Every Yu-Gi-Oh TCG Era RANKED! Best to Worst

[@TeamAPS]

*Alright, let's hear it: what was the REAL best Yu-Gi-Oh era in your opinion? Did you agree with our decision?* 🤔 10 Things We Wish Yu-Gi-Oh Had - kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6PIiKaXh9SMfMk

[@erion0824]

zexal the best

[@bluengold3443]

DM-GX and it aint close. Cards were dumb and we were dumb

[@AndresD.deLeon]

Zexal is the best, no contest

[@TemporalDelusion]

5Ds>GX>DM>Zexal (Minus the anime)>Dogsh.. Prefer GX as an overall experience, but 5Ds in terms of gameplay was the peak.

[@jobejacobs62]

Modern Dark Magician support but DM is still the classic. 5Ds & GX are the worst, the decline of YuGiOh was beginning. Not a fan of Zexal, ArcV, & Vrains, but Zexal seems to be a bit better than the newer shows. DM >>> ALL OTHER ERAS.

[@BobbyCorwen1771]

I remember saving up my allowance, cleaning the house, and cutting the grass for my dad to take me to the store and hunt for Exodia. I ended up only getting both arms and a leg

[@albertmotbey1128]

You might say that...cost you an arm and a leg!! :D I'll see myself out...

[@BandicootGames32X]

​@@albertmotbey112810/10 Best reply ever!

[@thejack5952]

I liked ZEXAL because of how the main character, Yuma, reminded me of Joey Wheeler with him constantly learning how to be a better duelist and how even though there were supernatural works at play, he stayed true to himself. I also liked the XYZ summoning mechanic and it's simplicity of just stacking monsters of the same level on top of each other to summon a extra deck monster and the rank up cards that came after.

[@jazzratoon]

I, for one, couldn't stand Yuma (his English voice was the worst) he was nowhere as good as Joey; I was a big Kaito and Shark fan. Also, his monsters like Gogogo and Gagaga give me a head when trying to read it. Also, the writing was pretty erred to listen to, the World Carnival did improve things, with Yuma being less of a knucklehead. The 2nd Season was where things got interesting. Definitely, 5ds is the best era. I loved Dragons then, and it cemented my love for them like Stardust Dragon; Synchro Monsters were also like the sweet spot. I do like XYZ, but the beginning did feel slow to get into. Yeah, I do feel that ARC V and Vrains were where my love for the game began to dwindle.

[@supermarioblacktiger]

5ds is my personal favorite. And not just because of the meme of "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!" In a way, it reminded me of DM, and if you turn your brain off for why the card games are on motorcycles, it wasn't that bad of a story. Also, synchros.

[@SEMIA123]

5Ds is a really good intro to cyberpunk and dystopian themes imo.

[@emeraldeyes5319]

Honestly, in a world where card games are used as the main spectator sport, putting them into Action-Settings like Races or Action-Duels to increase the hype makes perfect sense.

[@skullsquad900]

From how they worked in the world, I translated the card games as combat hacking where the cards were virus programs trying to turn the other cycle off by reducing their LP to 0.

[@emeraldeyes5319]

@@skullsquad900 That makes a lot of sense for the street duels against the police and stuff like that! I'd assume the officially sanctioned Speed Duels in tournaments like the World Cup are a bit safer than that.

[@ivanbluecool]

5ds era was really when a lot of friends I knew were getting packs. We even tried to get all the signer dragons. I got most of them wish I went to get the french ancient fairy dragon my friend had.

[@RedTheWeeb]

I will say this but early zexal was peak era simply because it was EVERYTHING could use them to a degree. It was the first time generic toolboxes actually happened. Fusions and synchros were always specific at the end of the day either needing a synchron or just a tuner in general. Xyz just needed matching levels so any deck even ones without poly and tuners could use

[@Jellypeño6]

I agree. They were easily summonable but often just straight up terrible. Like that Grenosaurus guy from the xyz starter deck. But overall it was a good experience. I was playing a budget wind-up deck at that time but others were still competing with frog monarchs or laval quasar turbo (1 omni negate + floating 4k monster with just 2 cards was pretty good at that time). Diversity was at an all time peak in early xyz days. Dont forget xyz era is when they powercrept the game into oblivion tho. Spell books and dragon rulers really made all of my decks suck back then...

[@azurelionheart]

As a casual YGO fan who loved the IDEA of the game but was constantly dunked on by every other player older and more experienced, i love the idea of Xyz Monsters- no Polymerization needed, no Tuners, just the right levels and you’re good. Utopia is still one of, if not my ABSOLUTE favorite monster card

[@oldschooldbz7902]

GX for me, whenever me and my friends would have game nights we are always using decks from the GX Era

[@CrimsonPriestessofMiracles]

My fave era is 5D’s, no question! Synchros changed my life when I was re-introduced to YGO

[@gameplayer8998]

its what I grew up with its my duel monsters born 2001

[@Shades14]

Mine too!

[@tarikkash4282]

Seems like 5Ds trumps at almost everything!

[@logandelaharpe6362]

Having started at the beginning 5ds is the peak of almost all categories of yugioh the rival

[@harveysmith4424]

GX was definitely the most enjoyable for me, I was definitely the perfect target age range for it when it came out. always loved the elemental hero decks. 5DS was a close second

[@spiderken3102]

Gx Era was my personal favorite. It was a time I was transitioning schools, and the idea of a duel school was captivating. The story and episodes were so fun to watch. The story I felt was really well put together. Gx was also the Era I started getting more, competitive into yugioh and discovered, still to today, my favorite archetype: Gladiator Beast. I loved the contact fusion idea from neo spacions, and seeing that being implemented in a different archetype was so cool. Plus, a lot of the yugioh video games at the time was Gx era and I loved em (especially the tag force games)

[@okuu_utsuho]

While the 5ds anime is my favorite, I like the Zexal era because it had introduced my most favorite summoning mechanic and it is my most used summoning mechanic in Master Duel, and my favorite monsters like Gustav.

[@awesomeadi2]

I grew up watching DM and up to 5D’s. Those 3 series made my childhood

[@zhanejones5228]

I need a full discussion video about Tag Duels and how we can make that a separate format

[@TemporalDelusion]

As with a lot of other formats, the key is going back in time. Tag Duels just don't work with modern power levels.

[@khiarieverett9658]

@@TemporalDelusion what about just making it so decks have to be strictly archetypes since there 2 extra players

[@TemporalDelusion]

@@khiarieverett9658 Not all archetypes are made equal... Also it's hard to define archetype borders at times.

[@jamesburton7756]

I loved this trip down memory lane. It sucks that I can’t play some of my favorite cards or be creative like OG game/anime. When playing Master Duel, I see people playing Rescue Ace, Albion, Traptrix, Labrynth, Dragonmaids, or some deck that lets them bring out Barron de Fleur and/or Destiny Hero-Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer in their first turn. Where’s the fun in doing what everyone else is doing? It gets boring playing against Rescue Ace, then Dragonmaids three times in a row.

[@Shubba_Dubba]

Synchron (no baronne) & Weather Painter player here, you definitely can play “lower tier” decks! No one’s stoppin ya, we take losses out here but that’s okay! I see it as a master duel issue more than anything else. With ranked being the only remotely rewarding mode, and no formats. Course people are gonna play sweaty decks, unfortunately. Play what you enjoy, even if it isn’t the best! Take losses, move on! You got this!

[@emeraldeyes5319]

@@Shubba_Dubba I agree. I love building janky decks and I play them against online players all the time xD You gotta take a loss in stride if you wanna have fun with the game, but honestly, building dumb strategies with a chance of outing even a broken deck in like... 1/3 duels feels pretty good imo

[@Nefaliss]

5Ds era 💯 - It was old school simple with a good balance of short turns and rare long combos. - Synchros are one of the best mechanics to be introduced. The most balanced way to bring out boss monsters. - It also had the best anime. JP(Subbed) 5Ds is goated!

[@resdraon]

Gx, came out when I was pretty much in middle school give or take, and the thought of being able to go to a school where you just focus on card games was bad ass to me. Not to mention it was the english version so it was just non-stop weird wall breaking jokes and jaden being a smart ass. After that 5ds came out and I became to old/interested in other things so I fell off like a lot of people.

[@MegaMachiOnline]

I think zexal was technically the healthiest in the sense, you can still intercept xyz summons and use traps

[@JW-dp4we]

In terms of the TCG, the first couple of seasons were rough because the complete rules were created after the manga the anime was based on. But in terms of engagement with the property, they were the best. You actually cared about the story to an extent.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

OG Yugioh is the best for drafting and cubes. And Cube draft is the best and most fun to play Yugioh

[@Ryoku25]

In terms of my ethusiasm by anime, it goes > 5Ds > GX > DM > Zexal > Vrains > ARCV In terms of summoning mechanics/card types 5Ds > Zexal > GX > Vrains > DM > ARCV It may be a bit biased, since Synchros is my all time favorite mechanic. I also like the Silver background for the cards.

[@traplover6357]

DM era - GOAT format GX era - Perfect Circle format 5D era - Edison format Zexal era - HAT format Pendulum era - Clown format Link Era - TOSS format MR5 Era - Post-Ariseheart ban format Contenders for 2nd best of each era: DM: Warrior Format GX: Reaper Format 5D: Tengu Format Zexal: Fire/Water Format Pendulum: Post-PePe E-Banlist format Link: None really after TOSS MR5: Phoenix Enforcer Piles format

[@rickurena8581]

Goat Format!!!!!!!!!!! Goat format is forever

[@josiahclarke3535]

Tengu is way better than Edison but agree otherwise :)

[@bluengold3443]

Yall can call me unc but i'll die on the hill saying the DM-GX era was the best. No 20 mins for 1 turn because the text box each monster has 1000000 words

[@ivanbluecool]

Gx started the trend of that. Cyber. Elemental hero. Etc but guess rosy is around here somewhere

[@bluengold3443]

@@ivanbluecool hey at least all the og heroes and cyber cards didn't have the entire bible on their text box. But compared to dm, sure That being said, those did introduce the beginning of the biggest thing i hate about ygo, the spam special summon on turn 1. Gx started it, synchros put it on steroids. Id always prefer the slower pace then building to a peak where you and your opponent really WORKED to have your best card or combo out, instead of having everything on turn 1

[@ivanbluecool]

@@bluengold3443 I mean cyber dragon alone was pretty much a current day meta deck with end dragon still being in play. Zane was actually probably one of the best ways to portray a duelist since he didn't run one ofs like most duelist and had a very good structured deck. But yeah even og had relinquished black luster soldier effect monster one. I'd say even dark chaos magician effect and such. Gx was the real first push to stuff like field spells. Contact fusion. Big boss monster boards and such. 5ds I'd say was a product that grew in time since yusei wasn't the fastest to start but by the end he would have a competent deck since he does have effect veiler which can swing a duel when used right.

[@logandelaharpe6362]

Looks at relinquished and thousand eyes restrict uh huh

[@jmurray1110]

I’ll remind you of relinquished and toon dark magician girls cards which actively ran out of space relinquished couldn’t put its summoning condition on and TDMG couldn’t fit the toon effects on

[@reversal3628]

For me it's ArcV/Pen. Whatever summoning style you like fusion, synchro, xyz or pen, there're decks for it.

[@snowelle7]

@@reversal3628 this! A deck for every summoning type out at the time, at multiple competitive and budget levels. Such a fun format!!

[@Rodrick-5]

OG yugioh it’s what I grew up on lmao

[@Cr4z3d]

Same, and later GX

[@underthesonson]

It’s crazy to see these comments ngl😂😅 definitely first yugioh and gx

[@danielzakgaim2764]

I'd argue Link are was worse than Pendulum because Links, specifically MR4, messed up a LOT of decks people liked (D/D/D, Lunalight, Super Quant, etc.)

[@ssj4jason737]

One thing about the Arc-V era that I do like was the amount of legacy support we got for older archetypes like that era was where all the modern Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes support came from like Circle, all the Eyes of Blue cards, Chaos MAX, etc

[@rc9145]

Am i crazy i couldve sworn when links came out the rule was you can only special summon extra deck monsters to zones a link monster points to which i think pissed people off

[@TeamAPS]

That was the rule, yes.

[@LunaticKD1991]

They removed that Master Rule about 2 years after they implimented it. It was Konami's way to try to force more players to buy new product because if you didn't play with the new link summoning mechanic in your deck at the time you'd be limited to only one extra deck summoned monster being allowed on your field at any given time and it ruined a ton of decks and archetypes that relied on multiple extra deck summons. Master Rule 4 I believe it was was the dumbest rule Konami ever attempted to impliment and it wasn't even created in an effort to balance the card game but rather sell more product. Konami's corporate greed was in full display. To this day Konami has yet to attempt to balance Yugioh and you can see how far it's devolved in the last few years.

[@samwareham8]

1. As someone who played during the DM era as a kid and then came back to a very different game in 2023, this was a really informative and fun content piece to watch, so thank you guys! 2) can someone explain what goat and Edison format means? Does it just mean cards, deck builds, play styles and metas that were more popular at different points in time? Anything more specific?

[@basty_gaming5750]

G.O.A.T. and Edison are past formats of Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG)

[@ApolloDawn85]

5Ds was the most excited I ever was for YGO. DM is classic but I didn’t really “get” the rules as a kid. GX was where I drifted away from YGO a bit, but 5Ds was when I was in my biggest YGO phase. Duelist Genesis is still probably one of my favorite packs. Red Dragon Archfiend is my favorite monster. Every Saturday morning it was time to watch 5Ds on 4kids. Zexal is when I drifted away again, and Arc-V and VRains pushed me out of YGO to this very day.

[@JB-ij6sp]

I remember saying 5Ds was peak yugioh during one of your streams, when i was awake on japan time. So ill be taking credit for this tier outcome lol love the videos keep it up.

[@Rhorn1734]

I would like to say arc-v as that was the first yugioh series i saw and i had a performapal structure or starter deck that i loved and learned pendulums some what easily. i know it got hectic later on but i just loved the amount of monster you could get on the field at once

[@MewTwoChainzGamez]

5Ds was truly peak Yugioh, I loved the DS games as well during that era. Thanks for the insight into what Yugioh turned into after 5Ds as I had fallen off once that had reached its sunset!

[@edgardiaz690]

I went from ancient gear/ cyber dragon and gadgets in the GX era to Gadget stun or machine gadgets to karakuris to karakuri geargia or chain summoning gadgets or ultimate offering gadgets lol fun times. 2005- 2014 were my yugi years. I came back to it again running runick plunder patrol now lol

[@cwalser544]

The original show actually had 5 different arches within. There was: Duelist Kingdom. Dungeon Dice Monsters. Battle City. Virtual World. Rise of the Titans. Capsule Monsters. And even Duelist Tournament where grandpa played Joey. The best was Battle City. Hands down. The idea of hunting other kids down and challenging them for their rarest card is an amazing idea.

[@DarkDodgers]

Arc V EASY! We had oppressive decks, but it felt like you could play EVERYTHING!

[@Atemstrix]

I also liked the plot

[@GarrettM33]

I love this video you guys are amazing 😊 I’m a old head in Yugioh and wanting to get back into it, but I do not know the new terminology in Yugioh now a days. For example meta, trap hand or even the basic chaining. I see we can 6 or 8 times in a turn 😳 I think that maybe a good video for us old school Yugioh people to see. Keep up the great work ❤ Also what are the difference with TGG etc….?

[@FaLaN69]

I enjoyed GX and 5Ds era the most. Played it a lot with my best friend. Good times, very personal to me.

[@DouglasStewart99]

Respect. Honestly I'm a similar opinion with APS with 5D's & Zexal at the Top 2. The former because it was a time I *FINALLY* was allowed to watch Yu-Gi-Oh! (It's complicated) and I started to really wanna get into the card game. Synchros is also a really cool summoning technique IMO. Summoning powerful monsters a with Tuner, non-tuner monster(s), and the power of math with your levels! The latter mainly because even though it technically came from GX 1st, it was the era that really made the structure deck for my 1st ever Archetype and deck in general, Dark World. I also found XYZ monsters another really cool summoning technique/monster type that's easy to pull off. Just need a certain amount of same level monster to summon strong monsters with nice abilities for a limited small price to use said abilities. With my favorite XYZ archetype being Battlin Boxers (Shout-outs to VRAINS for giving this deck some much needed support!).

[@fullmetalquach]

Great video! Would love to see an explanation of the current meta and/or duel videos with modern decks. I'm really curious what the game looks like now and what these different summoning types are like

[@waveguidedrifloon]

As someone who hasn't followed Yu-Gi-Oh throughout its entire lifespan, this was actually a pretty neat video in terms of the game's history! I grew up with DM and fell off early GX, but got back into it with the DS World Championship games (2007, 2009, 2010), which brought me into the 5Ds era. Then I disappeared for a long time until the Legacy of the Duelist game. I was around when it got the Link Evolution update and got to experience a bit of Master Rule 4 before it switched over to 5. As for my personal ranking, I'd probably say 5Ds>DM=GX>Zexal=Arc-V>VRAINS.

[@AlexanderEVtrainer]

Best time for the anime will always be the OG Duel Monsters. But the best time to play for me was Pendulum era. Especially right at the beginning, when Duelist Alliance first came out. The sheer variety of decks you could play, and still have fun with, was amazing. Shaddolls, Tellar, and BA ruled the meta for the longest time, but rouge decks could still pick up wins. The speed for the game then was just right too. Complex enough to let your skill shine through, but so much that it was overwhelming. I'd say early pendulum era was the last time that you could get away with setting a monster facedown and passing, and still expect to see a second turn lol.

[@Zetact_]

Another thing of the Arc-V era that was a major tipping point that has had probably a large negative impact on more casual players is that it was the first time hand traps started to become common, and presented as a solution to the decks becoming too powerful. Ogre, Reaper and Ash all released in the Pendulum era, and while they didn't see much use at the time, Psyframe was also an Arc-V era deck. And Arc-V was also the point where some of the older hand traps also started becoming major staples. Using the anime as titles and including Sevens and Go Rush as eras (hey, 2020-2022 as well as 2022-current are fairly clean separators) and counting both the actual game and the types of innovation that Konami was trying with the eras: 5D's > Zexal > Vrains = Go Rush > DM = GX > Arc-V > Sevens This is very different from my anime series ranking so it's weird to type it like that.

[@TheStickCollector]

Interesting to see that ace attorney styled thumbnail

[@victort.2583]

Talking about gameplay, I think I'd "rank" Zexal at the top, personally. Xyz Monsters weren't really for me, but I liked that they offered an alternative to Synchro. 5D's is probably next - not to say that 5D's is "bad," but I think it's become pretty overrated, personally. I think I'd put Arc-V next, then GX, then DM - although I didn't play much of these eras, so I don't many details. VRAINS was my favorite anime, and I love several of the VRAINS archetypes, but it was a huge change in how the game was played, and there were some extremely pushed cards (although that applies to every era). OTOH, I think there's a ton to love about "Post-VRAINS." There's still some crazy power creep, but there's also dynamic gameplay, interesting decks, lots of variety, and some great legacy support. I'd put "Post-VRAINS" at least in my top 3 (but possibly higher). Maybe at some point we'll further divide that era, like "up to POTE" or something.

[@EdwardSanchezProductions]

I love Yu-Gi-Oh GX so much

[@thenicjman]

So I have been building Yugioh Era Cubes for a few years now, from DM to Vrains, I am currently working on Arc V, and man, this is a wonderful video to see! Building these cubes has given me a wonderful look back into the games history and its greatest strengths and weaknesses. So I would like to give my honest ranking here: (Long response below, I'm sorry for the misspelling and errors, this was all off the cusp for some good fun and discussion! So check it out for fun!) 1. Arc V - (This era was a double-edged sword, in my opinion the first half of this era was perfect but began to get too fast come the middle and end of the era. This is where Yugioh got fast! With everything from Duelist Alliance to Nekroz at a good speed in the game, but once Pepe stepped into the ring, there was a shift in the game. After Pepe, deck building, deck design and deck's ability to push enough damage to end the game truly started to take precedent. Deck's gameplan went from "a quick back and forth to build a decent size board to beat the opponent with some trap cards for counter play, and one or two hand traps to disrupt my opponent" started to change towards decks wanting to OTK with their first or second turns much more. However the diversity of decks was amazing, this era re-inevented the game in Duelist Alliance and it was an amazing time to be a part of. Plus people in the earlier half of the era still ran generic cards like MTS, Book of Moon and actual trap cards like Wiretap and Breakthrough skill. This era is where things started to get off the rails but it's earlier half gave us something truly special. This era had the biggest flaws of any other, putting the game into a pace it has never recovered from but for a small moment we got the "perfect" speed of the game. A fast game, but not too fast, and still having enough creativity to use beloved cards of old and having it be a viable option as well. It was crazy but sometimes the right kind of crazy!) 2. 5d's - (This Era introduced our first new mechanic to the game and brought out a whole host of beloved decks, the real thing about this era is that it fundamentally still kept what Yugioh was about, a back-and-forth strategy game where you able to tic for tat your opponent, and you used smaller monsters and resources to build up to amazing boss monsters that helped you further your game plan, the synchro era got deck archetypes right and showed us what archetypes could do if properly built, giving you in house synergy for building a Black wing deck, as opposed to "All good stuff Chaos". This era kept what we liked about Yugioh and added something new and enjoyable to it with Synchro's, Tuners and stronger deck identity and synergy) 3. Zexal - (This era is hard to pinpoint exactly, but here we go. Not only do we see a new mechanic in the game giving synchros a run for their money but 5d's showed us, what decks "could be" but Zexal perfected that and truly made all decks "would be" moving forward" This era is where Konami really got deck building down in terms of "how" decks play their own strategies quite well. These new XYZ monsters were powerful once to twice-used cards that really gave you a good swing in the duel, but these effects could only be used as many times as you had material, so each monster had a limit to its usefulness and this is great for a game and keeping things back and forth. In my eyes, Zexal is where Konami perfected the art of making an archetype for the first time, and sometimes they went too far with Dragon Rulers and Spellbook of Judgement or Shock Master, but they were testing how far things could go. This era gave us a powerful new toolbox of easy-to-summon, powerful monsters with much more refined decks.) 4. DM - (Where it all started! This era is iconic and wonderful in its own right, being #4 is not bad at all, in my opinion, it shows how many times they were able to make something great and better than the original, in certain aspects. DM is the most resource-intensive version of the game we have had, and it constantly pushed the boundaries of what could be done, we started this era with beefy normal monsters and ended it with Chaos summoned effect monsters that could obliterate a duel. There's so much that can be said here but the fundamentals of this game was that it was a back-and-forth one-upping each other at the final moment that was all so fun. When you were in DM you felt like you could try and build anything, it usually didn't work but it was still fun trying, this era is where your hodgepodge of cards would go up against your opponent's hodgepodge of cards and a true duel was underway. It was the beginning but my my my, what a way to start, this is where I personally think the last of the "good" eras end for me. For many yugi-boomers this was the era you started playing with your friends, and nothing can take back those great times, so go revisit this era, it is still very fun and very rewarding in its slower more tic for tat playstyle) 5. Vrains - (All good things must come to an end and this was a surpise to say the least. Vrains was an era with a whole new summoning mechanic and for a short time many decks did slow down because they could not swarm the board with their extra deck monsters, but this quickly became ancient history as Link monsters made the turns and combos take longer and the game got faster in its overall speed. Handtraps became much more prevalent in this era to help combat the speed of decks, board breakers got more powerful to handle the huge boards of omni negate monsters, and Omni negate boss monsters became the premier card to summon off of your long combo of extenders and special summons, with floodgates being left round to try and give some slower decks counter plays against crazy combo decks. This era is where the game truly shifted into a "Going first" and "Going second" type of game, decks were even called this in this era and by the end of the era, if you didn't build your deck in one of these 2 modes, you wouldn't last long. I am personally not a fan of this style of play, but if you are, congrats, this is how the game is for the most part, open up your engine cards or starters, play through hand traps, set up omni-negates or disruptions and either break that board if you are going second or lose to the crack-back of getting most of your cards negated or hand trapped. However, this era had a lot of cool and interesting deck ideas for how decks played, but generally the style of play was so fast that if you didn't leave from getting all your decks handicapped at the start of the era, you might have left for how fast everything got at the end of the era. 6. GX - (To give some credit this isn't a "bad" era, but significantly underpowered. This era did a lot of the crawling so that other eras could run. This was there era were Konami tested the waters for what a deck based around a single premise, an archetype could do, and how strong should it be and how synergistic should it be. They started to get things right with the tail end of the Era, like Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworns, and powerhouse cards like Dark Armed Dragon, but most of the era was underpowered and mostly ignored. Fun was definitely had, but it was a post goat era format that just did not have much truly going for it. Gx was the next generation but they had a lot of kinks to work out before they truly got going, but this era finally got them on the right track and by the end of it, they hit their stride, not a bad format but just not "that" interesting when you look back at it.) Sorry for the off the cusp rambling, I do love this game and favor certain parts more than others and this is just my long winded opinion.

[@tikigdydm8498]

If we don't talk about the original trilogy zexal was probably the best try for an original setting. If you think about it the duel gazer is the most realistic way to bring olograms in the real game and the number hunter gimmic was a nice way to gather new fans for the show. Competively speaking we talk about an era full of loops and unhealty floodgate like colosseum or ophion. But the structures were fun and the rank 4 toolbox was really easy to access for a kid compared to tuners and synchro from the previous generation. Zexal anime story sustained itself while its successor arc-v used too much nostalgia without really respecting the source material and lost the point of the original story when wrapping up. And we can't forget al the people who quit because of pendulums.

[@bdown_hbunz]

Just in terms of my experience growing with the game, I have to say probably link era is my favorite (specifically during TOSS format) followed very closely by 5ds. I really did like what the game was going for during zexal but if my deck wasn't stolen during that time, 2012, I would've been actually experiencing all that zexal had to offer

[@BigJonahJ]

The original or GX, they obviously didn’t have the strongest cards or the most complicated version of the game but it wasn’t watered down and they didn’t write a full term paper for a card effect

[@logandelaharpe6362]

Are you sure about that Relinquished thousand eyes restrict And toon dark magician girl exists and 5ds sped up the game a small amount and is the perfect medium Between t set pass And There goes my entire deck

[@alwaystired9754]

My personal favorite was 5D's. I think the complexity was in a sweet spot, synchro summoning was a perfect mechanic, and there were so many cool archetypes and boss monsters. Also the anime was GOAT.

[@onsidebuzz]

For me the best era is 5ds because the first yugioh i watched was zexal then i heard about gx and i grew up with 5ds

[@THAC0MANIC]

I Feel like alot of ppl mock OG Yugioh or when ppl call the start to me OG / Yugioh was like the first 2 Anime Era that was where Yugioh was taking place / starting up and such, it wasnt till after that we get new shit summoning types or what knock, so to me when i say OG I include Duel Academy all Duel Academy do was improve on already excisting game mechanics

[@monkeygrip2412]

This was a really great video!!! I enjoyed this a lot!!! Thank you! ❤

[@TeamAPS]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@harambae7014]

Personally as a casual player I liked GX era best. That was when they embraced archetypes with synergy but the mechanics were still fairly simple. I never cared about packs but the OG structure decks of that era (Dragon's Roar, Blazing Inferno etc) were amazing.

[@Frogleeoh]

First time getting synchro summoned against: "alright, that makes sense" First time getting XYZ summoned against: "alright, that makes sense" First time getting pendulum summoned against: "woah, wait, what's going on here? What are these cards? I don't even know if what you're doing is legal, but I guess do whatever. This just seems way too ridiculous to be correct but I've got no way of knowing" and people wonder why Pendulums are hated so much. It's not about pendulums being inherently stronger than other summoning mechanics, it's about their unintuitive nature, as well as their aesthetics/text bloating. These aren't things you can fix with power level adjustment.

[@thatman666]

*1-2.* Zexal and 5D's (interchangeable entries) *3.* DM *4.* Arc-V *5.* GX *6.* Vrains I'm only ranking Arc-V a bit higher because it's a guilty pleasure era and all summon mechanic up to date got form of support. Vrains being this low exemplifies how my passion to Yugioh starts to waver.

[@christianpittenger]

Real answer, the era in which you started playing. Lots of people were kids when they started playing. And most people have rose tinted glasses when they were kids. Nostalgia is one heck of a drug. My favorite is around 2012. I finally bought my first structure deck. It was the Dragon's Collide Structure Deck. After that I bought Legendary Collection 1 and 3.

[@firefalcon9486]

I picked it up during Zexal all the way till vrains. Links, kind of intimidated me at first for 1.25ish so vrains certainly wasnt it.(where is light ignis's Armatos Legio deck konami). Arc v felt like there was so much variety and it the pace wasnt emerald turtle paced. I feel like a game gets better when there are more ways to enjoy it and with the variety of decks that were around at that time it had cards shown in your video it also updated some of the older strategies like blackwings and the lightsworn synchro and Diablosis the awesome(sure he wasnt an update but i loved him so i slapped him with dragon ruler tempest and mechaphantombeasts anyway). The end of zexal was pretty fun too though with dracosack and dragon rulers. By anime i enjoyed 5ds end of zexal first 100 episodes of arc v and all of vrains. TLDR: i just enjoyed yugioh from when i picked it up to when links shooed me away till i decided to learn what it did and now i love links too. besides Arcv zexal and vrains i wasnt around long enough to rate the others besides anime enjoyment but i think zexal wins with vrains getting 2nd and 5ds getting 3rd for anime.

[@Pacificfire33]

I’m biased towards the Arc V era as pendulums are my favorite summoning mechanic. The strategy and depth you can pilot some of these decks along with accessing almost all of the extra deck types are some good reasons why.

[@Easelgames]

I think both early anime and TCG yugioh GX is what killed the OG fans interest and why the OG is so popular. A disaster transition will do that.

[@jesusjuice7401]

I'll just say this HANGING OUT WITH YOUR FRIENDS IN THE SCHOOLYARD

[@Player_Redacted]

I grew up watching DM and played true playground Yugioh in elementary school as a kid. I've haven't played since those early middle school days, but I've always kept an eye on the game over the years and this video pretty much perfectly sums up how I've felt about it. I was 100% one of those people that loved synchros, but kinda fell out of the game when XYZ and pendulum came out. After looking up some of the decks from Edison and Tengu though, I think if I could find people willing I'd play those formats.

[@josiahclarke3535]

Speaking of playground YuGiOh When I was playing more competitively, running Blackwings around Edison era, I went to my old elementary school for a spring fair thing and found two kids, probably around 7-8 years old playing outside. They had decks that had some legitimately okay cards; but they had no idea of how the rules for the game actually worked. I remember coaching one kid through a turn to let him summon Blue-Eyes and beat his friend. The look on his face when I actually got to summon it and did a big flair like in the anime was great. Even better was helping his friend beat him after that. Not only was the game at its best; but all my best memories(save for a few) are from 2007-2012 or so.

[@LeonJohnson-yi3hg]

I had fun with xyz and synchro stuff but I despise pendulums and links

[@josiahclarke3535]

Links are great if you play them without the horrible master rule they came with. They are effectively synchro summoning with a slightly modified requirement.

[@RileyRiolu]

Love the Thumbnail, and a good video too!

[@ivanbluecool]

5ds easily. Introduced the first of many new mechanics to really give Yu-Gi-Oh it's image. Best anime by far since I got major problems with the ones before and after while 5ds the filler of building the world makes the final duels even more impactful Arc v probably the weakest era in my opinion as pendulum was very broken as a system and same with link era where they forced you to use the new mechanics which is never a good idea for people to make them buy the new stuff rather than just make that stuff good Og had to be good enough to get the series to continue. Gx I'd say probably when the series was making better structure decks that still see can see play with the latest packs. Zexal probably fhe best system that climbs up itself with ease and did an og Yu-Gi-Oh revamp honestly better even if I don't like a lot of the cast

[@Chris-rj4bt]

I love 5ds too easily my favorite . Yeah I didn’t like Arc V at all and it’s when I really started falling off of Yugioh. Tried to see what the new one was about but yeah no it’s not for me. To me Arc V just felt like at that point they were doing way too much. When I see pendulums and Links or whatever it’s just a turn off. All the other systems rituals, fusions, synchros, xyz are very easy to understand felt like they naturally flowed with how the game is designed. Everything is still viable. The new stuff just feels overly complicated and more disruptive. Maybe I’m just slow tho lol

[@megaspacewaffles]

Pendulums weren’t really broken at all when arc-v came out, and that era was more so about EVERY summoning type

[@sarahcha7119]

It’s wild, link era is what brought me back in after Arc V (underrated anime for sure, but pendulums made no sense at the time) like link era seemed like a return to form almost

[@LockMacFly]

Let me mention the elephant in the room. The moment most people stopped was when Dueling Network was taken down. People needed it to keep up with all the new mechanics.

[@CaptainMarvel4Ever]

Fantastic vid guys. I agree, we really don't need to consider the Rush Duel anime for anything. Make no mistake, I'm always rooting for Rush duels, but the anime is a different game, different continuity, even a different studio and creative team. It's certainly not the Yu-Gi-Oh we know. It's funny, ZeXal really made me upset with how Rank-4 spam watered the game down, but outside that the archetypes were some of the best in the history of the game in terms of gameplay and flavor. Didn't hurt that ZeXal was also my favorite anime. 5D's through ZeXal really was peak for mein terms of fandom. Don't get me wrong, my favorite way to play Yu-Gi-Oh is still modern, but it feels like that era's power level/pacing is something to strive toward in future card design. Great points about the GX era too, that was my favorite talking point. I also never thought of it, but you're right, in the Vrains era all the anime decks were meta and that gave packs such fantastic value. Heck the guy who created Dragon Link was just flat out a big fan of Revolver, so that's pretty cool. Excellent video as usual. P.S. Alec's earthworm joke cracked me up so hard, 10/10!

[@nauticoom]

For me it’s the original YuGiOh (anime) cuz that’s my era and it’s what popularized YuGiOh. Also the ancient Egyptian theme was great. Obv the game play was very basic but in terms of the anime is the best

[@Ratchetfan321]

I miss HAT format

[@VictorFC]

Vrains era was a nightmare. It was the 1st time konami made an entire rule change to "rotate" the game. Not only the older decks were power crept, but they simply couldn't function properly. We had an explosion of "break my board" decks format after format. Spyral, electrumite (magician ftk or zexal), gem knight ftk, firewall ftk, isolde decks (gumblar, extra link, rhongo), azatoth decks and so on. And the worst designed card of all time, apollousa. They had to ban/limmit every single good swarm card, specially the token generators.

[@mawile2468]

I played all of DM, GX, 5Ds, and Zexal. Sat out the Arc-V era before coming back for Link Summoning. I love Link Summoning but still don't really know how to Pendulum Summon 😅 But I think the best era was probably either late GX or all of 5Ds

[@PiantaBroker]

arc-v because every mechanics was more equal. Not more mechanic left behind for the new one. Yang Zing, Shadoll, and tellerknight were a good starting point. Obviously one is stronger than the others

[@reubenjames6570]

Grew up watching duel monsters, but gx def became my favorite

[@airbornejay4962]

2009-2011 was a great time to be a teen

[@AndresD.deLeon]

Zexal is the best, no contest. Also, y'all name-dropped Slifer Slackers, been 6 months, bois. I miss it

[@PIE50100]

I've said it before I'll say it again, Link monsters did what we all thought Pendelums would do to the game.

[@LomasneyAaron]

Yugioh OCG Structures is the era of yugioh we’re in

[@RikuHino]

To this day I only play up to xyzs. pendulums and links I feel changed the field too much. Like both play mats and the feel of the game.

[@KeeganMcKinney]

22:53 I would argue that we saw some anime representation during 5D's and Zexal. 🤔 You could also count DM to an exent because of how basic the game felt and the limited card pool.

[@christopherb501]

16:30 To those people I'd say: we in MtG have had to deal with double-sided cards for 2.5 years now; cool your jets.

[@Camelotsmoon]

It's funny, I remember back in the day when 5ds was airing I hated it so much. Brought a weird summoning mechanic and everyone was riding motorcycles.. to this day though it's my second favorite of the animes and the best format I ever played lol. 5ds aged like a fine wine. Anime rating to me (not format rating): DM 5Ds GX Zexal Vrains Arc-V

[@_thebigsteve]

I almost completely agree. I put vrains, and gx more at the bottom and arc v higher because gx was in a very Grey area coasting off of a lot of the best of dm with occasional power creep until phantom darkness and light of destruction until the end and vrains really monopolized the summoning method which did some lasting damage to the games reputation. Arc v I put over that because it was one of the first formats to incorporate all summoning methods and establish future trends while also leaving room for pendulums as an additional option which I think is a bot healthier than a hard ceiling in the form of master rule 4. Og is after that then zexal and 5ds at the top. The biggest thing I would like to see return is a combination of some non archetype based staples that are decently accessible that help combat and invalidate more handtraps so playing the game isn't either break my board or play through 5 handtraps. I think cards like tactics and thrust are a good starting point for that but we need more and they shouldn't all break the bank. 5ds had cards like royal oppression, thunder king raioh, and floodgates like macro at 3 as well as maxx c towards the end which all together I believe despite being abused by toxic decks did serve as ways for slower strategies to play like gravekeepers which is a nice option for players to have. It's a complicated issue but some checks for 20 handtrap 1 card combo decks is sorely needed and a variety of strategies be it hand, graveyard, field, or floodgates based do have their purposes to the game that make yugioh unique.

[@NyancyCat]

I watched the anime a lot as a kid, and really got into the card game around the tail end of GX. I remember going to a sneak peek for the set with Black Rose Dragon, and someone pulled a ghost rare - the whole place was oohing and aaahing. I miss the gameplay from that era something terrible - Blackwings and Lightsworn were some of my favourite decks, and I even cooked a bit with a Lightsworn/Snake deck that used stuff like Gogiga GagaGigo to pitch to trade in to power up Vennominon. Daily games on YVD, shootin the shit on YugiohForums and Pojo, it really was a great time.

[@mohdhafiz9955]

Synchro always be the turning timeline for me, the first alternative summons mechanism after ritual and fusion

[@Joshua-jg2jf]

Is that an ace attorney reference in the thumbnail?!

[@creeperkiller0564]

5ds was when I started yugioh as a kid, loved the anime and my favorite card was stardust dragon. I would always throw in a way to make it in my deck

[@MegaMachiOnline]

Arc V came out with insane negates (in quantity) and a significant speed boost halfway through for me and marked the decline of traps

[@7thHourFilms]

I'm glad this isn't ranking the anime themselves because otherwise there would be some angry folks (probably including me! Zexal is peak! 5Ds sucks!).

[@logandelaharpe6362]

The opposite but carry on

[@ninjawxyz1260]

Master Rule 4 Link monsters occupied a very parasitic design space where Link monsters were all of a sudden required if you wanted more than one extra deck monster on field. I love Salamangreat, Code talker and Marincess, but there is no doubt Master Rule 4 really marked a shift in speed for yugioh. I honestly like the yugioh’s speed and how that makes it different from other card games, but I get why people don’t like that. 5Ds probably is my favorite era because that was the Yugioh I grew up with.

[@Fencer_Nowa]

Most the design changes that sped up links was to appease the ocg who mostly are pet deckers. Where the western side welcomed links more because it would have ideally curbed the momentum we hit with pepe and zoo going +4-6 every turn

[@lunacurtis780]

I, personally, have 2 opinions. "Eddison Format" [[appears]] to be the series that we were playing in high school. Right when I was starting to understand what an "engine" actually was, and how to actually WIN, and not just Playground Brute Force it. Due to nostalgia, and the "medium" play speed, (kids back then would swear these (synchros and their support) cards were too strong, haha, if only they knew what would come,) would make it the "best" format. If I wanted to bring a friend into the game who hasn't played since Playground days, I feel as though I COULD slowly get them playing Eddison. ...now for my hot take. Master Rule 4, aka "Link Lock" era. The entire point of Link monsters was to slow the extra deck down, and then "help" you find a way to utilize them again. As soon as the extra deck was re-unlocked, the entire Link Monster ERA was made pointless, and every piece of Link Support that came out after that proves it. So many Link decks were left behind, and the only ones who survived, did so by honestly nefarious means. For this reason, if I were to try and take the person from Opinion 1, and bring them up to Link monsters, xyz, and pendulum, I would want to do it with MR4 entirely in place, and without the support that followed it's revision. Until this format exists, I'm gonna call it Nikola Format.

[@VictorFC]

It never was meant to slow down. Links were made to rotate the game. We had a lot of degenerate combos as soon as COTD previews were announced.

[@onilady1186]

I'd like to see you rank and talk about the ygo anime impacts and what those anime ment to you over the cards available at the time

[@TheConuresrule]

No question it was. Both from the anime and actual card game during that time. I grew up when OG yugioh was the new thing and even though I have big nostalgia for it, I will always admit 5ds was better. It was definitely a happy time for me.

[@Ookami20]

My favorite is Xyz monsters I like all the different mechanics but I want it to slow down now please put a ceiling to this

[@mukundk1586]

Yeah, I think I’m in a crowd that argues for 5D’s irl, but none of us play competitively. I’m gonna go with Arc-V personally, which I felt had a fantastic anime (tho rushed after the Synchro arc) and it had some fun archetypes. GX or 5Ds would be 2nd place for me

[@marioaugustoribeiro619]

I only play goat and i'm rewatching DM, and i'm having lots of fun! I have plans to try Edison some time, but not yet. I still want some cards of goat before moving to the next format, and in Brazil, some old cards are kinda rare (im looking at you, metamorphosis)

[@johnboona4048]

Synchro or Xyz era is the best

[@DigitalxGamer]

Here's my personal list I think: 6. Vrains Era - This era overly complicated the game. Now it's not just what cards you use, it's where you place them. And Link monsters are so easy to play that they're just spammed around. Pendulum era had done a lot of harm, and Vrains had the misfortune of being at the tail end of that without doing much to fix the problems I was starting to have with the game. And the first impression of initially RUINING Synchro and Xyz decks was a horrendous start. Luckily they fixed that later, but damn. 5. Arc-V Era - Now, while Pendulums became something of a nightmare and they were always far more complicated than they really should have been...they were still a fun and unique mechanic that mixed up deckbuilding in an interesting way. Once you did overcome that bias of not wanting to learn them and actually DID learn them, they were actually a pretty fun mechanic. And it wasn't inherently broken, so you didn't HAVE to learn it. At first. But it definitely spun way out of control way too fast. 4. GX Era - I really don't mind this one as much as I thought I would, but yeah, this feels like proto-Synchro era. It is very similar to the Arc-V era where in the beginning, it wasn't making any waves at all. It really only affected casual play because archetypes were finally beginning to become a thing. Venom, Crystal Beast, E-Heroes, D-Heroes, Cyber, Ojama, etc. But later on, things got stronger...and lead directly into Synchros. 3. Zexal Era - I have some biases around Zexal era, both positive and negative. I thought the cards that came early on were cool, but they got way too crazy by the end (and I absolutely hate the Rank-Up mechanic). But this was the part of the game where "Tier 0" became commonplace and that was what started turning me off of Yugioh (though I stuck with it through much of Pendulum era). However, Xyz mechanics breathed new life into my favorite archetype, the Crystal Beasts. They still weren't GOOD, but they were playable now, and that excited me. And I'm sure CBs weren't the only ones. I think conceptually, Xyz is an AMAZING follow-up to Synchros. They were easier to make in general, but weaker cards in general (and limited in the scope of their effects). They were pretty well balanced until the tail end began to hit. This is also where Yugioh stopped making videogames, and that frustrates the hell out of me. 2. DM Era - I think there's a lot more strategy that goes into deck building here than you think there is: Empty Jar, Flip Control, Beatdown strategies, Exodia strategies and more were all here. Taking place prior to archetypes means you just have to be more creative in your deck building process. This is also where some of the best videogames Yugioh has ever had are from. GX games were good too, but these games tended to be nothing but raw dueling with the anime characters and that was all you needed from them. 1. 5D's Era - I don't think I Have to even say anything. Goated era, I can't really think of any negativity that I had when playing in this era of Yugioh. It introduced a lot of really fun archetypes like Junk and Morphtronics and Blackwings, etc. The game was sped up but not TOO much. I think this was the best pacing Yugioh duels ever had, with a lot of back and forth for a good number of turns.

[@Cr4z3d]

Totally agree with what you said about DM Era.

[@ExodiaNecross2]

Duel monsters the greatest & the best ever iconic.