How Old School Yu-gi-oh Changed | A Yu-Gi-Oh TCG Retrospective (Part 1)

[@mattjayce2339]

Crazy how Solemn Judgment, the original Counter Trap, is STILL to this day the best legal Counter Trap in the game (since Red Reboot is banned).

[@RasenRendanX]

The most impressive thing about this video is that there were ZERO pot of greed references or jokes

[@e-tan3911]

Good, the meme is older than the average CoD player.

[@josh8901]

Alright you have me hooked. What does it do?

[@BREAKocean]

​@@josh8901look it up on yt lol

[@majintv24]

​@@josh8901you couldnt beleive how complex its effect is

[@josh8901]

@@majintv24 👀

[@samwill7259]

Takahashi, as always being the chaddest of all chads. In a game where people can get so meta chasey and try hard. Telling them "it's ok to NOT be the king" means everything and more.

[@jeffbrownstain]

Well yeah, cause Kaz is king. Duh

[@mkhanman12345]

@@jeffbrownstainthe only king

[@ninjaguyYT]

Yu gi oh is literally Asian for "games king of".

[@samwill7259]

@@ninjaguyYT ...asian?

[@samwill7259]

@@MilkyWayToHeaven Somehow I don't think he had any control of Konami's business decisions since he didn't set out to make a card game in the first place.

[@TheLawYGO]

as a self-proclaimed Yugioh historian, I absolutely love this lookback. So many videos in the category focus purely on the meta impact of the game that seeing the history of the game through a casual player's eyes is really refreshing. Really looking forward to part 2.

[@Foxcade]

Thanks dude, I actually cross-referenced your History of Fusion Summoning videos during my research and they were genuinely helpful, so I'm glad you appreciated it👍

[@bakionigeri6414]

​@@Foxcadeyou see you guys one by working together, just like mr. Takahashi would have wanted. "United we stand, or together we'll fall"- yugioh 2002

[@TheNewtypeblue]

Neos Cake, Ojama Lime, and Revolver playing Mirror Force? I'm glad to see someone doing a retrospective who really gets it.

[@four-en-tee]

10:41 What's really funny is that in recent years, Yugitubers like MBT have gone back and explored the "no tribute" version of the game (known as Junior Format) and have since tried to flesh it out into an actual competitive game with the current card pool, exploring the game one year at a time and gradually introducing more of the card pool and banning/limiting certain cards to better balance out this version of the game. Its honestly a really fascinating version of Yugioh compared to Master Rule since the Junior Format ruleset also prohibits you from activating more than 1 spell per turn, activating more than 1 trap per turn, and setting more than one spell/trap per turn.

[@ich3730]

doesnt that make the stars useless as a card symbol?

[@aidanklobuchar1798]

@@ich3730 Laughs in Synchro and XYZ mechanics.

[@yellownotmellow]

2121 is not worth living in

[@ark3355]

Traptrix is dead-

[@luigifan4585]

@@aidanklobuchar1798 it honestly becomes more important with those extra deck monsters, since it can majorly affect what you can summon out if there's even one star of difference

[@Mantis24513]

Since you said you really like the synchro era, you should look into Edison Format, probably the 2nd most popular legacy format. It replicates a format from early 2010. I really like it because it's plenty diverse, and to me it's the perfect middle ground between old school monkey Yugioh and modern ludicrous speed Yugioh.

[@LazyLee]

EDISON GANG REPRESENT

[@modernkiwi6447]

Edison gang represent!!

[@stegomasaurus6737]

This. I defend Goat as a fun and skillful format to play, especially for older players looking for a nostalgic experience, but Edison has way more to offer. An insane amount of viable decks with few cards shared between them, no "trinity" that all but seals games on turn 1 if only one player opens them, combos that resemble the modern day but also don't make nigh-unbreakable boards with 5 negates... It's the perfect balance.

[@DeepSolid43]

SOON TO BE 1ST LETS GO EDISON GANG

[@pissingspeedrun]

@@stegomasaurus6737 I’ve been hosting unlimited duels as “goat format with ash blossoms” it takes care of some issues lmao

[@yaboiskittlez7943]

Honestly a bit surprised you didn't bring up Cyber Dragon. Arguably one of the most important meta changing cards in this era. I'd dare say you could talk about this game pre and post Cyber Dragon

[@QuankyFlacidFilms]

i agree. good video but i was waiting the entire time for him to mention cyber dragon

[@Tha-Gayle]

How did cyber dragon affect the meta and if it did, what made it so meta?

[@luxerhusku2609]

@@Tha-Gayle It's a monster you can just Special Summon if your opponent controls at least one monster and you don't; powercrept over The Fiend Megacyber, which that card you can Special Summon it if your opponent controls at least 2 more monsters than you do. Basically, it's an easy free, 2100 ATK summon, running at three copies; which also powercreeps 1900 ATK Normal Monsters because Cyber Dragon bodies them over like it's nothing.

[@Tha-Gayle]

@luxerhusku2609 oh ok so it was more so it special summon effect.

[@luxerhusku2609]

@@Tha-Gayle Correct. Its Special Summon effect is much faster

[@Darkros123]

I will always defend archtypes as a good inclusion to the game. Side decking with some specific card in mind against a single strategy, with that same card doing absolutely nothing against a second one or even helping a third one gives so much room for experimentation in a given format with different playstyles that don't revolve around banishing a light and a dark.

[@ChaddyFantome]

Archetypes, whether one agrees with em or not, were a necesary addition as the game evolved in order to curtail broken interactions and encourage deck diversity. The real problem is how a lot of the archetypical cards these days just feel like "cards" rather than having any personality or flavor in a vacuum in favor of just being for the sake of being used in a specific combo route in a specific kind of interaction rather than something that can be slotted in with other cards with a particular function with pros and cons for doing so based on what the card is in a vacuum.

[@Chris-jw8vm]

Archetypes led to 95% of decks I play against being cookie cutter and requiring 2 brain cells to play. And you have to go along with it to some degree or another or you don't have a chance against them.

[@inuyasha989]

@@Chris-jw8vm this guy gets whats really wrong with yugioh this, hand traps, and pendulum summoning

[@flockinify]

@@inuyasha989 pendulum summoning? You mean the mechanic that hasn't been relevant for years? Whose amount of historical meta dominating decks can be counted on one hand?

[@Darkros123]

@@Chris-jw8vm 95% of the exact same archtype or different ones? because in most formats there are 2 or 3 best decks completely different from each other.

[@AnotherWindaSimp]

As for me, a Cyber Dragon player (that stopped watching the series after that graduation duel between Jaiden and Zane) returning last year to play this game, I got overwhealmed on how fast and complex modern game is played. Like what is even this Synchro stuff? What is this Stardust Dragon? Xyz? How do you put a card onto another card to make a new monster? It all happened so fast, I had to move out of a slow paced deck and get into a modern 10 minute combo floodgating ygo. So yes, even tho I lose my mind every day, it's worth seeying the nostalgia of Cyber End Dragon deck giving a fight vs any modern deck.

[@LazyLee]

refreshing to see a yugioh retrospective that isn't just "wah old good new bad"

[@inuyasha989]

well i mean the new is kinda bad as someone who still plays yugioh and have been since it release WHNE I WAS 15 :P yugioh used to be about strategy now its about koing your opponent before they get their first or even 2nd turn depending who is going first :P plus i also feel like fun decks used to thrive back in the day you could go to a tradish format tournament and youd see anything from exodia decks to chaos decks to lvl decks and depending on how they were built they could hold their own then came along the one shot wonders then pendulum summoning which is so broken its not even funny and then came hand traps and thats all you see now is op one shot decks with every counter in their deck in the form of a hand trap yugioh doesnt even use trap cards much anymore unless its support as they are deemed "too slow" and people wonder why harpies feather duster and reigeki both got unbanned after being on the bann list for decades and dont even get me started on the unnecessary censorship cause they are afraid they might offend a handful of bible thumpers (im christian for what its worth so thats saying something when i say that :P) considering most players who play yugioh are like 16-18+ at LEAST alot of which are over the age of 18 as well i dont see many young kids running decks unless their parents got them into it but i dont think calling solemn judgement japans original name gods judgment is gonna make yugioh players start burning boosters like the bible thumpers burned harry potter books

[@Badbufon]

​@@inuyasha989 lol 1- no, it wasn't, it was always been a shitty game, it just took more turns for the same outcome. it's a random game, so it has always been a flip coin simulator. to fix that you need consistency cards, but then you pop off turn 1, so you need handtraps to stop your opponent, so he needs negations and so on. it got more complex and we have more tools, but it isn't bad because they put those things into the game. 2- pend best deck.... ok, no, it was busted yes. but they eventually fixed it... kinda. 3- yes, BUT, also it has been already proved that big boobed waifus helped nurturing the incel movement and the rise of fascism worldwide that is overtaking our culture.... sooo.... they were right, but for the wrong reasons, and they are fashy too now so... idk. if you don't believe me, just look at 4chan... youtube... fox news.. they are everywhere complaining about boobs and M&Ms... anime booba was the dawnfall of mankind.

[@synso6527]

@@inuyasha989 Pend summoning broken? Very poor choice of words

[@OldTimerOfficial]

@@inuyasha989 man nobody cares, let people play the game.

[@thedemonpit]

@@Badbufon you attempt to counter your statement during 3 by essentially saying “big booba lover=Incel or fascist” Is very off, all your other stuff made a decent point one way or another , but then you make everything you stated either ignored or somewhat invalidated through such an opinionated statement. Censorship in card designs are quite stupid and sometimes make their designs even more questionable. And while opinions are something everyone has and it helps to make us all different from one another it should not be treated as gospel.

[@Monroah]

Seeing this in my sub feed after getting DEEP into all things YGO (anime/manga AND TCG) all over again thanks to Fox's last vid was certainly a hell of an experience. Can't wait to dig into this thing!

[@masterexploder7477]

Thank you Actman for making a video so bad that people recommended this video instead. GJ Foxcade, great watch!

[@Dexisow]

Based

[@UnyieldingMass]

Eh i thought actmans video was perfectly adequate, it'd be weird if he switched up his format for yugioh. Still glad this popped up in my suggestions from his video XD

[@dustinsterling3248]

I DID NOT MEAN (he did not mean), TO BLOW YOUR MIND (to blow your miiiind), BUT THAT SHIT HAPPENS TO ME, ALL THE TIIIIIIIIIIIME

[@kaison12205]

I watched farfa’s interview with cat man and it seemed like we just missed the point

[@UnyieldingMass]

@@dustinsterling3248 TANAC!

[@cephalopodwizard]

I really appreciated the Yugioh history overview, it's a game that sounds fascinating, but is really hard to approach as an outsider. I agree completely about archetypes being a good idea, because the "40 best cards in the format" phenomenon is a huge problem. For example, if you play Commander in Magic, choosing a 5-color commander lets you play any legal card, and you can probably guess at least 20 cards of "good stuff" staples that *will* be present in that deck, regardless of the text on that commander. One method I've seen to prevent an archetype from becoming a prescribed decklist is to leave a conspicuous hole in the archetype. For example, in Netrunner, one side will eventually want to get 3 different categories of cards in play: a fracter, a decoder, and a killer (don't worry about what they do). One archetype was printed that spent an unusual resource to fuel these cards, but they only created a fracter and a killer. What decoder should one choose for this archetype? "Figure it out. You do you." Also, it is wild that the default format is "almost everything". No wonder there's a reputation for power creep, new cards would never be played otherwise!

[@Coinman121]

That's not an entirely unexplored concept in Yugioh. There's a lot of archetypes or card series designed to be an "engine"- a small handful of cards not meant to be a deck on their own, but synergized with other decks strategies. One of the most popular was the "Invoked" cards which was a fusion archetype with only one main deck monster, "Aleister the Invoker," and a number of Fusion monsters that can be summoned by banishing Aleister and a monster with a certain attribute. Since "Invoked" only had 1 monster you can't run it as a pure deck, but it gave a lot of power to the decks it synergized with like Shaddolls or Dogmatika.

[@filipvadas7602]

Alredy commented, but I feel like the original Cyber Dragon deserved a slight mention for the GX era. Sure it didn't break the game like the Chaos Set or introduce a change like the transition to archetypes But because it marked the game changing on a fundimental level as , back then, Special Summoning was well... *special* Unlike today where its ironically more common then Normal Summoning Before then it was mainly reserved for Fusions, Rituals and some Main Deck boss monsters that *NEEDED* to be Special Summoned Then in comes Cyber Dragon. A level 5 beater with 2100 ATK that can be summoned straight from the hand as long as you control no monsters and your opponent does. It was basically a free monster and field advantage Now, again, this isn't anything big now, but back then it was *wild*

[@bl00by_]

Not only that, he also had the first actual good contact fusion with fortress dragon. And he made one of the first OTK strategys possible by being the mat for cyber twin dragon which you got with future fusion.

[@lssjvegeta7103]

@@bl00by_ bruh that title would go to xyz dragon cannon and it's related cards. they did contact fusion first and was actually pretty decent or if you want to get super technical, valkyria the magna warrior was the first boss monster with a contact fusion-like effect despite not being a fusion monster itself but the concept of contact fusion technically started with the magnet warriors

[@bl00by_]

@@lssjvegeta7103 Yeah, but those were trash and haven't seen competitve success. Fortress actually saw play over the years.

[@lssjvegeta7103]

@@bl00by_ ooh you meant the first one that actually saw play xD

[@ericquiabazza2608]

That just tells you how konami design cards. Wanted them to be hype and exitingz meta was fixable later. Thus the power creep keep goingharder and harder. Now people wont even consider this a card game anymore and jokes about "first turn, take 30 min" arent just a joke.

[@Dragonmatic]

Cannot state enough just how utterly refreshing it is to finally see a channel which doesn't usually focus on yugioh actually look into how the game was, how it actually evolved and why it evolved they way it did instead of just trashing it for not being the exact same as an idolized childhood memory from 20 years go. Seriously it's so fucking appreciated and really hope it widely reaches the more general audiences so more discussions can be had that don't devolve into one side parroting an overdone and over-exaggerated take.

[@torneodevagos7098]

We didn't get too excited either. The old Yugioh had problems and the game evolved but now the game fixes the previous problems to have many more problems than the old Yugioh, and that shows a bad evolution that they have had in the long run (looking forward to part 2)

[@ghost-iv8gt]

maybe if yugioh as a game bothered to address its many, many debilitating issues ppl wouldn't parrot those issues over and over. food for thought

[@Dragonmatic]

@@ghost-iv8gt Really bothered replying to a comment from a year ago just to complain? There is a difference between actual issues in the game and then the idiot statements of shit like "synchros and everything after ruined this" from those who refuse to even learn while throwing a tantrum when someone doesn't play like a toddler.

[@ghost-iv8gt]

@@Dragonmatic when did i say synchros or anything after ruined the game? the games flaws run far deeper and are far older than synchro summoning. cope harder, the game sucks, that's why we aren't getting new players

[@Dragonmatic]

@@ghost-iv8gt That is one of the plenty of mindless statements which people keep being parroted as issues when it couldn't be further than the truth. And new players are being introduced to the game every day, have personally seen people I know go from not knowing jackshit to actively playing D/D/D, Sprights, Vanquish Soul and other modern decks. If the game's core gameplay was as bad as some make it out to be, there would not be consistently record breaking attendances during tournaments in the last 3 years. The main issue is establishing a good tutorial and getting it through some people's dense skulls that after a quarter of a century the game would naturally have changed.

[@RogueRen]

5D's to me was the ideal level of YGO. Everything past that started making it a bit TOO easy to get super powerful card out quickly, and the later support for archetypes like gravekeeper or fiends have become so combo-heavy that a single turn can take up to half an hour. Konami now has the exact OPPOSITE problem they used to have.

[@LordHannya]

That opening statement is pure deep philosophy. Rest in Peace, Takahashi

[@bakionigeri6414]

The quote is definitely what I needed to hear. I'm not the only one but many men like myself are in the rough Place nowadays. But Mr Takahashi wouldn't give up. And yugi muto wouldnt either.💯

[@valroniclehre193]

@@bakionigeri6414 Each day is a new draw and you never know when you'll get that epic topdeck.

[@JuliusCaesar103]

Foxcade is finally back, baby!

[@bmac4]

Honestly talking about how the Synchro summon mechanic sped up the game, as someone who had never watched 5DS until around the time you dropped your last video, the thing that amused me in watching that anime is seeing just how much more interesting the actual strategies used in the anime were. It felt like they were truly playing the card game instead of made up effects or trying to use a mechanic which in real life demanded extraordinary amounts of luck. Sure the anime still has the clutch low LP topdeck moments all the time and its share of dookie archetypes, but it felt like it really fleshed out strategies on display, which I think mirrored the card game itself in terms of Konami striving to make a far more dynamic card game with more in-archetype interactions.

[@twarnold14]

As someone who is into Magic and has been playing Digimon casually since it’s latest release, it’s always interesting to see how a card game took its shape! Magic was the first TCG, meaning everyone was a brand new player and no one could tell what was going to be good. (In beta test, someone said they traded a forest for a mox emerald thinking they do the same thing. And yes, they have the same rules text, but one is a basic land and core to how the game works while the other is a part of the power 9, a hall of fame of the game’s best cards.) Judging power level is difficult when the game is so new. Digimon started hesitantly with effects such that vanilla cards, costed aggressively to make up for their lack of ability, were pretty good in the early days. Now that has shifted. Even the colors have become more less relevant as archetypes become more of a thing. Magic has been able to avoid archetypes by leaning on their color pie and set rotation. Both of those ensure that the best cards aren’t universal or game-defining. As for Yugioh, I don’t play, but watching 5Ds recently does make me want to put together some synchro decks as a little battle chest.

[@Foxcade]

If you are interested in trying Yugioh but don't want to jump into the deep end of the current meta or the slower early years, I'd recommend looking at Edison Format. It's near the end of the Synchro era when it got its own identity as a TCG and you had diverse options for deck options, but combos aren't 10+ minutes long. It's a fun format that has a pretty dedicated following.

[@ericquiabazza2608]

Thing is this archetype arent made for fun, they are made so you roll more for cards. Remember that cards packs ARE loot boxes, or directly GATCHA. SO neddeing 3 specific cards for a combo is the perfect way to dry suckers.

[@Momo_pstat4]

Great video! Plans for part 2?

[@itswhzly]

Idk why they struggled so hard with fusion. Imo the first thing they should have tried should have been this: 1. remove the polymerzation card. 2 to fuse two monsters together you just need both monsters on the field, when you summon the second monster to make the fusion you have the option to fuse the two at the expense of forgoing an attack on that turn. Or you don’t have to forgo up to you but this is how I played with my friends for house rules around 2003 and 2004 and it was great. Also amazing video great work 🎉

[@blue_champignon5738]

I know we all think the Yugi vs. Strings Revival jam mill was hype, but I think the Rebecca vs. Vivian Fire princess burn strategy was super underrated in terms of the anime talking about alternative win conditions

[@four-en-tee]

You do bring up a good point in this video: We need more support for more neglected archetypes as a whole. I recently got into Burning Abyss, and my god is it rough to play BAs in 2022. If it weren't for the recent Bystial archetype working as a band-aid for the deck, this would be unplayable. Although, i suppose thats sort of the point of generic support in a trading card game.

[@overthemoon34]

I see you've discovered the joy of C1 Dante target Cir, C2 Cir target Dante and Beatrice pass.

[@filipvadas7602]

They'll probably get around to it. They gave freaking *Meklords* really good support about 2 years ago. An archetype they haven't touched more or less since the Synchro era And sure, giving generic support would be great, but they would need to be carefull not to run into the same problem they did with generic Zombie support 5-6 years ago, where it got so bad they went on a crusade ridicilously overbalance *everything* Zombie related PS: Love Burning Abyss too, but, yeah, its rough. The archetype is STARVING for some new support.

[@four-en-tee]

@@overthemoon34 I've actually been trying to make shit like Cicada King work in this deck along with rank 6 monsters (its why i'm shoving Bystials in here), but archetypes like Branded Despia can just dodge negates now and until Beldrake releases next set, i can ONLY rely on XYZ monsters or trap cards to get shit done. We need more good rank 3s. I have no means of stopping something like Branded Banishment. Even Ashura King only stops monster effects. I can only play so much back row removal without killing my consistency, i only play enough to out Mine. What am I supposed to do, play Spiritualism? Like, I could, but BAs excavate cards a fair amount. Its why we play Galaxy Cyclone. I'll have to look into backrow removal GY effects i guess. Either that, or i'll need to start playing DMOC or some shit so i can grab outs out of the GY.

[@RyanAtlus]

Such a pleasant video! You're in the small minority of players who come back after a hiatus with a positive attitude. Looking forward to part 2!

[@ericquiabazza2608]

Gonna be honest bro, most sinchro fanatic are people who didnt had much cards to get so sinchro give them the chance to be "competitive" withouth having to care for especific cards. Or meta slaves who google broken strategies and again replicate them 1 to 1. So there wasnt much brain movement there. And thus why people concider it its own game,and other will even doubt to still call it a card game.

[@RyanAtlus]

@@ericquiabazza2608 "Playing a good deck means you don't think" is such a wrong take, my guy. It tells me all I need to know about your skills at the game.

[@direYGO]

REALLY good video i agree with almost every point you make here, i cant wait for the second part and am glad to see another based generaider enjoyer

[@Sad-Lesbian]

dire finally got a W!

[@brave1_007]

Common dire W

[@aether6293]

@@brave1_007 *uncommon dire W

[@brave1_007]

@@aether6293 true haha

[@gtdfg4594]

Alongside this video being very well made and your points nicely backed up, I really like how you went through the effort of getting footage for a lot of the decks, playstyles and formats you're talking about. It's tiring seeing the same LotD Exodia clip with banned cards over and over again when someone tries to explain the game's pacing, and I noticed that you went through the effort of showing how Magical Scientist FTK works in practice while explaining it for only 15 seconds. Thanks for taking the time to do those small things, it really helps to keep the video evergreen. Can't believe I hadn't subbed when the 5D's video came out, keep up the great quality.

[@whenisdinner2137]

Funny you should mention dandelion because that card's never coming off the ban list because of Link summoning and the fact that it's affect is not a hard once per turn or even a soft once per turn. If you recycle it multiple times you could have the most unbreakable board the world has ever seen

[@filipvadas7602]

To be fair, they could errata it. They did it to Chaos Emperor Dragon who, if it were re-released with its original card effect, would *still* be one of the most powerfull cards in the game

[@3004Kureiji]

Errata might be done on that card to get unbanned

[@azurabbit12]

Being able to use tokens for Link Summoning is such bs and whenever MR6 drops (if ever) they should retcon that, maybe errataing cards with tokens that are *supposed* to be for links with the clause that they can, cus it's so dumb that so many token-summoning cards are banned due to Links

[@whenisdinner2137]

​@@3004Kureijior maybe master rule 6 making tokens for sycros only usable for syncros

[@Disturbed2595]

Why they thought it sound be a good idea to let people use tokens as materials for anything is beyond me

[@alesolren]

5Ds is and always will be peak Yu-Gi-Oh for me. My favorite season, this is when I got into Yu-Gi-Oh, synchro is my favorite summoning archetype.

[@kr4t0sg.28]

I stopped at the dungeon dice era. That was it for me.

[@xESPplayer500x]

Last pack i bought was 1st edition invasion of chaos in like 2005

[@wtfbros5110]

5ds couldve been the 2nd greatest ygo series but synchro arc happened and it never recovered

[@abigailaceves9230]

I remember seeing an episode or two of the original Yugioh anime when I was very young in the 2000s, but I didn’t have cable so I didn’t grow up with the series. Then I discovered the series as a whole as a preteen, and it is one of my franchises. The news of Kazuki Takahashi’s death was both shocking and sad, and I appreciate the tribute in the beginning of the video.

[@101stumphead]

It was on kidswb I didn't have cable either

[@inuyasha989]

it was on saturday mornings and aired on afternoon blocks after school like kdswb on certain local tv stations non cable i didnt have cable till i was 16 myself (35 now lol)

[@Grimlax22493]

I believe the main issue that I hear from all old players trying to get into modern yugioh is the fact that the game is WAY to fast paced. Combo that with your opponent taking a literal 5 mins each turn to setup a board and if you don't have a response on turn 2 the game is over. Pre 5Ds Era yugioh I remember games lasting between 8 to 15 turns now its over turn 2 or 3 and if you're lucky 4. If modern yugioh decks didn't combo off everything and allow you to play half your deck I personally feel you would see more old players return

[@brandonmccall6664]

You so accurately described the early days of playing yugioh, every recess my friends and I played. All we did was make rules up and throw cards down confidently and no one ever won, recess would just end so we’d call it a tie and play again the next day. Great times looking back on it

[@Eltanin]

This was such an incredibly well made video. I can't wait for the next part. Although I still love playing modern Yu-Gi-Oh! to this day, I definitely have the fondest memories of it from the 5D's era where the standard of buying three structure decks meant you've got a near-competitive ready deck became the norm. I loved the variety of strong decks during the specific era of Machina, Gravekeepers, Agents, Dragunity, Six Samurais and Dark Worlds which at that time were still affordable for students like me.

[@sulthanms305]

The reason i think why neos spacian fusion monsters returned to the ED during the EP, is because it's a reference to Ultraman, which is a show where a human transform into a giant alien super hero that's protecting earth. Which in the show, Ultraman has limited time for how long they need to fight before they ran out of time and turned back into their human form and usually they fly away to the sky once the threat is deal with. So Neos spacian is basically mimicking/referencing that in how the archetypes work Cool idea on paper.... But yeah absolutely not great on execution Though i do think this is a cool idea and one of the first instance of an archetype that would imagined how would an archetype fight/work and translating that into card game form

[@filipvadas7602]

To be fair, the idea *could* have worked really well if the fusions resummoned back all the materials once they go back to the ED. That way you actually have something to defend yourself with. Instead , for most of them, you either need to reduce your opponent's LP to 0 or remove their resources so that they can't nuke you from orbit next turn The new support is nice tho and Rainbow Neos is *f*cking insane* even today

[@haroldnecmann7040]

God awful archetype, burning abyss has both cool references and meta defining moment. All that effort fusing 2-3 monster then hampered by trash mechanic that makes even spirit monsters blushed for references no one cared about until now.

[@JoshDoingLinux]

Thanks for this; you have inspired me to start a yugioh channel myself but with more of a help system for older players like myself to get back into the game. There’s a niche there that I think I can exploit :).

[@vaxel0068]

People act as if power creep and stratospheric prices are a new thing, consider that there wasn't a tcg player or Amazon back in 2002 to buy cards from, staples prices were through the roof and there weren't any budget replacements, which makes it even worse when every deck is just a good stuff pile of cards. Not to mention, pull ratios were abysmal, you'd get 1-3 ultras and 4-6 supers and a secret if you were lucky, out of which only 2 or 3 cards were usable. Hell, the early OCG format of exodia OTK was gated BECAUSE there wasn't enough stock of the cards so not everybody could play it, which is the only reason it wasn't a tier 0 deck. Modern yugioh is the best time to play right now, even if you only want to play goat or reaper format or if you want to make a casual deck that at least has a win condition, complain about the competitive scene but know that it was always the same.

[@swisschese1323]

No freaking way, a gaming youtuber who does a video about YuGiOh that actually analyze the game and not pulling random yugiboomer shits out of their asses like TheActMan? Sub.

[@seansquiers6506]

Right as I got back into Yugioh via Master Duel too. Perfect timing

[@Nugget40385]

excited for part 2. great video.

[@ncrever8006]

Its weird to see another Yu gi oh video in my sub box in like 5 days. First Act man and now Foxcade. I am not complaining.

[@yoel9396]

Wait, act man has a yugioh video? Brb

[@ARM-jz2qy]

With the main difference that Foxcade made a much better aproach of the history of Yu-Gi-Oh! from a casual perspective than Act man and his bad takes.

[@e-tan3911]

@@ARM-jz2qy What do you mean? The Legendary Fisherman III is CLEARLY broken and is shaking up the meta rn, obviously.

[@andrewkos5560]

The "ignore the Guardian Code for as long as possible" arc of Foxcade has been one of my personal favorites.

[@agentoosnake5490]

Lol

[@SmoltingWassie]

Yugioh is one of those games and shows I’ll always hold close. After winning a world championship, pioneering the first turn Exodia deck, and becoming the true king of games, I will always be nostalgic for the yugioh.

[@Chaosic]

Very good video man,it reminds of deltazeta history of yugioh but from casual standpoint and amazing how yugioh changed so much.

[@Dark-Shadow110]

GX will always have a special place in my Heart, It was the first series I watched back in the early 2000s. Seeing Jaiden quest through Duel Academy and beyond was really great to see. I got to see him win, gain, struggle, throughout the entire series, which made me relate to him even now 18 years later, Despite the amount the of flack the dub gets for its hilarious shenanigans, and cutting of its final season (which I wouldn’t know about until many years later) I still had a great time with it and still do. Then I discovered Duel Monsters , which I would go on to enjoy and then 5ds, Which I used to hate as a kid for some reason I don’t know why I love it now. I would then continue on with the Black Sheep of Zexal and Arc V and then Vrains which was a return to form…. Before Sevens came along which is where I stopped. I say all this to tell you how much Yu-gi-oh means to me and why it will always be one of my favorite series ever. Thank you Takahashi

[@BlazingLee0610]

Loved DM, GX and 5D's eras! Only ever played casually, always wanted to break into competitive play(back during mid-GX and Early 5Ds era but was unable to) The game is too fast for me now though, not that it's a bad thing! I like to think of the different eras and formats of YGO as Ice Cream flavors. Pick your fave and go for it! Really enjoy the era from 2007-2010 as that's when I played with friends the most.

[@eace446]

I believe the new changes in yugioh are a good thing for gameplay. The older Yu-Gi-Oh felt like such a stalemate until one of you got lucky with your draw for turn.

[@limelighti4236]

Im so happy i have another foxcade video to watch and even more excited it’s about my favourite tcg, looking forward to binge watching this until part 2 comes out in a year

[@ideuseidolon]

Waiting for Part 2.

[@recordingerror]

I found this funny: "we were no longer monkey's beating each other with sticks" precedes to show a clip from "The Dawn of Man" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey in which the Australopithecus afarensis ape known as Moon-Watcher beats down rival leader One-Ear with a bone. Not a monkey, an ape. Not a stick, a bone.

[@johndaniel7161]

If Kazuki Takahashi wanted to express that losing wasn't the end of the world, perhaps he shouldn't have made so many manga and anime series about losing literally being the end of the world.

[@FireRising86]

Right? He always talked about Joey being stronger than Yugi or Kaiba, but never let Joey have an important win

[@IFinishedAVideoGame]

Despite having not played YuGiOh since it first came out I enjoyed this massively. I'd never really realised that they were essentially making an anime and card game in tandem and how complex that must have been! I've really taken for granted how MTG was built from almost day 1 for competitive play! Would have loved to see more of the mechanics of the monsters (although those descriptions look long as hell) - looking forward to the next part!

[@bmac4]

Its funny how many parallels there were between Blue Eyes White Dragon and OG Charizard in Pokemon, in that they were the coveted treasures of the playground but not that good in the actual game, not from lack of power but lack of practicality.

[@diegorojas8959]

I was expecting the GX retrospective but this is also good. Great video.

[@PURPLE_G0J0]

I’ve been playing yugioh casually since 2005 from when I could get my poor grubby 6yr old hands on a singular booster pack. Structure Deck: Machine Re-Volt was my first ever playable deck back in 2007 and I fell in love with it. Machina Mayhem Structure Deck was my second ever playable deck in 2010. I get so much nostalgia from those two archetypes and decks, they’re my absolute favorites. I was one of the top players on the elementary school playground out of about 15 different kids whenever we weren’t arguing/fuming while huddled around the singular rule booklet we all shared. I use to watch the original YuGiOh on 4kids every morning, first episode I watched was when Joey was chained to something and was going to drown if he lost, pretty dark for a kids show😂 My first ever YuGiOh VHS was Yugi/Atem vs Kaiba during the Battle City tournament, my favorite group of episodes. I’d run home from school every day just to barely catch the newest episode of GX as it played its intro song, my favorite era of YuGiOh. Im glad I got to experience the franchise during its infancy/ early days because I strongly doubt kid me would’ve enjoyed how complex the game is now.

[@kennydarmawan13]

44:23 Yup, this video is a good retrospective on Yu-Gi-Oh! when it acknowledges Ojama Lime.

[@RVBFan182]

As someone who stopped playing around the GOAT format era, seeing the evolution of the game here is crazy.

[@aaroncornerslicegaming]

DNA Surgery Insect Barrier was my favourite combo as a kid I used to play as Weevil people always underestimated me because of this but insects were pretty good. Insect Barrier + DNA Surgery, if you get this lock going you can bring out Great Moth (its evolved form didn't exist in TCG until later and was impossibe to summon) with Petit Moth + Cocoon of Evolution (this is good as a wall too) or attack directly with Leghul Javelin Beetle was good bc you could use Great Moth to bring it out with Javelin Beetle Ritual if the Cocoon got destroyed. Girochin Kuwgata was a good beat stick if you run Forest Bugs also get powerful effect cards: Man-eater Bug Needle Worm (your opponent might run out of cards or have their only way of breaking your lock milled to the graveyard making this a really nasty surprise plus it was very rare not everyone knew about it) 4-star ladybug of Doom You can keep your field full with Flying Kamakiri 1 to bring out more Kamakiri 1s and a Flying Kamakiri 2 I tried Parasite Paracide and had no luck with it. Kwagar Hercules was too weak. Giant Flea and Killer Needle were ok you could keep 1 f each as searchables but Hercules beetle required a tribute and Basic Insect did not get massively powered up by laser cannon armor like it did in the show. I also wanted to play as Rex but back then dinos had zero support Megazowler & sword Arm of Dragon did not exist in the TCG we did get Two Headed King Rex which I was happy to find in a tournament pack Uraby was there too Trakodon and Gokibore you could later get at Mcdonalds but dinos were very limited. Two Headed Rex Uraby Mammoth Graveyard Two Mouth Darkruler Raise Body Heat Wasteland those were tough times for dino duelists even Rex Raptor had to run some dragons in his deck luckily dinosaurs did get a lot more support and main charcter status in GX.

[@bl00by_]

This is what the actman video should've been like...

[@authenticbitterleben7434]

I've been playing yugioh from the legend of blue eyes days on the school yard until 2019, while another friend played until 2021. During the last years of that tenure we didnt even understand what our cards were doing and just built meta decks from the intetnet. Its because of what I call "the curse of competitive" Winning is fun, so you want to win but both players improve and at some point theres nothing else to do than play meta. If over the years the meta evolves into solitair and FTKs than theres no real way to avoid this. When we realized that isnt fun anymore we stopped. Only a month ago i started building decks again with a group of 4 friends and now we use only cards released before 2008 (sometimes 11) so about the point when we graduated from fun school yard matches to competitive meta play and so far that has been a really great idea. I can recommend everyone to do the same or play different formats like trinity

[@garwudan]

I love reading early Yu-Gi-Oh cause i love seeing how it evolved to practically change genres. Duelist Kingdom battles feel more like DND using trading cards. And it makes sense to lean towards that when things were still in the air since the arc right before that was a DND homage with bakura

[@popo237]

I think Duelist Kingdom was taking riffs from another CCG, Monster Collection. It is Japanese exclusive, and did a whole bunch of environment bonuses and card placement.

[@Hawkatana]

44:26 *THE SAVIOR HAS RETURNED*

[@RetroTaylor94]

Im just gonna keep replaying til this hits 1 million views.

[@JustAPlayOnWords]

What a fantastic retrospective! I can’t wait to see the chaos of the new era

[@xander9321]

3:10 ''Old fans of Yugioh will not stop yelling about how the version they grew up on was way better and the new era sucks ass'' They're honestly so annoying lol

[@SeeZer0]

Can't wait for part 2 even if it takes a year I really loved the indepth look at all 3 Era's of YGO

[@jurkperson]

Oh no, you made me eager to play YGO again. I stopped back in... 2013!

[@ragnarockerbunny]

I'm a Yugiboomer lured in by Master Duel and I gotta say... There definitely is something cool about trying to combine the old with the new. I slipped three Blue Eyes into a dragon pendulum deck and it works surprisingly well. Honestly synchro and xyz have like, terrible names, but they honestly do solve the fusion problem. Link summons is probably the mechanic I'm least enthused about.

[@KamenRiderPhoenix]

Never have I seen a video essay that so accurately explains to me how kids who had the parents money that let them into the meta got to see the game.

[@KingKasper]

What's crazy is I grew up in Canada too and had tons of people to play with and we'd go to the card shops to buy, sell, and trade with people and enter tournaments. Maybe its the town you grew up in! Those days are some of my fondest memories to this day. Great video bro!

[@Foxcade]

It's where I grew up. I was in northern Saskatchewan, right before civilization turned into frozen tundra. I could get cards from places like Walmart, but other than a few friends who played it when it was at its peak popularity, I didn't have a lot of options for dedicated card shops with tournaments.

[@KingKasper]

@@Foxcade oh dang that's crazy! I was in Toronto so that makes sense

[@lancej1109]

@@Foxcade Part 2?

[@benvarley2927]

That opening was muchly needed. A good reminder. I play locals, and would like to try my hand at a regional level, but i need to work on my stamina playing yugioh all day, and managing my emotional state

[@cypher686]

now I just need some friends to play with

[@StriFe860]

Bro walked out the door promising us to be back before dinner with part 2 and never came home.

[@Foxcade]

I just went out to get some cigarettes! Its the next video that will go up on the channel, it just turned into a whole production.

[@StriFe860]

@@Foxcade Dad's home!

[@cyberas3840]

When you mentioned the goat format I was surprised you didn't mention the second most iconic old format - Edison! Its in the synchro era and the diverse pool of decks is staggering. Great analysis on old school yugioh, I agree with a lot of your points. Personally for me 5ds is my favorite era to play and watch.

[@B727X]

Wat is it thx

[@RazaFF11]

I play modern Yu-Gi-Oh but will always love the beginning more.

[@kaison12205]

Foxcade even understands the modern memes like nirvana high Palladian the card that destroyed the planet with its complexity

[@daviddavis3939]

My history with the game is long and complicated. I, of course, loved playground yugioh. I had been watching the anime since the beginning and my first actual cards came from a Pharaoh's Servant pack I got on christmas. I distinctly remember this because my brother and I got one pack each and were both disappointed we got essentially the exact same cards, the two that pop in my head are gravity bind and Mr. Volcano. A couple months later my Grandma got my brother and I a starter deck each and we could actually play together. I would have been around 6 at that point. I kept watching the anime and collecting cards until I was around 10, my mom deciding that she was sick of my obsession with the tcg and threw it all away. When I was 13/14 I was not keeping up with the anime as closely, but my family was going through a rough patch and school was its own kind of hell. Mom got me a starter deck Jaden and once a week I could get one or two packs. It was better than any other kind of trouble I could be getting myself in. I thought the new stuff was all really cool and eventually I found a local card shop in the area, as one might expect I was more interested than ever. My mom saw no reason to buy singles so I was generally stuck building decks from older sets, relying exclusively on my extremely poor pack luck. But I stuck with the game, I basically never won but throughout the synchro era I still had fun. With the launch of XYZ monsters it became readily apparent I had 0 chance of keeping up, seeing even fewer wins as the game got faster. I eventually ended up with 3 decks and stopped trying to really expand beyond that. I had a E-Hero deck, crystal beasts (one of my favorite wins ever coming from actually dropping a rainbow dragon), and an aggressively terrible six samurai deck. Around this time Vanguard came out and I realized that starting the game when it had 2 starter decks and a single core set meant I would actually be able to keep up as the meta expanded. I stopped improving my yugioh decks, and after going to the official Cardfight Vanguard north american launch event (held the same day as a brony con, a single showroom over at the Anaheim convention center) My focus was slowly shifting. I still went to locals but the scene was shrinking until all that remained was me and the handful of sweaty hyper-competitors. When pendulum summoning was announced I knew I was finally completely paced out of the game, I dropped it to shift my focus to vanguard exclusively. Of course even that didn't last, selling my entire collection when my family became homeless and had to live out of a cheap hotel around a year later. Years go by and I just ignored yugioh, until videos about the game started getting recommended to me at the start of the pandemic. I would play duel links on and off for around a year but dropped it again. It just couldn't keep me interested like the physical game. Eventually I found out about the Ice barrier structure deck in probably the middle of 2021, and keeping my love of absolute garbage alive I bought a few to build a proper ice barrier deck like I wanted when I first found out about duel terminal when I was a teen. I still don't play, knowing the jank I enjoy could not keep up in even a moderately competent setting. I just collect the crap decks I found I enjoyed during brief times I would pick up duel links or master duel. I am sure I would enjoy a super casual setting but I don't think I am likely to find a casual place I could mesh with for a variety of reasons I don't really want to expand on. Instead I wait in my room for the Harpie cards I got off TCGplayer to come in the mail.

[@TheNiceness]

Love this video. Reminds me of my own journey through the yugioh timeline. Thanks man.

[@KakoriGames]

On the topic of retro formats, Goat may be the easier to get into due to the sheer amount of information that's available about it, but both Yugi-Kaiba and Critter formats have been gathering a lot of attention lately. The latest Critter tournament had 40 participants, more than double the previous one. Those formats have a growing community and are even easier to get into because of the limited card pool, while still having quite a decent variety of decks. If anyone is interested in learning more, YGOfrom0 has some quite in-depth coverage of the formats in his channel, including a very in-depth introductory video for each, quite a few game replays and a meta tier list to top it off. To be fair, Yugi-Kaiba may be too simple, but Critter is certainly a format I'd recommend looking into.

[@alfonsopayan09]

It’s always the little channels bringing the BEST and most DEEP videos 👏👏

[@DrRESHES]

Yu Gi Oh The Eternal Duelist Soul on a Game Boy, but actually on a PC, was my childhood Yu Gi Oh video game.

[@endingparasite8]

I'm so excited to watch this. Glad for the content fam 🙏 I'll be looking for pt 2 👀

[@fopang123]

I don't usually comment, but this was a fantastic video. Well done, sir.

[@strategist9]

29:46 THE PLUNDER PATROL CAPTAIN IS REAL!

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

Hyped for part 2

[@ftu2021]

I am part of the 'YGO was better before Synchro' camp. I tried to rejoin the YGO TCG during the Link Summon debut, but it was quite challenging to keep up with all the archetype combos and hand traps because they didn't exist when I was younger. Nowadays, I prefer to play Speed Duels because of their simplicity, which brings back memories of the old YGO metas. From an anime perspective, I'm glad that Konami has put significant effort into keeping Black Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon somewhat relevant in the present day. They remain faithful to the YGO plot lore, such as how, canonically, Blue-Eyes White Dragon is still the highest ATK-point Normal Summoned monster and has retained its status as the strongest monster since Episode 1 of the original series. The God cards are considered the most powerful entities and still hold that reputation, despite being almost unusable in real-life gameplay due to significant nerfs compared to their anime counterparts, where they were incredibly overpowered. They are iconic and symbolic, representing this game, at least for me, akin to how Pikachu is the mascot of Pokemon.

[@makaveliandcheese]

Part 2 when? This was an amazing video!

[@iwuvu5940]

I will always love Yugioh, it was a special work of art in my childhood, and it will never leave me. Ever

[@hoshi314]

Raigeki is now unlimited and nobody bats an eyelid, that's one way to see the entire change

[@LinusIslamTips]

Here's what I think can be changed. In the early days monsters with effects usually had low attack and defense stat and vanilla monsters higher stats. Extra Deck Monster usually had 1 to 2 effects in total either offensive or defensive. And Vanilla Extra Deck monsters usually (i think) had higher stats than effect Extra Deck monster (GX Era) And I think that should be the norm. Extra Deck monsters should either have high stats and no effects or at the most light combo effects. Or up to 2 effects, either offensive or defensive (not both) and maybe one combo effect with lower stats. Even lower than Vanilla High Stat Monsters. Edit: the issue also lies in the community who complains about powercreep but get triggered when less powerful or mediocre archetypes get released.

[@YukiFubuki.]

to be fair the board from back then and the current board is mostly the same outside of the extra monster zones at top and pendulum zones being added to the furthest ends of the spell/trap zones which tends to go unused the majority of the time the banished zone has actually always exist for the banish pile but due to the lack of cards that can even reach into it they didnt felt the need to include it on the playmat since banishing cards wasnt even common in the first place due to the whole mechanic originally being removed from play which was literally meant to remove the cards from being played for the rest of the game hence the lack of placement for it as there would be no point to keep a record for cards that would never be relavant anymore, while it still isnt common to reach into the banish zone nowadays its still needed for other things such as some cards requiring a count of specific banished cards of certain parameters or just in general to even being a temporary locations some cards can go into like time thief redoer who can hide himself into it until the end of the turn allowing him to avoid anything unsavory aimed his way

[@genyakozlov1316]

Now THIS is a good video, unlike the one by Act Man, which also went in some depth but in the end only served to validate his nostalgic bias rather than challenge it.

[@genyakozlov1316]

One thing he got better however is season 0 footage. I can count the pixels here.

[@KnucksBunny]

i really love the first yugioh episodes, it feels like every player makes up their own rules on the spot and no one calls them on their bullshit

[@Walter-n8b]

I got back into yugioh when master dual came out it was kinda a shock running into pendulum 4 the first time but figured it out and personally like all the new mechanics +cards 😊

[@uzakikena8294]

Another reason to defend archetype besides diversity is also if your smart or jank enough you can mix archetypes together or take a piece an make a engine. Such example like unchain evil eye.

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

Honestly didn't even try to play the game legit even when it came out. Read one of the first rules books but didn't have any friends anyway. Now the game seems like utter madness lol

[@e-tan3911]

The game seems like madness, because it is. If Pokemon is checkers, then something like Magic would be Fire Emblem 3 Houses. Yugioh, to put into perspective, would then be the card game equivalent to Blazblue Centralfiction. And that madness is fun as hell.

[@keinkanal7382]

I think Goat format is vastly overrated, and is not called that way because its the goat, but because Scapegoat was the most dominant card of the format shaping the entire meta around it, and only recently with covid we found out that this isn't necessarily true.

[@scavenger1498]

I’m a magic player who only ever owned some random YuGiOh cards without learning the game, and that aggressive reprint policy you mentioned? God I wish we had the same thing. Not all magic formats rotate, and the older ones like Modern get more expensive with every passing year because they know driving up secondary market prices is a surefire way to make sure packs sell once they deign to reprint a staple. God forbid you play Legacy or Vintage where a bunch of format staples are openly never going to be reprinted specifically to mollify the tiny minority of people who own them and use a children’s card game like a stock market.

[@mateogarciaguerra9536]

I'm not even a minute into the video and I already love the positive vibes. RIP to a hero.

[@henrylaz8964]

Some say fusion summon is flawed, others say ritual is unplayable, but I think the most flawed mechanic is tribute summon. Changing tribute summon mechanics now is impossible due to the sheer numbers of cards that need to be re-balanced. However, if only in the early Yugioh, the development team foresaw the importance of card advantage, they could have made tribute summon less punishing, then the current game would not be plagued by special summon.

[@YukiFubuki.]

tribute summon is also like the villain mechanic, everytime there is a tribute summon deck in the deck its pretty much among the more hated deck/archetypes in the game