After 20 years of continuous support, Konami has finally decided to drop all that legacy and history and axe the beloved franchise. In a surprise announcement, the company has announced that the original Yu-Gi-Oh game will no longer be sold in game stores and that they'll send everyone an incinerator to get rid of their old cards.
The game will be replaced with a new and fresh version that smells of elderberries, but still tastes like cardboard. Yu-Gi-Oh 2, stylized Yu-Gii-Oh, will release in Japan two years ago, and in the rest of the world whenever they remember it exists. Let's see what's in store!
New Card Frame and Formatting
The original Yu-Gi-Oh card frames are iconic at this point. However, they also have a lot of negative space and can be a little crammed. Yu-Gii-Oh adds a new frame that fixes a lot of these problems.
The new frame increases the artwork space a bit, allowing the art room to breathe. Gameplay elements, like the level and ATK/DEF have now been moved in a single spot bellow the artwork, so they're all in one spot, and are now bigger and a lot easier to read. The only things that are relatively unchanged are the name and the attribute icon, the latter of which is also larger. The only thing coming over from the old cards is the grey border, which reminds you this is still Yu-Gi-Oh!
Another notable change is the way cards with effects are formatted. We only have the Japanese versions of the card, but the new Call of the Earthbound has the Requirements listed on the first line, and the effect on the second. This should help readability a lot going forward.
New Rules
New game means there's going to be some new rules in the game. A lot of the stuff carries over from the new game, but there's also a lot of changes.
First and foremost, the field is shrinking. Players only have 3 Monster Zones and 3 Spell & Trap Zones, and there are also no Extra Monster Zones or Pendulum Zones. Structurally, the game remains unchanged otherwise: 8000 Life Points, 40 to 60 cards in your Main Deck, up to 15 cards in your Extra Deck, and a Graveyard to send your cards to.
The number of Monsters you can Normal and Tribute Summon in a turn goes up. Like, to infinity. Yep, now you can summon as many Monsters as you want each turn, assuming you have them in your hand. The monster types are also reduced drastically, with the only returning ones being Normal, Effect, and Fusion Monsters. There's no Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, or Link Monsters.
The number of summons may increase, but there are also some restrictions. For one, all effects have a default "once per turn" condition, so you can't constantly activate the same effect on a monster. You're also limited in the number of Traps you can activate at once, as you can only activate one Trap when a condition is met even if you have multiple that meet the requirements. Finally, there's a brand new subtype of Monster called a Legend, which you can identify by the word "Legend" in the upper-left corner of the art. You can only have ONE Legend in your deck.
Maximum Monsters
The new game introduces a brand new Monster type and Summoning method! Maximum Monsters are Monsters that are comprised of 3 different pieces that can be summoned as a single entity if you have all pieces in your hand. To Maximum Summon, you send all the monsters you have on the field to the graveyard, then summon the Maximum Monster, which is treated as a single Monster for the purposes of attacking, tributing, and targeting, but it can activate any effect of the component parts. It's ATK is the MAXIMUM ATK value, and it has no DEF as it can't exist in defense mode.
Of course, each component can also be Summoned as a standalone card, but they will be treated as different Monsters, even if you Summon all 3 pieces. The cards shown above each have the following effects:
- Yggdrago the Sky Emperor [L]
- [REQUIREMENT] Maximum Mode: Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.
- [EFFECT] Destroy 1 face-up Level 8 or lower monster on your opponent's field.
- Yggdrago the Sky Emperor
- You can Maximum Summon this card together with "Yggdrago the Sky Emperor [L]" and "Yggdrago the Sky Emperor [R]".
- [REQUIREMENT] Maximum Mode
- [CONTINUOUS EFFECT] This card cannot be destroyed by your opponent's Trap Card effects.
- Yggdrago the Sky Emperor [R]
- [REQUIREMENT] Maximum Mode: Send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard.
- [EFFECT] Change 1 Defense Position monster on your opponent's field to face-up Attack Position.
Jokes Aside
Obviously, this is an April Fool's article. Konami isn't making a game called "Yu-Gii-Oh" and terminating the current one, that'd be silly!
However, the new cards presented in this article are real. They are used in the "Rush Duel" format of the game, which is meant to be a more simplified version of the main game that acts as a stepping stone for younger players. It's only been released in Japan and Korea so far, but there's a chance it goes international this or next year, since it took three years for the original game to make the jump back in the early 2000s. For now, you can play the format on Switch via the Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel: Dawn of the Battle Royale!! video game.
Comments
Ngl, this post caught me real hard. But it still entertained me alot. Nice article!
Gotta be more cautious for april fool jokes next time 👀
The fact that people could see Konami doing this speaks volumes about the company. Glad to have entertained you!
I've seen the cards in the first place and got me thinking, is this really true?
Although, sending each player an incinerator is a bit much, but still not enough to make me realize that the whole article was the joke after all.
You got me pretty good.
It's true, but the actual format is called rush duel which is getting it's second anime season in a few days
And no I'm not April fooling right now, it's actually the format
Like I said in the last paragraph, all I've said is true, I just presented it in a jokey manner.