I still insist that the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (not the anime) was pretty great. Pretty original and dark story, cool characters, very cool duels and not only with cards.

But it's OBVIOUS that the card game was never designed to be an actual card game. It's wonky as fuck Takahashi just took a vague MTG basis and made it very simple and with blurry rules, because he didn't know it would have so much success and Konami money shower.

It IS a fucking miracle indeed, that they managed to create a (very flawed but) actual game out of the clusterfuck that Takahashi created, because he didn't give a shit about logic and consistency. Monsters in Yu-Gi-OH are pretty much jojo stands, with tons of hidden abilities that are only unlocked when the appropriate time comes.

I SUMMON THE SUMMONED SKULL IN DEFENSE MODE!!