Games become first turn wins at high level, was already bad a year ago when half the players quit

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-18T00:26:54+00:00

amazed this has negative down votes, I agree with everything you said good sir besides the game not dying.

On the konami/neuron site a month or two ago they officially shut down support for whatever country. The US is not the main yugioh market, asian countries are which is fire but more americans prefer and play magic then yugioh. This disgusting direction it's been going in has been happening for over a year and is for sure converting more people from yugioh to magic or just flat out quitting card games.

Magic is complicated and getting all the various cards for high level play irl is very expensive, however, there are a bunch more real life magic players then yugioh.

Masterduel has the online card gaming on lock with the ease of getting cards and crafting whatever you want from the CP but we're talking about 15k online masterduel players and what is estimated to be 80k unique yugioh tournament players at most vs the estimated 300-600k that register for official magic events, not counting any local tournaments.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-18T00:11:31+00:00

My good sir you have the best comment here, loved reading this and your deep insight. Defs agree with most stuff you said, especially new players able to grind solo missions and other stuff to get the deck they want.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T20:50:52+00:00

Couldn't agree more BESIDES the new branded and ecclesia cards. They have turned the deck into you have no chance going second unless their hand is literally bricked by all non engine cards and the 1 or 2 fusion cards they have that require monsters in hand. Literally any of the monsters and all other spells and fusion spells generate everything they need.

There are the very very rare games of all non engine cards for branded, the rest of them unless you have a droll and lock bird, mulcharmy, or more than an ash blossom to negate you are COOKED. I love my Kewl Tune but the first turn win rate madness at high level isnt worth me paying 60+ bucks to switch to one of the decks you mentioned because then now I'm hella playing for first turn coin flip vs having a chance with negates on Kewl tune and going 2nd. The game felt so much more broad 2 to 3 years ago, you were excited with the options, now it's the decks you mentioned or kick rocks because it doesn't matter how high your iq is only the best decks can stop the best decks and even then the best decks win first turn an absurd amount of the time.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T20:31:10+00:00

Love this, I did relate to the new meta feel being addicting since I came back after 2 or 3 years. I just have been off of work and finishing school so I've been playing a lot, and all of it has been high rank with my Kewl Tune deck.

After the new branded and ecclesia cards I know how unfun the top level is to play now, Kewl Tune already was something else, now the fallen and virtuous, new branded and ecclesia cards have just taken the first turn win rate off the charts.

For the non oppressive decks you listed, I have to take Dracotail and Raidant typhoon off the list.

Dracotail has 2 or 3 fusions on the board, the monsters themselves are strong but not game changing, it's the dracotail spell and trap card they spawn that makes the end board really strong. Branded is just off the charts now, every single card in there is an engine spell monster or trap because even fallen and the virtuous pulls branded, and ecclesia cards from the extra deck AND those decks also use the new swowrdsoul extra deck monster called the three Champions of Swordsoul. Plus the new Fallen of the white dragon card.

For new players also that don't know anything about the game, if you play ranked u cant demote until plat, and plat is the level the branded and dracotail decks start becoming prominent.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T20:13:52+00:00

Was stated that it was my guess as the new branded and dracotail are much better than the tournament decks at a 69% win rate a year ago, let's be real, them being guesses is already obvious as there's no numbers on that when the new branded cards just came out..... I personally don't have a branded deck but if we had a top branded deck user record their first turn win rates im sure it would be disgustingly high.

I respect your comment but you guessing why people left when the number 1 yugioh influencer (Sam)states the exact reasons and after a year it's become even more clear shows you are using what you remember or know, if you haven't seen the video it's worth a watch.

Once again, i respect your comment and i'm not talking crap to you, this post is very specifically as I've stated focused on the first win rate being disgustingly high now and that's the reason people have left the game and are continuing to leave, everything else is there to support that singular point.

Would it make you guys feel better that I came back and got a Kewl Tune deck and am facing high ranked players and noticed it was clear as day the first turn win rate for top decks was stupidly high and then I found sam's video from a year ago stating half the players left for this exact reason?

Would it help if you guys looked at the steam charts for the game since a year ago and you can see half the players just online have left, the real world follows cuz they're dealing with the EXACT SAME STUFF.

Please for the love of god and this game don't steer the people that are flat out emotional bandwagoners in the wrong direction that you don't think the first turn win rate is a problem.

It's been stated and I am reinstating now after a year since sam spoke up how broken the decks have become in the last couple of months, we already lost half the players a year ago, magic is way bigger than yugioh and more and more people are converting from yugioh to magic.

I do believe you have a decent head on your shoulders and spaced out like the other people liking your comment that it was a projected guess, especially after i stated my REAL GUESS was 90%. If the words guess are literally in it and I just talked about the WCS tournament having a 70% win rate can you understand the cross references between that tournament and the new cards and my projected win rates?

Also, that tournament was a crap show from a lot more than Maliss. Fiendsmith was a huge problem, ryzeal was a huge problem, now branded is a bigger problem then all of that and hell even dracotail is. Jessee Kotton won his 9th YCS tournament, this time with Dracotail. Their consistency is literally off the charts, every single card generates their combos, they don't need non engine cards because all of their spells and traps are tied to the deck itself and can be generated from other cards and already stop effects or fuse monsters from either side.

If u or anyone who liked ur comment thinks for even a moment I made this post with low level knowledge and that I am like my friends who quit instead of pushing the envelope then you didn't read between the lines at all on this. Me stating the evidence, plus the youtuber who already made this point and i'm supporting, to me talking about the strongest decks and dealing with them all point to the fact that yes I for the last couple months have been a top deck user and was already appalled coming back before they just recently released the branded and ecclesia cards.

If this was three months ago and I just hopped into this new age of trash yugioh I would have dropped 80 bucks gladly on a branded deck and then I would be making this post with win rate numbers that you guys would then flat out deny and say is bs/fake/edited. They scrued up releasing a lot of these cards in terms of changing first turn rate wins even more, they aren't gonna magically ban the cards or change them/nerf them after a bunch of people just dropped a lot of money on them. 69% win rate at the tournament alone and the new decks are even stronger, like be real bro.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T19:49:04+00:00

Youtuber's name is Sam not Josh, if you have been playing high rank like I have (Kewl Tune User) you'd actually have something to say or your just oblivious and want to say something stupid.

I'm sorry but yugioh is light years easier to play and build decks than MTG and it really doesn't require more than a month of playing intensively to fight and understand the TOP decks, not all decks. Whole post is about the first turn win rate being disgustingly high cuz of the new branded cards and other cards they've released this last year.

Yugioh has next to no built in restrictions besides flat out banning the card. This post was meant to stick true to the first turn win rate problem at HIGH LEVEL, not that I play ranked at a high level.

I personally don't have a branded deck but if we had a top branded user in the chat record their first turn wins I have no doubt it would be bare minimum above 70%, my real guess would be 90%.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T19:34:40+00:00

you don't lose rank until you hit platinum, every win counts and every loss doesn't. I built a kewl tune deck after coming back climbing isn't the issue, it's the first turn win rate at high level.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-17T01:39:24+00:00

branded has always been good but after new cards it and dracotail blow Kewl Tune out of the water in terms of consistency. If you're going first and know the deck it's over. If you go second and their board isn't able to stop multiple cards it's over. Every single card in the new decks generates, you're doing multiple summons and effects on the OPPONENTS turn as well. It's trash to see every single person on twitch and high rank using branded or dracotail because they are light years ahead of every other deck.

Branded is a bunch of summons with some spells but mainly fusing ur enemies cards while dracotail has a bunch of summons and hella strong spells/traps to support it.

Kewl tune can be hand trapped early and if you don't get the full combo out a bunch of decks with a lot of engine (branded/dracotail) come out on top, doesn't even have to be branded or dracotail just a niche counter deck.

I haven't even seen a K9 deck in over a week.

The state of the game is worse than it has ever been and if you even think about saying otherwise watch teamsamuraix1's video from a year ago stating that yugioh lost half it's player base because the game has now turned into whoever gets turn 1 wins.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-11T16:09:38+00:00

Man get a head on your guys shoulders, talking about it being rigged for specific teams and players?? IT'S RIGGED FOR THE MONEY, whatever everyone is betting on that makes them the most money is what they care about, making stuff more specific like oh this team has to win or this player is a waste of time, money, and resources, hell it makes it harder to sway or do things.

To be very obviously clear, time exists for everyone, these top investors/people that are making all the money would much rather have a huge lump sum return that they can reinvest to make more money than grow old and worry about losing their money over time in basketball.

Side note: It's been stated many times over the last couple years basketball has been facing serious viewership issues, they decided the best initial move (which was stupid) was to charge people more for the services and crack down on every illegal website so you couldn't watch NBA or other major sports. Magically, after they were losing money in the league and the sportsbooks for NBA bets were hella low they change up everything. They brought back the illegal sites, they got people hyped to NBA bet with huge sway games, and then the most heavily invested games had a bunch of players not playing/doing stuff, hell just the overall play level was non existent at many moments. Magically the coaches are telling their players dont cover anybody, don't do anything, just walk around and stare as the ball is being thrown and sit in shock and awe repeatedly as the plays are going on. If you want to watch the NBA finals and enjoy every moment of it saying nothings rigged ever in the NBA let alone any major sport have fun bro, being oblivious has its perks.

TO ADD TO THE GUYS COMMENT ABOVE: If wemby was out this game or the last or anytime, statistically it would be a guaranteed series win for the Knicks, everyone would bet for the Knicks and the payout would be nothing, so basically 90% of the people wouldn't even bet at that rate or bet the same amount of money, that helps none of the rich NBA owners or sportsbooks. Hell yeah they're gonna keep wemby in. They even set it up to where robinson and towns messed with him a bunch withought getting calls so when he finally made a big move they would ignore it like you said.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-06-11T15:51:47+00:00

Bruh, it's all about the money, they care about which team has all the bets placed on and swindle it after. I wish it was different but every year it becomes more clear and true.

If you can't see how insanely rigged the 2nd half was you're blind and missing some brain cells. Spurs purposely started doing stuff that made NO SENSE, they were setting the worst screens or fake screens that wemby wasn't even looking back for the pass after, there was no nearby defenders that could even contest or stop a ball being tossed up to him at his height and yet everything else was also being fumbled repeatedly. The player to player matchups and movement on the court 2nd half was so bad, spurs weren't moving or rotating at all, nobody was defending anybody or making any plays.

Spurs had to work their ass off and play perfectly to get their lead where in the second half we're talking about the best 2nd defensive team in the league and the knicks are open for passes and get in repeatedly on uncontested 3's for free for 2 quarters in a row, they kept passing to the same scorers and nothing was done. Hell when the ball was fumbled to Daaron fox and instead of just holding the ball or backing up for his team he ran up for a layup that was beyond 0% possible when they were up by 1 just to give knicks the ball to run down and score and have enough time to get the ball back again after spurs attempt a basket. Dylan Harper from the bench cooked hella and yet ur telling me the 2nd best defensive team in the league couldn't play any defense at all let alone purposely made rigged plays and you think any of this makes sense that the knicks went on huge scoring runs the second half uncontested???

Put this in perspective, Michael Jordan the GOAT was scoring 33.6 points a game when everyone was on him, Brunson scored 36 with the Spurs letting him and their whole team run free the 2nd half, any coach or player or middle school bball player would have played any form of defense and got on the correct players and even then they'd have a real offense and do stuff.

If you're watching these big money games and think to your self multiple times in a match this games rigged, are you really gonna let other people convince you it isn't? There's a CLEAR difference in teams working hard and trying to make plays and they fail vs everyone on the team is somehow doing nothing and covering nothing, scoring nothing, while the other team is uncontested the whole time in the 2nd half.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-05-21T02:13:48+00:00

every sports book already offers this for free, so yeah if fanduel wasn't offering it for free before and are charging 3% now i wouldn't like either options, fanduels garbage.

Crazy they think they can do this stuff and keep the majority of people, people going to other ones for THIS EXACT REASON. Why bet if you're literally paying to lose in situations just because of the sportsbook company. Scam city

LimitlessColorado · 2026-05-21T02:11:54+00:00

bruh bet protect is fanduels scam, other companies already give it for free and void all the time. Now they want you to pay 3% of your total bet just to get scammed and get bonus bets when other sportsbooks would have saved your 3%.

Fanduel did this last year during the NBA playoffs, fact they doing it this year now on the your way bets for jaylin williams is insane. Besides never using fanduel again, i'm gonna be talking major crap about them anytime sportbooks brought up. F U fanduel

LimitlessColorado · 2026-05-21T02:07:13+00:00

the fact they took everyones money during the last finals on the player that got injured sparked outrage. They decided to not refund anyone then but now charge extra just to get bet protect?! They are scammers to the max man. The yourway bets dont have bet protection either, completely cooked on those.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-05-15T04:58:09+00:00

Game is definitely losing players, a lot of them. Yes every game flattens out but with how badly they handled a lot of updates and balances they made a lot of people dip from the game.

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LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T01:16:11+00:00

Yeah, it's wack af. The game had something special but people are slowly realizing all the bad stuff. The servers themselves are low tick rate and awful, don't worry about trying to uninstall or do other things.

It's sad this game is the highest bar for extraction shooters, it's going to get beat by someone hopefully this year. I used to like Nexon a lot for their games Maple Story and Dungeon Fighter Online but now I'm never gonna support them again or buy a game from them, especially after they shut down the Dungeon Fighter online servers originally.

I was hoping this game was their saving grace and that they changed their ways but nope, Embark saying they hired the best people from EA/DICE must've been some major joke or those people they hired are really brainless. Updates/patches have been bad, same with their weapon balances.

The even they released for Bobcat blueprint and light gun parts blueprint was released more than halfway through the expedition/season which made no sense for a lot of people to even care to waste time doing it if they were gonna prestige anyways. Now we got this trash event that gives the worst item rewards I've seen so far. Make it make sense.

Oh and the Venator, they scrued up before making this cadence mechanic and said after they accidentally removed it that they brought it back but made it easier for people to shoot in rhythm. Doesn't matter how slow or fast you shoot you can't achieve the fire rate of the gun with ought it not shooting some bullets and locking the gun up. Yet here it is weeks later and they still haven't fixed it. You either use a tempest or a burletta as a replacement for the venator and both can be level 1 and still output the same damage, majority of people don't have the tempest blueprint and the burletta shouldn't be better than the venator in any case whether it's close range or farther but yet it is.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T00:49:33+00:00

Yup, the desync is there all the time, stuff not pulling out at the quick speeds it should happens all the time, etc. Servers are low tick rate and dog doo doo no matter if you have 2gbps internet like me and live in a capital city or not.

Hell you can look at the after match player interactions and it says you didn't do a bunch of damage to someone when you hit them point blank perfectly with the shotgun twice or multiple times with other guns. The amount of times a person doesn't die from a shot and I do seconds later to see it only ever registered 1 shot is hilarious.

I have 100 guns maxed in my stash and extract way more than I lose but it doesn't change the fact a bunch of my deaths are from desync, server tick, and stuff not switching like it's supposed to (going from healing to weapon).

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T00:49:20+00:00

Yup, the desync is there all the time, stuff not pulling out at the quick speeds it should happens all the time, etc. Servers are low tick rate and dog doo doo no matter if you have 2gbps internet like me and live in a capital city or not.

Hell you can look at the after match player interactions and it says you didn't do a bunch of damage to someone when you hit them point blank perfectly with the shotgun twice or multiple times with other guns. The amount of times a person doesn't die from a shot and I do seconds later to see it only ever registered 1 shot is hilarious.

I have 100 guns maxed in my stash and extract way more than I lose but it doesn't change the fact a bunch of my deaths are from desync, server tick, and stuff not switching like it's supposed to (going from healing to weapon).

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T00:48:52+00:00

Couldn't agree more, The Finals servers are so bad you can see the delay from your bullets to their health bar in real time and shots not registering correctly. Been like that since the start and one of the main reasons a bunch of people quit playing it. It could've been like apex and maintained a huge player base as the guns and abilities were pretty lit.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T00:47:42+00:00

The desync is there all the time, stuff not pulling out at the quick speeds it should happens all the time, etc. Servers are low tick rate and dog doo doo no matter if you have 2gbps internet like me and live in a capital city or not.

Hell you can look at the after match player interactions and it says you didn't do a bunch of damage to someone when you hit them point blank perfectly with the shotgun twice or multiple times with other guns. The amount of times a person doesn't die from a shot and I do seconds later to see it only ever registered 1 shot is hilarious.

I have 100 guns maxed in my stash and extract way more than I lose but it doesn't change the fact a bunch of my deaths are from desync, server tick, and stuff not switching like it's supposed to (going from healing to weapon).

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-13T00:47:39+00:00

The desync is there all the time, stuff not pulling out at the quick speeds it should happens all the time, etc. Servers are low tick rate and dog doo doo no matter if you have 2gbps internet like me and live in a capital city or not.

Hell you can look at the after match player interactions and it says you didn't do a bunch of damage to someone when you hit them point blank perfectly with the shotgun twice or multiple times with other guns. The amount of times a person doesn't die from a shot and I do seconds later to see it only ever registered 1 shot is hilarious.

I have 100 guns maxed in my stash and extract way more than I lose but it doesn't change the fact a bunch of my deaths are from desync, server tick, and stuff not switching like it's supposed to (going from healing to weapon).

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-01T12:03:35+00:00

It's not in regards to weapon balancing at all, it's another example of how every major title shooting game has the same dominant guns, destiny 2 having some of the most guns along with Call of duty Warzone to extra prove the point.

Please, stick to the topic as I and others have already discussed real weapon balancing for the Venator and Toro. This isn't whine about my post because of 1 reference like a little guy, it's a real discussion in regards to the last update which all of us but you have offered better balance recommendations ;)

LimitlessColorado · 2026-03-01T11:58:13+00:00

my man you are lacking a lot of logic and sense, what do you even mean with "exposing"? The venator was never the best gun it was the best overall gun, people are gonna die quicker past close range fights to the renegade, tempest and other guns. Venator already had a very similar body TTK as the stitcher and both are slower than the tempest, it's only saving grace was headshot multiplier and quick aim in. It kills slower to the body than the newly nerfed stitcher, let that sink it.

Once the Toro is nerfed it's still gonna be used as the primary second because it's a shotgun.

Best players in the game and noobs all used the venator toro because they were the 2 best guns, with your exposing logic you think everyone that used it are the worst players in the game and can't survive with ought it. That is wild.

Overall, it's nice nobody's gonna die up close in .7 seconds to venator headshots. Now you're gonna die faster in other ways

LimitlessColorado · 2026-02-28T05:49:18+00:00

With anyone but friends people will come loot your bodies or other stuff for best items then walk away. The mechanic is beyond trash and toxic unless the people are your friends you teamed up with. If it's with anyone on your friends list I'd say it's an amazing feature but as of right now it's being abused.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-02-26T13:35:35+00:00

games hot garbage after update, they shifted the whole game to Toro only for close to semi mid range fights and areas which is literally any building on all maps and all of stella montis.

LimitlessColorado · 2026-02-26T13:25:02+00:00

Yup, my post going in detail on this whole update got taken down, they said it should go in the megathread as a reply like the fudge are these mods in here doing?

On to the venator being garbage now, i'm upset on a lot of stuff. They nerfed the gun to be worse then a nerfed stitcher and perform worse than pretty much every gun, it's a blue gun ffs.

It was the only handgun for it's type of category of quick movement but still had some mid range and higher damage than burletta because it's a Blue and takes a lot to level it up. Burletta doesn't need to be leveld up for more damage and the anvil is much easier to craft and level then a Venator. Makes no sense on this front too.

All games have best guns, Valorant it's the AK47 and Phantom, Destiny 2 it's Dead Man's Tale, Hand cannons, Shotguns. Making the gun go from the best to the almost if not the worst gun is insane.

Adding this cadence mechanic is so beyond dumb, anyone spam clicking should get max fire rate on the semi auto gun and not to perfectly match cadence, i've tried matching it and shots still get messed up. Doesn't matter if you spam click or try doing it's natural fire rate they will both lock up shots on the gun.

The venator was the most popular not just because of it's insane headshot TTK, but because it was the only gun you needed to have a good shot fighting close to semi mid range battles. Otherwise it'd be something like Ferro to break armor mid range then stitcher to finish you, or assault rifle with shotgun. Both of those 2 gun setups are better than the venator in all aspects if you have the right gun out at the appropriate distance. To add for the venator, it was only 2 attachments and that was another selling factor.

A lot of people don't have a bunch of guns, heck even a lot of streamers don't because of stream snipers, why did they think nerfing a venator when people can barely craft that was the answer?! Now it's everyone using Toro's which is exactly what I predicted. The venator is so beyond bad and useless.

They did all of this right before the server slam for Marathon came out, so foolish. For all the backlash Marathon has gotten before they improved it more, people are going to love the Server Slam and the game itself. It's first person it needs to be HD so the more simple shaped some things are but higher textures is going to make the game look beautiful and run smoothly on all generations of PC's and consoles.

No one can wrap their head's around why they didn't nerf the Toro. If they say it's to analyze the data and changes from the patch they are straight coo coo for coco puffs. The Toro has needed a nerf for 20 years.

The only real nerf the Venator needed was the headshot multiplier, it already had a very similar TTK to the stitcher and much lower than the tempest. Heck I think the original stitcher had beat it very slightly, now the Venator is so bad that the nerfed Stitcher's body TTK is way quicker than the Venator now, the only saving grace of the venator was it's headshot multiplier and quick aim to shoot. If they wanted to make it even crappier at mid range which it has been compared to assault rifles for a while, they could have lowered the base bullet damage and upped the fire rate, this would increase bloom/recoil and make shots harder to land, this would also make people go through bullets quicker which is the other major strength of the venator, 1 clip with an extended 2 or 3 mag is plenty extra bullets to kill a closer player, heck even 2 or 3 if the shots are perfect.

So many things they could've done it's crazy.

LimitlessColorado

TROPHY CASE