Equip Spell Cards - Failed Cards and Mechanics in YuGiOh

[@Dw7freak]

Remember how the first wave of equip spells was "increase creature type's attack and defense by 300" and that's all they did? Good times.

[@k9commander]

Remember Axe of Despair? Good times.

[@Howdyhowthis]

remember when equip spell was actually armory and field spell was actually a place

[@weelzneal4768]

@@Howdyhowthis omg that hurt to read correcting as i went... I could never be a teacher bcuz I'd get 2 sentences in & just fail them

[@SCH292]

Mask of Brutality.

[@Bezaliel13]

"Pepperidge Farm remembers."

[@adoorwithstaronit8573]

I always see "Black Pendant" as a good example of how an equip spell should be made. It has an effect to do burn damage to your opponent when it is sent to GY. A lot of equip spells should have GY effects to make them a little bit more effective on game...

[@leeeyles1864]

A field effect, a GY effect and a banish effect would make them an attractive option to everyone imo

[@adoorwithstaronit8573]

@@leeeyles1864 That is what i am talking about :). Special GY effects are a great way to cover their global weakness to pretty much everything.

[@leeeyles1864]

@@adoorwithstaronit8573 I was agreeing with you and I wasn't clear enough - my bad. They need a sent from hand or field to the gy effect and a gy banish effect

[@adoorwithstaronit8573]

@@leeeyles1864 No problem. Also, that banish effect you mention sounds very cool too.

[@otroweonllamadoseba]

​@@adoorwithstaronit8573 no thanks, it's better to die with honor

[@CapOb314]

I agree that equip spells are kinda failed in terms of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, especially nowadays. People are saying that there are some cards that are so good they're banned, but I imagine that's like, 1% of equip cards. With all of that said, United We Stand use to tear up duels with my family.

[@U1TR4F0RCE]

To be fair that could apply to most types of cards

[@themonarchserupt4051]

there are 4 bannes equip spells snatch steal doesnt target and is searchable smoke grenade is also searchable and not OPT premature burial is weird because it destroys the monster - possibly activating its effects, when its destroyed and with no drawbacks if its bounced, also searchable Butterfly dagger elma is broken because u can Exodia ftk with it, gearfried iron knight and royal magic library Divine Sword Phoenix blade (banned in the OCG only) isnt OPT either

[@andrejv.2834]

@@themonarchserupt4051 when premat is bounced it doesn't destroy the monster, so you can use it again as it's a sopt Also smoke grenade could come back

[@iseektheholygrail2055]

@@andrejv.2834 All because one wrong word. Call destroy its monster when it leave the field but premat only destroy the monster if it is destroyed.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

More like the 0.1%

[@Exiled28]

You forgot to mention Saqlifice, Konami put that card into the limited list because it was so strong for qliports back in the day, nowadays isn't that amazing(mainly because pendulums are nerfed beyond recognition) but back then it was the total package: searcher, battle immunity, tribute fodder, Konami should make more cards following Saqlifice steps, equip cards that punish your opponent for even attempting to remove them in any shape or form from the field while at the same time giving you an option to removing them yourself by furthering your plays and netting advantage by doing so.

[@Squggs]

Yeah was thinking about this one the whole time too. It's too bad most of the equip spell support just doesn't function in Qlis and they don't even have much of a payoff if they resolve it. Even if you got a tribute summoned Shell on the field with the equip its double attacking and piercing won't win you the game. Because it costed you a minimum of 4 cards to set it up. It's fine on turn one but that's about it.

[@exzyyd392]

Dracoback is kinda like that. If it gets destroyed you can equip it back to the Adventure Token straight away so all your opponent does is go at least -1

[@GMLDS1]

I can only think of one card that “punish” the opponent for being removed: black pendant (-500 life points if it’s destroyed). It might be interesting to see more cards like that.

[@vanconojl]

for what cost?

[@thesun5275]

Qlis were weird for pendulums where you were incentivized to not special summon them unless you were ready to floodgate and kill.

[@anotherraven1694]

I don't think equip cards failed the game, the game failed the equip spells. The game just evolved too quickly and left them behind. They were fine back in the day but the power creep and newer metas just leave them behind. They need to start making equip spells better to let them evolve with the game rather than just leave them behind.

[@KuzumiyaRiku]

agree

[@roncerjani9063]

The game evolved too quickly yes, but the game had to evolve at some point, and of course it would include more removal. Yugioh's niche is to be an interactive game, and in such environment, it was obvious to see that Equips wouldn't last long. It wasn't future proofed at the slightest as a mechanic.

[@alexanderrobins7497]

@@roncerjani9063 Only another Master Rule and erratas can fix some failed mechanics like equip cards and ritual monsters.

[@bob74h67]

@@roncerjani9063 Interaction is not at all yugioh's niche, you ever played edopro or master duel? Sometimes it takes 5 minutes for people to finish their turn whilie you do nothing

[@roncerjani9063]

@@bob74h67 It is one of the games that allows you the most to play on opponents turn and respond to their actions. But sure, meta game has gone to a point where you either have the handtrap/board wiper or sit there and watch your opponent play solitaire. Equips went out of favor way before the game became like this.

[@dinosore_rs]

A real shame. Equip Spells are IMO the easiest cards to understand for complete beginners who spam vanilla monsters. Source: I was one myself.

[@Bezaliel13]

Especially frustrating when one of its "flaws" was that you need room for "handtraps."

[@vtgare]

@@Bezaliel13 their flaw is not that you need room for "handtraps" specifically, their flaw is that you need room for actually good cards that don't require a monster on the field to get equipped to, something that wins you the game instead of giving an effect to a monster you don't even have yet.

[@TheTLATER]

@@vtgare Yep, that segment was more of an illustrative way of saying "card advantage really matters in yugioh" than "handtraps are mandatory now". They still are, but equip spells stopped seeing play long before even Effect Veiler was a thing.

[@Bezaliel13]

@@vtgare Then phrasing it as "your hand would already have space taken by handtraps" was unnecessary, somewhat justifying my frustration. Honestly, the fact monster supporting cards are so looked down upon is a different frustration. "Have a monster with a strong Effect balanced with weak ATK?" Well, forget about boosting it with a support card and *just play a monster with BOTH a strong Effect and ATK* because card economy. No wonder powercreep is such a thing.

[@Entei9000]

This might be a hot take but I think it's more of an issue of power creep than the cards being outright bad. The game used to a lot slower to where most decks needed several turns to get their plays going, so cards that weren't live on turn 1 or that needed certain setups to activate still had a lot of potential to be useful. Not only did that mean that hand traps weren't 100% necessary, but that battle traps like Mirror Force and even certain equip cards were perfectly valid options, whereas now they're pretty much considered joke cards.

[@FentonHardyFan]

The Weather’s continuous spells and traps basically function like equip spells that stay on the field, granting abilities to archetype monsters placed directly above or beside them.

[@master_yugen7278]

The Weather backrows are more like pseudo-Link spells, as the boss monsters are link 3 monsters that functions like the archetype's backrows. man I wish we have actual Link spells.

[@animationtv426]

Not really

[@DominusZeikyu]

@@master_yugen7278 Like Judgment arrows from Vrains? ;)

[@FentonHardyFan]

@@master_yugen7278 Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Canvases don't actually give their effects to the archetype's link 3 monsters if they're played in the extra monster zone, right?

[@master_yugen7278]

@@FentonHardyFan exactly

[@Lookalikealagaler]

Magic actually has a one-to-one analog to Equip spells in the form of Enchantment Auras. They are a type of Enchantment spell that has to be attached to a specific permanent when being cast and are destroyed if said permanent is destroyed. I'm not a competitive player, so I couldn't really tell you how common Auras are competitively, but only white and green have regular access to enchantment destruction while blue can bounce anything.

[@Amphidsf]

Almost never see play outside of fringe decks.

[@wingofshu]

Aslo artifact-equipment, and those stay on board even if monster is killed

[@joplin4434]

@@Amphidsf sram dominated pioneer for a good while and got cards banned lol

[@universalperson]

Auras also predate Equipment by several years.

[@TechDragon1]

Auras, as you mentioned, have a lot of weaknesses, but they do also have their uses. One of the biggest is Bogle decks, where the creatures gaining the Aura have Hexproof and thus can't be targeted with destruction or bounce effects. They've also tried to 'fix' Auras over the years, one of the best examples are cards with Totem Armor like Hyena Umbra. If the creature would be destroyed, the Aura is destroyed instead saving the creature. Cheap mana cost Auras can also be fun in an Enchantress deck, where you draw a card whenever you cast an enchantment.

[@Alberio1]

To make them function like MTG they could just add in a line that says "Once per turn If this card (name/hard OPT) would be destroyed because the monster it was targeting is no longer on the field, you can Set this card face-down instead.". That way spell removal would actually act as a proper counter while other forms would just temporarily turn it off. Equip version of Scrap-Iron Scarecrow basically.

[@abuhassan8849]

Konami recently introduced the new Mikanko Archetype that's heavily centered around Equip Spell cards. It may become a solid rouge deck in TCG.

[@bothack8874]

*Vylons cries in the corner*

[@maunabesanika]

They put ritual and equip card in 1 archetype, sounds awful.. i love it, im in

[@trippersigs2248]

That's kind of what he's getting at in this video. Mikano equip spells are good because they have busted effects balanced around the fact that they're equip cards.

[@hollowjack3007]

I straight up cried cause it’s another cute girl archetype but then I looked them over and cried because they weren’t good

[@matchanavi]

The word is rogue

[@realpatriot1769]

Megamorph is still one of my fav equip cards to this day, mainly for its meme potential with cyberstein.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

It was competitively used during the same time as Mage Power and United We Stand. I am legit mad that DuelLogs omitted it.

[@Acidonia150reborn]

@@joanaguayoplanell4912 And in Demise Ritual Decks

[@kennydarmawan13]

13:44 You know Yu-Gi-Oh! has a mechanic that failed so hard when the person brings up a mechanic from Magic: the Gathering to show why the latter did things better. Granted, Auras are more analogous to the Equip spell cards, but even they have several advantages. Namely, the Bogles deck.

[@chrisjones6792]

You're technically correct, because 100% of mechanics were better implemented in MTG

[@kennydarmawan13]

@@chrisjones6792 many, not all.

[@ShadowEclipex]

This video has convinced me that if it wasn't for the manga/show Yugioh would never of taken off. This game seems so broken and unbalanced it would never do well if it came out as a brand new game.

[@qorv4973]

I wish that equip spells had either floating effects as the standard add-on to them, or a degree of immunity to effects like "cant be targeted, or can only be affected by non-targetted effect"

[@Canido19]

When I first started playing YGO, I originally was under the false impression that Equip Spells did not occupy your back row, and you could put as many of them on the board as you liked (I stacked them under the monsters they were equipped to like how XYZ materials are attached). I also didn't know face-down monsters couldn't be equipped at all, or that the equipment went to the GY when the equipped monster left the field. I figured they worked like Crystal Beasts and became Continuous spells until you reequipped them to something.

[@alexanderrobins7497]

That would be a interesting fix. I like the idea of putting equip cards under a monster. Maybe I did that as a kid too, but I forget.

[@Canido19]

@@alexanderrobins7497 I also didn't get into the game through the show, so I didn't know you needed Polymerization to do fusions. I thought you could just *do* them if you had the materials in your hand or field; like in the playstation game Forbidden Memories.

[@mlpfanboy1701]

I have an entire fan made extra deck summoning mechanic that does that the way you originally thought it worked. I hope konami makes that reality one day.

[@Canido19]

@@mlpfanboy1701 I mean, I think the entire fusion mechanic would work better if it worked like Xyz summoning: no necessary spell, but with specific monsters and could be done with monsters in any combination of hand and field. On an unrelated note: I also used to put Ritual monsters and Nomi monsters in the Extra deck.

[@faerris]

to be fair, i run 2 grid rods in my marincess deck because im confident that as long as i draw into a single marincess monster, i have no problem going up to great bubble reef and adding another layer of protection with grid rod is no problem to me

[@TheGlendriv]

Same.

[@zyro7756]

That’s win more if I ever saw it

[@Ap3xGrim]

I'm gonna try grid rod in my mathmech deck. The idea i have is if geomathsigma gets outed ill search equation with his effect bring him back add grid rod for 4300, still not effected by card effects with the bonus of being able to take a hit but loosing doing double damage. This sounds so good in my head lol

[@darklewd9844]

@@Ap3xGrim How will you search Grid Rod?

[@cheaterxl243]

Failed Cards definetly: Flip Monsters. There are Flip Monsters with straight up broken effects but because they are Flip Monsters they can get these strong effects because Flip Monsters have to be set first and then your opponent has to attack it or can get rid of it before attacking it resulting in the flip monster not getting its effect

[@Waldo_I_Am]

Between Subterrors and Shaddoll I think they have seen enough competitive play to not be called a failed mechanic.

[@cubiix1302]

They should buff a face down monster to be at least "untargetable" by effect unless specifically stated on card text.

[@aleatorios0000]

Flip monsters weren't a failed concept because they saw a ton of competitive plays for years since the early days of the game. There is no room for Flip monsters in modern yugioh because they were heavily powercrept, and being powercrept is different from being flawed from the start.

[@BeefQuake68]

While you looked at how equip cards work in Magic, they could also go the way of tool cards in Pokemon, and have them stack under the card to take them out of the spell/trap zone, sort of like how xyz materials work. This could potentially make it sort of part of the monster, and be removed only if the monster was destroyed.

[@bongchoof]

This is how I thought they worked when I first started. It took me a LONG time to learn that they took up a spell slot. That's so bad.

[@fireboltball]

I agree with everything in this video. Also, Moon Mirror Shield's effect paying 500 LP is not optional. If it is sent from the field to grave you have to pay 500 LP, the only exception is if you have less than 500 LP.

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

Actually in MTG they do have cards exactly like equip spell cards called Auras which are a form of enchantment. The reason they work is because some cards can return enchantments from the grave and by rule an aura would then attach to any creature you choose ignoring even untargetable effects of creatures.

[@graylord69]

"the reason they work..." Uh... they don't. Auras are every bit as terrible as YGO equip spells. The only competitive deck that can afford to use them is Bogles, and that's a rogue deck that has never really had a significant meta share in any format. Outside of Bogles, no one plays Auras in any deck, at least not in the eternal formats. Playing them is just asking to be 2-for-1'd.

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

@@graylord69 At least Magic actually created cards to bring them back and created specific rules around them upon returning, Yugioh basically abandoned the concept completely.

[@RaijinKlaid]

I mean the biggest problem is that Magic had to come up with that fix on it's own, because Equip artifacts are relatively new. By the time Yu-Gi-Oh was made. They saw their equip spells as analogous to Magic's Auras. Which is why they follow a lot of those same rules.

[@vDeadbolt]

It's funny that when Wizards designed Skullclamp, they felt the card was a bit too busted so they ended up giving the creature +1/-1 as a way to nerf it. Turns out, they printed one of the most busted cards that has ever been printed in the game because of that nerf.

[@fernandobanda5734]

Mtg's Auras are moreso "Equip cards" than Equipment, and they have the same problems. There are only three ways they can be successful: -They target an opponent's creature as a form of removal -They are played onto a creature with self-protection (hexproof mostly) in a one or two-turn kill all-in combo. -They are so over the top good that they are kinda worth the risk of getting 2-for-1'd. These include ones that recur themselves or get you card advantage, because even those get cancelled if the creature is removed in response.

[@Atmapalazzo]

Yeah it's a little disingenuous to compare magic equipment to ygo equip spells, since magic auras exist.

[@pumkinswift8263]

@@Atmapalazzo I don't think so, equipment were designed this way specifically to fix the problems either Auras in magic

[@Heoltor]

@@Atmapalazzo the question was how could you make Equip Cards better, MTG effectively has 2 types of equip cards the Yugioh kind (Auras) and Equipments. If he already used the whole video to tells how the first type doesn't work in Yugioh, why would he even mention Auras (to his Yugioh playing audience) when he could tell us about the actual good kind of equips which answers the question How to make Equips better.

[@chronozon937]

*chuckles* *reloads rancor with malicious intent*

[@keymaster16]

wizards solved the aura problem by having it turn into a creature if it would go to the graveyard instead (bestow, mutate) and its STILL not broken mechanically. funny enough when yu gi oh tried that with union monsters it STILL took them multiple iterations to make them playable. and they only got on the ban list because link monsters where a fair and balanced addition....

[@keoryn5237]

Great stuff explaining why a card or archetype is good or bad and why its competitively used, love these types of beginner types of videos.

[@pandabytes4991]

The whole time I was watching this video, I was thinking about "I:P Masquerena" in that she gives an effect to a link monster when she is used as a material for said link monster, IE, a floating effect. If we made equip spells act in that way, I think they would see a lot more play, but how much more would depend on the mechanics of the cards themselves and how ruling changes would work if a card is flipped or removed temporarily.

[@Merilirem]

They should probably just attach then the way XYZ cards hold material.

[@tantheman_13]

Can we get a failed mechanics video on the battle phase in modern yugioh?

[@dragonic22]

Don't we all use the battle phase...?

[@DarkSymphony777]

That will never happen because you need the battle phase in order to attack and get rid of your opponents life points

[@Zetact_]

The only reason that you'd consider the battle phase as a failed mechanic is moreso because "turn 3" is a failed mechanic in the modern game.

[@iseektheholygrail2055]

That's less failed mechanic and more game powercreep

[@sugarsmile7852]

Battle phase isn't not a mechanic

[@mattbaltimore7195]

That new waifu bait archetype with ritual mechanic and equip spell mechanic revealed, your video totally gives good insight of why that archetype is just another Konami's failure on experimenting equip spells.....

[@Hugelag]

I feel like adding a field spell that either shuffles equip cards into the deck or adds them back to your hand would improve them a lot.

[@danielak1666]

Shuffles them back wouldn't really help since they still retain all of their weaknesses. Add them back to hand will be too op tough (elma is banned because that very reason anyway)

[@nunyabiznes33]

Or make it so that while a monster is equipped, it cannot be switched into face-down and while equipped to a monster, equips cannot be removed by opponent's card effect. If they want to remove the equip, they need to remove the monster it's attached to.

[@mfznal-hafidz8592]

You mean magical meltdown for equip spell deck? Sounds nice.

[@melvinshine9841]

I still think Toon Monsters and Flip Monsters would be great for this, even though Toons have a few good monsters, now, and Flip monsters were some of the best cards in the game back in the day. Now, Flip Monsters are like battle traps but worse.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

i am so sad konami isn't even willing to at least release 1 toon monster every now and then at least to cover the "toonification" of the duel monsters' monster

[@DetectiveBarricade]

Flip monsters were always horrible, unless they were named Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar. Toons suck because Konami thought that having monsters with relatively high attack that can attack directly would be too good if they could be used the turn they're summoned. Despite the fact that they die the moment Toon World is destroyed and have no inherent protection.

[@aceclover758]

Which is why with a toon deck, it’s good to rundown protection since the back row cards can potentially protect your toon cards from destruction until they can attack But toons have a lot more support now, cards able to summon toons easily from deck once you have toon kingdom

[@CaptinSpyke]

Interestingly, an archetype that tackles equip spells in its own way that gets around some of the issues here is Magistus. Rather than actual equip spell cards, Magistus focuses on equpping its archetypal Extra Deck monsters to its regular deck and boss Synchro monster to provide both bonus effects(like extra Atk/Def, protection from Spell/Trap destruction, and multiple attacks on monsters) and personal activated effects while they are Equip Spell cards(such as searching, Spell/Trap removal, and effect negation). Furthermore, the win condition of the deck, the boss monster Magistus Calamity, locks your opponent out of Extra Deck monster effects based on which of the Magistus ED monsters you have as equip spells. Rounding this out, the archetypal reborn card(which can be searched) has a GY effect to protect your backrow by banishing itself, which can completely counteract a Duster or Lightning Storm. Its by no means a particularly strong deck, probably not even rogue, but I find it a really cool take on the matter.

[@augustoortiz1254]

The only main problem is the cards didn't keep enough time in the field to do something, unlike the magic the gatering equip cards than stay in the field

[@UltimaAzN]

I'd say that MTG's Enchantment Auras are more akin to YGO's Equip cards. When the Enchanted creature dies, the enchantment is also sent to the gy.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@UltimaAzN Are enchantments targettable by effects or they only leave the field if the "equipped" permanent is removed?

[@UltimaAzN]

@@nunyabiznes33 They are targetable. There are cards that specifically destroy enchantments.

[@konev13thebeast]

@@UltimaAzN but theres not nearly as much enchantment removal as spell and trap removal.

[@zorohibiki]

giving them graveyard effects like tailwind of gusto could be good too if tailwind is in the graveyard it can banish itself and discard a gusto monster to search for another tailwind or any other gusto spell or trap card

[@LordQuintix]

I used Grid Rod with the Marincess archetype and I tell you what! This card made that deck damn near top tier, with the speed you can achieve with Marincess on turn one and because they're all cyberse monsters, Grid Rod makes a great turn one defense to make sure your monsters stick around if they ever got wiped out.

[@TheLetterJ0]

I was building a gimmick deck a few weeks ago that required an Equip Spell in its combo, and that's when I realized that despite there being a ton of searchers for Equip Spells, they're actually pretty bad. Hidden Armory uses your normal summon, which is a huge problem for some decks. Armory Call is a Trap, so it's too slow to use in combos, or even to make a monster big enough for an OTK. Gearbreed is even slower than Armory Call, and uses up your normal draw. Tool Box is actually pretty okay, but isn't out in the TCG yet. Power Tool Dragon is probably the best option in the TCG, but requires you to go into a level 7 Synchro, which isn't awful, but is a lot to ask for a simple search. And there are definitely better level 7 Synchros to go into. And so on

[@andrewm.3581]

"You may equip this card to a monster ignoring card effects. If this card leaves the field, the monster it is equiped to is banished face down." Equip it to an opponents boss monster, and suddenly it becomes real scary to wipe backrow.

[@DanTheMeek]

I remember in my youth when yugioh first came out finding equip cards way to detrimental and thus trying to come up with a way they could be improved. The way I settled on in my youth (again this was the early days of yugioh) was to make a rule that once per turn, when an equip spell card you control would be destroyed as a result of no longer having a valid target (equipped monster destroyed, bounced, face down, etc.) you can "Retrieve" (add to hand) that equip spell card instead, and then my thought was that if konami implemented this future equip cards could have things like "you must pay X to retrieve this equip" or "you may not retrieve this card" as ways of balancing out more powerful equip cards they wanted to make. Looking back now, I'm honestly not sure it would have been enough, one thing this video didn't really spend much time noting is that ANOTHER issue with all equip cards beyond their vulnerability, is that they on their own do absolutely nothing, they always require a target, so an opening hand full of equips is a dead hand, and top decking an equip late is almost always a death knell unless it targets an opponents monster or monsters in the grave yard. I don't know what modern yugioh is like, but back in the day it was very common for matches to end in a situation where both players controlled nothing and were top decking for their life, so the more cards you had which couldn't do anything on their own, the more likely you were to lose in top decking situations. As an aside, back in the early days I always felt like one of the rites of passage for new players was learning that equips were garbage, there were generally three tiers in tournaments, tier three was players who didn't have most or all of the staples that every deck needed to even be competitive (pot of greed, raigeki, etc.), they never made top 8, tier two was people who had the staples but still ran equips and or non-jinzo sacrifice monster, they often made top 8 but never won it all, and then tier one were people who had all the staples and had come to recognize equips and level 5 or higher monsters were inherently flawed game designs and thus had to have game breaking effects like snatch steal or jinzo to be worth using, and these were the people who actually won tournaments.

[@Bezaliel13]

Wouldn't it make more sense to just flip face down?

[@DanTheMeek]

@@Bezaliel13 That probably would be a more elegant way to handle it, if perhaps a little weaker, since , at least back then, there were discard costs and the like you could make use of with an equip in hand that you couldn't once set in the field, not to mention more vulnerability to heavy storm and Mobius and what not.

[@Bezaliel13]

@@DanTheMeek Exactly. Sword of Deep-Seated, Malevolent Nuzzler, Horn of Light, Axe of Despair, etc. returned to the top of the deck *for a price,* yet you suggest Equips be like them but Butterfly Dagger - Elma instead of the deck?

[@DanTheMeek]

@@Bezaliel13 I mean the suggestion I had specifically including "once per turn" in it for a reason, to prevent infinite combos like Elma. I still feel confident had they gone that direction, equips still wouldn't have been very good, they just would have been "less bad". and there might have been more that saw and still see play even if most were still not good enough, but again, this was me from when the game first came out who came up with that, I haven't played yugioh in many many years, no idea if such a change would even make sense in the current meta since I'm not familiar with it. But Nuzler, Axe of Despair, etc. could have been completely free instead of a price and they'd have still be garbage because they were still easily disrupt-able -1s to you, that were dead draws in top decking situations. If they went to the hand (or face down as you suggested), that could have been a different story, but most of the time it was a bad thing for them to return to the top of your deck.

[@Bezaliel13]

@@DanTheMeek Calling cards "garbage" has lost all meaning by this point with how overused it is. Pretty confidant LV4 + Equips might have been good before Cyber Dragon, many many many years ago. Of course, I just do not see +1k as "garbage." That was Sword of Deep-Seated's "price," not giving you a choice.

[@Dionysus24779]

Not about a "failed" mechanic, but with the recent support for D/D/D and release of Dinomorphia for Master Duels I would like a video on cards or archetypes that have a "risk vs. reward" effect, like putting you into a very vulnerable state (such as very low LP) in return for powerful effects.

[@arbitor365]

Even if you removed their flaws, Equip cards would still just be another victim of the modern fast paced meta, unless they really went out of the box with the abilities. If you're a card that doesn't help fill the field with extra deck monsters and/or lock down your opponent, you're just not needed. We are far past the point of just powering up one single monster. No. You want to summon 3 super powerful effect monsters in one turn instead. I don't like that fact but that's how the game has been played for a decade plus.

[@BrownThunder45]

I wanna see you talk about the history of field spells. They are another type of cards you talk about how bad they are/used to be. Talk about how they used to only boost attack/defense of a type/attribute to now some being so good they are banned.

[@KumaPaws376]

I really like Field Spells! They’re like world building for the series as a whole besides Flavor texts and a card’s picture.

[@jhonviel7381]

and how gear town's effect always missed the timing...reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@allan4848]

This is my favorite series of yours (not that your other videos aren't great). idk why, but I can rewatch each of these multiple times.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

This feels very much like a "Why Modern Yu-Gi-Oh is Falling Apart" type video...

[@Kei-ye8if]

As an Evil Eyed player, I'm surprised the archetype wasn't mentioned I think Evil Eyed solves a lot of the mentioned problems with Equips as well: self-recursion, game changing effects, and innate combo engines. It's not the strongest archetype, but it's, imo, a great example at how a modern equip-centric deck should work, and overall an archetype that has a lot of potential.

[@Carikenja]

Rush Duels fix like half the problems in Yu-Gi-Oh and reset the game to a point where it's reasonable to draw 5 cards a turn. I really hope that it becomes a modern standard one day. Because you can draw up to 5 cards a turn if you draw an equip spell that's essentially a +1 if you play it. The more fluid your deck plays the better it does in Rush Duels. It even makes "Bounce" effects more powerful because it is a -1 in card advantage for your opponent if you bounce a card to their hand.

[@Hamboarding]

Nice video, clearing up the questions of many new players at once. I just wish you would've said something about archetype specific „Monster Reborn“ equip spells (partly with additional effects, like trickstars).

[@marcolobos2148]

I'm not a competitive player nor anything of the sort, so what I'm going to say might come out as silly: I've only understood how equip spell cards work very recently, that's because my knowledge of this cards was based on Playstation One Yu-Gi-Oh games, were you would select a monster card in your hand, then a equip spell card, press x, and the equip card "fuses" to the monster: giving the monster it's effects without the card ever existing on the field, and thus being immune to any kind of removal. But I think if they do that, it might end up being kinda broken, but IDK. (For the ones that might have played that kind of games: I know the game didn't make sense, based on how you could fusion summon, but I just wanted to comment on that)

[@Daniel-zs4ww]

Basically everything that doesn't help you summon 5 Monsters a turn is a failed mechanic at this point.

[@cyberdoga5728]

I think the biggest reason why equip cards are a failed mechanic in current yugioh is how exponentially faster the game got over time. Back in the day there were several decks that did rely on equips pumping up one monster in goat format but of course outside of a stun strategy "weapon" equips barely see any play with my favorite example of this being the Mathmech equip.

[@Noojtxeeg]

Holy shit, the people saying that equip cards aren't a failed mechanic clearly didn't watch the video. In a card game with infinite mana/energy/memory/resources, 2-for-possibly-1s with twice the vulnerability, equip spells are definitely a failed mechanic. And no, giving them OP effects doesn't solve the issue because that just puts them on the banlist.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

Frankly, I could see cards with effects comparable to Jersey becoming good if we were to get a card with a GY effect that allows you to equip them directly from the deck and/or swap them between monsters during the damage step. Honest and it's brethren saw play for a long time and still occasionally get used, and this would be no different.

[@sonicjoshua]

The timing of you bringing up comic hand in this video came up at the exact time i got comic handed in a duel i was doing in Master Duel Strange cosmic timing but great video btw

[@Master_E444]

I think maybe if Equip Spells were able to be quickly removed from the Monster they're equipped to or only stay on the field temporarily. Ex: you start the battle phase and you can equip any of the Equip cards you have immediately, use them for battle, and they comeback to hand once the battle phases is finished. Like drawing weapons and putting them back once the battle is concluded. This applies to both players so your opponent can use their equips as well.

[@marcoottina654]

Yu gi Oh! equips are like Magic the Gathering 's "Enchantment - Aura", therefore a continuous stuff would be the simplest solution, as You mentioned at the end

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

You know, in hindsight, the main problem with Equip Spells, is that, almost none of them have a "compensation" effect if theylave the field. AND IF they do, it is a really busted effect that gets abused for loops. MAYBE they could get to see more play if they were like the Adventurer Token deck, were the equips at least get recovery effects. or that alternatively, if they left the field they give you small compensations like "draw 1 card" but with the clause of "if this card leaves the field, except for the summon of a monster from the extra deck", so the equip spell don't gets abused that much. BUTcan still be used for advantage in decks like rituals, tribute summons, or even equip it to your opponent's monster, destroy it and YOU get the advantage

[@andrejv.2834]

Resolving evenly with an adventurer token on the field would mean your opponent has to banish everything but the token, so that's not really a good thing and doesn't help equips but it's really funny

[@yugiohfan7906]

Redirecting attacks - failed mechanics. Please do this video. And this video is great

[@alkamstardust]

I agree, equip spells are one of the BASED cards on the game

[@YuseiTheSynchroHero]

And also BANGERS. ♪┌|∵|┘♪

[@XTempestBuster]

Ironic how go rush just announced them. However, in go rush, you can understand the point of them. Best one, sevens lance, while it can only be equipped to 1 certain monster, and can only control 1 of it, it's already said to be REALLY good, as it gives 400 per attribute and trap immunity

[@Zetact_]

Rush Duel's alternate format shows that a lot of the things that Equip cards do will work well in it. Like some of their first announced ones, one is "Monster gains 2 levels" which in TCG would be absolutely unplayable might be worth considering because levels are actually important in Rush. And since continuous effects are uncommon, stat boosts that remain during opponent's turn would be actually pretty good. Like the Chameleon deck has a boss monster that is literally just a big beatstick but it's a win condition because it keeps the ATK during the opponent's turn and it's Level 8 so it's hard to run over and hard to hit with removal effects. Though they do have a downside for the Rush format in that they do inherently clog the board.

[@bobjones4469]

No, Equip cards were more designed for OG Yugioh. They weren't amazing or anything where you run a bunch of them but some were solid or even meta, like Snatch Steal and United OTK.

[@Lastbornschwab7]

As soon as you explained modern yugioh with needing hand traps, board wipes, and one or two card combo pieces just to play the game at a fairly competitive level I made the decision to never try to pick this game up again. That just doesn't sound very fun at all. Lol. Id much rather play united we stand on my maha vailo and just beat stick.

[@scottcheg9]

Noble knights was the only fun equip oriented deck I ever played and it was pretty damn strong at the time.

[@ran97396]

It's ridiculous now how modern cards basically took all the functionality of union and equip cards as a monster effects like Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. Power of the guardian, (infer)noble arms cards, and united we stand are like the only equip cards I ever see used nowadays. Everything good spell card now is either a continuous or quickplay.

[@calemr]

As a long time M:tG player, I'm finding the comparisons between M:tG and Yu-Gi-Oh very interesting.

[@dizzydial8081]

I remember thinking equip spell cards were so game changing when I used to play back in like 2007. Watching a modern tournament gave me whiplash.

[@kuriboh0]

I was taken aback by the statement that Tokens had an advantage because they're immune to Evenly Matched. I found that to be a major disadvantage, since if your opponent manages to resolve Evenly while you still have your Adventurer Token, you don't have a choice in what to keep on the field; you must keep the token.

[@KaoruMzk]

Learned that the hard way recently on Master Duel. Doesn't make that much sense in my opinion, the token should just disappear when banished face down since it's leaving the field anyway.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

What if you've multiple tokens?

[@bobhouses2036]

The phantasm spiral equip cards also work pretty well when used with their archetype trap cards. You get the good destruction or negation effect when you use the trap card, and you can banish them from the graveyard to equip the phantasm spiral equip spells from the graveyard, from your hand, or shuffle them around on the field

[@ultrajonny64]

This is the perfect time for a top 10 equip cards list

[@marsella527]

The United/Scapegoat combo back in the day was one of the best troll moments I can remember

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

If we're talking about trolling involving equips and Scapegoat... Player A: I activate Heavy Storm (or Giant Trunade) Player B: Scapegoat, you won't be clearing through my LP for a while! Player A: I summon Asura Priest and equip Asura Priest with Big Bang Shot Player B: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU--

[@leojamesquiambao1047]

@@MewtwoStruckBack oh. To follow that: Me: Raigeki! All your monsters are goners! Now, Harpie's for your spells and traps! Opponent: Not quite! Go scapegoat! You can't touch my lifepoints now! Me: I summon Benkei! And I equip it with Mage Power, Big Bang Shot and power of the guardians! Opponent: 😨

[@notnathan2078]

the editing on this video is amazing! keep up the goodwork team B)

[@superm530]

Easy to Fix equip spells: give them a secundary hand trap or graveyard effect that is good , to mitigate death hands and board wipes.

[@jman2050]

One idea I have is perhaps adding a new type of equip spell that is put into your extra deck rather than your main deck, that can perhaps be played directly from your extra deck onto the field if it meets whatever arbitrary conditions are printed. It’d have all the same drawbacks of current equip spells when actually in play but wouldn’t suffer from hampering your main deck’s consistency or requiring searchers to clog up the hand to function, it’d just always be there available to use. And being part of the extra deck would be in itself a balancing factor since even using a theoretically powerful equip in this manner would have to be weighed against using that slot for another extra deck monster.

[@Halfcraft4224]

I came up with an idea for an archetype that focuses around equip spells while watching this video actually. What if the equip spells of the archetype had two separate effects, one effect for when it’s played in the same row as a monster you control and that functions like an equip spell and then another for when it’s played outside a row of a monster you control, then it functions like a traditional spell card. It’d be a neat way of making equip spells more versatile and you could make the monster’s of the archetype universal effect to bounce the spell back to the hand if they had one on them so the actual equip spell doesn’t need to have its own recursion bc the monsters provide it. That might create some infinite loops tho, so the archetype probably can’t have much access to its graveyard to special summon their main deck monsters back.

[@erlanddrow7950]

The Adventure engine kind of feels like they went from MTG auras to MTG Equipment without the Equip cost 🙃

[@DripApe]

dracoback actually very busted compared to those

[@KingChiggy]

A video talking about equip cards taught me that there is an entire archetype around tokens and there are even token monsters in the game. I have been out of the major look of yugioh for too long lol

[@noahtackett6264]

Note that in MTG auras work like equip spells, and equipment works differently but if we get an MR 6, it could be a cool new mechanic giving such buffing strategies a new life

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

The big issue with equip spells is that they're bricks if you don't have the right monster on the field, and retaining their usage requires the monster in question sticking around both before and after you can equip it. The one good thing about equips is that they provide effects independent of monsters, so that you don't have to worry about things like Skill Drain or Effect Veiler. The only relevant equips nowadays are ones with floating effects or that recover other cards for extending. Being able to sac off Dracoback for free once per turn is actually kind of nutty, as you can use that in conjunction with things like Forbidden Droplet and Multirole to ensure most of your plays for the turn go through.

[@bergkatze3186]

Evil eye is just chilling in the corner xD

[@stormcat2330]

When I used to play a while back my main deck was filled with summoning negates, destruction, and equips, along with monsters designed for equips (those like Hayabusa Knight who could attach twice or KA-2 Des Scissors who burned for good damage). But my ace and favorite was Maha Vailo. Such a cool card. Along with Mage Power, it was easy to get it over 4k attack, even 6k sometimes. Not the best deck, but my favorite. I didn't have to worry about tributing monsters because my equips would make level 4s stronger than level 8s. Nowadays, though, this kind of strategy probably wouldn't get me very far. 😅 Also, early on in this video, I was thinking about fixes for this mechanic. There are two prospects that I found interesting. 1. The equip card doesn't occupy one of the 5 spell/trap zones, but attaches to a monster. And/or 2. The equip card doesn't go to the graveyard if the equipped monster is removed or flipped (unless the controller chooses for it to). Instead, the equip card occupies that zone and simply equips to the next monster to occupy it. All of that said, I do think the mechanic/concept is super goofy. While I loved doing it, giving something like a dragon five swords to become uber powerful is pretty silly.

[@ajh22895]

MtG Equip spells are auras in terms of gameplay mechanics, in terms of flavour, they are equipments. But Auras get support in order to counteract their negative tempo effect and generally have better effects than equipments to compensate. There's also Hexproof, an ability which I'm not exactly sure has a YGO equivalent that stops opponents from targeting the card with spells and abilities. So a lot of Aura decks will use Hexproof to stop disruption. However, the counterplay to this is edicts which make the opponent sacrifice creatures.

[@numimio]

Adventure's main issue is that, when using all your cards' effects, your ENTIRE backrow is filled. You have the two traps, searchable from the level 4. 3 equip spells, which are searchable by the continuous spell. The aformentioned continuous spell. And the field SPELLS, which search eachother and are searched by the water enchantress. Now they're adding Arametir, which is ANOTHER continuous spell! This deck is also being made pure due in part to GRYPHON RIDER being too good so now all Adventure support says "You can only special summon monsters with that mention 'Adventure Token'." ... I just hate that this deck, which has such a fun theme, is going to be killed because konami fucked up by giving the deck an omninegate from 1 card.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

They oughta ban Rider and make a retrain that does something other than negate.

[@mooxsir]

10/10 video once again commenting to boost. I also think that the thumbnails for this series could be improved as if feels too cluttered. Great work tho

[@thenecromancer9879]

I like playing United We Stand with token summoning cards. Like a random monster, use Scapegoat to summon 4 tokens, use United to gain 4000

[@mlpfanboy1701]

I have an entire fan made extra deck summoning mechanic i feel could help the equip spells if Konami ever made it official: upgrade summoning. Upgrade monsters are essentially xyz monsters but instead of multiple monsters of the same level its conditions are one monster and a certain number of equip spells equipped to it (some need specific monsters and/or specific equip spells) The equip spells then overlay under the upgrade monster (referred as augments). In addition to the normal monster effects the upgrade monster gains all the effects it would have of being equipped to its augments but the augments are no longer back row keeping them safe and out of the way. Each upgrade monster if equiped with another equip spell can augment itself with that equip spell (overlaying it), each would have an armament level which would be the maximum number of equip spells your allowed to augment, any more then that would have to remain in the back row.

[@arthurkurbedzis]

(9:34) favourite and just best from my memories, especially with the scapegoat combo.

[@Dranlia]

One equip card that I think shows promise is Saqlifice. Because it has the effect that the monster it is equipped to can be used as 2 tributes for a tribute summon and when it goes to the graveyard you can search for a Qli monster. That makes it work as a combo tool that actually worked it being an equip spell into a benefit. I think more equip spells in future should try and work that way.

[@freaki0734]

I think that equip cards also often just don't get the good effects other types of spell cards get to have. One card that would surely see competetive play if it's archetype was any good is "saqlifice" but you just don't get omni searches or cool GY effects on equip spell cards for obvious reasons. The thing is that there are things that we look for in Monsters that would be worth playing a potential brick for. like omni negates or just generally good quick effects that can serve as disruption and also perhaps more importantly could immediatly be chained to whatever disruption might try to get at them by destroying the monster they are equipped to or them. I also feel like you should have touched on isolde since that card is seemingly responsible for 90% of equip spell use outside of the adventure engine nowadays.

[@mfznal-hafidz8592]

Mermail equip spells can negate even without start a chain and can negate counter trap as well. Unfortunately, it's mandatory so the first time your opponent activates card or effects, then it will automatically negate it and send this card to GY as a cost.

[@juanca120]

Imagine how broken your game is that most of the type cards lost against the staples cards

[@lamarpray5324]

“Like raidraptor ultimate falcon” ultimate falcon go to example for every thing

[@kitsterling8665]

I could see some potential in having some kind of Field Spell that gives Equip Spells 'immunity'. Something like "Battlefield Scavenger - Equip Spells attached to Monsters that are destroyed remain in play; pay X LP to attach them to a new target." (Could also work with discard from hand or top of deck). I think it would remain fairly balanced because 1 - cost, 2 - you have to 'sacrifice' a Spell/Trap Zone to keep the Equip in play, and 3 - the immunity would be "Monster drops Equip" only; it would not prevent destruction of the Equip card itself.

[@wehtawnikrap]

Maha Vailo, United We Stand & Mage Power was pretty tough to beat over.

[@vDeadbolt]

I like the analogy to Magic, but there are a couple of thing that is left out. Magic doesn't have zones or a limit to how many cards can be on your side of the field. So an equipment spell staying on the board isn't a huge detriment compared to Yugioh where it has to take up a slot on your spell and trap zones, even with the suggested mechanic. On top of that, most equipment are either used because they have a busted effect (like skullclamp), or can be cheated out and attached to a creature of your choice (like collosus hammer). Equipments are barely used outside of those since they are too slow. Also Enchantment Auras are the equivalent to Equip Spells in Yugioh since attaching to your creature and it dying would cause you to lose auras. They barely see play in unlimited formats outside of Bogles since Slippery Bogle has hexproof, which gives it evasion. Outside of that, it sees niche play unless you play commander and run a commander that takes advantage of cheating out Auras (Like Zur the Enchanter). Despite all that, Auras and Equipments do serve a purpose in a limited format like Draft, where everything is weaker and slower. Most removal spells in limited are so slow and expensive, that you are guaranteed to have value if you do play your auras and equipment the proper way. Unless you are playing a faster draft pool, like cube or masters sets, the two mechanics are fine. But Yugioh sets on the other hand is never designed around draft at all. So most useless cards serve no purpose other than to take up space.

[@KING_74172]

Thats what i hate about competetive yugioh. I hate that its just a race to see who can make an unbreakable board and prevent your oponent from playing the game. Like i dont mind losing if its a good match. I want my cards destroyed if it means i can come up with a good counter. I want to strategize and come up with a good combo. Not a game breaking combo, but just a good one. I like the back and forth power struggle. And i like to see cards that arent commonly used. I lost to a guy with a hungry burger ritual deck and i had a blast, even if i lost. It sucks playing randoms on master duels or dueling nexus cause all they play is meta decks to prevent me from even playing the game. Not everything has to be min maxed and meta. I get people wanna win, but let other people enjoy the game too

[@BigWaders]

Shoutout to my noble knights

[@bobjones4469]

Equip spells were designed for a slower format, in which they were decent and there were some that were incredibly good. A way to fix them in today's format is to make them bounce back to the hand if the monster they're equipped to leaves the field, as a baseline effect for all Equip cards. Although this could be abused, but they could make it so they can't be reactivated the same turn? Or they can make the cards stay on the field if the monster is removed and then you can re-equip it without counting as an activation.

[@Mimagito]

Slower meta? Try "a different kind of game" instead. Yes, there are _a few_ that saw success back then, and are still banned today, but the rest were pretty cheeks. Even those like United and Mage Power were sometimes a hindrance, because if your opponent had at least a single backrow and they couldn't get rid of it, there was no point in equipping those, lest you get Mirror, Book of Moon or Compulsive. The better ones like Metamorphosis or Elma are the only legitimately, always reliable Equip Spells, and that's 2 on a pool of countless others. I'm really looking forward to a Equip Spell rework or revision, one day.

[@formerhunter2]

the sad part is, it's pretty easy to make equips viable (if you're making the card). Just give them an effect that allows them to re-equip themselves to other monsters, or give them a really nice in-grave effect. Me and some of my buddies have a custom-card format we've been making for a while, and that's one of the ways I've found to make an equip-card deck work.

[@nophion2-electricboogaloo647]

Its still funny to me that young me recognized that equip spells arent good but looked at stuff like Necro Defender and said: "Yeah thats going to win me the duel."

[@cytofusion6072]

Equip spells as a mechanic are so bad, and the modern meta has become so fast, that I’d honestly wager you could make an equip spell that literally just says “if the equipped monster deals direct battle damage to your opponent, you win the game.” And it still probably would be too weak and wouldn’t see play.

[@olyviermonteau4300]

mikankos: we have come to give fear.

[@yoman8027]

To be fair, the best comparison with Magic the Gathering are auras. I'm not sure if some auras see play nowadays, but back a few years ago there were some decks that used them. Of course, it works in MtG because not all colors may remove enchantment cards and one of the usual ways of creature destruction is direct damage, which is harder to do when an aura increases the creature's resistance.

[@ButFirstHeLitItOnFire]

How about a “Sword Hunter” retrain that works with equip spells? _Relinquished Sword Hunter_ (EARTH) Rank 7 Pendulum Scale 0 Pendulum effect: _When a monster you control would be targeted for battle or card effects by your opponent, you can equip an Equip Spell Card or union monster from your hand or deck to that monster targeted. Once per turn, during either players turn, you can add 1 equip spell card or union monster from your deck or GY to your hand OR add 1 “Relinquished” and one ritual spell card to your hand from your deck. You can XYZ summon this card from your pendulum zone by using 2+ level 7 monsters OR 2+ monsters you control equipped with other cards._ Warrior/XYZ/Pendulum/Effect 2+ level 7 monsters _You can also XYZ summon this card by using monsters you control equipped with other cards as materials, and if you do equip those cards to this card. This card gains 200 ATK/DEF for every card equipped to this card and every XYZ material attached to this card. When this card destroys a monster by battle, this card can attack again in a row. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card destroyed a monster(s) by battle this Battle Phase: attach all those monsters to this card. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls or in your hand; equip that target to this card (max. 1). This card gains ATK/DEF equal to that equipped monster's. If this card would be destroyed by battle or card effect, destroy that equipped monster instead. You can detach 1 material from this card, to choose one of the following effects (you can only use each effect once per turn);_ ⚫️Special summon 1 “Sword Hunter” from your hand, deck or GY. ⚫️Add 1 equip spell card or union monster to your hand from your deck. ⚫️Add 1 “Relinquished” and 1 ritual spell card to your hand form your deck. _After this effect resolves you can place this card in your pendulum zone._ ATK/2950 DEF/2200

[@SBroproductions]

I wonder what would happen if they made it so Equip spell cards actually stayed on the field if the equipped monster was destroyed, and during the Standby Phase or End Phase you could attempt to reattach them to your other monsters. Would definitely require some rewrites to a few older cards.

[@mikaruyami]

Or simple have it so that they return to your hand instead. So the only way for them to be removed is for them to either be destroyed or discarded

[@SBroproductions]

​@@mikaruyami I feel like you could get into some recursive nonsense if they simply returned to hand. Playing them again would count as a spell activation, and we've already seen the nonsense that can come about from that.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

​@@SBroproductions Then ban the cards that benefit from that instead.

[@kevinmorris9362]

A quick note on MTG and a comparison for equip spell cards: In Magic the more accurate comparison would be comparing Yugioh's Equip Spell Cards to the Enchantment-Aura type of card. They have pretty much the same disadvantages and, like Yugioh's equip spells, need recursion to be useful if they are affecting your monster. There are some that affect your opponent's stuff, which are genuinely pretty decent in certain circumstances, but it's still a fair comparison. On top of that, the Equipment subtype of Artifacts didn't exist in Magic until Mirrodin block in 2003, a full 10 years into Magic's lifespan, whereas Enchant Creature spells existed even in the very first set of the game.

[@stevenle9960]

kinda dumb that equip spells are destroyed when monsters are flipped over, i think that rule could easily be removed