The Old Time Rules
Back in 2018, Konami changed the workings of its time rules. Before then, when time was called (40 minutes from the start of the round), the end-of-round procedures would kick in. From the moment time was called, starting from turn “zero," players would play until turn “three." After that, at the end of turn, whoever had more life points would win the game.
This rule is still present, although a bit different for side events at YCSs and Nationals. Since these events are single elimination, they don’t allow for ties to occur. So, if time is called, the game goes into what’s called “sudden death." The three turns rule applies like it did before, but it loops until a player has more life points than the other. Theoretically, this could go on forever, but realistically, it never takes a lot of time to finish the game. Shoutout to when I was a judge at the Spanish Nationals and had two side events go into sudden death for an hour at the same time. Fun.
Players familiar with our current time rules might, reasonably, ask why these rules don’t come back. Well, they just didn't work. Sure, you got plenty of time to finish a game if you went into time, but they extended the duration of big events way longer than they should be. I asked some players and discovered that the 2013 European Championship finished Day 1 at two AM. Extremely long waits between rounds made for a crippling experience, causing later rounds to feel like a chore. Not really a good feeling to battle for your entry into day two at a time where most people are already asleep.
But that’s all in the past, so how do they work today? Nowadays, once time is called, that’s it. No fancy extra turns, no sudden death; whoever is higher on life points wins. After 40 minutes have passed, players are asked to finish their current phase. At the end of that phase, if your opponent has more life points than you, you lose. Bit extreme, isn’t it?
Benefits of the New Rules
Now, before we get to the bad, there’s a lot of good in these new, cutthroat time rules. Mainly, they make events run a lot faster and smoother. After 40 minutes pass, that’s it. No more waiting 40 minutes in round three because some guys are grinding the pure Dogmatika mirror match at table 657. No more events ending in the middle of the night. Now, if you’ve been to some more recent events, such as the European Championship or YCS Lyon, you might still have experienced extreme overtime between rounds. This was due to the recent implementation of online pairings and match results, which a lot of players failed to understand. Now just imagine the delay caused by online pairings coupled with the old time rules.
Stalling, back then, was also a lot more damaging to the tournament as a whole, rather than to individual players. Slowplaying led to rounds going on for much longer than intended, causing the whole event to be affected. Uh, and that's pretty much it.
Disadvantages of the New Rules
Overall, the new rules are still awful. Knowing you have a very strict time limit makes playing the game a lot more stressful. This stress leads to misplays and can really build up through a tournament, making for a poor playing experience. Worst of all, though, is the stalling. Knowing that being up in life points guarantees your victory if time is called allows players to slowplay and stall until they win because of the rules. Still, for the most part of their existence, the rules haven’t really been that big of an issue. The standout moment for me was during one of the first events this new rule was legal, when a True Draco player resolved
However, come the European Championship this year, I felt we went too far. Every single deck had to incorporate a strategy to win by time. Tearlaments used
This, I feel, is the worst consequence of the time rules. The stalling I could deal with, it’s something you can just report to a judge if you feel your opponent is actively playing for time. But it’s an entirely different thing for the time rules to actively promote bad deck design. Always having to make space in your extra or side deck for a
Alternative Solutions
It’s extremely hard to design a working time rule. Other games opt to just give more time per round and go for the old “three turns” rule we used to have. This is fine in games like Magic: The Gathering, where there is a hard limit to the actions one can take in one turn. But for a game like Yu-Gi-Oh!, where turns take a long time, this is just not a good solution.
Credit to Konami—they have realized that 40 minutes is just not long enough for a whole round. Top cuts at events are now implementing a 45-minute limit, and regional organizers are being given the option to make their rounds last that long, too. This is a step in the right direction, but I feel like there could be a whole different rule to truly remedy the current issues. I say could, because I don’t really know what the solution is. Some people suggest end of turn instead of end of phase, which I agree with. Others say to play until the next turn’s battle phase, which would allow for cool comebacks. What do you think?
At the end of the day, the current time rule allows tournaments to run much faster than they did. As bad as it is, I, for one, prefer not going to bed at five AM because my opponent spent 25 minutes figuring out how to break my board with Ghostricks.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.