How Konami Could Fix YU-GI-OH! Tins for 2025 — GeekTyrant

A couple of weeks in the past, Konami launched twenty fifth Anniversary Tin: Dueling Mirrors for the Yu-Gi-Oh! buying and selling card sport. To say that these tins had been met with applause and reward could be so removed from the reality it’s not even humorous.

These tins are some of the hated merchandise that Konami has launched for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in fairly a while. In truth, I’ve not been hiding my frustrations with them both from associates. However why are folks so mad about these tins?

I need to not solely define issues that duelists are having with these tins, but in addition talk about how I believe they might be saved for subsequent 12 months’s tins, and even see if we are able to discover any positives with the discharge of Dueling Mirrors. Whereas I can’t personally advocate shopping for these tins, when you actually need to you should purchase them out of your native OTS or sport retailer for $21.99.

Earlier than we get into all of the factors I discussed, I do need to first cowl what the Dueling Mirrors tins provide duelists. Contained in the tin, you’ll discover three Mega-Packs. Every Mega-Pack contains 8 Commons, 3 Extremely Rares, 1 Prismatic Secret Uncommon, and 1 Quarter Century Secret Uncommon.

General, it doesn’t sound too dangerous. There are 400 playing cards obtainable within the set with 50 QCSR, 100 PSR, 150 UR, and 100 C. The majority of playing cards come from the next units: Energy of the Components, Photon Hypernova, Cyberstorm Entry, Duelist Nexus, Age of Overlord, Maze of Recollections, Superb Defenders, Wild Survivors, and Valiant Smashers. I believe that’s sufficient fundamental info to begin with.

Additionally, I do need to acknowledge some constructive results of the Dueling Mirrors tins. First, the precise bodily tin seems good and it’s practical. Lots of people like to make use of these tins to retailer playing cards (usually the Commons) and so they do work for that.

Second, whether or not we prefer it or not, the costs of playing cards from the tins have decreased. Earlier than the tins, S:P Little Knight was $75+ and now you will get one for about $40, so whereas it’s nonetheless not perfect, it’s much better than it was and we do have to admit that.

My last constructive is that I’m a sucker for alternate artworks and fairly frankly, Dueling Mirrors has fairly just a few and they’re superior. That Raigeki and Crimson-Eyes Black Dragon go laborious! Now let’s talk about the not so good.

Allow us to begin with most likely probably the most noticeable downside with Dueling Mirrors: the scale of the cardboard pool. There are 400 playing cards on this set. That’s over 100 playing cards greater than the 2023 tins! This set is so bloated that even when each card was the identical rarity, you wouldn’t have nice odds of getting any given card that you just wished.

So as to add insult to bloat, so lots of the playing cards are simply dangerous. For starters, there are playing cards which are two years previous included! Then, you add the entire nostalgia bait and two tokens and the tins are already not in a great spot. Why is there a lot nostalgia bait in right here?

Right here’s how I might repair the big card set: simply decrease the rely! In my view, a tin should not have any greater than about 200-250 playing cards in its set and it ought to be a celebration of the final 12 months (give or take) of the sport providing one of the best playing cards from that timeframe.

Actually, that solves numerous the issue. Second, the nostalgia bait ought to have been restricted to not more than about 10 playing cards. “However Tommy,” I hear you say, “how will folks get pleasure from their favourite dangerous nostalgic card within the shiniest rarity ever to have fun the sport’s twenty fifth anniversary?”

I’ll inform you how. There’s an upcoming product referred to as Quarter Century Bonanza which is an ideal container for nostalgia bait! That set has a 200-card nostalgia pool that are playing cards assured to be Platinum Secret Uncommon or Quarter Century Secret Uncommon! It makes much more sense to me to have Hyperlink Spider in that set reasonably than the tin.

As well as, the 2 tokens and the three new playing cards ought to have been promos. You don’t have to incorporate all 5 in each tin both. You would simply have a particular 3-card promo pack that has some mixture of the 5. This incentivizes a number of purchases, reduces the cardboard pool, and feels higher to duelists as a result of they’ve some form of assured repay for his or her buy.

The following huge downside is the rarity choice. The QCSR pool feels so scatterbrained to me. There are some playing cards that make some sense equivalent to Yubel and the Exodia items, however so many others like Hyperlink Spider, Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle, and the Devices appear so dangerous and higher served in a product just like the upcoming Quarter Century Bonanza set than a tin!

Then, we’ve the PSR pool which isn’t solely large, however many of the playing cards in that slot had been already both a Secret Uncommon or Extremely Uncommon which means that they had been already fairly laborious to acquire.

The huge UR pool does have a mixture of rarity bumps equivalent to Shadow Ghoul of the Labyrinth in addition to some rarity downgrades together with Gold Pleasure – Curler Baller, however many of those had been simply playing cards that nobody appeared to care an excessive amount of about as a result of each chase card was put in at PSR.

Lastly, as a result of Konami determined to ditch Tremendous Uncommon on this tin which is admittedly the best spot for large chase playing cards, we’ve a bunch of Commons that I’m fairly certain had been already Widespread and due to this fact most duelists have already got playsets of the helpful ones. Due to this fact, we may truthfully simply take away the Widespread slots interval.

I really feel like this downside requires a little bit of self-discipline to repair. As duelists, we love our shiny cardboard. The shinier, the higher, proper? Nevertheless, Konami must implement some unstated (or possibly spoken) guidelines.

The primary huge one could be no horizontal upgrades. If a card was initially launched as a Secret Uncommon, it shouldn’t be put within the tin as a PSR. To coincide with this, rarity bumps ought to concentrate on playing cards that had been Tremendous Uncommon and beneath.

I believe it’s nice that playing cards like Shadow Ghoul of the Labyrinth obtained upgraded to Extremely Uncommon from Uncommon. That’s a rarity bump that makes me really feel good as a duelist (particularly since I play a Gate Guardian deck for the time being).

Seeing Triple Ways Thrust go from Secret to UR to PSR or S:P Little Knight go from Secret to PSR, doesn’t really feel good. These tins ought to put one of the best playing cards from the final 12 months in new rarities to both give them rarity bumps for individuals who need shinier variations for his or her decks or rarity downgrades to make them extra accessible.

On a associated word, the large staples (together with unique URs like TY-PHON) ought to all be downgraded a minimum of one rarity.

One more space the place Konami fell brief was of their normal card choice. I’m unsure what Konami’s standards is for choosing what packs might be obtainable in a given tin. I do know previously, the tins have been like a celebration of the final 12 months of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

Based mostly on just a little little bit of analysis, it seems that tins now return roughly one 12 months. For instance, the 2022 Tin of the Pharaoh’s Gods featured playing cards from 2021. Even final 12 months’s twenty fifth Anniversary Tin: Dueling Heroes was filled with playing cards from 2022.

Nevertheless, Dueling Mirrors goes all the best way again to August 2022 with the latest pack being Valiant Smashers from November 2023. To make issues worse, they had been very selective on what playing cards from completely different archetypes to incorporate and fully ignored different fan favourite archetypes to provide us rubbish like Bunny Ear Fanatic.

Why had been Ghoti playing cards not reprinted right here? Why was the one Memento card included the sector spell, Mementomictlan? Why weren’t the brand new Gate Guardian Fusion Monsters given a rarity improve? It’s actually bizarre to have their Important Deck monsters now all obtainable in larger rarities than the boss monsters. So many of those selections simply appear baffling to me.

How would I handle this? Simply be extra purposeful concerning the playing cards within the pool. If you wish to embody one card of an archetype, embody a minimum of a handful and ensure that handful contains key/good playing cards.

For instance, in the event that they wished to incorporate Mementomictlan, they might have added Mementotlan Angwitch, Mementotlan Bone Barty, and Mementoal Tecuhtlica – Mixed Creation on the very least.

There are numerous playing cards within the 400-card pool that duelists simply merely don’t care about and there have been numerous playing cards that a minimum of some duelists would have gotten excited for that obtained ignored. Maintain archetypes collectively, and ensure to incorporate larger worth items.

So, now that I’ve gotten all of that off my chest, I need to share my perfect model of future tins. In a perfect world, Konami would mix the legacy of the tins (aka celebration of the previous 12 months of the sport) with their presumably most profitable product ever, the Rarity Assortment mannequin.

I do know that is extraordinarily unlikely to occur, but when they selected 100-150 playing cards from the final 12 months of Yu-Gi-Oh! (they might resolve to be extra like the unique tins and have 2025 be about playing cards from 2025 or they might persist with the extra fashionable selection in order that 2025 could be about playing cards from 2024) and every card is offered in each rarity obtainable within the set, folks could be so excited for each tin.

They don’t even have to incorporate the flamboyant rarities just like the QCSR or Collector’s Uncommon or Final Uncommon (though that does make issues extra thrilling if I’m sincere). This can be a a lot smaller card pool than the present tins which is already a bonus, however you could possibly inflate it over the Rarity Assortment I and Rarity Assortment II to advertise a bit extra of that chase.

This smaller pool would additionally promote (hopefully) extra cautious number of included playing cards in order that related playing cards from archetypes are saved collectively. As a substitute of a Memento right here and 4 Vanquish Soul there after which full rubbish that can most likely by no means get performed, take away the rubbish and provides us key Memento and Vanquish Soul playing cards together with fan favorites like Ghoti.

As well as, as a result of each card is offered in each rarity, that mechanically implies that every card is concurrently a rarity bump and a rarity downgrade serving to the secondary market in order that extra folks can really purchase playing cards and play the sport whereas additionally giving duelists bling for these max rarity decks.

I do know it’s extremely unlikely that Konami will learn or care about what I’ve laid out right here. I do assume that the Dueling Mirrors tins had been very poorly designed and a present of dangerous religion on the a part of Konami.

I do know there are a good quantity of people that have not too long ago left the sport or are very earnestly taking a look at leaping ship due to how merchandise like Dueling Mirrors are being dealt with.

I really like this sport and need to see it’s higher and I believe I’ve offered some good concepts that would assist restore a few of Konami’s picture.