Yu-Gi-Oh! 2-Player Starter Set review: Channel your inner Duelist

There are few games with the longevity of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG. A complex card game with literally over 10,000 cards, there’s nothing quite like it even after 25 years.

From triggering trap cards to Dark Magician and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the game has an impressive lineage. All it’s missing is a way to get on board for new players, something Konami is hoping to rectify with the Yu-Gi-Oh! 2-Player Starter Set, launching today.

With a detailed tutorial and two fun decks, it’s the best way to get started with duelling.

Time to…

This compact box includes two sealed decks and an instruction manual, and while that may seem like a short list of components, it’s clear a lot of love and effort has been poured into this.

The manual, for example, is a 62-page comic strip, full of handy breakdowns and tips that’ll take players from summoning their first monster to playing spells, setting traps, and more complex mechanics like Special summons.

Decks are designated as Player S and Player X, and are specifically ordered to ensure players can follow the comic book - at least at first. After you reach the end of things, you’re left to your own devices to use what you’ve learned, which was a nice touch.

As a more casual fan of Yu-Gi-Oh!, I found the inclusion of Synchro and XYZ summons fun to learn, although that’s definitely the trickiest part of the tutorial duel. There’s a steep learning curve here, and if you fall off, you may need to dig back a few pages to find your footing, but just through re-reading things the opacity of cards like Divine Arsenal AA-Zeus - Sky Thunder and Mannadium Prime-Heart (the two headliners for each deck) starts to fall away.

You’ve triggered my trap card!

That brings us nicely to the included cards, and there’s a good mix of nostalgia-inducing favourites and staples of deckbuilding. Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, Eldlich The Golden Lord, and Giant Soldier of Stone can be found in Deck X, while Mobius The Frost Monarch, Kunai with Chain and Visas Stafrost are in Deck S.

If you're looking for the full decklists, be sure to check out our sister site Yugipedia for a rundown of the 4 Ultra Rares and 40 Commons in each (spoiler alert, the Ultra Rares are the Extra Deck cards).

There’s almost certainly potential to mix and match the decks, building something you could take to play at a casual event, but it seems the next logical step is to consider the range of Structure Decks to help learn about deck construction and theming.

Still, even playing through the tutorial duel is a great showcase of Yu-Gi-Oh’s unique appeal, with big plays constantly shifting the balance of power. As a tabletop novice, I also enjoyed the more social aspect of playing face-to-face with someone - I love Master Duel as much as the next duelist, but there’s something more personal about playing against someone across the table, especially when you’re learning the intricacies of the extra deck together.

If I had to nitpick, it’s the lack of token cards in the box. While I appreciate that having an extra set of four token cards, aside from the deck and Extra Deck, might be more daunting for newcomers (and you can use just about anything as a proxy), including a card like Scapegoat that requires sheep tokens but not including them could also lead to some confusion.

The Verdict

The Yu-Gi-Oh! 2-Player Starter Set is an ideal product for players looking to check out a new TCG, but even lapsed players are likely to appreciate the effort that’s gone into making a complex game much more digestible.

It’s a great way to learn what makes the franchise so endearing, and here’s hoping it can bring in a new wave of Duelists.

4.5/5

Review unit provided by Konami. GGRecon uses affiliate links, if you purchase any products from our links we may earn a commission.