I'd like to add that the OCG formats its card text with bullet points which the TCG could easily adapt. Would make understanding the different effects of a single card a bit easier. But I also agree that the game could really benefit from keywords like MtG or Hearthstone.

Both. Both is good.

The manga certainly did. The OCG first released in Japan in 1999, the manga had been getting published weekly since '96.

I'm a complete Yugiboomer when it comes to these things. It's not meta in the slightest, but I enjoy the Dark Magician deck I've built to play with. It's gotten me up to Gold 4 in a couple days, I'm pretty confident about at least hitting Platinum before I suspect I'll stop making forward progress. But at least I'm having fun with it... when I'm not getting hit with Maxx "C". That card can go straight to the Shadow Realm as far as I'm concerned.

I hear you there! Some of the OG monster designs were just so cool. I've been opening packs of LOB lately and I'm still getting excited over cards like Silver Fang and The 13th Grave.

I agree about enjoying the variety of games seen in the early manga. A core memory of mine from way back in 2002 was being a little kid picking up volume 3 of the manga -- first time I had ever held manga in my hands before -- and seeing things like Yugi and Mokuba playing Capsule Monster Chess, or the digital pet chapter where they're basically playing with Tamagotchi. And who can forget the criminally underused Dungeon Dice Monsters? That was a really cool concept for a board game.

Personally, my favorite part of the early manga is the Monster World arc introducing Bakura. Those chapters were the inspiration that pushed me to start working on my own tabletop RPG, something I'm still toying with to this day. To say that Takahashi's work was influential on myself and my interests and values would be an understatement.

The percentage-based rolls were inspired by Call of Cthulhu, which was the most popular RPG in Japan at the time (D&D has only more recently overtaken it in popularity). I actually prefer CoC's d100 percentage rolls over d20 stuff, so seeing it in play in the manga was so cool. A solo game with that kind of system would be pretty interesting - hell, I just might have to try something like that for my own game. I'm not entirely sure how it would work, but you've given me some food for thought.

I've been going through the manga again recently (I read the first seven volumes about two years ago but took a hiatus from the series, now I'm re-reading those volumes and then I'm gonna go from there to read the rest of the series). I know most people here are probably here because of the card game, but I'd happily talk about the OG story.

Sure! I've gotta run to the post office before I do much else (sold my first card online today!) but once I'm home I can write something up.

It certainly makes for a great icebreaker among Yugioh friends :D

I think Gold Rare is a nice balance between shiny and reserved. I can't lie though, some of those more ridiculous rarities do look nice in my collection binder - the new Quarter Century rares in particular completely dazzle me.

Oh hey, deja-vu. I'm the guy that made the original "Favorite card" post, cool to see I've started a trend.

My top favorite card hasn't changed from before (gold rare Dark Magician with the classic YSD art) but if I had to pick a favorite card that I've acquired since then it would be the Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon I recently bought.