Crystal Beasts - Failed Cards and Mechanics

[@anonymouscontributor1520]

Another thing Crystal Beast decks did in the past was fill-up 3 of their Spell/Trap zones with Crystal Beast monsters and then send them to the GY to Special Summon “Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder” since those monsters counted as Continuous Spell cards. Edit: And apparently Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings was used alongside Hamon as well.

[@cptrevenant4088]

Yep. Hamon was the only reason to run the monsters in the backrow

[@ramonperez5365]

for me i kinda used hamon as a replacement to rainbow dragon lol

[@Jack_Rakan]

@@cptrevenant4088 I remember playing a Crystal Beast deck back in the day before XYZ where I used them more as an engine for my actual good monsters: Hamon (obviously), Dragon Queen Of Tragic Endings (because it was Hamon-lite, and came back every turn, and could also hand rip), Gravi-Crush Dragon for removing monsters, and Magna-Slash Dragon for spell/trap removal. Was it good? Not really, but I had more fun with that deck than with braindead 'vomit your hand onto the field' decks like Six Samurai.

[@TheYGOenjoyer]

I still do that in Duel Links.

[@Asher_Tye]

Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings was also fun.

[@glacierwolf2155]

I feel like a Failed Cards & Mechanics on Ice Barrier or Nordics would be interesting to see.

[@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137]

I wish the Nordic synchros had a generic summon requirement

[@midn8588]

Ice barriers just have close to zero maindeck synergy. Nordics are kinda playable now.

[@SloopYGO]

@@midn8588 ice barriers have a lot of random unplayable monsters, but some of the structure deck support is pretty ok, they can actually summon the dragons now

[@mateusrp1994]

Ice Barriers are kinda playable now after the SD, they just can't compete with anything.

[@Bezaliel13]

@@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137 But you would still need the specific Tuner for the revival Effect.

[@KingsleyIII]

Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle looks like it could be a Ghost-type Eeveelution.

[@wolfie-_-ranger7932]

It's surprising how Konami was able to push Crystal Beast Support this far with only 3 good Crystal Beast monsters. Though it probably means that we won't see good Crystal Beast Support in the form of monsters for some time now since the Deck would skyrocket in viability if they were given at least 2 good monsters.

[@truechoas6224]

Back before the synchro Era, they saw some play thanks to Crystal Abundance. Most players didn't play Rainbow Dragon or would play it at 1. And the deck aimed to wipe the board and otk with Crystal Abundance being the main driving force behind the deck as a whole.

[@samuquinhaplay5708]

I think their new support definetely can help them maybe go rogue or be more consistent. Which makes me very happy.

[@Stardendudenhardenbutt]

It already done that. Yuma AZ regionals it got 3rd Place It got 45th at a YCS prior to the banlist.

[@Guy-McPerson]

They were rogue after the structure deck hit. The support was huge for them, and there were a number of tops for the conclave control variant. I'm not too sure how they'll be right now, what with kashtira blocking out zones, but who knows. It's a respectable archetype

[@ΣΙΡΟΚΟΣ]

I mean, they don't lose in 3 seconds now but last for about a minute so I think they did enough

[@DjRenect]

Not sure. I’ve only played against it in Master Duel, and I my experience the deck is just a little bit too slow.

[@tomato7210]

@@DjRenect the sd is not in md yet

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Took a while to get going, but this mechanic was ahead of its time. A lot of the Crystal trouble was that a lot of support urged you towards playing all 7, and of which only like 2 were much use. There were decks featuring them as early as their initial prints. Ancient City is a pretty sweet card.

[@AlexisStreams]

that's because people were forcing themselves to play that specific way i need 7 crystal beast monsters when you could achieve that without thinking Painful choice lets say i got 4 of the 5 cards i show my opponent are crystal beast monsters and one was a field spell Thats 3-4 crystal beast cards in the graveyard you just need 3 if you sent 4 to the grave 4 if you sent 3 to the graveyard foolish burial that's 4-5 and we need 2-3 or you could use crystal beasts for ritual summoning, to summon obelisk or hamon, synchro summoning, xyz summoning, there was ways of playing crystal beasts without trying to get 7 different crystal beasts in the grave

[@runningoncylinders3829]

@@AlexisStreams Painful Choice was in the format long enough for Crystal Beast to run it?? The mill 5 one? Or am I thinking of the vanilla one with the Ojama sharkchase? I knew they could use Hamon. Even made its way into the Structure. Painful reminds me of stuff like Graceful, Forceful, and other very early bans.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

It's literally a pendulum deck made before syncros existed

[@TheGreatSalsaMan]

Honestly only Saphire pegasus was useful as it is a plus 1. The rest are all just meh. If the original beasts had some better stats and effects they could’ve been really powerful since their support spell cards were pretty OP. Ruby was only useful if you could fill your Spell & Trap Zones with crystal beasts which was not super easy back in the day to make it worth special summoning a 300 ATK 3 star monster that does nothing else.

[@stug6974]

@@runningoncylinders3829 You're right, Painful Choice has been banned since 2005, before Crystal Beasts even released as an archetype. And for very good reason - it's one of, if not the most powerful spell card in the game. On the list of decks it would enable, Rainbow Dragon Turbo is a footnote at best.

[@strugglingvgcplayer9120]

after the structure deck they’re kinda decent. that new rainbow bridge of the heart does a lot of heavy lifting

[@justtheaverageone3840]

Which is a problem, since like if you play pure neos, if your spirit of neos gets negated, your whole turn can die, just like when the rainbow brigde gets negated

[@AlexisStreams]

they were always decent you guys just didnt know how to use them to its full potiential, instead of using crystal beasts the way they were intended, why not use them in other ways hamon-obelisk, Ritual Summoning, synchro summoning, xyz summoning, link summoning, you guys didnt need a structure deck that makes their key pieces broken pegasus + ruby carbuncle can get you out a 3k beat stick with no cost, i'd change sapphire pegasus effect to target level 4 or below crystal beast monsters and ruby carbuncle i'd target level 4 or below crystal beast monsters.

[@justtheaverageone3840]

@@AlexisStreams did your deck ever saw competitive sucess/any crystal beast deck for that matter? I mean in the old days summoning hammon with crystal beasts is fun and all but hammon is just a big beater with no protection, and even im the old days everyone had fissure/sakuretsu armor/mirror force etc., and using them as link fodder is the only "viable" way to use them nowadays besides needing some for the negate/bounce effects or if you want to be extra spicy, use them for the rainbow dragons. But most of these decks are not really good

[@AlexisStreams]

@@justtheaverageone3840 and thats the problem, yugioh is dead, back in the day you had to be selective on when to activate traps should i waste saku on lajinn or use it on barrel dragon, now people can't play the game without negations or controlling the game so the opponent cant play 20 years ago yugioh was competitive, you had to be smart on how you played the game now its like i bring out zeus i bring out arc rebellion dragon i bring out apollousa, i bring out that XYZ Traptrix monster no yugioh for you i dont understand how you guys call that fun

[@AlexisStreams]

@@justtheaverageone3840 also lets say i summon hamon and obelisk in one turn how can you beat those 2 monsters if you dont have mirror force, yes you may take out obelisk or hamon, but who ever you dont take out you're still taking 4000 damage

[@alvaroquirita]

Conclave Control player here, the structure deck was an awesome. Being a cheap deck you can easily win again Tearlaments (sure u can brick but that's a risk that a non tier 0 deck has to take). Also the combo variants are awesome. Crystals are cool.

[@Solitude2500]

Funny that the Crystal Beasts and the Germ Knights have zero connection to each other despite having the same concept of being based on Gem stones. Would be awesome for them to have lore connections and a fusion of Rainbow Dragon and Master Diamond similar to Dragon Master Knight.

[@Megamanlanprime]

They are conceptually a combo of Crystal Beasts and E-HERO’s.

[@Deathmare235]

@@Megamanlanprime oh yeah it does seem like a combo of the 2

[@Deathmare235]

Imagine if they combined the 2 archetypes

[@Megamanlanprime]

@@Deathmare235 that’s Vision HERO’s

[@Deathmare235]

@@Megamanlanprime fine combine vision heroes with them

[@Entei9000]

Hot take: they were a completely solid archetype when they were first introduced. Their spells and traps were extremely good, and the format wasn't anywhere near as fast as it is now, so Rainbow Dragon's downside of having to wait a turn to use its effects wasn't that big of a deal, even though it was still hard to summon. Side note, Abundance is much better than Soul Charge was since it clears the entire field without destroying or targeting, on top of filling your field.

[@bmwjourdandunngoddess6024]

I remember using them in 2008 World Championship DS game and going OFF on everyone and having Jessie has my partner!

[@HerrenGamingNews]

What if Konami made pendulum crystal beast retrains? Each crystal beast is a pendulum monster with 1-12 scales. The pendulum effects all work towards powering out Rainbow Dragon, having back and front row protection, draw power, milling, adding cards back to the deck, and negates. The cards could even have a unique effect to allow them to use pendulum effects once sent to the back row. The archetype is perfect for a pendulum style of play since the deck itself wants to swarm front and back row.

[@melvinshine9841]

Flip monsters have to be on the short list for this series. Used to be some of the best cards in the game and now Guru and Shaddolls are the only Flips people use, and Shaddolls aren't even really used for their Flip effects. Ghosttricks have a lot of the same problems as Flips, so they'd be good. Mekklords and Earthbound Gods also work. Maybe Rituals given how they usually *need* busted support to see play.

[@noukan42]

Except that they aren't failed. Failed means it wasn't good when it was released. If anything i would argue that it is a failing of the game itself to not manage to keep certain basic mechanichs relevant.

[@colmecolwag]

@@noukan42 wondering how much the game would be changed if Destruction effects would still trigger Flip effects but also flip effects have been power crept into doing such stupidly powerful things that that probably wouldn't be a great idea

[@webbowser8834]

Mah man Penguin Soldier and Hane Hane are the best cards, obviously.

[@alainbcdefghijk]

The reason it failed is because they couldn't properly implement an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice whenever you played Amber Mammoth.

[@theaverageDon]

3:15 that's one thing I'll never understand about Crystal Beasts and their design Konami missed an opportunity to make them sorta like pendulum monsters by having them do something while a continuous spell. Even the Infernoble Knights do something while being treated as equips Still my favorite Crystal Beast variant was link spamming using pre-erratta Firewall Dragon

[@christopherb501]

You'd think even their super-weak effects would at least be usable in the Spell/Trap Zone, but apparently no.

[@dustinvance243]

The advanced crystal beasts fix this some what. Advanced Ruby Carbuncle can summon itself from the S/T zones. And when it's summoned it can summon out all the other advanced crystal beasts in your S/T zones as well. Meaning they function very similarly to a pendulum deck in terms of mass summoning and being able to repeatedly come back when they've been destroyed. And with advanced dark you won't be taking any battle damage either.

[@H3II0There]

As a crystal beast fan I really liked your approach to the deck and greatly pointed out their strengths and weaknesses, the only thing i was missing is to mention rainbow dragon overdrive, even briefly, because even if it's not as good and consistent as the control variant, it still is kind of a broken boss monster if someone's managed to summon it. Overall it's a very good video, and thanks for covering my favorite archetype, I'm looking forward for more awesome vids like this

[@rainbowdragon168]

My all time favourite archetype and I’m so glad it got some support in the structure deck. Maybe Crystal Beasts can become more playable in the future.

[@Stardendudenhardenbutt]

Already is a top rogue strategy

[@AlexisStreams]

they were always playable people just didnt know how to bring out its full potiential

[@rainbowdragon168]

@@AlexisStreams Yeah that’s what I meant

[@rainbowdragon168]

@@Stardendudenhardenbutt ok

[@AlexisStreams]

@@rainbowdragon168 its sad to see the state of yugioh is in, people cant seem to win duels without using a control based negation decks :( yugioh isnt like it was 20 years ago

[@SerpiaXerma]

I'm surprised you haven't made a "Failed Cards and Mechanics" on Dark Magician yet. As far as fan favourite monsters/archetypes go, they're actually quite terrible competitively, and most of their new good support typically goes towards helping other meta decks by accident (hello Magicians' Souls SPYRAL)

[@paintingcube3853]

I'm currently trying to make some custom orcas for a good Toon Monster structure deck so I can role play Pegasuas against more modern decks. I have some ideas if your interested in reading over some examples.The primary line of custom Toon Monster cards are what's a part of the MAX! line as I've pitched as a concept: MAX! Toon Kingdom acts as toon world on the field if you don’t already control it on the field. When activated, under no circumstances can your toon monsters, or MAX! toon kingdom, be targeted by your opponents card affects of any kind. If your opponent’s monster attacks a toon type monster, resulting in it’s destruction, you can banish one card from your deck or graveyard and negate it. Your opponent can destroy this card by paying 2000 life points, and if they do, draw three cards from your deck. I would redesign the other best icons of Toon archetypes to attack on their first turn, reciting the summon sickness. There's also this guy that made some sick God Card Toon variants that work better than their original Slifer, Obilisk, and Ra versions. My favorite is the Toon Exodia: It requires the three Toon God Monsters as tributes to summon it as the only way to play it on the field. Is also immune to all card affects. And gets ATK/DFN for each Toon Monster in your graveyard or your opponents graveyard as well. My last example is also another piece of God Monster related concepts: MAX! The Sacrifice of Marik MAX! The Burden of Atem. MAX! The Passing of the Torch All three cards are meant to make it easy to summon one of the three specific God Cards from your deck, hand, graveyard, or even the banished zone. Try and guess which is for which monster, they all work the same way, easy to summon one of the three, while also giving them their abilities from the anime. However you can only play one of these MAX! cards to summon only one God Monster in this truly overpowered way. You can also not have three copies of these three spell cards as well for obvious reasons, however they themselves will be given protection from negates of all types like Ash Blossom, and all other card affects like Raigeki/lightining storm and even mystic mine.

[@popstarchamp]

Failed Cards: Multi Turn Cards (Cards with effects that take multiple turns to resolve. Like after a monster attacks another one the attacked monster is destroyed at the end of the 5th turn)

[@AshenPlayer]

Good one

[@midn8588]

Good enough multi turn effects have seen play. See: Final Countdown, future fusion.

[@parkouremaster]

Pumpking if the Ghost

[@HeneLv]

Isn't that one kind of easy to explain compared to talking about archetypes? Pretty much for the most part is that the game is too fast or too easy to remove. There's very few that actually worked

[@mateusrp1994]

@@midn8588 Future Fusion has never seen play for the effect you have to wait for, just for the instant dump of fusion materials. The errata made so you also have to wait to dump the materials and nobody plays it anymore.

[@serialpixel]

you've described everything so well for someone who took a long break to the game, thank you so much. makes me consider coming back to try this out

[@skyslasher2297]

I think maybe a new episode can be on the Sacred Beasts.

[@MrPuch82]

This game has the funniest and most ridiculous names I have ever heard. "Ultimate Crystal Rainbow Dragon Overdrive". Love the videos. Even as a person who barely plays the game (only "Legacy of the Duelist" to be honest), they are so well researched and competently presented, that they are very entertaining. Thank you. :)

[@mrsupergamefreak1780]

I loved and still love crystal Beasts. One of my favorite archetypes So glad they still stay around.

[@byrontheusurper6505]

I love them so much. They're the only cards I ever owned as a kid so I'm weirdly attatched to them, which is why my first ever real deck is the new crystal structure deck!

[@Kiteboxing]

does this mean you're the IRL jesse anderson

[@ThatOneWeirdFlex]

​@@Kiteboxingno, that's Neshy.

[@Zenos-zd3rm]

Honestly right now the deck is a lot of fun, sure it’s not meta but the newest support has been an awesome help for them

[@ATable4You]

I feel like Dark Magicians should also be on here, they are constantly getting blown out.

[@Questioningbasics]

Back in the 2000s I used to play Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder instead of Rainbow Dragon, meant you had to find graveyard synergies but much easier to summon.

[@kagusi4356]

A year later, and the Revolution has begun for the Crystal Beasts

[@eleazarvalenciano1716]

If you’re looking for video ideas, I think that Vendreads could be seen as a partial failure. The on field inheritance effects are hard to apply, the archetype is cohesive in theme but not in play. And additional support has not been extremely kind because of zombie balancing

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

Everyone says that Vendreads are a bad archetype mainly because some big KZbinrs say it sucks. Vendread is actually a decent rogue deck that is pretty underrated because, according to Rata, the deck sucks. All you need to do to make it playable is to set up your graveyard a bit, which the deck can do on its own as well as take advantage of generic zombie support. You just have to remember that ritual summoning in the deck isn't as important as graveyard set-up. Once you've got the graveyard set up, the ritual monsters practically summon themselves.

[@eleazarvalenciano1716]

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 wouldn’t it then be correct to say that when setting out to make a ritual based zombie deck that it can be seen as a failure in mechanics, very similar to crystal beasts as we’re talking about play style, if you’re not supposed to focus on the ritual summon aspect? And the gimmick being you gain effects for the rituals only from field materials? I’m not denying that they can make plays, it just seemed to be in a similar position to how the video presented this sort of interaction. Because if crystals beasts are the best they’ve ever been now, it’s not unreasonable to say that another rogue strategy couldn’t be discussed this way

[@Varatil]

6:00 I've clearly been absorbing more than I thought. Haven't touched the game outside these videos in nearly a decade. But when I heard "High cost vanilla boss is now crucial in a *different* way," I immediately knew it was gonna be "They made it a core engine piece with some archetype-specific support." Guess that means the videos are pretty good explanations of the meta :D

[@Infernoburnz]

After the new support I've been playing it at my locals as a turbo for the fusion. The worst I've done is 2 wins 2 losses

[@Pluto_lover]

That thumbnail looks like a Eevee evolution from Pokemon

[@bethor7]

Every LV3 Crystal Beasts also saw competitive play in Duel Links as garnets in pre-nerf Transcendence Crystal Crystron. Carbuncle may be the weakest because it doesnt serve any purpose other than a target for the Crystron's effects, but got the benefit of 'cannot be stolen' by Invocation that was everywhere at the time.

[@brunonascimento2003]

Cyberdark could be a interesting topic, considering that the archetype also has a structure deck

[@Danielss250]

Maybe a video on genex where the whole archetype is made to support and work around a vanilla tuner monster. They have a lot of cards and should make for an interesting video I think. At least the genex thing about making an archetype having to use vanilla monsters is something Konami loves to do, like magikey, sunavalon and suship for example. Some broad archetypes like ally of justice, who was made to counter an expecific element could also be interesting.

[@emmessjee]

I'd like to see a Failed Cards entry for flip effect monsters. They are the OG effect monsters to be contended with but couldn't ever catch up to the ever accelerating pace of modern Yu-Gi-Oh!

[@Chocolate-Fox444]

Makes me sad. I love these cards and try to make the deck work all the time. 50% win rate in casual games with friends

[@DrDuck555]

I like how he glosses over abundance even though it’s a soul charge mixed with Zeus

[@kefkapalazzo1]

“We really need some more ideas” lol I thought that would never happen

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

Crystal Beast are probably the most successful Deck out of this section of "Failed Cards and Mechanics"

[@yunkingleong5886]

i think Union ABC Dragon deck beats this

[@anonjohn9760]

"Crystal Beasts have never had the opportunity to shine (...) ' Real gem of a joke right there, I see.

[@kennydarmawan13]

As for MtG does this better... I actually have no idea, tbh. The closest thing I can think of is the modal double-faced cards in Zendikar Rising, which allows you to choose either spells or resources. And guess what, those cards are strong. You can pick which side to choose with both having utility than just being a Darksteel Relic. That and the mechanic also makes loopholes in the land clause. I believe that with the Crystal Beasts, being able to play them as continuous spell cards with effects right away can help as it quickens their play style. And also, with Pendulums being a thing, the Crystal Beast archetype should get pendulum retrains to turbo out faster.

[@DrakeSilver]

i would say that the pendulum monsters aren't bad but just victims of the aftermath of moving the pendulum zones to the S/T zones. Before that you got two cards that would offer either protection, a search or some battle shenanigans in the form of an honest like effect. When the pendulum zone got moved you lost the protection portions of it since why would you put them in the pendulum zone now? they aren't considered crystal beasts which meant that using even one of them now would cut you off pretty much every good S/T you had. If they get errata'd to be considered crystal beasts people would at the very least experiment with them to see if the effects are worth it but that's a nonfactor if they aren't considered as such.

[@kennydarmawan13]

As for the Advanced Crystal Beast, it's baffling Konami is still having the Malefic mindset even today despite the fact that Monsters needing a field spell to function or even exist is never a good game design in a game that has no separate cost system. I mean, in MtG, Crystal Beasts work better because your opponent needs to conserve their resource to decide to further their game plan or get rid of your game piece. But without that, there's nothing stopping an opponent from MSTing a Crystal Beast spell/trap card. Anyways, hope to see Flip Monsters next. Or Usarctic.

[@MABfan11]

it's baffling that the Advanced Crystal Beasts weren't released in the GX era, since they kept the exact same effects as in the anime. it's like Konami saw that they had Advanced Dark and Dark Rainbow Dragon lying around and remembered that Advanced Crystal Beasts were an archetype they forgot to make back then

[@TheGreatSalsaMan]

Konami is weird sometimes. They over restrict cards that could be good to the point they’re bad or they don’t restrict cards enough to the point they need to be banned forever or be errataed to be allowed back into the game

[@dustinvance243]

Thing is the advanced crystal beasts are just so much better than the originals that if they didn't have that restriction they would just outright replace the originals. So it makes sense to give them some kind of caveat. And besides they have pleanty of ways to search for and protect it. Advanced Dark is also a pretty good field spell. It nullifies battle damage while milling crystal beasts to advance your game plan by putting them back in your s/t zones with advanced pegasus, setting up other gy plays, or summoning the main deck rainbow dragons. And when a rainbow dragon battles a monster, it negates the effects of the target. So if it's battling something like a borrelsword dragon it won't have to worry about it gaining attack and will even be able to destroy it.

[@13thKingMu]

@@dustinvance243 the thing is They released in the year where most ppl expected they'll replace the originals beside pegasus and ruby like no one will remember or complaint about it beside yugi boomers or trolls Like ppl play other 5 of original 7 not bc they're good,they forced to play it just to summon rainbow dragon or their other fusion before new fusion released and they're basically garnet if you open with them

[@Frostnburn]

I don't think Rainbow Dark Dragon was ever intended to be a Crystal Beast support, due to the fact that there were literally no overlap between it and Crystal Beasts (no Crystal Beasts are Dark, and RDD uses exclusively DARK monsters), and Advanced Dark was released only 4 years later.

[@Omniroc]

You could do a special on Dark Magician, Blue Eyes, and Red Eyes decks and how while popular have never been a meta deck by themselves. Some of their cards are good but usually they only have seen success in Duel Links.

[@Seoulmoonrhee]

Jesse Kotton and DreadGuy have proven that it's a niche mechanic, not a failed one!

[@calvinanderson4245]

I've always wondered if a deck using some combination of Crystal Beasts, Mekk-Knight, and S-Force could be viable. Some sort of deck taking complete and utter control of all columns, if I worded that right.

[@Meme-pg5tw]

I feel like an interesting subset of these could be cards that go against how the archetype is played and doesnt help an alternative gameplan Example is cards like the maguses from the sky striker manga, helping more with machine decks than sky striker because they sit in the main monster zone turning your archetypal spells off entirely which is what makes the deck good, and the best one making you go minus due to being given to your opponent

[@lucillefrancois150]

You should do the different chain link cards, like Lightning Punisher and whatnot. Cards which have effects that can only activate at chain link 3 or higher. I thought you had, but I can’t find the video

[@exeledusprince9165]

I dont understand how rainbow dragon has this reputation as an unsummonable monster. Ever since crystal bond came out, dropping Rainbow Dragon became even easier than it always was, and it wasnt all that hard before.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

What's some archetypes or mechanics that didn't fail us but that were failed by us?

[@Zantman22]

Talking about grandpa demetto and the rest of the princess cologne support cards could be fun

[@bloomoon904]

I've always wanted you to cover Aqua Actress since they've basically been forgotten by Konami

[@nunyabiznes33]

LOL yeah. I used them as an ungabunga deck in Duel Links before MST became more common.

[@dominicmoroni9299]

Neshy is going to have some words for you

[@Hugelag]

It's kinda funny that Crystal Beasts went through the same situation as Heroes: laughed at by everyone with individual cards being used by completely different decks, only to receive great support that revitalized the archetype. Looks like Jesse and Jaden are still connected even now. Also, 15:11 That's exactly what Crystal Beasts needed: pendulum monsters that aren't "Crystal Beast" cards and protect the cards that want to be destroyed. Great support cards.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

They WERE great support cards. They made the deck top multiple times during that era in the OCG.

[@mateusrp1994]

They took too long to be imported. They were released on MR3 and with MR3 in mind, but only got imported after MR4 and the merged pendulum zones.

[@zyro7756]

Except that heroes actually saw a lot of competitive success and didn’t need to be a floodgate.dek

[@dustinvance243]

​@@zyro7756 that success back then was because of darklaw which is one of the most annoying floodgates in the game. In fact it's so annoying that the ocg had to limit mask change II and it's still limited even now over there. And they have another very prominent floodgate in destiny hero plasma which is literally a one sided skill drain.

[@briansantos1700]

Video ideas? How about deck building tips per deck strategy? It would go a long way for newer players to understand why control decks don't get as much value from hand traps as they do from floodgates or negates or why aggro decks can work with a chunkier deck size while combo decks prefer theirs on the leaner end of the deck spectrum. Or, if you want, a video on how to deal with Runick. Everybody hates Runick. F Runick. Had to learn the hard way to put Anti-Spell Fragrance and Eradicator Virus in my deck because of it.

[@lilsunny7399]

Actually the advanced CBs arent as bad as you'd think. Turns out pegasus, ruby and eagle are good enough names to play a single copy of each (also amethyst cat) in the combo variant because at least they do something to further your gameplan unlike say, amber mammoth or topaz tiger. Advanced Peg can put advanced ruby in the backrow, then if you pop pegasus for bridge of the heart he can go there too, and then ruby can yeet them both out to the field setting cat in the backrow to be summoned later off regular ruby. It makes it a lot easier to get the 7 names in grave for rainbow dragon and ultimately your wincon, Rainbow Dragon Overdrive.

[@Megamanlanprime]

Well, Advanced Tiger is useful if you need that beat stick. Normal Tiger is meh.

[@NESHYBeast]

Your takes are 100% spot on. Well done!

[@lucentnether9154]

Still waiting for the "Synchro-Fusion" series of monsters like Dracoequiste, Ultimate Axxon Kicker, etc

[@zyro7756]

Draco Equiste saw play in Dark Synchro decks tho

[@lucentnether9154]

@@zyro7756 The mechanic feels somewhat "abandoned" wheras it had previously got some support in the synchro era like Miracle Synchro Fusion or Symchro Fusionist. I think it is perfectly fitting for those type of videos, just like Cristal Beasts which are not a totally failed cards & mechanic.

[@Quanze]

Failed mechanic idea: "Flip Summon" effects. Specifically the SUMMON effects, not "FLIP" effects (i.e. Guardian Sphinx).

[@amigomorton5193]

I feel like these Crystal Beasts should've had 3 Effects. One that plays into their general playstyle after a certain action is performed like Ruby Carbuncle and Saphire Pegasus already do. One where a Crystal Beast on the Monster Zone gains individual benefits from the numbers of Crystal Beasts in the Spell/Trap Zones. And One that only comes into play when a Crystal Beast is on the Spell/Trap Zone, benefiting other Crystal Beasts on the Monster Zones. To be fair, I'm just a filthy casual so what do I know about balancing, I just think it will be more fun when Monster can work together like a Team where each member shines bright in different szenerios.

[@AT-il2ej]

Topped a regional once with crystal beasts. Felt good.

[@Ivan2Jura]

Didn't know that Espeon was a yugioh card as well...

[@markmeyer4532]

Single-handedly the best advert for Crystal Beasts I've seen.

[@roymakano6306]

I know he is only talking about the CORE part of the deck. Thought I wish he went more in-depth with the Ultimate Crystals (Overdragon and Overdrive) since they’re either free Field reset, or an OTK strategy

[@Cortanarama]

Love the archetype, glad to see them finally getting their time in the spotlight.

[@MrCegeb]

Fun fact: Emerald Tortoise has its unique effect removed in Duel Links. Only the Crystal Beast effect remains. (There are also other similar cards that got changed *specifically* because of MP2, for example Turbo Booster).

[@michaellevin2861]

"Crystal Beasts will likely still see play even after Tearlaments leave the metagame" Konami: Oh by the way, Tears are gone now

[@Tuskor130]

The major issue that Crystal Beasts have is that it doesn't matter how genuinely powerful their backrow is when their monsters are mostly hot dookie. The Crystal Beasts themselves are primarily best used for either fodder for your Extra Deck, or a means to an end for trying to turbo out a Rainbow Dragon. The primary thing that Crystal Beasts need now are modernized monsters. Without question their Spell/Trap cards are powerful, I don't think they need any more backrow. What they need to unleash their true potential is actually useful monsters. Their monster effects are now almost 2 decades old, it's the biggest weakness of their archetype. Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon shows this.

[@mateusrp1994]

People have said this for almost 2 decades. Its why they begged so much for the ACBs, and that turned out to be a fool's errand. Its time to let go and face reality.

[@TaosoftheVoid]

​@@mateusrp1994 They did make Advanced Crystal Beasts. Not sure if they're good but they did make them

[@dustinvance243]

I object to advanced crystal beasts being called bad cards. Their effects are straight up better than their original counterparts and they're compatible with all of the crystal beast support(except ancient city rainbow ruins) they aren't a separate archetype and definitely should have had a larger part in this video especially since they gave the deck what it desperately needed. More crystal beast monsters. Their only flaw is that they send themselves to the gy if advanced dark isn't on the field, but not only are there multiple in archetype ways to search it, but also multiple in archetype ways to protect it. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Even if by some chance you aren't able to get advanced dark in your hand, you can bypass the effect simply by setting them face down. And if your opponent chooses to run over them, they go to the S/T zones just like any other crystal beasts because it's a passive effect and happens before the send to gy effect.

[@zyro7756]

Set one pass Brilliant strategy

[@dustinvance243]

@@zyro7756 with the backrow crystal beasts have it can be. Cards like crystal conclave and ultimate crystal magic would trigger upon that monster's destruction.

[@nicholasfilippidis5705]

I need clarification on a ruling for the fusion that can become 11000. I've been told that since it says "You need 7 different crystal beast names banished" that if anything repeats itself than under no circumstances can you use that card. Example, let's say I have 8 banished cards, 6 of the 7 original crystal beasts plus two copies of Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon. My friend claims that since I have two copies of Cryatal Beast Rainbow Dragon, it no longer under any circumstances counts for the effect and thus the boss fusion monster complete fucking worthless. Is he wrong or am I correct that I can still activate the effects. Lemme know if I didn't explain any of this well, I wrote this at 11:30 at night

[@sagacious03]

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@shamus248]

Ruby Carbuncle looks like Espeon lol

[@TheKyubiisaan]

Ruby Carbunkle is Espeon from Wish

[@Sunaki1000]

2:50 naaaah, back when they are released Tiger and maybe to some extend Turtle, and Hawk are playable. Tiger was good, cause Stats where actually meaningfull. Same whit Turtle, but defensive Play isnt that usefull, and Hawk is bad, but good enougn to controll your Draws at least a little bit.

[@Radman1889]

Okay, but counterargument: Amber Mammoth's VA in the anime XD

[@Matthew_and_Ami]

I love how even back in the day you could still splash hamon into the deck, and it would still work

[@Anime-Doom]

I used to play Abundance OTK mixed with a Hamon backup strategy back in the late GX/early 5D's era and it was the single most fun deck I ever used. Listening to how the archetype has 'evolved' into its current form it actually hurts to see just how far this game has fallen.

[@CD-Gaming]

The ability of Crystal Beasts to go into Rank 3 and 4 is NOT new! I faced a Crystal Beast deck, many years ago, in Zexal's relatively early days, that played Number 39 and, if memory serves, even Number 17! And it was effective, believe me!

[@astickem4428]

I like how with crystal beasts they didn't really just make better crystal beasts monsters, but rather went to making super strong traps and spells to make up for it instead. I like that different way of dealing with a problematic archetype since it makes some of those bad monsters pretty good

[@CNightmare072]

Crazy how “Rainbow Bridge of the Heart” wasn’t even mentioned. It’s absolutely insane. Other archetypes would be busted with access to that card

[@GraySkies-wj6pc]

I have major PTSD with this archetype. Throughout the late GX era and into the early- and mid-5D’s era, one of my closest friends played a Crystal Beast/Hamon deck, and he would consistently beat me the majority of the time we dueled, and I was running a Disaster Dragon variant deck. Endless frustration ensued. Crystal Abundance OTK/easy Hamon spam is fucked.

[@Marv1089]

I still have fun with the transcendent crystals Valkyrie deck I run in duel links, you get insane special summoning to go into the good Valkyries and good link monsters.

[@basskommette]

I use salvation to search the Vaylantz field spells. You can drop one over the opponents field spell, move one of their monsters into the back row, and special my ruby from the back row. They do so much for the archetype going second

[@Grade_A_Fantasy]

Next episode, let's go wayyyyyy back. Guardian Monsters!!!!!!

[@TheNawaf258]

There is good use for crystal beast and that summoning urira and hammon both needed for magic and trap and crystal beast acts like spell and trap cards why I ran into sapphire Pegasus and he did summon hammon

[@nicolastaisne7910]

Top 10 old archetypes that aged like fine whine

[@stevenjordan3839]

This was also one card Konami failed to put into legend of the Crystal beasts and didn’t think of inserting due to its incredible power

[@GeneralNickles]

Dude, crystal abundance is SOOOOO much more broken than soul charge. Crystal abundance is essentially what you get when you cross soul charge with topologic zeroboros. It's clears the entire field and THEN soul charges. And you can't even use backrow removal to stop it from resolving by popping one of the monsters in the back, because it sends them as cost.

[@harry9828]

Hamon crystal beasts is a fun dexk

[@Punmaster9001]

I would like to see something on the Thunder Dragon cards, I've kind of looked into it, but haven't really tried. When I first started playing the Legacy of the Duelist, Link Evolultion game after years of staying away from Yugioh in general, I looked into making a Thunder Dragon deck because I remembered when TwinHeaded Thunder Dragon came out, it had the easiest set up for a fusion monster back in the old days. I struggled a lot with the game, trying to get card points, and cards I wanted. I had an Exodia deck that worked well for the first anime's campaign, but like half-way through GX I started to struggle, as I was largely unaware of the metas that had come out at that point. Then I saw that the Thunder Dragons had been given some love since I last played and was shocked at how good the deck was, even fumbling with understand all the stuff they could do, I still managed to beat the computer easily, so easy in fact, I beat every character in the game from then on out with that deck. So yeah, I'm curious about the Thunder Dragon Theme.

[@Rabbitlord108]

Funny how Dark Scorpions & Crystal Beasts have one thing in common. The card that's considered the leader (at least in GX's dub) is one of if not their best monster (Don Zaloog has a hand ripping effet. While Sapphire Pegasus can immediately put a crystal beast in the backrow) oh and it's amusing that Emerald Tortoise saw play in tear because its effect is so wonky that it was removed when the archetype came to Duel Links. Meaning it's just a Level 3 vanilla 2K wall with the backrow effect in that game.

[@sweller_odin8458]

Crystal beast fan for like 5-6 years, I have a crystal melody deck in master duel it’s pretty good. It’s also been cool seeing them evolve over the years.

[@soukenmarufwt5224]

This is a common theme with GX and 5Ds archetype ls. Without modern and link era support. They about as well as milk. Many decks around that time were ungodly unplayable and existed cause Konami still had no idea how to make a functioning archetype. The few that did, did not age well with the passing of time.

[@adamk5705]

Darkworld failed cards and mechanics, what with the new revamped structure deck?

[@Ghostmnm]

Is it bad that with the structure deck I’ve OTKed using Hamon, sapphire Pegasus and crystal beast rainbow dragon more than the actual extra deck ultimate crystals you’re meant to OTK with?

[@ArchangelG2000]

If you wanted to run a crystal beast deck, all you needed is Pegasus tiger, carbuncle and abundance. Back in the days there were so many ways to spam out Pegasus than activate abundance on your opponent and win.

[@Robi2009]

I wonder what was the original idea behind placing them as Continuous Spells when they didn't have any spell effect, it's like alpha Pendulum archetype, but done badly

[@EXultimate]

As someone who is looking into playing CBs, this video was amazing.