Lurker > kateee

thematically perfect though and it is still a 2800 ATK that could force your opponent to spend resources to out it if they couldn't and you at least never had to worry about your resources you spent to summon it going to waste like when you tributed for a Blue-Eyes and then it got fissured or trap holed immediately; you were always going to get value out of it

damn it's cool

curses foiled by duel links again!

SLIFER the SKYyyyyyyyyyy DRAGONNN

could at times have like 1000 atk so yeh i always thought it seemed the worst of the three but it was something nobody in the show actually acknowledged like when they talk about other rare and valuable cards like Red-Eyes but never mention that trying to splash a measly 2400 ATK monster which requires two tributes in your deck is not the best idea

Sorozone posted...

I love CED!

My one story is that I bought 2 packs one for my brother and one for me. My brother got a Dark Magician of chaos (1st edition) I was gutted because I was being nice, but I wanted that card, but then I pulled a CED.

insaneeeeee

wow i was so far off with the rest of my predictions lmao. have actually never even heard of any of them besides CED, Red-Eyes and White Night

i have no real attachment to CED myself since i was not into the game at the time (and Yata was the one that interested me more in terms of design when I found out about the combo later) but it's always interesting to hear people talk about their absolute favorites like that

really varied mix of the cute and FIERCE dragons overall and i had some cool new finds whoo

i think strictly for characters Yugi (or rather, Yami/Pharaoh) still takes it

HEART OF THE CARDS

also that hair

#6: Blue-Eyes White Dragon
First TCG release: Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (2002-03-08)



You knew this was coming Pete.

Unquestionably the most well-known and popular monster in the game. Im sure everything I could say has already been said. I think a big part of the appeal for me anyway (in addition to being the strongest monster) was that there were only four of them in the world and one guy had three of them. Its a giant dragon with a lightning attack, 3000 fucking attack. And then they combine to make a three-headed version of itself? The cool factor just never stops. I think its a little interesting that the most popular monster of all time ended up being the signature monster of not the protagonist but the rich asshole whose introduction in the series was severely injuring an old man by playing a card game to take his super rare card with the sole purpose of destroying it.

I DID in fact have three Blue-Eyes but it was never all at once. I believe I had two starter decks at one point and got another of the cards in a trade but I had either lost it or had someone steal one of them which meant my dream of being like Kaiba was never fulfilled.

So an interesting discussion thats always been relevant is the different editions and which is THE definitive Blue-Eyes. Im basically repeating whats been said in other videos but as far as collectors interests go, there are the three main editions which have had their values shoot up over time (around $5000 to $20,000 depending on variables like being graded and editions): the version that was in the first booster set as an Ultra Rare (LOB), the version from the starter deck (SDK) and the promotion version from the Dark Duel Stories videogame (DDS). The LOB, SDK and DDS. In most cases, the version from the booster pack would just be the most valuable and sought out after because its the true rare version. Every kid had the SDK and DDS was similarly guaranteed. LOB was not. You could buy an entire box of packs and not get one. But theres something that does hold the LOB one back and its that it has different artwork. If the market value of these old cards is primarily driven by the nostalgia of now-adults who were kids who grew up watching the show and playing the game, how can it be that the definitive version of a card is one that not a lot of kids had? And more importantly for the casual nostalgic crowd, its not the same art that was so prominently featured in the anime (same with Dark Magician). So you have one version that was truly rare but does not feature the same art that everyone is nostalgic for (LOB) or you have the art but not the rarity (SDK). The DDS is a separate case where it does have the iconic art but its a different rarity and doesnt have quite the same nostalgic pull in addition to the aforementioned rarity issue (also theres no 1st edition like the other two). So yeah I think its pretty fascinating case. Ive always been partial to the LOB edition because of the rarity AND the art actually; when I first saw it as a kid, the different art made it stand out and if I could have one first edition of it to have, I would choose the LOB personally.

Question: Which version of Blue-Eyes is your favorite?

#7: Harpie Channeler
First TCG release: Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy (2013-05-17)



If you knew how Harpies played, this would have been an obvious choice to see coming. It is the star of your deck and starts all your combos. I remember the first time I started it looked like another one of those tldr cards because of the length of the text but once I played around with it, it was pretty straightforward: Simply discard one Harpie card (this also includes Hunting Ground) to Summon any other Harpie monster from deck. Because the text doesnt say Harpie Lady specifically you can get basically any of your other monsters on the field and play according to the game state at the time. The versatility this offers makes this card so valuable to open with or have at any time because you can play around and having a lot of options is just fun. Ive used this to go into Dracossack first turn so many times that Ive lost count and you definitely gain an attachment to a card when its such a valuable part of the deck you play.

#8: Toon World
First TCG release: Magic Ruler (2002-09-16)



Ok so obviously in the Duelist Kingdom era, if you knew anything about the actual rules of how the game is played youll notice a lot of bullshit moments and its not like the bullshit stopped after but Duelist Kingdom had some of the craziest shit ever like how monster types would actually matter all of a sudden or dozens of made up monster effects that you dont have to reveal to your opponent. And to be fair, this was all before any official rules like tributing, direct attacks, etc. came up in the anime but Catapult Turtle, Pumpking, Labyrinth Wall & Shadow Ghoul, the Dark Magician becoming Dark Sage, my favorite Mammoth Graveyard + Living Arrow fusion to rot Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon from the inside, etc. Despite all this I dont actually think I thought of any of that as bullshit when I watched it. Like I knew that wasnt how the game worked because I read the rulebook and they were playing with different life points after all but it was all just hype in the moment stuff.

But when Toon World and the effects of Toon monsters came up I thought wait thats actually bullshit (in kid words). The monsters just could cartoon dodge out of everything and this was all never seen before stuff because this is the guy who CREATED THE GAME. Like what an insane flex of power (also cheating with the Millennium Eye). So this card immediately went to legendary status. Looking some dates up now and the first appearance of Toon World (Kaiba vs. Pegasus) first aired on May 2002 with the Yugi vs. Pegasus episodes airing around September. Now if youll notice, Magic Ruler also was released in September 2002 which meant that there was the glorious overlap period where you could see cards like Slot Machine and Toon World coming out for real at the same time you were seeing them on the show. Well none of that applied to me because I distinctly remember the packs I got were not 1st edition (or maybe Im remembering that too; memories arent entirely reliable after all). But when I finally got my hands on some Magic Ruler, guess what I pulled. Fucking GRIGGLE!

Okay but it was obviously Toon World. And the amount of fucking POWER I was feeling. I honestly couldnt say whether I felt better pulling this or the Base Set Charizard two years before. Im actually leaning towards this because of the context described above and when I was younger because I was a hardcore Blastoise kid and the excitement from Charizard was more that I knew it was the best card rather than an actual attachment to the Pokemon and also Pokemon was more of a game thing anyway. Anyway the Charizard got stolen at church a few days later after I was showing it off and I think I would have been significantly more destroyed had I liked it so much more.

So there I was showing off my Toon World at school and Im getting offers for trades all over the place and Im shutting them down right and left. Pew pew pew. You must be fucking crazy to think Im trading this for anything.

But then Pedro offers me a pencil box full of cards and begs for me to take the trade. And for some reason here I was actually considering it! I actually told him I would have to think about it because this was the most significant decision of my life up to that point in my life.

So yeha I eventually traded it away for that box. And Im starting to think thats where it all went wrong. I dont even remember like five cards I got in that deal. Stupid kid.

maaan fuck thieves

Emeraldegg posted...

8: Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon

this is an amazing find for me that i will definitely be adding to my collection

all right i got to say that's a terrible localization naming choice. it's not even Starry-Night Starry Dragon it's literally "Starry Night, Starry Dragon"

that's not a fucking name it's some nursery rhyme shit

and i'm disappointed that it's no longer pink

#9: Jinzo
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



Oh look its that certain other Pharaohs Servant card that was mentioned before. One of two Secret Rares in the set alongside Imperial Order, Jinzo was the other half of the NO duo that marked the first time that both of the incredibly rare wellSecret Rares were legitimately insane cards. Being a one tribute boss monster that did not have to worry about the likes of Trap Hole or Mirror Force changed the game seeing as how previously any of your big monsters that you invested resources into summoning could be simply removed if a Trap Hole was set or they could come along at any time with a Fissure or something. Alsoit was searchable with Witch of the Black Forest lol.

Not only was Jinzo competitively important but it had a decent amount of anime screentime as well from being one of the main monsters in the virtual world filler saga to being one of Joeys premiere cards that he won in Battle City, utilizing it several times (compared to Insect Queen and Legendary Fisherman who he only used once) to the point of it becoming a Joey card in my eyes. And this is a major point: it was probably one of Joeys only legitimately good cards. Seeing as his strategy most of the time boiled down to Graceful/Skull Dice and Time Wizard, it was such a cool development to see him with an actual good card.

siiick

although one potentially goofy thing i just noticed is that it looks like he's knowingly squeezing his whole body + wings into the frame of the card instead of spreading them out lmao

oh wait it's not OG Blue Eyes/Red Eyes hmm

that does make me rethink some of the choices in the OG crowd if it indicates the expected nostalgia factor won't be hitting as hard since iirc all the Red-Eyes cards were more "new" although for Blue-Eyes i could easily see it being either Ultimate or Toon

#10: Beast of Talwar
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



Im wondering if anyone else here remembers this card. Had no anime presence outside of one second of being seen in Kaibas suitcase and came out in the same set as a certain other effect monster that overshadowed it completely despite them both being 2400 ATK level 6s. Theres this group of monsters that came as foils in the sets but had next to no screentime in the anime so while theres probably some nostalgia factor for the kids who managed to pull them in their packs they dont have nearly the same appeal as the anime favorites. I would include Beast of Talwar in this grouping along with the likes of Tri-Horned Dragon, Serpent Night Dragon, Garnecia Elefantis, and Luster Dragon.

Anyway theres a pretty big reason this card is in my top 10 and thats because its the card I won in that bet duel involving Scapegoat. It was his recent pull in Pharaohs Servant and what can I say, it looked badass and it was an early enough time where you could fool yourself into thinking Defense mattered (this card has the highest combined ATK & DEF of any Lv.6 or lower vanilla). Did I ever use it in a deck? I honestly dont think so. But it calls out to my edgy side. Yeaaaaaaaa boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

alll right i'm caught up and here are my wild predix. although up to now the most determining factor seems(?) to be duel links related which i know nothing about. the rankings being determined by a combination of the three categories throws me off a bit because that makes me think the top 10 all have like 1 or 2 point difference in their final scores around the 20 point mark because most of the ones with old school appeal/possible attachment are not scoring highly on usability and vice-versa.

predix:
L&D - i'm going with this as my #1 predix because of the combined score factor since it was a widely-used card but is also old enough that it might gain some points in the other areas. also because CED was already predicted and i don't want to have the same answer lol

Black Skull - this would have probably been my #1 predix if i didn't think the usability would hurt its overall score. and the other four choices listed below would have been too safe. it was THE og badass fusion.

Blue-Eyes & co.
Red-Eyes & co.
Slifer, Ra

Cyber Dragon & co.
DAD, CED

these would have scored very high in the usability category and they're all old enough to have nostalgia attached to them though not as much as the real OG ones. i wouldn't be surprised if one of these ended up being #1 though either

these were my "dark horse" picks that did come to mind. i'll be pretty amused if the rest of the picks land more on this side than my actual predictions:
Black Rose
Baby Dragon, Thousand Dragon
Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1
Luster Dragon
Crawling Dragon
Dragon Dwelling in the Cave
Harpie's Pet
...Dragon Zombie?

Emeraldegg posted...

12: Seiyaryu

i almost put this card on my list too. it just seemed so different than other dragons and the pink coloring drew me to it as well. also i don't think i knew it was from a game promo so when i saw it for the first time i just thought it was a super rare card which made me want it even more.

Emeraldegg posted...

24: World Chalice Guardragon

i will be buying up all of these

i am the hoarder of life

another great flavor text in context with the rest of the card. nice 1100 atk there buddy



i forgot about this one in my honorable mentions. and it's more that the card exists rather than me liking the card a lot

okay i sort of remember that when Patrician of Darkness came out, kids were saying that because of how its effect was worded you could choose to retarget attacks to your opponents' own monsters?

which made it broken in playground format but i was on my way out so i don't have a lot of memories of it

The flavor text for Jerry makes it that much better which makes me a bit sad about effect monsters not getting any

Johnbobb posted...

Celtic Guardian and Mystical Elf need a WandaVision-esque spinoff show

i ship it

also those first 4 definitely came after I stopped following Yu-Gi-Oh, what the fuck were they on to come up with those

AMAZING

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Did Neo ever get specific support, even if it was just throwaway fanservice? He had such awesome art (and a cool name - The Matrix was in its heyday back then) that I think it would have been plenty warranted.

unfortunately not from looking it up in the wiki. the only thing even mentioned is this card:



who came out 10 years later...

and that's it for my honorable mentions. top 10 time baybeeeeeeeee

going to be posting some honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut or just cards i want to share before the top 10. enjoy the coming pic barrage

yeah i think if you actually go back and look at the set in LOB and SDY/SDK it's unbelievable how bad most of the set was, LOB even more so. There were literally three trap cards in the whole set of 126 and the vast majority of them were vanilla monsters and the strongest card was Skull Red Bird with 1550 ATK.

#11: Black Rose Dragon
First TCG release: Crossroads of Chaos (2008-11-18)



Despite being a card I have no personal history with nor any amount of time spent watching the anime that its featured in, Black Rose still makes it this high up because the first time I saw it and read its effect I was very much captivated. Its concept and aesthetic of destructive beauty is exactly the type of things Im a sucker for. The petals just floating down in its art are just the icing on top although Ill admit the actual dragon can look a bit goofy depending on my mood. But I can see it having the potential to climb in my rankings after I familiarize myself even more with it.

And I guess Ill complain about this here but one of its counterparts got the worst name change when it came to the TCG from Blood Rose Dragon to:

#12: Summoned Skull
First TCG release: Starter Deck Yugi (2002-03-29); Metal Raiders (2002-06-26) + Promos



Actually had this at #11 but after typing up the other entry, realized there was no way this was ahead of that. But Summoned Skull is obviously iconic in its own right. The beat-down king. Put Dark Magician and all those other weaker two tribute monsters to shame. And with its partner Witch of the Black Forest as previously mentioned, it was running things for a while. Because it was a starter deck card, like all the kids had it too.

pus sacs

#13: Harpie Lady
First TCG release: Metal Raiders (2002-06-26)



Despite being my favorite archetype now, I wasnt as big on this card during the Duel Monsters era and it was only through playing again in 2013 that I grew to like this card a lot more by association. Primary reason being that in the anime, Harpies (or rather Mai) never reallydid anything but lose onscreen. She loses against Joey in Duelist Kingdom, loses all her star chips against Panik, loses against Tea (who has a 100% win rate), loses against Yugi in the semis, goes to Battle City, loses against Marik in the top 8 and then gets shadow realmed for the rest of the arc and I think vanishes or gets brain controlled for the rest of the original series? Come on, give her a break!

#14: Insect Queen
First TCG release: Collectible Tins 2004 (2004-09-01)



Going hand in hand with the grossness of Parasite Paracide, this card left a pretty big impression on me for being gross in all the right ways. Its a GIGANTIC bug that feeds on other monsters and lays eggs adding to its NEAR-LIMITLESS POWER. The card is actually pretty because it requires so much investment for minimal payoff but Id still love to play a deck around it one day. I think its pretty wild that for a pretty iconic card that it took so long for it to get an official release. And its a Joey card (kind of) too. Probably the best moment for it though was when Joey actually got to summon it along with the other cards he won in the Battle City tournament instead of it fucking off forever never to be seen again. That display of character growth!

#15: Monster Reborn
First TCG release: Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (2002-03-08)



This is (unless Im forgetting something) the only card where I prefer the TCG artwork (not counting Parasite Paracide which is like a half-prefer). It looks way more colorful and vibrant and the foil versions of this card are gorgeous. I actually remember this as the best way to actually summon big monsters (aka Blue-Eyes) to the field after discarding them to the grave.

But uhwhat is the art actually supposed to be? I always thought of it as a cross-lite emblem or pendant with a red jewel but like theres that thing that kind of looks like a face. Intriguing stuff.

htaeD posted...

Oh that was just her monster having an effect to recycle spells

rip the dream

CaptainOfCrush posted...

This guy's deck looks incredibly strong (Harpies now have a formidable Synchro monster that can use ANY Harpie as a Tuner - COME ON), so imagine my disappointment when I subsequently looked into tier lists and saw that Harpies aren't even close to being viable competitively. If cards this powerful are considered crap, today's meta just can't be fun. =/

yeah they have a crazy card in Harpie's Feather Storm now but as i understand it, it's not enough to be comparable to the consistency actual top tier decks offer

Raka_Putra posted...

Unintended pun? Nice.

it was actually a typo that i noticed as i was about to post but decided to leave in because it was funny. i must have birds on the brain

well we're almost done so i'll do a recap so far. i did end up moving some stuff around.

16. Harpie's Brother (PSV)
17. Hysteric Party (SD8)
18. Marshmallon (PP01)
19. Pot of Greed (LOB)
20. Imperial Order (PSV)
21. Dark Hole (LOB)
22. Kuriboh (MRD)
23. Nopenguin (PRIO)
24. Honest (LODT)
25. Judgment Dragon (LODT)
26. Graceful Charity (SDP)
27. Yata-Garasu (LOD)
28. Parasite Paracide (PSV)
29. Lightning Chidori (CBLZ)
30. Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind (CRMS)
31. Solemn Judgment (MRD)
32. Serpent Night Dragon (MRL)
33. El Shaddoll Construct (DUEA)
34. Scapegoat (SDJ)
35. Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (HA04)
36. Call of the Haunted (PSV)
37. Card Destruction (SDY)
38. Spirit Reaper (PGD)
39. Harpie Dancer (LCJW)
40. Witch of the Black Forest (MRD)
41. Bottomless Trap Hole (LOD)
42. Tribute to the Doomed (MRD)
43. Ice Beast Zerofyne (LTGY)
44. Graverobber (PSV)
45. Solemn Wishes (PSV)
46. Bujinki Amaterasu (PRIO)
47. Tour Guide From the Underworld (EXVC)
48. Harpie's Feather Duster (SDD)
49. Saffira, Queen of Dragons (DUEA)
50. Dark Elf (MRD)
51. Neo-Spacian Grand Mole (STON)
52. Griggle (MRL)

as you could probably guess there's some obvious ones that haven't shown up yet. i'm actually willing to give out some sort of prize (possibly US only?) to whoever can correctly guess the most out of my top 10 if people want to play that prediction game. i think realistically a 6/10 would be the highest score that could happen, would be quite impressed with a 7, shocked with a 8 or 9. 10/10 would be impossible unless you are Pegasus

#16: Harpies Brother (Sky Scout)
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



Back in the early days when 1800 ATK meant everything as a vanilla monster. La Jinn and 7 Colored Fish ran the game and if you didnt have them you were running monsters like Battle Ox and Neo the Magic Swordsman as compensation with their measly 1700 ATK. Everybody knew 1800 was the magic number. The 1800 ATK mindset was what I was focused on for so long. When Magic Ruler came out and the strongest level 4 was Dark Zebra who also came with a subpar effect, I was pretty disappointed that I didnt have another monster I could add to my deck alongside La Jinn. I actually dont remember if I even had a 7 Colored Fish but I do remember thinking man this card has the 1800 but it looks pretty lame.

And then came Pharaohs Servant and Harpies Brother hit all the right spots with being a cool-ass winged beast monster, being related to the Harpies (later rectified with a name change) and most importantly, had fucking 1800 ATK. It was exactly the kind of card I had been waiting for. The search was over.

It wouldnt be too long however until monsters like Gemini Elf with its fancy 1900 ATK changed the game and eventually became more common (actually Mechanicalchaser came before that with an absolutely insane 1850 ATK but it was so rare that it wasnt a factor for anyone I was playing with). Wah wah wah

#17: Hysteric Party
First TCG release: Structure Deck: Lord of the Storm (2006-07-12)



This was actually kind of meh early on at its release. Because you could only have three copies of Harpie Lady and Harpie Lady 1, 2, 3 and Cyber Harpie Lady all counted towards that same limit, it meant that you could only have a maximum of three targets AND they all had to be in the grave. Hardly worth playing a core of. Even when Harpie Queen came a year or so later to bump up the potential targets to 6, it wouldnt have provided a consistent enough reason to play a core of Harpie Ladies. But fast forward a few years to 2013 when theres more Harpie Lady targets and you can fill up the grave more quickly AND XYZ summoning is now a thing, suddenly Hysteric Party becomes an absolutely insane game-winning card upon resolution a lot of the time. It really did become a party since you could summon almost any combination of monsters you wanted from the ensuing swarm. You could get multiple Lightning Chidoris to bounce all the cards your opponent had, get an Ice Beast Zerofyne to become absolutely huge, Queen Dragon Djinn if you wanted to go into your Rank 7s if your Pet Dragon was already in the grave, etc. or you could just go old school beatdown and attack with a bunch of monsters in one turn (possibly being boosted by Hunting Ground AND Harpie Lady 1s effect). I mean Im getting warm feelings just thinking about all the cool shit you could do if you got this to resolve. Really good example of cards that crow into becoming great because of further support down the line.

yeah def an honorable mention for me. i thought it was broken when i saw it and was pretty determined to get 3 of them and be a main part of my deck while i sat behind Marshmallon

#18: Marshmallon
First TCG release: Premium Pack (2007-10-08)



I dont remember exactly when I found out about this but I was so tickled that this ended up being a big part of my main deck at the time along with Nimble Momonga and Needle Worm. The perfect combination of annoying effect, cuteness and absurdity of an indestructible marshmallow.

ok well i just found out they also updated to Master Rule 5 which would make the game more tolerable because before it forced you under Master Rule 4 (which let you unable to summon from extra zone unless you had Links) even in the early era campaign mode and that would have completely killed the game for me.

it's pretty sad that four years apart resulted in pretty much the same game -_-

all right glad i'm at least not crazy about the Power 5 thing based on the couple of responses

is the good Legacy of the Duelist mentioned the one that came out last year (Link Evolution) or the 2016 version? i did take a look at it a while ago but i couldn't stand the long animations

i'm keeping on the safe side and having next to no expectations for Master Duel.

Emeraldegg posted...

It lets you DRAW TWO CARDS! *gasp*

I looked this up a while back, but the question was asked of me if there was ever a time in the anime where someone used pot of greed and drew into another pot of greed and I managed to find what looks like one single instance, in GX, someone did. In case anyone cares.

do you have a clip? i thought it would be super easy to find because of meme status but nothing came up from my initial searches unless it was in that 6 min. compilation i skimmed through and missed

i thought the Rare Hunter played Graceful Charity into Graceful Charity but it was the editing in the compilation that fooled me -_-

Wait really. Is it just the term or the grouping of the cards general? I know the term itself may not be super widespread but they were the first limited to 1 spell cards! It listed them in the how to play for my starter decks; they were the cards!

Was I living a lie