First of all, I really liked the podcast, guys. There's a point about the EUWCQ playoffs being so low, and I feel there are aspects that aren't taken into account. Depending on where the player lives, it's impossible for them to enter the playoffs because the tournaments in their country are very small. Another part is that aiming for the top of the playoffs means literally playing regionals every week and traveling, which incurs a significant cost. That said, I also wanted to highlight that we're talking about a top 64, which is extremely demanding to reach in the events, and in Yu-Gi-Oh! there are not only 64 good players, so it's normal for many people to be left out. People usually only pay attention to the well-known players in the game.
Im totally agree that the prices should be better for the persons that dedicates so many hours a day for many weeks or even months preaparing for the event sometimes sacrificing other valuable activities. Even if your goal is just having fun you can barley call it a hobby for the amount of time required to top a big event. Besides the experiences and recognition the prices should reflect your hardwork and passion.
I sensed a lack of empathy in how Josh handled this interview. Not everyone plays the game the same way, and everyone has different goals the want to accomplish, is completely reasonable for someone that is one of the best players in the game to want more than an ugly vanilla and a nintendo switch.
Josh saying 99% hobbies in the world a person enjoys are net negative is absurd and wrong. He is the living proof of contradiction. He is one the most successful players in the game which has translated into being able to make an indirect living out yugioh. Fixing cars is hobby, and if you’re good at it you can net positive. Playing Sports in general start off is a hobby that has unlimited potential to net positive. The idea that large amounts of time and money invested into a hobby and should just expect to be net negative is a fallacy.
Damn, I usually really respect Josh's opinions and criticism but he was really defensive to not let even a small critique from Jess hit. Super depressing to see what honestly just feels like shilling
I mostly agreed with Josh in this video. I don’t know why people are so hurt by what Josh said, calling him a Konami shill and arguing in bad faith. It’s almost as if anyone who disagrees with them is automatically a Konami shill.
I think it was more his arguments were more to derail Jess' points vs refuting them. It doesn't help that Josh has made it clear he can't say anything negative about the game or company and can't use DB or non official sites for the cards either. Alot of people don't like how his content and opinions have seemed to change since. And I mean, sure chase that bag. But at the same time, people are gonna form an opinion on it, especially the internet
@@MrBagelBites Can you give an example (or multiple examples) of him “derailing” Jess’ arguments instead of “refuting” the argument? And can you tell me the difference between derailing and refuting arguments? Because that’s such a vague assertion to make. Also, when did he said he can’t say anything negative about Yugioh? What’s going to happen if he rebels against Konami? 😂
THey didnt adress the real problem in this show. The refusal of konami to communicate with the playerbase and how they really balance the game about money. We should have had a banlist in august when snake-eye got more then 80% of top cut. But they didnt and delayed the banlist cuz they care more about the profits the expensive tier 0 deck gives then the health of the game. Then the pricepoint and shortprinting which has increased drasticaly last year. Just take SP-little knight for an example. Not even talking about Snake-eye or Fiendsmith. Which both crush the entire competition and price wall it heavily. The price off this game has increased a lot while the entire community wants the ocg model. This price point with this inflated powerlevel entices everyone to get the overpriced tier 0 deck.
I took a break from the Yugioh TCG and Master Duel for a few reasons: autopilot decks, lack of diversity, the high cost, and the fact that no one wants to watch someone play solitaire and then just go to game 2 because they lock you out of the game.
Add a special summon limit per turn, this game becoming a single-player solitare experience makes it nearly impossible to introduce new or returning players to the game. People will whine they can't take 10 mins to combo and full setup and some decks will die off but it would be better for the long-term. Over time decks die all the time just due to natural powercreep. Make this a 2-player game again.
17:57 absolute meh take. Purullia isn't "ok" just because the t1 decks don't get turn-skipped. a single card shouldn't warp the format to the point of killing any deck that loses to it. Nibiru doesn't and didn't- because it is not lingering and has ways to be played around. you cannot play around Mulcharmy, aside from lucky 1ofs.
Eh 1:04:00 ....gotta agree with Joshuas mentality for jess's point here. Im getting back to playing retro formats and i didnt get back to it because i cant wait to win and get prizes, its to play yugioh from a time that i really enjoyed it ( tengu!!) Not to win prizes i think theres better games/ sports for that.
12:35 this whole take from farfa and jess i just disagree with, the players showed up, they played, won enough to get to top cut, should leave it at that everyone loses, not everyone is blessed just because your a well known player doesnt mean you deserve a gotdamn thing. These folks should learn to humble themselves lol.
1:20:17 Farfa: What's the main reason for quitting? Jess should have said: "I went UNDEFEATED at Nationals to lose to a coin flip in the finals which resulted in me not getting to play in 2 out 3 games. Worst way to lose - by not playing." Honestly. Calamity and pupper locks AND ALL locks for that matter should be banned.
Let's not kid ourselves here: COMPETETIVE YGO is not a HOBBY! It's a SPORT! Especially if you sunk money, time and effort. if the argument is that ygo is a hobby then why bother going to TOURNAMENTS?! Even if it isn't monetary, the prizing should have some form of VALUE! whether it's sentimental (due to winning) or sought after (like one of a kind card). The current prizing structure Konami has now literally shows that they don't respect you as a player and as an individual. Especially if your good at the game. Every other games out there has prizing that gives VALUE TO THE PLAYERS!
Need a video of Josh walking up to Messi, Mbappe, Ronaldo, Neymar or Pele (back in his time RIP) and telling them they shouldnt be allowed to be paid to play football because its their hobby.
What if instead of giving a ugly vanilla they give a staple in an exclusive rarity/artwork? Like an Ash Blossom that can only be obtained ny winning a YCS? That would cost next to nothing to Konami and the winner will really feel rewarded.
Damn this episode felt weird. I do.not know exactly what made it feel like that. Maybe that josh was to insistent wit his arguments or that jess was nervous. It felt tense
Jess mentions that Plant doesn't have any locks in comparison to snake-eyes. I would actually argue that this makes the deck much less healthy to play against than snake eyes. In terms of maybe fairness or their competitive viability it makes it worse, yes, but a deck having less options and being weaker to hand traps just creates less interactive gameplay. The "draw the out" is even more forced in those scenarios. Non-engine is not a good fix for one-card-combos, because non-engine is inconsistent. It always will be, unless you play a literal pile of 40 non engine, in which case is it even non-engine at that point? You cannot ALWAYS have the out, and if anytime you don't have the out it's an almost guaranteed loss, that imo is a problem with the design and powerlevel of the game. Arguable for both the strength of non-engine and also the strength of 1-card combos.
Having critical discussions about the state of the game or stuff like that should be done without josh in the future. This was a pain to listen to… I normally really like Josh and he often brings interesting thoughts to topics but this time… i really don’t know what his problem was. Sorry Josh but that was really not it. Just look at all the comments down here
Caveat note: I haven't finished the podcast yet, but I have seen Jess's video and Josh reacting to and making points/comments about Jess's video already. I also personally don't really care much about prizing for professional play as I don't and will never play the game to that extent myself, and neither will most people that play the game for its primary purpose of entertainment. I understand that it is important to a certain extent and agree Konami could do more, but I don't think it's even close to one of the main problems with the game right now. One point that I massively disagree with that Jess seems to focus hard on is "blanket effects" being a problem. I agree that some of the blanket effect cards are problematic of course, but I don't think that's a design space that is inherently bad. It's possible that Jess would agree with that, but the way it's described comes off as "Lingering effects equals bad". Lingering effects with delayed triggers that don't start a chain, such as the mulcharmy's, I actually like the design of. I don't think that means that they are balanced properly (fuwawoos specifically is very strong) but having a negative feedback loop that can allow an opposing player to get card advantage or have some other sort of impact at a similar rate to the player that is comboing off is an interesting way to "deal" with the combo problem, especially if Konami continues with their current direction of card design. Perhaps a draw is too strong, but I still think that direction of design is interesting. Personally, I still prefer reactive triggers from engine cards like Tearlaments Havnis, or as much as I hate the power level of the GY effect, Kelbek the ancient vanguard's hand effect. These allow a deck to play engine cards that have synergy with the archetype without relying on needing to draw non engine. These cards are also less proactive than pure un-interactive combo pieces like snake-eyes ash, or most other modern combo starters and extenders. Cards like Fire king High Avatar Kirin, or the Labrynth Butler or furniture piece + cooclock, are also an example of in-engine cards that allow a deck to actually interact without watching a combo for 5+ minutes, and without needing to get lucky and draw non-engine. On top of this, that type of card design is not as proactive, meaning a turn 1 from an archetype that plays many cards with effects like those will not only not take as long, but will most likely have end boards that are more interactive for both players, as they usually don't auto-lose to the horrificly designed board breakers from konami's recent band-aid anti-combo card designs like dark ruler and evenly matched, and they're usually less oppressive to play through (sometimes lab can floodgate, and tearlaments was just strongest). On the note of "future" card design: the blue-eyes cards that just got revealed are also extremely toxic for the game. They're all what I like to refer to as "Hyper proactive" and allow the deck to combo off turn 1 and set up multi-interruption end boards, in this case it's in the form of multiple omni negates and monster negates, as well as follow up and a board that will otk you. It's a different flavor of the exact same deck. Snake eyes, yubel, centurion, white woods, plants, a bunch of random rogue decks like Hero, etc. As well as archetypes that are coming out like raizeol and the mermail/atlantean support, all play the exact same way. Shit out a bunch of card advantage with 1-2 engine cards, other engine cards usually function as extenders; go through half (or more) of your extra deck on turn 1 with a bunch of free extenders/tutors, get a free nibiru negate on or before summon 5, then pass to your opponent with whatever hand traps you have left over from not discarding to your engine and say "break my board idiot". The "break my board" meta is not interactive. I'm not saying the game needs to slow down, I think the direction of card design needs to change. The game has sped up, but perhaps not enough? All of these decks play the same way as a deck from 2015/2016, the power level is just through the roof in comparison. None of them can actually "play the game" at instant speed. That's a problem. "Our turn" might be a meme, but if decks are able to unironically take 30 actions per turn, unless the opponent also gets to "play the game" on that turn, that's not interactive enough. A single hand trap in the midst of those 30 actions is not really "playing the game". Imo Labrynth, Tear, Fire king, Unchained, Bystials, and probly some others I'm forgetting - these feel like REAL modern yugioh decks to me. Essentially, I don't want non-engine to become bad, I just don't want decks to have to completely rely on it in order to play the game. (Yea I'm a simp for tear - I'm waiting for Konami to print anything even remotely interesting so I can stop coping and play a deck that is both interesting and also good. Fire king was close, but with only 3 copies of kirin and no other card that actually allows you to play the game on the opponent's first turn, you get massively out-tempo'd by the "fuck-off-combo" decks, and Lab is also just not consistent enough to actually be able to play like that) Also, ban all link 1's and stop printing them Konami. Laziest design space in the game, all of them are broken/overpowered and should not exist, with VERY few exceptions (sky striker is an archetype built around link 1's, that's fine, ban all of the other ones, no other exceptions).
That is how you can tell Josh has never played a sport a day in his life. He thinks he's "competitive". Sports players have 10x the competitive mindset he does.
I know there’s extra nuance to this topic but I can’t help but feel vindicated by the fact that everything Josh mentions as a problem of the one card combos in snake eye is a restriction or deck building requirement present in plants 😂 it’s all good we love what we love. Josh hates combo decks, I hate Runick banishing engine requirements off the top of my deck!
49:00 Farfa voiced my exact opinion on whats wrong with snake eyes. Decks should have choke points, and should have deminishing returns. For example if you play against yubel, and ghost ogre Nightmare pain, they would miss 1-2 piece for the combo, and you dont have to attack yubels. If you imperm the beckoning beast, they have less extenders. If you hand trap any slightly older deck, they just go SP, pass. But if you hand trap a snake eye twice, and they have extenders, they just make the same end board and you handlooped yourself for 3.
The issue with purrullia is the same as always... Your going second is better if only you draw it. I think its better just to make a game mechanic to help the going second situation. But at the cost of juat eliminate the Tenpai concept.
So I paused the video at 33:42 minutes, I do intend to finish the video after righting this too see how wrong or right I am. To this point in the video I feel like Jess didn't have an actual discussion with some who opposed her ideas and as much as Josh did and it got her thinking that maybe she didn't fully think it through. I watched her video before watching this and had disagreed with some of her issue's with the game, and my arguments were close enough to what Josh was bringing up. Im glad that you guys had this discussion on the video because I feel like we needed to have it out in the open for people to see both point of views. I by no means am a competitive player, but I know that formats change and some sooner than others change does happen. For a competitive player to complain that they can't play there favorite deck, because it doesn't stand up to the competitive decks is an invalid argument. Jess is still gonna play yugioh just not a competitive level, so was it actaully necessary to come out and says she's quitting? Could she just not have kept playing plants and not go to events? Im sure people would have noticed she was gone from events? I feel like stirring up the pot and still continuing to play yugioh is not a big enough statement to scare Konami. Konami is trying to push new product and if your still playing your favorite deck then you are not Konami's target demographic. I'm gonna continue the video and see if anything was answered.
The main problem with this podcast is that it's a lot of Jess saying one thing and then Josh going "No, but I don't agree that [completely different thing]". Feels like kinda just talking past the guest instead of listening.
Can you give any examples of this? Jess said something and Josh brought up something completely unrelated to what Jess’s point was and didn’t address it at all?
girldem angry that perulia checks plants because of all the tribute summoning. Also format IS ass, but anything that checks plants and floo is good in my book
Josh came off as very defensive and bluntly condescending at times. I get that it's a passionate topic, but it kinda invalidates the entire podcast if he's going to get like that. Most points were subjective but damn, at least pretend to respect other opinions and let others finish their thoughts before commenting. 🙄
The WOW TCG had the most fun land/mana system, where any card could be put facedown and used as a mana, but then you had to make the decision to make that card no longer available to be played normally for the rest of the match. Added a nice layer of strategy and thinking
