>>150950696
>kids just throwing cards on the table
I dislike that you are being reductionist.
Yugi uses the card game as an abstraction for battles. Even at its genesis, things were not just kids playing. There was a layer of dark magic seeping into the game, as seen when Kiba being so obsessed with the visions of his shadow game that builds a machine to recreate it.
And by the time we learn that the game is actually a recreation of egyptian rituals, we are deep in. Not to lention the last arc disregards the card game almost entirely.
Later shows build into this, by playing with the lore and tying it to the card game. Like how in GX it's about the spirits that were contained in said ritual. Or how the signer dragons manifest differently in each era.
You could argue it would be better if they just cut the abstraction of the game, and maybe you would be right, but it certainly wouldn't be as unique or as memorable.
And for the record, Takahashi did borrow elements from Magic when he made the card game arcs for the manga, with some D&D for extra spice.