YU-GI-OH! Speed Duel GX: Duel Academy Box!

Gx was an amazing time for yugioh. This deck let's you relive just that. It's a shame however that they are all non shiny cards. Still definitely worth the £20 I spent for this.

Love all the decks honestly, but again I just hate that speeduel logo on the front of the card it just bugs me

I've never played Speed Duels before this, and while I am a fan of the older variations of Yu-gi-oh like this presents, I just don't think the format is for me as presented with this box. However, I do have some more critical observations as I'll go into below rather than subjective.The initial packaging of this box was okay. Presentable, but nothing too out there. The decks came wrapped in combined packs, so you'll have to separate them yourself rather than them being presented individually... which is where a glaring issue of the box comes in; no dividers for the individual decks. This means you'll have to put them in different card sleeves, alternate the way they face to pull them out if you don't remember which cards to which deck, it's very poorly thought out as a product that's intended to be pulled out and played as is without much investment from the players. The only upside is including four play mats, so you can afford to rip or tear one if you're using the box often.One of the larger issues was the packet of secret rares. While I don't care about the value of cards, having some presented as replacements for ones in the core decks so you'll have random shiny cards is kind of lame, as most of the time you won't have a shiny version of the "boss monster" of each deck. Yes, you could buy one, but that isn't the point. There's also a few random cards included like "Hourglass of Life", which while funny to see printed for the first time so late into the game when remembering it from the PS1 days, is pretty much junk unless you just slide it into one of the decks.The decks are where I have most of the issue with the product. Some are far stronger than others to a laughable degree. Sure, the power cards help to even the field in some cases, but you'd have to be incredibly lucky to have the Alexis Rhodes deck come out over the Axel Brodie deck for example. This doesn't lend itself well to the "party" angle of the box, as whoever gets stuck with one of the weaker decks (after noticing themselves losing a bunch) will inevitably lead to players not wanting to use said decks in favor of the ones with far stronger strategies.Overall it just leaves the product in a middling place for me. It fulfills a function, but it won't get anywhere close to the use something like a draft pack or even structure decks would amongst a small group of players. Could you use this as a draft pack? Not really. Each deck seems to be built around one or two strategies with little room for maneuvering, and short of mixing two random decks together (and having the fun of separating them later unless you've given them different sleeves) you'll just be left with rather unplayable bricks. I'd give this one a "meh" unless you're really attached to the GX era and want to own decks oriented around characters you remember from it.

This product is over priced for what I wanted from this yes it’s great for beginners and it was ok for the cards I needed for my hero deck but now you can go on eBay and buys opened once 3x of the same deck for about £10-£15 pounds soo cheaper is better

So - given the popularity of the game, I was surprised to find how obscure the information on how to get started with the various packs and products was. I had been looking to find some cards that my daughter and I could use to get into the game by way of an introduction - and this (in addition to starter and structure decks) was a contender. Here's what I found out:'Starter decks' are as you would expect, good for trying out the game (though weirdly absent from physical game stores).'Structure Decks' are more advanced versions of starter decks - and probably more suitable for more experienced players, especially those that then want to tinker with the deck itself and build on the archetype.'Speed Duel' is a slightly stripped down game mode (half the amount of life points, 1 less round per turn, half the amount of cards in a deck etc) that plays faster than vanilla YuGiOh - but is essentially the same game (so great to get a feel for the game and how it works).This box has 8 different (20ish) card decks to try out - all quite flavourful - which acts as a great introduction to the specific game mode and by association the larger game itself. It comes with lists of cards for you to construct the decks (they're mostly in the right order, but you have to tweak them a bit), and some spares (presumably to tinker with the decks a bit once you feel confident). There are some instructions - which will just about get you started BUT you will need to watch some videos and dig a bit deeper to make use of all the cards (there's a lot of 'fusion' summon cards - for example - and no real explanation on how to use them). The best way by far, though, to approach this is to download the 'Duel Links' app (which uses the Speed Duel system) and play that for a bit. It has a VERY comprehensive tutorial system with loads of puzzles to crack and explanations as to how the various game mechanics work.So! To summarise: (and what I needed to know prior to buying!) This box, and the (free) Duel Links app/Youtube vids are a fantastic way to get into the game (the instructions included are OK, but very basic). You can even use these cards in the main YuGiOh format if you want to start playing that further down the line (though I'm no expert in how effective they are).

Really good for those who like me are new and getting into yugioh and just want to play with friends. Also I just like collecting the cards they’re all really cool. Plus the 8 secret rares also and some extra cards if you want to fiddle around with the base decks.

Good quality and my son love playing it for a long time. He brings to school at an after-school club which makes him very happy.

Awesome