KDR is a custom Yu-Gi-Oh! format designed in such a way to turn the game into a roguelike deckbuilder, similar to Slay the Spire, or more closely resembling Hearthstone’s Duels mode. This means that as you play KDR, your deck, skills, and strategies grow- along with your competition’s- with a strong emphasis on decision making outside the duel, such as deckbuilding, shopping for cards, and choosing specific Skills to power up your strategy. Let’s elaborate on some of the systems and decisions made in KDR that make this special format worth your time and attention
Classes, and by extension, Skills, are what make up half of the major gameplay in KDR. When you begin playing a KDR tournament, you’ll be presented with a couple Classes options to choose from. Classes define your identity, and will be a major theme for the entirety of the run. Considering your Class, the capabilities of the features of the Class, and what they can do in the early, mid, and late game is all an important consideration for before the KDR even begins.
The Unique Skill of a Class is the core theme and playstyle of that Class. The Skill always has a unique name, and the rules of the Skill are written out in Yu-Gi-Oh! PSCT for familiarity's sake. You may use your Unique Skill as many times as it allows.
Your Legendary Monster is often a powerful partner that is an important part of any of your Decks, all the way through to the end game. They’re featured prominently in your character sheet as a full-art graphic, and can all be played at up to 3 copies.
Your Legendary Quest and your Legendary Relic are a specific Quest and an associated Reward for the Quest. When you fully resolve your Legendary Quest, your Relic unlocks. You cannot use your Relic until you complete your Legendary Quest. Your Legendary Quest may have a once per turn clause on it, but all quests are once per duel, unless stated otherwise, and, once you complete your quest, you may not use any effect of the quest, unless stated otherwise.
Each round, you gain 2 EXP, and can add it to your character sheet. At certain total EXP, you gain a Level. Levels are indicated in the “Notes” section of the character sheet. Each Level and after each match you gain a Stat Point, which you can allocate to one of the 5 Stats: STR, CON, DEX, INT, CHA. These three Stats have a different effect when you reach certain subsequent point levels. Any given Stat may only go as high as 12 points.
STR: (Once per turn): Your monsters gain 100 ATK for every two STR you have.
CON: Each point in CON adds 500LP to your starting LP. (Once per turn): If a monster you control would be destroyed by battle, it is not (this is a mandatory effect). You can activate this effect one time per every 3 CON you have.
DEX: (Once per Duel) (Quick Effect): You can draw 1 card. You can activate this effect one time per every 4 DEX you have.
INT: (Once per Duel) (Quick Effect): You can ask your opponent if they have a card in their possession, and if so, how many copies they have in their Deck. You can activate this effect one time per every 2 INT you have.
CHA: Your minimum deck size is reduced by how many points you have invested in this Stat.
After every round, you gain 10 Gold and you get to proceed to the Shop Phase, where you will improve your Deck with Skills, staples, and other important cards. There are a multitude of options to choose from during the Shop Phase.
When you first open your Shop, you’ll have the option to purchase Training. Training is spending 5 Gold for 2 EXP, leveling up faster and gaining Skills/Stats more quickly. Whether you Train or not, your EXP threshold will then be checked. If you’ve leveled up, you get a Skill Point, which means you get to choose from one of three randomly chosen Skills. Once you choose your Skill, you’re then presented with the items the shopkeeper has on display- different loot pools, and Treasures.
Skills are always selected before you can see your loot. They range from powerful, amazing effects that define your run, to other low-key value engines that let you bridge the gap between two archetypes.
Loot pools are an assortment of specific card buckets, which can be purchased to add them to your inventory. There’s generic loot that everyone can access, and class specific loot that directly ties into the theme of your class. The generic loot is themed in useful types of staples or engines that you may want to use to bolster your core strategy. The Gold values are listed on these loot pools, and some individual loot pools may cost more or less, depending on the valuable items within them. You may buy any number of loot pools, provided you have enough Gold!
Different Loot pools unlock at specific EXP thresholds:
Low Quality: Available Immediately
Medium Quality: 8 EXP
High Quality: 18 EXP
Generic: 2 EXP
Removal/Disruption: 8 EXP
Engine: 8 EXP
Treasures are powerful staples, and, unlike the card pools you obtain as loot, Treasures are found only as individual copies and must be shown as such on the Character Sheet. You get a choice of one of 3 Treasures during your Shop Phase.
Selling is also an option available to players if they need Gold. During the Shop Phase you can sell Treasures and generic Skills for 1 Gold each.
After you select your Treasure and your loot, you can proceed to the end of the Shop Phase, which then allows you to Tip, afterwards you gain any applicable Interest.
At the end of each Shop Phase, you can choose to Tip once. Whatever amount you Tip will be saved, and you can continue to Tip at the end of each Shop Phase until you’ve reached a hidden amount of Gold tipped, in which case, you’ll receive a powerful hidden Class Skill.
Some loot pools come with a caveat. Certain cards are far too powerful for KDR, but we still want them anyway. Restrictive Skills come with a line of text: “This Skill cannot leave your inventory.”. Along with text that typically nerfs or restricts certain aspects of an individual card or whole archetypes. They should be put in the separate section of the Character Sheet if acquired.
Skills that are "stackable" can be obtained infinitely, and each "stack" of that Skill gives you an extra bonus, whether that's an extra card drawn, or if it's the ability to use it more than Once per Duel.
Interest is calculated at the end of the round. If you have any leftover Gold, you can save it and gain Interest on it. For every 4 Gold you have saved, you’ll gain 1 Gold at the end of the round.
After a certain number of match losses in a row, you gain additional Gold at the start of your Shop Phase.
KDR is intended to be a long, powerful duel between two powerful Classes, however, 8000 LP, especially in the later rounds becomes just a little too weak to prevent consistent OTKs. So, at the start of each round (including round 1), your starting LP increases by 500. You can choose not to gain from this bonus at the start of the duel, but must declare you are doing so. If both players forget and add it later, that is fine. If an entire duel is played without the bonus and, after the fact, that extra LP would affect the outcome, the duel is not restarted.
Basically, most of this page is explaining the rules of the “tabletop”. Most of them are about the Shop Phase, which is almost entirely handled by our custom-made bot, Hugin. If you’re concerned about the learning curve, just jump right in! Our KDR Admins and the other long-time players are happy to help! Ask the questions you need, and don’t be afraid to just give it a try.
KDR is ran using our custom made bot, Hugin. Hugin has a variety of commands you'll need to use in order to participate. Here's a list of every important command:
/join (iid) -Join a specific KDR!
/pickclass (iid) - Select your class once you’ve joined a KDR
/setclasssheet (iid) (sheeturl) - Set your class sheet’s URL (this URL must be a google sheets link!)
/inventory (iid) - Opens your inventory for a KDR
/bracket (iid) - Get the current bracket for the KDR
/getcurrentmatch (iid) - Get the necessary info about your current KDR match
/reportresults (iid) (self_wins) (opp_wins) - Report the results of your last KDR match
/shop (iid) - Start your shop phase for a KDR
/data - Get your KDR player data
/leavekdr (iid) - Leave an active KDR and forfeit your matches
/newkdr (player # amount) (isprivate) - open a public or private KDR
/nextround (iid) - When a round has finished, proceed to the next round
/tutorial - Links you these resources