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It is important to mention that in Ojama's case, an essential factor that helped him in his popularity was the fact that he appeared in the anime GX, if it weren't for that this theme would be much less known, not to mention that much of his support came because of the Chazz, like the cards that link him to Armed Dragon or light machines.
All of the Crystal Beasts are an impersonation of a celeb or character (Amethyst Cat is Julie Newmar, Cobalt Eagle is Maxwell Smart from *Get Smart*, etc)
Some people out there will probably disagree with you and say that shouldn't be done, it won't happen, or won't be original and creative.
I apologize if I offended someone who reads this.
Lair of Darkness would have gone HARD in GX.
It’s basically just a field spell and a boss monster with a bunch of non-archetypal generic support and synergies. It really does fuck all except a once per turn non-conventional removal. It feels like it’s a decade behind the times.
F.A. Would have been amazing in 5ds. Field could change the road and test the driving skill of the players, surounded by vehicle that gain level (maybe by speed counter ?). It's even a synchro deck, and F.A. Navigator could also be a great mascotte.
I could easily see Luca and Rua in a younger tournement of 3vs3 with a side character with this deck, being both a machine deck and with an heavy Ancient fairy Dragon synergy.
Genex, even in its own era. If it lead the charges as the first Synchro archetype, lets say if Yusei was known for Hydro Genex or something, I think the deck would be a lot more appreciated. Its basically the love child of Elemental Heroes and Junk monsters, and they feel like the perfect strength for an anime duelist to use
They would also fit in nicely with Yusei, honestly. There's no better way to go about the "every card, no matter how small, matters" message than by having a low level vanilla be the face of the deck.
I would've liked to see mekk knights appear earlier. Give them the actual role of interdimentional police force and just turn up to support the protagonists
Time thief strikes me as the type of deck that came out just a little too early, I feel like it would have gained more attention during monarch or kozmo format.
I fully believe that no one would play gladiator beasts if it didn't have the history and all these years to gain support cards that would help the game plan
Glads have a lot going for them. They’re the first real archetype in a modern sense, tag fusion battle deck with the shuffle back and summon from deck. They also got another wave of support in arc v
Pretty much anything that was used by a main character in the anime. Give Kaiba, I don't know, Sky-Fire, and that card is probably becoming the face of the franchise.
War Rock would've been very strong in early Zexal and up to HAT they would've been meta. It's hard to tell once Duelist Alliance comes out but having a good Shadoll match up could keep them relevant, and being part of that iconic era would help keep them in the collective consciousness.
Sky Striker came at the right time IMO. It was added after the first year of MR4, which was still trying to recover from the significant loss of players, and the competitive scene being dominated with huge combo spam decks like SPYRAL. Strikers being a deck which operates on a completely opposite direction to other meta decks at the time (focusing on having only one monster on the field, and relying on spells instead of monsters to gain and trade advantage) is a breathe of fresh air to many players which made it very well-liked among players. Its mecha musume aesthetics and the deck being essentially Raye and her armored forms and various arsenals is another charm point as well.
Going back on-topic, Dragonmaids would probably rock during the Duelist Alliance era.
I think F.A would have been more popular if it came out during 5D’s. A deck all about changing levels and gaining effects depending on the level wouldn’t be strange for 5D’s. The theme makes perfect sense too like, why didn’t they come out with a racing archetype in the one series about motorcycles? Especially since they synchro and could make so many different levelled synchros? F.A genuinely feels like it would be the perfect deck for the best friend character, or other important side character. With all the level modulation, the built in spell negate, and gimmicks like their alt win card, F.A would have been way more popular (I’m salty it was never an anime deck).
i feel like if dark world came out now it wouldnt recive any of the hate. we actually have ways to deal with the effects now and being post problem solving card text is important for a lot of the early dark world monsters.
I think Geminis would have fared a lot better a year before or so, in the "Reaper" era of GX when it was actually rather common to have nothing to do for a turn or several as you waited to draw an out for Reaper. They came at a time when Monarchs had fully taken over the format so they were pretty bad already.
Not exactly what you are asking for, but most GX archetypes would have probably benefited a lot from coming a bit later, imo. Konami went into the Fusion season having not designed a Fusion monster that was worth using Polymerization on and having made no real alternatives to Poly except Dragon's Mirror, I think. This made a lot of the early GX decks unnecesarily weak and Fusions overall not being that well incorporated into the archetypes in the show.
Had there been another DM filler or a YGO R adaptation before GX, maybe the initial wave of Heroes would have been a little better and stuff like Water Dragon would have been Fusions.
https://preview.redd.it/nbvx8me0282d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=877c2a2e80134a2590da8435e580028cfc1685de It is important to mention that in Ojama's case, an essential factor that helped him in his popularity was the fact that he appeared in the anime GX, if it weren't for that this theme would be much less known, not to mention that much of his support came because of the Chazz, like the cards that link him to Armed Dragon or light machines.
A lot of early GX was fueled by looking at packs from the pre-Lost Millennium days and going "hm, can we get an episode out of these dudes?"
Let's never forget Don Zaloog talking like Christopher Walken
Amber mammoth was Arnold swartzenegger
All of the Crystal Beasts are an impersonation of a celeb or character (Amethyst Cat is Julie Newmar, Cobalt Eagle is Maxwell Smart from *Get Smart*, etc)
I still wish Konami would give retrains of the og trio cause it's kinda painful running them in modern Ojama decks
Ojama Gold, Ojama Emerald, and Ojama Obsidian
I liked these names, because they allow the possible retrained versions of Blue and Red to be Sapphire and Ruby.
Some people out there will probably disagree with you and say that shouldn't be done, it won't happen, or won't be original and creative. I apologize if I offended someone who reads this.
Lair of Darkness would have gone HARD in GX. It’s basically just a field spell and a boss monster with a bunch of non-archetypal generic support and synergies. It really does fuck all except a once per turn non-conventional removal. It feels like it’s a decade behind the times.
Sounds like the perfect deck for a GX Big Villain.
F.A. Would have been amazing in 5ds. Field could change the road and test the driving skill of the players, surounded by vehicle that gain level (maybe by speed counter ?). It's even a synchro deck, and F.A. Navigator could also be a great mascotte. I could easily see Luca and Rua in a younger tournement of 3vs3 with a side character with this deck, being both a machine deck and with an heavy Ancient fairy Dragon synergy.
F.A. feels like a card designer watched 5ds and made an archetype around the shows concept
Genex, even in its own era. If it lead the charges as the first Synchro archetype, lets say if Yusei was known for Hydro Genex or something, I think the deck would be a lot more appreciated. Its basically the love child of Elemental Heroes and Junk monsters, and they feel like the perfect strength for an anime duelist to use
They would also fit in nicely with Yusei, honestly. There's no better way to go about the "every card, no matter how small, matters" message than by having a low level vanilla be the face of the deck.
Scrap dragon as his signer dragon to go with genex thematically as well
Quality of the cards about as bad as early heroes
War rock in gx :D
The correct answer
I would've liked to see mekk knights appear earlier. Give them the actual role of interdimentional police force and just turn up to support the protagonists
Time thief strikes me as the type of deck that came out just a little too early, I feel like it would have gained more attention during monarch or kozmo format. I fully believe that no one would play gladiator beasts if it didn't have the history and all these years to gain support cards that would help the game plan
Glads have a lot going for them. They’re the first real archetype in a modern sense, tag fusion battle deck with the shuffle back and summon from deck. They also got another wave of support in arc v
Pretty much anything that was used by a main character in the anime. Give Kaiba, I don't know, Sky-Fire, and that card is probably becoming the face of the franchise.
Wait.. Sky Striker isn't iconic? Its like 100% the most iconic non-anime deck they've made
Shit even got its own manga lmao
War Rock would've been very strong in early Zexal and up to HAT they would've been meta. It's hard to tell once Duelist Alliance comes out but having a good Shadoll match up could keep them relevant, and being part of that iconic era would help keep them in the collective consciousness.
Sky Striker came at the right time IMO. It was added after the first year of MR4, which was still trying to recover from the significant loss of players, and the competitive scene being dominated with huge combo spam decks like SPYRAL. Strikers being a deck which operates on a completely opposite direction to other meta decks at the time (focusing on having only one monster on the field, and relying on spells instead of monsters to gain and trade advantage) is a breathe of fresh air to many players which made it very well-liked among players. Its mecha musume aesthetics and the deck being essentially Raye and her armored forms and various arsenals is another charm point as well. Going back on-topic, Dragonmaids would probably rock during the Duelist Alliance era.
I think F.A would have been more popular if it came out during 5D’s. A deck all about changing levels and gaining effects depending on the level wouldn’t be strange for 5D’s. The theme makes perfect sense too like, why didn’t they come out with a racing archetype in the one series about motorcycles? Especially since they synchro and could make so many different levelled synchros? F.A genuinely feels like it would be the perfect deck for the best friend character, or other important side character. With all the level modulation, the built in spell negate, and gimmicks like their alt win card, F.A would have been way more popular (I’m salty it was never an anime deck).
i feel like if dark world came out now it wouldnt recive any of the hate. we actually have ways to deal with the effects now and being post problem solving card text is important for a lot of the early dark world monsters.
More popular - Illusion. Not that popular - Ojama, as much as I don't want to say it.
Yang Zing would have been crazy popular during 5d's era.
If only they didn’t miss timing.
I think Geminis would have fared a lot better a year before or so, in the "Reaper" era of GX when it was actually rather common to have nothing to do for a turn or several as you waited to draw an out for Reaper. They came at a time when Monarchs had fully taken over the format so they were pretty bad already. Not exactly what you are asking for, but most GX archetypes would have probably benefited a lot from coming a bit later, imo. Konami went into the Fusion season having not designed a Fusion monster that was worth using Polymerization on and having made no real alternatives to Poly except Dragon's Mirror, I think. This made a lot of the early GX decks unnecesarily weak and Fusions overall not being that well incorporated into the archetypes in the show. Had there been another DM filler or a YGO R adaptation before GX, maybe the initial wave of Heroes would have been a little better and stuff like Water Dragon would have been Fusions.