Yu-Gi-Oh! is rolling out a bold new format aimed at making the game easier for returning players and newcomers alike. Genesys, officially developed by Konami, strips back some of the complexity that has made modern Yu-Gi-Oh! feel intimidating and overly fast-paced, offering a fresh way to duel with your favourite cards.

Introducing Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Genesys—a brand new way to play the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME.

Read more here: https://t.co/SXhC4mXCH5#YGOGenesys pic.twitter.com/FCTR78lvov

— Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG (@YuGiOh_TCG) September 22, 2025

Unlike fan-created formats, Genesys is a fully sanctioned tournament format with its own rules. The key changes are simple but significant: Pendulum and Link Monsters are banned, and there’s no Forbidden or Limited list in play. That means players can unleash powerful cards from across the game’s history, including classics like Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity, while still balancing deck power with a new Point System.

How Genesys Works
The Genesys Point System acts like a deck-building salary cap. Most cards carry no cost, but powerful staples are assigned point values to keep them in check. For example, Pot of Greed costs 30 points, while other high-impact cards like Abyss Dweller or True King of All Calamities sit at 100 points. Standard tournament decks use a 100-point cap, though event organisers can tweak this for different power levels. Players must use Konami’s official deck-building tool to calculate points and print legal decklists for competitions.

This system lets duelists customise strategies and encourages experimentation. Konami likens it to being the general manager of your own deck. Powerful cards aren’t off-limits—they just take up more of your point budget, forcing smart trade-offs and thoughtful deck construction.

Where to Play Genesys
Official Tournament Stores (OTS) can run Genesys events starting September 23, 2025. Konami is also introducing Genesys Invitationals at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events, with winners taking home rare prizes like the 2009 SJC Dark End Dragon and oversized Pot of Greed promo cards. Early Invitationals include:

• Oct 4–5: Anaheim, USA
• Oct 11–12: São Paulo, Brazil
• Nov 8–9: Pittsburgh, USA
• Nov 22–23: Bologna, Italy
• Nov 29–30: Merida, Mexico

Genesys will eventually headline its own YCS event in 2026, further cementing the format in competitive play.

Digital Possibilities
While Genesys launches exclusively in the TCG, it could eventually come to Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. Konami has gradually added previously forbidden cards into the digital client, so the groundwork exists, but implementing the point system and the format’s rules digitally will take time.

A Format for Everyone
Genesys is designed to appeal to old-school duelists who miss simpler gameplay, as well as new players looking for an accessible entry point. By removing the most complex summoning mechanics and introducing a flexible point-based deck-building system, Konami hopes to create a format that’s both nostalgic and strategic, giving duelists more ways to enjoy their favourite cards without the overwhelm of modern meta pressures.

For anyone who’s ever felt left behind by Pendulum or Link Monsters, Genesys might just be the perfect reason to return to the duelling field.

The post Yu-Gi-Oh! Launches Genesys Format to Bring Back Old and New Duelists appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Ravensburger, publisher of award-winning board games and high-quality toys and puzzles, has announced that Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game (TCG), the collectible trading card game, is now available in limited quantities.

Booster packs and starter decks of the next three sets will be released in the coming weeks; Rise of the Floodborn (June 15th), Into the Inklands (June 29th), and Ursula’s Return (July 13th). The full range of Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game products will be available from August 9th, 2024 with the debut of the TCG’s fifth set.

The Disney Lorcana TCG is a brand-new trading card game (TCG) set in the wondrous realm of Lorcana, where players take on the role of Illumineers and wield magic ink to summon a team of Disney characters known as glimmers, who appear in both familiar and fantastical ways. Disney Lorcana TCG was designed to be easy to learn and welcoming for TCG newcomers while still offering strategic depth for experienced players. The game also features more than 200 original pieces of Disney art that collectors and Disney fans will adore.

In Disney Lorcana TCG, players embark on a search for lost lore with their teams of glimmers. They’ll play characters, actions, and items from their hand and choose whether to “quest” for lore with their glimmers or challenge their opponents. The first player to collect 20 lore wins.

The first four sets of Disney Lorcana TCG are available in limited quantities and a variety of ways:

• Disney Lorcana TCG starter decks, each including a ready-to-play game deck and quick start rules as well as a lore counter, game tokens and a randomised booster pack
• Disney Lorcana TCG booster packs of 12 randomised game cards each, including one foil card and two cards with rarities of rare, super rare, or legendary

The post CALLING ALL ILLUMINEERS! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Star Wars: Unlimited is a new trading card game from Fantasy Flight Games set in the Star Wars universe.

We checked out the 110-card Spark of Rebellion Two-Player Starter Set.

I seem to have gone full circle. It was FFG’s excellent X-Wing miniatures that got me back into tabletop games and then on to Magic the Gathering. Now here I am with an FFG Star Wars TCG that is very reminiscent of the Wizards of the Coast game.

The Star Wars Unlimited Spark of Rebellion Two-Player Starter Set is based on the original trilogy of movies: A New Hope to Return of the Jedi. This kit has Darth Vader leading the Empire and Luke Skywalker leading the rebels.

The kit has all you need to get going with the game. There are two decks, one for the Empire and another for the Rebels. There are also a couple of deck boxes, some cardboard tokens and folded paper playmats. The paper playmats have set-up instructions and reference panels to get you into the game faster.

Each 52-card deck has a leader card, either Luke or Vader and a base card, Cloud City or The Death Star. The rest are units, tactics, and events. There are also six upgrade token cards.

The first thing that struck me was the art on the cards. The colour-line-drawn images have a comic-book look that gives them a unique style. These are a lot different than the more regular painted cards included in the X-Wing game.

The game starts with each player having a hand of six cards. The base and leader card are placed in the boxes on the playmat. Two cards from each player’s hand are placed in their resource boxes.

The game is played over a series of phases, the first being the action phase. At this time players attack and use abilities against their opponent. Each card has a cost. Unit cards have a power number and HP. Power is how much damage the unit dishes out whereas HP is how much it can take. Upgrades can add to a unit’s power and / or HP.

The game is unique in that battles are fought on the ground and in space, with units dedicated to each. Units can only attack opponents’ units in the same arena (ground or space), or the base. As well as attacking opponents’ forces, units can also directly attack the base. Each base starts with 30 hit points and the game ends when on player’s base HP reaches zero.

Leader cards have a unique ability available to the player from the start of the game. But they also have an epic ability that can be used only when enough resources are available to deploy them in the ground arena. The leader’s card is then flipped to become a unit card. This epic action can only be used once per game.

The regroup phase allows players to draw two more cards. Optionally, one card can be selected from the player’s hand as a resource card.

As with all collectable trading card games, decks are supplemented by booster packs. A Spark of Rebellion booster pack contains 16 cards: one leader, one base, nine commons, one rare, one legendary and one foil card.

The game is easy to pick up, especially if you have played other TCGs. The 24-page quick start rulebook does a pretty good job of explaining this but does leave a few gaps. I had the same issue with X-Wing to start with, but that’s what the Internet is for. To be fair, the Star Wars Unlimited website has loads of information on how to play the basic game as well as variations such as premier, draft play, seal play and the multiplayer-focused, Twin Suns.

It’s still early days for Star Wars: Unlimited but it is already an easy-to-play dynamic card game that offers players a lot of fun with some beautiful card art. Fantasy Flight Games have good form in supporting and enhancing their games with new rules, card types and organised tournament play. It’ll be exciting to see what other packs get released from across the Star Wars mythos.

The post Star Wars: Unlimited Spark of Rebellion TCG Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

There is no lack of free to play games that are built around cards in some way, from fighting games using cardsto trading card games like the massive Hearthstone.  In a genre that isn’t lacking in options it’s hard to stand out and that is how Infinity Wars went past me the first time. With their re-release I wanted to see if Infinity Wars Reborn had anything to make it stand out from the pack (pun very much intended).

From a standard gameplay perspective Infinity Wars Reborn plays like most trading card style games.  At the start of each turn you get cards, you place as many as you want into your support zone depending on their cost and how many moves you have that turn.  Once cards are in your support zone, you can freely move them from the defence lane, attack lane or back to the support zone at will on your turn.

Some cards come with skills that activate when triggered by an action on the field or being played or in some cases have reusable skills that have a cost to be used each turn i.e., uses two points to do four attack to an enemy card, so for the most partit’s what you would expect from a trading card game.  These elements are super easy to pick up and run with, though they do become more complex with cards such as The Sleepers of Avarrach deck where moves are triggered by how long they have been dead or when they are killed.

There is enough complexity to that so you do have to think about which cards you play, when to play them and how to use their abilities and support cards to be most effective. With elements like elevated and flying cards there is just enough depth to be challenging but approachable even to newbies.

To get your head around the above and all of the games subtle nuances there is a campaign which has a pretty shallow story where the factions meet each other with some dialogue. This is really just a way to get you used to the different decks, how to mix the different deck styles and how they fare against each other.  It’s not too long and requires an internet connection which annoys me fiercely due to my commute having some spotty 3G coverage, however it’s enough to get you used to the gameplay and to be honest it was surprisingly enjoyable.

As mentioned before despite there being single player modes like the campaign and the ability to play bots, the game is always online.  I suspect there is reasoning but that’s an annoyance of mine every time it surfaces.  Despite being free to play with micro-transactions, I honestly found I was given cards enough from daily challenges and bonuses to leveling up that made it feel like the micro transactions aren’t necessary, just a good way to give you a little boost.  Online I had my rear end whooped enough but even with a stacked deck that happened so that was my skill level not the money spent.

The game real hook is the cards animations.  Each card has its picture pane which is normal, but each picture pane is animated.  So instead of being a character, it’s a character running, a knight’s helm coming down or the background is moving.  For a hook that’s relatively unrelated to gameplay, it’s actually really cool.  The animations all look really good and the art on the cards look gorgeous, which resulted in me wanting to inspect new cards more often and really helps with player engagement.

To be honest Infinity Wars Reborn isn’t anything revolutionary and it doesn’t pretend to be.  It’s a free TCG that’s easy to learn, hard to master and super fun to play.  There is plenty to enjoy offline if you just want to dabble and online for if you enjoy it enough. The micro transactions don’t feel necessary to compete, but they’re there for a little boost or want to support the developers.  The animated cards are an outstanding hook that just pushes it over the top to make a great game.

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