The problem with competitive Yu-Gi-Oh videos. 

_Stay tuned for my 3-hour long video breaking down the Malicevorous archetype in the modern competitive Yu-Gi-Oh metagame._

At this point I'm waiting for the inevitable *The Problem with "The Problem With Yu-Gi-Oh!" Yu-Gi-Oh! Videos*

I think an ideal format for a deck video is like this: - The general card by card, with explanation of any non-standard tech - 1 showcase of the ideal combo line - 3 random test hands to show alternate combo lines and consistency - 3 BO1 duels against Tier 3 to Tier 1 decks - 1 BO3 duel against a Tier 1 deck. This showcases more than enough for any given deck, and can neatly fit in about 30-35 minutes. Anything more in depth than that and quite frankly you're wasting your time.

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion... But these kinds of in-depth guides are way better suited for text analysis where it's super easy to bounce around text sections to search for what you're looking for and parse at your own pace. Videos can be a good supplemental for "seeing in action" with maybe a bunch of games in playlists to help. Diagrams are also much easier to parse in text at your own pace than in a video where you might need to pause/unpause a lot. The nature of text also means it can be something that is a living document that gets updated over time (with change history), versus videos where they are static snapshots. Sometimes static snapshots are fine, eg. do a discussion of a particular YCS meta for historical archival purposes, but in-depth guides are meant to be persistent and evolve and not a static thing.

There's an easy solution: Simply predict every possible banlist, every possible new card, every konami stock fluctuation, the weather next week, next month's lottery numbers, and the date block dragon comes back, and just take all those in consideration when you make the video

As a viewer and a noob at yugioh who’s trying to get better, I really enjoy watching deck profiles where the creator explains some of the combos in the deck. Helps me learn new things. Anyways, great video! Got me thinking

I've literally made my channel because there weren't enough dedicated Yu-Gi-Oh channels for Yubel, even with the new support coming out in Phantom Nightmare. There used to be one called "Yubel Mastery" which I used to watch back in 2014 because I was just a casual Yugioh player who loved the character Yubel and wanted a Yubel deck to be my main deck, even if it wasn't competitive. Yubel Mastery really innovated with Yubel, adapting to the changes of the game when synchros came out by creating a Giga-Vise style deck using Doom Shaman and really helped me when deck building. He quit like 7 years ago though and isn't around for Phantom Nightmare, so I named my channel after him to continue his legacy and hopefully help out the Yubel community like he did for me.

This is a really insightful video that really hit home for me as a content creator who makes incredibly long, mostly competitive videos about the game. I do think an interesting facet of this that often gets overlooked in this discussion is how things shift when the videos concern retro formats. Given those formats are snapshots of a time in Yu-Gi-Oh's history, those sorts of in-depth analysis videos are less likely to age poorly. Of course, this isn't perfect, as even in these more static formats there are shifts in the meta over time, but if someone made something like "The In-Depth Guide to Chaos Turbo" for Goat it would likely serve as a great introduction to the deck both on release and for a long time after. Of course, in regards to growth, this can run into the issue that you mentioned with it being a niche of a niche. But for me, even if they don't get the most views, it definitely feels like the amount of time I put into it is more worth it as I occasionally see people use my retro format videos to try out the older versions of the game even months after I initially publish them.

I don't think 2+ hour long content on anything that moves so quickly as the YGO meta game will ever work. I do think there's more than what MBT does with his 10 minute test though. I think Hex Lex actually does a great job at this, doing like "X Deck in MD season whatever number it's on" Mention cards that came out that can help it, cards that got banned/limited and how it hurts it and just how it interacts with the current meta game

The problem with Archetype discords, while they do have a lot of good information, the people in the discords can often times be very elitist in a toxic way or they're straight up dead. Even the RDA discord that I created has periods of it just having dead chats constantly when it's been like many months without new possible toys to play with.

I wouldn't ever like a content creator doing this, however I think this can be done by breaking it down into smaller niche videos for an archetype. That way the playlist can be updated when something changes and also you can guage the interest from viewers with every new release. An archetype can be broken down completely over 6 months rather than an intense week of research and editing.

I agree 100 percent. I am gonna pick one deck for channel and focus on that deck though the formats for 2024 and upload tips as the changes come.

Plus there's the competitive tierlists videos which I assume do very well, but it's true that I won't go search a tierlist for March 2019. You have to do one every format.

Learning about a Yugioh archetype is just like preparing to write a 5000 word thesis. People should just use the various competitive Yugioh videos on offer as a platform for your own research and then build on top of it with other varying resources like X, Google or Reddit. You can then use said research as a guide to start deck building and then test your build on Master Duel or any of these other simulators. I look at DarkArmedDuelist as an example. A lot of his deck profiles are geared more towards the casual side, but he does well to explain the various meta relevant interactions, so it gives viewers a rough guide on the ratios of particular cards to run. In conjunction to his videos, I then watch someone like Dzeef for a more comprehensive analysis on the meta and relevant decks. It’s just insanity how people expect 2 hour long guides for essentially ALL relevant archetypes. From personal experience, Yugioh is best learnt through playing the game instead of feeding through others.

There are multiple hour long dueling book replays with commentary on most meta relavent decks. Thats how i learned rikka sunavalon btw.

These types of meta deck analysis is best left to retrospective. Analyzing when and why certain decks dominated the game, rather than trying to keep up with the constantly changing meta

So I have a few thoughts regarding this topic. On the surface I 100% agree with you, as the content becomes more niche the audience for the content quickly diminishes. I also perfectly understand why yugitubers would then choose to aim their content towards a more casual audience or an audience that enjoys the variety-style content that people like Cimo make. However, it also feels like a bit of a cop out. I think competitively aimed content has the potential to not only work but thrive on the platform. I don’t think the problem with competitive content is a lack of audience, I think the real issue is nobody is particularly good at making it. Casual focused content has a lot of variety and innovation on the platform which allows for creators to market themselves as a brand. In contrast, the competitive content that exists is incredibly bland and lifeless, there’s almost nothing unique that happens within the space, and I don’t think it’s the fault of the genre. For example, there’s a litany of content variety for casual players, you have nymnhim’s sealed only series, progression series, master duel masochist, ruggles’ return to yugioh series, ruxin’s pack openings, etc. Now look at the competitive space, there’s only 5 different videos that people make: meta tier lists, new card discussions, deck profiles, hand trap guides, and db grinder videos. No wonder competitive content doesn’t thrive on the platform, it’s all the exact same videos everyone has seen a million times just slightly updated for each meta. Competitively focused content in my mind has just as much potential to develop an audience and grow a channel, it just requires creators to actually create something new. You brought up the example of deck profiles and how they don’t do anything to cultivate an audience for a particular channel, and generally I agree. However, it’s also ironic that what I consider to be the 2 best examples of evergreen competitive content on this platform happen to be deck profiles, specifically the 2 deck profiles of Johnny Li (1 was B.A. Monarchs and the other was Sky Striker True Draco). Those videos are also an example of where the personality of the person is the core appeal of the video. If more competitive content was of that caliber, the space would be magnitudes better. I think it’s possible for highly competitive content to thrive, it just requires a bit of imagination from creators

First off, I love your channels. So, congrats on always being YOU. Second, when I got back into ygo in 2019, I watched Cimo's videos for the "How to..." This taught me how to Link,XYZ,Synchro summon, which was extremely important because I was still playing GK. I got ran over my Salamangreat, so I found his video on how to play Salad. But those are just 3-5 minute vids and are out dated. I do wish there were places to go over decks to maybe make them more appealing and/or teach you lines for the deck.

I was one of those people that wanted the Snyder Cut deck vid when I 1st came back to dueling, but then channels like this and others pretty much gave me what I wanted and more to assist my questions. I think the biggest thing for anyone that consumes content on YGO, is to *BEFORE YOU WATCH WHATEVER VIDEO* , like that video, sub & leave a random comment. This not only helps the creator with the algo, but it helps you as instead of looking for "in-depth vids" you will just get them suggested in your feed. E.g. I decided to make Traptrix my new main deck. But because I'm still finding my way to the new rules, summons etc, I was searching for deck profiles, and because I always, liked, subbed & commented, the vids just come now and the best part is a lot of smaller channels (500 & less subs) were now in my feed and getting them traction. Hell, I learned just last month on how I can test my deck out with YGO online card/deck simulators (Shout out to you Paul). .... Channels like this are IMOH are the best because, we get a questions answered, entertained and pointed in the direction of other sites/channels that we probably never would've found.

I did something like that for Dino last year, and I’ve been trying to do it for other decks, mainly rogue decks for getting casual players into the more competitive side of yugioh

Despite the community's fixation on winning and "good" decks, most Yugioh players want casual content. Anyone looking to play high-level Yugioh is stuck with the internet of 2006 . It's ironic because 2006 would be a great year to make in-depth, long-form content.

I think videos on Yugioh concepts such as rulings and interactions are valuable. They're probably fine to create. It's worth noting that TCG and Master Duel card pools aren't the same currently, so competitive videos that are for the TCG that can also be valuable to Master Duel is something to consider. However, the banlists are different and potentially the meta as well.

Happy new year team aps 🎉

Old school Yugioh is my jam. I watch content like Rhymestyle's classic games or like yours to catch up on things as I do not play modern Yugioh at all, just curious about its developement.

I can see this work as a video series, where the youtuber takes their favorite deck and does cover it from all the angles mentioned, but as an example which deals more with how general principles which can be carried over to any other deck are applied here.

The fun thing for me in yugioh deck building is the incorporation of your own play style in the deck you are building not just a copy paste of another build since not all player plays the same and you may not get the card choice their using

I think the solution is to dwindle it down to more bite sized chunks instead of wanting a 2 hour combo tutorial for every situation. While some people might enjoy that, it could be hard to keep track of for a lot of people. Instead, I think a multi-part series might just work better. The first part could be you picking up Unchained, playing a certain build, profiling it, and telling people why you play it the way you do. Second video could be an overall general information video, like what hand traps or board breakers interact the most or least with your deck, what specific tech choices could someone run, budget options, etc. The next follow up videos could be you playing the deck at locals, refining it as you go, and then the last portion is taking it to an event like a regionals and detailing your experience. Maybe while you're playing it at locals or regionals, you interview other players who are playing the same deck and get their opinion and perspectives that way it doesn't feel like it's coming from just one source.

I'm someone who knows a LOT of really niche and mostly strange decks (Cubics, Chronomaly, Appliancer, Tindangles, Triamids etc.) and I do believe there is a niche for content that's similar to this, albeit not competitive. I'd love to have more people breaking down archetypal cards, not only talking about their themes but also how they were intended to be used. That way even if the banlists change the meta, the intention behind the archetype/their cards are still going to be there.

I heard some of the more competitive players had started some online duel academy awhile back. Maybe players try that, if it's still available. Also, I kinda get the incentive thing. There are those of us who have a limited attention span.

Totally agree with you on how the meta fluctuates very quickly in Yu-Gi-Oh. I feel it's more a touch and feel kinda thing with Yu-Gi-Oh. There really is no definitive way to play perfectly since there are so many different ways to counter opponents play. There is no way you can be ready for every single matchup possible

I think it depends where you look and if you'd be willing to pay. I know Trif has or had a patreon that breaks down pend or whatever deck he's piloting.

Lets be honest the main problem is after upload a card vital to the deck may get banned.

a best example of this is how my long streams get like 10 views. My videos that are like 40 min or less get 60 views. Than my 60 second shorts get 1,000 views. It is wild how the algorithm works

I'm glad you explained this because i always wonder why y'all don't post competitive content because i like consuming yall content and i always want y'all to top ycss and stuff since i know that both of you have good have knowledge but i also understand why you wouldn't focus on it since competetive yugioh is so niche compared to people who only know yugioh for the anime and everything and we don't even have an anime right now so you have to take the engagement and old school as the passion.

i have seen smaller creators with decklist guides with combos and hand tests. But Im just a casual MD player amd I use them to speed up learning a new deck Im crafting.

I think El Expedia del Duelista makes great videos and breakdowns that’s super easy to follow. I don’t speak Spanish but they use a format that appeals to meta players and the videos are easier to digest. I also think people make videos how they want, yes you could be a yugituber but others might just like posting videos as a hobby. Their reactions or meta analysis is for themselves and to teach viewers what’s currently going on. If it gets outdated then it’s a time stamp in yugioh history which years later can be good to go back to.

Tearlaments is a great example of this It went through so many variations , changes, nerfs, bans and now it's borderline impossible. People would need articles and spreadsheets upon spreadsheets to explain the in and outs, the various tech engines, tactics, boards and for what? for all that to be irrelevant and unplayable a few months after.

People want content. But the majority won't support who create's that content. Like people who share AI art but doesn't care about the damage to artists or sharing fanart without artist credit and etc. There are plenty of RU-vidrs who will sometimes show their graph of people who watch that are vs aren't subscribed that back that up.

I suppose the video equivalent of a giant tome can only be the start of a longer-term project spanning several videos over the course of the game (about one video per deck/archetype each time something relevant changes). This one big video would basically be where we are now and maybe sketch the past evolution of the deck, so that every new video could simply be an update, referencing the previously established ideas if necessary. While it's possible to link to specific moments in videos (adding &t=Xs where X is the time past the beginning of the videoin seconds) as well as to make annotations in videos with links in the description, YT as a platform doesn't seem all that conducive to establishing such an encyclopaedic overview. References to things discussed in the past seem managable but going also the other way, adding annotations to older videos to point out that which has become obsolete or has to considered together with newer information (of course, including links to that newer information) - or, god forbid, just editing the uploaded magnum opus time and again whenever something relevant changes which will include adding passages and sometimes removing others, seems like quite a hassle.

You cna sum up this whole topic with one infamous quote. "You think you do, but you don't."

I’d love to see more content that pauses matches to explain things in a bit more detail with graphics and insert examples and visual aides (most videos are assuming majority of the viewers are well versed in meta cards) to help newer players get up to speed and learn bit by bit about applications of cards how they work and potentially how they can be played.

I gave some thought about how I would go about posting a video on my Bug Beat deck. The first card I thought of explaining was Parasite Paranoid and its roll in the deck. I then started listening every possible interaction I could think of, then listed special rulings that effect it such as Rivalry of Warlords. I then realized, this list is already log asf and I only barley covered 2 cards. It would be a ton of research, testing, script writing, recording, editing, rinsing and repeating to do a single video. Then the format changes as well as the deck. I think the only way these types of videos would be worth the effort is if they focus on just the engine and combos with no regard to the meta or banlist. Showing what the engine can do with techs and such would be interesting, but no less work than the former

I am also not certain with team APS's budget (I know the rare hunters, and slifer slackers series has been pretty expensive) but it would be rather interesting to see the team not only open a few of the latest boxes but try to put something together from them. (if their is enough interest/profit perhaps that could be a series done for a year).

Problem with the game is that there is no place for casual mode, people always wanna win so if you jump in into your locals you can expect to meet very competitive players that can be intimidating and not fun for newbies and new players with a more casual mindset. Physical play forces you into the competitive mindset so it's not for everyone. On top of that the game is super complicated and does not incentivize to socialize with other players. I myself play very little paper Yugioh for such reasons, so is not viable to me to buy Konami product. With paper Yugioh I don't enjoy to not having the option to play in a more casual mode.

I dared to think I was decently knowledgeable on the Raidraptor deck but it took 1 day to get a comment saying my list is a "disaster" on my most recent video. So even if you are fairly confident and passionate about a strategy there WILL be disparaging opinions which further alienate a possible 'video essay'. Even explaining tech choices or ratios can meet the same differing opinions turf. All I do is make meme replay videos that maybe top at 12 minutes and 30 seconds and those take forever to make already.

Too many viewers understand the idea of RU-vidrs making content that the RU-vidr and viewers both enjoy. But there is a disconnect on how long that enjoyment needs to last. The viewer only needs to enjoy it in the moment. The creator needs it to be enjoyed for as long as possible.

Many agree that Konami needs to create a new anime. With a smart tactical protagonist like Yusei, having a jolly personality like Jaden with dark supernatural elements like in DM. This anime should Revisit Past Archetypes mixed with modern decks and teaching viewers how to use them. Also, explaining the lore behind archetypes maybe existing in Parallel Universes or simply just expanding the Spirit World lore. This new series would need to be Very Long for it to have enough time to give lots of screentime for returning old archetypes and new archetypes that have never appeared on screen.

on the combo/deck profile videos, I hope they would show the combos first and then explain later. some combos are so complex and long and becomes unnecessarily hard to follow just because of stopping on a certain step to explain something or how an opponent can stop you at that point. it is helpful sure, but can they just get the combo over with and discuss the weaknesses reasonings for the steps and chokepoints later? with tons of cards getting released each year and konami refusing a rotating format, yugioh has been really really complicated.

Stay the path, boys. Awesome channel!

I remember Cimo was making something similar to those with the last one being Tearlaments but he stopped. When you think about it it's quite obvious as to why. Exactly the reasons discussed in this video

An in depth guide video wouldn't work for all the reasons mentioned in the video. An idea that I thought of, not sure if it's any better or doable, is if a creator has a Patreon or some secondary location. They could create an in depth guide for certain decks and they could be maintained going forward. Could be a massive folder of walk through documents, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, or whatever is needed to show the full scope of the deck and the creator could simply update the folder's content once things change. Would still require a lot of work up front but then minimal work afterwards. Consumer would simply pay a fee for access to this folder(s). Consumers could even pay for a specific folder/deck rather than a catalog of folders/decks. And if it is on Patreon that could be a tier to request new decks. Not sure if any of this makes sense typed out or again if it is doable but just my thoughts.

I'm a "new" player in the sense of I am learning everything from Master Duel, and RU-vid videos, I'd love this type of stuff, not only to learn how to play a deck better, but to understand WTF my opponent is doing half the time. But I get its not practical.

While the demand is certainly there, it’s apparent that no matter what genre of game it is, its competitive players will always be a niche that thinks they’re the silent majority of players. When in actuality they’re the loud minority, and are the ones that are the least likely to even spend money on the game, when compared directly to casuals

if you understand a deck very well you'd know what to change after a banlist

I think one thing that's severely lacking in the content creation space is side decking and side deck patterns for competitive play. Your sidedeck is what makes or breaks your tournament and trying to determine which cards to not only use, but how to side out cards is something you don't ever see from any content creators.

Your channel, your content, Paul. It's that simple. Fans of the channel will likely watch whatever content it is you choose to drop. 👍

Long form YuGiOh content like that, would probably work for Legacy formats but for current modern day Yu-Gi-Oh, where banlists and new products can just wreck the viability of your deck, or perhaps change how it works drastically. It just ain't gonna work.

Probably not helped by the fact the video was made a few years back, but my Red-Eyes Burndown video is now severely outdated... Red-Eyes Soul, Red-Eyes Alternative Dragon, that Lv 6, I did not see any of them coming and I've been playing Red-Eyes since I started playing in 2007! I never saw the new T.G. coming and I've been playing them since the 5D's era, you get the point! Plus, you get cards you didn't have back then and, yes, I have acquired a Baronne de Fleur recently but am missing Dragunar and Mighty Striker and only have one of each new T.G., so as you can imagine, my T.G. profile on here is now out of date, mostly cuz I've edited it to take the new cards into account! In the future, there will probably be new T.G. cards, certainly new Red-Eyes cards and I am down with that, new strategies, new plays to think of, new combos to think up...

Competitive Yugioh players: If only there were a way to enjoy in-depth guides to how certain decks play, but update every time something new happens to the meta! Deck profile blogs: Are we a joke to you?

The only way I see having those kind of videos from the Completive Yu Gi Oh Players Dream Video. Is with Live Streams from their Favourite Yu Gi Oh Content Creators, and the little added advantage of that is that the Content Creators could directly Interact with the Competitive Yu Gi Oh Players. But the only problem with hat would be obviously be rather the said Content Creators Could or even Wants To Host a 3 Hours Plus Live Stream.

They need a 2 hour combo video over cyber dragon the lines are insane!!

This is also a bit of a problem in a hidden-list format. Deck lists not becoming public at any point unless someone announces their list pushes content like these mentioned videos out. It’s not a space that can be easily traversed even if RU-vid did benefit them. But. If you were. Twitch and patreon would probably be the best 2 sites for it.

We had the "Yugioh players dont read" now we are going all in to the next level "yugioh players dont think".

The only reasonable way for content like this to exist on RU-vid would be for it to be patreon supported

This needed to be said

Would you be open to a 10-15 minute breakdown of the general gameplan of a given deck/archetype, maybe a few bread and butter combo ideas, strengths and weaknesses of the deck. Nothing absurdly in depth. Kind of a "This is what it do, and that's kinda cool" type video.

In trying to make a video now actually. My first ever. I have several variations of Vanquish Soul that are more fun to play. Same with Rescue-Ace. They get me to Diamond and Master often enough im iust not a content person so its hard to show it off. Im starting on twitch and then hopefully i can move to YT. I also still need to adjust my reactions to when things dont go my way 😂

i feel hyper exlanation of deck wont be good, it remove the critical thinking (which ygo player should have) i usually watch simple combo with deck list (i even skiping some part or ending at the mid of vid) just to see whats the core of the deck, what can i change if i dont want use certain card, which part do i interupt, can i extend with something else

I'd watch an entire episode on fur hire. I love how spammy and cute they are, a nice upgrade from fabled.

i definitely feel like theres a space on youtube for videos like this with decks that CAN be competitive but arent likely to get hit by bans or have mass changes because of new product, ex-blackwings, madolche, etc

ngl i got the time and im a youtuber myself i honestly might start making long form yugioh content that sounds fun af

This is so insane because im working behind the scenes on my specialized platform to outreach with the community and bring together a product platform and more to create a flow of information

I saw that comment and i didnt vote cause to me that person is asking for somthing they clearly havent looked for. There are plenty of in depth guides to decks, tcg and master dual, generally averaging around 45 min. And like paul said they rarely have many views.

As someone who consumes and creates content primarily on the competitive side of the game, I will contend that making such longform competitive content isn't as bleak as people (often the same people who are the most capable of making such content in the first place) are making it out to be, especially considering the small sample size of such content in the Yu-Gi-Oh! space to even draw this conclusion from. Looking at a large channel like MBT's, one of his competitive in-depth longform videos (the Mathmech Primer) has done very well despite the entire intro of that video being a disclaimer on why such videos aren't successful. Its view count is competitive with and even eclipses a majority of Ten Minute Testings that have been uploaded after it even though TMT is one of the flagship series that his channel was built upon. It's even more apparent in more mid-sized channels. Winter_Killz's most popular video on his channel is an extremely detailed Earth Machine guide from over 2 years ago clocking in at over an hour and a half in length. Sir Emanon (rip) has a TWO HOUR long Tri-Lyri combo tutorial with 160k views (well over 10x his subscriber count). ToptierGamingYugioh (rip) has multiple combo guides and detailed deck profiles with over 50k views despite having under 15k subs. Even in small channels like my own, my best performing videos have been in-depth combo tutorials/in-depth deck profiles that near or even (usually) surpass 40 minutes in length. So even if such videos aren't the most evergreen content, they can be very successful in spite of that. Basically what I'm saying is: the top comments on videos saying they want more in-depth competitive content, and the people who upvoted said comment, are real people that exist and they aren't lying about wanting to watch this type of content.

You’re right it’s probably not worth the time and resources. But maybe a RU-vid shorts for each combo of a deck with the list and picture presented as well. Say 1 Ancient gear deck list and 5 short vids going over top 5 priority plays with the deck. Each being just 60seconds or so.

What about 30 minute deck type video breakdowns? Stuff for new players to watch and learn how the deck plays, with its pros and cons

Honestly for something like that I think the best location would be on Patreon or something similar. RU-vid will never give enough incentive for long form videos to be worth it, especially for something as in depth and constantly changing as deck archetypes

I mean, Duel Logs does some of this type of video, how many do we need?

As many comment have already said, I think that content already exists but its just not from one single person. There are many channels dedicated to one specific deck, LoganJYA for Drytrons, trishula for d-link. I think a lot of these people are really underestimating the time it takes for someone to be able to master a deck to that point where they can do content like that, and it's certainly not possible if they're expecting 1 person to do it for 50 different decks

These in depth guides exist and they remain valuable over time as existing cards usually stick around. Razen will most likely forever be relevant in VS. Also older archetypes change much less rapid. So these also stay relevant for a longer time. Of course a "old"/"Bad" deck is barely competitive is it? But you can still try to be as competitive as you can. Also Playlists

I would love to see you upload u playing master duel videos give it a good thought please if you haven’t already

Here's an idea for a video, how would the future of Yugioh change if you of Team APS owned Konami??

It's a passion Vs reward issue. Pretty clear cut case

alternatively instead of 2 hours long i make 20 plus minute long videos called yugioh in depth where i teach the viewer how to play a deck and what the choke points are it has really helped my channel.

I think it needs to be a more multimodal approach. A lot of the long form video primers I've seen are good, and they are entertaining. But as you've mentioned there are downsides to the creator. For the viewer, it's also not always idea because you don't always need all the info they are giving you. Like, if we're doing a marincess primer, I don't need to watch an explanation of the cards effects, but I do want explanations about why they run some cards but not others, and often times they are stuck together. I've liked some of the text based guides; they're a lot easier to follow along with if you're testing things out, since you don't need to pause a video every few seconds. Dueling book replays also have a niche in going through multiple potential hands that would be tedious to do in text and implausible in video. I'd say a better idea, then, is to make a deck profile and basic guide that takes far fewer resources, but have a more detailed primer in text and specific combos with general explanations of the concepts in a video, but individual variations in a list. Keeping it up to date would still be a big effort, and honestly would be better served by having multiple people involved. But I feel non-video methods can be pretty useful.

Paul out here teaching us a thing or 2.

I feel like viewers underestimate and not value the effort for such guides. Just copying all possible combo lines you see in a video and not learn how they even work is most likely bite you in the ass when it comes to actually playing and when you get interrupted you don't know what to do anymore. Idk it seems like many players just wanr an instant solution and put minimum personal effort in nowadays. And as you said, that information is probably outdated soon after, or maybe even before that video comes out as it took so long to produce.

I get the point where you are saying, that a banlist can make such a in depth deckguide irrelevant, but on the other hand - once a deck is explained at some point, it still would make it a lot more likley, that new players can be drawn into the competitive scene. If new cards do come out that support that deck, people would recognize the synergy, because they saw that video, they would remember "oh hey, wouldn´t that card fit into that deck?" and they also would understand banlists better, they would get a feeling for what kills a deck and improve their deckbuilding skill, simply because they know, wich ratios are good, and so on. If no such videos are made, it is even harder to generate new players. Every content gets oudated at some point, you could apply the same reason to meta discussion videos, but they are watched frequently, despite the meta is changing every view months, right? It still would require high effort to make those videos.

Honestly, I think it would be better time spent on a giant ass video talking about *how* to construct those Unchained plays and decks without ever hyper focusing on unchained specifically. Yu-Gi-Oh players, unless you are the in crowd of existing competitive players who started 20 years ago or already do content creation, traditionally have a hard time understanding what makes a card good or bad, what decisions go into deck building, how to analyze an archetype's value, how to deck test, etc. I think a giant video on those important fundamentals when it comes to competitive Yu-Gi-Oh is way more valuable than zeroing in on a specific archetype momentarily.

1st point was really good. More to it , usually yugiyubers have to really love the archetype/card for something like that...think yubelmastery and mistvalleymaster... But back then those guys ddnt get alot of views especially when their decks ddnt have support... Mvm has some of the coolest harpie/dragunity combos and if we went back to those formats would actually still be a great guide... But the love wasnt there

Very simple. Make it a Patreon feature pricy enough to make up the revenue and make em vote on the next in depth video they wanna see

There Are Really Too Many Versions & Variations Of Decks & Archetypes To Tunnel Out 2 Hours Strictly Towards One Deck Type; They, We, YOU Would Be Bound To Get Even Just Slightly Sidetracked & Begin To Cite Favorite Staples, & etc. Even With That: You Might End Up Spending Two Hours Dry, & Bland AF .... Or You Could Share The Styles You Love, With The Flexibilty Of Shining Special Pieces; Or Even Coming Up With Sauce, LIVE!!!! Choice Is Yours; Your Move!!!

You know you can do both. You could make a casual video. And then make a super competitive. You don't have to do one or the other you can do both at the same time

It becoming outdated really isn't an argument for multiple reasons some of which are actually things related to what people complain about. A.) You would presumably ONLY do so for decks you enjoy using. The time and effort is minuscule to meaningless if so because you already know a lot about it or don't mind learning because you care. It's a huge cut to production time by only producing ones on decks you personally care about. Does this mean your favorite Yugituber should be making every single one? Obviously not but they could absolutely do some. I could and did play Tearlament but I would absolutely not be making a tutorial on it. Dark Magician, Black Rose Dragon, Invoked, Shaddoll, Runick, Evil Twins, Unchained. Those are the things I would make if I set myself to doing an in depth video on a deck because I like them, I play them a lot, and know them pretty well inside and out. B.) There is always going to be someone who wants to play whatever format you're talking about so a banlist doesn't necessarily mean anything. Especially because it's still going to be an okay guide for new players even if many years have passed. While it might not help with the exact current format, if they understand why it played certain things even in the past it can lead to an understanding of why they play other certain things now. A video released during TOSS format is still somewhat relevant to building Sky Striker today. It's not perfect to building it in 2024 but it works as a starting point. C.) Which comes to the thing I mentioned people complaining about. If people REALLY want new players to join the game it's primarily on them as someone who knows the game to do so. If someone is unwilling to make such things just because muh time muh money - even for decks they would be playing anyway - then they really only have themselves to blame. This is true for any game in general. A community thrives by it's most enthusiastic players making wikis and guides constantly. That game you love that has no GameFAQs entries and 10 year old unanswered questions might be awesome, but it isn't popular because no one cared to make those things for it. "Do I care about new players or do I not?" is the real question you should be asking when thinking about making such videos.

I think Winter_Killz is a great example of this. I love his content and have learned more from his guides than perhaps anyone, but it has to kill (no pun intended) his subscriber growth making those types of videos. If that is something you are looking for, then I highly HIGHLY suggest giving him a look.

i always see those indept guide as "this is how to play this particular archetype 101" after that it's up to the player on how to adapt that archetype to the current meta... i dont see those guide as the definitive guide but a starting point.

I think the closest thing someone can do to this is what Quantum Mercury used to do for Floo. He only really played Floo so he made videos breaking down his games and that gave people wanting to play the deck a way to learn from him while not falling into these wproblems. I learned a lot similarly from watching Coder and Josh play Runick decks. The real trouble for this type of video is that you kind of have to be a deck loyalist to do it feasibly.

There's a channel in spanish that does exactly that, its called masked hero vic

The only content creator i can think of that would be crazy enough to do a 2hr Yugioh video and not care how many views it got is Moist Critical. But i dont know if he really keeps up with the game outside of just collecting the rare cards

Well that is the thing. Make the video as if it WILL be outdated. Make in the video extra cards/ contingencies in case anything does get hit. On the other side, actually say what cards on the ban/limited list that the deck would make good use of if it came off the list and make a list in case the reasonable cards ever come off. Most eventually will.