Get your Game On with YGO 2

[Emi]

If Yu-Gi-Oh was so good why didn't they make a YGO 2

I actually have no idea why the original thread got locked and like I still like talking about the game so here we go. In the year of our lord 2022...YGO still exists.

And what better way to celebrate that than with the new YGO banlist

Forbidden:
Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon
Prank-Kids Meow Meow Mu
Predaplant Verte Anaconda

Limited:
Jet Synchron
Performapal Monkeyboard
Red Rose Dragon
Crystron Halqifibrax
Shooting Riser Dragon
Change of Heart
Time Seal

Semi-Limited:
Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter
Cyber Angel Benten
Fire Formation - Tenki
Pot of Desires
Trickstar Light Stage
Wall of Revealing Light

Unlimited:
Night Assailant
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Salamangreat Miragestallio
A Hero Lives
Salamangreat Circle
Scapegoat

Honestly...this is a sick banlist. I'm surprised none of the Adventure or the Branded Despia cards got hit given how strong they've been in the TCG but...yeah.

Change of Heart I still don't know quite how I feel about.

[Doppleganger]

RIP the old thread.

Also, rip my pants from the force of the excitement seeing that list. It's really good, although I caveat that you could unlimit O-Lion, Jet Synchron, Auroradon and Halqifibrax by simply issuing an errata to Halq that it can't be used as Link material the turn summoned (just like Union Carrier).

Thunder Dragon Synchron is playable-ish in the TCG now, even without Colossus. The big issue for me is needing Maxx "C".

[phoopes]

not that I need anything else to take up my time but...

is the game beginner-friendly to get into right now? I mean I've played as you know but not in years and the concept of Link monsters and that 6th monster zone and whatnot scares me lol

[Emi]

There are decks that are pretty beginner friendly to learn and Master Duel is a good place to actually get the basics.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by phoopes

not that I need anything else to take up my time but...

is the game beginner-friendly to get into right now? I mean I've played as you know but not in years and the concept of Link monsters and that 6th monster zone and whatnot scares me lol

Master Duel's solo mode is fun, like the old Tag Force games. I especially found the World Chalice solo mode to be the ideal tutorial for Links and for the speed/power of the modern game.

But, I wouldn't call the meta beginner friendly. And Master Duel just got infinitely worse due to DPE/Swordsoul. Before, it was pretty fun if you avoided Drytron.

[Doppleganger]

So I'm working full time now and haven't had much time to play around, but the new Cyber Dragon card is really pushing the meta towards offense, board wipes and "recursion" over defense. The old idea of investing in a boss and keeping it on the field is dead and gone.

By this token, the best Synchro Monsters to use would be Shenshen and Chaos Ruler as they can loop one another. I'm looking for good cards to combo with Chaos Ruler, particularly Dark-type cards. Any ideas?

[Emi]

Megafleet? Or do we mean Cyber Dragon adjacent cards like Dinowrestler Pankratops

Also I don't know if there are many DARK monster that gain advantage off of being banished (Chaos Valykria comes to mind but might not be good enough) but Chaos Dragon Levianeer has always been a staple partner in crime with Chaos Ruler due to being a grab and an easy Level 8 body with strong effects.

[Doppleganger]

The changes I made:

-2 Radian
-1 Pank
-1 Ash

+3 Upstart

I don't have many cards that benefit from getting milled (except Thunder Dragons), but I do want to add hand traps or board breakers to the hand via Chaos Ruler's effect.

I think the reason I ignored Chaos Ruler for so long was specifically because I dislike mills like that. Losing the draw cards and milling hand traps like Maxx or Ash hurts too much. The recursion and GY banish effect though is kind of crazy since it also combos with GRM.

[Doppleganger]

Chaos Ruler is so crazy. It opens up so many cards by virtue of its self recursion. One doesn't even need to use the add effect to make full use of it.

The problem is the Extra Deck isn't big enough to accommodate what it can do.

[Doppleganger]

Halq is banned in the newest OCG list. welp.

That basically kills generic Synchro as a deck. The power creep since Albaz storyline started is insane. It's the biggest jump in power YGO has ever seen, even going back to the Dragon Ruler format.

It feels like when a new summon mechanic was introduced, Konami would axe the previous summon mechanic then start slow with the new one. The Link era was a reskin of the XYZ era, one could say, with powerful generic early Links to compensate for MR4 that were all problematic.

But now it doesn't matter the mechanic, Konami has basically revolutionized advantage and we're heading into an era of good stuff super decks rather than archetypes or mechanic-centric decks.

I'm glad to have come back to YGO at the end of MR4 (hated it) but I think this might be the end for me. I don't really care to play a super deck just because I want to win. My identity is tied to my deck and if it's unplayable, I won't play.

[Emi]

We've somehow re-entered GOAT tbh

[Doppleganger]

You mean more people en masse are playing Goat format or did Goat control decks suddenly become good again?

[Emi]

It's more the shift back to just good stuff decks in general, the gameplan is different but there definitely have been quite a few "throw the good engines into the pot" decks recently.

There's always still the TCG though, Halq is maybe a bit more likely to live there (should Scythe not get it banned)

[Doppleganger]

I don't have Colossus or Maxx "C" in the TCG and, very soon, the onslaught of Tearlaments, Exosister and Splight will make those cards essential.

My main problem isn't a deck problem so to speak, it's that modern decks like Splight, Swordsoul or Exosister can make the same play 9 times out of 10.

If one has an inconsistent deck, a la a good stuff deck that isn't concerned with making a particular play, just a strong play, Thunder Dragon Synchron struggles with that since my consistent plays aren't strong enough now, and my super plays require restrictive deck dedication, no unanswered disruption (which is unrealistic given how consistent enemy decks are, allowing them to run high disruption) or a 6 card opening.

Basically, with Halq banned, I need something like Pot of Greed unbanned to compensate for it. PoG allows me to go first with a 6 card opening, giving the necessary combo pieces to get around needing toolboxed searches through a generic endpoint with Halq.

Sadly, Change of Heart ain't no PoG.

[Emi]

So in the world's most bizarre turn of fate

Mushroom Man #2 is currently meta

[Doppleganger]

Um, I haven't been paying attention, unpack?

Last I heard Splights got hit slightly.

[Emi]

This is in the OCG (because the deck uses cards from Photon Hypernova, which isn't out yet TCGside)

(Spoilered for size)

Spoiler: show

Kashtira is a deck whose main starters are the Fenrir and Unicorn, which are sort of Cyber Dragon. They can be Special Summoned from your hand if you control no monsters, which means that Mushroom Man #2, as it can be given to your opponent, locks them out of summoning Fenrir and Unicorn. Since Fenrir grabs a monster, Unicorn grabs your Spells, and you won't control a Kashtira monster for Kashtira Riseheart to Special Summon itself from your hand.

But, in addition to this, there's another benefit. Mushroom Man #2 has an activated effect that's mandatory during your opponent's Standby Phase. Unicorn can trigger here and allow you to look at your opponent's Extra Deck and banish a card from it face-down. If you're also playing Ogre, you get to look at the Top 5 cards of your opponent's Deck and banish 1 face-down.

Basically it does exactly what you need it to for the mirror, and since you don't need your normal summon in the deck, it works perfectly fine.

[Doppleganger]

So we're still digging that mine, huh? "Vomit your hand and get a +1 searcher if you control no monsters".

I know people hated that Master Duel format last year but I enjoyed it, even with Drytron being so obnoxious. It was the last gasp of old YGO before power creep homogenized all competitive strategies toward the same type of deck.

[Emi]

Hey now! We have Shaddoll 2.0 now.

[Doppleganger]

So after 9 months of chaos it looks like Teearlaments are finally dead. Cry some more.

But what about Exosister? is that deck the top deck now that Splights are also kill?

IS MY DECK GOOD AGAIN?

[Emi]

I hate to say it but I think Tear are still alive. Even despite the extent of the hits it wouldn't surprise me if they were still really incredibly playable. They still have three Reinoheart and still have 3 Perlereino, they still have Dracossack into Cherubini into dump Havnis or King of the Swamp lines. The deck really does feel like the modern incarnation of Dragon Rulers, being so ahead of the curve in what it can do and how resilient it is that it'll probably take more hits for it to be gone for good.

Outside of that the general rumblings are that Kashtira are the best deck in the format, but there's still room for Spright (despite Elf being banned, none of the Runick cards were hit), Floowandereeze, Gishki, and all sort of PUNK piles

[Lil'twick]

Tear is almost for sure still alive. Sure the hits are worse then the OCG, but they still can run Casino just fine. Kash, despite being the best deck, kinda feels like shit just from seeing it played. This just feels like a format where even the best decks just don't feel fantastic. Can't wait for Purrlry to get their w2 support and just catapult.

[Doppleganger]

The power level still seems jacked from the first MD format. Then again, we're as far removed from that format now as we were from Dragon Rulers into the Shaddoll era.

I really hate that aspect of YGO, I don't want to go on an old man rant about the halcyon days, but that 6 year run through the XYZ and Pendulum eras were memorable and long the whole way through.

The Duel Terminal storyline didn't necessarily release cards that were intended to product push the previous ones out. Like in the "Albaz" storyline, the Therions were just a pit stop for Albaz. But in the actual card game their power and importance were inflated.

This would be like saying the Ents were stronger than the Nazgul in LotR because they appeared later in the story, Shelob would be stronger than Smaug because she appeared later, etc.

The impact of top decks was memorable and not a frustrating nightmare of uninteraction.

[Doppleganger]

So I've been researching advances in cosmology and the new hotness is "dark fluid", a framework that explains both dark matter and dark energy. It was introduced into physics literature in 2018.

Within months, Konami releases a Link monster called "Firewall Darkfluid Dragon". Are you kidding me?

[Doppleganger]

So I tried my deck again with the new OCG banlist, and I'm shocked just how much weaker it is without Halqifibrax to start combos.

Halq was quite literally the only thing keeping me alive versus the super meta like Tearlaments, Exosisters and Splights. It was also one of the major combo starters for Zeus, which I can't use nearly as effectively now.

Having AFD back helps, but it just highlights just how far my deck has gone since the pre-MR4 era. Now, I might be completely inferior to Deskbot and pure Synchron builds.