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by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Battle Fader is a monster that’s been around since the days of Absolute Powerforce. It was a monster that was still being played a great deal when I was still playing competitive Yu-Gi-Oh. Since then, Battle Fader has been reprinted a great many times, including in ultra rare and secret rare! Even with so many reprints, the foil versions of Battle Fader are still sought after enough to keep their price from falling too low.
While Battle Fader hasn’t seen consistent competitive play since 2016, it does see the occasional play in Domain Monarch and even Cubic decks. Of course, it still sees play in local tournaments, as well, as a card that can play many different roles. How does Battle Fader work? Here’s what Battle Fader does, using the latest errata: When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then end the Battle Phase. If Summoned this way, banish it when it leaves the field. Not only does Battle Fader negate the attack, but it ends the battle phase altogether. It also doesn’t target, so it gets around monsters that can’t be targeted with abilities or effects of cards. Unfortunately, if it leaves the battlefield in any way after being summoned this way, such as effects that would return to hand, it gets banished. This is to prevent players from simply recycling Battle Fader to continuously negate attack after attack. However, one of the coolest things you can do with Battle Fader is to play a deck that plays Imperial Iron Wall. This continuous trap card prevents cards from being removed from play. This means that it will instead go to your graveyard or your hand, meaning you can reuse it. Iron Wall was pretty popular when this card was first released, and actually still sees play in True Draco decks in 2018. Can Battle Fader be negated? Let’s cover some common spells and traps that could interact with Battle Fader. One common question is how Book of Moon works against Battle Fader. Really, it doesn’t, because Battle Fader’s ability to negate the attack and end the battle phase resolves before it’s actually face-up on the field. So, Book of Moon doesn’t negate Battle Fader, only puts it face down. The same is true for Forbidden Chalice. It’s also important to note that Skill Drain, which is an extremely popular way to shut down effect monsters, can’t stop Battle Fader’s ability. Other trap cards that miss the timing to stop Battle Fader include Breakthrough Skill and Solemn Judgment. However, Solemn Warning, which negates the Summon entirely, can prevent Battle Fader’s ability to end the Battle Phase. Besides Solemn Warning, the best ways to stop Battle Fader are Majesty Fiend and Vanity’s Emptiness. Majesty’s Fiend stops effects no matter where they are, so Battle Fader can’t be Special Summoned from the hand at all. Vanity’s Emptiness negates any Special Summons, but as of this writing, it’s forbidden in tournament play. So, in official tournaments, Solemn Warning and Majesty’s Fiend are really the best ways to stop Battle Fader. Which is Better? Battle Fader VS Swift Scarecrow Swift Scarecrow is a nice little hand trap monster that gives you the same effect as Battle Fader. However, since Battle Fader is a level 1 monster that you can Special Summon and use as material or tribute fodder to Summon a better monster, Battle Fader is going to typically be the superior card. Other Similar Cards to Battle Fader If you’re looking for a Battle Fader alternative besides Swift Scarecrow, there are a couple of other monsters that do something similar. There’s Speedroid Menko, which lets you Special Summon it in Attack Position when an opponent declares an attack. While it doesn’t negate the attack or end the battle phase, it does put all of your opponent’s monsters in Defense Position… except for Link Monsters, of course… So, against Links it’s pretty bad, because it’s only 100 ATK. Still it’s a cool card and it’s Level 4 and 2000 DEF. Construction Train Signal Red can be Special Summoned by his effect when an opponent’s monster attacks. But, if you do, you change the attack target to this card and proceed to damage calculation. While he can’t be destroyed by that battle, you can still take damage. However, he can be Special Summoned in Defense Position, and he has 1000 ATK and 1400 DEF. Also, he’s a Level 3 Earth monster. So, there are some cool things you can do with him. If you want to just stop attacks, there are the Kuriboh monsters! There’s Kuriphoton that lets you take no damage if you send it from the hand to the Graveyard, if you pay 2000 LP to do so. Of course, there’s also the old school Kuriboh cards that can negate attacks or prevent battle damage… Kuriboh only lets you not take battle damage. Winged Kuriboh lets you take no battle damage the turn that he’s sent from the field to the graveyard. But none of these guys get you a Special Summon, although there is The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh! Also, there’s the Link Monster Linkuriboh (which can actually use Battle Fader as material.) What Decks Play Battle Fader? Because it’s essentially a free Summon, Battle Fader makes awesome Tribute fodder in Monarch decks and is also great material for Ritual Monsters, Synchro Summons, Rank 1 Xyz Monsters, and even Link Summoning! (Linkuriboh, anyone?) Battle Fader has seen competitive play since 2010, way back to Shonen Jump Championship Edison in Gravekeeper Burn and Quickdraw Dandywarrior. In both those decks it helped set up Synchro plays. It saw play in Frog Monarchs as Tribute fodder. Over the years, it’s seen play in Chain Burn, Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers, Hieratic Dragons, Mythic Rulers, and a wide variety of other Monarch decks, plus others. It’s just a really versatile card. How would you play Battle Fader?
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by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Once in a while, we’ll pick a random card with YGOProDeck’s database to build around for fun. Today, it’s Pacifis, the Phantasm City! This isn’t bad at all, since it’s part of the Phantasm Spiral archetype! This Field Spell is pretty sweet! And there’s a deck out there we can tech!
First, we’ll look at Pacifis itself. It’s a field spell that counts as “Umi” while it’s face up on the field. For our purposes, though, this won’t matter so much. “You cannot Normal or Special Summon Effect Monsters the turn you activate either of this card's effects (even if this card leaves the field). Once per turn, if you Normal or Special Summon exactly 1 Normal Monster (and no other cards): Add 1 "Phantasm Spiral" card from your Deck to your hand. If your opponent activates a card or effect (except during the Damage Step), and you control no Tokens: You can Special Summon 1 "Phantasm Spiral Token" (Wyrm-Type/WATER/Level 8/ATK 2000/DEF 2000).” This is a really powerful card. As we’ll see, we’re really only going to be Special Summoning Normal monsters a lot of the time. So, this isn’t really an issue. The Phantasm Spiral support cards are actually quite good, too, so that first effect is actually extremely important. The second ability is also particularly awesome. I mean, who doesn’t want a free 2000 ATK and 2000 DEF monster that’s level 8? So, how do we build around this? Let’s take a look at a June 2017 regional Phantasm Spiral deck that actually fared quite well. Except… we’re going to make a couple of quick changes for it to be legal with the May 2018 Forbidden and Limited List. The changes are actually in our favor. Monsters 2x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring 3x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit 3x Kabazauls 3x Megalosmasher X 3x Phantasm Spiral Dragon 3x Rescue Rabbit Spells 1x Dark Hole 3x Fossil Dig 3x Heat Wave 3x Pacifis, the Phantasm City 1x Phantasm Spiral Crash 2x Phantasm Spiral Grip 1x Phantasm Spiral Wave 2x Pot of Desires 1x Raigeki 3x Terraforming 2x Unexpected Dai Traps 3x Phantasm Spiral Battle 1x Phantasm Spiral Power 3x Quaking Mirror Force 1x Skill Drain 2x Solemn Strike 1x Solemn Warning Extra Deck Xyz 1x Abyss Dweller 2x Bahamut Shark 1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer 1x Evolzar Dolkka 1x Evolzar Laggia 1x Gem-Knight Pearl 1x Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy 1x Number 39: Utopia 1x Number S39: Utopia the Lightning 1x Steelswarm Roach 2x Toadally Awesome 1x Tornado Dragon In the original list piloted by Michael Craig at the Seattle, Washington Regionals, he ran one copy of Maxx “C” and 2 Dark Holes. At the time, Rescue Rabbit was limited, as well. We gotta cut the Maxx “C” and the 2nd Dark Hole. But, Rescue Rabbit is unlimited! As it turns out, triple bunnies is actually a huge improvement for this deck! Let’s break it down. Creatures Breakdown A lot of this deck focuses around Phantasm Spiral Dragon, as we’ll see. There are a ton of ways to Special Summon him with the Phantasm Spiral Spells and Traps. He has 2900 ATK, which is PLENTY good! He also has 2900 DEF, which is actually pretty above average. He’s going to be one of your main beatstick monsters in this deck, obviously, as well as a way to Xyz into some Rank 8 Xyz monsters, especially Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy. We have five hand-traps in the form of two Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and three Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. With these we can shut down shenanigans from the deck and effects on the field. Ash Blossom is the one most people play, but both are great. Rescue Rabbit is really awesome in this deck because he grabs our level 4 Normal Monsters in Kabazauls and Megalosmasher X. Being Water attribute and Dinosaur type, these monsters help us access some great Rank 4 Xyz monsters. Kabazauls is a pretty ancient 1700 ATK monster while Megalosmasher is a far more recent 2000 ATK level 4 beatstick. Really, they exist for Xyz summons, but they can do damage if you need them to. Playing 3 Rabbits gives us more consistency, which is cool. Spells Breakdown Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way. Dark Hole and Raigeki help us keep the board clear. Terraforming is obviously to get our Field Spell. Pot of Desires helps us draw out of bad hands, even with that steep 10 card banishment cost. The rest we need to look at more closely. Three copies of Fossil Dig help us dig out our Dino monsters. With three Rabbits, we may able to trim a copy, but we can always grab that third Kabazauls or Megalosmasher X. Heat Wave is actually one of the better spells in the deck. This card can only be activated at the start of Main Phase 1, but that’s OK. When you play it, neither player can Normal or Special Summon an Effect Monster, until your next Draw Phase. That’s actually extremely brutal for most decks, but not this one. Unexpected Dai is another way to Special Summon one of our Level 4 Dinos to play. It’s another consistency card, but this one is only good if you control no monsters. Still, it’s going to be good in a lot of situations. Now we’ll get into the Phantasm Spiral spells. We already covered the field spell in Pacifis. Phantasm Spiral Crash is an Equip Spell that gives the equipped Normal Monster the ability to inflict piercing battle damage. Then, when that monster deals battle damage to an opponent, you can Special Summon a Phantasm Spiral Dragon from your hand, deck, or graveyard and equip it with this card. If that wasn’t good enough, you can then switch an opponent’s monster from Attack to Defense position. You can only use this effect once per turn, because otherwise that would be pretty silly. Phantasm Spiral Grip is similar to Crash, except this deck runs two copies instead of one. Grip gives the monster 500 ATK and if that monster destroys a creature by battle, you can Special Summon a Spiral Dragon and inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. This one may actually be better in some cases as you will likely run over a lot of things. The last one is Phantasm Spiral Wave. This one is particularly strong because it makes the equipped Normal Monster unable to be destroyed once per turn. If it’s battled that turn, at the end of the Battle Phase, you can do the Spiral Dragon summoning thing. While that Dragon can’t then attack like with the other two, your opponent then has to discard a card. So, it’s still a decent card. Traps Breakdown First, we’ll get the staples out of the way. Two copies of Solemn Strike and one copy of Solemn Warning deal with summons that need to be nipped in the bud right away, and with Strike, problematic monster effects. Skill Drain is really good in this deck, and it’s too bad we can only run one. It hoses so many decks. We also run three copies of Quaking Mirror Force. If you don’t know what it does, this is how it reads: “When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Change all your opponent's Attack Position monsters to face-down Defense Position. Monsters changed to face-down Defense Position by this effect cannot change their battle positions.” This is fine because we actually want to beat on opponent’s monsters with our Phantasmal Spiral support. It’s bad against Link monsters, though, who are immune to it. Still, it’s a strong card. Phantasm Spiral Battle is a pretty awesome Trap card, as it can be activated from your hand if you control an “Umi” field spell, which Pacifis just happens to be! If you control only Normal Monsters, you can blow up one card on the field. Then, you can banish this card from your Graveyard, you can target one Normal Monster on the field and equip all Phantasm Spiral Equip cards you control to it. While very situational, it can help you live the dream of summoning all three Phantasm Spiral Dragons in one turn. The last card is Phantasm Spiral Power. Here’s what it does: “If all monsters you control are Normal Monsters (min. 1): Target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; until the end of this turn, it loses 1000 ATK and DEF, also it has its effects negated. If "Umi" is on the field, you can activate this card from your hand. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 Normal Monster you control; equip 1 "Phantasm Spiral" Equip Spell Card from your hand or Graveyard to that Normal Monster.” Being able to deal with a bigger Effect Monster is great, being a hand trap is better, and recycling an Equip Spell is awesome! You only need one, but it’s great! How Competitive Are Phantasm Spirals? Before Link Summoning, this deck could be pretty good. It has a nice little Xyz Summoning engine and really messes with other decks’ strategies. That being said, it’s extremely reliant on its engine. But, when it works, it’s really tough to stop. If you tweak the Extra deck to include Links, though, it’s probably going to hold its own. Outside of the meta hand trap creatures, this deck is very cheap to build. Would you build Phantasm Spirals? by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Kaiser Glider is one of, if not the first ever Yu-GI-Oh cards that I bought on eBay. It was actually the ultra rare reprint in Dark Revelations 1 that I bought, and not the original Dark Crisis ultra rare printing. It’s been reprinted multiple times since, once at rare, and several times at common. While Kaiser Glider was never a top-level monster, he was one of my favorites for a long time for what he can do.
This golden Dragon that Seto Kaiba played in the Yu-Gi-Oh anime has two fairly relevant abilities. The first is that he can’t be destroyed in a battle where both monsters share the same ATK. More often that not, this means that the Glider can ram into other 2400 ATK monsters and actually win. This meant things like Jinzo and later the Monarchs, which is actually pretty relevant. But the real reason you would play Kaiser Glider was his bounce ability when he’s destroyed. When he’s destroyed and sent to the GY, he lets you send one monster on the field back to its owner’s hand. Important to note is that he must be sent to the grave, which means if he gets banished instead, his effect doesn’t activate. This was less of a problem back in the day, though. Kaiser Glider is also a Light-attribute Dragon, which made him fairly good in the casual Traditional Chaos decks I built at the time. Traditional is the format where nothing is banned and all forbidden cards are limited to a single copy. There weren’t a ton of good Light-attribute monsters back then, so I actually played this guy a fair amount. Plus, this was pretty good when someone brought out a Chaos monster that they may not be able to easily re-summon after removing 1 Light and 1 Dark monster from their grave. So, this actually could mess up people’s Chaos Emperor Dragon plays. People could just remove it with Black Luster Soldier’s banish ability, though. Still, it would mean the OG Soldier couldn’t attack that turn. But most of the time, it just meant people couldn’t deal with him UNLESS they brought out a BLS or didn’t have a monster in play when they removed it. It really proved to be a nice monster for me back then, though, even in tournament play. Was Kaiser Glider ever actually good? Yes, and no. Because he required one tribute to summon, people preferred to play Airknight Parshath who could generate a lot more card advantage and did piercing battle damage. I actually never really liked Parshath back in the day having only 1900 ATK, although he was clearly the better monster when it came to terms of card advantage. But that didn’t mean that Kaiser Glider wasn’t annoying to people, because people really never thought about having to play around it. It was pretty fun to ram him into Jinzo, Mobius and Thestalos - although he was kinda bad against Zaborg… More times than not, he would be helpful and I can’t remember him ever being bad. Kaiser Glider in Duel Links Like a lot of older Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Kaiser Glider is fairly decent in Duel Links. There’s a lot of popular ways to summon him fairly easily in that game’s metagame, especially Dragon’s Rebirth. While Dragon’s Rebirth is a good Yu-Gi-Oh card, it’s much stronger in the 20-card Duel Links format where tribute monsters are actually very strong. While he’s not a top card in the game, his bounce ability is very strong, although his first isn’t nearly as often. He’s also usually 2700 ATK due to Seto Kaiba’s ability to start the game with the Mountain field spell in play. So, while he really never sees competitive play anywhere, he does see a fair share of Duel Links play for Kaiba fans. Kaiser Glider in Goat Format There are a number of things that Kaiser Glider has going for him in Goat Format. One is that he’s a Light-Attribute Monster, which is very important in Chaos decks. Also, his ability to not be destroyed by monsters with the same ATK in battle is actually fairly relevant. Here’s a list of meta monsters that he actually wins in battle against:
The bounce ability is pretty good, too, just for tempo purposes. It does mean that you want to summon Kaiser Glider into a situation where his ability will be profitable to you. He’s a bit situational, which is why many people didn’t play him back in the day. But, there are definitely spots in which he’s good. He’s great to toss and bring back with Call of the Haunted or Premature Burial, too. He deals with most of the offensive threats you’re going to face, too. Is he the best sideboard option in Goat Format? It depends on what decks you plan to face, really. But, he’s worth a shot I think, especially if you play against a lot of Monarch decks. Just remember you don’t want him bouncing Zaborg or other Monarchs. You have to deploy him just right for him to be at his best. But, he’s pretty brutal when he bounces fusion monsters, too, which are obviously rampant due to Metamorphosis. Kaiser Glider in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! One crazy thing about the Glider is how good he actually is against Synchro, Xyz, and Link Monsters. He’s simply outclassed nowadays, but if he dies and hits the Graveyard and he bounces one of those guys, that’s pretty costly. Of course, there are just so many ways to banish things nowadays. While he may not be relevant today in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m sure many Dragon players found an excuse to jam him. He was never actually a bad monster and could cause some tempo swings on his own. Did you ever play with or against Kaiser Glider? by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  In North America, Yu-Gi-Oh began in late March 2002 with Starter Deck: Yugi and Starter Deck: Kaiba. Today, we’ll be looking at the Yugi deck! While Starter Deck Yugi didn’t have a monster with quite the power of Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon, there are some sweet cards in this starter deck. Let’s get right into it! Monsters Ancient Elf Ansatsu Baron of the Fiend Sword Beaver Warrior Celtic Guardian Claw Reacher Curse of Dragon Dark Magician (Ultra Rare) Doma The Angel of Silence Dragon Zombie Feral Imp Gaia The Fierce Knight Giant Soldier of Stone Great White Magical Ghost Mammoth Graveyard Man-Eater Bug Man-Eating Treasure Chest Mystic Clown Mystical Elf Neo the Magic Swordsman Silver Fang Sorcerer of the Doomed Summoned Skull The Stern Mystic Trap Master Wall of Illusion Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 Witty Phantom Spells Book of Secret Arts Card Destruction (Super Rare) Change of Heart Dark Hole De-Spell Dian Keto the Cure Master Fissure Last Will Monster Reborn Remove Trap Soul Exchange (Super Rare) Sword of Dark Destruction Yami Traps Castle Walls Dragon Capture Jar Reinforcements Reverse Trap Trap Hole Two-Pronged Attack Ultimate Offering Waboku Monsters Breakdown First, we’ll look at the “boss” monsters of the deck: Dark Magician, Summoned Skull, Gaia the Dragon Champion, and Curse of Dragon. Dark Magician is only 2500 ATK for two tributes, but he’s iconic, and would later have a lot more support. There are actually many ways in this deck for him to actually beat Blue-Eyes and his 3000 ATK, too. Meanwhile, Summoned Skull is 2500 ATK for only one tribute. While he has far less defense, you’re not looking to play these guys in defense mode! Gaia the Fierce Knight (2300 ATK) and Curse of Dragon (2000 ATK) are pretty underwhelming tribute monsters, but if you happen to have Gaia the Dragon Champion and Polymerization, they make a decent Fusion monster. Even with only 2600 ATK, you could summon him with the necessary monsters in hand, not just on the field. Also, they happen to be pretty sweet ways to get rid of opposing monsters that you steal with Change of Heart or Tribute with Soul Exchange. At this point, they were still very playable monsters, too. Ancient Elf is a 1450 ATK, 1200 DEF Light Spellcaster, which at the time was pretty average. Ansatsu is a level 5 Earth Warrior with only 1700 ATK and 1200 DEF. He’d be one of the first monsters out of every Yugi deck as I remember. Baron of the Fiend Sword was decent though, a level 4 Fiend with 1550 ATK and 800 DEF. Beaver Warrior is familiar to many Yu-Gi-Oh anime fans, but with only 1200 ATK and 1500 DEF, this Beast-Warrior had trouble being competitive. Celtic Guardian is also an iconic Yugi monster, with only 1400 ATK and 1200 DEF. Still, a lot of people played him just because of Yugi. Despite being one of the worst creatures in the deck, Claw Reacher and his 1000 ATK and 800 DEF is actually one of the more sought after creatures from the Yugi deck! It’s because this is his only printing. So, this is a card you may have been pretty quick to toss in the old days, but he’s pretty collectible now, especially in 1st edition Doma the Angel of Silence isn’t particularly good, but people still collect her in 1st edition. 1600 ATK and 1400 DEF aren’t bad, but she’s a level 5, requiring a Tribute to Normal Summon. That’s not really so good. Dragon Zombie has a whopping 0 DEF, but with 1600 ATK for a level 3 monster, he was certainly playable at the time. People really loved this guy, I remember. Feral Imp is yet another iconic Yugi monster, but his stats are pretty mediocre: 1300 ATK and 1400 DEF. He was playable in the LOB days, though. Giant Soldier of Stone is an iconic Yugi monster that was actually very playable. With 1300 ATK and 2000 DEF, he’d actually get some attacks in sometimes. This big guy actually saw play for quite awhile. Great White was a pretty fair monster, too, with 1600 ATK. The 800 DEF was bad, but you didn’t play the Shark to be in defense, of course. Magical Ghost actually has the same stats as Feral Imp, but a Dark Zombie. He’s mediocre As bad as Mammoth Graveyard is, with only 1200 ATK and 800 DEF, I always really liked the art on this guy. I think a lot of people did. Man-Eater Bug is one of the really good effect monsters in this deck. There weren’t a bunch back then, and plenty of people would run three of this guy. He’s a flip effect monster that destroys a monster on the field. Just make sure your opponent has something to blow up, or he eats one of your own guys or even himself - which is kind of weird. If you needed an answer for Blue-Eyes, he’s one. I’ve always loved the flavor of Man-Eating Treasure Chest and with 1600 ATK, he was actually a decent monster at that time. Mystic Clown has 1500 ATK and 1000 DEF. Those aren’t great stats, but he’d beat a lot of stuff at that time. Mystical Elf has a lot in common with Giant Soldier of Stone, not only a classic Yugi card, but she also has 2000 DEF. 800 ATK is pretty lousy, but she held down the fort. Neo the Magic Swordsman was one of my favorite monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh for a long time, and with 1700 ATK, he was playable. Silver Fang is the Wolf version of Mammoth Graveyard. Great art, and really mediocre stats: 1200 ATK / 800 DEF. Sorcerer of the Doomed 1450 ATK / 1200 DEF The Stern Mystic is a Yugi deck exclusive. With 1500 ATK and 1200 DEF, his stats aren’’t that bad, but he’s a flip effect monster. His effect is interesting, in that he turns all face-down cards face-up so you can look at them, then puts them back without any effects activating. It’s actually an interesting card in the context of the time, as he could prevent you from falling into something bad. He’s also better than most of the other monsters in the deck. Trap Master was actually extremely good at the time this deck was printed. You didn’t have Heavy Storm, which was in Metal Raiders, or Mystical Space Typhoon in Spell Ruler. His 500 / 1100 stats are pretty blah, but his effect was really good at the time. You had to be careful, though, because if your opponent had nothing face-down, you’d have to select one of your own face-down cards when he’s flipped. But that’s usually not going to be an issue. Wall of Illusion is one of the best monsters in the Yugi deck. With 1850 DEF, he was a really nice wall, but his effect made him even better. Any monster that attacks him returns to the hand. The Wall was a staple stall card for a very long time, I believe until 1900 ATK level 4 monsters with drawbacks came later beginning with Gemini Elf. Sure, most tribute monsters people actually played ran it over, but at a major loss in tempo. One of my favorite Yugi cards and strangely would still be annoying to run into in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! (Some link monsters wouldn’t even kill it, mind you.) Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 is Blue and he’s a Dragon. Sure, he only has 1400 ATK and 1200 DEF, but… well, he looks nice in a binder. The last creature in the deck is Witty Phantom, an OK fiend with 1400 ATK and 1300 DEF. Nothing special Wow, monsters were pretty underwhelming back then, weren’t they? Spells Breakdown Book of Secret Arts was a pretty popular equip spell at the time, as a Spellcaster-Type monster equipped with this card increases its ATK and DEF by 300 points. It made Neo the Magic Swordsman 2000 ATK, which is pretty nuts. Of course, Kaiba’s La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (the best level 4 beater at the time with 1800 ATK) got up to 2100 ATK. (People stuck this on Maha Vailo later to great effect, too.) Card Destruction was an awesome spell that would be later semi-limited and then limited to one copy per deck. While it could technically benefit your opponent, discarding your hand and drawing that many cards could be greatly advantageous to you. You had to be careful in trying to hold onto things in your hand because you never knew when this was coming. Change of Heart was one of the more busted Yu-Gi-Oh cards of all time. And I loved it. You could steal any monster of your opponent’s until the end of turn. It didn’t even matter if it was face-down. This was particularly fun with flip effect monsters. Your opponent’s Man-Eater Bug could eat itself. (Again that’s horrible). Really, though, you basically used this to get a free Tribute monster or to steal your opponent’s boss monster and whack them in the face with it… before turning it into a free Tribute monster. Dark Hole literally sucks all of the monsters into a black hole and there’s much sadness, usually mostly for your opponent. I’ve never really liked De-Spell, because it targets Spell Cards on the field. At this point there weren’t many that you’d play face-up other than Equip spells. But before things like Mystical Space Typhoon, this was actually really playable. Heck, I think people played it into Spell Ruler era to get rid of Mage Powers and Axe of Despairs and what not. But in these early days, you were just using it to kill Swords of Revealing Light. That’s really it. Dian Keto the Cure Master gives you 1000 LP, which is honestly pretty good if you’re stalling. They say life gain doesn’t win games, but as someone who used to play one of these in like every deck ever, it actually does. Fissure was one of the best removal cards at the time. In fact, it really was the only one besides Dark Hole and Raigeki in spell form. It destroyed the monster with the least ATK that your opponent had, but a lot of times, that was still something you needed gone. Many a Blue-Eyes have fallen to a lowly Fissure. Last Will is actually an extremely good card. If a monster on your side of the field was sent to your Graveyard this turn, your can Special Summon 1 monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck once during that turn. You could play 3 copies of this for awhile, and it’s been banned forever. While it doesn’t look that bad on the surface, play with three copies of it and you’ll see why it’s so good. Monster Reborn is one of the most iconic Yu-GI-Oh cards, and it was rightly banned for years. Bringing back a monster from your own graveyard is fine, but from your opponent’s graveyard? In Modern Yu-Gi-Oh, this card was unbanned simply because it’s just not as busted anymore. This was pretty dumb when it wasn’t limited. Fortunately, that was like for a month - if you cared about lists, which most people didn’t. Soul Exchange is a card that saw play in competitive Yu-GI-Oh for years, especially during the Monarch Control era. I’m pretty sure it was limited to one per deck at one point, because using your opponent’s Monsters to summon Monarchs is pretty mean. Sure, you don’t get a Battle Phase during the turn you use it, but that price is worth paying. Sword of Destruction is a pretty good Equip spell that gives a Dark monster 400 ATK, but it loses 200 DEF. Who even cares about the DEF? Yami increases the ATK and DEF of all Fiend and Spellcaster-Type monsters by 200 points. That’s pretty important in this deck. This field spell alo decreases the ATK and DEF of all Fairy-Type monsters by 200 points. That can be relevant, I suppose. Suddenly, a lot of those weaker monsters become incredibly average. Trap Cards Breakdown Dragon Capture Jar was specifically made for the Kaiba matchup. This continuous trap card was actually pretty good at keeping the mighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon at bay. Reinforcements was a pretty sweet combat trick kind of trap. Giving a monster 500 ATK until end of turn was going to win you a lot of battles. It would make Dark Magician trade with Blue-Eyes at the very least. Remove Trap looks great until you realize that it only destroys face-up trap cards. Bye, bye, Dragon Capture Jar! Although, there’s another really good continuous trap card we’ll get to in a moment. Reverse Trap is actually a pretty nasty card. I’m not sure how many people played this competitively, but it’s actually really, really mean. It turns all increases into decreases and decreases into increases. It could really screw your opponent over, which is awesome. In this very early meta, this was actually a really good card. Trap Hole was actually really powerful at this point in Yu-Gi-Oh. Face-down traps were so hard to get rid of that this was a great way to deal with bigger monsters being Normal Summoned. It didn’t hit special summons, but if you happened to have three of these, you could make your opponent miserable. Ultimate Offering is probably the best trap card in the whole deck, and it got pretty busted later on. It’s been banned for a long time. With a low cost of only 500 LP, you can Normal Summon or Set an additional monster. This card was super busted until it finally got an errata that said you could only use this effect during your own main phase or your opponent’s battle phase. Otherwise you could just use it whenever you felt like, which is pretty stupid. This card would be out of control in today’s Yu-Gi-Oh, which is why it’s going to stay banned. Back then, it wasn’t broken, just really good in the right deck. This card could help you catch up from behind on the field very easily. The cost was just so low. Waboku is a card that’s still good, actually. It stops all Battle Damage inflicted by opponent’s monsters. However, your monster still does. So, when battling two creatures with equal ATK, you’d actually win the battle. It’s such a good card that’s seen competitive play forever. Improving the Yugi Starter Deck For about a month after this and the Kaiba deck were released, you could play 3 of any card. But in May 2002, there was the May 2002 Limited list, which covered these decks and Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Limited were Exodia the Forbidden One and the Exodia pieces, plus Change of Heart, Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed and Raigeki. Limited to two copies were Card Destruction and Swords of Revealing Light. So, if you were to improve this deck, what would you do? First, you’d want to bring the deck down to 40 cards. We also really only have LOB to work with. There’s a few ways we could decide to go. We could choose a defensive strategy to stall out until we draw 5 pieces of Exodia, or we can try being more offensive and summon Gaia the Dragon Champion. Thing is, Card Destruction is just going to kill your Exodia pieces. Gaia beats everything but Blue-Eyes, but those two Tribute monsters are going to clog up your hand.. Really. the best way to go is actually to buy 3 copies of the Kaiba deck and get 3 La Jinn and 3 Battle Ox, which were the best level 4 beatstick monsters back then. Make sure you get staples like Raigeki and . Then, buy 2 more copies of the Yugi deck so you can load up on Fissures, Giant Soldiers of Stone, Man-Eater Bugs, Neo the Magic Swordsman, Trap Masters, Trap Holes, and Wabokus. You’ll only play like one Summoned Skull for a tribute monster and just play a grindy game that can stop more complex strategies easily. Believe it or not, Blue-Eyes, great as he is, was pretty easy to stop back then. This great May 2002 deck list from the Format Library is probably the best deck you could build back when it was just Starter Decks: Yugi and Kaiba and Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Monsters 3 Battle Ox 2 Giant Soldier of Stone 3 La Jinn Mystical Genie of the Lamp 3 Neo the Magic Swordsman 1 Summoned Skull 3 Man-Eater Bug 3 Trap Master 2 Wall of Illusion Spells 1 Change of Heart 1 Dark Hole 1 De-Spell 3 Fissure 1 Monster Reborn 1 Pot of Greed 1 Raigeki 2 Swords of Revealing Light Traps 2 Reinforcements 3 Trap Hole 3 Waboku This deck can pretty much deal with anything you’d run into. Bigger creatures would usually fall into Trap Holes or be done away with by Fissure or Raigeki. It’s actually a really skill-intensive format since people who played competitively were usually playing pretty much the same deck. The game’s early days were actually pretty interesting. How would you build a place a deck based off of Starter Deck: Yugi? by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  I only have one thing to say about Pharaoh's Servant… JINZO! Also, the card quality of the fourth expansion set for Yugioh is WAY higher than the first three… So, let’s head over to Yu-Gi-Oh Pack Simulator and see what we can pull from this classic set!
OK, this pack is pretty bad. Then again, Lightforce Sword was a highly sought-after card because it was one Yugi Moto used on the anime. It may be worth less than $0.25 today but there’s a Super Rare version out there, just because it’s an iconic Yugi card. It also wasn’t a terrible card back in the day. Removing a card from your opponent’s hand at random is super annoying, and it could’ve been your opponent’s best card for all you know. You also had ways to really mess up your opponent’s hand with cards like Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, and The Forceful Sentry that all saw plenty of play at the time. So, Lightforce Sword was pretty good in a deck that just wanted to ruin your opponent’s day and make them hate you. Fortunately, there are some good commons in this pack. 7 Completed is a pretty sweet equip spell for Machine-type monsters. You could use to have a Machine-type monster gain 700 ATK or 700 DEF. Guardian of the Throne Room from Magic Ruler was a pretty awesome target for this Equip Spell, making him 2350 ATK or 2300 DEF. Even today, this card is worth north of $0.25 and some of its reprints are worth more than $0.50! Dokuroyaiba is worth $0.05 just for this flavor text: “A boomerang with brains that will pursue a target to the ends of the earth.” Earthshaker isn’t the most exciting way to blow up monsters. But it’s interesting. You choose 2 Monster attributes and your opponent chooses 1. All Face-Up Monsters on the field with the chosen attribute are destroyed. Timed correctly, though, it could be pretty miserable for your opponent, as they could lose one or more monsters and you may be out nothing. It’s worth somewhere between $0.10 and $0.20 because who would play it now? Back then, though, you could sneak this in and no one would see it coming. Bubonic Vermin was a cute card back in the day. Still worth roughly $0.25 today, this little guy could flip and give you another Vermin from your deck in face-down Defense Position. These guys were great Tribute fodder back in the day, although they may not really do much now. Darkfire Soldier #2 was easily one of the best cards in this pack back in the day, as 1700 ATK for a level 4 monster was awesome! I remember people actually playing this card. He’s worth $0.10 today, but back then, I think he was actually a card that people wanted on a regular basis! Flame Champion is a level 5 monster with 1900 ATK. Meh. Even back then, this isn’t a monster you’d play unless you were going all dedicated Fire monsters or something. I think people back in the day may have played Type Zero Magic Crusher. It’s worth about nothing now. But a continuous trap card that let you discard a Spell Card to deal 500 damage to your opponent was nothing to sneeze at. Those could be the last few Life Points you needed for the win. Was it a great card? Not really, but it could win you a game here and there. Insect Imitation is a $0.25 common we may not think much of today, but Insects were a real deck back in the day. This was a good way to get a better monster into play very quickly. The cool thing about this card was that you could summon the monster in attack position or FACE DOWN defense position. It was a cute way to get a Man-Eater Bug into play face down, if you had a level 1 insect to tribute. This is a card that’s actually way better now, but who would play it? Well, it does see play in Duel Links… This is a pretty garbage pack, unless you like collecting the old sets. Also, back then Lightforce Sword was worth the pack, as well as the 7 Completed and Darkfire Soldier. You can’t win ‘em all! If you want me to “open” a particular pack that’s available on Yu-Gi-Oh Pack Simulator, let me know in the comments! |
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