.

I think the problem tends to be that even the control decks of today still effectively do the say as combo, set up and bunch of interruption, enough to make sure you can't play, and even if not otk you necessarily put you in a position where the game is completely in their control from that time onward. The only thing that changes is how they go about making the interruptions, combo doing "solitaire" for X minutes, while control might just normal a guy that searches a trap or something and set whatever you else they got. And that's where decks like unchained, vanquish soul or rescue ace I think come in not being hated because they are primarily focused on winning by attrition and the disruptions are a lot fewer and more reasonable to work around (depending on the deck, high king ceasar can be really strong or useless depending on the match up). So yeah I think it's less about whether it's combo or control and more that regardless of what it is, it's trying to completely choke hold you one way or another. Personally I prefer facing control decks because they "get to the point" quicker, but that's just me.

My matches last most the round time at locals rn but I think it’s mainly cause I gotta read every card my opponent plays 😂😂 sucks being returning player in that sense but I do enjoy learning

Hey! I like control playstyle, but not totally caught up with the meta What are good control decks/control tech cards? I want to make a control gladiator beast deck (GB has always been my fav) but unsure how to go about it

for me the best duels are when the power levels of the decks are evenly matched. it isnt even necessarily about combo vs controll.

I’ve always been a supporter of play what you like. Control or combo, play it. HOWEVER, stun (which is different from control) I despise that style so much. Stun just doesn’t slow the game down, it just stops gameplay completely. I do not want to have a staring contest with my opponent for 20 mins.

With the game getting extremely complex, I think it's taken away from interacting/joking with your opponent. Everyone is so focused on what they need to do and your opponent, it feels like robots are playing.

I think the issue is that interaction is fun. Many of the meta decks lockdown the field turn 1 just like control. In Master Duel, Ive been intentionally building to go second, and I've had more fun. Unfortunately, it does put me at a disadvantage sometimes.

I feel like people just wanna be able to get their plays off without being interrupted alot or shut down completely regardless if they lose or win while also not having to wait a very long time for the other guy to make their 10+ min play to what I said before shut you down and probably the worst thing imo is almost all modern decks can recover to the point where a board wipe was pointless and just put you on a worse spot with less resources

Limit special summons to 5. And introduce super special summons that are unlimited. Wait 5 year. Limit special summons to 2 Limit super special summons to 5. Introduce super duper special summons that are unlimited. Yugioh, solved.

I found it absurd how just a few formats ago, where everyone was playing Branded(puppet lock included) and SHS, that the masterduel subreddits were whining about Labrynth more than anything. "WAHH how dare you flip D.barrier and prevent my 6-negate board after I combo off for 10 minutes!" It's ridiculous.

The most fun duel I had recently was facing a despia branded va my dogmakta branded Back and forth, up to 15 turns

I've recently got back into playing the game, using Master Duel. The matches are way faster than I remember. I've also noticed people just popping off effects that don't make sense. I was once against an opponent that had 10,000 damage on the board, enough to finish the duel. They kept summoning though, until he only had 2, 2000 damage monsters. I summoned ONE Blue-Eyes and then they surrendered. Idk man.

As a casual YuGiOh fan, I just hate cards that stop me from being able to play my cards. It really sucks when I'm playing some casual deck and have 1 card to get things going or I'll end up with an empty board cause it wastes my normal summon on a card that gets instantly negated and often negated and destroyed. It's also not fun to face someone who can set up a full board that will be able to do the same thing to me once it's complete. This is why I really like cards like Nibiru. It gives me a chance to play, but doesn't leave the opponent defenseless from me overextending in return. I think that if normal summons were immune from being negated unless a card specifically is stated to activate in response to a normal summon, vastly limiting available responses to that first play, it would greatly improve the back and forth of the game feel to someone like me, who is interested in competitive but just feels like it's too much of a mountain of frustration to face

Floodgates that can be dropped as soon as the next turn enters Draw Phrase suck…for the opponent. Dimensional Shifter, Anti-Spell Fragance, And even Artifact Lancea leave little time to actually have an answer against them besides; set some and pass or board empty and prayer you live next turn.

People look down on control and floodgate because it does what most combo decks try to do in fewer cards, so its easier to pilot.

My only issue with Runick is the field spell.

Sky Striker was a deck I didn't mind facing because there was a genuine back and forth and exchange of resources. Floodgates don't "slow you down" and neither do the constant Counter Traps from Altergeist and others. They just outright say "you cannot play the game", which is a gigantic difference. What exchange is happening when my opponent flips up Skill Drain? All my monsters are dead. What can I do when I get drolled? Play a different deck? Most old archetypes actually *need* to search things. No, the annoying thing about control decks these days is that even now, there's no back and forth, just the opponent flipping up cards that say "No you can't summon, no you can't activate, no you can't destroy". I don't mind facing Runick most of the time, except Runick is often used as an engine these days and is combined with big OTK extra deck monsters like Accesscode and Borrelsword. Modern Control and Combo decks play the same strategy at the end of the day. Prevent your opponent from playing their first turn, OTK on yours. And thats *if* they don't have in-archetype beatsticks.

I think the only reason Voiceless isn't all that hated is because any deck rn is a breath of fresh air from the tier 0 deck next to it.

King’s Sarcophagus is OP and idk why it’s not limited.. it lets you special summon multiple 2000+ATK monsters AND send the opponent monster straight to the graveyard when the attack phase starts . Idk how players can get any satisfaction from winning a duel in 1 turn.

Great video 👍

Based on the traptrix section. It sounds like people are okay with backrow decks. So long as they’re strong enough to play the game, without being strong enough to actually win the game

I don't have a big issue with combo decks or stun strategies honestly. I think we should all shift away from "negates" and more towards what fire king does (kinda) they can have interactions during both turns but the deck doesn't outright just say "NO"