by Andrew Pahel

Created on: January 26, 2009   Last Updated: May 03, 2012

As a card game, "Yu-Gi-Oh!" has received a great deal of criticism, but even with this opposition "Yu-Gi-Oh! has received the title of "#1 card game in the world". Why did they receive this title? How did they receive it? The answers may shock you about Yu-Gi-Oh's origins and the race to the top.

First of all, what is the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" card game? "Yu-Gi-Oh!" is a CCG, or collectible card game. the card game began in North America in 2002. The card game is completely based off of the animated Yu-Gi-oh! television show, which was based off of the japanese comics. The comics and anime were created by Kazuki Takahashi. It will suprise many that Takahashi did not create the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards nor the official card game. The TCG was created by Konami based off of Takahashi's version of the game on the anime, which constantly changed the rules to fit the anime's plot. Konami created a fixed set of rules based on Takahashi's anime, and expanded on the TCG as Takahashi expanded on the anime. Because of that the cards that depicted Takahashi's creations also came out after they debuted on television. Most fans will realize that in the first season of "Yu-Gi-Oh!", the characters did not play by the rules. Thats because Konami created the rules for the TCG and Takahasji created the rules for the anime, which were completely different form each other, however in the second season Takahashi changed his rules to the same as the TCGs'. Note that he veered off from the rules to fit the anime form time to time. So as long as Takahashi continues to make "Yu-Gi-Oh!" shows, the TCG will continue to come out.

Now that you know the history of the TCG let's start at the beginning. At the beginning of the game, the rules were very simplified. You did not have complex monster effects, in general the strongest monster won. There was little strategy involved. There were so few traps that were available, that only a few could stop attacks. The magic cards mostly only beefed up monsters attack power. Again, the game was simplistic, too much so for most. Adults pushed the TCG aside as a child's card game. Most adults moved over to Magic, which was already renowned in the card game world. Konami needed to give "Yu-Gi-Oh!" more bank for its buck. So they expanded the set. New monsters, spells, and traps were introduced, but most of all, the monsters came with devastating effects that could change the gameplay. No longer were the strongest monsters the most powerful. New types of decks came into

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