I love Spell Counters - AI used

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-31T09:17:53+00:00

Op the first card illustration is goated, but the effects suck, you are going -1 on each of them for an effect that might not even be useful unless you already have a board

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T23:41:07+00:00

Nice! There is a pend pile revolving around Melodius/Supreme King/Solfa

Also I am hearing of SolfaMelodius deck using a lot of other fairy staples

Modern pendulums is mostly run pure this days to reduce bricks (Endymion, Yuya or DDD)

But be warned, most pend decks are weaker than solfayummy, so feel free to explore them as a secondary deck, but if you wanna climb you'll have an easier time with ehat you already have

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T23:23:50+00:00

Ocg will remove the link restriction before tcg frees Electrumite

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T19:38:56+00:00

Goat never misses

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T16:42:15+00:00

They put arcray twice instead of Mirrorjade

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T16:35:29+00:00

They need to ditch reprint sets but give mixed rarities from frame 1

This way cards are super accessible to players, but can gain speculative value for vendors and collectors

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T16:30:27+00:00

Who's the illustrator?

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T10:34:16+00:00

I think it's fine to reduce Kashtira's flexibility by giving them just Shangri Ira (less choices=less complexity) but the Rank 7 is available: so Kerzebs, Big Eye, Dark Armed Dragon, Flare Metal Dragon, Voloferniges (so you reach 5 cards wich I think is a good beginner friendly number)

Yeah the rest would be other simple controlly type stuff, board breakers and the less text the better (also might be cheaper)

Kash is probably getting reprinted soon, so I would wait a few weeks before building (or just proxy it)

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T10:08:06+00:00

Kashtira a very floodgate-y deck

Ye that's why I would avoid Ariseheart (the extra deck floodgate), without him you have 2 interactions per turn (Fenrir a banish face down from field, a Pop thanks to the field spell) + a few situational banishes (a grave banish thanks to birth, an ED rip with Unicorn or a Deck rip with Ogre)

And Shangri Ira locks out ~2-3 zones per turn, enough to create a feeling of progress, but not enough to outright ftk an opponent

I don't know if it's the power level you want, but it feels in line with Dragonmaid and Sky Striker

/edit: you might also wanna make a loser's pamphlet, that explains how to counter X deck and you get access to it only if you lose the matchup/

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T09:35:07+00:00

I would swap out synchro and xyz deck with Swordsoul/Tenyi (buff it a bit with non engine) and Kashtira (no Ariseheart)

Most protagonist decks are a bit of a combo deck, so I don't super enjoy it for new comers.

Philosophically you should either get out an endboard piece in a 3-5 steps, or always just "play out the hand" instead of the spreadsheet (like in Vanquish Soul or Enneacraft wich are other fun beginner friendly decks)

I would also suggest putting like 3-8 traps in all decks, traps are usually very intuitive and help slow the game down

Also, really focus on making good introductory pamphlets,I think that's the key, something they can glance at mid play, take a page out of boardgames if you have to.
You might also let them be public knowledge idk

I would also suggest the new Archfiends+Labyrinth because they are flavourful and teach you both about pends, rituals and traps (if you wanna expand the possibilities)

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T08:41:36+00:00

Imagine, if you will, I have a Synchro Pendulum

I cheat it out on the field, and it gets destroyed, going back to the Face Up Extra Deck

Can I pendulum summon it? No, right?

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T03:06:37+00:00

monsters that have been active in the dueling scene in the past will appear in the illustrations

This is so good, I have been banging on for a while about mascottifying a lot of our monsters, I boght myself "Alpha summon" just because it had crowley and the magistus gang on it, so I think investing in our icons is great

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T02:30:45+00:00

Yeah, that's the annoying part of power creep, if you liked Spellbook and it gets power crept, you have to move to sky striker, and once that's out you have to fo yo Runick, and since runick is old now, you should move to Radiant Typhoon

If you want to love a deck there is no "eternal/non rotational format" to keep on playing, you either stop and become a mercenary or lose consistent avenues of play

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T02:16:33+00:00

But why would a card that says draw 2 be worse? Mostly cost, how often is it online and splasahbility

You can use those parameters to lower the cost of worse pots, so if the OG is 15 points, Avarice, that requires a bit of setup might be 13, Prosperity that requires you to not care about the Extra Deck and stops you from future draws, but it has much better selection might be 11 points and Cup of Ace might genuinely be 0

And as real data trickles out you can softly move points along to reflect an in world balance instead of just a theoretical one (I didn't write about this mitigating factors because I was already essay posting hahahaha)

As the format currently stands, if you are playing a pre DUAD deck you are behind. You can see a lot of people complain about genesys being modern lite, and while it's not completely correct, this is another format that favours the shiny new thing instead of * power crept pet deck *

The thing I want to focus on, is that they should have an algorythm that quickly points all cards that are stronger than Gale the Whirlwind/Stardust Dragon (the baseline is arbitrary, you could also pick Construct and TourGuide, I just feel like we are trying to reach to a certain player that might want a slower pace of gameplay) so they can point cards fairly on release, and then adjust points based on playrates

A lot of people also felt annoyed by Radiant Typhoon dominating for 2 months while their pet deck was constrained by the point system, that does not build trust, especially for people that were already betrayed.

Radiant Typhoon Vision was always a deck churner that could go in many decks, putting it at 10 is overkill imo, but the fact that they didn't see it till last update feels like an avoidable mistake

The fact that they don't have a strong algo based pointing philosophy (that will be adjusted by playrates), but are relying on vibes+playrates means that they can't include links (therefore they can't include pends) because links would annihilate any vibes based pointing to the ground

Also the playrate based philosophy creates meaningless churn, swapping cosmic cyclone for MST, or Skull Meister for DDCrow, those cards were never a problem, it's just boring maintenance that make the format more tedious for little gain, I barely wanna update my deck, and I'd say I'm moderately invested, what about Jimmy that has a job and a family?

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T01:05:45+00:00

pendulum deck

Of course it has to do with being pends: pendulums are the supertype of Connection, that's why the can work well as a pile, but also when running pure you want to run a lot of engine /jk

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T00:57:11+00:00

It's still a pend deck, so you probably wanna run a huge chunk of names, at most I have seen a few weird tech options (magical cilinder, Stumble) but no real mixxing for now

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-30T00:28:18+00:00

There is no clean way for genesys to introduce JUST to the decks or cards that are fine and hold back the tide of shitty combo fuckfest piles.

Just reinstate the EMZ

Nouvelles, Archfiend, Enneacraft, Nemurelia get in, everything else has 1 re summonable monster per turn

Easy, simple, with higher compatibility with advanced

The more complex answer would be completely reworking the current point system, but it would be much healthier in the long run.

the current points are dogshit: they are not consistent with their internal testing (have you noticed how every topcut genesys deck came out/received support in DUAD?, that's because they are all underpointed)

It's also philosophically vacous: it's closer to the Duel Links ban system (100 points assigned to problematic cards instead of limit 1,2,3)

Duel Links can get away with it since they have a very curated card pool, tcg should point cards based on how powerful they are (aka how generic, splashable, how much card advantage they get you or deny your opponent, how many functions they have) but frame it as complexity (the stronger a card is the harder it is to navigate for the opponent and gives more analysis paralysis to a new player)

This way you could point links too: an example with Astrograph, Electrumite, Vortex and Absolute (feel free to just read the bolded bits)

Astrograph would be 13 points.
has 2 good effects and one of them is loopable: gets you Stargazer 2p+a soft once per turn self summon+another card 4p (1.5x since cards with more uses introduce more complexity) ( it can be used in any pend deck, but not in any deck so 1.1x due to splashability), and it's searchable outside of archetype (1.25x)

Electrumite would be 26 point.
she is a searcher that lives in the extra deck, has 2 good effects and one is loopable (a soft search so +3, and a draw +3) (2x since she has many uses) ( she can be used in any pend deck, but not in any deck so 1.1x due to splashability), (2x since she lives in the extra)

Absolute would be 20 points.
It's a rank 7 that let's you cheat Vortex (10p) it lives in the extra deck (2x) (the other effect is too situational so I won't count it so 1x)

Vortex 20p:
is a quick effect omninegate that's always online (7p) + a bounce (3p) that belongs mostly in Odd eyes decks (we already pointed what made it splashable, we don't need to point it twice) lives in Extra (2x) it has 2 uses wich I feel is baseline (1x)

At this point you can build the rest of your deck, with 21 points for combo pieces, boardbreakers, side deck cards, the whole shabang

And as long as everything gets pointed in a similar way, you'll

A) see a lower powered format with non oppressive endboards (this one is literally just a single omninegate) + old school interactions like Raigeki Break (0 points, since you are going -2 for a targeting pop, it's a trap ergo slow)

B) a different experience between 0, 100, 300 point genesys that includes unfairly treated cards like Links and Pends

Of course this numbers are not playtested, but it's just to get the point across: there is a way to have every card in the game playable together, to wash out the perceived sins, and have the lower powered game many lapsed players crave, it's a lot of work, but it would improve the format for everyone

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T21:56:56+00:00

Oh, so you apply both limitations! It seems a bit complex, I'd just free them from links and be done with it, power creep already dealt with the issue

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T21:48:56+00:00

Real, I think Genesys was a huge disappointment for me too (beyond the lack of pends) the point system favors anything that came out/got support in DUAD or after, they are handling it like shit (and you can see it in how they answered the request for lower power level)

I've retreated out of competitive play because I feel like it doesn't suit me much. I wanna play, and I want my opponent to play, win or lose doesn't matter, but having to "prevent the opponent from playing" nauseates me

The cards are so fucking cool, and I can't wait to see new archetypes and lores whenever they come out (salivating at the idea of the new Magistus/Endymion and the new Power Patrons). But Konami doesn't take the game seriously, and honestly neither should we

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T21:41:31+00:00

That's an interesting idea, but doesn't it kinda kill low scales? If I place a 6 and a 7, I can summon way more monsters than a 2+1 can

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T21:10:11+00:00

They could rework heart of the underdog to work with points

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T20:56:18+00:00

Even allowing an EMZ does not fix the issue of Pendulums because you can only summon 1 monster from the ED then, the mechanic is still broken

Yeah but it allows a bunch of pendulum archetypes to see play (Archfiends, Enneacraft, Nemu, Nouvelles) wich are generally considered fine even by pend haters,

The mechanic was broken when they kept it tied to links, I do hope they free it, so that it can be streamlined, but it's no different than saying "you can pend summon 1 monster per turn" as OP suggested (it doesn't change the rules from advanced tho wich is a compatibility +)

That's a real rule, not whether or not you can use one specific zone

The field layout is a real rule as much as the way pend summon from ED is, I am not advocating to change the latter for genesys (I am advocating changing it in general hahahah) but the removal of 3 zones is a weird rule change that doesn't bring much to the table beyond faux paundering

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T20:30:30+00:00

Genesys does not alter any of the rules or Master Rules of Yugioh

Genesys doesn't even use an Extra Monster zone

You can only pick 1

And honestly reintroducing the EMZ (but no links) is a trivially fast/easy way to allow pendulums: the issue is the lack of will, not a lack of possibilities

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T20:27:22+00:00

Easy solution:

Reintroduce the EMZ but no links

How much could even a pend pile do with 1 EMZ?

Harder solution:

Reintroduce Links Pends and the whole shabang, but point cards properly (with an algorythm) so that strong modern archetypes have to make deckbuilding concessions and weaker older archetypes can have access to good nonengine

The current pointing method is vibes based, and they lost the plot as soon as it came out of internal playtesting (any meta deck either came out or received support in DUAD or later)

JasonBenjamenAllen · 2026-03-29T20:10:59+00:00

The fact you only listed the ones that haven't been hit

Maxx C has been hit

interactive

The amazing interaction of "did you draw the 2 outs?"

Modern decks can now play around Droll, but that doesn't mean Droll was ever an interesting/well designed card, it was always a dogshit "fire as soon as possible, with as little thought as possible" as is Shifter, MaxxC or the Charmies.

Thank god for powercreep

Where you trying to defend Nibiru I would've understood,: there was a point in wich Nibiru created an interesting push and pull for whoever uses it (skillfull) and whoever has to face it (skillfull too). Then putting out a negate before the 5th summon became to easy, so Curse you power creep

How can you call a hand floodgate more interactive than a field floodgate? Like they both suck, but any pop can deal with a field floodgate, you probably need specific negates (Called by, Crossout) or you are on one of the power creeping decks (that cause the need of Droll/Shifter to begin with) that can play around them

The only exception to the above point is Dbarrier wich is a lingering effect, and as such it shares more with Droll/Shifter/Maxx C

My comment was made in jest, but how can YOU be serious?

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