YCS Houston is the next Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in North America. Here is what Konami has confirmed, what you need to have done before you arrive, and the decks you’re likely to face in Advanced.
Dates and venue
- Dates: Friday, October 16 to Sunday, October 18, 2026
- Venue: Konami’s event page lists NRG Park, 1 Fannin St, Houston, TX 77054. The Main Event FAQ gives the hall as Reliant Center, Hall C, 8600 Kirby Drive.
- Capacity: up to 2,500 Duelists in total. Konami urges everyone to pre-register online. If the hall fills up, nobody else is let in until space opens up.
- Nearest airports: William P. Hobby (HOU) and George Bush Intercontinental (IAH).
Konami has a special room rate at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Houston Medical Center/NRG Park. The booking link is on the event page, and rooms are limited.
Two main events: Genesys and Advanced
There are two main events, each with its own Day 1, and both finish on Sunday.
| Genesys | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory check-in | Thu, Oct 15, 12:00-6:00 PM CT | Fri, Oct 16, 12:00-6:00 PM CT |
| Deck list due | Thu, Oct 15, 2:00 PM CT | Fri, Oct 16, 2:00 PM CT |
| Day 1 | Fri, Oct 16, 10:00 AM CT | Sat, Oct 17, 10:00 AM CT |
| Day 2 | Sun, Oct 18, 9:00 AM CT | Sun, Oct 18, 9:00 AM CT |
If you’re playing both, you can check in for Advanced during the Thursday Genesys check-in. Your Advanced deck list has to be submitted before you can check in, but you can keep changing it until the Friday 2:00 PM CT deadline.
If you make Day 2 in both events, you have to pick one once standings go up at the end of Saturday.
Entry to each main event is $25.00 USD, which gets you five booster packs, and you pay online at registration.yugioh-card.com. You pick up the packs when you check in.
Deck lists: no paper
This is the rule most likely to cost someone their seat. Konami will not accept physical deck lists at this YCS.
- Genesys: submit your list in the Yu-Gi-Oh! NEURON app. The event shows up under Confirm/Manage My Tournaments on NEURON’s Events tab 24 to 48 hours after you register. If it hasn’t appeared after 48 hours, email Konami’s registration team with your full name and CARD GAME ID.
- Advanced: submit your list through the online registration system, the same site you registered on.
You can resubmit either list as many times as you like before its deadline. If you miss the deadline, you lose your seat. Your entry is refunded after the event.
Don’t no-show
Can’t make it? Contact the registration team at us-ygo-registration@kde-us.com before the event. Konami says that anyone who registers, doesn’t attend and doesn’t get in touch will be blocked from registering online for future YCS and WCQ events.
If travel means you’ll miss the check-in window, email that same address by 11:00 AM CT on your check-in day to arrange alternate check-in. Alternate check-in runs 8:00-9:30 AM CT on the morning of your Day 1.
Format rules
Advanced uses the current Forbidden & Limited List, effective September 21, 2026. Among other changes, that list Forbids Protectcode Talker and Psy-Framelord Omega, Limits Elfnote Tinia and Prohibited Power Patron Portal - Terminus, and makes Mind Master and Elder Entity Norden Unlimited. Both have been legal since September 28. If you haven’t checked your deck against it, read our ban list explainer.
Beyond the Brave came out on October 9, so it’s legal. Magnificent Maestros doesn’t come out until November 13, so it isn’t.
Genesys uses a points system instead of the Forbidden & Limited List:
- No Link Monsters or Pendulum Monsters. You play on the original field layout, with no Extra Monster Zones and no Pendulum Zones.
- The deck cap is 100 points across your Main, Extra and Side Deck combined. Most cards cost zero.
- You can still run only 3 copies of a card.
Konami changed a lot of Genesys point values in early October, so check your list against the current points on Konami’s Genesys page before you submit it.
How many rounds
The number of Swiss rounds depends on how many players each main event gets. It ranges from 11 rounds for 129-256 players to 15 rounds for 2,049 or more, followed by a Top 8 cut. Konami won’t schedule meal breaks because food is sold in the hall, so plan around that.
Side events and coverage
Konami lists public events for both formats all weekend, including Win-A-Mat and Attack of the Giant Card!!, along with Regional Qualifiers and Dragon Duel tournaments for players born in 2013 or later. Feature matches and the Top Cut will stream on the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Twitch and YouTube channels.
What to expect in Advanced
The current list has only had a few weeks of results, and Beyond the Brave has been legal for one weekend. So read this as a rough guide, not a tier list.
Elfnote is the deck to prepare for. It won YCS Guayaquil in early October, the only YCS played on the current list so far, and took four of that event’s Top 8 spots. It won more regionals than any other deck in the weeks that followed. Elfnote is a Synchro deck built around your center Main Monster Zone. Elfnote Lucina summons itself to the center and searches, and Elfnote Power Patron can Synchro Summon during either player’s Main Phase. The deck has kept winning since Tinia went to one copy. Since Beyond the Brave, players have started adding Ars Magna “Citrinitas”, which counts as an Elfnote card and searches for Medius and Ars Magna monsters. Elfnote lists with Ars Magna cards won two small regionals on the first weekend.
The Light and Darkness Ritual pile is the other big deck. These builds Ritual Summon Magician of Dark Chaos - Black Chaos with Light and Darkness Ritual and mix in Azamina, Dark Magician and Mitsurugi cards. They’re often 60-card decks built to grind. One of them finished second at Guayaquil and took three Top 8 spots there. Before Beyond the Brave, it made more regional Top 8s than any other deck.
Below those two, decks that have won regionals on this list include Yummy hybrids, Blitzclique, Invoked, and Artmage/Power Patron, which also gained Ars Magna cards. Angelechy, a Spell- and Trap-heavy Synchro deck built around Angelechy Problem, won a regional on the first Beyond the Brave weekend and put several more lists into Top 8s. Watch whether it holds up at an event this size.
Expect most Main Decks to be stuffed with hand traps. The top lists commonly run Mulcharmy Fuwalos, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit and Droll & Lock Bird.
We’ll update this page with results after the weekend.