Heart of the Underdog:A Guide to Yu-Gi-Oh!'s casual format!

Known as the "for fun format", Heart of the Underdog is probably the most played alternate format of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and perhaps even more popular than the conventional Advanced format, as most people play it as a casual format. To attract this audience to official tournaments, Konami chose to make it official in a short announcement.

Since then, OTS has been authorized to organize Heart of the Underdog events.

Since Heart of the Underdog doesn't have an official banlist, it is up to the OTS itself to stipulate the decks that will be banned from the event. Most times, Advanced format tier 1 decks are banned from the Heart of the Underdog tournament, but there are also those where tier 2 and even top rogues are also banned for certain events.

If you ask Heart of the Underdog players what their main objective is when playing the format, they'll all answer that it's fun - in fact, that's precisely why it's known as "for fun". But wouldn't all formats be fun for those who play them? Following this reasoning, Heart of the Underdog needs arguments to justify it as more fun than the others.

For many, the format is more fun because it is more financially accessible, since, once the expensive meta decks are banned, all duelists will be able to compete with less popular decks in competitive events, allowing for a more casual tournament, where all participants have a good chance of winning!

In addition, the format encourages the creativity of players, who are “obliged” to find unusual ways to deal with interactions between less conventional cards, since Heart of the Underdog usually has a wide variety of decks.

Another point that I consider the most important is that Heart of the Underdog can serve as a way to introduce new players to the game, taking advantage of the fact that it is a format with a low-power ceiling, and that it is possible to have good results using decks with reasonable prices.

The Heart of the Underdog banlist tends to be a bit controversial, since it is the sole responsibility of the tournament organizer, and each player wants to give their opinion about it. The main discussion revolves around which decks will be banned from the event, and many players end up feeling personally hurt by seeing their deck on the list.

What's more, it's also common to see the debate extend to banning generic cards rather than just archetypes, and hand traps are often mentioned as cards to be banned from the event.

Particularly, I consider this to be a mistake, since without hand traps, the player who starts the duel will most likely win, since they had the opportunity to combo without suffering any interaction. Also, hand traps are an essential feature in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and keeping these cards helps new players learn how to use them, as well as how to play around them.

Another point in favor of hand traps is that, today, most of them have a low price, due to recent reprints. Therefore, I believe it would be interesting to keep at least the “budget” hand traps out of your local banlist.

So, my suggested banlist for Heart of the Underdog would currently be the current Advanced format banlist, with the addition of the current tier 1 and tier 2 decks.

>Forbidden and Limited List of February 13, 2023;

>Tier 1 decks: Kashtira, Spright, Naturia Runick, Labrynth, Branded Despia;

>Tier 2 decks: Mathmech, Swordsoul.

An event that follows the banlist proposed above would then have rogues from the current Advanced format of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG! However, if the organizer wants an even more casual tournament, just create a list with the main rogues that attend their events, so that players only use the decks below the rogue, better known as “casual decks”!

But what do you think of Heart of the Underdog? Tell here in the comments.

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