Maybe you want to play like the old Game Boy Color Days?
Introducing: Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Genesys
Looking for something new?
A different way to Duel?
Got some old friends you’d like to get into Dueling, again?
Get ready for Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Genesys!
Genesys is a fully supported tournament system we’ve been working on for over 2 years, that you can now play at your local Official Tournament Store, and soon at the YCS level! (And a lot of Duelists have already played it – all of the Rivalry of Warlords Decks at the World Championship Qualifier were actually Genesys Decks. Surprise!)
Rules
Genesys uses the same rules as standard Duels, with a few simple changes to Deck construction:
- No Link or Pendulum Monsters are allowed, and the old game field is used (so no Extra Monster Zones or Pendulum Zones).
- All other cards are allowed. There is no Forbidden & Limited List.
- Deck construction uses a point system! Some (powerful) cards have a point cost when building your Deck; most cards cost no points. Each Duelist will have the same number of points to build their Deck. This brings the power ceiling on Decks down for everyone and focuses Duels on battle action.
- Tournament organizers can change the point cap for each event. Standard is 100 points, but you can do a 200-point event where people can have more power cards, or lower it to 50 (fewer power cards) or even zero (no power cards)! Whatever you want.
More details (and point list) at the Genesys page, here: https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/genesys/
Who It’s For
Genesys was designed for everyone! But it’s mostly meant as a Big Tent to provide a good and fun home for all sorts of Duelists:
- Duelists looking for a less complicated game.
- Duelists who are new to the game.
- Duelists who have always had a favorite Deck, and want their favorite Deck to be a little more competitive.
- Anybody looking for a new experience or change of pace.
- Duelists who love love love a Deck-building challenge.
- Everyone who just can’t get enough Dueling!
What’s Next
We’re going to be in early access for a bit. During early access, we’ll have a browser-based Deck builder site to build your Deck List, have it count up your point cost and make sure your Deck is legal, and download a copy to print out and take to a tournament.
Official Tournament Stores can run officially-sanctioned Genesys events starting today!
After a couple weeks, we’ll start running Genesys Invitationals at major events like the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series.
Here’s how Genesys Invitationals will work:
- Multiple 16-player mini-tournaments will be run on Saturday.
- The 1st and 2nd place finishers in each of those get to play in the main Invitational held on Sunday of that event.
- We’ve dug into the vault for some special prizes to hand out, like original 2009 SJC Dark End Dragon prize cards, plus Giant Cards like a super-sized Pot of Greed!
Genesys Invitationals are planned for these upcoming YCS events:
October 4/5 – Anaheim, California, USA
October 11/12 – Sao Paulo, Brazil
November 8/9 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
November 29/30 – Merida, Mexico
For Europe, Genesys kicks off with an Invitational at YCS Bologna on November 22/23. Stay tuned for full details when the YCS Bologna FAQ goes up!
And the first North American full-on Genesys YCS (where the main event itself will be Genesys format) is coming in 2026.
We’re going to talk a lot about Genesys and how it works in the days to come, with multiple articles here every day, so stay tuned!
WHAT IS GENESYS?
The Genesys rules are simple:
-
- No Link Monsters or Pendulum Monsters are allowed. All other cards are allowed. The original field layout is used, with no Extra Monster Zones nor Pendulum Zones.
- The standard Forbidden & Limited Cards list is not used. All those cards can be used, except Link Monsters and Pendulum Monsters. Usual limit of 3 copies max of any card still applies.
- Deck construction uses a point system. Some cards are assigned a point value; most cards cost zero points. The total point cost of cards in your Main Deck, Extra Deck, and Side Deck (combined) cannot exceed the point cap for that event.
- The standard point cap is 100, but events can be run with any point cap, or even a zero-point cap! Official Tournament Stores can set their own caps for their tournaments.
Go here to create and print your Deck list, using the early access point tabulator tool.
Go here to read up on info and strategy tips for Genesys, where and how to play, and how to build Genesys Decks (or modify your existing Decks)!
91 Comments
No more link slop, me happy
So… a Nostalgia format, but one that allows modern Decks to participate (albeit, in an incomplete form)
Honestly, they could have also removed XYZ Summon since it’s quite generic like Link Monsters (and many XYZ Monsters are known for being Floodgates)
“Duelists looking for a less complicated game”
I mean, there’s Rush Duel if you want a format that’s much simpler than even this Genesys format.
At this point I suppose that they are never importing Rush Duel to paper anytime soon, letting it rot in Duel Links hell and promoting this format instead as the lower power level format of choice that also doesn’t mess with people’s existing collections and maybe, just maybe, increases the value of booster sets by creating an environment for them.
So branded and dogmatika and kashtira go nearly completely unchanged.
I sorta agree, but XYZ aren’t quite as versatile as link, so their power level is a lot more manageable. As long as the point costs for XYZ are kept higher than synchro/fusion, it might be OK (I haven’t checked if that’s the case)
I mean, Branded and Kashtira really did get hit. If you want to run Arise-Heart, you’re not using the good Kash monsters. If you want to run Branded, you have to make a lot of decisions on what to cut, and no staples for you. Dogmatika did kind of escape.
Wow, this wasn’t even worth the 2 minutes it took to read the rules. Certainly won’t be worth it to play let alone waste the time building a deck. This crap makes Domain Format look fun.
Konami, you could have revived Speed Duels, or given us Rush Duels. Not this nonsense Billy Brake scribbled on the back of a napkin.
You are a miserable individual
You’re a real downer aren’t you? Not happy in life? Touch grass dude
He can’t afford the 50 points to play Grass. He’s stuck at 49.
Domain Format is ten times better than this fool
Uga buga ygo
I just don’t understand why don’t release Rush Duels already. They cover A LOT of what boomers (like me) want on the game.
“Duelists looking for a less complicated game.
Duelists who are new to the game.
Duelists who have always had a favorite Deck, and want their favorite Deck to be a little more competitive.”
Literally Rush Duels covers all of this, ok, Konami doesn’t want to invest a lot in a possible failure, then just release Rush cards on English just like some Asia Cards have english texts and are allowed in OCG.
Why did Konami not release an entirely separate product line that requires even more support from Konami and stores, and more buy-in from said stores, because there’s zero compatibility with the classic card game and rush duel?
As @Regiruler said. You are complaining that a niche version of the game isn’t being brought over instead of people getting to actually use the cards they already have, maybe from a decade ago. The stores aren’t the only ones that have to buy into Rush Duels to make it work, the players would have to deal with a new game, buy new decks and so on for that environment. Not everyone is willing to deal with that again, and it avoids the speed duel problem of lacking ways to play with people who want to play newer decks.
Rush Duels aren’t yugioh. They’re yugioh branded, but they aren’t the same game and thus aren’t what yugiboomers actually want to play in the first place. Rush Duels is to the TCG/OCG what Dungeon Dice Monsters was, only lightly more successful.
This is fun
Lunalight unhit btw. summon two liger dancers and bagooska is technically still possible at the cost of having no hts.
No Tiger
I mean no wolf no tiger
Pendulums are banned so you dont have tiger and wolf
Wow! A format where I need to do even more work and have even less options! thanks Konami!
Anyways blah blah blah please print Rush Duels (we know they won’t but I’m gonna keep asking).
If not then maybe go back and give love to Time Wizard, Battle Box, or Speed Duels (if those failed then this is NEVER taking off).
Time Wizard does just fine
I mean… I like the idea, but it feels like this is going to be an unbalanced mess without a banlist, AND it’s just going to be the defacto most modern synchro/xyz/fusion decks instead of linkslop. Could be good but I don’t see it being good
The points system is effectively a banlist without it being a direct banlist. If anything, this is probably a better version of the traditional format (remember that? Pepperidge Farms remembers)
Maybe you should do a little more reading or thinking first. The banlist is built into the point system
oh I read it and thought about it buddy and it still looks like an unbalanced mess without a banlist lol
its not really that confusing. its kind of like master duel if everyone only has enough UR dust for 3 URs or 5 SRs, with no way of getting more crafting mats.
points being ban list just means if you want broken staples, you miss out on other things. So everyone will be at a lower power level, not just you.
Pendulums can’t catch a beak. You either play them under the oppression of Link era or not at all.
Pendulum has been a mistake
Links were the mistake.
They both were. Now shake.
If this format succeeds in longevity, I can only hope Konami will make another alternative format to support in side events that’ll include Pendulums & Links with the points system involved as well. Make Dinomist or Marincess get their time in the spotlight, please.
This could actually be good. Let Konami cook.
“for everyone”
– literal first rules is “new thing bad”
LaJinn isn’t on the list lets gooooo!!!
isn’t this something that normally gets downvoted on reddit?
At least they acknowledge playerbase dumb. The theories for killing Time Wizard appearing validated more and more.
Most of the assigned points are really smart, but some are hard to explain. Like, 100 to Arcana Force XXI and Krystia?? What’s the point of Norden if it can’t be summoned with Instant Fusion or Magical Scientist? It’s like they still don’t want you to actually play some of them, which makes no sense.
You play Norden in a Entity Deck, is the intent.
They want to make FTKs and psuedo FTKs as impossible as they can while still keeping the promise of each card being individually legal. You’ll see Light Barrier costs a single point so you can’t play it alongside The World.
@NeoArkadia We’re all pretty sure Konami made Norden with Instant Fusion in mind, fusing it normally would make you go minus and playing Entity as a deck is not feasable. But I get your point.
@regiruler That seems about right, but not being able to play an Arcana with Light Barrier is too much. Every card that would allow you to abuse it is already pointed highly. They went too safe with some choices, for better and for worse.
I think it’s perfectly fair to not want you to play Norden.
why the hell would you choose to play a low powered format just so that you could turn skip your opp. its good that you cant play the world.
in this format, you can at least use other power spells to supplement your arcana strategy if you really wanted to play it
>We’re making a format where you can play all the cards that were banned so you can enjoy what it would be like.
>It’s good that you still can’t reasonably play this card plus making other non-banned cards even less playable than they originally were.
I understand the fear, but I hope it doesn’t stay this way all the time, it’s not logical.
The “We really frick up card design after Xyz” format
I’m sure this definitely won’t die within a year or two after they put as little manpower or money into it as possible
Ryzeal decks. Zoodic deck. I think Salads are dead in this because they need link. Really any link base decks are dead. I wounder what format will be like. Teir zero tearlaments. Full power Kashtiera, Dijinn lock. Gimmick puppet lock and ftk.
Nearly every Tearlaments is pointed to prevent playing a Tearlaments Deck with the current list.
“Duelists who have always had a favorite Deck, and want their favorite Deck to be a little more competitive.” Arc-V, Vrains and various funny pend decks enjoyers: Am I a joke to you ?
Yes. Pendulum Slop is a joke.
It would seem so…
yeah, I definitely disagree with no links and no pendulums. All the decks should have a chance to play. I like the points system, it’s like a new way to play the game, but I don’t play in real life, I wish they put the points systems in the master duel.
Dinomists, pure Performapal, pure Odd-Eyes, Marincess, pure Code Talker, pure Trickstars with more incentive to use their other Link Monsters, pure Gouki, G-Golem, the unreleased themes of Wind & Light Ignis, pure Rokket, Solfachord, the recently revealed Flip Pendulum Deck, Fur Hire, Plunder Patrol, Ryu-Ge, Valyantz, pure Melodious, Zefra & the themes they allied with that need or prefer having their Pendulums (as for Ritual Beast, including the Link Monster too), Tenyi, & I’m sure some other themes I know but can’t think of off of my head.
Yeah Konami needs to include those mechanics in another alternative format within Genesys.
Me: “New format! Maybe I can try Harpies again” 😀
Konami: “Feather Storm 100 points”
Me: 🙁
So I cant play hero dark magician lightsworn or darkworld cause all their key cards are too costly but I can still basically play most modern decks full of hand traps fine? Yeah no thanks what a joke.
Extremely poor trolling
and feather duster is also 33 points….
WHY ISNT THIS BEING TESTED IN MASTER DUEL WTF!
Konami apparently knows what they’re doing. They’re just very slow.
Took them two years to totally miss what made Rivalry a good format
Reddit aaah format
A lot of the point values on cards in here are complete nonsense
I get the floodgates being expensive af to discourage using a bunch of them, but look at stuff like tear costing half your points for a single copy of a name
Or the basic swordsoul combo costing 36 points
The idea of a point system makes sense but these values are absolutely stupid
Agreed. Power Balance Point System is not a bad concept… but this one needs to be revised and made fair for all Archetypes/Series that can participate in this format
y’all are completely misunderstanding this. decks like Tearlaments and Kashtira are playable in this format, but only at higher point limits than 100, where weaker decks will have more points to use for staples and the like to actually be able to counter them. decks that aren’t playable at 100pt are decks that are a higher power level, and thus are playable only at that power level. that’s the entire point.
daigusto emeral cost 1 point, I don’t get it, why does it even need 1 point instead of 0 point?
I found a banned card for this format. Victory dragon. You cant say match cards are not allowed because Victory dragon was never reprinted with a you can us this card in a duel. Instead they just banned that card.
Since this Format mirrors Duels From DM to Zexal Era as much as possible, maybe the Tournaments will be 1 out of 1 Duels, in which case Match Winners are no Problem.
I like the concept for this format, however, there’s a clear bias to what decks Konami wants and does not want you being able to use in the standard 100 points format. Decks like tearlaments, kashtira, and tenpai being basically unplayable in low powered events is great, but this list killed some rogue options like azamina white forest and branded, whilst leaving K9 and Dracotail with minor hits. It feels a bit dirty that this format is giving off a feeling that the justice hunter decks seem to be the best and most viable option as of now.
Since this Format mirrors Duels From DM to Zexal Era as much as possible, maybe the Tournaments will be 1 out of 1 Duels, in which case Match Winners are no Problem.
Huh? Branded seems like a fine rogue option in this format.
Only practically one branded fusion and mirrorjade but that’s doable. Most everything else is low cost and or doesn’t take “cap room”.
This Format makes no justice for Six Samurai. You can either play Gateway or Synchro Shi Ens, but not both.
And by Atlanteans, Neptabyss-Dragoons are as good as once per duel effects. With Ash Blossom and Infinite Inperm beeing maxed at 3 in Decks with lots of room for points, this feels unfair.
Revision Please!!
My thoughts exactly. They hit six Six samurai cards and they are not even good with only Gateway limited. They are completely unplayable in this format
gateway should cost 100 points, and that’s it, every other six samurai cards should cost 0 points…
It looks like the jol format in Pokemon games.
*Check how much the handtraps costs, especially Ash, Fuwallos, Nibiru and Droll*
Yeah, that make no sense. They should cost 100 points each due to how strong and centralizing those four are.
not really. with how diverse this format will be, some of those handtraps wont be good.
If you consider that most relevant decks will already be fairly inconsistent due to lack of points for multiple copies of starters, some decks wont even be consistently summoning 5 times for nib to go live.
Droll isnt always live either, even if you look at modern meta decks, some formats are droll formats, some are not. With how many decks there are to choose from, i wouldnt be surprised if droll was only live a small portion of the the time.
With most of the board breakers or going first cards being high point cost, i would not be surprised if this was a best of 1 format without siding. Without siding, some of the blowout handtraps are just not as impactful if they do not have the right matchup.
Even without Links and Pendulums, decks can just explode in your face turn 1. Strong Hand traps are necessary evil for Yu-gi-oh! because without them the entire game just turns into competitive coin flipping.
I agree with the user name “me”, hand traps are necessary to stop first turn plays, otherwise you might have to face multiple negates if you are going 2nd.
I think Maxx C should cost 100 points.
Would love to see this in master duel!
Oh look, another TCG-exclusive alternative format that will be dropped few months after release at best.
I can tell the TCG designed this because of the unilateral Pendulum ban. The TCG’s management has an irrational hatred for Pendulums.
This is actually revolutionary
List is too long, f dat
Why is incoming machine 33 points
For the metalmorph archetype to get hit harder than vanquish soul is crazy
Yeah…. this list is just complete nonsense.
Me thinks Konami doesn’t even know what most those cards are doing. It needs a complete rework.
That is actually a pretty nice idea for an alternate format. Replacing the banlist with a point system that can better target certain decks with powerful built-in cards, while leaving the generic staples for the bad ones.
For instance, decks like Crystron now face a challenge regarding their deck building, having to drop certain in-archetype cards to make fit, while weaker options like Tistina or U.A. can make use of more powerful staples and hand-traps in an attempt to compete with stronger decks.
Of course there will always be a meta deck, but if the list truly updates every month, if done correctly, could be a much better alternative to a ban-list setting, where cards can just flat-out not exist while forbidden.
Still a bit iffy about the removal of Pendulum and Links. They could have their own separate list in the future, but I totally understand that the aim of this gamemode is for older vanguardist players. I think it has more potential than alternatives like Speed/Rush duel that’d require whole printings and separate products, now you can just use the cards you already have, and force you to think about the deckbuilding instead of just slapping a triple copy of whatever card is strong in the meta.
So grass is greener is free??
3 grass
1 soul charge 50 points
1 inspector boarder 20 points
1 spell canceler 20 points
3 jinzo
3 left arm offering
nvm mind i just saw on the list
Putting Supreme King Dragon Starving Venom on the list is kinda pointless if Pendulum monsters aren’t allowed in the first place since you actually need the latter as materials in order to summon the former.