Right before Toy Fair I had posted on Twitter that I would soon be covering Yu-Gi-Oh releases, similar to how I do for Magic and Pokemon. After Toy Fair Konami sent me a handful of Secrets of Eternity booster packs to get my son and I started so I’d have a base to review future sets upon. Not having played Yu-Gi-Oh in many years, I made two decks and went about learning how to play again. There’s a lot to learn, from how to play, various vocabulary, and different types of decks, etc… I actually downloaded the Yu-Gi-Oh app on my phone to help me get things rolling.

In the end the game is pretty simple to play. There’s a lot of book keeping, but things move along very quickly. My son and I were able to really get a feel for things after only a few games, and while we didn’t have enough cards to play with the new Pendulum rules or with extra decks, we had a great time.

Now I can’t compare Secrets of Eternity to anything else at this point since this is our base to review future products, but I can say it didn’t feel like anything that was too hard to grasp.

My only complaint so far is that some cards have a ton of text on them, and it can get a bit small. Good reading comprehension is certainly needed for the game, and it’s not one I’d recommend for younger players

In the end I’m looking forward to providing Yu-Gi-Oh coverage here, and I’m excited to see some of the sets I covered at Toy Fair come through the door.

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After nearly 4 years Duelist Packs are returning to Yu-Gi-Oh on June 19th. These set contains 47 cards in total. The breakdown of cards is as follows:

•    27 Commons
•    10 Rares
•    6 Super Rares
•    4 Ultra Rares

These Duelist Packs are based off the famous Battle City story arc, and contain cards used by Yugi, Joey, Kaiba, Bakura, and Marik, along with new never-before-seen cards.

Each pack has 5 cards

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Konami has just announced a new Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament series called The Ultimate Duelist Series. Debuting in April of 2015, this series will give Duelists an opportunity to play competitively year round.  There will be 2 seasons each year, Winter Season and a Summer Season, and each season will culminate in an Ultimate Duelist Invitational. You can earn an invitation to the latter by earning points at official tournaments throughout the year.

More information about The Ultimate Duelist Series can be found here.

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The Konami booth at Toy Fair was a LARGE lineup of Yu-Gi-Oh releases releasing from the beginning of the year until June. I was able to get pics and info for most of the stuff, but there were a few items that hadn’t been finalized, so I could snap any pics. I’m also only going to cover releases that haven’t come out yet.

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Secret Forces – $3.99 per booster

There are 5 Cards per pack, 4 Super Rares and 1 Secret Rare. The set contains 60 cards, including 20 Secret Rares and 40 Super Rares. This set also includins the hard-to-find Preparation of Rites, which has been out of print for over 5 years. It JUST came out before Toy Fair.

Each box contains three booster packs of Secrets of Eternity, plus 1 of 14 Super Rare cards to power up a player’s Deck.

Players can build up their Deck with more cards for new tournament favorites like Burning Abyss, Shaddolls, and ‘tellarknights, or uncover the secrets of the pit to reveal the mighty Infernoids, a brand new Deck theme that carries out wicked effects to banish an opponent’s cards.

This Super Edition also gives Duelists another opportunity to grab a Super Rare card from Secrets of Eternity (released January 16), like Skilled Blue Magician and Thunderclap Skywolf, the Synchro Monster Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo, Trap Card Void Launch and Spell Card Good & Evil in the Burning Abyss. Available February 27th.

Yu-Gi-Oh: World Superstars

The set contains 52 cards, including 18 Prismatic Secret Rares and 34 Super Rares. This is the first time we’re seeing Prismatic Secret Rares in years. The coolest part of this set is that it contains cards that have never been released in the US, only in Japan and Korea. I didn’t get a solid price at the booth, but I’m seeing them pop up for preorder from $2.79 a pack to $3.99 a pack. Available April 17th.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Crossed Souls – $3.99 per booster

This set contains 100 cards including: 48 Common Cards, 20 Rare Cards, 14 Super Rare Cards, 10 Ultra Rare Cards, and 8 Secret Rare Cards. This set introduces Zefra monsters which can be drafted in 5 different deck types. Each Zefra monster is tied to a monster group from recent sets: Zefra/Shaddoll, Zefra/’tellarknight, Zefra/Yang Zing, Zefra/Nekroz, or Zefra/Ritual Beast. Available May 15th.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Arc-V Starter Deck – $9.99 per deck

Pictured above with just a placeholder card, the Arc-V Starter Deck will be a great way to introduce players to Yu-Gi-Oh. There will be a Light deck and a Dark deck, each containing 41 cards, a beginner’s guide, and a play mat. The best part? Both decks can be combined to make a single, powerful deck. Available May 29th.

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Released today, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dice Masters is a new Dice Building Game put out by WizKids. The two player starter set contains 44 dice, 22 cards, two dice bags and a rulebook for a suggested retail price of $14.99.

Play mats and additional dice packs are to follow soon.

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Two things amazing me about this:

1. Yu-Gi-Oh is still super popular, but I can’t find anyone who actually still plays it
2. The horrible name of this boxed set.

That being said, let’s move on.

“The King of Bling returns!”

I can’t believe I just quoted that. OK. Really. I’m going to move on this time.

Following up the previous Premium Gold boxed set, Return of the Bling contains more updated and upgraded cards from the golden age of Yu-Gi-Oh.

The full set contains:

• 22 previous Gold Rare cards from past Gold Series have been revised to our new-and-improved advanced Gold Rare technology. More shine than ever before!
• 48 top cards released with Gold Rare technology for the first time. Dozens of cards spanning the years, from all 5 pieces of Exodia to Number 101: Silent Honor ARK!
• 21 new cards, all in Gold Secret technology, including cards for Blackwing, Stardust, and HERO Decks!

Each Premium Gold: Return of the Bling box contains 3, 5 card mini-packs, for a total of 15 cards: 6 Gold Secrets and 9 Gold Rares. You can expect to see these hit shelves on March 20th.

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Scrabble

Craig Beevers of the U.K. was declared the World Scrabble Champion at the Scrabble Champions Tournament in London. On the strength of “talaq”, “diorite”, and “ventrous”, he won the best-of-five final match 3-1. Beevers rarely competes in Scrabble tournaments. He does, however, organize them professionally.

Perudo

At the 25th Annual Perudo Championship in London the winner was Minna Fry.

Chess

Thirteen-year-old Sam Sevian earned his place in the record books as the youngest ever U.S. Chess grandmaster.

Go

Chimin Oh won the Go to Innovation tournament in Berlin. Chimin Oh is a 7-dan, former Korean instructor who now resides in the U.K. The tournament employed the Hahn scoring system, which awards points to the winner and loser of each game.

Rubik’s Cube

At the Austrian Big Cube Open, Mattia Furlan of Italy achieved a world-record average solving time for the 7×7 cube of 2:48.03.

At the Toronto Open, Antoine Cantin did the 3×3 one-handed in 8.75 seconds for a world record.

Subbuteo

Local favorite Nikos Beis took the trophy at the Grand Prix of Greece, besting 43 other contestants in the open category.

Hundreds of players from across Europe gathered for the Cardiff Grand Prix. The team event was won by the Valletta Lions of Malta, the open section by Wolfgang Haas of Austria.

For the third time in four seasons, Mark Farrell of Dublin was declared the World Amateur Subbuteo Association’s All-Ireland Champion.

Magic: The Gathering

Seth Manfield of the United States triumphed at Grand Prix Ottawa. In the draft top-8, Manfield squeaked by in the quarter-finals but proceeded to decisive victories in the semi-final and final matches.

Grand Prix Strasbourg marked the first title win for Tamás Nagy of Hungary. He hopes to take that winning spirit with him to the upcoming Magic World Cup.

The win at the standard-format Grand Prix San Antonio went to Ryan Scullin of Rhode Island.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

In Anaheim, Patrick Hoban of Georgia survived three round of single-elimination top-16 draft to claim the title of Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Champion. Among the younger Dragon Duel competitors, the winner was Kenneth Bevens of California.

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Scrabble

The winner of the $22,000 first place prize at the Godswill Akpabio International Scrabble Classics in Nigeria was Nigel Richards, who’s record in the tournament was 21-7 +1767.

Chess

The World Youth Chess Championships in Durban, South Africa featured girls and boys sections for under-8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. Two players went undefeated, Qiyu Zhou of Canada, who took the trophy in the girls under-14 section, and Jennifer Yu of the United States, who won in the girls under-12 section. At one point, Nguyen Anh Khoi of Vietnam had dropped to 16th place but with a two-win finish claimed first on tie-breakers in the boys under-12. This was not Khoi’s first time as champion. He was the winner of the under-10 category 4 years ago. Among the first-place finishers, 11 different countries were represented.

In first place at the Poker Stars Chess tournament (open section) in Isle of Man was Nigel Short of the UK. In the women’s section, the winner was Dronavalli Hakira of India.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

At the Championship Series event in Dallas, Billy Brake used a control deck to duel his way in to the top 16, where he survived four rounds of single-elimination Battle Pack 3: Monster League drafting to come out the winner. In the Dragon Duel section (for players born in 2002 or later), the winner was Tyler Hanson. Both winners were Texas natives.

Rubik’s Cube

A world record blindfolded solution of the 4×4 cube was achieved in 2 minutes, 18.65 seconds by Oliver Frost at the Cuthberts Open in Hatfield, UK.

Another world record, for solution of a 7×7 cube, was achieved in 2 minutes, 38.93 seconds by Vladislav Shavelskiy at the CCC Autumn Open in Moscow, Russia.

Magic: The Gathering

Grand Prix Shanghai, the first Khans of Tarkir limited, was won with The Abzan Houses by Yu Yin of China.

The Mardu clan dominated Grand Prix Orlando, which was won by Eugene Hwang.

Ari Lax made his first podium appearance at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir in Honolulu with the aid of a mid-range Abzan deck.

Backgammon

The 6th German Backgammon Champion is Christoph Wagener.

Draughts

At the European Championship in Tallinn, Estonia, Roel Boomstra of the Netherlands claimed the title in the men’s general section, while the title in the women’s general section went to Olga Baltazhy of Ukraine. Russians Matrena Nogovitsyna and Mourodoullo Amrillaew won the blitz women’s and men’s sections, respectively.

Alexander Getmanski of Russia placed first in the blitz section and second in the general section of the International Open Draughts Tournament in Bacoli, Italy. The first place finisher in the general section was Alexey Chizhov of Russia.

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Chess

In Bilbao, Spain, Viswanathan Anand led the Chess Masters Final and team SOCAR of Azerbaijan the European Chess Club Cup.

Bartlomiej Macieja, Chess coach at the University of Texas at Brownsville, won the United States Masters Championship at the head of a field of 19 grandmasters.

Xiangqi

Mark Wang WeiQiang won the Toronto Open Championship for the fourth year in a row, the first person ever to achieve that record.

Go

At the 9th Korea Prime Minister Cup International Amateur Baduk Championship in Seoul, Wei Taewoong of Korea took home the first place trophy after defeating a fellow student of the Choongam Baduk Academy in the final round.

Backgammon

The winner of the U.S. Backgammon Federation’s Masters Divisional II tournament was Ted Chee.

At the UK Backgammon Open, the winner was an American, Jason Pack, who scored 13-5 over Martin Birkhahn of Germany in the final round.

Other

German Manuel Ramirez Piňa drafted to first place at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Lima, Peru.

To show off its tournament management system, Oomba sponsored a world-record Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament at Gen Con—2,950 participants, certified by Guinness.

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Chess

In the Challengers group of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands, Ivan Saric of Croatia clinched victory with one round to spare. In the Masters group, Levon Aronian of Armenia, the world’s second-ranked player, did the same but then scored his only loss in the final round.

The Zurich Chess Challenge, a combination of classic and blitz games, saw Fabiano Caruana lead in the blitz games. He couldn’t, however, catch up with Magnus Carlsen’s performance in classic, which also contribute double to the total point score. Overall, Carlsen was the winner, followed by Caruana, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand, and Boris Gelfand.

Two playoff games were required for Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria to win the masters section of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival and a £20,000 prize.

Ronald Terubea claimed the National Blitz Open Chess Championship title in Fiji by defeating the Fiji Chess Federation’s Vice President in a tie-breaker game.

Twelve-year-old Saurabh Anand of India took home a trophy nearly bigger than himself after winning the first South Asian Amateur Chess Championship in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The champion of the Batang Pinoy Blitz Tournament was Woman FIDE Master Shania Mae Mendoza.

A Philippine, Jelvis Arandela Calvelo, also won the Melaka Chess Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A fourth-grader, Andrew Glassford, won the K-8 section of the MLK Classic in Montgomery, Alabama.

Magic: The Gathering

A change-up of strategies in the final 8 worked for Fabien Li as he took home the winner’s trophy at the last Theros limited event, Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur.

Alexander Hayne of Canada was undefeated in the final 8 of Grand Prix Vancouver, which also marked his third GP title in 6 months.

Scrabble

At the Crossword Kerala State Scrabble Championship in India, Lloyd Pearse took the overall title and Asha Kamath the title in the women’s section.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Navigating the new War of the Giants drafting process, Christian George of New York dueled his way to the top at the Atlanta inaugural of the 2014 Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. In the Dragon Duel section for younger players, the winner was Oliver Hinton. Both will receive invitations to the 2014 World Championship Qualifier.

Backgammon

Kenji Nishizawa of Japan won the Istanbul Open Backgammon Championship, besting 124 players in the championship section. Over 20 countries were represented despite no money prize.

At the Texas Backgammon Championships, the winner among 72 players in the championship section was Masayuki Mochizuki of Japan. In the West qualifier for the U.S. Backgammon Federation National Championship winner was Jonah Seewald of Colorado.

Rubik’s Cube

The winner of the Berkley Winter tournament was Richard Jay S. Apagar, who completed the standard 3×3 in an average of 9.05 seconds. Brandon Harnish, however, put in an outstanding performance in Skewb, with a North American record best-single of 4.31 seconds and a world record average of 6.21 seconds.

A European single Skewb record of 4.69 seconds was set by Oscar Roth Andersen at the Skanderborg Open in Denmark.

At the CCFC Winter in Connecticut, Noah Arthurs completed a 4×4 blindfolded in 3:31.22 for a North American record.

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