THE WORST YU-GI-OH FORMATS OF ALL TIME!

[@MBTYuGiOh]

you all better gas this i sprained my tongue for this thumbnail

[@skyhorizon6860]

That was your fault for making that goofy face

[@fatcat2015]

White

[@mitchthewizard3694]

Yeah, THAT’S how you sprained your tongue, sure, we’ll go with that.

[@vix_arilynn]

Legit this is basically my “thirteen reasons why” I’m personally not playing Yugioh anymore and play Digimon card game instead is actually got decent back and forth it’s not prohibitively expensive just to get a decent starting deck to get your foot in the door and the “meta” cards alot of the time end up being the monsters you think should be good and the fan favorites like Greymon and Garurumon unlike Yugioh where Blue eyes and Dark Magician are condemned so suffer in eternal mediocrity. Even rouge decks feel more fun because because most of the time they’re still putting up a decent fight against a “meta” deck you don’t have to draw a perfect opening hand or win the die roll just to have a chance.

[@CR15TH19N]

why ur toing out???

[@Cvit]

It's crazy to think that 2018 had record high tournament turnout for a year that was nothing but firewall loops and FTKs. Genuinely thought yugioh would die before konami would finally hit firewall and all the other problem cards. Go second spyral was based tho

[@MBTYuGiOh]

the community will truly tolerate anything

[@malareon]

I swear striker was the only thing holding this game together during that time.

[@Cvit]

@@MBTYuGiOh I took a break after Spyral was hit days before YCS Atlanta went and played Artifact and had a blast... if only valve didn't take it out back behind the shed

[@luminous3558]

@@Cvit It took me a moment to decipher that the Artifact you were talking about was Valves CCG attempt and not the Yugioh deck.

[@toadallynoodle5414]

@@luminous3558 I mean can you blame Cvit? Artifact decks like HAT are pretty damn fun, as long as it isn't that shitty Dadga Scythe crap.

[@godqueenempressheartfang1510]

what i learned from this video is that between mbt's appreciation for the current tear format and the nekroz mirror, mbt enjoying a format is a grim omen

[@tsukamesuccess7332]

tear format is literally flawless. a format where you're FORCED to play an interactive deck with many branching decision points is a PERFECT format. fight me

[@TinPrince]

@@tsukamesuccess7332 ok, how much is that deck again?

[@DerKaizer]

@@tsukamesuccess7332 I enjoy being able to play more than one deck lol

[@tsukamesuccess7332]

@@DerKaizer you can only bring one deck to a tournament

[@stuckmeister7750]

This'll be a fun alt format to explore in the future once the cards are all banned/reprinted. Nekroz mirrors are pretty neat

[@BosSoxFan15]

I think that initial versions of the January 2020 Spyral deck were also insanely expensive cause they ran 3 extrav, magician's soul, and apollousa which were all like 100$. Making 9 cards in your deck nearly 1,000$

[@turtlesfan44]

My wallet Hurts just looking at the old prices

[@ryanchase9332]

@@turtlesfan44 Mine hurts looking at the CURRENT prices.

[@RunicSigils]

@@steeveedragoon More importantly, there needs to not be short prints of any kind in any set. That's what keeps most single prices high in an arbitrary way. It doesn't matter if you reprint it 10 times a year if you're giving what looks like any other rarity, like 1/8th the chance to appear. It should outright be illegal for cards of the same rarity to have different chances. Use a different rarity. As for OCG like stuff, the most important one they could do, if they stopped the pointless short printing, is to drop the pointless editions. 1st versus unlimited is a TCG only concept and only serves to help inflate singles prices. They should also just reprint the EXACT SAME SETS as long as they see demand to do so. That's part of the reason Korean stuff is so cheap even beyond other OCG stuff. They don't need a new set to reprint anything like they pretend to. It just panders to the glorified scalpers. But no one who wants to play the game cares if singles scalpers make money off their scalped goods when they could buy the boxes themselves because the cost of the primary product hasn't been driven up by them. Granted, MAMA is 100% a step in the right direction. One slot with a guaranteed competitive reprint and one slot with a guaranteed new card or the stuff it supports was a very good decision but the problem still remains they were all just URs and shouldn't have different rates to begin with.

[@MummyNapkin]

@@steeveedragoon POTE is getting an Unlimited print run so Tear 0 (mainly PPP) will actually be affordable soon

[@DimkaSulegnaa]

I know this is mainly TCG based, but the OCG probably had the worst format in existence early in it’s life. Imagine unga bunga YGO, but with a Sangan and Witch that can trigger from being discarded and Last Will can special summon as many times as you send a monster from the field to the grave that turn. Now imagine that with Cannon Soldier and Exodia both being playable.

[@InvaderWeezle]

The crazy part is that isn't even the only Exodia format in the OCG. In 2001 they had another one that spammed Card of Safe Return draws thanks to Premature Burial and Giant Trunade both being at 3

[@trulymrword]

@@InvaderWeezle To be fair, we are talking about the Land of C.

[@ryuuohdeltaplus7936]

​@@trulymrword the format mentioned was 1999-2001.

[@trulymrword]

@@ryuuohdeltaplus7936 I was talking about Japan, were they still haven't banned Maxx C, so having formats in the past that are about hyper card draw wouldn't be surprising.

[@Lucat_the_Nerd]

@@trulymrwordMaxx “C” didn’t exist in 1999.

[@Sketch_XR]

Shout outs to Apoqliphort Towers Turbo during late 2014 and into early 2015. All the power of the MR3 Pendulum Summon, plus floodgates out the ass, plus the OG "unaffected by card effects" boss monster itself. Literally made Diamond Crab King an extra deck staple and Nekroz of Decisive Armor a mandatory One Of. Bonus shout outs to his spiritual successor in Master Peace during Zoo format.

[@iamthepkmmaster]

Not the OG, that's Venominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes, but the first good one, yes.

[@xCorvus7x]

@@iamthepkmmaster The OG should be the original one that actually saw play. How gangster can a card be, if no one plays it?

[@asuraXTC]

We had kaijus back the …

[@andrewholm2223]

What’s actually insane to me is that I started actually playing yugioh back in 18, and I remember getting gumblar looped, then rhongo-bongo’d, and darkruler/canon soldier FTK’d for that whole year. And somehow, I remember finding it all fascinating. I hated the format in retrospect but it still got me into yugioh so I have this odd, stockholm symdrome esq respect for it all LMAO

[@shawnjavery]

The funny thing is salad didn't even really turbo out bagooska in prepote format. The only way you could consistently get to it was if you opened parallel, and parallel was kinda dog water that format. Instead I sided into 3 antispell 2 warlords games 2 and 3. That way you could flood gate then while playing under nibiru and not get blown out.

[@OsirusHandle]

that format was dbarrier turbo LMAO. people were MAINING dbarrier and siding into triple trap trick. Awful. Bode format was similar though, birdup ran feather storm (as if they needed it, they made like 8 interuptions) and I saw Swordsoul on... Gravity Collapse. Yeah.

[@shawnjavery]

@@OsirusHandle yeah floods were in every side deck. Funny enough salad dodged like all of them that people played. There can be only one saw a bit of play but wasn't nearly as prevalent as antispell, warlords or d barrier. Was a good format to play salad.

[@ObeliskTGS]

I utterly *despised* Zoodiac when the Fusion Substitute combo was found. With considerably less hand trap options to interact with it at the time (plus it could power through some of them depending on the hand) the deck was obnoxious to sit across as they resolved full combo as I'm pretty sure it legitimately took over 10 minutes to do. This was the format that made me realize that YGO had gone in a direction where combo decks had changed from playing like Tengu Plants where you'd do a chain of summons but not take a great deal of time to all of them basically playing like Ritual Beast where your deck goes BRRRRR until you have your crazy board and if you weren't playing combo, then your deck had to either play floodgates or you just died. It's gotten better since then now that we have stronger counter options with better hand traps and actual board breaker cards like DRNM, Droplet and Evenly being put into the game. Going 2nd now is *way better* than it was 5 years ago. But yeah fuck Zoo.

[@shawnjavery]

I honestly preferred playing against fusion sub zoo, just because maxx c felt more impactful against them than usual. Holding the maxx c for the first fusion sub meant that they either traded 1 for 1 with no drident, used another another resource and gave you 2 draws to get to drident, or gave you three draws to just end on drident off of one card.

[@DrAiPatch]

Not going to lie the 1st year and a half of link format the game was basically unplayable literally every deck was doing that same link spam combo. I took a long break from the game when Hal became an auto win.

[@ratioed1438]

Modern Yugioh is basically Konami looking at a mediocre mechanic and saying "how can we break this?"

[@zerobackwards]

Dino Rabbit format was genuinely incredible once Chaos Dragons were figured out tbh

[@dragonMaster24921]

Man I miss wind up as well

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

@@dragonMaster24921 Get your hand loop garbage out of here.

[@rexhasta]

i miss chaos dragon. 11 year old me got 2nd at a locals winning some shitty green zexal tin with a bunch of cheap ultis with my schoolyard deck that was basically chaos dragons with whatever cards i could get my hands on thrown in there too (3 card trooper, only 1 solar recharge because it was impossible to find in my school's trading ecosystem, 3 forbidden lance which might be my favorite card of all time, 1 veiler i was lucky enough to pull out of an ORCS special edition...good times man)

[@dragonMaster24921]

@@rexhasta I actually didn't play the loop I'd use wind up in a toolbox style deck. Hunter had his uses but I liked the sheer versatility the deck gave for xyz monsters. I also like phantom knight cuz of this

[@dragonMaster24921]

@@rexhasta yo what happened. I miss playground yugioh

[@Bowserslave]

Whoever decides to add the MMBN6 boss theme to this video, you’re a legend 💙

[@inurfaceak]

Surge of Power is SUCH a banger

[@KuroJet]

BIG FACTS THIS WAS A W

[@kidumby7599]

Probably Dire, big W if so

[@credorn4590]

100% did not see this coming. I have bias with BN 6 being my fav game cause it was my first.

[@credorn4590]

Also hyped for the upcoming legacy collection

[@dansantos9475]

I will say in the weeks leading up to mavens under da-bl were the most fun I’ve had playing yugioh. Most of the decks were fun and had interplay between them(exception of mine burn) and if it wasn’t for the mama I think there would be a lot of contenders.

[@antonbrown17]

The retrospective love for TOSS format is interesting to me because I was literally there and never saw anyone actively saying they liked it that much. Ppl hated Colossus, thought Orcust looping Dingirsu on both turns was unfair, despised Engage with a passion and felt Salamangreat's amount of options and recursion were annoying. Fast forward a year or so later and everyone's saying they loved the format. Since when???

[@narutokiubissj2]

I guess it is becase of 3 reasons. 1) Nostalgia this was the last year of yugioh before the pandemic and some people look at that time fondly 2) It is sandiched between 2018 and 2020 and those formats were a shitshow for the reasons established in this video making it look better by comparison 3) TOSS as a format is actually "balanced" kinda. If i remember correclty the latter half of it after a banlist the 4 decks were pretty even in powerlevel. Not only that but the playstyles, strengths and weakenesses of each deck are distinctive from eachother as well making it feel very diverse even if they were the same 4 decks over and over

[@antonbrown17]

@@narutokiubissj2 agreed

[@Emmix_342]

The reason why is because the format didn't felt unfair, it was one of the most "balanced" formats from modern Yugioh, a format of 4 archetypes that had the upper hand, but neither of them felt they were the best deck when put against each other, that said, living 1 year of the same thing regardless of what product came or what the banlist did was going to tire everyone no matter how balanced said format is, everything needs to come to an end. Reason why the January 2020 banlist was one of the bloodiest banlists to be released. And why MR5 was born.

[@cephalosjr.1835]

@@narutokiubissj2 Wasn’t the latter half dominated hard by Orcust Striker, which nearly achieved Tier 0 status?

[@kichiroumitsurugi4363]

​@@cephalosjr.1835 Only by the very very end of TOSS. Before that, it was all 4 decks being pretty even before Orcust Striker got figured out

[@lancerguy3667]

What's sad is, I remember way back in 2016 or 2017... SPYRAL was one of the decks that got me back into YGO, alongside D/D. I loved the gimmick of the playstyle, and the quality/personality of the art for the characters. It was really, really bad... but still a lot of fun. Then Double Helix happened, and overnight it went from jank no one ever thought about to one of the most oppressive meta decks in history... and sadly, once a deck reaches that level, it gets tainted forever. To this day, years after everything that made them reliable has been banished to the shadow realm, I still have opponents who scoop the moment they see Agent.

[@Aaronrules380]

To be fair, part of the reason newer formats are being mentioned more often is recency bias combined with a probably not insignificant amount of selection bias because of who is looking at and answering MBT's poll

[@HaydenX]

Also worth mentioning is just how many people quit YGO during Chaos Format before "forbidden"/Advanced became a thing in the TCG. I personally knew three different people who permanently quit the game the first time they saw CED summoned.

[@Merilirem]

@@HaydenX I quit when it was banned. Came back though thanks to Master Duel. Did some Duel Links but it wasn't the same and didn't really go anywhere.

[@CronoEpsilon]

The format where you either play Tear, play Floo, play Digimon, or cry about it.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

Not too loud.. mr rothchild is about to have a meltdown

[@nerfirelia8235]

What I've gathered from this video is that, outside of Edison, HAT, TOSS, and mayble like 2 or 3 other formats, every format has been almost universally hated.

[@hatefulgaming1800]

Hey there’s a reason why those are the most popular formats

[@EinDose]

I think the thing that makes current formats terrible are that link monsters are just TOO consistent. At least with most other formats there were chances, albeit sometimes quite low, that someone could just draw bad and not get everything they need. But links are so consistent, and often so generic, that basically every deck can launch into some huge threats off of very little. If Halq is around, not only are a whole bunch of decks running it, but they can all crack out Halq pretty much on opener.

[@dolphinsniper]

I personally think that Link's should have shuffled the Link Material into the deck rather than sending them to the grave. We've been using the graveyard as a second hand for so long already, we don't need more ways to fuel it.

[@chanlennox8133]

@@dolphinsniper such a cool take I'm almost certain you stole it

[@Hurricane1990]

Or what if the arrows actually mattered? Lol

[@manjackson2772]

Not if we ban all the tuners!

[@CrnaStrela]

@@dolphinsniper save it for the next mechanic or the next archetype

[@Registeel13Ty]

I think people in general really like the Duelist Alliance era with the exception of a few Pendulum strategies, however the game basically Link era and onward has just been dominated by decks that make the same combo negate board over and over. At the very least I will say that more recent archetypes have started to shift away from that gameplan, but Scythe lock was still a big stain on what would've been a great era I feel with the Albaz lore decks.

[@AZ-rl7pg]

The Woodland Sprite FTK in Duel Links is spot on, I've brought it up a couple of times on Duel Links forums saying it was tier 0 and everyone basically laughed in my face. It's essentially the format that everyone wants to pretend never existed which can be supported by the fact that if you go to the Duel Links Meta site and check the Tier List History it conveniently starts just after the banlist that made Woodland FTK impossible (Woodland Sprite was limited Jan 2018, Golden Bamboo Sword was then limited Feb 2018 making it impossible to play them together and the first Duel Links Meta tier list on the website is March 2018).

[@azure1094]

Should woodland be unlimited after the effect dmg was nerfed?

[@azure1094]

@Mega [MegaSamX10] Oh. I thought they nerfed all effect damage in the game. odd they didnt do that. Havent played the game for a long time. Is cocytus still even a problem card?

[@AZ-rl7pg]

@@azure1094 Cocytus is one of the four cards that are currently banned. Some people think it could be unbanned because the format has grown past it being an issue plus Aleister and Invocation both being limit 3 means he's not nearly as disposable as before.

[@calumbishop7082]

You know I'm just gonna say it: Link Monsters were a mistake, SO many of the broken cards and formats of the last 4-5 years have been Link monsters/link monster related. Cards that are too easy to summon and have effects that are way to broken. As of the most recent banlist there are 15 Link Monsters Forbidden more than every other Extra Deck summoning mechanic, more than all of the Fusion, Synchro and Pendulum Monsters, combined, and the thing is most of them do belong on this list. Guardragon Agarpain, Elpy, Knightmare Goblin, Mermaid, Summon Sorceress, Topologic Gumblar, Halq, Linkross, Auroradon, Meow-Mu, Verte, Union Carrier and most recently Curious. SO many unfun, unfair cards that have ruined countless formats. It's not surprising that so many of the worst formats in the games history come from after Link's were introduced.

[@DrAiPatch]

Yea a lot of the E deck monster that are on the list are because they could be abused in unintended ways but 80% of the link monster that are their are there because they just have broken effects on their own

[@kamenLegendJ]

I agree with this

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

Powerful generic links were a mistake. Why does every single combo deck need multiple negates and a way to OTK

[@bolobre4th]

In 2018 we had Gem-Knight FTK, Danger Dark Warrior FTK, Rhongo, Slash Draw FTK and even a guy topping with a The World Deck and the decks on the format that weren't that were gumblar decks (and fucking sky strikers). If we didn't give up yugioh back then, i'm afraid we won't be able to do it anymore.

[@maddymusevt]

dire going "Neeehoowwr" for the plane sound effect killed me lmao

[@TheNutshaq]

2018 is the closest this game has ever come to dying. Just format after format after format of Firewall Dragon

[@Rairiky]

Honestly that Jan 2020 format is candidate to be explored b/c was definitely unresolved,yes souls spyral was good but shaddoll invoked lunalights and even salads were right there just to name a few

[@shawnjavery]

D link probably was the best deck of the format.

[@xatuyou8045]

Lunalight wasn’t good. It played well on dueling book but in actual gameplay you lost in time a lot because of zephyros.

[@sunphoenix26]

You thought I wouldn’t peep that Battle Network boss theme in the back? Consider it peeped.

[@TheOuroborosLoop]

I was as passively listening to this when all of the sudden at 5:24, I hear music I'm all too familiar with. Shout out to Dire for the MMBN music. ;) Also 5:58 you took the words RIGHT outta my mouth. Hahaha!

[@shado87j82]

Took a break at the end of 2016 from yugioh, (mostly due to real world issues). Didn’t come back until like mid 2019. I’m starting to realize it wasn’t a break, it was an easy escape…

[@cpMetis]

Duel Links was the only time I ever bothered playing somewhat seriously, and while early Cyber Lady made me want to rip my hair out, I don't think I ever let more than 5 Shiranui games go the distance. I just hated life so much when I saw that crap. And shoutout to bamboo sword ftk. I remember seeing it for the first time and wondering outloud in Uni class "HOW DID THEY MISS THIS?!"

[@frankwest5388]

Z00-Draco format It was either maining weird stuff like “my body” to prevent Drident or getting floodgated by Draco

[@ycm6152]

Surprised no one mentioned how absolutely dogshit every early dm format was, a couple of all powerful cards (mostly spells) and a few good effect monsters provided little options for building a deck, unless you played some stall/burn abomination that is worse than mystic mine because backrow removal was not even a fraction of what it is today

[@b4sh936]

Almost no one that plays today played competitive during those times

[@gaaraofthefunk265]

Every format has crap in it.

[@CrnaStrela]

And people actually "miss" this format? Do they have fun when their hard earned summoned skull being stolen and then used as tribute fodder for their jinzo? Board building was atrociously slow but it breaks with one card making each game became who can sack harder.

[@fallenrynchan7077]

@@CrnaStrela thats so true. This same logic applies to goat format. Imagine being sacked with the one ofs delliquent duo :)

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

I wouldn't call it the worst format, but GOAT is legitimately ass cheeks. Boring as hell to both watch and play, but propped up by nostalgia goggles.

[@youtube-kit9450]

I don't think I've despised any single "format" as much as "every single deck tries to go Halq-Cross(-Don)". Imo the abysmal reputation of yugioh right now amongst casuals and the reverence for eternal format (TOSS) is exactly because of this fucking line. Even shit like DPE-Scythelock-Adventurer-whatever shit isn't as reviled as that above fucking combo. But yeah, pre-TOSS link era was just miserable format after miserable format like holy shit.

[@SeraSmiles]

I will never stop saying that nekroz & pepe were way less annoying than people remember them & almost all of the frustration was either cost or one card that should've never been printed.

[@dhanyl2725]

Nekroz was made annoying by the djinn bs, iirc it wasn't annoying for a meta deck (still annoying of course cuz it was meta) after that

[@shawnjavery]

@@dhanyl2725 i've played a few retro format duels against nekroz, the annoying part about it is a lot of games just feel like non games, since its hard for most decks to keep up with what nekroz does at the time. Power plays plus floating and you're just trying to whether the storm and run them through their 5 to 6 ritual spells feels pretty weird. I was playing teller against nekroz but there was a game where I felt I was getting destroyed the entire time only to win because I was able to stick a dark rebellion on field and the guy had went through all of his mirrros and couldn't out it.

[@calvingilderson5834]

Would love to see a video on the opposite! Only got into the game (casually) in the past year or so, and would love to explore some fun old formats.

[@JudojugsVtuber]

I dont have a specific format I dislike heavily (having played through D-ruler spellbook, PePe, Nekroz, Zoodiac, and the beginning of SPYral's FIRST reign of terror) however I believe MR4 was the single most asinine and alienating change ever made to the game and resulted in the game's biggest exodus from the game (mine included and I know about half my LGS left too) until they revised it with MR5. It wasn't very fun spending like 100+ bucks on new decks for the new format (D/D/D anyone?) just to have all your cards turn to garbage overnight. It also forced people into learning links and using them and it basically instantly murdered 90% of casual, rogue, and low tier decks because they now had to waste resources on monsters that didn't actually advance their strategy just to play their already subpar cards. Whoever had the idea for MR4 needs to stop making design decisions for the game because they apparently spend most of their time sniffing glue and huffing axe body spray.

[@orga7777]

Incorrect. Link summoning brought in more players than ever before. MR3 is what chased away a significant portion of the player base because Pendulum Summoning is absolutely, singlehandedly the worst mistake in Yugioh history.

[@JudojugsVtuber]

@@orga7777 This is an extreme yugiboomer take. Pendulums have been, and always were, a terrible mechanic that is BAD for obvious reasons. You commit 2 resources that are easily removed before you get to use them to the board for a summon that is also incredibly susceptible to disruption. They also (for the most part) hard lose to many different floodgates. Note how many pendulum decks were meta and WHY they were meta. PePe? was the only top deck to ever be pendulum and didn't even need to be pendulum to have been good. make any deck be half searchers and the targets for those searchers and you'll likely have a very consistent deck. Back that up with reasonably powerful boss monsters and maybe an omni negate or disruption or two you have a good deck (see Swordsoul, Nekroz, Tri-brigade, SPYral, etc.). What other pendulum decks were actually majorly meta relevant? Qli? Was powercrept incredibly early on and only stood against the other decks in the format because of their ability to maindeck floodgates that they were unaffected by or benefitted from. D/D/D? Was meta for like a week tops and fell off from MR4 but even if it didn't nobody is going to claim D/D/D was going to out perform decks like SPYral that came soon after the change to MR4. Pendulum was best deck in 1 and a half formats and that was it. Pendulum is ass and people need to quit complaining about it and pretending like it is inherently busted when it is the most fragile and pitiful mechanic to date and has the least amount of meta relevant decks out of any of the summoning mechanics.

[@krullachief669]

I think the person that designed MR4 got fired from Konami and instead got hired by WoTC and came up with th eidea for th elegacy packs.

[@toadfan64]

Link format/MR4 is when almost all my friends stopped playing for good. They understandably had no want or intention on wanting to play them. Usually we'd just play like they didn't exist for a bit

[@xatuyou8045]

The worst thing about adamancipator eldlich format was it was super expensive and nobody got any return on the money for those cards because there were no events.

[@olvynchuru1663]

One format that comes to mind was the extremely brief format in 2002 where The Forceful Sentry, Confiscation, and Delinquent Duo were all legal at 3 copies.

[@kwayke9]

Gumblar approves!

[@Eyeshield11721]

That Megaman ost is highly appreciated

[@CuriousLumenwood]

"Imagine being a Dino one trick as people are double VFD-ing you and maining Lancea" The fun thing about Dino's is that you were also making VFD when it was legal. Lithosagym, anyone?

[@DarkArmedDad_Official]

Dragon Ruler format was the only format to ever make me quit for about 2-3 years 😩😭

[@Becquiel]

I quit until 2019

[@DarkArmedDad_Official]

@@Becquiel goddamn, welcome back though 🙌

[@Becquiel]

@@DarkArmedDad_Official Thanks fam, just learned to play jank and avoid meta for my mental health

[@balistikscaarz1959]

Funny story. I'm known for trading expensive singular cards for cheap deck cores and good bulk. A friend of mine had Subterror and SPYRAL and after Maximum Crisis I offered him an Ash Blossom for the whole Subterror core. Months pass and Double Helix releases, friend has the whole deck ready, but it's so much stronger than everything available that no one in our group wants to deal with "Sleeper trigate online oh btw enjoy drawing Maxx C for turn". Playing post link SPYRAL at regionals was the thing that made him despise the deck. Couple years pass and Guru is released, I managed to get my first regional top post SAST with the same Subterror cards I got from him. We both picked the TCG exclusives as our decks of choice and eventually did well with them. That said my friend hardly plays master duel anymore and had a stockpile of gems, so as a joke when I went to his place I booted up MD and blew 3300 gems to make SPYRAL then named the deck "why won't anyone play with me?"

[@jtalkalot19]

This video feels like it covers every format post 2011

[@lordgoenutz1094]

BASED DIRE ONCE MORE WITH THE MUSIC CHOICE!

[@anonymous71207]

MMBN MUSIC THE MOST COMMON DIRE W

[@chibiignis]

When jumpin Joseph broke both his ankles at 1:82 and spent the rest of the video in the ICU it taught us all a valuable lesson about peer pressure.

[@kevincorey4406]

As a Vanguard player, thank you for Wind-Up format for helping grow our community.

[@roninwarriorsfan]

And then the Overdress era happened, getting rid of all the clans (and the fun)

[@RamixTheRed]

Damn Dire on the based music choices again

[@MacMens0100]

I remember zoo when it came out and by young self didn't really understand card advantage so it was just a magic deck that always had what it wanted

[@dragonknight1560]

Ah yes, the Zexal Era of Wind-Ups. I was there... left to Cardfight Vanguard (well mainly the anime... wasn't all that great) and then came back during the start of Arc-V and boy was it shocking to think Yugioh NEARLY died because of Wind-Ups. Like... It's insane.

[@lucadivine3862]

Do NOT think I didn't notice the Battle Network music in the background! (true man of culture tbh)

[@rarehatmd2120]

Another duel links example, I was this close to quitting during fur hire format. Granted I don't know if the top of the ladder was all on fur hire as well or not, because I was being held hostage in gold... By fur hire... But to this day the mere sight of donpa or dyna sends chills down my spine

[@TrevorAllenMD]

Unpopular(?) opinion: rock paper scissor formats where even unfavorable matchups have a 33%+ w/L are peak Yu-Gi-Oh!. Example: Monarch, Kozmo, BA

[@LightshaverConstellation]

I think they tend to be better then people give credit to. Except the one you named I think is the worst rps one I played.

[@shawnjavery]

One of those decks weren't like the others lol. Kozmos only did anything due to floods, the deck had a lot of good options but ba and monarchs just did way too much. Monarchs just removed the ships without triggering them and stopped otks with prime, while ba would just float endlessly against kozmos. I vividly remember a guy uaing F0 to take the opponent's ship and just kept crashing them until there was none left in tbe deck. This was triple terror top triple tourguide bapk, the deci was nuts.

[@RH_54321]

Legit loved the Monarch/Kozmo/BA format. Some of the most fun games 2 and 3 I've had were in that format. Also don't forget Pend was a thing too then. DracoPals was no slouch. Only downside was that you were hard gatekept out of the format if you didn't play any of the meta relevant decks and their variants.

[@JudojugsVtuber]

Best format ive played outside duelist alliance (and the few following formats) ngl. Also was the time my favorite deck (monarchs) was actually playable because ash blossom wasn't inherently forcing every deck in the game to have a higher ceiling and play through multiple disruptions (as a baseline and not a combo deck trait) and also have the consistency not to need draw cards or searchers to still play the game 🙃🙃🙃. The worst part is I don't even like domain monarchs I preferred "yoink two thirds of your extra deck while I +8 off mega zaborg" type of stuff. The real wombo combo extra deck monarch builds were so fun. Maybe if they released pantheism idk like 3-4 years before they did the deck would have actually functioned as a rogue or low tier option instead of being endlessly stuck in jank.

[@LightshaverConstellation]

@@RH_54321 That's why it was pretty awful for me because it was the first format in about 4 years where I didn't consider 99% Rouge viable while in most other rps formats there was enough side decking and main deck anti meta fear that rough was somewhat viable. That and I didn't like any of the rps options. Which was a shame because I was interested in monarch and kozmo, but later card design and playing them more made me not interested in them.

[@tossthegoats4280]

Thanks for helping my remember why I took my break until master duel starting in 2018.

[@FwapoMcGee]

Dire hitting me with MASSIVE nostalgia using the MegaMan Battle Network 6 battle theme as the background music

[@goldengrimlock]

> Shits on PePe > Constantly defends the current hotdog water format of Tear 0, the worst format we've had in years. Also no mention of GOAT, the format of everyone playing the same like 75% of a core? Nah, that shit is boring as sin. Take me back to any format with a good Pendulum deck.

[@StinkyBread96]

Holy shit the Megaman Battle Network 6 Boss Music. Literally one of the greatest GBA OST’s ever. Man I wish they would continue the series, even if they have to retcon it.

[@GeneralNickles]

God, 2018 truly was the absolute worst year for Yu-Gi-Oh. I would much rather put up with eldlich and calamities than have to sit through another match of gouki or danger dark world FTK. And it was ALL firewall's fault. If they had just banned firewall the first time people begged them to do so, then gumblar probably could've been fine for a few more formats. Hell, even summon sorc probably could've stuck around a while longer.

[@wereartmaddness5226]

I love how 2018 is such a hated year for yugioh and that was the year I got back into Yugioh. I have no idea why

[@PrecursorIdeliron]

Dire went fucking ham on the editing for this one! Huge love for the Battle Network Boss Theme for this.

[@lucasemanuel5146]

The Entire MR3: I can't forget the absolute shit show was the pendulum mechanic at it peak, worst mistake ever made by Konami A bunch of decks with mechanics that straight up abuses the "come back with no cost AT ALL" like majespecters tributing for cost to activate spells and performages being destroyed for effec just to be summoned seconds later Summon 5 for free.... Yeah... What a GREAT IDEA.... The entire MR3 its by far the darkest era of ygo

[@lilsunny7399]

Early 5Ds before Edison You were just short of some actual fun decks like Quickdraw, Diva HERO and Blackwing and instead had to compete with dying DAD, Lightsworn and stragglers like Glad beasts from the GX era. All the top decks were expensive and for the time ridiculously powerful. Name me something that could survive Judgment Dragon in 2009, i'll wait.

[@tonylee3624]

Shout outs to Tier Zero Zoo format and True draco format for almost making me quite the game after I got back into it in high school. Even though True Draco would probably be a deck I like thanks to my love of Floowandereeze and Monarchs, but my introduction to them made me absolutely despise them and never pick them up out of sheer spite.

[@khalilli6613]

we've had a lot of jank link era metas simply because konami refused to ban long time probelm link monsters. think of all the bullshit that was going on and i can guarantee that firewall and summon sorceress had something to do with 90% of them... and sometimes verte

[@anabstractworld]

the entire link era was the least fun period of yugioh ever. i got back to the game during duelist allience and was mainly allured by the amount of focus on all the different summoning mechanics.... JUST TO REALIZE THAT THEY BUTCHER ALL OF THAT WITH THE NEW MASTER RULE. Good thing we revised that crap.

[@jeremyadkins9665]

I, sadly, never got to compete in any real formats, in my lifetime; I liked playing the game, but due to factors out of my control, I could not go to any official local tournaments. That being said, the closest my roommate and I came to a format that we just despised was the tail end of GX era, with the advent of The Duelist Genesis. We went to the sneak preview for that set, took part of its tournament... and got slaughtered by people playing the new Synchros and Glad Beasts. Even though my roommate was playing Glads himself, he went through a case worth of packs without luck to get a Heraklinos, and as a result, he ended up getting slaughtered by a more skilled Glad Beast player. To add insult to injury, the opponent kept on calling the Glads cutesy nicknames (like calling Laquari "Rhino-cat" or something like that), completely ignoring his pleas to stop. It got so bad for him, he was broken as a duelist, as a result, he left the event in tears... and, despite him still chugging through the game to today, I don't think he's ever recovered.

[@maryautumn2465]

mbt: "i like the nekroz mirror"

[@CharlesKorwin]

No mention of IoC? Imagine being 10, with a deck cobbled together from starter decks and the random boosters you could convince your parents to buy. You show up to your first ever tournament, and 20 year olds with fixed incomes are all playing this deck that destroys you. 6 rounds of YATA LOCK. Still have flashbacks.

[@Hurricane1990]

This game is not for kids, no mater what the advertising and anime says.

[@mohammadmehaboob7055]

Is it just me or is there megaman BN6 OST in the background?

[@ruikirisame1744]

at the start of the link era, i joined my local tournament once on a whimp with a semi consisted kitbashed deck. my first match was againt a guy that had a breifcase full of cards. i ended up sitting on my ass with he spent 10 minus fucking around with world chalice and link and ended on a U-link board with two firewall dragons. even my next opponent said "dude, you've broken the kid's will to play. "

[@quackersaurus6207]

Amazed that Prank Kids Adventurer format didn't make it in here. Almost every deck from that time consisted 80% the same cards including DPE, Adventurer engine, 15 hand traps and all the other generic main and extra deck staples. Not to mention that the win con of every rogue deck became DPE + a Scythe lock, because that's the only way that they could ever compete. This format might not have been so bad if the price of entry wasn't so ludicrously high - the cost of the adventurer engine was about £500-600 on release and the DPE engine cost around £150, meaning that you've spent around £700 before deciding what deck you're actually playing. But do you know what the worse part was? That the only "budget" alternatives were to play Eldlich stun with 90 floodgates or fucking Floowandereeze

[@shawnjavery]

Tbf you could have played salad. Well after heatsoul came out anyways. Assuming you had accesscode.

[@efrainlagunas]

That last bit really got me. I came back I think around mid- TOSS and universally everyone was happy when the "eternal format" was over. So, to now hear everyone praising that format is... neat, I guess. Idk, it could just be because it got way worse soon after that people just think fondly back to it OR most likely, people realized that the format was great but it lasted far too long and overstayed its welcome at the time.

[@shawnjavery]

Striker orcust was pretty much the spright runick of its time. Deck was pretty fun to play but man the mirror was bullshit. Plus it was the deck to beat for almost 3 months. The last toss ban list was probably the worst of the toss formats. The format got solved more or less immediately, and it was just orcust mirrors for 3 months.

[@peekay120]

I actually played in the Sydney YCS where PePe was legal, playing Mermail, and while a lot of PePe decks made top cut, Kozmo also did quite well, and Mermail did alright too honestly. Yeah, PePe was an absolute snoozefest to play against, making CDI and Nat Beast first turn basically every game, but due to the fact that Breakers of Shadow literally came out the same day as the YCS, the amount of people actually playing PePe was waaaaaay lower than if the set had come out earlier. Gotta say tho, wild that there was no mention of Zoodiac/True Draco format right at the end of master rule 3 / start of master rule 4 era

[@darkcrafter-ht1wc]

Isn't it quite ironic, that no Zoodiac card was even mentioned? They were the OG Link1 spammers/ starters and the only other deck that could compete with it was True Draco... until zoo started to play them too. (Confused Immano noices) The follow-up format was an even better joke, "We intruduce link so ED-spam isn't viable anymore and here's your zoo link" Then after 5-7 (Norden and Emerald are debateable) hits on the banlist zoo disapeared completly. Trydant was unbanned and the decks was niche and the they got 2 new bossmonster and were back to broken... Never a good time with them around (even tho i like them)

[@Nightmare-we8vm]

I stopped playing Yugioh after Firewall came out. I started playing TCG during the slower HAT format. Firewall dragon's release combined with Master Rule 4 nerfing most old deck mechanics just sucked the life out of the game for me.

[@williamfalls]

I really want him to say in that last clip voice "MBT stands for My Balls Tingle!"

[@Oxen1997]

Every format is hell when you're a penguins player...

[@TheGoldenBoot-cz1do]

I actually really enjoyed adamancipator that deck was fun to play, so many pathways to get to your end boards

[@starforce6751]

I started playing seriously 2020 when Virtual World was the best deck, From the short time I played the format I most hate is the one at the begining of this year, Where Phantom Knight was the best deck, If you didnt play Adventure Token, Needlefiber or Phoenix Enforcer with Scythe your deck isnt competitive, If you didnt open atleast 2 Handtraps you lost and even if you open those pray your openent doesnt have extenders or called by the grave.

[@starforce6751]

A pile deck toping is so cool, But in the end Based is such an Unbased deck, Needlefiber Dpe Scythe Adventure.

[@luminous3558]

I love how PK is always the best deck until someone actually touches the cards and finds out its actually the most mid way to abuse a new card.

[@starforce6751]

@@luminous3558 It was first Pk then Based,And it was actually Pk Adventure Dpe Scythe,Real Pk players Summon Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon

[@cephalosjr.1835]

@@luminous3558 With the exception of that one time in 2018 when Rhongo Bongo was Tier 1.

[@ZellDincht1226]

Going to mention how awful 2017 zoo format was. Every single playable deck at the end of the pendulum era was zoodiac+some other archetype that enabled zoo plays. I was so sick of those cards and I already automatically hated tri-zoo just because it had zoo attached to it. 1 card XYZ monsters were a mistake.

[@DrAiPatch]

One-card E deck monsters are always a mistake ..... I can't think of a single one that made the game more fun.

[@mill_ania]

Half expecting someone would post "Master Duel/OCG format in its entirety" unironically, honestly. Also Battle Network OST let's fucking GOOOOOO

[@shipu302]

Master Duel is made a lot worse by the lack of a Bo3 format. Adding that option would single handedly make the game more enjoyable, even with all the random bullshit that is legal.

[@knightofservia]

I should have went into better detail during the thread time, but specifically looping Norden with fusion substitute during tier 0 zoo format was hell and rightfully got norden banned when it should've been axed over a year ago by that point. Absolutely miserable to watch people loop norden 3 times to end on 5 backrow going like +7 and with drident on board and whiptail in hand.

[@haydenz0]

How exactly do you summon Norden more than twice in 1 turn?

[@knightofservia]

@@haydenz0 You keep shuffling it back with either Diagusto Emeral or the other effect of fusion substitute to put a fusion monster back and draw a card. This is also the reason why Emeral was put to 1, because you would shuffle other copies of emeral back during your loops.

[@emilchaos1489]

I have been playing this game since kindergarden (2004) and somehow Secret Slayers format was the one that managed to keep me out of the game for a year. It was such a frustrating format that I hated so much

[@shawnjavery]

They weren't even the good builds of lich or adams at that point either. Like the best build of eldlich people were running were invoked lich, and adamancipator were going auroradon combos with deskbot or jet. Both of the decks are pretty interesting to pilot but their most boring iterations were at their release. Kinda similar with spright and tear tbh.

[@cephalosjr.1835]

@@shawnjavery As I recall, by July 2020, players were already on Synchro Eldlich and non-Auroradon builds of Adamancipator.

[@shawnjavery]

@@cephalosjr.1835 eternity code came out in may, and toon chaos in june. It wasn't a 2 deck format anymore. Etco gave dinos the level 1, mermails mistrial, and accesscode made striker playable and salad kinda playable. Toon chaos gave dragon link chaos space and that was all they needed to hang with the other decks of the format. I did find that format fun for what its worth.

[@Raminator243]

A friend of mine really likes Zoodiac format because she’s a True Draco player, but whenever we’d play that format I’d have a really bad time. I honestly don’t understand why anybody enjoyed it.

[@mo-hunnit9184]

I didnt like zoo for the fact it was the only thing you could play for months and I got boring it wasn’t frustrating

[@maxmaus4402]

It's still so funny to me that none of my friends believed me when I said my favorite archetype (Shiranui) would be too strong for Duel Links, and then it became one of the longest-lasting top decks in DL's history. Now if only it could get something more to help compete in TCG for once Tear gets hit a few more times.

[@Ventus777777]

Dire if you edited this video the battle network theme as the background track deserves a major rare Dire W.

[@WarioMCP]

Missed an opportunity at the end to say “Jumpin’ Jahosephat”

[@arjanzweers6542]

I'm a bit suprised Spring 2016's Kozmo/Monarch/PK Fire/Pendulum format wasn't mentioned. That format was so annoying to play because every single deck floated and if you weren't playing those decks you didn't have the toolbox or the resources to deal with their floating resources

[@H1_R3Z]

The difference between Spring 2016 and the formats people were listing in this video is that all of the decks in 2016 were at least interactive. Ever since early 2018, every format has been filled out by decks specifically designed to either have no room for counterplay, or to get rid of all of the opponent's resources before they can use them (except early TOSS and, oddly enough, the current Ishizu Tear). Getting out resourced to death isn't quite as a unfun as having to wait 15 minutes to not play the game.

[@thebeefjstag]

that's one of my favourites :(

[@Mekmassimochannel]

Kozmo, Monarch, PK Fire, Pendulum, they lived in harmony. But everything changed when the Blue Eyes nation attacked

[@luminous3558]

Every pendulum deck since pepe isn't pepe lite. Every pend deck since pepe is pepe but more. Imagine ending on fucking CDI and some dogwater. Pepe was broken back then because the powerlevel was so much lower that 2 interactions were gamewinning and handtraps weren't much of a threat as ash wasnt even printed.

[@lucasalarcon3230]

There 3 types of pen magician decks combo into full negation boards, control into otk(avian and pre electrumite release) and ftk. The control list we're fun to play and not degenerate in any way. Eithier pen magician toolbox is just to big they can make rank3,4,6 and 7 and synchro plays in adition to link climbing

[@flo75-of9ns]

Zombie synchro with Dad was way more fun than teleDad, and potentially way more explosive

[@user-mq1ng6sj7b]

This video makes me wonder, are there any formats that doesn't make at least 1 person want to rip their hair out? I think the only format I've actually played in that people actually liked was n/r format in master duel. I've heard great things about Edison Goat and dragon ruler format but that's about it in terms of formats that I actually hear good things about. The fact that mystic mine and maxx c were ever cards in any format is just dumb. And while tear sounds fun, playing that deck on anything other than a simulator is genuinely impossible for me because even 30 dollars for an 80 hour RPG is a little too steep of an asking price atm. Paying 100 dollars for a single copy of a single card is just impossible to afford. So I can imagine if a "what were the best formats in yugioh" video is ever made, there will be significantly less unique answers.

[@nicolaubezerra1949]

Master rule 4 takes the cake. The way they tried to exclude casual and new players is unprecedented. Something we shouldn't expect from a company trying to make money. Halq/linkross combo was pretty unfun as well. I think eldlich could be more fun if they had to focus on different traps than the archetype ones. Maybe limit conquistador, haquero and sanguine and ban the rest, this way we would see a different range of traps in eldich decks making it a fun expirience to see in play, kinda like counter faries

[@dejavureal]

Loving the Surge of Power playing in the background, MMBN Legacy Collection hype!

[@waves5249]

The format from May 2020 to December 2020 - which I would disaffectionately call linkross format - is my pick for the worst time to play yugioh. Almost every deck is a 10 minute combo deck that just makes multiple negates, and then later on handrips as well. If you wanted to play control, you were coping with invoked-dogmatika-shaddoll because it was the only non-combo deck that had results, even then it was a tier 2 deck at best. We were reprieved from adamancipators early on, but dragon link and infernoble made almost the exact board so nothing significant really changed after the banning of block. Herald/VFD format was ass as well, but it was a welcomed change after suffering from 9 months of different decks ending on the exact same board

[@DrAiPatch]

Still remember a game where I was playing someone. Who calmed their deck was ojamas only for him to just do link cross stuff........ He even mocked people for scooping to "ojamas"

[@cephalosjr.1835]

They actually didn’t end on the same board. There are important and subtle differences among the various Halq/Kross combo decks of that format that affected their matchups and which ones got into Tier 1.

[@waves5249]

@@cephalosjr.1835 There may be subtle difference between a infernoble and an adamancipator end board but the fact that they end on similar ammount of negates; using similar extra deck and garnets; are able to floodgate the opponent from even trying to break the board; resist handtrap-dense opening; and are able to rebuild efficiently if their board got broken. They all blurred into one blob of a deck that is omnipresent for 9 months, the subtle difference between ending on herald or gearfried is pretty much lost to someone who hates playing against what feels like the exact same deck. I cannot stress enough how much I hate May 2020-December 2020 yugioh

[@cephalosjr.1835]

@@waves5249 Adamancipator didn't have garnets. Only Infernoble Knights did. Infernoble Knights also didn't run floodgates, and only some Adamancipator builds ran any floodgates. Adamancipator endboards had way more interruptions. (Infernoble Knights made 3-5 interruptions; Adamancipator made 6.) Adamancipator was also significantly more able to break boards and kill on the crackback than Infernoble Knights. These differences, although they might not have been apparent to you, were very real and very important.

[@waves5249]

@@cephalosjr.1835 Buster sword equipped to borreload savage is a big factor as to why both their boards are frustrating to break. How do you capitalize on DRNM and droplet when the extra deck is locked? How do you even get to activate DRNM and droplet when you get confi'd for 2? Do you expect to side in backrow hate as well as board breakers against combo decks going 2nd? With a different line, infernoble can also end on VFD with 2 handrips, so buster sword isn't the only floodgate in these decks

[@jdc2944]

The Duel Links format where it was ms judge and light imprisoning mirror was an absolute nightmare as well

[@Sketchisawesome]

D/D/D

[@Bavarian_Barbarian]

Yata ced? I don't think a lot of people said it because a lot of those players probably still aren't playing the game

[@PTAiZTragiC]

My favorite format is an even tie between windup/rabbit/inzektors, and edragon/mermail

[@PrismHeartOfficial]

The editing is noticeably REALLY good in this vid :) just wanted to mention that!

[@ThisAintAStupidName]

All I'm hearing is "We have some funny as hell History of Yugioh episodes ahead of us."

[@KingLeaps]

TOSS is probably my favorite format. It might have lasted longer than it should’ve, but the fact that there were 4-5 decks that had very interesting matchups and counter play with each other, unlike this format. It was also the last stint of truly competitive playability for pendulum, which is an archetype near to my heart because of the Pendulum Evolution set release, which helped me get into regionals.

[@arobnugzo6818]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Dracoverlord/Dracopal with new support topping a little bit? Nothing tier 1, but it has some tops here and there.

[@Benjamin_w02]

@@arobnugzo6818 Dracoslayer topped 16 at ycs dortmund last week and the deck has only recently come out

[@Benjamin_w02]

@@arobnugzo6818 think it’s been making bigger waves over in the OCG

[@KingLeaps]

@@arobnugzo6818 It’s technically playable, but because of how oppressing tearalaments are, and how pendulum has always had fewer and fewer people playing over the years, I’m hesitant until tear comes down a peg

[@arobnugzo6818]

@@KingLeaps while tear is obv the better pick, Pends have a few things going for them. Most tear hate is useless against you (Bystials, Crow, Meister). Dracover thing is new, so many ppl don't know your combo or how to counter it and have bad side cards against it (advantages of not being the deck to beat)and you can make Dweller/Satellar Diamond easily...and you get to flex: "PEND BEST DECK!" after every victory...