I would like to think that having a vocal regular customer base is a huge asset for getting a product seen and supported by an LGS. The first time I stepped into my LGS looking to pick up supplies for an MTG Cube I was building, and it just so happened to be their Yugioh night. I was disheartened to see there weren't even 10 players there. I'd asked the folks behind the desk if they did or ever considered doing an Edison event - they perked up and told me they didn't, but that I wasn't the first person to ask. I told them to let me know if they ever started running them. They've since started hosting Edison events weekly with a higher turnout than their regular modern Yugioh nights. Get enough customers asking about/for Elestrals product and events and you might be surprised at how quickly things can change.
First time I hear about this game. 30 minute video and I don’t even know what a single card nor the cardback looks like. Pretty impressive yappathon that says nothing about the game.
No because it's literally just Pokemon. Game mechanics are irrelevant if you can't find a distinct style, because people don't experience the game mechanics unless the style is attractive. The long term target market for Elestrals is Pokemon players, but Pokemon has much greater magnetism thanks to the wealth of surrounding media, so the tangible Elestrals market is specifically the tiny slice of people who like everything about Pokemon except the Pokemon. That's the critical problem, you can't sell a game based on "It's well designed" or "The designers listen to the players", because most people who currently play any card game aren't really worried about game design and aren't trying to talk to game designers, and every person who doesn't currently play card games doesn't even know some people care about that. If Elestrals wants to be "the future of TCGs", it needs to find a market position that your average TCG player isn't going to look at and think "Why wouldn't I just play Pokemon?", and that positioning would have to involve distancing the game from the Pokemon concept.
First, I really really like this style of video. Keep doing this! That said, I wish this video had a ‘wider’ pool of interviewees. Got the impression everyone was just ex-yugioh players without a wider TCG history. So when I hear that Elestral’s strength is listening to players, I think about the bias of a community that originates from one of the most anti-consumer TCG, so the bar is very low for being pro-consumer relatively speaking. Actually talking Elestrals, Clash is going to be a big boon, but entering the LGS is still a huge obstacle. I live in a large TCG scene and I don’t think a single store still knows or is even interested in the game. I think Elestrals suffers a bit from one of its niches being for ex-YGO players. The scene for us already condensed to one YGO store, and that store absolutely wouldn’t stock Elestrals (indie games risky). Pulling from the Pokémon scene is probably a fools errand (good luck convincing children to abandon it). MtG’s casual scene is very strong and its competitive scene is more likely to jump to Flesh and Blood or a Bandai game.
That narrow pool of players seems to be indicative of the Elestrals playerbase - almost all the Elestrals players I've met have been ex-Yugioh players. My guess is that Yugioh is the only game that's really shedding players as a result of mechanical dissatisfaction, and Elestrals is focusing very much on picking up people whose priority is game mechanics. People who have been dropping off MTG recently, in comparison, are mostly dropping off because of MTG's thematic corruption, and are finding themselves drawn to games with similar themes to MTG - Sorcery TCG is talked about a lot amongst ex-MTG players. And no one is dropping off Pokemon because it's Pokemon.
@@yurisei6732 Still sounds odd whenever I hear the appeal is game mechanics. Elestrals looks very derivative of Yugioh with the extra deck ripped out. I suppose a Yugioh alike is kinda original when you consider most TCGs are just MtG/Duel Masters alikes.
Haven't seen locally yet despite in a major city. I think what it's missing is pretty unfair, and that's other sources to fall in love with it. Like instead of being based off of an IP, finding ways to branch out a world with details and characters people LOVE. Until then I don't see it making it in the top five, or only barely making top ten in some places. But for its roots, pretty impressive
Yep that's the key problem. Every notable card game has some external source of interest, except for MTG which was grandfathered into the top 3 by being the first. Yugioh has its anime, Pokemon has the biggest franchise in the world, Lorcana is powered by the media behemoth of Disney, Weiss Schwarz rides on popular anime, and all the rest are card game implementations of IP that gained popularity prior to being card games. If Elestrals wants to have any chance at all of penetrating the top 10, or even the top 15 really, it needs to do everything it can to get a serialised kids' cartoon made.
Very solid points for sure. As a 20 year yugioh vet, elestrals is doing everything right with listening to players, and it's true the hardest part on making the game bigger is just the lack of store support which is understandable do to the past failures. Having played other tcgs as well it makes sense. overtime more will get on board we only have 15k members on discord which is great but also is small compared to others. When we have our first 100+ person tournement that will be another fun step for the game. Excited for clash since it will help anyone try the game easily no matter where they are at. I also enjoy that even though decks are somewhat playing similarly there is room to cook some crazy strategys that no one thinks of and surprise the playerbase.
I really hope it comes overseas, right now it really only seems to exist in America, maybe parts of Canada too but it just doesn't exist anywhere else in the world so I'm hoping TCGplayer allows for international stores in Europe for example to be able to get boxes etc to start to build a community at their stores
The game has a few points it can improve right now for sure, but it's fun and it's got promise. Doubt it'll ever crack into the Holy Trinity up there though at this point I think it's because of their legacy more than anything
I think I avoided this game because I got it confused with the, like, 18 other Kickstarter TCG startups that turned out to be NFT/Crypto scams (most famously Metazoo, but I vaguely remember there being at least 2 others, one I think made by a mtg tournament player? All very vague half-memories) Art seems cool and gameplay sound fun, would love to give the game a try
I do agree that the TCG market seems quite bloated right now. I've got a feeling that bloat may slim down as the games mature from infant stages to toddler. There may also be future economic hardships depending on future federal policies.
I have never heard of this game, so it would have been helpful to show off matches and cards to help show me what these people are talking about. Just some advice for the future.
It would have been better if you had included others who aren't as deep into the game as you are to get an outsider's POV. I have seen a few videos that talk about TCG in general and many leaves out Elestrals and many other TCG. Admittedly, the TCG world is quite crowded and many won't make it past a couple of years being out in the market. If you want to expand locals, Elestrals should develop an in-person teaching\tutoring program where the teachers get "paid" in some way. This will hopefully counterbalance the rough nature of competition-minded people. Competition, regardless of what game or event, can be a turn-off to anyone new especially if it is a cut-throat mind set. Ideally, the LGS would set up a weekly time that focuses more on teaching Elestrals instead of having tourneys where it is all about winning instead of enjoying the game. I seldom bring up politics but I do worry about what future economic policies will do to this game in the physical product as well as many other games\companies that rely on international products. The more established companies should be able to weather it better than something like Elestrals who is still brand new. The current plan with Clash may have to change if the physical product gets too expensive to produce\ship to at least USA.
Elestrals seems to be using Chinese printers, so there could certainly be a problem if Trump goes ahead with his proposed anti-China measures. However, as a small game with low print runs, it will cost Elestrals less to move production to the US than it would cost other games, so if they decided to bite that bullet, they could avoid price hikes other games would have to charge. Doing so could be a big setback in international distribution though.
The thing that got me into Elestrals and made me want to invest time and money is just how strong it's initial offering was. Here is a game that just feels good to play, easy to learn, and it's depth makes me want to master it. I cut my teeth playing simple decks while getting a small group of mtg and pokemon players to give it a try. Unlike One Piece, Digimon, Lorcana, or Vanguard... we've stuck with this one. And hey if you see a silly goober playing Earth/Lunar during a Webcam tourney surrounded by too many plushies....go easy on me I'm just a little guy 🥹
Big shoutout to everyone involved in this, without them, none of it would be possible 💙
For those who are wondering, the game is on TCGplayer now.
I would like to think that having a vocal regular customer base is a huge asset for getting a product seen and supported by an LGS.
The first time I stepped into my LGS looking to pick up supplies for an MTG Cube I was building, and it just so happened to be their Yugioh night. I was disheartened to see there weren't even 10 players there. I'd asked the folks behind the desk if they did or ever considered doing an Edison event - they perked up and told me they didn't, but that I wasn't the first person to ask. I told them to let me know if they ever started running them. They've since started hosting Edison events weekly with a higher turnout than their regular modern Yugioh nights.
Get enough customers asking about/for Elestrals product and events and you might be surprised at how quickly things can change.
just waiting for clash 🙏
First time I hear about this game. 30 minute video and I don’t even know what a single card nor the cardback looks like. Pretty impressive yappathon that says nothing about the game.
No because it's literally just Pokemon. Game mechanics are irrelevant if you can't find a distinct style, because people don't experience the game mechanics unless the style is attractive. The long term target market for Elestrals is Pokemon players, but Pokemon has much greater magnetism thanks to the wealth of surrounding media, so the tangible Elestrals market is specifically the tiny slice of people who like everything about Pokemon except the Pokemon. That's the critical problem, you can't sell a game based on "It's well designed" or "The designers listen to the players", because most people who currently play any card game aren't really worried about game design and aren't trying to talk to game designers, and every person who doesn't currently play card games doesn't even know some people care about that. If Elestrals wants to be "the future of TCGs", it needs to find a market position that your average TCG player isn't going to look at and think "Why wouldn't I just play Pokemon?", and that positioning would have to involve distancing the game from the Pokemon concept.
First, I really really like this style of video. Keep doing this!
That said, I wish this video had a ‘wider’ pool of interviewees. Got the impression everyone was just ex-yugioh players without a wider TCG history. So when I hear that Elestral’s strength is listening to players, I think about the bias of a community that originates from one of the most anti-consumer TCG, so the bar is very low for being pro-consumer relatively speaking.
Actually talking Elestrals, Clash is going to be a big boon, but entering the LGS is still a huge obstacle. I live in a large TCG scene and I don’t think a single store still knows or is even interested in the game. I think Elestrals suffers a bit from one of its niches being for ex-YGO players. The scene for us already condensed to one YGO store, and that store absolutely wouldn’t stock Elestrals (indie games risky). Pulling from the Pokémon scene is probably a fools errand (good luck convincing children to abandon it). MtG’s casual scene is very strong and its competitive scene is more likely to jump to Flesh and Blood or a Bandai game.
That narrow pool of players seems to be indicative of the Elestrals playerbase - almost all the Elestrals players I've met have been ex-Yugioh players. My guess is that Yugioh is the only game that's really shedding players as a result of mechanical dissatisfaction, and Elestrals is focusing very much on picking up people whose priority is game mechanics. People who have been dropping off MTG recently, in comparison, are mostly dropping off because of MTG's thematic corruption, and are finding themselves drawn to games with similar themes to MTG - Sorcery TCG is talked about a lot amongst ex-MTG players. And no one is dropping off Pokemon because it's Pokemon.
@@yurisei6732 Still sounds odd whenever I hear the appeal is game mechanics. Elestrals looks very derivative of Yugioh with the extra deck ripped out. I suppose a Yugioh alike is kinda original when you consider most TCGs are just MtG/Duel Masters alikes.
Haven't seen locally yet despite in a major city. I think what it's missing is pretty unfair, and that's other sources to fall in love with it. Like instead of being based off of an IP, finding ways to branch out a world with details and characters people LOVE. Until then I don't see it making it in the top five, or only barely making top ten in some places. But for its roots, pretty impressive
So in other words, you are saying the lore aspect needs to be expanded upon? Last I knew, it is in the process but at a fairly slow rate.
Yep that's the key problem. Every notable card game has some external source of interest, except for MTG which was grandfathered into the top 3 by being the first. Yugioh has its anime, Pokemon has the biggest franchise in the world, Lorcana is powered by the media behemoth of Disney, Weiss Schwarz rides on popular anime, and all the rest are card game implementations of IP that gained popularity prior to being card games. If Elestrals wants to have any chance at all of penetrating the top 10, or even the top 15 really, it needs to do everything it can to get a serialised kids' cartoon made.
Very solid points for sure. As a 20 year yugioh vet, elestrals is doing everything right with listening to players, and it's true the hardest part on making the game bigger is just the lack of store support which is understandable do to the past failures. Having played other tcgs as well it makes sense. overtime more will get on board we only have 15k members on discord which is great but also is small compared to others. When we have our first 100+ person tournement that will be another fun step for the game. Excited for clash since it will help anyone try the game easily no matter where they are at. I also enjoy that even though decks are somewhat playing similarly there is room to cook some crazy strategys that no one thinks of and surprise the playerbase.
I wish I could watch this video but the lofi in the bg is annoying to me
I really hope it comes overseas, right now it really only seems to exist in America, maybe parts of Canada too but it just doesn't exist anywhere else in the world so I'm hoping TCGplayer allows for international stores in Europe for example to be able to get boxes etc to start to build a community at their stores
This game is so good my locals fired off last week with 9 people. Which was awesome to see.
Love seeing more reach for this game. It’s an awesome take on a tcg that makes for some amazing matches.
The game has a few points it can improve right now for sure, but it's fun and it's got promise. Doubt it'll ever crack into the Holy Trinity up there though at this point I think it's because of their legacy more than anything
Really like the game
honestly its hardly a well made game. The way yugitubers seem to glaze this game makes it clear they are being bought and paid for.
I think I avoided this game because I got it confused with the, like, 18 other Kickstarter TCG startups that turned out to be NFT/Crypto scams (most famously Metazoo, but I vaguely remember there being at least 2 others, one I think made by a mtg tournament player? All very vague half-memories)
Art seems cool and gameplay sound fun, would love to give the game a try
I do agree that the TCG market seems quite bloated right now. I've got a feeling that bloat may slim down as the games mature from infant stages to toddler. There may also be future economic hardships depending on future federal policies.
I have never heard of this game, so it would have been helpful to show off matches and cards to help show me what these people are talking about. Just some advice for the future.
Matches will come when Elestrals Clash Alpha releases!
No. The future is Flesh and Blood. No wait the future isMetaZoo. No wait I am sorry it is Altered. Wait what now, Neopets again!?
Flesh and Blood isn't going anywhere.
@@crazywhofan6676 someone did not get the joke
The joke doesn't work if you include Flesh and Blood. Because it's the game that he mentioned that isn't dead or dying.
@@crazywhofan6676 No, it is just in its Living Legend status.
It would have been better if you had included others who aren't as deep into the game as you are to get an outsider's POV. I have seen a few videos that talk about TCG in general and many leaves out Elestrals and many other TCG. Admittedly, the TCG world is quite crowded and many won't make it past a couple of years being out in the market.
If you want to expand locals, Elestrals should develop an in-person teaching\tutoring program where the teachers get "paid" in some way. This will hopefully counterbalance the rough nature of competition-minded people. Competition, regardless of what game or event, can be a turn-off to anyone new especially if it is a cut-throat mind set. Ideally, the LGS would set up a weekly time that focuses more on teaching Elestrals instead of having tourneys where it is all about winning instead of enjoying the game.
I seldom bring up politics but I do worry about what future economic policies will do to this game in the physical product as well as many other games\companies that rely on international products. The more established companies should be able to weather it better than something like Elestrals who is still brand new. The current plan with Clash may have to change if the physical product gets too expensive to produce\ship to at least USA.
Elestrals seems to be using Chinese printers, so there could certainly be a problem if Trump goes ahead with his proposed anti-China measures. However, as a small game with low print runs, it will cost Elestrals less to move production to the US than it would cost other games, so if they decided to bite that bullet, they could avoid price hikes other games would have to charge. Doing so could be a big setback in international distribution though.
The thing that got me into Elestrals and made me want to invest time and money is just how strong it's initial offering was. Here is a game that just feels good to play, easy to learn, and it's depth makes me want to master it.
I cut my teeth playing simple decks while getting a small group of mtg and pokemon players to give it a try. Unlike One Piece, Digimon, Lorcana, or Vanguard... we've stuck with this one.
And hey if you see a silly goober playing Earth/Lunar during a Webcam tourney surrounded by too many plushies....go easy on me I'm just a little guy 🥹