Why They Unbanned The Dragon Rulers

After a decade of restriction they've finally started unbanning some of Yu-Gi-Oh's most feared cards in history: the Dragon Rulers!
Follow me on Twitter: / dzeeff
Watch episodes live on Twitch: / dzeeff
Thumbnail made by: @crushc
#YuGiOh #dzeeff

[@Dzeeff]

March 2024 update: Tidal just got unbanned in the OCG! December 2024 update: all of the Dragon Rulers are unlimited in the TCG!

[@SheepOfTheLord1]

With them unlimited now at the december banlist are they ok now? Or do they need more support to get their power back??

[@thewave-qz9lt]

you gotta make a video about the new light and dark dragon rulers now.

[@SheepOfTheLord1]

@@thewave-qz9lt I JUST SAW THAT TOO LMFAOOOOOOOOO DRAGON RULERS BE GETTING THE BREAD.

[@payne9682]

Short answer: They are among the first monsters in this game that had a hard OPT Clause

[@jonathanhoover5938]

The shared hard OPT between the effects is a killer.

[@williamdrum9899]

Is your wait finally over, my friend?

[@omegaXjammur]

Payne, look at what you have done. They had to unban Dragon Rulers just because you kept asking for Volcanic support.

[@karelrindo13]

Hi payne!

[@djinsanity3575]

Oh lord you're still around. The legend still exists. Thanks to you we keep getting weird support

[@saeldir4626]

"A Blue-Eyes draw engine helped with consistency" really is an unorthodox combination of words, that I never thought I'd hear.

[@John_1-1_in_Japanese]

White Stone of Legend+Cards of Consonance in a deck where you use lots of dragon tuners anyways, huge plusses. The Blue-Eyes added could be used with Trade-In, banished to summon a DR, or even both. Then both feed Super Rejuvenation.

[@cobaltjay9862]

@@John_1-1_in_Japanese yeah the concept of the draw engine isn’t wild, just funny because the blue eyes deck is one of the brickiest decks of all time

[@gustolphusadolphus8892]

Last time i was this early, Doug was explaining why the Rulers can never come back.

[@AstralLaVista]

Wow that must've been at least 7 years ago 😅

[@gustolphusadolphus8892]

@@AstralLaVista Closer to 6 right now. Came out back in November of 2017. Does that make me feel any less old? Nope.

[@Dzeeff]

Time flies lmao

[@shapular]

Can't wait for "Why everybody plays Blue-Eyes Chaos Max Dragon".

[@akumaking1]

@@Dzeeffdo you think Red-Eyes DMD is going to have a field day with the Dragon Rulers?

[@OwenLeBlanc-l7h]

To me the dragon rulers are emblematic of one of the biggest issues Yugioh has. That's that the game is driven by power creep. Dragon rulers embodied that on their release and now they have been supplanted by the very thing they did to decks before them.

[@ClarkNewman608]

power creep is good for the game. the only successful tcgs that haven't entirely succumbed to power creep are the ones with rotating formats, and rotation has been getting increasingly unpopular with time.

[@strangevol5264]

Plus, even with powercreep, the decks that came before it can still use the tools of powercreep to compete. Just takes creativity.

[@tyleradams7615]

Power creep is fine. Yugioh does such a bad job of it that they have to ban half the meta within 9 months to a year, making most of their strong releases obsolete. It’s become really bad the last 2 years

[@TrianglePants]

Powercreep is NOT good for the game. It is a tool for keeping you hooked. Games and shows CAN have long lifespans without it. It HAS happened.

[@dranide]

It hasn’t happened though.

[@simpltonn6162]

The craziest part about the tier 0 unbans in master duel is that you'll see Performapals & Zoos in ranked from time to time but you won't even find people in casual playing D Rulers.

[@Petsinwinter2]

Tbf, that's 12 URs

[@beegyoshi1685]

the deck is so expensive i would love to make them but MD already eats all my stuff with the current tier 0 release that is snake eyes

[@bmwjourdandunngoddess6024]

Performapals are so op😭 But I LOVE IT!

[@muhammadsyafiq8882]

Ur tax I can play the zoo tax with n/rs + zeus

[@GroundBack]

Your original dragon ruler video was one of the first videos I saw when first getting into yugioh. It was the first video that taught me how the ban list works. Crazy how much things have changed since then

[@CalypsoTheWanderingStar]

Fr tho, time flies!

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

Power creep is quite a cruel mistress.

[@be9240]

Did you finally see banlists as a way for them just to make money? They know if cards will be op or not. The company let's super strong cards destory things for awhile so everyone wants to buy the deck. PRETENT to nerf them, then while the prices drop they kill it completely. Giving them all the profit of the new teir 0 or 1 decks, and the profit of all those decks needing the next best thing.

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

@@be9240 They haven't reprinted these cards in years and Konami doesn't partake in direct card sales unless the product is guaranteed cards.

[@pptemplar5840]

TLDR; getting a big idiot on the field used to be more significant, now they are just worse Kashtira

[@AvidHerpetologist]

Actually, theyre kinda disgusting WITH Kashtira... theyre both level 7 archetypes that utilize the 4 elemental types, the two play together kind of obscenely well. If the DRs did ever come back in the tcg, that would be my wager at how they came back into neta relevance. Just be glad Red Rose Dragon is at 1 in the tcg lol dropping 3 level 10 synchros on turn 1 is frighteningly easy

[@randumo24]

@@AvidHerpetologist See, the thing is like was said in the video that they are unlimited in Master Duel and had Kashtira to work with. Not to mention, there is the fact that Master Duel has cards like Galaxy Tomahawk that prolifirate a level 7 turbo strategy that is banned in the TCG. Basically, if a level 7 strat isn't going to work in Master Duel, it isn't going to work in the TCG where there are less cards available.

[@AristasTheMonsterHunter]

I got put against a 60 cards Bystial Ruler Dragunity Rose Armed Dragon deck a couple of weeks ago, dude basically did everything. He ate 4 interruptions and a flodgate and still cooked. That's not bad, except for the fact that the deck had basicaly 50 URs.

[@beegyoshi1685]

@@randumo24 fenrir and wraithsoth at 1 is making kashtira dogwater in master duel i dont think it would be exactly the same in tcg

[@randumo24]

@@beegyoshi1685 You're forgetting that Kashtira was at a high level of cards when the Dragon Rulers got unlimited in Master Duel. It was only the field spell that was limited at the time. Basically, it's just not that good of a strategy. The best level 7 plays are even more hit in the TCG with Ariseheart being banned. There's just no good payoff.

[@HeartBeatCollide]

Tidal is definitely going to be right at home in ghoti especially as it’s an easy way to dump monsters for effects and enables the effects on banish

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

I thought that too but i cant afford the ur craft to test it.

[@deepseadarew6012]

You cannot dump and banish on the same turn, so Tidal ends up being no better than Foolish Burial or a much worse Snopios, neither of which is needed more of in Ghoti. It finds better use cases in Tearlaments-Icejades (dump Tear), or Atlanteans-Sprights-Nimbles (dump Nimble Angler). Though, Tidal can kinda work in a Ghoti Grass deck, by banishing milled Ghoti cards, similar to what Fairy Tail Snow already does in Grass Ghoti decks.

[@SheruMuko]

Okay hear me out…. Ghoti Icejade with a little bit of SADSKC mixed in.

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

stop the madman hes cooking to hard! ... @@SheruMuko

[@aboogala4678]

​@@SheruMukoWe really are adding every seasoning possibile to the fish, aren't we

[@kabutoclone2]

Ive been saying for a few years now that they can come back and they would do nothing to the level of modern powercreep. But as always yugioh players lack even the most basic critical thinking skills so they mocked me for it. Same thing happened with Thousand-eyes Restrict, I said for years that that thing would do nothing and had countless discussions with morons saying how it could never come back, then it was unbanned and lo and behold, it did jack shit just as I predicted.

[@Dekross]

Nah many people agreed that they would be fine if unbanned

[@beepbeeplettuce5890]

Yes yes youre very smart, shut up

[@mokukiridashi]

8:12 vernusylph doesn't lock you into only summoning earths, it locks you into only being able to activate earth monster effects

[@lazavphenax4541]

Small correction, the vernusylphs lock you into only earth monster *EFFECTS* for the rest of the turn. You can summon a baronne, it's just not able to be activated. A funny interaction where this matters is ruinforce and Carnot the Eternal machine being able to special summon under the vernusylph lock, but, for example, Carnot's mandatory effect to shuffle when it goes to grave cannot activate. Even so, this is a great video, thanks Doug

[@adamushu]

There is one small thing that redox has over the sylphs, and that is that the 3 best vernusylph cards are ashable, the search, the send, and the draw. Cant ash redox.

[@xatuyou8045]

Blaster does see play in the trident dragion archetype since it's a deck that wants to go 2nd anyway and having a big monster can really help with otks. Said deck is doing pretty well in the ocg since it doesn't lose to nibiru because it summons during the battle phase.

[@thepronoob4039]

Tenpai is good because they can run a lot of awkward floodgates going first that no other Decks can run in Kai Col and Heat Wave and going second it can do the funny Adaman thing of activating infinite effects to bait out all the interactions before doing up to 30k damage. It's the best going second deck of all time probably.

[@alotan5206]

Also, dont forget that you can banish it with gold sarcophagus to search a fire dragon, and all the monsters in the archetype are that.

[@arisen456]

I made a few tenpai dragon decks and i run one also with tempest so i use both as material to summon the xyz blaze dragon

[@thepronoob4039]

@@arisen456 blaster is probably better with Tenpai because they're all fire

[@arisen456]

@@thepronoob4039 yea i mean i use both blaster and tempest in one deck to summon xyz blaze. Theres many ways to search these 2.

[@nsiderultimaseth]

Tidal has a shot at being played in Water pile imo. It seems like the best ruler by a solid margin.

[@chaosinorder9685]

I personally would say that now that tidal is un banned if they put all the big dragon rulers to two it would produce their power enough to where they aren’t OP like in 2013 but they’re not useless. But I’d like to see red eyes try to take advantage of these dragon rulers Cuz I bet when you correctly, red eyes could actually use the Dragon Rulers to set up where they have two more red eyes flare, metal dragons and burn the opponent for 1000 points every time they play a card effect

[@QuestLogFaker]

I left a comment a few videos back asking for more of this type of content, as a very, very long time viewer this is the type of stuff that I love from you, and I appreciate how much work it takes to make. Thank you! I can't wait to watch.

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

It really makes me wonder if they all could have come back sooner than they did. Then again, a good amount of banned cards could come off tomorrow and be fine. Best of one is the exception of course.

[@nyanbrox5418]

Yeah, without side decking, some cards are just not ok

[@Sta_cotto]

I play a copy of Tidal in my MD Icejade deck, sometimes it's useful for putting some extra damage on the board, buffing anything equipped with Aegirocassis, or triggering Chengying. Situational but I like having it around.

[@CaptinSpyke]

I play 3 tidal in my Icejade-Tearlament hybrid deck and run that rank 7 quick effect pop to mak with him and Tearkash, its been a great addition to the deck imo

[@calamelli209]

I experimented with Tidal in my Marincess deck for a bit when it was first brought back at 1, but it didn't seem useful enough to make me want to use precious UR materials crafting 2 more.

[@Curelax]

I love the Rulers on MD and keep experimenting with them, with Ok~ success I've gone through Kash-Rulers, Dragunity, Bystials (Lubellion/Saronir help a lot) and a weird obsession with speedroid splashes via Rubberband shooter The sum of what I have learned is this: They are Rogue at best. Kashtira can carry them if you really want, but I personally dropped them by the time I got to Diamond brackets on Ranked. However,Uninterrupted, any 2 level 7s, Kashtira or otherwise, makes (in this exact sequence): Galaxy Tomahawk, which turns into Speedroid Rubberband Shooter, a speedroid extender in hand, World Gears of Theurlogical Demiurgy, Auroadon, and then Borreload Savage Dragon with 3 counters. Without a normal summon, which is what the speedroid follow up is for. This usually makes a Barrone but could be almost any synchro since you have a mecha phantom beast token floating from the O-lion summoned with Auraodon The Kashtira monsters are really cool because Between Scareclaw, Unicorn, Ogre/Tearlament and Riseheart, opening Fenrir+ a Baby Dragon in hand is full combo I wasn't playing YGO at the time of their original glory days so this has been my first proper chance to push their limits

[@chrisheuser6392]

I've been using earth dragon ruler with Maxx c, punk, byatial, and roxrose dragon, Red Rose dragon. I can usually first turn byatial Dis peter, adamancipater and a third 10 (pick baronne or cheng)

[@Aaronrules380]

I think a big issue is that they’re mostly aiding the grind game of a deck like d-link but that’s a deck that kind of aims to win immediately so the grind game is less important. If they were like Block Dragon and could revive themselves as many times as you want as long as you have stuff to banish in your grave they’d probably be playable in those decks. Even just letting them use multiple of their abilities in the same turn would make them massively better even if you could use each once each

[@TylerMcVeigh1]

Honestly, the rulers have no home in D-Link outside of specficially Dragunity builds. The deck could load up the grave with a bunch of Dragons to banish, but they just aren't worth playing.

[@chillwave8809]

I use the water dragon ruler in my ghoti deck, it synergies very well with them. One day all of the dragon rulers will find a home.

[@ShadowG72]

Dragon Ruler format is my all time favorite format; it was quite diverse and I had several decks besides Elemental Dragons that could win duels. What I really like about the deck was how it could run so effectively and consistently w/o the use of a chaos engine, as there were hardly any Light or Dark monsters in it

[@undeadinside3571]

Except in the blue-eyes variant, which was also fun and kinda strong at the time

[@ShadowG72]

@@undeadinside3571 BRICK EYYYES SCOOP DRAGON

[@StickyyFingaz]

Its a good thing Doug posted that video on how to beat dragon rulers if they ever threaten the meta. (flip up mind drain, prohibition call all s/t removal AND psi-blocker)

[@Frogleeoh]

You just gotta replace "Heavy Storm" with "Harpie's Feather Duster"

[@Alx501]

Funnily enough I saw a Dragon Ruler for the first time in a topping deck this week. In the Road of the King OCG meta breakdown they had a Tenpai Dragon deck main decking Blaster, we’ll see if that becomes any sort of pattern

[@RealWarDemon]

The Rulers ruled when there was no Ash and Super Rejuvenation kept the hand full of cards.

[@JJSquirtle]

If super rejuv was back to 3, I'm fairly confident dragon rulers would be playable with a strategy of playing like 18 handtraps to back up your rank 7s

[@DuckCeci]

@rtle Super rejuvenation has been back at 3 for years

[@JJSquirtle]

@@DuckCeci in the tcg ye, I haven't even seen it as a craftable in master duel last I checked. Need I state the differences between not only the ruler limitations in those formats, but the formats themselves?

[@John_1-1_in_Japanese]

Ash Blossom is really brutal against the baby rulers... Also, you can add Justicia by banishing Tidal for a synchro 9 & setup Wolfrayet or even Shenshen; she's my new Flamvell Guard c:

[@Johnmugabe2]

It happened. They unbanned all the dragon rulers in the TCG

[@aldinlewis5579]

I’ve been playing them with armed dragons as a tomahawk turbo deck and they’re ok. They can combo off, but only about as well as any other deck. They’ve got no 1 card combos and you’re super reliant on the armed dragons if you want to play through interaction. A deck that I’d gladly take to locals if they ever get put back to 3, but unless someone has the secret sauce I’m not expecting them to win any big events soon.

[@autofire55555]

I'm playing Dragunity/Dragonmaids, and I'd love messing around with these, particularly because I tend to end up with a lot of monsters in my graveyard. Not that it's a great deck by any stretch, but it's fun to play lol

[@broomhatter3877]

Tidal is really good in Ghoti both the foolish burial and its ability to banish tuners from grave really help the deck out with consistency and give it a stronger grind game plus water decks have a few really strong link 2 monsters that you can make with Tidal. Only downside is there isn't any level 9 synchros that fit the strategy and Ghoti isn't the strongest archetype.

[@JackHugeman]

Light and Darkness rulers just got announced!

[@ChileanBoy93]

I've been running Tempest in my Dragunity deck ever since it got unbanned. It's such a fun card with a lot of versatility in that deck specifically. Banish it with Gold Sarc, send it with a Dragunity Tuner for a search, etc.

[@Omega_1306]

I would like to see a light and dark dragon ruler support synergizing with chaos strategies

[@kylefreeburg9353]

That was basically chaos ruler. Sad to see him go

[@Omega_1306]

@@kylefreeburg9353 well with support like this that would mean a new revival I don't it would win tournaments but it would be cool

[@SheruMuko]

@@kylefreeburg9353 I was late to the punch I guess

[@chrisheuser6392]

I had a royal finish chaos ruler 😭💔 my favorite card for miles. It didn't matter where he went. I could always resummon that 8 dark dragon

[@SuperDarwinFAN]

Super crazy to think the dragon rulers aren't strong enough anymore. I remember when I first picked up Yu-Gi-Oh a couple years ago, and those cards were made known to me to be just as, if not more, renowned as 'the forbidden dragons' than Ice Barrier Extra deck. Crazy that neither really hold up anymore.

[@ZhouTai08]

I wanted to use Tempest and some Armed Dragons to pad out my DLink deck once MD changed the ban list. I ended up replacing them with more Rokkets instead and I’m not even playing the deck anymore right now

[@ct1296]

In 2013, you could summon 2 rulers and go Dracosack pass - the OG FTK. In 2024, you can summon 2 rulers and go Seals pass - the modern FTK. Some things never change.

[@nyanbrox5418]

You have a deck that can't play through seals? I'm confused

[@ct1296]

@@nyanbrox5418 its an old meme. There was a time when combo decks were super fragile and couldn’t play through handtraps, but Dlink could always go for their backup plan of seals pass - plenty of decks could play through it, but when it ended up being enough to win the game, everyone would get gassed up and jokingly declare that seals pass was an ftk.

[@hermitxIII]

@@nyanbrox5418 You think it's a joke until I summon amorphage goliath on your turn after bouncing your normal summon.

[@nyanbrox5418]

@@hermitxIII you realise amorphage goliath doesn't even do anything against my blue eyes white dragon and raigeki combo If your board can't even beat a deck from 25 years ago before tribute summoning was introduced, it's probably not great

[@SheruMuko]

@@nyanbrox5418 Until you realize that they have hand traps

[@cairill]

I feel like a midrange dragon link deck could just use rulers as beaters/material that come back every turn.

[@waylander9265]

I think it’s also worth pointing out that since the Dragon Rulers ban we haven’t gotten too many new generic rank 7 XYZ monsters. If going first what do you use these monsters to make? Dracossack and pass isn’t going to cut it in the modern game. Dragon Rulers excelled as Rank 7 engine but the only major addition to Rank 7 I can think of is AriseHeart and if that’s your goal you’re probably going to play Kashtira instead.

[@hultraspitfire2151]

I am currently playing dragon ruler dragunity armed dragon in master duel and the deck is pretty fun, the armed dragons really help with advantage generation, as pile can go neutral and cycle the deck, dragunity gives some pretty sick one card promethean princess set up if you can get blaster into rotation or just synchro plays in general and the baby rulers are really cool one offs to get to your rank 7 set ups. It is also a thomahawk deck that doesn't die to one interaction which is always nice. But yeah they are showing their age and are even more mediocre in elemental strategies than as a deck(except for gold sarc duties as one offs)

[@SheruMuko]

Please post the deck list and send it to me! I am a huge fan of all three of those archetypes.

[@RakaTwo13]

Tidal would be kinda nice in Ghoti. No good water targets is rough, but technically you could use it to grab the big dragonmaid as a way to shuffle back a card in GY.

[@KyanbuXM]

I occasionally see dragon ruler decks on ladder in MD though mainly in the lower teirs. Personally have been using them in a branded dragonlink pile with success as a go second deck.

[@dudu_gods]

judeu found a home for tidal in tearlaments as a way to turbo tomahawk and make curious in Master Duel

[@lancerguy3667]

When the new Ice Barrier monsters hit MD, I plan to test Tidal out in there, though even in that situation, where the archetype likes a level 7 body andvery much has a monster they want to get in the GY, I'm not sure he'll make the cut.

[@argentfang]

I run a 1 of in my MD Ice Barrier list. Can be discarded with Ran Aegirine, Revealer, and can be tutored out with the Ice Barrier trap, then can come out to play with great synergy with Chengying.

[@lancerguy3667]

@@argentfang True, but Mirror Magic and Georgious are going to fill those rolls better once we get them, and main deck space will be at an all-time premium, especially once Lancea makes it viable to also run one-off copies of cards like Warlock and Raiho

[@argentfang]

@@lancerguy3667 They certainly will, but for right now, it gives me a nice little toy in MD to play with.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

Dragon rulers story: we're back!

[@tobiasbayer4866]

2:56 This is what annoys me the most about "modern" Yugioh. If it isnt a combo starter or a combo extender its basically useless. Even the big boss monsters, the ones that you are supposes to end your combos on, usually arent defined by how strong they are, but rather how easy they are to access. Even though the game is more expansive than ever and there is a lot more going on, the game itself feels weirdly less creative. I have never been that active in the actual game itself, but I always liked following the top strategies and how they developed. But when 99% of it is just "well this deck generates even MORE card advantage than the other one" it just starts to feel bland. It doesnt really matter if there are dozens of decks/"strategies" that are technically different, ultimately it always seems to boil down to: build advantage -> set up negates -> play through opponents negates -> win Obviously on the top level ther will always be less variety as people try to get closer to the current best winning strategy, but even rogue decks, heck even modern kitchen table decks, all seem to play the same way. Idk maybe im just becoming a grumpy old man lol. Sorry for ranting.

[@esteban8471]

The recent format has been noticeably less negate heavy than others, but I do agree that meta strategies are starting to be more repetitive and part of that is due to how generic powerful Extra Deck monsters are becoming. Baronne de Fleur and S.P Little Knight are good. Really good. And they're also very generic and easy to summon if you build your decks with monsters like them in mind.

[@Xenonfuji]

The format has not been negate heavy since shs was meta for 2 weeks. And before that, since before pote released

[@skellingtron817]

i think blaster could have a home in the tenpai dragon deck, we just need to find a consistent way to banish it

[@orangedino6398]

Sometimes I run Tempest in Harpie's for the Rank 7 engine, and occasionally use the search to dump a Harpie to combo with Hysteric Sign and use 2 of the revived Harpie's to make Queen Dragun Djinn to bring back Tempest for potentially 2 rank 7 plays if I have a Channeler.

[@shaynehughes6645]

As someone who bought a Tidal booster box from my local target and never got to use it, it getting unbanned will be something special. Like opening $20 whisky from ten years ago that might've tasted better at the time but it definitely has something new about it.

[@Celestia282]

I always knew there'd be a day when the Dragon Rulers were powercrept, but it's still so weird to see.

[@Order-Sol]

You know, it's like "Captain Planet" and the "Avatar: The Last Air Binder". They all need four of the elementals like earth, water, fire, and air. They don't really need the light or dark.

[@pyrotempestwing]

I would argue Heart, as an element, leans LIGHT. And the one time Captain Planet was summoned without Heart, he was pretty much useless.

[@Flygoniaks]

[3:45] Speaking of elemental Dragon decks... in Master Duel, I've been playing a lot around with a Dragonmaid deck with the Dragon Rulers as well, supplemented by handtraps of the 4 elemental attributes, and you know what? The two Archetypes actually synergize in a way that's pretty fun! The Dragon Rulers can use my handtraps as well as spare Dragonmaids to summon themselves, then be used as the level 5+ dragon for Sheou, or even for some Rank 7 Xyz plays. It's by no means a meta deck, but it's been a fantastic deck for taking care of daily missions.

[@abh.]

The moment i see Tidal + Water Enchantress both at 3 im gonna lose it

[@ariavachier-lagravech.6910]

The most fun I've had with Rulers is with the Maids + Bystial because Dragonmaid have all the elements that Dragon Rulers needed. Note I said fun, not exactly meta but just fun considering they are Rulers and definitely need servants.

[@capteehee]

Been toying with a more pure version of volcanics recently and blaster is an AMAZING small world bridge in that deck. It can turn any volcanic name into any other volcanic name (great for swapping a shell with a trooper for example) and also synergizes super well with the rest of the deck. Blaster's summon can speed up your burn wincon by increasing the amount of banished pyros, and it's pop is not only a great to cycle a rimfire or a shell, but it also helps with spell/trap removal, which the deck has very little access to outside of blaster.

[@DM-Oz]

They should make dragon rulers an archetype, they be so iconic.

[@brakromlord5197]

They might actually be doing that, we’re getting an xyz monster for them

[@undeadinside3571]

We are?! I gotta look this up. I really hope they do get a full archetype

[@DouglasKing4]

Since blsster became unbanned, I've found it useful in my red eyes deck versing mates at home. Its a level 7 for the rank, the strategy requires dumping black metal repeatedly, so no shortage of dragons, and in the grind, its a solid body off a top deck. Its banish cost brings down the dark count in grave for dark armed dragon to be more summonable late game. I understand red eyes still isnt a good deck (lol), but i like it.

[@johngzone7698]

i feel like redox has potential for a gadget deck, since it can be used as discard father or extender, worse case its just a body and gadget fill up the grave with earth monster easily, but you could argue that machina works better

[@BigBlueandWhite]

02:54 "So why they are back now?" - Because it's dragon's year!

[@QEDmirage]

Tidal sees some use in the Icejade Tearlament deck on Master Duel because once milled, it can be pulled back alongside Tearkash to make a rank 7. Even there, yes even IN TEARLAMENT the foolish burial effect is often not worth using, because Ash Blossom will punish you so hard for playing it. But the Icejades have a number of cards that can discard a water monster, so you can use Tidal as discard fodder for them, as well as having a payoff for milling him with a tearlament.

[@MiyaoMeow588]

For Dragon Rulers to potentially see any play, you would need to release some cards from the banlist. Cards that enabled them and were enabled by them. Super Rejuv, Pre-Errata Future Fusion, Sixth Sense. Except...other decks could use those too, and much more effectively. Imagine if Tear had Sixth Sense. The game would be over.

[@ct1296]

Super Rejuv has been at 3 for 4 years now. If you give them pre-errata future fusion, people would use it to send dragons - but not rulers. Absorouter, Destrudo, Seyfert, a target for Seyfert (Levi/Lubellion) and your sackiest Pisty target (iirc there’s a main deck level 4 that can buster lock). Sixth Sense wouldn’t solve the decks issues - getting more bodies into the GY in a deck that already fills its grave but can’t do enough with it over the course of a single turn isn’t going to make ‘em playable. It’s sad - I love the rulers - but their days are done, and no amount of war crimes from the banlist team will change that.

[@aquasis995]

Dark Matter Dragon is perfectly fine tbh

[@MiyaoMeow588]

​@ct1296 I forgot Super Rejuv was at 3. Ironically, I suspect that it's because no other deck could utilize it as efficiently. Even Dragon Link's usual combo discards 2, maybe 3 cards at most over the course of its turn

[@freaki0734]

It's because you can't really afford to play the amount of handtraps required to make draws in the end phase worth it at the same time. It might be somewhat close to playable in a dragunity deck but many cards are just that close to playable

[@Chronoic]

Waiting for Imperial order and Skill drain to be unbanned and move to 3, to see if they have been power creep out yet too.

[@SheruMuko]

If anything power creep made them more toxic

[@DigiDude22]

The Lightsworns had a really good engine with the Rulers as well back in the day. The one I had was a Magical Merchant Turbo variant with triple JD, triple Eclipse, it even used the bad LS dragon, just to have enough Dragons in the deck.

[@foofaloop]

id imagine a lot of cards that help them (dark matter dragon, snow, galaxy tomahawk etc) being banned doesnt help + idk if there are any really good rank 7 monsters that have been added to really give them the upgrade they would need to be relevant?

[@omegaXjammur]

Imagine Konami play testing Dragon Rulers every year just to see if they slowed down

[@Lemon-x-]

I play tidal in marincess, it has a couple of neat interactions. first foolishing any of your marincess cards to then add back to hand later in the combo is pretty good. Having an extra body to special can come up from time to time and the fact that it's another way to banish some marincess cards for bubble reef to gain extra attack or special back to field can also come up in niche situations. I feel like tidal and tempest are the most playable rulers, tidal in marincess and tempest in armed dragon thunder and in dragunity. However there are other options for marincess and dragunity so it's not like they're auto includes, they're just different tech choices.

[@TKKitty.]

tidal slots into icejade and tear very well feels great in MD

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

It's also worth noting that the Rank 7 Toolbox has really fallen behind. Dracossack and Big Eye were majour threats back in their hey day but are now outclassed by much better cards. We haven't gotten any many good Rank 7s since. Galaxy Tomahawk was good for spawning tokens to help with Links. Absolute Dragon's floating in Vortex Dragon saw some play in Pendulum decks. Kashtira was the meta exception but I'd argue that was because of the entire deck and not just Arise Heart or 9 zone locks. Compare this to how amazing the Rank 8 toolbox had gotten over the years with multiple options for negation, big damage outputs, floodgates, etc. All the other Xyz Ranks have gotten more options over the years but Rank 7 has very little.

[@blazingrune8535]

I was actually very interested in building one when I heard about it a while ago, and came up with Rose Dragon Ruler, where the goal is simply to use Rose Dragons with Dragon Rulers to make Synchro 10, and build with exactly 2 Level 10 Synchro monsters (Dis Pater and Baronne). Dis Pater synergized very well because the Rose Dragons are DARK, so Dis Pater can get those banished monster to field, and make Sphere pass. Is it meta relevant? Probably not, but it's good enough on the realm of being casually playable AND keeping the spirit of Dragon Ruler at the same time About Tidal, I actually have a speculation that Tidal was still banned because they were waiting to release the Atlantean SD R

[@YukiFubuki.]

been using tidal in a water pile deck with icejade, tearlaments and a small deep sea diva package with dragoons and its surprisingly explosive at times since you can foolish a tear for the fusions which the icejades can function as materials for but they themselves gives me access to sync lvl 10 synchro, the discards from either icejade ran aegirine or tidal can trigger dragoons and deep sea prima donna can even summon reinoheart from deck to get the tears going as a secondary accesspoint too if not an aegirine to get her search going or even barrier statue of torrents helps that tearkash can mill the opponent's deck to immediately turn on icejade manifestation turn 1 and with all the lvl 7s running around i actually got access to ariseheart without even having to do anything kash related and i even got access to astraloud too by throwing in visas and at 1 point i played around with lappis dragon to sync with kitkalos for another lvl 10 synchro

[@GiaIsTheBest]

Back in the day I loved to slap on one of each of Tempest and Redox in my Synchron deck. Spore and Quickdraw Synchron for Tempest targets and Dandylion, GUB, Quillbolt Hedgehog for Redox targets. Tempest was the only way to search out Debris Dragon. Both the Rulers would make for easy lv8 Synchro plays. Man that was fun...

[@Zobi_YT]

Historically I think it would've been worth mentioning Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon because I whole heartedly believe he's the soul reason they decided to just outright ban the Dragon Rulers in the first place. They where actually sitting rather comfortably at 1 until that guy hit the scene and let you send 3 of them all at once straight from the deck to the graveyard causing another tier 0 format involving them to erupt in the OCG. It was the main reason people where even running the mythic dragon engine to put together a rank 8 in the first place. People where so hyped for Dark Matter Dragon Rulers to hit the tcg that they made deck profiles on his arrival only for the Rulers to immediately get banned a week after. Dark Matter Dragon did end up getting banned later and has stayed banned in both formats leading to long term discussion as to if the rulers could come back. Well just like Gladiator Beast Bestiari and Elemental Hero Stratos we had to wait an eternity for Konami to make a move.

[@TheMapleTurtle]

I've had a lot of fun playing Wind Dragons. The Armed Dragon support, along with Dragunity and Tempest can give you some pretty great access to Rank 7 and Rank 10 plays............The problem is there are aren't very many good Rank 7 and Rank 10s. We are getting a Dragon rank 7 in the future that I remember being pretty good though.

[@adhamwashere5320]

Now imagine if there ends up being Dragon Ruler support to make them more useful.

[@Xijor]

And now Poplar exists.

[@jotinhafilho5920]

They need to retrain the baby rulers and make them all lv1 and lv3 turners(cause lv 8 and 10 synchros are the better ones) and a similar hand effect that also use monster from the field, also, give the babies effects to summon themselves if they are banished along side and extra exclusive effect for them individually.

[@KyanbuXM]

They might do that, or focus on Xyz stuff going by the new Xyz Dragon Ruler, Blaze.

[@jotinhafilho5920]

@@KyanbuXM Honestly, Rulers may need both. And that xyz was ass.

[@SheruMuko]

@@jotinhafilho5920 You do not know how to use the thing right then. It is actually useful as a toolbox card.

[@Ragnarok540]

Vernusylphs lock you into EARTH monster effects, not summons, this is why they were still useful in Adamancipator in Master Duel... Before better dragon ruler (Block Dragon) was legal. Without that restriction they could have been a meta deck.

[@majesticgothitelle1802]

It's seems like they preparing a dragon ruler archetype

[@wesgannon4621]

The only deck I really had success running a ruler in was a horrible Kashtira Infernoble (pre isolde ban) list. Fenrir being able to add a Riseheart that you can pitch to activate Blaster made him a pretty flexible out to floodgates. The card added by Isolde can't be summoned or activate its effects, but that's ok, if it's a fire, it can still be fodder for Blaster. Plus him being a 7 means that with a lv1 tuner, it's really easy to ladder up from Accel Sychro Stardust Dragon to Charles. Not really amazing, but it was something.

[@Xenonfuji]

Vernusylphs don't lock you out of summoning non earths. They lock you out of non earth effects.

[@thetitsarefree]

That Dragon Ruler anime gonna go crazy 🔥🔥🔥

[@goblinslayer1115]

Only one ruler remains to comeback

[@SephG616]

“People realized the rulers Fcking suck”

[@TheTrueiceking]

I think if redox and block dragon were both legal at the same time there might be something there for adamancipators

[@napalmelderlich]

Invoked Dragon Rulers, their different elements help with being able to summon the Invoked monsters. It’s a simple straightforward strategy and it won’t be winning you any tournaments but it sure is fun

[@haydenbennett3547]

3 Tempest does wonders in Dragonmaid. Just saying. Youre playing 3 Parlor and 1 Lopar and with Gold Sarcophagus and Trishula Dragon of Icy Imprisonment you have a few banish outlets to add a wind dragon. And in formats that are heavy with lights and dark, Koaki meiru drago is a great search target to shut down those summons.

[@SpikeVein]

So it's time for dragon rulers to get new support I'm hearing. Maybe dragon rulers of light and dark. Maybe some funny teenage dragons for mid forms between baby and adult.

[@HapsterHap]

I've been playing the Dragon Rulers in my Kashtira deck, mostly for fun because it's always funny when they go off. Hand Traps + Heatsoul line gets you almost every attribute in the GY to extend with these guys and banishing your Kashtira monsters makes them easy to reborn with Prep. Won the last 6 locals tournaments I've gone to with them, but that's really more thanks to Kashtira + 18 hand traps and shifter. Still.

[@esrohm6460]

deffenitly one of the most iconic decks of all time. rulers are pretty much equivalent to teralament doing something way ahead of their time with cards giving far more advantage than any other card in the game did at that time

[@espressivsymbols3220]

you could tech tidal in tearlaments

[@kipihamazaki9207]

i only like tidal because its great with ghoti the banish effect is amazing

[@WoodsRunner]

I find that tempest works well enough in some wind decks like harpie or speedroid. It’s fairly easy to summon, especially since you often discard it in those decks, and they load the grave east. Then, even as a fallback plan, it as a level 7 plus a level 3 tuner like car turbo makes baronne. Also, in both decks I like to play the harpies pet dragon retrain, which happens to be a wind dragon.

[@yusheitslv100]

Tidal pitch reino dump miller or tear Fusion name sounds pretty good, but that's it.

[@ImEricBrandt]

Nemesis is what’s I’ve been playing them on on master duel

[@ZeeAurami]

I used a couple rulers in my D-link deck before ruler got banned. If they got milled they made for nice bodies and since I used a red eyes variant they helped me get out flare metal dragon for an end board of borrel end and 2 flare metals dealing 1k burn, all immune to destruction.

[@39Lords]

Tempest in Dragunity is just value. 1 slot, double search and special summon. Good stuff.

[@Petsinwinter2]

We'll see what happens if Swap Frog, Ronintoadin, and Tidal are ever at 3 in the same format

[@Petsinwinter2]

Or Water Enchantress and Tidal, for that matter

[@maxcine9185]

Remember True Kings? I will always see them as false versions of the Dragon Rulers. Even the 2 card cost of them is very similar

[@MansMan42069]

Plus them being Wyrms, basically Dragon 2.0

[@chrisshorten4406]

I have Blaster in my Evol/Jurrac deck, but I think I've only used him a couple times.

[@vitaming582]

I never saw these guys used for their real effects when they were on the board. They were always some sort of tribute fuel for something else, and with there's more things they can be used to summon since we have link monsters now.

[@CobaltSanderson]

I’ve been playing Redox in Deskbot Vernusylph and its great as a 4th Venusylph and a Small World Bridge. But I cannot wait to get Tidal back for Ursarctic, since Ursarctic already plays Dragoons and Neptabyss, and desperately needs good Level 7+ monsters to discard.

[@SkyRimeheart]

I used to be so scared of these 10 years ago. Great video!