Kinda surprised you didn't mention the $1300 platinum DM in your "appeasing the scalpers" section. It's nice to see Konami getting pushback from the playerbase because it was both the worst product released from the 25th anniversary lineup and so universally panned that they retweeted the sale multiple times to no fanfare. Hopefully Konami learns to NEVER try this kind of stunt again (also hope Konami learns to lower the price of admission for competitive engine cards before the playerbase implodes, but looking at their history with nekroz and sky striker at release, I highly doubt they would).
I mean, the point of scalping is to grab something for cheap that you know will rise in value. You really cannot scalp a 1300$ brick of metal when the first piece of the series barely maintained value.
it's really funny that you mention Rarity Collection; It apparently did SO well, Konami already announce Rarity Collection 2 later this year. And it already has some great reprints announced, like Accesscode Talker
@@JM-vl3cy Well yeah, it was surprising that it was announced so quickly. Keep in mind that Rarity Collection 1 is also a set that was wholly transplanted from the OCG (minus exactly 1 card) so it was just assumed that it was just a special set, a one time deal.
Which makes some sense, a lot more people getting into card games during lockdown are now a new demographic of customers who aren't particularly satisfied by the big three (since if they were they'd probably already have been playing them before lockdown), and are interested to see what the genre might be able to do outside those games - this I think is particularly prominent in all the new games that have refused to have "fighting" as the win condition. At the same time, you've got a load of people fresh off the NFT bubble that are looking at card games as the next best way to sell people things on the basis of "collectibility", as can be seen in all the new card games that are trying to have randomised unique cards, plus a bunch of small, more honest design teams who have now seen that you don't have to be a big company to get a card game published.
I think One Piece looked bad for 1 or 2 sets, but nowadays most sets now have 90% original art. The rest of the 10% is divided between manga art, which is the majority of it and I think it looks good on the cards, plus anime cells, which are only used sometimes for leaders. It's a pretty aesthetically interesting game for fans of the series imo
"... even the ones in the starter decks are not safe for work." I'm too used to anime related discussion, because I immediately assumed you were implying there was something sexual or gory about literal Pokemon cards.
Thanks for featuring Altered ! It warms my heart as one of the designers who worked on the Reserve mechanic. I'll be sure to share this video's insights to my coworkers. Also obligatory mention that our Kickstarter launches on January 30.
As an illustrator, it is super refreshing to hear people outside of the traditional creative arts space voicing their distaste for image generation (particularly in the business space, but also just generally) and taking such a firm stance on the side of creators. Easy new subscription on top of your great content on TCG/Game Design.
In terms of generative ai, if I use it for generating ideas for what I want, list those/show those, and hire an artist that I think aligns with what I'm thinking based on that to make their own spin on it, is that a no-no? I still hire the artist and want their spice but I'm really bad about generating the initial ideas
@@chazcurlee1163 tl;dr I wouldn't use it for that because I still think that is unethically making use of other people's work by nature of how these systems operate and also, I don't think it's actually a good use case for what you described even in the event this was all morally squeaky clean. In my opinion, unless you are working on a novel model trained on a restricted and ethically sourced data set (where everyone involved is willing, aware, and compensated accordingly) then there is no ethical use case for the technology. Meaning any widely available model right now wouldn't be an okay thing to make use of regardless of the use case. Even if you somehow have a perfect and clean model, there are complications to that, given these systems consume unfathomable amounts of energy and you're still basically trying to replace a concept artist, since that is what that position is hired for. So, ethically, I would consider it still not okay myself. But, honestly, what it sounds like to me that you're looking for isn't idea generation, because that's not what these models do. These models are essentially rudimentary visualizers that chop up existing images in small chunks and use them to try and visualize a sentence/word. If that's all you're trying to do with it, I'd argue you already have an idea and are looking at the step after that, where you want to see how that could possible take more shape. That's achievable entirely normally by either hiring an artist to work concept with you or just engaging at actual art made by humans. I don't know the details of what you're looking for and I don't really want to, but people draw countless amounts of inspiration from the things the enjoy. Go find an artist you like and write a character based on their vibe. Go read a book and write a thinly-veiled export character of your favourite character in the book. Go practice some fan-fiction, like half of my generation of writers did. If what you need is a starting point, then all of those are totally fine outlets to find that that don't have all the dubious qualities of this technology. Creativity and "coming up with ideas" are both skills, contrary to popular belief, and they are skills that you can develop and iterate on and get better at, but only if you're willing to actually try it yourself and go through the process. Good luck and I hope you go make something.
@@chazcurlee1163 This might depend on the views of the individual artist you're working with. I'd recommend asking the artist you want to work with beforehand first if they're ok with you using AI generated images to try and communicate what you want with them. A lot of artists would rather you not do that as they'd rather not work with people using tools they see as antithetical to their craft in any capacity. Also personally, I think it would be better to look through the portfolios of artists who are available to see if they have pieces with a style that invokes something you'd want in your game, instead of having the AI scramble up a bunch of unsourced references from who knows where and trying to ask an artist "can you do your own spin this" after the fact.
it's just, one shows a level of respect for the artist you're working with and their body of work, while the other comes across as asking an artist to launder something people would object to seeing into being something technically "Artist-made."
Hoping Battle Sprits Saga is able to draw in a casual audience. The marketing focus on cash prizing and lack of intesting product past competitive play has seriously put a damper on a game that mechnically I have found very rewarding.
My FLGS has essentially given up on BSS and replaced it with Lorcana at this point, which is kinda sad, they had several people playing it, but not enough to make a healthy community.
On Industry Trends, Flesh and Blood has been doing paper boosters since 2022 (Everfest). Atm only half their boosters are paper, but that should correct itself when their print shop in japan gets the tech.
Yup, I'm a bit sad we never see any Flesh and Blood in your videos (but hey, the market is so wide, nobody can follow everything), but this was their perfect time to shine! They worked with cartamundi to develop those paper boosters and afaik, they didn't protect the technology, everyone is welcome to use them if they work with cartamundi.
What a terrible idea it is to use paper. I never bought FaB, but the paper boosters would throw me off the game so fast lol Even rain is a threat in that case. F that.
I game I play with my friends sometimes is "One Dollar Deck", where you have one American dollar (not counting sales tax) to build a whole deck in Yu-Gi-Oh, based on current market value. It can be done, and has offered us some of the best games we've ever played together
Always love that you don't dunk on smaller games and use the negatives as well as positives to be constructive and that you voice why it does or does not work well with clarity.
Hey Kohdok, great video. Been a big fan of your channel for years and I have just a few points in your video I want to talk about. 1. You said Pokemon's gen 3 ex cards kinda sucked and weren't used, but this isn't really true at all. They weren't overpowered or anything, but they were generally very strong and saw plenty of play in tournaments and championships. Many of the best decks 2003-2007 used a few of them. They were overall very well balanced cards, not weak but not too strong. 2. I felt like there could've been a stronger distinction between the double-prize Pokemon that improved their respective generations and the ones that didn't. Pokemon GX and the 2023 ex cards are much more balanced and well designed than the X and Y EX and gen 8 V cards. I imagine most Pokemon players would heavily disagree with your statement that all double-prize Pokemon in general have made the game boring and repetitive. Especially when Pokemon's Standard format has been very fun to play this year. Thank you for the video and keep up the good work
I truly agree about the AI art discourse, but I've heard around a couple of friends that just use AI art for art placeholders. They always tell me it is just to not have scribbles of pencils or just blank cards. I am not sure what to tell them, like they always speak of how convenient that kind of tool is.
Explain that it's like Uber. Uber was cheap until it shut down all the taxi businesses, now it costs more than those taxis ever did. AI is seeking to do that to the world of illustration.
My Shards of Alara starter Jund deck had a bonus pack in there. (It had at base 40 cards, not legal in any format though) I remember pulling a Predator Dragon, slotted right into the deck. It became my personally favorite card ever. I won so many games out of nowhere with it.
The standard One Piece Cards might be boring, but their alt arts are amazing. Lorcana had a bad start, but I do like how they also did try to cater to people who actually wanted to play their game. Like selling at Local Game Store first, and printing more of set one as soon as they did without making them different from the first print run. There were many scalpers and speculative buyers that were very upset that precious "first edition" cards couldn't retain their value. And talking about Kickstarter TCG bloat I saw one project which was a Backrooms Solitaire TCG with no multiplayer options. I fell like that defeats part of the purpose of the TCG model.
I think this goes to show how much of a disconnect there is between certain online commentary spaces and the real market. Lorcana is a Disney product. It's made in exactly the same way every other Disney product is made: as a product for children. That means accessibility is key, as it has been for every disney product for decades. It also means that Lorcana's playerbase is supposed to be quite young, the kinds of crowds that aren't going to be buying from the secondary market and who will be easily scared away from events that are too adult-heavy. Courting the resellers and scalpers would have been a terrible move for Lorcana just from a sheer pragmatic perspective - it'd kill the community by inviting in too many adult players and making it too difficult for kids to get the cards they want.
I'd argue several of their normal arts are getting way better nowadays as well. Set 1 had plenty of "unforgivable" Super and Secret Rares that were literally just "anime stock art", while the alt arts had some incredible art that demands these insane prices we see now. I think with Set 2 onward, they started being a lot more mindful of their Super Rares, though you still got stuff like Ace and Magellan. Set 4 or 5 is when the "base leader cards" started looking a lot more interesting, despite using anime art, by having actual animators make new art for the normal arts of leaders. Like, the normal art of Rosinante's leader card is legit one of my favorite looking leaders in the game, alt or otherwise. The rare Rosinante from that set is also really really nice, with the foil especially. Alt arts are almost always going to look better than the base card, but that doesn't mean you can cheap out on the normal arts. As i said, it's gotten better. Zorojuro from Set 5's normal art and alt art both look great, and Law from that same set looks great as well etc. I don't really buy the "it's bland" criticism, tbh, at least right now. Set 1 and maybe 2, you might've had a case
@@thunderguyer What makes it bland isn't just that it uses a lot of basic screenshot style images, it's also that it's One Piece. Any single show is always going to make for a bland card game because at the end of the day there are only so many characters and so many concepts/themes. There are only so many instances of Luffy that people are going to buy.
worth mentioning on the Lorcana front, they're already fixing the trove issue. Set 3's troves are going to contain acrylic dividers, AND dice for damsge tracking
I only recently stumbled upon your channel, and honestly, I know very little about collectible games outside of some vague decades-out-of-date knowledge of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh; but your depth and breadth of knowledge about everything from games to the production end, your enthusiasm, and your optimistically-curious-but-critical attitude and general vibe are a delight. I'll listen to CCG videos meant for audiences familiar with the games for background noise but often won't absorb anything (which is probably how you ended up in my recs; and it's fine, I'm not shading them, they ARE meant for people who are familiar with the games they're talking about haha), but I feel like I'm actually learning a fair amount about the space and these games when I listen to yours; it's really inconvenient, because I keep getting distracted by getting absorbed in what you're talking about.
Great video, i only have 1 thing to correct. (NO HATE AT ALL) While pokemon EX's, Gx's, V's, were undoubtedly centralizing and pushed non multi-prizers out of the game, the Scarlet and Violet's ex's have been absolutely great for the format for the following reasons: 1. evolution is back, the biggest problem with the EX and V is it turned the game into an aggressive big basics do big damage format making games into a race to 3 KOs. The evolution reliance of big 330 hp ex's add a wrinkle to the prize mapping of games, and make games longer by allowing sacrifice small 1 prizer turns a real strategy. 2. the reintroduction of strong comeback mechanics, while not necessarily due to ex's the cards that only work when you are behind in prizes makes the ex's actually a usable resource for prize fixing and more importantly allows slower decks like gardevoir. 3. they didnt forget single prizers. while yes there are strong ex only decks, this is the most diverse format weve had in a decade in terms of number of decks viable and also 1 and 2 prizers being viable. Lost Zone box is arguably the best archetype right now and there are ex, V,s and single prize (in any combination or omission) of ways to build the deck.
I would also say that gen 3 tcg was a significantly more balanced and interesting metagame than gen 4. Lowercase ex actually felt like a trade off, and while sometimes, they went a little overboard (looking at you, team rocket returns), you generally did get a worthwhile power boost without power creeping other options, with counterplay possible. Level X didn't have the same 2 prize drawback, but were almost only ever used if they were completely broken like Luxray GL Level X due to essentially being an additional evolution level and harder to search. The other big thing about gen 4 tcg is that they introduced several powercreep mechanics that didn't have that cost of an additional prize, which I found to be arguably worse. SP were almost a trial run of what they'd eventually do with uppercase EX next gen, and "prime" pokemon were all the inflated stats of lowercase ex without the additional drawback.
@@PeterBoggs while i generally agree that gen3 was more balanced, i like gen 4s more consistent games. Sometimes in 06 worlds format i just dont draw mentor in the first 2-3 turns and im just so far behind.
Winds of Exchange revived Keyforge from the dead in 2023. It had a very well-funded kickstarter, and a resurgence in interest, but not the explosive growth necessary to make the cash prizes offered at tournaments worth it to the game's new owners. A new limited deckbuilding format that the company has been pushing has not met with much enthusiasm among the game's veterans, perhaps unsurprisingly given the nature of the game.
Well who didn't see any of that coming. Keyforge was a massive gamble, that turned out to alienate too much of the potential playerbase, to too strong of a degree for them to come back when the gimmick is dropped. In other words, it wasn't just the randomised decks that put people off Keyforge, it was also the way that the gameplay had been designed around facilitating randomised decks.
@@yurisei6732 The gimmick hasn't been dropped - the game is still designed around facilitating randomized decks. I don't think its lack of high-level success is best attributed to alienation per se.
Battle city speed duel box pretty much destroyed the meta because it was basically "if you wanna win, you have to the use the my precious queen skill or else you have 90% to lose " to the point they had to FINALLY ban it. And its literally the only skill AND card that s currently banned. also yeah the 25th pack is amazing, beginner no longer have great staple locked being a paywall.
Great video and insight. My only take is that digimon should have gotten more points for it's gameplay and artwork. Though Bandai has been on an engine spree of pumping out more and more tcgs. I certainly hope that this means that they have enough budget to improve on each franchise without compromising the other.
Always love an Elestrals Shoutout! Really looking forward to the full launch this year with First edition, Frostfall, Daybreak and the rest of their roadmap stuff!
I won't say the art museum should have been ready for it, but I will say someone should have warned them. Like the pokemon company would have known, right?
Agreed. It’s one thing to license some gift shop merch, another entirely to distribute an exclusive trading card for the biggest IP in the world. No assistance or support is kind of shameful.
He seems to think it's something about how Luffy had "god powers" all along and how Gear 5 was not a creation of Luffy's. Something about it now being an "OP Devil fruit"
I don't think I have disagreed more with any other video you have made. Good video, I would just say I personally disagree with a lot of these opinions
Bro you’re using common cards to judge the optcg art? Have you not seen the alt artwork? Hell SR’s have striking artwork by popular japanese online artists. Well I guess One Piece can stay being the top selling card game outside of the big 3 year after year and you can stay mad about it.
If the quality of a game is hidden in its alternate arts, it's a low quality game, end of. The game that the vast majority of people will be playing is the game that uses the cheapest versions of each card. Even if you do get one good alt art, that still leaves you having to play with 39-59 uninspired cards and one good card. This is also the reason that MTG's rare forays into anime/waifu alt arts don't actually capture the anime/waifu audience.
Man, really not giving OP any chances huh. Card art has significantly improved over the course of the year (not just talking about the alt arts) and the game has several flavor-to-mechanic top down card designs which you value so much. If there's anything to rag on about the game it is the supply issues, but you didn't even mention that lol. It's okay if you're not interested in the game but I can't help but think you're just not really giving it a fair shake.
"Card art has significantly improved" yeah but first impressions are everything, so if the set debuts in an unimpressive way, it will not encourage someone to stick with it.
Grand Archive is a really, really interesting game offering immense complexity and really living up to the 'familiar but fresh' label it puts on itself. Yes, the art is a bit meh but the game itself is incredibly awesome and is definitely not as derivative of Magic as some people think it might be. It reeaaally feels like its own thing and it has huge potential because of all the different directions it can take in the future.
Even if it is derivative of magic, that's hardly a problem. Magic has a really solid formula, if every game had to avoid feeling in any way similar to MTG, a lot few good games would exist. If anything, "it's a lot like MTG" makes me more interested in a new card game, since I've been looking for something that takes the highlight reel from MTG and cuts out the very heavy baggage it has, like lands being a thing or having bland art or being made by WOTC.
Grand Archive has been the game I've been the most interested in trying out. The problem for me is that no one here would play it, and I can't reasonably expect people to, so I'm hoping an online client might happen some day.
I have to agree with what you said about the One piece tcg, the artwork is getting ok now, but it was horrible, literal screenshots of the anime/manga. I hate when they do that, makes the game feel very cheap. Kinda sad that the Digimon tcg and Flesh and Blood did not get mentioned but a great video nevertheless. Nice job man.
I do want to point out that just because something is small or indie doesn't mean it's free of criticism, so any time someone goes into a list like this saying "well I'm only gonna trash on big corporations and leave indie people out of it" it feels a little lopsided. _However,_ when the worst that can happen with an indie project being bad is "oh, that's annoying of them to do, anyway", and the worst that can happen with a corporation is stuff like the Pinkertons being dispatched or even worse given their absolute chokehold over the industry and how fast bad business practices spread... yeah, suddenly putting the spotlight on the corporations does make a lot more sense. I think the most baffling thing in this list is the Lorcana un-inkable thing. I've seen people praise Lorcana because "I don't have to put any boring resource cards in my deck! I can just use my regular cards as resources!", but if you're using a card that's inkable _because_ it's inkable over cards that are un-inkable...that's just a resource card! You put lands in your land-less game! Like Kohdok said, in a game where every card is a resource, you can STILL be mana screwed! Duel Masters solved this when I was a CHILD! HOW IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?! I think your statement on "a Lorcana card should be two of either effect, body, or resource" is really smart and it really sticks in my craw that they've went the completely wrong direction, that these clunky 7 mana cards and niche little options are the ones that get stranded in your hand while you have to agonize over whether you ink your playmaker or not.
That is why Yahtzee is a good critic, he appreciates the craft of what he criticizes. I think the same of you. Critics who separates things on good and bad, don't like the craft, only when is done in a particular way.
39:34 Technically, Games Workshop is slowly introducing recycling bins for sprues and empty paint pots in their stores. AFAIK it's only in the UK at the moment, but it's going to be spread worldwide by the end of the year I imagine.
It plays significantly better in paper. The digital game is nice but the current state of it is not a very good experience from a meta or even mechanical standpoint. It's far past the point where card design has been broken. Evolve has avoided almost all of the pitfalls of the digital game so far.
It wasn't mentioned here, but I got into Flesh and Blood about a year ago and it has been great after more than a decade of Magic, this year had great art (like Eric Klug's cards), sets, and products (like the Tolarian multiplayer box).
@@Waterseeker_ i have tried hundreds of times. I just aint got the talent for that, and since i am the only one who works on my project (and since i am a medical university student, i can do it only in the little free time i have), i do not have time to try even more.
I love the comparison to Arcadia Quest Inferno at 20:00, as Miniature Market has had multiple sales of it for $12-15, including all of its 36 miniatures, 300 cards, 300 tokens, etc. and its expansions for $6-15 each. If interested, I recommend looking out for those sales; insane value on a solid game.
about Battle Spirits Saga. I've been getting intp the japanese BS, because it never ended and rebooted, it doesn't have a problem cards. I picked up some Saga and like halff the cards are vanilla from the first two sets, they changed the hex shaped cores to decahedrons that look and feel change also easily roll everywhere. me and my friend are having more fun with the japanese collaboration cards, that are competitive, and we don't speak/read japanese, we just use the wiki fandom for BS. there biggest failare is lack of depth, i understand if the the OG game would have picked up by now it would be in better shape. But, having only 3/4 card types? where's the depth? the actual game has card types 6/9 by comparision (some cards like the grandwalker nexus cards are like nexus cards but aren't affected by effects that affact nexuses that's the reasons for the "/").
The battle spirits saga parts is a little worse than you described. As in Japan, there are cards that are using a certain license from toei, that being kamen rider, in Japan, there are sets of cards that represent multiple different seasons, including saber, hibiki, zero one, ooo, and more. This really bugs me because Kamen rider is one of the most important series to come from Japan, so if the cards were brought to America, it would’ve made them enough money to drown all of Texas in molten metal. I think there was also various ultraman cards, so, this is just one giant dropped ball.
I'd also like to add to your section on MTG Aftermath that after this whole fiasco with the Pinkertons getting sent for this apparently incredibly important product, the set itself was seen an overpriced, overproduced, and weak mechanically disaster of a set that would've hurt LGS sale heavily for the next couple months if Tales from Middle-Earth didn't drop as soon as it did afterwards
Battle Spirits Saga is something I had been waiting for, for years. I have been consuming the japanese side of this franchise for a decade, it makes me so sad that Bandai did this to it. I tried very hard to get people at my locals interested because the game itself is fantastic, but instead it got me to quit the hobby all together.
I'm glad people keep realizing how not just soulless but malicious Hasbro and Wotc are. Been in the hobby since 7th edition. I stopped buying Mtg in 2019. Since then have not spent a cent on Wotc or Hasbro products in general and never will again.
Kind of surprised you praised the quality of Lorcana. They have some of the flimsiest, cheap feel to cards that I've ever laid my hands on. I do appreciate that extra booster though
Rarity collection is arguably, possibly the greatest set Konami has ever made for the player base. It will probably never be topped. Really good pick tbh.
You're being far too dismissive of Shadowverse Evolve. From a gameplay standpoint nothing else comes close to being as fun this year in the TCG side of things. They went out of their way to fix most of the issues with the digital game and make an interactive and mechanically complete game in paper.
So you mentioned that nobody has cracked (pun intended) the formula for paper packs, but what about Flesh and Blood? I think their paper packs are pretty good.
as a Dutchman & long time Pokémon Fan & Collector, I'm Truly disgusted by that side of the "Fanbase" even the Extra Wave is already getting pre-sold/scalped by many game stores its the worst PS: although unfortunate that I don't have one yet, I also kinda don't want it anymore, since it would make me feel Complicit to this whole spiel
Hey Kohdok, love the vids! I was wondering, because I never fully saw it addressed, would it be possible to make a trading card game that didn’t have different rarities? Like every card is “common” for example What would be the drawbacks of this? It seems like it would make the financial barrier to entry a lot smaller
Rarity has some influence over the price, but what matters more is viability and print ratio. Doesn't matter if a card is common, if it's super playable and was shortprinted it'll be worth money
Kohdok ! Love your videos, they got me convinced to try and design a board game, obv avoiding the deadly sins... except one. Im bent on trying to use cards as board pieces... How would you go about defying everything you stand for to design this kind of game if you had to !!!
I think it’s a great point that these are games first and foremost and an investment second. I’m excited for next year with so many good options and many year 2s.
I like the preamble about the Bland category. It reminds me of what Mark Rosewater (lead designer of Magic) has been saying for years if not decades: "If everybody likes your product, but nobody loves it, it will fail."
Obviously I'm biased since I actively play it but I actually really like uninkables in lorcana, I think it's a smart way to balance cards and bring a deckbuilding cost back into "every card is resource", which I guess Lorcana technically isn't. For now with only two expansions we haven't seen it being super relevant since there have been only a few uninkables worth playing but as they make more strong uninkables players will really have to start to consider every slot in their deck. Even tough I'll agree they have been making very harmless cards uninkables for really no reason.
I agree. I’ve been playing Lorcana as well and I think the uninkable systems actually adds a ton of depth. It is basically just another layer of costing to help balance cards and it affects everything from deck construction to card sequencing in game. It also creates the mechanical space for cards like fishbone quill that allow you to ink even when you have a high proportion of uninkables in your deck. I wonder how much time kohdok has given to actually trying the game because I think this mechanic is actually a big positive once you get past the starter deck stage as a player and begin to really understand the nuances of deck building for Lorcana.
@@johnhartsock5352Yeah I get the impression kohdok hasn't really played the game, or at least not in a meaningful way, which is fair I guess, you can't play EVERY tcg ever released and he clearly wasn't interested in the game from the start so I'm not expecting him to have perfectly informed opinions on the game but I wish he gave the game a chance cause I don't think he ever said a positive thing about the mechanics yet lol
@@johnhartsock5352 Uninkable Cards have ruined my attempts to play using Precons at events. Like, they rot in my hand being both unplayable and uninkable. As I said in the video, my issue is that Uninkability is so frequently put on the very cards one would want to Ink to maintain tempo, like having a 7-cost uninkable in your starting hand is no fun at all. And it's so arbitrary! Peter Pan Red and Peter Pan Green have the exact same stats and cost, yet Green is Inkable and Elusive while Red is Uninkable with Rush? I have no problem with Hades, as it's literally "Part of Your World" with a body. Cards that do a lot on their own not being inkable is more fair than Rapunzel Red being uninkable despite being cost 6 with a super weak effect because...uh...
@Kohdok The problem there is not the mechanic but the way the precon is made, I was kinda shocked you praised the starter decks because to be completely honest they are terrible, they are constructed in such a poor way were the experience you had is 100% inevitable, infact I have seen an alarming amount of newcomers on the subreddit asking if the game is broken or if it's the starter decks, it's that bad. But yeah I agree a lot of uninkables are uninkables for no discernable reason. Btw if you want to give the game another chance I recommend Pixelborn, it's a fanmade simulator with every card available and a ranked ladder, it should give you a more accurate idea of the game without spending exorbitant amounts of money for a deck.
@@MasterofKirby97 I hope it was clear my praise for the starter decks was regardless of the actual deck construction, but on the fact that it's a full deck, with separate mat and rules, an insert that doubles as a token card, avoidance of plastic where possible, and the bonus booster to round it out.
So a slight thing I want to say: Yahtzee's main focus is in an Industry that has more Attention on it as a whole, and an Industry that has a metric ton of issues going on. So his "Negative Nancy" views can be more attributed to those side of things (Especially considering Yahtzee's own situation that happened a few months ago) and tends to ring much more louder rather. Especially when considering how rough the "Money/Business" side of the Industry really tends to be the deciding factor in how a Video Game turns out. Especially since a product failing can determine the fate of an IP and Developer. Also, especially in the Critic field, people can write glowing positive reviews. But the ones who find the flaws and point them out certainly reveal that not everything is as perfect as it seems. While Yahtzee's style is meant to invoke humor at the end of the day, there's something to be said about still providing a genuine review that looks at and criticizes every aspect of the medium, as opposed to just saying "This is extremely good!" The fact that Yahtzee only did that kind of Reveiw once, because the game was Undertale, could in and of itself reveals more about the game than he could ever put into a review; the phrase "Silence Speaks Volumes" can apply. And when one considers that Yahtzee is a Caustic Critic, for the Undertale review to be a 3 second long "Undertale is a Good Game!" review is funny and unexpected, follows his own "Reviewed Games Make the Lists" rule, and provides his genuine input on what he thinks of the game at the end of the day. Also, his in-depth views are in a video form, so if one wants a bit more clarification on why a game makes it to that section, they can look it up. Not so much trying to rag on your point of Yahtzee, but at least say that being a "Negative Nancy" isn't quite accurate while saying that the Video Game industry still has a large number of differences still. If he was basically trying to be more negative, he wouldn't have a "Best" section and just stick to a "Bland/Worst" list and be done.
"Negative Nancy" is maybe a bit reductive, but that is a deliberate part of his public persona. His humor is biting and often crass, he's vocally pessimistic about a lot of industry trends, he's an insightful critic but a lot of his appeal is watching him find increasingly creative ways to insult AAA releases. As evidenced by his cadre of ride-or-die fans who insist on defending him from the mildest pushback because he's harsher to your average game than its Metacritic score and therefore is the only man in the business who's willing to Say It Like It Is.
@@nathanl8622 That's fine and fair. My point is that Yahtzee's own takes aren't pure "This game is bad because of these reasons!" that's associated with the term "Negative Nancy" that and that he's meant to provide a layer of constructive criticism to the games and industry, with the aforementioned creative insulting of Industry at large.
I mean, I hope it's clear that between the softball term and the fact that I said his approach had merit in the "Identify what sputters in place" thing, I hope it's clear I have nothing but respect for him. The sheer joy in his description of Redfall in his own BWBs made me giddy about Video Games and I hope Card Games can follow suit.
"The guy who's entire story arc is defying the whims of the privileged was privileged all along" isn't really as compelling a story as you think it is, m8.
@@Kohdok luffy isnt defined by "defying the whims of the privileged", he's defined by his own personal freedom, a freedom he thinks everyone should have. luffy has helped several people that have been privileged because its what he thought was the correct thing to do. when alabasta needed help, he didnt turn them down because he was helping people in power, he helped them because its what he thought was right. luffy has helped the status quo return to normal in some places, and he's helped disrupt it in others, but in all cases there were people who had power, official or not, trying to oppress people. the gum gum fruit's true power wasn't there with him from the start, he still had to fight and claw his way to earn any kind of recognition, and he didnt do that for status, he did that because to him, being king of the pirates means being absolutely free. the awakened gum gum fruit is an ultimate expression of his freedom, making him not just free from the control of others, but from the laws of reality itself. i think its an intensely compelling way to tie these thematics together near the end of the series, as luffy gets closer to having to take on the ultimate embodiments of oppression in imu and blackbeard, people who kill and take and hoard power with no regards for others. also i dont know if this like, means anything to your perspective, but gear five was intended to show up way earlier, before oda decided to extend the series, and was basically planned to be luffy's real devil fruit power from the very start (or at least very close to the start). from what i heard, i might be wrong, it was intended to show up all the way back in the fight against lucci. you know, the first arc where luffy goes out of his way to fight for someone's freedom against all better judgment i liked the rest of the video btw i just have strong feelings about this topic
@@bionichuteagain2583 Luffy fought against those who used their privilege and super-powered Fruits to impose their will upon others, using a fruit he was told was worthless, accomplishing his wins through pure guts and ingenuity. It was a (relative)layman resisting entrenched authority. Learning that Luffy did, in fact, possess a Super Privilege Fruit Super Privilege destroys the meaning behind all of that to me. The Niko-Niko fruit was a Shark Jump. Just saying, him punching a Celestial Dragon isn't nearly as satisfying when you know Luffy was God all along.
@@Kohdok he didnt have a super privilege fruit, theyve shown that any fruit can become awakened, lucci's awakened fruit BEAT luffy's awakened fruit because thats not how power scaling works in one piece. it isnt an instant win button, it isnt literally god power, its not dragon ball z where everyone just gets physically stronger and then they win. the fight against kaido is entirely about how powers and haki don't matter in a fight, its how the person with those abilities use them. luffy is the person fighting, not the powers. doflamingo wasnt evil because he had an awakened fruit, he was evil because he was a dictator that killed and enslaved people. the story has made it very clear that different people use devil fruit powers in entirely different ways, maybe they arent all as powerful, but its the person with the power that determines their full capabilities like, come on man, he doesnt even use his powers to punch the celestial dragon. i dont want to assume you're being willfully ignorant of stuff here, but its frustrating that it feels like youre kinda just ignoring the text and very blunt theming of the whole thing?
@@bionichuteagain2583 "I mean, just because he has the powers of a God, doesn't mean" yeah, I'm gonna stop you there.Luffy being the underdog is over. Learning he was always using a God-level Devil Fruit means his resistance was not his own efforts, but a lucky win on the Devil Fruit roulette. I mean, the awakened Gum-Gum Fruit letting Luffy warp reality the way he can warp his body makes sense and would be awesome...if it was the product of his own efforts and not the product of his Gum-Gum Fruit secretly being the God-God Fruit. THAT. THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT! THAT is the problem I keep pointing out is the core of my issue. Please stop ignoring what I'm actually talking about. It would be like learning that Batman was secretly from Krypton all along.
Kohdok, what do you think about Varia? When I watch your videos, I see you showcase so many interesting-looking TCGs, CCGs, etc. that completely fly under my radar. I wonder if that's because I don't follow the right content creators/(news sites?) or if you just have a unique knack for keeping your finger on the pulse. I would love to see you do more content that highlights these "games you probably missed"! Sincerely, A lapsed TCG player looking for something too good for a LGS to stock
Why? Why are you proud to be obsolete? That's like someone saying "we are proud to say we will never ever use the automobile!" The people you serve are your players, not artists.
@@TheControlBlue have you ever created anything in your life besides a dump? why are you begging for cheaper, uglier content? sit down and guzzle down whatever you're served while adults worry about what to cook for you.
@@sirspookybones1118 Players would rather support a game with good quality images, regardless of how they were made. Judging the tool is not judging the product.
30:00 On the Double prizers, while they're all pretty boring at this point I want to give a dishonorable mention to double prizes that don't have to evolve (see EXs Tag Team GX's and V's) as not only do they not have to participate in a core mechanic of the game (evolution) but they ignore that mechanic as often the best cards of the sets their in. Combine this with the double damage weaknesses from most blocks outside of Gen 4 and it sometimes leads to games that are over in 3 turns, Before a stage 2 can reasonably do anything outside of using rare candy. This deal with the double prize problem is my worry about Pokemon TCG Pocket which only has 3 prizes despite having ex's. Even with the lower power level they'll need to be kept on an extremely tight leash lest every game becoming who can KO 2 pokemon first. Which sucks because I kinda like what they did with the Strikes of Gen 8 and Ancient/Future now, the tags don't do anything on their own but allow synergies with other cards with their tags which is cool, and I would've liked to see more of that other than a revolving door of ruleboxs that they need to have otherwise nobody would buy/play them.
The pinkerton incident was also the straw that broke the camel's back for me too, sold all my mtg cards and quit buying products, gonna just proxy and play in tts now
pokemon has an entire format of play for non rule box pokemon called GLC. there are also multiple single prize pokemon that are competitive in the current format lmao and in the past couple there were a few decks entirely centered around them. There is more to pokemon than just how much HP it has, prize mapping is a huge part of the game and many non rule box pokemon and single prize pokemon have very solid attacks and effects. Their single prize status actually makes them have a favorable prize trade with a two prize attacker, making prize mapping more difficult etc. If anything, this current rendition of pokemon ex is far more balanced than previous big box mechanics. Yes their hp is high relative to say a EX pokemon, but that is because most of them aren't swinging that big on other rule box pokemon and are often not basics themselves. Barring a few exceptions like Charizard ex, most of them have pretty balanced attacks relative to their HP size, and even then decks like Charizard still have plenty of counter play. For a multitude of design reasons you are unlikely to see a move away from multi prize attackers, they add layers to design and most design teams aren't going to take the avenue to limit that. On top of that there is a sanctioned format of play that does not allow rule box pokemon(IE all multi prize attackers as well as a few other mechanics like radiant pokemon)and as such there is even less incentive to make the dominant format of play centered around that. Essentially, if you are tired of the status quo of pokemon, try things like GLC or maybe make a cube.
That's the biggest sin for me, almost all of these new card games are just so bland. As a time and money-limited consumer, I'm not even going to find out if your game is good or bad if I'm not playing it because you failed to lure me in with theme, art and/or concept. With all of these games, if it's not the art that's putting me off, it's the theme, and for many of them, it's both. That applies to every card game about a company or IP I'm not interested in, like Lorcana or One-Piece, but it's also a failure I'm seeing in "indie" games. Achroma has enough of a playerbase for now that my LGS hosts nights for it, but I don't understand why because the art and theme are both so bland that it feels to me like I may as well be playing with blank pieces of paper. And on another note, a lot of these card games feel like board games that have been split up into individual packs to make more money. I was reminded of this just now double checking the Achroma rules to remember exactly why I find it bland, and reading through them I couldn't help but think "I am reading the rules for a board game here".
I find it a little funny that you mention the point with packaging waste and how a company would be in bank if that was a thing they could reliably do, cus Flesh and Blood has been doing this sorta thing since early 2022. it's actually be weird cus last year they got a second printing plant that's in japan, and people have complained about how the japanese product still uses plastic card packs, and they're actually harder to open than the standard packs. Paper card packaging is actually so good and leaves you feeling spoiled opening them compared to the other stuff
8:43 I agree, that it is very important to gather and maintain a healthy casual audience. That said, I don't think competitive players are quite as irrelevant to a game's success, as it comes across here. 30:30 This is an interesting take. I always felt, that 2 prize pokemon added an additional axis of diversity to pokemon decks. Before pokemon differentiated themselves mostly by how much damage/utility they could dish out vs how much setup (in the form of energy and evolutions) they needed. 2-prizers, I feel, introduced an additional axis of risk, where a pokemon worth more prizes creates the risk, that your opponent can get ahead by KOing it efficiently. Utility 2-prizers are the best example of this, where they are commonly omitted from decks, because they would give up prizes to the opponent too easily. I do agree though, that multi-prizers (and especially attackers) have commonly been overtuned in recent years and that the new ex's and even their terrastal-variants haven't really been particularly interesting thus far.
I think the Pokemon's new exs are subtlely a big step up from previous generations. Powering up stage 2 multi prize pokemon is less so power creep and more a course correction from how much more powerful basic Vs and Stage 1 VStars and VMaxs were, putting them on the same level while promoting evolution as a core mechanic since stage 2 attackers were basically unplayed at any high level since 2019's tag teams. Setup based evolving decks can now compete and coexist with the aggro basic strategies that had dominated for years.
I will say having played a fair amount of Star Wars Unlimited leading into the launch this month, is actually a very fun game. The initiative system provides some very interesting risk reward situations and the aspect penalty system encourages coherent deck choices while still allowing for key splashes.
Just curious if you ever did a card game sin for 'Reformating'. I know Vangard is realy bad with this and a card game I am worried about called Shadowverse is pulling the same shenanigans.
I went to a card convention for the first time last year and it blew me away the people operating in this space. There were like no lie a dozen card games hocking their wares trying to get people to invest. I've been trying really hard to not buy into a paper card game, but lorcana might change that. I've been playing on the bootleg digital client pixelborn and i totally agree uninkable cards are just the worst but overall it's a very fun game.
On the Union Arena defense, they are releasing multiple licenses at a time since the game does not allow you to cross over licenses. If you play Bleach, you only play Bleach in that deck. Because of this, they are able to double-dip on a lot of card ideas (each license can have it's multi-resource card, play-an-draw card, basic attackers, multi-attackers, etc.).
Kinda surprised you didn't mention the $1300 platinum DM in your "appeasing the scalpers" section. It's nice to see Konami getting pushback from the playerbase because it was both the worst product released from the 25th anniversary lineup and so universally panned that they retweeted the sale multiple times to no fanfare. Hopefully Konami learns to NEVER try this kind of stunt again (also hope Konami learns to lower the price of admission for competitive engine cards before the playerbase implodes, but looking at their history with nekroz and sky striker at release, I highly doubt they would).
I mean, the point of scalping is to grab something for cheap that you know will rise in value. You really cannot scalp a 1300$ brick of metal when the first piece of the series barely maintained value.
@@liloldman5998 It's
and they posted a 1300 platinum dmg (with censored art) while everyone was waiting for the banlist
it's really funny that you mention Rarity Collection; It apparently did SO well, Konami already announce Rarity Collection 2 later this year. And it already has some great reprints announced, like Accesscode Talker
Wow, making your game accessible turns out to be popular with the fans, who knew?
@@Kohdokdon't laugh man they seemed genuinly surprised :x
@@KohdokWizards: "Best I can do is Nostalgia-baiting screenshots on $1 worth of LOTR cards. $40 please."
@@JM-vl3cy Well yeah, it was surprising that it was announced so quickly. Keep in mind that Rarity Collection 1 is also a set that was wholly transplanted from the OCG (minus exactly 1 card) so it was just assumed that it was just a special set, a one time deal.
@@Kohdokdont make fun of us yugioh players we dont have accessible staple cards
From 2009 until 2020, I believe ~6 TCGs got funded on Kickstarter.
From 2020 until the end 2023...~63 TCGs got funded on Kickstarter.
That is a scary exponential increase. We could be seeing thousands by the end of the decade.
And that's the number that got FUNDED, not posted. The number of failures is WAY higher.
Which makes some sense, a lot more people getting into card games during lockdown are now a new demographic of customers who aren't particularly satisfied by the big three (since if they were they'd probably already have been playing them before lockdown), and are interested to see what the genre might be able to do outside those games - this I think is particularly prominent in all the new games that have refused to have "fighting" as the win condition. At the same time, you've got a load of people fresh off the NFT bubble that are looking at card games as the next best way to sell people things on the basis of "collectibility", as can be seen in all the new card games that are trying to have randomised unique cards, plus a bunch of small, more honest design teams who have now seen that you don't have to be a big company to get a card game published.
@@yurisei6732 Yeah pretty much, you definitely know what was up.
Oh wow I thought there was a lot of hate down here but like 4/5 of these are one dude
I think One Piece looked bad for 1 or 2 sets, but nowadays most sets now have 90% original art. The rest of the 10% is divided between manga art, which is the majority of it and I think it looks good on the cards, plus anime cells, which are only used sometimes for leaders.
It's a pretty aesthetically interesting game for fans of the series imo
"... even the ones in the starter decks are not safe for work." I'm too used to anime related discussion, because I immediately assumed you were implying there was something sexual or gory about literal Pokemon cards.
Thanks for featuring Altered ! It warms my heart as one of the designers who worked on the Reserve mechanic. I'll be sure to share this video's insights to my coworkers.
Also obligatory mention that our Kickstarter launches on January 30.
Yeah you work on altered and my father works at nintendo lol
As an illustrator, it is super refreshing to hear people outside of the traditional creative arts space voicing their distaste for image generation (particularly in the business space, but also just generally) and taking such a firm stance on the side of creators. Easy new subscription on top of your great content on TCG/Game Design.
In terms of generative ai, if I use it for generating ideas for what I want, list those/show those, and hire an artist that I think aligns with what I'm thinking based on that to make their own spin on it, is that a no-no? I still hire the artist and want their spice but I'm really bad about generating the initial ideas
@@chazcurlee1163
tl;dr I wouldn't use it for that because I still think that is unethically making use of other people's work by nature of how these systems operate and also, I don't think it's actually a good use case for what you described even in the event this was all morally squeaky clean.
In my opinion, unless you are working on a novel model trained on a restricted and ethically sourced data set (where everyone involved is willing, aware, and compensated accordingly) then there is no ethical use case for the technology. Meaning any widely available model right now wouldn't be an okay thing to make use of regardless of the use case. Even if you somehow have a perfect and clean model, there are complications to that, given these systems consume unfathomable amounts of energy and you're still basically trying to replace a concept artist, since that is what that position is hired for.
So, ethically, I would consider it still not okay myself. But, honestly, what it sounds like to me that you're looking for isn't idea generation, because that's not what these models do. These models are essentially rudimentary visualizers that chop up existing images in small chunks and use them to try and visualize a sentence/word. If that's all you're trying to do with it, I'd argue you already have an idea and are looking at the step after that, where you want to see how that could possible take more shape. That's achievable entirely normally by either hiring an artist to work concept with you or just engaging at actual art made by humans.
I don't know the details of what you're looking for and I don't really want to, but people draw countless amounts of inspiration from the things the enjoy. Go find an artist you like and write a character based on their vibe. Go read a book and write a thinly-veiled export character of your favourite character in the book. Go practice some fan-fiction, like half of my generation of writers did. If what you need is a starting point, then all of those are totally fine outlets to find that that don't have all the dubious qualities of this technology. Creativity and "coming up with ideas" are both skills, contrary to popular belief, and they are skills that you can develop and iterate on and get better at, but only if you're willing to actually try it yourself and go through the process. Good luck and I hope you go make something.
@@chazcurlee1163 This might depend on the views of the individual artist you're working with.
I'd recommend asking the artist you want to work with beforehand first if they're ok with you using AI generated images to try and communicate what you want with them.
A lot of artists would rather you not do that as they'd rather not work with people using tools they see as antithetical to their craft in any capacity.
Also personally, I think it would be better to look through the portfolios of artists who are available to see if they have pieces with a style that invokes something you'd want in your game, instead of having the AI scramble up a bunch of unsourced references from who knows where and trying to ask an artist "can you do your own spin this" after the fact.
it's just, one shows a level of respect for the artist you're working with and their body of work, while the other
comes across as asking an artist to launder something people would object to seeing into being something technically "Artist-made."
Hoping Battle Sprits Saga is able to draw in a casual audience. The marketing focus on cash prizing and lack of intesting product past competitive play has seriously put a damper on a game that mechnically I have found very rewarding.
Cash prises are needed....but we have to many games
i like the gundam cards so i'll get the gundam cards
My FLGS has essentially given up on BSS and replaced it with Lorcana at this point, which is kinda sad, they had several people playing it, but not enough to make a healthy community.
On Industry Trends, Flesh and Blood has been doing paper boosters since 2022 (Everfest). Atm only half their boosters are paper, but that should correct itself when their print shop in japan gets the tech.
Really? Well I guess they're in for a payday.
@Kohdok they even kicked out rudychan. U
@Kohdok you also got the rise in TTRPGs
Yup, I'm a bit sad we never see any Flesh and Blood in your videos (but hey, the market is so wide, nobody can follow everything), but this was their perfect time to shine! They worked with cartamundi to develop those paper boosters and afaik, they didn't protect the technology, everyone is welcome to use them if they work with cartamundi.
What a terrible idea it is to use paper. I never bought FaB, but the paper boosters would throw me off the game so fast lol
Even rain is a threat in that case. F that.
I game I play with my friends sometimes is "One Dollar Deck", where you have one American dollar (not counting sales tax) to build a whole deck in Yu-Gi-Oh, based on current market value. It can be done, and has offered us some of the best games we've ever played together
Broke boy reference?!?!?!
Magic online has Penny Dreadful which is similar. Only cards worth less than a cent are legal.
Always love that you don't dunk on smaller games and use the negatives as well as positives to be constructive and that you voice why it does or does not work well with clarity.
Hey Kohdok, great video. Been a big fan of your channel for years and I have just a few points in your video I want to talk about.
1. You said Pokemon's gen 3 ex cards kinda sucked and weren't used, but this isn't really true at all. They weren't overpowered or anything, but they were generally very strong and saw plenty of play in tournaments and championships. Many of the best decks 2003-2007 used a few of them. They were overall very well balanced cards, not weak but not too strong.
2. I felt like there could've been a stronger distinction between the double-prize Pokemon that improved their respective generations and the ones that didn't. Pokemon GX and the 2023 ex cards are much more balanced and well designed than the X and Y EX and gen 8 V cards. I imagine most Pokemon players would heavily disagree with your statement that all double-prize Pokemon in general have made the game boring and repetitive. Especially when Pokemon's Standard format has been very fun to play this year.
Thank you for the video and keep up the good work
Man I don't even really play card games, but I always appreciate your insight on mechanical and production topics.
I truly agree about the AI art discourse, but I've heard around a couple of friends that just use AI art for art placeholders. They always tell me it is just to not have scribbles of pencils or just blank cards. I am not sure what to tell them, like they always speak of how convenient that kind of tool is.
Explain that it's like Uber. Uber was cheap until it shut down all the taxi businesses, now it costs more than those taxis ever did. AI is seeking to do that to the world of illustration.
My Shards of Alara starter Jund deck had a bonus pack in there. (It had at base 40 cards, not legal in any format though) I remember pulling a Predator Dragon, slotted right into the deck. It became my personally favorite card ever. I won so many games out of nowhere with it.
The standard One Piece Cards might be boring, but their alt arts are amazing.
Lorcana had a bad start, but I do like how they also did try to cater to people who actually wanted to play their game. Like selling at Local Game Store first, and printing more of set one as soon as they did without making them different from the first print run. There were many scalpers and speculative buyers that were very upset that precious "first edition" cards couldn't retain their value.
And talking about Kickstarter TCG bloat I saw one project which was a Backrooms Solitaire TCG with no multiplayer options. I fell like that defeats part of the purpose of the TCG model.
I think this goes to show how much of a disconnect there is between certain online commentary spaces and the real market. Lorcana is a Disney product. It's made in exactly the same way every other Disney product is made: as a product for children. That means accessibility is key, as it has been for every disney product for decades. It also means that Lorcana's playerbase is supposed to be quite young, the kinds of crowds that aren't going to be buying from the secondary market and who will be easily scared away from events that are too adult-heavy. Courting the resellers and scalpers would have been a terrible move for Lorcana just from a sheer pragmatic perspective - it'd kill the community by inviting in too many adult players and making it too difficult for kids to get the cards they want.
I'd argue several of their normal arts are getting way better nowadays as well. Set 1 had plenty of "unforgivable" Super and Secret Rares that were literally just "anime stock art", while the alt arts had some incredible art that demands these insane prices we see now. I think with Set 2 onward, they started being a lot more mindful of their Super Rares, though you still got stuff like Ace and Magellan. Set 4 or 5 is when the "base leader cards" started looking a lot more interesting, despite using anime art, by having actual animators make new art for the normal arts of leaders. Like, the normal art of Rosinante's leader card is legit one of my favorite looking leaders in the game, alt or otherwise. The rare Rosinante from that set is also really really nice, with the foil especially. Alt arts are almost always going to look better than the base card, but that doesn't mean you can cheap out on the normal arts. As i said, it's gotten better. Zorojuro from Set 5's normal art and alt art both look great, and Law from that same set looks great as well etc. I don't really buy the "it's bland" criticism, tbh, at least right now. Set 1 and maybe 2, you might've had a case
@@thunderguyer What makes it bland isn't just that it uses a lot of basic screenshot style images, it's also that it's One Piece. Any single show is always going to make for a bland card game because at the end of the day there are only so many characters and so many concepts/themes. There are only so many instances of Luffy that people are going to buy.
worth mentioning on the Lorcana front, they're already fixing the trove issue. Set 3's troves are going to contain acrylic dividers, AND dice for damsge tracking
I only recently stumbled upon your channel, and honestly, I know very little about collectible games outside of some vague decades-out-of-date knowledge of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh; but your depth and breadth of knowledge about everything from games to the production end, your enthusiasm, and your optimistically-curious-but-critical attitude and general vibe are a delight.
I'll listen to CCG videos meant for audiences familiar with the games for background noise but often won't absorb anything (which is probably how you ended up in my recs; and it's fine, I'm not shading them, they ARE meant for people who are familiar with the games they're talking about haha), but I feel like I'm actually learning a fair amount about the space and these games when I listen to yours; it's really inconvenient, because I keep getting distracted by getting absorbed in what you're talking about.
Great video, i only have 1 thing to correct. (NO HATE AT ALL)
While pokemon EX's, Gx's, V's, were undoubtedly centralizing and pushed non multi-prizers out of the game, the Scarlet and Violet's ex's have been absolutely great for the format for the following reasons:
1. evolution is back, the biggest problem with the EX and V is it turned the game into an aggressive big basics do big damage format making games into a race to 3 KOs. The evolution reliance of big 330 hp ex's add a wrinkle to the prize mapping of games, and make games longer by allowing sacrifice small 1 prizer turns a real strategy.
2. the reintroduction of strong comeback mechanics, while not necessarily due to ex's the cards that only work when you are behind in prizes makes the ex's actually a usable resource for prize fixing and more importantly allows slower decks like gardevoir.
3. they didnt forget single prizers. while yes there are strong ex only decks, this is the most diverse format weve had in a decade in terms of number of decks viable and also 1 and 2 prizers being viable. Lost Zone box is arguably the best archetype right now and there are ex, V,s and single prize (in any combination or omission) of ways to build the deck.
thank you for the post, saved me the work. also pkm powercreep is mostly a misconception.
I would also say that gen 3 tcg was a significantly more balanced and interesting metagame than gen 4. Lowercase ex actually felt like a trade off, and while sometimes, they went a little overboard (looking at you, team rocket returns), you generally did get a worthwhile power boost without power creeping other options, with counterplay possible. Level X didn't have the same 2 prize drawback, but were almost only ever used if they were completely broken like Luxray GL Level X due to essentially being an additional evolution level and harder to search. The other big thing about gen 4 tcg is that they introduced several powercreep mechanics that didn't have that cost of an additional prize, which I found to be arguably worse. SP were almost a trial run of what they'd eventually do with uppercase EX next gen, and "prime" pokemon were all the inflated stats of lowercase ex without the additional drawback.
@@PeterBoggs while i generally agree that gen3 was more balanced, i like gen 4s more consistent games. Sometimes in 06 worlds format i just dont draw mentor in the first 2-3 turns and im just so far behind.
Winds of Exchange revived Keyforge from the dead in 2023. It had a very well-funded kickstarter, and a resurgence in interest, but not the explosive growth necessary to make the cash prizes offered at tournaments worth it to the game's new owners. A new limited deckbuilding format that the company has been pushing has not met with much enthusiasm among the game's veterans, perhaps unsurprisingly given the nature of the game.
They should sell it to Wizards.😂 seen the new grimpath game?
Well who didn't see any of that coming. Keyforge was a massive gamble, that turned out to alienate too much of the potential playerbase, to too strong of a degree for them to come back when the gimmick is dropped. In other words, it wasn't just the randomised decks that put people off Keyforge, it was also the way that the gameplay had been designed around facilitating randomised decks.
@@yurisei6732 The gimmick hasn't been dropped - the game is still designed around facilitating randomized decks. I don't think its lack of high-level success is best attributed to alienation per se.
Battle city speed duel box pretty much destroyed the meta because it was basically "if you wanna win, you have to the use the my precious queen skill or else you have 90% to lose " to the point they had to FINALLY ban it.
And its literally the only skill AND card that s currently banned.
also yeah the 25th pack is amazing, beginner no longer have great staple locked being a paywall.
Great video and insight. My only take is that digimon should have gotten more points for it's gameplay and artwork. Though Bandai has been on an engine spree of pumping out more and more tcgs. I certainly hope that this means that they have enough budget to improve on each franchise without compromising the other.
They're literally killing off the DBS card game to create DBS 2.0 which is just One Piece with the serial numbers filed off.
Always love an Elestrals Shoutout! Really looking forward to the full launch this year with First edition, Frostfall, Daybreak and the rest of their roadmap stuff!
The "You can ESSEN my-" joke is fantastic.
I won't say the art museum should have been ready for it, but I will say someone should have warned them.
Like the pokemon company would have known, right?
Yeah they def deserve some of the blame, it was a painful oversight on an otherwise cool and well-intentioned promotion.
Agreed. It’s one thing to license some gift shop merch, another entirely to distribute an exclusive trading card for the biggest IP in the world. No assistance or support is kind of shameful.
"Make sure you actually like playing whatever's left in that bag you're holding." Such a good line, and so true
Where's this news about the 001/001 one ring not being unique after all the hype? Google and the hundreds of comments here didn't mention it.
Do you actually think Gear 5 is a shark jumping moment? Any actual game discussion aside, I do not think I could disagree with a stance more
He seems to think it's something about how Luffy had "god powers" all along and how Gear 5 was not a creation of Luffy's. Something about it now being an "OP Devil fruit"
I don't think I have disagreed more with any other video you have made. Good video, I would just say I personally disagree with a lot of these opinions
Fair nuff. Happy to ask opinions. Like I said, a Yugioh player dunked on my choice for Best Release before I even made the video.
With Ultraman TCG planned to be released this year, I hope they'll win the best launch category or at least get reviewed by you
They have stiff competition from the Cookies.
lovely video 🍒😃
Bro you’re using common cards to judge the optcg art? Have you not seen the alt artwork? Hell SR’s have striking artwork by popular japanese online artists. Well I guess One Piece can stay being the top selling card game outside of the big 3 year after year and you can stay mad about it.
If the quality of a game is hidden in its alternate arts, it's a low quality game, end of. The game that the vast majority of people will be playing is the game that uses the cheapest versions of each card. Even if you do get one good alt art, that still leaves you having to play with 39-59 uninspired cards and one good card. This is also the reason that MTG's rare forays into anime/waifu alt arts don't actually capture the anime/waifu audience.
@@yurisei6732 Most of the card art (after the first two sets) is still really good. The alt arts and rares just knock it out of the park.
Man, really not giving OP any chances huh. Card art has significantly improved over the course of the year (not just talking about the alt arts) and the game has several flavor-to-mechanic top down card designs which you value so much. If there's anything to rag on about the game it is the supply issues, but you didn't even mention that lol. It's okay if you're not interested in the game but I can't help but think you're just not really giving it a fair shake.
I could tell he just wanted to bash it for almost no reason
"Card art has significantly improved" yeah but first impressions are everything, so if the set debuts in an unimpressive way, it will not encourage someone to stick with it.
Grand Archive is a really, really interesting game offering immense complexity and really living up to the 'familiar but fresh' label it puts on itself.
Yes, the art is a bit meh but the game itself is incredibly awesome and is definitely not as derivative of Magic as some people think it might be. It reeaaally feels like its own thing and it has huge potential because of all the different directions it can take in the future.
Even if it is derivative of magic, that's hardly a problem. Magic has a really solid formula, if every game had to avoid feeling in any way similar to MTG, a lot few good games would exist. If anything, "it's a lot like MTG" makes me more interested in a new card game, since I've been looking for something that takes the highlight reel from MTG and cuts out the very heavy baggage it has, like lands being a thing or having bland art or being made by WOTC.
Grand Archive has been the game I've been the most interested in trying out. The problem for me is that no one here would play it, and I can't reasonably expect people to, so I'm hoping an online client might happen some day.
I have to agree with what you said about the One piece tcg, the artwork is getting ok now, but it was horrible, literal screenshots of the anime/manga. I hate when they do that, makes the game feel very cheap.
Kinda sad that the Digimon tcg and Flesh and Blood did not get mentioned but a great video nevertheless. Nice job man.
It's a logical decision though. Minimal resources on the first couple sets to see if there's a market for it, then build out from there.
It was only anime screenshots for about one set. Almost all the art is original art and the alternative arts have always looked amazing.
I do want to point out that just because something is small or indie doesn't mean it's free of criticism, so any time someone goes into a list like this saying "well I'm only gonna trash on big corporations and leave indie people out of it" it feels a little lopsided. _However,_ when the worst that can happen with an indie project being bad is "oh, that's annoying of them to do, anyway", and the worst that can happen with a corporation is stuff like the Pinkertons being dispatched or even worse given their absolute chokehold over the industry and how fast bad business practices spread... yeah, suddenly putting the spotlight on the corporations does make a lot more sense.
I think the most baffling thing in this list is the Lorcana un-inkable thing. I've seen people praise Lorcana because "I don't have to put any boring resource cards in my deck! I can just use my regular cards as resources!", but if you're using a card that's inkable _because_ it's inkable over cards that are un-inkable...that's just a resource card! You put lands in your land-less game! Like Kohdok said, in a game where every card is a resource, you can STILL be mana screwed! Duel Masters solved this when I was a CHILD! HOW IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?! I think your statement on "a Lorcana card should be two of either effect, body, or resource" is really smart and it really sticks in my craw that they've went the completely wrong direction, that these clunky 7 mana cards and niche little options are the ones that get stranded in your hand while you have to agonize over whether you ink your playmaker or not.
That is why Yahtzee is a good critic, he appreciates the craft of what he criticizes.
I think the same of you.
Critics who separates things on good and bad, don't like the craft, only when is done in a particular way.
Your video is very deep, insightful and carefuly researched! sub
keep up the good work
review hasbro yo kai watch model u
39:34 Technically, Games Workshop is slowly introducing recycling bins for sprues and empty paint pots in their stores. AFAIK it's only in the UK at the moment, but it's going to be spread worldwide by the end of the year I imagine.
Shadowverse: Evolve unironically plays well, it's just that it already had a truer version online
It plays significantly better in paper. The digital game is nice but the current state of it is not a very good experience from a meta or even mechanical standpoint. It's far past the point where card design has been broken. Evolve has avoided almost all of the pitfalls of the digital game so far.
@@geek593 that's really good to hear actually
I love shadowverse evolve. Only person in my friend circle who plays it
It wasn't mentioned here, but I got into Flesh and Blood about a year ago and it has been great after more than a decade of Magic, this year had great art (like Eric Klug's cards), sets, and products (like the Tolarian multiplayer box).
I heard the Tolarian MP box was this year, though. Or was it an end-of-year thing?
It as around september/october@@Kohdok
I love that you took a string stance against A.I. I agree. It has no place in this medium.
so what do i do if i literally have almost no money and cannot learn to draw?
@@Kylada-o5tthen learn to paint.
@@Kylada-o5tThen starting a TCG isn't the best route to go
@@Kylada-o5t Nobody "cannot learn to draw"
@@Waterseeker_ i have tried hundreds of times. I just aint got the talent for that, and since i am the only one who works on my project (and since i am a medical university student, i can do it only in the little free time i have), i do not have time to try even more.
Like the new secret lair being available for 6 hours.
Also this reminds me of the 90s when we gor every game.
Including killer instinct ccg.
I can't believe this is where I hear someone calling Gear 5 a jumping the shark moment.
I love the comparison to Arcadia Quest Inferno at 20:00, as Miniature Market has had multiple sales of it for $12-15, including all of its 36 miniatures, 300 cards, 300 tokens, etc. and its expansions for $6-15 each. If interested, I recommend looking out for those sales; insane value on a solid game.
about Battle Spirits Saga. I've been getting intp the japanese BS, because it never ended and rebooted, it doesn't have a problem cards. I picked up some Saga and like halff the cards are vanilla from the first two sets, they changed the hex shaped cores to decahedrons that look and feel change also easily roll everywhere. me and my friend are having more fun with the japanese collaboration cards, that are competitive, and we don't speak/read japanese, we just use the wiki fandom for BS. there biggest failare is lack of depth, i understand if the the OG game would have picked up by now it would be in better shape. But, having only 3/4 card types? where's the depth? the actual game has card types 6/9 by comparision (some cards like the grandwalker nexus cards are like nexus cards but aren't affected by effects that affact nexuses that's the reasons for the "/").
The battle spirits saga parts is a little worse than you described. As in Japan, there are cards that are using a certain license from toei, that being kamen rider, in Japan, there are sets of cards that represent multiple different seasons, including saber, hibiki, zero one, ooo, and more. This really bugs me because Kamen rider is one of the most important series to come from Japan, so if the cards were brought to America, it would’ve made them enough money to drown all of Texas in molten metal. I think there was also various ultraman cards, so, this is just one giant dropped ball.
Kohdok would you be against opening a Booster Box of Otherverse TCG on the channel?
I'd also like to add to your section on MTG Aftermath that after this whole fiasco with the Pinkertons getting sent for this apparently incredibly important product, the set itself was seen an overpriced, overproduced, and weak mechanically disaster of a set that would've hurt LGS sale heavily for the next couple months if Tales from Middle-Earth didn't drop as soon as it did afterwards
Battle Spirits Saga is something I had been waiting for, for years. I have been consuming the japanese side of this franchise for a decade, it makes me so sad that Bandai did this to it. I tried very hard to get people at my locals interested because the game itself is fantastic, but instead it got me to quit the hobby all together.
I'm glad people keep realizing how not just soulless but malicious Hasbro and Wotc are. Been in the hobby since 7th edition. I stopped buying Mtg in 2019. Since then have not spent a cent on Wotc or Hasbro products in general and never will again.
Kind of surprised you praised the quality of Lorcana. They have some of the flimsiest, cheap feel to cards that I've ever laid my hands on. I do appreciate that extra booster though
Rarity collection is arguably, possibly the greatest set Konami has ever made for the player base. It will probably never be topped. Really good pick tbh.
You're being far too dismissive of Shadowverse Evolve. From a gameplay standpoint nothing else comes close to being as fun this year in the TCG side of things. They went out of their way to fix most of the issues with the digital game and make an interactive and mechanically complete game in paper.
as an enjoyer of the gameplay of one piece: the lack of flavor, the overusage of just raw character names, and the blank frame theming.. its not great
So you mentioned that nobody has cracked (pun intended) the formula for paper packs, but what about Flesh and Blood? I think their paper packs are pretty good.
fatpacks aren't half boxes, full boxes have about 24 to 36 packs while fat packs are 8 packs and extra stuff.
as a Dutchman & long time Pokémon Fan & Collector, I'm Truly disgusted by that side of the "Fanbase"
even the Extra Wave is already getting pre-sold/scalped by many game stores
its the worst
PS: although unfortunate that I don't have one yet,
I also kinda don't want it anymore, since it would make me feel Complicit to this whole spiel
Hey Kohdok, love the vids!
I was wondering, because I never fully saw it addressed, would it be possible to make a trading card game that didn’t have different rarities? Like every card is “common” for example
What would be the drawbacks of this? It seems like it would make the financial barrier to entry a lot smaller
Rarity has some influence over the price, but what matters more is viability and print ratio. Doesn't matter if a card is common, if it's super playable and was shortprinted it'll be worth money
Yeah, double-prize cards are bland in Pokemon, but the ex cards are coming in to phase out VMAX, pulling the power ceiling down.
Kohdok ! Love your videos, they got me convinced to try and design a board game, obv avoiding the deadly sins... except one. Im bent on trying to use cards as board pieces... How would you go about defying everything you stand for to design this kind of game if you had to !!!
Lorcana somewhat fixed the side panels after just one release. That was a massive overlook.
using ai art makes you look cheaper than using a doodle you had your intern throw together in 5 seconds in ms paint
The d&d one looks deplorable. Good to see WotC still shooting itself in the foot. Again again.
Lorcana must have heard you because they added dice, dividers and a lore counter in set 3. lol
im learing so much about TCGs from you! i hope all of this helps me in my proyect
Thanks for these videos. I learn more from other people's mistakes.
I think it’s a great point that these are games first and foremost and an investment second. I’m excited for next year with so many good options and many year 2s.
Is that vibrato ugotaphonenumber accordion music I head?
Love your content Kohdok
Just a big 'ole awesome video. Love the new transitions, lookin' sharp.
I like the preamble about the Bland category. It reminds me of what Mark Rosewater (lead designer of Magic) has been saying for years if not decades: "If everybody likes your product, but nobody loves it, it will fail."
Obviously I'm biased since I actively play it but I actually really like uninkables in lorcana, I think it's a smart way to balance cards and bring a deckbuilding cost back into "every card is resource", which I guess Lorcana technically isn't. For now with only two expansions we haven't seen it being super relevant since there have been only a few uninkables worth playing but as they make more strong uninkables players will really have to start to consider every slot in their deck.
Even tough I'll agree they have been making very harmless cards uninkables for really no reason.
I agree. I’ve been playing Lorcana as well and I think the uninkable systems actually adds a ton of depth. It is basically just another layer of costing to help balance cards and it affects everything from deck construction to card sequencing in game. It also creates the mechanical space for cards like fishbone quill that allow you to ink even when you have a high proportion of uninkables in your deck. I wonder how much time kohdok has given to actually trying the game because I think this mechanic is actually a big positive once you get past the starter deck stage as a player and begin to really understand the nuances of deck building for Lorcana.
@@johnhartsock5352Yeah I get the impression kohdok hasn't really played the game, or at least not in a meaningful way, which is fair I guess, you can't play EVERY tcg ever released and he clearly wasn't interested in the game from the start so I'm not expecting him to have perfectly informed opinions on the game but I wish he gave the game a chance cause I don't think he ever said a positive thing about the mechanics yet lol
@@johnhartsock5352 Uninkable Cards have ruined my attempts to play using Precons at events. Like, they rot in my hand being both unplayable and uninkable. As I said in the video, my issue is that Uninkability is so frequently put on the very cards one would want to Ink to maintain tempo, like having a 7-cost uninkable in your starting hand is no fun at all.
And it's so arbitrary! Peter Pan Red and Peter Pan Green have the exact same stats and cost, yet Green is Inkable and Elusive while Red is Uninkable with Rush?
I have no problem with Hades, as it's literally "Part of Your World" with a body. Cards that do a lot on their own not being inkable is more fair than Rapunzel Red being uninkable despite being cost 6 with a super weak effect because...uh...
@Kohdok The problem there is not the mechanic but the way the precon is made, I was kinda shocked you praised the starter decks because to be completely honest they are terrible, they are constructed in such a poor way were the experience you had is 100% inevitable, infact I have seen an alarming amount of newcomers on the subreddit asking if the game is broken or if it's the starter decks, it's that bad.
But yeah I agree a lot of uninkables are uninkables for no discernable reason.
Btw if you want to give the game another chance I recommend Pixelborn, it's a fanmade simulator with every card available and a ranked ladder, it should give you a more accurate idea of the game without spending exorbitant amounts of money for a deck.
@@MasterofKirby97 I hope it was clear my praise for the starter decks was regardless of the actual deck construction, but on the fact that it's a full deck, with separate mat and rules, an insert that doubles as a token card, avoidance of plastic where possible, and the bonus booster to round it out.
That cough sound effect is so gross.
BLANDEST YT Channel of 2023......KOHDOK
So a slight thing I want to say: Yahtzee's main focus is in an Industry that has more Attention on it as a whole, and an Industry that has a metric ton of issues going on. So his "Negative Nancy" views can be more attributed to those side of things (Especially considering Yahtzee's own situation that happened a few months ago) and tends to ring much more louder rather. Especially when considering how rough the "Money/Business" side of the Industry really tends to be the deciding factor in how a Video Game turns out. Especially since a product failing can determine the fate of an IP and Developer.
Also, especially in the Critic field, people can write glowing positive reviews. But the ones who find the flaws and point them out certainly reveal that not everything is as perfect as it seems. While Yahtzee's style is meant to invoke humor at the end of the day, there's something to be said about still providing a genuine review that looks at and criticizes every aspect of the medium, as opposed to just saying "This is extremely good!" The fact that Yahtzee only did that kind of Reveiw once, because the game was Undertale, could in and of itself reveals more about the game than he could ever put into a review; the phrase "Silence Speaks Volumes" can apply. And when one considers that Yahtzee is a Caustic Critic, for the Undertale review to be a 3 second long "Undertale is a Good Game!" review is funny and unexpected, follows his own "Reviewed Games Make the Lists" rule, and provides his genuine input on what he thinks of the game at the end of the day. Also, his in-depth views are in a video form, so if one wants a bit more clarification on why a game makes it to that section, they can look it up.
Not so much trying to rag on your point of Yahtzee, but at least say that being a "Negative Nancy" isn't quite accurate while saying that the Video Game industry still has a large number of differences still. If he was basically trying to be more negative, he wouldn't have a "Best" section and just stick to a "Bland/Worst" list and be done.
"Negative Nancy" is maybe a bit reductive, but that is a deliberate part of his public persona. His humor is biting and often crass, he's vocally pessimistic about a lot of industry trends, he's an insightful critic but a lot of his appeal is watching him find increasingly creative ways to insult AAA releases.
As evidenced by his cadre of ride-or-die fans who insist on defending him from the mildest pushback because he's harsher to your average game than its Metacritic score and therefore is the only man in the business who's willing to Say It Like It Is.
@@nathanl8622 That's fine and fair. My point is that Yahtzee's own takes aren't pure "This game is bad because of these reasons!" that's associated with the term "Negative Nancy" that and that he's meant to provide a layer of constructive criticism to the games and industry, with the aforementioned creative insulting of Industry at large.
I mean, I hope it's clear that between the softball term and the fact that I said his approach had merit in the "Identify what sputters in place" thing, I hope it's clear I have nothing but respect for him. The sheer joy in his description of Redfall in his own BWBs made me giddy about Video Games and I hope Card Games can follow suit.
bad take on gear five my friend
"The guy who's entire story arc is defying the whims of the privileged was privileged all along" isn't really as compelling a story as you think it is, m8.
@@Kohdok luffy isnt defined by "defying the whims of the privileged", he's defined by his own personal freedom, a freedom he thinks everyone should have. luffy has helped several people that have been privileged because its what he thought was the correct thing to do. when alabasta needed help, he didnt turn them down because he was helping people in power, he helped them because its what he thought was right. luffy has helped the status quo return to normal in some places, and he's helped disrupt it in others, but in all cases there were people who had power, official or not, trying to oppress people.
the gum gum fruit's true power wasn't there with him from the start, he still had to fight and claw his way to earn any kind of recognition, and he didnt do that for status, he did that because to him, being king of the pirates means being absolutely free. the awakened gum gum fruit is an ultimate expression of his freedom, making him not just free from the control of others, but from the laws of reality itself. i think its an intensely compelling way to tie these thematics together near the end of the series, as luffy gets closer to having to take on the ultimate embodiments of oppression in imu and blackbeard, people who kill and take and hoard power with no regards for others.
also i dont know if this like, means anything to your perspective, but gear five was intended to show up way earlier, before oda decided to extend the series, and was basically planned to be luffy's real devil fruit power from the very start (or at least very close to the start). from what i heard, i might be wrong, it was intended to show up all the way back in the fight against lucci. you know, the first arc where luffy goes out of his way to fight for someone's freedom against all better judgment
i liked the rest of the video btw i just have strong feelings about this topic
@@bionichuteagain2583 Luffy fought against those who used their privilege and super-powered Fruits to impose their will upon others, using a fruit he was told was worthless, accomplishing his wins through pure guts and ingenuity. It was a (relative)layman resisting entrenched authority.
Learning that Luffy did, in fact, possess a Super Privilege Fruit Super Privilege destroys the meaning behind all of that to me. The Niko-Niko fruit was a Shark Jump.
Just saying, him punching a Celestial Dragon isn't nearly as satisfying when you know Luffy was God all along.
@@Kohdok he didnt have a super privilege fruit, theyve shown that any fruit can become awakened, lucci's awakened fruit BEAT luffy's awakened fruit because thats not how power scaling works in one piece. it isnt an instant win button, it isnt literally god power, its not dragon ball z where everyone just gets physically stronger and then they win. the fight against kaido is entirely about how powers and haki don't matter in a fight, its how the person with those abilities use them. luffy is the person fighting, not the powers. doflamingo wasnt evil because he had an awakened fruit, he was evil because he was a dictator that killed and enslaved people. the story has made it very clear that different people use devil fruit powers in entirely different ways, maybe they arent all as powerful, but its the person with the power that determines their full capabilities
like, come on man, he doesnt even use his powers to punch the celestial dragon. i dont want to assume you're being willfully ignorant of stuff here, but its frustrating that it feels like youre kinda just ignoring the text and very blunt theming of the whole thing?
@@bionichuteagain2583 "I mean, just because he has the powers of a God, doesn't mean"
yeah, I'm gonna stop you there.Luffy being the underdog is over. Learning he was always using a God-level Devil Fruit means his resistance was not his own efforts, but a lucky win on the Devil Fruit roulette.
I mean, the awakened Gum-Gum Fruit letting Luffy warp reality the way he can warp his body makes sense and would be awesome...if it was the product of his own efforts and not the product of his Gum-Gum Fruit secretly being the God-God Fruit.
THAT. THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT! THAT is the problem I keep pointing out is the core of my issue. Please stop ignoring what I'm actually talking about.
It would be like learning that Batman was secretly from Krypton all along.
Let’s all laugh at an industry…
Kohdok, what do you think about Varia? When I watch your videos, I see you showcase so many interesting-looking TCGs, CCGs, etc. that completely fly under my radar. I wonder if that's because I don't follow the right content creators/(news sites?) or if you just have a unique knack for keeping your finger on the pulse. I would love to see you do more content that highlights these "games you probably missed"!
Sincerely,
A lapsed TCG player looking for something too good for a LGS to stock
That doomtown reloaded playmat!
Hello! Space Lion team here. Great video as always! We are happy and proud to say there is no and never will be A.I. generated art in our games. ❤
Why?
Why are you proud to be obsolete? That's like someone saying "we are proud to say we will never ever use the automobile!"
The people you serve are your players, not artists.
@@TheControlBlue have you ever created anything in your life besides a dump? why are you begging for cheaper, uglier content? sit down and guzzle down whatever you're served while adults worry about what to cook for you.
@@TheControlBlue Players would rather support a game with real art
@@sirspookybones1118 Players would rather support a game with good quality images, regardless of how they were made.
Judging the tool is not judging the product.
Is that supposed to be a selling point?
30:00 On the Double prizers, while they're all pretty boring at this point I want to give a dishonorable mention to double prizes that don't have to evolve (see EXs Tag Team GX's and V's) as not only do they not have to participate in a core mechanic of the game (evolution) but they ignore that mechanic as often the best cards of the sets their in. Combine this with the double damage weaknesses from most blocks outside of Gen 4 and it sometimes leads to games that are over in 3 turns, Before a stage 2 can reasonably do anything outside of using rare candy.
This deal with the double prize problem is my worry about Pokemon TCG Pocket which only has 3 prizes despite having ex's. Even with the lower power level they'll need to be kept on an extremely tight leash lest every game becoming who can KO 2 pokemon first. Which sucks because I kinda like what they did with the Strikes of Gen 8 and Ancient/Future now, the tags don't do anything on their own but allow synergies with other cards with their tags which is cool, and I would've liked to see more of that other than a revolving door of ruleboxs that they need to have otherwise nobody would buy/play them.
So many card games coming out and we still don't have Rush Duels worldwide.
My lgs has the big mimic
The pinkerton incident was also the straw that broke the camel's back for me too, sold all my mtg cards and quit buying products, gonna just proxy and play in tts now
hell yeah turn a gundam
pokemon has an entire format of play for non rule box pokemon called GLC. there are also multiple single prize pokemon that are competitive in the current format lmao and in the past couple there were a few decks entirely centered around them. There is more to pokemon than just how much HP it has, prize mapping is a huge part of the game and many non rule box pokemon and single prize pokemon have very solid attacks and effects. Their single prize status actually makes them have a favorable prize trade with a two prize attacker, making prize mapping more difficult etc. If anything, this current rendition of pokemon ex is far more balanced than previous big box mechanics. Yes their hp is high relative to say a EX pokemon, but that is because most of them aren't swinging that big on other rule box pokemon and are often not basics themselves. Barring a few exceptions like Charizard ex, most of them have pretty balanced attacks relative to their HP size, and even then decks like Charizard still have plenty of counter play. For a multitude of design reasons you are unlikely to see a move away from multi prize attackers, they add layers to design and most design teams aren't going to take the avenue to limit that. On top of that there is a sanctioned format of play that does not allow rule box pokemon(IE all multi prize attackers as well as a few other mechanics like radiant pokemon)and as such there is even less incentive to make the dominant format of play centered around that. Essentially, if you are tired of the status quo of pokemon, try things like GLC or maybe make a cube.
That's the biggest sin for me, almost all of these new card games are just so bland. As a time and money-limited consumer, I'm not even going to find out if your game is good or bad if I'm not playing it because you failed to lure me in with theme, art and/or concept. With all of these games, if it's not the art that's putting me off, it's the theme, and for many of them, it's both. That applies to every card game about a company or IP I'm not interested in, like Lorcana or One-Piece, but it's also a failure I'm seeing in "indie" games. Achroma has enough of a playerbase for now that my LGS hosts nights for it, but I don't understand why because the art and theme are both so bland that it feels to me like I may as well be playing with blank pieces of paper.
And on another note, a lot of these card games feel like board games that have been split up into individual packs to make more money. I was reminded of this just now double checking the Achroma rules to remember exactly why I find it bland, and reading through them I couldn't help but think "I am reading the rules for a board game here".
I find it a little funny that you mention the point with packaging waste and how a company would be in bank if that was a thing they could reliably do, cus Flesh and Blood has been doing this sorta thing since early 2022. it's actually be weird cus last year they got a second printing plant that's in japan, and people have complained about how the japanese product still uses plastic card packs, and they're actually harder to open than the standard packs. Paper card packaging is actually so good and leaves you feeling spoiled opening them compared to the other stuff
8:43 I agree, that it is very important to gather and maintain a healthy casual audience. That said, I don't think competitive players are quite as irrelevant to a game's success, as it comes across here.
30:30 This is an interesting take. I always felt, that 2 prize pokemon added an additional axis of diversity to pokemon decks. Before pokemon differentiated themselves mostly by how much damage/utility they could dish out vs how much setup (in the form of energy and evolutions) they needed. 2-prizers, I feel, introduced an additional axis of risk, where a pokemon worth more prizes creates the risk, that your opponent can get ahead by KOing it efficiently. Utility 2-prizers are the best example of this, where they are commonly omitted from decks, because they would give up prizes to the opponent too easily.
I do agree though, that multi-prizers (and especially attackers) have commonly been overtuned in recent years and that the new ex's and even their terrastal-variants haven't really been particularly interesting thus far.
I think the Pokemon's new exs are subtlely a big step up from previous generations. Powering up stage 2 multi prize pokemon is less so power creep and more a course correction from how much more powerful basic Vs and Stage 1 VStars and VMaxs were, putting them on the same level while promoting evolution as a core mechanic since stage 2 attackers were basically unplayed at any high level since 2019's tag teams. Setup based evolving decks can now compete and coexist with the aggro basic strategies that had dominated for years.
Opinions aside, i hope what i have to offer will make a dent in the tcg landscape and help certain people enjoy tcg's.
the cameo of it reminded me that I missed out on Pirates Constructible Strategy Game... by the time I learned of it, it was bargain bit dead game TT
I will say having played a fair amount of Star Wars Unlimited leading into the launch this month, is actually a very fun game. The initiative system provides some very interesting risk reward situations and the aspect penalty system encourages coherent deck choices while still allowing for key splashes.
Just curious if you ever did a card game sin for 'Reformating'.
I know Vangard is realy bad with this and a card game I am worried about called Shadowverse is pulling the same shenanigans.
I went to a card convention for the first time last year and it blew me away the people operating in this space. There were like no lie a dozen card games hocking their wares trying to get people to invest. I've been trying really hard to not buy into a paper card game, but lorcana might change that. I've been playing on the bootleg digital client pixelborn and i totally agree uninkable cards are just the worst but overall it's a very fun game.
On the Union Arena defense, they are releasing multiple licenses at a time since the game does not allow you to cross over licenses. If you play Bleach, you only play Bleach in that deck. Because of this, they are able to double-dip on a lot of card ideas (each license can have it's multi-resource card, play-an-draw card, basic attackers, multi-attackers, etc.).
the thing with companies focusing on competitive tournaments is that if people like your game the comp scene will just form on its own