What KILLED Paleo Decks? -- Yugioh Dead Decks

[@CardmarketYGO]

If you want to see the last topping Paleozoic list we could find, follow the link below: bit.ly/42CGgHt

[@Sheikah_Architect]

Hey I couldn't find the 3:20 video with the frogs! Did I miss something? Thanks

[@spacepsycat]

“An archetype made of gross little parasites”. Interesting way of describing the first animals in the history of the planet. The background is the Paleozoic sea not an intestine, Adam.

[@Sheikah_Architect]

I like how that explains their resistance to monster effects.

[@andresraffler]

Paleofrog was my first deck when I first got into yugioh back in 2018, and although I don't play it anymore it will always have a special place in my heart

[@CardmarketYGO]

First deck I ever tried to build semi-competitively. Spoilers, it was in 2020 and I did a bad job. - Adam

[@jackmasterpunk8350]

I had a very competitive paleo frog deck back around 2020 but it was definitely killed off when demise got hit (still trying to find an alternative). But I personally love the idea of them as they are very reminiscent of the Cambrian Era in real life (which is one of my personal favourite time periods of history) so I would love them to come back and they wouldn't be very game breaking imo, shame to see one of my favourite archetypes gone

[@ruaras6198]

I play a Naturia varient, not the most competitive, but extremely fun, theres also combo varients now with turn one opabinia's, I can link you to a discord with some crazy lists if you want

[@jackmasterpunk8350]

@@ruaras6198 I'm currently enjoying my Naturia Traptrix deck that I made myself which I kinda like ngl, really good at controlling your opponent especially if you go first (with vernusylph for ss back from gy and draw power). But that link would be nice to see how to fix my draw power issue

[@luigirock96]

You have a decklist of that one?

[@jackmasterpunk8350]

@@luigirock96 for my naturia traptrix or for his paleo naturia deck?

[@luigirock96]

@@jackmasterpunk8350 ahh mb your paleo frog deck

[@BlazeCon97]

One thing you didn't mention is that Paleos banish themselves from the field if they leave the field after summoning themselves, so if you use them to summon anything but an xyz, you can't summon them back again, and you only actually want to play about 10-12 Paleos maindeck max, so it can actually matter to lose one.

[@CardmarketYGO]

That is very true, we briefly allude to it when we talk about the link monster, but that should've been explained further 😅 - Adam

[@BlazeCon97]

@@CardmarketYGO You were already explaining enough things and doing a great job of it the whole time, so it's more than fair enough! Thanks for the content 😁

[@Petsinwinter2]

Cambroraster would be super playable if it was *any* less specific than "2 Paleozoic monsters"

[@Shinobi729]

I'm hoping for more paleozoic support. I think it would be cool if they had more synergy with other prehistoric themed cards.

[@popoch2]

yes please

[@Petsinwinter2]

They're not parasites! This is slander! They're pre-fish ocean critters

[@spacepsycat]

The first animals. And we all descend from some of them. ❤

[@vincentosburg941]

I played Paleo in my tearlaments Deck. Together with needlebug nest you could mill cards and then go for toad with merrli and any Paleo monster.

[@u.a.perfectace7786]

It was one of the few decks that let me beat a modern D/D/D by out grinding them no matter which summoning mechanic they tried. Its one of the Yugioh decks I could take a match at locals. Its a good deck, just power crept due to way the card text is written out. I always hated Dinomischus in particular. Yeah its karma cut like eff is nice. On paper. In reality you are playing a Control deck that sets cards. You usually don't have enought to afford it's discard cost to banish a face up card on the field (makes a difference, you can't banish face down cards). The orange xyz is hilarious because of how many times players try to Ash it's eff against me....only to realize it was unaffected by monster effects. That other one that requires three mats, it was hard to bring out but it was good when you did it. LIOV gave us the Link 2, which didn't help the deck at all because it required two Paleos and its effects were low impact (better off summoning Toad and other ED monsters). It needs more high impact support. Maybe buffed retrains of the original cards that don't miss timing.

[@williamoldaker5348]

I like the concept of this series.

[@chrisshorten4406]

I'm probably one of the few people who love Paleozoics simply because they are based on the super weird fossil animals found in the Cambrian shale in Canada (Anomalocaris being a personal favorite).

[@lucasmoreiraribeiro]

Me too! Paleozoic, allied with pokemon, made me think about creating a card game based on reviving fossils! Can you imagine you reviving a trilobite and using it to beat down the opposing creature? That would be a dream for me.

[@chrisshorten4406]

@@lucasmoreiraribeiro that would be so cool! What other mechanics would the game have, do you think?

[@ruaras6198]

The decks not dead! I play a banging Naturia variant, and others in a server I'm part of are cooking tearlament builds and crazy traptrix combo (turn one opabinia) builds, we fossils will always thrive

[@joshuawenninger6439]

I think simply giving all the Paleozoic traps an errata that says something like "If you activate a Trap Card (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon this card from your GY as a normal monster..." would go a long way to fix the deck. Then, your opponent couldn't stop the summon simply by activating a non-trap card in response, they would be able to summon in response to a counter trap, and they could be summoned through a torrential tribute resolution so they wouldn't have to be scared of also being destroyed by that TT. Perhaps the once per chain should be kept however to still keep the player from summoning multiple paleozoics off of one trap.

[@axelmolinabotello1306]

I've been playing Paleozoic since 2017 and love them, but yeah they're pretty much dead nowadays. Before the latest banlist I was playing it with Tearlaments. So you could get a mill 5 with either Kitkallos or Needlebug Nest and drop the Tearlaments monsters for fusions and other traps with GY effects like all the Paleozoics, Tearlaments Sulliek for a search, Lost Wind, Breakthrough Skill, Rise to Full Height and so on, or even a Backjack for an extra set trap. Merli is a Lv 2 Aqua, so it's another material for Toad, and you only had to run 1 since it can be recycled from the GY for a Kitkallos fusion. Also Topologic Bomber Dragon was easy to summon, you could revive any Paleo to activate it and pop your own Tear monsters for their effects while leaving the Paleozoics on the field cause they are unaffected. It was surprisingly good, really liked it, but I found it's getting nowhere fast without Kitkallos, so stopped playing it :(

[@OfficialSipSlo]

I feel your pain

[@haroldhughes6602]

You say Bomber dragon was easy to summon. I dont agree. How do you summon it?

[@SwiftLink552]

I've actually been having a fun time with a weird Paleo Spright brew in Master Duel. It's not super good, but because they're all level, link, and rank 2 monsters they synergize real well with the Spright engine. Unfortunately the loss of Toad in Master Duel and the loss of Elf in the TCG make it considerably worse in both formats, and the deck isn't great in the first place, but it's really fun.

[@theautobotmechanic419]

Just out of curiosity would like to have your take and say on the Dinomist arch type

[@chaosbug7]

Paleo fell off because they’re inherently slow being a trap deck & they lost the frogs which helped with speeding them up. What Paleo really needs are traps or cards they can play on turn 1 to get around their limitation. They also need cards with better payoff if they’re Gonna continue to be a slow paced deck

[@ruaras6198]

Man theres a combo build floating around, traptrix discard a paleo, use holetea and go into opabinia to send some traps and go into a crazy combo line, you could send the crystal beasts trap for the tear field spell and pop off that way or a stupid amount of mental lines I've seen

[@DuncanHarbison]

The tear build was a very very solid deck but the banlist killed that one too.

[@ruaras6198]

@@DuncanHarbison aye unfortunately that's the case, but the decks many builds are still fun, I'd encourage you to give it a go sometime

[@draconian_valley7810]

I played Paleo (without the Frogs) as a budget option back when I wanted to try a different deck in my locals. Kinda ended up running exclusively trap cards, but also put in things like Barrier Statue of the Torrents (oops) and the two copies of Card of Demise I took from my Yosenjus. Also, Wetlands existed. A sort of 'annoy the opponent' stall control, running annoying Mirror Forces, Torrentials and Floodgate like Anti-Spell and Iron Wall (which was kinda really strong because then the Trap Monsters wouldn't get banished). It was surprisingly effective at buying time to assemble Rank 2 Extra Deck monsters, like their own Anomalocaris, but also with friends like Cat Shark. I remember having a bit of fun - it was definitely interactive, lots of sprining Traps at ideal times instead of complete floodgates stopping people playing the game - never won much against decks like Kozmo or Majespecters, but had fun with other matchups I guess. A good deck for locals, at the time.

[@lordarchon2572]

1) Field card that allows you do the following: Allows you to special summon paleos from you hand as monsters locking you into only summonning paleo monsters for the rest of the turn. Hard once per turn, when a paleo is summoned from the graveyard, banish one card on the field face down Paleo traps and monsters that leave thef field cannot be banished 2) A link 2 that sets a banished trap to your field that cannot be activated unless you control an aqua monster 3) A counter trap onmi negate that works if you control a xyz monster with a paleo trap as material Spitballing here😆

[@nigerianprinceajani]

I don't think Paleo wants a Counter Trap. Solemns are more versatile anyways and you can't chain your Paleos to Counter Traps. Edit: The Link 2 idea sounds too good with Trap Trick in the format.

[@raykirushiroyshi2752]

"parasites" omgi can feel my teeth growing and my finger rising

[@spacepsycat]

First world education momento.

[@raykirushiroyshi2752]

@@spacepsycat I'm AKCHUWLY from a second world country ☝️🤓

[@LordKenntax]

This video aged like milk. God bless rollback.

[@garlicxlr]

I'll always cherish my Paleozoic Aqua Actress deck. Reasoning into Aqua Actress Tetra, get a bunch of Paleozoics into grave and then pump them with Wetlands and Aquarium Set.

[@beardedPUCK]

I would really love some more paleo support. It would give some more alternatives for trap-based decks. Additionally i could then play Absolute king back jack in the deck ( I rlly like this card :D )

[@takaruku8128]

I topped locals multiple times recently with paleos before it was hit, with paleo tearlament, you facilitate tears as a mill engine for your paleos, lost winds, breakthrough skill, rise to full heights, vivid tail etc, with Dino discarding for effect, marrela binning suillek to search, and merli being a level 2 aqua the synergy between them actually being quite good and rank 2 plays gave you an easy downerd two mat zeus, easily the best version in a long time

[@DarkCT]

5:10 one of the worst things about mistar in that era of Paleo? Paleos ignore ALL monster effects. including your own. you don't know how many times i could swing out a cat shark and wanted to buff my Ano. it has it's benefits (Zeusing your own board while the paleo's don't give a crap), but also negatives. 6:12 yeah. it's REALLY fun losing to other decks just because of how they resolved, so if your enemy knows paleos, or even doesn't, random responses they have can just shut down a potential paleo summon. sure you get times when you can kick off 2-3 traps and revive 3 paleos alongside them, but it's not as common as you think. also, Paleo's banish from field when used as anything but exceed material, so while some link plays can work in deck, most of them feel like a horrible idea... 6:53 another fun detail- the effect that makes the main deck paleos count as a normal monster on board. ive seen some odd cards employed to take advantage of that fact. 7:14 honestly, I really dislike this card to the point i don't even see many other paleo players even use it. the tilter is it was a link that asked for 2 Paleo's flat. 8:10 ... the main deck cards worth the most are a trap version of - karma cut, paleo specific trade-in, trap specific foolish burial goods (not only paleo), Book of moon, and MST. the extra decks best are a search (if made with at least one trap) and activate from the hand while on field, and a 3 material ED that can quick effect pop 1, and can excavate 1 for trap cards as a SOPT when a trap card on your side of the field activates on field, dumping anything else to the grave. The answer is the decks slow, and even compared to other trap decks, it cannot generate advantage as easily in the modern day. it's also harder to splash then other decks due to the fact that in archetype you NEED to have a trap as part of the exceeds or the effectiveness of the paleo ED diminishes further. this is because the gamestate as a whole is sigficantly more resilient or just has higher impact cards. playing Paleo vs Labrynth can be like treading a minefield, because they recover so much off of one of their successful conditions. it hurts to hear modern traptrix is a combo deck, but that aside since their new support their biggest weakness is still their most core trap cards are even worse going second then other trap decks, akin to counter fairies in that regard. the one card of support it's gotten since it's initial wave(s) did nothing to help this, which was why it was at the hip with frogs for so long, who also had prescious little support. a saving grace is any trap activation on field (including traps played from the hand, but not traps from the grave) can set off the paleo effect, even the opponent. trap cards that recover themselves like lost wind can be useful for multiple activations, and thus multiple paleos. 10:20 fossils. that said, more exceeds, a new wave of maindeck paleos with some speed, and a possible starter that could also be searched with opabinia would be nice. heres a concept- one of my favorite things about running Trap Trick in Paleo is that you can set up 2 paleos and extra advantage if you use it the right way. cards that activate on the field and reset themselves, or/and allow direct paleo swarming would definitely help. i know you mention it a bit later, but no, no field spell. faster activation or conditional traps i think is best for this deck- remember each trap activation the opponent doesn't or can't respond to helps the gameplan. no, there is nowhere near enough trap decks.

[@oopsalldrip1376]

aged like milk

[@nelsal6416]

Give them a field spell searcher that is treated as a trap being activated?

[@chiko6484]

justice for ronintoaden

[@CardmarketYGO]

Forever in our hearts.

[@BLSBLS-um9tj]

I miss playing paleo. When ronin was still legal, I last played it with a mixture with the fang of critias. I was able to end on boards with things like Destruction Dragon or Mirror Force Dragon, Toad, etc. I miss playing the deck.

[@miticodevis]

I had a mill version of this deck some years ago and it was awesome.

[@victorleppas3067]

I remember only having the XYZ way back in the day, Playing way later like 4-5 years ago agaist Paleo-Frog aka why do cards need hard ones per turn pain in the ass. And no seeing them since 1019 Except the one who ban others cards.

[@Nifte2]

Theoretical field spell card for Paleozoic’s Paleozoic Cambrian sea All Paleozoic monsters gain 1200 atk/def when this card is activated, you can add a Paleozoic trap card from your deck to your hand. You can only activate Paleozoic Cambrian sea once per turn. If you control, no monsters, or only control, aqua monsters, you can activate Paleozoic trap cards from your hand without setting. Also, if you have no monsters in your graveyard, or only aqua monsters and spell/trap cards in your graveyard, you can activate Paleozoic trap cards from your hand as a quick effect

[@parasitedocteurdelapeste6998]

dont see the useful of the last eff tbh

[@Virulence-xb2rv]

Paleos are really fun and can contend with meta decks especially with transaction rollback now

[@xenonim]

Because paleozoic is Level 2 monster, your can used it in spright engine turn spright deck become trap base deck. However, it vulnerable if your lose coin toss or die roll, and force go 2nd, your are automatically lose.

[@vergilrules1616]

I think another major reason that this deck fell off is because they're just got to a point where there were better trap decks, or stun decks, because that's essentially what Paleo was. Altergeist came out and was just superior and almost every aspect. And then Guru not much later followed by Eldlich. So why would you play the kind of gimmicky paleo version when you could just play a far more superior and consistent stun/trap deck? But to fix the deck, I think you need something like an engage and a multi-roll. Something that gives you search ability for the traps you want, All while giving you more advantage if you already have something established. And then something that would allow you to reuse traps maybe that are banished instead of in the graveyard, that way you get more recurability.

[@yungedubsavage189kichii2]

Paleo needs a level 4 searcher that dumps in graveyard

[@p.m.e.7311]

They work really well when paired with eldlich

[@sudonahm6940]

They need to make the fieldspell which flavors out as an ancient wetlands style card that adds pt in a similar scale to wetlands, but Comes with paleo payoffs like dumping N paleo names into yiour bin when it dies, givign you access to hand traps in your paleos and dropping itself or revealing itself turn 0 or something.

[@chasestivers7214]

You all should make a video about how the world champ is popularizing this deck again because the deck is absolutely wicked

[@jasonncullum9539]

Paleo-frog was fucking awesome, still have the deck ready to go for when ronintoadin comes back of the ban list

[@AzVonAzathoth]

I run them with labrynths and yubel. Yubel can basically tribute them but because they are not affected by monster effects they dont leave the field.

[@SirEliteGrunt]

They should make a field spell called “Primordial Ocean” to buff paleozoics. Maybe it acts as umi too?

[@BrutuxMusic]

you'll love to hear they are actually somewhat competitive in master duel

[@shen.daniel]

Really should have filmed this with Joshua Schmidt 🤣🤣

[@user-hy5ju6gl2b]

that will all change when rollback comes out... hopefully (unban ronintoadin)

[@zengamer321]

paleo should be faster at spamming out the traps as monsters. i think with opabinia there's a lot of potential if it could make turn 1 plays. it shouldnt be a full on backrow deck like labrynth because it has a split focus on summoning out monsters and making rank 2 so i think it should preserve the toad turbo + backrow gameplan. also it needs ronintoadin unbanned in the tcg and toadally awesome unbanned in the ocg.

[@mairain6443]

I would make a card called ancient wetlands. Gives the 1200 atk boost to aqua 2 star/rank/link and can (quick effect) activate a palio trap from your deck up to trice a turn at a cost of 500 life points each. It's not prefect but would enable powerful plays and set up the deck faster as you mill the traps to activate them to disrupt and summon.

[@RunickFountain998]

I still play it

[@DuncanHarbison]

Paleo would randomly get good whenever the meta struggled to interact with set traps. For example zoo couldn't ever beat paleo ever because it couldn't deal with the traps and so paleo player was in control of the game. Then draco would target set traps and block the paleozoics in grave so the deck became unplayable as soon as we we got draco. Tearlament paleo was very very good but the tearlament hits hurt it even more than it hurt ishizu tearlament. That deck is completely unplayable now between the tear engine + frog engine both being made unplayable.

[@matthewpopow6647]

Ive never seen or played pure paleo but ive seen it splashed a lot

[@DanXRojas]

Paleozoic isn’t dead pure versions sure but it’s a trap deck that turn into monsters you can combo them with wetlands and aquarium then become immortal and if your opponent can’t out invincible creatures you win the duel you don’t need a extra deck to win that’s how strong they are

[@ainevek]

Pretty sure the 'trade-in' at 8:10 was supposed to be Pikaia, not Anomalocaris

[@jesserider655]

So y not pailio runic

[@gaetanhetet9194]

Tearlaments Paleozoïc was actually a very good variant of the deck, but the shufflers kinda killed the strategy

[@jayduel7897]

"what killed paelozoics" a slow trap deck that needs you to set it up,play on your opponents turn,then keep those materials around till your turn to make a less than average boss monster. Not to mention most if the Paleo traps suck. Halving attack? Putting a banish back in GY? Dumping a trap?

[@nicholaswalker757]

paleo really just needs a monster that on normal summon adds a paleo trap or something like that. also a lot of people seem to think that losing roanin toadin is huge loss for paleo, but it really isn't because buzzsaw shark exists and that does what the frog engine does, but way better because it's a 1 card combo. loses to lava golem ig because you'll have toad + bahamut shark on field, but nobody's really gonna side lava golem vs. paleo. even if they see you're running sharks in your list your opponent is much more inclined to side in their backrow removal other than lava golem because lava golem is dead unless you have access to buzzsaw or another way to make bahamut shark.

[@AS-uy8fg]

They should remaster and come with new paleo-traps where the effect is an "if" effect and not a "when" effect 😏😏😏

[@jongsong86]

I feel like you could just abuse opabima + dino biscuits in spright lol

[@partyrock4144]

So basically what every trap deck needs is shade brigandine is what im hearing

[@kiidso0freshh]

down 2 zones for 1 monster... when? 6:42 lol

[@MrAnimeLover1]

Now i'm playing Tearlament Paleozoic, its still pretty fun. ;v

[@pikminlord343]

Neat!

[@Thousandeyes85]

The Paleozoic archetype is based off the first animals to have ever existed on this planet, not parasites. But keep the trap decks coming I always say

[@TheIAMDeathKing]

imagine field trap for paleo

[@AnputVT]

Can we do a "what revived Paleo decks" now because of the recent developments lol.

[@johnbalkin8223]

Never heard of this deck. You sure there isn't a archetype you can combine with it to make it OP?

[@jps_user20]

Runick Spright basically power crept paleo frog Both level 2 engines, both can distrupt opponent by activating trap / spell from hand on your opponent turn Difference is Runick Spright is better at recycling their resources than paleo frog

[@flameburst45]

why did you have to hurt me this morning

[@CardmarketYGO]

I'm sorry. The bad news has shook us all. The Cambrian Extinction has occurred. - Adam

[@MansMan42069]

I actually play Paleozoic + Volcanic in Master Duel

[@Gauzy27072]

Anytime I make a paleo deck I play wetlands

[@theautobotmechanic419]

Not a fun deck to go up against Dinomist vs Paleozoic

[@eddygonzalez9696]

The only reason Paleozoic is dead it's because Rollin is band

[@rudycastillo4150]

Hell yes

[@CosmicDogoran]

Didn't age well. (Transaction Rollback revived this deck.)

[@dininabodinay1707]

they banned ronin, that killed paleo. i stopped playing yugioh after that :(

[@BoredBricks]

You can always play Paleo Sharks.

[@trevvion3]

Paleozoic+ Ojamas (ojama duo busted)

[@FizzleIsGaming]

powercreep.

[@r3zaful]

Burgesstoma is a very slow deck honestly.

[@deadlineuniverse3189]

I think before MAMA the last Hurra of the deck was Tear Paleo.

[@ruaras6198]

We have a naturia and traptrix builds now! paleos are sticking around