It looks like Konami has managed to make waves again. This time, it's not the positive kind, as changes have been made to the Yu-Gi-Oh! legacy tournament format, Time Wizard.
For those unfamiliar, the Time Wizard format is Konami’s attempt to honor Yu-Gi-Oh’s storied career.
In this format, the Forbidden and Limited list, available card pool, game rules, and mechanics are made to match that of a selected period.
The Change
Sadly, it looks like Konami is killing the spirit of the Time Wizard format, in the eyes of players, thanks to a new change.
This change was revealed on the Yu-Gi-Oh webpage for the upcoming North America World Championship Qualifier (WCQ) in Indianapolis.
In the Time Wizard subsection, Konami had added this particular line to the official rules: “Starting at the NAWCQ, current Game Mechanics and current card text will be used for Time Wizard Events.”
The above rule change modernizes all errata’d cards. Card wordings, card interactions, and even the priority of certain card effects have all been brought to a modern standard of play.
The Reaction
Unsurprisingly, considering the Time Wizard format was basically an era in a time capsule, this change flips the script somewhat. Due to this, a lot of the format's longstanding players aren't at all happy with the change.
As if going against the spirit of the format wasn't bad enough, modernized versions of some cards are simply worse than their classic counterparts. Goyo Guardian is one such example of this.
Back during the Edison Format of the game (circa 2010), Goyo Guardian was a staple in Blackwing decks. This particular synchro card was a general extra deck inclusion because its tuner requirement was generic.
Now, the modern iteration of Goyo Guardian needs an Earth tuner monster in order to synchro summon. Frustratingly, the Blackwing archetype doesn’t have any in-house tools to meet this requirement.
Unsurprisingly, players aren't happy that Konami has changed the nature of how these older decks function. Without these time-appropriate rulings and interactions, the main reason people enjoyed these older formats has essentially been wiped away.
Of course, no public reaction is complete without some members speculating as to the reason why Konami made this decision.
Some speculate that Konami is just streamlining the format for their judge program. Playing devil’s advocate, some members of the community put out that Konami doesn’t want a separate judge program specifically for the older formats and all their idiosyncrasies.
The more far-reaching theory is that Konami might try to use this change as a stepping stone for importing the Time Wizard format for Master Duel.
Whatever the case, a lot of fans of the older formats are generally not happy. We’ll see if Konami decides to revert this ruling or not in the days to come.