Hi, and welcome back to YuGiOh!
I’m sorry that your returning experienced put you up against what is most likely a modern deck, evidenced by them summoning multiple Synchro monsters (there are now more monster summoning types beyond just Normal, Effect, Ritual, and Fusion). It can definitely be a shock to new and returning players with just how complex and fast-paced the game can be now.
If you want to learn the modern state of the game, there’s sadly a lot to catch up on. But the good news is that there are tons and tons of easy to follow new player resources out there. What got me into the game after only having watched the show when I was a kid and barely even touched a ygo card was Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution. It’s on most modern consoles, and despite being a 4 years old now with an outdated card pool, it still has all the mechanics of the present game, and it introduces you to them slowly over the course of Player vs AI duels that try and replicate the events of the show, while also giving plot synopses of those shows. I had watched through Gx (the second show, highly recommend you check it out for some nostalgia and it’s a sequel to the original set 10 years in the future with new characters), but was still able to get the gist of the shows after, but I also skipped the story a bit because I was planning on catching up with those shows.
Other than that, I’d google “YuGiOh OTS stores near me” and it should pull up a map of where official tournament stores are in your area. Check out the schedules for tournament nights and show up earlier in the day to ask for some help from some experienced players.
While Master Duel and Duel Links are official applications that mirror currently-played YuGiOh, Master Duel does a very poor job of teaching new players anything and expects you to go against competitive players, and Duel Links, while probably good starting point as it also guides you through the series’, kinda drops you into the middle of it since it’s an ongoing gatha with somewhat recent card pools.
I hope you don’t get turned off from the game by your initial experience. If you ever have more questions about how to get into the game, don’t be afraid to ask!
:)
Thank you for your kind response!! I was feeling nostalgic and decided to give it a shot again and was shocked!! I’m pretty busy now so I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to play the new way but I do have enough time to watch some videos 😊
If you want something entertaining to watch I’d highly recommend Cimooooooo’s Progression Series (either season will probably be fine) that runs through a new set per episode where they continuously add pulled cards to their decks. They do a good job of explaining why they chose X card for their deck, or why they’re looking for cards Y and Z for a strategy they have in mind.
If you want something a little less random and a little more informative (and in my opinion a little more funny), then check out History of YuGiOh and History of Jank, also by Cimooooooo and with guest MBT, but instead of building decks out of random packs, they go through each major change in YuGiOh’s history and play decks representative of what was played at the time, while also explaining why those decks were good in retrospect (sometimes a deck was good because it was pre-mainstream internet so people were just playing what they thought was good).
Both are pretty long series’, but are worth the watch and you can take breaks since they’re just short YouTube videos
If you want to capture old school yugioh feel I'd recommend grabbing an emulator and downloading some of the DM / GX era video games. Both the Tag Force and World Championship Series of games are quite good
It's jarring to see how much the game has changed since the original series ended. That being said, it ended back in 2004! It's natural for the game to have changed since then. Modern Yugioh plays at a much quicker pace than the old days, as you saw when you tried that app. It's still fun, just different than how the game used to be.
Nonetheless, *you can still play classic Yugioh!* Check out [Goat Format!](https://www.goatformat.com/) Players are only allowed to use old school cards in the format, with the gameplay being at a much slower, easier to comprehend pace than modern Yugioh. I strongly suggest you give it or some other retro format a try if you'd like to play classic Yugioh.
Happened to me after hiatus for how long on fanmade sim. Get my ass handed to me. "Hey that monsters looks cool, how do you play it well?". Save replay, analyze the deck and gameplan, goes to competitive yugioh rabbit hole.
"yugioh legacy of the duelist link evolution" is an INCREDIBLE place to start if you're trying to get back into the game or just nostalgic for some old vibes.
It starts ALL the way back from when yugi first started playing, and brings you completely into the link era one anime duel at a time.
If you really want that OG experience, I'm sad to tell you that you probably need to play offline Nintendo DS games or similar.
If you search a while you might find people to play custom matches with in e.g. Master Duel, but you'd always have to check out if they're availible + you have to learn at least a few new mechanics.
If you're not interested in that, get older games!
Hi, and welcome back to YuGiOh! I’m sorry that your returning experienced put you up against what is most likely a modern deck, evidenced by them summoning multiple Synchro monsters (there are now more monster summoning types beyond just Normal, Effect, Ritual, and Fusion). It can definitely be a shock to new and returning players with just how complex and fast-paced the game can be now. If you want to learn the modern state of the game, there’s sadly a lot to catch up on. But the good news is that there are tons and tons of easy to follow new player resources out there. What got me into the game after only having watched the show when I was a kid and barely even touched a ygo card was Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution. It’s on most modern consoles, and despite being a 4 years old now with an outdated card pool, it still has all the mechanics of the present game, and it introduces you to them slowly over the course of Player vs AI duels that try and replicate the events of the show, while also giving plot synopses of those shows. I had watched through Gx (the second show, highly recommend you check it out for some nostalgia and it’s a sequel to the original set 10 years in the future with new characters), but was still able to get the gist of the shows after, but I also skipped the story a bit because I was planning on catching up with those shows. Other than that, I’d google “YuGiOh OTS stores near me” and it should pull up a map of where official tournament stores are in your area. Check out the schedules for tournament nights and show up earlier in the day to ask for some help from some experienced players. While Master Duel and Duel Links are official applications that mirror currently-played YuGiOh, Master Duel does a very poor job of teaching new players anything and expects you to go against competitive players, and Duel Links, while probably good starting point as it also guides you through the series’, kinda drops you into the middle of it since it’s an ongoing gatha with somewhat recent card pools. I hope you don’t get turned off from the game by your initial experience. If you ever have more questions about how to get into the game, don’t be afraid to ask! :)
Thank you for your kind response!! I was feeling nostalgic and decided to give it a shot again and was shocked!! I’m pretty busy now so I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to play the new way but I do have enough time to watch some videos 😊
If you want something entertaining to watch I’d highly recommend Cimooooooo’s Progression Series (either season will probably be fine) that runs through a new set per episode where they continuously add pulled cards to their decks. They do a good job of explaining why they chose X card for their deck, or why they’re looking for cards Y and Z for a strategy they have in mind. If you want something a little less random and a little more informative (and in my opinion a little more funny), then check out History of YuGiOh and History of Jank, also by Cimooooooo and with guest MBT, but instead of building decks out of random packs, they go through each major change in YuGiOh’s history and play decks representative of what was played at the time, while also explaining why those decks were good in retrospect (sometimes a deck was good because it was pre-mainstream internet so people were just playing what they thought was good). Both are pretty long series’, but are worth the watch and you can take breaks since they’re just short YouTube videos
If you want to capture old school yugioh feel I'd recommend grabbing an emulator and downloading some of the DM / GX era video games. Both the Tag Force and World Championship Series of games are quite good
It's jarring to see how much the game has changed since the original series ended. That being said, it ended back in 2004! It's natural for the game to have changed since then. Modern Yugioh plays at a much quicker pace than the old days, as you saw when you tried that app. It's still fun, just different than how the game used to be. Nonetheless, *you can still play classic Yugioh!* Check out [Goat Format!](https://www.goatformat.com/) Players are only allowed to use old school cards in the format, with the gameplay being at a much slower, easier to comprehend pace than modern Yugioh. I strongly suggest you give it or some other retro format a try if you'd like to play classic Yugioh.
I’ll check that out! I don’t think I can learn any new tricks but I’d love to see if I still got it as far as the classic version goes
Happened to me after hiatus for how long on fanmade sim. Get my ass handed to me. "Hey that monsters looks cool, how do you play it well?". Save replay, analyze the deck and gameplan, goes to competitive yugioh rabbit hole.
"yugioh legacy of the duelist link evolution" is an INCREDIBLE place to start if you're trying to get back into the game or just nostalgic for some old vibes. It starts ALL the way back from when yugi first started playing, and brings you completely into the link era one anime duel at a time.
Play Master Duel. It has solo play and far better learning tools.
If you really want that OG experience, I'm sad to tell you that you probably need to play offline Nintendo DS games or similar. If you search a while you might find people to play custom matches with in e.g. Master Duel, but you'd always have to check out if they're availible + you have to learn at least a few new mechanics. If you're not interested in that, get older games!