In a surprising turn of events, Konami has reversed course. Following an attempt at an incredibly unpopular change to the Time Wizard format, Konami has reversed its earlier changes in response to massive social media outcry.
The company has spontaneously updated the rules for the Time Wizard tournament being held in the upcoming North America World Championship Qualifier (NAWCQ). Not only do players now get the same Time Wizard format they know and love, but a new format now emerges as a result of this rule discrepancy.
The New Update
When it first came to light that Konami would change the very nature of the Time Wizard format, players quickly voiced their disappointment. Long story short, Konami decreed that tournaments held in Time Wizard format would use modern-day rules and card errata, something that drastically changes the power level of multiple cards from beloved eras, ultimately ruining the preservation of past formats.
After a few days, with all the waves happening in social media in response to this decision, and Konami has rolled back on the changes.
Back in the Time Wizards subsection of the NAWCQ webpage, Konami made the following edit:
“*NEW* Time Wizard Events will use the Game Mechanics and card text of the era in question at the NAWCQ 2025. (This is an update to an earlier FAQ. In the future, we will offer the TCG version of Yu-Gi-Oh! MASTER DUEL‘s Time Travel format, which uses current mechanics/card texts but older card pools. Both Time Wizard and Time Travel will be offered at the OTS level.)”
With this new update, Konami has essentially reversed their earlier decision for Time Wizard, but their original intentions have not been discarded.
By taking some cues from Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, Konami also decided to introduce a new format, Time Travel.
This new Time Travel format is Konami's original intention; a chosen older era with modern rulings and card errata. According to the changes made above, both Time Wizard and Time Travel will be offered at Official Tournament Stores (OTSs) after the NAWCQ.
A Sigh of Relief For Now
The community has let out a collective sigh of relief as Konami has double-backed on its decision to change the very nature of the Time Wizard format.
Some members of online communities even welcomed the newly introduced Time Travel format, seeing it as a welcome alternative as long as the original was kept intact.
Of course, discourse over this resolution continues. Many players are worried that this won't be the last time Konami tries to unify the rulings in Time Wizard. The introduction of the Time Travel format is the change Konami wanted to do in the first place.
If enough popularity can shift over to Time Travel, then this may give Konami the ammunition it needs to try and phase out the Time Wizard format again, at least from official tournament play. On top of that, the current announcement from Konami suggests that these Time Wizard reversions may be a temporary thing.
TheGumbyGyarados from a reddit thread discussing this rollback put out,
“They’ve only backtracked for the WCQ
The fact they said they would support time wizard and time travel events AT THE OTS LEVEL specifically makes me think they still are phasing out Time Wizard as we know it from YCS level events in the future.
My main hope is that this mean the time travel events on master duel are either permanent or more frequent (a rotation of the 3 formats would be great)”
Talks about this are just theory at best. We have no evidence to support this line of thinking, but it does bring up a point. Despite players getting the change they wanted, there's still a lot of uncertainty about the future.
If players want to encourage the survival of Konami’s official support for the Time Wizard format, they need to keep vigilant and give the company a reason to keep it around.