Jump Festa is an annual exhibition where multiple anime properties make new announcements each year. This year, fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise received some big news for both the physical card game and the anime. The presentation was streamed live on YouTube.
For the card game, a new format is coming to shake up the metagame. Commonly referred to as Master Rule 5, players are no longer required to have a Link Monster out to Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck. This strengthens the viability of all other Extra Deck monsters without directly weakening Link Monsters — a change that will certainly add some variety to the current metagame, where a majority of the top decks are full of Link Monsters. In the current format, Extra Deck monsters can only be summoned with the use of Link Monsters, whose cards point to zones where the Extra Deck summons go. This focus on Link Monsters is due to the currently running anime Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains, where Link Monsters are put front and center to advertise them for the physical card game. With Vrains ending soon, Link Monster will take a backseat and other summoning types will get a chance to shine again.
In conjunction with the card game changes, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Neuron app was announced. The app is a tool for players and can scan real-world cards and decks to save them in decklists. It also features a life point counter.
By far the biggest announcement is the reveal for the next anime, titled Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS. According to the trailer shown during the presentation, it will feature a much more child-friendly art style — a drastic change from the art styles of all prior Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, which were influenced by the original creator, Kazuki Takahashi. The art style change is due to a new animation studio taking charge. Previous Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series were produced by Gallop, but SEVENS will instead be in the hands of the animation studio, Bridge. Bridge’s former works include the Devil Survivor 2 anime, episodes 176 to 328 of Fairy Tail, and Cardfight!! Vanguard G: Z — another card-battling anime.
“Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens” anime PV; airing April 2020 pic.twitter.com/L90X3Jie4T
— A.I.R (Anime Intelligence (and) Research) (@AIR_News01) December 21, 2019
SEVENS’s new protagonist is Yuga Oudou, a fifth-grader who enjoys dueling and inventing. Yuga lives in Goha City, which is governed by the massive corporation Goha Corp, which presides over all aspects of daily life. Yuga duels to spice up his restrictive and mundane life through the way of “Rush Duels,” with his ace card “Seventh Road Magician.”
The Rush Duel is a new form of dueling introduced in SEVENS that is separate from the standard card game. Designed to be fast-paced, players draw to a full hand and can make unlimited Normal Summons each turn, thought the field is also limited to three Monster Zones. Cards used in Rush Duels will feature a new style of card frame to differentiate them from standard cards.
Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS is set to air in April, 2020.
