Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering and Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! are two of the most popular trading card games in the world, and while their gameplay mechanics have a lot of similarities, those who have played both card games can clearly tell the differences. YouTuber Mr. Alias has released a 30-second video that pretty much sums up what makes Yu-Gi-Oh! more dauntingly complicated than MTG.
Watch it below:
Yu-Gi-Oh vs. Magic: The Gathering
In this video, the Yu-Gi-Oh! card Vennominaga The Deity of Poisonous Snakes is used as an example to give us an idea how some card designs in Konami’s trading card game are overwhelmingly complicated.
Compared to Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards have smaller text, and often have more words in its text box so it can super confusing to players, especially newbies to the card game. To highlight how ridiculous this is and how MTG is generally simpler than Yu-Gi-Oh! in terms of gameplay mechanics, the video compares this card to a meme MTG card “Eight Fucking Bears”. This is one of the main reasons why many Yu-Gi-Oh! players have quit the game and switched their focus on MTG. Of course, MTG had also printed some complicated cards with overloaded texts before, but this is clearly a bigger problem in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Overall, the MTG designers at Wizards of the Coast have done a fantastic job in designing cards that are beginner-friendly.
There are other reasons why MTG is much better than Yu-Gi-Oh! other than just card design: Better art, more compelling lore, and more balanced gameplay.
Do you think MTG is better because of the simpler card text, and overly complicated abilities in Yu-Gi-Oh!? Let us know in the comments section below what you think about both card games.
