Yu-Gi-Oh is a trading card game from Konami, similar to games like Magic The Gathering and the Pokemon Trading Card Game. It's based on the fictional game "Duel Monsters", which features in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime.
The community often create new variants of the game, including "Goat" and "Edison" formats, which focus on older cards only, but the Speed Dueling format is officially supported and produced by Konami themselves.
Only cards marked as "speed duel" cards can be used in the format, severely limiting the pool of cards to choose from and reducing the power creep that's present in modern-day Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Speed Duels are, as the name suggests, designed to be a much faster version of the game - with decks containing just 20-30 cards, as well as a "skill card", which features a unique ability that can be used to get the deck's engine running much quicker.
You also only play with 4000 life points (instead of 8000), only get 3 monster and trap zones (hello Ojama King), and your extra deck is limited to just 5 cards.
On that note, there are only fusion cards in the extra deck - the format contains no Synchros, Xyz, Pendulum, or Link monsters (at least for now).
This is part of the appeal of the Speed Duel format - it has a much more basic and nostalgic feel to it, with much of the modern-day format excluded completely.
A lot of players fell out of love with the game when it got so quick and complicated, with cards like link and pendulum summons making most cards printed before their existence too weak to use.
Konami releases new Speed Duel boxes periodically, choosing cards from the normal format to add to Speed Duels. The latest instalment, Speed Duel GX: Duelists of Shadows, is available now - and contains 8 premade decks built around some of the most popular archetypes.
The 8 decks featured are:
- Supreme King Jaden: "Evil HERO" Deck
- Shadow Rider Nightshroud: "Red-Eyes" Deck
- Shadow Rider Camula: "Vampire" Deck
- Shadow Rider Tania: "Amazoness" Deck
- Shadow Rider Titan: "Archfiend" Deck
- Shadow Rider Amnael: "Macro Cosmos" Deck
- Kagemaru: Sacred Beasts Deck
- Adrian Gecko: "Cloudian" Deck
These are largely all new decks and cards for the format, and of particular note are the Evil HERO deck, which is always guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, and the Sacred Beasts deck, which is an iconic archetype from the Yu-Gi-Oh!: GX series.
200 common cards make up the 8 premade decks, and they're ready to play as soon as you open the box. In addition, you get a pack of 8 Secret Rares from a pool of 24.
Guaranteed pulls are Secret Rare copies of Uria, Lord of Searing Flames; Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder; and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms. The remaining 5 are randomly selected from the pool.
The box also offers 20 skill cards in total. 8 are a part of the premade decks, but you also get an additional one for each deck in case you fancy a change or like the other one better. There are also 4 generic skill cards, allowing you to build a deck around them from scratch.
Whether you're a Yu-Gi-Oh! veteran, or someone looking to get back into the game or play it for the first time, Speed Duelling is a great opportunity to play with some friends with minimal fuss.
Speed Duel GX: Duelists of Shadows is available now in Europe and Oceania.
