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Vanille

Cindy

#36: Scapegoat
First TCG release: Starter Deck Joey (2003-03-30)



Responsible for teaching me what the word scapegoat meant. Its a card thats actually gone down in my favorites list as time passes and I get used to the more faster-paced gameplay because its one of the premiere slow things down cards. Has a whole damn format named after it but this was all unknown to me and a relatively recent discovery to be honest. I just liked it because of the cute sheep and protecting my precious life points (several repeating factors here).

And of course ANIME PRESENCE courtesy of our friend Joey Wheeler. Although he went further and used them to tribute for his Panther Warrior. And yeah I was a Kaiba/Joey kid. Those were the starter decks I got and I loved a lot of their signature cards. Although its hilarious looking back on Joeys deck now and the complete luck-based strategy he employed.

I also have a little personal history with this card in that it was the only card I ever put up as an ante in a bet duel. I pretty much hated taking risks back then (hence the LP gain obsession) so the thought of a duel where I could lose one of my cards was not attractive at all even if there were cool BATTLE CITY vibes. The kid looked through my deck and Im pretty sure he just really wanted to gamble (and was sure he would win) because he asked if I would put up the Scapegoat (SDJ lmaooo) after I said no to the first couple of suggestions. And Scapegoat hit that sweet spot of well I like it enough but it wouldnt kill me if I lost it also it was a literal starter deck card so it was easy enough to replace. Anyway I dont remember exactly how the duel went except that I WON BITCHHHH (best of 1 ggnore). And the card I won will obviously be showing up later on the list. So yeah thanks for the memories goats.

Question: Which of the four early starter decks did you get? Did you choose one between the pairs or were you one of those kids who just got all of them like when you got both Red AND Blue version and Gold AND Silver.

you're overthinking it. i don't even know what that card is lol

Reg posted...

Fucking Griggle was on the list, it's clear competitive viability isn't at all a factor lmao

yeah and this

#37: Call of the Haunted
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



it's like an edgy Monster Reborn. kinda. sorta.

i wasn't even playing when Trish came out and it was banned the whole time I was (pretty sure I didn't even know of its existence at the time). it's harder for a card to go up in a "favorites" list when you have basically no experience with it

and if you're judging placements based on competitive viability one card will SHOCK you! It'll cause an OUTRAGE. It will be UNBELIEVABLE. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT COMPETITIVELY VIABLE!

#38: Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
First TCG release: Hidden Arsenal 4: Trishulas Triumph (2011-04-15)



This is a true BOSS monster and while I dont have a lot of personal history with it, I can see it going further up my list as time goes on. Damn the card looks so cool. Its just standing there. Menacingly. There's a real sense of magnificence and awe it conveys to make it truly feel like one of the BIGGEST (not just physical size either) monsters.Three heads, ice theme, card effects keeping in theme (lv. 9, 3 material, 3 banishes), lore reasons where its a dangerous sealed beast who was released to save the world but ended up threatening it because of its sheer SIZE and POWER (at least thats how I think it went; whens that anime coming?). Although for a time I thought its other heads were its hands and how cool(?) would that be?

Card-wise I find it kind of funny that despite being of the Ice Barrier and because of its generic summon requirements, it got used in far more relevant decks resulting in it being banned for a while.

banananor posted...

As someone who played mtg as a kid, YGO cards always looked like they had horribly mangled English all over them, like the localization team didn't even care.

yeah you can basically look at most of the old effect cards and see how they changed it to clear it up, make it less redunant, etc. like with Spirit Reaper

old:
This monster is not destroyed as a result of battle at any time, although damage calculation is applied normally. When this card is specifically designated as a target of the effect of a Magic, Trap, or Effect Monster Card, this card is immediately destroyed. When this card attacks your opponent's Life Points directly, 1 card is randomly selected from your opponent's hand and discarded to the Graveyard.

new:
Cannot be destroyed by battle. After resolving a card effect that targets this face-up card, destroy this card. When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent by a direct attack: Discard 1 random card from their hand.

i know i've definitely had those slumps but can't remember if certain games were responsible for "reigniting" interest or i was playing games at a normal rate and just got hooked

but i really felt that magic again with Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. Returns was more of that "reigniting" feeling because i was more aware of Tropical Freeze and had been waiting for it to go on sale but Returns I just checked out on a kind of whim and I feel like it was the first time in a while I got into a game that much.

Thanks for the notice

I'll put you at the bottom of this rotation for now

#39: Spirit Reaper
First TCG release: Pharaonic Guardian (2003-07-18)



The first monster to be INDESTRUCTIBLE (by battle). I wasnt around for its release but when I found out about this card years after, I had to have it because being unable to be destroyed by battle meant my life points (still the most important thing in my pov at this point) were safe. Although there is that small inconvenience of being immediately destroyed whenever it was targeted. But the other standout effect is that you could potentially just not let your opponent play the game by taking their cards to the grave before they could use them and this milling/ripping out of hand style was something I got really into. And I wasnt there for it but apparently the Reaper had quite a period of terror back in the day.

save

#40: Bottomless Trap Hole
First TCG release: Legacy of Darkness (2004-12-01)



Legacy of Darkness would be the last set I paid attention to before quitting the first time. At that point, there werent a lot of cards that I was interested in and my interest had started drifting towards other things like videogames. Not to mention, the general attitude of the kids around me had changed in that short while from Yugioh being cool to now being one of the worst things you could be into.

So my interest was waning but I decided to one day get a pack or some packs and I pulled this card. I really cant remember if Trap Hole had reached meme status by that time but it was certainly at least well known enough and Bottomless was lowkey fascinating to me because it was one of the first times (iirc) that I was seeing a card/concept I already knew about being expanded on. And it was such a POWERUP. Like we have this fucking hole but now its like the Shadow Realm of holes because once you fall in youre never coming back out. There was a sense of PROGRESSION. And the monster in the art is just not having a good time. Anyway, it looked cool and all but it wasnt enough to stop me from losing interest shortly after. But randomly 10 years or so later when I got back into it, the card was one of the few cards I had STILL being played and thats one of the aspects I really like about YGO: how cards can still be relevant years later (even if power creep destroys most things eventually) or how some cards gain newfound relevancy because of synergy with new releases. Its like the lottery where admittedly it doesnt happen much but the HOPE is still there and you kind of fool yourself into thinking maybe this time

yeah they tried to nerf them so that people could play them but by nerfing them they just made sure that nobody would ever play them. they only succeed in DESTROYING HISTORYYYYYY

yes

Kuja

Vanille

Cindy

Also I was about to complain about the lack of an official online simulator but it looks like something was literally announced this morning.

Do I trust them to be competent enough to make something comparable to ygopro though

What does draftable mean in this case? Like a sealed format?

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Witch was one of the cards that was even rewritten with added restrictions right?

i really hate that they do this. it's one thing to change the text for clarification but actually changing the effect of cards is bullshit. this isn't an online tcg that you can just patch. they're legitimately ruining the history of the game!!!!1111 they're not the same cards anymore. look how they massacred Crush Card. fuuuccck

#41: Witch of the Black Forest
First TCG release: Metal Raiders (2002-06-26)



Almost no anime presence but still one of the most iconic cards of the DM era. An absolutely insane card with an effect so blatantly good that everyone and their mom knew to pair this with Summoned Skull early on. I had the combo, my friends had the combo, every character in the 2004 GBA game Eternal Duelist Soul including Mako and Weevil had the combo. The tribute requirements for some of those hilariously awful early vanilla monsters meant that Summoned Skull easily stood over the rest in terms of efficiency. And while other monsters that could search the deck had another requirement like having to be destroyed by battle, Witch (& Sangan) simply had to go from field to grave making it way easier to get those cards which would most likely have been dead draws otherwise. Just incredibly versatile and while never the main attraction, Witch never ran out of other busted targets she could search out and maintained relevancy long after Summoned Skull.

yeah i was a lot more receptive to XYZ & Synchros once i realized they were actually something that allowed the levels of monster cards to be used for something. like before, there was no functional difference between a 5/6 and a 7/8 because the only time it came up was during tributes and it wasn't just setting monsters every turn and passing to wait for them to be flipped because you didn't want to lose life points or whatever

#42: Bujinki Amaterasu
First TCG release: Primal Origin (2014-05-16)



Damn look at how cool this card looks. I havent played too much Bujins but 3 level 4s is a big cost and Susanowo is the more common make from what Ive seen. But damn. Look how cool it is.

#43: Ice Beast Zerofyne
First TCG release: Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy (2013-05-17)



Another card from my Harpie time and probably the second most-made Rank 4 of all time for me. As a bonus, I also found use for it in another archetype I liked playing. Its effect could make it become ABSOLUTELY HUGE because while it negated the effects of your opponents cards, for its secondary effect it included ALL face-up cards so this could have MASSIVE ATK and run over problem cards.

i actually ended up quitting again though after pendulums el oh el

i just remembered why i got back into it at that time and it was because of a friend. he ended up playing Dark Magician & later Spellbooks so pretty sure there's a lot of people in the same boat who came back in through old school support

2013 tho hmmmm

#44: Graverobber
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2004-12-01)



The second card on the list so far to be of some anime significance (as far as I know since I never watched past Battle City finals). Theres definitely more of those on the way. Harpies Feather Duster also had some appearances but they werent exactly noteworthy. Graverobber had two big moments and they were turning points for everyones favorite third-rate duelist with a fourth-rate deck once against Bandit In America Keith and another time against Weevil. Also the robber looks cool and cute as hell.

ooh that does clear it up a lot

syntax baybeeeeeee

#45: Harpie Dancer
First TCG release: Legendary Collection 4: Joeys World (2013-10-11)



Unfortunately, I think this will give away some of the later cards on the list. I forget exactly what caused it but the first time I got back into the game since I was a kid was 2013. After finding out everything I had loved as a child was garbage I basically had to start looking for a new deck. Random cards just splashed together werent going to work anymore so I went looking for an archetype. They basically werent a thing outside of a few handful of cards the last time I had played so it was a new experience for me and I was pretty determined to look for an old-school archetype which left like Blue-Eyes, Dark Magician, Toons and Harpies or something like that and there was a clear winner there for me.

I looked up some decklists to figure out how to play the game again and saw the black and white monsters. Now I had seen them before but at that point I was still one of those I cant believe this is what ygo became smh people and was resistant to learning any new mechanics but I had an oldschool archetype to provide some level of familiarity so I just buckled down and spent the 20 minutes or so to initially learn about XYZ & Synchro Summoning. And yeah it was actually fun once I got the hang of it. The faster tempo they allowed for meant NONSTOP BALLS TO THE WALL ACTION which has always been part of the appeal of YGO over other TCGs for me (that and no set rotation). Would I have bothered to sit down and look that shit up if I was playing with cards I had no familiarity with? Probably not.

Anyway as for Dancer herself, I had been playing around with the Harpie deck for a while when she was announced. Similar to the Magic Ruler release, it was the first time I was actually anticipating a new product so I spent the money for the sealed product to get a playset. Ill always have more attachment to cards I ended up pulling myself even though buying the singles is just way more practical. So she has all that going for her but the best part was her role in the deck and synergy with Harpies Hunting Ground. It meant popping two backrow which sometimes included my own Hysteric Signs which was great for advantage. AND she was unaffected by Bottomless because of her lower attack. Not to mention, that short period where Divine Wind of Mist Valley was a thing was fun too.



Actually...she should probably be a little higher but whatever.

masterplum posted...

I played yugioh for like 6 months 15 years ago but I play a ton of Magic. Am I wrong that the first card giving you 3000 life points once.... still wouldn't be very good?

yeeeeeppp building your life points wasn't really ever a winning strategy because of the opportunity cost

but seeing big numbers just felt good

#46: Saffira, Queen of Dragons
First TCG release: Duelist Alliance (2014-08-14)

vs.

Ok I have to admit, a big reason why I liked this card so much was because I actually didnt look closely at the artwork. Once I got back into the hobby and was looking through the new sets to see if there were anything that looked cool I was blown away when I came across this one. Or at least, the image that was on all these wiki sites. Two main factors that brought this one way further down in the rankings. First, from a distance, I thought it was wearing a helmet or headgear similar to Angemon and Angewomon from Digimon and that was cool as fuck. Second, the lighting of the cards make the wings so much brighter and enveloped in a white light that made it look way more angelic. It turns out that its actually a Salazzle-looking thing. But whatever. The wings are still great.

Pokalicious posted...

What was it?

feel free to guess before it comes up somewhere in the 30s

SeabassDebeste posted... is it still a combo when sangan gets summoned if "its effects are negated"?

iirc it's that its effects are negated when it's on the field, but Sangan's effect is activated when it's sent to the Graveyard so its effects are no longer negated at the timing of activation

so my ideal combo deck as a kid was some mishmash of a LP gain/burn deck and one of my favorite 'combos' was Soul Release + Graverobber's Retribution lol. i probably got it off a lot more than you would think but yeah a 2-card unsearchable combo is not a valid strategy. but it would feel sooo good to get it off.

i did end up cutting them out this list though along with a lot of other LP gain cards like Nimble Momonga, Enchanted Javelin, Dancing Fairy, Gift of the Mystical Elf

#47: Solemn Wishes
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



Continuing the LIFE POINTS train, I of course thought this was one of the best cards of all time because you get +500 every time you DRAW, something that was GUARANTEED to happen every turn. think about it bro thats like 500000 life points over time its sooo good!!!111 Its a bit of an odd effect for a supposed trap but thats SOLEMN for you.

#48: Tour Guide From the Underworld
First TCG release: Extreme Victory (2011-05-06)



Im not as familiar with the competitive history of this card as some of you may be. I was always a more casual player so DinoRabbit and the Sangan combo werent things I found out about until way way later. What I DID use this card for mostly was to insta-summon Number 49: Fortune Tune (LIFE POINTS) of all things in a terrible deck I made involving Spellbooks and Spell Absorption. Effects that Special Summon from the DECK are actually so good and it really makes you FEEEL like you're on a bus because of the SPEEED

#49: Harpies Feather Duster
First TCG release: Stairway to Destined Duel Promo (2003-04-15)



This one is of almost mythical status to me because for the longest time I never saw one in real life. Heavy Storm and MST were around plenty but Feather Duster is on another level. Wild that I started getting back into YGO a few months after it came off the banlist. Not to mention I love the artwork for the SDD version; aesthetically wings and things I love in general and the colors are so vibrant with the Secret versions. It actually bothers me that the artwork for the TP version features a card more noticeably.

#50: Dark Elf
First TCG release: Metal Raiders (2002-06-26)



This isnt higher on the list because I dont have the same nostalgia for it because of my previously mentioned aversion to anything that cost life points. But its a card I have newfound appreciation from my time getting back into the hobby a little. With how seared into my brain the 1800 ATK beatdown era is, it was only after I went back and played with some of the older sets in custom formats that I realized hey this card is pretty pretty good.

Sorozone posted...

Though I suppose with everything that is currently going in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh was selling my collection(first 10 booster sets completed, with some Mint 9 and 10 cards(1st edition Jinzo, Chaos Emperor Dragon) 4 years too earlier was probably my worst trade. RIP.

rip indeed

greengravy294 posted...

How many times have you touched your magic wand to DMG?

under normal boardposting conditions i would have no qualms about answering this question but i don't want to spoil the list

i think the only time i remember ripping someone off was when i got a BLS from the neighbor girl for some commons

yikes moment

Sorozone posted...

Also been on a bit of a Yu Gi Oh binge through the pandemic. Didn't realize how many OG cards had some of the most confusing text effects or redundant wording.

yeeeppp which is another reason why Pot of Greed is so legendary

although with confusing card text there's an overlapping area with erratas that actually just change the card effect which i hate so much

at least in that case they were both Secrets

i'm going to be cringing when i reveal what I traded away for that Griggle

#51: Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
First TCG release: Strike of Neos (2007-02-28)



What an annoying little shit. I love it.

honestly even though i say '52 favorites' there's way less than that i would say i have a 'strong attachment' for. the rest would be under mere 'appreciation' or 'fondness'

the reasoning for some of the cards are pretty straightforward

i definitely remember the time I was trying to get back into the game and thinking Stardust Dragon was the most OP thing i saw

#52: Griggle
First TCG release: Magic Ruler (2002-09-16)



This card epitomizes the stupidity and lack of understanding about the game I had as a kid. Obviously playground rules where kids misunderstood, accidentally cheated or just knowingly made things up about their cards were common all over especially during the beginning of the games life. Magic Ruler was the first new set I was there for the release of since LOB and MRD had both been out by the time my obsession got underway. I had seen all the real-life versions of the iconic cards from the anime but this set was the first time my child brain was witnessing and getting mind-blown by the whoa that thing I saw on the tv is now something I can have for real realization. So Magic Ruler I already have a soft spot for and itll make several more appearances on the list. But in addition to that, Griggle I thought was just an AMAZING card (and from a single glance at the card text, you can instantly tell it was because my puny child mind didnt understand how the card actually worked).

At that point my entire understanding of the game boiled down to life points = good. And to be fair, I believe there was a significant portion of the playerbase who thought similarly hence why absolutely insane cards like Solemn Judgment werent being played as frequently as it should have been because of the perceived costliness. So life points became the most important facet of the game for me rather than thinking about them as a resource to manage. Cards like Mysterious Puppeteer and Dian Keto I saw as TOP PERCENTAGE because of the life point gain (notice how Mysterious Puppeteers condition to gain life points is ignored) and of course Ookazi and Tremendous Fire were as equally good since they basically did the opposite. So along comes a new set and heres this new card. Ignore every other part of its text. It says 3000 life points. Fucking 3000 life points. Thats like the same amount of attack points as a Blue-Eyes, THE MOST POWERFUL CARD IN ALL OF DUEL MONSTERS. Tremendous Fire and Dian Keto only listed 1000 life points in its text. Never before had there been any mention of any life point amount higher than that. Not only that, my fifth grade teacher actually got into the game (it started out as a motivational tool to get one classmate to start doing his homework; it resulted in the one kid only getting to played him like once near the end of the school year while every other kid regularly played against our teacher) and there was actual discussion about how this seemingly insane card worked (yeah but what does control shifting to your opponent really mean?) and for a short while there was a mutual understanding between the classroom playerbase (i.e. my teacher and pretty much every guy in the class) that when Griggle was face up on the field and your turn ended (thus shifting control of the field to your opponent, you would gain 3000 life points. Looking back, its so clear thats not what the card says that Im baffled how as a collective group we came to that understanding.

The other issue was that despite being aware of Magic Rulers release and the existence of Griggle, either my mom had not yet acquiesced to my begging to buy me some packs or I did not pull any copies from the few packs I already had gotten OR I had one but felt like having multiple was absolutely essential. Either way, I was losing out on 3000 fucking life points. Another slight note here was that I thought any card that required a cost of life was bad. Because why would I ever want to WILLINGLY decrease my own life points? All of this eventually culminated in the worst trade I have ever made in my history of trading cards where I finally received a Griggle (+Rush Recklessly) for an actually insane card (also on this list) that I desperately wish I had now. To make matters worse, after I got my shiny (although not really because it was a Common) new Griggle and tried to add 3000 life points to my total in a duel against my teacher, I was informed that actually yeah they all realized it actually DIDNT work that way so the card was actually useless.

So yeah I kind of have to accept Griggle as one of my favorites as a reminder to the old stupid times (maybe its a coping mechanism). I can just embrace that I was a stupid kid with stupid kid moments or let punk Oddish haunt me forever.

Question: What was the worst card trade you ever made?

quick ranking topic i feel like doing

it's time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

Vanille

5.75 yikesss

Cindy