Board 8 > My top 52 favorite Yu-Gi-Oh cards [ygo]

(+) Yeah! (+)

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.

#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.

Trish the boss monster for an entire mechanic, and one of the top 2 synchros of all time (probably #1) being at 38 is really really low. Trish changed the game, reason it was banned for a long while and limited for eons.

I've got a soft spot for banishing, it was the D.D. structure deck that got me back into the game.

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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!

kateee posted...

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!

clock of Destiny?
Larvae Moth?
Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth?
Gate guardian?
Yu-jo friendship?
The Vehichroid boss monster that requires 4 specific materials and cuts its attack in HALF during the damage step (this card is like a minus 7 if you include getting all the materials out, and it cuts its attack in half, absurd)

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

kateee posted...

whens that anime coming?

Perhaps you will be getting to it in your list but if you want an archetype that deserves an anime, go look up World Legacy.
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#37: Call of the Haunted
First TCG release: Pharaohs Servant (2002-10-20)



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

JeffreyRaze posted...

I've got a soft spot for banishing, it was the D.D. structure deck that got me back into the game.

May I direct you to the Metaphys archetype?
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Oh, I actually thought of one.

Staying in Trishs archetype, is it Royal Knight?

Cause Mr. RK over here is high high up on the list of worst monsters of all time. A tribute monster that gives your opponent an extra level for sychros is high up on the least competitively viable card in any TCG ever. A minus 1 whose only purpose is to let your opponent climb in power.

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

#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.

Scapegoat I believe is actually super useful now with how link monsters work, with link monsters that can take tokens benefitting greatly from scapegoat

P sure I got joey and yugi
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I think I had yugi

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Kateee, do you mind if I go ahead and post my own topic or would you rather wait till you're done with yours? Don't want you to think I'm trying to steal your thunder or anything
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2 Yugi
3 Kaiba (play set of Blue Eyes)
1 Joey
1 Pegasus

Dark Magician and Summoned Skull were in my og deck, which must have meant I got Yugi.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Dark Magician and Summoned Skull were in my og deck, which must have meant I got Yugi.

Dark Magician was the Ultimate rare, Summoned I think was rare, but might have even been common. Either way, the meta back then was Summoned Skull beat down, so you could buy 3 Yugi starter decks and be winning matches.

IIRC, Summoned was a common. I think Soul Exchange was one of the rares lol.

Back then, I remember being the first among my friends to "figure out" that a 40-card deck was superior, and that arbitrarily bloating the card count would just dilute the overall deck strength. I trimmed down to 40 and started beating friends who had better cards (like 2-3 Trap Holes versus my one) and they couldn't wrap their heads around why until I told them.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

IIRC, Summoned was a common. I think Soul Exchange was one of the rares lol.

Back then, I remember being the first among my friends to "figure out" that a 40-card deck was superior, and that arbitrarily bloating the card count would just dilute the overall deck strength. I trimmed down to 40 and started beating friends who had better cards (like 2-3 Trap Holes versus my one) and they couldn't wrap their heads around why until I told them.

This post reminds me. If its on this list, a preemptive fuck you to Grass

kateee posted...

#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.

Oh hey I have that! Since I got the aforementioned Ice Barrier structure deck, also has Trishula ZERO Dragon which is pretty cool

Uhhhhh I think I got all of the starter decks except Pegasus. I miiiight have gotten Pegasus too at some point but I don't fully remember

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I think I had all the starter decks at one point except the Pegasus one as well. Yugi was my first though. Dark Magician holding up his hat for the win.

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Oh man, I just remembered one early-era card that wrecked my shit: Ekibyo Drakmord. When my brother's friend first busted it out in a game, I did like twelve double takes and demanded to read every word of the card text. I couldn't believe a freakin common (this was still around the time most of us were fumbling with the first starters) could be so broken.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Oh man, I just remembered one early-era card that wrecked my shit: Ekibyo Drakmord. When my brother's friend first busted it out in a game, I did like twelve double takes and demanded to read every word of the card text. I couldn't believe a freakin common (this was still around the time most of us were fumbling with the first starters) could be so broken.

The first time I saw Master Peace Dracoslaying King I blew a gasket.

I remember when I used to play (way in the early days) probably one of my favorite cards was one of the more hateful creatures to exist, Spear Cretin. I bought several turns because the opponent didn't have a way to kill it without flipping the sucker. (which brought out another spear cretin face down from the grave.) Sure they got a full field of creatures, but an reviving 500/500 cretin existed to ruin their day.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Oh man, I just remembered one early-era card that wrecked my shit: Ekibyo Drakmord. When my brother's friend first busted it out in a game, I did like twelve double takes and demanded to read every word of the card text. I couldn't believe a freakin common (this was still around the time most of us were fumbling with the first starters) could be so broken.

Hell yeah. This card was my jam in the early days. Trap Dustshoot was another one, though slightly later, that it seemed to take a while for people to catch on to how silly it was (though, banned now)

Emeraldegg posted...

Kateee, do you mind if I go ahead and post my own topic or would you rather wait till you're done with yours? Don't want you to think I'm trying to steal your thunder or anything

i don't mind. i'm going to finish this list by the end of the week though

CaptainOfCrush posted...

IIRC, Summoned was a common. I think Soul Exchange was one of the rares lol.

this is correct. the early starter decks only had 3 foils

Yugi had Dark Magician, Soul Exchange and Card Destruction
Kaiba had Blue-Eyes, Lord of D and Flute
Joey had Red-Eyes, Scapegoat and something else
Pegasus had Relinquished, Graceful Charity and Gryphon Wing or whatever it was called

#35: Solemn Judgment
First TCG release: Metal Raiders (2002-06-26)



NO

Absolutely insane card from Metal Raiders and the thing is this type of card only got better as time went on because other cards got stronger. For sure I did a double take when I saw the Half your life points bit because bro thats 4000 life points at the beginning. I didn't even have the opportunity to play this card (and I know for sure I wouldn't have played even if I had a copy) but also I didn't really see anybody else either. I think 4000 seemed too costly to a lot more people back then.

Also I havent mentioned this for every card but it goes without saying that the artwork is a big factor for all of them and this one is no exception. Its just some old man with a magnificent beard telling you NO. Legend.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Oh man, I just remembered one early-era card that wrecked my shit: Ekibyo Drakmord. When my brother's friend first busted it out in a game, I did like twelve double takes and demanded to read every word of the card text. I couldn't believe a freakin common (this was still around the time most of us were fumbling with the first starters) could be so broken.

i def had pretty much the same reaction to this. it seemed like the most broken thing at that time.

kateee posted...

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

I just liked it because of the cute sheep

I didn't play YGO for very long (and never competitively) but Scapegoat is my favorite card and this is definitely why lmao

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#34: Card Destruction
First TCG release: Starter Deck Yugi (2002-03-29)



I just really liked the idea of being able to set all my important cards and then using this to force my opponent to not give them a chance to play.

#33: El Shaddoll Construct
First TCG release: Duelist Alliance (2014-08-14)



Ive never played this card but it looks sick as fuck. Conceptually, Shaddolls are one of the most intriguing archetypes (aesthetics-wise, I have no idea how they play besides flip effects lol) to me because of the whole puppet and corruption of other archetypes thing they have going. I would have definitely tried them out as my next deck had I kept playing back in 2014. Also goddamn look at the size of this thing. It so fucking big. Like gargantuan. Massive. And we all know that a good size makes a good BOSS monster.

kateee posted...

Its just some old man with a magnificent beard telling you NO. Legend.

This is also a good way to describe my favorite YGO card of all time; I'm hoping it makes the list!

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#32: Blackwing Gale the Whirlwind
First TCG release: Crimson Crisis (2009-03-03)



The only Blackwing on the list although I did consider a few others. I didnt play them as much as Harpies and was way more casual with my deckbuilding choices but they were my second deck. Gale is a pretty good mascot as far as things go (idk if he actually is or even if they have any presence in the anime or anything like that). First of all, hes an actual bird and not a weirdo in a bird suit like some Blackwings. Second hes cuteee (or is that just me) but ALSO is a cool buddy bird because hes so tiny. Not to mention hes incredibly versatile with being a very easy special summon AND a tuner. And of course, that effect to deal with problem monsters.

Yesssss. Went undefeated until top 8 at nationals with blackwings so they're a huge favourite of mine. It's the only deck I still have completely together collecting dust in my house.

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what year was that? curious as to what that deck looked like

BUY BLACKWINGS
I mean yeah Blackwings have a big presence in the anime
Too big.
The character that used them replaced the main heroine as the third wheel because the show wanted to promote him and his cards
Plus talk about an archetype thats frontloaded to hell and then just kept getting lesser and lesser monsters as things went on.

Also I havent mentioned this for every card but it goes without saying that the artwork is a big factor for all of them and this one is no exception. Its just some old man with a magnificent beard telling you NO. Legend.

There is a whole story behind the art of this card too..
Spoilers
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPDE2m-WsAA49m1.jpg
He is actually God
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I hate blackwings from how great they were (are?) in duel links
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kateee posted...

what year was that? curious as to what that deck looked like

http://yugiohtopdecks.com/deck/2517

Check out the side deck for my favourite meme spell.

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htaeD posted...

He is actually God

scrolling through this in the morning and i thought this was about Gale for a sec. what a twist that would have been

i guess i'll actually check out the anime sometime to see the Wings in action.

MikeTavish posted...

Check out the side deck for my favourite meme spell.

excellent.

2009? that was also the year Blackwings won the world championship iirc.

also, damn 3 gale & 2 allure looks fun. when i was playing they were both at 1. not that i was even close to being 'good'

top 8 at nationals is really impressive! the site lists the deck value as $108 and i did a double take but then it listed DAD as $1. curious as to how much that was going for back then.

#31: Tribute to the Doomed
First TCG release: Metal Raiders (2002-06-26)



This one should actually be lower on the list. I dont really have much to say except it looks cool and that one scene in the anime where the hand just sprung up from the field and dragged a monster down has stuck with me.

#30: Lightning Chidori
First TCG release: Cosmo Blazer (2013-01-24)



My most-made XYZ by far and great for maintaining advantage. The return to top of deck effect is actually so good. Also its a cool-ass thunder bird.

#29: Yata-Garasu
First TCG release: Legacy of Darkness (2004-12-01)



I actually love finding out about degenerate strategies in any game and most of the time think they are amazing and hilarious (when Im not on the receiving end of course lol). I wasnt playing when Yata-Lock was a thing but a random conversation with some friends who had played competitively led me to find out about this card and I thought wait thats actually amazing and this quickly became one of my favs. Theres so much to love about this: Its a cool raven, it returns to your hand after every turn which means its safe from a lot of opponent card effects and it has 200 ATK which means any death by this will be a slow and painful one, and the pairing with Chaos Emperor Dragon makes like the picture-perfect crime duo with one GIANT DRAGON and one TINY bird.

Ah yes, the strategy that invented the ygo banlist lol

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I was hoping Chidori would be top 10! It's also my most played XYZ (if I had to guess, I may have used it as much as all other XYZ monsters combined). Both of its effects did such a brilliant job disrupting my opponent's game, that I didn't see much need for other XYZ summons in the early to mid-game. Hell, I remember bringing him out THREE TIMES in a duel or two.

I remember occasionally lamenting to myself "if only it was a Winged Beast..." lol

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Thunder is cool in general.. when not degenerate
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Yeah Chidori might seem a bit low for something I say I summoned so much bit in the end I'm more of a casual/collector that those old school legacy cards and nostalgia is just too strong to overcome with maybe like 2 or 3 exceptions.

Oh yes Yata-Garasu

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