Yes, this is a rant, because this game is getting ridiculous, seriously.

I really enjoyed playing YGO some years ago, back around half of the Xyz era, particularly the Mermail/Fire Fist format. It had its most powerful deck, but a well-crafted tier 2 could easily beat it, and they had to adapt. There were clear weaknesses and strengths. I crafted a bunch of decks on that time, some of my favorites being Photon Control, Psychic Synchro and even ridiculous decks such as Extra Sword Shark Drake OTK. Yes, that worked.

Since the Pendulum era, however, the game has derailed too much. No, Pendulums are not at fault. As shocking as it is, Pendulum is a good mechanic, which is balanced by not being very consistent by nature... that is, when the Pendulums themselves aren't broken. Qliphort, even though it never topped that much, is the deck I hate the most until today due to its prime - their normal summons were too strong, they could mass-blow fields and they have the worst designed boss monster ever. The other decks in that format were also not particularly appealing to me, even though I like Shaddolls and Nekroz for their concepts, I just don't enjoy playing a game where all I do is floating monsters infinitely until my opponent dies of boredom.

But then it got worse. And I know, PePe is the most broken deck ever, but the one deck that told me this game was doomed was Majespecters. Who the hell though that almost-invulnerable monsters that constantly come back bring disruption cards were a good idea? Even the worst of the decks, until that point, could at least be partially dealt with if you killed the right monsters, but for Majespecters, if you don't break the scales before they do their first Pendulum, you're out of the game.

And right now, with the "break my board" decks being the norm, I feel very unmotivated to play. I can't do a simple "normal summon monster, activate its effect to set up for the next turn, pass", I'm forced to back it with, at least, two defensive cards to break my opponent's BS plays. (And no, it wasn't always this way. In the past, you would be OTK'd once in a while when you had a weak turn 1, not every time you're not facing the control decks).

I really wish I could go back to the Synchro/Xyz era. Even the most boring decks wouldn't take hours with billions of searching (except maybe Synchron, but they at least had a clear goal in the end), and hand traps were more of a meta call than an absolute necessity. I know some people really push the Goat Control format, but I love Synchros and Xyz. They really add a nice dynamic to the game with their playstyles. I also know about Trinity, but the constraints on deckbuilding make it too complex of a format. To be honest, at this point, I feel desperate to try and enjoy again the game I loved some years ago, but I simply can't when I'm forced to play all-new cards (or the Revived Into Brokeness Deck of the Month, currently featuring Thunder Dragons) and at least five handtraps if I don't want to get OTK'd before even getting to play.