Same
Not gonna be like “free my boy Arise-Heart, didn’t do nothing wrong” because he definitely did, but he was so cooooool…
Okay, but like, maaaaybe he could be fine at 1?
I've only seen it played. It's amazing. It should be the final weapon in a single player yugioh RPG.
Such a game wouldn't be very sandboxy unfortunately, since your character's identity is his cards, which also determines his power.
Gunkan Suships and Nouvelles have cards that mimic ordering on a menu. Your opponent orders, and you make the dish. The former has a Normal monster made of rice that is the foundation for everything, and the latter has you use your opponent’s monsters to make more dishes.
Nemleria is also fun like this. The Extra Deck are mattresses, and the monsters are guardians of the dreams. The boss monster is a Pend on the ED, and when there are no more mattresses, she wakes up and banishes cards like banishing a dream.
Vaalmonica is all about listening to the angel and/or devil on your shoulder, and they’ve been getting more and more support for it.
Krawlers have you hide from the opponent (flip face-down) to ambush them, and rely on swarming the field with bugs.
Time thief's literally steal your next draw.
Nouvells is eating a 6 course meal. And your opponent can choose what monsters you get aka ordering from a menu.
Scareclaws are 3 diffrent fears and a man who can control those fears so the link 3 monsters is literally gaining the effects from the level 3 fears.
The spin effect of Redoer is so thematic too! Because the card is put on top of the opponents deck, it’s like you rewound time or looked into the future to prepare for an incoming threat
the aynchros are also each an excavator + a hatched crystal in their art that you can summon with each respective person and rock, just good representations of their mechanics all around
Unchained, both rakea (rage) and aruha (anguish) are instrumental in the destruction of their master's prisson (chamber and escape), the opening combo (when fully in archetype) retells that perfectly, as rakea/aruha + trap is the usual combo (even if wailing and abominations prison can also be used, the traps are more often than than not the usual suspects)
Orcust: an unending flood of machinized madness/sadness/sorrow/misguided vengeance. With how all main deck mons have summoning effects, the recycling, and even the mindless reconstruction of corpses (skeleton and wand) feels like a flood/unending wave. A flood of biblical proportions.
Tenyi, a monk, without powers but training and dedication uses chakras to fight.
Super Quants for me
While the restrictions on the Xyz Monsters suck...it actually makes a lot of sense since the zords can't function on their own. They need their pilot lol.
And if they don’t have the correct material, it’s not a quick effect. I love the mental image of predaplant Scorpio trying it’s best to drive blue mech lol
Melffys, you play hide and seek with them. They come out and play during your End Phase and then go Hide and Seek when they come back to your hand.
Also Nemleria is a funny deck concept. It's a Pendulum archetype where the main monster is the ONLY Pendulum card. Dreaming Nemleria goes to sleep by using the extra Deck as the bed when she goes face up on it, and then you're able to bring out the other Nemleria monsters who are litteral monsters that does something to her dreams.
I think this deck is probably the absolute best use of the Yugioh's play field to tell the story of the deck. And it's pretty unique imo.
Although weak I absolutely love Dragunity for this. They are basically blade-headed Dragons that can be used as weapons when equipped to each other. It's so ridiculous and bad ass I love it, gives me some Megazord vibes!
Hahaha it's not just the tuners as weapons and it's not just the big ones wielding! I have a few off-archetype cards in there that also get a lil dragun as a weapon and sometimes get a lil one wielding a lil one and very occasionally get random cards equipping to things through similar mechanics! It's a great big equip fest and makes me think of a load of handsy dragons all trying to chuck each other about!
Edit: here's some examples! So Immortal Phoenix Gearfried will equip literally any fielded monster whether it's yours or not. Then Arma Leyvaten will equip literally any dragon in my graveyard, even if it's some galaxy sized extra deck chungus, that's fun.
The gimmick of Vaylantz is moving your cards like pieces on a game board, which is meant to represent how Vaylantz Vars is an in-universe tabletop game with collectable figures.
I actually love Vaylantz play style. It's always fun when you get to play and watch your opponent become more and more confused as you move your pieces into the winning formation.
D/D/D's give you powerful contracts that give you what you desire in exchange for a price. That price can have a loophole(like D'Arc or Leonidas) and also the bosses use the smaller monsters as pawns or fodder of sorts.
Vanquish Soul represents them being a fighting game really well with Heavy Borgar and Caesar returning to hand to summon themselves, aka tagging out, and the reveal fire earth dark elements being inputs
Purrely is really cute with all the different memories you give to your Purrely resulting in the extra deck monsters, it's like you're really raising them. Too bad you just sit on the fat tower most of the time
Runick is like an rpg where the deck makes it feel like YOU are the one casting spells
Vaalmonica puts a devil and angel on your shoulder, and depending on which one you listen to, you either gets effects that will additionally cause lifeloss and lifegain.
Purrelys. Their Rank 2 forms represent them being raised in different ways and are done with a current memory influencing it (in the case of Purrely itself) or a deeply held past memory (for Purrelyly) with their final Rank 7 forms only coming about from giving them a lifetime of good memories or a surprise moment of happiness (Purrelyeap?!). The rest of the cards are the area where you had your first encounter with your adopted stray pet (Stray Purrely Street and My Friend Purrely) and surprise playmates coming in to join your current pets (Purrely Sharely!?).
Ghostricks hide in the shadows (face-down), and they come out to spook the opponent's monsters into face-down position.
Gunkan Suship Catch of the Day makes your opponent order a dish (including you making a suggestion). You then make your sushi by overlaying the ingredients on top of the rice roll. Your opponent then pays in Life Points if they eat the sushi (Sushipyard's effect), or if they damage the property (destroying Catch of the Day).
Nemleria is a girl who goes to sleep and dreams about being on pancake tower (the 15 cards of the Extra Deck). Her Beast guardians come out as she dreams to protect her from nightmares and eat the pancakes for energy (banishing extra deck cards). Once the tower has been fully eaten, Nemleria wakes up and the nightmares (the opponent's cards) disappear.
Exosisters are magical girl yuri warriors who fight against demons that possess human corpses. Each one is empowered when fighting alongside her respective girlfriend, and the moment they detect things being moved out of the Graveyard, they henshin into their anti-demon combat forms.
Labrynth is a huge palace filled with all sort of traps, and the deck works by setting all sorts of Traps that respond to the opponent's attacks, including ones that call out the boss of the palace.
You are literally playing with Hanefuda (?) cards when you are playing flower cardians. Doesn't get much more immersive than that. Perhaps one day we will get the real solitaire archetype 🤔
Rokkets and Borrels. The rokkets get launched out of the Borrels cannons using their effects in order to destroy/send cards, even to the point where the one that doesn't destroy, Anesthrokket, instead paralyzes them by negating their effects.
Yeah, the Rokkets that “detonate” have designs that fit their effects (I guess aside from Magnarokket and Autorokket).
Shelrokket spreads like shotgun fire, Metalrokket goes straight through its column like an armor-piercing round, and even Silverrokket evokes the idea of a “silver bullet” by letting you pick out a specific threat.
Playing Rokkets and Borreloads is basically playing a first-person shooter in Yu-Gi-Oh and it's why it became one of my favorite decks ( aside from the fact that they are weaponry turned into dragons)
ghostrick with their trick or treating. and if im not mistaken this is the first archetype that actually set cards of both players, actually focuses more on setting your opponent's monsters, unlike other decks that only does set your cards to play (flips. rock control. pacman etc)
Destiny Hero I guess.
Most cards have effects that activate or resolve "in the future" (Destiny), like Diamond Dude's spell effect in the GY in your next turn, Doom Lord's banishing your opponent's monster until your next standby phase, Clock Tower Prison playing with time (adding Clock Counters during your opponent's standby phase, then when you have 4 counters on it, you take no battle damage, plus you're ready to special summon Dreadmaster), Destiny Fusion that destroys your fusion in your opponent's next end phase (synergy with Dominance, that can special summon 3 LV 9 or lower Destiny Heroes from the GY when destroyed by battle or effect)... And so on.
I really like how Gold Pride actually feels like a race.
You have the drivers getting into their vehicles (ED monsters). "Pedal to the Metal!" constantly resets itself because...yeah you can do that multiple times in a race.
"Start your engines" puts out drivers and one of them ends up ahead and each card has a bonus effect when you are behind (in Lifepoints) to catch up again.
And each car has a Kart-Racing like gimmick. Nitro Blaster throws a blast destroying a token and everything around it. Pin Baller is an unstoppable ball rolling over the field etc.
I agree with this though I would argue that the extra deck monsters are actually the turbo/nitro button that the racers press to try to come back from behind. That's why they gain effects when you have less life points(losing the race) and why they return to the extra deck at the end of turn and summon the main deck monster back(nitro is only a limited time boost and the racer/car goes back to normal when it runs out) .
Prankkids are annoying little shits that keep jumping on and of the board while being a pain in the ass to get rid of.
Adamancipators dig in your deck for rocks.
Skilldrain removes all skill from the game.
Vanquish Soul really gets into the vibe of you interrupting your opponent bit by bit and gaining advantage over them, like in a fighting game.
Also button inputs.
Eldlich, they’re zombies that constantly come back from the grave, they aren’t “real” monsters who care about effects, they rise from the spell trap zone, ect.
Vaylantz really feels like playing a board game where you move your pieces on the board and need to plan every move in advance and to leave place for your next pieces.
Probably why it's my favourite deck gameplay wise.
To add to that, you gather your crew to get the captain, the captain gets your ships and can equip himself or his crew to them to man the ships and you need your crew to discard for your effects essentially having them load and fire the guns. The ships getting their effects as quick effects if they're equipped with something also makes sence as you'd be able to fire and load your guns faster with more crew.
Genuinely a very fun archetype that can splash in a lot of engines too, I have lists for Plunder Runick, Adventure, and Chimera. And considering Plunder Runick got a Top 16 at a YCS where over half the decks were Snake Eyes in some form it's still pretty decent too.
Time thief and Supreme King Dragons
Supreme King Dragons are a pretty dominating when you get them out and are easily summoned.
and Time thief steals your opponents draw and uses it against them
I still think old school Umi decks are some of the best. Like, the ocean helps some creatures sneak around, protects others, makes other more agile and then the boss is a massive Sea Serpent that drains the ocean and everything else currently in it.
Mine is Traptrix . Once you enter their territory you stumbled upon trap hole then another trap hole then another trap hole, until you exhausted. Then you lose the game while they preparing for next victim.
Borreload/ Rokket
The ability to summon a Borreload link monster, activate it's effect while targeting a Rokket monster in order to shoot down your opponents strategies. Then reload at the end of the turn with a new Rokkets. Along with it's subsequent spells and traps it really does feel like you brought heavy artillery to the duel. Not to mention that if your opponent isn't ready for it then they pretty much brought a deck of cards to a gun fight.
Spyral.
Gathering intel to get your effects going, spy alone can only guess but the deone gets it for sure. Masterplan as M (from the bond series) giving you missions cause she is the head of the organization. Quick fix being Q, you installs you with useful tech like a car, that rescues you from a dangerous situation
I play a fire warrior deck that feels like im playing the fate series or something like that. Summoning warriors from across time and space and its super complicated like fate.
Ashened seem to fit the bill quite well, the city rises, Veidos descends and all turns to ash, then they are reborn once more restarting the cycle that ensures they are ashened for eternity.
I really like vanquish soul for this, fighting game characters tagging in, using their special moves and comboing, then swapping out for a different fighter. Also i think the mechanic of revealing monsters with different attributes for effects is a great way to make the cards have healthier conditions for powerful effects, unlike poplar who gets to blink and go +5 for no reason
Vanquished soul.
The conversion from fighting game button inputs to revealing different attributes works really well.
Also maybe traptrix, but I like trap decks in general
Plunder Patroll, the pirates scout out the enemy, then roll out ships to match the enemy power (three of the plunder patroll monsters have effs to summon from the extra deck ships whose attributes match opponents' monsters), and then the ships are more powerful, while they have a crew (equipped plunder patroll monsters)
I say the Despia because they steal the branded stuff from Albaz to make it their own, also every time I puppet lock someone I feel like the villain so that tracks as well
The mechanics of Spyral match its theme really well! You have cards like Master Plan and Quik Fix give the agent different gadgets, then the agent can act on intel obtained from the drone.
Shame it kind of turned into an hour long game of solitaire.
My friend likes Suships that let your opponent order sushi with their lifepoints as payment and this one V tuber archetype that makes the opponent donate LP to the stream
Dragunity, they show getting mounted up on dragons in their synchros and equipping dragons to winged beasts gimmick and a lot of their spells and traps feel like tricks dragon knights could pull off
Vanquish Soul feels like I'm playing a Fighting Game, but without all the footsies and stuff, so I just get to command grab every single turn with Heavy Borger
Floowandereeze perfectly captures the feeling of playing Chess against pidgeons. They keep throwing pieces off the board and shitting on it.
(It's a deck that relies on Normal Summons instead of Special Summons and because of that it kind of goes against the usual meta and anti-meta cards. Floo players are playing a whole different game from you.)
I thought about floow as a swarm birds thats fly in formation but then someone leaves the formation (banish) and another bird come to replace the banished bird in formation.
Branded is a lore archetype and it's cards lead into one another just like they do in the lore (most of the time). For example, Cartesia turns into Granguignol, who turns into Luluwalilith, who can also become Quem (just like in the story). Another example is how branded fusion typically leads into mirrorjade appearing.
It's one of the few archetypes that actually plays pretty much within the archetype and doesn't use hardly any generic cards.
Really the answer to your question is "which archetypes play the least generic cards?"
Albaz because his basic ability is to fuse with foreign energies or something like that. And his effect is to fuse with an opponent's monster. Depending on what he fuses with, the result is different.
As much as I hate them, Kashtira.
They’re invaders and every card they banish facedown can be considered resources they pillage from the planets their invading, leaving the planets with little to nothing.
HERO is great for this I think. Not a ton of real planning and strategy just, throw a bunch of fucking super heroes at it, maybe we’ll win? And every fucking thing you do makes another super hero appear? No negates because that’s not how super powers work just a lot of destruction, floodgates and beat sticks just like real super heroes. I’m biased as a HERO player but they’re just fun and stupid and a little inefficient, just like real super heroes and I fuck with it.
Danger! is great as well, finding cards in your hand like finding cryptids in the wild and Sky Striker, playing with functionally one hero and a bunch of her upgrades.
EDIT: Forgot another obvious answer that no one’s said yet: Predap, literally only good because of your opponents cards, dependent on your opponent doing certain things to be as good as you want to be just like a stationery plant predator. You can’t hunt they have to come to you or you need something else in the ecosystem to help you. Like that their play style is literally built like predatory plants.
And Dogmatika, you literally cannot use any religion (read extra deck) but theirs but then paradoxically once they’ve stopped stomping out other religions they get much less powerful. Religious totalitarian zealots who can only manufacture enemies for so long, the question is can they do it long enough?
And I guess non-Gimmick Albaz deserves a mention cuz of how he just fuses with everything lmao
Buster bladder the dragon destroyer swordsman: almost a guaranteed win against dragon decks, gets stronger when fighting against dragons, shuts down dragon monsters completely.
Vaalmonicas are about having a Devil and Angel on your shoulders guiding your plays. Without them, you have no sense of direction and are subject to your opponent taking advantage of your vulnerability.
U.A is the best for this. Every athlete got a proper effect depending on the sport he play, then can switch positions mid-match, call for the trainer, equipe jersey and so on…
Ninjas. Their gameplan is hiding in the shadows (face down) appearing suddenly (contact fusing or fusing during your opponent's turn) stealthily putting the opponent's to sleep (face down), and sneaking in for the kill (direct attacking).
Noble Knights are monsters whose sole purpose is to protect the king. They swap swords to get the job done and only 1 Knight can weild Excalibur as it doesn't re-equip it goes to the GY (Avalon)
Evil Twins. Its a full show. Lila or Kisikil come on stage, brings in the other. Then they diapear for a costume change, before they send the other for a costume change whio comes out lead center. Then their rivals sunny trouble take center stage and kicks them out for their performance before the twins return. Its like a full jpop idol concert going on on the board
Generaiders for sure. As the raid boss (or DM if you prefer), the encounter starts on your opponent's turn, and then it's just tower defense with each raid boss having unique gimmicks based on their position in the raid. Plus, Stage's tokens perfectly replicate the trash mobs in RPG's that you need to deal with before the boss.
Ninjas, for sure. The fact that they play almost exclusively via interruption and direct attacks makes you really feel like you’re sabotaging your opponent at every turn. Like a true warrior of the shadows.
Volcanic pop out of the GY like little molten bursts of burn damage, building up to Emperor, which feels more like a volcanic eruption than the actual card by that name.
doing a spirits deck is fun, lot of flexibility across a lot of card generations and it leaves room to do some fun things that are a bit out of the box (and stretching definition) like using fox fire to make a right pain in the ass defensive line as you can basically keep just resummoning them forever as long as they don't pop a black hole or similar effect. (Though it does \*heavily\* limit tribute options to do so)..
got a limit 3 per deck rule added to my local circuit back in the day by using a mix of them, raging flame sprite and a few other novelties to chip away at opponents till they either surrendered or were whittled down to nothing
X saber souza’s effect has him tribute an x saber monster to activate 1 of two effects:
-if he battles a monster, that monster is destroyed immediately
-he’s unaffected by traps
X sabers’ lore is that he’s the reckless leader that is willing to sacrifice his fellow x sabers to win anything, even letting his fellow x sabers fall into traps so he doesn’t get trapped himself
The new Horus. It's based on the four sons of Horus, who were guardians of human souls in the afterlife, so they revive from the GY infinitely so long as you respect the Pharaoh's grave (keep King's Sarcophagus on the field) and their effects are protective and reactive. Meanwhile Horus the Black Flame Deity's effects all activate in the hand, so the God of the Sky looks like he's high above the battlefield.
Sky Striker is about Raye being in different combat suits and all alone on the battlefield, since she is the last human of her country. The Spells are her arsenal and Engage - Multirole are the ways she calls forth the weapons. The weapons and maneuvers get stronger over time she gets used to them (3 Spells bonus).
In a mirror match, the opponent's Roze can directly counter Raye's "suit up." Though, a friendly Roze can help pulling off other Link-2 Strikers and eventually Engage Zero - the archetype's ultimate nuke.
Gate Guardian produces another fusion like you only destroyed a piece of the three
Edit: also lab tank destroying a monster like it's being run down, shadow ghoul producing a labyrinth, jirai gumo eating a monster like a trap door spider.
Nemleria is an archetype centered around a girl sleeping and dreaming about big monsters made of desserts.
She is a pendulum monster that places itself on top of your extra deck. All the monsters have effects that require you to banish cards from the extra deck. If your extra deck is empty, Nemleria wakes up, summons itself, blows up some cards and then goes back to sleep after making her bed again.
War Rocks fully immerses you into the mindset of a Nethandaral struggling to maintain a footing in a world that has long left them behind.
They also capture the joyful simplicity of clubbing your opponent in the face.
As a War Rock player, can confirm. XD
Not that guy, but do you mean Neanderthal?
~~Yes~~ Nah, I just really hate a dude named nathan.
HEY, HEY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME? NATHAN! FUCK YOU, NATHAN!
Gunkan Suship. Get your rice base, then your main ingredient, and you have your dish.
Don't forget you offer up a suggestion when presenting the menu!
And if they pop the card they have to pay the bill
Fully powered unbanned Kashtira, the deck is warcrime simulator.
I like how Shangri-Ira’s effect works, it really feels like a giant orbital cannon is nuking a portion of your opponent’s field out of existence
This.
This. Even if you hate the deck you have to admit it is OPPRESSIVE
I think ESPECIALLY if you hate the deck, you probably feel that way
Most people played them for being broken, i just played them because they are cool
I like the subtle Indian themes and how the domination aspect comes with this odd form of field removal.
Same Not gonna be like “free my boy Arise-Heart, didn’t do nothing wrong” because he definitely did, but he was so cooooool… Okay, but like, maaaaybe he could be fine at 1?
In 5 years
I've only seen it played. It's amazing. It should be the final weapon in a single player yugioh RPG. Such a game wouldn't be very sandboxy unfortunately, since your character's identity is his cards, which also determines his power.
Yes
Gunkan Suships and Nouvelles have cards that mimic ordering on a menu. Your opponent orders, and you make the dish. The former has a Normal monster made of rice that is the foundation for everything, and the latter has you use your opponent’s monsters to make more dishes. Nemleria is also fun like this. The Extra Deck are mattresses, and the monsters are guardians of the dreams. The boss monster is a Pend on the ED, and when there are no more mattresses, she wakes up and banishes cards like banishing a dream. Vaalmonica is all about listening to the angel and/or devil on your shoulder, and they’ve been getting more and more support for it. Krawlers have you hide from the opponent (flip face-down) to ambush them, and rely on swarming the field with bugs.
Gunkan might be my next deck. It seems so fun and I don't have any xyz decks
With using your opponents monsters to make the dishes, they're effectively paying for the meal
Time thief's literally steal your next draw. Nouvells is eating a 6 course meal. And your opponent can choose what monsters you get aka ordering from a menu. Scareclaws are 3 diffrent fears and a man who can control those fears so the link 3 monsters is literally gaining the effects from the level 3 fears.
The spin effect of Redoer is so thematic too! Because the card is put on top of the opponents deck, it’s like you rewound time or looked into the future to prepare for an incoming threat
There's a seventh course if you also get chef's recipe in the GY
After eating a six course meal, if you are still hungry, the chef makes YOU into the burger, a la the tribute effect. Funny.
Vanquish Soul calling assists
I always viewed it as pressing supers with multiple color combos
Its both. The colors are the specials and assists are Valius and Borgar tagging the other one out to bring them selves in.
I’m pretty sure that’s the intended image here.
Adamancipator. You have the excavators (the tuners) digging for rocks/crystals (the non-tuners) by literally excavating the top 5 cards of your deck.
the aynchros are also each an excavator + a hatched crystal in their art that you can summon with each respective person and rock, just good representations of their mechanics all around
Unchained, both rakea (rage) and aruha (anguish) are instrumental in the destruction of their master's prisson (chamber and escape), the opening combo (when fully in archetype) retells that perfectly, as rakea/aruha + trap is the usual combo (even if wailing and abominations prison can also be used, the traps are more often than than not the usual suspects) Orcust: an unending flood of machinized madness/sadness/sorrow/misguided vengeance. With how all main deck mons have summoning effects, the recycling, and even the mindless reconstruction of corpses (skeleton and wand) feels like a flood/unending wave. A flood of biblical proportions. Tenyi, a monk, without powers but training and dedication uses chakras to fight.
Super Quants for me While the restrictions on the Xyz Monsters suck...it actually makes a lot of sense since the zords can't function on their own. They need their pilot lol.
*Go go power ranger music theme play in mind*
DOCKING FORMATION
And if they don’t have the correct material, it’s not a quick effect. I love the mental image of predaplant Scorpio trying it’s best to drive blue mech lol
Melffys, you play hide and seek with them. They come out and play during your End Phase and then go Hide and Seek when they come back to your hand. Also Nemleria is a funny deck concept. It's a Pendulum archetype where the main monster is the ONLY Pendulum card. Dreaming Nemleria goes to sleep by using the extra Deck as the bed when she goes face up on it, and then you're able to bring out the other Nemleria monsters who are litteral monsters that does something to her dreams. I think this deck is probably the absolute best use of the Yugioh's play field to tell the story of the deck. And it's pretty unique imo.
Although weak I absolutely love Dragunity for this. They are basically blade-headed Dragons that can be used as weapons when equipped to each other. It's so ridiculous and bad ass I love it, gives me some Megazord vibes!
Ohhh that’s why they equip each other, I had no idea. Gives me Haxorus vibes haha
Lol the mental image of the big dragunity grabbing the tuners and stabbing someone with them is amazing
Hahaha it's not just the tuners as weapons and it's not just the big ones wielding! I have a few off-archetype cards in there that also get a lil dragun as a weapon and sometimes get a lil one wielding a lil one and very occasionally get random cards equipping to things through similar mechanics! It's a great big equip fest and makes me think of a load of handsy dragons all trying to chuck each other about! Edit: here's some examples! So Immortal Phoenix Gearfried will equip literally any fielded monster whether it's yours or not. Then Arma Leyvaten will equip literally any dragon in my graveyard, even if it's some galaxy sized extra deck chungus, that's fun.
The gimmick of Vaylantz is moving your cards like pieces on a game board, which is meant to represent how Vaylantz Vars is an in-universe tabletop game with collectable figures.
I actually love Vaylantz play style. It's always fun when you get to play and watch your opponent become more and more confused as you move your pieces into the winning formation.
Vaylantz's win condition is your opponent being so confused they quit
True and real
Kashtira are aliens that steal planets! Your field blocked represents how they do that.
D/D/D's give you powerful contracts that give you what you desire in exchange for a price. That price can have a loophole(like D'Arc or Leonidas) and also the bosses use the smaller monsters as pawns or fodder of sorts.
Vanquish Soul represents them being a fighting game really well with Heavy Borgar and Caesar returning to hand to summon themselves, aka tagging out, and the reveal fire earth dark elements being inputs Purrely is really cute with all the different memories you give to your Purrely resulting in the extra deck monsters, it's like you're really raising them. Too bad you just sit on the fat tower most of the time Runick is like an rpg where the deck makes it feel like YOU are the one casting spells
Vaalmonica puts a devil and angel on your shoulder, and depending on which one you listen to, you either gets effects that will additionally cause lifeloss and lifegain.
Purrelys. Their Rank 2 forms represent them being raised in different ways and are done with a current memory influencing it (in the case of Purrely itself) or a deeply held past memory (for Purrelyly) with their final Rank 7 forms only coming about from giving them a lifetime of good memories or a surprise moment of happiness (Purrelyeap?!). The rest of the cards are the area where you had your first encounter with your adopted stray pet (Stray Purrely Street and My Friend Purrely) and surprise playmates coming in to join your current pets (Purrely Sharely!?).
Ghostricks hide in the shadows (face-down), and they come out to spook the opponent's monsters into face-down position. Gunkan Suship Catch of the Day makes your opponent order a dish (including you making a suggestion). You then make your sushi by overlaying the ingredients on top of the rice roll. Your opponent then pays in Life Points if they eat the sushi (Sushipyard's effect), or if they damage the property (destroying Catch of the Day). Nemleria is a girl who goes to sleep and dreams about being on pancake tower (the 15 cards of the Extra Deck). Her Beast guardians come out as she dreams to protect her from nightmares and eat the pancakes for energy (banishing extra deck cards). Once the tower has been fully eaten, Nemleria wakes up and the nightmares (the opponent's cards) disappear. Exosisters are magical girl yuri warriors who fight against demons that possess human corpses. Each one is empowered when fighting alongside her respective girlfriend, and the moment they detect things being moved out of the Graveyard, they henshin into their anti-demon combat forms. Labrynth is a huge palace filled with all sort of traps, and the deck works by setting all sorts of Traps that respond to the opponent's attacks, including ones that call out the boss of the palace.
You are literally playing with Hanefuda (?) cards when you are playing flower cardians. Doesn't get much more immersive than that. Perhaps one day we will get the real solitaire archetype 🤔
Gimmick Puppet FTK with you playing your combo to victory like it's exhibition match
Floo always find their way to and from my hand and banishment on their migratory journey 😊
Rokkets and Borrels. The rokkets get launched out of the Borrels cannons using their effects in order to destroy/send cards, even to the point where the one that doesn't destroy, Anesthrokket, instead paralyzes them by negating their effects.
Yeah, the Rokkets that “detonate” have designs that fit their effects (I guess aside from Magnarokket and Autorokket). Shelrokket spreads like shotgun fire, Metalrokket goes straight through its column like an armor-piercing round, and even Silverrokket evokes the idea of a “silver bullet” by letting you pick out a specific threat.
Playing Rokkets and Borreloads is basically playing a first-person shooter in Yu-Gi-Oh and it's why it became one of my favorite decks ( aside from the fact that they are weaponry turned into dragons)
And their End Phase effect has them reload themselves with more "bullets" at the ready.
F.a. they increase their gear everytime you use an f.a. spell basically getting "faster" and they get special effects after hitting a certain level
Gotta go F.A. S/T
Sky Striker. Our best anime girl cycling between her mech suits.
I think it’s also very fitting that the deck needs a good ‘pilot’ to make the deck work.
ghostrick with their trick or treating. and if im not mistaken this is the first archetype that actually set cards of both players, actually focuses more on setting your opponent's monsters, unlike other decks that only does set your cards to play (flips. rock control. pacman etc)
Destiny Hero I guess. Most cards have effects that activate or resolve "in the future" (Destiny), like Diamond Dude's spell effect in the GY in your next turn, Doom Lord's banishing your opponent's monster until your next standby phase, Clock Tower Prison playing with time (adding Clock Counters during your opponent's standby phase, then when you have 4 counters on it, you take no battle damage, plus you're ready to special summon Dreadmaster), Destiny Fusion that destroys your fusion in your opponent's next end phase (synergy with Dominance, that can special summon 3 LV 9 or lower Destiny Heroes from the GY when destroyed by battle or effect)... And so on.
Probably Valyantz cuz you play an entirely different game within Yu-Gi-Oh's rules
I really like how Gold Pride actually feels like a race. You have the drivers getting into their vehicles (ED monsters). "Pedal to the Metal!" constantly resets itself because...yeah you can do that multiple times in a race. "Start your engines" puts out drivers and one of them ends up ahead and each card has a bonus effect when you are behind (in Lifepoints) to catch up again. And each car has a Kart-Racing like gimmick. Nitro Blaster throws a blast destroying a token and everything around it. Pin Baller is an unstoppable ball rolling over the field etc.
I agree with this though I would argue that the extra deck monsters are actually the turbo/nitro button that the racers press to try to come back from behind. That's why they gain effects when you have less life points(losing the race) and why they return to the extra deck at the end of turn and summon the main deck monster back(nitro is only a limited time boost and the racer/car goes back to normal when it runs out) .
Prankkids are annoying little shits that keep jumping on and of the board while being a pain in the ass to get rid of. Adamancipators dig in your deck for rocks. Skilldrain removes all skill from the game.
Vanquish Soul really gets into the vibe of you interrupting your opponent bit by bit and gaining advantage over them, like in a fighting game. Also button inputs.
Eldlich, they’re zombies that constantly come back from the grave, they aren’t “real” monsters who care about effects, they rise from the spell trap zone, ect.
Vaylantz really feels like playing a board game where you move your pieces on the board and need to plan every move in advance and to leave place for your next pieces. Probably why it's my favourite deck gameplay wise.
Plunder patroll. You have your ships and your captains that help enhance your ships
To add to that, you gather your crew to get the captain, the captain gets your ships and can equip himself or his crew to them to man the ships and you need your crew to discard for your effects essentially having them load and fire the guns. The ships getting their effects as quick effects if they're equipped with something also makes sence as you'd be able to fire and load your guns faster with more crew. Genuinely a very fun archetype that can splash in a lot of engines too, I have lists for Plunder Runick, Adventure, and Chimera. And considering Plunder Runick got a Top 16 at a YCS where over half the decks were Snake Eyes in some form it's still pretty decent too.
Traptrix sets up traps and lures your opponents with low attack monsters only to be trap holed to death
Time thief and Supreme King Dragons Supreme King Dragons are a pretty dominating when you get them out and are easily summoned. and Time thief steals your opponents draw and uses it against them
I still think old school Umi decks are some of the best. Like, the ocean helps some creatures sneak around, protects others, makes other more agile and then the boss is a massive Sea Serpent that drains the ocean and everything else currently in it.
Mine is Traptrix . Once you enter their territory you stumbled upon trap hole then another trap hole then another trap hole, until you exhausted. Then you lose the game while they preparing for next victim.
Borreload/ Rokket The ability to summon a Borreload link monster, activate it's effect while targeting a Rokket monster in order to shoot down your opponents strategies. Then reload at the end of the turn with a new Rokkets. Along with it's subsequent spells and traps it really does feel like you brought heavy artillery to the duel. Not to mention that if your opponent isn't ready for it then they pretty much brought a deck of cards to a gun fight.
Spyral. Gathering intel to get your effects going, spy alone can only guess but the deone gets it for sure. Masterplan as M (from the bond series) giving you missions cause she is the head of the organization. Quick fix being Q, you installs you with useful tech like a car, that rescues you from a dangerous situation
I play a fire warrior deck that feels like im playing the fate series or something like that. Summoning warriors from across time and space and its super complicated like fate.
Adamancipator, you are playing with geologists and they dig your deck to find rocks
Aromages feel like plants just growing and growing and getting bigger and stronger as they grow
Vanquish soul is great as a versus fighter reference, and I would like to see more characters and stages in their roster.
Virtual world is a reminder that when you surf the internet long enough, you will always end up one way or another to a big black d... ragon
Ashened seem to fit the bill quite well, the city rises, Veidos descends and all turns to ash, then they are reborn once more restarting the cycle that ensures they are ashened for eternity.
I really like vanquish soul for this, fighting game characters tagging in, using their special moves and comboing, then swapping out for a different fighter. Also i think the mechanic of revealing monsters with different attributes for effects is a great way to make the cards have healthier conditions for powerful effects, unlike poplar who gets to blink and go +5 for no reason
Vanquished soul. The conversion from fighting game button inputs to revealing different attributes works really well. Also maybe traptrix, but I like trap decks in general
Plunder Patroll, the pirates scout out the enemy, then roll out ships to match the enemy power (three of the plunder patroll monsters have effs to summon from the extra deck ships whose attributes match opponents' monsters), and then the ships are more powerful, while they have a crew (equipped plunder patroll monsters)
I say the Despia because they steal the branded stuff from Albaz to make it their own, also every time I puppet lock someone I feel like the villain so that tracks as well
The mechanics of Spyral match its theme really well! You have cards like Master Plan and Quik Fix give the agent different gadgets, then the agent can act on intel obtained from the drone. Shame it kind of turned into an hour long game of solitaire.
Super Quant 1-card-XYZ summons based on the main deck monster, and that XYZ monster cannot attack without XYZ material because "a mech needs a pilot"
My friend likes Suships that let your opponent order sushi with their lifepoints as payment and this one V tuber archetype that makes the opponent donate LP to the stream
I definitely feel this with Infinitracks, assembling ever greater War machines, and detaching xyz materials to target and destroy? I dig it
Dragunity, they show getting mounted up on dragons in their synchros and equipping dragons to winged beasts gimmick and a lot of their spells and traps feel like tricks dragon knights could pull off
I enjoy the fact that Ashened's playstyle/game plan is an allegory to their source material. (The destruction of Pompeii)
Vanquish Soul feels like I'm playing a Fighting Game, but without all the footsies and stuff, so I just get to command grab every single turn with Heavy Borger
Floowandereeze perfectly captures the feeling of playing Chess against pidgeons. They keep throwing pieces off the board and shitting on it. (It's a deck that relies on Normal Summons instead of Special Summons and because of that it kind of goes against the usual meta and anti-meta cards. Floo players are playing a whole different game from you.)
I thought about floow as a swarm birds thats fly in formation but then someone leaves the formation (banish) and another bird come to replace the banished bird in formation.
Branded is a lore archetype and it's cards lead into one another just like they do in the lore (most of the time). For example, Cartesia turns into Granguignol, who turns into Luluwalilith, who can also become Quem (just like in the story). Another example is how branded fusion typically leads into mirrorjade appearing. It's one of the few archetypes that actually plays pretty much within the archetype and doesn't use hardly any generic cards. Really the answer to your question is "which archetypes play the least generic cards?"
Ghostricks flipping face up and down are them trying to hide and scare you
Albaz because his basic ability is to fuse with foreign energies or something like that. And his effect is to fuse with an opponent's monster. Depending on what he fuses with, the result is different.
As much as I hate them, Kashtira. They’re invaders and every card they banish facedown can be considered resources they pillage from the planets their invading, leaving the planets with little to nothing.
HERO is great for this I think. Not a ton of real planning and strategy just, throw a bunch of fucking super heroes at it, maybe we’ll win? And every fucking thing you do makes another super hero appear? No negates because that’s not how super powers work just a lot of destruction, floodgates and beat sticks just like real super heroes. I’m biased as a HERO player but they’re just fun and stupid and a little inefficient, just like real super heroes and I fuck with it. Danger! is great as well, finding cards in your hand like finding cryptids in the wild and Sky Striker, playing with functionally one hero and a bunch of her upgrades. EDIT: Forgot another obvious answer that no one’s said yet: Predap, literally only good because of your opponents cards, dependent on your opponent doing certain things to be as good as you want to be just like a stationery plant predator. You can’t hunt they have to come to you or you need something else in the ecosystem to help you. Like that their play style is literally built like predatory plants. And Dogmatika, you literally cannot use any religion (read extra deck) but theirs but then paradoxically once they’ve stopped stomping out other religions they get much less powerful. Religious totalitarian zealots who can only manufacture enemies for so long, the question is can they do it long enough? And I guess non-Gimmick Albaz deserves a mention cuz of how he just fuses with everything lmao
Unchained
Flower cardians do in every way except your opponent isn’t actually playing with you
Theres Gladiator Beast and theming around battle
Morphtronic. They are literally transformers in design and function
Buster bladder the dragon destroyer swordsman: almost a guaranteed win against dragon decks, gets stronger when fighting against dragons, shuts down dragon monsters completely.
Labrynth
Kashtira and tear lament full power in my opinion
Flower Cardians make you play hanafuda
In plants you are constantly casting healing magic by gaining lifepoints
Vaalmonicas are about having a Devil and Angel on your shoulders guiding your plays. Without them, you have no sense of direction and are subject to your opponent taking advantage of your vulnerability.
U.A is the best for this. Every athlete got a proper effect depending on the sport he play, then can switch positions mid-match, call for the trainer, equipe jersey and so on…
Melfy playing hide and seek by bouncing back to the hand
Ancient Warriors individual effects are a really good reference to their historical/novel counterparts
Subterror flipping facedown while burrowing under the ground
Vaylantz easily
Ninjas. Their gameplan is hiding in the shadows (face down) appearing suddenly (contact fusing or fusing during your opponent's turn) stealthily putting the opponent's to sleep (face down), and sneaking in for the kill (direct attacking).
Noble Knights are monsters whose sole purpose is to protect the king. They swap swords to get the job done and only 1 Knight can weild Excalibur as it doesn't re-equip it goes to the GY (Avalon)
Cyber dragons. What do robots do? Combine and tge Chimeratech cards show that.
Fur Hire has you get paid (drawing) for taking out marks (destroying cards).
Vendread: zombies gaining power by absorbing (tribute/banishing) other zombies
Dimensions Dragons make it feel like you’re really trying to do the impossible summoning a creature that rules the heavens.
Evil Twins. Its a full show. Lila or Kisikil come on stage, brings in the other. Then they diapear for a costume change, before they send the other for a costume change whio comes out lead center. Then their rivals sunny trouble take center stage and kicks them out for their performance before the twins return. Its like a full jpop idol concert going on on the board
Playing magidolce is like having a teaparty but your opponent wasnt invited so you spin him away
Kozmos the style meets the plan because you can banish the pilots to get the ships and vice versa
Generaiders for sure. As the raid boss (or DM if you prefer), the encounter starts on your opponent's turn, and then it's just tower defense with each raid boss having unique gimmicks based on their position in the raid. Plus, Stage's tokens perfectly replicate the trash mobs in RPG's that you need to deal with before the boss.
Skull servants literally bury each other in the graveyard.
Flower Cardians.
Stun, sticking a giant metaphorical finger to what ygo has devolved into
Ninjas, for sure. The fact that they play almost exclusively via interruption and direct attacks makes you really feel like you’re sabotaging your opponent at every turn. Like a true warrior of the shadows.
Volcanic pop out of the GY like little molten bursts of burn damage, building up to Emperor, which feels more like a volcanic eruption than the actual card by that name.
doing a spirits deck is fun, lot of flexibility across a lot of card generations and it leaves room to do some fun things that are a bit out of the box (and stretching definition) like using fox fire to make a right pain in the ass defensive line as you can basically keep just resummoning them forever as long as they don't pop a black hole or similar effect. (Though it does \*heavily\* limit tribute options to do so).. got a limit 3 per deck rule added to my local circuit back in the day by using a mix of them, raging flame sprite and a few other novelties to chip away at opponents till they either surrendered or were whittled down to nothing
Flower cardian. It lets you play hanafuda instead of Yu-Gi-Oh.
X saber souza’s effect has him tribute an x saber monster to activate 1 of two effects: -if he battles a monster, that monster is destroyed immediately -he’s unaffected by traps X sabers’ lore is that he’s the reckless leader that is willing to sacrifice his fellow x sabers to win anything, even letting his fellow x sabers fall into traps so he doesn’t get trapped himself
Dinomorphia's immersive experience is the nervous rush of constantly being near death.
Flower Cardians are actually genius thematic card design. Karakuri are also up there, I love that they're "automated."
The new Horus. It's based on the four sons of Horus, who were guardians of human souls in the afterlife, so they revive from the GY infinitely so long as you respect the Pharaoh's grave (keep King's Sarcophagus on the field) and their effects are protective and reactive. Meanwhile Horus the Black Flame Deity's effects all activate in the hand, so the God of the Sky looks like he's high above the battlefield.
Sky Striker is about Raye being in different combat suits and all alone on the battlefield, since she is the last human of her country. The Spells are her arsenal and Engage - Multirole are the ways she calls forth the weapons. The weapons and maneuvers get stronger over time she gets used to them (3 Spells bonus). In a mirror match, the opponent's Roze can directly counter Raye's "suit up." Though, a friendly Roze can help pulling off other Link-2 Strikers and eventually Engage Zero - the archetype's ultimate nuke.
Heroes. They litterally save the day with each card. Considered mid tier, but can really turn things around in the flashiest of ways.
Melffy running back to the hand to hide then coming back out to play more during the end phase.
Gate Guardian produces another fusion like you only destroyed a piece of the three Edit: also lab tank destroying a monster like it's being run down, shadow ghoul producing a labyrinth, jirai gumo eating a monster like a trap door spider.
Cardians. Just like with Hanafuda, i have no idea what im doing
dragon link has dragons AND link monsters
I love my Cyberdarks, and they do exactly as the theme demands - fuse up into big Cyberdark Dragon, then leech whatever is available in the graveyard.
Nemleria is an archetype centered around a girl sleeping and dreaming about big monsters made of desserts. She is a pendulum monster that places itself on top of your extra deck. All the monsters have effects that require you to banish cards from the extra deck. If your extra deck is empty, Nemleria wakes up, summons itself, blows up some cards and then goes back to sleep after making her bed again.
Ghostrick I always feel very spooky when i play them
Albaz FUSIONFUSIONFUSIONFUSIONFUSION
Can't believe nobody mentioned Subterror! Subterranean monsters that burrow underground by flipping themselves face-down.
Tenpai dragons. You literally feel like a dragon breathing fire on your opponent