For fans of Konami’s magical, monster-duelling card game, the Yugioh TCG release schedule is a calendar to plan the gaming year, keeping an eye on all the new Yugioh sets coming out throughout the whole 12 months. We’ll keep this guide updated with all upcoming release dates and windows, as well as the key information on each release.
We check the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG site and trusted trading card games industry sources like ICV2 to make sure this list is up to date with the most accurate details, including the card rarity breakdown for each set. We’ll bring all the information together and make it easier for you to find what you need, as well as adding any extra insights we can dig up.
To make sure you’re up to speed with the latest YGO wisdom (in the clearest, most readable form) make sure you also bookmark our guides to the current Yugioh banlist, the best Yugioh decks, and the most expensive Yugioh cards on the market.
Here’s the Yugioh TCG 2024 release schedule:
For the record: we’re focusing here on North American retail releases – the Japanese TCG has its own timetable, and there are tournament-specific items that won’t come to stores, but this guide aims to help you plan your new TCG purchases, so those aren’t included.
Maze of Millennia
2024’s first full booster set, Maze of Millennia, will be released on January 19.
| Card type | Number included |
| Total new cards | 85 |
| Quarter-Century Secret Rare cards | 1 |
| Collector’s Rare variant cards | 16 |
| Ultra Rare cards | 11 |
| Super Rare cards | 16 |
| Rare cards | 57 |
Konami’s debut Yugioh set of the year promises two big selling points: a bunch of “long-thought-lost cards seen in the TV series”, and powerful tournament staples that’ll start to shape the new year’s competitive meta.
We can expect a lot of fire-themed stuff to be going on with this set, too – Konami’s ‘hero’ card to chase is Bonfire, a Spell Card that pulls your choice of Level 4 or lower Pyro-type monster from your Deck to your hand.
And Konami promises lots of deck-building synergies with the best cards and archetypes from its 2023 25th Anniversary Tin: Dueling Heroes, too.
Yugioh 2-player Starter Set
The new Yugioh TCG 2-player Starter set is coming out on January 26, 2024.
| Contents |
| 2 x 40-card Main Decks |
| 2 x 4-card Extra Decks |
| 1 x 64-page teaching comic book to help you learn the game |
We’ve been waiting a little while to see a really good, updated starter set for the main-line Yugioh TCG, and Konami’s finally delivering one at the end of January.
The box contains a couple of 44-card decks and a 64-page comic book which, according to Konami, teaches you the game by “walk[ing] you through a scripted (non-randomized) Duel to teach Yu‑Gi‑Oh! TCG basics from the beginning”. Your 4-card Extra Deck adds in Synchro and Xyz Monster cards, to layer in the game’s more complex mechanics as you go.
As you’d expect, the starter decks are fully functional (if not super-competitive) decks you can take forward into wider games, or use as a base to build a Yugioh deck of your own; the 88 cards in the box include 80 Commons and 8 Ultra Rares.
Phantom Nightmare
The second Yugioh booster set of 2024, Phantom Nightmare, will be released on February 9.
| Card type | Number included |
| Total new cards | 100 |
| Cards only available as a Quarter-Century Secret Rare | 1 |
| Cards with a Quarter-Century Secret Rare variant | 24 |
| Secret Rare cards | 16 |
| Ultra Rare cards | 14 |
| Super Rare cards | 26 |
| Common cards | 50 |
Less than two weeks after Maze of Millennia, the second booster set of 2024 will arrive, with (surprise, surprise) the theme of dreams and nightmares.
Konami’s big draw for this one is the return of Yugioh character Yubel, a complicated but undeniably fearsome nightmare dragon who was the Big Bad of the Dimension World arc in the Yugioh GX anime series.
Konami says Yubel is returning in “original 3 forms” – meaning we’ll see new cards for:
- Yubel
- Yubel, Terror Incarnate
- Yubel, The Ultimate Nightmare
But there’s also a “new Continuous Trap Card that lets you Fusion Summon a new ‘Yubel’ Fusion Monster using your opponent’s monsters as Fusion Material”.
Beyond that, expect the return of the Majespecter Pendulum Monster cards, and a Ritual focused theme “that can summon some old favorites directly from your deck”.
Battles of Legend: Chapter 1
2024’s first standalone boxed set, Battles of Legend: Chapter 1, will be released on February 23.
| Card type | Number included |
| Total cards | 37 |
| Secret Rare cards | 1 |
| Ultra Rare cards ( in different name colors) | 6 |
| Common cards | 30 |
| Collectible dice | 1 of a range of 6 |
The BoL: Chapter 1 box contains reprints of a bunch of popular cards from four previous Battles of Legend boxes “plus related cards from other past releases”, according to Konami – and the usual collectible dice, too.
The biggest cards revealed to be included are:
- Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord
- Chaos Emperor, the Dragon of Armageddon
- Number 39: Utopia (astral-language version)
Legendary Decks II
Konami will re-release the Legendary Decks II exclusive set on March 15.
Legendary Decks II is a collector’s set containing three precon decks, first released to stores eight years ago in 2016. According to ICV2, the box is coming back onto the market in March for collectors to snap up.
The three included decks are:
- A 40-card deck built on Yugi’s Exodia the Forbidden One, Dark Magician, and three tournament-legal Egyptian God cards.
- A 43-card deck built on Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon
- A 43-card deck built on Joey’s Red-Eyes Black Dragon
Even casual Yugioh players from back in the day will recognise those classic cards – but we’ll have to wait and see what price this re-released box set arrives at.
Speed Duel GX: Midterm Destruction
The first Speed Duel release of 2024, Speed Duel GX: Midterm Destruction, will be released on March 29.
| Card type | Number included |
| Total cards | 116 |
| Secret Rare cards | 4 of a range of 20 |
| Common cards | 100 |
| Skill cards | 12 |
| 2-player Jaden & Sartorius game mat | 1 |
The quick-fire Yugioh Speed Duel format started out via Konami’s ‘Duel Terminal’ arcade machines, but made the leap to printed TCG sets in 2019 has accelerated with a bunch of releases since.
Since 2022, the main Speed Duel sets have been based on the Yugioh GX anime series – and Midterm Destruction will be the fourth such set – following the Duel Academy Box in March 2022; Midterm Paradox in October 2022; and Duelists of Shadows in March 2023.
The Midterm Destruction mini-box contains four complete Speed Duel decks, led by the anime characters Jaden, Tyranno, Jim, and mysterious new antagonist Sartorius.
Stainless Steel Egyptian God Cards
Konami says its premium collector’s set of Stainless Steel Egyptian God Cards will arrive at some point during 2024.
This eye-wateringly expensive, framed $400 collector’s item is emphatically not for every Yugioh fan – but if you’ve been playing since the old days, it might be the perfect decor for your game room.
The set includes the three original Egyptian God Cards, “made from stainless steel and polished to a brilliant gleam and enclosed in a protective acrylic display”:
- The God of Obelisk
- Saint Dragon – The God of Osiris
- The Sun of God Dragon
We don’t yet know exactly when in 2024 Konami will finally release it for sale, but you can pre-order one now from TCGShip.
For more Yu-Gi-Oh! goodness, come with us on a journey through Tokyo’s TCG shops – or, if you prefer to play digitally, you should keep an eye on the Yugioh Master Duel banlist.
This isn’t the only tabletop game we’re tracking future developments on, either – to find out what 2024 has in store for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, bookmark our full, regularly updated guides to the MTG release schedule and the upcoming DnD release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
